eating is never cheating

what did you have for breakfast? what's that you're making for lunch? have you been to the chinese emporium yet? do you think mango cake would work? did you know that you dip anything wrapped in seaweed? do you want to try this sauce? is carob and licorice not the best invention ever?

food is a topic, much to my partner's dismay, that i never get sick of. i am not a 'foodie' in the critic-sense of the word. i am just as excited by a banana rolled up in a peanut butter-smeared square slice of bread as i am by a twice-baked triple choc brownie for dessert. i love talking about food almost as much as i love eating food. sometimes talking about it is even better. my imagination runs wild and the combinations i create in my head are astronomically amazing.

there is nothing better when you meet other people that want to discuss at length what they had for breakfast that morn and how they plan to improve on it the next. for example here is an exert of an email i received earlier this week...

"this morning before riding to work I had tiny slice of toast (freshly made sour dough bread made by a friend) with a thick spread of vegemite, some avocado and tomato on top and a small cup of coffee. then got to work and ate muesli, banana, goji berries and LSA with yoghurt.  had a coffee with oat milk and just polished off a slice of toast with ABC spread and honey. did you end up making that haloumi veg stack for dinner last night?"

from job to job i have always sought out other people who share this passion for food. good food, naughty food, hot food, raw food, new food, old food... its all good. i have been lucky to find these food-loving souls in my last couple of jobs. felicity and her grated carrots, beetroot and herb freshness; oanhy and her roast pumpkin haloumi surprise. 

currently i am in a delightful group with the other half of i love lamp, coen and our mate carita, which we call 'the salad club'.  to be part of this club you must love the taste of raw veges fresh off the stalk and straight on the plate. when 12 noon shows up on my computer and i gayly skip down the hall to the kitchenette, i am excited by the unknown. what will end up in my tummy today?

its amazing how amazed people are to see such an array of veges on the same plate. the reactions from people are hilarious and everyone loves to comment: 'i have never seen beetroot that's not in a can before', 'health nuts', 'freaky vegetarians'.

my mum always said you should eat a rainbow of food everyday, and she wasn't referring to fruit loops. we were on a steady diet of mung beans and brown rice as kids. she even invented a fast food restaurant called McPriddican's which was similar to McDonald's in name only. McPriddican's only served lentil burgers, eggplant chips, and water with two tear drops of ribena.

if you want to know what we eat each day we pictured it for you... it kind of looks like mother nature spewed on our plates and we called it lunch!!

don't be afraid of food. talk about it, get ideas, try them at home. enjoy the taste of a crisp snow pea on its own without steaming, sauteing, mashing, stir frying it.

carita took our humble club to the next step and prepared a dinner feast for our tenderised taste buds.

i do love an all in chop fest of raw food but it takes consideration and time and love to put something together for friends in your home.

the quiona pilaf that we ate over a few bottles of wine was some the tastiest morsels i had moved from plate to mouth since i could remember.

nice work, carits. now let me share with our readers this glorious recipe. don't forget to add the love!

all measurements very rough... use your intuition
tspn fennel seeds
tspn mustard seeds
tspn ground coriander
tspn cumin seeds
tspn turmeric
chopped green chili
garlic
onion

fry this up then add cup of quinoa, fry for a couple of minutes
add 2 cups of vege stock then just stir until done.

add any veggies a bit later - last night i put in shitake mushrooms
add roasted cashews or almond on serving, and fresh coriander. currents would be good too.

i love lamp loves you too.

her story

if you live in the greater sydney area, plug in to the sydney blogger's festival 2010.  make sure you check out liza boston who is speaking on a panel at the conference 'her story...tapping into the success of australian female bloggers.'

wish we could be there xx

how to: i love playing dress-up

rule 1: find an excuse to clothes-swap regularly.  this weekend, one of our friends is going to new york and one of us is going to melbourne for a snazzy wedding.

rule 2: make a night of it.  make sure your wine is chilled and ready to serve, your dinner menu is new and out of the ordinary, and the stereo is set the band your partner doesn't usually let you listen to.

rule 3: get the kids involved.  make some score cards ala australia's next top model--rate your favourite outfits and invite the kiddies to score (and dress-up!) too.

