Bankstown

Ben took me to Bankstown last week. I was very surprised how ethnic that part of Sydney was! It was such a nice afternoon, we had some Thai food for lunch and went for a walk through the streets. They had such different foods in their stores, I couldn't stop taking pictures! I saw seafood (still alive!) that I had never seen before. People chose their crabs for dinner out of a pot (and yes, they were still alive too) and Ben touched the weirdest clams I have ever seen. It was still moving in its shell and looked like a slug. It was such an interesting afternoon, I want to go back soon!

Also, my hardest week of the semester is over, finally! I can take it easy this week and concentrate on my new sports. I am taking Badminton and Squash classes now, it is so much fun, I am glad I decided to go! It is also getting colder now and you can feel it in our apartment already. This is the part I don't like about winter in Australia, houses are not isolated and there are no radiators anywhere, it is freezing! Good thing is - you kind of have to cuddle to stay warm! Hope you had a great weekend!

This is why I love...

Sydney!

Isn't it beautiful?!

Horse Races

I know I know...I have been very lazy with my blog posts last week! The thing is, I am really not lazy but I have the busiest week of my semester right now! Lots of assignments are due this week each worth 40% of my whole grade! I am sure you understand that I would rather write blog posts than write essays for 8 hours a day!
I do have a lot of posts that I want to write, so as soon as this week is over, you will get a lot to read on here!

Now to last week! I haven't been to a horse race in Sydney and since there were big race events on, our friends and I decided to go to one. Thanks to Ben's missing skill called organisation we didn't get tickets for the general admissions (but everyone else did!) He felt pretty bad that we couldn't join our friends because of him and so we still decided to go but into another section which wasn't all that fancy BUT included a picnic basket. That sounded good enough to me and I am glad we decided to go! The picnic was massive and it was nice to sit in the sun with a glass of champaign, watching the races with a strawberry in my hand.  We also bet some money on two horses and we lost. I always get so excited and then get even more upset when I don't win. What a waste of $10! I have always had bad luck when it comes to winning money. After the races were over we met up with our friends and had a great night out. It was fun to dress up and wear a fascinator, it made me feel kind of special and I loved Ben in a suit! I don't know what it is, bug guys just look so handsome in suits!

Hope you all have had a great weekend!

Pizza Rolls

This is one of my favorite snacks ever! My mum usually makes this when I have people over, but it is just as good as a snack during the week. This is the first time I made them myself, but even though they didn't turn out that photogenic they still tasted amazing. Ben loved it, we finished the whole load in less than 24 hours!

Here's what you need:

• 1 pack of pizza dough
• 1 glass of pizza sauce
• 1 small can of corn
• Ham
• 1 onion
• your preferred cheese grated (I took cheddar)
• Flour (to dust your work surface and your hands)
• Oregano

Make the pizza dough according to your pack instructions, flour the work surface and roll out the dough (try to make it a rectangle).

Turn on the oven to 180°C, then let the pizza dough rest for about 10 minutes (or how indicated on the pack), spread the pizza sauce on the dough and start decorating. You can use whatever you would like to have on your pizza rolls, I only had the basic ingredients: onion, ham, corn and cheese; but feel free to add olives, pineapple, etc. and top with pizza seasoning or oregano. Then there's the hard part. Roll the dough slowly lengthwise so you get a long roll. This can take some time, you have to be careful not to tear the dough. My dough stuck to the surface but just do it slowly and use flour on your hands, most importantly be patient, it is worth it. 

When you have the roll in front of you, just start cutting little pieces of about 2cm, it helps to put flour on your knife. Put the little rolls on a baking sheet  and sprinkle with some cheese. Then bake for about 15-25 minutes depending on your oven until golden brown. Enjoy!

Reptile Park on Easter Sunday

During the Easter Weekend, Ben and I had actually planned to go down to the Hunter Valley, NSW's wine area. I was really excited as I am also from Austria's wine area but we got told not to go during Easter as it is really crowded and the traffic is the worst. I still didn't want to stay home the whole weekend so on Easter Sunday Ben and I went to the Reptile Park on Central Coast.
I asked him to go there with me because a friend said that you can touch and pet all sort of animals there. I think you know how much I miss having a pet here, so I thought this was quite a good alternative to the Hunter Valley. It was a really nice afternoon, we watched some shows like the alligator feeding and a talk about the Tasmanian Devil, and fed some kangaroos and emus after. I don't think Ben, being an Australian, has had much opportunity to do this before. All the kangaroos were really tame, and I felt excited like a little kid, trying to spend as much time there as possible. The best thing was when Ben fed the emu and was so scared, I took the funniest pictures of him! I think he really enjoyed this day too! It was a great Easter Sunday for me!

Smoothie

Today I made a smoothie with things I had at home. I have never made one with spinach in it, or anything green, so I thought I'll give it a try. Here is what I used:

* Half a banana (I couldn't resist eating the other half before)
* half a cup of frozen berries
* a handful of baby spinach leaves
* 3 table spoons desiccated coconut
* 1 cup of water
* 1 tablespoon vanilla ice cream (I tried to keep it healthy, you know)

Turned out to be really tasty, I like coconut combined with fruit. I felt the ice cream was essential as it made the smoothie creamy. What's your favourite smoothie?

Park Life

It's already autumn here, but we still enjoy the sun, in fact I think we have even more sunny days than we had in summer! Last week we went to the park. We played frisbee, had our sandwiches and just lay in the sun. After two hours we had to leave our little picnic spot because there was a wedding ceremony in the park. So beautiful! This park is one of the prettiest I have ever seen, even better than Hyde Park in London. You don't get those beautiful cockatoos anywhere outside of Australia! It's not only the birds but also the flowers and trees, everything is so colourful, I love it! In the last 2 weeks we have been about 5 times to this park and I don't mind, it never gets boring. I actually wouldn't mind if it stayed this warm so we could go there every weekend!

My favourites

1. MOR Perfume Oil in Cassis Noir - this is my favourite perfume right now. It isn't too strong and perfect for the day. It is a handy size that fits into every handbag or clutch! Image via here.

2. Nivea Rich Nourishing Body Lotion: is my all time favourite. My skin gets really dry, especially in winter, when I put on this lotion it feels like my skin is "drinking" it. It feels amazing. It is also perfect for sunburnt skin. Image via here.

3. Set Sail: Last week I was at Sydney's busiest shopping street and watched this band for about 30 minutes. Their music is so good, I have never seen so many people stop and listen. I bought their CD after, I really wanted to support them.

4. Sanitarium Crunchy Peanut Butter: This peanut butter is so tasty, I have it almost every day. It is free of added sugar and salt and a healthier option than other nut butters. I love it on apple slices, yum, my favourite snack! Image via here. 

5. Kerastase Elixir Ultime: I think this is the best hair product I have ever had. It might be pricey but it lasts me usually about 6 months, I use it as a hair mask before a shower and as a conditioner after washing my hair. It makes my hair shiny and helps to prevent split ends. Image via here. 

6. Kiwi Fruit: I am obsessed with kiwis at the moment, I need one every morning after I get up. I love sour fruit and I feel like they make me stay healthy. Image via here.