Gruyere

Gruyere is a beautiful town known for it's cheese, chocolate, and (of all things) it's Alien themed cafe. Today we took a day trip up to Gruyere and ate lots of cheese, chocolate, and um, alieny tea.



After a slight accidental detour we arrived in Gruyere just in time for lunch. Our first stop was the Gruyere cheese factory for some fondu, but the terrible service and many crying babies (ok maybe just one but we were tired and hungry) made us jump ship and look for lunch elsewhere. We walked up to the Gruyere village and found a beautiful warm little restaurant where I tried my first fondu. It was delicious, but I couldn't eat very much because it was very rich.



On a tight schedule, we rushed off to the Caillers chocolate factory for a fun tour about the history of chocolate, and of course lots of free chocolate.



To finish off our trip we visited the Alien themed HR Giger Cafe. It's a bit weird and unexpected to find an Alien themed cafe in a beautiful Swiss village, but Giger bought the castle in Gruyere so they made a museum and cafe at the top of the village in his honour. Makes sense I guess. The cafe was quite small but very cool, with the ceiling and furniture covered in Alien themed adornments. Makes me want to watch the series again!



Tonight Yvonne invited a couple of friends over for dinner and some Jenga. Man that game stresses me out! I think we all are going to have bad Jenga dreams tonight.

Christmas in Geneva

Today is Christmas! Merry Christmas everyone!

Yesterday I saw it snow for the first time ever, and even though it was half rainy (because it was quite hot), it was an awesome early Christmas present.



On Christmas eve we drove to Geneva to spend Christmas with Stefan's family. We did some last minute Christmas shopping in the city before heading to Stef's brother's house in Carouge for dinner. Traditional Christmas dinner in Switzerland (well Stef's family) consists of oysters (eek! did not try), foi gras (I tried it, it was nice!), and opening presents late at night. I received an awesome Swatch from Yvonne and Stef, a perfect Swiss gift!



We spent the night in Carouge at Stefan's dad's apartment, and went back to his bro's for a coffee in the morning. I also managed to borrow a set of snow boots and ski pants from Stefan's family. As luck would have it, I have feet the same size as Stefan's mum, and am exactly the same size as a 12 year old Stefan, which means I have my ski gear for next week sorted :) I've been quite lucky so far with snow stuff - yesterday I found the most awesome boys ski jacket (14yo+) on sale at H&M for 20 francs. Sometimes being the size of a little boy can be a good thing!



This afternoon we took the long way back to Neuchatel through the Jura mountains for an awesome view of the French Alps. I saw and played in some more snow, and at the top of the mountain we stopped for a delicious hot chocolate.



I miss my family very much, but I am also very excited to have had my very first white Christmas :)

Switzerland (Day 1 and 2)

This year I'm spending Christmas and New Years in Switzerland with my cousin Yvonne and her boyfriend Stefan. This is the first year I've been away from home for the holidays, so this trip is definitely going to be a big adventure!

I arrived in Switzerland yesterday afternoon after an extremely long trip from Perth->Dubai->Geneva. Yvonne picked me up from the airport and after a lot of hugging and screaming we made our way to Neuchatel, a beautiful little town where Yvonne and Stef are currently living. The apartment is beautiful, with wooden decking on the ceiling and amazing views from all the windows. This year they bought a natural Christmas tree, so it really feels and smells like I always imagined a white Christmas would.

Yesterday I took it easy and stayed in for the night while Yvy and Stef went out to a uni party. Stef has just handed in his final uni assignment so he was keen to celebrate! I was more keen on a nice long horizontal sleep since I didn't get too much on the plane. Before I crashed like a rock, I did my first local thing and ate escargot (snails) for dinner!

Today I woke up nice and refreshed, ready for my first snow experience! I had seen a tiny little bit of snow in Yvonne's driveway, but I don't think that really counted as seeing snow. Our first stop for the day was to go see some snow on the way to Epesses. It was... amazing! It was nothing like what I expected, I don't know why! I absolutely loved it, and can't wait for more!

Next we went to Monteaux to see the Christmas markets. We spent a couple of hours walking around drinking mulled wine and looking at the beautiful stalls. There were some weird decorations around the place that apparently had to do with a kids TV show, and even a statue of Freddie Mercury.

Now we're about to settle down to relax and watch a movie. I'm having so much fun already, but I'm a little bit homesick too! Tomorrow is xmas eve :)

Triple J Hottest 100 of 2011

My Votes:

• M83 - Midnight City
• M83 - Wait
• M83 - Intro {Ft. Zola Jesus}
• Bon Iver - Perth
• Bon Iver - Holocene
• Bon Iver - Beth/Rest
• Junior Boys - Banana Ripple
• Junior Boys - ep
• Junior Boys - The Reservoir
• Gotye - Somebody That I Used To Know {Ft. Kimbra}

This year I've been completely out of the loop because the stereo in my car is broken! I looked through the list and saw releases from a lot of awesome bands (Fleet Foxes, Radiohead, TV on the Radio). The albums are good, but I couldn't really pick any songs as being the best of 2011.

