The Tutu project

Do you feel happy now?
These photos just make me happy and when I heard the story behind them, I wanted to share them with everyone.
The tutu project was started by this strapping man when his wife was diagnosed with breast cancer. He took photos of himself in a ridiculous pink tutu to make her laugh.
Now he is sharing the photos with the world and sells them to raise money for cancer foundations.
http://www.thetutuproject.com/about/
To quote something from the tutu project: sometimes the very best thing- no the only thing- we can do is laugh- laugh at ourselves and laugh with others.

Coco Cubano

Why it is amazing:1. It is cuban
2. It looks and feels like a cosy indiviudal owned restaurant and never gives away that it is actually a franchise
3. It is a cafe + bar: something that is suprisingly hard to find in melbourne

Note: Bec wore a blanket to said cafe/bar

and shivs wore her tag

I made a pages account on fb- so hello to all the newbies! This is my new method of procrastination. Also i hate modules.

City of Churches

My blog is failing at being a personal diary. I really should write up everything as I go but I'm usually too exhausted at the end of the day or too lazy. But to catch up, I spent last weekend in Adelaide visitng a friend I met while travelling in India.
Having been to Adelaide before and with a full appreciation for its status as the city of churches, I tried to avoid them as much as possible. Although I was in Adelaide to catch up with my friend, we still managed to fit in some sigthseeing with hours of talking.

This is her poodle. A sad reminder of what I missed out on by growing up in a 'no pets' household.

Royal Botanic Gardens of Adelaide. They were beautiful but to be honest I think the Royal Botanic Gardens in all the states are lovely- they never seem to have any water restrictions. Adelaide was unique in that it had this green house (really a steam room in the weather we walked in) that grew lotuses.

We also went to the beach- which is always fun irregardless of the weather.

And no trip to the beach is complete for me without some ice-cream. We had Royal copenhagen which seems in my experience to be found at every built up beachside town in any state in Australia. And it is always delicious!

 Note random pig: I don't know...there was a lot of random pig statues in Adelaide CBD

Adelaide china town!
I will post up about the german town we visited in Adelaide as well, or I should say just outside of Adelaide.

Best hot chocolate in Melbourne

Max Brenner

I know a lot of people will argue with me over my decision to label Max Brenner the best hot chocolate in town. But I absolutely love it.
I love chocolate and have consequently had hot chocolates EVERYWHERE (gnache, lux bite, san churros, the marketplace, lindt cafe, Shocolate, Orange, yellow bird, koko black, the cullen, zouki haha etc.) But I think Max Brenner hot chocolates achieve the perfect balance!

Delicious! I may now drive 35 minutes to get one.

What I'm wearing:
Jacket- Portmans
Scarf- Muslim markets in Xian, China
Hand bag- Mimco
Nails- shellac pink
Earings- Street markets, South India


Also- hug mugs; greatest invention since sliced bread!

Sydney harbour bridge climb

A bit of a slow climb but definately worth the view!!

Recommendation: We did a longer climb (discovery climb) but if you'd like all the benefits in a shorter time period express is the way to go.

Khan Academy

I know blogs should focus on one theme or overarching main subject to maintain a good readership base. So far I have written about nice cafes and bars. So lets be honest, the main theme and obviously the main focus of my life has been food (with some random comments about what I'm wearing- yes I too am laughing at what I've written).

But I am going to be unable to maintain one theme for this blog. I really should have called it the ramblings of...

However, I do not want to take away from how amazing I think the Khan Academy is. This is something meow and carn (who will from now on be called mr. google as he does not like the bogan-ness of his name: a stain on his intellect) introduced me to.

The khan academy is an organisation started by Salman Khan. He completed 3 degrees at MIT (that really says enough doesn't it) before pursuing an MBA at harvard and like a lot of men with incredible intellect was caught by a hedge fund analyst group.

Being from an Indian family he was asked to tutor one of his numerous cousins which he happily did in a creative and engaging manner. He was then bombarded by requests from all of his extended family and friends and thought it would be more practical to put up these tutorials on you tube.

