Have you ever noticed that the Easter holidays are usually a wet affair? The temptation is always to take advantage of the waning warmer season’s weather, and plan one final BBQ or camping weekend. Inevitably this event is nearly always washed out. I now know better, I embrace the approaching winter and plan activities which rely on the gloomy weather to make them completely guilt free.

One of my favourite wet weather activities is curling up on the lounge with a blanket, eating chocolate fondant cake and watching a funny movie. If the sun was shining I’d never contemplate such an activity, but wet weather is my permission to hibernate with comfort food and mindless entertainment.

So with Easter approaching and the opportunity for some serious rest and recreation, Village Roadshow have released a bunch of great movies on DVD for your school holidays viewing pleasure.

When it comes to entertaining children nothing can beat a trip to the cinemas, but sometimes you just want to watch a couple of good new releases, in the comfort of your own lounge.

I recently had the opportunity to attend a private screening of “Our Idiot Brother,” courtesy of Nuffnang & Village Roadshow.  Given my love of a good comedy, I jumped at the chance! That is how I came to be wandering across the city, admiring the lights near Darling Harbour.

The screening was being held to celebrate the release of “My Idiot Brother “on DVD and Blue Ray.  Whilst it had already been shown in cinema’s I hadn’t managed to make time to see it yet.

Once at Village Roadshow’s Pyrmont theatrettes Mr GG and I made ourselves comfortable in the bar.

We ordered a drink and made ourselves comfortable in the lounge until movie time. Fairly soon we were ushered into the intimate thearte with popcorn and drinks in hand.

We were primed and ready to be entertained by funny man Paul Rudd. The movie did not disappoint! I was in stitches at the quirky humour throughout.  I am not going to spoil the movie but sharing too much but take a look at this preview.

This is definitely a movie to add to the collection ready for some warming winter laughs.

After the movie we went to get a bite to eat in the city, over our meal I asked Mr GG for a comment on the movie.  He thought about it for a few seconds, laughed a little to himself as he remembered various scenes and said, “well, it’s not quite an “I love you man” (one of hubbies favourite Paul Rudd movies) but the laughs just keep coming. It will be a movie which keeps me amused for a long time to come.

Granted Mr GG has a bit of a “man crush” on Paul, but it is a movie which is funny for both guys and girls. There are scenes to amuse all.

So consider grabbing a copy of “Our Idiot Brother” on DVD or Blue Ray ready for some serious Easter laughs.

Gourmet Getaways was a guest of Nuffnang and Village Roadshow.

What do you do when your child turns 21? Maybe a party? Perhaps reminisce over a job well done with your husband and those significant in your life.

What do you do when that child isn’t with you anymore?  This is something I have never known.

Do you grieve even more horribly than before? Do you fall into the depths of depression wishing that things were not the way they are?

Do you keep yourself busy and try to ignore the day?

Do you celebrate the birthday that would have been?

For the last 4 1/2 years I just haven’t known. I know people will say you do what you feel, but this doesn’t really help me. Nothing feels right.

21 years ago my beautiful girl was born. I knew thing were not right straight away, they wouldn’t let me hold her. They lied, and said that she was fine, but because I had needed an emergency caesarean she would be looked after in the nursery. I begged that she be allowed to stay with me, even with the epidural in, I tried to pull myself with my arms up to sitting while they stitched my stomach. I was quickly ordered to lie back down and stop being silly.

Every hour through the night I asked the nurses to bring my baby, every hour they told me lies. She is not maintaining her body temperature, she doesn’t have great colour. We are keeping her so that you can get some sleep. At about 3.00am they told me that she had stopped breathing and she may not survive.

How is it that my healthy, full term baby, of 8 pounds is hanging on so thinly to life. The baby I haven’t even held.

I am wheeled down to see her, through all the tubes, machines and monitors I see my gorgeous first born daughter. We have named her Kaela Elisia. I still can’t even touch her.

She is the biggest, fattest, healthiest baby in level 3 neonatal intensive care... ironically she is also probably the one who is the least likely to survive, and the most likely to the highest level of support needs during her short life.

