Wintery getaway

This past year has been a tad busy (in a good way); four family weddings within six months, an overseas holiday, first home ownership... so although it is getting a little late in the year to dream of open-fire-cooked breakfasts and lazy afternoons in the sun at a picturesque campsite, that is indeed what we have been doing. It's usually around May that I declare we should squeeze in a last camping trip "before it gets too cold". Err, since I've been suffering numb fingers, toes and nose during the daytime sitting here in my apartment in Sydney, I'm thinking this weekend might be a bit interesting in terms of keeping warm.

I dare say, having lived through three German winters and regularly camped in a tent where normal people pay to stay INSIDE a building, I'm a little bit qualified to give advice about keeping toasty! (Insert gratuitous picture of cold but sunny German winter day with nice castle in background).

You do see people doing some serious camping set-ups with tent heaters and electric blankets running off generators (that give off a stressful noise and an awful smell). The classic example I give is the family we spotted at a beautiful otherwise quiet and secluded campsite that brought up a generator and a TELEVISION, and then ran a CHAINSAW to build a wooden box to put over the generator as they couldn't hear the footy commentary over the din it made as it powered the tv. I shake my head.....why bother even leaving the house?!

So, the basic rules for "real" winter camping or travelling:

• Keep dry, and keep your head and tummy warm! Long tops, high topped longs, whatever you need to do to stop warmth escaping. And we all know that we lose most of our heat through our head so on with the fuzzy beanie. Bring fresh socks and don't let your toes go numb because it's very hard to reverse the situation!
• Layers, lots of layers. The basic rules I used to teach my customers: start with some thin thermals top 'n bottom, and decent socks - on many occasions I have declared out loud my love for my merino travelling socks. So soft and cosy and they stay that way forever so do splash out on them.
• Layer up with some nice mid layers like fleece or wool.  Puffy or windproof vests are great because they keep your core warm; high collars an extra bonus. And I hereby declare fingerless gloves are very trendy. (You can't use an iPhone at the bus stop in regular gloves. I say at the bus stop because there shouldn't be reception at a "real" winter campsite ;) ooh does that make me a campsite snob?)
• Find a nice outer "shell" like a lightweight but waterproof and windproof Gore Tex jacket or similar. Goosedown is lovely but if it gets wet it's as useful as wearing a (wet) cotton tshirt. Alternatively, if it's not likely to be raining, find the cheapest, most padded polyester jacket possible and stay away from sparks from the fire!
• Get into some little added extras like "pocket warmers" - little reusable sachets that you "activate" and they generate heat for an hour or two. Great for popping in the sleeping bag before you try to sleep with numb feet. Boil them up in water for 5 minutes to liquify them and they're ready to use again next time. Available at camping stores but they're a dime a dozen at German two dollar shops!

A few other tidbits about the rest of the gear needed to keep cosy....

• An air-filled mattress like a lilo will literally surround you in cold air while you sleep. Use a mat with foam inside (any thickness is better than that freezing air!)
• Bring your matches in a waterproof bag or case....
• Bring a warm-blooded tent buddy!

What are your keeping-warm tips and tricks? Or are we Aussies completely wussing out by even complaining it's cold when there's not even a chance the temperature will drop below freezing?! Leave a comment and join the discussion.

Wedding colour schemes

When I started to research and plan for our wedding, there was soooo many resources out there and I just didn't know where to start. In marketing, we know that a personal recommendation is worth piles more than an online ad or a positive review from a stranger, so I thought I'd just record a few of the things I found most useful. "Getting Married" and reviewing all the products and services we used for what was probably the biggest personal "project" I'll ever manage... (ok, don't start about your big projects, renovations, kids, oh geez I only just got married ok!) ..will probably take a few blog posts. But to start with the fun part: the crafty bits!



Christina Re cherry blossom paper, Stampin' Up Eastern Blooms stamp set


We picked our colours right at the beginning at the time of our engagement party... my friends know I'm a pink kinda gal but it was now hubby's idea to use pink, cream and gold as our colour palette. A friend hosted a Stampin' Up party around the time we were starting to organise this stuff, and I'm a sucker for party-plan products so I happily went along not realising that it would open to me a whole new world of places to spend my pocket money. Stamping demonstrater Deanne (website) took us through all the awesome products and months of experimentation and a new printer later, this was the wedding invitation result:

Stampin' Up Eastern Blooms stamps, gold brads and gold card,
transparent paper - printed at home on my Canon Pixma M640,
cut using a cheap old paper trimmer from Officeworks!

So, the paper was organised but what about, err, the entire rest of the whole wedding shebang. Bridesmaid Sandra and I walked into Diana Ferrari on our way to a pampering session (so our minds were totally not on dress shopping, and it was the first store we had checked out) and saw these ones - and within 10 minutes we had our bridesmaid outfits sorted.

