Renee in Darwin

Day 7: Eggplant Rolls

2011-02-21T21:28:00.000+09:30

Guest chef: Cambo Furtado

Its stiff competition in the vegan challenge houshold so far this week. I'd say at the close of the week the top three dishes (in this order) would be:

1. This dish- excellent
2. Rice paper rolls
3. Mushroom Bourguignon

You should definitely give this one a go, and for extra taste bud satisfaction I'd give it a sprinking of goats cheese. Would be a great dinner party entre

Eggplant Rolls
Serves 4 (as a main)
The Australian Women's Weekly: Fast Food (page 187)

1 each large red and yellow capsicum
2 eggplants (1kg) sliced thinly lengthwise
4 medium zucchini (480g) sliced thinly
1/4 C olive oil
1/4 C sun dried tomatoes in oil, drained and chopped finely
400g artichoke hearts, drained, chopped finely
125g fetta cheese crumbled (no vegan)
2 T extra olive oil
1 T balsamic vinegar

Preheat oven to 220oC.

Quarter capsicums, discard seeds and membranes. Place on tray with eggplant and zucchini brush with olive oil and roast for 5 minutes until browned. Turn and bake for another 5 minutes until soft.

Cool baked vegetables and chop. Mix with tomato, fetta and artichoke. Divide amongst eggplant slices and roll. Place seam-side down in a shallow baking dish.

Can be prepared ahead to this point and refrigerated or frozen.

Drizzle half olive oil and vinegar over rolls before baking for 15 minutes. Drizzle remainder of oil and vinegar before serving.

Day 6: Mixed Vegetable Korma

2011-02-21T21:14:00.000+09:30

Guest chef: Cambo Furtado

Another delicious effort by Cambo. We've had this great curry on a few occasions before and it always satisfies. We ate it without rice or accompaniment and it was just great, but a bowl of steamed rice would go well too.

Mixed Vegetable Korma
Serves 4
The Australian Women's Weekly: Fast Food (page 184)

1/4 C korma pasta (we used Maharajah brand)
1T black mustard seeds
1.5kg butternut pumpkin, chopped coarsely
1/3 C red lentils
2 C vegetable stock
500g cauliflower, coarsely chopped
1/2 C low-fat cream (we used low-fat coconut cream)
200g baby spinach leaves

Cook paste and seeds in heated large frying pan until fragrant

Add pumpkin, lentils and stock and bring to boil. Reduce heat and simmer, covered, for 5 minutes. Add cauliflower, simmer, covered for about 10 minutes until pumpkin is tender, stirring occasionally.

Add cream and spinach and stir until spinach just wilts.

Day 5: Tofu review

2011-02-21T21:04:00.000+09:30

One thing that I was looking forward to in vegan challenge month was a chance to try my hand at tofu. To date my own cooking experiments with the stuff have been few and far between, and my experience has mainly been deep fried in laksas and noodle soups. Really, what doesn't taste good deep fried.

So Day 5 coincided with a BBQ. A meat fest. Mouth watering (and eye watering due to the ventilation on Rick's balcony) lamb chops, turkey chorizo sausages and other morsels of goodness. Luckily Cambo fortified the options with some more great rice paper rolls (see Day 3), AND Hayley made some great veggie kebabs with tofu attached. As a result I can currently recommend Soyco's Thai flavoured Tofu (http://soyco.com.au/products.html).

I have some of the Japanese flavour (slated for inclusion in a cabbage and soba noodle salad) and Chinese flavour (slated for inclusion in wontons for wonton soup) sitting in the fridge, so further reviews may be forthcoming.

Lunch Dish: Minestrone soup

2011-02-21T20:55:00.001+09:30

So Day 4 was left over Mushroom Bourguignon, so in an effort to keep the vegan yum yum flowing here is what I have been having for lunch most days since I got food poisoning a couple of weeks back and couldn't stomach anything too heavy. I started with the below recipe, but didn't add the pasta or potato. You could substitute any beans you like, use fresh tomato, any stock you like. I also added some sliced cabbage to bulk things up. Freezes well. Smells amazing when heated up.

Minestrone soup

http://www.taste.com.au/recipes/12582/minestrone+soup

Serves 6

1 400g can diced peeled tomatoes

3 pontiac potatoes, peeled, chopped

200g piece jap or butternut pumpkin, deseeded, peeled, chopped

1 large brown onion, chopped

2 carrots, chopped

2 celery sticks with leaves, chopped

1 large garlic clove, chopped

1 tsp dried oregano leaves

1.75L (7 cups) water

3 small or 2 large zucchini, chopped

40g (1/4 cup) small macaroni

1 400g can borlotti beans, rinsed, drained

1/2 cup firmly packed roughly chopped fresh continental parsley

Salt & freshly ground black pepper

1 1/2 tbs extra virgin olive oil

20g parmesan, finely shredded

Place the tomatoes, potatoes, pumpkin, onion, carrots, celery, garlic and oregano in a large saucepan.

Stir in the water and bring to the boil over medium-high heat. Reduce heat to medium and cook, almost covered, for 45 minutes.

Add the zucchini and macaroni, and cook, stirring occasionally, for 10 minutes. Stir in the beans and cook for a further 5 minutes or until the zucchini and pasta are tender.
Stir in the parsley and taste and season with salt and pepper. Ladle into serving bowls. Drizzle with the olive oil, sprinkle with the parmesan and serve immediately.

Notes:

Made February 2011. Made with half beef stock, no macaroni, dried oregano/parsely/basil, no potatoes and some chopped cabbage. Made four serves and turned out really good.

Day 3: Rice Paper Rolls

2011-02-21T20:47:00.000+09:30

Guest chef: Cambo Furtado.

An excellent dinner cheffed by Camille. Rice paper rolls filled with vermecelli rice noodles, bean sprouts, avacado (the secret ingredient here giving the rolls some heft), capsicum, grated carrot and cucumber. Dipping sauce whipped up of sweet soy sauce, sweet chilli sauce, and some peanut butter (in stand of actual ground peanuts.

Also made a great lunch the next day!

Day 2: Mushroom Bourguignon

2011-02-17T09:02:00.000+09:30

The verdict: Delicious. I'll definitely be making this again be it during vegan month or not. It would be even more delicious with a dollop of sour cream or yogurt, but packs plenty of flavour without. Maybe mushrooms really are meat for vegetarians.

Passed the Cambo taste test also, taken as the low-carb version with no pasta (I served mine with Spinach fettucini).

Mushroom Bourguignon

smittenkitchen.com
Serves 4

2 tablespoons olive oil
2 tablespoons butter, softened
2 pounds portobello mushrooms, in 1/4-inch slices (save the stems for another use) (you can use cremini instead, as well)
1/2 carrot, finely diced
1 small yellow onion, finely diced
2 cloves garlic, minced
1 cup full-bodied red wine
2 cups beef or vegetable broth (beef broth is traditional but vegetable to make it vegetarian; it works with either)
2 tablespoons tomato paste
1 teaspoon fresh thyme leaves (1/2 teaspoon dried)
1 1/2 tablespoons all-purpose flour
1 cup pearl onions, peeled (thawed if frozen)
Egg noodles, for serving
Sour cream and chopped chives or parsley, for garnish (optional)

Heat the one tablespoon of the olive oil and one tablespoon of butter in a medium Dutch oven or heavy sauce pan over high heat. Sear the mushrooms until they begin to darken, but not yet release any liquid — about three or four minutes. Remove them from pan.

Lower the flame to medium and add the second tablespoon of olive oil. Toss the carrots, onions, thyme, a few good pinches of salt and a several grinds of black pepper into the pan and cook for 10, stirring occasionally, until the onions are lightly browned. Add the garlic and cook for just one more minute.

Add the wine to the pot, scraping any stuck bits off the bottom, then turn the heat all the way up and reduce it by half. Stir in the tomato paste and the broth. Add back the mushrooms with any juices that have collected and once the liquid has boiled, reduce the temperature so it simmers for 20 minutes, or until mushrooms are very tender. Add the pearl onions and simmer for five minutes more.

Combine remaining butter and the flour with a fork until combined; stir it into the stew. Lower the heat and simmer for 10 more minutes. If the sauce is too thin, boil it down to reduce to the right consistency. Season to taste.

To serve, spoon the stew over a bowl of egg noodles, dollop with sour cream (optional) and sprinkle with chives or parsley.

Day 1: Curried Vegetable Burgers

2011-02-17T08:57:00.000+09:30

The verdict:

These burgers were pretty tasty. The only challenge was that they were extremely wet and I faced no chance of flipping them in the pan (even after firming up in the freezer for 15 minutes). Instead I cooked them on one side in the pan and then put them under the grill. Served with cucumber, carrot and mango chutney.

Burgers also passed the Cambo taste test, and were taken as the low carb version on a bed of salad.

Curried Vegetable Burgers
delicious. - September 2005, Page 126
Recipe by Valli Little
(taste.com.au)

Ingredients (serves 6)

2 tbs olive oil
1 onion, finely chopped
1 garlic clove, crushed
2 zucchinis, grated
1 large carrot, grated
100g (about 4 slices) wholemeal bread, crusts removed
400g canned chickpeas, rinsed, drained
3 tsp mild curry paste
3 tbs crunchy peanut butter
1 egg yolk
3 tbs chopped coriander leaves, plus extra leaves to serve
6 bread rolls (we used cape seed)
Mayonnaise, chutney, lettuce and tomato, to serve

Method

Heat half the oil in a large frypan over medium-low heat, add the onion and cook for 5 minutes or until softened.

Add the garlic, zucchini and carrot, then cook, stirring, for 2-3 minutes until wilted and softened. Drain off any liquid.

Place bread and chickpeas in the bowl of a food processor and pulse to combine.

Add softened vegetables, curry paste, peanut butter, yolk and coriander. Process until mixture comes together.

Form the mixture into 6 patties and chill for 10 minutes. Heat the remaining tablespoon of oil in a non-stick frypan over medium heat and cook the burgers, in batches if necessary, for 1-2 minutes each side until golden.

Serve in rolls with mayonnaise, chutney, lettuce, tomato and extra coriander leaves.

Vegan Challenge

2011-02-14T14:14:00.000+09:30

In a year of crazy challenges (Sober-2011, Marathon to be run mid-year) I sized up Feb-Fast. Obviously Sober-2011 means that I am Feb-Fasting by default. During a training run with Laine (a time for crazy thoughts, as the act of running 8km on mid-week afternoon in sauna like conditions is itself crazy) I thought why not Feb-Veg (go vegetarian for a month). This then morphed into why not go vegan for a month? Unfortunately I couldn't start on February 1st, as I had a prior engagement to gorge myself on oysters at the Humpty Doo Golf Club (Tuesdays are half price oysters). And then there was the prospect of a spectacular Valentines Day extraganza dinner in the way. So the Vegan Challenge commences on Tuesday February 15th, and will continue for 28 days (to take advantage of the short month of February).

So why Veg-Fast? Recently our good friend Laine transitioned from being a vegetarian to being a vegan. She is the lone non-meateater amongst our circle, and while we were happy to cater to vegetarianism in our regular dinners together, when faced with veganism I was left with only one trusty option to cook: falafel. Now my falafel are pretty good, but really there has to be more. So Veg-Fast is an effort to better develop my vegan cooking repertoire, find out how hard this vegan caper really is, and really just to see if I can do it.

Things to note about this vegan challenge. There are many aspects to veganism that this month will not embrace. I recently found out that honey is not vegan (no, really). Franklly veganism is a little bit like religion where although everyone is singing from basically the same song sheet, there are many varieties (for the real crazies google raw food vegans). Also, its amazing what animal products get used in, and although I am going to avoid all the ones I know and find out about in food, I am not going to cleanse my cleaning cupboard, toiletries or wardrobe for the month. I love leather shoes, and don't have another suitable pair to wear to work.

Queen's Birthday Weekend

2010-06-14T20:44:00.000+09:30

Watch out for crocodiles at Edith Falls

Queen's Birthday Weekend Agenda (Mammoth version)

Friday night: Have drinks at my place for people from work, go out dancing with Laine at Monsoons, pick Laura up from airport at 2am.

Saturday: Wake up early and pack up the ute. Stop my Mindil for a super juice and BBQ Pork and Wonton soup. Drive to Barunga festival via Edith Falls and Katherine Hot springs.

Sunday: After a comatose sleep and some camping style bacon, eggs and baked beans we headed back for Darwin. Then onto Mindil, the Ski Club, Glenti, Kittys...before dropping Laura off to the airport and watching a really crap game of soccer.

Edith Falls- like Litchfield, but better.

Hayley the bushtucker chickidee.

The Hilux decked out in camping gear.

Midil, does it get better than this?

Simon's Town, Stellenbosch & Mossel Bay

2010-06-14T20:30:00.000+09:30

On our way out of Cape Town we stopped by the Old Biscuit Mill Markets. Oh my goodness, I am so glad that there are no markets quite like these in Darwin. Similar to the deli section of Vic Markets, or to Adelaide's Central Markets, there was just stall after stall of gourmet delights, all at South African (cheap) prices). I wanted to eat everything, but in the end we settled on some picnic supplies and macaroons (which I am slating for a replacement obsession for cupcakes). Yummo.

Macaroons in every colour of the rainbow. Sugar overload!

Loaded with picnic supplies we headed up the coast back toward the Cape of Good Hope to Simon's Town, as nearby was a rock festival we had seen some posters for, Sowing the Seeds. The bands were pretty cool (Little Kings, 7^th Sun & Dirty Skirts), but it was kind of a surreal experience. I think there were one or two black people there (aside from the people picking up the rubbish), the music had a really similar sound to Australian music, and really we could have been in a festival in Australia. Although it might not have been a big cultural experience it was a great afternoon.

Penguin colony at Simon's Town. They are so cute!

Next we drove off to Stellenbosch, and had one of the highlights on the trip- a degustation menu. We really lucked out, with the first winery and restaurant we visited being the best out of the few days, and the restaurant was hands down one of my best food experiences (I'm watching Master Chef while I write this...can you tell) ever. After a couple of days of driving around Stellenbosch eating a drinking we headed down the coast toe Mossel Bay, for some surfing lessons and wild mussels.

