PKNA issue 11 Urk p. 57-66











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Polly Dolly - Lovin' The LBD

Its time again ( and on scheduled time this week! ) for the Polly Dolly challenge, as hosted by Dani over at Danimezza. Though i have only been taking part for a month or two, this week Dani is celebrating a full year of Polly Dolly challenges....well done everybody! So, in the spirit of celebration, Dani would like us to dress our Polly's in a ....
Polly Dolly - Lovin' The LBD
Ah, the little black dress - every girls best friend. This week i decided to pretend that Polly is the same body shape as me ( rather than the supermodel she usually is ). So i picked this LBD with some volume on the top to balance out my hips, but fitted on the bottom to accentuate my curves. I went with black peep-toes and then some bold accessories for some beautiful pops of colour. Contact lenses instead of glasses, some daring eyeliner and pretty nails complete the look. So wish i had this look in my actual wardrobe!

Books Are For Everybody

Is there such a thing has having too many books? Because Lord knows i love my Dad, but he thinks books  are a big fat old waste of time ( boo to him, he's such a toad ). He'd much prefer to watch a movie or listen to music. I like both those things aswell, but i'd love to have even more books than i already have crammed into my tiny bookshelf. Just as i'm happy to watch my favourite films over and over again, so do i enjoy revisiting my favourite books.And i'm hoping to instill this love of books in Flynn. I have to say, he's already a bit of a book lover - he has at least 20 board books ( so he cant rip the pages! ) which are a mix of story books ( like " Spot Goes To The Beach " ) and educational books. And, even at the tender age of 15 months, he already has his favourites that he loves to have read over and over again. Flynn is quite happy to grab a book, climb up on someones lap ( usually mine or Micks ) and read a story. I try to be overly animated with my voice to keep him interested, exaggerating animal noises or putting extra oomph into that " Peekaboo! " or " Wow! "...


And i've found another small person who appreciates my reading skills - our nephew Curly ( who shall thus be named for his curly mop, and because i dont know whether his mum is big on me talking about him on the net ). On our last visit to Nannies house, Curly came over to visit too and sat down on Nannies lap and listened while i read Flynns all-time favourite book, " Elmo: Puppies " :

Its a cute little book, written in the style of the " Elmo's World " tv show ( Flynn looooooooves Elmo! ) and has lift-the-flaps. And, you guessed it, its all about puppies. Anyhoo, Flynn loves both Elmo and puppies so its no wonder this is his favourite book, and i think little Curly enjoyed it too. I got about halfway through and all of a sudden he's kicking his legs on Nannies lap and do his darndest to get out a "woof woof! ". He looked so excited and joyous i've been inspired. See, Curly turns one this weekend and rather than buy him some plastic toy he'll either never play with, that he'll grow tired of in a week, or that will break....Mick and I have decided to buy him some books. Funnily ( and sadly ) enough, his mum and dad dont strike me as the type to sit and read to him but just seeing his little face light up while listening to " Elmo:Puppies " I just know if theyre willing to take the time, he'll love some books for his birthday.

What about you? Do/did you read to your children regularly as babies and toddlers? Do you like to give books as gifts?

Food For Thought

I know I’ve said this a few times but – I really feel like when I step on the scales at the end of this week I’m going to have PUT ON weight. I’ve had a bad week – no exercise, not enough of the right foods. I found myself amazed that I could have been so strict for those two weeks at the start because this past week I have caved in for all the wrong things. Flynn is too little too eat a full Freddo frog – oh hey I’ll just eat the other half! I couldn’t be bothered making up a salad – no matter, I’ll just eat two pieces of toast with peanut butter! Gee Subway is tempting – nah, I’ll have Hi-GI sushi instead! See what I mean – my head has totally been struggling with the right decisions this week.



