Marseilles is a great gateway to the south of France.

We managed to get cheap ryanair flights from Malta to Marseilles for as little as €9.99. The flight takes two hours and takes you to MP2 in Marseilles airport. From here you can catch a airport bus shuttle to the center of Marseilles for €8.50 from outside MP1 just 2 minutes walk from MP2. You can buy tickets from a stand just near the bus.

The bus takes you to St Charles Gran Station, which is about 20 minutes north of the grand harbour of Marseilles. We were only staying in Marseilles for one night and we were leaving to Cannes the following day from the Station so it made sense to seek accommodation close to the station. We booked a lovely clean and inviting room at the Holiday Inn Express for €99 which included breakfast. The hotel is literally across the road from the station so there was no need for taxi’s or transfers to the hotel.

The first night we ventured into the town looking for a restaurant I had read about called Chef Toinou. More about this experience here.

The next day we ventured into the town. It rained all day but it was not heavy enough to discourage us from walking around. We decided to head down to the port via metro, which cost us €3.00 for 4 trips. Once in the port we walked toward the older town of Marseilles. After walking up the main road of commercial outlets we left the main road and found ourselves walking in narrower alleys. We were basically walking parallel to the harbour. Here we found a small cafe library called ‘Cup of Tea’ a cosy and inviting little place with an impressive number of teas that they will brew up for you.

Moving on we walked to the edge of the port looking at the grand fortifications of the town as well as getting an impressive view of the entire harbour.

Fortification in Marseilles

Cathedral in Marseilles

We moved onto Cannes, from Marseilles by train. The trip takes 2 hours and I would recommend doing this during the day as there is quite a lot of nice scenery to see.

The highlight of my time in Marseilles was eating at Chez Toinou.

Sitting in a small square off one of the main road and about 50 steps away from tram lines. Uniquely Chez Toinou has a delightful fish market out the front of the restaurant where it displays a delicious array of fresh sea food including all types of crustations.

The restaurant was packed full with locals on a monday night! We took a seat and decided to go with the restaurant platter for two of fresh sea food. This was a huge plate of fresh oysters, clams, mussels, snails, prawns and a whole crab served on a bed of ice. Accompaning the meal was a delightful basket of bread and a lovely trio of butters.

The seafood plater came to €47.

The seafood in this place isn’t the only delight. In fact their home made desserts must not be missed. We tried their cafe gourmand and their mille foglie.

Cafe Gourmand we learned is actually newish fad in French cuisine, consisting of chocolate ganache, tiramisu, rum drenched sponge cake and an espresso.

The Mille Foglie, was a sweet, crisp and creamy delight.

For more information about Toinou visit their site. It is definitely a place not to miss if you are visiting Marseilles, in the south of France. http://www.toinou.com/

Nothing beats those mid week blues like a bit of baking. I bought some sugar paste a while back and didn’t know what I should do with it so I decided to make cupcakes and decorate them with chocolate fudge and sugar paste hearts. Red velvet cupcakes are apparently all the rage so this is what I did.

Ps. This is not my recipe, I just googled ‘red velvet cupcakes recipes’ and the first search was what I went with. This is the recipe I used.  As usually I never stick to a recipe so I these are the changes I made:

• I used half plain flour and half self raising flour.
• I didnt use as much sugar either (man I hate sugar),
• Instead of buttermilk I used half milk have sweetened cream.

I would probably make some other changes if I were to do this again. More Cocoa Powder and a bit more lemon rind, also cook for 20 mins as specified in recipe just to keep a them a bit more moist.

My red velvet cupcakes in the oven.

I let cool and put on my chocolate fudge:

• 60g dark chocolate
• 15g of butter
• 1 1/2 cups of icing sugar
• 2 tables spoons of milk

Here they all are covered in fudge and with their sugar paste heart.

I only allow myself one the rest I give away. I ate mine with a giant tea!

Heart breaker? Most def! Enjoy!

This dessert is definitely not drdietright friendly, so I posted it here instead! Prepare to feel hungry. This one didn’t last longer than 1 day in our house. Yes a whole tarte tatin in less that 24 hours.

The one thing I would like to point out here was that I dont have an oven proof skillet so I had to cook the caramel and apples in a pot and then continue the oven process – ie cooking and the puff pastry in a cake tin. Also my measurements aren’t exact because I rarely measure things (I know I know)…

300g Caster sugar

100g butter

3 apples ( 2 red/ 1 green)

1 tbsp of lemon juice

1/2 tsp of vanilla essence

Puff pastry

Start by peeling your apple and cutting them into quarters. I placed them into a circle to see how they would fit into my pan… I decided to cut them into more quarters so I could fit more apple around and avoid leaving spaces.

I then moved onto dissolving the caster sugar in a pan, stirring it so it doesn’t get stuck. Then I added butter in small cubes. Getting the sugar to a nice brown caramel will took a while. I probably added too much butter. I fiddled around with the heat for a while until I could get a good colour and thickness, then I added the apples.

I placed the apples in the pot in an organised manner, but then the caramel got too sticky and hard  (I’d turned the heat down so this is why it got too hard). I couldn’t coat the apples so I opt for more heat to dilute the caramel again and then mixing the whole mixture so that the apples got covered properly.

Once I had stewwed my apples in the caramel for about 5 minutes, I added the vanilla and the lemon juice. Mixed it again just a little and poured the mixture into the pan and with a fork I organised the apples into a more presentable way.

