anyresemblance

Lentil, gorgonzola and roasted tomato salad

This is a long day with the first call at 6am and the last will be at 12.30am to be followed by another 7am.  I think there is a nap in my future.  Plus a session with Jillian.

I ate my toast at my desk and by11 was starving.  I had some puy lentils I had cooked on Saturday which I ate on the weekend with grilled salmon, and spinach wilted through the lentils.  The weather has been so bizarre that no tomato is yet ripe in the garden so for lunch I took a hint from here and drained and roasted tinned tomatoes.  Who knew tinned tomatoes could taste so good?  I tipped on top of the tinned tomatoes and topped with some little bits of gorgonzola.  I realised after I had bastardised this recipe from Ottolenghi but it was pretty damn fine

No shame

Inspired by Becky I am shredding.  In the spirit of full disclosure I bought the dvd 18 months ago and took it with me to the UK when I went to see my dad only to discover he did not have a multi-region dvd.  I took it home again and never got it out of its box until 5 days ago when I realised I probably needed to add something in to my regime that forced me to use my abdominal muscles.  Crikey, I thought my 5km shuffle was getting me somewhere but Jillian forced me to use muscles that had been woefully neglected for some months.  But I am all about time saving and loved that I can do it in 20 minutes.  I started off with two cans of chickpeas in lieu of hand weights but actually invested in some proper ones yesterday as well as the cheapest yoga mat money can buy.  This economy was somewhat undercut by the fact that I have to pay $160 to get an etching re-glazed after it fell to the floor somewhere around round 2 cardio.  I think it was the jumping jacks that forced the not very well secured picture hook to give way.  Meh, at least I am now getting it reglazed in perspex which I am assured is better for paper works.  I am, of course, only at level 1 and have barely modified my diet of cake and vanilla vodka martinis but at least my abdominal muscles are faintly aware.  I kind of like her bossy tone and her constant reminders that she knows I want to give up but she won't let me.  I have never seen any of the Biggest Loser shows so I have no idea if she is complete monster but whatever she is doing on that dvd works for me.

My daughter was in Sydney seeing Kanye at the Big Day Out and sending me photos on her phone of her very close to the front position. When I told her I was shredding she got suspicious "where are you doing it?"  "in the front room with the air con on" "please tell me you close the blinds so no-one walking up the street can see you?"  No shame.  I am still capable of embarassing my children even when they are 300km away.

 

Shy

If you ask me to get up on a stage or in a meeting in front of a bunch of people I do not know and declaim at length on a subject on which I have tenuous knowledge but appear well-informed, thoughtful, reassuring or motivating then I am your girl.  Ask me to talk to strangers at a party and I am crippled with shyness.

Yesterday I forced myself out of my isolation and went to a party at the house of someone I have known via the internet for a few years and have met in person a few times.  She was hosting a sichuanese hot pot party, she works for a foundation I admire and I wanted to see her vegetable garden and her chickens.  I spent all Saturday in a agony of what to take (fresh oyster mushrooms) and if there would be anyone who would talk to me.  As it turned out I knew 4 or 5 people who were there so was able to navigate some agreeable talk and talk to two people I had never met before.    The vegetable garden was impressive and was fenced off with a gate constructed of an old screen door which had me thinking about how to fence off part of my garden to keep chickens and puppy at a distance from each other.  This social effort was exhausting enough to have me home by 8.30 and in my pyjamas by 9 but at least I made myself interact with people other than those I have known in excess of a decade.

Thursday was Australia Day and was an agreeable day of doing not much including a rare bit of napping on the sofa as I was feeling a bit bleuh.   I took the day off on Friday too so this has turned into a longish weekend (I suspect the last bit of peace and quiet before the work week rockets off).  I roasted belly of pork on Friday night and it was mighty delicious in the way pig and fat and unctuous potatoes should be.   I took the youngest driving a bit and we only shouted at each other twice so I think that was ok.  I did some decluttering.  I gave away a desk on freecyle and was glad to have the mistake removed from my house.  I swapped the drawers around between two chest of drawers that we bought eons ago in Hong Kong so I now have the version with the drawers that move easily.  The cannibalised version is in the garage awaiting pick up from a friend.  I put the first coat of paint on the bookcase in readiness for moving it back into the house and getting rid of the piles of books which are starting to totter on the floor. 

