If you are ever in Western Sydney and it's Friday, Saturday or Sunday night, keep an eye out for Big Papa's Food Truck.
Big Papa's food truck icon from their Facebook page.
T and I were introduced to Big Papa's by T's brother mid last year and I think we will forever be in his debt for that. They are primary a burger truck, but they make some of the best burgers that I had ever had.
Now, I'm not a beef burger person. I grew up on my mother's homemade burgers and she would put french onion soup in with her eggs and breadcrumbs to flavor them, so I find a lot of burger lacking in taste. When it comes to Big Papa's burgers however, I find myself loving each one they try.
They have 5 different burgers that they always have on offer, along with kids burgers, loaded fries and the option to make your burger into a combo with fries and a drink. However, every so often they throw in some new burgers for a limited time. This week they had one called doughnut time, where instead of a burger bun they used a glazed doughnut.
Doughnut Time Burger. Picture Credit: Big Papa's Food Truck
I'm a big fan of their El Gringo (I'm sorry if I've misspelled that!) burger which is just delicious! I'm also always on the lookout for their Tropic Thunder burger for a fried chicken change. T loves the El Gringo as well but his favorite is the Rib burger, whose name is escaping me and I can't find!
They're always adding new burgers for a change and they move around so that different places get a chance to try their burgers, and I'm pretty sure they do it just to build up anticipation for when they'll be nearby next.
While you always have to keep an eye on their social media to find out where they are going to be, when they are ner by, T and I will always go and get their burgers for dinner.
To find out more about Big Papa's Food Truck you can find them on Facebook and Instagram.
Since Dumplin' came out, I have been hearing many things from my friends about it. I had seen the trailer, but I wasn't 100% sure that I wanted to watch it. We've had a few similar movies come out this year, like Insatiable, revolving around a larger main character and many people had put them down because they went from fat to skinny instead of promoting body confidence. I thought that Dumplin' was going to be the same.
Yesterday, I took the dive while I waited for my gingerbread cookies to finish drying and I am so glad that I was proved wrong.
Willowdean, a plus-sized teenager, lives in Texas with her former beauty queen mother, Rosie, and is grieving the loss of her beloved Aunt Lucy. Pageant season is starting once again and Will has finally had enough and decided that she wants to teach her mother a lesson, so she signs up in protest. This then starts a catalyst of other girls joining, who don't fit the traditional pageant look.
The movie is based off the book by the same name and it's now in my to-be-read pile for the new year, so I'm not entirely sure how close the two are. However, even without reading the book, I really loved this movie.
Unlike Insatiable which focused on weight loss, this movie took a plus-sized girl and placed her in a beauty pageant allowing for the traditional look of a pageant girl to change. While there is still a lot of revenge involved in this movie, Will also learns a lot about herself and her mother which brings on a whole different kind of transformation.
There is also a lot of other things that happen in the movie that show Will grow as a character and learn more about herself which I love so dearly. It's also so amazing to see Drag Queens dressed as Dolly Parton and singing her songs, which are used throughout the movie.
Overall I really loved this movie. I loved Jennifer Anniston as Will's Mum, I thought she did an amazing job. I'm loving her in these older roles right now. The Drag Queens steal the show however!
I think this is an amazing movie. Netflix is really knocking it out of the park lately with their Original movies and I'm all for it. This is a perfect movie for teens and pre-teens maybe even a little younger with an adult present.
Name: A Sucky Love Story: Overcoming Unhappily Ever After Author: Brittani Louise Taylor Edition Read: Kindle ASIN: B07JPXVGFQ Summary: Where does a moderately popular internet star who never leaves her house look for potential suitors? Online. Tinder, Bumble, Match.com, OkCupid—I tried them all. My thirty-one-year-old self clicked and swiped her little heart out, leading to more dates than I could count, and more disappointment than I was prepared for.
Maybe you can relate. Maybe you know all too well the perils of modern dating. But let’s say, eventually, you meet someone. You think to yourself, “Wow, they’re perfect! Take me off the market, put a ring on it, knock me up, the whole enchilada, because they are ‘the one.’” Let’s also say that they “feel the same way” about you. Your life starts to make sense! All the pain, heartbreak, and frustration from past failed relationships was worth it. Slow clap. 
That’s how I felt about Milos. He was from Europe, a doctor, wealthy, athletic. He had an accent and a dog. Milos was textbook marriage material.
For him it was “love at first sight,” but for me, it was “anxiety on every date.”
Something was telling me to run—but for two years, the only running I did was straight into his arms.
If only I would have listened.
This isn’t a love story.
It’s my story of survival.
When people think Domestic Abuse, they immediately think physical. Mental and emotional sometimes don't come into consideration. This book shows that Domestic Abuse isn't always about the physical and that sometimes it's the mental and emotional abuses that take the longest to heal.