Like last night – I ate the hugest piece of steak I’ve ever seen. They didn’t look that big when I bought them but looking at them on the George Foreman grill ( hey, at least I’m still knocking out the fat! ) they looked enormous. But did I cut in half and save some for lunch today? Umm, no, I just went right on eating that delicious side of cow. I’d feel better about it if it were a one-time slip up, but its not, and I’m worried that once I hit my goal I’m going to slip-slide right back to the “wrong” decisions. Like once I’ve hit my goal weight my mind will go “ Ah, we’ve reached the end! No need to try so hard anymore! “. Its sobering thought.

On the flipside, nor do I want to be one of these women who is obsessed by food, who knows exactly how many calories and how much fat is everything, and who is too afraid to indulge once in a while. A nice, normal, balance is what I’m aiming for – I guess the occasional bad week is all part of that. Right? Right?

Chiraishi Porn

I often order Chiraishi when I’m at a Japanese restaurant. To me, it’s the culmination of all sashimi goodness - thick slices of salmon belly, tuna, kanpachi, tai, hirame, cooked prawn, fishcake, tamagoyaki, tobiko…..you get the idea. My absolute favourite has to be the one from Matsuo, which also happens to be the best deal at $20 nett (lunch set on Mondays and Fridays). My gawd they are so generous! Look out for the precious slice of otoro encased in the bento treasure box. The big slice of bbq eel rocks too.

First runner-up is shared by Botan and Aoki. The $25++ chiraishi from Botan is topped with a dollop of sweet pink fish floss and OMG I love the medley of sweet from the pink fish floss, saltiness from the ebiko, seaweedy-ness from the shredded nori and fragrance from the sesame seeds scattered over the rice.





Aoki's $35++ maze chirashi is a bit more expensive but it's an upmarket place and the lunch set comes with a trio of desserts which makes it excellent value for money. So pretty! Generous portions of chopped up salmon, tuna, swordfish, mackeral etc. The highlight for me is the tamago castella scattered liberally on the rice - love the sweetish egg with sponge-cake texture.




Finally, a discussion of chiraishi would not be complete without the $25++ one from Chikuwa (ex-Wasabi Tei fame). Thickest slices of salmon/tuna/swordfish/scallop /uni/tamago I have seen. Very fresh and shiok but sadly, the rice is lacking - a bit loose, not sticky enough.

Level 33

There is only 1 lift to go up to the 33rd floor of the Marina Bay Financial Centre and a bit of a wait. But once up at the "world's highest urban craft-brewery", the view is awesome.

(pic from is-asia-city.com)

There's nothing quite as surreal as guzzling beer, looking out at a view like that and feeling the (oh man, what a) breeze in your hair. It really helped take the edge off my hard day at work. Clearly I'm not the only one who feels that way because the place was PACKED with thirsty office types.

Purists will like the signature brews on tap - choice of lager, ale and stout. Me, I ordered the House Porter, a mix of stout and ale. It was good, yummy velvety balance of dark beer with a 4.5% alkie buzz. ~$14 a pint during happy hours.

I was hungry and wasn't in the mood for pub grub so I ordered THIS for dinner. Ain't it a beauty? Jumbo prawns, soba in lobster bisque with mango salsa! Admittedly a bit pricey at $39 but oh so good...

I have a craving just thinking about it. Will return for a fix when I feel rich *rubs hands in delight*.


Treat Them As Queens

Let me ask you something – since when do 8 yr old children have wrinkles? I’m only asking because it seems that there are ( thankfully ) a small group of parents out there who think its completely acceptable to be giving their 8 yr old daughters Botox. And full body waxes. At 8 yrs old. Frankly, to these parents I say – You.Make.Me.Sick.


The most famous child beauty of them all....