Thankfully my daughter was a fighter. I adored my gorgeous girl and although she never spoke, I always knew exactly what she needed. She was never able to walk, but that’s okay because I loved to carry her around with me anyway. She couldn’t sit upright by herself, but she could cuddle into the corner of a lounge with me just fine. She was the happiest little girl, even total strangers smiled at us in the street.

Her first birthday was a mixture of emotions for me. My baby was still precariously hanging onto life. I was more grateful for the year I had spent with her than for any other year of my life to date. However, internally I already grieved for the day I would lose her. I grieved for her lost future. She would never speak, eat (tube feed), sit up, walk, play with other children, marry, have children, have health, have a life! I didn’t know what the future would hold.

I decided to ignore the grief and my broken heart and just celebrate!

It had to be the biggest first birthday party I could manage with a sick, disabled child. Our party completely took over the grass hill on the North side of Bondi Beach. Every family member and friend was there to celebrate with us.

That party and the support of family was what allowed me to take a deep breath in and just look at the positives, the fact that I had a future with my baby. There was no more wishing for what might have been. We just celebrated for what we had, a gorgeous happy girl who would fight all her life for a short stay with us. I had a wonderful family who only saw the positives, who gave me strength.

From that moment I took the grief and push it aside to be dealt with at a later date. A day when she didn’t need me anymore.  We had too much to deal with.  The most heart wrenching surgeries you could imagine enduring, learning how to inject my baby with Valium if she continued to have an epileptic fit and stopped breathing before and ambulance arrived, dressing her stomar, physio to stop her limbs curling as her limbs grew and the tendons, and ligaments didn’t.

My baby passed away just before her 16^th birthday. She was still the same as the day she was born, only bigger. She had a double bed, so I could jump in with her if she was ill. She was still the most gentle, happy soul.  Naturally everyone loved her.

So now it is her 21^st birthday, I only feel loss. Loss for the baby I had. Loss for the person she was, loss for the person she may have been.

I don’t know what to do on this day each year. I can’t go to the cemetery, as I can’t bare to remember her that way. I don’t believe in God or heaven so there is placating me with those myths.  Intellectually I want to spend the day adoring my four other gorgeous children . Mentally I want to just curl up in a ball and cry for my eldest baby girl.

So what do I do?

For the moment, it is a glass of wine, some tears and this story.  Next year, and all the years after I think it will try and plan something special for the other children. I will choose to try and block some of the emotion.  I am told it gets easier but I just don’t know how this could be true.

I haven't been able to post images due to a technical problem. I will come back to it when the problem is resolved so I can provided a proper memorial to my girl.

Kaela Elisa

18th Feb 1991 - 13th Oct 2006

“I enjoy cooking, but I love my blog!” this is an “almost” quote from Sara of Belly Rumbles, she was referring to all the wonderful things our blog’s allows us to participate in.

We had just finished a wonderful day cooking with Suzanne Gibbs, daughter to the great Margaret Fulton. I had been content just hearing stories about the earlier days of food styling and being shown personal images of Margaret & Suzanne working together.

Then we were told we would be serving afternoon tea to the idol herself, Margaret Fulton.  This was all made possible by the lovely people at Kraft Philadelphia Cream Cheese.

Kraft Philadelphia Cream Cheese has just released a new product “Cream for Desserts” it has only half the fat of regular double cream but the same thick creamy consistency. Sara from Belly Rumbles, Sarah from A Beach Cottage, Sandra from 120 dollar food challenge and myself were all invited to the home of Suzanne Gibbs, the ambassador from Philly products to attend a dessert Masterclass using this fantastic new product.

Left to right: Sarah, Sandra, Margaret, Me, Suzanne & Sara

On arrival we are told that Suzanne would be teaching us to make a Chocolate Roulade with “Cream for Desserts” and Mixed Berries.  She explains that this is a dish the family will often share for birthdays and other special meals. Suzanne previously cooked this masterpiece at a Cordon Bleu Restaurant in London. We are shown a recipe card that Philly has printed and the dessert looks gorgeous. It is definitely one of those impressive desserts which would enable the cook to get lots of praise from guests. I have had mixed success with roulades, so I am looking forward to standing back and watching Suzanne show us the finer points of this dish.

