Standard – Page 8 – polka-dots & sparkles

Gig – Heart & Def Leppard

Posted on October 18, 2011October 16, 2011 by bekswhoknits

They weren’t great seats, but they were free. It helps knowing people, well the best friend knows people.

I’m not a massive fan of Def Leppard, it’s not really my taste, but my bestie comes to so many gigs where she doesn’t know the bands that I want to go with her to see her bands.

I saw Def Leppard when they were here a couple of years ago, Cheap Trick supported them and were awesome.

This time Heart were the support act and they were fricken awesome too.
The lungs and the voice blew me away.

We arrived just as they were playing Led Zeppelin – Rock and Roll which she belted. And then belted everything else.

The pianist had awesome pigtails, and on their first trip to Perth it looked like they were having a ball.
They spoilt the locals with a cover of John Farnham’s You’re The Voice, and played the one song I knew Barracuda.

But they were an absolute pleasure to listen to.

Def Leppard were also there to rock.
Crowd pleasers such as Love Bites, Let’s get Rocked, and Pour Some Sugar almost got Perth out of their seats. Why we don’t stand up at concerts is beyond me.

And why Pour Some Sugar wasn’t the last song confuses me as well.

But it was a balmy night, with some rock and roll.

Please enjoy some really far away phone pics.

A taste of growing up

Posted on October 17, 2011October 16, 2011 by bekswhoknits

Or fish cakes.

The recipe is from a cook book I gained custody of by being the first to leave home.

I would have flicked through this book so many time growing up. For inspiration or out of boredom or just in search of something to cook.

My signature dish growing up was the chocolate cake. It was always good for impressing the rellies when they came over.

But the fish cakes I remember as a family favourite.

Super easy, it’s mashed potatoes with tinned tuna. Rolled into breadcrumbs and then fried.

It’s a really simple recipe which is gentle on the stomach (part of it’s appeal this week.)

I only wish there was a couple left over to put in a sandwich. But they went pretty quickly. They’re good cold from the fridge as well as hot.

Sunday night BBQ

Posted on October 17, 2011October 18, 2011 by bekswhoknits

Lamb, chevups, with sweet corn, capsicum and zucchini all cooked on the barbecue.

With some side salad for good measure.

The perfect end for a hot day in WA.

Vanilla cupcakes

Posted on October 16, 2011October 24, 2011 by bekswhoknits

the recipe

the result

Brekky at chapels

Posted on October 15, 2011October 13, 2011 by bekswhoknits

Pictures presented without commentary.

Lunch in Freo

Posted on October 14, 2011October 13, 2011 by bekswhoknits

On a sunny Sunday arvo we went to Freo, with the hope of picking up some NFl or MLB gear from a stall in the markets.

They didn’t have any of our teams but we did have a nice lunch at Portorossa.

I only wanted a salad, but ended up with a veal sandwich.
It was delectable. There’s nothing worse than chewy meat in a sandwich, but I’m please to say this was nothing of the sort.

The Mister had a meat lovers pizza. Nothing too elaborate. It was a pizza.

But it was a beautiful day in freo, even if someone (me) was feeling cranky and overwhelmed by birds (slight phobia) and crowds (too polite).

Definitely return to sample more of their menu. And I liked that all 4 wait staff said ‘have a nice day’ when we left.

Manners cost nothing.

FO – an unoriginal hat and a minion hat.

Posted on October 13, 2011October 11, 2011 by bekswhoknits

I think I picked a decent pattern to get my head around cables. This is the unoriginal hat
Ah the difficulty. It probably didn’t help that I didn’t have a set of 5 double-pointed needles. So I combined two sets of DPNs, 4 15cm metal ones and 1 30cm bamboo one.

It made for an interesting knitting process. Although, I was very surprised at how quick it was. I was able to knock it off in a day. I struggled a bit with the cables and it probably stretches a bit too much on my big head, but I’m still happy with it.
The yarn is Moda Vera Ella. It only used about half a ball, which was useful because i’d used a ball and a half for a cowl which is currently blocking.

But the end result was pretty good.
Just a little small for my big head.

Chicken Parma and Stuffed Spuds

Posted on October 11, 2011October 11, 2011 by bekswhoknits

Or alternatively, overcooked chicken with tomato, bacon, and cheese, and undercooked potato with tomato, bacon, and cheese.

Not the greatest success. But it was a meal.

Celebratory dinner @ the queens hotel

Posted on October 5, 2011October 5, 2011 by bekswhoknits

Last weekend when we were at Piccos, the Mr and I decided that we wanted to try more new places, instead of the same old. How this works in with us starting to save for a house… well it doesn’t but if we’re going to eat out we may as well eat new.

So we had a bit of news to celebrate. I verbally accepted a job offer (very exciting, particularly as my current job isn’t guaranteed at the moment). There are still a couple of ways it could fall through, but being their “preferred choice” is rather exciting. There have been a few sleepless nights this week.

So on the back of that good news we decided to head towards Beaufort Street and find somewhere to eat.

Well Beaufort Street has a lot of tapas. Which is great. I like a bit of tapas. It always makes me think of the IT Crowd. In fact I may have put the Mr off tapas by referring to it as “little food from Spain”.

Anyways, after looking at 3 bars that only had tapas, 2 places that were closed, and Siena’s which we tend to go to all the time even though it has a terrible urbanspoon rating, we ended up at the Queens. Which we hadn’t been to for ages, but we used to go to all the time, particularly when we were first dating.

We wanted something hearty and we got it. At the perfect table right next the fire, we got in just before the rush. Which meant we got some awesome service. The waitstaff were jokey, friendly, and attentive. I had the kangaroo which was cooked to perfection. The tomato chutney was perfect, just tangy enough to complement the kangaroo without drying it out too much. The potato and horseradish rosti also went down a treat.

Mr polka-dots & sparkles had the 400g t-bone with garlic prawns and chips. It was the medium side of medium rare but it was spot on. 4 prawns is a good amount, and although there was a point where it looked like it was going to be too much, it all got polished off.

For some reason (maybe something to do with stress and hormones) I really wanted desert.
Fortunately they had a sticky date pudding on the menu. Unfortunately it was over half an hour between ordering and receiving our deserts.
We did get an apology, and it had got noticeably more busy whilst we were waiting, but it was just long enough for my headache to return.

The pudding was good, not the best I’ve ever had but that will take a lot to live up to. The Mr’s sundae looked good, but not half an hour’s worth of assembly.
Overall it was pretty good. Until the desert we really couldn’t fault anything.
It was still a good night, we just came away with headaches and stomach aches. We almost never have desert.

But I’ll be back there next Monday for a Ravelry s’n’b, unless I chicken out again. Or am still feeling horrible.

Muffins on a Monday

Posted on October 3, 2011October 24, 2011 by bekswhoknits

Womanhood has never been too kind to me. Growing up they were horrible. I’d have days where i just couldn’t get out of bed. The pill was really good, but i was terrible at taking it. Implanon makes my cycles really irregular but they’re back to their former suckiness. But this is not a post to whinge about my period. But it did so happen that’s why I’m home from work on a Monday.

And trying to make the best out a bad situation I made cheese and bacon muffins for lunch, and spent all day working on a pinwheel purse and watching Freaks and Geeks

I can think of worse ways to spend a Monday.