Tuna Cous Cous Salad July 1, 2009
Posted by graciek in Life in General, Recipes.add a comment
The weather has suddenly turned lovely – really warm and sunny – AND IT’S WINTER here!! So after being uninspired for lunch and needing to go food shopping this afternoon I foraged about in the cupboard and this is one of my favourite meals (that I’d forgotten about). My tuna cous cous salad – in fact I used to have it or something similar everyday for lunch when I was at work. This recipe makes enough for one hungry mummy!!
1/2 tin of tuna
2 leaves of iceburg lettuce (nice and crunchy)
1 medium tomato
3 tablespoons of dried cous cous
3 small chunks of feta (approx. 1cm3 for each chunk)
1 piece of sundried tomato
1 tsp of mayo
1 tsp of french dressing (could just use some olive oil with a bit of lemon juice also)
Sprinkling of dried/fried onions/shallots
First I boil the kettle and pour out the cous cous into the bowl I’m eating from (less washing up) and I pour the hot water onto the cous cous until it is covered with water (I usually fill up to about 5mm above the level of cous cous, but convention says to use equal volumes of cous cous and water). I put a plate ontop of the bowl (and then use the plate to cut the veggies on – again can’t be arsed to wash up more than I need). I chop up the tomato into small chunks and shred the lettuce. After that the cous cous is usually done so I remove the plate and throw 1/2 the tin of tuna in (strain the liquid out of the tin first though) and I cmash up the feta into it too. I like to put in a tiny amount of sundried tomato which I decimate into tiny pieces. Put the mayo and dressing in and mix the lot. Finally I put the fresh tomato and the shredded lettuce into the bowl and give it a good stir. I finish it off with a sprinkling of fried onions (there’s something very nice about the fried onion – feta combination). That’s it folks – so simple and you can make it within the same time it takes to make a cuppa tea.
What Gracie Did Next? June 27, 2009
Posted by graciek in Life in General, Music.add a comment
I’m seriously thinking about changing tack in my career and becoming a private music teacher (probably just piano, but perhaps violin later). I haven’t really got any qualifications other than having done Grade 8 myself and keeping up with playing piano at church and small concerts in the past (and orchestras even further in the past). So I thought I would have a good look on the ‘net to see whether there are any certificates I can do. In order to become a private music teacher one does not actually need to have any qualifications (wow who would have thought). Looking at various Uni websites in Sydney there are some postgrad courses that can be done however they all assume that the teacher is already in practice and has at least 5 students. So it’s a bit chicken and egg here. I guess I will just have to bite bullet and start teaching! I think I need to wait until Evie is independent enough to play by herself during lessons.
Looking at the Music Teacher’s Association NSW I have found a music shop in Hurstville called Music on the Move that has teaching materials. I wondered up Forest Road and found the shop at the far end of town. It’s a great little shop. It’s a bit old school with racks and racks and shelves of books as well as instruments on display. The shop keeper was a cool dude and he showed me where the books I would want are and also he was very knowledgable about music teaching and other services in the area. Bonus – Evie managed to score a free maracca too. It was a tiny little plastic one – she loved it she was rattling all the way round Westfield and on the way home like a demented little rattlesnake!! So “Music on the Move” has a big thumbs up from me – good customer service, good range, friendly and knowledgable.
Soniq QPi600B DVD Player June 23, 2009
Posted by graciek in Computing, Life in General, Television.Tags: soniq QPi600b
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So, our 11 month old has shown us her supreme technology skills by knackering up our old Wharfdale DVD player (it was brought over from the UK and had a DVD recorder and freeview integrated – but neither were useful in Oz anyway). She’s obviously seen those testing machines at Ikea and decided to repetitively test the drawer open/close mechanism. So hubby popped to JB Hifi in search of something fairly el cheapo off-the-shelf with the best specs he could find 
We ended up with the Soniq QPI600B DVD player at just a smidge over $80. It has HDMI and also a nifty iPod dock that pops out at the front (hmm not sure this is a good feature or not with the “DVD Destructo” around). Annoyingly the DVD was locked to region 4 – rubbish if all your DVDs are UK region 2!! Hubby couldn’t find a hack online for unlocking it and was going to take it back to the shop. I however said let’s just try a few off the internet, and yay, one of them worked. So if you’ve bought one that needs to be unlocked here’s the instructions:
Switch on the unit
Open tray
Press 5168
Change the region code to “Test 0″
Exit
Hubby is delighted as now he can watch his Sharpe DVD marathon!!
