Fall

It's been a hectic two weeks for me, which is highly unusual given I normally spend my time bumming around thinking about food - what to eat, where to eat and how to eat it.

You could say I'm trying to cram as much in before the weather starts to get too chilly here. The humid, icky weather has finally given way to more bearable conditions. The afternoons are getting dark earlier now, I guess autumn is finally here.

I had the pleasure of meeting K last Sunday, a fellow Aussie and amatuer foodie who stumbled upon my blog some time ago. We've been emailing each other back and forth for some time, and we finally decided it was time to meet. I had told my friends about this meeting, a complete stranger (well not exactly a stranger but you know what I mean), and there had been varied reactions to this.

"She could turn out to be some creepy guy with a penchant for lace thongs!"

"It's definitely some perve, you shouldn't meet!"

"What's the worst that could happen? She could turn out to be some old guy who preys on innocent young females, but hey at least you met!"

And so forth.

Thankfully none of the above was not the case. We had planned a late Sunday brunch at the Sunburnt Cow, an Aussie pub in the East Village that had the very tempting idea of all-you-can-drink mimosas.

I turned up at her apartment building at the appointed time and was relieved to see was a perfectly normal, happy human being :) She had a bottle of bubbly in the fridge which we of course had to have to toast our meeting. She made the most amazing champagne cocktail I've ever had - a sugar cube, a dash of bitters, a small amount of Grand Marnier and topped with yummy bubbly.

We proceeded to her backyard (she has a backyard, in New York...I was in awe!), where we chatted about our lives in New York, friends and family back home, and the problems we have with our "r's" in America - Aussies pronounce beer "bee-aa", whereas we've learned to roll our r's so it's beer-rrr in America.

We both agreed it was a perfect lazy afternoon - a pretty garden, an overflowing ashtray, and several glasses of champagne. Before we knew it, it was 5pm and too late for brunch. Oh well, bring on the chardy!

I told her about my initial reservations about meeting and what my friends had said, she laughed and said her friends said the same thing. If the champagne didn't break the ice, that certainly did!

So all in all, a good week. Here's to a new found friendship, cheers!!

Photos from a-ha concert

The concert was...as the Americans would say, AWESOME! It was soo packed, the queue to get in went down the block and around the corner to the end of the other block! Doors opened at 8 and we stayed at the pub until about 7.45 so by the time we got to the venue it was like...shit!

We were a little sneaky and went on the VIP queue which only had about 20 people, though I think most of them were just plebs like us holding regular tickets. We managed to get in anyway and had a great spot upstairs near the stage





Pal (my fave) looks a little older now. Morten turns 45 in 2 days (?!!!!!) and looked gorgeous as ever. Mags was........hot!! I couldn't stop drooling....J was very impressed...hahaha.



I thought there would be more girls than guys, but there were a lot of guys there wearing a-ha t-shirts from the 80's too...so funny to see! They sang a good mix I think, some old and some new. Of course they had to sing Take on Me and Hunting High & Low (they must be sick of singing that by now...hehehe), still it was great.

I'm glad I went, and the 4 beers beforehand certainly did help. I was thinking dirty thoughts about Mags in between songs.....naughty!! ;)


Mags is moity foine!

My !#%$ camera is still out of commission, so a very big THANK YOU to Alex who was kind enough to email me the photos she took. She even scored a backstage pass and met the guys backstage the lucky thing!

Take on Meeee

a-ha are playing their first US concert in 20 years tonight!!!

I found out about this 2 months too late, tickets were sold out in the first hour they went on sale back in July. Thank God for ebay. My first time using it and it was a relatively painless process, though I can see how you can become addicted to buying junk on the site.

Anyway, meeting J at the pub at 6pm to get sloshed beforehand. I reckon 4 beers should loosen me enough to fling my underwear at Morten Harket. :)

I was 14 the first time I saw them in concert in Sydney. I had to be chaperoned by my two older cousins who to this day remind of me the fact that I cried when I saw them on stage.

Yeah I'm an 80's chick through and through. I own every single one of their albums (man that sounds so ancient).

A chance to relive my youth baby.....yeehaa!!

I think I'm in love...

I have finally succumbed. It's time for an iPod nano.

So sexy.

Update: Went to the Apple store in Soho on Sunday and it was packed . I think cute would be a better way to describe it, its tiny!

An observation...

This was something I noticed quite some time ago. I bring it up every now and again, much to the annoyance of J, but it really does annoy the hell out of me. It may be a trivial, silly thing, but it honestly drives me nuts. I saw it happen in a diner yesterday while I was ordering take-out. I just had to tell J who was waiting outside, and he rolled his eyes with an "Oh no, not this again" sigh.

We were on our way to catch a train to the US Open. It was a glorious fall...ahem, I mean autumn...day. The sun was shining and we had tickets to the day session at Flushing Meadows where the tennis was being held. We stopped by a diner to pick up some coffee and brekkie to munch on the train ride there, and that's when I saw it.

A guy sitting at the counter enjoying his breakfast of French toast.

And cutting it with his fork.

I noticed this phenomenon - people eating their salads, pastas, fish and even steak with a fork and nothing else - when I first came to America. Its like their left hand is taking a short holiday during the meal.

Eeek! I cannot tell you how much I hate seeing that. My table manners may not be the best in the world, but one of the first things my parents drilled into me when I was a child was that you should never eat with one hand.

You hold a knife and fork in each hand, cut off what you need, pop it in your mouth and chew. Basically you should have both hands on the table (elbows were a no no back then for me too, but nowadays I don't think anyone cares about that). If you want, you can rest the knife and fork on the plate while you're still eating. When finished, place the knife and fork side-by-side on the plate so the waitstaff know you've finished eating.

Simple.

That was what I was taught in Australia. Maybe its different in America, because the eating with one hand thing is everywhere. Even when people have finished eating, I've noticed they just "chuck" their cutlery on their plates - splayed all over the place.

I've seen it in diners, cafes and even fancy restaurants - people cutting up roasted vegetables, filets of fish, a chicken breast - with their fork while their knife sits idly on the table.

Why??

Ok I exaggerate, but only slightly. I have seen people use their knives to cut steak. They use a knife and fork to cut the steak, they put the knife down and move the fork back to their right hand to eat. The left hand goes back on the lap for another break.

J and I will be out having a nice dinner, and I will spend half the evening watching how other people eat with their cutlery. Actually I find it both annoying and amusing, because it is such a strange thing to watch.

I'm probably being anal about this and I admit I may be generalising here, as I have seen the occasional American eat with both knife and fork.

Still, its just an observation.