We had also been pre warned that each of us would be put into a “pressure test” with a mystery ingredient, and asked to create our own dessert using the cream.

This aspect of the day had been playing on my mind... what would the mystery ingredient be?  What would I make? What if I failed cooking for the lady who taught me to cook? Well maybe she didn’t actually teach me to cook, but I grew up with my mum’s copy of the “The Margaret Fulton” Hardcover Cookbook, and with the step by steps photo’s, over the course of my childhood I made almost every sweet dish in there and a lot of the savoury dishes too.

I had taken so much excitement from seeing Margaret on MasterChef last season, that I could scarcely believe we would be meeting the great women herself. In my defense, I don’t think I was the only gushing blogger in the room.

Margaret would be visiting for afternoon tea where she would sample all our creations.

On with the Roulade, this recipe is available on the Philadelphia Site and has been reproduced on my website verbatim. Please visit the delicious dessert pages for more great ideas. I have tried quite a number of the recipes, they are absolutely luscious, and so much lower in fat when using the Philadelphia Cream for Desserts.

 Ingredients

• 3 eggs, separated
• ½ cup (110g) caster sugar
• 2 tablespoons sifted cocoa (Suzanne uses Dutch Cocoa)
• 1 teaspoon vanilla essence
• 250ml PHILADELPHIA Cream for Desserts, a double cream alternative
• 1 punnet strawberries, blueberries or raspberries (optional, or a mixture)
• Icing sugar, for dusting

Method

SET oven temperature at 180oC non-fan. Line a 30cm x 25cm swiss roll pan with baking paper.

BEAT egg yolks with a whisk or electric beater until thick and creamy. Gradually beat in sugar.

Fold cocoa and vanilla into egg yolk mixture.

BEAT egg whites until soft peaks form.

Gently fold the cocoa mixture into the egg whites.

Pour at once into prepared pan and bake for 15 minutes, until cake has drawn away from sides and springs back when gently touched in the middle.

HAVE ready a tea towel liberally sprinkled with caster sugar. Turn cake out onto towel, carefully peel away paper and while still warm, roll up, including towel, and leave on a wire rack to cool.

WHEN completely cold, very gently unroll and spread with PHILLY Cream for Desserts. Scatter over sliced strawberries, raspberries or blueberries if using. Roll cake up and chill in refrigerator for 30 minutes. Just before serving dust roulade with icing sugar and cut into thick slices to serve.

Naturally we all sampled this light as a feather dessert. Suzanne has made it all look so easy that I will have to try and make it for the family. The flavour of the chocolate was just magic, and I don’t know where the calories from the cream have gone, but there was no compromise on flavour. The dessert was just as rich and decadent as ever and the lovely sweet fruits finished it perfectly.

I checked the pricing online and found that the PHILLY “Cream for Desserts” retails at $3.97 per 250ml carton and the brand of double cream I usually purchase is $4.88 for 300ml. Given that I prefer my desserts to be lower in fat, I would now choose this product before traditional double cream for health reasons. The taste is the same, the price is very similar, and any reduction in saturated fat is a good reduction.

We were all given a wonderful Philadelphia Cooler bag full of delicious Kraft products to take home, and a "Simply Heaven" Cookbook for further inspiration. Naturally I will be sharing my creamy creations with readers. Suzanne & Margaret generously agreed to autograph my copy of the Simply Heaven Cookbook! I wonder if I am too old to be a groupie?

So prepare to see some more luscious PHILLY "Cream for Dessert" recipes in the days to follow. I will also be sharing my "Pressure Test" experience with a "mystery ingredient". Thankfully it was a very relaxed pressure test. Whew!! I met and shared a kitchen with some lovely bloggers, and two absolute idols, what an awesome day. Don’t forget to take a look at the other bloggers websites.

Gourmet Getaways attended this event courtesy of Kraft Philadelphia Cream Cheese.

Made with Love, what a nice name for a market!

