Miss Pole Dance Australia 2014

Hi guys, sorry I’ve been MIA. A lot has happened between now and my last post. Our car got stolen – right from our own secure parking! And what makes things worse is that I had my phone in the car too. So all my photos from Miss Pole Dance Australia (MPDA) are gone 😦

So instead of a whole recap of the event, I’ll just mention the highlights and my favourite routines along with the use of the amazing photos from the official photographer, Vertigo Photography.

The line up:

NSW
Jedda
Amber Ray
Minx
Maddie

VIC
Miss Filly
Gracie
Lisa D (had to pull out as she was injured)
Fontaine
Shannyn Leonie
Lou Landers
Amy Hazel
Cleo the Hurricane

WA
Jacinta

SA
Carlie Hunter

QLD
Chelle
Maria Cossia

DOUBLES
T-Mac and Miss Filly (VIC)
Rach and Nik (NSW – pulled out)
Bella and Phoenix (NSW)
Jade and Amy (QLD)
Danni and Hannah (QLD)

The event took place on the 9th of November at the Enmore Theatre in Sydney.

The introduction was amazing, choreographed by Bobbi and featuring Bobbi’s instructors and a surprise.. The amazing Felix Cane! I think we all stopped breathing when we realised it was her. She was incredible to watch, so mesmorising! It also featured the super flexible Luxe.

The first routine was Shannyn Leonie. She had an exorcist theme and started off in a crazy backbend as she crawled towards the audience. She stayed in character the whole time and was incredible to watch. It was also fittingly creepy and scary.. I’m actually scared to post her photos!

Next up is Amy Hazel and boy had she stepped it up! She was amazing at MPDV but she had really cleaned up everything and was so confident for this routine. She even whipped out a Rainbow Marchenko! She was so flexible and just a joy to watch.

Another favourite of mine was Maddie. She danced to Rihanna’s Jump and even rode on a fake ‘horse’. She was just stunning but I felt like I had seen everything from what she posts on YouTube already. She needed to do something that people hadn’t already seen, but for her first MPDA she did a great job. (And I still wish I was her).

Crowd favourite, Carlie Hunter was amazing with her ‘Carlos’ routine. If you haven’t already seen her winning Grandma routine from the Australian Pole Capital Championships, be sure to check it out here. She got the whole crowd going and everyone thought she was going to win.

Fontaine’s routine was very different to what she normally does. She danced to Iggy Azalea’s Pu$$y and was extremely hot! Some people were saying that she was trying to make a statement as she also wore a Blackmilk catsuit instead of an evening gown for the gown parade. More about that later.

Chelle was amazing, it wasn’t her best performance but come on.. This time last year she was about 4 months pregnant and the next year she’s competing again! Pretty amazing if you ask me.

I’m going to group Jedda and Cleo’s routines together because they have a very similar style and I felt like I was watching the same routine. They both had amazing tricks but again, I felt like I had seen them before and they needed to do more things that haven’t been seen before. Jedda actually did the same song and routine that she did last year as she walked off stage before finishing the routine. Cleo did Killing in the Name Of and started the routine with a flame thrower on stage and finished with screaming into a megaphone off the stage. Still, they must have done something right as they both tied for first place.

Jedda J Jordan

Cleo the Hurricane

Miss Filly, the current MPDV, danced to From Can to Can’t by Corey Taylor and Dave Grohl and she set the stage on fire.. Literally! Her dance was about the struggles of alcoholics and was stunning to watch. She also borrowed one of my dresses for the gown parade and I was so proud to have her wear my dress on stage! She looked incredible.

Miss Filly looking amazing in my dress!

The doubles stand outs for me were T-Mac & Miss Filly and Danni & Hannah. T-Mac & Miss Filly were perfectly in sync and and had amazing dance chorey as usual, although they didn’t didn’t seem to have as many doubles tricks as at MPDV. Danni & Hannah had a Snow White theme and it was absolutely amazing. I had never seen some of the tricks that they did and actually thought that they were going to win!

T-Mac and Miss Filly

Dani and Hannah

The results are in!

Singles:
1st Place TIE Jedda J Jordan (NSW) and Cleo the Hurricane (VIC)
2nd Place Gracie (VIC)
3rd Place Carlie Hunter (SA)

Doubles:
TIE T-Mac & Miss Filly (VIC) and Jade & Amy (QLD)

Congrats to all the winners and I can’t wait for the next pole comp!

