All quiet on the blogging front

After last week's confession I felt a little drained and shellshocked. Your positive comments made me feel a hell of a lot better, so thank you very much cyber (and non-cyber) friends. A little "we love you, even though you're a bald freak" goes a long way... (hey, I wonder if that's why I like Devon Rex cats so much....).

I'm really feeling much better. I think that it's a combination of simply getting used to both the idea of my new hair and actually seeing myself in the mirror every day plus a lessening of my initial anxiety (probably because I've started back on the oestrogen patches, menopause having increased my base rate anxiety by about 1,000,000,000%) . At first I was "who the hell is that?" and now I'm getting comfortable with my new image. Also the world hasn't come to a grinding halt, so all is good.

Apart from the hair stuff, life goes on. The kidlets have been at average driving-me-crazy levels and have had many moments of this-parenting-caper-is-pretty-good. Maybe I'm just choosing to downplay the there's-going-to-be-a-murder-suicide-situation-here moments (like Marianna having a meltdown at dinnertime most evenings this week, causing whatever it is we choose to call a routine to go totally out the window).

Will is maturing into an almost teenager and it is both wonderful and frightening. Yesterday walking through the shopping centre (to OPSM to order his new glasses - having recently had a much overdue opthamologist appointment we know he needs a much stronger pair of glasses), Will skulked behind Marianna and I, walking with his hood up and his arms crossed. Oh vei, I thought, the vision of things to come.

In other Will news, it will be 10 years tomorrow (11 September 2000) since we landed back in Sydney with baby Will in our arms. Our trip to Guatemala to bring home little Will was the start of our parenting journey and an amazing time in our lives. Getting off the plane to a terminal full of family and friends (and assorted Olympic competitors) was a very memorable moment. So tonight we'll be having a little family celebration dinner. Happy Family Day to us all!

On the Swans front (and a very important front it is!) things are going well. For those that know and/or care the Swans won (just!!!) their elimination final and will now play Western Bulldogs tomorrow night. Even though the Dogs are in a pitiful state with many good players injured I can't assume my Swannies can walk all over them. The Swans are quite good at snatching defeat from the jaws of victory (and sometimes visa versa). As such it will be a tense game I'm sure (but after last week's nail biter I can cope). I'm disappointed that my current favourite Jesse White (ggggrrrrrr!) (I think it's the tatts, the height and the Clarence the Cross-eyed Lion look) has been sidelined in favour of Daniel Bradshaw (this year's great white hope, who has sat out most of the season with injury). Not happy Roos! Let's hope it's not a mistake and... GO THE SWANNIES!

I've been loving the second series of Come Dine With Me Australia. It's Big Jay's and mine guilty pleasure. It has re-doubled my need for a Thermomix. Having seen it in action during one of the new episodes I crave it so much. But at $2,000 it's a kitchen appliance which I will just have to do without until that Lotto win finally comes through.

Speaking of cooking shows, you just know I'll be watching Junior Masterchef this Sunday night. I don't want to but I will. The kids are looking forward to it so I guess we'll make it our Sunday night family show to watch. It's just that there is something creepy about a 12 year old whipping together a beurre blanc sauce, don't you think.

After watching the first episode of the third series of True Blood I have IQd the rest of the episodes and just can't seem to get back to watching them (Big Jay not being a fan it's hard to find time to watch it on my own). It looks like a great season and getting sexier by the minute. Damn it, I love those blood suckers! Even the awful Eric is looking very hot this season.

As you were.

Food, glorious food

As my boss Bob always says "I love food, I wouldn't eat anything else".


Part 1

One of my Chrissie pressies, from my gorgeous sister Jules, is a cooking class with Tetsuya Wakuda [obviously] of Testuyas Restaurant fame. Mum, Jules and I are going for a two hour masterclass next Wednesday.

What a fabulous and exciting prospect. Luckily it's not a hands-on class because stage fright is a major problem for me in these instances. (I once went to a David Thompson [of Sailors Thai] cooking class at the Sydney Seafood School and was asked to come up and assist him. I'm sure I did all the right things, though the details are a blur, but I certianly felt like a rabbit in the headlights.)

I'm really looking forward to sitting back and watching the master in action. What a cool present!

Part 2

While watching the Come Dine With Me marathon on New Year's Day I came to the conclusion that I would put in an application should an Australian version be created. I love the idea of the show and I'm sure I could do a reasonable job of putting on a dinner party (if I could ship the family away for the day and clear my foggy brain). It was the camera/being on television side of things which made me clammy and anxious; as you well know I turn into a dithering idiot (more so than usual) when in front of a camera.

However, from the safety of my sofa, I decided I would take on the personal challenge should the opportunity arise. I couldn't do much worse than some of the clowns who have appeared on the episodes I've watched over the years.

Imagine my surprise/excitement/relief/disappointment when I saw the ads for the upcoming Australian season, starting on 18 January! Somehow it had snuck up on me when I wasn't looking. I have checked the website and they are not advertising for new applicants. So I guess my chance to make a disgrace of myself of national television has come and gone. For the best really.

I love Come Dine With Me, a BBC production shown here on Lifestyle Food.

It's a cooking program which runs over five nights and features five amateur home "chefs" who each host a dinner party at their home. The four guests give a score each evening and at the end of the week the winner gets one thousand pounds.

Unarguably it's less about food and more about the people who participate. Though I have picked up a decent recipe or two (the chicken thigh cutlets stuffed with mushrooms and wrapped in pancetta are super easy and totally yummy) most of these people are not Gordon Ramsay by any stretch of the imagination.

It may not be high brow entertainment but where else are you going to meet a bloke who not only owns a vol-au-vent cooking machine (like a home donut making machine but so much weirder) but also did an embalming course and embalmed his own father! But wait there is more. He has a picture of his dead mother, in her coffin, in the guest bedroom. Hands up who wants to stay the night!