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Archive for the ‘Television’ Category

Big social media night in.

Posted in Movies, Random musings, Television, tagged AAMI, Adam Sandler, Annabel Crabb, Daniel Dae Kim, Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days, Hawaii Five-O, Hotel Transylvania, Joe Hockey, Kerry Washington, Los Angeles, Louise Pratt, Mandy McElhinney, Movies, Nene King, Rhonda, safe driver, Shonda Rhimes, TCA, television, tv on October 18, 2012 | Leave a Comment »

So here I am on a Thursday night updating my social media.

Logged into Twitter.

Added some connections on LinkedIn.

Reset the password on a Yahoo account that had 400+ unread messages…why do I have four email addresses again?

This blog in particular is long overdue for a post.

It’s not like I have been idle. I’ve had all the actual work writing to contend with…often requiring interviews at odd hours. Oh, and a family…kids parties…life…etc etc…

Anyways, here are some links to pre-written ready-made content and photos!

Recently I got the chance to chat to Daniel Dae Kim whose work I have been following since the days of Angel.

Read about his time on Hawaii Five-O here:

Earlier in the year when I was at the TCA Winter Press Tour in Los Angeles I attended the session for the new Shonda Rhimes drama Scandal starring Kerry Washington.

The lovely Annabel Crabb was happy to chat about her new season of Kitchen Cabinet - she has high praise for the cooking skills of WA Senator Louise Pratt. Not so much so for poor Joe Hockey‘s barbecue prowess and the fact his oven still had plastic on it!

In an ideal world, I’d have posted the links to the kids’ movie reviews in the school holidays, not several days after they finished. Yes believe it or not, I watch TV every day and still go to the movies too!

Mwahahaha here’s Hotel Transylvania with the voice work of Adam Sandler “blah blah blah” , and Diary of a Wimpy Kid: Dog Days with general silliness.

And let’s call it a wrap with Perth’s Mandy McElhinney aka Rhonda the safe driver soon to be known as Nene King.

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Oprah at the Opera House

Posted in Television, Travel, tagged Australia, harbour, Hugh Jackman, Opera, Opera House, Oprah Winfrey, Sun, Sydney, tourism on January 16, 2011 | 2 Comments »

Boarding passes ready for the Oprah show! The Oprah Press Conference at the "Oprah" House

The stage is set for...Oprah at the Opera House

Here’s a few snaps from Tuesday December 14, the day Opera came to the Sydney Opera House. Shame I can’ t align properly!

It was sunny, the rain stayed away, everyone wore brightly coloured clothing and had a jolly good time. And got either a pearl or diamond necklace. And no, I was at the first show and did not get to see Hugh Jackman’s spectacular entrance!

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New Year, what else is new?

Posted in Food, Television, Travel, tagged Adriano, Australia, coffee, cook, croissant, macaron, macarons, masterchef, pastry, patisserie, Patissier, pie, Rozelle, sausage roll, SBS, Sydney, tv, Zumbo on January 16, 2011 | Leave a Comment »

According to an email I received from WordPress at the end of 2010, my blog is doing really well based on traffic/stats. That’s pretty amazing since it hasn’t been updated in about five months.

So whoever has been visiting (Twitter followers?) I thank you.

If I did an audit on the number of blog posts and tweets about food versus television or entertainment I think food might win.

On that note, I’d like to post a photo of a macaron from the famed Adriano Zumbo – ”Patissier of Pain” as he came to be known on MasterChef Australia.

Salted caramel macaron from Zumbo, Sydney

The Rozelle cafe outlet is much smaller than I imagined. It sells a selection of hot pies and sausage rolls, the ubiquitous macarons, tarts and assorted pastries like croissants. There are perhaps eight to 10 stools to perch at while having a nibble and a coffee. As a bonus, there are windows into the commercial kitchen where the macarons are being made. And yes, Adriano was at work the day we visited.

There were perhaps a dozen flavours on offer the afternoon of our visit including peach tea, apricot and rosemary, raspberry licorice, banana but alas no chocolate. Actually the macaron pictured may have been salted butter caramel.

I’m looking forward to the documentary series Zumbo coming to SBS next month where Adriano sets out to create 60 flavours.

Zumbo macarons, a little worse for wear after flying Sydney to Perth!

I also hope to return in search of a chocolate or hazelnut macaron to benchmark it against my favourites in Perth from Choux, Rochelle Adonis, Jean Pierre Sancho and Globe.

The best bit about the Zumbo macarons is they are only $2 each – in Perth most are anywhere from $2.30 to $2.80 and I’ve even heard reports of $3.50 a pop!

It was a relief to finally try the real deal, having grabbed a macaron from a Sydney cake shop in October that was oversized, too sweet and ended up in the bin. Ditto the one I picked up on the run at a Sydney wine bar/cafe last month, which was more like a meringue.

Last but not least, here’s a hazelnut macaron with banana icecream from the dessert menu at Rockpool Bar & Grill. No, I didn’t order it.

