Monday, May 7, 2012

Life overwhelming. Family, fluffy animals and food. Innocent Bystander Cellar!

I'm at that point where life is just overwhelming me and I don't have time for the little things. 

Like editing pictures, keeping updated with my favourite blogs, commenting, writing, playing video games....so on and so forth. 

Work has randomly ramped up and eats away more of my hours. A marketing course is keeping me busy. A cool photography opportunity with a friend has come up. I've got a trip in June with Brad to still organize, research and book. 

And my awesome cousins from Canada who I haven't seen for two years, just touched down a few days ago and will be here for about two weeks. 

Add trying to keep up with a social time, squeezing in time with Brad, and frankly, although there's a whole lot of 'Yay!' going on, I'm kinda tired! 

So my posts the next few weeks will be a little more sporadic and fewer than usual, which I do loathe, but will try to keep up with as best I can. And I also apologize to my favourite bloggers about my lack of comments, I still love you all and hopefully will catch up on reading soon! 

To make up for my lack of posts, here's a little summary of my last couple of days. 

My cousins from Canada are awesome, Brandon, Serena, and Brandon's girlfriend Lisa are staying with us at the moment, and being at the age we are, it's lovely to be able to go out and do our own things, separately from the parents! Even though we do not talk as much as we should in between times when we actually spend time together in person, it's always a seamless transition into being best friends again. We're all such retards. I love it!


After trying to have brunch on Saturday in Breakfast Thieves, only to find it was about a 45 minute wait, the girls, Brad and I hopped over to Provenance Food and Wine instead and nommed on lots of eggs, which also included, tacos filled with scrambled eggs and cheese. Full of noms! Wouldn't have minded more cheese though. 


That night I went to a friend's hens night at Hoo Haa on Chapel Street. Lot of gin and Pimms and fluffy pink horns. And random single men taking their tops off for our bride-to-be. I do have to say the crowd at Hoo Haa is pretty good looking. Jolly good!

Sunday, we took the drive down to Healesville Sanctuary. Lisa didn't have a huge list of things to do on her first visit to Australia, but on the top of it, see a kangaroo in person. Simple enough!


Gimme a scratch love....




About 20 million pictures later, we had covered the whole park. Brandon had also been attacked by a pelican, and Serena swooped by a black cockatoo. I love introducing people to Australia's fauna, so welcoming! But really, who doesn't love looking at all our squishy koalas and wallabies? 


I think this is my first picture of a Tasmanian devil! Was sort of surprised how...fluffy it was, photos have always made them look rather mean and lean! 


We were also fortunate enough to come across a wallaby who was chilled out enough for a pat or two. So amazingly well behaved, it just stayed curled up as a little ball, long after we left! Lisa was thrilled!



Lunch was a late affair at Giant Steps/Innocent Bystander. We all loved the space as soon as we walked in, a gorgeous big warehouse space, with lovely light. Even at 3 in the afternoon, the place was still buzzing and almost all tables were taken. We were seated in a booth, with one of the biggest tables I think I had ever seen. They were certainly counting on people to order a lot of food I guess!






A couple of glasses of wine, and a couple of pizzas. Mushroom, pumpkin and prosciutto. Gorgeous thin crusts, delicious toppings. With a drizzle of truffle oil though, it's hard to go past mushroom as a favourite though!


The croquettes were a little chunkier inside than I expected. I normally expect a creamy, béchamel interior, but the chunky potatoes were a very tasty interpretation too!




And of course, let's not forget the parmesan truffle frites! PARMESAN AND TRUFFLE. Perfectly crisp, cheesy and just enough truffle to tease the taste buds. Oh my. I came up with the concept of marrying them until death. When you eat them. Then you get to marry them again. Multiple husbands! 


Serena and I got the moscato sorbet for dessert. If pink clouds existed, it is what I would expect them to taste like. If you could eat them that is. Light, gently sweet and so refreshing. 

Inspired by the sorbet...we ended up carting home a box of Innocent Bystander's lovely moscato. We don't expect the 12 bottles to last very long.....

Family, fluffy animals and food. What else could make for a better weekend really? Oh, a picture of my dog being a sook as he gets a bath. Teehee!


Giant Steps/Innocent Bystander Winery
336 Maroondah Hwy
Healesville Vic 3777

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