Opera delight

Have you ever seen anything so beautiful?

Imagine looking at this stunning view, thinking of the $42 wine you just drank (and try your hardest to forget that you also had to pay for it) at the opera bar.

Well, it is breathtaking.

Like a child being born, but even more beautiful, I'd imagine.

Mmmm.

High on Japanese food

Last night was a milestone in the life of my gastronomic experience.

Japanese food like you could never imagine.

I think we had five dishes, all absolutely mind blowing. I get tears in my eyes just thinking about it all. -That's how beautiful it was.

We started the evening off with a couple of cheeky little vodka apple's at a roofless bar in Darlinghurst, and then headed towards our dinner reservation at this tiny little Japanese restaurant.

It was so authentic, so atmospheric and the menu was so so so incredibly well thought through.

Each dish was a miracle of its own, *crying with joy*

We had deep fried zucchini flowers, some other dish with raw meet, avocado and toasted almond flakes, topped off with tiny drops of a golden citrus jelly (this was potentially the best combination of flavours I have ever experienced). We had oyster sushi and scallop sushi and kingfish sushi and tuna sushi and so on and it was all so tasty!!

Afterwards I was dizzy with delight and suspected I might have died, but I was probably just high on japanese food.

I would like to be forever high on sushi.

I still don't know what that place was.

Like a flower shop that sold vintage kitchen utensils and incredible little notebooks, mixed with stuffed animals and a giant giraffe, hidden away in a warehouse that was kind of like a garage but merely a discreet opening in the wall from the street.

It was what I would imagine heaven as, for a gay antique dealer with a passion for rare lilies and exclusive silver.

Hernandez and I

I must compliment myself on my incredible ability to locate superb food;

-You truly are splendid at this, Johanna.

-Well thank you!

Today I found Café Hernandez, where I enjoyed the most stunning brunch.

Grilled chicken, avocado, aioli sandwich on fresh sourdough bread. No picture could ever do this sandwich justice. ever.

It turns out the place is a local gem where aware Sydney ppl go to indulge.

And I found it, all by myself.

*proud*

Wollongongwoolloomooloo-poo

Koji, Elin and I took a little day trip to Wollongong.

You think it's a funny name for a town, until you realise there is a place called Woolloomooloo... Then Wollongong all of a sudden seems like a sensible name for a town!

Anyway, it was stunning, slightly windy and I saw kangaroo poo.

Sadness and soup

I got Pneumonia a few days ago.

Now, despite what one could think, Pneumonia in Sydney is not more exciting than it is anywhere else in the world.

It turned out to be painful and expensive.

But I was also introduced to Codeine, which was thankfully much more pleasant!

This is how sad I was.

But then the meds kicked in and we made the most incredible Udon noodle chicken soup and obviously I immediately felt better.

Dumpling darlings

Since arriving in Sydney I have become somewhat a veteran when it comes to dumplings and Yum Cha. We eat it almost every day. Sometimes we get a little drunk around noon, order more dumplings than we can afford and then drink a little more while wobbling towards the cinema where we laugh very loud and drink some more.

Freja and I took a day trip to Newtown. We managed some serious second hand shopping, enjoyed the best B.L.T and found an incredible rooftop bar.

Then we travelled back to Central Sydney for dinner and wine with Elin and Koji.

However the story doesn't finish there.... It finishes at 4 in the morning the day after.

Freja swimmed in the ocean and I danced through half Sydney in the rain, carrying a screwdriver

Oyster snackaroo.

The largest bird I have ever seen, was cruising around at the Sydney fish market.

The birdie has good taste!

Incredible rustic pizza.

Gastronomic coma

I am currently slightly alcoholed.

Elin and I just had an incredible seafood cook-off, actually, we are still in the middle of it.

We are cooking 3 very impressive dishes. Seriously severe and advanced cooking, You would be impressed. I will tell you more as soon as I sober up, and recover from the gastronomic coma we are currently experiencing. Promise.

Lemons and lovers

I spent most of the day in the sun, underneath this incredible lemon tree in Elin's back yard. It was so nice and warm. Like proper summer heat.

Then we chilled out in the park. It got pretty cold and Elin was ill. She fell asleep and I needed to pee.

The sun eventually set and all of a sudden it got INCREDIBLY cold.

I now have two new lovers which I desperately cling to.

They are called alcohol and heater, and I can't imagine my life without either of them.

I would guess its about 15 degrees inside. probably 12 actually.

It's so obvious Australia was occupied by Britain, you can really sense it; they share their superb (lack of) knowledge regarding insulation of houses.

Thankfully I bought a box of wine.

Sydney

G'day Mates!

You must all be pleased to hear I have safely arrived in the land down under.

The journey was over all pretty sweet, apart from the first flight to Frankfurt with SAS.

SAS, despite being a Scandinavian airline was shit.

It reminded me very much of Ryan Air actually, only the price was about 3 times higher. They have probably been bought by a British company...

Etihad airways on the other hand, - Sweet mother of Faz, I am speechless. Even the toilets on the plane had windows, and body lotion for some reason.... I think that says everything. It was incredible, and unlike Air China, they didn't serve dog for dinner.

Sydney is amazing. I am seriously LOVING it, it's actually fighting N.Y. at the top of my "favorite city list", which I though would never ever happen.

I need to go drink some fabulous red australian wine now, but I will of course update you again soon, now that I have a reliable internet connection.

So long!

I met dear old Freja for a glass of wine and the most incredible brownie.

Hung out in Darling Harbour, where I naturally belong (referring to "Darling", not the "Harbour")

Trip

Yesterday we started a new and mighty brilliant family business; "Grill Kids Event".

We sent out curious invites via sms and then kidnapped our excited parents, and took them on a journey. The destination was a cosy little town where we treated them to a champagne picnic and a visit to a famous ice cream bar. We accidentally all forgot our wallets though and consequently dad had to pay... ooops.

Mama and papa were happily allured to think that they had been treated to a lovely little event, when really, we all just wanted free ice cream. win win situation.

Aussie land

Sweden is so incredibly nice!

Since I came home I have done nothing but enjoying myself. I won't bore you with a list of activities but if I were to list what I spend my days doing, it would include a pool and lots of wine. I am of course loving every second, but.... as every sensible human being knows; everything should finish when it's at its best. -That way you never get disappointed, just stimulated. I realized this the other day and instantly came to the conclusion that I needed a contrasting scenery. So I thought to myself; the only sensible thing to do in this situation, is to go to the other side of the world, as far away from Sweden one can go.

That would be Antarctica, but then that didn't make much sense so I went for the second furthest away destination I could think of, Australia (which conveniently also starts with an A), a 35 hour journey, that should do the trick.

And as always when I get an impulse it has to happen fast, and so in four days I am leaving Stockholm for Sydney where I will spend the next month eating kangaroo and pretend I live in the Opera House. I am extremely excited about the prospects, and my wallet is crying blood.

But that doesn't matter so much because I will get to see Elin again!