It's back.. Freezer Meal Aldi Beef with Red Wine Sauce and Mash

Ok everyone.. I realise that I have been MIA. But the entire July had been a write off for us. First the boys were sick, then I was. There was an entire week I went to sleep at 8.30pm!
I had been so sick and after all the awful deadlines at work, I just could not face the computer to blog. SOZ!

But guess what, I have a freezer meal review for ya! I was quite excited about this one. Beef, mash, red wine. What's not to love? And check out what Aldi says it should look like.

What Aldi says it looks like

Anyway into the nuker for about 6minutes! Mind you I was starving - as usual. When am I not starving?
You do the jump around infront of the nuker and start packing dishes into the dishwasher and you hear the BEEP. Such a glorious sound!

Peel open the film and was greeted with this.

This is what it looks like

 Not quite the same huh?

Nevermind .. hunger got the better or me. Not to mention laziness and feeling too sick to drive and get food. Grab a fork and I start chowing down.

The mash was just so weird. It was little rounds of .. I will not say potato as it did not taste like potato. I had a freezer meal (not Aldi) and the mash was really decent. Compared to this, it was like gooey, tasteless and so yuck. I could not eat the mash. The actual beef and red wine sauce was ok. Still nothing to write home about.

Price: Tick - I think they are flat price of $3.99
Appearance: Half tick, I mean it's not entirely that bad.
Taste: NO TICK for the mash. Seriously what is going on there?
Will buy again Factor: Hells no. 

P.S: This is not a paid post. I had shelled out $4 for my own meal.

Short Sydney Trip

Sydney Botanical Gardens

Opera House

Sydney State Library

I was in Sydney for the weekend just by myself. By the way did you know that the Skybus departs Southern Cross every 10 minutes? They have extra long buses but I still had to stand on the journey to the airport!! That's a lot of people!

I stayed with my high school friend who just had a baby. OMG! Newborns!!! I was gobsmacked by this view. Look at that!

..... And then I got sick. I was so sick on Sunday, I pretty much ate some soup, passed out in a foetal position for I am not sure how long. I managed to get on the flight but during the descend I thought my ear drums were going to burst! Made it home.. still feeling blah. This Girl Flu business is bad.

Random Score: Last pair in my size! Peeptoe shoes for $54!

Ok I had been browsing the Iconic.. it's the ridiculous radio ads. So there you go, radio ads work!

And also because on Carbon Chic she had a list of coupon codes. I knew there was a vogue shopping night floating around but did not bother to look until I saw what she bought. Check out her blog if you have a champagne taste but beer (or maybe less) budget!

Peeptoe Miss Provocateur in Nude

So I bought these ones! Already reduced from $200+ to $79 and I had a $25 coupon code. It was $54!! Last pair in my size. I hurried through checkout and did not bother to look anymore. Just in case they put my shopping cart back onto the shopping floor!!

Check out that heel!

Check out that heel! So cute right? I tried them on and I nearly skid across the floorboards! Almost did a split across the floor! I think I need to topy these but anyway. For $78 maybe ok.. or has online shopping spoilt me? $54 definitely a great buy.. however not at full price. I have not worn them yet. Can't wait!

Ordered on Saturday and delivered on Tuesday. That's service for you! Thanks Carbon Chic!

Shopping in Issa Ivanhoe

I had not been in this shop for ages! Last time I was in Helena was showing me Elk's winter collection catalogue. Now she is showing me the summer collection! Heads up Elk fans, there are lots of silk dresses! There was guilt on my face... I don't know why I had been in. I think I changed my lunchtime grocery shop routine to go to another place instead.

Display table of soaps

Check out the display table for soaps! And those are not prints, they are original watercolour paintings but framed. I want them!

Display shelves

The problem with going into this shop is that you want everything.. everything.. did I say everything? Then you see this ... And you must have it.

Flamingos WANT

I have wanted flamingos in the garden since forever. Mick said no.. so what do I do? BUY BUY BUY. I bought these and another Lovebird Candle in French Vanilla and Hazelnut. The smell omgawd.. yummy.

Pink Flamingos

I ran home and got so excited, I had to set them up!! Look it comes with instructions for people like me. LOL! Except I could not insert metal legs and I had to call them for some SOS on it. It turns out you had to jam one of them in. So jam it in I did.

Camp as Rick Martin in a row of tents 

Check that out! I have set them up near the front door in case someone decides that they want a pair too and will help themselves to them. They are NEON pink! OMG!! D calls them eagles and Mick's love for them grew too. He has now decided to drill a hole in the bum and stick lighting in them. :O

Remember that porcelain ring that I got from Mick? Check out the matching earrings!

