now a thirtysomething from Brisbane
Today, Tim and I had an early start for a Wedding that was very different to anything we had done before. Now every wedding is unique but this was Unique. We started the day with Vidya getting ready at 0830 and finished up at UQ about 1730. The above photo is just a sneak peak but there was colour, dancing, lots of people, food and happiness. I am looking forward to going through the rest of the photos in the next couple of days and I will be sharing more 🙂
Last Thursday I fronted up to the dental school to willingly have torture devices put on my teeth. When I first went to the dental school almost 12 years I had no idea that I would still be there now, though I don’t know if I ever really thought about it. There have been times when I have wished that we had just left my teeth as they were and let my teeth drift over to fill in the space from my missing tooth. Now though I feel that I have come so far that it isn’t worth jumping off the metal mouth bandwagon.
This isn’t the first time I have had braces but this time round my teeth have hurt a whole lot more. 8 days later I am sill on a very soft food diet, one of the wires is giving my cheek a mouthful ignoring the fact that it was bent back by the orthodontist a few days ago and the wax just doesn’t stay in this part of my mouth. It does have benefits though, it has forced me to be creative in making meals and since I have not been eating so much, my clothes are a little looser.
At the end of the day, I just think about the long term goal of having a titanium post in my upper jaw and a nice mouth of teeth and that this pain and annoyance will all be worthwhile in the end.
It was pretty hard not to know that the Air Show was on, there was posters on just about every empty surface at work, there were posters at the train station, there were ads on the radio and TV, people on the net were talking about it.
In the couple of days leading up to the show I was umming and ahhing about going and I didn’t end up deciding till Saturday morning after I had gone to the markets and cleaned the flat. When I decided that I was going to go, I could tell the day was going to be a scorcher so I made a trip back to my parents to pick up some sunscreen and then just missed the next Ipswich train, I decided that I would start to drive towards Ipswich and when the traffic jam started I would stop and catch the train. I had a good run on the freeway till Gailes so I popped off the freeway and parked at Goodna and caught a train to Ipswich and then the shuttle bus out to the Base. Quick easy and it made the trip home a lot quicker 😀
It was total chaos lining up to get a ticket but when I had a ticket and was inside it was a whole lot better. There was so much that I didn’t get a chance to see. I had a brief wander round the various stalls, said hello to the people from work who were working and then wrangled myself a spot on the fence where I could park myself with my 70-200 for a day in the sun taking plane photos. My biggest bummer of the day was the fact the C-17 that I so dearly wanted to see fly didn’t get up in the air on Saturday. One of the ladies I work with went on Sunday and it did get up in the air and she showed me a video on her mobile phone of it flying and I proceeded to have a little tanty right there in the office ….. 🙁 alll in fun though. So I didn’t see her fly but I saw lots of others fly and I have photos, photos which I am pretty proud of. The two highlights for me were without a doubt the Roulette display and the F-111 dump and burns as unless something drastic happens we won’t be seeing any more dump and burns over our skies due to the upcoming retirement of the F-111. sigh. It was also great to see a lot of the planes fly in person and just see the amount of people out for a day watching planes in the sky.
Here are a few pictures but the easiest thing would be to check out the slideshow below
The Roulettes arrive!!
They break formation
F-111 in flight (dump and burn pics are in the slideshow)
I am so far behind in blog posts it is not funny! I have been quite busy with work and just living that this little space on the wide internet has been neglected.
The posts coming up which I hope to have done in the next week include;
The RAAF Base Amberley Air Show. sigh what a great day.
A trip to Gatton and beyond with Mum and Grandad
Supergrass and Cloud Control at the Tivoli
The Valley Fiesta
The QLD Multicultural Festival
and a few other posts that I want to get out.
I leave you with a picture of the glorious F-111 doing a dump and burn at the air show and I get back to typing, typing, typing and listening to ABC TV FORA.
For my birthday at work I had a few requests for the cheesecake I had made before for other birthdays. Yes I am blogging about my birthday oh almost a month after it. Oh it was so delightful.
This is the photo of the wind. I had the photo all planned out in my head. My cake stand on an upturned vase covered by a scarf. It all looked so good through the lens and then as I pressed my finger on the shutter, the wind lifted up the scarf and the cake stand went over the balcony, the cake went onto the table and I just sighed. After nipping down stairs to pick up the broken cake stand, I took the photo again in a slightly more simple manner.
The recipe is almost exactly the same as the cheesecake recipe I have posted before but I added a tin of caramel (either Top’n’Fill or Caramel or a tin of condensed milk converted to caramel)
Caramel Chocolate Baked Cheesecake
Crumb Base
1 250g packet scotch fingers
bit of all spice
50g butter/marg
50g copha
2 tbsps or so of cocoa if desiredMelt the butter/marg and copha together.
