Posted on

No means a comedy

One more exam over and it wasn’t as hard as I thought but I am still only aiming for 28/50 which will give me a credit for the course, now I just have the last one on Monday morning which is going to be a tough one as whilst I enjoy learning about contemporary Chinese politics I am not the best at remembering the names and dates. I did these two layouts when I came home from the exam as a wee break from the books. Who has been scrapping long enough to remember that Kangaroo and Joey paper on the first layout? I bought that sheet of paper back in early 2003 and I know it was released a while before then.

this is what I Love! Wollemi Pine

After dropping Matthew at a friend’s house this evening I pulled into the video store on the way home and picked up a couple of movies to watch with Mum as she can’t sit in the seats at the cinema yet and there was nothing on TV. The movie we watched tonight was a French movie called Me and My Sister (Les Soeurs Fâchées), the reviews on the back said it was “Delicious, an enjoyable bitchy comedy”, whilst it certainly had its bitchy factor it was by no means a comedy, so that was bit of a let down. It was an interesting movie but going into it thinking it was going to be a comedy meant that our expectations were let down a bit.

Posted on

O Fairy, Where Art Thou?

O Fairy, Where Art Thou?
I was not studying the other night and came across this photo as I was sorting through some files and the idea that a fairy should be there came into my mind. Then as I thought more I thought of O Brother, Where Art Thou? I haven’t actually seen the movie but have heard the soundtrack a couple of times. This was taken back in March when we had a couple days of rain, not though it fell where our dams are. The dams that feed the Brisbane area have just fallen to 30% capacity, this means that we move into level 3 water restrictions. Level 3 restrictions means that we have to now use a bucket or watering can for watering or washing of cars. Brisbane is in a serious drought and the rain is rarely falling in the catchment areas for the dams 🙁 Want to read more? Water Forever – SEQ Water Saving Initiative. Back to the layout though, maybe I should have called O Rain, Where Art Thou? instead 🙂
The last couple of days I have:
  • Gone to the Lifeline Bookfest today, picked up two books and three magazines for $2
  • Listened to an interesting talk by Francis Fukuyama of The End of History fame on why he is moving away from the US government and the neo-cons, he drew attention done to some work done in comparing the Christian Reformation with the events in the Islamic world today, all really interesting stuff. The talk was given at the Philadelphia Free Library and you can go here to listen to it – Background Briefing
  • Studied some and then bludged some, need to do more of the study – First exam is on Tuesday
  • I have baked two times in the last three days – more on that to come later
  • Scrapbooked the above layout
  • Worked on Saturday as usual and head off to work at 5am in the morning like usual

This weekend is a long weekend for the Queen’s Birthday so Mum went away walking for the weekend, so we were not expecting a call this evening saying that she would be coming home early. She has had quite a serious accident, she did the proverbial broken leg in a rabbit hole, though she hasn’t broken her leg just stuffed up her knee something horrid and it wasn’t a rabbit hole either, just a hole. On our way back from picking her up from the house of the lady who drove her back to Brisbane we picked up a pair of crutches! No one in our house has ever needed crutches before! She has two weeks left of school left before the winter holidays and she has already called her boss to tell her what has happened. She also won’t be going walking anytime in the next couple of months so luckily we had decided not to the Mackay Highlands Great Walk in the holidays or that she had decided a couple of months ago to postpone her next walking trip to California to do part of the Sierra High Route from this July to next July because there is no way that would be going ahead now.
I just got this quote in my ThinkExist daily email and I quite like it 🙂

“Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending” – Maria Robinson

Posted on

Cinnamon Muffins

I was checking my RSS feeds yesterday when I stumbled across a recipe on Bakingsheet for Cinnamon Muffins, next thing I knew I was in the kitchen making them. 🙂 They are oh so yummy.