Love Heart Earrings

Lastly.. I leave you with this item from Issa. If you are looking for a baby shower gift. Check these out! You pull the cord and the old fashion music box style type of lullaby plays. This one plays Over the Rainbow. You cannot really see it, but there are silver tears in the grey cloud. :)

Baby Shower suggestion

Positive Feedback is Important too

Too much negativity here lately! How about a positive one?

I have lived where we are currently living for about 4 years now .. coming to 5! We always had an excellent Australia Post parcel guy. He would always make the effort to get out of his delivery van, walk up the driveway. Climb over our overgrown bush land garden and risk OH&S issues (aka tripping over) with our abandoned cuttings/weeds and knock on the door. Greet us good morning if I was blurry eyed and half asleep enthusiastically as our delivery run used to be at 7 - 7.30 am at the start when we first moved in. I was ashamed to say that until now (4 or 5 years) I have not got his name. I hurriedly wanted to write a Christmas card when I saw him walking down the driveway around Christmas time but did not do it in time. Again... I was ashamed!

You know I love online shopping so the number of parcels increased. Sometimes he jokes with Mick .. what has she gone and bought now? Maybe it's a present for you mate. LOL

After reading some shockers on forums about their parcel postie doing the card drop and run, I decided to give them the feedback. You can actually contact them via email if you have a complaint or compliment. I did just that, detailed how he was an excellent subcontractor and hoped that they never changed the parcel delivery run.

I had a response back that they have given the feedback to the Delivery Centre and manager. The next time that Mick was home and the postie (still don't know his name!) came around, he walked to the back as he heard Mick working on the deck. He said that he received the email compliment and feedback through his manager and looked really happy. I am actually really excited that he knew which address sent the compliment. Made my day as well!

Look what happens when you're distracted

This weekend had been a cooking write off.

I left red beans on the stove and I even went out and left Mick in charge - without telling him. I think my sense of smell had gone out the window along with my memory of what I was cooking. Red beans gone... All the water had evaporated and the beans went weird and black.

Then on Sunday, the boys went out and I later found out that they went to Yarra Valley Dairy to get me cheese. We now have a bucketload of cheese.... but no crackers. ROFL.. this is a disaster.

So what do I do when they go out? I start my beef casserole in my Le Faux Creuset.. aka Aldi Crofton brand dutch oven thingee. Cat from Twitter, you are right these things heat up really well and would have been great for stir fries. I moved the saucepan to the medium flame stovetop and had cranked that up high. I told myself I will let it boil first and then reduce it. .... I never did..

Burnt faux Creuset

So after 2 days of soaking and some arm muscles I am still left with this. And I will spare you the details of what on earth was stuck to the bottom. I had to fish out bits of burnt food (vom vom) so that the sink could drain. OMGAWD how to rescue this? Or for that price, just piff it out and get a new one?

Chadstone Chanel's response

Ok I know that everyone had been dying to know what happened. Soz for like keeping you in suspense. They rang the day that the letter was faxed off on Tuesday but I could not answer and did not want to call back. I said to ring me at 10.30 the next day as I was running out of the office. And they did.. 10.30am sharp. It was dealt with at store level and not at head office. I think someone must have forwarded it onwards. Tiana who said she was the Chadstone store manager rang me.

The first thing she said was that she is horrified this happened in her store and that it was not tolerated. She apologised and wanted details of when, what time and who it was. Well what can I say, the point of writing the letter was not to get freebies or discounts. It was really because I wanted to be heard and I wanted head office to know that this sort of behaviour is happening and from the sounds of it on social media sites quite common. I guess I got that point across as I gave the description of the sales person to her and she said she had a fairly good idea who it was. I told her the behaviour was disgusting and ruined my day off. Without kids y'all.. do you know what a luxury that is? She said she agreed with this and that obviously I was really upset in order to write a letter.

Picture for the sake of breaking up the text

To retain me as a customer, the offer on the table was a personal consultation. Described by Mick as - so to say sorry, they want you to go back in so that they can sell you more things and maybe give you a glass of bubbles? For anyone who has stepped into the boutique, every trip is a personal consultation anyway or should be unless you copped someone who thinks you are a poor commoner lol. They do not multitask between customers and they show you everything in the boutique that your want. Whether it is on display or hidden in the shelves. If you know the sales person well enough like I used to, they put new arrivals aside for you give you a call and ask that you come in within the next few days. You walk in and bags that are not on the shelf are taken out for you. This is how their shopping experience is like. So I guess making the appointment means that they have heads up that someone difficult is coming into the store. I cannot say that I will take this up in the near future. Maybe my Mum will get a kick out of breezing in and getting served immediately. In the meantime, if anyone wants the shoes .. they are available in Chadstone size 38 and 36.5 .... Size 37 has to be ordered in from Bondi if anyone is the same size as me.