Crumb scotch fingers till they resemble fine breadcrumbs. Stir through the all spice and cocoa if using. Stir in the melted fat mixture. The mixture of dairy and vegetable fat is used to give a better “crumb” and how it holds together. Press in to the bottom (and sides if desired) of a greased 20cm spring form pan (line the bottom with foil) and chill in the fridge whilst making the filling.Filling
500g cream cheese
1 x 380g tin caramel
bit of lemon juice
bit of vanilla
4 eggs
2/3C sugarCream the cream cheese and caramel till smooth. Add in the vanilla and lemon juice. Beat in the sugar till smooth and then beat in eggs one at a time till mixture is smooth. Pour on top of the base and cook in 160deg oven for 40 mins or until cooked. Run knife round edge of spring form pan and cool overnight.
Topping
idea very loved from Smitten Kitchen
50g butter
100g+ chocolate – dark or Cadbury Energy or Lindt 70% etc – Mix it up with a few different chocolates, increase the flavour or use up those half used blocks…
2 tsp honey
You could also very easily add some flavours here such as peppermint extract, mmmm.Melt all ingredients together in a bowl over a saucepan of barely simmering water. Pour over top of cooled cheesecake and place in fridge for 30mins to set the chocolate topping.
When cutting this cake (due to the chocolate topping) if you want a clean cut you must dip the knife in a glass of hot water after each and every cut.
Enjoy!
Holly Throsby, man oh man what I can say about her and her duo of support (Bree van Reyk and Jens Birchall). I went on Friday night for The Dwarf and I went back on Sunday night to see her again. I have known who Holly is for quite a few years now and have adored her version of Not the Girl You Think You Are from the Tim and Neil Finn tribute Album She Will Have Her Way. However I have never gone to a concert, I have thought about it many times nor I have listened to much of her work. I did have a brief listen on Myspace before the gig on Friday night to brief myself a little but in all honesty listening to them on Myspace didn’t sell me on her. Clare was hoping to come along on Friday night as she was already in the Valley but by the time she got to the door the gig was sold out. I grabbed some floor space down near the front and caught the last bit of the support band Firekites and in all honesty I can’t remember much of their set three days later. By the time the support had finished the Troubie was filling up nicley and the security man walked through the sea of people sitting on the carpet and told us all to stand up and with much protest we all stood up. Then Holly came on stage and after she had said hello, a few people yelled out “Can we sit down?” to which she answered “I don’t care” and on that last word, everyone collectively sat down again. To which Holly made a few comments about that now she feels really tall.
A couple of seconds after she started singing, I sat up a little bit straighter and took a deep breath. Man oh Man, where I have been? Such an incredible sound, the little trio, soon to be known as Holly Throsby and the Hello Tigers (as of Sunday night) were just so tight in their sound, it sounded like there was just one person on stage. One of the sweetest things or perhaps I should say one of the nicest things was that at the end of the gig, it was Holly and Bree who were the merch stand and as I bought On Night on Friday, I told her that I had been meaning to go a gig for years but never got there and tonight she had blown the expectations I had for the gig by about 1000%. I was so sold that two nights later I bought the other two LPS A Loud Call and Under the Town and I would have bought a shirt but I don’t do black shirts.
The set list for Friday was as follows
1) And Then We’re Gone
2) A Widow’s song
3) Now I Love Someone
4) On Longing
5) Don’t Be Howling
6) The Time It Takes
7) One of You for Me
8) Would You?
9) Some Night Are Long
10) Warm Jets
11) Berlin Chair (You Am I Cover)
12) Things Between People
13) What Becomes of Us
14) Up with the Birds
15) Making a Fire
16) A Heart Divided
17) The Shoulders and Bends
Friday blew me away but Sunday was bliss, a lot slower, a lot calmer, more talking and the music just leading the night away.
Set list for Sunday was as follows
1) To Begin With
2) If We Go Easy
3) On Longing
4) Now I Love Someone
5) The Time It Takes
6) One of You for Me
7) A Widow’s Song
8) Don’t Be Howling
9) Come Visit
10) Things Between People
11) Berlin Chair (You Am I Cover)
12) What Becomes of Us
14) Up with the Birds
15) Making a Fire
16) A Heart Divided
17) The Shoulders and Bends
There might have been one or two songs that were changed around but my lists are from the set lists that I picked up off the stage at the end of the shows.
The Troubie whilst I love it and love it and love it is not a venue that is at all friendly for people wishing to take photographs. The lighting is two lights and a floor lamp but I wouldn’t change the fact that there is comfy lounge chairs, carpeted floor to sit on and a trendy bar. There were just so many cute, quint, funny bits that just made me smile. At the show on Sunday night, Holly asked if anyone had come to the gig on Friday night and raised my hand ever so slightly and she said that she had been thinking about wearing the same dress tonight but decided against it just in case people such as my self from Friday turned up on Sunday as well. Next time Holly Throsby is in your town make sure you go! If you don’t and I find out, well it may not be pretty.
Here is a youtube video of Holly doing Berlin Chair, the You Am I cover at the gig on Friday night. This user also has a few more videos from the two Brisbane shows.
Another thing I can’t contain my love for is the design of the CDs. All three follow the exactly same design for the CD and sleeve artwork. It is just perfect! Such a tiny thing like the fact that the