I Want to Ride My Bicycle

I want to ride my bike. (You just sung that a little, didn’t you?)
Just as I was last night, in anticipation of my weekly ride into work.

I’m growing to absolutely love these rides into work, even if they’re not the most strenuous or exhilarating.
It’s a perfect way to slide into the second half of the week, and changes up my routine of catching the bus every damn day.

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With the weather getting warmer the sun is shining, birds are chirping, flowers blooming and all similar clichés. But it’s so lovely!

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I ride through the burbs, past the white picket fences and gorgeous red bricked houses. I pass cafes smelling of bacon and freshly made bread.

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I love riding through Northbridge at 6:30am; when there are barely any cars on the road, the hipsters are just opening their coffee shops and the air is so clean. The Vietnamese bakeries have been busy, I get a huge waft of their sugary baked goods.

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From there it’s an easy coast into the office, where I’m one of the first few to get in and can start the day fresh and revived.

Happy Thursday, you crazy kids.

Hanbel.
x

10 Things That Make Me Terribly Happy

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  1. Being silly and ridiculous with Andrew
  2. Oats and peanut butter
  3. Little mountain biking improvements
  4. Seeing my mum smile
  5. The scent of vanilla
  6. Giggling with my favourite girls
  7. The first couple of sunny, warm days after winter
  8. Fresh, clean sheets
  9. Taking a perfectly baked cake out of the oven
  10. Salty skin after a beach swim

Hanbel.
x

Sunshine, on My Window

27 degrees and sunny, on a winter’s day. Are you joking? But also, how amazing!
God, I love a Perth winter. Saturday was absolutely glorious, and Sunday didn’t disappoint either.

So what does a gal do with all this sun? Soak it UPPPPP!
Papa Bell asked me kindly to housesit his place while he and Melissa flew to Broome for the weekend.
As his house is a 5 minute walk from the beach, I’m so glad I didn’t turn this offer down. After waking up early (cheers Andrew) I took myself for a little beach stroll, breathing in the fresh air and stretching my legs. I came back to a very sad looking dog, begging to be taken out… so I went for another walk. On a day like this, I couldn’t resist!

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Look at that face! I hate these kind of dogs, but Sparki is so beautifully ugly – with a huge underbite and disproportioned body, it’s so hard not to love him!
Until he steals one of your socks, develops lock jaw and then cries like a baby because he doesn’t know what to do with it.

The rest of the day was equally as blissful, celebrating a dear friend’s birthday over delicious breakfast and incredible coffee.

IMG_5433Laura chose the new spot Finlay and Sons for her special day, and it couldn’t have been more perfect. I can see this becoming my new favourite local. A full menu with too many choices, coffee I knocked back in about 30 seconds, and the most gorgeous, aesthetically pleasing interiors make this girl very happy.

IMG_5432Just look at that rose gold and exposed brick; love love love!
The staff are lovely, and the food is divine. I caved to my standard order of bircher muesli, and was not disappointed in the slightest.

IMG_5435Anh’s mushrooms on goat’s cheese toast looked and smelt unbelievable, the truffle oil wafting in my direction almost gave me food envy. I can’t wait to come back here!

IMG_5436The birthday girl, what a doll! Happy Birthday LB, we love you enormous amounts!

The rest of the day was spent riding to watch my girl’s play netball, quickly popping in to see Andrew and racing back to Dad’s place to feed the pooch.
Anh, Brooke and I had the perfect night in – thai takeaway, rosé, 10 Things I Hate About You and Sean’s homemade caramel slice.

What a classic! Bless you Heath Ledger.

Sunday began with a coffee run to meet up with Book Club over a home cooked breakfast. THANK YOU BROOKE!
Also, please do not ever read The Virgin Suicides. Or watch the movie, we made both errors.

IMG_5446One netball world cup final (YES AUSTRALIA!), a sneaky vino for a friend’s birthday and a fajita bowl on the couch whilst watching House of Cards; and that was my weekend, done and dusted.

I live for the weekend, and I’m sure you can see why! Gotta love these days in the sun, exercising, eating, talking absolute nonsense with the people I love most – I couldn’t ask for anything better.

I hope you all had an equally lovely weekend.
Happy Monday!