Cinnamon Muffins

Cinnamon Muffins
Recipe from Baking Sheet (bracketed comments are things I changed from the original recipe)
2 cups all purpose flour (1 cup plain flour & 1 cup wholemeal plain flour)
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp cinnamon (I went for a bit more than this, more like 2 tsp)
1/2 cup sugar
1/2 cup brown sugar
1 large egg
3 tbsp vegetable oil (I used light olive because that is what we had)
1 tsp vanilla extract (I always just go for a splash)
3/4 cup buttermilk
1/4 tsp brown sugar
1/2 tsp cinnamon

Preheat oven to 400F (200C). Line 11 muffin cups with paper liners (or grease really well).
In a medium bowl, whisk together flour, baking powder, baking soda, salt and cinnamon.
In a large bowl, whisk together sugars and the egg until smooth. Beat in vegetable oil and vanilla. Working in 2 or 3 additions, alternate adding the flour and the buttermilk to the sugar mixture, stiring until just combined.
In a small bowl, stir together remaining brown sugar and cinnamon.
Fill each muffin cup about 1/2 full. Sprinkle with a scant 1/2 tsp of the brown sugar mixture into each cup. Evenly divide remaining batter on top and sprinkle with remaining sugar mixture. (I only did the first sprinkle of the sugar/cinnamon mixture)
Bake at 400F (200C) for 15-18 minutes, until a tester comes out clean.
Transfer to a wire rack to cool completely before eating.

Makes 11 muffins.
Oh – there is one more thing to note about this recipe. I only made 11 muffins and not 12. There are two reasons for this. First of all, if you add 1/2-1 cup of nuts, chocolate chips, chopped banana pieces, etc, you will need that extra cup to use the extra batter. Second, the muffins will be puffier, with prettier tops if you make only 11.

As these were cooking, the cinnamon wafted through the house, it smelt gorgeous. 🙂 Best eaten after a short spin in the microwave to warm them up. Even better if after warming them up, you cut it in half and spread with a little bit of butter. MMMMM

Posted on

Holy Cripes Batman!

Holy Cripes Batman!

I got 35.5/40 for the essay on Japan and the modern day effects of their past military agressions that I really did not like doing. Can you say Happy! 😀

I was bouncing round the room like crazy.
Then I put the camera on the tripod and proceeded to take 124 photos of myself.

But can you spot my fake tooth? or my ultra cool Mountain Goats t-shirt 🙂

I  have the final exam for this subject today and unless I bomb out on the exam I will be getting a distinction.

Posted on

taking a break

I am so tired of writing and researching, but only a little while now till the holidays. I want to find the pause button so I can take a break. The parcel man came to my house today and delivered me a present 🙂 it was my threadless shirts from the $10 sale. I’m wearing one to uni today 🙂

On Sunday, I just needed a break from sitting at the computer (which is something I find quite hard) and we were out of whole milk so I took a walk in the lovely May weather we are enjoying and went up to the local Aldi and picked up some milk 🙂 As I walked home I took a moment to let my camera know that I do love it and that my neglect will not last forever. Here is to having one essay to edit, one to write, a presentation and five exams left for the semester! All of which will bring me one step closer to graduation.

These three photos are little snippets from thet “Streets of your(mine) Town”, the pot plants that have sat on this fence for as long as I can remember always glaringly white in the sun, the Bowls Club where Karl used to work and one of the bus stop signs on the street to our street. They recently changed all the bus stop signs, they used to be yellow and I like the old ones better.
20060514_8552 20060514_8548 20060514_8551

[audio:The Go-Betweens – Streets Of Your Town.mp3]

The Go-Betweens, a band from my town that recently became no more, when Grant McLennan died in his sleep. Streets of Your Town is one of their few songs that I know quite well and it always makes me think of this here town, Brisbane.

Streets of Your Town

Chorus
Round and round, up and down
Everyday I make my way
Through the streets of your town

Don’t the sun look good today?
But the rain is on its way
Watch the butcher shine his knives
And this town is full of battered wives.

Chorus

I ride your river under the bridge
I take your boat out to the reach
Cos I love that engine roar
but I still don’t hnow what I’m here for.

Chorus

they shut it down
they closed it down
they shut it down
they pulled it down.

Chorus

Posted on

helen in red

I was unable to play on (inter)national scrapbooking day over the weekend due to that thing called Uni, actually I have not been able to play much at all recently due to Uni. It is now Tuesday of Week 10, two essays and a presentation left until Exams start after Week 13. When I came home yesterday after a day at uni and handing in an essay. I decided to make a paper layout as I just a had a total ball of fun making the tag for EK (success) the other week.

When I learnt that there was a St Helens in Tasmania, it became like number 3 on the places I had to visit.

When I placed the photos down on the paper, the song, Lady in Red came into my mind which influenced my title 🙂
These photos are actually all from the same day so it isn’t much of a coincidence that I am in red a red shirt in the photos and the jumper I took on the trip was red as well (I only own two jumpers, I live in Brisbane! – one is red and one is orange :))

helen in red in tasmania