Since we don’t live by politix alone (I sincerely hope), what did people get up to this weekend? And indeed on New Year’s Eve and since? Join in, share some tales, regulars and lurkers all!
Rollerblader by *phenomenologist on deviantART
To see a larger version of the image – taken a while back – click on it and then click on full view when inside the gallery.
Amy’s Ride, a recreational ride around the Bellarine Peninsula (near Geelong, for all you banana-benders) run by the Amy Gillett Foundation and to promote cycling safety.
Given the theme, I suppose it was inevitable that a cyclist was going to clip my wheel and end up arse over head (him, not me).
No injuries suffered by either party, thankfully!
Carita and I cycled to the Vic Markets to buy some bread and meat and cheese, then on to the Botanic Gardens for a picnic. We’re in a nice shady spot looking at the birds on the lake. Lovely.
My second eldest daughter left for Adelaide this AM after 6 days here. A new grandmother this year, she left all at home and enjoyed some paddock bike riding , mountain and bush walks, farm walks [with the dogs], a couple of dinner parties and NYE at the local. I loved every minute of the time between jobs I could spend with her on her own for a change. A couple of the neighbors managed to get her to do Tarot readings for them and seemed to enjoy.
Still don’t seem to be able to crack it for rain that helps relieve the water shortages in dams and reservoirs in central western Vic and the outlook isn’t very bright for the next few months. However we’re all optimistic about the odds for decent rain as the odds are leaning more heavily in our favor [last rain with run off here was 13years ago].
I mean of course surplus run off.
I’ve been playing with my new eee pc! It’s the excitement!
Photos here:
http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=81147&l=8ad14&id=680773131
I’ve been proving once again that prevarication is the one activity which can never be deferred until later.
Bought a stack of books, incl Krugman’s “Conscience of a liberal” and neil Stephenson’s “Cryptonomicron” and “Snow Crash” as well as a heap of cookbooks.
Went for drive in Adelaide Hills, hit a few ‘antique’ shops in Woodside and bought a nice vase with gumleaves/nuts on it and 3 matchbox cars to add to the ones parading around my bookshelves.
Didn’t take dog–bitch bombed out at Gawler obedience trial (ran past me & away at recall) and also and really just too hot for dog in the car.
After having the granddaughters for a couple of days, I am now back in charge of my computer and DVD player.
A new DVD player, thank you, Kevvie. His plan for economic recovery involved my old player dying right on time for the handout.
Anyone have a list of ingredients for doing stir frys,and Chinese what types of soy rice wine ginger ect thanks
9 John Ryan
use what you got, including imagination
I volunteered for the McGrath Foundation and spend Saturday roaming the SCG selling pink bandanas to raise money. It was an excellent day and the 37,000 fans were very supportive. And I got to meet Glenn during the day.
The best day I’ve had at the cricket even though it wasn’t until the third session that I got to sit down and watch some of the action.
John R
You seem to have the right idea. Thinly sliced ginger, some pounded lemongrass, rice wine, soy sauce, oyster sauce, chopped chilis (Sambal Oelek as a backup) and/or Nuoc Mam fish sauce are all good, but you don’t have to add all of them – just what you happen to have on hand.
Sesame oil’s a lovely thing – don’t use it to cook with, think of it as an extra flavour. Shake a few drops into the canola, peanut or other oil you are using.
As for the oil, it has to be a really good heat at first. I’ve twice seen people opining that you can use olive oil in stir fries. No, no, no and no! It’s a completely different flavour (unless you’re deliberately trying to create a new fusion cuisine, and who am I to discourage creativity) but more importantly it has to be quite a high heat at first, and Olive oil doesn’t get to that heat.
After you have chucked in all the things you are going to stir fry (meat browned separately first, slow cooking vegies next, then quick cooking veg; things like bean shoots only have to be shown the wok very quickly) cook everything on very high heat until it’s beginning to cook, then pour in a cupful or so of water – just approximately – so everything stews for a while longer. A stir fry, you see, is a braise really, not a fry.
Real chinese cooks do everything on Mach 11 and never turn the heat down, but they have all their ingredients ready. I’ve turned my wok down to simmer to chop the last 3 veg and nothing dreadful has come of it.
If you want a cantonese-style sauce, get half a cup of cold water and stir in a heaped teaspoon of cornflower. Dump that in the wok a minute before serving and add more water if the sauce is too thick.