Hanbel.
x

Champagne for my Real Friends, Real Pain for my Sham Friends

Yesterday was family day.
To celebrate my Grandma’s birthday, my amazing mum put on a huge champagne breakfast.

Seriously, this woman went to TOWN.

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She made two types of Kedgeree, scrambled eggs, baked mushrooms, pan-fried mushrooms, baked tomatoes, bacon and kidneys. Plus fresh fruit, orange juice, champagne, tea and coffee. She also went to put croissants in the oven at which point we surrendered to defeat, and begged her to stop feeding us.
The most impressive part of the spread though, was how she catered to everyone. She used lactose free milk in the eggs, and bought me gluten free bread. She cooked the kidneys especially for my brother because he used to love them when he was little. His girlfriend is vegetarian so Mum cooked a separate Kedgeree – sans fish. What a legend!

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Visiting Mum’s house means getting to spend time with these funny characters too…

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I snuck outside and enjoyed the sunshine with this guy; Mr Darcy…

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What a happy chappy!

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And what a happy family! Give me more days like these please.

To the woman that taught me “a lady never tells her age” – Happy Birthday Grandma! We love you!

Hanbel.
x

Livin in a Hipster’s Paradise

It was a beautiful, sunny Saturday. I donned my hipster hat, slapped on some sunscreen, grabbed two of my girls and headed down to the Beaufort Street Festival.

An annual event, on my favourite street in Perth, where a good portion is closed off to cars and opened up to bars.
All the fantastic vendors and businesses on the street open their doors, crank some music and provide amazing food.
As it’s popularity is growing, I knew this year would be crazy busy so we planned to arrive at the start of the event.

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Damn lucky we did too, because even at 12:15 it was chockers! We hit the south side first, made our way up the street and headed for the shady shack. There wasn’t much we missed, and after three hours Anh and I felt like we’d done enough. Big crowds don’t do a lot for my stress levels, so these days I stay at these events for as long as I’m enjoying myself and leave before I get too frustrated. Lucy has a much bigger tolerance level than I do, and she ended up kicking on for most of the day!

IMG_0239We began with samples from Rochelle Adonis, including a Christmas pudding soaked for 18 months in brandy! Rich, christmassy heaven!

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We hit up the soul food truck for some smokin’ pulled pork. Our logic was to share everything, so we could sample as much as possible.
Girls who think with their stomachs…

IMG_0244Duck Jumplings had me jumping for joy (too lame?).

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Being a lactard I couldn’t get involved in these double espresso chills! Which sucks, because they were freebies, and who doesn’t love freebies?!

IMG_0247I made do with a coconut, which was leaking all over the place but refreshing as hell.

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The lovely Lucy from Luce’s Eternal Sunshine.IMG_0248My little Anh, with a couple of nuts.

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IMG_0251   IMG_0256  IMG_0258There was a little section hidden away from the madness, in the carpark behind Fresh Provisions, dedicated to artwork. And free gingerbread men…

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Which was also where we discovered the greatest buy of the day. Matso’s ginger beer – icey pole style.
This has pretty much determined how I will spending my summer. Need to pick myself up some of these stat!IMG_0265

IMG_0267When we had completed the full loop, we wandered back down the road to El Publico, my favourite restaurant and the highlight of the festival, in my opinion.
They transform their carpark into the “Shady Shack” where all the 18+ tequila fun times begin. My pick from the bar is the tequila and fresh apple juice. It sounds simple, but it is so refreshing and packs a punch. Paired with smooth guacomole, crunchy chips, a cuttlefish tostada, some astro turf, and cruisy beats we were sent into the most chilled out, happiest of places.

IMG_0268Earlier in the day the girls were made promises of Sundaes at Rochelle Adonis, so we decided to finish our palates off with some SUGAR.
I opted out of this as well, but they looked incredible, although maybe a little rich as Lucy and Anh couldn’t finish one between them.
I pocketed a couple of lemon curd tarts (I am suuuuuch a lemon curd fiend) to bring home for the boy, and Anh and I took our full tummies home.

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During the day we bumped into people we knew (bound to happen on this street) including our friend who had brought her Irish cousin along. He had just flown in the day before and this was his first taste of Perth. On a day like this I was so proud to call Perth home, event like these help us all embrace our city and to remind us how much we love dear little Perth.