Happy Hijacked Ancient Pagan Festival!

Or as Bill Bailey would call it Happy Implausible Resurrection Day.

Reading the newspaper leading into Easter, there will be a two page spread advertising chocolate eggs and bunnies followed by a two page spread about the Christian spirituality of the occasion.

There were also quick quotes from people they'd stopped on the street and asked about if they would eat fish on Good Friday? If they'd asked me I would have said no, I tend to like making my dinner decisions on the day.
Get up and think what do I fancy for dinner tonight? And work from there. Granted 9 times out of 10 it'll be green Thai curry, but sometimes there are other things I fancy. Usually something else suitably spicy, I have been having the most immense cravings for hot spicy food lately.

To me the not eating of meat on Good Friday belongs to the Christian religion, it's like people of Jewish and Islamic faith who both have the no pork dietary rule among others. I’m not an expert on either of those religions so won’t attempt to profess what others fall under their dietary rules.

It's like vegetarians there falls many choices of what you will and won't have before moving onto fully fledged vegan. Or even more hardcore again I feel are the fruitarians, I'm never sure if I believe this or not. A fruitarian is someone who only eats produce that has fallen from the plant. Or perhaps has been picked but allows the plant to continue on living??? They'll eat an apple because the tree can live on, but they won't eat a carrot because it has ceased to continue on growing.
However a quick Google brings up this site so maybe over time its definition has changed - Fruitarian Site.

None of those options necessarily stem from a religious faith, maybe if you’re Buddhist that would encourage vegetarianism. Religion is a weird animal; if you have it does that make you better than someone who doesn’t?
I don't believe in God with a G, I don't identify myself from any branch of the Christian faith. And I must confess quite ambivalent about anyone who does have faith in any religion. Live and let live! Yet what surprise me is Christians I know who are very anti-Muslim. How dare they be allowed to build mosques! How dare they practice their non-Christian religion in our Christian country!

Last time I checked we were secular and our constitution gave us all the right to freedom of religion, we can believe or not believe as we choose. Something for which I am immensely thankful for, I can believe in the Easter Bunny!

But in closing for some light relief, how about those Republicans, the American political party and their trip to the nightclub with live faux lesbian bondage acts??? I thought they were all morally opposed to lesbians and gays.

Vacuming the cat

I'm meant to be finsihsing an assignment but currently I am wresrling with my conclusion, I need to finish it and stay within the word limit as there are penalties for going over.
However I have just over 70 words left, the rest of my conlusion needs to be short or I need to cull something from somewhere else in the essay.....hmmmmm....haaaaaawww...heeeemmmm.....

I've located the details of what one of my tests tomorrow will be about, narrows down what I have to revise tonight for that one and the other one I have tomorrow I already know what it will be on.
Today I did a presentation, I thought it was awful, there was Basil Fawlty style escapedes with the lap top and projector to start with. It seemed an omen of things to come, but official verdict is the presentation went "very well". I'm inteperating that to mean a good mark.

But back to the assignment, I have this problem of I always find them hard to start but once I get started I have to struggle to rein it in under the word limit and have to start looking for lesser bits of infomration to cull to make it all fit.

A few of my favourite things

My mum bought the latest Australian Women's Weekly and for any non-Aussies reading this magazine actually comes out monthly. I flipped to the food section, the only section I tend to actually read in the AWW.
And one of the food features was on High Tea as a means to promote the new AWW High Tea book.
The blurb about the book makes it sound irresistible, I love doing the whole fancy afternoon tea and getting the good china out.

"High Tea is every girl’s dream book, as delightful to look at as it is to cook from. Think finger sandwiches, scones, pastries, cakes, biscuits and slices. Think linen tablecloths and fine china, proper tea made in a teapot, your best friends gathered round, and lots of gossip. Here’s your chance to spoil yourself with cucumber sandwiches, chocolate éclairs and raspberry cream sponge. Teatime will never be the same again."

Oh yum I have to keep my eye out for this one!

It's not being released till October so a bit of a wait but there is a vampire knitting book in the works. I've seen some of the projects to be featured and really looking forward to the finished product. Even if it fails to offer up too much in what I'd actually knit I just know it's going to fit in with my other knitting books - most of which are a bit quirky to start with.

Bill Bailey. The trouser presses, tea and coffee making facilities, spider singing, eagles, sheds and tiny pixies. It never stops being funny, any of it. And the boy playing the setar in Tinselworm is delicious!

Yeah for me!

Breaking my own embargo...but I got 5/10 on my Accounting quiz this afternoon. For reference top mark was 6/10. And since we all had to mark each others, took me back to primary school(!), I feel even better about my 5 since the poor soul who I marked got 0 right. (I don't know who it belongs to were all identified by student numbers which our tutor uses to identify the papers and then hand back to owners.)

But when the answers were being written up there was lots of collective moaning (and not in a good way like When Harry Met Sally) and muttering of "Oh no I'll have so many answers wrong!".
Yet there was also some discussion pre-tute, not everyone had done their Independent Study Tasks. Might've helped!

No more painting the cat's nails...

Twice in the last week on Twitter people I follow have found cash in old bags. What did I find in mine an unfinished knitting project. I'd like to look through all my old bags on the off chance but it will have to wait.

Knitting, blogging, tweeting, searching bags and painting the cats nails will all have to go on the back burner. Put the nail polish down and step away from the cat!

I was filling in my calender so I have at-a-glance-monthly list of what is due when and when tests are, except Corp Reg we just have to turn up to every tute as their not telling us which tutes the tests wil be in. Very sneaky but probably very effective for attendance, learning and final pass rates.

But back to my calender, over the next 2 weeks (17th March to to the 31st March), I have in total 5 tests, 5 assignments and a oral presentation to do. Talk about baptisim of fire!
After this insanity, the following two months sees me with huge gaps between assesments loads of time to do far less work???
Admittedly census falls in the middle of this insane period so I guess either you do the work or you quit before you officially start racking up fees and/or academic penalties.