"I have a friend who..."  Awesome! Done! Some things are just easier when you make a snap decision. If a friend recommends a friend who does that, then all the better - I trust my friends' judgement! Bridesmaid Susan recommended florist Wendy who is just breaking into the floristry market. Many, many emailed pictures later and we had a perfect match for both the girls' dresses and mine - and the nice thing is we got to give our business to someone we knew.

Now to bring the look all together...will everything match?!
The boys' ties were a shiny purple which "tied" in great with the ladies' outfits

The bomboniere: homemade strawberry jam by hubby's parents, in jars from
wholesale cookware shop Chef and the Cook in Camperdown;
fabric from Spotlight; twine from Eckersleys; tags from Officeworks;
custom stamps from Imprint Rubber Stamps; ink and copperplate nib from Will's Quills

Plums and Roses tower of vanilla cupcakes
with a butterscotch filling and
vanilla buttercream icing
topped with a caramel mud cutting cake
with chocolate ganache

And finally, our showpiece, the party stopper... the cupcake masterpiece from Susan of Plums and Roses cakes and cookies - sadly for me, based in the UK but she visits often ;)

A quick google images search for "pink tower of cupcakes" gave us a gazillion ideas but Susan worked to bring to life the pink and gold theme adding just exactly the right amount of bright pinks, subtle pastels, and ever so delicious buttercream frosting... so so so delicious.... Some people have regrets about their wedding day. People say they didn't savour the moment enough, or they became agitated about photos or music or rowdy guests. My absolutely only regret about the entire wedding experience is that I did not eat enough cake. Oh, I got cake, a lot of it - the bride can do whatever she wants and I did eat more than my quota of cupcakes that night (hope no one else missed out, woops) - but a lot of this cakey goodness is still NEVER ENOUGH!

Sneaky Sydney spot #2 - Little Beach

Yep, it's another beach. Little Beach, in Bouddi National Park. This sneaky Sydney spot is the perfect place to set up camp for a weekend of relaxing and literally watching the world go by. While we were there one seemingly dreary weekend, we saw a group of ocean kayakers pull up on the beach and proceed to unpack an entire campsite's worth of gear from their vessels, a pod (group? family?) of probably humpback whales, a group of what seemed to be maybe a youth group with totally bizarre pre-cooked food (...pre cooked pancakes and a sauce they just had to warm up on the hotplate...). And you thought you were getting away from it all!

There are six allocated campsites here which you pre-book through National Parks, a loo and a BBQ.  The walk from the car is short (1km) but steep - we brought one of those hand trolleys that you can get at Bunnings for $20. Part of the adventure is arriving in the small carpark at the top of the hill in the pitch black of the night - no streetlights around here - and grappling your way down the firetrail to pop out at the beautiful moonlit beach.

As for daytime activities, you can head up the headland on either side and walk along the trail to Macmasters Beach or Killcare but to be honest once you're down here with some cheese n crackers and a book, it's pretty hard to get up and do anything!

Summer beer tasting guide

Sitting enjoying a nice cold one at sunset at Penrith Panthers*, pondering why wine gets the privilege of having all the descriptor words, Sandra, Bron and myself decided it was high time to do a proper beer tasting. So we set a date and, not unusually, dragged Sarah into the shenanigans.

The following findings are designed for those who come to the beer tasting table with an open mind, a clean palate and no bias towards their favourite beer they've been swilling since they were 16! I'm keen to know whether you agree with our impressions.

We divided the beers into batches starting with the basics and moving upmarket from there. We also tried to drink them roughly in order of lightest to heaviest, finishing with a desserty treat.

Ok, so our formula isn't really scientifically valid. "Get to the reviews!" I hear you cry.

• Melbourne Bitter: Yeasty, light appearance, sour, tangy. Watery - not flavoursome! Lack of body, insipid. Drinkable... No aroma.
• VB: Slightly darker and weaker taste than MB. Short-lasting flavour.
• Calton Draught: This one got the tick of approval out of the "cheapies". Aroma is lighter and more yeasty - not overly overpowering - and crisper, with the added bonus of a better quiz than the XXXX which is coming next.
• XXXX: I was pleasantly surprised at this one as it is known to my friends as "death in a can" and there have been fights over who has to drink it when given a choice between XXXX and another beer on a deserted island. "The trivia on the bottle cap is stupid - cricket - who knows this stuff!" "No aroma, but it tastes like an outdoorsy beer - it's all salt and sweat."

Moving up in the world a little bit now ...