South Africans are crazy about braai- their version of a BBQ, cooking meat over hot coals. A seriously tasty idea.

Hard work shucking some wild oysters. I've since decided that a dozen at Mindil for $15 is a pretty good deal.

The End: Well that is the highlights of my little trip to Africa. It was a trip that was about five years in the making, and it was a trip that has me determined to not leave another decent length overseas adventure for such a long time. I had a great time and came back recharged and reenergised and ready to hit the dry season running.

Cape Town

2010-06-14T20:06:00.000+09:30

Just to make things interesting there was another big night at Citrusdahl just before we drove into Cape Town. The region around Citrus Dahl was so like country Australia complete with Orange Groves, vines and gum trees. Even the road side stops looked Australian. Anyhow, the final day started we me unable to hold down breakfast- even though it included sausages (special treat for the final day). I blame it on the most festy shot ever the night before! After a good spew we packed up our tents for the last time and boarded to bus.

Driving into Cape Town after three weeks of pretty much being in the Outback was pretty cool- it is a lovely city, overlooked by Table Mountain. We headed directly to the Cape of Good Hope and had a walk about the National Park- very pretty views.

The girls at the Cape of Good Hope.

Our days in Cape Town were excellent. Day one involved sleeping in, showering, coffee, deluxo breakfast and luxuriating in our swish hostel, enjoying being back in civilisation.

Highlights of Cape Town:

Climing Table Mountain was awesome. You can get the cable car up and down, but we decided to climb up. There were a few times during the trip where I vowed to get back on the fitness bandwagon when I got home, and this was another one to add to the list! We had a great sense of achievement getting to the top.

Exhausted at the top of Table Mountain.

Visiting the townships. I guess this is a bit of a misleading highlight, because we went on a tour and it was pretty crap, and gave us no idea of the extent of the townships. However, when Hayley and I drove out to Stellenbosch a few days later we got a better idea. Pretty much we drove over a hill about 15 minutes drive from the city, and as far as the eye can see is this shanty town of shacks or humpys made out of cardboard and scaps of whatever else.

None of these shots really gives a good idea of the huge size of the shanty towns. Also, Cape Town has a climate similar to Melbourne, and I can't imagine living in a glorified cardboard box in the cold and damp of winter.

The food was another highlight. Our accommodation in Cape Town wasn't that cheap, but you can go out for a pretty awesome meal for half or a third of what it would cost in Australia. After eating stew and other camp food for a few weeks it was time to indulge.

Dry Season Has Arrived - Woot

2010-06-07T20:50:00.000+09:30

The dry season arrived in the nick of time- we could finally get glammed up and hit the town without getting sweaty and frazzled before walking out of the bedroom! A night of delish homemade pizza, looking good and dancing the night away ensued.

The Rest of Namibia

2010-05-18T21:33:00.000+09:30

It seems that our guide MJ is the master of the understatement. After a substantial bit of driving we went through a huge seal colony before driving into Swakopmund (aka the first civilisation we had seen for a while). MJ kind of said that (familiar words) it wasn't peak seal colony time. Oh my goodness it was amazing- they were EVERYWHERE.

A few seals. The view was like this for 360 degrees. I took so many photos, and it was simply awesome. The smell was unpleasant, but I didn't think it was that bad. The barking noise they make sounds pretty terrible though!

Seals are posers, I swear they turned it on for the cameras.

Namibia only got independence from South Africa in 1990, and it still has a heavy German influence in some places. Like Swakopmund. This town was the first place resembling civilisation that we had seen in a while. There was coffee. There was bacon and eggs. And there were ridiculously large serves of game meat. This little place was more than a bit weird- kind of German, in the middle of the desert, bent on being a Queenstown or Victoria Falls adrenalin junkie capital. Most of our group spent their time sky diving, sandboarding, horse riding or spinning through sand dunes. I spent it wondering around the surreal streets of Swapokmund and drinking coffee.

And if I ever miss out on a job at the Rio Tinto Uranium mine at Jabiluka I could always go and work at the one in Swakopmund.

There are no photos of Swakopmung, because photos of me drinking coffee are not that interesting.

Our next days drive was terrible (mainly due to a hangover) and hot hot hot. Luckily my time in Darwin and growing up in the desert has given me a high heat threshold, but watching the Europeans on board steadily go red and look like they were having a heart attack due to heat made me realise that I can never move anywhere cool.

We were well into the desert (getting close to the Kalahari) and it was hot enough for even me to get in the pool (for the record though, the pool was still too cold). We got up at the crack of dawn to climb some of the Namib Desert's sand dunes and view the Sossusvlei. I swear I nearly had an asthma attack and/or heart attack on the climb up, and that was a big motivation for me to get fit when I got home. Luckily us three girls organised hot cross buns for all on this Good Friday morning.

The beautiful sand dunes.

The Sossusvlei, a beautiful claypan surrounded by the majestic sand dunes.

We had a few (random) stops on the way to our next destination, including the Quiver Tree Forest, which is like a park of these awesome Boab like trees which also happened to be close by this cheetah man who happens to keep cheetahs.

The Quiver Tree forest.

One of the cheetah man's cheerahs. We were only a couple of metres away from her, and she was even more beautiful in the flesh.

Crossing over the Tropic of Capricorn. This was really cool for me, because the Tropic of Capricorn is only about 20kms out of Alice Springs. It was kind of cool to be on the other side of the world, somewhere so completely different, but somewhere kind of familiar.

Fish River Canyon was amazing. It is the second largest canyon in the world (after the Grand Canyon), being 160km long, up to 27km wide and up to 550m deep. In the photo above I had to get Hayley to help me up because I was shitting myself more than a little about falling over the edge.

Our time in Namibia and on tour was now coming fast to a close. Our last stop was at Orange River, right near the border. This was the river that eventually feeds into Fish River Canyon. There was some more dejavu as we drove through this part of Africa- it could have been Victorian or South Australian farmland.

But one of the reasons I found this last little place interesting was because it really showed a glimpse of what the World Cup (only a few months away at that stage) was meaning in this part of Africa. This camp had had a huge upgrade and overhaul in the past months, and was going to have both the German and Swiss teams staying nearby. Pretty cool stuff.

Spitzkoppe, Namibia

2010-05-17T22:28:00.000+09:30

Beautiful Spitzkoppe.

Dejavu. Driving through the Namibian desert was like driving through Central Australia, and some of the scenes where we camped out at Spitzkoppe were like the scenes I used to have out of my bedroom window from Hillside Gardens in Alice.

When we booked this trip, or rather when I booked this trip, it was kind of random. I didn't know what I wanted to see in Africa, I mean there is just so much to see, and I just though why not and picked this tour. So I was kind of surprised to end up in the desert for nearly two weeks of our trip. And I loved it! It was really peaceful and so beautiful.

When we arrived at our campsite we went on a walking tour to see some rockart. Now I don't like to be a snob, and I try to enjoy every experience as it comes, but seriously the rock art at Kakadu shits all over these paintings. They are like 10,000 of so years older, and are off tripped out dreamtime figures (Lighting Man).

The Boab remains my favourite tree, but this Quiver tree is pretty damn cool.

The next two nights were pretty magical. Our driver set up a candle path to this little cave where you could see through a hole in the roof in the stars and we all sat in front of a little campfire enjoying the desert solitude.

Hayley and Cassie Irwin resting during our Spitzkoppe climb.

Another highlight of the trip for me was climbing up Spitzkoppe. We were supposed to have a local guide, but he slept in (oops, there goes USD$100, which is pretty much a month of income) and we decided to go it alone. We had been told that the climb was part climbing, part rockclimbing, but really it was just a lot of scrambling. We nearly made it up the top....the view was awesome!

The ladies of our tour enjoying a lovely sunset.

Etosha National Park, Namibia

2010-05-17T22:04:00.000+09:30

As I've said a few times before, apparently we were in Etosha during low season for animals. Within a hundred metres of driving through Etosha's main gates we saw zebras and giraffes. It was awesome and amazing, and it gave me a real thirst to go back and see the Serengeti migration one day.

Intrepid promotional shot (copyright - Intrepid).

Our whole group in the middle of the Etosha saltpan with our massive beast of a tour bus.

Etosha is pretty much a huge saltpan that is dry for most of the year, and briefly fills up with rain one a year. While we were in the park there was some rain, and this meant that the animals didn't have to come out to the waterholes and other spots where they could be seen. So we spent nearly three days driving around, knowing there were heaps of animals around, but only spotting them sporadically.

Zebras are so cool. Notice these babies don't have only black and white stripes, they have some dark brown ones too.

Some of the animals we saw during our drives around Etosha. Lots of assorted antelopes (kudu, springboks, etc. All good eating). Also some wilderbeast and ostrich.

My most awesome animal moments in Africa are a toss up between the magical elephant sites in Chobe, and giraffes in Etosha. These guys are just so cute. I'd love to see one drinking, as apparently they have to semi do the splits to get their head down to the water.

Another random note- we have some pretty smicko campgrounds in Australia, but the lodges and campgrounds in Etosha were pretty special. Both campsites we stayed at had artificial waterholes with floodlights, where you go at night for a bit of animal sighting. Over the two nights I spent nearly three hours sitting at these waterholes straining to see something. On night one I was convinced their was a rhino there...but it turned out to be a herd of wilderbeast. Boo. So the next night I was sure I was seeing a wilderbeast again, until (in a hushed consulatation of whispers) several different people said that we were indeed looking at a rhino!

Bushman Camp

2010-05-17T21:26:00.000+09:30

Our group had pretty low expectations going to our next stop at a 'traditional' Bushman camp. Hayley, Cassie and I had been on a village tour at one of our previous stops, and frankly it was so crap that it didn't even rate a mention in the previous posts.

Naughty kiddies....now I know they are super cute. But where are all the girls? Obviously they click earlier on that school is cool.

The Bushmen are the second largest ethnic group in Namibia, and they are quite ethnically different, which more of a sandy skintone than the chocolate or ebony that I would think of as typically African (not sure if that is un-PC, but oh well).

Namibian women in traditional Bushman costume. The two guides showing us around were men, and they were trying to show us how they light a fire traditionally. While they floundered these ladies just quickly lit one up behind them.

On the whole this stop was pretty enjoyable. We had a night of bush camping (one of about three nights on the tour without showers or toilers). We set our tents up amongst a horde of kiddies (the naughty kiddies who were oh so cute, but not at school), went on a walking tour and learnt about some traditional bush medicine and remedies (there is a plant that smells like Deep Heat- awesome, and apparently other roots that can treat STIs), and then watched some traditional dancine and singing.

So when we heard traditional Africa dancing we were expecting some shaking booty around the fire etc etc, instead we got some weirdly haunting singing, and instead of gyrating hips this old man (who was just completely off the charts crazy) kind of vibrating his arse.

Okavango Delta, Botswana

2010-04-22T22:18:00.000+09:30

Our next destination was the Okavango Delta. To get there we had to have a few more TIA moments, as it involved a ferry crossing (our second on the trip). The crossing took hours, mainly due to the operators (government operators are always so efficient) having a tea break, and then I suspect having lunch before having smoko. The whole setup was substantially safer than some feats of engineering I have seen in Asia, but it was still interesting to see a ferry carrying a truck, car and about fifty people being driven by an engine smaller than that on the average Darwinite's fishing boat. Of course also interesting to watch the locals in our hours of waiting around.

Our group getting ready for our first Makoro ride.

The Okavango Delta is the world's largest delta, and the height of the water when we visited was unusual and almost prevented us having our makoro trip (makoros are canoes traditionally made out of hollowed out trees, however ours were made of fibreglass which is an increasing trend to limit the number of trees that get cut down).

Me enjoying some chilling out on the Delta.

My favourite Irishman - Gav, and one of my fave Brit ladies, Lisa.

On arrival to our spot in the Delta we were paddled over to an island to a lovely little camp for the night (best open air showers, which I am trying to figure out how to incorporate into the house here!), which was a great spot to spend Earth Hour. The next day we packed our tents, cooking gear and selves into the makoros and headed to a more isolated island up the delta for a night of bush camping (no facilities).

This photo requires some explanation. Elephants are not allowed to be hunted, but if an elephant comes onto your farm you are allowed to shoot them, and then the meat is distributed amongst the community. These guys share of the meat was dried out, then they used this tree to pound it up and stew it. I tried a little of the dried meat, but those who tried the stew all seemed to be throwing up over the next couple of days (unusal when not alcohol related on the trip).

Over the next day and a half we went on a few nature walks, makoro sunset cruises and had some fun times around the campfire.

Sigh. Makoro riding.

The highlight of the couple of days was when we were out for a sunset cruise and came across a pod of hippos. To explain, the delta is full of animals (elephants, hippos, leopards, lions and all the smaller animals) that swim from island to island wherever the food is best. However you don't really see a lot of them while you are being poled around (Venetian style) in the makoros. Also to explain, hippos are the animals responsible for the most deaths in Africa. Also, as mentioned previously our makoro polers were working for tips, and realise that what most tourists want is to get close to the animals.

So we came across this pod of hippos, and we got within about 50-100m of them. Close enough that they started barking at us and started to get a bit antsy. Cool, but also a little bit scary.

Other highlights were waking up in the morning at the bush camp and seeing a huge elephant turd only metres from our tents- it was there while we slept! Imagine if I'd got up in the middle of the night to gone to the loo and come across it!

Last highlight- watching our makoro guides being taught to play a fairly simple card game. This didn't work, because they insisted on cheating and then trying to teach us how to play some convoluted form of poker (while they all argued about the rules).

Chobe National Park, Botswana (All about the Elephants)

2010-04-21T23:07:00.001+09:30

Apparently we visited Southern Africa at one of the worst times of year for animal spotting. Considering all that we saw I think we were either really lucky, or you must see an unbelievable number of animals in the “best” times.

We had two game drive experiences in Chobe. The first was by road inside the park early in the morning. We drove around for about 1.5 hours and we did see some cool animals, but nothing too major.

Some minor animal sighting. Nothing to get excited about. As seen from the back of an open air Hilux.

Truth be told I thought it was all pretty cool, but the half of our crew who had, as earlier mentioned, witnessed the migration in the Serengeti a few weeks beforehand soon transferred some of their high expectations to the rest of us.

