These Are A Few Of My Favourite Things (And All Experienced This Weekend)

1. Food. As surreal as Friday night/Saturday morning was, it included a wonderful dinner at La Ricetta, Newtown. Scampi carpaccio sings and melts on the tongue followed by homemade ravioli filled with duck and prosciutto in a butter and sage sauce - food that makes me want to have Groundhog Day moments to relive over and over again. On Sunday I cook for the first time in months, and brunch turns into breakfast when I find out my oven doesn't work, but J and W (and myself) are ga-ga over my Moroccan-spiced scrambled eggs with pan-fried tomatoes and toasted Turkish bread, with strawberry smoothie martinis. For dinner Boris meets mum and I post-movie for dinner at Fish At The Rocks. Despite a few annoying things like what I wanted not being available (tell us when you give us the menus, perhaps?) it's a sensational meal of salt and pepper calamari to share, then a whole barramundi stuffed with prawn and red curry vegetable mousse with lemongrass and coconut cream, topped with crunchy noodles. Extremely flavoursome and well cooked - an ideal meal. Oh and profiteroles to share over coffee - when they are fresh and done well, as these were, there are few things greater.
2. The Beach. A sunbake and swim at Bronte Beach on Saturday afternoon. The sun was hot, the water was crispy cold and clear and once in I couldn't get out. It was the first time I'd swam in the enclosed calm spot since I was little.
3. Mum. We hung out at the beach on Saturday and she looked after me when I sprained my ankle. On Sunday we had a girly afternoon shopping, then went to see Mrs Henderson Presents which was very pleasant (love Judi Dench and Bob Hoskins), followed by dinner. One of the memorable moments was in the shoe section at Myer, when I spotted the pair of Alessandro del'Acquas I fell in love with on a recent eBay charity auction. In Russian:
Me: "And look, they're $800 here when I could have got them for $US120!"
Mum: "So why didn't you?"
Me: "Because I forgot and went out to lunch just before the auction ended".
Mum: "I'm always telling you to eat less!"
We were crying from laughter, and as mum added later, the only time she would tell me to eat less would be when shopping's involved.
4. Shopping. It was high time I checked out the sales and the Bargain Gods were smiling upon mum and I as we did very well (good enough to cancel out going to the beach again). Picked up a fitted shirt and colourful chiffon top both for $70 from Cue, then my new leather flip flops from Witchery. And gelato makes the day even better.