Need to Diet and Happy New Year!

Oh wow! How did you guys pull up for Christmas? I feel like I'm still rolling around from all the yummy food that I have consumed in 8 days. Yes! You heard correctly; I didn't stop eating for 8 whole full days. Best 8 days of my life.

Christmas dinner with my immediate family is always fun as I get to be a kid again and play games with my nieces. As they get older and find their own personalities and become more independent, I find myself still treating them like little toddlers. Soon we'll be clubbing together! LOL....NEVER! Not for me anyway.

Every year I spend Christmas day with my extended family and this year was the alternate year where many of my relatives spend Christmas with their partners and/or in-laws so it was a small crowd but was still consisting of 30+ people. You can only imagine how many people we have for Christmas when everyone is here in Sydney together. Christmas has always been big for me and it's not just family, we have many very close family friends who join us because they don't have family here in Sydney so it's a big celebration.

Even though it was a "smaller" crowd this year it meant that I really got a chance to spend some quality time with my aunties and uncles who love to tell stories of when we were younger and all the trouble we use to get up to - these are the moment I cherish and laugh at the most, especially when I find things out about my brothers!

Over the next few days I had friends over for dinner and catch-ups and in my proud cook-off moment I successfully made a triple chocolate mud cake with salted caramel chocolate pieces and topped with chocolate butter-cream and my ultimate "move over Kylie Kwong" moment was my PEKING ROAST DUCK! Totally made from scratch and all made by me. I'm still so proud of this that if heads really did grow in size then mine was massive!

Doesn't look sexy but it was amazing

The rich triple chocolate mud cake with salt caramel chocolate pieces and topped with chocolate butter-cream.

The amazing roast duck was accompanied with steam fish, asian greens and brown rice.

Dinner on another night serving slow roast lamb, mash potato, honey carrots & broccolini with butter & toasted hazelnuts.

My final (for now) indulgence day of eating, the 8th day, was dinner at Le Pelican in Surry Hills (Shop 2, 411 Bourke Street, Pelican Private Hotel). This was the first time I've been there and what a lovely cute little place it is. The restaurant has in-door seating and through the back has more seating in their lovely cute outdoor courtyard. It is French bistro combining fresh local seasonal produce to create classic and new favourites.

For entree I had a couple of fresh Wapengo lake organic oysters with lemon and shallot dressing and the pork and duck foie gras pâté with cornichon and onion jam served with a crusty warm baguette which is absolutely amazing. For main, I had the special, roasted pigeon; can't remember what it came with but it was tasty and tender. To finish it all off I squeezed in a couple of scoops of ice cream: chocolate and olive oil sorbet.

It was the first time I've tried  olive oil sorbet and it seriously did tasty of olive oil including the oily texture in  your mouth. You could only eat a couple of spoonfuls at a time and then it just gets too oily so I would recommend having it with something else as it needs to accompany another dessert. Being the lover of food and all things sweet, I then proceeded to try everyone elses dessert: Baked fruit soufflé with chocolate ice cream, strawberry and rhubard meringue with lemon gel and olive oil sorbet, chocolate fondant and thyme ice cream and the cheese plate that consisted of Ossau Iraty, Buche d’Affinois and Fourme d’Ambert.

Olive oil sorbet and chocolate ice cream.

So, that was my final day of indulgence eating. I have since gone back to eating healthy (as much as possible) and have started walking and swimming again to lose (what feels like) 100kgs I have gained in these 8 days! Meh, it's Christmas and I've enjoyed every moment of it; I love the fact that food brings people together.

As I draw towards the last couple of days of 2014 I wish you all a fabulous New Year and and awesome 2015 and beyond. I hope you all have a great time whatever it is you're doing and stay safe. I also look forward to sharing more of my journey and moments with you in the new year so do come back!

What are your plans for New Years? Will you be securing a spot for the fireworks in Sydney?

Love,
Jo xo

Merry Christmas ….. Keep Dreaming and Sparkling

Firstly, wishing all my family, friends and followers a very Merry Christmas! I hope you all have a wonderful time wherever you are and with those that are important to you.

WOW! Another 12 months have past and here I am writing a Christmas post. For me it's been a hectic, fun and an eventful year. I have personally experienced and learnt many new things. One of my biggest achievements of this year is moving into my place and decorating it in my style and personality (this never seems to stop) and I've been falling in love with what I've done each day. I'm proud that everything I own is mine and no-one can take it away from me. 

Another achievement that I'll point out and really never thought about ever doing is starting this blog and becoming an official blogger. It is been both inspiring and personal for me; a place where I can share and write about my thoughts, my experiences, my reviews around Sydney, my travels and my journey in life. I wouldn't have been able to achieve this without the help of my beautiful friend, Camielle, who has a blog of her own - Gen-Y Mum. If it wasn't for her guidance, advice and IT help, I wouldn't have got this off the ground. To Cam: Thank you!

The world has experienced many events in the last 12 months and in Australia, especially my own city, Sydney, we have recently been faced with not-so-nice events but events that I believe has brought us closer and made us stronger. Although these events have happened, I believe that there is always a positive to come from it. We may not see it straight away but in time we'll know. 

