Oh yeah, it’s Hit Time… Here they are, the hits of the week:

1.  The quote of the week.  It’s not a newie of course, but I was having an internal whinge one day this week, and it popped up in my Instagram.  It’s from ‘A League of Their Own.”  I think it bears remembering.

2.  A fab girly lunch today for the launch of Nikki Parkinson’s new book, Unlock Your Style (you can get yours here, even if you missed the launch).  It was held at Berados (a fancy word for, well, fanceee), and as always the service was impeccable and the food: delish.  Nikki was gorgeous and funny, and very down to Earth, which I guess is what you would expect from a Sunny Coast girl, but still, it was nice to see, and wonderful to be there to help get a book written by an Aussie Blogger on it’s way.

I went with a fun group of ladies: Bigheart, Barbiegirl, DownToEarth, Arty, Lovely, LeadMeAstray and Buzzybee.  And then, of course, there was me: Little Truthful One.  See if you can guess who is who:

The eight dwarves ladies

And here are the rest of the hits of the lunch-launch:

The Stylish Nikki

Books ready for launching

Did I mention there was dessert? Oh YES there was. It was a veritable health food with all that fruit..

3.  Watters, the Happy little Jappy Chappy.  As you know, we have been having a ball with out little fella.. Sunday is just too close (we want to keep him).

It was even more fun tonight because a friend who is a Japanese teacher came over and was able to have a big chat with him, so we found out all sorts.  Yes, he is having fun here, No, he doesn’t want sushi for dinner, Yes (little bugger) thinks he is a better dancer than me, Yes, he liked meat pies, but best of all, he dissed us over the Evil Geniuse’s bedtime.  We have been putting them to bed LATE this week at 7.30pm, but apparently Watters thinks this is ridic and is lying in bed awake for hours (apparently).  Sorry Watters, but when in Noosa….

4.  Decisions.  We all know we have to make them.  We think and think and list and agonise and then, somehow, we make a choice.  It seems that the bigger the decision seems to be, the harder we make it for ourselves until we can be paralysed into indecision.  Yet strangely, as Kelly Exeter points out in her book Your Best Year Yet, we will be happy with our choice.  That is how we are wired.  So why do we even stress about it?

Who even knows?

Regardless, a big cheers to making choices.  And even more, for living in a country where having choices is possible.

5.  The sound of the waves outside.  As I’m sitting up here, super-late (I’ve had a big work-day), I can hear the smashing waves.  Swell must be picking up.  I’m not a good surfer, so it’s not like I need big waves.  I just love the sounds.  Reminds me of Summer Hols down the coast.  Long days.  Sand in your bathers.  Peeling skin on your nose. Hot chips with gravy.  Melting Choc chip ice-creams.  And the comforting rhythm of the sea.

Got any hits?

Have you got your copy of Unlock Your Style or Your Best Year Yet, yet?

…From The Ashers

As you know, I is well fancy, and I might have mentioned to you once or a thousand that I had dinner with Jamie Oliver last week. Which is amusing to me mainly because I hate cooking and most things to do with cooking.  Other than the eating bit.  I’m fine with the eating.

Which is why I decided to score myself, and some lovely ladies who lunch, a ticket to go and get fed by one of the judge-chefs from My Kitchen Rules.  I have watched the show enough times to know he is the ‘mean one’ and so I was gleefully rubbing my hands together (maniacal laugh), thinking of all the things I was going to find wrong with his cooking, and then write them up here on this blog for all to see.  I’ve dined with JO, remember.  So I’m basically a food critic, yeah?

Problem 1:  Colin wasn’t doing the cooking.  They were his recipes, sure, but the Berado’s dudes were cooking them.  So there went that blog idea.  Fkit.

So I thought I could still make some funny about him anyway.  Because he’s the mean one, right?  So that means open season, doesn’t it?

Problem 2:  When the dude got up to speak, he was blushing.  And kinda cute (that makes it hard for me to be mean right there- call it a character flaw of mine).  And we all* know I’m a sucker for an Irish accent.  Then as he spoke, we found out that he wasn’t the mean one at all, he was really very charming and candid, and grounded, with a wife and family, and the same concerns about making a living and a life that we all have.  He told us how he went on the show to promote his brand and his restaurants, at a time when friends of his in the industry were being forced to shut their doors due to the global financial concerns.  He told us about how hard he works, and why he is a chef (Yep, it’s a passion for food), and told us a bit about his creative process.

One thing I especially liked was how he claimed all of the recipes in his new book (which he just so happened to bring about a hundred copies of along, ready for signing) are the result of mistakes.  Of things he tried, found to be wanting, made some variations and eventually resulted in something tasty.  (I suspect the fennel icy-poles in the book are still in the development stages.)  I think that’s a great reminder.  I still don’t give a shit about the cooking idea, but I like it as a metaphor for other stuff in our lives.  Mistake>Edit>Correction>Success.  Or something like that.

So all in all, in a week of two chefs, it was a funny one for this little food-bogan.  I met Jamie Oliver and he was exactly like he is on telly.  Casual, a little scruffy, funny and just like one of my mates.  Just like I thought he would be, in fact.  I met Colin Fassnidge and he was nothing like he is on telly, and so probably has to spend a whole lotta time not reading stuff about himself on the socials, and explaining how he isn’t like that actor at all.  So basically, the opposite of how is presented.

I know who I’d rather be.

Perhaps there’s a lesson in that…?

“Be yourself.  Everyone else is taken.”  -Oscar Wilde

PS I forgot to say, Colin let it slip who wins this season of MKR… I can tell you, but I will require recompense.**

*Well maybe YOU didn’t, but the entire staff and patronage of PJ O’Brien’s circa 1997 does.  (And now so do you.. Don’t say I never tell you anything.)

**I may be lying, but you will have to hand over the moula to find out.

…From The Ashers xxx