random life – Page 45 – helenthura.com

February 3, 2007

new creations

Well I have actually done a little scrapbooking recently. In that time when Mum is on the computer or I have just spent too much time doing nothing on the ‘net.

My life at the moment is geared around one objective and that is do get a job, a real job. Not that working at a grocery store isn’t a real job. It just isn’t the real job I want for me.

Matthew likes to bait me by repeatedly asking “Do you have job yet?” and other questions/comments in that idea. I don’t have a job yet. Not all of us can be like my brother who was given a pretty cushy job in Silicon Valley before he had graduated. Though he of course didn’t do an arts degree like me did but a much more revered degree, an engineering degree. I know the jobs I want. I know that I don’t have the experience for a fair few of them. It’s just a matter of getting that experience, that foot in the door.

School went back this week and that means that I now have to start paying board. 20% of what ever I bring home for the week goes into Mum’s hand until I find my own place. Which is the first thing on the list when I find a job.

Back though to the where this post was going in the start. Scrapbooking. I have about 10 pages scanned and on the computer which means I should be able to post a couple every couple of days or so 🙂

1)
element

6 of the things that very much defined Helen at this stage in life.

A familiar photo some of you. This would be how I look part of the time when “in the bush”/”in the great outdoors”. All purpose shorts made from colorful fabric which serve as PJ shorts in summer at home. Thermals (stripy of course) to either keep warm or to form a mozzie suit.

The hat I am wearing in the photo was actually retired just before the canoe trip the other week as it was getting a wee bit small. In my ten years as a Brownie/Guide/Ranger Guide I had two Guide hats. One is the one I got as young Brownie and way too small for my head now and now has all my various camp name tags and crafts pinned onto it. The second one is the one in this photo. I now have a hat though which used to belong to Grandmum, so go having hats that have a memory 🙂

I don’t know about you but how I explore a new town is to just start walking and hopping on and off public transport on a whim. I did this in San Fran, London, Jever, Wilhelmshaven, Hohenkirchen. Just exploring. Seeing what you see and exploring what you find. I am lucky to have inherited a pretty darn fine sense of direction from Mum. I can sit down at the end of a day exploring a town and draw my route on a map and even now years later I can still draw where I have gone on maps by memory.

When I arrived in London of the morning of the 20th, I did what I have done in the past. I checked my baggage into a storage locker, picked up a travel pass and started walking down streets, roads and lanes, hopping on buses or the Underground if I passed a station and just generally wandering the streets of London town.

Sam and I are going out tonight. First up we are going to see Women in Docs and Sally Dastey (whom I also went to see last night with Andrea) and then well who knows where we will end up. 🙂

January 28, 2007January 28, 2007

Vegemite Gelato

Australia + Italy = Vegemite Gelato. Just for the Australia Day weekend. Just for the sake of it and the fact that someone in a kitchen said why not?

The colour was a lot lighter than I expected but I guess that is because not everyone likes their Vegemite as thick as I do and therefore not a lot of Vegemite is used in the process.

The taste was totally not what I expected. That also I guess comes back to the above statement that I will every so often grab a teaspoonful of Vegemite and lick it off the spoon when I feel like it.

My first tasting note is that it tastes like salted nuts as the first taste is quite nutty and you are left with a salty aftertaste.
My second tasting I started to notice how it tastes like a dark ale. I guess that would be the yeast extract part of the Vegemite coming though.

This isn’t Vegemite Gelato it is Pub Gelato! Beer and nuts in Gelato.

I managed to talk Mum into tasting a little, little bit of it and her comment was that very first taste you get is Vegemite. I then went for the itty bitty spoonfuls and you really do taste straight out Vegemite then.

🙂 I am more of spoonful girl though so I am eating a spoonful of Gelato and chasing it with a Vegemite lick. Now it tastes just like I imagined.

