Thursday, April 1

Lots of photos of our homely home!

Some housey photos because I've been meaning to for a while... You've already seen a few bits though.

That's the kitchen. But it rarely looks like that... and not that often like the next one (remember the mars bar cheesecake)! Maybe more often, Tim and I cooking together, but then who takes the photos?


This is our cute little unuseful fire place, complete with many wedding cards, and a picture of the garden at my old house by my talented grandmother. Clearly once again I was taking the photos.. but Tim is a great washing fairy! This is also the bathroom, complete with footed bath, however so far I failed to photograph it.

We got a new bed. The shop sadly failed to deliver the one we ordered with drawers, so that will be fixed, but we got to use it anyway - meaning our new queen mattress no longer dangled off the double base. Tim however, got stuck behind it for a moment or two. Not looking forward to unbuilding it to swap it though!

I quite like the outside of the house, maybe except for the crack in the wall! Its got roses and hedges which I'd probably never plant, but are quite attractive. They've even survived all by themselves with only a bit of maintenance here and there so far.
This rose bush had spectacular coloured roses - particularly as they progressed through the shades.


Most of my herbs are quite happy, although a bit catterpillar-fied sometimes, and something had curly leaf, and something else had powdery mildew.. but I'm working on that! We get to eat fresh herbs lots though.

Some other pics of people actually in the house seem to be from Christmas!! We had a Scholes/Smith/Bendall etc afternoon tea here before the big dinner at my grandparents. Pictures here are the Bendall boys beating the Scholes sons (experience comes with age I think!)

Marcus, Tim, Hilary, Martin, Nanna and part of Linden.

Nanna, Mum, Katherine, Papa and Jon's leg.
Our little Christmas tree, by this time minus presents. With Tim's X arcade next to it.. all the better for computer games in retro glory, just like the arcades of the 80s. Works well for 2 player lego batman :) To the left is the TV, to the right is the couch from Kate AD (Dad's wife) and behind are the two armchairs to match.. very comfy.

Come visit us some time (if we actually know you and like you :p ) there's a spare bed :)

Roast Dinner for 8

On the last Wednesday before Easter (yesterday) a group of us decided to have a special meal to celebrate Easter together, enjoy time together and to remember some of the Passover tradition of the Jews and Christians. The group of people that came was most of 'MCG' or med Christian group who get together roughly fortnightly at each other's houses. We put together an evening of great food and a snapshop of the traditional Passover readings/prayers and bits and pieces! We included things like searching for and throwing any bread out of the house, sweeping the last crumbs out, symbolically letting Elijah in, the Sedar plate full of strange things, and eating unleavened bread and roast lamb. It was all a success I think - I hosted it at our house (sadly while Tim was away in the Tarkine working)


Catering was a slight challenge for me - not really knowing how much 8-9 uni students eat when offered a good roast meal (some of those boys are very tall) so I guessed over rather than under - consequently we've got some excellent left overs. We tied plenty of rosemary onto the pre-marinated lamb legs, as well as poking in some bits of garlic. Jackie, Ruth and I had quite a fun time preparing everything - cooking up a storm with gin and tonic in hand!


The other tray of pumpkin and sweet potato that was on top was already cooked by this time so was out for a while, and the cheesy cauliflower and broccoli was yet to go in, (as was the brownie for dessert).
All laid with our shiny new things. And pretty white roses from Ruth's front garden, and mini pinks from ours (luckily they grow all by themselves).
There's wasn't even too much left to do when people arrived!

That's the bread, thrown out the door! An action shot would have been better!

Thats the Sedar plate with symbolic bitter herbs and salty water, honey, apple and nut paste to symbolise mortar and sweet things, as well as the egg for something to do with the temple.
And then it was time to tuck in!Happy eating pictures!

Next year, in the new Jerusalem?

Saturday, March 20

Chef Timmy


Couldn't resist writing about what will be a hideously unhealthy but hopefully delicious taste sensation that is developing in our kitchen. Its a... Mars Bar Cheesecake. Yep thats 3 twin mars bars (unfortunately there was half a mars bar spare, so we had to check it was ok!).
He got all excited and decided to make it to go with our meal of left over takeaway pizza! I promise our diet isn't usually this bad - only last week we made our friend Tahnee and James a healthy Thai beef salad - one of our frequent meals!
Anyway, I'm writing my assignment while he makes it... except I'm writing about what he's doing!

Sunday, February 14

Once upon a time...

Once upon a time, I used to do exciting things and write a blog. Even then, it was intermittent. Now I do exciting things, and haven't posted here for a while!

If anyone ever reads this, and knows me, you would know that in the last 6 months I had end of year exams, my wedding and honeymoon, Christmas (well everyone had that) and New Years at the Falls Festival, and 4 weeks of elective medical placement over my summer holidays. Then I started uni again in final year medicine. I didn't want to write much about the wedding plans before the wedding as there were lots of suprises, and since then, apparently I have been either internetless or busy most of the time!

Anyway, all is going well. I will devote a whole post to the wedding at some stage - perhaps with some previously secret dress making pics as I quite like them. I am enjoying married life with Tim and we like our little house. We are settling into routine well with me back at university.

Here are a couple of pictures of the last few months:

Our friends Megan and Vernon's wedding

And at the reception - Tim and I with Mum and Hamish

An end of year uni party at my (old) share house

A wedding shot!

And another.

Celebrating New Years at the Falls Festival - with safety precautions in place

I spent 2 weeks at Tenterfield Hospital in NSW, and got to practice lots of clinical skills. I made friends with a 6 year old and fixed her Cookie Monster (even if she didn't know he was broken!)