So I tried a different approach. The three albums I've been thrashing this year are:

• M83 - Hurry Up, We're Dreaming
• Junior Boys - It's All True
• Bon Iver - Bon Iver
  

I decided to pick three of my favourite songs from my three favourite albums of the year, and also vote for Gotye, who I think deserves (and has a very good chance at) #1.

Happy voting!

Australian Summer Pole Camp 2011

Last weekend I embarked on a strange and wonderful journey to the (2nd annual) Australian Summer Pole Camp in Queensland. Tammy, Krystal, Sabrina and I packed our bags (well, our hand luggage anyway) and headed off to sunny Surfers Paradise for three days of pole, aerial, and circus workshops, and celebrations galore.

We're in Queensland, OMG!

Thursday night we took the red eye flight with Jetstar, and after a long mostly sleepless night arrived in Surfers Paradise at 7am local time. Check-in at the Q1 resort was at 2pm, so we decided to have the big breakfast at the nearby OMG Cafe. OMG... do NOT eat at OMG Cafe. Soon after check-in we were all fighting for the bathroom to deal with our big breakfast food poisoning. Unfortunately the apartment we stayed in only had 1 bathroom which housed the only toilet, the only shower, and the only mirror, and since we were very rushed for time we quickly found that all bathroom facilities were being used at once! Any barriers our friendships had before are certainly gone now.

Meet n Greet
That night was the meet and greet at Shooters bar. The place was small but nice, and there was a pole set up (which surprisingly nobody was on even though we were all there for pole camp!). We got a drink and found a place to sit, from which we were promptly shooed away from (apparently it was the VIP area, even though 5mins later many non-VIPs were happily sitting there, grrr). Since we'd been drinking all day (maybe to help forget the horrors of the food poisoning) I was already quite confident so I decided to get up and break that poles virginity! I drunkly managed to rip out an awesome upright pole split, in my little black dress I might add, and even though my dismount was less than elegant (OK so maybe I almost stacked it trying to come down), it definitely got people up there! I fully take credit for getting that shit started. Tammy got up there and set the bar high, and quickly found a competitor (they were having pole-offs all weekend!). All in all it was a fun night, but we crashed early to prepare for a full day of workshops!

Friday Morning Beach Acro
Friday morning we begrudgingly got up to our alarms for beach acro with Suzie Q and Toby J. But we quickly forgot our hangovers with an awesome morning. Suzie and Toby got all the girls in a massive tumbling line, it was definitely a peculiar sight! After a quick shower it was off to Parklands for our workshops.

Friday Workshops
Chinese Pole with Nica

Very challenging! I managed to get the famous Chinese Pole sit, but I didn't have anywhere near enough strength to get the flick-up into triangle hold.

Anastasia

This was my favourite singles workshop. Anastasia is so lovely, it was an absolute pleasure to learn with her. She taught us a couple of cool spins that transitioned into figurehead and back pull up, and a strange neck hold dismount that made it easy to lower down and make it look like you're really strong.

Aerials

This was AWESOME! There were a few apparatus set up, but this workshop only did silks. I've always wanted to try silks, and it was as fun as it looks! But man did it burn. I still have an underarm cut to prove it.

Fontaine

By this time I was well and truly buggered, but still managed to learn some awesome tricks! I really like Fontaine's teaching style - it's really all about having fun, not getting stuff perfect.

After a massive rush to get ready, it was back to Shooters for another night of celebrations. There were a few amateur performances, more drinks, more pole-offs, then we were off to bed for another early night, ready for a full day of workshops starting early Saturday morning.

Saturday Workshops
Suzie Q and Toby J

Always a pleasure, this was an intermediate workshop where I learned my first "drop" (modified layout into tuck).

Doubles with Suzie Q and Toby J

My favourite workshop of the whole camp! Tammy, Krystal and I alternated doubles partners and learned some amazing stuff. We almost got kicked out of this one (Krystal and I weren't booked in, but we hopped on with Tammy and there was even a spare pole!), so I'm so glad we stood up to the man and stayed.

Gymnastics Stretch

I've always had a profound respect for gymnasts, and this class reminded me why. This class involved crazy stretching which apparently was meant to be painful but not feel like agony… it definitely crossed the line sometimes!

Amber Ray

I can't say I enjoyed this workshop too much, probably because it was based around perfecting an extremely fast salsa style routine, and I am a failure as a dancer! Although, I definitely appreciated ending on a cruisey workshop.

Pole Dreams
Saturday night was Pole Dreams, where the best of the best showed us their stuff. Suzie Q and Toby J, Jenyne Butterfly, Amber Ray, Fontaine, Lou Landers and Anastasia graced us with beautiful and extreme performances. Watching professional pole dancing always blows my mind, and seeing so many performances one after another was actually quite overwhelming. The stand out for me was watching Anastasia; I'd never seen her perform before (I am lucky enough to have already seen some of the other acts), and she has a very special way of making the most impossible things seem easy.

And with that extravagant ending, Australian Summer Pole camp was over. I had an absolute ball!