The girls both have one week of holiday left before school and college start.  The youngest has left the stupid crowd control girls school and is spending the last two years of school at the local further education college where she will get to mix with boys, wear her own clothes and hopefully spend less time hanging out in the carpark than her sister did.  It is within walking distance so she will also be getting a modicum of exercise in by walking to and from school.  This week will doubtless be full of expensive trips to Officeworks for exactly the right set of stationery to start a new school year.  The older one decided to get an ipad instead of a new laptop and is getting to grips with note taking on its tininess but I am confident will require matching pens and notebooks just the same.

 

 

 

Our boy

Puppy love

 

Lend a hand

I finished The Killing and am now looking forward to Season 2. 

I am addicted to Tunein Radio and can now listen to the BBC on the ipad in my kitchen preparing dinner.  I feel like I have gone back 20 years.  Sorry, ABC, I may like your cricket commentary but you can not compete with Womens Hour  (Jenni Murray, how I have missed you).

My other revelation is skinny velvet space saver hangers.  I had them in the kids rooms but was ho-hum about them but then bought a box of 50 at Costco and rehung my dresses on them.  I suddenly had 30% more space so I went and bought another 50 and rehung everything except for one very heavy coat which remains on a wooden hanger.   They created so much space that I was able to also hang knitwear thus clearing some shelves for more of the ironed sheets that watching Danish television series has generated. 

I bought what purported to be clotted cream on Saturday.  It was a lie though if it had been described as a good double cream I would not have been disappointed.  I made scones to eat it with and though they were fine they were not as good as the yummy ones I ate at the Langham Hotel scented orange peel and a few tiny choc chips.  I made some cheese ones too but did not like the addition of cornmeal from the recipe from this establishment.  I made cheese scones to get my Housekeeping badge hwhen I was in the Brownies.  I had to serve them on a tray to the assessor and tripped on her carpet and they slid off the plate.  She gave me the badge anyway since I did such a good job of sweeping up the crumbs.  Triumph through adversity and all that. 

I also cleaned out the cupboard under the sink.  Urgh.  And upon discovering two spray cans of oven cleaner decided the clean the oven and pull out the microwave and clean behind that.  

As you were.

 

Number one

Summer has decided to come back from a few days so my decision to install ceiling fans in the children's bedrooms no longer seems a folly.  Despite having no tomatoes ripe, and not even many green ones, I am harvesting a large handful of raspberries daily.  I won't be making jam from my crop but they are delicious nightly treat with a dollop of creme fraiche.

I am sad to report that despite regular running my waistline is expanding.  This is very annoying and means I will have to stop eating dollops of lime curd on my toast (surely the tartness should mean it has zero calories?) and extend my exercise routine.

Work is coming together this week meaning my grasp on what needs to be done this year has increased.  I spoke to old boss this morning in his shiny new job in Manhatten.  He gave me a very good vote of confidence and preparation for talking to uber boss on Friday.  Wish me luck.

I am still watching The Killing Season 1.  It is very hard to multi-task and read subtitles.  The only task that works for me is ironing but I have ironed every sheet in the house so I think I will need to pull some knitting out.  I am loving The Killing but restricting myself to two episodes a night after a massive binge on the weekend.  I also love the chandelier in the kitchen in the Larsen's flat.  I am now lusting after chandeliers.  I think one would look nice in my bedroom as I have no central light there at the moment.

Hose woes

You'd think after all these years living in this country I'd understand that not enough rain falls from the sky to keep my garden alive.  It kills me to turn the hose on particularly when it has not been very hot but the wilting leaves of my fig tree (most resilient of trees) convinced me that despite about two feet of mulch on the garden I would have to get the sprinkler out.  The sprinkler is pathetic and shoots two small sprays of water a distance less than a metre so I see another trip to Bunnings in my future.

