Filling Good?

My first Chinese New Year in 15? Years

2009-01-26T12:47:00.002+11:00

Well I will be wrapping up this blog with a few more shots which were taken in Australia but never posted due to the mammoth task of moving overseas. Be pre-warned it is not for the faint hearted or the light in pocket. But Richard and I have already moved and are here nicely cooking away in the humidity.

Today is the first day of the lunar new year, my first here in Singapore in about 15 years. Still haven't quite gotten back into the swing of things as I used to love it even way more than Christmas. Mostly due to the fact that I could see all my relatives and visit their homes. My cousins would show me what was new and cool with them and of course you get a much fatter piggy bank from all the traditional gifts of money in red packets. And not to forget the food!

Anyway, hope one and all have a wonderful Chinese New Year of the Ox with lots of yummy goodness. May your larders always be full and may you be blessed and successful in your every endeavour.

Where in the world is Rachel?

2008-12-28T23:05:00.002+11:00

Haven't posted in more than a month due to the fact that we are moving ... not just within the same town, or state or even country ... but back to the country of my birth. The house is shambles, we are sleeping on the floor and yet there is still heaps of packing and cleaning to be done.

Flying off on the 6th but due to work pressures, am working up until the 31st!! Country dentistry around christmas time is extremely busy. Have been taking a few pics so hopefully can do a Bathurst post of the town and food before I fly out but not sure how it will go.

One thing though is that the blog won't be right with the same URL so have been toying with a few other names such as islandfillings, seachangefillings, urbanfillings to name a few. Any other suggestions?

Anyway off to packing again. Hope to write again before the new year but if not, hope one and all have a wonderful New Year!

Trail Riding at Yarrabin

2008-11-10T23:33:00.006+11:00

Even though our lives are getting more and more upside down (all will be revealed soon) and every weekend is full up until the start of January, we had to squeeze in a trail ride as Richard had gotten it for me for a present last anniversary and it was due to expire soon. So two weekends ago, we went to the sleepy village of O'Connell about 20 minutes drive from Bathurst and went for a trail ride. This was at a farmstay/ranch place called Yarrabin.

The people there were quite friendly and helpful but also laid back so you didn't feel hurried or rushed. I ticked a beginner level of riding as I have not done much at all, especially in the last 7 years so I got paired with an old horse, Cocoa. He was always much more interested in eating and drinking than trotting so I guess we were quite well matched.

You got a rock to stand on to help you get on your horse. Richard gets help adjusting his stirrups after getting on his horse, Dan.

The horses seemed to be a mixed type breed and all of them were pretty placid so we petted them before it was time to get on.
We went through some forests and I felt pretty challenged as the guides tried to encourage you to get to the next level. For me this was learning to trot. It was a tad bit scary and I kept having images of smashing into a low branch ala Hollywood movies. However, I got a bit more confident as the ride wore on. Our guides would watch and give us tips to help us get more comfortable. Richard even got to canter.

Some of the views were gorgeous and we got to see some kangaroos and of course cows on the property. Times like that make me feel really fortunate to be living out here and have all this fresh air and beautiful scenery so readily accessible. I wish I had taken more time to go out and engage in more activities like these when they are literally in my backyard. The other people on the ride were a bit more experienced but there were a few guides with us and they always made sure someone stayed with Richard and myself. While the trotting bits were pretty exciting, I sure was glad of the times it was just a walk!

Every muscle was aching in my body the next few days. No wonder most horse people are in shape. Trotting is good when you get in rhythm with your horse but when you're not ... you feel about as classy as a sack of potatoes bouncing along.

Speaking of which, these aren't the best photos but Richard got so excited about this dish that he made me take photos of it and write down what I did. It doesn't have a name but it is loosely a cross between a lagsane and a moussaka.

I made up a meat sauce with pasta sauce, mince and spinach. 225gms mince to a 375gm jar of sauce and small packet of frozen spinach. Then, I layered thin slices of eggplant (about half a large one) with cheese, the meat sauce and a small sweet potato sliced thin. I used a parmesan type cheese as well as cheddar for extra flavour.

Here is a picture of a slice. It was really flavoursome and the sweet potato really leant an extra dimension to the tomato sauce and all the cheesey and tomato flavours were absorbed by the eggplant. So this was a creation I was pretty happy about :) Any suggestion on a name?