This book is a very easy read. I did it in a little over 3 hours. That being said, the book itself is a great retelling of the before, during and the aftermath of an abusive relationship.
I don't want to go into the writing style and critique it, the reason being that when it comes to biographies like this one, critiquing the way it is written is kind of silencing what is being said. However, if you're familiar with Brittani's vlogs on YouTube than you'll see a lot of her style of talking included in the book. From the way she describes things to how it is written. Everything about this book is Brittani and that's why I liked it as much as I did. She didn't try and change how she would have told the story if she was face to face with you.
The beginning of the book is a little slow but not enough that it made me stop reading. She explains what happened that lead her to discover Milos on Tinder, the process of them dating and then it ramps up. As the story progresses you begin to see things unfolding and happening that you didn't expect and by the end, you're left dumbfounded. Parts of what happened read like a typical domestic abuse situation and then there are lies and stories told that seem so far-fetched that if it was a script for a movie producers would think it was too over the top.
As I said earlier I read this book in a little over three hours but I think it would have taken me less time if I hadn't started reading it on my lunch break at work. And after reading the book I can completely understand why she was as secretive about what happened and not only for legal reasons.
I can't go into too much detail without giving spoilers and I don't want to do that, but if you were looking for a book for your teenager to read to understand how abusive relationships can be, this would be an excellent one to point them to. The language in it isn't too over the top and the descriptions aren't too in depth. Just be aware that Brittani does detail the abuse she went through and there are sexual encounters described as well.
I honestly have nothing more than I can say on the book other than I think it's something people should read, not just because it has an amazing message but because it just shows that you don't know what it happening behind closed doors.
If you're interested in reading A Sucky Love Story then click the link and it'll take you right to the Amazon page. Please be aware that this is an affiliate link so I do get a little kickback from it.
Before I close this off, just in case anyone is interested, I am on Goodreads. You can keep up to date with what I'm reading to the left or you can check out my profile here.
If you follow me on Instagram then you probably have seen that T gave me my Christmas present a little earlier than normal. Well, I shouldn't say normal. Last year my gift was Arlo and we went and picked him up two months before Christmas.
But all that is beside the point.
On Saturday a rather large box arrived at home. We've been getting a lot of packages lately so between T and I we have just been checking to see who they are addressed to and leaving them in one of two spots - T's room where he keeps all his work stuff or the bench in the kitchen. This particular box was shoved into T's room as it was addressed to him, I messaged him to let him know a very big package had arrived for him and I didn't think anything else off it.
Until T got home and he carried said large package and dumped it in front of me as I finished a quest in Assassin's Creed Odyssey.
I was confused for a moment. I looked up at him and he just pointed at it and said: "It's your Christmas present."
"I can open it now?"
"Yes."
"Are you sure?"
"If you don't open it now then it's just going to sit around for another month"
Cue the excitement that I get something new and a surprise at that. T went and got his pocket knife and I opened the box before I decided that it was a good idea to poke myself with said pocket knife. A giggle and a teasing remark later and I had my Christmas present sitting on the bed.
It was a coffee machine.
I don't drink coffee. Not too big of a fan of the taste - too bitter. But I have been saying for nearly 6 months that I wanted to get one because a lot of them come with Hot Chocolate pods.
T did what he always did in that situation and filed away all those remarks until a few weeks ago when he ordered the machine you see in the pictures. He didn't do this half-assed either. He did his research. He knew exactly what I wanted to use it for and searched until he found one that did exactly what I wanted it to do AND on top of that ordered the pods!
I love a thoughtful and practical gift. T bought me a new Washing Machine a couple of years ago for Christmas because the one I had was beyond fixing and I loved it. This present, however, he went above and beyond with. It's probably one of my favourite presents he's ever given me - other than Arlo!
I'm now writing this post a week after I got the Nescafe Dolce Gusto Majesto and I'm really happy with it. The machine itself comes with the funny circular machine plus the capsule bin you can see to the left in the picture above. The capsule bin serves two purposes. The first is as a place to hold the capsules that you are regularly using. The second is as the rinsing bucket as the lid and the red inside come out. Underneath the bin is a special rinsing tool that stays hidden in there until you need to use it.
The machine connects to WIFI, which you need to connect to. Every so often you get updates, sometimes it's just software but after I connected it to the WIFI and did an update, we got a whole bunch of new capsule options that weren't there when I first turned the machine on. The screen is a touch screen and while sometimes it can be a little slow to reach, overall it's really easy to use.
If you don't know how to do anything or which order to put the capsules in the instructions appear on the screen and walk you through it, so it's really easy. If you would like a bigger cup of coffee or hot chocolate, you can also do your own custom cup. I've done this a couple of times because I like a BIG cup of hot chocolate and it's just as easy as if you pressed the already programmed buttons. If all else fails, you can turn to the instruction manual which has really easy to follow step by step instructions.
