Photos from Joe

Nat & Gilbert	Grumpy Nat
Sleepy Gilbert	giveittomehardbigboy

Jindy Ski Trip 2005 # 1

This past weekend was memorable for a myriad of reasons:
On Friday, somewhere between Comma & Jindabyne while I was skiving off work, I received a call. I was happily sitting in HT’s car looking forward to the snow at Thredbo, singing my way through Les Miserables soundtrack when my phone started ringing, showing “Nathalie Wong”. I assumed that the call was from my voicemail callback, and, not wanting to waste a few bars of my favourite song, picked up the call while continuing to sing at the top of my voice. It took me a few lines of “Do you hear the people sing” to realise that there was no lady telling me how many new messages I had. At this point, I realised the call was actually from work and quickly hung up. fark.

The phone rang again immediately – but this time I was ready. Unfortunately my spazzo fingers were not as prepared – I accidentally pressed the answer button, and this time, accompanying the Les Miserables soundtrack was my voice saying “shit its fucking work again”. This is when I remembered that one of my work colleagues had promised to conference me in to a meeting. Double Fark.

Definitely not a great start to the weekend, but luckily it picked up from there.
Friday at Thredbo was a nice day – long runs and hardly any people – whizzed down the mountain on fresh legs at top speeds! Dinner was an amazing Lamb Roast with yumo roast potatoes & plenty of screw top wine cooked by BEC & JOE – the best I’ve ever eaten.

The rest of the group arrived that night, and after much admiring of snow gear, and new boards (VICKY), followed by some loosely termed “lunch” preparation (spam & mayo sandwiches, dog meat & apple sandwiches) we all went to bed wishing for snow.

Saturday started nice and early with the sound of Vicky & HT talking to each other in their sleep. Vicky “Alright I’m ready, lets go”, HT “I don’t know.” Hmmm… think they were having different dreams. This was followed by Joe’s mobile phone waking us up at 4am. And 410am. Moments later it was 6am, Wayno’s voice was blasting through the door, followed by some insistent banging. I didn’t wake up until jumping Joe started bouncing on me yelling “Wake up HT!”… we don’t look that similar do we???

What an awesome day on the snow! We got to Thredbo so early, we watched the lifts start up! Nice hard packed snow – dry and fast – excellent weather conditions – sunny with little to no wind - with experienced riders made for an exhausting morning. By 1030am we were ready for lunch. At 2pm we were waiting for the lifts to close. But we couldn’t waste an 8hour day of skiing. YDG & Cherie practically flew down the slalom course, and the challenge was on. No one could beat YDG’s amazing time of 18.05 seconds, the closest I came was 18.81 seconds. Close, but no cigar. Next time baby, next time.

Other memorable moments were the naked massages going on in the lounge, loud burping, flatulence and general misbehaviour in front of Ranview co-habiters, the incensed looks from fellow skiers & boarders as a whole hoard of Asians sped down high noon at top speed kicking up snow and ignoring all the “SLOW DOWN” signage, near collision at high speed between YDG&Waynos on Friday Flats in an attempt to take out 3nd place (after Mac & Cherie), Marissa’s huge stack on high noon, Cherie & Waynos jumps over high noon, cookie preparations, running out of water, garlic bread agony and of course poker challenge that lasted all night.

Ahhh… can’t wait for NZ!

Gilbert!

I stole this cute photo from ahbeng's blog to include in mine. Isn't he a cutie! This dog gives me more lovin that my own boyfriend!!! Gilbert was rescued from a doggy shelter a few years back, and we suspect he is a jack russell x fox terrier. No one knows when his birthday is, so its best to treat him nice everyday. We also think he may have been abused when he's young, beaten on the behind as he sometimes bites your hand when you pat him too far back...

Rise Restaurant Review

Yesterday HT & I went to Rise, a scrumptious Japanese restaurant in Darlinghurst. Great value at $35 per person for an 8 course degustation, although they make their money back with the drinks. During the night, we decided (after a champagne & lychee caipriosca) to try our hand at food reviews:

The highlight of the night was the pedestrian sounding potato soup. Despite its uninspiring name, the soup had a nice smoky overtone and the oyster tempura was a fantastic mesh of textures. The tofu was the perfect complement to a meal that was both beautifully presented, and perfectly balanced taste-wise.