Any of you who read Mamamia or New Idea magazine ( and to a lesser extent, last nights A Current Affair ) would have seen these stories already. And though I know these outlets aren’t exactly poster-boys for “serious” journalism, I don’t doubt the truth in these recent articles. I have to say – they concern me. The thought that someone, somewhere thinks its ok to give their 8 yr old daughter regular Botox treatments to treat and prevent wrinkles ( that cannot possible be there at that age ) and semi-regular full body waxes ( even though she hasn’t puberty yet, which means a distinct lack of short and curlies… ) really has me worried for the state of the world. How do these ideas even enter the head of any sane person? You can rabbit on about the role the media places in promoting one particular idea of beauty, or the ideal body shape, or whatever…. But I think, in the end, level-headed parents should be able to go someway to dispelling these media-controlled body myths. Sure, it doesn’t matter how many times you tell your daughters (especially ) that they are beautiful just the way they are, they’ll probably still want longer legs, or straighter hair or smaller noses.

But that doesn’t mean you should cave in to every crazy demand they come up with. Just because an 8 yr old sees models in magazines shaving their legs, doesn’t mean she needs to. Just because a 12 yr old thinks her nose is too big or her boobs are too small doesnt mean you go out and get them plastic surgery. As the parents, you set boundaries and give the encouragment needed to boost your childs self esteem. You DON'T plant the seeds of low self esteem by telling your daughters that only beautiful, hairless, wrinkle-free, big chested woman become superstars. You DONT (quite literally ) groom your daughter for fame by using her as a hairless human pin cushion.

 I'm going to be quite frank - if your doing these things, you are NOT a good parent....

PKNA issue 11 Urk p. 50-56







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Fukuichi

I remember the first time Elaine brought me to Shinobu Dining at PSA Building for lunch and I was impressed with the great lunch bento sets. The following week I dragged K down for dinner and again, the food wow-ed us. Imagine how bummed I was, when the restaurant closed down last year and (sniff), I didn't even get to say goodbye!


By a stroke of luck I found out recently that the ex-Shinobu has moved to TripleOne Somerset. Since that precious bit of discovery, I have been back not once not twice but three times, in the past two months (which for me is saying a lot).

Their sashimi is freshly flown from Japanese and very good. But I usually just attack the cooked food - highlight being my kani tofu! Fresh crabstick encased in smooth tofu and smothered in creamy century egg sauce and topped off with more finely diced century egg. My kind of heaveeen..


Another must-try is the the mentaiko cod. Yums. I love everything with mentaiko so this dish is right up my alley. Great balance of salty creamy (oops the cholesterol) mentaiko with sweet oiliness (double oops) of codfish. Best for sharing with another person as it can get a bit jelat.


Then try the almond crusted ebi tempura. I've never seen it anywhere else and they really do it very well at Fukuichi. So generous with the almonds too. Lastly, if you are like me and need some carbo to complete a meal, order the aburi salmon maki. I don't have a pic here but it's good, trust me.




Polly Dolly - Flower Power

I was so happy when i woke up this morning to discover that the wonderful Dani from Danimezza had finally posted this weeks Polly Dolly challenge. Seriously - i mean knowing that its still the weekend and i get to spend time with my boys is awesome, but Polly Dolly is like my one weekly blogging addiction, so to know i had that to llok forward to today was great. Like everything was coming up roses. Or flowers as it were - because this week Dani would like to know how we would dress our Polly in....

Polly Dolly - Flower Power

I have to say, as soon as i saw this weeks challenge was " Flowers " i knew that i wanted to keep the pieces fairly classic - i wanted to it to be chic, timeless outfit because ( to me at least ) the wrong floral pattern dates an outfit and makes it look too "grandma". So, thinking along the lines of a timeless pieces i found this gorgeous Burberry trench coat which has a soft flower pattern over the standard Burberry check, and then found a gorgeous Mad Men-esque shift dress. Pair these with soft grey textured tights ( the texture provided by a silver flower pattern ), plain grey booties, a chic Alice band for Polly's hair and cute love-heart brooch. Flowers without the "grandma" vibe? yes please!