 

rule 4: girls just wanna have fun. be slightly loud, tell stories that make everyone giggle, dance around a little, splurge and let yourself have that cheeky ciggie, and stay up too late on a school night.

rule 5: ride your bike.  eliminate the issue of finding a sober driver, but make sure to have your helmets handy.  get your heart pumpin with a lovely ride home with your friends through late-night deserted streets.

rule 6: chronicle your occasion.  photograph your borrowed items in action like crazy.  because photographs are as central to special occasions and travel as souveniers and hangovers -- but also because its nice to give your friends the pleasure of seeing where their clothes have traveled and how you styled them.

 

rule 7: rinse and repeat. clothes-swapping never loses its appeal.  everything old can become new again with fresh eyes and fresh ideas.

 

rule 8: come shop with i love lamp. we play dress up too.  i  wanna annoy you readers more than the shitty advertising that interrupts your free iphone aps (honestly, dishing out the $1.19 for the full version of angry birds will change your life.)  non-stop, shameless plugging is the name of our game--yes, come shop i love lamp at our happy yess market stall the last sunday of every month.

"you look really great today."

what a loaded comment.  when colleagues really take the time to remark on how you great you look in your dress today--like they reiterate it so many times and nearly everyone in the office agrees and makes sure they're really driving the point home--it's almost like they're suggesting how shit you look in all your other outfits.

it's like those days when everyone keeps asking you if you're tired/stressed/sick/having bad allergies/hungover but you got a full nine hours sleep, ate a healthy breakkie, got in a quick run, put on a full face of make up and feel fabulous in your outfit. 

they're basically saying, 'hype up the bronzer cuz you lookin like shit.'

it's like those people who go head over heels on the few occasions a decade that i straighten my otherwise super curly hair, and they repeat over and over how much better it looks styled that way.  thanks, colleagues, but i dont have three hours a day, monster biceps or a self-loathing-enough personality to warrant that much effort.  boo hoo.

i hate to out her in the public sphere, but boston had a similar show-stopping moment at work recently in this mint button-front safari number, paired with 30s-style t-strap heels and dangly earrings.  i mean, it is amazing.

but that's not to discount her other outfits; one of the reasons i teamed up with boston in i love lamp was because i'm one of her biggest sartorial fans--her creativity and vision in turning otherwise cast-out, lifeless op-shop finds into fashionable gold is inspiring.  this look lived up to the expectation--and elicited oohs and ahhs, gasps and squiels, accolades and appreciation from every onlooker the whole day.

lucky for you, dear readers, she was only taking the dress for a spin. 

made in sydney so it was locally produced, too.  find it at the Happy Yess Markets beginning Sunday 31 October and make it your staple piece sure to stand out from the usual nine-to-five-wardrobe.

when everything old is new again

who ever thought that 90s fashion would make a comeback? i was a teenager in the 90s and it was uninspiring to say the least. think Elaine from Seinfeld. conservative and daggy--not really a look i thought the runways would re-hash. but no one ever loves the era that they were lumped with. i was jealous of the 80s-flair that my sisters were able to express themselves in. i was too young to create my own style then.

all those bright colours, the awkward shapes, everything bizarre. the 80s had movement and pizazz. although stylish for the time, i felt drab in my op shop UCLA t-shirt, ripped Levi's and beat up converse. where did the fluro leg warmers and outrageous tutus go?

