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The goings-on

Well.

Hanging out with Nemo lots of Clownfish  at Reef HQ.

I went up to Townsville last week for work and I had planned on putting a few posts up on the nights that I didn’t catch up with dear Townsville friends but that didn’t happen did it! I was so tired on those other nights that I managed a little bit of study (yep, took just near 5kg of uni books with me) and then it was straight to bed. So here I am a week since I got home from Townsville and I’m finally sitting down to type.

Apart from uni work, the other reason for the radio silence has been this.

The house is getting painted at the moment and repairs are about to start to the ceilings in this room and the kitchen. Once that is all done then the floor sander will start and then when he done it will be the laying of new carpets in the bedrooms. My vacuum cleaner is getting quite a work out and I’m forever dusting it seems. The house is going to look a treat when it is all done.

Back to Townsville though. Townsville was lovely.

I was staying in the Sugar Shaker so the views were very nice.

Looking towards Castle Hill and work.

I had a dip a few times in the roof top pool, I always had it to myself which was also quite nice.

I was picked up from work on Friday by Sam and then it was back to her house for a weekend of lazy fun in the ‘ville. BBQ next door on Friday night, Reef HQ and Herveys Range on Saturday with girls night out at Cactus Jacks on Saturday night, markets on Sunday and then flying back to Brisbane on the same plane as Bob Katter on Sunday.

Sam at Reef HQ.

Nemo.

The Seahorses were very cute.

These upside down jellyfish were very pretty as well.

As was this fish.

The chocolate nachos as Cactus Jack’s were as always fantastic.  They are soooooo good.

Thumbs up from Townsville.

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Dear Mr Swan

Did you do as KRudd suggested and contacted your local member? I had only planned to write a few sentences asking my local member to listen to what the electorate wants and not what he/the ALP wants but it went for a bit more than a few sentences.

You may not agree with the actions of Kevin, or the actions of Julia or the actions of the ALP as a whole but there is two things that the federal politicians need to do and that is 1) stop acting like a bunch of bitchy year 9 girls and 2) start actually listening to what the Australian public says and wants.

I ended up writing close to 1000 words to my local member with my responses and ideas on the above two points. My local member is someone who used to be colloquially known as Swanny round these parts but after his this last week he has lost the nickname, he is simply Mr Wayne Swan now.

I made comments about why I’ve voted for him since I was old enough to vote, why I’m glad that my father is dead and hasn’t had to observe the mess of the last week and to a certain extent the last 20 odd months (he used to be at QIT with Mr Swan and spoke with regard for him, pretty sure his ashes are rolling over in their grave right about now), about honesty and the fact that no one is perfect so stop acting like some people are and others are not. As well as a few other points about the whole idea of acting for the entire Australian public and not just a small minority.

One sentence though I do want to share with you is the following.

To put it frankly “the light on the hill” is blinking like a fluro that needs the starter replaced and if you, your parliamentary colleagues and the wheels of the ALP don’t start listening to the voice of the Australian public today, “the light on the hill” will be knocked down and replaced with a glowing effigy of John Howard.

That’s probably my favourite sentence in my letter to Mr Swan. “The light on the hill”, that speech by Chifley was a great speech, full of ideas and the like and it’s given us a lovely little phrase to use about the ALP in relation to the Australian worker/public ever since.

I would like to think that irrespective of what happens tomorrow that come Tuesday they will be back to running the country and acting as a unified party but somehow I just can’t see that happening with ease.

In the next few days we will return our normal programming which consists of photographs, food and treasures of my life.

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Dinner

Because tonight is the one night of the year pancakes are a totally acceptable dinner. Mmm pancakes! or pönnukökur to be more correct, since the only type of pancakes this house knows is Icelandic pancakes (well and also the Ayrshire pancakes that my maternal grandmother used to make).

There is only three types of toppings pancakes in our family can have and that is red jam (any berry or rhubarb jam) with cream, golden syrup with cream or brown sugar, lemon juice and cream. Yep cream is just as important as pancakes when it comes to pancakes!

This picture though, tells a lot more than just that I had pancakes for dinner but it about the Icelandic pancake pans that Karl brought over with him for my Christmas present in 2008, Grandmum’s narrow metal flip, the paper towel holder that Grandad made and of course a Lotte plate…

Here is hoping that you too enjoyed pancakes at some stage tomorrow and I’m looking forward to eating the leftovers tomorrow 🙂

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now to decide if I should grow a tea bush or get a house cow

because then my breakfast would be entirely home made.