High Tea @ Home

2008-10-21T22:35:00.004+11:00

We had a high tea catch up with my orthodontist employer on the weekend. We had to squeeze it in as the weeks are flying by and he and his wife are also terribly busy. This is a photo of the set up in our living room before they arrived. One of the charms of living in a 104 year old house is that it has fireplaces. The dining room was the first room we finished doing up and it simply needed some curtains put in. The buffet on the left of the fireplace was from ikea.
Cheese platter with grana padano cheese and a King Island Dairy Stormy washed rind cheese, a pork and pine nut terrine from a local french patisserie, Legall. Also, home made finger sandwiches with smoked salmon, philly cream cheese and cucumber alternated with mango, avocado sweetchilli salsa, smoked chicken and snow pea sprouts. The padano was nice and rich and nutty, the stormy is one of our favourites for a soft cheese having a lot of depth to the orangey outside but a sweet and buttery inside.
We also had little sweet treats for Legall sold at average $2.50 each chocolate choux, japonaise (merengue type biscuit sandwiched with hazelnut cream), fruit tart and lemon tarts. All of them were outstanding, the chocolate choux had a really nice and rich chocolate filling. The lemon tart was a bit bitey and sour for my husband but I found it perfect and the pastry was light as air and biscuity.

They brought champagne and so we had a champagne high tea! It was the first time his wife and seen our place and she really liked the high decorated pressed metal ceilings so I guess that might be a post for another day.

Legall Patisserie can be found at 56 Keppel St Bathurst (02) 6331 5800

Anniversary dinner @ 9inety 2wo

2008-10-12T00:15:00.004+11:00

5 years ago on the 27th of September, Richard and I got married. For better or for worse it has been a quick journey. We have discovered alot about ourselves and each other. I am always grateful that he moved out to the country and we could date not long distance and later after we got married also found a job in the country.

We spent alot of our anniversary day working. I worked in the morning and then in the afternoon we went to hire a floor sander and sanded the floors of our deck - I guess we might be getting more like country folk than we think! I recall watching a show on the ABC (Australian Broadcasting Corporation - the documentary channel) when they interviewed women who worked on a property ( thats the local name for farms or ranches) about relationships and romance. The lady replied, " Well we work on fencing posts together... I guess thats pretty romantic."

Well the city part of us got all dressed up after a hard days work and went to another modern Australian restaurant in town. Our favourite, The Treehouse seems to have lost its chef. We have learnt this is quite common in country restaurants ... the food business has quite a high turnover in staffing and chefs and owners.

Anyhow, this to us is a second favourite and we come here for their lunches when Richard is on school holidays as I work across the road on Wednesdays. It has a creative name 9inety 2wo as its address is Ninety Two Bentinck St.

As you can see it has quite an extensive menu to suit most tastes. We started off with some appetizers.
The cumin roast olive salad - we thought it was an actual salad but the olives were quite tasty and although a generous amount, went quickly. The semi dried tomato and rocket pesto dip with flat bread. This was freshly made, the dips full of flavour and again a generous serve for the price.
Here is a shot of the room which shows it has nice ambience. It wasn't too crowded so it was quite romantic. In the winter, the double sided fireplace is always going.

My main, the braised lamb shoulder in tomatoes with buttered kipfler potatoes, green beans and lemon gremolata. I began to understand why this restaurant is not as popular as it could be. In the past we must have ordered all the hits. For the first time, I got a miss. This was quite an oily mess in the pot. Whilst the lamb was quite tender, it tasted like the stews my mum used to throw in the crockpot before work. There was no hint of lemon gremolata. The best part of the dish was the beans and potatoes and I couldn't finish any of it because the stew was that dense. The potatoes were really well baked with crispy skins and tender flesh, the beans were firm and tasty. It was a pity that for the first time, I had to leave half a main. We ordered a side of steamed vegetables. The portion seems to have shrunk since the last time, however, they were well done and still firm and crunchy yet not underdone.

Richard's main of chicken breast kiev with Oberon black truffle and herb butter, kipfler potatoes,cabbage and green peppercorn cream. The chicken was really well done, not overcooked. I tasted a bit of it but it was very quickly finished so at least one of us had an enjoyable main!

Ahh the best part ... dessert. This was pure genius of layered chocolate cake with fudge and a shot of espresso poured over it topped with ice cream affogato style and served with pistachio biscotti. We were pretty full but shared this. It really made you want more but our tummies had no more real estate.
A trio of coffees. Our dessert, my irish coffee which is really well done here and Richard's cappuccino. I'm glad that Bathurst has pretty good dining options for a town of 35,000. Hopefully we can touch on a few more before the end of the year.