But guess who so far has been busy doing all their required reading and doing hopmework for tutes??? Guess who thought at start of smester they had plenty of time till first assessment and got stuck in on their reading (it's hard to catch up if your behind!)??? Guess who upon filling out their calender this morning had a Macauly Caulkin in Home Alone moment???

But maybe there is still time for one final Lolcat???

Would you believe???

I was cleaning out one of my larger handbags so as to use it for school and I found a long forgotten UFO.
It was a finished sock and a half finished sock, everything is there but the pattern but they are an all knit sock so I just need to check other patterns regards heels and possibly the toe finishing. And no I'm not really fussed if they match exactly or not!

I've spent this afternoon preparing for tomorrow's school, printing off lecture notes and making sure my reading is up to date. There is lots of reading, there will have to be some more tonight and then some again tomorrow night.
If I were a Lolcat, I'd be a tiny kitten surrounded by huge tomes with lots of teeny tiny print with the caption reading "Why i haz so much readingz?".

Last year I came into Uni a bit apprehensive I knew it would be epic regards the workload compared to any other study I'd previously done but I got through. This year I've started back knowing full well how it all works and yet I have come back and been outraged at how much work they actually expect me to do. I think really the audacity of them!

However in the fun department, for one of my law units our head of department suggests looking to movies, TV shows and novels about law with the idea of course of using these to make comparisons to real life to fictional interpretations about it.
In the "Light Entertainment" department this week the suggestions were Legally Blonde, The Hurricane and The Castle. I'm going to concede LB and TC as light entertainment. But I feel The Hurricane is made from a much more serious stand point.

However I am joyful about Boston Legal being an acceptable topic for homework, I've been putting off and putting off buying more seasons of BL as they tend to be a bit pricey but I saw a catalog with some of the seasons on sale. Guess I have no reason to put it off any longer, it will after all help me with my school work right? ;)

As for the knitting front, well the good fight, has slowed down there. These last couple of weeks I have been too busy to sit and really work on anything but I have been able to squeeze a few rounds in here and there on the second Punky Rose Wristlet during breaks at school.

Tonight is Sunday night and that means Castle night here in Australia, if you haven't already seen Castle I can not reccomend it enough. It is very funny and certianly has some clever twists with a suitable sprinkling of quirky characters that sort of fit into the story well rather than just being there and quirky for sheer novelty value.

Blatent bragging below...

Here it is my Storm Witch Cowl finished! Made to the Storm Water Cowl using some Cherry Tree Hill yarn from my stash in a lovely colour way called Tropical Storm.


And as it was one of my Knit Olympic entries, one project, three events...

The main project event for all scarfs, cowls and neck warmers etc...

The event for projects using only one skein, which was handy as I only had one to use.

For using up something from your stash that was at least year old, and my CTH was easily. More like 2 years at least.

My second cowl has temporarily been scratched, unless I find where I put my wool for it tonight and I can easily get it done tomorrow pre-cut off time. But my third project which was really only in reserve in case I had time over and I didn't expect to get done has become my second and hopefully I'll get it finished tonight. It is surprise, surprise a pair of arm warmers. I've completed the first one and they do knit up fairly quick, fingers crossed! Better yet it looks like it'll be another qualifyer for the Single Skein event.

A rose wristlet by any other name would be just as sweet.

After Friday's post I spent more time working on the first Punky Rose Wristlet. And these pictures show how far I had gotten by Saturday night.

I'm really pleased now with how well the lace pattern is starting to stand out now, at first I wasn't sure how clear it would be, but it is knitting up brilliantly. And while I love the look of it, I don't think I love it enough to want to make socks in it as well. I'm still opposed to socks, I may unbend my rules for 8/10ply ones however.

Keen eyed blog readers may spot the felonious feline in the background of the second shot. He saw the camera and had to get up into the picture. That is Mr Naughty, Miss Stash's precious bundle of trouble.

Another exciting thing is, my Mum found the knitting bag she had my copy of Funky Knitting in! It was one of the first knitting books I bought myself and have been without it forever so it's nice to have it back finally.

Spotlight on a Punky Rose

These are some pictures I took yesterday of my in progress Punky Rose Wristers (aka Blackrose Wristers). I have since reached up to and started the thumb gusset after taking these photos.


I am really psyched for how quickly these are knitting up, I normally not a huge fan of working with 4-ply as it seems to take forever or feels like it at least to knit up. This is Blue Moon Fibre's Sock's That Rock in Moody Blues. It is delicious in both feel and colour, and is the perfect colour combo for what I like to wear.
I have a skein also of this yarn, but in the colourway called Pirate's Booty. Bought mostly because I couldn't resist the name, and I was quite taken with most of the colour way. There was a few sections I was a bit dubious about, but having seen how this one knits up I'm sure it won't bother me at all.

What I have my eye on now is the Raven Clan collection, and for a super not subtle hint for gidt giving later this year, particulary the colour way Thraven!
Toyed with the idea of enough for a shawl, but there's so many fabulous colours I may have to content myself with a skein a year and knit my way thorugh all the hand, wrist and armwarmers I have on my to do list!
Although I must admit cowls (or neckwarmers or smoke rings or tube scarves call them what you will!) are fast jostling the aforementioned warmers as my ultimate fave thing to knit.

Last night I went out for a knit & dessert evening, hence the reason I got so much more knitting done. A bit of chatter over drinks and rather a lot of strawberries is very conducieve to making progress.
Actually earlier this week I had a Marvel movie & knit night with Miss Stash, knitted like mad all through Ghost Rider, which I love and have seen a bizillion times and somehow seemed to knit the scarf I was working on wrong. I then spent the first fantastic Four movie which I hadn't seen since it's release at the cinemas attempting to take back mohair so I could fix the scarf...yikes! Then spent the second Fabtastic Four which I have never seen knitting it properly, sigh of relief.

What prompted this Marvel mood, apart from I like to spot Stan Lee, like in Alfred Hitchcock movies playing spot Alfred. I bought the Marvel Scene It dvd game.
Now I knew I would be absolutely woeful at just about anything to do with the comics themselves, I just don't have that knowledge and I'm prepared to admit it. But I figured I'd be on firmer ground re movies and cartoons.