Despite being touted as the signature dish, the foie-gras stuffed Agedashi tomato was chewy and left an unpleasant residue on the roof of my mouth. The kiwi granita also disappointed with unripe kiwi puree leaving a furry taste on the back of my tongue – ouch!

Service was the typically impeccable Japanese style, although sitting at the sushi counter revealed that a large majority of dishes were pre-prepared (something I am generally not a fan of). Luckily though, this did not impact on the freshness and quality of the meals presented. Overall 7 out of 10.

Menu
Amuse-Bouche: Semi poached egg w sea urchin sauce, salmon roe & shiso
Appetiser: Seared ocean trout sashimi with roasted kingmushroom & thai style sweet chilli sauce Soup: Potato soup with oyster tempura & tofu
Sashimi: Assorted sashimi
Seasonal Plate: RISE crispy fried soft shell crab taco’s; fresh scampi sashimi; eel fresh spring roll Signature Dish: Agedashi organic tomato stuffed with foie gras
Main Course: Rolled chicken with Pumpkin Puree
Dessert: Kiwi Granita with fresh fruit jelly

Poker Face

I just got back from a Becks bday weekend, where the focus was on three key activities – cooking, surfing and poker. Being generally acknowledged as pretty crap at the first two, I spent a lot of energy throwing myself into the high stakes game of poker – the No Limit Texas Hold’em kind.

There is just something about beating your friends into oblivion that brings me great joy. To see the disappointment on HT’s face when we go head to head, and I win for once makes my heart beat double time. In poker, no one is your friend – they are just a pile of casino grade chips waiting to be colour sorted into my own stash.

This is totally contrary to my normal behaviour where I usually try to make sure everyone remains happy until I myself get pissed off. And I am usually pretty submissive too, so you would think that I succumb to the poker face during the game. But actually, I live for the moments when I can say “ALL IN” and not worry about losing… And also drawing people in to a pot when I know I’ve got the best possible hand (so I can let out a relieved sigh and laugh off my nerves, while I carefully integrate the pot into my own colour coded pile).

My poker tactics are being refined by the continual advice from Chad, Wayne, Shar and Marissa, who I acknowledge as being the real pro’s from a strategic/tactical point of view. Due to this, I am not succumbing to my curiosity during the game – meaning much less aimless betting just so I can see the other person’s hand. This is paying off too, as my win rate jumps from 0% to 50% in a matter of weeks.

I’ll be the first to say that I definitely don’t want to encourage my deviant sinful behaviour by buying my own poker chips, especially as Shar has such a great set! However, tax deductable 6 person texas hold’em on tap, via the O2 mini is sound more and more like a great idea.

wow! so much has been happening to me this week... very eventful.

Biggest news is that my little sis jess is officially moving out of home! Even though I have been scanning her xanga site, there was no prewarning... I only found out last saturday, and she moved out a week later!!! This makes me quite sad from several perspectives:

1. Our family unit is breaking up! I figure this will be the last time we're all living together in the one house. Jess won't be around to help buffer the nagging from the mumma's & the pappa's. This is very bad, cos most nagging is directed at me (nat, you used my towel again! nat, why don't you fill the water urn when you finish it? nat, don't forget to wash your dishes. put the left overs in the fridge. did you vacuum your room yet? stop treating this house like a hotel etc)

2. I have not moved out of home yet... I want to move out and have my own place too. I feel like I am lagging behind in life stages... my little sister is more mature than me?!

3. It will be lonely! Who will I eat dinner with on Friday nights?

Anyway, I'm sure she'll have a blast, and eat lots of sushi cos its so cheap.

Other news is that I lost my friggin mobile. Again. I got drunk on Wednesday night with some work buddies, and lost the mobile in the cab (done this before) on the way home... Dammit. I must've called HT, then forgot I was holding it. I also got home and had a shower and forgot to wash my hair. I then forgot to dry my hair, and went to bed, but forgot to put on my pj's or turn off my light! I woke up at abt 5am wondering why my light was on. Unfortunately I also forgot to drink a huge bottle of water before going to sleep, so I was quite hung over on Thursday. Had to take a sick day :) Fantastic use of sick day!

Ok, sorry for the outburst... back to work...