anniversary dinner at rockpool bar and grill

it was our 6th wedding anniversary earlier this year and as a VERY special treat we decided to go to rockpool bar and grill burswood as a special treat to us. the restaurant only just opened late january and was an instant hit with all the perth food bloggers and locals. this restaurant is fully booked on the weekends for the next few months

anyways, sped me put these photos in reverse order - and i cant be bothered to do it properly
so here is our night in REVERSE order...

1. on the way out we bumped into neil perry and i had to have my photo taken with him :D
im just a sucker for celebrities.... hehehe....
[this is a really bad foto of me... makes me look like i am pregnant but im NOT! wish i was..]

our dessert a dark chocolate tart with strawberries and balsamic vinegar ice cream
the ice cream had very light balasamic vinegar flavours but went very well with the rest of the dessert
i liked the ice cream the most

hubby's medium steak - very delicious and tender, meat just melts in your mouth
i think it was a rib eye on the bone, the steaks had a delicious smoky bbq flavour to it
and you have a choice of sauces to go with your steak [mustard, hollandaise, mushrooms etc]
all the steaks here are aged to perserve their flavour and tenderise the meat
i definitely recommend the steaks here, this is what their specialty is

my dinner choice was a little different
i saw that they served tripe and i like tripe
and its unusual for western style restaurants to serve tripe and the curious side of me wanted to know how they would serve it up and how it would taste. the tripe was nice, and they gave me a huge serving of it, it was tender and tomato saucey with other herbs put in too.
i would probably order something else next time - like a steak :oD

the other dishes you below are our side dishes
we had onion rings - absolutely delicious $9
cauliflower cheese - ok, more cheese would have been good $12

my entree - yabbie with cucumber & zuchini salsa

we had a great night out
definitely a good restaurant for those special occasions
stick to the steak menu items, you cant go wrong

xxoo

fun shanghai [part 1]

since im super dooper behind in my shanghai - china postings,
and i cant remember what we did on which day
im just going to blog in any random order
starting with this meat fest :D

strolling through the biggest shopping mall in shanghai [super brand mall] in the pudong area
we came across a cook your self bbq place
looked really good and promising and busy
so we decided to eat here

one look at the menu and we were stuffed!
there is not a SCRAP of english anywhere eeeeeeek!!!
there were pictures, which was some saving grace but apart from that
nothing in english.

so we ordered - which was another challenge -
we speak no chinese and the waiters spoke none or VERY little english
one poor idiot was assigned to us, i think because he had the most english out of the whole lot of them
and lets just say he didnt speak very much at all.

anyways it all worked out in one way or another and we got all our food without ordering strange meats like dog and crocodile etc [good sign]. but what we noticed was that all the other tables ordered lettuce and NO ONE ordered rice. we thought that was strange - no one eats rice? well they dont. unlike me and my peasant hubby - who do eat rice. what they do is place their grilled meats and veg into the lettuce cups, roll it up and eat it. and so we learnt something new that day. and that explain why they had so many different types of lettuce on the menu [and there i was thinking, what the f*** ?! people here eat grilled lettuce?]

the dipping condiments were very yummy, the one on the left is a peanut sauce style, and the spices on the right were like a spicy dhukkah. it all went down very well, very tasty, reasonably priced for shanghai [$25 aud for 2 ppl] - just a little greasy.

xo.clio
more adventures to come!

windchimes cafe, winthrop

i got really excited when i found out that we had a little local vietnamese cafe opened really close to our house..yum!!! my hubby knows how much i LOVE LOVE LOVE vietnamese food.

so i tried a typical pho noodle soup for lunch $10.00

overall it wasn't too bad, the soup was clear and light in flavour
i found the noodle, beef and herb portions a bit on the skimp side for $10
i guess i would come back to try the other things on the menu, and it is a nice to be able to eat something else around here apart from chinese food.

xo

i'm a book worm....

as you know i read a lot of childrens books

1. because i need to know the answers to those darn reading comprehension questions
2. so i can recommend good/appropriate books for kids to read - depending on their personality and interest
3. so i can recommend books to their parents
4. so i can plan and organise english lessons around certain themes and books
5. so i can find really good books to read to the whole class

the last reason is probably the hardest of the lot
what will work for 1 class will not always work with another
theres lots of 'good' books out there,
but hardly any really fantastic books that all kids will enjoy or get something out of.

