A Turtle Stranger

Bridge of Clay

I have just finished Marcus Zusak’s new book. It is a monster, nearly 600 pages long. This is the third book by him, and each one varies so differently from the last. Each book that comes out though, my love for Zusak dies a little more. Granted, The Book Thief is an absolute classic, and not much would be able to live up to that reputation, but each book just gets harder and harder to read from him.

It is a book that is hard to really get into. I struggled to push myself to read the first 200 pages before I was actually interested in the storyline. I think this was because of the sequence, with Zusak jumping backwards and forwards in time. But with the number of characters and the different time zones, it was confusing and messy. I get that he was probably trying to do something artistic with it, and there was probably some ‘meaning’ to it, but all it really did for me as a reader was lose interest very quickly.

I pushed on though, because I kept hearing from so many people that it was amazing. I am glad I finished it, but to be honest, it is not something I would recommend others to sit through. I easily get emotionally invested in stories, and I have been known to cry quite easily when I am caught up in a story, for either happy or sad reasons. I did not shed a single tear in this story, and it was meant to be heart breaking. I could see it there, I could see that I was meant to be upset, but I just wasn’t. The characters were not developed well enough, again because of the jumpy nature of the storyline. There was no clear relationship between the reader and the characters.

The best bit about the book, and the most interesting part about it was the ‘suprises’ throughout. The twists and turns that the readers couldn’t see coming (although maybe sort of could see coming).

Normally I am first in line to go out and grab each Marcus Zusak book, but after this one, I am not sure that I will ever do that again. I think I have been lost.

I give this book 3 out of 5.

This will only hurt a little bit

It’s early days of 2019, but I think I am ready to call my #1 book of the year already. Busy Phillip’s autobiography, This Will Only Hurt a Little Bit. I powered through this book in a day, I barely came up for air.

I am not normally one for autobiographies. I enjoy them every now and then, but as a whole I would much prefer a fictional story, or a story telling a fuller story with lots of different perspectives, as opposed to just one person. But this is the exception.

Busy is someone I have seen around a few times but not someone I closely followed, until the #metoo movement when she appeared on Ellen. That’s when I started to hear about her story and get interested. Busy speaks candidly about her life, the good, the bad, the ugly. One thing I loved about her book, and by extension her, is that she is so honest about herself, including her flaws. Calling out when she has done something shitty, or calling out when she regrets doing something a certain way. That’s what makes her story so good, because she is someone who recognises her flaws, and still battles on with life and you root for her, you want her to have all the success in the world.

I don’t want to give anything away, but Busy’s experience as a woman and the different experiences she has had with the men around her are things that resonate with the audience, and they show her bravery, and how far she has come throughout her life. At times I wanted to go back in time and grab a younger Busy and hug her, or praise her.

Another part that I found particularly interesting, especially as an Australian is the role of Heath Ledger in her life, and the lives of those closest to her. As a Heath Ledger fan, that insight into how their lives intertwined was so interesting.

Busy is the first woman to host her own tonight show, and she deserves it. This book was an interesting insight into how she has got there, and also all the challenges she has overcome to become the inspiring woman she is today.

I give it a 5 out of 5.

The Little Snail

It was a weekend filled with food for me. First Tequila Mockingbird, and then to the Little Snail for a family birthday. The Little Snail is a French restaurant in Darling Harbour, which offers 3 course menus for a very reasonable price. At lunch times it is $42, which is pretty decent.

At first glance at the menu, it isn’t a super french place. Besides the snails on the menu, you could be forgiven for thinking it was just a generic restaurant. The food all looks delicious, but maybe not the authentic french experience you would expect.

I strayed from the pack, and ordered salt and pepper squid instead of escargots (snails). It wasn’t a fantastic meal for me, as I felt like I was eating squid that came from a frozen packet, but luckily those that ordered snails shared with me, and the garlicky escargots were delicious.

For the next meal I ordered the Chilli Prawn linguine. This meal made up for the lacklustre entree I had. It was very spicy and had a nice tomato base. The prawns were fresh and delicious. Those around me got seafood plates, vegetarian risotto and duck breast. Of those, the vegetarian risotto looked the best, so if I went back I would get that.

For the last meal I got the sticky date pudding. I am a sucker for sticky date pudding, which in my opinion you can’t really get wrong. And they didn’t, it was delicious. Luckily it was a fairly small portion as it was unbelievably sweet. It was yummy though.

It was a good value lunch at the Little Snail, but not fantastic dining. If you’re close to Darling Harbour and wanted a relatively cheap lunch then it’s a good option, but otherwise I wouldn’t be in much of a rush to get there.

I give it 6/10.

Tequila Mockingbird

Like a rookie (surely it’s to be expected when it’s my first review), I didn’t take any photos of the food and drinks I will be talking about in this review, so hopefully my words can paint a picture of what this place was like and capture the experience we had.

I went to a well-established restaurant in Sydney last night called Tequila Mockingbird. Now when your name is as punny as that, you know you’re off to a good start.

