#9 Cilantro and Rooftop Bars

Ever found yourself charmed by the unique jingles of Tokyo's subway?  Tune into episode 9 as your friend chats about this, as well as decorative herbs, skin creams and the ’schoolies’ tradition in Australia.  Jacquie also discusses the appeal of rooftop bars and shares the adventure of setting up a backyard golf driving net for some swing practice.  Listen in and celebrate friendship, and ponder the little joys that connect us all.

Transcript

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Welcome to episode 9

Jacquie Joy 0:01

Welcome to the Day-to-Day Podcast , calm Conversations with a Friend , spoken by Jacquie Joy , and you are listening to Episode 9 . You decide to check your messages . One new voicemail it's from one of your friends . You decide it's time to sit down , make yourself comfortable and have a listen . Hey , hey , just wanted to play you this sound . It's the sound of our very hard-working thermomix and it reminds me so much of the sound or the jingles

Tokyo Subway Jingles

Jacquie Joy 1:06

at the Tokyo subway stations , which I just love . In fact , I was just watching a little YouTube presentation which featured the musician Minoru Mukaiya I think that's how you pronounce it and he was talking about how he's written music for over 110 train stations there and how much he enjoys bringing a little bit of joy and music to millions of people across Japan each day .

Jacquie Joy 1:46

Anyway , back to cooking . It was great to hear that you

Indian Cooking Appreciation

Jacquie Joy 1:52

appreciate Indian cooking as well . This was something I did not know and , not surprisingly , you sound much more advanced than me . Surprisingly , you sound much more advanced than me and I love the photos and especially loved your use of garnishing on the curries . It definitely gives the perfect finishing touch and looks much more palatable than my curry photos .

Jacquie Joy 2:24

The bunches of cilantro

Cilantro vs Coriander

Jacquie Joy 2:26

that you got from the markets must have smelled incredible . It's funny with cilantro people either like it or loathe it , but it sounds both love it . In Australia we actually call cilantro coriander and I did a little bit of digging because I'm wondering why the same thing , the same herb , can be called two different names . Apparently the seeds of the plant are called coriander , which is a spice , and the leaves are called cilantro or the Chinese parsley . So I suppose cilantro is actually a little more accurate than coriander , because we use the leaves as well over here for the garnishing . Interesting that it's actually called Chinese parsley , because I've always associated coriander with Mexican food more than anything else and I love it mixed with lime and used with chicken Absolutely delish .

Jacquie Joy 3:47

And in other news you would be very happy to hear that the special snail skin cream has arrived .

Snail Skin Cream has Arrived

Jacquie Joy 3:57

There were many choices in what type of skin cream to buy and I bought something called Power Essence which seemed quite popular , and I think it's called that because it actually contains 96% of this so-called snail mucin . So that's a lot more than I expected . I sort of thought it would be about 3 or 4% mucin . However , I am still circling it and soon I will work up the courage to open it and find out how gooey it feels , and when I do that , I will try it and let you know how I go with it . I'm actually feeling quite hopeful that it will be a hydrating miracle , so we shall see .

Jacquie Joy 5:01

Now , are you heading away for holidays ? I don't think I've asked

Holiday Chat

Jacquie Joy 5:04

you . We are doing a small holiday first up , just going to the beach house with the kids , and we also have a visitor from overseas , so we want to take her as well with us and give her a traditional Aussie beach town style of experience . It's also at the beginning of her Aussie holiday , so it's a great chance for her to put her feet up and relax after almost a two-day journey to get here and four plane flights . The house that we stay at is situated right next to a beautiful lake , and

House by the Lake

Jacquie Joy 5:53

all of us are really looking forward to the peace and serenity of just spending time there and existing with nature . So I will certainly have some gorgeous photos to send you , particularly of the sunsets that happen over the lake . What makes it extra special is often they have cane fires burning at sunset as well . So , combined with the lake , the clouds and the colours in the sky , the photos can really be quite special . Anyway , I'm looking forward to that . And while speaking of holidays , I suppose CJ has just finished year 12

Schoolies

Jacquie Joy 6:46

and returned back from schoolies earlier this week .

Jacquie Joy 6:52

Schoolies I'm not sure if you've heard that term over there it is an end of school Aussie tradition here . It's sort of a bit like the beginning of your summer break combined with an end of high school celebration which lasts for about a week . The kids congregate often at one of the coasts . Here the gold coast is the most popular destination for the kids , um , but cam ended up going to the sunshine coast , which is still very popular . It's just a little quieter and less hectic than the Gold Coast . The Gold Coast actually has about 20,000 to 30,000 kids there for schoolies each year , so it is quite a big deal , and the kids just spend time together , often on the beaches , and just celebrate , I suppose , their life past at school and and get excited about moving forward with whatever they're doing next university work , whatever that may be .

Jacquie Joy 8:13

I was very touched , though . He got back from schoolies and it was very sweet . He had bought me a gorgeous light blue beach style necklace , so I was very touched and felt very lucky . It was a bit of an early Christmas present and , speaking of presents , I think you'll be very excited about this . We decided

Golf Driving Net for the Backyard

Jacquie Joy 8:42

to buy the family a present for the backyard , so we went shopping yesterday and found a golf driving practice net . Found a golf driving practice net . We spent some time assembling it today and it was surprisingly a very straightforward and simple process , so it only took us about an hour to do . We are really happy with our choice of net and we just paid a little bit more for it , hoping it would be better quality , and I think that was a great idea . We did take photos of it , which I'll send through , and also I did a pretty cool time-lapse video of us assembling the net , so I'll send that through as well .

