“Christmas, children, is not a date. It is a state of mind.†Mary Ellen Chase (1988-1973)
This year/last year (Christmas 08 is what we are talking about here), instead of getting a Radiata Pine from the farm, we got a farmed Radiata from Real Christmas Trees. Oh my lordy what a tree it was. It was just packed full of branches and it was shaped like a real Christmas Tree! In saying that in hindsight, we would have done some selective pruning as since the tree was so bushy, the ornaments were to a degree buried in the pine needles.
Karl, the girls and I decorated on the afternoon of the 23rd. Well perhaps it is more true to say Karl and I decorated the tree whilst the girls had fun with the tinsel and taking photos. What follows are photos, lots of photos. IF the photo has Silja in it, it was taken by Birta, if it has Birta in it, it was taken by Silja, that applies for most photos, but pretty much the first half were taken by Birta, the next half were taken by Silja and then the last handful and the first few were taken by myself and then a handful near the end were taken by Karl. Does that make any sense? probably not.
Eventually the tree was covered with ornaments and then out came the magic texters and the girls gave tattooed our legs. I went to the doctors that afternoon to see about my leech bite with one leg covered in doodles 🙂
Karl
Wrapping the tree in tinsel
Birta and I doing silly faces
Due to the sheer number of photos to share from this day, here is a slide show again 🙂
I’m moving house in a week today and one of the things I hope to have done by then is to have finished blogging about Christmas 2008. So here is another post to bring me a little step closer to the end of the 2008 Christmas Extravaganza.
I have wanted to make chocolate truffles for quite a while now and on more than one occasion I have brought cream with the intention of making truffles but ended up using it for something else.
For Christmas I made two types, the first where Peppermint Dark Chocolate and the second where White Rum, White Chocolate. They were rolled in a mixture of toppings, crushed Candy Canes (any idea how hard that is?), coconut, cocoa and sprinkles. I was not 100% happy with how they turned out so I won’t be sharing a recipe but here is a link to a search on FoodBlogSearch where I got my basic recipe from. My main problem was getting the consistency right and looking back now, I can also tell you that the Brisbane weather might have a little bit to do with it as well.
The truffles were rolled over two sessions. The night that I made the mixtures Karl and Matthew came over for a little gathering. We tasted one of Karl’s beers that he brought with him. By far the best tasting beer I have ever had, if I could get a case of it I would. We sampled different liqueurs and port with ice-cream and then we rolled truffles and we rolled till the mixture warmed up too much and the table warmed up as well.
The next truffle rolling session was the day that we picked Erica and Ash up from the airport. Having learnt our lessons we knew how to roll them now and Mum’s house has air-con which made it a bit easier to roll them 😀
The following photos were taken by Mum.
and this is how we roll
They were a lot of hard work but oh my they were pretty tasty and they do look pretty!
FYI for the future though. Crushed candy canes absorb moisture from anything and turn into liquid candy canes. Eat them shortly after making them.
I’m thinking that this year truffles will be made for winter celebrations not Christmas!
And speaking of Candy Canes, here are photos of the girls with candy canes they were given by the Station Master at Albion train station. Anna, the girls and I went into the city before Christmas to do some shopping and check out my office – the idea was to look at the view but I think they had more fun having their height and weight measured by one of the nurses who is my work mum #1 (I have two work mums at work :D) and listening to everyone gush at how cute they were. 😀
This is what I made for dinner tonight. Partly cleaning out the pantry before I move next week, partly just feeling like a change. I was sort of inspired by the noodle soup that Nigella made on Nigella Express last night. The whole express thing was the best thing. I put a pan of water on to boil with a few strands of saffron and some vegetable stock, added some chopped up leeks, cauliflower and carrots, let that simmer and then added some broken up rice noodles, dried mushrooms and a dash of tamari. A few more minutes and then I had a lovely bowl of noodle soup (and two more bowls for lunches).
A perfect bowl of soup that was both light and full in flavour. Perfect to eat for dinner whilst reading the daily papers.
ATP, ATP, ATP, it almost sounds like the name of a bank or an insurance mob rather than one rather rocking festival. Last Thursday saw the first Australian All Tomorrow’s Parties roll down to the Riverstage for one jaw dropping afternoon. I missed the first set by James Blood Ulmer but from what I heard of the last couple of songs it would have been great to see it.
The Necks
The first act that I saw the saw the complete set for was The Necks. I very much appreciated their music but it was a bit weird listening to at an improv set of one song at 3:30 in the afternoon! It was quite funny as since The Necks only played one song, the security was a bit unsure as to when we should leave the pit.
Robert Forster
Mr Forster was next and oh sigh, that was an incredible set. The highlight song for me was for sure Surfing Magazines, a song from The Go-Betweens era, that was just magical. At the end of the set, Robert pulled a few beers off stage and tried to give them to people in the front row, security went nooooooo, you can’t give the punters glass bottles and poured the beer into cups for the punters. Thought that was a really nice move by him.