We turned up for our booking and were lead through a small little townhouse which was the home for the restaurant. We were lucky enough to have some of the best seats in the house, up on the second floor in the outside seated area, which had greenery all around (and thankfully a little portable air conditioner as Sydney was in the middle of a heatwave at the time). The only better seats there would be on the little balconies, but I was very happy with our spot. It is the cutest little space, the only thing that struck me though was it boasted itself as an authentic Latin American restaurant with a twist, and the decor didn’t really suit that at all. It was like being in a nice Australian cafe with Latin American music playing in the background. It was a little unusual.

We started off with cocktails, with a whole section dedicated to tequila (as you would expect with a name like Tequila Mockingbird). The Harper Lee references don’t end there though, with cocktails aptly named the Atticus Finch and the Harper Lee Ever After. I ended up getting the Piscojito, a delicious concoction of Barsol Pisco, lime, coriander and ginger beer. Sometimes when choosing cocktails it can be hit or miss, but this one was definitely a hit. I would never have imagined pairing tequila with ginger beer, but it was absolutely delicious and went down far too easily.

We then decided to opt for the Tasting Menu on offer, where you could choose items across the 5 sections of the menu: Raw, Street, Flame, Sides and Sweets. This deal is fantastic value for money and gives you the chance to dig into a lot of different dishes.

Raw: For our raw portion of the menu we went with the dish you can never go wrong with; guacamole. This is the first dish where we discovered the love of lemon within the menu. It was fresh and zesty, and accompanied with chilli flaked tortillas. The perfect start. We also got the ceviche tacos. I am not normally one for ceviche, but my friend wanted to try, and When in Rome! I am so glad that my friend was there to push me to try these, because they were delicious. It didn’t change my mind about ceviche at all, but the sauce and the crispy taco shells paired so well with it that it was easily once of my favourite dishes of the night. Our final Raw dish was a Buffalo Mozzarella with Salsa Verde and puffed black rice corn tortillas. This dish was my choice, and as like the rest so far, it was delicious. The salsa verde had a nice kick to it, which was balanced out well with the buffalo mozzarella. My only qualm with this dish was the ratio of mozzarella to tortilla. There just wasn’t the right amount, but all the flavours paired so well that all will be forgiven.

Street: Despite the Street menu offering all types of different dishes, we decided to stick with tacos. We had heard great things about the soft shelled crab tacos, and the crispy shrimp tacos also sounded too good to pass up. The crispy shrimp tacos were ok, they were yummy, but I think compared with all our other meals so far they were just average. The guajillo salsa was good, but definitely didn’t have the kick I would have hoped for. The soft shelled crab tacos though lived up to their reputation, and were definitely my dish of the night. All the flavours were amazing, and worked so well together. I had never heard of Chipotle Curd before, but it is now something I will never forget. It was unreal. If any of you have ever watched Easy A, imagine me doing the Emma Stone at the Lobster Shack, her eyes rolling around in her head with the sheer deliciousness of it all. I was getting pretty full already, and we were only now just reaching the mains. I wasn’t quite sure how much more my tastebuds could take.

At this point it was also time for another cocktail. This time around I decided to go for the build your own margarita, shaken with Blanco tequila. It was good, but I regretted getting such a plain drink when there was so many amazing options on the menu still to explore. My friend, on the other hand got the Gengibre Y Romero, with Corralejo Reposado, Canton ginger liquer, yuzu juice, lime juice, rosemary, cracked pepper and a salt & rosemary rim. This is a drink I would never have gotten for myself because the rosemary didn’t appeal to me, but after trying it I realised that the rosemary was what brought it all together. It was a fantastic drink, and one you could sit back and drink all night.

Flame: And now it was time for the main meal. After much debate we landed on the BBQ lamb shoulder with an Argentinian chimichurri. Lamb is not something I often get, so we thought it would be a good thing to try. It did not disappoint. The meat was moist, and almost didn’t even need the accompanying Chimichurri because it could have stood all on its own. We didn’t quite finish it all, but this wasn’t a reflection of how yummy this meal was, but more just how full we were by this time.

Sides: We went with something light and green for our side, the charcoal Broccolini with a tequila dressing and pea mole. Tequila as a dressing is an intriguing thing, but sadly the flavours of the tequila didn’t really come through with this dish. It was still another yummy side, and went well with the lamb shoulder, but not quite what I was expecting.

Sweets: We finally made it to the last dish. Now, I am not much of a sweet tooth, but when it’s there you can’t say no. We got the strawberry mousse with almond dacquoise, green apple sorbet, tequila strawberries. It was the green apple sorbet and tequila strawberries that really sold it to us. It was kind of like eating a strawberry flavoured pavlova, and I loved it. The sorbet was smooth, the dacquoise was crumbly, and the strawberries were sweet. It was a dream.

So we made it through the tasting menu, luckily wearing dresses so we didn’t have to unbutton our pants at the end. Tequila Mockingbird had been on my list of places to go and I am so glad I finally got there, because it did not disappoint. I would recommend this to anyone who is looking for somewhere a bit nicer for dinner, and people who like share style food. It would be perfect for a date, or even just a small dinner with friends.

Overall, I give Tequila Mockingbird 10/10. It doesn’t get any better than that.

