Kogarah Street Fair August 29, 2009
Posted by graciek in Going Out, Life in General, Sydney.add a comment
We went to the Kogarah Street Fair today. Unsurprisingly, it’s held in Kogarah 
We didn’t make it down till mid afternoon so unfortunately missed the bed race – they race in teams to push/pull along old hospital beds for charidee. It was bloody boiling today and we were slightly regretting deciding to walk down to Kogarah which is 2 stops on the train line away and takes us about 20 minutes. Ordinarily 20 mins walk isn’t too bad, but when the sun is glaring in your face it’s very hot! There were loads of stalls set up. Mostly food and drink of different types as well as the local banks and businesses. There was also a stage set up in the Plaza and various bands/dance troups performing which was cool. Mocha enjoyed “swooping” about trying to snaffle up morsels of food dropped probably by some wayward toddler. Evie enjoyed playing peekaboo behind her freebie helium balloon. We enjoyed sitting having a lovely coffee in the shade whilst people watching. I love love love Alexander’s in Kogarah. It’s a cafe/restaurant and we’ve been there 3 times and not been disappointed yet. I had an iced coffee and hubby had a freshly squeezed apple and ginger juice. We finished off with a slice of the tallest lemon meringue pie I’ve ever had (seriously it was about 6″ high).
Finally Seeing a Doctor August 28, 2009
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Considering my many ailments, I’ve finally got off my lazy derrierre and booked myself in for a doctor’s appointment. Went to a lovely lady doctor in Ramsgate that my friend recommended. Rang up on Wednesday late afternoon and got an appointment this morning – not bad at all (especially as I’m so used to the UK NHS). The lady doctor was really great and was quite amused when she asked me what medicines I’m currently taking, at which point I then emptied out a whole shopping bag full of my potions onto her desk as well as a stack of dermatologist notes dating back 8 years!! She’s going to refer me to the skin specialist (don’t know why they don’t just say dermatologist) there and take bloods next week (boo I hate being a pin cushion). Unlike the UK you can go to whichever GP you want in Australia so I think we’ll definitely be staying put with this doctor and the inefficient GP in Brighton who made Evie cry can bog off!
Farewell My Twenties – Welcome to the Thirties August 20, 2009
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Gosh – I’m 30 today! Not really sure what happened, one second I was a partying 21 year old and next second I’m a SAHM and 30. Decided I really should do something other than just sit at home alone doing housework on my birthday so went into the City to do something I like. I went to the Art Gallery NSW. I spent the whole afternoon wandering about the many floors and exhibition spaces, wheeling Evie along in her pushchair. Evie was so well behaved and just sat there looking at all the art. She kept pointing and going “what’s that” (well, the noise she makes is more of a quizzical grunt). She has Mummy’s tastes as she enjoyed the abstract colourful ones best. She did also like the ones with naked women (I suspect they reminded her of food – he he).
Hubby came to meet me after work. Now if you’ve been to Sydney you will know that Martin Place station is about 5 mins walk from the Art Gallery. Hubby rang me when he got to the station. 1hr later and I was ringing him asking where he was as the gallery was closing. Turned out he was being particularly male (i.e. he can’t possibly ask for directions) and had walked from Martin Place to Chinatown (SW) then up to the Harbour Bridge (NW), then across to the Opera House (N) and then finally down through the Botanic Gardens and the Domain. What he should have done is turned right out of the station, but unfortunately he turned left. One would have thought that knowing the gallery is only 5 mins away, after walking for 10 mins one would have realised that perhaps one was going in the wrong direction!! Pah -men!