A few weeks ago I had the opportunity to attend this handmade market at Pacific Bay with my fellow shopper “little A”. It wasn’t a Foodie market like most I go to so I thought she would enjoy looking at all the girly goodies.

As we arrived “Little A” and I noted that most of the other mini shoppers were leaving with gorgeous brightly coloured cupcakes. I can’t imagine how many were made for the day because every child had at least one, and there were kids everywhere.

There were plenty of activities to keep the little ones amused.  "Little A" noticed the jumping castle as soon as we entered the venue.  There were also balloon animals being made and face painting.

There is something very similar about making baked goods from scratch for someone you love, or hand making a gift. I will quite often sew an item of clothing for my daughter. Usually when I am tired of seeing mass produced clothing, and I want her to have something unique. 

I enjoyed wandering around the stalls looking at the gorgeous individual pieces which have been created by talented (patient) people.  Handmade and homemade clothing, gifts, cards, and food all have a warm loving appeal that you don’t get from chain stores.

As this is more a pictorial review I will leave you with some images of the market and a few words on my purchases for the day. Where possible I have included the website for the stalls I visited. I hope you will pop over and take a look.

The next market is being held just in time for some Christmas shopping.

There were so many gift ideas to suit a new baby.

I couldn't go past the "Beauty Bar" standard.  Gorgeous handmade soaps with the most delicious flavours and made from goats milk!I had to take home the "Musk Have Bar" It smells just like musk lollies and I just had to have it. Now the aroma greats me as I walk into my bathroom.  YUM!

...and other items that were just cute!

It was a hard decisions but Little A decided on the bright yellow tinkerbell cupcake.

  ...and she couldn't go past this little top.

There were a few stands for the older ones but most of the market was geared towards unique gifts for babies and toddlers. This hat box had some gorgeous handmade accessories for older girls. Some peices were resin and they all just looked gorgeous.

The next market is being held on  at Pacific Bay it promises to be another great family day. So come along and do some unique Christmas shopping at the "Made With Love Markets"

I am wondering how many of my readers made New Years resolutions this year. At the start of the year I set myself a few goals.  As with any goals I think that it is always good to review my success or failure and perhaps look at ways I can improve my success. I also like to look at the relevance of the goals down the track. Is this still what I want? If the answer is yes then I need to make an added commitment to the goal.

In January the cancer council advertised on my website. Part of the advertisement was a survey to assess your risk of cancer.  I decided to participate in the survey because good health is important to me. My last birthday was the big 40 so I am more conscience of maintaining what is left of a youthful appearance and not declining in health or vitality.

After completing the survey I was sent an email recommending the changes I should make to my lifestyle. On the whole I did very well. It did however highlight to me the big deficit in my diet. I don’t get time to eat fruit and drink water. So these are the goals I set myself for the year.

My Goals at the start of the year

Eat 2 serves of fruit per day

Increase my consumption of water to at least 2 glasses

Exercise 3 times per week

Wear sunscreen in Summer

I have to admit that I still struggle with my two serves of fruit per day. I enjoy fruit but I am always on the run and don’t get time to snack through the day. Thanks to my awareness of the need to eat more fruit I have increased my consumption, but I hadn’t reached my goal yet.

Recently I was offered a sample of Sunraysia Prune Juice. Sunraysia are running a “Makeover Promotion” challenging consumers to discover the health benefits of drinking just one shot per day of their juice. I read the nutritional information provided and found that this could be the answer to my fruit dilemma. 200ml of Prune juice is equivalent to one of the national recommended 5 fruit and veg serving. So why not try a shot of Sunraysia Prune Juice today.

It seems that grandma did know best… but what does it taste like?

Prune juice has borne the brunt of many jokes so it is easy to have a preconceived idea about the taste. Realistically I love all dried fruits, prunes included so I was looking forward to sampling the juice. Naturally it was sweet and delicious and I could easily drink a whole glass full as part of a new morning ritual.

