Cider

I'm a huge fan of cider.  I love the crisp sparkling taste and slightly embarrassingly, I love that I can order it in a pub and it looks like I'm drinking a beer.  I don't like beer but I always feel a bit naff drinking wine in a pub.  Oh dear, over 30 and I'm still trying to be a cool kid.

Anyway, moving on from embarrassing confessions, my favourite cider maker is Rekorderlig.  This Swedish company makes a brilliant apple cider but they also got me hooked on pear and best of all strawberry and lime cider.  Yes, you read that right, it is awesome but I would say for me it is a summer drink.

So imagine my happiness when whilst perusing KittyCate's All Cats Are Grey at Night blog I saw that they now have winter cider!  It is their beautiful apple cider infused with cinnamon and vanilla.  You can have it hot or cold, but I'm not a fan of warm cider so we had it cold and it is delicious.

A frosty start

When people around Australia tonight watch the weather they will no doubt shiver and thank their lucky stars that they don't live in Canberra when they see that last night the temperature dipped below -6 degrees.

What they won't realise is that those seriously cold morning are actually lovely.  I can imagine skepticism in your mind as you read that, but let me explain.

You can't get to a really cold, below -3 degree night unless it is crystal clear.  Any clouds hold in the heat.  So that means on a seriously cold morning you awake to clear blue skies and sun - lots of surprisingly warm sun.  However the air takes some time to warm up, so for the first few hours you have the glorious situation of bright sunshine on a frost coated landscape.  Dry grass at the side of the road becomes a fairy's crystal wand as the light highlights every fine strand of its feathery seed head coated in a layer of ice.  Wattle glows under a veil of frost.  The landscape glimmers and glistens.

Rugged up in appropriate winter wear (and what better excuse for a ladylike ensemble including gorgeous stockings, gloves, a coat and bright scarf) a frozen morning is a true delight.

Dancing in the dark

On Tuesday nights S and I do a salsa class.  After class there is a social dance / practice session where they put on the music, turn down the lights and put on the coloured disco lights so that it feels a bit like being in a salsa club.  It is good fun, a great chance to practice what we have just learned and have a proper dance but being a mid-week night we generally leave about halfway through.

The dance studio is on the second floor and due to the body heat inside, the windows are always fogged up.  The street is dimly lit and not exactly salubrious, a commercial area filled with car yards and low rent buildings.

As S and I stand in the carpark saying goodbye (a long process really only limited by the fact that it is freezing at night at the moment) we often look back up to the studio.  With the fogged up windows, the flashing coloured lights inside highlight silhouettes of the dancers and it looks amazing.  A bit like an 80's video clip. In the grimy setting it all looks mysterious and glamorous and the dark shapes of the people coming in and out are all the more interesting.

I like to think about how an outsider would imagine the inside from that view.  I think they would imagine it to be far more glamorous and less sweaty than it actually is.  And you know, even though I know what it is like inside, that almost hypnotic view from outside makes it just a little more glamorous for me too.

5 most important things my parents taught me

Another list as inspired by Kate Takes 5's weekly listography.  As you will know, my family is very important to me and of course at the centre are my parents.  It has been extremely hard narrowing down the multitude of things they have taught me to just 5, but I think these are pretty key.

(Mum I have to say, I really considered putting here teaching me to ride a bike because I think you deserve some serious kudos for running up and down the street holding me upright for so long, but I thought these were more significant).

How to cook
Food is big in our family.  We love experimenting, eating, talking about it.  In fact my father coined the now famous family phrase "if there isn't someone talking about, preparing or eating food in the room you know you are alone".  Our gatherings center on food and I have so many special memories that relate to it.

Mum primarily taught me to cook, although Dad has been instrumental along the way, just read about him teaching me to cook apple turnovers to understand.  I spent countless happy hours sitting at the kitchen bench helping, or chatting or watching.  As a result I'm fully equipped to keep myself nourished but more importantly I can feed others and I love the joy it brings when I produce something yummy.