Nice New Sitcoms

I've been under porridge and house arrest the last few days. Plenty of time couch potato-ing and here's some new sitcoms I thought were worth checking out (hint: use this link)

1. Mad Love (3.75/5)
This is from CBS which also brought us the much-loved How I met your mother (HIMYM) and Two and a half men. Story is about Ben (think Ted Mosby-like) a lawyer and rare romantic who falls in love with Kate whom he thinks is the woman of his dreams. Yawn you may think, but add in Larry, Ben's coarse friend and Connie, Kate's roommate, and hey the show's hilarious. Rather reminds me of HIMYM, come to think of it.

2. Mike and Molly (3.5/5)
Also from CBS is another easy to watch comedy about Mike, a Chicago police officer and Molly, a 4th grade teacher who find love at an Overeaters Anonymous meeting. Molly has a sex-bomb older sis who does makeup for dead people. Both her sis and mum have effortless killer figures. Quite amused by the plots they spin out of this and yes, I'd admit it, I enjoy the fat jokes!

3. Raising Hope (4.25/5)
This one from FOX's a bit warped but I love it. 23 year old Jimmy Chance has to raise his infant daughter with the help of his super-dysfunctional family after the baby's mother (they only had a one-night stand) is discovered to have murdered multiple ex-boyfriends and is given a death sentence. I know it doesn't sound like much but trust me, go watch the show. It's incredible, hilarious and oh-so-heartwarming at the same time.

4. Outsourced (4/5)
NBC brings us this slapstick comedy set in Mumbai where Todd Dempsey is expatriated to run the call center for an American novelties company. While poor Todd initially has a hard time trying to explain American pop culture to his employees and also understand Indian culture (e.g. head bobbing), he slowly starts to blend in. Some critics call this series racist but I think it's cute. Todd's cute too, haha.

PKNA issue 11 Urk p. 41-50










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Let Disney know that you want to see an official translation of Paperinik New Adventures – here’s how!


Disney has already shown an interest in the characters – Superduck comics are now available in the US, the UK, and Italy through Disney Digicomics! A growing archive of never-before-translated comics are now available. Here’s a brief explanation.


DigiComics for iPod
DigiComics for PSP
A bit of info

Friday Feast

Am I the only strange person out there who enjoys the preparations for the weeks grocery shop? Let me explain - I do my weekly grocery shopping on a Friday morning. Just me and Flynny-boy. So, on a Thursday night i sit down with various cookbooks and food magazines and plan out the weeks menu, and write out an appropriate shopping list. I love pouring over the magazines, trying to find recipes that not only sound delicious but that are relatively healthy and that i can make on a budget. I check the ingredients list to see if it has a lot of pantry staples ( thus saving me money not having to buy heaps of ingredients i wont use regularly ) and for things i'm going to be cooking on the 3 days that i work i like to find meals that are relatively quick and easy to prepare. I really do enjoy it, even down to the 3 separate places i need to stop ( greengrocers, meat centre, supermarket ) to get the groceries done.

I also enjoy gathering new recipes that i can make for my family - hence the love of food magazines over cookbooks, and an affinity for the Taste website. So, my question to you loyal reader types is: would you be interested in sharing? I would love to start a " Friday Feast " link up, where we get to share our favourite recipes, whether they be sweet or savoury, and especially if they were budget recipes ( isnt everyone tight on money these days? ). Let me know in the comments if its something you would take part in and if i get enough takers everyone prepare for next week!

Tummy Pains

I haven’t been blogging because I was hospitalized for a severe bout of gastritis (inflammation of the stomach) and needed a gastroscopy to ensure there were no stomach ulcers. Without going into medical 101s here let me just say that it was (and still is) a painful experience and there are some lessons to be learnt here.

1. NEVER underestimate the corrosiveness of painkillers. All I did was two 4-day dosages of painkillers for my sprained wrist and tada there goes my stomach lining L Stupid doctor didn't tell me to take them with antacids to reduce the acidity and impact on the gastric.