While I was trialing the product I read the following research to Mr GG “Just a shot of Sunraysia Prune Juice every day can reduce the effects of ageing, help maintain healthy skin and give you a visible glow that can only come from feeling ‘squeaky clean’ and healthy on the inside… Sunraysia Prune Juice has three times the antioxidants packed into it than your average pomegranate juice drink.  These powerful antioxidants tackle ageing head-on by neutralising the toxic free radicals we encounter in everyday that attack skin cells and ultimately cause unsightly wrinkles”. WOW just what I was looking for!

Mr GG couldn’t believe that a single shot of juice could be so good for you and nor could I.  So we are now both taking part in the “Sunraysia Makeover” and loving it!

Sunraysia are offering two lucky readers the chance to sample the health benefits for themselves. The winners will be receiving a sample of Sunraysia Juice, shot glass and a set of loofah gloves.  

All you need to do is let me know how Sunraysia Juice can help you to achieve your health goals and make sure you “like” Gourmet Getaways on Facebook. Winners will be announced on Monday 29th August 2011.

When I find a great product, packed with nutritional value I tend to experiment in the kitchen for more uses. Prunes, like figs, and rhubarb seem to have been a bit of a forgotten hero.  They were used and enjoyed by the previous generation and are now coming back into favour due to the new found health benefits of the food.

I have devised some delicious recipes using Sunraysia Prune Juice. I will feature these in the coming week but here is a sneak peek.

White Chocolate & Prune Juice Jelly Panna cotta w Brandied Fruit Compote

Prunetastic Slow Cooked Beef Spare Ribs

Thanks to Sunraysia I am now one step closer to making my New Years resolutions a success!

So tell me readers, what were your New Years resolutions? Have you succeeded in achieving your goals? How can Sunraysia help you to achieve your health goals?

Father’s Day is just a few short weeks away, so I thought I should remind everyone about about the great Magshop promotion. 

Visit the Magshop Father’s Day promotion page to receive a discount on selected titles for dad! 

Then enter the competition to win a Volkswagen Golf Wagon valued at over $40,000! (see bottom of story for details).

So while we are talking about dad, I would like to take the opportunity to reflect on my father, and what he has taught me.

Firstly he taught my sister and I to ride motor bikes flat out through the bush! Growing up this was a useful skill to have, as it definitely threw the boys off guard, especially given we were both petite little blonds.

Dad also taught my husband to ride, and hubby and dad together have taught our kids. My dad is the fittest 65 year old you will ever meet. I still can’t catch him on a dirt bike, although now my 16 year is working on that challenge for me.

As I have mentioned in previous stories my dad has also given me a great appreciation for food, travel and wine. When we were younger we were always going on “driving holidays” even if it was just for the weekend. We would pack up the car and head off in a different direction each time, exploring every detail of the area we were visiting.  If we saw a vineyard, a produce stand or market we would be sure to stop in and sample the local wares. Nature walks, picnics and barbeques in the bush were also very high on the list of regular family activities.

 Now my dad travels much further a field, and he has been on many international holidays. The most recent trip was a family holiday to Fiji for my brothers wedding.  Dad still enjoys sampling everything a country has to offer, which has landed him in a spot of trouble with Bali belly at times. True to dads nature though, the plane has  barely landed back in Australia before he was planning the next trip away.

Inevitable when I am thinking of gifts for my dad, be it birthday, Christmas or Fathers Day, I look to the pastimes we have enjoyed together to come up with an ideal gift. The Gourmet Traveller – Wine subscription hit the mark for me. I know that each month my dad will receive a magazine and he will share the information with me.  We might even try a bottle or two suggested by the magazine, or visit a vineyard that catches our interest.

 So what do you have in mind for your father on his special day?  Why not surprise dad with a travel magazine from Magshop.

Don't forget about the Fathers Day promotion. If you subscribe online before 4^th October and you could win a Volkswagen Golf Wagon 118TSI Comfortline valued at over $40,000!!   Now wouldn’t that be a great father’s day surprise! Subscribe now!

My dad gave me the love of gourmet food and wine, and it is something that we are still sharing today!

Enter the competition to win a Volkswagen Golf Wagon valued at over $40,000!

Visit the Father’s Day promotion page to receive a discount in selected titles!

