Tuesday, 18 August 2009

fashion week rolls round again ....

Hi everyone

Sorry for the delay in blogs, you know, it's taken a while to recover from the end of the AFL season. Even fans need a Mad Monday or two...man, you should have seen how many lollies I put away. It really was madness.

Anyway, the people have been calling for this for years, so, now, with no further ado - the fashions of Harper Maxwell Perrett.

And yes, the HMP line of fashion will be available from a KMart near you.


First look - the flanny. When teamed with the traditional white singlet, it is never not hot.

Direct from Campsie is the latest fashion - putting stickers in your ears. Number 9 or 6 ... whatever, it's a sticker. I heart stickers. You can change this up by sticking them in your belly button.

Sometimes you have to consult with others in the field, to make sure your ideas are fresh. I met with Monty and we shared a few ideas from our portfolios.

Wearing a baby is so hot right now. Mine doesn't wee, poo or cry. How awesome is that?

You might call this a tea cosy, or maybe a beanie. I call it a 'bosy'. My bosy is awesome. All the cool kids will be wearing this soon. You watch.

Beads never go out of fashion. For spring, I say green beads.

Beads are hot when matched with ear rings. Red especially.

So there you are people, your fashion pointers for Spring 09.

If this doesn't make you cool, you will never, ever be cool.

Chow
Harper

Wednesday, 29 July 2009

I like my rice bubbles with truffle oil

Hi there

Welcome to a new phase in my life - Harper the food critic. Inspired by that dapper Matt Preston on Masterchef, my life's work now is to seek out good food and eat it.

Like Mr Preston, I am a hard taskmaster. I insist on the best. There must be hundreds of hundreds and thousands of thousands on a biscuit. Any less, and it is rubbish.

But I am more than just a critic, I am very capable in the kitchen as well. Inspired by Gary and that Greek guy who says 'Straya' instead of 'Australia', I have been running Masterclasses for mum. The first one - how to make the perfect pie.

Make your filling. I quite chicken and leek. Once you have put your cooled filling in ramikins, you put pasty over the top. Now, you should run a strip about 1 cm wide around the rim. This will help the lid stick.

See? Easy.

Then bake them for about 20 mins at about 180 degrees. Here's a very important tip - eggwash on the lids will really crisp them up and give them a nice colour.

Mum then plated up the pie. I put my red cravat on and tasted. The filling was morish, the chicken cooked perfectly, the leek comes through, mum really got some taste in there, good strong flavours. The pastry was excellent, I wanted to go back for seconds. A very good job.

Next Masterclass...pasta. You need some pots, some water, some pasta and a spoon.

Or an Aldi kitchen set. Then you cook the pasta until it is al dente. Easy.

I am not the only judge - my colleagues Ava and Immy are also on hand to taste the food. Here, Ava and I are sampling a modern high tea - sausage rolls with sauce. A classic when done well. The sausage mince needs to be seasoned well and not too fatty. The key to sausage rolls is in the rolling - a nice consistent tube of meat on the pastry, which is rolled over carefully with the join on the bottom. Like the pies above, a little egg wash will give them a seductive colour.

Later, Immi and I had a degustation menu to taste. We started with a twist on the legendary Anzac biscuit, the Anzac Slice. It was very good - moist but not sloppy and you could really taste the golden syrup coming through. Then it was crisp sliced Pink Lady apple with sun-dried sultana grapes from the Sunraysia district. This combination of textures really works well together.

I forgot my cravat on this day, so you can see my double chin. Lucky us foodies don't mind showing a bit of blubber - it's part and parcel of the game.

With my new calling, I have certainly put the pressure on mum to step up. This beautifully plated pear and rocket salad accompanied a simple mid-week dinner. In the past, we'd be lucky to see some random lettuce leaves thrown together and splashed with some commercial disaster of a dressing. I am happy to report those days are gone.

I encourage everyone to cook for me. I promise to be a fair and consistent judge, and to smear a fair bit of what you give me on my face, on my clothing and even in my hair.

Bon appetite
Harper

Tuesday, 30 June 2009

Um, I didn't ask for competition...

Hi fans

As you all know, I have a new baby brother called Monty. He is pretty ace. Obviously not as cute as me but man, pretty damn close. Almost a tie I reckon.

So here are some pics of me, and and just a couple of him, and I will let you decide. Of course, if you say him, I won't speak to you again.

Just saying.

Here's what I have been up to:

It's been raining here. While Dad moans about the grass being wrecked, I think it splashing is ace fun. Harden the firetruck up old man, I say.