These tutorials went on to become the most watched teaching sessions on the internet and he quit his lucrative job to focus on delivering quality education through the internet. His videos are now watched by students struggling with concepts not only in America but in countries like India and Africa where quality teaching is often hard to access by the poor.

Now having spent a few days trawling through his website- I can atest his teaching methods are very engaging and would have been useful in highschool and college.

However, it is not just the mathematics and science subjects that are fascinating but the website's breakdown of current political situations such as Greece's role in the European Union (which I did not really understand until I watched the tutorial on it).

So if you ever want to learn anything whether it is about the French revolution or Art history have a look at this website:

http://www.khanacademy.org/

But that is not the main reason I decided to blog about Khan academy. I thought it was great to hear about someone utilising thier intellect and abilities to help the most vulnerable in our society, instead of living only for thier own personal gains.

Bill gates said about Salman Khan, "I'd say we've moved about 160 IQ points from the hedge fund category to the teaching-many-people-in-a-leveraged-way category. It was a good day his wife let him quit his job."

After-work

It is important to have a nice place to go when you are looking for somewhere to just relax and unwind. Some of the over-worked (you knnow who you are), have a repertoire of these nice places they can call on.  Through facebook stalking of my friends activities, I came across Lui bar attached to the renowned Vue Du Monde atop Melbourne's iconic Rialto.
After tempting shivs with photos of the venue, I convinced her to come with me one Friday evening.

This place provides the most beautiful, un-pretentious (especially given its location), warm setting to relax and unwind after a long day at work. The setting was very sophisticated and sleek and there were patrons sitting in intimate clusters enjoying the view and the wonderful service.

The cocktail menu is remarkable and well worth it for the prices.
I also feel it is important to note that the bathrooms were amazing- an important criterion in assesing the quality of a venue :)

Recommendation: Macadamia martini

What I'm wearing:
Sparkly crystal studs- Mimco
Gold dress- Alannah Hill
Jacket- Country Road
Hand bag- Coach
Shoes- Alannah Hill

Macaroons on my balcony

Lux bite is a new little desert place on toorak rd that specialises in cakes and macaroons. Bec and I had a sudden craving for macaroons at 9pm on a weekday and were told we wouldn't be able to enjoy our deserts in the cafe so we brought them back to my balcony.

Best macaroon: Rose-water

The picnic

Given my love of food, I think it's only appropriate that my first real post be about food.
With a fondness for brunch and living in a very food savvy area in Melbourne, I have a long list of favourite cafes and restaurants.
As a general rule, I feel most cafes on chapel st provide a very good brunch. With so many in such close proximity- you simply would not survive if you were not upto par.
Despite my love of the Melbourne food scene, I really do not enjoy the 45 min to 1.5hr wait on weekend mornings for a table at many of the most talked about institutions like dukes, 3 bags full and coin laundry.
My favourite place at the moment, and one that my friends and i have been frequenting the last few months is a little place on toorak rd called the picnic.
Their big breakfast really stands out with a delicious avocado salsa and home made condiments for toast and porridge.
However this little place is very much starting to appear on the food map having won numerous food awards in the last year and is becoming much busier every week.
Here's to hoping it doesn't get to waiting 1 hr just for a table in the near future!

Welcome

Hi everyone!!

Welcome to my blog!

I guess the question everyone will be asking is why I'm blogging and why now?

Well this idea really came to me whilst sitting in a long day of lectures...which are currently still running. I have taken ownership of my friend, K's laptop and decided to create a blog.

Many of my friends have blogs which I love stalking and it is fun looking back on old posts and reminiscing. With a lot of travel planned in the next few months, I thought this would be an easy way to stay in touch with my friends and family (hello mum) and keep them updated on my adventures.

And to finish: quotes from my friends sitting nearby who are equally engrossed by these lectures:

K: A blog- its like a modern day scrapbook
Carn: It'll be like keeping a diary
Meow: Don't record anything I say

Enjoy and stay in touch!
xo Tas

P.S. background photo supplied by my friend shivs, taken a few weeks ago at falls creek in its wintery goodness

P.S.S. and for the name of my blog- from sound of music - a few of my favourite things. a great movie!