Singing out the weekend

Heard last night. Surprising, exhilarating, fabuloso!







PS - and we discovered this great new/old spot to eat before the show.We enjoyed the old Razor's Edge restaurant, so great to see it's been reinvented. I had the oven baked schnitzel and my husband had a great sirloin steak. And the hand cut chips were as good as they say! The upstairs section had only opened the night before -seems like a lovely outdoor terrace that we can look forward to using as the weather warms up.

3 more sleeps ...

It's Saturday night, it's raining and it's another evening that is distinctly cooler - we can confirm this because Jasper is now coming inside for some lap lounging on Vlado, something he never does in the warmer months.

The Godfather music is playing in the background (no.1) and we have just enjoyed a 'last supper', our last cooked meal at home. And I have to say it worked out nicely - steak, chunky chips, mushrooms cooked with garlic, peas, asparagus and pumpkin. Had the last of my (french) champagne, the only grog I could find last night because I wanted to use things up rather than spend dollars I could spend over there. Turned out the bottle in the fridge actually was french champers - no idea where that came from! Just now we're having a cuppa and sharing an easter egg.

I have clothes set out on the spare bed, a black cat in my empty suitcase and it's really starting to feel like we are going somewhere!

I like my blog title although I got the distinct impression that Vlado thought it was a bit silly - but as I said, it's better than calling it My Travel Blog ..!

I chose it because these two things represent (for me) both sides of the continent - thunderbirds are the west coast, california, nevada and the grand canyon. Moose of course are New England, a fact that Vlado did not know - yes, they can be found as far down as NY State. So this is a good representation of the country we are covering.

But they also represent two things I love about America - Native American culture and the animals. And they are both creatures that could be described as elusive (well OK, one is extremely elusive!) I'd like to think that our travels will venture off the beaten track.

So, my first post of nothing much at all, but the beginning of a new adventure ....

two

This is a nice way to create an advent calendar. I've missed one but will add it retrospectively - it was only yesterday!

Two was spent at work, having a Christmas lunch at the pub and taking more photos for our self guided tour. Nearly finished.

And my niece and I are off to see George (Michael) in Feb. Should be majorly funny - we have longstanding jokes about George dating back to Wham days, so we are reminiscing in a big way.

Made a yummy dinner tonight ::: steak cooked my special way (hot hot pan, salt & pepper on each side as you cook plus little knobs of golden butter, added both sides that ooze down the edges of the steak and create truly delicious juices - and don't forget, only turn once!)
Alongside were shitake and field mushies, cubed roasted potatoes and this colourful, crunchy salad, dressed with red wine vinegar and that wonderful black oil, pumpkin seed oil (it's really dark green)

Cath gave me the cute salad servers last Christmas.

I'll add tuna to the leftovers and feast on this for lunch tomorrow!

Grace

It's a warm night here, summer has come. Cicadas chickering in the background. Crickets. Little wisps of cool breeze lick past me.

Earlier evening was stormy, black clouds gathered and some rain fell but all that is gone now. Lightening show in the distance, travelling north, illuminating the sky with sudden bright flashes.

Salad for dinner. One of the chickens I roasted last night and a delicious red cabbage salad with mixed beans, red onion, carrot, capsicum and a pumpkin seed oil and red wine vinegar dressing.

Afterwards, Dad and I shared watermelon on the deck, making the most of the cool air outside. Reminiscing, sharing a few laughs, planning for Christmas and a few weekend trips coming up.

A Jeff marathon has been playing in the background tonight on the teve. It's 12 years.

Not much more needs to be said really. It's all about grace isn't it.

Over to you Jeff ::::

Posting resumed

I cannot believe that my last post was Monday! Now it's Friday.

I'll blame it on me, starting a marathon of Lord of the Rings on Monday night, right after I last posted. All week I've been rushing home, getting dinner over and done with, then settling down to the next installment. UV dips in and out - he enjoyed LOTR when it came out, loved the books but doesn't have my penchant for watching it all over again - he likes to dip in at the good spots (i.e. battle scenes, battle scenes and battle scenes!)

I haven't got far I might add - over 3 nights I've only got as far as half way through Two Towers. Looking forward to buying the next book of the 50th anniversary edition - and it's Two Towers! They are lovely, hard backed editions and they are not cheap so I'm buying them one by one. My old original paperbacks are starting to disintegrate so I thought it best to rest them in the shelves. I tend to read LOTR every year or so. It is a wonderful story to revisit. I always seem to glean something new from this amazing tale. I confess to wasting most of my stuvac (final school exam study period) reading LOTR for the first time which is why this time of year always reminds me of this book.

Last night we went out to dinner with my cousins and had a lovely Lebanese feast. Nice to catch up with everyone. It was a night of storms, lightning, rain and then humidity which was intensified in the small restaurant. But still an enjoyable night.
This restaurant does wonderful food and I love the cardamom coffee, served in an exotic jug a bit like this ...

from here

... and drunk from tiny china cups, accompanied by gorgeous turkish delight. Scrummy!  I just found this recipe for it - might have to try it out ...