but anyways, since i'm on school holidays i've been doing some holiday reading.
and these school holidays i have been reading and finishing the specky magee series.
i've heard a lot about these books being really good for boys
[its REALLY REALLY REALLY hard to find good books for boys aged between 10-14]
and yes i would definitely recommend these books for any boy between 10-14.
the themes are fantastic, the character specky magee is a fantastic role model for any kid
and it has SHIT LOADS of information about footy and the AFL.
i also picked them up from the local red cross store for $1.50 each - bargain!

this is my little haul from the book depository
i LOVE the book depository!
1. the books are really cheap, very competitive prices
2. they stock all sorts of rare and out of print books
3. they ship for free from england!!! how awesome is that?!

more reading for me... im going to use these books in the classroom
im teaching my kids to like calvin and hobbes [and understand sarcasm]
kensuke's kingdom is another book being recommended to me to use in the classroom

this is my bookclub haul
do you remember bookclub with lucky the cat and arrow and star etc?
well we still get them and the awesome part is that teachers get bonuses and freebies and really cheap books!
[i need a library if i ever build my own house!]
finders keepers is an oldie but a good i read long time ago
i'm rereading it to see if it can fit into our english program
the tiger rising is a book by my favourite children's author kate di camillo
hiding edith is something very diary of anne frank, which i am always interested in
and it might be good for a class read - who knows?

happy reading people!

obsessed with stationery

i am a little obsessed with stationery
especially when there is a ridulous sale

hence my loot from the CRAZY officeworks stationery sale
all the stuff inside the box below is either $1 or $2
even the massive storage box was on sale from $25.00 to $4.00
[i could NOT resist]
there's actually more stuff - but i have stored them all over the place ...hehehe

i'm planning to use them for miss c's upcoming baby shower
i'll be using some of the stuff as prizes for the games we're having
and most of the other stuff is going to be given as prizes for the kids

xo clio

there's nothing like puppy love...

these are photos of our pups at 7-8 weeks old
they were taken the day before puppy Sophie went to her forever home

i do miss them heaps
and i miss having such adorable little pups to cuddle

enjoy...xo

sophie is the one with white tips on her ears
barney is the chubby lil fella

my easter haul!

i've been super spoilt by my students this year
this is my easter haul for 2011
there's 2 missing bunnies [1 i gave to a colleague and the other to a student]
this is by FAR the most i've ever received from my students for easter
normally its about 3-4 chocolates/bunnies/eggs etc

my hubby LOVES the dark chocolate collection from lindt - you can see some missing chocolates from the set- there's an empty spot where the dark choc lindt balls use to be

what i love is the easter card made by one of my students - she twilled it all by herself!
and in the paper bag is a super cute collection of gifts - a bunny pen, a handmade card [with super cute hand drawn garfield pictures inside] a bookmark and a paper crane. love it!

these are the sweetest kids i have ever had :D

handmade twilled easter card - love it!

happer easter everyone!

xo

ps: i am NOT eating all that chocolate :P

baking up a storm...

i'm on school easter holidays and i've caught the baking bug.
i did a fondant class earlier this year and i've been itching to make some pretty cupcakes.

i made these the other day. they are for miss c's upcoming baby shower
she loved them - but i'm still iffy on the design

and below is a basic chocolate cupcake with buttercream frosting
this is me practising my piping skills

stay tuned for me!
planning to make macarons these holidays
i hope they will work out, its been a year since i last did them
i might have lost my touch... eeek!

xxoo

feeling..

really lost at the moment

like i dont really belong anywhere

i think i need a really good bitch sesh

really missing my friends :(

louis ghost chair

i am obsessed with this chair.. and i have just found out that www.relaxhouse.com.au is selling them for $129 each. This is the cheapest i have EVER seen these replicas being sold.
i want one soooo bad... i can just see it now in my perfect beautiful house, in my white study room...
i just dont have the need for it now, and definitely no room...

i would love to have a dining table with 6-8 of these chairs around it :D

sigh sigh sigh... i dont even know which colour to choose!
decisions decisions