New year, new......

....Ok, I haven't figured that part out yet.  I turned 28 yesterday, officially the "late 20's", and ten years after I graduated from high school.  Like, really?!  How did ten years escape so damn fast?  And I'm married and live with a boy?!

And I live in New Zealand?!  I've just realized - my kitties are Kiwi!  If kitties had passports, then 3 out of our little family of 4 would have New Zealand passports.  I always thought I would grow up to have little American kitties, fat and happy, but no, Spice and Lucy are "kiwi as, bro".  Maybe that's why they seem to like Jonno better than me.

the missing SpiceGirl - Emo Spice

This is Spice, and she loves Jonno's lap.  As soon as we get home, she trots right up to him and starts her little "Hurry up and sit down on that couch so I can has a nap on your lap" routine - chirping and circling him like a shark until he finally plops down, and she promptly leaps gracefully onto his lap, does one wee doggy circle and settles exactly like this.  And then gives me this Look, lofty and scathing at the same time, firmly reminding me that she is Top Kitteh in our house. 

All the Kiwis in my house are banding together, grrr.  Well, I'll be a Kiwi too...in a few years!  If Immigration get off their bums and finally process my Residency application...  Maybe if I send them some of my baking it will speed up the process?  A little sugar could go a long way!  Here's what I made this past weekend for my birthday:

Oreo-stuffed Chocolate Chip Cookies

Or I should say, Jonno made the Peanutbutter Chocolate Chippies (From Bakerella, although I can't find the recipe on her site, so I'll attach it here) and I made the Oreo-stuffed Chockies (from Amanda @ Amandeleine).  And MMMMMMMM they were damn good.  We had a smorgasbord of sugar set out on our coffee table - cookies, lollies, cocktails, and sugary sappy girlie movies! 

There was even more baking that occurred, but I will share that later because it deserves its own post.  Full disclosure: both recipes were blatantly used straight from their sources, as I have not yet gotten into the whole writing-the-recipes-in-your-own-words thing yet.  I take no credit for the recipes, but I did bake the deliciousness and take the photos posted here.

Follow the yellow brick road? How about the chocolate pie road!

I can’t follow directions.


I can’t follow directions, I can’t follow a recipe, I can’t even follow the yellow brick road – I take detours, wander off for a while, and then come back having taken a few more steps than were originally prescribed.

Therefore, I am celebrating my inability to walk in a straight line by rebooting my past blogging efforts and doing it for real. For real real. Like, actually posting more than once a year. So, let’s get this thing started with something to lead you off the track of your diet, if you were on one. I’m sorry, it’s my moral imperative in life to lead you astray, especially with this recipe. Go make it now, or at the very least this weekend, because it will improve your life, quantifiably. I’m hoping that you can follow directions better than I can!

French Coconut & Chocolate Pie


Ingredients:


• 3 whole Eggs, Beaten
• 1 ½ cup Sugar
• 1 cup Flaked Coconut
• 250g (ish) Butter, Melted
• 1 Tablespoon White Vinegar
• 1 teaspoon Vanilla Extract
• ¾ cup chocolate, any kind
• 1 pinch Salt
• 1 whole 9" Uncooked Pie Shell


Directions:


1. Preheat the oven to 325°F/160°C.
2. Press pie shell into 9” pie plate.
3. Mix: eggs, sugar, coconut, vinegar, salt and vanilla.
4. Melt the chocolate in the microwave for 30 seconds, and then for 15 second intervals after that, stirring each time so that the chocolate doesn’t burn. After it’s completely melted, add it to your filling mixture.
**Note: you can use any chocolate you like – milk, dark, white, whatever. I used milk chocolate and it was dee-lish-us.
5. Melt the butter in a separate bowl, then incorporate enough (not necessarily all) to make your filling nice and liquid-y, but not runny.
6. Pour into the pie shell and bake at 350°F/180°C for 50 minutes to 1 hour.
7. Let cool slightly before serving, otherwise you will have lots of oozing. Unless you like that kind of thing, like this guy.


Mine didn't look anything like the photo I've posted, (a) because this one doesn't include chocolate, its just plain ol' French Coconut Pie, which I guess you could do, if you were boring, and (b) because I have zero baking technique to speak of, I just make the stuff taste good, who cares what it looks like, so I won't subject you to having to look at the mostly-brown pie that came out of my oven. 