This was my breakfast this morning. Home made bread and home made apricot jam with a cup of tea and the magazine from the weekend Australian.

This is the Helen size loaf of bread before I cut into it

Oh it is so very nice and I achieved a very nice translucent crumb which is the goal with slow rise breads.

Did you see the table?

It started off life with me looking like this.

 

A thorough sanding, a dose of deck clean, some garden furniture oil, another sand then then two more coats of garden furniture oil and it looks like this now. Yes, those are casalas, I searched high and low for outdoor chairs I liked but in the end casalas won me over. Oh so comfy

One day I’ll get round to stripping and painting the legs but that doesn’t need doing just yet.

Also I went to my first auction on Tuesday night and I bid on one item all night and I won it, it was a touch scary. When I arrived I did a quick case of what else was on show then had a quick look at the Countess before sitting down in a position where I could see if anyone else was looking at it … The bidding was between me and one other lady. Oh hello Royal Doulton Countess, I do love  you so. I finally have bowls (and cups and more plates). I’m really quite happy about this win because I got it for a very good price and it means I don’t have to find a seller on UK Ebay who is happy to send bowls internationally.  I may be known for my love of Figgjo Flint Lotte but I share that love equally with Royal Doulton Countess.

Now though, I must fold the washing and get ready for a short work week since Karl and Kata arrive early Thursday morning 😀

 

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The London to Cape Town ERA Rally

I really meant to post about this quite a few days ago, since there is only two days of the rally left I best do it now!

My uncle and cousin are just about at the end of a 29 day or 14,400 km mad dash from London to Cape Town in their 1923 Vauxhall OD 23/60, known as Penny. Penny (and my uncle) is quite the adventurer having completed the ERA Peking to Paris rally in 2010 and coming 2nd in the pioneer class.  The original plan some time ago was to do London to Cape Town in their “everyday” 4wd but look at the picture below and I think you can understand why Penny is doing London to Cape Town and not the Landcruiser…

This is them a few days ago barrelling down a road between Moyale and Marsabit in Kenya. The photo is by Gerard Brown who is the rally photographer.

 

They are currently placed at 31 in what is now a field of 41 cars, pretty darn impressive for a car which is the oldest in the rally by 41 years … The second oldest car is a 1964 Volvo PV 544 C. The rally was designed for “classic rally cars”, those rally cars of the 60s-80s, that are the type of cars you think of when you think major long distance rally. They’ve done really well climbing up from 40th which at the pointy end of the rally I would really say comes down to how well they prepped Penny to start off with.

One of the coolest features available to us rally watchers is the yellowbrick car tracking, at any time of the day you are able to see where all the cars are located and what speed they are travelling at etc. If you’ve got some time to spend I highly recommend having a poke round the rally website but also looking at the various participant blogs etc

I leave you with this photo also by  Gerard Brown. This is what happens when you run out of petrol 500m from the petrol station. I’m betting that is one tale those locals will be talking about for some time to come.

Gerard Brown

 

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The Tawny Frogmouths return so I blog again

The birds reappeared in the Silky Oak this morning. I woke up, looked out the window and there they were; preening their feathers in the early morning light. As per usual it has been about a week since they were last in the garden.

What else have I been up to since then?

Making use of one of my Christmas presents – a jam funnel, thanks Mum!

Using the above leads to this. Mulberry Jam, yummo.

Stocking up on mangoes, then slicing and freezing so there will be golden mango goodness way past the mango season. A whole tray of mangoes for $8 <– that’s my kind of bargain.

Look at all those bags of goodness.

After a few years of umming and ahhing over different digital radios, I finally picked one up. A Pure Elan II, whilst I dearly loved the Orla Kieley and the look of the other Mio radios they didn’t offer a pause feature. If I was getting a new kitchen radio I wanted to be able to press pause and come back to the radio when I’m off the phone/finished shooing away the sales person/bible promoter at the door etc.

I’m loving it, it’s great having ABC Jazz in the kitchen without either having to have the TV on or having my laptop on the kitchen table.

The house currently looks like a cross between a bomb site and a warehouse as Mum packs up as the ticker counts downs the days till she departs, we are almost in the single digits!

I leave you with this.

That’s my attempt at making a Mango Juice Bali style -> mango, ice, sugar syrup. Blend it together and drink up the sweetness.