After a morning tea break (with signs warning to stay by the picnic area and not wander off to be attacked by animals) we drove around a bit more, and started to head to a park exit. And oh my goodness- AMAZING. A huge procession of elephants could be seen a little way off in the distance, and then crossed in front of our hotted up safari style Hilux, on their merry way to wherever elephants go. Of course the driver got us as close as possible (what OH&S standards, TIA) and a few of the adult elephants weren't too happy about this. And I'm telling you even a Hilux isn't that big compared to a riled up elephant.

Here they come. Yay! Getting up super early was now way worth the effort.

Getting closer. Baby elephant is learning how to tell game drive vehicles to bugger off.

When we didn't take the baby elephant seriously Big Mama started facing off with the Hilux.

OH&S standards in Botswana do not prevent vehicles from getting pretty damn close to large animals protecting their young. Thank goodness, or how would I have gotten such awesome shots.

On our lunch break: Pumba spotted on the main stip of Chobe town fossicking for scraps next to the footpath.

That evening we went on a sunset river cruise for our second game experience. After stopping to spot birds, lizards, some little crocs and gazelles my expectations were pretty low for animal sighting, and I was thinking that this cruise was going to be shown up by the Adelaide River Queen Croc Jumping Cruise experience.

But there aren't any hippos on that cruise. But you know all you can see of hippos in the water is their ears, and they aren't that accommodating about leaping out of the water and opening their jaws wide for a really special Kodak moment.

Then, again in the distance we saw a group of about five elephants. Which over the next 30 minutes turned into about 50 elephants who seemed to be putting on a show especially for us. I just didn't know when to stop taking photos.

Elephants eager to show that there are better animal sightings to be had on the Chobe, than on the Daly.

Elephants deciding to move location so they don't have to share the limelight with a pod of hippos in the shallows.

Amazing.

Entering the water for a drink and splash around.

When the baby elephants drink they haven't quite figured out how to use their trunks, so they just dunk their whole head into the water and then look around really proudly at the other older elephants.

After that amazing experience, for dessert we motored up river and saw two young bull elephants playing in the water together. Upon closer inspection, and with some commentary from our guide, it became clear that they were practising mating by mounting each other. They quite politely took turns.

Livingstone (Zambian side of Victoria Falls)

2010-04-21T22:20:00.004+09:30

Flying over this in a helicopter was pretty amazing.

So I was going to write here how Victoria Falls is one of the Seven Wonders of the World and its the first I'd been too. I thought I'd better google the Seven Wonders to see what they actually are (ignorant, me?). Turns out its not such a stupid question as this wikipedia article explains. There are several categories of Seven Wonders of the World (stemming the original Greek list) which are kind of a bit arbitrary, and Vic Falls is one of the Seven NATURAL Wonders of the World (compiled by CNN apparently, and also including Grand Canyon,Great Barrier Reef, Harbour of Rio de Janeiro, Mount Everest, Aurora and Parícutin volcano).

View from the helicopter

I'll be honest. I wasn't that pumped about Victoria Falls- I mean its just a waterfall right? No. It is a force that has to be seen to be believed. There is so much water falling that it creates its own little mini-weather system due to the spray. I went on a helicopter flight over the Falls (amazing) and watched Hayley and Cassie bungy and swing of a bridge nearby (hilarious watching Cassie try to back out seconds before being pushed over the edge strapped to Hayley).

Cassie as her hilarious best. Hayley seemingly unfazed by it all. Me: photographer.

But the highlight for me was the walk by the Falls where you get drenched by the spray and get to hear the sound and the power of the water.

Soaked after a walk by Victoria Falls.

Other highlights included::

Watching monkeys run around the caravan park, and screaming when I realised I was being approached from behing by some cheeky ones while I was standing still taking photos of another group.
The sheer randomness of celebrating St Patricks Day (we had a lone Irish guy on our tour) with a Zambezi Sunset River Cruise, followed by a just as random night out at a Livingstone Bar (aka watch the funny white tourists dance...or in my case, fall over when let go of by the crazy drunk Irish).
Talking to some US Peace Corp volunteers on a break from their posting in rural Zambia (Peace Corp is full on volunteering).

Baby monkeys playing in a tree (taken in our caravan park at Livingstone, in a tree hanging over our tent)

TIA (This is Africa)

2010-04-21T21:46:00.000+09:30

I usually agree with the sentiment that life is about the journey not the destination, but when it comes to long haul aeroplane travel I tend to disagree. After a last minute flurry of errands in Adelaide Dad drove me to the airport where I met up with Cassie, and had a quick farewell coffee with the new Mr & Mrs Laura and Bretto (this was appreciated, even without the fact that Laura was battling the plague).

Then finally we took off...to Perth. Where we had about an 8 hour layover. Thanks so much to Bec for picking us up and taking us out to Freo for a lovely meal and a few drinks at the Little Creatures Brewery. Perth Airport might be shit, but the city and Freo are beautiful, and if there are many people there like Bec it must be an awesome place to live.

Then we took off again...to Johannesburg, where we again waited for about 8 hours. However finally TIA (This is Africa, which was a catchphrase throughout our tour to explain random stuff that is inevitably experienced in foreign countries, as an excuse for bad behaviour or spending too much money, or as encouragement for doing something a little bit crazy).

Finally we boarded a place to Victoria Falls. Now Victoria Falls is on the Zimbabwe-Zambia border, and our tour commenced on the Zambia side in Livingstone, however due to me not reading the tour notes correctly until it was too late we flew into Victoria Falls town in Zimbabwe. So on arrival we had to get a Zimbabwean visa (USD$30), get a taxi to the border (a 15 minute drive, USD$30), get a Zambian visa (USD$50) and get a taxi to Livingstone (another 15 minute driver, USD$30). Our understanding is that we made some taxi drivers days with these fares, but oh well they needed it more than us.

It was a pity to leave Zimbabwe though, as I have met a few Zimbabweans at work and around the traps in Darwin, and although the country has its problems (a major major understatement, even in such a troubled continent) be their accounts, and the accounts of a few other travellers encountered it is a safe destination, and by all accounts beautiful. Plus I imagine it would be an interesting time to visit amid the political upheaval.

TIA.

It began in Africa-ca-ca

2010-04-20T22:54:00.000+09:30

Africa was in a word: amazing.

Renee, Hayley and Cass crusing on the mighty Zambazi river. Watch out: Victoria Falls ahead.

It was both a great adventure, and also just the break I needed to re-energise and reflect on the four (!) years since I last took a big overseas trip. It was long enough to remember that I had itchy feet, and too short for the same reason. Of course Africa is made up of many countries (thanks to Sarah Palin's performance in the 2008 US Presidential Election I am sure we all know that now), and I only visited a small chunk. Plenty left to explore on my next trip.

Before I launch into some photos and stories, first some answers to what are becoming FAQs:

Was it safe?

A resounding yes. After deciding to go to Africa (with Hayley, and later Cassie) I thought the best idea would be to hire a car or campervan and tour around South Africa. However due to Hayley's experiences in Mongolia (a country of minimal infrastructure and desolate environment) combined with many people freaking out at the prospect of two white females travelling alone in South Africa (frequently white South Africans) we decided to take a tour. In addition to the tour we hired a car and did end up driving around South Africa on our own for a week.

The whole trip was something we easily could have done ourselves. Roads were nearly always sealed, or if not in very good condition, and were always well signed. The campgrounds were at least as good as any I have stayed at in Australia, and where necessary had adequate security (although I do think this perhaps had more to do with animals, and perhaps petty theft prevention than anything much more serious, and when I say security I mean a few guards and a chain link fence).

In Cape Town there were hawkers and people asking for money, but I never felt unsafe (including walking back to our hostel after a big night) and I did not hear any stories of pick pocketing or anything more serious from anyone we came into contact with.

We actually didn't even visit Johannesburg after being convinced by various (often secondhand) accounts that it was so dangerous. After speaking with a few Brit expats working there I think I will be visiting there in the future, and that while a fairly high degree of caution would be necessary it is still well visitable.

Did you see animals?

While I didn't see all of the Big 5 (Lion, Leopard, Buffalo, Elephant and Rhino...although I did see all of them apart from the Leopard) I did see a heap of animals, and it was pretty amazing. The highlights for me (photos to come) were two sightings of big groups of Elephants at Chobe National Park, and numerous sightings of Zebras and Giraffes at Etosha National Park.

Zebra crossing (Etosha National Park, Namibia)

It was quite amusing to see how blasé about half of our group were about these sightings though. The reason being that they joined an earlier leg of the tour through the Serengeti in Kenya (think setting of the Lion King...which I haven't actually seen) and saw the migration and saw thousands of animals.

Amazing elephant sighting from a sunset cruise in Chobe National Park (Botswana)

I'd definitely like to go back and visit both the Serengeti and Kruger (in South Africa) in peak animal watching season in the future. Oh, and although the landscape and campgrounds of Africa are pretty similar to Australia, you remember where you are when you have to zip up the tent to stop monkeys and jackals getting in.

My favourite animal- the giraffe in Etosha National Park (Namibia)

How was the tour experience?

I had never been on a group trip before, and was dreading a Contiki style sex and booze fest where we were herded from place to place with only enough time to get out and take a photo before heading to the next samey hotel/bar. So perhaps I was going to be easily pleased?

I quite enjoyed the tour- I really liked our group, and think that I might have made some longtime friends. Our guide was great (the three Intrepid staff -guide, driver and cook- were all Kenyan) and his enthusiasm for Africa and his friendliness made all the difference. There were more kilometres covered more quickly than if we had self-driven, and some loss of local interaction due to not having to organise our own meals and accommodation. However, for me that was outweighed by not having to organise everything.

Our Intrepid people (L-R): Simon (Cook), Makori aka MJ (guide extraordinaire), Hayley (travel buddy, not included with tour price), and Timon (driver aka rally driver).

I would do a tour again, mainly because I hate travelling alone, and this is a good way to travel with a posse when you can't collect one yourself.

Next Installment: Zambia and Botswana.

Beautiful Day (Laura love's Brett)

2010-04-20T22:07:00.000+09:30

Thanks Laura and Brett for inviting me to be part of a such a beautiful and special day- it was a lovely experience from the make-up, champagne and hair of getting ready, to Brett's tears at the ceremony, to the dancing and catching up with AIESEC friends at the reception. I hope that you have many many happy years together.

An Eighth Deadly Sin

2010-01-04T20:54:00.000+09:30

I was watching Andrew Denton's Elders series tonight, and the interviewee was Father Des Reid. You can read the transcript here (although you'll have to imagine the Irish accent, because the effect really isn't the same otherwise).

You would have to be surprised if someone aged 74 didn't have some interesting stories and advice, let alone somebody who was an alcoholic for a couple of decades and who has ministered in Kenya, and later in Port Headland in the heat of the asylum seeker debate.

But the thought that struck the greatest cord with me was what he would nominate as an eigth deadly sin- the 'not on my patch' attitude.

I got monsooned on

2010-01-03T20:30:00.000+09:30

I thought I'd better get started on my NY resolutions (mostly involving living healthy and losing weight) and so after picking up Ben I thought I'd better take him for a walk. 15 minutes into my 30 minute walk it started to rain. A lot. Turns out there is a current cyclone warning. I'm not sure if I'm supposed to get worried or not.

From http://www.bom.gov.au/

TROPICAL CYCLONE WATCH

TROPICAL CYCLONE ADVICE NUMBER 2
Issued by the BUREAU OF METEOROLOGY, DARWIN
at 5:00 pm CST [3:30 pm WST] Sunday 3 January 2010

A Cyclone WATCH continues for a developing tropical low for coastal areas from Kalumburu to Cape Don, including Darwin.

At 3:30 pm CST [2:00 pm WST] a Tropical Low was estimated to be 135 kilometres west southwest of Darwin and 70 kilometres northwest of Daly River Mouth and moving northwest at 5 kilometres per hour away from the coast.

The low may develop into a tropical cyclone in the next 36 to 48 hours.

Dumpling King, Grote Street Adelaide

2010-01-02T19:33:00.000+09:30

A week and a half of relaxation, family, food, friends and wine tasting is drawing to a close. I feel like I finished 2009 and eased into 2010 in just the right way- relaxing here in Adelaide. Once again my usually big family has dispersed, and now it is my turn to hop on the place back to Darwin. I finished the holiday with Mum and Dad and a trip to Adelaide's Chinatown to Dumpling King. Yum. Followed by Gellatisimo, couldn't be better.

Happy New Year!

New Year's Resolutions

2010-01-01T18:38:00.000+09:30

2010. A new year and a new decade. One of my big goals for this year is to run the City to Surf on the 6th of June. Plenty of time to train (although my 5 week trip to Africa in March/April will make things interesting).

Happy New Year!

Show Day Weekend

2009-07-27T09:17:00.000+09:30

The Northern Territory is awesome for a lot of reasons, not the least being that we get two long weekends back to back (Show Day weekend, and then Darwin Cup weekend). I could have done something exciting- gone camping, seen some more of the outback or something, but I needed a weekend off. Things had been hectic since I got back from Bali- I'd been flat out at work, got swine flu and the house was dirty.

So I stayed home, cleaned everything, walked the dog, cooked (beetroot ravioli, tiramisu cupcakes, pea and ham soup, and rogan josh lamb shanks) AND watched almost two seasons of Mad Men back to back.

There are a lot of reasons to like Mad Men, its weird, the characters are all so sad and depressed, but glamorous... And then there is Joan and Peggy. Two of my favourite TV characters (along with Christina Yang from Grey's Anatomy).

Anyhow, if you didn't just take a trip to Bali and get the first two seasons on DVD for about $10, its just started recently on SBS. Its worth watching for the fashions alone. I don't know how women in the 60's breathed, let alone had so much sex- it would have taken me an hour to get in and out of their underwear, let alone the dresses!

Tomaree do Darwin

2009-07-24T15:44:00.002+09:30

Thanks Tom and Maree for visiting in Darwin! It was great to show you around! And finally I had an excuse to take the card table, camping chairs, esky and cheese platter down to Mindil Beach Markets.

