Action From the Aussie Open 2011 in Melbourne

I've never attended a tennis tournament before so I was very excited about going to the Australian Open in Melbourne.  Being a Federer fan, my prime purpose was to 1) see an exciting match with Federer playing and 2) to get his autograph. 


I set out to achieve these objectives by:

• purchasing tickets for both of the men's quarter final matches held at night (reasoning being that Federer might not make it past the quarters, given his current form at the time I bought tickets; but he's still No. 2
• paying the ridiculous premium to stay at Crown Towers (the choice of Federer, Nadal, Roddick and other top 10 players); and
• upgrading our package to include access to Crystal Club, the hotel's executive lounge).

What happened in the end:

• Roger ended up playing during the day session, but luckily I managed to score two lower-level seats for $50 the night before! 
• I never met Roger, but rather his wife & entourage. Mirka refused to sign my ball, citing her reason as "only my husband signs things". It made our subsequent run-ins at the club rather awkward for me...
• We met Nadal outside the club - he was relatively tiny in person compared to what I've seen on TV (or that infamous Emporio Armani underwear ad), but ever so polite. I made him wait for what seemed like ages while I rustled through my bag for a pen... and he still thanked us twice after autographing. It made watching his match that night more personal and painful! 
• On our last day during breakfast, I saw Roger's manager at the buffet and took my chance to ask him whether Roger would be popping down. He said Roger tends to sleep in really late, so it's not likely he would be making an appearance. I was crestfallen, so he kindly went through his bag and found an autographed card for me! Wasn't what I originally set out to achieve, but better than nothing :-)
• Matches-wise, the three matches we saw were straight-setters which was disappointing. I also miss the commentary on TV while in the arena. Nevertheless, I still plan to return next year for the finals! 

Crystal Club at Crown Towers

Nadal's signature on our jumbo ball

The autographed card that Roger's manager gave me

Berdych v Djokovic quarters

Federer v Wawrinka quarters
(excuse the finger, I couldn't see under the sun's glare on my phone)

Federer closer-up

Hair from Heaven

Who doesn't want fabulous hair 24/7?  If you're like me and don't have the moolah for an on-call personal hair stylist, then the 5 products below will allow you to "fake it til you make it"! 


#1: MoroccanOil Original Oil Treatment


All you have to do with this is towel-dry your hair, and rub half-a-5c-piece's worth (for medium-length fine hair) of oil into damp hair.  I'm not sure how it works, but this has cut down at least a third of my usual blow-drying time and leaves it soooo soft and shiny. You know you're doing something right when people start complimenting you on your shiny hair! 


Available from Stefan hair salons or online at many websites such as www.ry.com.au.  The full-size 100mL costs $49.50 and the 25mL costs $24.95. (I bought the smaller size; it's been 3 months and I've used about 1/8 of it). 

#2: MoroccanOil Intense Hydrating Mask


A frolleague of mine (check out her blog at www.thoughtsobservationshumour.blogspot.com) very generously bought this for me as a gift, and it perfectly complements the oil. I try to use it once a week. The 250mL jar costs $49.50. 

#3: Parlux Ceramic & Ionic 3500 Hair Dryer


I won't bore you with the scientific details of why this hair dryer is fabulous (seeing as I'm probably not qualified to, having graduated with a B in physics)... just know that it simply is!  It is much more powerful than your average hair dryer, so apart from cutting down drying time, it also leaves your hair soft and shiny. Sells for $144.95 on www.ry.com.au.  

#4: Cloud Nine Hair Straightener


This amazing gadget is the new GHD... only better! The people behind this styling tool were actually the creators of GHD. I guess they set out to make something better! 


One of the key differences is that the Cloud9 has a temperature gauge with 6 different settings. I could never straighten my fringe with the GHD because the temperature was far too hot, so I am very thankful for this feature. Basically Cloud9's philosophy is to do the same thing as the GHD, only with less heat so your hair is left in a healthier state. They also claim that the special black plates make your hair shinier with each use... and I actually believe them! 


The wide iron retails for $270 and the micro iron retails for $90. I bought the Christmas package (pictured below) for $200 at Stelios Papas salon (Queen St, Brisbane). I'm pretty sure various salons still stock this gift set, so be quick if you want one! 

#5: Keune Shampoo


I've used a fair few shampoos in my lifetime, including supermarket and hair salon brands, and high-end products from Redken, Keratase and GHD.  Some work at first, but eventually neglect to do their job and/or leave awful residue behind (probably my #1 gripe).  This shampoo has lasted me for about 6 months now, and still going strong. Like any other shampoo, the trick is to lather a few drops into your hair, wet it again, and then apply a 5c piece's worth before lathering further.


Retails for $18.50 and it will last you ages! 

Whilst I am over the moon with these five tools/products with how they've improved my tresses, the one thing I'm still searching for is the perfect hairspray. I'm currently using Tresemme, but I've heard great things about the MoroccanOil hairspray so I'll probably try this out and let you know if it's any good.... 