Also, my garage feng shui is not improved by the presence of an old desk, a bookcase I am in the process of painting, a chest of drawers and a dressing table I am attempting to strip the top off.  All evidence of clutter (the work of the devil) and unfinished business.  The desk represents a poor buying decision so I would like it gone as soon as possible.

Last week I drove to Sydney to collect the youngest from the airport.  Since she was arriving early on Sunday morning, I went up on Saturday afternoon and made a side trip to the new Ikea at Tempe.  Tempe: it was a temple of an Ikea.  Large store with giant car park at the front, 6pm on a Saturday when it was closing in an hour.  Everything in stock (not that I bought anything).  It was one of those platonic ideals of an Ikea experience where you float through seeing many useful things but not feeling obliged to buy and leave with heaps of good ideas.  I note it is only till 9pm on weeknights making it perfectly feasible to take an early mark, drive to Sydney, shop at around 7pm, go to dinner and come home.  Possibly better with company but not requiring the whole of one's Saturday to accomplish with the other hoards.  I almost like it better than the idea of Ikea in my own town where then every visit to someone's house would have one saying "oh, I've got that trolley/chair/lightshade".  Also, I got the new catalogue which is nice for reading in bed.

Work is busy and a bit chaotic.  We are in that bit of the beginning of the year with lots of people in new jobs where no-one is quite sure what they are doing.  Plus lots of big country holidays to juggle work deadlines around - Australia Day (which is not so much a giant holiday as a last gasp attempt for people to take holidays at the beach), Chinese New Year, Carnival.  My calls are full of "we can't do that week as it is CNY but then Brazil has Carnival" blah, blah.  It will be Easter before we know it.

I am teaching the other kid to drive.  She is a bit shouty but I was only shouty once when we reached the junction where her sister had a prang.  I have noted that she, like her sister, approaches all junctions in the hope that nothing will be coming and she can sail through without changing down the gears.  I get that driving an automatic is much easier in these situations but I am resolute that my children need to be able to change gear, parallel park and reverse into a parking space.  

We are getting a brown and white border collie puppy.  Ours is the one with the spots (techinically he is a brown merle).  He arrives in about 3 weeks and we are beyond excited.  I was filling up at the petrol station yesterday and there were a young couple in the car next to me with a border collie puppy.  We struck up a conversation (well, really I gushed over the friendly ball of fluff) and the puppy came and played with me.    Please expect lots of puppy nonsense upcoming.

 

The boss of me

I went back to work this week which for me meant that I put on something other than scruffy shorts and a t-shirt and turned my work computer on.  And read many emails.   My boss has got a shiny new job in New York.  I don't know if there will be a new boss or a bit of a reorganisation.  It's ok, things change but I would kind of like to be the boss of me for a change.  I'm moving slowly though and had to write a long list today of all the things I need to get moving.  

Other things which have happened.  I bought 4 Rob Ryan plates on sale, one for each season and then broke one on the way home.  There will never be summer.  And speaking of which, it is cold.* Apparently volcanic eruptions can result in cooler summers for a year or two after so the Chilean volcano is making me wear cardigans in January at what should be a baking, hot time of year.

I went to see The Iron Lady.  I dunno, as a movie about ageing, and in some way about family relationships it was all well and good.  But a) for all those raving about Meryl Streep's impersonation, I found her Streep-like mannerisms irritating beyond belief** b) I liked the bits about her grocery upbringing and her marriage to the young Dennis much more interesting than c) Jim Broadbent as her older husband seemed to bear no resemblance to the sprightly chap.  But mostly, I found the documentary pieces inserted of the miners' strike, the politicisation of the police, the IRA hunger strikes and the poll tax riots way more distressing than I thought I would.  It was too hard to separate the fiction from the memory of what happened in those years - the centralisation of everything into London banking is only one of those as a "gift" that keeps on giving.  I saw the beginning of an interview on the tv last night but at the bit where Streep said "Thatcher was a feminist" I had to turn off. 