Kakadu (Gunlom, Friday 17-19th July)

2009-07-24T15:38:00.003+09:30

My second trip out to Kakadu was much more successful than the first at Anzac Day last year. That time we went to Cooinda (in the North of park), got eaten alive by mosquitoes, and although we had a good time the mozzies really ruined it.

This time we went to South of the park, and it was great. The campground was great, Gunlom itself was beautiful, and we had some fun times cooking marshmallows on the fire. I also got to cook up a great roast on the Weber.

Hanumans - Darwin

2009-07-24T15:28:00.002+09:30

Maree got her Uni marks for the past year when we returned to Darwin, and I had a promotion and payrise to celebrate (and spend), so I thought it called for dinner at Hanumans.

I'd been there twice before for dinner functions, but it was great to relax, have a bottle of wine and enjoy some good food with Maree.

My favourite item from the menu so far: the lamb cutlets.

Tasting plate: angle 1

Tasting plate: angle 2

Naan

Bali Bali Bali

2009-07-24T15:25:00.002+09:30

Maree and I had a great nine days in Bali. We spent too much time in Kuta (aka bogan central), but aside from that everything was great.

As you can see below most of my photos are concerned with food, but we did do something more than eat, including: shop, nap, read books and eat.

Warung Enak (Restaurant and Cooking School) - Ubud, Bali

2009-07-24T14:55:00.006+09:30

Their Website

We had a bit of trouble finding a cooking school in Bali. We organised one for a Thursday morning, and then they didn't turn up to pick us up. Then all the ones I looked up didn't seem to have classes on the days we had left....then I found Warung Enak on the net.

So Saturday morning at 5:30am we got up and got our ride out to Ubud (only about a 45 minute drive at that time of the morning, but about 2 hours back later on in the day). We started with a tour of the Ubud market (see below) and then got on our chef aprons and got cooking.

It was just Maree and I with the chef. We cooked all the dishes, and then got to try each. Later on we sat down and ate the whole thing all plated up. The favourites from Maree and I: the fish soup, the beef main and the pumpkin style sushi.

The menu:

SATURDAY

Snack
BUNTIL AYAM / SUMATRA
Sticky Rice Stuffed With Minced Chicken, Coconut Milk, Ginger
And Minced Garlic, Wrapped In Pumpkin Leaf

Appetizer
OTAK-OTAK TENGGIRI / KALIMANTAN
Grilled Minced White Mackarel Wrapped In Coconut Leaf

Soup
GARANG ASAM / BALI
Seafood In Lemongrass And Chilli, Ginger, Blue Galangal
And Turmeric Broth

Main Course
PANGEK SAPI / SUMATRA
Spicy Beef Stew With Sweet Basil Leaves
Served With Steamed Rice And Wing Beans
BERGEDEL JAGUNG / CENTRAL JAVA
Corn Fritters Served With Urab Sayur

Dessert
KUE LUMPUR / KALIMANTAN
Sultanas And Young Coconut Pancake Served With Vanilla
And Chocolate Sauce
PISANG RAI / BALI
Balinese Boiled Banana Beignet Toss With Grated Young Coconut

Me suited up and ready to cook. I wish I had kitchen like this to cook in all the time.

Maree with her steamed pumpkin leaf ready to roll for the entree (We made something similar to sushi, with pumpkin leaf and a chicken and rice filling).

Maree getting some one on one tutorial from our chef.

Maree's was better than the chef's!

Before Masterchef I didn't know about plating! But how good does this look?

Entree number two: We made a type of fish mousse and then it was cooked in banana leaf. Kind of like the fish balls that go into fish ball soup.

Maree got to play Masterchef.

The second finished entree.

I'm pretty sure this was making one of the may spice pastes we made during the day.

My favourite for the day: a spicy beef stew (similar flavours to beef rendang)

Maree getting serious at making the pancakes.

Boiled banana. The palm sugar syrup is a real winner. Even better than golden syrup.

The finished up pancakes...all plated up.

And here is what all the final dished looked like plated up by the real chef on the restaurant table:

The two entrees.

The fish soup (Maree's favourite and a close second for me).

The main course.

The finale: dessert.

Ubud Markets

2009-07-24T14:03:00.004+09:30

As part of the cooking school we went to we had a tour of the Ubud markets. We didn't actually buy any of the food for the cooking class (that was already back at the restaurant all chopped up and ready to go). It was pretty cool...I really enjoyed it, and the chef showed us all the veggies and spices and said what they were used for.

The one thing I did buy from the markets were these little pancakes. I'm pretty sure they were pandan pancakes, and they were cooked in a poffertje type pan, and served in a newspaper cone with coconut and palm sugar syrup. Maree and I both thought they were better than the desserts we made at the restaurant.

Mmm, cupcakes.

Cosa Nostra - Seminyak, Bali

2009-07-24T12:55:00.002+09:30

My love affair with pizza has been a long time in development. I folded pizza boxes at Pizza Hut in Alice Springs to earn some pocket money for the Scout Jamboree when I was 13... this taught me what pizza is not about (I believe that the Alice Springs branch of Pizza Hut was at some stage shut down by the health people...it should have been).

Then came La Pizzeria, also in Alice Springs. The pizza was so good there that all three of my siblings worked there at some stage too.

But then came the real education- Croatia. Croatia you ask- surely in Eastern Europe they just eat boiled meat and potatoes? Well whip out a map of Europe and you'll see that Croatia is just across the water from Italy, and does Italian food really well. Unfortunately when Maree and I did a two week trip around Italy (Rome, Venice and Florence) we couldn't really afford to eat out too much. When I return I will be going country and eating up big.

Although Melbourne is supposed to be the King of Italian food in Australia I found most of it to be pretty shit, especially Lygon street. For those of you that think I am wrong please sent me some restaurant names and addresses for me to try on my next visit. However the exception to this rule had to by Bimbo's $4 weeknight pizza special. Delicious, quality and cheap. Not often three words you can use in the same sentence to describe food.

To top off my obsession with pizza is the wood fired pizza oven Dad built in the backyard in Adelaide.

Anyhow. On a ramble around Seminyak I found this little Italian place, run by some actual Italian people, with its own wood fired pizza oven. The food looked good, and the pizza looked like actual pizza (instead of a cheap imitation of pizza that some places in Bali sell).

Another restaurant I would definitely go to...the pizza, pasta, bruscetta and antipasto plate we had were all fantastic.

Woodfired pizza. The only downside being they ran out of olives!

I forget exactly what variety of pasta this was, but it was very yummo.

The trio plate of bruscetta. I have never been a big fan of bruscetta, but this plate converted me.

TJ's Mexican - Kuta, Bali

2009-07-24T12:31:00.004+09:30

This one was a recommendation from Mum and Dad's last visit to Bali (in Feb this year), and Maree and I returned here a couple of times for a drink and a chill. They have a really lovely setup with some daybed type couch/table setups, and each visit I spent a couple of minutes marvelling at the extreme size of their goldfish.

Also, their Bali Moon cocktails actually contain alcohol (I swear a couple of the other places we went to just mix up some juice and garnish with lime and mint).

Chimichanga - Although all the dishes were pretty awesome aside from the Chicken Mole this was probably the highlight. It was it all! Its deep fried, has sides of rice and re-fried beans, and guacamole piled on top.

The epic Enchiladas

Bali Moon style Mohito.

My partner in Mexican crime, Maree. Enjoying a beer from Bali's Storm Beer microbrewery.

Enchilada and taco combo.

Chiken Mole (Hayley has had a fascination with this dish for some time, and when I saw it on the menu as a house specialty I had to try it. It was passable, but by no means good and I just didn't like the flavour).

Beef Fajita with sauces plate

Queens Tandoor - Seminyak, Bali

2009-07-24T12:06:00.003+09:30

Queens Tandoor Website Here

I love Indian food. I have had some pretty good success at making a lamb curry with the spice powder from scratch, and also homemaking some Indian bread. I return time and time again to the Indian Food stand at Mindil Beach. So when I went out for a wonder one evening up the road from Kuta into Seminyak and I walked past this restaurant I knew I would have to bring Maree on down for some great Indian food.

If you make it to Bali, go to this restaurant. The food was awesome, the service was great (although the bowing was a bit much) and the atmosphere and facilities are lovely.

Our second visit's feast: Chicken Korma (Tender pieces of boneless chicken cooked in mild spices, ground cashew nut and cream) and Lamb Rogan Josh, with as much bread as we could eat.

Mutton Hydrabadi (Lamb with Spinach and Pinenuts). I have to try this at home. Yum yum yum.

Maree's favourite: Butter Chicken.

One of the assorted breads we tried.

Samosa

Sauces plate.

Kununurra - Kimberley Moon Festival

2009-05-31T09:42:00.004+09:30

Its been about a month since I was at the Kimberley Moon Festival, so I won't spin a big tale, but go to Kununurra. It was fantastic and I am really going to try and get to the 2010 Moon Festival.

Our camping spot on the banks of the Ord river.

Crash at the Kununurra speedway.This one is for you Hayley- Troopy doing a burnout.

My roadtrip partner El, enjoying a ride on the speedboat. Thanks so much for a great trip El!

Me enjoying my ride on the speedboat.

Pump House cafe. Good way to spend the hangover the morning after the Moon Festival.

El and I looking impromtu glam. Thanks to El we got upgraded from General Admin to the Dress Circle. FANTASTIC night.

I don't go to as many gourmet restaurants as I would like, so I whipped out the camera and got some shots of the great food of the night... catering by Karen's Kitchen of Darwin.

Entree

Caz, Glenn and Boaz

2009-05-31T09:36:00.002+09:30

My cousin Caz visited the Top End a few weeks back with Glenn, Boaz and baby in stomach. It was a nice few days with some homebrew, visit to Mindil Markets, and appreciation of my giant TV.

5/4 Queen Street Update

2009-05-31T09:25:00.003+09:30

Life at 5/4 Queen Street has been looking up the last few weeks. I had a huge overhaul and cleaned out all corners and rearranged a few things...I think I really moved in at last! This Friday my new flatmate Jess moved in, and it looks like fourth time lucky!

My new table out the back. Now that the weather has cooled a little this is the place to be on the weekend.

I've cleared out the kitchen quite a bit, and now there is much more space for my cooking sessions.

Laundry, and coffee corner.

Living room- note the new coffee table, rug, curtains by Mum and gigantic TV.

Another view of the living room.

My awesome reclining camping chairs.

Bedroom.

Another view of the homebrew corner. Now holds one brew each (about 60 stubbies each) of Mexican Cerveza (tested last night by Jess and given the thumbs up), Ginger beer (x2), Cider and Pale Ale.

Delectable and delicious: Plum cake with plum syrup

2009-04-20T22:16:00.003+09:30

I made one of my favourite recipes for Mum and Dad's visit. The recipe says to make it in a 26cm springform tin, but this time I made a few mini cakes in my new mini-loaf tins (impulse buy- a good reason to never go to Big W) and a heap of cupcakes.

Plum cake with plum syrup (serves 8 - I'm not a small eater, but I would say closer to 15-20)

Ingredients
1kg dark plums (I've used tinned plums before- two big tins, and instead of covering with water use the juice from the tin)
125ml (1/2 cup) red wine
1 cinnamon stick
Piece orange peel
300g caster sugar
150g unsalted butter, softened, extra for greasing
3 eggs
170g sour cream
350g plain flour, sifted
25g baking powder
120g pecan nuts
300ml thick cream, lightly whipped

Method

Place plums, wine, cinnamon, orange peel and 120g sugar in a large saucepan. Pour in enough water to just cover the fruit, then place over low heat stirring to dissolve sugar. Poach for 10 minutes or until the fruit is just soft (this will depend on ripeness of the fruit). Transfer plums to a bowl and return liquid to high heat. Bring to the boil and leave until only 1 cup of liquid remains. Pour into a serving jug and refrigerate until ready to serve.

Preheat the oven to 170°C. Grease and line the base of a 26cm spring-form pan.

Chop the plums, discard the stones and reserve 1 cup of the chopped plums. Cream the butter and remaining sugar until pale and add the eggs, one at a time. Stir in sour cream, then fold in the flour, baking powder and nuts. Carefully fold in the plums. Spoon into the pan and bake for 50-60 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centre comes out clean. Set aside to cool in the pan.Fold reserved plums through the whipped cream and serve the cake drizzled with sauce and with the plum-flavoured cream.

Source: delicious. - February 2003, Page 105 Recipe by Valli Little

Bagels

2009-04-05T13:51:00.002+09:30

After my recent tinkering with hot-cross buns I realised how easy it is to make my own bread, and its really quite satisfying too.

I first discovered bagels in Melbourne, there was a place in QV that did a coffee and bagel for $5 special that I used to partake in after a Sunday Pump class with Mel. There is also a great place in Brunswick Street that specialises in bagels.

I got this recipe after a search on the net. Its from the Los Angeles Times:

Makes 6-8 bagels

3 1/2 cups (1 pound) unbleached bread flour

3 teaspoons salt, divided

3/4 teaspoon instant yeast

1 tablespoon barley malt syrup (or honey)

1 cup plus 2 tablespoons water

1 teaspoon baking soda

Toppings as desired

1. In the bowl of an electric mixer or food processor or by hand, mix the flour, 2 teaspoons salt, the yeast, barley malt syrup and 1 cup plus 2 tablespoons water until the ingredients form a stiff, coarse ball of dough (about 3 minutes if mixing by hand or in a mixer; or 1 minute in a food processor). If necessary, add a little more water. Let the dough rest 5 minutes.

2. Knead the dough on a lightly floured surface until the dough feels stiff yet supple, with a satiny, slightly tacky feel, 2 to 3 minutes. If the dough seems too soft or too tacky, sprinkle over just enough flour as needed.

3. Place the dough in a lightly oiled bowl, cover tightly with plastic wrap, and place it in the refrigerator for at least 1 hour and up to several hours. Keep in mind that the bagels must be shaped before proofing overnight.

4. When ready to shape the bagels, line a baking sheet with lightly greased parchment paper or a silicone baking mat.

5. Remove the dough from the refrigerator and divide it into 6 to 8 equal pieces. Form each piece into a loose, round ball by rolling it on a clean, dry work surface with a cupped hand; do not use any flour on the surface. If the dough slides around and won't ball up, wipe the work surface with a damp paper towel and try again -- the slight amount of moisture will provide enough "bite" for the dough to form a ball. When each piece has been formed into a ball, you are ready to shape the bagels.