2. This next point is my bad – When taking painkillers, avoid taking tea and coffee. I was washing my painkillers down WITH my morning cup of coffee. Having my breakfast sandwich at the same time was probably the only saving grace from burning a hole in my stomach.

3. Make sure you are adequately covered by insurance. My A&E fees, the hospital stay (2-bedder, private hospital), stomach scope, sedation, and gastroenterologist fees came up to a bill of more than $3k! Medisave only allows claims up to a max of $800 a day. Luckily for me I recently just topped up my insurance coverage for emergencies like these so if nothing goes wrong the balance of the bill should be covered by insurance.

Doc says I have to watch my diet for the next two weeks, but I'll still post any good food deals I come across! Sigh I can only 望梅 止渴 for now.

Delay

Today's update will be kinda late, I'm afraid. Check back tomorrow, then we should be back on track.

Sorry for the delay.

I Couldnt Have Said It Better

Those of you who are regular readers around these parts would know that I am getting married in November ( which is only 7 months away - yes, don’t remind me... ). Now I have never been the kind of little girl who dreamed about a huge princess-y wedding, and neither was I the type to know exactly what dress/theme/flowers/cake I wanted by the time I was 10 years old. Thusly, I have been a little slow off the mark in getting things organised for the big day. The dress is taken care of, both venues and a photographer have been booked, I’ve enlisted the help of a wedding planner to do the decorations ( and she's also sourcing my flowers from the Sydney markets ) and the cake is generously being taken of by Micks aunty. There are plenty of small details to be taken care of but the one big thing I’ve yet to organize is the ceremony.



Despite both being christened, neither of us is religious, so we’ve decided to have our ceremony held in a local park and conducted by a marriage celebrant ( who happens to be my old yoga instructor. ) Because I haven’t been bothered haven’t had time to find my birth certificate yet ( which is somewhere in my filing cabinet, somewhere in the garage ) so we haven’t had an official meeting with the celebrant yet, but I have been pouring over the information she gave me in regards to what style of ceremony she can do, and I have been trawling the internet trying to find some beautiful readings. I haven’t been able to find anything that really resonated with me, and that hadn’t been read to death at other people’s weddings…. Til now.

This morning i was browsing my Google reader list and noticed that the lovely Maxabella  from Maxabella Loves had made a new post, so i clicked on over. What i found was a post in regards to what marriage means. It.Was.Beautiful. I have no other words except to say that what Bella has written rings so true for me, is everything that i would like to say about what i hope for my marriage, and it would make the perfect reading for my wedding ceremony. I have commented on her post and asked if i could get her permission to use her words at my wedding, but i might try and get a hold of her on Twitter to ask the same. I've just re-read over her words again now, whilst writing this post, and they are making me choke up ( Gawd knows how i;d be at the actual wedding ). Please, do yourself a favour, head over to Bella's page and read what she has written - and then pop back here and let me know what you think, and whether you have any recommendations for a second reading....

Operation Slimdown - We've Hit The 10 Week Mark

So - its Tuesday again. And its the 2nd Tuesday in my fortnightly rotation, which means its time again for an update on Operation Slimdown! ( Ok, yep, its not really exciting, not enough to warrant and exclamation point - sorry about that ) Anyhoodle, lets dispense with the jibber jabber and go straight to the stats:
Bust: 92cm - down 1cm
Waist: 77cm - no change
Hips: 97cm - down 1.5cm
Bum: 101.5cm - down 1.cm
Thigh: 62.5cm - down 0.5cm
Weight: 69.7kg - down 1kg

Now, let me explain something - this weeks weigh in was weird. I weighed myself on my SIL old-school mechanical scales ( i dont normally use them and was curious to see if they would give the same results... ) and it came up at a nice neat 69kg. I thought " ok, better result than i was expecting so lets not get our hopes up ... ". Then, less than an hr later, i weighed myself on my parents digital scales ( the ones i have been using from the start ) and they showed up at 69.9kg. Seeing as it was almost a full kilo different to the first result i thought i'd just double check... but when i hopped on the digitals the 2nd time, the reading was 75kg! There is now way in the known universe i could put on 5 kgs in 30 seconds so i decided i would weigh myself again the next day, and whatever result that came up with was THE result for the fortnight.