I'm not too good on this actor was what character in this movie? And the answer is always someone I have never heard of. However about stuff that actually took place in the movies I had slightly more of an idea. Hence my Marvel movie marathon knit session! I'll have to have a couple more before I take a crack at Scene It again I think.

I am pleased to see that Wolfman is due to open on Feb 11th here, so it will be open before I go back to school. Yeah! Just got to choose between Vietnamese, Japanese or perhaps a noodle box for after. I find myself very enraptured with noodley stir frys at the moment and have been ogling recpies for them like mad.

Tonight I have a knitting date with Wycliffe, which are shorter and faster paced than a Midsummer Murder (although these are slow and lengthy which makes them wonderful not too distracting knitting time).

Write a blog about it!

Had a bit of a calamitous weekend, I broke my glasses, discovered a leak in my bathroom and during all this drama lamented that I couldn't sit and work on a concise with no spelling mistakes explanation for the local Sheriff's office as they have sent me another jury summons.
It unfortunately clashes this time right ton my return to study, last year it fell right as I was having my end of year exams.

I plan to write back to them and ask to be exempted for the rest of the year at least, I don't think I can ask for the next couple of years at the same time but I will have to cross that bridge when I come to it.

My dad managed to fix my glasses, which meant I didn't have to wait till today to try and go to town and get them repaired. And I got a plumber out to fix my leaky pipe in the bathroom after trying my real estate agent and having no luck.
I popped into the real estate office today to let them know I had gone ahead and organised a plumber myself, the young girls who I see once in a blue moon who do rental inspections tend to be quite friendly. But for some reason, the young girls I seem to have the misfortune to strike behind the counter at the REA office always seem to come across as a bit aloof if I put it politely, I wouldn't go so far as to say rude because their not.

I was on the phone to Miss Stash telling all my tales of woe and what had gone wrong on the weekend and she simply said to me, "Write a blog about it".
Here it is or there it was, it was just one of those days where I was just waiting for something else to go wrong. So far, so good.

And on to more exciting things, I have two projects picked out for the Knitting Olympics, with the possibility of a third. I have the patterns and yarn for all of them, needles for one and need to seek out needles for the other 2 I plan to work on.
I'm really excited about starting them actually, I am doing 2 cowls and of course a pair of the ever favourite arm warmers.

Before I go back to school, and my holidays are finished. I figure I shoul do school holiday stuff have little treats and outings, isn't that after all half the fun of school holidays???
I did I must add have 5 days away by the sea side, pure bliss, no one or anything to worry about and I did heaps of reading. I did lots of reading before I went away and have done lots more since I got back.
It's mostly been re-reading Janet Evanovich's Stephenie Plum series and reading some of the in between the numbers novels from the library I hadn't read yet and also Finger Lickin Fifteen! I read it in two nights, it was good.
My only critique of it is, it felt like an earlier novel, in the last few novels we've struck Stephenie's sister Val and her children, the lawyer Albert Kloughn and of course Sally Sweet who wears dresses and sings in a band. But they didn't pop up even in passing, it felt slightly like we'd gone backwards in some respects.

One of my outings this holidays was to see the Sherlock Holmes movie, it was absolutely fantastic. I loved their interpretation of Dr Watson and Robert Downey Jnr as Sherlock Holmes was just suitably eccentric enough.
While I was there they had a preview for a movie called The Wolfman, it had what I would call a very Victorian vibe about it which I really liked the look of.
Accordign to the official website it's released on the 12th Febuary, so before school goes back if that is a world wide date. Which I hope it is and not just a US date.

After I'd seen Sherlock Holmes I went to Dave's Noodle Box to get a take-away for dinner, a very yummy Hot Box. And as I was leaving I passed Bento, now someone has been there and told me it was very good but I forget who???
And I thought, I'll have to go before my holidays are over and try them out, I've never been to a Japanese restaurant before.

However today while I was out and about I passed a Vietnamese restaurant called Mekong, mind you it's been ages since I'd been into the square so I'm not sure how long it's been there or anything about it but last time I was in Yorktown Square Mekong was a Japanese resaurant of a name I have forgotton. But there does seem to be another Japanese restaurant in the oppodite diagonal corner from the Mekong.
Never been to a Vietnamese restaurant either so my interest has been peaked well and truly!

It's the thought that counts right?

Caught up with the family yesterday and debriefed on the holly jolly family occasion, of which I wasn't there for, because I was actually having a holly jolly time.
Did I miss having Christmas with them? No not at all, I'm not going to pretend or lie that it was anything other than what it was.

Read Miss Stash's copy of Jamie's America, cover to cover, truly his best book yet. I'd like to try just about everything in it. I have just enough in gift cards to go stores that had him well below the RRP and try to secure a copy for myself if there are any left.

But talking of cookbooks, one branch of family gave gifts that were addressed to me or Miss Stash, apparently if we'd both been there we would have had to flip a coin or fight over them. Since I wasn't there Miss Stash got to open both and pick.

Price you pay for not doing the family thing? You get the Masterchef cookbook.
Can't blame Miss Stash really I would have picked the giant board and pizza cutter as well, the cutter is like the one they use in the pizza shops, the wide half circle so you rock and cut across the whole pizza. We are so going to have make pizza now, especially since I've already been delegated the fun job of using the cutter. Other members of the family think it looks scary, sometimes I wonder how it is we're related.

Have you been naughty or nice?

I spent the hours between midnight and 6am this morning, alternatively shoosing the cat, turning the light on and getting up and looking for him to shoosh or being jumped on by the cat before he ricochet off to charge through the house. Somehow despite only being a cat when he runs through the house you'd think it was an elephant.

Clearly he missed the memo about the night before Christmas and no creatures stirring in houses. Of course now, now, butter wouldn't melt in his mouth, he's curled up sound asleep.