6. Using your hands and a fair amount of pressure, roll each dough ball into a "rope" 8 to 10 inches long. (Moisten the work surface with a damp paper towel, if necessary, to get the necessary bite or friction). Slightly taper the rope at the ends so that they are thinner than the middle. Place one end of the dough between your thumb and forefinger and wrap it around your hand until the ends overlap in your palm; they should overlap by about 2 inches. Squeeze the overlapping ends together and then press the joined ends into the work surface, rolling them back and forth a few times until they are completely sealed.

7. Remove the dough from your hand and squeeze as necessary to even out the thickness so that there is a 2-inch hole in the center. Place the bagel on the prepared sheet pan. Repeat with the other pieces. Lightly wipe the bagels with oil, cover with plastic wrap and place in the refrigerator overnight.

8. Remove the bagels from the refrigerator 90 minutes before you plan to bake them. Fill a large stockpot with 3 quarts of water (be sure the water is at least 4 inches deep), cover with a lid, and slowly bring the water to a boil. When it comes to a boil, add the remaining teaspoon of salt and 1 teaspoon of baking soda, reduce the heat and simmer with the lid on.

9. Thirty minutes before baking, heat the oven to 500 degrees.

10. Test the bagels by placing one in a bowl of cold water. If it sinks and doesn't float to the surface, return it to the sheet, wait 15 minutes and then test it again. When one bagel passes the float test, they are ready for the pot.

11. Gently lift each bagel and drop it into the simmering water. Add as many as will comfortably fit in the pot. After 1 minute, use a slotted spoon to flip each bagel over. Poach for an extra 30 seconds. Using the slotted spoon, remove each bagel and return it to the lined baking sheet. Continue until all the bagels have been poached. Generously sprinkle each bagel with a topping, except for cinnamon sugar (see note below).

12. Place the baking sheet in the oven and reduce the heat to 450 degrees. Bake for 8 minutes and then rotate the sheet (if using two sheets, also switch their positions). Check the underside of the bagels. If they are getting too dark, place another sheet under the baking sheet (i.e., double-pan it). Bake until the bagels are golden brown, an additional 8 to 12 minutes. Remove from the oven and transfer the bagels to a rack for at least 30 minutes before serving.

Note: If using cinnamon sugar (1 part cinnamon to 5 parts granulated sugar), immediately brush the top of each hot bagel with melted butter and then generously sprinkle with the mixture so that it is coated. It will form a nice cinnamon crust as it cools.

Each of 8 servings: 226 calories; 7 grams protein; 46 grams carbohydrates; 2 grams fiber; 1 gram fat; 0 saturated fat; 0 cholesterol; 1,031 mg. sodium.

So here is the final product. As you can see a few of them wanted to come undone in the poaching process and transform into a crossiant. Next time I think I will try the less authentic process of just punching a hole in the middle of a dough ball. However that won't be for another few weeks, as 7 bagels should last me a little while.

Cream cheese and smoked salmon. A good Sunday brunch.

NT Thunder

2009-04-05T13:42:00.003+09:30

The NT has got a side in the Queensland AFL state level competition this season and I went along last night with a mate from work to watch the game, along with 3,700 other people- a pretty big turnout, and pretty initimidating for Southport, the competitors and last year's premiers. No one was cheering for them.

I had to get a few shots of the quarter time flooding of the field and men standing with folded arms around the players circle for Hayley. Good fun.

The opposition at three quarter time.

The much larger crowd surrounding the NT Thunder at three quarter time, and the kids having a kick.

FInally flatmate free

2009-04-03T22:59:00.002+09:30

On 1 April I had been in my little house for 6 whole months. Where did that time go...and while I'm asking that question, how the hell is it April already, I swear it was Christmas last week. I feel like I am just getting started on the year and the first quarter is already over.

Anyhow, six months and three flatmates. Definitely not the right equation. I am going to have a spare room until at least late-July. So far I have Mum and Dad, and Maree and Tom slated for Easter and July visits respectively. Mel and Margot have visits penciled in.

So if you were thinking of visiting the top end, I've got a spare room. And maybe a little more sanity, if a little less cash.

Vanilla Cupcakes

2009-04-03T22:49:00.003+09:30

Yum! I found out on Thursday afternoon that it was one of the new girl's 21st birthday. I remember turning 21 and it not being to perfect day, and thought that I should make some cupcakes. I have been a fan of The Guardian website for sometime (discovered sometime ago through The Age's opinion pieces), but recently discovered Dan Lepard (check out his website sited below) and wanted to try this recipe.

So I whipped these up overnight. They were simple and quick. Although they have a 30 minute resting period this doesn't stretch things out too much. They rose beautifully. Next time I will make sure not to overfill the cups. Also, even with my liberal icing hand I had about half the icing left over.

The flower is made out of fondant- my first time playing with it. Also, the colours were slightly stronger...my camera isn't up to the close up.

Only thing- these are very sweet little cakes. I have a sweet tooth, so that's no problem for me.

From danlepard.com (he writes a weekly recipe in The Guardian)

Vanilla cupcakes

What makes the new-look cupcakes magnificent is their size, as they're baked in large muffin cases, with a jaunty swirl of butter frosting to give them a Dior glamour. But underneath beats the heart of an old-fashioned pound-cake with a touch more flour to give them a soft volcano peak.

125g caster sugar
125g unsalted butter, very soft
2 eggs
2 tsp vanilla essence
150g plain flour
2 tsp baking powder

For the frosting:

75g unsalted butter, very soft
250g icing sugar
75g sweetened condensed milk
75ml double cream

1. In the bowl of an upright electric mixer beat the sugar, butter, eggs and vanilla for about 3 minutes on the highest speed until light and fluffy.

2. Sift the flour and baking powder together two or three times as this will stop tunnels forming in the crumb.

3. Add the flour to the butter mixture and beat for about 30 seconds.

4. Spoon the batter into each of eight muffin cups placed in the pockets of a muffin tray for support. Leave the batter to rest at room temperature for 30 minutes.

5. Heat the oven to 180C. Bake for 20 - 25 minutes until golden and firm.

6. For the frosting, get the butter as soft as possible without melting then place it in a bowl with the remaining ingredients. Whisk everything together with an electric beater until smooth and fluffy then swirl this thickly over the top of each cupcake. The sugar in the frosting will make sure it keeps at cool room temperature.

Hot Cross Buns v2.0

2009-03-29T20:22:00.002+09:30

Pre-baking

Post-baking

Modifications this time:

I halved the recipe so I didn't have a chance to scoff too many hot cross buns
Instead of Lauke crust white pre-mix flour I used Lauke Barossa sour dough rye pre-mix
I added 75g of dried apricots (equivalent to adding 150g in a full recipe) chopped fairly small
I baked in muffin tins (I saw someone do this on the net and wanted to check out if it made things easier)
I made 75g dough balls instead of 100g
I made a paste with 1/2C flour and 1/3C water and piped on crosses
I brushed with golden syrup when they came out of the oven

Will give you a taste report later. Am going to have one with a latte for breakfast tomorrow.

Hot Cross Buns v1.0

2009-03-22T17:12:00.003+09:30

I love hot cross buns. Although they come out about December 26th as they put away the Christmas decorations I always try to wait until March to get stuck into them, because they should be an Easter treat. So far I have only bought single buns, because I know if I buy a half or whole dozen bag I can eat them in a sitting.

Mum and Dad are visiting for Easter, and so I decided to try my hands at making my own. My current cooking experience has taught me that if the supermarket can whip it up and make it tasty my own version is almost certain to be better (and contain less crap).

So here is v1.0. Not a bad start. I managed to eat too many (15 weeks to Bali, must stop eating hot cross buns!), but they need a little more oomph.

I used a recipe from The Guardian: For tea cakes

Next time I plan to: Use more spice, use more fruit (including maybe some dates and apricot) and instead of using white break flour maybe use half white and half rye or wholemeal). Am also planning to actually put a cross on next time!

Also note: I kneaded this dough for about 1 minute total. While this takes a while to wait for things to sit and proof, the actual time you spend doing stuff is minimal.

Makes 14

5 level tsp easy-blend yeast (about 2 sachets)

125ml warm water

600g strong white flour

150ml milk

25g golden syrup

25g caster sugar

50g beef dripping (or white chocolate), roughly chopped

150g currants*

150g chopped mixed peel*

½ level tsp each ginger, nutmeg and cinnamon*

1 level tsp salt

3 large eggs

* I didn't use peel, and substituted for sultanas. I doubled all the spices.

Dissolve the yeast in the warm water with 3 tbsp flour (taken from the total amount). Stir together well, then leave for 15 minutes to bubble. Meanwhile, heat the milk until boiling, then remove from the heat, add the golden syrup, caster sugar, dripping, currants, peel, spices and salt, stir well and leave to cool.

Beat the eggs and stir these into the milk mixture. Place the remaining flour in a warm bowl, stir the yeast with the milk mixture, then tip this into the flour and stir well until evenly combined. Cover the bowl, leave for 10 minutes, then give the dough three light kneads over 30 minutes (see Basic techniques), cover and leave for a further 30 minutes.

Weigh the dough into 100g pieces and roll into round balls using your cupped hand. Butter two baking sheets, roll the balls flat so they sit about 2cm high and lay them on the tray about 3-4cm apart. Place the trays inside carrier bags and leave somewhere warm for 1½ hours to double in height.

Heat the oven to 220C (200C fan-assisted). Brush the tops of the dough with beaten egg and bake for 12-15 minutes or until risen and golden. Don't bake for too long, as you want them to stay soft.

Weekly Staff Meeting Cupcakes

2009-03-22T17:00:00.002+09:30

We have a rivetting weekly team meeting, and a couple of weeks ago I took in some cupcakes. I made some banana cupcakes with a cream cheese frosting, and carrot and pecan cupcakes with a maple cream cheese cupcakes. Both were good, but the carrot cakes were the downright winner for me, very moist and tasty (recipe was from AWW 1001 best ever recipes book - from Maree for my last bday). As for the banana cupcakes, I wouldn't make them again, there is a much better banana cake recipe that you can find on taste here. I have made it three of four times and it is tasty.

This week just past we had a(nother) fundraising morning tea/birthday morning tea and work, and I made: buffalo sausage rolls (based on this recipe) with a helping hand from Parap Butchers AWESOME chilli buffalo sausages - the best BBQ style sausages around, Healthy chicken and vegetable sausage rolls (based on this recipe) with a helping hand from Lenard's mango flavoured sausages (the funny thing being that half the plate was gone before anyone asked if there were two types of sausage rolls, a chocolate mudcake with butter chocolate mars bar frosting (THE BEST CAKE I HAVE EVER MADE) and a Hummingbird cake (recipe in the current ed of Good Taste mag). All morning tea was knocked up on a Monday night, and the cakes frosted on early Tuesday morning before work.

Cupcakes in progress

2009-03-08T18:48:00.004+09:30

Made some cupcakes for our weekly team meeting at work today. They are still in progress because I'm going to update them on Monday night. Our meeting is usually a morning meeting, so I tried for something under 100% sugar for the occaision.

I made these from the '1000 Best-Ever Recipes for Australian Women's Weekly' a birthday present from Maree. I haven't made heaps from this book yet (and there is a LOT in there), but after how well these turned out I might have to think some more.

Carrot Cupcakes with Maple Frosting (to still be frosted with a cream cheese frosting, flavoured with maple syrup)

Banana and Cinnamon Muffins (still to be topped with a cream cheese icing)

Green Thumbs

2009-03-08T18:36:00.003+09:30

My beautiful little citrus trees all potted up. These stand out on my balcony and have been loving the rain and sunshine. Unfortunately I have to wait at least 18 months until I let them fruit. There is a Valencia Orange, Tahitian Lime, Meyer Lemon and Honey Murcott Mandarin.

Hayley's massacred basil plants...already starting to start some new green growth. The other little pots are zucchini's (the big ones) and capsicums (the little ones), only planted last week.

Cherry tomatoes a few weeks old from Hayley's matchbox.

My basils. Massacred the night before to make some basil pesto.

Brewing Central

2009-03-08T18:29:00.002+09:30

This is my brewing central. Recently bottled Coopers Ginger Beer on the right, and my cider put onto brew on the left. I probably should have sped up the brewing because I've run out of cider, and the ginger beer won't be ready to drink for three weeks!

Happy 18th Birthday Monnie!

2009-03-08T09:34:00.002+09:30

Happy 18th Birthday Monica! I hope you enjoyed your party last night! Good luck with a big year.

It was cold enough in Adelaide last night to crank out the chimneas, and up here in Darwin I was trying to get my weird aircon to cool down my room enough to sleep...

Backyard all decorated for Monnie's party. The flags look great Mum and Dad!

Toasted Museli & Bircher Museli

2009-03-07T18:37:00.005+09:30

I read this recipe around Christmas on one of my favourite blogs and put it in the back of my mind to make. Then when I went on my trip to Alice I had my first visit to the magical world of the Qantas lounge. There were coffee machines, juice, bacon and eggs, fresh fruit and this cold porridgey stuff. I'd heard of Bircher Muesli before, but had never eaten it. It was yum, and I bought some of Carmel's Muesli when I got home and made myself up a batch.

This time I toasted up my own muesli, the recipe is below (from notquitenigella.com).

Ingredients (I slightly varied NQN's ingredients, and you could use whatever dried fruits and nuts you like):

450g rolled oats
120g sunflower seeds
120g pumpkin seeds (pepitas)
175ml apple juice
2 tsp ground cinnamon
1 tsp ground ginger
7 Tbsp honey
100g brown sugar (you could probably cut back on this)
125g macadamia halves
125g almonds
150g cranberries
150g sultanas

Combine everything except the dried fruit and mix it well. Lay out on a couple of over trays and bake in a 170C over until toasty and browned, this takes between 40-60 mins. Every 10 or so minutes give it a mix around so it toasts evenly.

When its cooled add the dried fruit and mix again.

This made that big tub of muesli, it says 2.5 L in the NQN recipe.