To Obama

Before I start my first book review, let me preface this by saying I am not an American, and I have never spent more than a week there, so I have a limited view into what life is like in America. With that said, one book I believe that every American should read is ‘To Obama: With Love, Joy, Anger, and Hope’ by Jeanne Marie Laskas.

This book is about the letters that Barack Obama received throughout his presidency, the replies he sent, and the people behind the letters. This is not just about the nice letters he received telling him what a great job he was doing, in fact, not many of the letters were like that at all. Instead it was letters telling him that he was letting his people down, that a lot of his constituents have no faith in him, that their worlds were crumbling and they wanted Obama to fix it.

The foundation of the book is about how during Obama’s presidency, he committed to reading ten letters a day that were received by his office. Quite often he replied to those letters, by hand, responding to the American peoples’ worries, concerns and even once, to their homework. The concept of this book is so deeply intriguing, and gives you an insight into how Americans interact with their politicians and also the heavy burden that is carried by any President.

As someone from outside of America, it also gave me a lot of insight into how their political system interacts with the people, and also how different Presidents throughout time carried out this responsibility. Having long been a big Obama supporter, this book only made me love him more.

In terms of the actual writing though, it was a little disjointed and hard to follow at times. In between blocks of letters there are little narrations of people who wrote letters, or people that worked in the President’s office. There is no flow between these segments, and whilst they do tell individual stories and add colour to some individuals, they could have been better woven into a complete story and the stories didn’t always clearly link to the letters themselves.

Overall, this book was an outstanding read, and I would recommend it to all (not just Americans). It was moving, it was informative, and it made me gain even more respect for Obama. Perhaps the best part though, was the letters and stories that came after Trump was voted in and the continuation of the letters’ importance to Obama’s life post-presidency.

I give it 4 out of 5 stars.

The era where Handsmaid’s Tale could be a reality

For my first post, I am going with a heavy topic, but it is something that is on my mind right now because it is everywhere.

In the last week, the issue of feminism and toxic masculinity has been everywhere in the media in Australia. There are two main reasons for this; Gillette’s new ad about toxic masculinity, and on a much more somber note, the death of an Israeli student in Melbourne.

Let me start with the ad Gillette just released. For those who haven’t already seen it, you can find it here. There has been a mixed reaction to this ad, ranging from those that are praising Gillette’s move to tackle such an important issue, to those who are boycotting the brand, to those who are criticising Gillette for taking so long to reverse the damage they have done to female empowerment previously with their own ad campaigns. In my opinion, this is such an important issue and one that impacts not just the half of the population that is female, but everyone and I am glad that a company like Gillette has taken a stand. Toxic masculinity has run rampant for far too long, and all the people upset by this ad are those that are the problem. They are the people that are making women feel uncomfortable, disrespected and downright unsafe around the world.

The proof is in what has happened in Melbourne. Aiia Maasarwe. Let’s not forget her name. She is just one of the hundreds of victims of toxic masculinity this year alone. She was doing what everyone says she should be doing to keep herself safe, she was on the phone to someone whilst she was getting home, and she still became a victim. What happened to her can never be considered to be her fault. She was the victim of a cruel and violent crime, perpetrated by a man who has been brought up in a world of toxic masculinity which made him believe that he had the right to do this. That he has and deserves the power given to him through being born as a male, the right to power over a woman and to take someone else’s life. Now I know, not all males are like this. I know it is the exception, not the rule. I know there are females out there that can commit the same crimes. Statistically, though, this isn’t the case.

It goes beyond violent crime too. In daily life we see men treat women poorly. We see sexual harassment (in and outside the workforce), we see men cat calling and ogling women in the streets, we see men who can’t take no for an answer. This is the behaviour that builds, and gives the exceptions the gateway they need to commit worse crimes. This is the behaviour that empowers them and gives them justification to treat women poorly.

Just today my friend told me that whilst walking back from the gym she was harassed. A truck driver sized her up, pulled over and waited for her to walk past him so he could hang out the window and harass her. This was in the middle of the day, in a public place. She was rattled, understandably so. She was upset because she felt disrespected, she felt like it happened because she was wearing shorts (on a 40 degree Celsius day), she felt guilty because when she was put in this position and she didn’t say something. She shouldn’t have to. This man should know that this is inappropriate. He probably does know, but he knows he can get away with it because he made my friend feel powerless.

These things happen around the world every day, and sadly we seem no closer to stopping it. How long will it be before men finally understand that all of this is not ok. That the women in their life shouldn’t be treated as substandard, or resources for their own enjoyment.

Handsmaid’s tale has exploded in popularity recently, and do you want to know why? It is so real for us all right now. We can see a future where we are forced back into a world where women are there to serve men, and no other reason. We can see a world where the threat of progression becomes too much for some to bear, and violence returns us to a world where females are slaves to mens desires.

I have hope that things will continue to improve, and that the progress we have made so far will continue to improve. Until men stand with us, and speak up about these things, though, there is no hope. It is time for men to pick a side. Stand with your wives, girlfriends, daughters, sisters, and friends, or stand quiet and watch as these same loved ones get murdered, raped, beaten, and harassed. Pick a side.