My wake up call came at about quarter to eleven when Miss Stash rang me to wish me a Merry Christmas, they'd had the family present opening at 9:30. Too early in my book, I just want to be sitting down to breakfast at that time of day. They were now all doing the waiting to go to lunch at 1pm.
We had live present opening over the phone, or at least it was live opening at my end, Miss Stash just had to listen to me telling her what everything was when I opened it. All I know of what she got was a Terry Pratchett book (although I know I gave her the latest Star Trek movie and made her fave Peanut Butter and M&M Cookies as well as a no-cook caramel slice), I'm guessing the latest one and she was hoping now everyone had drifted off after present opening to be able to start reading it without looking rude.

Then spoke with the rest of the family, and was faced with the complex problem of answering the question, "What are you going to do by yourself?".
Eat green Thai chicken curry washed down with a mocktail called a Mistletoe all while comfortably ensconced on my couch watching back to back Christmas movies? Apparently this is not as exciting to other people as it is to me.

After that I wrestled with Apple/iTunes, it doesn't like my code for iTunes gift card. So no download of Twisted Sister's Twisted Christmas yet. Need to check in with family when they next ring in to get them to double check the code on their receipt.

Which brings me to 12 noon, sat down to watch Jamie Cooks Christmas while eating baked beans on toast, I was starving I needed something substantial and didn't have the patience to prepare and cook the curry. Curry's been moved to tea time, plenty of time to prepare for it.

I had vague memories of a Christmas episode Jamie did years ago and he was in New York, and that's what I thought this would be. But it turned out to be a much more recent episode he'd obviously made, I don't even like ham, but I liked the look of the Jerk Ham he made.
Then watched fascinated at the end while he fried leftover Christmas pudding to put into a sundae he was making. I've often heard of frying Xmas pud, but I've always associated it as being something very British and if I'm honest slightly bewildering.
I like my pudding sliced thick, served cold and slathered with thick whipped cream. Yum! Although I must confess my most favourite bit of the pudding is it's "skin" around the outside edges, really tasty.

Anyway Santa brought me a packet of Baci, oh how I lurrve them! Clearly I'm not on everyone's naughty list. I may have some now with some of the leftover Gingerbread latte from yesterday.

Update:
I remembered why I don't normally buy chicken from the supermarket where I did to make my curry today, I unwrapped the package. And oh my were they fatty, I started to trim them but just lost patience. They've gone into the freezer for the day when I am less of a hurry. While there was some chicken, the curry has mostly been bulked out with the frozen green veg mix I normally add to it.
However, the Mistletoe is delicious and perfect for our climate Christmas time. Very refreshing!

It's begining to feel a lot like something?

It dosen't really feel like Christmas is approaching. It's what now 6 days away? I still have not put my tree up, worn my decorations or made a interestingly named cocktail.
I do appreciate for some people Christmas is very exciting and they thoroughly enjoy it, but this dosen't give them the right to turn into those people who turn up on your doorstep and want to tell you about their religion.

Actually that's not true people who come to your door to tell you about religion give you a pamphlet and go away. It's not like their actually expecting me to turn up and pretend to be personable.

My mother and I have had some doozey's of a Christmases over the years. There was the year she thought I was wearing too much black, I always wear a lot of black. Many mornings "we will all be late" because I am slow to get up/ready and I then have to go with out breakfast or a shower so we can be there on time for present opening because my aunt has demanded we all be there by 9am for it.
We arrive after 9, usually about half past, cousin is never out of bed when we arrive, then she has an hour in the bathroom followed by breakfast so we all sit and wait for her to be ready.
This time is usually spent with me making snarky remarks, I don't do well when I'm hungary.

Last year we were very late arriving for presents, because I was making breakfast which they'd all been told about. But all the family had opened their presents, bar my other aunt who'd kept the present from Mum aside to open when she arrived.
To my mum the fault lies with us for all "being extremly late".

About 9 years I had my first Christmas away from home I did Christmas dinner, I've seen the photos somewhere recently I took at the time of the tree and the table setting. I'm still not sure who that woman was that year but I wish she'd come back, I had lists, I had shopping lists, I had menus, I had recpies picked out. I was totally organised, I had shooping lists made up for each shop as I got closer to Christmas for what I could buy in advance and those lists of things that would have to be bought almost last day.
Then there was the Christmas I was too sick to eat anything let alone cook anything we had to stay home "in case I gave anybody else my germs" my mother informed everyone. The Chrsitmas Miss Stash and I had by ourselves, now that was fun! Alhtough I ate way too many of Nigella's Gingerbred Muffins for breakfast and was to Miss Stash's annoyance far too full to cook anything for lunch.
However I did have Prawns with Tequila Mayonaise for tea, Miss Stash dosen't eat prawns or mayo. She did however polish off the turkey which I don't eat. This was followed by Nigella's Massacre in a Snowstorm only we used fresh raspberries instead of pomegrante seeds.

I decided in July what I was going to do this Christmas, I like to plan early gives me time to decided what exactly I want to eat. I'm old, 31 and keep noticing white hairs while I brush my hair each day, further proof that I am getting old I am sure.
That's who I am, a grumpy old baggage who's had enough with white hairs, I don't want to sit around other people's houses waiting for the appointed time to go and sit at some one else's house and eat what someone else has decided to cook.

While I'm old enough to organise and do a Christmas lunch, I'm not yet old enough to appreciate going to someone ese's house and let them do all the work. Maybe in another 9 years I may feel differently.

In case I don't blog again before that fateful day that's looming ahead, look after yourselves and I want to say don't do anything I wouldn't do, but perhaps I should phrase that as don't do anything my mother wouldn't do. My mother is the height of respectability, she dosen't drink cocktails or eat cake at breakfast, she dosen't think dancing aorund your living room taking your clothes is actually a legit exercise and she certainly wouldn't be leaving Austin Powers style comments on the blog of a certain pro-wrestler who likes to talk about being in his hot tub naked, she wouldn't even be reading it in the first place.