The to make this into Bircher muesli do the following (I haven't tried this exact combo, so I will have to let you know how it goes). This is for eight servings:

360g of the muesli (40g x 8 serves)
1-2 apples grated or chopped into matchsticks
1C orange juice
1C plain yogurt

Mix it all up and keep it in the fridge. Its use by date is the use by date of the yogurt you used, and the longer it sits the better it tastes. When serving you can add some milk and fresh or poached fruit.

Mum & Dad's Darwin Trip #2

2009-03-07T18:30:00.003+09:30

Swimming at Litchfield

Mum and Dad stopped through on their way back from Bali for a couple of days, and it was a great chance to relax and catch up. Cool stuff we did:

Went out to dinner to Humpty Doo- Thursday night was rib night. Unfortunately I left the camera at home, so I'll have to go again to get some photos of these babies. Delicious ribs and burgers and some cheap beers were had. Feral spotting was good fun.
My second visit out to Litchfield. It was lovely out there. I definitely want to get out there again, go for a swim and maybe camp over night.
Buffalo snags- Hayley and I discovered these, and Dad has fellen in love with them. Several kilos were taken back to Adelaide (Mum and Dad's visit to John's new flat in Unley was on the proviso that they took some of these sausages).
And lots of coffee and good chats.

See you again at Easter Mum and Dad!

Farewell Hayley

2009-03-07T18:12:00.004+09:30

Bye bye Hayley- Good Luck!

My partner in Darwin crime has left to travel the world again, leaving me to a life of domesticity and mortgage payments. We marked the occasion with many meals- including breakfast at Buzz Cafe (I must say after my second visit I have it marked down as seriously overrated), Mussels in a cider broth (I think I might spend my life searching a mussel experience as good as the one we had in a little pub in the middle of nowhere in WA), fish, oysters, AND High Afternoon Tea.

The High Tea haul at the National Trust's high tea held at the heritage listed Burnett House on Sundays included: pot of tea or perco coffee, cucumber sandwich, salmon and cream cheese sandwich (both were really more of a margarine sandwich on this occasion), a lime curd tart (the highlight), scone with cream and jam (can you really go wrong with a good scone), shortbread biscuit, and savoury biscuit. $24.

So, as Mum asked me, what is High Afternoon Tea, from epicurean.com:

Though it sounds like a creation of the irrepressible Hyacinth Bucket (of the BBC's Keeping Up Appearances), High Tea originated as a British working class tradition. "High" referred to the way it was taken, sitting atop stools in a tea shop or standing at a counter or buffet table. It was a cross between afternoon tea and supper, and for many it was the main meal of the day. The afternoon tea idea began around the mid 1700's as a way to ward off the inevitable hunger before dinner. This tradition led John Montagu, 4th Earl of Sandwich to make his famous innovation of putting meats or other fillings between two pieces of bread. The Tea Sandwich was born!

Today, it has become a more elegant affair. Now served in many restaurants and hotels across the world, this affair has become less a working class meal and more of an event. In some cities, it is a "power" business event. Having High Tea with a client is preferred to the more traditional "night out" and offers a much better atmosphere for discussing business.

When to serve it? The high time of the day, around 3 or 4 o'clock in the afternoon.

What to serve? Tea sandwiches for starts, but traditional British High Teas might include Welsh Rabbit, Scotch Woodcock and other meat and fish dishes. Also, puddings, cakes, crumpets and scones served with jellies, marmalades and spreads of various kinds.

What kind to serve? There are more than 1,500 varieties grown in dozens of countries however the prominent producers are China, India, Kenya, Sri Lanka, Malawi, and Indonesia . With so many to choose from a variety selection seems only fitting. Though herbal and fruit infusions have become popular they are not classified as true "teas", and purists will recoil from their inclusion at the table.

Why? It's the civilized thing to do. The tradition of afternoon tea offers a pleasant break in the day, a chance for conversation, relaxation and of course a good cup of tea!

Alice Springs

2009-03-07T18:05:00.004+09:30

In mid-February I went down to Alice Springs for work- I hadn't been back for about4 or 5 years, and it was kind of weird to be there. I took a few photos- its still a beautiful place.

The view of town from Anzac Hill. Can you feel the heat? It was smoking.

Our old house.

The MacDonnell ranges, the view from my old bedroom.

First cupcakes for the new year

2009-01-18T19:37:00.002+09:30

Mmm...first cupcakes for 2009.

Olive Oil Cupcakes with Almond & Vanilla Cream Cheese Icing

Mexican Hot Chocolate Cupcakes (Chocolate with Cinnamon and Chilli) with Vanilla and Almond Cream Cheese Icing

Candy Cane Cupcakes

2008-12-21T12:31:00.002+09:30

Num num num. I had big baking plans for this Christmas, but most of them didn't eventuate because it was too hard getting around. So, my new found mobility (walking, slowly, but still walking) called for some Christmas cupcakes.

These are from another blog that I love- Bake and Destroy (I knew that baking could be subversive, and not just 50's housewifey). I substituted candy canes for peppermint bullseyes (because you apparently can't buy candy canes at Darwin Woolworths one week before Christmas) and the buttermilk for yogurt (as far as I can tell this hasn't resulted in a weird flavour).

This was my first try at piping on the icing (white chocolate buttercream icing- so so so delicious) and it was easy with my new silicon gun style piper. I'm sure these will put a smile on people's faces tomorrow at work! And now I know how easy piping is and how good it looks I'll be piping everything!

Four Sleeps til Christmas

2008-12-21T10:22:00.001+09:30

The tree is decorated and laden with presents- ready for my arrival in Adelaide at 6:20am on Christmas day! Can't wait to see everyone and have a great Christmas lunch.

December Baking and Brewing

2008-12-20T13:08:00.003+09:30

This is a white chocolate mud cake (recipe from one of my new favourite sites: Exclusively Food) but I used a white chocolate butter icing. It was a birthday cake for Ray on my team at work. I put the cake on his desk for him to find as a birthday surprise, but it was high jacked by some other people on my team and hidden in a cupboard as a joke- as Ray is a real bastard with pranks and they decided to get him back somewhat.

I was determined to bottle all my cider in 375ml stubbie bottles. Seeing as one brew produces about 60 bottles it was a big effort. I am so happy I got a proper capper which made it a bit easier. Here is my production line. The cushion was for me to kneel on, as at this stage I still couldn't stand very well.

I still haven't met my neighbors, and due to my flatmate moving out I currently don't have a TV, so I decided to make them some white chocolate rocky road. Check out the recipe at Not Quite Nigella here...this really is one of my favourite sites. She posts a new recipe or restaurant review everyday, and it is becoming part of my morning ritual to read the post.

Rocky road (containing marshmallow, dried cranberries, macadamias, Turkish delight, shredded coconut and white chocolate) getting ready to go into the fridge.

After the clean up I sat down with a few slices and a cup of tea. I've managed to deliver to two of my 4 neighbors in my block, the other two aren't home. Chocolate, a good way to meet people.

Baking and Blue Tongue Lizards

2008-12-19T19:49:00.004+09:30

Most of my baking effort has been channelled into baking cupcakes to raise money for rugby, via selling them at work...it has been so much fun because everyone thinks the baking is wonderful. As a result of this one of the ladies at work asked me to bake a cake for her sister's 50th birthday.

I made a double chocolate cake (from this recipe) and iced it with this icing (from this recipe). I made a chocolate "50" and two chocolate butterflies. I also bought some sugar flowers which really did look great.

The lady from work said the cake was much enjoyed by everyone and that the party was part of a great family reunion weekend.

While I was cooking up a storm this lizard climber up between my screen and glass windows...quite an impressive lizard.

See the last post for a picture of my fantastic Las Chica's breakfast. The weekend after my Melbourne trip I tried to recreate the fantastic breads I ate. I made Corn and Pumpkin bread (recipe here) with Guacamole (recipe here), and Apple and Date bread (recipe here...note the Las Chicas bread was Date and Banana, but I had apples to use) with a sweet ricotta and pistachio topping. It was delish.

Melbourne Town

2008-12-19T19:40:00.001+09:30

Forgot to post this after my trip to Melbourne...about three weeks ago now.

Well I had a great weekend in Melbourne for my birthday...I booked it back in July not planning to have a broken ankle and mobility issues, and just went along with it anyway. I managed to catch up with everyone I wanted to which was great- thanks for making the effort!

It was a weekend of shopping (DFO in a wheelchair and Melbourne Central on crutches....you should see my guns post shopping) and excellent food and company.

Great food was compliments of:

The Meat and Wine Co. Steakhouse, Southbank (Mmmm super aged steak...thanks Mel and Al)
Cafe Greco (Crown Casino), Southbank (If you like cake you'll like this cafe)
Coffea Cake, Queen Vic Markets
Grill'd (went to the St Kilda one)
Trampoline (it wasn't cold enough to stop me)
Las Chicas, Balaclava (see my awesome awesome breakfast below)
A great Schezuan restaurant in China town that I don't know the name of

Here are a few fun photos (Mel managed to escape the camera this time):

This is my awesome awesome breakfast at Las Chicas.

How am I going to cope....with Melbourne's weather?

2008-11-19T06:36:00.002+09:30

Here it what Darwin's weather forecast looks like for the next several weeks:

Min 26
Max 35
Possible evening storms (note, this does not mean possible showers, this means possible pissing down rain and thunder and lightning)

Here is Melbourne's weekend forecast (I'm going for my birthday this weekend):

Friday
Min 13
Max 21
Possible showers

Saturday
Min 11
Max 18
Windy with showers

Sunday and Monday - more of the same shitty weather

How can I possible live in the same country where another city has maximum temperatures of 18? The only reason Darwin has minimum temperatures that low is so the mango flowers can get 'cold' and start turning into mango fruits!

Brrrrrrr. I'm going to have to find my jeans.

Cherry Ripe Cupcakes & Banana Cinnamon Cupcakes

2008-11-17T19:49:00.000+09:30

I had a little fun on Sunday baking some cupcakes. I iced both with a chocolate cream cheese icing.

Cherry Ripe Cupcakes

Cinnamon Banana Cupcakes

Injury Update

2008-11-14T23:31:00.002+09:30

There are two really hard things about this not being able to walk normally thing for me:

1. Everything is harder and slower: getting ready in the morning, getting a drink, taking a shower...

2. I have to ask for so much help- and I'm just not used to it!

But, an update. I was back at work all this week, and work has been great. I have been upgraded to an office so I can easily keep my feet up and I have a printer right next to me. I'm also close to the toilets and kitchen to make things as simple as possible.

I barely cooked or made any food this week, and to keep my sanity up and my weight down that will have to change! I'm really hoping that in another three weeks from Monday when I can hopefully put some weight on the leg things will be a bit easier!

Trimalleolar Fracture

2008-11-05T17:27:00.003+09:30

So I know that my blogging has been quiet of late, so I decided to do something exciting and smashed my ankle to pieces on Saturday 17th October while playing rugby. However I would just like to point out that rugby isn't really that dangerous.

I was in hospital for a little over a week waiting for the swelling to go down (think major major cankles), and then about another week in recovery from my surgery. I finally got let out last Saturday, and have been hopping around home since.

This is actually much harder than I anticipated, and having one leg completely out of action is much more debilitating than I thought it would be. Thanks to everyone who has helped out, and especially to Dad for coming up to Darwin to help me out for a couple of days to prevent me balling my eyes out over the phone turning into a nervous breakdown.

When you are on crutches (after your muscles have been wasting away in a hospital bed for two weeks) you can't carry anything and every task is just harder (by the way, I'm really glad I got a townhouse with stairs right about now). But as I gain some upper body strength back, and get some props from the Occupational Therapy people at the hospital it should get easier, as I have another 5 weeks of 0% weight bearing on that leg.

Anyhow, enough of that, see my gruesome and frankly impressive and awesome photos below.

Me sitting with my list of questions to ask the doctor. Mostly good news.

My leg as it has been since the operation, with a fiberglass board moulded to the back of the leg and crepe bandages on top.

My special cast. The plaster tech and physio put on a fiberglass cast and then sawed it open on top, so I can open it up and take my leg out (which is quite stable and not painful). I needed one that opened because the rest of my stitches need to come out next Monday, and I also wanted to be able to check out any possible infection early (because the orthopedic registrar suggested I would know my leg was infected when I was running a fever and my leg was painful, and personally I think this is a bit too late, especially in Darwin's tropical climate where infection thrives).

More plastering.

More plastering again...we (Dad and I) were in the plaster room for a good hour plus.

2008-11-05T16:56:00.002+09:30

I don't know if the scale is very clear (and please excuse my hairy man legs), but on one side of the ankle I think the cut is about 7cm long, and the other is probably close to 15cm long. The stitches are still gaping a fair bit thanks mainly to my new metal accessories. I got a few stitches out and hopefully will get the rest out next Monday.

When I saw all of this bruising the first time they rolled off the bandages I understood why I was in some pretty substantial pain when I came out of the anaesthetic, they must have hammered my leg in the operating theatre.
Side x-ray view, 7 days after my operation.

Count those screws: it was necessary to drill in eight of them to put my leg back together! I am going to try and get a photo of the initial x-ray, because that is cool...my foot is pretty much detached from my leg bone wise. The two orthopedic registrars looked at this and decided that all was well.