Reflecting on 2014…hmmm… like I've mentioned above, I've had a couple of achievements that I'm really proud of and many special moments with friends and family. However, I am ready to say goodbye to 2014 and hello to 2015. So with this in mind, I'm looking forward to spending Christmas with my family (and the extension of my family) tomorrow and eating myself silly (which pretty much began a couple of days ago). I'm also looking forward to spending the following days with friends celebrating the end of 2014 and brining in 2015.

Have a fabulous Christmas and thank you all for following on my journey this far…… 

Jo xo

Christmas is Just Around the Corner

EEEEEEKKKKKKKKK......!

I would have to say that I'm a pretty good organiser and planner and most years I have been really good when it comes to Christmas present shopping. I have always been one to plan early and have everything purchased, wrapped and waiting nicely under the Christmas tree.

Photo Credit: DIY Network

This year.....well, this year has completely been thrown out of the window. I'm not sure why and I'm not really sure how, but I have left most of my Christmas shopping until the very last minute. I've been stressing about the types of presents to buy, where to buy it, who I'm buying for and if it will be well received! Not a cool position to be in.

However, on the plus side (and there always is a plus side to everything), once I had decided what I was getting everyone, all the items suddenly were on sale. BOOM! Not a bad outcome for leaving it till the last minute. Might have to leave all my Christmas shopping till the end.

Only 7 days until it's Christmas. I'm looking forward to spending Christmas with my immediate family as well as my extended family. I'm also very excited to be celebrating Christmas with friends just before and just after Christmas Day and this year I have many of them coming over to my place to celebrate the mini holiday. It will also get me back into the kitchen to cook up a feast which I haven't really done in a while.

I've always loved having people over my place and cooking up a feast of something yummy to enjoy as I love bringing people together over food and drinks. It's a great social catch up and it's always a fabulous laugh. Plus I just like to feed people!

What are your plans for Christmas? Have you finished your shopping or still going? Are you a last minute planner? If you're hosting Christmas, what will be your specialty on the day?

Jo xo

42 Days Till Christmas!

OH. EMM. GEEE. Can you believe it?! There are 42 days left until Christmas! Well, according to an Instagram post I saw this morning. As I get older and around this time each year, I've notice myself saying "I can't believe the year has come around so quickly!" Then the next thing you know it's New Years Eve and you're celebrating the new year. 

Are you even prepared for Christmas? Have you started planning the day and where you're going to be, what presents to buy, who is hosting Christmas and how much food you're going to consume in the one day and the days to follow on from that from all the left overs! 

I have recently found myself thinking about presents. Thinking about what presents to buy my family and friends as well as budgeting for these presents. For me around this time of year, all my bills such as insurances are due at the same time so having the "spare" money for presents is a slight squeeze for me. I find myself having to budget more tightly so that I have enough money to get everyone a little something something as well as living day to day with such necessities as food.

The hardest people to buy for at this present moment are my three beautiful and hilarious nieces. They are girls who have just reached the double digits in age (Oh, where has the time gone?) and I still find myself finding gifts that are a little too young for them or things I just don't know if they'll really like. I was thinking of getting them watches, but I know dad had recently bought them watches when he was overseas and they were just "meh". Even dad has been forced to given them money for their birthdays so that they can get something that they want or save it towards something bigger. 

Any suggestions that you have would be greatly appreciated. If you're a parent, aunty or uncle who are buying gifts for kids, let me know what you're planning on getting. Share your ideas with me and everyone else who may be struggling.  At this stage I'm leaning towards Smiggle. Not only are they great for kids of all ages (even me as I secretly love stationery!) but they are a great back-up for gifts and every kid loves them.

Hmmmm back to working out how to fund all these presents. A lesson I've long taught myself with regards to budgeting and ensuring that I can still live day-to-day and week-to-week is:

• making a list of all the people you have to purchase a gift for (combining couples gift also helps) 
• setting aside a maximum amount you'll spend on each gift 
• roughly penciling in the type of gift you'll get them, as this will save you walking around the shops forever trying to find something.

Then finally, and this only works if you start this planning now, is working out how many weeks you have until Christmas and buying one or two gifts each week so that you're not blowing your weekly budget and overspending. Below are some rules I've given myself when buying Christmas gifts and something that you can use or just keep at the back of your mind:

• I don't believe that you have to spend a lot of money on gifts for Christmas as you're buying for more people at the same time and I believe that Christmas is about spending quality time with family and friends
• If there are gifts that you need to send overseas or interstate, plan to purchase those gifts first so that you can send them in time for them to receive the gifts just before Christmas 
• If sending gifts via the post, remember to also budget for postage cost
• Keep your receipts just in case a gift you buy such as clothing can be exchanged if the size is incorrect.

These are just some tips from me that I've learnt over the years when Christmas shopping and something that I thought I would share with you. Do you have your own tips and plans when purchasing Christmas presents for friends and family? Do you set a budget for yourself or do you just go all out? Do you find yourself doing all the Christmas shopping at the very last minute?

Share your Christmas story with me as I've love to hear about it and any tips that you may have so that I can learn something new myself. 

Happy Christmas shopping!

Jo xo