And those my lovelies are just some of my lesser bad habits which I fully plan to not only keep in the new year but add too.

New Knitty...

The new Knitty is up and I am utterly fascinated at the construction and design of Spoke and Four Corners in Tokoyo.

Although I think something like Zora might be better suited for me to actually wear. But it's the accessories or small projects which will most likely be going onto a set of my needles in the near future.
Because I really really really like hats, neck warmers and penguins the very lovely Shroom, Duet, Burning Embers and Mr Popper are my top picks from this issue.

While the socks were lovely, I just don;t like knitting them, I find them quite tedious and boring. This amuses Miss Stash because I love knitting arm/wrist/hand warmers, but as I point out to her these things are exciting to knit!

Truer words have never been spoken...

I have become a fast and firm fan of Maven and her blog A Fabulously Good Life. And what can I say but the latest post is very true, I have so been behind that person on the phone at the checkout.

And given that everyone knows everyone in my home town and just about the whole state, not always a wise move!

Welcome to the Darkside!

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Alright maybe not quite what it's all about, but sometimes I wonder, do those of who you don't dwell on the Darkside wonder what it's all about? Do you harbour secret thoughts that maybe the grass is greener, er, blacker, over here?

I read so many blogs and trawl various forums, as well as talking to people in that thing called real life and I must say I know fellow Darkside residents are out there I even occasionally see them in the streets of my own town.
While I know they exist I don't actually know them.

I've met a lot of people in my life at various times, in many various places, for many various reasons and even those I may have met once and never again they've all left an imprint on my life. The ones I consider myself most priveledged to have met, even if it was only the once, are those who are themselves, they dwell on their side much as I dwell on mine. And like me are probably interested in those who do dwell on the many other sides!
But their quite happy to dwell on their side, they are there being who they are, there's no posturing or pretense with them.

And while I look forward to the day when I meet one of my fellow residents and we can nod sagely at one another, because we know you understand so we don't have to tell each other. I am also very pleased to know (yes actually know, I've met you in real life!) a bunch of very cool people who continue to inspire me everyday, you make life well worth not just living but enjoying.

On that note my closing remarks today are, if you do decide to come visit on the Darkside and check it out for yourself, remember to B.Y.O torch! Oh and if you could, maybe also a spare bulb????

Nom nom nom nom....

Thanks to Martha and her Thanksgiving Hotline recipe booklet I am stoked to have found a recipe for Chocolate Pecan Pie. I love Pecan Pie and I love chocolate, this has to be win win here.
I'm also quite taken with the Sweet Potato Bourbon Mash with Praline Topping. Sounds delish.

Now I know following up on my last blog post, that I said I had another 2 magazines that I couldn't immediately put my hands on. Well, it turned out to be 5! Add to that another 2 I acquired on Friday and well that would be another 7 on top of the 13 I already had.
I still need Donna Hay, but then I am officially done.

Also inspirign me forward for Christmas and beyond in the cooking department is the very funny Maven over at A Fabulousy Good Life! and her accompanying blog on cooking The Kitchen Witch, I forget how I stumbled upon her blog someone linked to it somewhere. Mostly I am psyched about her Double Layer Pumpkin Cheescake.

Alright between an unexpected visitor and a demanding feline I am going to have to cut my blogging short for the moment.

You'd better watch out!

It's officially December so I feel it is time to talk about my one of my other obsessions, which one I hear you cry? You have so many!

Which is all too very true so I thought I would take a picture to give you some idea of which one it is.

To be honest this is not all the bounty from this year, I know I have at least another 2 magazines I can not immediately put my hands on for this photo opportunity.
And I think I'd need to organize some sort of paparazzi style grainy distance shot to fit all the previous years collections in to show you how much this madness means to me.

My long time readers, provided they haven't passed away from old age, will know my lack of passion for the festive season. Bah humbug I say!

But in these glossy pages are a small bit of heaven, I am deep down secretly a bit of a Mrs Bucket. Alas real world poses those difficult things called "people".
"People" tend to fiddle with your stylish but not quite as slick as the magazine photo centerpieces, touch things, ask annoying questions like "What is it?" or my other favourite "What's in it?" or their late so your baked veg is cold and your salad warm.

As I flick through the glossy pages looking at the photos so many photos of the food and beautiful table settings, a common theme appears.
A lack of "people" in the photos, and do you know what I think it is?

Out there in magazine buying land are secretly more of you, more of you who are also looking at those peopleless photos all glassy eyed imagining getting your good china out of hibernation from the last ice age. Eyeing off floral centerpieces thinking yes, yes I could do that easy enough....
Come on! Admit it you know you love it.

In closing I will share with you my ultimate 10 steps to prepping for Christmas.
Step 1. Secure time alone with the decorations.
Step 2. Once alone with the decorations, adorn yourself with them, multiple strands of tinsel in varying thickness and colour slung non-chantly around your neck is an absolute must.
Step 3. Pop a CD of one-hit-wonder pop stars doing jaunty covers of carols into the CD player.
Step 4. Retrieve your plastic tree with lights still on from the corner where you popped it after last time. (Hint: Leaving your plastic Christmas tree up with lights still attached will save time next Christmas!)
Step 5. Be thrilled with self as you don't need to untangle lights like other poor fools.
Step 6. Pity the other fools.
Step 7. Artfully and carefully place decorations on tree, evenly spaced around unless one side will face a wall. In which case load everything on the front.
Step 8. Put lights on and cheer!
Step 9. Put a ridiculous Christmas hat on while you are still adorned with tinsel and make a cocktail.
Step 10. Sit down put your feet up, sip your cocktail and flick through your Christmas porn while debating if 18 side dishes is enough for your fantasy lunch or if you should squeeze in just one more....

Here's to a happy something for you all from the Darkside.

I wanted to blog about something, but with one thing and another over the last few days nothing has eventuated.
And now, the heat has left me kind of flat, I can't think. It's far too hot to think.

Something that caught my eye in a recent catalog from a kitchen store was a Christmas apron which bore the phrase, "I'm dreaming of a White Christmas...and when all the white is gone I will drink all the red."