Wedding photos and a trip down memory lane

A few days ago, we finally received our wedding photos on a DVD. It's been a while, considering we got married in September 2009! Not the photographer's fault though, we were incredibly slack and took forever to edit the album - and with 180 pages and literally thousands of photos to choose from, it was no small task. What also slowed the process down was hubby's idea to special order a Louis Vuitton trunk to encase the album in and that took 7 months to arrive. Then our photographer wanted to design a custom insert to slide into the trunk so that our albums could sit both flush and upwards against each other (there are two volumes). I'll post a picture when it's all finished so you see what I mean, which will hopefully be by the end of January.

In the meantime, here are some pics of our special day:

Dress by Bora Couture





The choir was from my primary school, which meant a lot to me.

The dress I wore at the wedding reception, an off-the-rack dress by Bora Couture.

Belated Oprah Post

I'm very sorry I've neglected this blog and never posted about my time at the Oprah show like I said I would.  So here it is...


I attended the morning session and had a total ball! My cousin and I dressed up in bright colours as Harpo recommended; I wore the Safari Maxi dress from French Connection in black with a black patent belt and black Espadrilles. 

Our tickets and wrist bands.

We stayed at Sir Stamford at Circular Quay, the closest hotel I could find to the Opera House. We figured we would have brekky and head down to line up at 7.30am - half an hour before Harpo wanted anyone to start lining up.  Clearly we were the idiots for abiding by the guidelines as I heard people were lining up since 2am! Crazy! So by the time we arrived, the line was already massive.

There were still many, many people people us though (who probably thought they would be on time or early!).

Yep, all those dots you see under those trees are people of this earth!

Unfortunately, our seats were in the monumental steps area and thus unallocated. This meant that our punctuality resulted to pretty average seats. But they could have been much, much worse.

If it wasn't for the recording setup in the middle, our seats would have been pretty darn good!

As for the actual show, I've always been an avid Oprah fan so to see her charm in real life was an amazing experience. I suspect the couple sitting next to me didn't really give a rats though, as they would complain every time she gave out free stuff to actual people in the show, instead of the audience *thumbs down*

If you squint, you can see Russell Crowe and Oprah sitting in the middle :-)

Oprah held interviews with Russell Crowe (who cited "dental care" as the difference between American and Aussie men); the Irwins (this segment made me cry); Jay-Z; and a couple where the husband is battling through cancer and dedicated a YouTube video to his wife for taking care of him (made me really cry).

So what did Oprah give away? The segment with Jay-Z involved him going to a special school in Canterbury, where the boys from disadvantaged backgrounds really look up to him as a role model. Turns out they were all sitting in the Opera House with their teachers watching the show recording live! Oprah in conjunction with Microsoft donated a PC to every student as well as a laptop for their teachers. She also gave away $250,000 to the couple battling cancer, with the help of XBox.

I honestly didn't expect to receive anything from the show, given there were 6,000 of us (except for water, which we received in a showbag along with an inflatable cushion, sunscreen and a poncho). But I probably shouldn't have underestimated Oprah - and I was screaming my head off when she said all 6,000 of us were going to receive a necklace from Kailis with a pearl and silver "O" engraved. A true momento of the day. I've called up to redeem the necklace and can't wait to receive it!

m'I gniog ot ees Harpo!!

I'm a self-confessed, unashamed Oprah fan.  So naturally, I stayed up on the night the show tickets were drawn to see if I was lucky enough to score one.  

Unfortunately I wasn't.  I was devstated.  I even moped along with other disappointed fans on the Vogue Forums.

At about 5.00pm the next day, I received a call from my cousin (whom I told about registration for these tickets) and she told me she actually got tickets!! Of course, I thought she was pulling my leg so it took a while for her to convince me.

I still can't believe my luck! I was squealing and carrying on at work, quite embarrassing really. You'd think I had won the $20 million oz lotto draw or something!

Flights and accommodation are booked, I'm all set.  Will definitely blog behind-the-scenes reports and hopefully some pictures too!

Gunshop Cafe, West End

The Gunshop Cafe (http://www.thegunshopcafe.com/home) is one of those places that I have heard and read lots about, but never made the effort to venture to.  I decided to change this fact and visit the breakfast institution for brunch this morning.


The place was chockers full of people - a great sign!  We only waited about 5 minutes for our table which is much better than I had expected, going by peer reviews.  The ambience and presentation of the place is very much "west end", with its eclectic mix of people and mis-matched furniture.

The cafe slowed down at about noon.

Mr Label Me ordered the Double smoked bacon, poached eggs, tomato, herbed hollandaise and sourdough ($15.50).  He was rather underwhelmed with his dish - apparently the hollandaise was bland and the sourdough was over-toasted.

Looks appetising, but looks can be deceiving!

I ordered the Canadian brioche french toast with bacon, maple syrup, caramelised banana and pecans ($17.50).  It was absolutely delicious!  I even forgave them for the 35-minute wait for the food ;-)

This makes the Sunday brunch worth living for.

Obviously my experience was far better than Mr Label Me's but we agreed that we should return and try the seemingly-popular potato fetta hash cakes.  All in all, one of the best brunches I've had in Brissy and I love that they open for breakfast until 12.30pm on Sundays.  A definite thumbs up from me!