It has been a very busy last few days at work. One of the girls has been off this past week extremely sick and then the other girl has been off after having her wisdom teeth out. Which has left myself, the other new girl, our boss and our part timer trying to catch up. It has been keeping us very busy. Thursday though I had to get out of the office and have lunch in the square which is where a few of these photos are from. Friday though I finished at 4pm, ever growing stack of files could wait till Monday. I caught the bus into The Valley and went to the Thai grocery/DVD store to get a few things I was after from the cooking class with Leanne the other week. Friday night Mum had a slideshow with the three other ladies that she went walking in NZ with. That was quite nice. So many nice places in the the Fiordland area.
Saturday, yesterday, I didn’t do much, it was a stinker of a day. We turned the air con and I watched some more Alias before making some pasta for lunch. Then I watched some more Alias. Then I went to Taste in the Valley for a Moghul cooking demo with Gaynor Long. Then I watched some more Alias, cooked tea (Harissa grilled steak with cous cous and a pea/capsicum/sundried tomato mixture. I then crashed to the sounds of classics on 4MBS.
I woke up at 6 this morning. I couldn’t sleep. I had breakfast, made some not so melting moments (the still taste ok but just not like melting moments) and then went back to sleep for a little while longer. Just taking it easy, I’m going to go out later for some music and assorted fun. As I type this now though, I am listening to a piano CD I have from ABC Classics, the current “song” is Adagio from Beethoven’s Moonlight sonata. I have my desk cleaned off and actually creating for the first time in ages, I had forgotten how it feels to write with a pen on cardstock. To look at photos, thumb through papers.
It is by far nearly bed time. I should be in bed right now but I feel like typing. There are lots of things I want to type but they can wait. Tonight I will type about some photos from the last few days.
Somehow still managing to take a photo a day. However it is so often a struggle. I take my camera to work. I take my camera home with me and most times it is not till some time in the evening that I finally press that shutter button. Today though the photo that I picked was from when I was waiting at the bus stop after Pabbi had just dropped me off. Still getting a lift to and from the bus stop at the moment. Though I have ditched the walking cane and am moving much easier round the place. I can almost walk down stairs properly too albeit slowly and with much thought. That is all with the brace on though. With out it is a whole new story.
This 366 thing gets harder and harder during the week, on the weekends it us fun. It is not that I don’t want to take photos, I love it. However you have grander and grander images in your head as you look at something and think of how you would love to take a photo of it, from this angle, with light there and with that as the focus point etc etc. Then you take the photo and due all those environmental or technical variables that you didn’t control. You only end up with a photo that is 5% of what you had in you mind. Then you think someday.
This is a Blue Ginger or Ornamental Ginger, it grows in our back yard in the very back corner. The flowers sure a pretty and the leaves are that not quite glossy dark yet rich green.
On Sunday we went to the Farm. As we do :), I mean how could you not want to go see Grandad? He rocks my world. We don’t speak very much, but then we share a smirk or he comes out with a line and you just go hell yeah. This was at the farm the other day. Grandad has pumpkin vines growing just about everywhere. There is also the cherry tomato plants that would live through a nuclear war, those things are indestructible, however it is not their season at the moment. There are a few little green cherries on the plants but only one red I saw. I carefully picked it as it looked like the skin was about to split, gave it a polish and a little fun with it.
I bet you haven’t seen a pumpkin flower that looks like this before 🙂
After I took a few photos, I put it in my mouth and enjoyed that short moment of sweetness and tartness before it was gone to my stomach. Then I took this photo. Pumpkin. Almost ready for picking.
I got Season 1 of Alias on DVD from the Library the other day, slowly making my way through the discs. I had forgotten how much *fun* the show was. I must admit I like watching it on DVD as I can fast forward the bits where I get scrunch up my eyes and get slightly scared. Even though I know what happens in the end I still go slightly eek.
Monday.
I went to my doctor on Monday arvo to see what he said about my ankle. He said that I sure did a good job of it, re-tearing the ligaments that I tore playing silly buggers about ten years ago. All that I can do is rest it, keep it supported and wait. He said that it should take no longer than six weeks post injury and I have to be very careful in that time not to injure it again.
I took this photo as I lay in the recliner watching something on TV
Tuesday.
This photo has the same tale as the one above. Laying in the recliner, watching something, seeing what photos I can take and only been slightly happy with this one.
We today take this first step by acknowledging the past and laying claim to a future that embraces all Australians.
Hopefully now we will only take steps forward and the gap will close.
One of the things I most enjoy about working on the twelfth floor is the chance to observe what is happening below me, watching people on the roof of a building having a smoke, the window cleaners, the witch’s hats on the roof a building that move round with the rain. Perhaps what I enjoy most is watching the going-ons of St John’s Cathedral directly across the street from me. I have seen the spires grow a little bit each day, watched the workers sitting on the scaffolding as they eat their lunch, observed the washing on the washing line of the residence and what strangely delights me the most is watching the portaloo move between spires as they work on different spires each day. Watching a crane lift a portaloo up and move it through the air is a strange sight to see. As in the above picture, it also sometimes has to get taken down to the ground to be emptied. The picture is not the best due to the windows we have, they are double glazed with blinds in the middle.
Thursday.
One of the things I most enjoy about catching the bus to work is that it gives me a chance to read a lot more. I have also been reading even more this past few weeks as I lay in bed with my foot up. One of the other things I have been doing is quizzing myself on trivia questions. 🙂
Friday.
