Need a Laugh? Here's Anne Hathaway's Rap

Ever since she did The Devil Wears Prada, Anne Hathaway has been unable to do any wrong in my eyes. I think she's a great role model, beautiful, smart, funny and talented but also appears for all intents and purposes to be down to earth. That said, even if I didn't think all of those things, I would still have to share this video as it is just so darn hilarious.

Here it is, Anne Hathaway 'in the style of Lil Wayne' rapping on Carson. Enjoy!

The Kardashians are Taking Over my Blog

Regular readers will remember that some time ago I wrote a short piece about the Kardashian sisters as they were releasing a new 'tell all' book. You can read the post here.  I wrote about whether in fact they really had anything left to 'tell' and also the immense popularity of these three ladies.

It seems I really had no idea how popular they really are. I am shocked to find nearly one year later this post is still coming up each week as the most popular post on my blog and this week the top five Google searches that brought people to my page is the kardashian sisters, kardashians, the kardashians, the kardasians (for those who can't spell) and kardashian book.

I can't decide if it is a good thing or a bad thing (I am also not immune to the irony that this post is probably just going to increase my 'Kardashian' rankings), but whichever way the dice rolls I am still puzzled. Is there anyone out there that can illuminate me what is so darn amazing about the Kardashians that they are able to take over my blog with one post?

Would You Trust a Stranger?

I had an interesting situation a short while ago that got me thinking - when did I stop trusting strangers? I just received a phone call from a really worthwhile local charity looking for support for a worthy cause.

I agreed to support the cause and things started getting complicated. To take my pledge, obviously the charity needed me to provide my credit card details, but exactly how do I know that the lovely lady on the other end was in fact legitimately from said charity and not in fact hired by fraudsters to collect credit card details? After an intricate dance in which permit numbers, ABNs and phone numbers were shared - I was still stuck. The phone number for the charity collection didn't match the businesses normal phone number I could see online, so even if I called her back I still had no way of knowing if this was legitimate.

I've had this same dance before with banks. Someone on the other end of the line claims to be from my bank and immediately pounces in with half a dozen personal identifying questions before they can share whatever it is they need to say. This is wonderful, except the same questions could be used by scammers to illegally access my accounts. When I ask them to verify they know something about me, they can't due to the bank's privacy laws. Checkmate.

Once when I insisted on calling the bank bank so I could verify who I was talking to first, I was put through to about five different people none of who had any idea why I was calling. Complete customer service inefficiency (probably) or proof my skepticism was warranted?

Now I want to open this up to the floor. How would you have dealt with this situation? Would you leave a worthy charity wanting to protect your finances or do you give people the benefit of the doubt? I'd love to know if anyone has any great tricks for checking if the caller is legitimate.

Thumbs Up for Modo Mio

I have to say I am a little impressed by all the new food offerings at Burswood these days. I had previously found their food offerings quite disappointing and it has always boggled my mind so many restaurants could be so non-vegetarian friendly. Although I have yet to give Rockpool the old once over (although I hear amazing things), it's almost like  new restaurant has been opening there every few months.

I had the pleasure of checking out Modo Mio the other day, the new Italian restaurant that replaced Victoria's Station. The restaurant itself is beautiful, very elegant and stunningly appointed - definitely not your usual local Italian-style restaurant. It's five-star dining but the food is very accessible ranging from old favourites like spaghetti bolognese to a classic margherita pizza.  Not to say everything is boring or staid, they also offer a range of unique tastes like orecchiette con broccolini e ricotta through to pan-fried barramundi in fennel sambuca sauce with olives, orange and capers salad.

They also have a small but very impressive dessert menu. I can personally recommend the chocolate pudding and my husband was quiet impressed with their tiramisu.

The best thing about this restaurant is whether you choose a traditional classic or something a bit more exotic, everything is fresh, high-quality and deliciously well made. We were even watching the staff shaving a lot of the meats in the restaurant ready to add to the dishes.

I was impressed with their lunch special where you could have a pasta or pizza and either a starter or dessert for just $36. Or if you want to go the whole hog, you could have starter, pasta or pizza and dessert for $42. I would definitely recommend giving this place a try. Now I am just looking forward to Nobu opening next month - let's hope this Japanese restaurant keeps the vegetarian-friendly theme running.

Horsing Around

Thought we'd share a fun fact with you today. Did you know that today all horses in the southern hemisphere are officially one year older? Yup. Apparently all horses have the same birthday, so their ages can be standardised.

So if you happen to see a horse on your travels today, make sure you stop to give him/her a hug and wish them many happy returns. If you're in the northern hemisphere though, you need to hold off on the cake as all our northern toothy companions don't celebrate until January 1.