I am quite surprised that the Courier Mail did not have an article about it and instead I found out about via Slashfood and the Sydney Morning Herald. When I first saw it on Slashfood I thought for sure it would be in Melbourne or Sydney. I nearly dropped off my chair when I read Brisbane in the article.

Gelateria Cremona, I hope you have Vegemite Gelato next Australia Day as I will be back 🙂

Mum and I went up to a friends property for Australia Day for a bit of tree planting. The whole team which was probably easily 20 adults plus kids built tracks, planted 500 trees, cleared Lantana and other weeds. Mum and I each ended up with a mattock which we swung and swung and swung some more digging holes for the kids to come behind us and plant the native trees in. It was a nice day out “on the land” and we were given a very impressive spread for morning tea and lunch.

January 14, 2007

Under the Milky Way

I have worked full-time this week as my boss has been on holidays so the 2iC and I each got to step up in our roles. I look forward to my paycheck as 36/37odd hours on a casual rate is very nice even after the tax is taken out. Working that much this week has sort of put my job hunt on hold but I sort of look forward to getting back into the job hunt because I really want to find a job soonish.

Mum, I and some friends are heading off for a 4-day canoe trip in the morning so that will put the hunt on hold for a couple of days. We are paddling down Teewah Ck and Upper Noosa River to Elanda Point on Lake Cootharaba. The last time we did this trip was the summer of 2001/02 so it will be nice to see how it has changed and of course to get out on the water for a paddle. (This map shows the general area we are paddling in. To give a sense of scale, Lake Cootharaba is a about 11km from tip to tip.)

I went out for Low Tea earlier today with Ms Andrea to Queenies Tea House at Ascot and had a delightful time, chatting and eating and chatting and eating. I had a Chocolate Low Tea which gave me a selection of little chocolate treats like little tartlets, mousse, fudge etc with quite a nice pot of Organic Ceylon Pekoe. Andrea was very dainty and had the Traditional Low Tea which gave her a trio of ribbon sandwiches, some sweets and a few cherries. Her tea selection was a Japanese Sencha Quince which to me tasted like marshmallows. I am serious! After a leisurely “lunch” we looked in the windows of the shops on Racecourse Rd as they are all shut on Sundays and saw quite a few pretty things 🙂

I should mention that a little over a week ago Mum and I went into the State Library to see the National Treasures exhibition before it closed and that was wonderful to see. Seeing Ned Kelly’s mask, Willis’s pistol, draft designs of the Sydney Opera House, Bradman’s Bat, design sheets of the classic EH Holden, Cpt Cook’s journal from the Endeavour, gorgeous artwork from the colonial era as well as some incredible botanical and zoological artwork and so much more. I urge you to explore the National Treasures webpage even if you aren’t Australian just to see some of the incredible things in the exhibition.

One of the first things you see in the exhibition is Jacob Cuyp’s painting of Abel Tasman with his wife and daughter. I dropped my jaw at the work of the restorers as this painting looked like it was painted yesterday not in 1637, the colours were so vivid and fresh.

When I wrote this earlier this arvo I didn’t think I would have a photo to share with this but whilst I was letting the post mature and thinking about a title (Untitled I?) I did a little chalk art out on the street much to my father’s disgust. The lady across the street and Mum appreciated my art though 🙂

I was going to do a 🙂 but my circle at the start went slightly pear shaped as you can see. Instead I ended up with just a face.

Mum and I also went to see The Queen last night and what a fantastic movie it was. I can definitely see it picking up a large swag of awards. Wow.

December 17, 2006

Home Made Goodness

Mum bought a food dehydrator (EziDri Snackmaker) the other week. A couple of days ago I picked up 3.5kg of tomatoes at a bargain basement price at the local fruit shop. I came home, quartered them and put them on dry. Mmm the house smelt like tomatoes and now we have about 400g of dried tomatoes! I love putting some tomatoes and cheese on a slice of bread and putting it under the griller for a very yummy snack.