Hazelnut macaron wiht banana ice cream filling

Hazelnut macaron with banana ice cream centre from Rockpool Bar and Grill

What did I order you might ask.

Well, there are two things I Tweet about a lot.

Macarons

and

Donuts.

Voila:

Dessert donuts at Rockpool Bar and Grill, Sydney

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Macaron madness and a general update

Posted in Food, Perth & WA, Television, Travel, tagged 7pm Project, Adriano Zumbo, Andrew Rochford, Bondi Vet, Cafe Vue, Chris Brown, Chris Taylor, Jean-Pierre Sancho, journalist, macaron, macaroon, masterchef, Melbourne, Rochelle Adonis, The Chaser, The West Australian, tv, Yes We Canberra! on August 8, 2010 | 1 Comment »

There’s no point having a blog if you don’t update it regularly so on my recent track record, I should be thinking about closing this site down.

Working full-time, watching preview DVDs at night, doing interviews as early as 6am and raising a family leaves me with little time to update this but I am going to have another crack.

There’s also the issue of public versus private. How much do I reveal here now my face is in the paper most days of the week? Do I even need this as an outlet?

For starters I am going to post a few links to stories that have been in The West.

Last week I chatted to Dr Andrew Rochford for The 7pm Project’s special report on the state of mental health funding.

I also recently chatted to Bondi Vet and all round nice guy Dr Chris Brown

Chaser performer and writer Chris Taylor took time out from shooting to talk about The Chaser’s new series Yes We Canberra! although my byline seems to have fallen off this one.

All in all it has been a busy couple of months, with a flying set visit to Melbourne in June that allowed me the opportunity to squeeze in a meal at Grossi Florentino.

Over the coming months this blog is likely to become more food focussed as I leave my TV commentary to the newspaper and Twitter.

So, having just backed up my iPhone, let’s start with a few foodie pics.

Inspired by MasterChef and my sweet tooth I have been trying macarons from just about everywhere, though I am still hanging out to get to Sydney to visit Adriano Zumbo’s patisserie.

Here are some recent purchases, top to bottom, from Jean-Pierre Sancho in Perth and Cafe Vue in Melbourne. I can’t seem to find any photos of macarons from Choux so will add them later. And I was about to upload one of Rochelle Adonis’ chocolate macarons when it disappeared.

Photos backed up from my iPhone seem to be appearing in totally random order, not by date taken. Frustrating!

Macaron Madness - macarons from Jean Paul Sancho, Perth

Macaron Madness - macarons from Jean-Pierre Sancho, Perth

Macarons from Cafe Vue, Melbourne

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Where did that week go?

Posted in Perth & WA, Random musings, Television, tagged cafe, Food, hand sanitiser, journalist, Media, newspaper, reporter, round, The West, tv on May 16, 2010 | 1 Comment »

Well I survived my first week back in full-time employment.

Things that have changed since I left The West in 2007.

*The side gate I used to use as a shortcut to the foyer is now locked. Padlocked and covered in cobwebs, in fact. I felt pretty daft marching around to use it, then marching right back again.

*There’s still next to nowhere to eat. Maybe I should buy a Jiffy food van?

*Sky News has a reporter in residence. I wondered who the pretty girl was who was talking to herself; then I realised when I stuck my head past the partition she was doing a piece to camera. It’s amazing the set-up she has and apparently it doesn’t pick up all of our noise.

*For a whole day I wondered why they had only hand sanitiser in the toilets, the stuff you don’t use with water. Then I realised the soap dispensers were built-in next to the tap. Like they had always been.

*It’s not a good idea to go to the loo around lunchtime. That’s when they are closed for cleaning.

*The editorial computer system is far more user-friendly (though some users found it hard to believe I’d said that) and the internal message system has gone.

*You need to dial 0 to get an outside line, not 9. Or you end up ringing random people in sport by mistake. I think.

*That it’s a good idea to tell switchboard you’ve returned to work, or they accidentally tell people you don’t work there anymore.

*Home -baked goods are embraced and encouraged – although I was a bit shocked to overhear one colleague saying my Chocolate Crackle Top cookies looked like dog poo circa when dogs ate bones. She thinks I didn’t hear her because I was on the phone several rows away. Ha!

*Travelling reporters can borrow a Dell netbook and wireless USB modem. Amazing! I’m testing one out tomorrow.

*I received mail from a movie company on my third day, before I had changed my address with them. I realised that mail had probably been coming in and going in the bin since 2007. I hadn’t realised because I also get their mailouts by email.

*I could spend several weeks explaining how long I was gone for and why I am back.

There’s nothing quite like a newsroom, especially when you started working in one aged 17. Only newspaper people really understand newspapers and newspaper people - to this day I’ m pretty sure 75 per cent of my non-media friends have no idea what I actually do. Actually some media people probably don’t either, since my round is TV but I’m not on it