Wow that was a long and probably not-grammatically correct sentence, which is normally one of my greatest pet peeves, especially in the press.  Luckily, I never wanted to actually write for a living, and so am not subject to those silly laws of grammar.  But, I mean seriously, if you are a reporter or a copy editor for some kind of publication, I would hope.  I'm always finding spelling mistakes, grammatical problems, and just plain poor writing on news sites - for pete's sake, someone proof-read that sh!t!!!  And now I'll gingerly step down from my soapbox and go hide in the corner now....

Here is something else to make you happy, now that you've had your pie - Fluffy Ducks!!  If it doesn't make you happy, then I'm not sure I want to be your friend.  And if you feel like being a little bit more learned, here's an interesting photojournalist's collection of photos from behind Russian lines. 

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There's been another earthquake in Christchurch, I can't think of anything else to write today.

the return of the choey

So yesterday I turned 27 and decided that someone other than FH needs to know what goes on in my head. Narcissistic much? Maybe. But loads of fun for me, and I’m pretty sure at least my mom will read this, and she’s always asking what’s going on in my life, as is in her job description. So here I am, what I’m doing, where I’m going, and some of the things my brain dreams up. But first, a rant. Apostrophes, people, are easy to use. We are all taught basic punctuation when we’re like, what, 7? But apparently this simple lesson has not stuck with many of us through to adulthood, and it is starting to drive me slightly batshit at the appallingly different (and oh so completely horrendously wrong) ways professionals are using this tiny little piece of the English language. Just today, I’ve come across this ugly apostrophe: From The Caketress Blog: “…one of my favorite Muskoka venue’s for nothern weddings” – unless said venue was in possession of ‘for nothern venues’, then sorry Caketress, ya got it wrong. Also, for the love of icing, check that spelling! Good old Wikipedia has this to say about the humble apostrophe: In English, it serves two main purposes—the omission of one or more letters (as in doesn’t for does not) and the marking of possessives (as in the cat’s whiskers), though usage in forming certain plurals is sometimes accepted. And yes, there are some times when you put the apostrophe at the end of the word, but let’s not confound these already-confused writers. If you really want a guide on how to properly use Mr. Apostrophe, I refer you to the University of Victoria, Wellington’s fantastically simple tutorial here. Ok, I’m off my soapbox for the day, but be warned punctuation evil-doers, because I can strike at any time!

At the Sydney Aquarium

So while I was in Sydney, I ventured down to the aquarium to check out all the fishies. I had been told, by an American mind you, that it was a really good aquarium as aquariums go, and this guy had been there 4 times already. Well being from the Washington metro area has certainly spoiled me, because just an hour north of us in Baltimore is probably the best aquarium. EVER. Boston's gives it a fair run, but Baltimore still wins. The only thing Sydney's had that was anywhere close to Baltimore and Boston were its dugongs, which are closely related to manatees, and this sign over the croc exhibit:

How brilliant is that?! Much better than a sign literally instructing one to feed their children to the crocs. I laughed my way through til I ran into this cheeky sign posted on the approach to the shark tank:

Um, OK! I'll go pet the koalas! And can I hold one too? And take him home? No? OK, well don't blame me if you're missing one of these cuddlies by the end of the day. He's not hiding in my bag, I swear!