Manners
I don't think I even noticed being taught manners, it was just a part of life, but as I've grown older, boy have I noticed how many people don't know the common courtesies or how to behave in a particular situation and even more I've noticed how uncomfortable it makes people.  Over the years I've had various friends quietly quiz me about how to deal with the array of cutlery, or how they should respond to a social situation.  They have always been extremely embarrassed to be asking, but if no one has taught you, how are you supposed to know what to do?

As well as all the usual table manners, saying please and thankyou as a matter of course and the like, Mum also taught us to be thank you note writers.  The thank you note seems to be a dying art, but I love it and after all, it is another excuse to buy nice stationery!

Money is to be enjoyed not hoarded
We were never a rich family.  We were definitely comfortable, with a lovely home, private school education and plenty of treats, but compared to a lot of the girls at my school, Mum and Dad didn't have the same kind of disposable income.

But what they did have they spent well and they taught me that living a comfortable, enjoyable life is much better than dying with a large bank account.  I've learnt how to budget, but also how to spend.  How to make priorities and that a life full of experience is better than a bank account full of money.  Looking at that gorgeous painting on the wall certainly gives me a lot more joy than looking at a balance on a screen and living in Canberra, having a well heated home is much better than shivering all the way to the bank.

I won't be leaving a fortune behind when I go, but I will have lived a life where I enjoyed what I earned!

Don't have an entire meal of champagne and fairy bread
This was just one of many truisims my parents taught me particularly during my teenage years.  Most of these lessons follow the same pattern, a story along the lines of - don't do X, because when I did it such and such happened.

Some of them are brilliantly funny stories but I think the thing that made these lessons so powerful was that they were real.  It wasn't my parents trying to stop me having fun, they were letting me know real consequences.  My parents have never pretended to be saints with no lives, rather they have let us into the complexity of their experiences so that we could learn from them and in doing so, they helped us make our own decisions with a real understanding of the consequences. 

Oh and yes Mum really did wipe herself out on champagne and fairy bread at my Aunt's birthday party and her description of multicoloured vomit is both disgusting and memorable. 

That they will love me no matter what
Growing up surrounded by truly unconditional love is an amazing thing.  The confidence and security it gives you I think is pretty much unparallelled.  There was never a question about how much my sister and I were loved and even more than that, I always knew there was nothing so bad that I couldn't tell my parents and that they wouldn't still love me.


So thanks Mum and Dad, you have given me the strength and skills to cope with whatever life throws at me and more importantly thanks for always being there when life is doing its best to test that!

Are macaroons the new cupcake?

Today's blog is a bit of a philosophical  (or should that be a food-osophical) treatise inspired by a visit to my favourite bakery, The Flute and noticing that while they have a very large array of macaroons available along with their usual range, they do not do cupcakes.  Well they do little cakes, but nothing I would describe as a cupcake.

I'm going to start by putting all my cards on the table - I'm a cupcake lover.  Long before they became fashionable, I favoured them over a large cake.  I love the individual portions, that everyone gets their share of the icing, that you can hold it by its paper case and it doesn't require a plate or a fork.  In short, I'm a fan.

And I'm not alone.  Somewhere in the last decade cupcakes became trendy.  Cupcake shops opened, books were published, people took decorating them to an art form.  It was all rather fantastic for someone like me who adores their cup portioned cake.

However, in the last year or two they seem to have been knocked off their perch by the new fad on the block - macaroons.  I will be the first to admit that there is something hugely visually appealing about macaroons.  Their bright colours, interesting flavour combinations, neat shape.  It does engage the eye while the apparently infinite number of flavours capture the imagination.

And there is definitely an art to baking them.  I haven't tried yet but I've read many a detailed description of the process and I can understand why budding masterchefs would be keen to demonstrate their skills through the production of this most fashionable of confections.