 

okay the 90s weren't all bad. i have to admit that i have been waiting to sport a double denim combination again with confidence. darwin is a bit too hot to go all out in knits and leather but i love lamp has been on the look-out for some stylish threads from yesteryear. we want to help bring your wardrobe back to the beat of Vanilla Ice.

after getting back into a high-waisted pant I don’t know why I was dreading the resurgence of this quickly forgotten fashionable era. dressed in a pair purple chinos matched with a loose fitting white blouse I was impressed with the new sense of freedom I felt when bending over.   hips are out people, its time to bring back the waistline.

watch out Darwin. there will be more ladies on the bend.

come to i love lamp 31 October at the Happy Yess Markets. Fo Real. 

let the music play

is it normal to want to perform? did everyone jump out behind curtains dancing to ABBA in front of their parents friends? is it strange to put your hand up at work to present a power point in front of 100 people just so you can stand up on a stage? to hold attention of the masses, all eyes on you, under the spotlight, name in lights!! – or is it just me?

some people like to play an instrument. i like to perform an instrument. fly along a piano like Billy Joel, wail on riff like Eric Clapton, belt it out like Van the Man and throw down a sax solo like Michael Bolton? i have a musical performance part of my soul that is desperate to express itself in any shape or form.

i began with the piano. everyone in my family got piano lessons as soon as they were old enough to have metal cutlery at the dinner table. my parents are not particularly musical nor did they have insight into the amazing things musical training can do to a developing mind – it’s just that we had a piano.

my first teacher was a 90-year-old spinster called Miss Dowe. she was old when my sister was taught by her 10 years earlier, by this stage she was ancient. I didn’t learn much with Miss Dowe. i don’t know what was more distracting: her whiskers that were longer than her actual hair, the suffocating smell of death mixed with mothballs or the dribble that would ooze out of her mouth onto my hands as she leaned over to read the music. it was customary for Miss Dowe to finish the lesson by force-feeding me stale sponge cake. it made me suspicious of the word ‘cake’ which I thought Miss Dowe used rather loosely.

if not traumatised enough from this early experience the piano was still in my house taunting me. i needed to get up on that chair and show the world what I had. i feel sorry for my relatives that were subjected to these performances. my grandma once said ‘that was interesting’. that’s the best compliment I got on the piano.

once I left my parents' house I realised that the piano isn’t a great travelling companion – it was like a gateway drug, setting the scene for new musical experiences. i started dabbling in all kinds of instruments, whatever I could get my hands on. guitars were accessible but expensive. horn instruments usually featured as rusted antiques. the tambourine was a drunken fall-back to dancing and although drumming things were fun I have no rhythm.

i was stuck. my soul was yearning for melodic release. what should I do? where do I begin?

i was saved. a few drinks at a mate’s place and he casually mentions that he bought his second ukulele. what’s that again? isn’t it like a kids toy? why do you need two? isn’t it a mini-Hawaiian guitar? what do you do with it? do you play? show me.   

he pulls them out. one is shaped like a pineapple. that’s funny I think. i like funny. the second was made out of a heavier wood, had a matte finish and a clear resonating sound that made my ears prick up. i picked it up and held it in my hands. it felt good. he taught me a few chords and we jammed together for a while. four hours went by in a whisper.

my next encounter with a ukulele was my first weekend in Darwin. it was a Thursday night and I piled into a tiny club that was jammed full of people. this place was called ‘Happy Yess’ and my mate Matt was playing his first gig with a group called The Dukes. i didn’t know what to expect. You never do with Matt.

i stood there with the crowd eagerly awaiting for the show to begin. then it began. in the words of Napoleon Dynamite it was… ‘incredible’. nine people crammed on a stage all banging their hearts out on ukuleles; what more could you ask for in a live gig? i had to be a part of this. i had found my calling.


since joining The Dukes I have never felt so well rounded. i sing, i play and most importantly i perform. it is a thrill like no other when someone hands you a pass that says ‘Artist’ and guides you ‘back stage’ – which could just be a tarp and a port-a-loo but it's back there baby. then you step up on some kind of raised platform and turn to face your people. to me, that’s truly living.

so go on. get out there and live. whatever makes your soul shine, just do it. AND most importantly shop at i love lamp on the last Sunday of every month at Happy Yess Markets.


Aroooooooooooooooooooooo!!