I catch the bus from outside the Hotel Orient, a hotel I grew up hearing stories of as it was the resident hangout of my older brother when he lived in Brisbane, back when it was one of the icons of the local music scene. Now it the local pub for work and where I catch the bus from outside of in the afternoon.
I spent part of the bus trip home talking to Sam, and the job she is just about to start as the Indo (Indonesian) teacher at Townsville Grammer and the trip she will have to make to get there. Sam is from Emerald a town that has had some pretty bad floods this past month. The trip north to Townsville normally takes about seven hours. However, at the moment the whole area from the coast out west to Emerald area is in flood and it is not looking to improve any time soon, the only option she has to drive there is a sixteen hour drive the long way. At the moment she is just waiting in Emerald hoping the waters start to recede.
Friday night, Mum and I went to see 27 Dresses and oh what a laugh it was, a whole lot better than I had expected from the previews. Then I came home and watched Pride and Prejudice.
Saturday.
I woke up to see a message from Karl on Sykpe after messaging for a little while, I picked up the headset and pressed dial. We spoke for a while and then Mum and Pabbi came in chatted as well. Then they went shopping and we kept on talking, nearly two hours later we hung up. I went to have breakfast, Karl went to entertain. I could not fathom to imagine how much that phone call would have cost if I had made it on the landline, nearly two hours from Australia to Iceland, it would not have been cheap. The best thing is that he had little piece of news for us, he is planning on coming home for Christmas :D, also my second eldest brother, his wife and his two daughters are also planning on coming to spend Christmas in Australia too 😀 Christmas 2008 is going to be a blast 😀
Sheets on the line, the sun coming and going between the storm clouds to the south. Sheets billowing in the wind.
I was getting a bit stir crazy yesterday laying inside, so I went outside with my 85mm lens and lay on the old brick bqq taking a few photos. I took a few frames of this shot, trying each time to get the sheet billowing just right in the afternoon breeze.
I have looked up at the antenna on the roof next door numerous times, each time thinking that would be a cool photo, yesterday I took the photo.
Last Friday one of the girls at work had a birthday, so I baked a cake. A cheesecake, just like the one we always make. Though this time I added some chocolate to it 🙂 It went down oh so very well, so well in fact that one of the nurses made it the next day for a gathering.
Crumb Base
1 250g packet scotch fingers
bit of all spice
50g butter/marg
50g copha
2 tbsps or so of cocoa if desired
Melt 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
bit of lemon juice
bit of vanilla
4 eggs
2/3C sugar
Cream the cream cheese 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.
In the kitchen just after it came out of the oven.
6:20am Sunday Morning. I was laying in bed. The phone rings, should I get up and get it or let Pabbi get it, I think. Ahh stuff it, more likely to be for him or Mum then for me. But it was for me! On the other end was Leanne feeling quiet bad for ringing so early but she had an offer for me. Leanne and her sister had been given a voucher to do a cooking class (Hot Wok) at the Spirit House up at Yandina, her sister couldn’t go and Leanne has just found out that the replacement her sister had organised couldn’t come either. Did I want to go? Of course I did. A quick shower later, breakfast and flat ironed hair later it was time to go. A pleasant drive up to Yandina, a very nice class, a very yummy class, a poke round the setting taking a few photos and then it was time to make the trip home again. So happy to have had the chance to take the class.
It was a fantastic class, really enjoyed it. What I enjoyed the most was those little tricks, like deep frying basil leaves for a garnish – soo cool looking, they go really glassy and pretty darn tasty too or making fried shallots. What other little tricks were there mmm. Also enjoyed the time spent at the beginning of the class going through all the ingredients, getting the chance to taste them/smell them etc.
The dishes we made were –
1) Dry Red Curry of Cuttlefish with Wild Ginger
This was fun, the Cuttlefish can easily be swapped out with squid. Really liked this and it looked good on the plate too.
2) Braised Pork with Sweet Soya & Cinnamon
This was another really really yummy dish, we didn’t use a wok but actually just a large pot. Diced pork neck/scotch fillets were used and were quite tender by the end, the spices used were star anise, ginger and cinnamon, oh the flavour was so nice.
3) Sweet & Sour Stir Fry Chicken
This was a good dish, a lot more mellow in taste than the other dishes, which meant when we were sitting down to lunch, it was the least popular. Though it had pineapple in, big hunks of it. Anything with pineapple in is going to go down well in my tummy.
4) Stir Fried Beef with Roast Chilli Paste
This was one of my favourites along with everyone else in the class. Stir fry sliced rump steak in a cumin/coriander/fish sauce marinade. Then fried in the wok with chilli paste/jam (that stuff is so tasty), oyster sauce, fish sauce and just before serving some Thai Basil leaves were tossed through. The sauce was so thick and yummy.
5) Stir Fried Chinese Broccoli (Gai-Lan) with Asian Mushrooms and Oyster Sauce
Nothing like some stir fried Asian Greens with a nice sauce 😀
Yesterday it was bright and sunny till about 2ish, when the sky started to darken, then about 3ish it started to rain and rain and rain and rain only getting heavier and heavier. Then it cleared to a drizzle and the sky turned into this.
I love the light after rain, that really warm light which sometimes looks so eerie. Last night we had that warm colour for a little while but then it became what you see above. It was something!