Which has completely tickled my fancy, and prompted me to think. I've done a lot of thinking about a lot of things lately. I noticed being a bit mad about these things, that in our Australian magazines these past few Christmases we've been going a bit white mad, everything is very white. Although Chrstmas last year and this year seem to still be very white, but with the added in cranberries and pistachios. So white, red and green.
And every year we get cards with pictures of snow scenes and we sing carols about snow. And for some baffling reason despite our climate some of us still cling to the Hot Traditional Lunch, roast beast and baked vegetable. Followed by a hot pudding.

I look longingly at magazine spreads that picture tables spread with seafood (oysters! prawns!) and salads, the "non-traditional" lunch as they like to refer to them. However I am yet to see what I would define as my ultimate Christmas lunch, green Thai chicken curry with coconut rice washed down with lashings of ginger beer (or perhaps Nigella's Mistletoe? Ginger beer with lime cordial and lime juice???) and to follow? I'm torn between a really good choc mousse made with dark chocolate or a really good ice cream, possibly home made?

Of course for this scene to be fully set, I'd need Matt Hardy fanning me with one of those of really big fans or possibly giving me a foot massage I'm undecided as to the final details yet.

Things I Love

Yep as the title suggests today's post is just going to be about the things I love and maybe what I haven't been doing?

Things I Love! (a la David Letterman and his various Top 10's)
Coffee Chillas
Uninvited by Alanis Morissette
Corsets
Hoods
Hooded Corset? (See Damsel in this Dress)
I Can't Dance by Phil Collins
Thai green curry
Castle (No it doesn't bring anything new to the crime genre but it's funny.)
Purple lipstick
Lolcats (Always a good laugh to be had there.)
QI with Stephen Fry

Alright so it was 11, but how can you not include Stephen Fry? And now for what I have been doing or not, there has been no real cooking, baking or knitting. Mostly I've been psyching myself up for school it's reached that critical point. Blerh! Is all I can say about it.
However I did make a batch of Nigella's Cranberry and Apple Chutney, very very nice. I can not recommend it highly enough.

After next week I hope to return to normal programming!

Grand Designs Revisited

Was intrigued by tonight's episode of Grand Designs on ABC, I guess it made me think due to all the press coverage at the moment about the lack of public housing or just affordable housing generally.

Tonight's episode was about the Hedgehog Co-op, basically a bunch of people looking for secure rentals. And through an agreement with a housing association land was purchased and they built their own very basic houses to live in. They don't own the houses but rent them from the housing association. But at the end of the day they get a secure reasonable rental and somewhat of a slightly improved lifestyle.

But this wasn't an isolated projects there had been other similar projects to create housing for people in this vein. Which is what intrigues me, not everybody would have the capability or the inclination to to build a house to live in, especially at the end of the day if all you get is the right to rent it and not own it outright.

Maybe instead of people jumping up and down and pointing at the government saying you should build more houses their are people without homes who want one. We are to an extent a very lucky country, there is government benefits, their are welfare organizations, in a time of trouble there should be no reason why anybody who wants help can't get it.
It's perhaps time to look outside the box and consider projects like this, there are people who would be willing and able to surely construct a basic home like the ones on tonight's episode of GD, in a way it would still be government funded but the labour could come from those going to live in them.

Reading back there is a word I want to describe what this all sounds like to me, but I can't think of it, I think what I want is certian political schools of thought? Europe keeps popping into my head but I think that has more to do with a vague thought I have on a story I saw of factories in some European countries being turned over to worker ownership and something to do with productivity ratios.

It will no doubt come to me.

Delivered as promised!

Here are the Best Ever Cafe Scones...
This was the Gingerbread Apricot Pudding from Slow Cooker by Sally Wise, which she stipulated be done only in a 4.5L slow cooker. Well I had the choice of a 3.5L or a 5.5L, so I went with the 3.5L after the specified cooking time the batter was still uncooked in the very center of the pudding. I wil try it again as the bits that were cooked where delicious but I will either add cooking time to it in the 3.5L or test it in the 5.5L.

This was the Fruity Bread and Butter Custard which was a raging success! It was absolutely delicious but my mother refused to eat it because it was a "baked custard" but it wasn't, to eat it it was like a really luscious soft spongy fruit pudding. Divine!


Here's some dished up....It may look quite brown on top because right near the end of cooking time you sprinkle a mix of brown sugar and cinnamon on top of it.

I made a list of everything we have tried from Sally Wise's Slow Cooker book and the thoughts on the various things we've made.

Tilly's Indian Sweet Curry Beef - It was sweet, and no one liked it at all.

Goulash with Herb Dumplings - So far this has been the most popular dish we've tried, not surprising it's absolutely delish with a bit of a bite!

Hedgehogs - Lovely, even if most of the rice worked it's way out into the sauce and some of the balls fell apart. Still good to eat.

Meatballs with Spicy Barbecue Sauce - YUM! YUM!

Satay Chicken - Lovely, I do like a good satay sauce and this was wonderful.

Citrus Chicken - Everybody including my mother ate this but Miss Stash said after she hadn't liked it. It was lemon and orange, we are talking of trying it again bit with a lemon-lime combo instead.

Bedevilled Chicken - Once again something everyone ate but Miss Stash apparently dosen't like this either.

Black Forest Self-Saucing Pudding - The first pudding we attempted in the slow cooker, I think of Dylan Moran talking about a cake from a French bakery and how you want to get a room and be alone with your cake because it's that good. That was this pudding! I bought pitted cherries but one of them turned out to have a stone in it, next time I might give them all a prod with a fork just to check them.

Savoury Beef - I didn't like this, it didn't actually taste of anything. I'd certainly add more of something to it. But everyone else seemed to like it.