As a child there are some moments and memories which just stick in your mind no matter how many years pass.  Naturally these memories are based around the most important people in our life, namely our family. With fathers day coming up the memories which still give me great joy are the picnics my sister and I used to have with my dad. I was about 8 and my sister was 6, periodically dad would take us on a special picnic to give mum some time to herself. These were so much fun; we would go somewhere different each time.  Dad would buy food along the way which was completely foreign to us.  My sister and I would feel so sophisticated trying these “grown up” food items. Since then we have always shared a love of food and wine, for this reason I will be giving my father a wine magazine subscription for father’s day.

I remember the first time my sister and I tried pickled onion. It may seem a little strange for this to be such a fond memory but that was when I first realized what a Gourmet dad I had. Please remember readers that this memory is straight out of the late 1970’s.  I had my first taste of REAL cheese on one of these picnics. Real cheese, which didn’t come out of the cupboard, but out of the fridge! Dad would buy sparkling mineral water and my sister and I would pretend that it was champagne.

After our picnic my sister and I would sit in the back of the car and sing at the top of our voices to the radio.

As the years go by, nothing much has changed, my father still loves the finer things in life, although we have progressed a little further than cheese and pickles.  We still enjoy a quiet picnic, but more times than not we have my children and extended family joining us. Instead of sparkling mineral water we enjoy a bottle or two of wine. A subscription to Australian Traveller Wine would make the ideal gift for my dad.

On father’s day he will be notified of the Gourmet Traveller Wine subscription and I will bring dad a beautiful picnic hamper, and bottle of Pinot for our family picnic.

After all, my best memories are centered around food, wine and family.

So what do you have in mind for your father on his special day?  Why not surprise dad with a travel magazine from Magshop’s

Magshop is running a Fathers Day promotion. Check out the discounted subscription prices and order before the 4^th October! You could also win a Volkswagen Golf Wagon 118TSI Comfortline valued at over $40,000!! 

Now wouldn’t that be a great father’s day surprise! 

 My dad gave me the love of gourmet food and wine, and it is something that we are still sharing today!

I received a lovely surprise this morning. A courier arrived with a tasty package from Bakers Delight.  In case you didn’t know Bakers Delight has released a range of Fresh Pizza Bases for those of you who enjoy making your own gourmet pizza.

Since this delicious package arrived it has been sitting on my desk as I write, teasing me with that lovely fresh baked bread aroma. I can wait no longer… I need to create a pizza! I have decided to dedicate the following week to a Baker’s Delight Gourmet Pizza week.

My delivery included two plain bases and two herb coated bases so this suggests to me that I should make two savoury pizza’s and two sweet dessert pizzas. Also included in my little parcel were 5 x $5 gift vouchers to giveaway to my lovely readers.

What I would like to know is, who is interested in holding a Bakers Delight Pizza Party?

I would love to start you off with a Bakers Delight Gift Voucher and a recipe for one of my signature pizza’s.

I have two savoury pizza’s that I always make for my friends and family. The first is a Smoky Steak & Cheese with Caramelised Sweet onion and the second is a good old Garlic Prawn & Fresh Herb Pizza.

My two favourite sweet pizza’s are a Berry Delicious Breakfast Pizza served with fresh strawberries and vanilla mascarpone and a Caramelised Pear & Macadamia Dessert Pizza with a Praline Crunch.

I will be showcasing these pizza’s and of course sharing the recipes on this site over the next week and asking that you come up with your own pizza creations.

What I would like from you guys is for you to help me show Baker’s Delight that Gourmet Getaways is the queen of Gourmet pizza’s. I have sent my "Berry Delicious Breakfast Pizza" creation to the Bakers Delight Fan Page and I need everyone to “like” it for me.

You will need to “Like” Bakers Delight and then “like” my pizza.

So this is the first of five Bakers Delight, gourmet pizza posts I will be making this week. In the final post I will share my Bakers Delight Pizza Party with you and show you what flavours my friends have come up.  I will also announce the winners of the Bakers Delight vouchers so that you can sample the Bakers Delight Pizza Bases yourself, and hold your own Gourmet Pizza Party with friends.

Now quickly over to Facebook and vote for my Pizza!

