Monday, January 26, 2015

Happy Australia Day



My grandma used to make my lunches when I was at primary school: soy braised chicken with rice. All the other kids wanted to have what I was eating. But I craved meat pies.

Lunch orders were a rare treat and involved writing your order on a brown paper bag and putting the money inside the bag and dropping it off at the tuckshop at recess. The order would then be delivered to the classroom just before lunch....a meat pie (or was it two?...I was a fat kid) with the sauce squirted inside, and a chocolate milk. Simple pleasures.

Being able to devour the pie without getting the hot filling and sauce all over your hands is a good test of what it means to be Australian.

Happy Australia Day!

Sunday, January 18, 2015

the case of the exploding pork

I just had a roast pork disaster. The pyrex roasting tray managed to explode after I took it out of the oven. Bits of pyrex and pork dripping went flying everywhere. And the biggest disaster of all? I burnt most of the crackling!

Sunday flowers


I am rather proud of my latest floral arrangement for the dining table (smoke bush, blackberries and some sort of Proteacea). I was going for a contemporary, asymmetrical look. The berries were from Nathan's dad's home.

Saturday in the country

We went to Gippsland yesterday to attend a birthday party. One of Nathan's nieces turned 18.

We stopped in at Yarragon first for lunch and to visit Nathan's dad (but it turned out that dad had already gone to Nathan's sister's place). After lunch, we too made our way to the sister's home in Trafalgar where the party was being held.

We were unfashionably early. Five hours early to be exact. As a result, we had to sit through some rather arduous conversations with one of Nathan's brothers, who was already a little drunk.  I think he was telling us funny stories...so I laughed along.

Birthday niece –the far more sensible one of Nathan's two nieces– was not amused that her older cousin had also arrived drunk. Drunk niece was a child when she had children of her own.  Now 21, she brought her two young kids along. Not sure what the future has in store for them but, in the meantime at least, they seem well cared for and are very cute.

After sitting around for about two hours, we decided to use Nathan's dad as an excuse to leave so we offered to take him home back to Yarragon. Fortunately, he accepted.

After dropping dad off home, Nathan and I went to Warragul to visit his mum and younger brother. Mum was asleep (she works as a nurse and had an evening shift) so we had dinner with the younger brother in the living room (he had already gone to a family birthday dinner the night before for the niece so didn't feel like coming to the party).

At some point, we decided we should head back to the party in Trafalgar. Well, actually, Nathan wasn't too keen but I insisted – for sensible niece's sake. So..we made our way back to his sister's place and stayed for another hour. We were back in Melbourne by 10pm.

The party was suppose to be a dress up. Nathan bought along some props but we left them in the car. We took a photo of ourselves when we got back home and sent them to sensible niece afterwards. I quite like my oversized glasses.

Wednesday, January 7, 2015

the late Christmas card

I received a card from the US yesterday. It was from my friend's wife. Sadly, she shared the news that she and my friend have filed for divorce. They had been living at opposite ends of the country (my friend in California and she in Massachusetts). She couldn't do the long distance thing anymore, gave him plenty of opportunity to do something about it – and he didn't. She is wonderful. He is too passive. It's my friend's loss really. I seems weird to say but even though I feel sad and sorry for him, I am happy for her.

Monday, January 5, 2015

new year, new role

It will be my first day back at work for the new year and I have butterflies in my stomach. I will be starting my Deputy Head role and my first task will be to fill in for the Head for the month of January while he is on leave. I guess that makes me the boss. Talk about jumping in at the deep end. Already, towards the end of last year, I've had to make some unpopular decisions and tell some colleagues that their teaching will be increasing this year. Hmmm...I hope I don't regret taking this job.

Sunday, January 4, 2015

eyes on the news

I spend a lot of time during the break reading and watching the news. On New Years Eve, I had the TV on ABC News 24, and noticed the very handsome reporter covering news about the gathering crowds around Sydney for the fireworks. A quick google search reveals lots of images of the photogenic, sartorially savvy journalist (who is also very active on social media). Here, he is talking about the Sea Shepherd. Well done ABC.