Our best friends James and Tahnee got married last weekend - it was a lovely wedding at his farm with the reception at Stonefield. It was a great day!

Tim and I both got to be in the bridal party - 'matron' of honour and equal best man! It meant we got to have matching outfits!

At Festivale yesterday, the Launceston equivalent of the Taste but in the City Park... Tim's brother Marcus was part of a campaign called 'To Write Love on Her Arms' combatting depression and self harm and other nasty stuff - we obliged and had love written on us.

Thursday, September 3

Day two onwards in Melbourne

The technology that allows me to describe to the world what I'm eating while sitting on a tram also just meant that with the touch of a finger, I just discarded an email which was my blog post. Here goes again. [Then I got distracted with shopping and didn't write a lot more for some weeks. Here goes again again!]

Melbourne!

Day two, which was really only our first morning began well. We found a bakery style shop a very inter-cultural vibe -cheesecake, pork buns, custard donuts, sesame balls, ham and cheese roll things, and lots more. In fact it was so good that we went there for breakfast every day for the rest of the trip!

Couldn't get enough of the sesame balls, pork buns, and custard donuts (etc) - all perfect breakfast fare!

Now that is a little in the past, I can't remember as many of the culinary/shopping details of each day - but maybe thats a good thing for anyone that reads this. In summary of the shopping - we went to many shoe shops, and quite a few other shops. I was after wedding shoes. Despite finding some I really liked in the nearly first shop - about 500m from our hotel, it took me another day to decide they were the ones, and then another day for them to get a pair in the right size from their other shop, and then another day for me to decide actually they were too tight and I'd get the other size after all! In the mean time, I bought a pair of boots, pair of black work shoes and another cute cheapie pair that are confused as to whether they are sandals or not! Those 3 pairs came in together for less than $150. I won't mention the wedding shoes - but I love them! I also snagged a couple of handy workshirts and some cool dresses!

On one of the days, after a solid bout of shopping, we needed a little rest.. a sit down, and something to drink. A helpful shop girl somewhere suggested the new Lindt Cafe which was just the thing - just a short queue, for a very very tasty hot chocolate, and beautifully subtle creamy icecreams. Good thing it was tasty, because they clearly had a change of shift or something and left our 'hot' choc sitting there for a bit!

(It was better than the picture shows, but after being arty with my camera/phone, I began to spill the milk, so then I had to pay attention to get my value for money - it wasn't a cheap hot chocolate!)

On Saturday, with Tim in tow, we braved the Southern Cross DFO - along with many footy fans who were down that way watching some team or other be beaten by another team. Before we even got there, we found Tim a pair of bargain wedding shoes for him - camper shoes no less! He saved hundreds and they were quite reasonable in the end, and the only pair left was the perfect size for him. We also had great success at the DFO - including a wedding shirt for Tim.

Enough about the shopping - and a little more about the eating.

Thursday night Mum and I had a fantastic meal at the Wine Bar. We'd been on a hunt for some other place, and couldn't find it, and when our feet could carry us on further, and the two of us couldn't make our fancy phones find the place Mum had in mind (though apparently it was nearby but through a little door to upstairs!) we gave in and went in a warm looking place. There was a skinny bar area and then a long table with lots of people along it. We pulled up stools at one end and had a fantastic meal and didn't even feel like we were right next to lots of people. That is, until near the end when a new couple sat opposite us, clearly on a date and we couldn't help notice the lack of conversation skills on the man's part - she kept trying to start conversations, then he'd just talk about himself a bit and never ask her anything - it was hard to not listen!!

We planned to have a cocktail together, but since we ate at a wine bar, opted for a delicious wine with dinner and a dessert wine each as (another) treat

Friday, our culinary highlights included breakfast at the asian(ish) bakery, lunch at Movida, and dinner after Tim arrived, at a delicious Lebanese restaraunt. Apparently I'd been there before, and slept on my sheep skin under the table. At the end of the fantastic and substantial lebanse banquet the cook came out of the kitchen and said hello and made sure we'd had a good meal - I'm told she was the same homely Lebanese woman as about 20 years ago! I did get in trouble when I asked for Turkish coffee as my after dinner drink - just because it was Lebanese place! Apparently I should have said Lebanese coffee, but what about Lebanese delight?

Movida with mood lighting, and us being phone/foody geeks!

Movida, a favourite Spanish Tapas bar provided a good range: the classic and irresistable anchovie with tomato sorbet, a stunning egg dish with truffle, and some other delicacies. Dessert was goats cheese icecream with a tart/flan kind of thing.. delicious!

Movida's alley is full of graffiti - very cool!

On Saturday, after breakfast at the favourite bakery, and the day at the DFO, we met up with some of Tim's friends for Vietnamese. After some consideration, we picked a place in Victoria St - the Vietnamese heart of Melbourne, and settled in for (another) great feed. The classic Vietnamese salad was a hit, and the other flavours were all unique and authentic and most enjoyable.

Sunday, we nicked into Federation Square and Tim and I had a look at the exhibition that was on - which was a fantastic John Brack collection. I'd seen some before, but still thoroughly enjoyed our gallop through. Before we started however we needed some coffee:

Then we had to rush off because every trip to Melbourne should include yum cha, and we were running out of hours! We fitted in a top quality yum cha meal from the Dragon Boat Palace, about 3 places down from our hotel. We shared lots of different dishes and enjoyed catching up with my aunt and uncle, Hilary and Martin and another friend Hilary!

John Brack pic

And then, it was time to go home - Tim and I to Launceston, and Mum to Hobart. And that was the end of a successful foody and shopping trip to Melbourne!


More shots of Movida's alleyway:
There was also a bride and groom wandering down on the way to Movida getting photos taken! Pretty cool!