• James Squire Golden Ale: Thick head, darker in colour, smells sweeter - "too flavoursome for a bingey night out".
• Coopers Pale Ale: A "more drinkable" beer, more fizzy but it goes down smooth with a yeasty finish. The "drinking a lot of beer beer".
• James Squire Amber Ale: We like this one better than the golden ale - tastes like burnt honey with a touch of berries. A golden colour, smooth, with a woody aftertaste.
• Blue Tongue Lager: Although one taster said it tastes like wee, others agreed it was sweet, thin, fruit, crisp, tastes like apple, and girly (not a disparaging remark).
• Boags Draught: After educating one team member that Boags isn't pronounced "Bow-ags", we decided this one had a darker colour, not too strong a smell, and a nice medium taste of honey. But to our palates it tasted like Carlton Draught - why pay more?!
• Cooper's Sparkling Ale: Yeasty, heavy and thick, more alcohol than Cooper's green and not as easy to drink.
• James Squire Pilsner: Honey, yeasty, complex flavours.
• Bees Neez: Got a tick from us - surprisingly light in colour, smells lightly of honey. We like it more than the James Squire.

Now on to the meals-in-a-can:

• Coopers Best Extra Stout: Dark, smells and looks like soy sauce or burnt vegemite, tar, bitumen... get the picture?
• Guiness Extra Stout: Fizzy texture, like coke, lighter and better than the Cooper's stout.
• Monteith Crushed Apple Cider: Looks like water in comparison! Very fizzy, no head, sweet but not as sweet as most ciders - and a welcome relief after the stouts! 

Which brings us to our next challenge: Cider tasting!

The winners: In conclusion, our favourite cheap beer was the Carlton Draught, our "drinking a lot of beer beer" is Cooper's Pale and Bees Neez and Monteith's Apple Cider won us over in the flavour stakes. All I can say is thank goodness we did this important evening of research.

*We were visiting Penrith on a rollerskating adventure. That's a post for another day.

Glamping! Or, Busting the myths of camping

Those in this world who screw up their noses and say to me "camping? Haven't you heard of this marvellous new invention called hotels?" are really, truly missing out! To help them understand why, I want to bust a few of the myths about camping, 2011-style. Glamping - glam-camping - as it has come to be known.

Myth: "The toilets are always stinky!"

Actually, pit toilets have come a long long way! Ventilation systems and ways of breaking down that what fills them have had fabbo breakthroughs in technology and a modern pit toilet usually makes you wonder how on earth "they" (the people who install toilets in remote places?) got the toilet there!

Myth: "Tents are impossible to put up and always leak."

Most tents now come with colour-coded poles so it's pretty hard to go wrong. Even the cheap and previously nasty brands are much higher in quality than they ever used to be. Spend the money and buy a decent tent, and let your dad's old mouldy one stay right where it is at the back of the garage.

We use a Black Wolf Mojave for car camping and yes, it's big, designed to sleep about 6 people! But you can spend comfortable days lolling about inside in comfort if it rains, and it has an amazing ventilation system of little flaps and straps that meant it was by far the coolest tent at the entire camping and 4WD show where we bought it in high summer.

Myth: "Camping is uncomfortable and dirty".

Ohhhh no it isn't. Grab some 4WD sleeping mats for home-bed comfort (save those blue foam rolls for padding the truck when you're moving house), a solar shower (black plastic - heats up when it sits in the sun - genius), and some gour-met food and you're on your way. A folding chair with inbuilt pillows and insulated pockets for drinks should complete the picture.

Our "5-day esky" is supposed to keep food cool for yes, 5 days, but apparently that experiment involved dry ice and opening the esky just twice a day for 30 seconds at a time, not every 30 minutes from the time of the first "brekkie beer" til bedtime.  But it certainly will keep your glamping fare - vino, cheese and chocolate - icy cold for the length of a weekend. Get one with wheels or you will regret it when your camping buddies stop at the bottlo on the way and fill it to the brim with heavy beverages!

Myth: "There are no camping spots nearby."

There are good spots everywhere, you just need to know where to look! A National Parks annual pass for the car works for me in the same way as my gym membership - I've already paid for it so I had better use it and get my money's worth.

Keep an eye on my blog for tips and hints on good camping sites in Sydney's surrounds, but don't expect me to give away all our secrets at once!

Sneaky Sydney spot #1: Flint & Steel Beach

So the trick to finding an empty beach on a Sydney weekend sadly involves some hard work!

We headed to Flint and Steel Beach near West Head - parking the car at the top of the hill and descending 150 metres in just over a kilometre and panicking the whole time about what the walk back up would be like! Still, it's a small price to pay for this kind of secluded paradise.

The snorkelling wasn't the best and there's no amenities but it's lovely to get away from the city on the weekend... pack a picnic!

The fantastic Wild Walks website has details about the 2.1km return walk.

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