If I were in Paris...

I have a friend who is in Paris this week and next. If I were her, I'd be playing this song in my rented apartment. I'd be playing it loud and I'd be drinking champagne while bouncing around the lounge room. Then when I was tired of bouncing, I'd play Air and the Phoenix and Justice, and sip some sort of chic cocktail. Then I'd wonder to myself...could I be any more cliched? Non.

Why I love the Nara festival

Gorman House Markets - dress up dog

Smells like home

Lilac is a very European thing. Frank came for a visit and he reminisced about Vienna and catching trams in the city in spring, with lilac heavy in the air. When I was little he planted a tree and he would go and smell the blooms throughout spring for a reminder of home.

My mother loves lilac the most, and I was sad she couldn't come to visit to see the garden at its best. Deep shades of purple and the air heavy and sweet. Walking the dog is a dream of hidden blooms - around every corner and where I can, I sneak a piece for the journey home.

Even the Russian visiting for an evening dinner rushed out to the garden and was amazed how the sweet smell took her back home to Romania (don't ask). I wish I could upload the smell here. It is divine and dreamy thing - the smell of a garden moving from winter, to spring and then summer.

Quand Tu Es La

20 words that made my weekend

Bikes, sun, shopping, gelato, fun, moet, chops, lilacs, tea, stripes, barney, cinema, slushies, girlfriends, pizza, tv, fries, planning, lawn, dreams.

red brick espresso

Who knew there would be such a hipster cafe at Curtin shops? Well someone did - which is how I ended up at the red brick espresso. Note the use of lower case is deliberate (it's a hipster thing).

So for those not familiar with Canberra, Curtin is quite like Narrabundah (home of the yellow house) but less edgy. Not familiar with Narrabundah? Think Williamsburg in Brooklyn, but less hilly.

red brick espresso is open Monday to Saturdays - coffee was good, service friendly and they also have a roaster so it looks like they roast their own beans. Set up in a sunny little corner of Curtin shops - look out for the milk crates out the front (I kid you not, that's how I found it....ahhh hipsters). It's great to see the expansion of great coffee places beyond Lonsdale Street Roasters. Next please, the Williamsburg of Canberra. Thanking you in advance.

Arrows

Folklore, bunting, and love hearts

All a recipe for retail homeware shopping lust...

I've been looking at these gorgeous plates for about 3 weeks on Ninainvorm's wonderful etsy shop

Paris....

I swear if you nearly close your eyes all the way shut, and if the air is just right - with a little (lot) imagination you could be down by the banks of the river Seine.

Embracing my inner Austrian

Springtime lunch

* photographic crédit for the above photo
henri cartier-bresson - taken with iPhone

Homemade flatbread, fresh cucumber with mint and yoghurt. Some cauliflower salad, and beetroot salad with fresh walnuts. All that, and swordfish with preserved lemon.

The flatbread is made with 4 cups flour mixed with dried yeast bubbled up with some sugar and warm water. Mix in about a cup of warm water and some oil and knead, and leave to rise. Bang into flat bits, wash with egg yolk and sprinkle some cumin seeds and bake at 200.

Cauliflower is kind of like this recipe but modified (though they also modified a Karen Martini recipe...)

Beetroot salad is roasted fresh beets, with beetroot leaves, rocket, fresh walnuts and a yoghurt and red wine vinegar dressing.

Swordfish rubbed in paprika, cumin, garlic and preserved lemon. Bake for 20 odd minutes at around 180 degrees.

Eat with friends, in the sun - with your dog sleeping under the table.

Abattoir 1933 Shanghai

This is the two weeks away that just keeps on giving isn't it....

But isn't this the most amazing building? And it was an abattoir, in the middle of Shanghai. Such a gorgeous design, and with all that concrete I guess practical too.  

This art deco building is now fully restored and is being filled with shops and companies,  marketed as a 'creative hub'. Has a way to go on that one, though still in scale and design it was simply breathtaking. Also sells good ice-cream too.

Feeling neighbourly

Do you know my neighbours house out the back, is the mirror image of my house? And I like that. At night while I'm washing the dishes, I see the glow of their kitchen as they do the same. Usually it's a girl and I don't look at her, nor she at me - but I know she is there and thats nice. Not in a voyeuristic way, but rather it's a bit more like apartment living...that big city feel, where you are aware of the hustle and bustle around you. 

Maybe next time I'll wave.

Stephen Malkmus and the Jicks

So what about that time I made my friends drive with me to Sydney on a weeknight to see Pavement because I'd never ever seen them live before. We drove there and back in one night and I wrote about it  in this blog post . I'm pretty certain I didn't update the post when I remembered I had in fact seen Pavement at the Summersault festival in Sydney. Around the time they release Crooked Rain? Oops.

Well this time Stephen Malkmus came to Canberra. And one of those same friends made it his business to be sure I knew Stephen Malkmus was playing at Transit Bar. Teeny tiny transit bar. Last night. 

And it is nights like these that I remember why I love Canberra. Stephen Malkmus music only a ten minute drive from home. Park out the front. Bump into friends at the venue, like you would in a place where you live (so maybe that means I am from Canberra now?). Gotta also love and a friend who hands over fifty bucks to be my 'wing man'.

I wonder if Stephen Malkmus made his friends drive to Canberra and back in one night? Even if he did I bet he didn't have a wing man.

Everyday drive to work

Architektonika 2

Plug in City and Metropolis had me mesmerised. Metropolis for its precision fine lines and futuristic landscape. Plug in City took my breath away. I want to live in a circle of coloured glass, and rooftop gardens. If you find yourself in Berlin, visit the Plug in City yourself - the exhibition is on until January.

Holidays at home

Public holiday's are great! An extra day where you don't feel so bad about doing nothing. Spent the day bike riding to a lunch destination that included ricotta hotcakes, bacon, maple and grilled banana. Then an afternoon reading in the sun - drinking mandarin juice, chilled with ice. Drifting in and out of sunshine naps and falling asleep to the sound of bunting flapping in the breeze. Waking up to this inquisitive chap, who I guess was just checking that I was a-ok.

Sunday afternoon view