2 sleeps till japan

konnichiwa the time has finally come... only 2 sleeps to go, a quick post with outline of itinerary....

18-25 may:   tokyo (with side trips to hakone & kawaguchiko)
26-27 may:   hiroshima & miyajima
28 may:        nara & thousand steps
29-31 may:   takayama
01 june:        osaka

and because a post wouldn't be a post without a picture... here are the places we will be. the aeroplane should show that we fly into tokyo and depart from osaka - but since its been borrowed from this website, beggars can't be choosers its not exact but does illustrate our journey quite well.  oh and in case you are wondering we aren't travelling with goaway, we're just wandering around independently.

sayonara!!

strawberry + whipped cream pavlova {homebaked}

series 2 of the masterchef challenge is on channel 10 currently and on the nights that i am home and on time to watch it i get inspired to cook & bake. my first inspiration in this series was donna hay's pavlova... mashmallowy soft on the inside with a crunchie outer crust (my favourite part of a pavlova). we had a dinner invite to peggy + paul's house last weekend so i thought i'd give the pav a whirl! paul is the masterchef in our little group of friends whilst all i ever do is, bring a salad/drinks/fruit/or store bought dessert... so this dinner i thought i'd spoil them with some home baking.

i was feeling confident that i would be able to make this dessert a success because donna hay made it look so easy... all the while i was praying that it would work out.

can you believe that we bought this 10 years ago
(with the intention that i was going to be a domestic goddess... hehe)
we just opened & used it last sat!

ta-da!!