Garden Tuesday - Jasmine

We have star-jasmine growing over some of the natives at the back of our block.

I apologise for the poor quality photo. It doesn't do the jasmine justice.

But then star-jasmine is really a full sensory experience. The perfume that eminates from this ordinary looking creeper is simple and sweet.

I plan to grow this over an arch near our entrance when we renovate.

The big 3-0

As one of my friends pointed out on facebook the other day "Numbers that follow numbers ending in 9 are important in a base-10 numerical system". This year my birthday ends in an 0. How momentous.

Actually I am not that fussed about it.

Perhaps this is the calm before the storm?

How do I feel about turning 30?
I don't really care.

I have achieved a lot in my life already so it is not as though I have wasted my time.

What am I going to do to celebrate?
whatever. Maybe a breakfast at a hotel in the city, maybe dinner at a local restaurant with 40 of my nearest and dearest.

What do I want for my birthday?
nothing.

Maybe a nice Cartier watch with some pretty diamonds? that isn't really nothing is it?

Is turning 30 a big deal to me?
Right now, no, it really isn't a big deal. Perhaps it should be and perhaps when I get to the day it will be but right now it feel like it will be just another birthday.

Sweet Summer Rice Salad

I found this recipe in the warranty card of my rice cooker. I had a lot of brown rice and wanted to use some of it so I thought I would try it.


I was surprised at how nice it is - although I must admit Tom was less fussed over this one. It makes a huge amount so I think I will be eating it all week. I am happy enough with that.

Sweet Summer Rice Salad
Serves 8

2 cups cooked and cooled brown rice
225 g tin pineapple pieces
1 carrot, grated
1/2 celery, finely chopped
1/2 cup currants

1/2 cup juice (from the pineapple)
1/2 cup honey
1/2 cup white wine vinegar

Mix rice, pineapple, carrot, celery and currents together in large bowl.

Whisk together the juice honey and vinegar, until honey is dissolved.

Mix dressing through salad. Serve immediately.

When did young people get so young?

Being a mature age student who is able to attend tutorials and lectures during working hours means that the other students are not other like minded adults (as they would be if I went to night time classes) but rather seventeen year old children.

While I am by no means old, I am still in my twenties, the kids that frequent my classes seem so young to me. Their language and clothing is so different to my own. Why the boys insist on wearing jeans two sizes to small for them with black pointy shoes is beyond me. The girls seem to wear a lot of short shorts and more makeup than I have cumulatively worn this calendar year.

They all seem to have cute nicknames for themselves which they insist on being called. Vivien is "V". Samantha is "Sam". No one goes by there full name.

I was amused to find out from my tutor that several forward guys had asked out their negotiation exercise partners after the exam. I was focused on negotiating a reasonable outcome for my firm under exam conditions and they were swapping digits?

I must give them credit for being nice to me though. Either I am really hip (this seems very unlikely) or they feel sorry for me (much more likely) because in each class a few students make friends with me. It is nice to have someone to sit with and talk to, although I don't know what I will do if I get invited to someone's 18th birthday. That would just be odd.

Garden Tuesday - Herbs

I love using fresh herbs in my cooking.

The smell and texture of fresh parsley in my spaghetti carbonara or bolognaise is heavenly. And no fruit salad would be complete without mint.

My issue is my unnerving ability to kill plants in pots. I forget to water them for long periods of time. This causes them to dry out and then they die. I get sad. I go grocery shopping and buy more herbs. I forget to water them....the simplicity of the circle of life is really quite astonishing.

Tom is very helpful with herbs as he can remember to water plants in pot. When his help is sought the herbs last much longer.

At the moment I have two types of parsley on the go as pictured below....

I also have basil and mint. The two parsleys have been around for quite some time but the others are "new" this week.

Pizza and Salad

I made pizza and salad for lunch on Sunday. I was a nice easy meal to use up the leftover green salad I made to take to a friends place on Sunday night and the rice salad I am currently keen on.