Little Italy, Allawah August 19, 2009
Posted by graciek in Going Out, Life in General.1 comment so far
So it’s the last night of my twenties! Decided to have a quiet dinner with family and chose the local Italian restaurant. It has good reviews on the net and I looooove Italian food. The food was great. Especially the Caesar salad (it had chicken fillets, not just tiny microscopic cubes), a whole bunch of anchovies (hubby’s fav) and the veggies were crisp and fresh. The antipasto plate was good too and Evie enjoyed munching on all the cheese from it. Hubby had a pizza (which was massive and probably would have fed all 4 of us) and I had (surprise, surprise) lasagne (my fav). It’s a bit of a running joke in my family that I am Garfield. It’s my benchmarking stick to try out the lasagne. I quite enjoyed it, but would have preferred it baked and presented in the dish rather than a portion cut from a larger tray. I really like those gnarly bits that get stuck to the edge The pasta sheets were nice and thick and it had bits of bacon in as well as the bolognaise. I would have liked a little more bechamel though as it was just a very thin speckling on top. I’m no expert in Italian food so no idea if this is the authentic style or not – it was very tasty though. Was a bit meated out after all that. I usually hide veggies in the ones I make (it’s the only way to get hubby to eat them). The ambience was absolutely rubbish tonight though – you could hardly hear yourself think due to all the noise. Unfortunately there was a private party upstairs which consisted of about 20 8 years olds screaming and throwing food off the banister and running up and down the stairs. The poor staff had to mop the steps as some kid threw their drink down the steps (no doubt trying to recreate a waterfall). I felt really sorry for the couple who were sitting at the table next to the stairs as they ended up with someone’s used serviette landing plumb into their main course (yucky). It was very busy, but the food did come fairly quickly.
Homemade Beetroot & Olive Chutney August 17, 2009
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Mmm – decided to have a little experiment today. I’ve got most of a tin of beetroot in the fridge and no idea what to make with it (other than stick it on a burger or in salads) so decided to have a look on the net for ideas. The lack of Branston’s Pickle here really made me want to eat pickle (mmm warm chunky pickle with cheese and a big doorstop of crusty bread). So found a few recipes for beetroot chutney and some for branston-style pickle and decided to experiment with what I could find in the pantry. Here’s my recipe (as usual amounts are guestimates)
Ingredients:
Tinned sliced beetroot (prob used about 250g)
2 apples (red ones ‘cos that’s what’s left in the fruit bowl)
1/2 a large onion
1/2 a large carrot
2 cloves of garlic
Small handful of sultanas
Small handful of olives (the green stuffed pimento ones)
1/2 cup of sugar (you don’t need too much as the beetroot and apples are naturally sweet)
5 tbs of malt vinegar
Small knob of butter
1 tsp of salt
2 tsp of ground cloves
2 tsp of chinese five spice (didn’t have all spice, but looks not too dissimilar)
1 tsp of grated ginger
Slosh of lemon juice
Pinch of black pepper
Instructions:
-Finely dice the onions, garlic, apples, carrot, sultanas, olives and beetroot
-Melt the butter and soften the onions and garlic over a medium heat
-Add the apple, carrot, sultanas and olives along with enough water to submerge (basically enough water to cover the contents)
-Turn up the heat
-Add the spices (ground cloves, ginger, five spice, salt n pepper), the vinegar, lemon juice and sugar
-Stir well and add the beetroot
-This is where you need to use some common sense. You need to keep cooking it until everything’s soft and it’s looking sticky, but you don’t want to burn it or caramelise it so you need to submerge it in water now and again if the chunks aren’t soft enough to your liking. I think I ended up cooking (after putting in the beetroot) for about 30 mins, refilling with water every 10.
The end product is yummy. Put into a sealable glass jar and store in fridge.
Flipping Insomnia August 15, 2009
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I think I finally managed to get to sleep around 4am this morning. For some reason I was so tired that I couldn’t sleep. My mind was racing and I just kept tossing and turning. I have no idea why though as I’m (for once in my life) not worried about anything. I guess because I’m not worrying about something my subconscious psyche is telling me that I’ve forgotten to worry about something. Woke up at 8.30am as hubby let the dog out to bark her head off right outside the bedroom window (tsk tsk) and couldn’t get back to sleep after that. Now it’s about 6pm on a Saturday night and I’m almost ready to contemplate going to bed – I know, shameless isn’t it? I can’t believe my Saturday nights are now so dull.
Beachward Bound August 14, 2009
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Now Evie’s up and about more, took her over to see my friend and her kids. She lives really close to a beach so we took the kids out in the pushchairs to go play on the sand. Evie’s last time at the beach was probably in March and she absolutely hated it. Screamed and screamed. Today she loved it. She was playing with the spade and attempting to eat the shells and sand. And digging, plenty of digging with her hands. It was quite funny because she drools so much her chin was wet so when she ate some of the sand it ended up pebbledashing her chin and looked like she had blonde stubble! She enjoyed walking on the sand and even toddled with me to the water’s edge and splashed her hands in the waves. She’s almost like a different baby from 5 months ago. Now can’t wait till we go to the beach more in a couple of months (when it’s not Winter). Feeling a lot happier today, there’s nothing like a warm sunny day and the sea breeze to blast away the blues. Makes you appreciate what you have and thinking about it, yes, I believe that my life is actually great!