What’s Hot + What’s Not Thursday

Funny how my Thursday's often seem to be a little bereft of blog inspiration. I just posted some of my pictures thinking this was an easy way out and it was kind of fun but then I remembered this meme so I'll air it again and see what I can come up with ...

What's Hot

1. Preparing and eating delicious food :: particularly mushrooms, like those being cooked right now in Jamie at Home - a whole episode on mushrooms!! I have some lovely swiss browns in the fridge that I sort of forgot about. Bought them on Tuesday to have with steak but found a bag of mushrooms already waiting for me when I got home.

Might turn these ones into mushroom risotto tomorrow night.
And how about these scrummy sounding risotto recipes.
Mmmmm!

2. Festive lights. Looking forward to bringing out my twiggy lights from last year - will probably do this soon. But I spied some fairy lights out shopping the other day so might have to break out an buy another string of them for the deck and perhaps some icicle lights for the front porch.
Meanwhile, these are rather pretty ...

 by Hannahnunn

3. Writing - and the thought of writing in this journal is so appealing! Hot Cocoa Journal sounds very enticing, encouraging the putting of pen to paper. Even though we are edging closer to summer, the little cold snap we're in the midst of makes the concept of this journal fit in perfectly.

 

by nouveaudesigns

4. Catching up with old friends. Looking forward to a long overdue get together on Sunday. Planning afternoon tea and I think I will bake a nice old fashioned butter cake with lemon icing. Mmmmm.

5. As 3 out of 4 Hot items have been food related, here's one more:

Walnuts. Yum.

What's Not

1. Rain in November. Coolness is unwelcome, particularly when we had a taste of warmth two days ago. We had a v.hot Melbourne Cup day but by Wednesday it was back to sleeves and thinking about soup for lunch. And now I'm sitting here with icy fingers and toes!

2. Feeling like it should be Friday when it's only Thursday. That will teach us for having the Thursday night Thai takeaway on Wednesday night.

3. Fiendish villains that launch kamikaze raids to swipe leftover breakfast. Curse the jingling stealth bomber!
We like furry visitors here and welcome our neighbouring felines from either side - because they are nice, pleasant creatures.
But this Goth, or perhaps I should call him a Hun, leaves a calling card every time he scampers away - he turns his back, sticks up his tail and sprays the garden, the fence and even once, our table on the deck. Good thing Jasper and Licorice are such a great watch cats - they chase him off the premises every chance they get. Dastardly deviant! I shake my fist at you!!! Fiend!!!

4.  Discovering that yet again it's nearly midnight. Why are there not enough hours in the evening? I dream of a night that is as long as the day I spend at work, giving me time to do cute blog posts, write, make things, cook and eat a scrumptious dinner and still get to bed and have time to read my book and then get a good 7 - 8 hours sleep. This sort of existence must be in that parallel universe I keep imagining.

5. How about that, I cannot think of another un-hot thing. That has to be good!

Touring now ...

Visiting a theatre to pick up tickets for a show we are seeing on Sat night, I heard said performer ... performing a sound check. Who? Him of course! What a happy conincidence, I say!

Then this evening we visited a quirky music venue to see these amazing musicians (we had a different double bass player).

I'm in love with something I have never come across before, the Cimbalom. (Man seated with blindfold is the Cimbalom player - he played it perfectly!) It can sound like any number of instruments. Wow! What a show. I think I'll be trying to track down one of their records, like this one perhaps. Here is more about him and his band.

Oh, and we had v.yummy pizza, red wine, coffee and baby cakes. Noice!

What a lucky week of music this is!!

A small gap in my blogtoberfest ...

Ooops! I fell asleep while watching the tellie last night and didn't get my Friday post done. Drats!

What's worse, I missed the end of the new SGU - and I was really enjoying it, seems to be not too bad, a bit of a cross between SGA and Battlestar, but that's OK by me. It's likeable, it's not OTT and it has an interesting premise. I notice they're repeating it tonight at 6 so all is not lost.

Well, my Day 9 post is. :(

And it was Stocktober ...I had an idea for this. We have great soup at work from a place called Stockmarket - they base it on their own freshly made stock, so it's really yummy and homemade tasting. My fave is Croatian Goulash, full of meat, carrots, potatoes, green breans and a little pasta plus lashings of paprika.
Mmmm, very warming, particularly over the last cold days we've been having - feels like a mini ice age!
BTW, this is not how it is served at work (unfortunately) but it does look a bit like this, as they serve it in a black plastic bowl! (This photo is from wikipedia, see link above)

Oh, well, I guess there are no real rules here in the festival of blogging, so I got my post in, just on Day 10 instead.