*GOSS* One of the hosts Chilli Rox interviewed Felix Cane and she revealed that she is back! She has recently broken up with her partner and is teaching again at Bobbi’s in WA. She will be competing again – watch out world! She also confirmed that she was not the pole dancer during the Australian leg of the Cirque Du Soleil Michael Jackson tour. We got a photo with her and I was the happiest girl in the world.

Just going back to what I said before about Fontaine making a statement, there is a bit of a rumor that the whole competition is rigged. Ever since the competition started in 2005, a Bobbi’s girl has always won, no contestant from a different studio has ever won. Now this could be true, or perhaps the standard of Bobbi’s girls is just that good that they have always won.. Who knows. Opinions are subjective and everyone has the right to have one. Perhaps the judges actually preferred the winner’s routines to what the audience enjoyed, or perhaps non-Bobbi’s girls are biased. If you’ve heard anything about this, I’d love to know what you think. Leave me a comment below!

Thanks again for reading!

J xx

Taste of Melbourne

Hi everyone!

Apologies for being a little MIA, I’ve been so busy with what feels like events coming out of my ears. I guess being new to blogging is starting to show! Nevertheless, I’m getting back into it!

I decided to write about the Taste of Melbourne food festival because it’s the most fresh in my head (and I simply had to share all of the delicious dishes that we got to taste from some very highly regarded restaurants in Melbourne).

The festival was held last weekend and ran from the 14th-17th November. I attended the 5:30pm session on Saturday. It was held at Albert Park Lake which is a stunning location of it’s own. It was a gorgeous day but got cold towards the night, that didn’t stop the masses of people lined up at each booth to fill their bellies though. For a full list of restaurants head to tasteofmelbourne.com.au

The festival had its own currency called ‘crowns’. You exchanged your money for these crowns, and paid for dishes using a crown card. 1 crown = $1. I’ve included the prices for each meal so you can see how much each one cost – some were really expensive!

Here are my top 4 picks from the day:

1. Huxtaburger
Douche Burger – Icon Dish
Huxtaburger with Wagyu steak and foie gras (20 crowns)

This was really delicious but I think that the foie gras was a little too rich for my taste. I think if a thinner slice of foie gras was used (it could be cheaper too!) or regular pate was used then I would like it more.

2. Saint Crispin
Crispy Pork Salad
with spring coleslaw and coriander (12 crowns)

Perfect, succulent pork belly with crispy crackling and a refreshing coleslaw.

3. Taxi Dining Room
Sticky Pork
with red chilli dressing (12 crowns)
This was my favourite dish of the day! Again, the pork belly was delicious and crispy but the red chilli dressing added a little kick reminiscent of my mum’s cooking. I’m actually drooling while typing this and craving it again!

4. The Botanical
Duck, prune & Armagnac Terrine
onion jam, condiments on toasted bread (8 crowns)

The terrine was so delicious and the onion jam was the perfect complement.

I went with some friends so we all shared the dishes we purchased, hence – we got to try more things! Here are the other things we tried:

Huxtaburger

Mini Wallyburger – mini Huxtaburger with Flinders Island wallaby (6 crowns)

Tasted like a regular Huxtaburger.. so it was delicious!

Uncle

Seven Hills Goat Banh Mi – with Sichuan pickled cucumber and tamarind (8 crowns)

Didn’t taste anything like Banh Mi but was still yum. More like a pork sandwich with mayo.

The Smith

Sticky Beef Bun – with black vinegar and cucumber (6 crowns)

This didn’t really differ from the taste of a regular BBQ pork bun, still tasty though.

The Botanical

Basque Snails from the Wok – serrano, tomato, capsicum & puff pastry (8 crowns)

I still can’t believe I ate this. I only had one bite but it was hard to swallow! Normally I’m not picky at all when it comes to food and will try anything, yes, even weird things, but I just couldn’t get the fact that I was eating a snail out of my head and had to run off to a nearby coconut water stand to wash out my mouth!

Taxi Dining Room

Tuna Sashimi – with konbu dressing (10 crowns)

The dressing on this was a bit strange but the sashimi was nice and fresh.. mmm I feel like sashimi again now!

Huxtable

Kataifi Lamb Puttanesca – filo wrapped puttanesca braised Flinders Island lamb shoulder (6 crowns)

Super soft, melt in your mouth lamb wrapped in filo pastry – how could you go wrong? This was my friend’s and I only had a bite but gosh it was yummy!