When I go to a fancy dress and the theme is 'come dressed in your favourite outfit', well, there is only one choice - go dressed as a plumber. Mum wouldn't let me show off a bit of bum crack though, which is a shame. I am sure Uncle Tommy is all about the bum crack.

So cute. Monty is not bad either.

Some days it's all a bit rough and you gotta just have a cry. Ideally, your mum wouldn't take a photo of it, but there you go.

Some days I just get the iPod out and rock. I quite like the Kings of Leon and the other day got right into The Cult. I also quite like Justine Clarke, but don't tell anyone.

The bath - my other sanctuary, where I can play with bubbles, drink the water and, er, do other things with at least some privacy. Well, none actually as mum or dad is always watching and some nights, mum has that camera out again.

My career as an aeronautical engineer is coming along. This plane is actually safer than a Qantas jet.

I am taking my big brother role seriously. Here's me checking to make sure Monty is still asleep. Good, he is, now more attention for me.

And I do still like to grab some zzzzzs on the couch from time to time. I have been busy cooking up something for you all...that's coming soon.


I have spotted Monty mucking around on the computer while I have been busy doing other stuff...I think he is up to something. He better not be starting his own blog. Man, there is enough competition already.

Yes Sid, I am talking about you bro.

Till next time
Harper

Wednesday, 6 May 2009

Two two, check one two

Why hello there

Forgive me if I sound a little older, but I am now two years old, so it's only natural that I shall start to sound more grown up.

I celebrated my birthday over three days - Thursday with some ladies, Friday with mum and dad and Saturday with special guests. Wanna see? Sure you do.


Thursday - I am hanging with my posse of sweet ladies, Laura, Olivia, Grace and Chloe. There was cake.

As it turns out, I quite like cake.

Friday - all these presents magically turned up. Mum and dad gave me some building blocks, which are pretty ace.

Auntie Kara sent me a card with felt animals on it - a few hours were well spent playing with that.

That night, we went out for dinner. Mum and dad took me to Venice. For real. It looked a bit like Croydon Park to me, and the pizza tasted a lot like Rene's. What a coincidence.

Saturday - all good days can start like this. Here I am, my first beater to lick.

The cake mum made was very very grouse. It had butterflies and real life bits of the front hedge on it. And candles. Two of them.

It was these candles I would blow out in the company of Gillian and Aaron, Ava and little Audrey and their parents Kate and Stuart as well as Imogen, who brought her folks Natasha and Garrett along as well.

And I am still singing 'happy birthday' even now. Next year, my birthday goes for a week...

Hip hip hooray
Harper

Monday, 27 April 2009

Bubba time soon soon

Hey again

Man, four blogs in one night - madness.

Last one is a quick one. Mummy has a bubby in her tummy. And this bubby is coming home soon. That's all I have worked out so far, which is enough cos I reckon that sounds coooool.

Mum asked dad to take a pic of her and her belly.

I had some ideas on how to make the pic better, but instead I gave bubba a kiss and went and played cars. Well, I am only two (almost) so my attention span is pretty short.

Cheers
Harper

Fixing my ride

Hi there

A quick story...I was hooning about the backyard in my sweet-as car when it started making some weird sounds. Now, this was a worry - my car is a highly-tuned piece of automotive machinery. It needed urgent fixing.

So I got down and inspected the fluid that was leaking. Happily it wasn't petrol, brake fluid or anything that would disolve the side of my face.

Then I had a closer look at the rear left wheel - I think there was where I could find the issue. I couldn't remember running over anything...

And there you go - a stick. Naughty stick.

Problem solved - back to hooning around the backyard looking for chicks to impress. I might have to ask the oldies to have a car stereo installed...

Cheers

Harper

Easter goodness

Hi again

There was this Easter thing that came along. Now, I'm not gonna pretend to know what that's about, but all I know is it meant Dad was home for four days in a row, we had people over and there was much fun.
Helen and Jones came over and got to play my favourite game - Make Aaron Draw You Something. I think Jones said 'dog'.

Jones and I hung out on the kids table. Cos apparently we are kids or something.

We played a game called Find The Easter Eggs. And I was really good at it and found them all. Although a few days later I heard other kids got eggs made from chocolate - mine were made from paper. So ripped off!

And I got to stay up late and enjoy the view from dad's shoulders. What an Easter.

I am already looking forward to next year's Easter. Although I will be talking to this Easter Bunny character about the egg situation...

Cheers
Harper