And of course the above photoed Apricot Gingerbread Pudding and Fruity Bread and Butter Custard!
We also have the Year in a Bottle by Sally Wise, not yet made anything from it, but I am very excited to try a number of things. My preserving these days seems to be limited to a large batch of apricot jam once a year.
When I was much younger and my grandparents were also much younger they had a huge garden and I can reall my fave times being when we went to visit on holidays when everything was ready to be picked and helping to make jams and bottle the fruit.
Although there was also freezing of vegetables, but the best job you could get here was if you were put in charge of sucking the air out of the bags with the vacumn pump, it did seem a bit like magic.

Somewhere over a rainbow..

...there are pictures! I promise, I need to go and get the camera and download them.

I have photos of the Fruity Bread and Butter Custard I made in the slow cooker last night, and photos of the Apricot Gingerbread Pudding I made in it today.

There is also some of the Best-Ever Cafe Scones I baked this afternoon and some less than successful biscuits I tried for the first time, didn't realise quite how much they would spread on baking! Oh well live and learn.

see more Lolcats and funny pictures

Slow Cooker to Somewhere

I have a picture of the Meatballs in Barbecue Sauce I took of the leftovers on toast, and will try to post it later.

Slow Cooker by Sally Wise has been pawed through numerous times, drooled over, discussed and pawed through some more.

So far we've made Satay Chicken, delish! Meatballs in Barbecue Sauce (will post the picture later), also yummy. And the last thing made out of the book was Hedgehogs last night, we're eating the leftovers for tea so I will get a photo of those as well. Most of the rice seemed to make it's way into the sauce, but it was still yummy.
And I must say so far everything has been very mild, which means it officially passes the test of being safe to serve to my mother and grandparents, who can only eat very plain things.

On the complete flip side we had Curry in a Hurry for lunch today, we changed the green veg up a bit this time and added spinach and broad beans in with the peas and green beans. The spinach is ayes for next time, the only one who liked the broad beans was my Dad. Which means there out.

Hopefully photos....

Miss Stash and I while out shopping the other week spied the book Slow Cooker by Sally Wise (the woman who wrote A Year In A Bottle and also appears on local radio doing a cooking segment), we'd seen it in the paper so pounced upon it in the shop with glee.

We made the Satay Chicken of which alas I have no photos, should have taken some before it all got eaten. But today were trying the Meatballs in Barbecue Sauce, they smell fantastic so I can't wait for them to be done to try them.
Although so far the sauce is rather limited, I don't know how it'll go in the cooker, as there seemed to be enough to just coat the meatballs.

I will try to get photos of the meatballs when there ready tonight!

First off today pictures from one of my current WIP the Punky Peacock Mini-Handwarmers

This is what Miss Stash cooked for our Dad's day lunch today, it came from Kylie Kwong's Simple Chinese Cooking and is Dry-Fried Szechaun Beef only we made it with chicken and was equally delicious.

This was my contribution to lunch, at the complete opposite side of the cooking spectrum, Apple Crumble.

Yesterday the Adult Education Spring guide came out in the paper. I am always excited to see what they offer as there are always at least a 100 things I'd like to try in it.
This time round I was taken with permaculture, sustainable design, yoga, salsa, hooping(OMG!!!) and just about all the cooking and food related ones (including one on making Camembert and sour cream!).

Alas while in the time stakes I'd so be a millionaire, in the actual liquidity I am bit of a pauper. At over $100 the yoga has been crossed off my list. While I appreciate I'm paying for the benefit of someone's time and expertise I just wish that everything wasn't so expensive! And for those inquiring minds, that $100+ price tag is the concession price!

In the summer the main park in town has free activity's like yoga and Tai Chi funded (at least partially if not all) through the local council. But thanks to the local weekly paper that comes around I discovered that there is some talk of trying to set up these sorts of activity's in the small park that's about 3min walk from my house. I'm not going to hold my breath, but I certainly would be quite excited if they managed to get it off the ground.

Although with how the weather has been it's hard to imagine going to the park for anything! But it has been perfect for Curry in a Hurry, which reminds me while picking up the green curry paste I finally found yellow curry paste! I've always wanted to try Nigella's Yellow Thai Seafood and Pumpkin Curry although she also talks about going vegetarian with it as well leaveing out the seafood and adding chickpeas among other things which also sounds yummy.

What's all the hoopla about?

Look what was delivered by a man in a van earlier today!
What could it be now??? A bird? A plane? A speeding bullet? Superman?
Ahh shiny! My precious!
Mine is the "Disco Tiger" and Miss Stash is the "Ruby", which I looked at and nearly ordered because it looked suitably goth but was torn between gothdom and tigerism, a hard place to be. Miss Stash stepped in and changed her original choice as she thought she'd much like one with red better.
Here's a photo we tried to take to show, as Miss Stash told me when we ordered how the Tiger would go so much better with my hair! Not perhaps the best shot, but you get the idea.
After all that, I am glad I got the Tiger, I did have doubts I mightn't like it as much when it got here and I saw Miss Stash's red Ruby one. But now they are here the Ruby is no where near as gothy as I expected and I must admit red is an excellent colour on Miss Stash, it just makes me look like Death warmed up.

Now for the important points!
1. It is so much fun, even if I am terrible at it.
2. My dad of course upon seeing the hoops had to have a turn himself.
3. Miss Stash's bold claims to being short and not needing to worry about hitting the ceiling/lights were soon dashed.
4. An idea of how much room is in one of these babies, Miss Stash and I can both fit inside one with space left over, granted not much, but it's there!
5. Following on from point 4, our minds then boggled at just how big the Tandem hoops must be!
6. I only hope by the time summer officially happens I'm adept enough to pop down to the park and practice - in public! Eeep!

More thoughts of the day brought to you from the Darkside....

There is some seriously tasty things at school, and I am not talking about simply what the cafteria offers up to eat. (However there fruit slads where delish however the last one put me off as the pineapple was sour and rock hard.) A pity there all so young, I'm not ready to join the Cougar tribe yet. Theres plenty of other misbehaviour I can get up to inbetween now and then.