The pizza was especially good. I did a half Tom/half me pizza which consisted of chicken/pepperoni with cheese for Tom and I can't believe it's not bacon and capsicum for me.


I am a fan of the no cheese pizza. I don't think pizza really needs cheese when you have a good base and lots of tomato paste on it.

Thai noodle salad

I made a lovely cold noodle salad for dinner tonight. The recipe was a Donna Hay one adapted by Pam. I adapted it further and took quite a few liberties to make a vegetarian version.

It was deliciously light and cool. Perfect for a hot Queensland summer day. Tom loved it so I will have to make it again.

Thai Noodle Salad
Serves 2

220g pack Kan Tong flat thai noodles
1/4 cup lemon juice
1/2 tablespoon fish sauce
1/2 tablespoon vegetable oil
1/2 tablespoon sugar
2 large tomatoes, diced
1 cucumber, diced
1/2 cup basil leaves

Cook noodles per package directions, drain and rinse.

Whisk together the lemon juice, fish sauce, oil and sugar, until sugar is dissolved.

To serve, toss the noodles with the tomatoes, cucumber and dressing.

I am an addict, its cool, I feel alright

When I started my current job I took up drinking coffee as a social activity. I have never been much of a coffee drinker although I am quite partial to a few blends of tea.

Over the last year the coffee trips have become more and more regular. I find that I now go to get a coffee in the morning even when no one else goes with me. So obviously I have moved from social drinker to addict.

I have also been having problems sleeping. I am ok when I get off to sleep but falling asleep has become difficult and frustrating. There is nothing more stressful that knowing how tired you will be in the morning and how much you have to do but not being able to get to sleep.

So yesterday I decided to cut down my coffee intake. One of my coffee buddies is going on holidays so there will be less reason to go and get a hit every day.

After having an entirely coffee free day yesterday; today I woke up today with a terrible headache. I know why. And it is sooo tempting to have a quick coffee because I know that will get rid of it but I can't. So I had a panadol and a big glass of water and will try to get on with my day.

I hope the withdrawal side-effects don't last very long. I slept brilliantly last night and had no trouble falling asleep for once. But I am unaccustomed to headaches and have a low pain tolerance so I know I will be running back to coffee if this goes on for too long.

Carbon Based Frustration

I had a very annoying incident with the IT department at work recently. I accidentally deleted one small but important excel document. I right clicked on it when in windows explorer and instead of clicking "rename" I clicked "delete". And because I wasn't really paying attention to what I was doing when it asked me if I really wanted to delete the document I clicked "Yes" even though the answer was "No, no, no, a thousand times NO". Perhaps if that had come up as an option I would have paid more attention?

To remedy my small understandable mistake I contacted the IT department to retrieve it. And several days later they did retrieve. Thanks IT boffins!

BUT in retrieving the file they saved this one excel document over a whole drive full of hundreds of folders with thousands of very very important documents in them!

I contacted them immediately, in mild hysterics, and "requested" that they ameliorate the issue. Several days later they dutifully retrieved the data. Good save boffins!

I was very happy and hugely relieved to have all the data back. I would have been in a world of hurt if they had lost it because there was a lot of information I could not duplicate. I was one happy customer, despite their mistake.

All that happiness was spoiled when I received an email confirming my issue had been resolved and the job had been closed. That in inself was fine except that in the summary of the issue they had written " LDHBE accidentally deleted the nvfkjdfvwfj drive". WTF? NO I DID NOT! YOU DID THIS YOU STUPID BOFFINS.

I left the email overnight to calm myself down and wrote a pleasant email the next day alerting them to the inaccuracy of their records and requesting they update them and email me to confirm this had been done.

I am waiting with baited breathe for a response. If they happen to call about it I have a notepad next to my work phone with words I would like to drop into the conversation. At the top of my list are unprofessional, disappointing, credibility and dishonest.

I might speak nicely but I can be mean if I want to be. I am LDHBE - dont mess with me!