*see all that tomato foliage and precious little fruit

**that sideways glance that she does to signal flustered confusion, urgh, she does it in Mama Mia and in It's Complicated, drives me mad

 

 

 

 

 

Dream good

You know that thought about returning to work early? Scrap that.  I thought this morning, why am I itching to get back in the game?  I remembered a truly horrendous time in my work life when I had small children, was working on a project with a nasty client and would cry in my car on the way home and used to work every Sunday evening so Monday was not so overwhelmed with work.  I am never going back to that.  My current role bears no resemblance to that unhappy time but much as I love my job, I value my time to myself as well so no need to wish it away.  And frankly, if I didn't own a blackberry, I would have no idea that all these questions are piling up.  Well, they're getting the out of office and learning that they will have to seek an alternative oracle or wait for my return.

Instead I am embracing my 2012 goal which is to be happy.  And today, being happy involved going for a run, eating porridge for breakfast while reading my book and catching up with an old friend to see the amazing an exhibition of Renaissance paintings.  Wow, the stuff Botticelli painted at 20.  Take that Tracy Emin.  I wish I'd bought the catalogue but it was pretty crowded so I think I will go back in a month.  I did see someone taking a flash photo and glared at them with disapproval but sadly it was not Stanley Tucci.

On the being happy theme, I found this list of Woody Guthrie's 1942 resolution list in the comments of someone else's blog.  There's not much on that list that I could not adopt for my own purposes.

It is not quite so stinking hot today but I did go and buy two more ceiling fans for bedrooms.  Alas, all the electricians are on the summer hols (but I am not begrudging them that) so will have to survive a week or two more of heat.  There were lots of delicious storm clouds but they seem to have dissipated.  I spent the afternoon running errands and listening to the cricket on the radio.  It only works as a backdrop to other tasks but what a peaceful accompaniment it is. 

My youngest keeps telling me about stuff she has bought in the land of my birth.  I went on line and bought her 5kg more of baggage allowance and urged her to weigh her suitcase before turning up at the airport.  At $50 a kilo at the airport those shoes she bought better be worth it.

 

Hi vis

Oh man, did I complain that summer had not arrived and there was so much rain and blah, blah, blah? If 3 days in the hot, hot, hot 45C+ temperatures of the Pilbara were not enough, we now have mid 30s heat here in the nation's capital.  Today, the older daughter and I went to buy a ceiling fan but the shop were closed for summer holidays as is half the town.   Since we were half way there we continued to Costco and escaped having spent less than a hundred dollars including shampoo and conditioner and disposable razors.

We went to Tom Price to spend Christmas with the best of all possible families.  I was the youngest of my siblings and just 15 when she was born.  I did not necessarily behave well since I refused to go and visit her as a tiny baby but in my minimal defence I was suddenly confronted with no longer being the baby of the family.  Good thing I got over it since she is now my dearest and closest as well as having impossibly smart, funny and amusing kids and a charming husband who mixes killer cocktails.  In my recent travails she did something which made my heart flip over with her generousity of spirit.

Anyway, TP is hot.  We spent most time under cover though I did one run at 6am on Boxing Day to try and counter all the food and cocktails.  Across the gorge, we saw aboriginal rock paintings.  Right there in front of us.  I know, not easy to see in this pic, but look closer and see those figures in white.

So Tom Price is man's world, with washing lines full of hi vis clothing, lots of trucks with flags so you can see them on the mine site and the source of much iron ore being dug out of the ground and sent to China and keeping our economy afloat. 

The daughter was unconvinced that her love of driving  could be fulfilled in driving eighteen wheelers on a mine site for a 6 figure salary. 

On Christmas Eve, we discovered we had no potatoes.  Daughter and I hurled down to the local (ie, only grocery shop in town) Coles to discover it had closed.  The only shop open was the convenience store which was, frankly, scary.  We did find two tins of potatoes and let me tell you, tinned potatoes roasted in duck fat are pretty fantastic.