I am sooooo excited about hooping it's not funny, I can't have a conversation that dosen't eventually come round (tee hee!) to it with anyone at the moment. I haunt You Tube and hooping forums looking to get my fix. One of my faves has to be this one - Klara Lova .
And thnaks to a year of Sheila Kelley and her S Factor my hips move pretty good now so bring on the hoop!

There's a "Doctors & Nurses" night coming up in the school bar, yep, people get to come dressed up as Doctors and Nurses and I do believe there are prizes and best of all $5 cocktails! I may have to pop along if I'm free that night and see the hijinks and imbibe a free drinks.

We hae recently acquiered new TV channels locally and while I can get channel GO!, and very pleased about it I am, I love Seinfield! And a bit of Dog the Bounty Hunter (is his son good looking or what?). I am disappointed the dedicated sports channel One is High Definition only and my poor sad Standerd Definnition tv won't play it. Which is a tad disappointing not that I like sport, and I don't think I'll miss not be able to see Extreme Paintball or 101 motor sports, but I was keen to see UFC Wired. You can't be a fan of wrestling and not know about UFC, sheer nosiness prompts me to want to see what it's all about. Note to self - search You Tube.

I signed up for a "mature age student" acedmic workshop (with free lunch!), while I was mostly keen on the free lunch the prospect of having a workshop on essay writing seemed really helpful. Unfortunatly the majority of people who RSVP'd for this also had a clash with classes. So they've moved the day and time and now it clashes when I have a class. Farewell free lunch, I'm sure given the chance we could have gotten to know each other well.

Just thought I'd write a few points, far too much on my mind to write something cohesive today.

1. School rocks! If Law didn't mean trekking to the opposite end of the state I'd seriously consider majoring in it.
2. Yoga is good. It does offer up some quietness in my head for a little while. Nice to focus on nothing for a short while.
3. Seriously dejunked my home, I'm amazed how much stuff was just rubbish essentially. Next is the wardrobe, although it's been slightly sad in some ways. OMG I remember buying and wearing that about 10 years and 4 sizes ago...yeesh!
4. Princess Farhana one of my fave ladies has a blog! Very exciting. I first struck her in burlesque performances but she's also quite an accomplished belly dancer while I knew she specilised in Egyption she seems to have branched out in other forms most notebly the style that's got me intrgued Tribal Fusion.
5. Miss Stash bought me a Hello Kitty Halloween toy from one of those vending machine like gumball machines. While not overly enthused about Hello Kitty I do love the Halloween aspect of it, I so need the other 4 designs!!!! Tee hee!
6. The Moody Blues yarn I'm knitting up looks not blue at all but is extremly funky and once I finish my mini-hand warmers I am going to knit some lacey wristwarmers with what is left.
7. I found Stephen Fry a bit quick last Sunday night, but loved Tony Robinson's Crime and Punishment on Tuesday. Having just done a crash course start in what is law and where it comes from it was doubly interesting because I could relate it to something I already know.
8. I love YouTube, where would I be without it? It offers up many joys that make me squel with delight Steven Tyler and hooping are just two of them.

Alright enough thoughts for today. Now I need to finally decipher how I get my Twitter widget on my page....

Thought 9....
Just finished sitting through Dance Your A$$ Off, there was pole dancing on the ad for it. Pole dancing is next week apparently or the "stripper pole" as they call it. While I can't see it being featured on Dancing With The Stars here, there was a Latin American show called Dancing For a Dream where one week they had pole dance. There were some clips up on YouTube, and talk about hot, hot, hot! While I'm not quite expecting that on next week's Dance Your A$$ Off, I would like to see it crossing-over into more of the main-stream.

Always on my mind

I haven't blogged in awhile I know. I keep meaning to write one, I sit down and stare at the blinking cursor while I try to find something to write about.

The trouble is there are so many things I'd like to write about, literally gazillions, there is always so many things that peak my interest and I want to talk about. Things I like, things I hate, things I lurrrve and things that make me go PHWOARRRRR!!!

But I stop and think will any of it make good reading? Is it all just meaningless dribble? The Internet is a wonderful thing it allows anybody to write about anything.
I also like being a square peg myself the fact it opens up an entire world of available square holes, this rocks and makes me feel better no end.

I never seem to make it to the cinemas to see anything despite my best intentions, but I am hoping to get to Bruno or the new Harry Potter before they close. Also in movie news I am both eagerly awaiting and dreading the World of Warcraft movie. It could be so good or so awful....
Another movie I'd like to see is the Hooping Life when it's finally released. Hooping looks like such fun, besides I've thrown myself at enough other things one more shouldn't hurt.



See uber fun or what?

What the???

Mobiles, crop-tops, perfumes: Would YOU buy these items for your children?

We all knew the world was mad didn't we???

Knitter warm thyself!

Here they are finally done, I finished them on Tuesday, I wore them out for the first time today, not quite warm enough for today's weather unfortunately I don't think. May need to work on something thicker.
(Side note: Still the only project on Rav is mine, I am Googling now, someone else somewhere has to have made these???)

I was out yesterday, and had taken my needles and the yarn to start the matching leg warmers to go with my new arm warmers but discovered I had forgotten my pattern. Always something, but the elderly lady I was visiting lent me some needles and offered me a selection of yarn choices from her stash so I'd have something to do.

I give you what I have dubbed Bubblegum Lolita...

The yarn is something she bought from a discount store while holidaying in Queensland, I'd take a confident guess that it's acrylic by the feel. But anything else about it is a mystery.

I am making a textured scarf with it, a very simple 6 pattern repeat and I absolutely love it. It is so not what I'd normally buy myself, but the colours were so funky I couldn't resist them at all.

I'll try and take a picture of the current view outside, a real pea souper if ever there was one. And having watched the a documentary about the alleged Vampire Princess from Bohemia who may have inspired Bram Stoker, well what can I say? Now I'm all inspired!
Edit - Here it is! Imagine if you will a mad woman hanging out a window to take this, a wild haired woman in slinky arm warmers having vague photo journalist aspirations...

(Another)Edit - Not sure about the swirly smoke, maybe someones fire? I don't think I really got what I was hoping for.