A recap on the visit to Sydney

Just a quick recap of Sydney. This was the map we had in our pocket the whole time we were in Sydney. I decided that I'd note down the places that we'd visited and walked so that I can work out later how many kilometres we walked in Sydney on Saturday. If I had to take a guess I'd say we walked about 10kms or more on the Saturday. Back and forth from the apartment. We stayed at Hyde Park Regency Apartments which is not on the map but right next to Hyde Park Hotel (37) which I have circled on the map. If you're curious, just click on the above photo and look for spots marked with numbers to indicate where we went to.

In order travelled:

1. Darling Harbour, Cockle Bay - Breakfast at CMC
2. Sydney Fish Market - Lunch
3. Haymarket - Shopping
4. World Square - Puffy
5. Hyde Park - Walkabouts
6. Martin Place - Afternoon tea at Lindt Cafe
7. Circular Quay - Sight seeing
8. The Rocks - Sight seeing
9. DFS Galleria - The only thing that was opened after 5pm (on the way back to the Apartment)
10. Dining Bar Musashi - Dinner
11. Back to Hyde Park for night scene
12. QVB Building (which we also went to on the way back from Haymarket)

Things I went to Sydney for and missed out on:

1. Cupcakes from Cupcakes on Pitt <-- not opened on the weekend. I was crushed when I found out. My sole purpose for going to Sydney and it wasn't opened for business.
   
2. Jimmy's Recipes for Laksa <-- I read about this at Deborah's of The Food Palate
3. Ramen from Ichiban Boshi <-- read about this at Helen's of Grab Your Fork
4. Victoire Bakery <-- read about this at Jen's of Milk and Cookies

I know I probably couldn't have fitted in anymore food after all the eating that we did in those two days, but a girl can have a wish list right?

Places I want to go the next time I visit Sydney:

1. Billy Kwong
2. Breakfast at Bills
3. Cupcakes from Neutral Bay
4. Beard Papa's (if they're not in Melbourne by then)
5. Pyrmont Grower's market
6. Good Food Show in Sydney

So there you have it, I am proud to announce that I ate my way (as much as I could) around Sydney and I admit (shamefully) that the whole trip was planned around food. It's not that we don't have food and good places in Melbourne, just that when you plan a trip with another foodie, we'd tend to get a bit over excited about food. LOL

My next mission, (should I wish to accept it) will be to find the best of my favourite food in Melbourne. Eg. Best Mocha, Best Caesar Salad, Best Okonomiyaki (was at Daimaru) etc.

Note to self: First you need to get 100% and start exercising again, before you go eating! :)

My BBM Package arrived.. almost a month ago!

Monday 25 September, back from Sydney and totally buggered.

I'm glad I foresaw the conclusion of my quick weekend getaway to Sydney and took a couple of extra days off, with intention to recover from the early mornings and late nights that we imposed on ourselves just so we could get as much out of the short time we had in Sydney.

Supposedly a day off to spend with my dear friend Ali who's back. A day to go eating and shopping and cooking for the catch-up dinner party I had hosted for her.

Finally dragged myself out of bed, got ready and as I was pulling out of the driveway I saw a bump sticking out of the mailbox. At first I was thinking..."Great, more junk mail and a big one too this time". So I got out of the car, opened the mail box and what do I see.... my BBM Package!! My heart sang with joy as I took the package out of the mailbox and got back into the car.

I reckon I spent a whole 10 minutes contemplating in the car with the engine running trying to decide whether I should go back into the house and open it or wait til a bit later because I was already running late to pick up Ali for lunch.

I decided to wait because I wanted to unwrap the parcel and spend time oogling each item... even though what I really wanted to do was to tear it up and dig into the package.

Umm.. as you could probably tell from the picture above, I tried "really" hard to contain my excitement but I couldn't resist taking a photo of it in between traffic lights. A bit dangerous I know. I was lucky there was no coppers around to pull me over or anything.

To cut a long story short (because I'm going to post about my friend's idea of the BEST CLUB SANDWICH she'd ever had and the dinner later), my BBM package is from Clivia of Clivia's Cuisine all the way from Stockholm, Sweden.


IKEA!! Was my first thought when I saw the blue and yellow package and when I turned it over to see who it was from it was marked clearly from Sweden. (Sorry Clivia, I hope you're not too offended):)

I didn't get to open my package until close to 12midnight (after everyone left) that day hence the quality of the photos.

Clivia wrote me a lovely card introducing herself and telling me a bit about Stockholm and the season they're currently in as well as the recent elections held in Sweden. She mentioned that visited Australia about 4 years ago and visited Queensland, Sydney, Wilson's Promentary and Melbourne.

In her lovely package, she's included:

A multilingual book on Stockholm in English, German and Russian. She had even marked out a few pages in the book indicating the building where she works and the part of town where she works. :)

Also included were some candy (lollies as we call them in Australia) and chocolates:

Bilar which is a car shaped marshmallow candy. Clivia mentioned in her car that Volvos are not the most common cars in Sweden but these are! Hehe

Marabou Fruit and Nut chocolate: Clivia, I LOVE FRUIT AND NUT CHOCOLATES! I haven't opened them yet as I'm trying to be really good and eat healthy foods at the moment but OMG when I saw that it was fruit and nut I nearly tore the package apart. LOL

Daim: I wasn't sure what Daim was so I googled it and found that it's actually a caramel chocolate. Clivia says that these are one of her favourite chocolate. I can't wait to sink my teeth into them.

Jams: Lingonberry Jam and Cloudberry Jam. I've had Lingonberry Jam before, with my Swedish Meatballs from Ikea. They're delicious and somewhat akin to cranberry jam but less sugary. Clivia tells me that the lingonberry jams often accompany some savoury food in Sweden. Cloudberry Jams on the other hand are a very exclusive and special. They're delicious when melted and served with vanilla ice cream. I was like WOW when I saw the cloudberry jam. (Clivia: I will try them, soon I hope. As soon as my friend's wedding is over!)

Dala Horse Napkins: Clivia tells me that the Dala horse is usually carved in wood and decorated traditionally with flowers and ornaments. A little bit of investigation on my part found that Dala horses are a symbol of Swedish dexterity and frugality. They originated from when a soldier in a war waged by King Charles the XII of Sweden carved a wooden horse in exchange for food and warmth (because it was during winter) provided by the owners of the home where he was temporarily staying. The soldier painted and decorated the horse before presenting it to the child of the couple and the preceeded to make a horse for every meal he ate.
Read about the history of Dala Horses here.

To Clivia, thank you for sharing the wonderful things about Stockholm and Sweden. I still have yet to taste any of the wonderful things you've sent me, but I promise to dig into the bar of Daim as soon as these next two weeks are over!

To Stephanie, I'm sorry it took forever, but I've finally got my act together and posted about the lovely package from Clivia. Thank you again for organising the swaps and I look forward to your next BBM event.

Blogging By Mail (BBM) is a global parcel swapping event hosted by Stephanie of The Happy Sorceress.