At the time of writing this, there were 15 different kinds of capsules that you could choose from. T decided on the Hot Chocolate, Chai Latte and Nesquik ones for us for everyday use. The hot chocolate and Nesquik are two of the ones that I would definitely suggest you don't custom cup because they lose their flavour. The Chai Latte is nice, but I've been so used to Chai Lattes that have a lot of spice flavour that this one is slightly bland for my tastes.
The great thing about the capsules is that there are a lot of flavours and because we have family members that are coffee drinkers we can easily get our hands on capsules to keep in the house for the times that they are around.
Overall I really like this machine and it was an amazing present. Its really easy to use and there are a lot of options available, even to those who aren't coffee drinkers. The best and funniest thing about it is that the colours match our kitchen!
If you want to find out more or look for a machine to better matches your own house, check out the Nescafe Dolce Gusto website
I don't know what it is, but I really love Hallmarky style movies. Despite a lot of the cliche and stereotypes that appear in them, they're really entertaining.
Last year, one of the biggest Christmas hits was A Christmas Prince, a movie about a Journalist named Amber who is sent to the country of Aldovia to get the hot scoop on the roguish (for lack of a better word) Prince Richard. She is mistaken as the new Governess and instead of saying who she really is, she plays the roll to get the scop and in the meantime grows closer to the Royal Family and falls in love. There is a little more to this story but I don't want to give it away just in case anyone here hasn't seen it.
The movie was a huge success; to the point that Netflix even had to comment on 53 different people's viewing of it.
To the 53 people who've watched A Christmas Prince every day for the past 18 days: Who hurt you?
To be fair, I can understand why. It's really a lovely story and while it's not going to be everyone's taste, it's a nice change compared to a lot of the shows that were trending on Netflix last year.
Now I wasn't one of those fifty-three people. In fact, I didn't watch the original movie until about two months ago when I was sick and needed something other than the True Crime documentaries that I normally write. But I did watch it and found it really charming and light-hearted. I then found out that a sequel was coming and decided to add it to my December watch list.
If you don't want to watch the trailer (and you should because I live for the designer Sahil) the basic plot of the movie is that Amber has returned to Aldovia a year after her engagement to marry Prince Richard. She has brought her very salt of the Earth father with her and over the past year her blog has become very popular and she's been making the media rounds as a result.
Despite many trips back to Aldovia in the past year, this is the first time she's seeing the results of a new initiative her husband to be has put in place, and they're far from good. On top of all that, she has to deal with the extremely over the top Sahil and Mrs Averill, who despite being well-meaning and wanting the Royal Family to be viewed in a good light, push Amber's wishes concerning her wedding and her blog to the side in favour of protocol.
Ok, maybe well-meaning might be putting them into a too nice of light, but I don't see them as villains. They're honestly just doing their jobs. Should they actually listen to Amber - yes, especially as she is going to be Queen, but you need those kinds of antagonistic characters to give stories some zest.
Oh! And Simon has returned and he's a lot more likable this time around!
I honestly loved this movie. It was a lovely sequel to the original and it shows a lot of things in a realistic way; like the protocols a person needs to adjust to when entering a family like a royal family. Yes, they're very overbearing and aren't up to date, but there are a lot of them that are in place for a reason and it's just a matter of updating them to fit the times. Once Amber does actually start voicing her opinion a lot louder that is.
As much as I wanted Amber to find her voice a lot sooner in this movie, I think the time that she does works well as for the first time she is working as a unit with Prince Richard, something they really aren't doing throughout the movie. Once they are working together, they are an amazing force and it reinforces that marriage is a partnership and not a solo act.
Simon has a huge redemption arch in the movie as well. As much as I didn't want to, I found myself actually liking him by the end and I hope that we see more of him and Melissa if they do another movie. Also, Andy and Sahil had a lovely moment that I would like to see explored as well.
It was also nice to see Amber's Dad making friends with the Chef. It didn't feel as if he was looking for anything romantic, just that he wanted to be friends and I thought that was a beautiful touch.
Is it cliche? Yes.
Is it stereotypical in parts? Yes.
Is it something nice and fluffy for the holiday season? Yes.
Ultimately, if you're not a fan of Hallmark-style movies, you may not enjoy A Christmas Prince or A Christmas Prince: The Royal Wedding. If you are, however, then I think you'll enjoy it. It follows that typical plot line of underlying big thing being covered by smaller but just as important things, and in the end, everything gets tied up with a perfect Christmas bow.
Hi guys and Welcome! I'm Sophie, a 20 something Australian lady who spends her days ensuring that tiny humans stay alive (aka - a nanny) while studying at University and playing games. Thanks for stopping by!