Chocolate Cake Expolsion

I made a chocolate cake a few weeks ago and turned the mix master up too high which caused what I can only describe as a chocolate cake explosion.


Tom was very kind and helped me clean it up. It was all over everything - including me!

Garden Tuesday - B is for Bougainvillea

OK there has been no A yet so that title is kind of lame but here we go anyway....



















We have a Bougainvillea growing outside our bedroom window.

It blooms a beautiful pink shade which almost make me forget about the massive thorns which tear my skin each and every time I trim it.

Almost but not quite.

This is the view out our bedroom window to the north. The sun shines in every morning and the pink petal glow in the bright light.




































They are beautiful. Pink always was my favorite color.

Bougainvillea are native to South America but because of the similarity in climate it thrives in BrisVegas, Australia.

I love the way it clings to the side of the house. I love the way it seems to put on about thirty centimeters every time I turn my back.

I hate trimming it. It bites me. My delicate white flesh always comes out second best to the spikes which grow on every inch of every branch.

But overall it is a great plant.

Choc-Chip Biscuits

It all started with a Tangelo.
I bet my friend they would eat it.
So I had to bake choc-chip biscuits.
They were delicious.

New day; New Dyson

Tom and I went shopping this morning and bought a new Dyson vacuum cleaner. I am so excited!

I had worked out which one I needed thanks to a very lovely lady on Dyson's customer helpline. She sent me an email in response to my email to them suggesting they add a quiz to their website to help customers chose a model. She said if I called her she would talk me through the range and help me decide which one I needed. So I called on through the week and spent 30 minutes discussing the pros and cons of each model.

Due to my dust allergy, the HEPA filter models were a must and as I have mostly hard floors I didn't need the motorised head versions. So in the end we decided I needed the DC23 Turbine Plus which comes with the hard floor tool.
A quick trip to David Jones this morning with their 15% off sale means I got a bargain.

We have already vacuumed the whole house and been revolted at the amount of dust that came out of the rug in the lounge especially.

Cara Cara Navel Oranges

In late breaking news, there is a new type of navel oranges.

Cara cara are slightly more red than regular navel oranges but not as red as a proper blood orange.

They are sweet and very tasty with no seeds.

Bon Appetit!

Towel Incident Update

Cleaner got fired (Thanks Tom)

Tom explained what he had done wrong. His response was "Oh Shit"- lovely. He failed to apologise.

We have a new one starting in a few weeks. Requested someone more "careful".

Hooray!

Cutie-Pie Contest

I am having trouble deciding who is cuter - my husband or my niece.

They are just both such cutie-pies.

If you want a Dyson, it's got to be a Dyson

I am looking at buying a new vacuum cleaner.

As I have mentioned previously the vacuum cleaner I have now was purchased very cheaply many moons ago and is not up to the job. It is crap. Very very crap.

I am looking at buying a new one and due to my dust allergy I have decided to buy something good (read; expensive). I am currently look at getting a Dyson because, as their motto goes,

"If you want a Dyson, it's got to be a Dyson"

I am not joking - that is what it says on their website. What an odd motto.

The selection process commenced in earnest a few weeks ago while I was supposed to be studying. I have really moved on from the muffin baking I used to do while procrastinating study as a 17 year old - no?

I have spent hours reading the Dyson website trying to decide which Dyson is for me. Honestly I have trouble understanding the differences in the technical specifications. I am seriously considering just buying the lightest one. That is really the only spec I could properly comprehend. They really needed a quiz, like the one on the Olay website, which would tell me which model would best suit my needs.

I think a trip to my local full service department store is in order. And what do you know; they have 15% off Dysons at the moment. What a coincidence.

Garden Tuesday - Beginings

I have decided to take a leaf out of sidewalk shoes book and start blogging about my garden on a semi-regular basis.

I hope to be able to post some nice shots of the plants I have grown on purpose, accidentally and those which are only alive thanks to my husband who has an uncanny ability to water plants when they need it.

Here is a teaser for you....


This is my favorite Poinsettia. The ants are on the attack but it still looks beautiful.