Broome to Perth and everything in between

2008-09-18T21:45:00.000+09:30

Highlights:

Our first night in Perth was spent at Matso's Microbrewery...very cool. They had their own brew of cider and ginger beer on tap. Inspired me to hurry up and get a brew kit and start on the ginger beer.
Much listening to ABC radio on our days of driving
The Broome weekend markets
Opera Under the Stars in Broome. We were lucky to be there at the right time, really awesome singing (although with the power these people had in their voices I'm not sure that singing was the right term).
Discovering what the mining boom looks like when we stayed in Port Headland and drove though the Pilbara (and touring the iron ire processing facility at Port Headland).
Snorkelling about 10m off the shore at Coral Bay and siing the colourful little fishies.
Driving around to farm gates at Canarvon and picking up fresh fruit and veg.
Dolphins at Monkey Mia.
Awesome chilli mussels at Jurien Bay, a tiny tinpot town in the middle of nowhere.
Big tupperware find at a carboot sale in Moora.
New Norcia- Australia's only monastic town. So interesting and beautiful, and some amazing European art.
Reef cider at Donnybrook, Mountford cider near Pemberton and Little Creature's Pipsqueak Cider in Fremantle (Little Creature's brewery is awesome).
Kirup veggie shop...I think my favourite shop that we went to the entire shop. We got the most awesome brussel sprouts.
The hot showers we had when we forked out for caravan parks.
The awesome continental apple cake we had in Pemberton- I'm going to have to try hard to emulate it.
Cambray Sheep Cheese near Nannup. We just sat in the sunshine and ate the whole platter and it was awesome.
Settlers Tavern at Margaret River
Visiting Margaret River Dairy Company...their stuff is so cheap at the dairy. I've bought a whole heap of hard cheeses home, I just wanted to buy some of everything. I'm hoping I get some of their cheeses or yogurt here!
Margaret River Venison. I think this might have been the favourite stop for both of us. I bought home a venison salami, kangaroo salami, venison chorizo and coat of arms chorizo (emu and kangaroo). We also got some cold venison meats (ham, pastrami, etc) which were just awesome.
Yahava Coffee Company, I think that I'll be getting some mail order coffee from there in the future. They roast and mail the same day which would make it fresher than anything I could get here, and it is definitely cheaper and better tasting!
Moss Brothers winery was probably the only cellar door that we went to that I really enjoyed- the other people were just all so snobby!
The flowers on show at Kings Park in Perth, and the BIG Boab tree.
The Nutcracker Ballet in Perth.

The relocated Boab tree (taken from the Kimberlys to Kings Park in Perth)

AWESOME seafood platter in Geraldton.

Little Creatures Brewery.

Veggies from Canarvon farm gates

Roof inside one of the chapels at New Norcia

Our Chambray Sheep Cheese platter with the most amazing non-alcocholic apple cider ever (from Mountfords)

Kangaroo Paw at King's Park

Pretty flowers that I don't know the name of at King's Park (part of my birthday card series)

Our Wicked Camper van

Broome markets boab tree

Beautiful contrasts of Broome.

Huge ship laden with Iron Ore heading out of Port Headland

Coffee refuel at Karratha. These guys packed up shop and went North for the filming of Australia, so they had photos with the actors (High Jackman, Nicole Kidman, etc). Pretty good idea.

Something to aspire to

2008-09-17T22:10:00.000+09:30

Just got back from Perth on Sunday night and am still figuring out what stories to share, and what photos to blog in amongst getting back into work and real life, and organising all that is entailed in moving into my own house in less than two weeks. So, just a taste of my time in WA...it was a very food oriented trip, and this is what I found in the hour or so before we flew out of Perth at an arts and craft market...the most awesome cupcakes. I had a raspberry yogurt cucake (in the top left of the second photo down) and Hayley had a carrot cake cupcake (slightly obscured by the sign in the bottom photo). Both tasted at least as good as they looked. So I have so new decorating ideas and something to aspire too....

Next post will be a best of the West coast guide...

Sometimes I impress even myself

2008-08-27T20:45:00.001+09:30

Okay, so the Zucchini and Spice Cake is a bit lopsided....but the Chocoholics cake looks amazing I think!

Thanks Mum and Dad!

2008-08-27T16:42:00.004+09:30

Housewarming present. I think our family is keeping Scanpan in business this year. Thanks!

Household Good Spending Spree

2008-08-27T16:08:00.005+09:30

Kenwood Chef Kitchen Machine

Whirlpool 410 Litre Top Mount Refrigerator

Whirlpool 7.5kg Front Loan Washer with LED Display

I can't get no sleep

2008-08-25T15:11:00.003+09:30

And I'm finding it hard to work...there is just too much to be excited about and to plan and make lists in my head about at the moment!

At this stage I might not have any furniture (aside from my bed...and a couch pending the custody battle with Hayley), but my kitchen is going to be fully decked out!!

Sunday Cooking Session

2008-08-24T20:03:00.000+09:30

Sunday afternoon calls for some baking. This week instead of cooking cupcakes I am catering for the monthly birthday morning tea at work, so I baked a couple of cakes to go with the party pies and sausage rolls I already made.

I'll have to take some more photos once I get them iced and looking pretty.

Zucchini and Pistachio Spice Cake

Chocoholics Delight Cake (pre-icing)

Cauliflower Lentil Dahl

Sunday Breakfast

2008-08-24T11:28:00.000+09:30

Corn, capsicum and zucchini pancakes with bacon, roasted tomatoes and maple syrup. Yum!

Defense 22, Bunnies (my team) 15

2008-08-24T11:09:00.003+09:30

Yesterday I played by fourth game with the South Darwin Rabbitohs (Bunnies) and things are starting to come together. To put this weeks fairly close loss in perspective, last week we lost against the defense team by over 100 to nil.

Thanks heaps to Hayley for running water and taking these great photos.

I still have so much improvement to make before I am a halfway decent player, but I have heaps of fun anyway.

Me playing scrum half and passing the ball out of the scrum (uncontested) to our line.

We did a lot less walking back from the oppositions backline this week.

Circling up after the game with the other team for some rugby love.

Players player was three way win this week- reward skolling a UDL. Now they aren't skolling UDLs because we are a bunch of girls, but because we got told off for having beer in glass bottles last week.

Renee, Esquire.

2008-08-22T15:57:00.003+09:30

You may have been thinking, where are Renee's photos of cupcakes this week? Well in case you were I made Mango and Passionfruit Mini Cheesecakes and Blueberry Muffins with Blueberry Icing... and while there were good sellers at work once again they weren't quite as photogenic as the previous cupcakes, so I didn't bother.

However get ready to drool over my morning tea pics coming up. I am catering our monthly birthday morning tea at work, and it should be awesome.

But also, I didn't take the photos due to being sidetracked and busy because I BOUGHT A HOUSE LAST FRIDAY. I decided that it was safe to blog it now, because the real estate agent is probably not going to try and sell it to someone else for a better price, and I have got a mortgage and conveyancing (almost) organised.

Seriously, being an adult is a bit hard sometimes. I did consider just buggering off to Europe for a year instead of buying a house, but decided I'd buy the house and bugger off to Europe in a couple of years instead.

Oh, also, just is some side news, I am now officially a CA. My membership was approved today!

So for all the stickybeaks, here are the photos of realestate.com.au of my new little two bedroom townhouse (only one bedroom is pictured though). I also put up the map so non-Darwinites can get an idea of my proximity to the city. It is going to be approximately 2kms to my work.

Settlement is 1st October. Before then I will have to find a housemate to replace me, a housemate to live with me, and some household goods.....

Rugby Bruise

2008-08-10T20:19:00.000+09:30

This weekend I went out to Jabiru to play the second of five exhibition games (to try and get a women's league started) against the Army girls, the occaision being the 25th anniversary of the Jabiru Bushrats RUFC. Although we lost again I played much better, and we also just played better as a team. A big piss up ensued afterward and we all camped out on the side of the football field.

Here is the ripper bruise I got on the inside of my thigh just above the knee. Oh yeah.

Lime Meringue Pie Cupcakes & Peppermint Choc-chip Cupcakes

2008-08-10T20:14:00.000+09:30

Cupcakes

Filled with Lime flavoured condensed milk goodness

Topped with meringue

Chocolate chip peppermint cupcakes

Cupcakes

2008-08-04T20:19:00.001+09:30

Rasberry Swirl Cheesecake Cupcakes

Double Chocolate Cupcakes

Long Weekend

2008-08-04T20:07:00.001+09:30

Just coming off the back of a huge last long weekend before Christmas. Friday night was Pete Murray down at the new Darwin Convention Centre. A great gig. It was really hilarious though because Pete Murray has to be one of the most chilled out human beings ever, and he had this most amped up band ever. The juxtaposition was so extreme that the rest of the band just looked comical. Really enjoyed Leah Flanaghan (a local) too.

Next day was my first Rugby match in a long time. I last played in Adelaide about three years ago, when I was about 20kgs bigger and couldn't run around the oval once without puffing crazily. There isn't really an established women's team up here, so it is pretty interesting. A ramshakle group played against a team of army women...very intersting. We lost hugely, but I learnt heaps which was cool. Had fun too. Then watched Australia lose against NZ.

On Sunday I drive out to Litchfield and spent some time chilling with my cousin Caz and her hubby Glenn and new baby Boaz. Feeling very relaxed now. :)

This week in Darwin we had a slight anomaly in the weather (ie. the Sun didn't just rise, the termperature reach 30 degrees and the skies be clear). Instead we had some mystical looking fog sitting over everything for a couple of hours. Here is the few from the balcony shortly after sunrise.

A photo for crazy Maree.

Thanks Caz and Glen for having me out at Litchfield. Here are Caz and Glenn with baby Boaz as we enjoyed a dip in their 'backyard' pool.

Wangi Falls- a few minutes drive from the School where Caz and Glenn are working and living. A little cold...but just beautiful.

2008-07-28T21:13:00.000+09:30

Butternut pumpkin muffins (cupcakes) with a frosty top

Berry Springs Goodness

2008-07-27T20:11:00.001+09:30

I also took Mum and Dad to one of my favourite Darwin discoveries- Berri Springs. This place is just beautiful. The water is the perfect temperature for swimming and they pull all the crocodiles out in the dry season so its safe. Very tropical and picturesque.

Adelaide River Queen Crocodile Cruise

2008-07-27T20:06:00.000+09:30

While Mum and Dad were here I finally got to go and do one of the touristy things I have been hanging out to do- a crocodile cruise. It was seriously interesting and good fun. Now you might remember I went on a fishing trip a while back when I first got to Darwin. This isn't the same river, but its connected and well I'm pretty sure the river I was in would have been crocodile infested too.

The boat staff name all the crocs, but being me, I forgot them. However this one was HUGE, something crazy like 4 or 5m long. Missing a leg from a territorial dispute...I am never going to fall into one of these rivers!

A smaller female croc jumping after the pork chops.

Now this was a bit crazy, this crocodile heard the boat coming and powered up the river to get its pork chop.

As a final hurrah on the one hour river cruise they throw scraps of meat out to some passing birds. They seriously came from everywhere. It was great.

Oh, and an interesting crocodile fact for you. Crocodiles only have a stomach about the size of a soccer ball. Contrary to popular belief when they kill something bigger than their stomachs they don't drive it onto banks to rot and eat later. No they drag it onto a river bank, or hook it somewhere in the water to attract more food (foxes, barramundi, etc etc). Clever eh?

NT Barbie

2008-07-01T11:52:00.002+09:30

Before I moved up to Darwin I didn't believe the talk of suburbs. Darwin was Darwin. Oh how I was wrong...

Mattel recently announced the release of limited-edition Barbie Dolls for the Northern Territory market:

"Cullen Bay Barbie"
This princess Barbie is sold only at the the Colonnade (exclusive shopping strip). She comes with an assortment of Kate Spade Handbags, a Lexus SUV, a long-haired foreign dog named Honey and a designer kitchen. Available with or without tummy tuck and face-lift. Workaholic Ken sold only in conjunction with the augmented version.

“Parap Barbie"
The modern day homemaker Barbie is available with Ford Explorer and matching gym outfit. She gets lost easily and has no full-time occupation. Traffic jamming cell phone sold separately.

"Karama Barbie"
This recently paroled Barbie comes with a 9mm handgun, a Ray Lewis knife, a Ford Rodeo with dark tinted windows, and a Meth Lab Kit. This model is only available after dark and must be paid for in cash (preferably small, untraceable bills) ...unless you are a cop, then we don't know what you are talking about.

"Bayview Barbie"
This yuppie Barbie comes with your choice of BMW convertible or Hummer H2. Included are her own cappuccino cup, credit card and country club membership. Also available for this set are Shallow Ken and Private School Skipper. You won't be able to afford any of them.

“Humpty Doo Barbie"
This pale model comes dressed in her own Jeans West jeans two sizes too small, a similar sized t-shirt and tweety bird tattoo on her shoulder. She has a carton of blonde full-strength beer and a Jimmy Barnes CD set, as well as lots of boof boof
music. She can spit over 2½ metres and kick mullet-haired Ken's butt from midland to Boya, when she is drunk. Purchase her pickup truck separately and get a Bad Girl sticker absolutely free.

"Katherine Barbie"
This tobacco-chewing, brassy-haired Barbie has a pair of her own high-heeled sandals with one broken heel from the time she chased beer-gutted Ken out of Barbie's Butler house. Her ensemble includes low-rise acid-washed jeans, fake fingernails, and a see-through halter-top. Also available with a mobile home.

"Ranger Mine Protester Barbie"
This doll is made of actual tofu. She has long straight brown hair, arch-less feet, hairy armpits, no makeup and Birkenstocks with white socks. She prefers that you call her Willow. She does not want or need a Ken doll, but if you purchase two Bacardi Breezers and the optional Subaru wagon, you get a rainbow flag bumper sticker for free.

"Palmerston Barbie"
This Barbie now comes with a stroller and infant doll. Optional accessories include a Medicare Card and Centrelink bus pass. Ex-crim Ken and his 1979 Commodore wagon were available, but are now very difficult to find since the addition of the infant.

"Throb Barbie/Ken"
This versatile doll can be easily converted from Barbie to Ken by simply adding or subtracting the multiple snap-on body parts. (Note: Throb is the local gay bay, infamous for its drag show).

Back on the running track

2008-06-17T12:59:00.002+09:30

My running training kind of fell to the wayside over about the last month...but last night I got back on track. I repeated the first Week 5 run (3 x 5 minute intervals with a 3 minute walking break in between each) and was pleasantly surprised that my fitness had not completely drained away. This morning I managed the second Week 5 run ( 2 x 8 minute intervals with a 5 minute walking break inbetween).....

So now I am back where I was at before my studying 'break'....sometime this week I am going to do the 20 minute run.

After that there are 4 weeks more training until I should be able to run 5kms!

Life back..almost

2008-06-16T12:03:00.002+09:30

Well at 11:25pm CST tonight my final CA assessment (a short answer essay) is due.... and then in six weeks I will find out whether or not I have passed. I am feeling some serious relief coming on! This has swallowed up a pretty major chunck of my life for the last almost two years. What am I going to do with all of this spare time?

So look forward to some more photos of my hopefully more exciting life.