Well I am sure we are all very happy with the result of the State Of Origin played on Wednesday night!  Mr GG and I were able to slip away from the “little ones” for a mid week getaway involving lots of food and football.  We were joined at Star City by our good friends the iFamily… or more accurately we were joined by iWife and iDenial. iDenial is husband to iWife, he rejects all iTechnology, despite the rest of the family being early adaptors of iPod, iPhone and iPads. Their children (the DS boys) were also left with family so this was an adult only escape.

Hubby and I flew out of Coffs airport amid announcements of expected turbulence, almost gale force winds, and our concerns over where the volcanic ash may be for the return trip. Thankfully we had time for a few quick drinks at the airport “bar,” and by the time we were up in the air the bumps on take off were neither here nor there. Even the thought of being wringing wet through out the whole 80 mins of football couldn’t dampen our enthusiasm.

Our first football moment, was a sighting of Gordon Tallis in the street at Pyrmont. He is one BIG man in the flesh! All hyped up we met the iFamily in the Star City Sports Bar, and had a quick beverage while we decided on our lunch destination.

I love Ramen Kan on Hay Street opposite the Entertainments centre, when ever we are in the city we make a point of getting our fix of the Tan Tan Ramen (Spicy). So we set off to fill our tummies with the delicious noodle soup.

Ramen Kan is located on the second floor and the entrance is very none descript. Access is via a very unreliable and small elevator which has been “out of order” on many of our visits.  On these occasions we joined the procession of diners trudging up the stairs.

We found this little restaurant about six years ago after we had just returned from a trip to Japan. We had been craving a good Ramen at the time and were very pleased when we stumbled upon this place. The décor is cute and similar to many restaurants we visited in Japan. I couldn’t help noting to iWife that the pebbles which used to feature around the room were now gone.  Obviously I wasn’t the only clutz to almost fall into the feature! (Full Food Review to follow in a few days)

The weather was absolutely freezing by Coffs Harbour standards so after eating our fill of Ramen we made a stop at Paddy’s Markets.  My thoughts were to find something warm to wear with my “blues” jersey, I was thinking of a State of Origin scarf and beanie.  Unfortunately we had no luck on the Blues gear so I half considered a balaclava.

We joined the crowds at Central Station taking advantage of the free public transport to the game.

iPhone 3 photo :(

Arriving at Homebush we collected our Blatchey’s Blues gear which included a blue wig and a blue shirt.  We had decided to soak up the full atmosphere of Origin football and had purchased tickets for The Blatchey’s Blue section, the most vocal of Blue fans!  The atmosphere was amazing and looking onto the ground from our seats was via a sea of blue hair wigs. What a fantastic sight!

iPhone 4 photo :)

Jebediah played their new single “She’s Like a Comet” and then we were on! State against State.

As you can see by the tortured look on iDenials face, the Blue’s did give us a few stressful moments. iDenial wasn’t happy when the Maroons posted the first points via a penalty goal. The situation was made worse by a converted try not to long after, bringing the score to 8 nil.

iPhone 3 photo :(

There were cheers all round when Luke Lewis for the Blue’s scored our first try of the game. Our section roared!!

iPhone 3 photo :(

Half time the score was 8 – 6, and the Blues were making an awesome game of it! Jebediah started playing and we were bopping in our seats to “Leaving Home”.  So good that these guys are back again!

Back to the game and the Blues dominated! We were on fire and there were no more concerned faces in the Blues section. We got our Blue’s Origin victory!

Full of victory cheer we made the walk from Central Station to Star City.  Naturally we stopped for the obligatory Chicken Kebab and then pizza, the kebab and the first pizza disappeared too quickly and all I managed was this remnants shot before we ordered a second pizza.

iPhone 3 pic on the left iPhone 4 on the right... I need an upgrade :(

I would like to take this opportunity to appeal to a corporate sponsor of the football, a kindly citizen, or the NRL itself. If you have room in your corporate box, come State of Origin 3, and you think you may be able to spare room for an extra four people, please, please please contact me on Julie@gourmetgetaways.com.au

Overall, what an awesome adventure, can't wait to do it all over again for game 3!