Happy 101

Are you happy? It's a question that is difficult to answer in one word, unless you are currently in a very polarising situation (just been given a piece of delicious cake, just had your scoop of ice cream plummet from your cone etc). We all have periods in our lives when it is necessary to consciously think of the things that really make us happy and that we should do our best to remember when life is giving us lemons. Think of these things as the rest of the ingredients for lemon meringue pie, if you will.

Luckily for me I have a reason to think of those pie ingredients without having to dodge lemons thanks to Gina from Simply Life. Gina has a great blog going in Simply Life, although I have to fight frustration when reading it as she often writes about new products that she has discovered that aren't available in Australia, and her recipes make me hungry. Gina must know that surprises make me happy, and she surprised me by passing on her Happy 101 Award to me recently. Thank you, Gina!

I'll now share 10 of my personal pie ingredients with you...

1. Enjoying a feast with my family (this Easter is going to be particularly awesome - our usual Good Friday seafood extravaganza and the usual extended family get-together on Easter Sunday PLUS my Nephew's first birthday party on the Saturday!);
2. Having a laugh with my mates, especially on a weekend, when the night is young and fun a-plenty awaits;
3. Enjoying a cold beer on a warm day in the bush or down the beach - bonus points if the stubby has trivia questions under the bottle top and I get a particularly tricky one correct;
4. Finding out that someone I had no idea even knew my blog existed is a regular reader;
5. Hitting a killer tennis shot that I actually did on purpose, especially if I do so by hitting the ball with that sweet spot on the racquet that makes the perfect noise;
6. Waking up in the morning and realising I am on holidays - even better when in a foreign location;
7. Going out for a well deserved breakfast after a punishing gym session;
8. Getting some totally super exciting results after struggling through confusing statistical analyses;
9. Seeing someone's face when they open a present that I totally nailed;
10. Receiving comments on my blog (wasn't going to put this one in case everyone rolled their eyes at the apparent comment fishing, but it's certainly something that makes me super happy so here 'tis!).

Now to finish off this big pile of happy, here are 10 bloggers that make me happy too:

• Agnes from off the spork
• Devan from Bowl of Honey
• mademoiselle délicieuse from spoon, fork & chopsticks
• Mr. P from Delicious Delicious Delicious
• Hannah from a very foodly diary
• Rose from Food, Fuck Yeah!
• Trissa from Trissalicious
• Karen from Eat Drink Wash Up
• Penny from Jeroxie (Addictive & Consuming)
• Karen from Citrus and Candy  

If you click on these links your happiness meter will go up and you might finally beat the happiness top score and get to enter your initials! Actually, I always felt ripped off with this as I have lame initials and never wanted to enter "CON" because that made me think of Con the Fruiterer. It was a happy day when gaming technology improved such that you could enter more than three characters for your name.

Happy day everyone! May your cakes be moist and your socks dry.

FYI, I'm OTT

Woo, another excuse to cry 'Hot dog, I'm a weiner'! Kath from A cupcake or two was kind enough to pass on her "Over the Top!" blog award to me which I gratefully and happily accept, noting with relief that it's not an "Ova the Top!" or "Over tha Topp!" blog award, reminiscent of the "Kreativ Blogger" award that the lovely Rilsta of My Food Trail passed onto me a few months back.

Thanks very much Kath, I'm so glad that you have enjoyed my last 7 or so months of eating and writing. I would have stopped doing this (blogging, I mean... I'll never stop eating... they'll have to cremate me when I die lest I eat the earth away from my grave) a long time ago if it weren't' for people like yourself who inspire me with your blogs, and take the time to comment on mine. For those of you who aren't familiar with A cupcake or two, please go check it out, especially if you're at all curious about Filipino cuisine (or just tasty food in general).

In accepting this award, I must pass it on to another 6 of my favourite bloggers, and also provide one-word answers to the following questions. Here goes...

Where is your cell phone? Charging
Your hair? Confusing
Your mother? Lovely
Your father? Funny
Your favourite food? Ummmm
Your dream last night? Blank
I have to pause here and share a story... apparently my housemate's Mum has been having a recurring dream lately, where she finds herself trapped inside a giant pavlova. Yes, a giant pavlova.
Your favourite drink? Champagne
Your dream/goal? Success
What room are you in? Mezzanine
Your hobby? Food
Your fear? Spiders
Where do you want to be in 6 years? Happy
Where were you last night? Pub
Something that you aren’t? Anorexic
Muffins? Rarely
Wish list item? House
Where did you grow up? Geraldton
Last thing you did? Beer
What are you wearing? Jeans
Your TV? Borrowed
Your pets? Smasher
Friends? Joy
Your life? Busy!
Your mood? Happy
Missing someone? Family
Vehicle? Dirty
Something you’re not wearing? Diamonds
Your favourite store? Fluevog
Your favourite color? Purple
When was the last time you laughed? Today
Last time you cried? Monday
Your best friend? Sister
One place that I go to over and over? Toilet
One person who emails me regularly? Sister
Favourite place to eat? Everywhere

Now for the hard part... selecting only 6 fellow bloggers to pass this award onto. I love all my Google Reader children, each one is special in its own way. Can't we be more Montessori about this? As I can't give everyone a sticker, here are 6 of my favourites, in no apparent order:

Iron Chef Shellie
Ooh, Look...
My Food Trail
The Gourmet Challenge
Eat, live, travel, write
Cheap Ethnic Eatz

Keep up the fine work, girls. May Santa bring you all KitchenAids, perfect lighting and extra dessert stomachs.