Bye Bye Rellies June 22, 2009
Posted by graciek in Family, Life in General.add a comment
We’ve had rellies staying with us for the last month now. Four of them so our house has been really cosy (6 adults, 1 baby and 1 dog). Dropped them off at the airport this morning. So sad. We’ve got used to them being here and when we got home the house seemed so big and empty. Evie was fine – happy to just play with her toys, but poor Mocha was, at best, depressed! Poor Mocha wouldn’t leave her beanbag and kept running to the door of the bedroom Uncle Nigel stayed in. He took her for walkies everyday and played with her so poor Mocha was quite distraught when she found he wasn’t here anymore. Rather than sit there feeling sorry for myself I got straight to work with the cleaning. Yucky – lots of hoovering and degreasing of the kitchen required. Evie’s little friend Verity came over in the afternoon to play and I gave my friend Flora her first piano lesson. Lots to keep me on my toes.
So… thanks for coming to visit us rellies! We had a wonderful month and you’re welcome to come again to Chez K!! We’ve now got a nice long 2-3 month break with no visitors and then the onslaught comes – ha ha. We have visitors from 6th Sept all the way to 2010 (with the exception of about 6 days in October) and then my parents here from Feb-Apr 2010. It’s going to be a busy year.
Afternoon Tea @ QVB June 19, 2009
Posted by graciek in Family, Life in General, Sydney.Tags: Afternoon Tea, QVB
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Our rellies have been staying with us on hols for almost a month now. As a thankyou treat they took Evie and me up to the City for a treat. We booked ourselves into Afternoon Tea at the QVB (Queen Victoria Building). It was really lovely up there on the 3rd floor. Surprisingly it was a very serene atmosphere, considering all the hustle and bustle and noise downstairs it was silent, peaceful oasis in the tea rooms. It also felt very peaceful and unrushed – the kind of place you spend an hour or so sipping on your tea. I picked the traditional afternoon tea (choice of teas + 3 tier selection of sandwiches/cakes/scones). My rellies had the sparkling choice which inc a glass of sparkling Aussie wine too. The rellies enjoyed it, but were a little disappointed with the scones – I don’t think they’ve heard of clotted cream here and also they only had raspberry, not the traditional strawberry jam. I picked the Black Lavender tea which was divine. It was a nice light tea (as hubby would put it I only like to dunk my normal tea bag 2x in my hot water) and it had a mild lavender hint and the camomile was relaxing. They refill your plates with sandwiches (but not the pastries or scones). Evie was very well behaved and scoffed loads (inc 1/2 a rather large scone and 2 sandwiches amongst all the tidbits of pastries). It was $32 for my tea which is expensive, but it’s High Tea in an opulent setting and more about the experience than value.
Housewarming! June 13, 2009
Posted by graciek in Life in General, Parties.add a comment
We had our housewarming party today. Our house is officially warm (good thing too as it’s been a bit cold lately)!!! Got up at 9am and started the mammoth task of cooking! Here’s the menu:
- Siew Yuk (Aunty Jo’s speciality)
- Steamed Dim Sum/Yum Cha (Siu Mai)
- Garlic Bread
- Garlic Creamy Mushrooms (cooked on teh BBQ)
- Chicken Satay Indonesian style
- Potato Salad
- Mixed Green Salad
- Sausage Rolls
- Beef Rendang
- Homemade Beefburgers (with sundried tomato and gooey cheese middle)
- Sausages
On top of that various guests brought desserts. We ended up with 4 cakes and two puddings as well!
We were a bit worried about not having many friends yet in OZ as we only moved out to Sydney <6 months ago but we managed to get a respectable 25 guests at the party. It's strange that we used to have mega houseparties in Loughborough with about 20 people and our house would be so full people would be sat (or passed out) on the stairs. With 25 it was busy but there were enough seats/sofas/chairs for everyone to sit somewhere without developing a thoroughfare bottleneck.