Re. lazy Sunday: Well, not so lazy:
Got out the double Canadian old-fasioned type canoe which Mr Balcony has bought off Ebay. We put it in the water at Essendon Boat club and paddled up to where the river gets much more beautiful, although there are mushrooming McMansions nearby. Saw cormorants, wedgetailed eagles, moorhens, ducks and heard kookaburras. We followed a little creek through thick bamboo for a K or so until we got to a bridge and some rocks and there wasn’t enough depth to continue. Must look up the creek on the Melways to see what it was.
Weeded and mulched the front garden which is all grevilleas, poa grasses tea trees and that kind of stuff. When I’ve got the weeds up and the pine bark mulch down it looks quite naturally beautiful. NEXT: The back yard. (The horror! The horror!)
(Had a much more interesting Saturday: Rosalie Gascoigne and a group of NT indigenous artists at the Ian Potter gallery; Andreas Gursky photographs at the NGV – Wow! Just … wow. Then around the corner to ACCA to see Waterhole. Also wow, and put together in Footscray! Then up to the Curtin rooftop bar for a couple of Little Creatures ales (how did everyone get so young) and then around another corner to the Shanghai Dumpling House for a feeding frenzy.
Needless to say younger kid is staying with friends, hence the adult activity!
…Cornflower! Merde!
I meant cornflour, of course.
As to ingredients, it’s what you fancy – only a few things, like potatoes and English spinach, are not really suitable. Chinese takeaway tends to bulk up with celery but I’m not a fan – cauli and broccoli are better. YMMV. All those lovely green spinach-y things you buy at the Asian grocery are perfect for the green bits.
Saturday – still recovering a little from NYE. Party. But at least my vision has gone back to normal. Dipped into Library of America’s American Revolution throughout the day. Was given a copy of 10 Golden Movie hits as a NYE present. So, having watched the uncut version of Spartacus on Friday, watched the movie version of For Whom the Bell Tolls – Gary Cooper, Ingrid Bergman on Saturday daytime. Have vague recollections of having seen a badly truncated b/w version years and years ago on TV. But this one was magnificent. They rarely make ‘em like that anymore. No “Did the earth move for you, too?” scene though. (It was, I think, the late 1950s.) A friend of mine years oago, of a much older generation reckon Hemingway stuffed up the sex lives of an entire generation. They expected the earth to move for them too, and were bitterly disappointed when it didn’t. Watched The Bill, Sat. night, more reading.
Sunday. Apart from being on teh Internet a bit, (checked out website for Gould’s Bookshop) started seriously taking notes from John Derry’s English Politics and the American Revolution. On phone with comrades discussing organising a Gaza protest in Armidale Mall next Saturday 11 am. (Good news this morning – the Greens are on board as well). Still dipping into documents on American Revolution as well. Sunday night, a bit of a change. Watched SBS instead of ABC. Loved the Spanish historical epic.
This morning early received another batch of books from o/s courtesy of Rudd’s economic stimulus package: The Stamp Act Crisis – Prologue to Revolution: Elizabeth Fenn’s Pox Americana- The Great Smallpox Epic of 1775-1782; and General Sir William Howe’s Orderly Book at Charlestown, Boston and Halifax, June 17, 1775 to May 26, 1776.
I’m getting so many books I can’t keep up with them. Not that I’m complaining.
Gould’s bookshop, hey? Does he have a better organised website than bookshop? Not that I’m complaining about the bookshop, mind… But when I was there a few years ago the staggering towers of books stacked adjacent to shelves were a tad frightening!
Paul, you were watching Capitán Alatriste, based on the books by Pérez Reverte, which I highly recommend. He writes both kinds of historical fiction: swash and buckle.
Nice food advice Helen.
What oil, that is not an artery clogger, do you suggest if olive is inappropiate for asian stir-fry?
Mark,
Its organised through Abe Books. Not too bad, but after trolling through about 900 odd books on the US realised putting in American Revolution didn’t find all the books in that category. But their service in delivering books is excellent.
Liam,
will check out Reverte. Thanks.
Mark,
I did get from Gould’s John Derry’s English Politics and the American Revolution for $10, which I think included postage. The same book from o/s was, I think,quoted at just over $100. Quite a saving.
Yesterdays walk today:
http://www.jovialmonk.com.au/tom/TLP/TLP4.htm
Joe2 – Any bottled vegetable oil except olive, really. Canola or peanut most commonly, and I’ve used grapeseed as well and that was OK.
Tah, Helen.