Jacquie Joy 9:42

I'm really interested to hear what you think of it , because I know well you're an experienced golfer and I'm sure you've used one of these practice nets before and are way more familiar with this stuff than I am . It's actually larger than I expected and the dimensions are about 3 by 3 by 3 metres , which has got to be around 3 metres is around 10 feet , so that will give you a bit of an idea of the size , and it also doubles as a baseball practice net or in Australia that will be handy for a cricket practice net as well . So next up , before we can use it , we've got to go out shopping again and purchase a golf driver . That's my club of choice . I think I hit drivers much better than irons , and I haven't puttered for a while , so that's something we can also look at doing a bit later I'm going to need to circle back to you and ask you for a few golf tips , I'm sure . So be ready for that .

Jacquie Joy 11:06

I really would appreciate any help I can get . It's been a while since I've played golf . I think I have a reasonably solid basic swing . I shall take a video of it and also

Golf Swing Video

Jacquie Joy 11:22

send that through to you so you can just check that out and see where I can improve . I would really appreciate it , and I do feel very lucky I can have someone like you to ask about this . Otherwise I would definitely need to be getting some lessons to remind my body how to set myself up properly for a golf swing again . So I'm looking forward to doing this , probably every second day , just to get a little bit of mobility into my spine again and practice a bit of hand-eye coordination and , most of all , it should be a bit of fun once I can get my swing going , and it's also something that we as a family can also do together as well , which is a bonus we as a family can also do together as well , which is a bonus , and so next time I come to LA , no-transcript , and I think , after practicing for a couple of months in this golf net , I may be able to win a hole or two off you in our upcoming golf challenge , so I'm looking forward to that .

Jacquie Joy 12:44

The other thing , of course , that I'm looking forward to doing with you when I'm in LA next is visiting a rooftop bar or two with you , because that's one of

Rooftop Bar Chat

Jacquie Joy 12:59

my favorite things to do while I'm on holidays , and we didn't get to do that last time . I did get to go to a rooftop bar called the Aster . When I was there last year , I know well we went to a special vegetarian restaurant , which was lovely , but we do need to at this next time . I just loved it . It had been recently renovated and the rooftop area felt modern , but it also had a bohemian style element to it , and they even had some wooden rocking chairs there as part of the deck furniture . This is really novel and it was super fun just relaxing back , chatting , having a few nibbles and drinks and just lulling away gently on this rocking chair . It was very relaxing , especially as the views from there were super or very hollywood . You could see the hollywood sign and also the iconic buildings like or capital records , because it was situated right next to the Avalon , which is where we attended the awards . So I think you would know where it is and , look , you may have been there before . I just forgot to mention that to you when I was there .

Jacquie Joy 14:45

So I have been doing research of a good local rooftop bar or venue to go to . Here we were looking at doing something a bit more special than a backyard birthday party for CJ's upcoming big birthday . So there are some gorgeous rooftop venues here . I'm focusing in on one and I am going to send you a little brochure and some pictures of it . It has wonderful city views of Brisbane and has a really relaxing beach vibe , complete with a pool deck . They describe it in the brochure as inspired by the Mediterranean coast and its famous beach bars .

Jacquie Joy 15:45

This rooftop offers a choice of poolside grazing or indoor dining at the stunning pavilion-style restaurant , complete with these black and white umbrellas which I know you love . That's not in the brochure . Anyway , the indoor dining features wooden flooring , blue leather booths , chic rattan furniture I'm not sure if you say rattan , or is it rattan anyway and a smattering of lush pot plants . So check it out . I'm also going to send you some of their food options , including this amazing charcuterie board which I think we shall order , and they also do have the option of some really delicate looking canapes .

Jacquie Joy 16:56

There are some great choices of seafood and sushi there , and that reminds me of the crazy rock and sushi restaurant you were talking about . How was that ? You said you were going to go there a few nights ago for a celebration , so , um , it looks amazing . I checked out their menu . We don't have that here . It looks like

Crazy Rock n Sushi

Jacquie Joy 17:20

it's a bit of a franchise well upmarket franchise style restaurant , so hopefully it comes to Australia one day .

Jacquie Joy 17:32

Now , the food which you will see on the brochure that reminded me of crazy rock was they have homemade sushi with sesame , soy , tuna , saku not sure if that's how you pronounce it pickled white ginger and shoyu , which is just a fancy name for a soy sauce . Apparently also there are amazing oyster options . For example , we have freshly shucked maroy Island oysters with champagne and mignonette . As well as that , they also have options for a sashimi and or an oyster station . So look , we'll dream on . So look , we'll dream on . I think at this stage we might stick to some more basic foods that I know everyone will enjoy , and also the foods that won't break the budget . But it really is amazing looking at this menu and just trying to imagine how these foods would taste .

Wrapping Up!

Jacquie Joy 18:53

Anyway , it sounds like you've been really busy and working hard to catch up on all of your coursework , so congratulations . It sounds like you're nearly there and can start focusing on some performance related projects now . I've been busy at work and we'll catch you up on that next time , because I'm going to have to love and leave you and get a few more things done around the house before I start getting things ready for a dinner . We're going to do a coconut chicken curry tonight , so you stay well and take care , and I hope you enjoyed your dinner at Crazy Rock . Please send some photos through when you get a chance . Okay , take care . Bye for now .