To everyone that came – thanks for coming. We had a grand time and our house is now officially warmed up!
Ouch, Done My Back In!! June 9, 2009
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Ouch ouch ouch ouch ouch. I’ve seriously done my back in! I thought it would be clever if I tried out the Oxybleaching of the floor tile grout (which is icky and black in some places in the kitchen). To avoid putting my hands in the solution already put on bits of the floor I had to adopt a sort of spiderman pose, balancing on my fingertips at full reach. Scrubbing the floor with a toothbrush from a $2 shop!! My back felt sore afterwards and hubby decided to “help” me by massaging the knot out. Sadly it did the opposite, I actually felt the knot push under the edge of my shoulder blade. So painful – it felt like a really bad stitch and I couldn’t breathe in, cough or sneeze too deeply without being in agony. Slowly throughout the day it got tighter and tighter until my left shoulder was really high. Had a bath which relaxed it a bit and then put one of those hot packs behind it. Thankfully that eased the stress on it but it still hurts lots when I need to sneeze (not good when I seem to be coming down with a cold and need to sneeze).
Happy Birthday Queenie ;) June 8, 2009
Posted by graciek in Australia, Life in General.add a comment
Today, in Australia, we get a Bank Holiday because it’s the Queen’s birthday. It’s so funny that we spend almost 3 decades of our lives in the UK and never once celebrated Her Maj’s birthday, yet we move 1/2 way across the world and we get a day off to celebrate it.
It was lovely having hubby home for the long weekend and the weather was glorious. It was 21 degC today, sunny and bright. We went to the park with my friend Flora and kids and they had a whale of a time on the playground (so did some of the big kids who are in their 60s too – namely Great Uncle Nigel)!! Mocha loved coming out for a little walkies trip too. Later we stopped off on the way home for lunch at Kogarah. The only place we could find open was Alexander’s, an Italian style cafe. The food was really lovely, I would say that was the best pizza I’ve had since I’ve been in Oz. Thin and crispy, yet fluffy under the topping and the topping most of the way to the edge too – just as I like it.
Star Trek @ IMAX June 6, 2009
Posted by graciek in Going Out, Life in General, Sydney, Television.Tags: IMAX, star trek
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Went to Sydney IMAX to watch the new Star Trek. It was bloody fantastic. Later doing our sums and conversions we worked out we were watching on a screen 120ft wide or ~1200 inch telly!! At first it was a bit strange as I found myself actually having to move my head around to see what was going on. Some of the space scenes where you marvel at the magnitude of the vista were spectacular. Being at the IMAX meant we also got very HD close ups and in particular we noticed Chris Pine/Kirk was a bit stubbly and spotty on his neck ha ha!! I’m no Trekkie but I have watched a few of them and did enjoy this latest one (I have vivid memories or should be nightmares of watching Wrath of Khan when I was about 10 and being scared to put my cycle helmet on). It was fun playing guess the crew member when they appeared on screen and comparing them to my memories of the earlier incarnations in real time (or later incarnations in Star Trek history). The new style transporting was kinda cool too – reminded me another show where they had nanobots repairing something (can’t remember what that show was). It cost $20 to watch it at the IMAX (with a Sydney Guide 20% voucher) and $16 at our local normal cinema. It was def worth the extra 4 bucks to see it in larger scale.
A Good Stuffing!!! June 5, 2009
Posted by graciek in Going Out, Life in General.add a comment
We went out to Bankstown RSL tonight for the buffet at the Star Restaurant. I’ve never seen so much food. I felt physically sick after scoffing so much. I had 2 plates of mains and 2 plates of dessert. Even Evie managed a whole plate of mains and a few lumps of dessert – not bad for a 10 month old. The food was quite nice. Lashing of MSG all over the place though I suspect as we were so thirsty with all the flavouring. The Roast pork was yummy and the Tasmanian salmon. Evie really enjoyed demolishing 3 of the little chocolate meringue biscuit things. I think it cost $18 per head which is pretty good considering that at most restaurants you’d pay that just for the mains.
[Note to self: Next time we plan to go there I mustn't eat for the 2 days preceding!!]