Why Sunday was nice

Drank coffee and browsed books here
Went on a long picturesque drive
Ate lunch with family beside the water
Sang happy birthday to a 1 year old and ate yummy homemade chocolate cake
Watched this movie here
Had a refreshing vodka, lime and tonic, sitting on red ottomans
Ate very delish garlic bread with a side of bruschetta, Italian meatballs and a rocket salad
Caught up with my favourite cousin

All in all, a superb Sunday.

Day 3 (Day 1 of Long Weekend)

Soaking, solid rain is blanketing Sydney right now. Just returned from dinner at a great Thai restaurant near Central. Lovely flavours, as good as last time we were there. Good company, lots of laughs and a few nice glasses of wine - followed by a great coffee, just a few doors down. They really know how to make a good coffee, UV and I agree. We went there last time too and again, it was just as good. Only had a couple of spoonfuls of a very sinful blueberry cheesecake, so feeling quite happy with the day, food wise. This morning's weigh-in was very much a relief, 2 kilos less than yesterday!! Go figure ... well that's what we are trying to do on the other group-effort blog, Figure finding. All of us yesterday weighed in more than we anticipated. Perhaps, as I suggested, it's those unpronounceable scales we bought (2 of us) but I guess it's just the vagaries of the weight loss journey ... or maybe it's just the weather.

So what else can I say about Day 3 of the festival of blogging? Slept in (coz I kinda, um, stayed up til about ... 2ish. Blogging. UV stayed up too, so we were both a bit weary this morning.) So we had a lazy A.M, reading, drinking nice coffee, chatting and discussing the Anglo Saxon hoard uncovered recently, now on display at the Birmingham Museum and Art Gallery (I really want to see it!). I started reading my archaeology feeds and learned a few interesting things, including an ancient Nigerian tribe called the Nok (weren't they on Stargate SG1 once?? - oh, that confirms it, I am watching too much SciFi)

What I really need to emphasise about today is that I (literally) dusted off my sewing machine. It was actually covered in red dust from the dust storm a couple of weeks ago. I hadn't realised it was uncovered and near a slightly open window. Oh, dear, I'm such a good housekeeper!
I didn't end up using it but I did stretch the fabric I bought at the craft fair over a canvas, to hang on the wall. And I'm about to start a new scarf, from a kit I bought at the craft fair - more on that later. So, finally to some craft. I'm also planning to make some soft trees and a pyramid door stop. More on that later also.

Amelie is on right now - what a great film, but (I'm embarrassed to say) I slept through it the first time we saw it!

Rufy did his feral mad cat routine tonight - he was outside while we were out to dinner so came in very wet and started galloping to and fro, from kitchen to deck. He even knocked over the water. Jasper and Licorice looked on, nonplussed, far more sensible ... or perhaps lazy. Ruf is relaxed now, on his pouf (favourite spot, above)

Daylight savings starts tonight (ah ha, Clocktober gets a look in!) so I can't stay up til the wee hours, plus we are off to a 1st birthday party tomorrow, a good drive away so we have to leave here about 10 (and I have to go and buy a present before then!!)

Day 3/Day 1 a good one, very nice to have the feeling of a long weekend, still 2 days left.

All weekends should be long weekends.

P.S. Finally (after perhaps 3 years) I have got my ipod up and running. Yay!!

Musings from a casserole

Cooked a lovely new dish last night, Lamb and green bean casserole. It has Greek influence, with cinnamon and fetta featuring in the dish. It's from this book, Apples for Jam:

We bought it the weekend my country brother visited, along with another one of her books, Venezia, a gorgeous cookbook, with its gold edged pages and black velvet place keeper. Splendiferous. It reminds me of our honeymoon there, last century (he he!) - two of our favourite dishes whilst in Venice are included: Squid Ink Linguine (me) and liver and onions (UV). UV is going to cook it for himself though, as I am no great fan of liver and in fact, offal is off my food radar (although I have to admit, I cooked Beef Wellington once, making the pate from scratch. So I have to qualify the previous statement: I will eat pate but that's about it when it comes to offal.)
It must have been a night for casseroles because Dad rang to report his best ever Uncle Charlie's Chicken. He felt this was in no small way related to the fact that he had cooked it in the french oven as opposed to an open baking dish. I'd showed him this method when he was down staying last week. Juicier and much more tasty figured greatly in his description of the meal so I'd say that's a resounding tick for cooking with the french oven.

UV and I ate our lamb and green bean dish while watching Merlin, the new offering featuring one of my faves, Tony Head. He's a swaggering Uther, very king-like and as always, brings something solid to the show. Even though it is a teenager's show, I like the way they are handling the story, the actors are good and they are keeping it fresh - plus the dragon alone would keep me watching (I happen to hold dragons in high regard).

Which in a round about way reminds me of my dream last night - Giles, or perhaps it was ASH himself, featured (how nice! - haven't had him in a dream before). I think I asked him about asking for someone's (?) approval. He said the person you should ask is yourself. This is not quite right but the gist. Just read a blog post that kind of echoes this thought -

The only thing we are going to be asked at the precious moment is why didn't you become you?
Elie Wiesel

Working on it ....