However I ask, can macaroons really replace cupcakes?  For me, a macaroon is something that is served on fine china with a delicate cup of tea.  They are a treat, a delictible delight.

A cupcake can also be served on fine china, they can hold their place at a high tea, they have been wedding cakes.  But a cupcake is also a kids party staple.  You can decorate them to look like an animal.  They can be hearty and filling, or delicate and light.  In short, cupcakes tick all the boxes.

So while macaroons may continue to be a sought after object of desire, I believe that cupcakes will remain popular long after we have moved on to the new fad, possibly the perfect alfajores or neenish tart.   Or maybe I just like cupcakes more.  Macaroon lovers, feel free to try to change my mind.

Teeth

Most people hate going to the dentist.  When I announced in the office that I would be late in due to a dental appointment there were commiserations all round.  But you know, the thing is, I quite enjoy going to the dentist.

I put this down to three things:

1. I love that dentist clean feeling.  It doesn't matter how well I clean my teeth, they never feel quite as great as they do when I leave the dental surgery.

2. Dentists love my teeth.  Yup, seriously, they rave about them.  Invariably the dentist and dental hygienist will have a little conversation about if only everyone's teeth were like mine.  It is an ego boost every time I go.

3. I've never had a filling, or any painful procedure, so for me, the dental surgery is all about being praised and then having fantastically clean teeth.

I am lucky that I do seem to have struck some genetic gold and got a nice solid set of teeth, but most of this comes down to having a mother who was determined to teach us good dental habits.  She had us at the dentist for a clean every 6 months when we were kids.  She supervised our brushing, made us rinse our mouths with that pink stuff that sticks to plaque, ensured we had good and then electric toothbrushes.

She established excellent habits, but I think the best thing she and Dad ever did was to point out how my cousins didn't have any fillings.  My cousins are older than us and as a kid I definitely looked up to them.  They were these amazing, cool and glamorous teenagers who would appear at family functions, smiling with their (according to my parents) perfect teeth.  I can really clearly remember being determined that my teeth would be as perfect as Donal, Lachlan and Rachel's and I tell you what, gosh do I appreciate that now.  More and more is being discovered on how poor dental hygine can affect your health in general.

So I encourage everyone to look after their teeth.  Go to the dentist, even if it is expensive and apparently scary.  You will appreciate it later on.

Rock your Frock

As long term readers of this blog will know, last year I raised money for ovarian cancer research by wearing dresses all October for Frocktober.

Ovarian cancer statistics are scary.  It is one of the most common cancers affecting women - in Australia a woman dies of ovarian cancer every 10 hours and most women discover they have it too late to do anything about it.  This was all brought home to me last year when my Aunty Sue died of it about four months after she was diagnosed.

Frocktober was an awesome experience.  I received the most amazing support, not just financially (I ended up raising over $2,000!!!) but emotionally and in dresses.  I think I spent about half the month wearing my friends clothes!  It really was instrumental in helping me grieve and deal with Sue's death in a positive way.  And of course it made me want to do it again.

However I didn't want to hit all the same people up for sponsorship for doing the same thing, so I decided to do something a bit different.  Yes, I will still wear frocks every day in October (after all I love wearing dresses) but I'm also going to hold an event that combines my love of dresses, dancing and fundraising.  That event will be "Rock your Frock" a frocktober dance party!

I've been planning Rock your Frock for awhile now, but today the first tangible piece of the planning - my advertising postcards - arrived.

I've done loads of event planning in my time, in fact that was my profession for awhile.  Event planning can seem very intangible at times.  So much work and organisation is happening for a distant time and place.  But every now and then something tangible arrives, like today's postcards and it is a massive lift.  It gives you a boost, a kick start to keep going with the organisation.

So expect a few dress/dance themed posts as I get ready for what I hope will be a fantastic event which really contributes to the fight against ovarian cancer.  Oh and if you are in Canberra, mark the 15th of October in your diary and get ready to Rock your Frock!