Was that enough food porn for you? I hope you liked my super technical descriptions of all the food I ate. (Joking) I loved the festival but I just think that some of the dish prices were a bit too expensive for what they were. (Ahem.. Huxtaburger! There was another dish we didn’t try that cost 36 crowns!) Don’t get me wrong, they were delicious but the portion sizes were probably not worth how much they cost. Plus, there was a $30 general entry fee. If I hadn’t have won tickets, I don’t think I would have gone. All in all, it was a good night and we were all still hungry afterwards so went to Hunky Dory 🙂

I loved my outfit that I wore that day and tried to take some OOTD photos but being a newbie, I had no idea how to pose and felt embarrassed as I got my boyfriend to take the photos from me – he isn’t a photographer either. Hopefully both he & I will learn how to do it right and I won’t have to post too many awkward photos.

One of the only ‘decent’ photos

The bf gave me his hoodie to borrow because I was so cold. I buttoned up my jacket even though it looks weird – it was too darn cold!

Mirror selfie since we didn’t really get a good photo of the outfit! This is with the jacket.

Mirror selfie #2 – without jacket. Kinda like this tomboy look!

And some outtakes – it was so windy!

What I wore

Tee – Not Going Home

Jacket – Portmans

Hoodie – bf’s

Leggings – Blackmilk Clothing

Shoes – Steve Madden

Thanks for reading!

J xx

Smoothie.

Sorry for the lack of posts, I am in the middle of finalising my Miss Pole Dance Australia recap and also super busy at work so hopefully it will be up soon, but I just wanted to do a quick one on a smoothie recipe that I posted on my Instagram earlier this week.

Before I start I just want to say that I am pining over this:

Image from jbhifihome.com.au

It’s the Kambrook Blitz2Go Blender and it’s amazing! How cute is it? It’s also super convenient and easy to wash. The idea is that you make your smoothie, remove the blade holder and replace with a lid so it’s ready to take with you. I definitely need this in the morning so that I can make a breakfast smoothie and then take it with me, no extra decanting required! These are available at JB Hifi Home for only $49, what a bargain! I know what’s on my Christmas wishlist!

At the moment I’m using one from Sunbeam which is OK but it is a b!#%h to wash! And the jug where all the blending happens is made of glass and sooo heavy. Needless to say, I’ll be switching.

OK, onto the recipe. I typically make smoothies with banana, frozen blueberries, greek yoghurt, soy/almond milk and kale. Until one day I realised I am allergic to kale (damn you body and rejecting things that are good for you! I am also ‘allergic’ to exercise.. more about that later). This is my ‘base’ for smoothies and then I add in whatever goodies I have lying around in my fridge/pantry.

I didn’t have all of those things on hand the other day but still managed to make a super delicious smoothie.

Here’s what I used:

Banana

Frozen blueberries

Soy milk

Ricotta

White Chia seeds

LSA (Linseed, Sunflower seed & Almond mix)

Maple flavoured syrup

Ice cubes

That’s it! I like my smoothies super cold so I used some ice cubes as well, you could also put your bananas in the freezer before blitzing but I didn’t do that this time. Just make sure they are ripe first so you don’t get a funny tasting smoothie.

I added Maple flavoured syrup because the berries I use are actually REALLY sour and not sweet at all. I’m not sure if I got a bad batch but they are the Nannas brand and they are so tart. I bought them because it was a huge bag and I was sick of buying a new bag of berries every 1-2 weeks. But it’s horrible so now I’m stuck with it, the Woolworths Select berries are much more delicious and I can’t wait to buy them again.

Also note I added Maple flavoured syrup and not Maple syrup as the latter contains a lot of sugar. I actually ended up buying the flavoured one by mistake but it turns out I made the better choice! It’s from Green’s.

I added the ricotta since I didn’t have any Greek yoghurt (my favourite is Chobani). Before I added it I did a quick Google and since ricotta is made from whey, it’s rich in amino acids which speeds up muscle recovery after a workout, so this should probably be consumed after a work out. You could also use cottage cheese which is high in casein protein so it’s also good for muscle recovery. If you are vegan or lactose intolerant don’t add these! I just wanted to make the texture of my smoothie a bit more thick and creamy.

So there you have it, you can add anything into a smoothie really, I’ve seen some great avocado recipes that I want to try but I’ll have to get the Kambrook blender first!

What are some of your favourite recipes? I’d love to know!

J xx