west six kitchen

Two arms, two legs

On Friday night we saw a Trust, a modern dance interpretation of the Global Financial Crisis, in German.  And yes, it was every bit as dreadful as it sounds.

Luckily the weekend improved dramatically after that.  Firstly, it turns out that the chances of getting eaten alive by sharks is dramatically lower if you don't even get in the tank, which is funny.  On Saturday evening we had a BBQ by the beach with some pals, and Smitten Kitchen's cauliflower tart.

Today I made a black & white cake, and thrashed Conor at Scrabble (for the second time ever in my life).

No sharks here, Row

Summer in Perth is pretty idyllic.  Last night was spent curled up on a beanbag eating sausage sandwiches at the King's Park outdoor cinema.  Today I got up at dawn and made a lot of cakes.

Coconut meringue cake

Pistachio & rosewater meringues

Busy

This week has been busy.  

The triathlon that I signed up to in a moment of madness is only two weeks away, so I'm running and cycling round lakes like there's no tomorrow (sort of).  I turned a year older, an amazing friend gave me a bottle of wine with my name on it.  Last night we saw a great concert, and watched some pretty exciting dancing. And I made some individual caramel macadamia cheesecakes.

Next weekend I'm going swimming with sharks.

 

Lake Monger, which is was deceptively windy.

Birthday packages from far away

The aforementioned wine

Caribou & Four Tet at Beck's Music Box

Cheesecakes

Bianca's in town

On Friday the BOM announced that Tropical Cyclone Bianca would be paying Perth a visit on Sunday at 5pm.  Yesterday The West Australian announced that We Were All Going To Die, For Sure.

We masking taped up the windows, bought extra tins of baked beans, and got a week's worth of DVDs from Blockbuster.

When 5pm came and nothing happened, we headed to the beach.  Things were slightly more exciting there (wind, sideways rain and a couple of crazy fools having a quick dip).

All things considered, Bianca was a bit of a let down.

Straya Day

Today is Australia Day, and apart from this, we've managed to avoid everything that you're meant to do.  We even ate Cantonese BBQ for lunch.  Sacrebleu!

How different things are from two years ago.

Only a mad man

Would attempt to make his own coconut milk.  But David Thompson says you must, and we all know that you don't argue with David Thompson.

Conor slaving away in preparation for tonight's supper: Pork neck, snake bean & peppercorn curry

Me and my cousins

Taking a family photo isn't always easy.  Luckily our photographer was especially patient.

I'm in London, and it's quite cold

It's a bit of a culture shock going from 30º to -2º.  Central heating helps, as does mulled wine.  On Saturday I went to Ottolenghi, where I've wanted to go for years.  It exceeded all expectation, and as if having lunch there wasn't enough I brought home a box of cakes for tea.

 

Do you know what these are?

I didn't until today, when Conor found them at Albany Farmers' Market.

Albany

We're in Albany (pronounced El-beny) for the weekend.  So far we have seen a sock fence, visited a wind farm, and listened to sand squeak underneath our feet.