So - when Sunday saw a result of 69.7kg i thought " alrighty - a nice, neat, tidy kilo! ". I'm happy with that - i'm aiming for a 1kg loss per fortnight and i really didnt think i would achieve that with this fortnights lack of exercise ( thanks crappy weather and crappy germs ). I did motivate myself to get out for a walk Sunday morning though so thats a good start to this fortnight. And at a total of 8.1kg lost in 10 weeks, i'm really excited to keep motivating myself to eat well and exercise more until i hit that 10kg goal!

Sometimes You Have To Stop Running.

Getting picked on. Tormented. Harrassed. Bullied. I'm sure its happened to all of us, in varying degrees. Its certainly not a new phenomena, and nor do i see it being phased out anytime soon. In fact, i'm pretty sure bullies will still exist when Flynn makes it to kindergarten ( 4 years from now ... ). So - just how do i raise my child to deal with childhood bullies?



Of course, i bring this up now because, like most people out there, i've seen the video posted on YouTube last week of a Sydney teenager fighting back against a bully. I only watched it the once and, yes - it made me wince. The young boy that got thrown to the ground did not look too well when he tried to get up. Did i sympathise with him though? Umm, no, not really. Its hard to sympathise with a kid you just watched taunting and punching another kid, even if he did get body-slammed in the end. In fact, i'd even go so far as to say he deserved it.

I dont want to offend anyone, or start some huge parenting argument but.... i think its ok to defend yourself when someone is hurting you. Even if that means you have to hurt them back. Shock horror! I'm not talking about little children - if Flynn ( now 15 months old ) hits another kid at mothers group or at the park, even if they pushed him first , then i tell him we dont hit, its not nice. I'm talking about children and especially teenagers, who are old enough to know better. I'm also not talking about a one-off school yard fight - you can be the bigger person and walk away from those.

I'm talking about long-term, systemic belittling and physical violence. I'm talking about having to go to school everyday knowing that some kid is going to walk up and punch you for no reason, or dak you in the playground just because he can, or who is going to yell things at you on your way to the canteen. You shouldnt have to put up with that. And its all well and good for some parents to say " just tell the teacher " but really, in todays society, what will ( can ) the teachers do? Give the bully a warning? A detention ? A suspension in the worst cases? All of which just results in the bully getting a holiday and the victim getting " Dobbers wear nappies! " from ever other kid in the school yard.

So Mick and I are going to teach our children that if someone is constantly harrassing them, teasing them everyday, kicking and punching and bashing them up.... then its ok for them to fight back. Its ok for them to be the better man and walk away time and time again but, if, eventually they implode and they've taken all they can take then yes.... its ok for them to get a punch or two in, just to give the bully some of their own medecine. To show that they have strength too, and that they arent afraid. Walking away is the nicer option, but some people just wont let up until theyve been stood up to. I know that if it came down to my child body-slamming their tormentor in a moment of rage, or bottling it all up until he killed himself, just to escape....well, a school yard punch up doesnt look so bad, does it?

PKNA issue 11 Urk p. 32-40










NEXT
Go to start of this issue
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----------------------------------

Let Disney know that you want to see an official translation of Paperinik New Adventures – here’s how!


Disney has already shown an interest in the characters – Superduck comics are now available in the US, the UK, and Italy through Disney Digicomics! A growing archive of never-before-translated comics are now available. Here’s a brief explanation.


DigiComics for iPod
DigiComics for PSP
A bit of info