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Archive for the ‘Musings’ Category

Miscellany

Posted in Food & Friends, Musings on January 24, 2014| 64 Comments »

A few bits and pieces from January…

We spent last weekend at Nelson Bay celebrating Uncle Greg’s 70th birthday. The views were stunning…

The following night, we dined at Watercress in Nelson Bay. Formerly the restaurant Zest (winner of several Chefs’ Hat awards), it’s a bit more affordable in its new bistro incarnation.

Big Boy and I had scallops for entree…

…and I had the lamb and eggplant main…

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From our oven…

…I baked a batch of yeasted bagels for the first time in ages (usually I make sourdough ones). They were hoovered up in no time at all…

I also baked black salt sourdough loaves…

..using my old lidded tins which kept the oven spring in check…

…resulting in perfectly square slices of bread…

. . . . .

Inspired by my faux laksa success, I made this simple soup for lunch using freezer leftovers from Christmas (prawns, prawn stock, poached chicken), basil and purslane from the garden…

…a spoonful of Tom Yum paste…

…and a handful of vermicelli noodles…

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Chinese New Year is coming!

Here’s the lantern I’ve made for the occasion…

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It doesn’t happen often, but at the moment, life is calm and mellow.

Hope all is well in your world! ♥

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Tissue Paper Flowers

Posted in Food & Friends, Musings on January 15, 2014| 46 Comments »

Note to email subscribers: apologies for the broken link! I clicked the wrong button!

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I bought way too much tissue paper last Christmas, so I’ve been turning some of it into flowers. Lovely Em from The Clever Carrot asked for instructions, so I’ve taken a few quick photos. There are much prettier ones on the Martha Stewart website.

I began with a few sheets of tissue paper and pipe cleaners leftover from the egg carton spiders I used to make with the boys (obviously, I never throw anything out). A classier option would be to use florist wire, but I didn’t have any on hand…

Cut the tissue into rectangles – you need at least eight sheets to get a fluffy flower…

Lay the sheets one on top of the other (right sides all facing up, if it’s relevant), and concertina fold them…

Find the centre and wind a pipe cleaner tightly around it. Trim the ends of the paper to either points or rounded curves…

Now…fan out each half, then separate and shape each layer with your fingers. The tissue is fragile, so work slowly and carefully..

Tah-dah! It’s quite therapeutic, although Pete is somewhat concerned that I’m turning flat, easy to store tissue paper into piles of bulky flowers…

I assured him they’d be useful dressing up plates of chocolates…

…or decorating gifts…

I always find paper crafts incredibly soothing. My friend Maz the Toymaker has a website full of free paper toys – it’s a great resource for entertaining small people (and some of us big people too!).

PS. A shopping tip for my fellow Sydneysiders – I buy most of my tissue paper and cellophane from Pan Pacific in Marrickville. They’re a great company, and I’ve been purchasing from them for over a decade. You need to buy in bulk, but they have fabulous prices on ribbon and wrapping. Tissue paper is $20+gst per 500 sheets, and cellophane $20+gst per 200 sheets.

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Silver Anniversary

Posted in Musings on January 9, 2014| 93 Comments »

Happy Anniversary, my darling love.

It’s hard to believe, isn’t it? When you changed my light bulb all those years ago (remember that ridiculous floral dressing gown I was wearing?), you were so condescending. And so handsome that I was sure you were out of my league.

To this day, I still don’t know why you asked me out. We were so different – you were smart and dry-witted and lean, and I was a chubby romantic dork. And yet here we are, together for over thirty years, married for twenty-five, with two adult children. I still go to bed most nights feeling like I’ve won some sort of cosmic lottery.

You know you’ve saved me, don’t you? You’ve saved me from being soppy and tragic, because in all these years, you’ve never let me get away with anything. You are loving and affectionately indulgent, but you have never let me wallow in self-pity or lose perspective or carry on like a mad woman. And you’ve always managed to do it without hurting my feelings, for which I’m incredibly grateful.

I knew right from the start that you were going to be the best father ever. Our confident, creative, gorgeous sons are a direct product of your firm but loving parenting. Apart from all the time you lavish upon them, you’ve also taught by example – their calm dispositions, indefatigable attitudes and unquenchable thirst for knowledge are nurtured by and modeled on you.  And oh, how they adore you! Remember when Big Boy was seven or eight, and he had that funny little laugh? It took us ages to figure out that he was trying to copy yours.

So here we are, my love, at our 25th wedding anniversary. We’re older and greyer and pudgier than we used to be, but I’m still completely mad about you. It’s hard to believe we’ve come this far – in some ways, it feels like we’re still at college, going out to Cordobes for a $4 pizza, or sitting up all night talking about the future. Thank you for a truly wonderful life. I can’t wait to see what the next twenty-five years will bring! ♥

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Snippets

Posted in Food & Friends, Musings on August 28, 2013| 63 Comments »

A few snippets from the past couple of weeks…

Our graptopetalums and graptoverias have started flowering…

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We’re days away from Spring, and the cotton wool clouds over Camperdown today looked like this…

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We found a copy of The Complete Calvin and Hobbes at Costco for under $50…

One of my all-time favourite strips…Go for the Gusto!

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Pete and I attended the funeral of a friend’s father at Rookwood Necropolis recently. There was a beautiful fishpond on the grounds…

As we left the chapel, we were each given a small envelope. In keeping with Chinese tradition, the envelope had a tissue for the tears, a lolly to take away the bitterness, and a gold coin for the journey home. I found it incredibly touching…

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A couple of weeks ago, we paid a visit to our old friend Michael Richards, owner of Kite Magic, and known to our sons as “Uncle Mike”. He’s one of our favourite people in the whole world…

In years gone by, making large kites was a serious hobby of ours. Mike sent us an sms yesterday to tell us that he’d hung one of our old rokkaku kites at the Festival of the Winds exhibition in Bondi this year…

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And finally, I asked the boys to make me an iPad stand, and this is what they came up with…

It’s an original design, made with Lego Technics components from the Lego Crazy Contraptions book (by Klutz), and it fits both my iPad and my Kindle. Needless to say, I think it’s brilliant…

It’s even adjustable…

. . . . .

What’s been happening in your universe?

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Trailing Behind…

Posted in Musings on July 24, 2013| 78 Comments »

Big Boy and Small Man are good friends.

That makes me incredibly happy, but I don’t think it’s something Pete and I can take credit for – they’ve gotten on well since Small Man was born. For thirteen years they shared a bedroom without a single complaint, and I can count on one hand the number of times either of them has ever raised a voice at the other.

The photo above was taken walking through a park in Melbourne – I seem to be building up a series of images of my sons walking away from me. Perhaps it’s deeply symbolic, and maybe I’ll gradually accumulate a collection where they get further and further in front of me.

All I know is that I find taking photos of the two of them striding off together quite irresistible – their family resemblance, already so strong in their build and facial features, becomes even more pronounced in their gait and posture. Their camaraderie and deep affection are always evident, but never more so than when they’re loping off purposefully together, often chatting, but sometimes just walking in step with one another.

It makes my heart soar. ♥

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