So with thoughts of seeing the fuzzy-wuzzies after the fishies in my head, I continued through the sharks, and was only slightly creeped out when I saw them congregating over my head. Looked like they were laying in wait for that crack in the tank, so they could just chow down on my head, nom nom nom.Yeah, I'm definitely not petting these guys. But I will name them. The one on the left looks like a GusGus to me, the middle one is wittle Petie, and over there on the right, that's ol' Bernard. Yep, jus' waitin for a snack to come along. Moving right along! I found Nemo!!And his laid-back surfer turtle buddy that he met on EAC - East Australian Current!And my personal favorite - Dori!!! Just keep swimming, just keep swimming...Wait, why are there two Dori's? What's going on?! I don't understand, how can there be two Dori's?! It's not right! It's not natural! Oh, what's that, one is Dori and the other one is her equally forgetful sister Lori? Oh, ok, that's fine. Phew. My childish innocence was almost destroyed! So after finding Nemo and his pals, nothing really held my interest through the rest of the aquarium. Not very impressed. Until I got to the gift shop and saw these: Ummm, what the hell are these?! Does someone actually think that a child would want a stuffed jellyfish?! Even if they do come in unrealistically bright and playful colors, small children should run screaming from these horrible toys. Just like I did. Yep, straight out, do not pass Go, do not collect $200, do not stop next door to see the cuddly-wuddlies. Sorry Sydney, you just lost a customer to see your aminals because of your obsurdly misguided decision to stock deadly sea creatures in plush form. Bad idea, really guys. As for me, I went to drown my fear in some Thai food and a Koonawarra red with a guy that was staying in my room back at the hostel. He showed me a DVD about Milford Sound in New Zealand, he really shouldn't have coz now I HAVE to go there. Absolutely have to. Won't be able to live with myself if I don't. Good thing I have a seester coming over to NZ with me that will indulge and participate in my travel fantasies. So that was the Sydney Aquarium. My advice: skip this place unless you have a fetish with dugongs, coz this is the only place you'll see them in a captive environment. Otherwise, go cuddle a koala. And please, make sure you bring one home for me, I need a pet.

Oz - Three Months In!

It's a Friday night here in Melbourne, and I find myself with a rare night at home, so I figured I should put in an update or two. I'll answer the most common questions I've been getting from people.

view of Flinders Street Station and part of Federation Square, the heart of Melbourne's CBD.

 

(1) How do you like it there?

Um, I freakin love it. I think first of all, its because of the situation that I'm in - I'm on my own really for the first time in my life. Also because Melbourne is just generally awesome.

(2) Do you have a place to live? What's it like?

Yep, I found myself a flat and I live in the suburb of Brighton. The flat is about a block away from Bay Street, which has a bunch of shops and cafes, and the train station is right there too, all a convenient 7 minute walk from my door. And the train goes right into the city, only takes about 15 minutes straight to the center of it all. Photo: My flatmate Lena and me at the Melbourne Food and Wine Festival.


(3) Any scary jellyfish encounters? I.e. what happened to that swimming thing you were supposed to be doing?

Well for one that was something I was gonna do when the plan was to live in Sydney. Clearly that is not the case anymore, and I got into swimming at MSAC (Melbourne Sports and Aquatic Centre) with my friends Matt and Amy instead. We swam in the 24 Hour Mega Swim for MS Australia in the middle of Feb, and really haven't swum since. One day we'll get back into it. So no, no jellyfish, thankfully. At one point I did want to go snorkeling with the seals down in Port Philip Bay, until I was informed that the seals are sharks' favorite food, so that didn't happen either. I'll stay in the pool, thank you! Photo: Matt, Amy and me at the 24 Mega Swim! We really only swam for 1-2 hours each, but still a big deal!


(4) Are you working?

Yes and no - I am working, but not for money. I'm currently utilising my administrative and orgainsational skills by volunteering for Make-A-Wish Australia and Benetas during the week. At MAW I'm helping to recruit volunteers for Wish Day, their national fundraiser, and also doing other odd jobs to get things for Wish Day all in order. At Benetas (an aged care nonprofit), I've been working with the donor database to develop different lists so they can do different targeted mailings and things like that.  Photo: completed unrelated to me working, but its of our favorite cheese and crackers-ness that we take out for picnics. Thumbs up!


(5) What the hell is footy?

Its called "the footy", that "the" is vital. Its Aussie Rules Football. And its awesome. Really, you just have to watch and go to a game if possible.


(6) What else have you been doing?

Going to lots of festivals and things like: Melbourne Food and Wine Festival, The Cat Empire concert, saw Slumdog Millionaire at Moonlight Cinemas in the Botanical Gardens, the Viva Victoria multicultural festival, saw The Poor Boy with Guy Pearce which turned out to be a dreadful musical even though it had been talked up like crazy, and doing a lot of shopping at the different markets and shops. This place owns my credit card! Photo: The Cat Empire concert - yummy musicians from Melbourne, drool.

Another Thing That Can Kill In Australia...