I also finally bought my self a pasta maker the other night when a local(ish) kitchenware shop was having 20% off and I have had a ball making tagliatelle and linguine. It also tastes so yummy and even after I have dried the pasta for storage it still cooks in an instant which is fantastic. I will have to take a photo of it later. Tonight for tea we are going to have Mum’s Bolognese with my pasta.

December 16, 2006

Graduation Sneak Peak

Well in a couple of short hours I will walk across a stage in the city and graduate. Here is a sneak peak of the dress Mum and I have made. You will have to wait till after I graduate to see the whole dress.

In other news last night I lost a tooth I never had. That is right my false tooth broke off my plate, so just like my formal photos were in High School, my graduation photos will also be toothless. Luckily, it was just the tooth part that broke off, so I will be able to keep wearing my plate till I can get to the Orthodontist. Not exactly how I wanted the day to start but I guess that is life with a false tooth.

December 4, 2006

3 months in a leaky boat

or perhaps I should say 3 months is a little late but then it is my party and I’ll cry if I want to.

Yesterday, I had a party. There was rain, friends, food, fairy lights and good times. Leading up to yesterday evening I knew it was going to rain at some stage but I was wishin’ and hopin’ that it would hold off. It didn’t and it rained as people arrived and it rained as we ate nibblies and it rained again as we had dinner. By then all I was wishin’ and hopin’ for was that it would clear for dessert so we could bathe in the speckled light of 928 fairy lights strung up on the verandah. It did clear and we then finished off the night in a magical atmosphere on the verandah under the sea of fairy lights. As we eat the leftovers and take photos of the food I will post them. I can say now though that I was happy with the food and Karl’s Sangria recipe is very very very nice indeed.

I wanna sit and talk and laugh with you all

sugar and spice and all things nice
This was my birthday cake, but we didn’t sing Happy Birthday so is it still birthday cake or just a celebration cake? Hailing from the wonderful pages of the Dec 03/Jan 04 issue of Delicious is this very yummy Rosewater Cream Berry Meringue Stack. Raspberries, Blueberries, Strawberries, Cream and Rosewater, need I say more?

Out on the patio we would sit…

We’d watch the lightning crack over canefields

singing hail, hail, the gangs all here
From the school girls to the Indo Girl, to the 2nd year girls and then the 3rd year girls, these are the girls (plus a few absentees) who have in some way or another had an in influence into me growing into who I am today.

side by side one for all together we grew
Five years in bottle green, soccer/cricket/football games, sitting on the hill, playing music, doing group assignments, laugh central. Where else but in high school do you form a group of friends where the girls all have boys names for nicknames and are still used today? Fred/Candy, Doug/Kaliope and Guido/Dina and myself as Bill, I don’t think those times will ever be forgotten.

Hey Joe
Concerts, Movies, and lots of chilling and chatting. One year of Indonesian together, four years and counting of fun filled adventures and laughs.

they’re fun to have around
Really where do you start? The sweet little Nural who is both a 2nd year and a 3rd year girl who can always say something cute or Andrea, the girl who is me but not me (in her own words) or Rachy Rach (Marky Mark/Richie Rich) who is always up to having a rant about something and a good time.

one and one and one is three
Some say she’s from Mars, I just say she does Law, Swinin’ down the street so fancy free, I just say she always has a smile. Clare and Georgie, the perfect pair to share my last year of uni with and the laughs have just kept coming since exams have finished.

It wasn’t so much a 21st birthday party 3 months late but a celebration of where I have come from and where I am going now, a celebration of the end of schooling for the current time, for the girls who have I have met along the way and for the old to meet the new and to kick back and have a nice time.

Well the clock says its time to close now
I know I have to go now
I really want to stay here
All night, all night, all night

(3 months is a leaky boat is of course a of course a play on the title of the fabulous Split Enz song Six Months in a Leaky Boat)

(and big props to anyone who knows any of the the songs where the captions come from)