May 2008

2008-05-25T20:53:00.002+09:30

At the moment life seems to be moving along at a sprint....

I spent yesterday at Bass in the Grass, which I remember thinking of as so far away when I moved here. It was awesome, I had a great day. We (Hayley & I) were there from the first band and truly experienced the whole 12 hour music festival that Chief Minister Paul Hendo promised us. The stars of the day were The Audreys, Gyroscope, The Hilltop Hoods, Wolfmother and Powderfinger, but I thought that the four local bands were good fun too.

For those who have listened to my uncertainty and ravings about work, things drastically improved last week. I have my three month probation review on Monday (which will be moved to Tuesday because I am study leave tomorrow) and I think it will be the start of a good period.

Study continues to plague me for a few more weeks... at the moment I am rather stressed about how the bloody hell I am going to get everything done, but as is the way with these things it will get done if it has to get done.

And Darwin continues to get better and better. My major project at the moment is planning a driving trip from Broome to Perth in August...

Quote of the day

2008-05-23T08:45:00.002+09:30

From my Corporate Express flip calendar:

Why is it, that no matter how busy we are, we always find time to worry? - PK Shaw

23.5 today

2008-05-22T11:19:00.002+09:30

My 23rd year is now halfway over... have I achieved some of what I wanted to this year? Are my goals still the same? What do I have to do to be where I want to be by the end of the year?

One thing I definitely know is that my biggest decision of the past six months- moving to Darwin- was a good one!

Facebook

2008-05-22T09:17:00.002+09:30

I still don't get Facebook. Yes I'm on it, and I have friends and applications and I have been guilty of spending an hour on it just going from profile to profile tracking people from highschool, etc etc, but I still don't really get the purpose.

But then today I got to work, and as part of my morning get on the computer regime (boot-up, sign in, check work email, start timesheet, look at to-do list, start gmail, check The Age, check facebook) I opened up facebook, and no...it appears to have been blocked!!

How will I know what people I haven't spoken to in years are doing today? What if someone has written on my wall? Hmm...maybe my work has done me a favour...

Hayley put me onto this list of facebook-isms that have cropped up in the vernacular in reaction to the crazy popularity of the site (now I know she wastes as much time as me on the net at work):

Facebook all-star: Someone who has downloaded every Facebook application, has become 'friends' with everyone on their friends' friends lists, is constantly featured on newsfeeds and can't stop posting items.

Facebook assumption: The practise of making assumptions based on snooping around people's Facebook profiles. For instance, assuming two people are interested in each other because of wall-to-wall Facebook flirting.

Facebook binge: The act of logging on to Facebook "just to check it for a few minutes" and suddenly finding that - three or four hours later - you've wasted your entire afternoon.

Facebook birthday: Celebrating a person's birthday only by leaving a "Happy Birthday" message on Facebook.

Facebook bomber: Some one who sends you tons of invitations each day - to join groups, to download new applications, to tag you in photographs and so on.

Facebook chicken: When two people would like to add each other as friends, but don't want to be the ones who make the friend invitation. They are therefore engaging in a game of 'Facebook chicken,' whereby neither wants to be the first to make a move.

Facebook cleaning: The process of leaving groups that you have been in too long or don't like anymore. This may also refer to deleting 'friends' from your Facebook list.

Facebook diet: Banning yourself from Facebook for a certain amount of time, usually to study for exams or meet a deadline.

Facebook diplomacy: Like real diplomacy, Facebook diplomacy refers to the building and maintaining of relationships. Facebook diplomacy usually consists mostly of exchanging wall posts with other people.

Facebook dump: When someone dumps their significant other by changing their Facebook relationship status instead of actually saying anything.

Facebook effect: The feeling that you've met someone before - but you've only seen their profile picture on Facebook.

Facebook gold: The ultimate Facebook profile picture. This is generally achieved when the profiled person looks amazing and is at a very cool party or doing something very funny.

Facebookable: Content that is considered appropriate enough to be viewed by the entire Facebook community.

Facebookup: The act of hooking up with someone via Facebook. This usually begins with a Facebook message or wall post and ends in the changing of a person's relationship status.

Coffee

2008-05-16T13:53:00.006+09:30

The decline in blog posting in the last few weeks has not been because I am galavanting around having great adventures, but because I am studying as much as possible. The marks for the last round of the subject I am doing just came out, and 97% of people in my organisation (nationally) passed and 89% of people passed in total. You can look at this I think two ways: 1) I should pass because I am not in the bottom 10%, and 2) If I fail I will look stupid. Either situation should be remedied with hard work?

So the most exciting news in my life this week is I have purchased a coffee machine.

Behold the Breville Ikon BES400. My local good guys could have ordered it in for $310 (cash price), but instead I have taken a punt and bought a factory seconds model off Ebay for $189 (including $40 postage).... seven days (the time in which my Ebay vendor has said to not annoy them in) will tell.

To accompany this machine I will also be getting a grinder... apparently this is a far more important piece of machinary than the actual espresso machine. In fact after several hours of research on the internet I came out the otherside confused and wanting to spend several hundred or thousand dollars than I intended to in the first place.

After a reality check in which I realised that a) I was really happy with the coffee I was producing from the second hand machine I had, and b) If I bought a machine of that calibre it would be worth more than all my other worldly possessions combined (excluding my car), and that was stupid.

So these are my two choices of Grinder. One is the Sunbeam EM0450 (top), the other is the EM0480 (bottom). There is (apparently) no real difference, except for the top one being housed in plastic, and the bottom one being housed in steel. I believe that my friends at The Good Guys have the cheaper plastic model on super special at the moment, so I am planning to go down and purchase that.

If I can't make a decent cup of coffee with all this effort, I will be really pissed off, and I am planning for coffee to be a pillar of my study strategy.

On the US Election

2008-05-09T14:51:00.002+09:30

Does anybody understand what the hell is going on with the US election? The only reason I have any sort of clue is thanks to watching a couple of series of The West Wing. But what a mess. I read some interesting analysis in The Melbourne Age today (read here) that says Hillary Clinton cannot win the Democratic party's nomination unless the party changes the rules...which doesn't sound very democratic perhaps?

But really, how can this work for the Democrats? Hillary has been talking down Obama for months and months now, and trying to pretend that she is a working call hero while the Republicans have been presenting a united front for many months. And I assume that eventually either Hillary or Obama is going to lose this contest. How are things going to look then?

On top of that, one of them is going to come out of this nomination contest (likened to a never ending last episode of Survivor) and head straight into the actual election campaign. How are they going to have the energy for that, let alone to lead the country if they actually win the presidency.

Makes you wonder why the US finds democracy such a hard sell...

The final countdown

2008-05-07T15:43:00.002+09:30

Most of you know that for the last 18 months or so I have been going through the torturous process of getting my CA. Well because accountants are cool and creative they have mixed things up- instead of a huge exam to finish of the whole experience there is a 3,500 word essay.

Bah! you say. I can write a 3,500 word essay on a Saturday afternoon. You call that the culmination of a widely respected qualification!!

Well, I will admit, that was what I was thinking, until the requirements were released. It would appear that I am going to have to fit an analysis that should be 10,000 words long into 3,500 words...

But its all okay, only six weeks until its due. I am going on one hell of a bender once this is over!

Stand up and be counted

2008-05-06T08:54:00.002+09:30

"The world's democracies have dragged their feet, but there is still time to thwart Robert Mugabe's despotism."

Morgan Tsvangirai is the leader of Zimbabwe's Movement for Democratic Change [aka Mugabe's opposition]. He wrote this comment exclusively for The Age.

I just read this opinion piece in The Age today and am trying to make sense of how the "free world" could bomb the Middle East in an attempt to instill democracy, but has remained silent and offered little to no assistance to a country in crisis and the people "at the coalface of democracy".

Full piece here.

I don't want to write guidebooks anymore...

2008-05-04T13:44:00.002+09:30

A guide delusion makes it Lonely at the top
...O'Neill [Zora O'Neill, who has written guides for several publishers including Lonely Planet] says that in the nine months until July, she will have earned $US25,000 ($A26,760) for working on four guidebooks for various publishers, half what she once made as a mid-level magazine editor....

...Long-time Lonely Planet author Stan Armington says last year he refused to update a guide to trekking in Nepal because the budget did not cover the cost of walking each of the tracks in the book. He says he was told to update the guide by talking to travellers who had recently been on some of the more obscure tracks — a claim Mr Pickard denies.

"I think they wanted me … to go out wandering around Kathmandu looking for people sitting in bars and ask if they were going to Mount Everest next week so I could pick their brain," Armington says.

"That's not the way to do guidebooks."

Terror trial reality: it's all just for show

2008-05-03T09:03:00.002+09:30

Terror trial reality: it's all just for show Warwick McFadyen
May 3, 2008

In a Washington Post report of the Hamdan [a Guantanamo detainee] case , Davis recounts a conversation he had with Defence Department lawyer William Haynes: "He said, 'We can't have acquittals,' " Davis said under questioning from navy Lieutenant-Commander Brian Mizer, the military counsel who represents Hamdan. "We've been holding these guys for years. How can we explain acquittals? We have to have convictions."

Life may be composed of myriad colours and it may be shades of grey, but if Western society is to stand for anything it is on this black and white issue: justice is blind. It is a defining virtue. In its corruption, foundations crumble.

Sucked in you people "down South"

2008-05-02T09:07:00.001+09:30

Darwin 7 Day Forecast
Friday: Mostly sunny Min: 23°C Max: 33°C UV: Extreme
Saturday: Sunny Min: 23°C Max: 33°C UV: Very High
Sunday: Sunny Min: 23°C Max: 33°C UV: Very High
Monday: Sunny Min: 23°C Max: 33°C UV: Very High
Tuesday: Mostly sunny Min: 23°C Max: 33°C UV: Very High
Wednesday: Mostly sunny Min: 23°C Max: 33°C UV: Very High
Thursday: Cloud increasing Min: 23°C Max: 33°C UV: Very High

Thanks

2008-04-30T18:40:00.000+09:30

I'm going to miss you girls....Thanks so much for coming.

Girls weekend

2008-04-30T18:37:00.000+09:30

My group of best friends are a nomadic bunch, while means that even though we all became close during uni in Adelaide you can't find any of us there now...we had a partial reunion in Darwin the weekend with Cassie (flying from Elliston) and Mel (flying from Melbourne) joining us to see why on earth anyone would move up North. Our weekend consisted of:

Friday 1:30am- Pick Mel and Cassie up from their Red-Eye flights (there are only two types of flight into Darwin: the Red-Eye middle of the night flight, and the super expensive middle of the day Qantas flights)

Friday 5:30am- Wake up and walk the 500m to the war memorial for the Anzac Day dawn service. Followed up by Bacon and Eggs. Cassie, Mel and Renee go in search of coffee and come back an hour later to find Hayley has packed the car, tapping her foot impatient to go.

Friday 10am: Pile into car (quite literally, because as much as I like to think so my Carolla does not have a magical boot Harry Potter style). Drive to Kakadu...Renee drives, others fall asleep. Renee starts falling asleep, so Hayley drives.

Crocodiles everywhere...the map of the park says that you should be careful around areas where this sign is (its everywhere)....it also says that where there is no sign there could still be crocs

Mel and Cass about to launch on their helicopter ride

One of the beautiful shots Cassie got on their ride

So Kakadu is not actually a place, it is a 19,804 square kilometres of national park (one of Australia's four World Heritage listed parks). A lot of the sights are still closed at this time of year due to the wet season flooding, however with a park of such size there was still plenty open to see.

Anyhow, on Friday arvo we checked out one of the Visitor centres, and then Hayley and Cass went on a helicopter flight (I am planning to go at another time when I have more cizash) and we hurried to our chosed campsite to setup camp before sunset.

A few comments about camping: Hayley's new tent was awesome, as was my new Thermarest mat, but the mozzies were worse that I could have imagined. Somehow I managed to not get bitten during the evening when all you could see in the torchlight was thousands of mozzies, but I got bitten so bad the next day when I couldn't see any mozzies that I look like I have the measles today!

Some of the Nourlangie rock paintings

Jabiru's large and cosmopolitan town centre

Saturday we did some bushwalking and checked out one of the rock art sights, and decided against staying another night....

Saturday night we headed out for dinner at Thailicious (yum, but a bit pricey) and then for some drinking at Shennanigans. Very fun night, my first time going out in Darwin, and I enjoyed it more that I did most or all the times (not many) I went out in Melbourne (note to self: 'sampling' other people's drinks still counts as mixing your drinks the next day).

Sunday was relaxing by the pool, being hungover and visiting Rapid Creek and Mindil Beach markets (Mindil deserves a post all of its own).

Great weekend....

Daly River Fishing Challenge

2008-04-30T17:51:00.002+09:30

The weekend before last Hayley and I got up on Saturday at 3:30am and cooked ourselves a hardy breakfast of porridge. Why were we getting up at such a ridiculous hour? We were going fishing.

After a few mishaps (a boat trailer wheel of one of our party went for a ride of its own, seperate to the trailer) and about 250kms we were on the water at about 7am. My preparation, and pretty much my entire fishing experience leading up to the trip was an hour session in the Fishing shop talking to Ronald the master fishing rod salesman, and an hour's fishing off the rocks at Nightcliff. I was on Marni (a colleague from work) and Chris' (Marni's boyfriend) boat, and luckily Chris was patient enough to help me tie on my lure and give me a few tips for casting.

Marni on the boat ramp getting ready to launch

During the entire day on the river only I managed to hook one thing....a little Barra, while we were trolling. We got back to the cabins we were staying at to find that most of our crew had the same luck...although I was VERY disappointed to find that while I had seen NO crocs most of the other boats had seen about ten!

My little barra

Kath with her actual legal size barra

After a BBQ and what would more accurately be defined at a coma than sleeping we had a 6am start of bacon and eggs, and got on the river again. While this was another day of bugger all (read: No) fish, I did see about 5 or 6 little crocs, so that was good enough for me.

While the lack of actually catching fish on our fishing trip was disappointing, the croc sightings, getting to know some of my workmates a bit better, and the beautiful Daly River region made it a good weekend.

BBQ- sitting out in the sun for several hours is hard work!

Croc watch

Marni, Chris and I perfecting our casting methods