Have you read Bill Bryson's "In A Sunburned Country"?! No? Ok, well let me bring you up to speed. The entire first chapter is about things in Australia that can kill you. Not only are there the top 10 most deadly snakes in the world here, but Oz also has killer jellyfish, spiders, and various other not-so-dealy-but-still-highly-venomous-and-will-put-you-in-a-world-of-hurt-type animals, like the anomolous and cute playpus. So even if their wildlife look cuddly, its really best to stay the hell away.

Lovely. Anyway. So after the 24 hour marathon of flying (Washington to LA to Sydney to Melbourne), KK and I have arrived in the promised land. Fast forward through a few nights of partying and drinking. Day of Matt's birthday dawns and KK is not feeling well, fluey to be exact. So she's loaded up with drugs and vitamin C kindly provided by Matt's mum who conveniently happens to have been a nurse and like, the best caretaker ever, and she's feeling better by New Year's Eve. We're all drinking like its 2008 and then manage to miss the countdown, and suddenly we have to start partying like its 2009 with a vengeance. I believe there was a spa involved. And more drinking.

And then, the next morning, we all wake up feeling like death, slightly warmed over. So, not only has KK relapsed into her sickness, but somehow the rest of the us have managed to contract it as well. And it has mutated into a knock-down, drag-out, migrating menace. One day we're all coughing like the devil's playing soccer in our lungs, the next we're so weak we can barely hold our life-giving tea cups and dripping enough snot to fill the pool outside. Grossed out yet? Yeah, multiply that times, I don't know, forever, and that's how we feel.

Yesterday Matt's parents tried taking us for a drive up to Arthur's Seat, just to get us out of the living room that we have comandeered as the infirmary, and we were completely prepared for every sickness contingency in that car. We had pillows, a blanket, a box of tissues, all of our various kinds of drugs, vitamin water, apples, the works. We ended up pretty much needing everything we had brought, and we stopped for more drugs on the way home.

I really shudder to think how horrible we would all be feeling if Matt's parents weren't taking such good care of us. Paul and Lydia have fed us every possible food, liquid, and pill that would make us feel better. I'm pretty sure that have deprived a small Third World country of its vegetable supply to make sure we are getting 500% of our nutritional daily intake requirement. And I've had more tea in the past 72 hours than I've ever seen on a grocery store shelf, not exagerrating there.

Right, so to summarize, we were sick, we are now (fingers crossed) on the mend, KK is actually almost back to normal, Matt's parents deserve a Congressional Medal of Honor, and we might be let out of the quarantine zone in the next week! Then we just have to worry about the sharks, spiders, snakes, and other lovely things that are waiting to attack us out here. By the way, if anyone has a lung to donate, mine have abandoned me in my endless quest to cough up my ankles.

Bahamas Shenanigans

Just returned from a long weekend in the Bahamas, visiting my fabulous friend Mike. He did such a great job playing host, because from what I do remember, I had the best time ever. Everything else is kind of a blur. This I also blame on Mike, who fed me alcohol like it was his job. That said, here are some highlights from an awesome weekend:

~The welcome drink lasted from 3pm Thursday night until sometime Friday morning. Like I said, fuzzy.

~I climbed over a railing and below a deck to retrieve my fallen purse. Twice. Even though it hadn't fallen that far down. But I remember I had a fun time climbing that railing!

~Got some pre-Sydney ocean training in, all 500m of it. But hey, that's better than nothin'!

~The beach. The sand. The warm clear blue water. Drool.

~Swimming with an actual swimmer and talking shop. Fishies!

~Hot weather. I nearly melted when I got off the plane in Nassau and it was glorious!

~Humidity. It curled my hair so I didn't have to!

~Not having to wear real shoes. Or even shoes at all if I wanted.

~The food: conch fritters, conch salad, lots of conch. Conch fritters at fish fry.

~Talking about anything and everything that popped in my head, no censoring needed. ~Drinking Kaliks and Anejo & gingers.

~The best cold cheese stick I've ever had - perfect hangover food!

~Waking up to the sound of the waves.

~Meeting new people and bonding with Mike. And now I need a vacation to recover from my vacation! Two thumbs up (that left one is behind the delicious Miami Vice daiquiri Mike ordered for me) for Mike and the Bahamas! Thanks for the best time this girl's had in a while. You know my door is always open and the couch/floor/available sleep space is always yours.