Then I covered the apples with the puff pastry, which I had rolled out just a bit larger than the tin and pricked all over with a fork. I placed it over the apples and just tucked the edges under the apples.

I gave it about 20 minutes in a 180 deg oven, until the pastry puffed up and was golden brown.

Then I pulled it out of the oven and allowed it to rest for about 15 mins. Before trying the ultimate flip, I twisted the pastry around to make sure it hadn’t stuck. then I flipped and wahooo… it didn’t get stuck and just plopped onto the plate. Because I had a bit too much caramel the sauce made the pastry lose its crunch.

With the left over apples and remaining puff pastry, I made this small, apple and honey tart. I baked the pastry for about 10 minutes. Poached the leftover apples in a little water. Once the pastry was puffed I cut out the centre top part and laid the sliced the apples in the centre. I then dusted the apples in a bit of cinnamon and then topped it off with a drizzle of honey. The photo below is pre – honey.

Next time I would really like to try and make my own puff pastry!

As a 28 year old female I often get asked when I am going to have children. Most of my friends do, but I don’t and I am not ashamed of this. Whereas my friends have spent time mastering the art of motherhood, I have focused on studying and building my own career. I have built a business, which in my opinion is not much different to having a child.

I have an internet child called CouponsHelper. CouponsHelper came into my life in July 2011.

• I had been working on it from October 2010 before launch (let’s call this part the pregnancy stage).
• Every since its launch date it has needed much nurture, love, care and dedication.
• It has cost me money (maybe not in diapers but still)
• It has kept me up many nights.
• Cause me concern, worry and stress.
• I post photos of CouponsHelper on Facebook and people like my photos
• Where my friends are now worrying about which school to send their children to, I worry about which social network Couponshelper should appear more on.
• When my friends worry about bullies, I worry about critics.
• It makes me think about its future and what it is going to be

So if anyone asks me what have I been doing with my life and why don’t I have any children, nowadays I reply that I do have a child… it’s name: couponshelper.

It is a browser extension that notifies users of available coupons on any site they are browsing. It helps people save money. It exists for Firefox and Chrome and over 40,000 people have it installed.

If you want to learn more here is a French guy reviewing it:

If you want to install:

Couponshelper for Chrome

CouponsHelper for Firefox

Most people don’t know this but I am the voice behind, the song ‘Beautiful Eyes’ which was created by Ubahn and remixed by Jo Micali.

I performed at the Bay Music Awards 2010… which was a life changing experience, because I love to sing but I am definitely not an aspiring dedicated musician.

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Was in canberra for two weeks and my sister asked me to paint something using hues of orange.

Admittedly this is not normal style of painting but it really worked for me. This is a zoom in of a flower, I use lines of different hues of oranges, reds and yellow to create a dizzy clarity.

With the left over paint I used a stensil and 4 baby canvases to create this other flower

This is more about the frames than the actual paintings themselves.

They actually looked better without the stupid paintings I did in the center. The idea here was to create 4 squares based on a colour hue. So blue, purple, green and red. I rolled and rolled tons of pages from magazines, then collected the colour hues and went with the framing idea. Ill probably redo the internal images one day

Probably my best piece of art.

I had this canvas for 3 years, under this painting there are 3 other seriously paintings. The technique I used here was ‘pouring’. Yes, I am an artist therefore I can invent terms!
I diluted my paint into small bottles and poured paint over the canvas. Waiting for each colour to dry before doing the next layer. I have no idea how blue ended up on the canvas, it was not planned. The grey is left over wall paint.
The mirror ended up on the canvas to cover up a huge blotch of paint. I broke 3 mirrors to do this so 7 x 3 years of bad luck right? I believe the mirror makes this painting, the idea behind it the feeling of being shattered and a broken self. Sometimes I wake up and look at this painting and think, yes that is just about how I feel today.

I can not believe some of the comments I have been reading in the Libya related articles on the timesofmalta.

The only way I can justify religious people and their harsh mentalities is by assuming that they do not understand what is going on in the Maghreb.

Comments made early yesterday on the timesofmalta

More Comments made today on TimesofMalta

So, today my post is an explanation of the Libya situation in a nutshell.

Imagine a government that:

• Is rich and flaunts its riches
• is well aware of the poverty around it
• Distributes the country’s wealth to a ruling class comprised primarily of the family of senior government figures.
• Instructs the army to shoot and kill their own populace
• Tells its air force to bomb its people

Imagine a people:

• who see their government and its chosen people flaunting the country’s  riches
• who can’t afford a loaf of bread
• who want a voice.
• who get shot for protesting against the unfairness of such a regime
• whose family members have disappeared or been tortured for speaking out
• who have nothing to lose

Image by Ammar w/ Al Jazeera

Malta! Before making racist, arrogant, pig headed comments take a step back and see how you would fit into such a society. A society of basically good people, forced to revolt for basic human rights and an accountable government.

Imagine you are in the army and that you have just found out that the government has just taken a lot of money and pocketed it. Imagine that your son or nephew has gone in front of a public building to protest about it and was shot and then imagine receiving an order from your authorities to shoot any protesters. Would your loyalty to your country be untouched? Would you still pledge allegiance to the country’s rulers, who are responsible for the brutal killings of your countrymen? Would you still think that defectors are cowards or criminals of war? Didn’t think so.