I think the dark circles under my eyes says it all. Mr AV's work always seems to go a little bit crazy at this time of year (when we moved 2 years ago in the week leading up to Christmas he had a short notice trip to San Francisco. Which meant that I moved from Melbourne to Adelaide with a 5 year old, a 2 year old and a 6 month old on my own. Not ideal. He also suggested early in December that rather than "all the driving around on Christmas day" as we shuttled between his parent's house and mine, that we might also hold Christmas dinner at our new house to save the hassle of that enormous drive (a distance of some 15 KM), which would of course make life much easier, what with a half renovated house, moving boxes to unpack and three small children underfoot. Lets just say I wasn't that accommodating to his request). So Mr AV has been a bit absent the past few weeks shuttling around the country, and making mad dashes back to things like the Carols on Thursday night.
School Junior Primary Carols was on Thursday night, which was very cute - I love the children's enthusiasm. Friday night I went out to dinner at the Stirling Hotel's Grill restaurant with some of the School mothers (the Fun ones). I decided to theme myself and wore Christmas Bling - here's my giant sparkly necklace. It's an old Kate Spade one (someone once asked me if it was real. Insert hysterical laughing here - can you imagine how much it would be worth?).
I decided to match it with more bling - my Sergio Rossi peackock feather shoes. To refresh your memory, here is a pic from a few months ago.
Last night Mr AV and I went to Ruby Red Flamingo (which is in the former Manse restaurant in North Adelaide for Adelaide readers). They have a no bookings policy, and usually I won't frequent a restaurant that does that, as I had a bad experience in Melbourne (at Cicciolina in St Kilda) years ago where we arrived at 7pm, was told it would be an hour and a half, and were finally seated with our two friends at 10.45pm. By then we were not very hungry having filled up on bar nibbles and as we had been drinking for almost 3 hours, were fairly tipsy as well. They could have given us stale bread and we would have thought it delicious.
Anyway, Ruby Red was ok - only waited an hour, and the service was fast, but my main bugbear was that it was all very "Melbourne" in style (as in Collingwood/ St Kilda grunge cool style) where the chairs were all odd as were the plates, glasses etc. All from Op shops (what you call "thrift stores" overseas readers). Here's a pic of the 70's faux earthenware plates to illustrate my point. These type of plates make my skin crawl for some reason - I just loath chipped plates and glasses, and cheap mismatched ones do the same thing. They were awful plates back then, and they haven't improved with age. I'm sure that a basic white commercial plate wouldn't have cost much, it's more a look they're going for. Aside from that the food was good.
So lastly, a giveaway! Thank you to all of you who read along and leave a comment - I can't tell you how much I've appreciated it. On Friday night we called in before dinner at the Stirling to a drinks party at a friends beautiful home to launch a cookbook, After Dinner Mints for Breakfast. Jess founded the Captain Courageous Foundation after her third child was diagnosed with Diamond Black-Fan Anaemia at eight weeks of age and it funds very important research into Bone Marrow Failure disorders. Jess is truly inspirational - not only a very involved mum with all three of her children, but she manages the day to day difficulties of managing a very serious condition, and the worry that brings, with no complaining or sense of martyrdom.
The cookbook is gorgeous - it's been endorsed by Maggie Beer no less, and it's a collection of recipes from friends and family that are all tried and tested and beautifully photographed in a hardback cookbook. So I decided to buy two copies, one for me and one for a blog reader. The book cost $50.
So, to win the cookbook, all you have to do is become a follower (if you haven't already), and comment on this post. The competition closes next Sunday at 7.00pm Adelaide time, and I'll draw a winner by random org number generator then.
If you don't win the book, but would still like a copy, then look out for it at the Magnolia Square Christmas market later this week if you're in Melbourne, or you can buy through the online shop in the link above.
Hope you had a great weekend xx