Barfly

Love this bar designed by Paulo Lobo. Not too clubby, blokey, dark or sleazy.

What to order? How about you? Make mine a Margarita please & just for reference, here's my favourite recipe.

Millie's Margarita (on the rocks, not frozen)
½ shot Pedro Ximénez sherry (yes, you read this right!)

1 shot tequila

dash of bitters

½ shot Cointreau or Triple Sec

juice of 2 limes

splash of orange juice

ice cubes

Shake with ice and strain into a margarita glass with a salted rim. Garnish with lime slices.

To be politically correct I need to add the following - be responsible, drink in moderation.

Images: Paulo Lobo

Hand Me The Vitamin D

This lovely image from Cote Sud is a must have here at The Hedge today, to remind me that somewhere in the world today the weather is warm & the sun is shining! I spent the week in Sydney at an Oncology conference & the city turned on it's wettest July week in 60 years for me. It was truly miserable, I've never seen Sydney so grey, damp & unwelcoming. It was an interesting conference & the scientific presentations outstanding.

The highlight for me was the final presentation given by Dr. Paul Stalley an Orthopaedic Surgeon from Royal Prince Alfred Hospital in Sydney. He discussed his paediatric osteosarcoma patients & the journey they & their families undertake with this wicked disease. His very moving & salient advice to the health professionals involved in the care of these patients & their parents had most of us in the auditorium reaching for the tissues. A delayed flight back to Adelaide meant that I didn't stumble in the door until nearly 11p.m. last night, so I'm weary & battle-scarred this morning. A freezing, misty, wet Sunday in the Hills isn't doing much to lighten my mood either. I figured my Vit. D levels must be at an all-time low, so have attacked the capsules this morning in an attempt to elevate the levels to a respectable norm.

It was a treat to open the Sunday papers in front of the fire this morning & see the lovely Miss Kimberlee from Brown Button giving her take on the huge growth of online shopping here in Australia. I know I've embraced it vigorously & our dear friend Vicki Archer recently made some very interesting observations over at French Essence about her experiences. Even that old IT dinosaur MOTH is doing it, much to the family's amazement. So I reckon with that shining endorsement, online retail therapy has finally come of age. How about you? Any thoughts & more to the point, any great recommendations??

Image: Cote Sud

A Letter From Lulu

Hello dear Hedgies, Lulu here. Another week has gone by at lightening speed & here's what's been happening in my world.

• I turned 12 weeks old, have gained 1.4 kg. in 2 weeks & am becoming a fat little pudding.



• Went to my first Puppy Pre-School class on Thursday night & didn't disgrace myself or my Mama or Papa. I networked over free play & quickly made friends with Honey, Lexie, Mieke, Bonnie, Maggie & Lily. I'll be adding them to my LinkedIn page very soon.



• I'm still dividing my time between sleeping in front of the fire & playing outside in the garden looking for the biggest sticks I can find. Then I use all my strength to drag them in & proceed to chew them to bits on the floor. Mama says the Dust Buster is working overtime & will turn its toes up soon with overuse.



• I've finally learnt to go through my new doggie door with confidence. I wish I'd had my doggie camera handy to film my Papa lying down on his stomach on the floor for hours trying to teach me how to push the door with my nose. My Mama says I might have prolonged the exercise somewhat just to keep seeing Papa in such a strange position looking like a dork, but that's just not true.



• I've been a good, good puppy & not had any 'accidents' inside for 2 days now. Of course I'm lulling Mama & Papa into a false sense of security & that will end tomorrow.



• Mama is looking very tired & I heard her telling Papa she's finding her new job challenging. Something about her Boss's odd ways, the strange corporate culture & a few other things I couldn't understand. Papa just told her to toughen up & I saw her blow her nose a few times & wipe her eyes with the same things she uses to clean out my ears.



• Of course I've still got Mama & Papa wrapped right around my little paws & Papa has even given up his favourite chair in front of the fire for me. Thats me sitting on it in the picture, although I think my Mama's a bit tough making me sit on a couple of old beach towels & not the lovely white linen covers I've coveted since I arrived here.

Mama says Hi to you all & she says she misses you all too much.

Love Lulu xx

Using My Noodle

As the sub-title to the movie says, 'Life is full of surprises' & so was little gem. This has been on my QuickFlix queue for ages, so I threw it in the DVD on Saturday night, not expecting much. I was wrong, really wrong! Somewhat slow to start & with English sub-titles set far too low on the screen, Noodle was a challenge to watch, but a truly delightful one. I've fallen for the lead Mili Avital, an Israeli actor, highly acclaimed for her varied roles on the screen & in the theatre.

This week, our friend Vicki Archer posted a thought-provoking discussion about just how much makeup is too much as we age gracefully (or disgracefully as MOTH so succintly puts it!).

While not quite in the same decade age-wise as moi, I reckon Mili A. has the right idea. She is a stunning natural beauty & thankfully she hasn't used a brickie's trowel to apply her makeup.

So if you haven't seen Noodle the movie do grab yourself a copy, I know you'll find it a treat. And I'm going to take Vicki's advice & change my ways a little - so at 55 I'm going to head down the tinted moisturizer for day & foundation at night route. MOTH will be thrilled to have his cement trowel back!!!

Images: IMBD & IMP

The Things We Do!

Hello it's me, you know your Bloggie chum who when returning to full-time work again recently, made some breezy & inane comment about it not being an issue & that she would cope just fine. This weekend she's:

• raced around the supermarket like a possessed demonic whirling dervish.
  


• sped down to the city for a quick cut & blow-dry & 50 minutes of peace & quiet.
  


• cleaned the house from top to bottom.
  


• thrown 8 loads of washing into the machine.
  


• swept down all the outside paths of wet leaves so the Courier driver doesn't break both legs on his way to deliver her Monday morning document bag.
  


• cooked up 3 huge pots of puppy casserole for the freezer.
  


• stripped & changed all the beds.
  


• taken puppy Lulu to the Vet's for her next vaccination.
  


• tried to give her poor neglected family a little Mumsie & Millie time.
  


• studied madly for a day of full-on exams starting at 7.30a.m. on Tuesday.
  


• chased puppy around trying to identify any sign she may give that she needs to go outside to answer the call of nature before an accident on the polished boards occurs.
  


• done all the month's internet banking.
  


• kept her promise to MOTH & cooked him a long-overdue treat of a big slab of Sticky Date Pudding as he's been so good adhering to the Biggest Loser Diet.
  


• and packed a bag as she's flying off to Melbourne again tomorrow for another week of corporate stuff.

That finely tuned beast, my coping mechanism, has deserted me just when I need it the most. If you see it anywhere, please return it to me pronto before I go totally ga-ga!! Missing you all desperately, & yes, I'm asking myself at least every second minute, 'Why Mills, why?!'
Image: Art Net