cooking like mom used to cook

For many years this book has been in hiding. My mother purchased this book in the early 1970's. I grew up looking at the pictures often asking her to make something that caught my tiny eye. I'd forgotten how many recipes she used from this book - many more than I thought. Although my mother passed away in 1976, I can now sample some of the food I grew up with. It's the funny thing about food, the taste can instantly bring back long forgotten memories. I doubt it will ever look as good as the pictures, or taste as good as my mother made, but hopefully it can come close. If not, I will always have the pictures to look at and a chance to recall dinners past.

Have you ever checked out old cookbooks? You should, the food, the pictures, the typeface, it’s all classic and often quite comical.

bye bye starbucks

Australian subsidiary of US company Starbucks Coffee Company, Coffee International, said it would close 61 "underperforming'' stores of its 84 locations leaving only 23 stores in Brisbane, Melbourne and Sydney.

Much like the American downsizing it seems as though Australia is now affected by Starbucks closures. I'll miss my local Starbucks, mercifully, Sydney Starbucks seems to be still alive & kicking, it'll make trips there extra special.

I feel sorry for the staff.

universal studios burns

What an awful way to wake up...I open my email to find numerous friends all telling me that my favorite studio is burning to the ground. Immediately my first thought is disbelief...but suddenly memories emerge of a time I had forgotten. Back in 1990 I heard the same thing, Universal Studios was burning. Sadly, the very same area. I would never have expected to see the very same thing happen eighteen years later. Both times the facade of Back to the Future seems to have survived. King Kong who suffered only minor damage last time, this time he was engulfed in flames. Gone. Also a casualty was Universal's Film and TV vault. So sad. Hopefully, this time, Universal WILL learn from mistakes and make these facades fire proof. Such a sad, sad day.

play loud

The B-52’s have released their ninth album, Funplex. I have to admit, it’s been a long time coming. 1992 was the last original album. We’ve since had 2 ‘best of’ releases, one featured 2 new songs but it’s nice to have an album with 11 new tracks. They haven’t lost their touch for great party music. Grab it and party the night away.

what a carry on

It's been years since I sat down and watch a Carry On movie. For some unknown reason I stumbled across a delicious box set of 18 movies - all fully restored and with amazing bonus features. Each film has its own commentary track - 13 episodes of the Carry On TV series from 1975 - on set photographs - trailers and so much more. The set was advertised on Amazon.co.uk for ₤125.00 but I managed to find it on hmv.co.uk for only ₤17.00. Well worth buying at that price!

luna park

Whilst in Sydney I purchased the Luna Park DVD - Spirit of the Carnival and Just For Fun a book by Sam Marshall. Both were a wonderful insight into the history of Luna Park. I discovered it started it's life in Glenelg, South Australia, but with constant moaning from the local government and residents, it was packed up and moved to Sydney.

Luna Park is probably the one park in the world that can claim to have been opened, closed, opened, closed, bulldozed, rebuilt, closed, opened all in the space of 73 years .

The Spirit of the Carnival was a great accompaniment to the book with much historical footage and great interviews with people who helped shape the park. Both the book and DVD are highly recommended. You don't need to travel to Sydney to purachase these, they are available from the Luna Park Web Site: http://www.lunaparksydney.com

sydney, australia

Sydney was great. I found everything really easy to navigate & the people very friendly. Sydney Harbour was just beautiful - so photogenic. Hyde Park was a nice place to relax after long treks around the city. We worked it out that I covered approximately about 50km on foot on the first day. I needed to rest. The Opera House is incredible up close. Wandering over the bridge was great - you can really appreciate the work that went into building it. Luna Park was quiet, but mercifully it was open so I got to see most things. I even got to witness the bats flying around at dusk – pretty cool!

And did I manage to photograph everything I wanted? I sure did!