Spiritualized
I had never heard of Spiritualized before and I actually really enjoyed the set. Will keep an ear our for them in the future for sure.
The Saints
This set was so cool but also really disappointing. I mean man, it’s The Saints. This is Brisbane in 2009 and I’m meters away from The Saints taking photos. If I hadn’t been so hyped up about the set I would have loved it but and a really big but is the fact that they didn’t deliver what they said they were going to do. All the press leading up to the event had said the following
“The most important Australian album ever made”. – Nick Cave on The Saints (I’m) Stranded.
Released in April 1977, The Saints (I’m) Stranded regularly appears in any poll nominating Australia’s greatest ever albums. To celebrate this fact – along with their inclusion in the inaugural Australian All Tomorrow’s Parties Festival series – The Saints (including original members Chris Bailey, Ed Kuepper and Ivor Hay as well as long time Saint Archie Larizza on bass) have graciously agreed to recreate the album (all 32 minutes of white noise, punk snarl and songwriting smarts) in its entirety – via two very special Don’t Look Back performances.
The poster for the event has in big, big big type (I’m) Stranded, The Saints. I can’t begin to describe my disenchantment when in Brisbane, their home town, the town where this band that gets billed for changing the music scene does not play their number one hit which got them all the attention. They didn’t even play all the other songs off the album but an assorted mix of their songs through the years. Days later, I still feel my stomach fall when I think about the gig.
Their were highlights and they would have to include the fact that Chris Bailey walked onto stage with a smoke in hand and smoked/drank through the set. Rock on.
Nick Cave and The Bad Seeds
As the curators of ATP 09 Australia, Nick Cave and co took to the River Stage last for a set that contained a wide range of songs, many from the recent Dig, Lazarus Dig! album. Photographing Nick Cave was interesting, we were limited to one song (no surprise there) but we were also required to stay low, very low and to limit our movement. This meant that we basically spent the song sitting on the inbuilt seats on the crowd barrier and trying to shuffle round to get other photos. Still it was pretty darn cool seeing Nick Cave.
My highlight for the night was by far Robert Forster and The Saints (though I am still pretty ticked off at The Saints for not playing (I’m) Stranded, even though a) it was advertised in big type on all the promo material and b) dude, the song is like a Brisbane anthem, how could you not play it to a Brisbane crowd?
Last week, Brisbane’s newest festival filled the Old Botanical Gardens with fantastic music on three stages over two mid-week afternoons. Sunset Sounds was brought to Brisbane by the same folk who run that festival down south called The Falls Festival. Overall it was a really nice festival and it was great to leave work and head down to the gardens and enjoy the music and the gardens.
Some of my highlights would have to have had included The Cat Empire (so great seeing them live), Tegan and Sara (haven’t got into them on the radio but live they were great), The Kooks (they were so great to photograph), Skipping Girl Vinegar (just so fun, they made me smile), Blue King Brown (no explanation needed there), I Heart Hiroshima (Brisbane, fun, crazy and great).
The gallery from Day 1 is up on The Dwarf and both days are up in Sunset Sounds ’09.
December 22, 2008.
Dear Diary,
Today I did something I haven’t done in years. I went Rock Climbing! I know you say, you haven’t done that in years. I think it has probably been almost ten years! Still I remembered that a) the general idea is to do your best to move up the rock face and b) take lots of photos. Karl used to do a fair bit of climbing when he lived in Aus and Al, one of my cousins from Tasmania is a bit of a climbing freak – he is more monkey/rock wallaby than human, KWIM? Erica and Ash, well they are just a poster couple for outdoor pursuits. I, I just take photos. Back to the climbing though. We all piled into my car and headed to that Gorilla looking mountain in the Glasshouses called Tibrogargan to a place called the Slider Wall for climbing, photos, mozzie bites, talking, more climbing and even more photos.
The first climb we did was Such A Nice Monster, Al walked up it first and put in the top rope anchor before Karl, Erica and Ash all followed suit. I had no intention of even trying it but I was there, I had a harness with me. I gave it a go in joggers and an infected foot, I didn’t get to the top but still I gave it a go and to some point enjoyed it. They then moved up a little and did The Most Monstrous Monster. It was really cool to see Al just walked/scamper up the face. After a little bit more climbing and more photos we moved up the Upper Slider Wall for great views and more climbing for the boys.
We managed to get to the car a few minutes before dark which was very handy, then it was a trip to the drive-throu for some beers and back to The Block for dinner with the Tasmanian crew. Sometime later when it was late, Karl and I made the drive home to Kedron tired and happy. I don’t know when I will go climbing again but I did have fun.
Helen
PS, I guess I should share some photos shouldn’t I?
