Ok, wishful thinking calling myself a beauty. While I am from the land down under and I did try to be beautiful and even though beauty is apparently only skin deep, my natural reaction to claw, kick and bi-atch fight anyone who stands between my food and I pretty much vetoes my right to all beauty, including that of the inner variety, which is normally hidden below layers of flubber.
So be it. Eating is so much more rewarding anyway.
Thanks to some free tickets from Go Ahead Events, we headed down to the Toast Australia Festival in Clapham Common on Sunday’s balmy afternoon and rubbed shoulders (as well as VB’s, twisties, timtams and other fabulous treats from down under) with fellow Aussies.
It was completely refreshing to mingle amongst my people again, and for the first time since landing on English soil, I said “has anyone seen my thongs?” and no one looked at me like I was offering a free on-the-spot lap dance, nipple tassles included. Here, I could say thong as often as I liked, as loud as I liked, and I can even declare quite audibly that “I have thongs in every colour of the rainbow” (which I have done previously, in the office), and no one even blinks an eye. I’m home, and I’m safe.
The festival showcased some good ol’ Aussie chow, including BBQ, wine, and my very most favouritest thing in the whole wide world, pavlova. Don’t ask how I did it, but I once ate a whole large Cheesecake Shop pavlova, all by myself, all in one sitting. Did I feel sick afterwards? For sure! Was it worth it? Hell yeh! I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Damn I make me proud!
It took an enormous amount of constraint to only have a tiny pavlova, but there were other goodies to be had such as chocolate lamingtons, pineapple lumps (which are technically from New Zealand but shhhh), Darrell Lea’s original soft eating liqourice, and Belgian chocolate coated strawberries, which has nothing to do with Australia but were delish nonetheless!
Feeling a pang of sweet tooth guilt, I sought out something savoury (but you see, I had my dessert first. This is how I operate) in the form of Smith’s of Smithfield‘s venison burger, which was basically a big ball of venison that didn’t fit in my mouth. But I ate it, I always find a way. Supporting SoS (one of his many cash cow babies), John Torode was also on hand to sign some autographs, but I don’t watch Masterchef (gasp!) so I was a little meh. I know, I can feel virtual stabs in my foodie back. Lucky they’re virtual.
The afternoon wrapped up with a music-festival-style show from Sneaky Sound System, blasting groovy choons into the Common.
Thank you! I would now go on this blog every day!
Zoran