The Secret Diary of Gracie K aged 29 51/52 August 13, 2009
Posted by graciek in Life in General, Musings.add a comment
Well it’s my 30th birthday in exactly one week’s time. I’m feeling doubley depressed this year. Firstly I’m having yet another mid-life crisis only exacerbated by hitting the end of my twenties and secondly I’m starting to miss the UK (well, not the country but my friends and family, F&F). Hubby and I reckon that we’ve hit the 3 month blues again. In March we had mega-blues as we’d been in Australia for 3 months and were still in limbo looking for a house. Now it’s been 3 months since we’ve moved into our home and now we’ve just been getting on with life. This year I’m being a real sad sack about celebrating my birthday. Just having a low-key dinner out at a nice restaurant with the family and then been invited to a BBQ at a friend’s house the following weekend. Altogether I’m feeling very pondersome today and as part of this latest mid-life crisis I’m pondering about my identity. I keep thinking that 2 years ago I had the whole world in front of me, I wanted to move to Oz and my job was fantastic and I was good at it. Fast forward I’m now in Oz (and it’s everything I hoped it would be apart from missing my F&F) but I’m now a SAHM and feel a little “underused”, not that being a Mummy is not worthwhile and hard work – I think I just miss using my brain to its full extent and the excitement of making a discovery or solving a difficult problem!
Bah SLC Again? August 11, 2009
Posted by graciek in Life in General, WTF?.add a comment
Further to my excessively long rant about the SLC we got a letter in the post from them this morning (dated 31/07 but arrived today). They’ve now worked out our new repayment amount and we need to make the first installment by 15/08 (yes we need to get it back to the UK in 4 days and have it clear into the account). Also I note how it is an auto-generated letter and that none of the questions we asked have been addressed at all! Rather infuriatingly they do not mention whether the direct debit has been set up (again for the 4th or 5th time now). Interestingly though there is now an option to pay by card online that there wasn’t in previous letters – hallelujah! Thank goodness for that option as it’s getting pretty ridiculous that every time you need to pay something off you have to send them a cheque (not so bad if you’re in the UK, but terrible if you’re overseas).
Choc Chip Oat Cookies August 10, 2009
Posted by graciek in Life in General, Recipes.Tags: choc chip oat cookies
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It’s a bit grey out today so decided to do some baking this afternoon. After eating almost all of hubby’s cookies we bought from Aldi I felt bad so decided to make him some from scratch. Searching on the internet I found some recipes thanks to www.joyofbaking.com.
The original recipe used plain flour with baking soda and salt but we didn’t have much plain flour left, and had 2 bags of self-raising so decided to use that instead. Here’s the recipe I used.
Ingredients:
150g canola spread/margarine
200g caster sugar mixed with a little demerara
1 large egg
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
100g self-raising flour
1/2 teaspoon ground cinnamon
250g oats
Handful of chocolate chips
Instructions:
-Beat the margarine and sugar together
-Add the vanilla essence and egg and mix well
-Add the cinnamon and flour and continue to beat (I used an electric whisk)
-Add the oats and choc chips. Stir with a wooden spoon (I started off with a metal one but it kept getting stuck) it was hard work stirring as it got so thick with the oats it felt like I was making concrete!!
-Line baking trays with greaseproof paper and spoon the mixture on. I used ping pong ball sized amounts per cookie which ended up about 10cm in diameter once cooked. Using back of a tea spoon I flattened and evened out the cookie mixture till it was about 5mm thick. It was quite hard getting them round and I reckon next time I might try just using a rolling pin and cookie cutter.
-Bake for 20 mins at 180C (no fan assist) until the edges have gone brown. I found I had to use a flat knife under each cookie to remove it from the sheet as the middle, underside was a little sticky.
Results in 20 handsized cookies which are crunchy on the outside and slightly chewy in the middle, yet quite light in texture. They look like cookies but taste very much like hobnobs! I still want to conquer the chewy cookie but will leave that for a couple of weeks as we’ll need to get over eating all these ones first