With a day to go before our flights home, we decided to do some touristy stuff like go to Ripley's Believe it or Not Museum (so much fun, highly recommended!) and eat at Hard Rock Cafe (my first time, yum!). I had an awesome time all round, but I was definitely ready to come home to my own bed!

About to Have More Fun

I...

Am...

Blonde!!!

Hrmm it's new and different, and a bit strange, and I'm not quite sure I like it yet...

But who cares, I'm having more fun already!

Lapsang Souchong...

...tastes like smoked meat. What a terrible idea for a tea flavour.

Royal Show 2011

This years Royal Show was spectacular as always. It was a girl's day out this year, and we packed our day full of food, pats, and crazy shows.

One of the first things we saw (after the disturbing duck rape incident that shall not be discussed any further) was the Swan Valley Cuddly Animal Farm petting zoo. I absolutely love the Cuddly Animal Farm, and seeing it at the Royal Show was like two of my favourite things all at once!

This year I only went on one ride, Speed, with Gabby. It's the biggest ride at the Perth Royal Show, and it made it's debut last year but no one was brave enough to go on it with me! I was extremely nervous, but determined not to miss out this year. We got to see the ride running quite a lot of times before we got to the front of the line, and seeing people's expressions coming off was a bit daunting! When it came to our turn, Gab and I were on the first carriage being loaded, so we spent a couple of minutes at the top while the other carriage was loaded below us. It was a good amount of time to enjoy the awesome view, but a bit too long to wait to plummet face first toward the ground. Having said that, I can safely say this is the funnest ride I've ever been on, absolutely breath taking!

After a long day of walking around pavilions, it was time for a nutritious dinner of twisted fries.

And yes, I ate the whole plate to myself.

A couple of the girls left earlier on, but Amy and I stayed for the fireworks. This year volunteers were walking around handing out "3D" glasses to watch the fireworks with. At first, Amy and I were skeptical (aren't fireworks 3D already?), but MY GOD it was the best fireworks show I've ever seen!

It was actually so intense at some points that I needed to take a moment to catch my breath. I managed to capture some footage through the glasses, but it's a meagre representation of what we actually saw. It was like every spark of each firework was multiplied by 10 while shooting rainbows at your face.

I already can't wait until show time next year :)

Rabbit on the Brain

On my recent visit to Melbourne (for Matt's talk at One More Thing) among one of the many things I bought was a cute little cardigan from Friends of Couture.



I liked it immediately, and I'm not even sure why; blue doesn't even suit me, particularly now with the red hue in my hair!

Either way, my stupid brain liked it, and I usually give in to my brain's stupid whims (especially when it comes to shopping). I was picking off George hairs from my cardi when suddenly I noticed that the carpet-like pattern has little rabbits all over it! Touche brain, touche.

My Miracle Berry Fruit Tasting 25th Birthday Bonanza

A little while back now (but I've been a bit busy lately) I had a miracle berry fruit tasting party for my 25th birthday. What's a miracle berry you ask? Well it's a berry that when eaten, changes the perceived sweetness of food, or in other words, makes sour stuff taste sweet!

I ordered the berries from Think Geek. Each packet contained 10 lolly-type pills made from powdered/freeze dried miracle berry fruit. We each had half a pill, and then had some fun tasting an assortment of random things!

My mum and I spent ages making fruit skewers with grapefruit, orange, lemon, lime, apple, pineapple and strawberry. They looked really cute! I also bought vinegar, raspberries, pomegranate, salt n vinegar chips, and tomatoes.

I was really worried at first that there would be no effect - how embarrassing! But luckily, it really worked, although the effect was not quite as intense as I thought. It was a very strange experience, and I think it was different for everyone. Everyone had different favourite foods, and thought certain things changed more than others. Personally, my favourite thing was the lime. I found that strawberry and pineapple didn't change very much, and pink grapefruit (usually my favourite thing in the world) tasted really awful.

Some things that I thought might be good were actually quite gross. Vinegar tasted like lemonade for a split second, then it tasted like vinegar again and burnt your throat. I had read that Guinness beer tasted like chocolate, but I found that there was no change. Pickles grossed everyone out, and Philadelphia cheese seemed to be either a hit or miss, with some people swearing it tasted like cheesecake.

I had heaps of fun, and would definitely recommend this as a fun party idea. Some hints from my experience:

• When you're sending out an invite, send some links to wikipedia or other info sites for your guests to have a read of. When I first wrote the invite I realised that without this, it looked like I was inviting everyone over for an acid trip!
• Think Geek recommends 1/2 a tablet is a serve, but I recommend you budget one per person (we found that we went back for more since the effect faded after about 15 mins).
• Have an antacid on hand!!! I bought a whole packet of Rennie to reverse the acid torture.
• Have some normal food on hand for afterwards, something warm like meat pies and sausage rolls, to give your tongue and tummy a rest.
• Try a little bit of everything, and then go back and have lots of what you liked. The effect fades quite quickly, so you want to get in a lot of things before it wears off!

Happy Fruit Tasting!