Other blogs I love to procrastinate with are shown over here somewhere =====>>> on my foodie blogroll... they're well worth the messy house, dirty car and unwritten papers. In the words of that fine Aussie Jeff Fenech, I love youse all.

Hot dog! I'm a kreativ weiner!

I was super happy to be nominated by Rilsta of 'My Food Trail' for a Kreativ Blogger Award recently (although if I'm to be perfectly honest, I think I'd rather be a "Creative" Blogger. I can't seem to uncover the reasoning behind the spelling, but I guess we can just be grateful that it's not "Kreativ Blogga"). I only recently discovered Rilsta's blog when I came across one of her articles on WordontheStreet (not while looking for my own articles, I swear) and have been following it ever since. You should check out My Food Trail if you haven't already - she has some great recipes and Melbourne restaurant reviews, and I enjoy her writing style. She also clearly has impecable taste if this nomination is anything to go by.. thanks heaps Rilsta!

(As a side note, I just realised that we have both been blogging for around 3 months, have similar header images on our blogs, and write about similar things. Perhaps we are the same person?)

Now, apparently this nomination isn't entirely a free ride, as you need to adhere to the following rules:

1. You must thank the person who has given you the award.
2. Copy the logo and place it on your blog.
3. Link to the person who has nominated you for the award.
4. Name 7 things about yourself that people might find interesting.
5. Nominate 7 other Kreativ Bloggers.
6. Post links to the 7 blogs you nominate.
7. Leave a comment on the blogs to let them know they have been nominated.

Reading Rilsta's answers to number 4 reveals that in fact we are not the same person, as I love vegetables and I am reasonably confident I was not born in Singapore.

Onto my potentially interesting things...

1. When I left high school I did just over a year of a medical degree before "withdrawing" (so totally different to dropping out). This in no way means I have any useful medical knowledge, so please don't expect me to perform an emergency tracheotomy if the situation calls for it.

2. I'm somewhat of a gym junkie, though I'm not so sure I like this term. My regular early starts to get to gym classes are a bit of a running joke amongst my friends who tend to think I'm a bit crazy. We'll see who's laughing when they need someone to open the jam jar.

3. I was given my very first LEGO toys when I was 26. They are displayed next to my RC daleks and above my Futurama wind-up tin toys. Make of this what you will.

4. I know the pain of years of orthodontic work. As my sister kindly reminded me last night during a family dinner, I used to look like a shark. Too many teeth, none of which seemed to actually be in the right spot. Thanks to modern dentistry and parents willing to fork out the exorbitant associated costs however, I am able to grin toothily without fear of sparking claims of conehead sightings.

5. I worked at McDonald's for around four years, through high school and during my first summer break from uni. I was actually awarded runner-up for best drive-thru presenter (the person who gives you your food at the last window) in Western Australia in 1999, and was presented my award at Adventure World by Basil Zempilas.

6. I have Morton's Toe (known as "coup dé-toe" on Seinfeld) meaning my second toes are longer than my big toes. This is pretty common in my family. I also have pretty big feet and have been laughed at by saleswomen in at least two Asian countries when I asked if they had any shoes in my size. I'd like to say these two foot features combine to give me amazing ninja skills but instead I'll just move on to number 7...

7. I have donated plasma and will be starting to donate platelets soon! This is actually pretty cool because platelets only last for five days, so I will probably be called in regularly to donate for specific people when they are booked in to get cancer treatment (you can donate plasma or platelets every 2-3 weeks or so, as opposed to whole blood donations which you can only do every 12 weeks as you need to replenish your red cell count). The reason why I am mentioning this fact about myself is because maybe hopefully it might remind one of you that you've been meaning to look into donating blood and spur you on to do it. Or maybe you've done it before and, like me, don't actually get around to doing it as often as you would like to. Check out the Red Cross website for more information. It doesn't take very long, is only as painful as a tiny pin prick and they give you a good feed after! It's also a good opportunity to catch up on trashy magazine reading if you haven't been to a doctor's surgery or the hairdresser lately.

(For those of you at UWA, the mobile donor bus will be parked up next to the Arts Building near Riley Oval on Monday 3rd and Tuesday 4th August from 9:30am to 2:30pm. You can make an appointment by calling 13 14 95 or just rocking up and seeing when they have a timeslot free)

Now, onto my nominations, in alphabetical order:

Jasmine of Confessions of a Cardamom Addict
Jason of Tannic Teeth
Matt of Abstract Gourmet
Panamahat of solo trekking through recurrent miscarriage
Rachel of Beyond Beeton
Sarah of Suite Apple Pie
TFP of The Food Pornographer