P/S That was a shot of one of our mini- wedding cakes saved from 5 years ago which lives in a tin at the back of our freezer. We contemplated eating it this year but thought we might save it for our 10th!

9inety 2wo

92 Bentinck St
Bathurst NSW 2795
+612 63321757

Lebanese Sweets 2.0 !

2008-09-22T23:00:00.003+10:00

On a roll after my last encounter with a lebanese dessert shop, I decided I had to visit another. The Good Living Guide had a brief review about a new lebanese sweet shop that had opened in Parramatta, Sydney. This is a branch of a chain in lebanon called Sea Sweet.

The cafe was modern and clean. We arrived just before 6 pm and thus was not a popular time for desserts or coffees but it was good as it meant we were served promptly. People wandered in to check out the lebanese sweets on offer in the glass showcases to the left. Like El Sweetie, Sea Sweet also catered for Aussie tastes with many different western cakes and pastries on offer as well.

However, I was there to quench my curiosity to try new things. We studied the middle eastern dessert menu for a while. (click on it for a bigger version)

The fruit cocktail is a signature dish of theirs, supposedly with a sweetened pureed avacado base, fresh fruits and topped with kashta and nuts. However, we decided to leave that for another time. Richard went for the Kashta Mix.

This was 5 pieces of assorted pastries made on kashta, a clotted cream sweet cheese. The kashta here was very different to the one we had at El Sweetie! It was more savoury and had a texture less like whipped marshmallow and more like cottage cheese. I really liked this version much better. It went so well with the assorted crispy and flaky pastry laced with rose syrup. There was a little dish of additional syrup to pour if neccessary, however I found them perfect the way they were. The kashta found in each pastry was slightly different too, laced with different nuts.

I went for Knefe -Cheese. The waitress asked if I wanted the bun filled or unfilled. I said that I had never tried it before and so I wasn't sure. She was surprised that I was trying this and commented on my bravery. She then suggested she put the bun on the side but when she served it she gave instructions to open the bun, scoop all the mixture in, pour over syrup and press down and enjoy.

I decided to try the Knefe au naturale first before trying it with their "signature bun".

Action shot of the stretchy cheese.

Wow! One bite of this stuff and I was in heaven. Because we arrived on 6 pm (if you read the menu, it is only available at certain times and in the evening only after 6 pm) The kenefe was freshly made. It was a stretchy mozarella type slightly sweet cheese sandwiched between layers of sweet buttery, crunchy semolina. The cheese was slightly chewy yet melted in the mouth. It did not have a chees-ey type flavour at all and neither was it oily. It was extremely tasty and I remember the pillowy texture more than anything else *sigh*.

I ate some of it on half the bun and finished all the knefe but left the other half a bun. Richard had 4 pieces of his and left the large triangular piece. The waitress congratulated us on our effort. We took the last piece away as well as bought some of the baklava and other assorted lebanese pastries. The take away container was really cool. It had the company logo embossed in it and was the quality of a tupperware type container!

My long black (average) which came with one of their petit fours (nice and light).

While we were deciding which ones to get, the guy behind the counter gave us a few sample pieces to try! We were just about exploding at this point so I had to nibble on mine and put the rest away in the take away container. Our take away selection of sweets which we have started sampling.

The filo here is much more buttery and light than at El Sweetie, almost too? flaky for me. I also found the semolina in the Namoura not as crunchy and a bit too sweet. The nut ratio in the sweets is a bit higher though and the pistachios are chunkier within the pastries themselves.

Personally, the eat in desserts here win hands down. The service was much better with really friendly staff. However, I tend to like the pastries themselves at El Sweetie better. Price wise, both places are a great bargain. Our total including a Diet coke for Richard and the take away came to $33.50. We didn't even need to have dinner after that. Having a whole dessert for dinner was a first for me. I have to say I quite like the idea and would be open to doing it again!

Sea Sweet Australia
354-356 Church St Parramatta
1300 90 80 70

Having a whale of a time

2008-09-11T22:56:00.007+10:00

Pardon the pun ... this post is about 3 months old but it has been sitting at the back of my mind for a while now as it was quite a memorable event. It will be the last in the sequence of our weekend away to the south coast during the Queens Birthday long weekend in June. We made our way to the town of Huskisson which was about half an hours drive south of Gerringong. It turned out to be a really touristy type of town with your ubiquitous ice cream store, numerous take away shops touting the usual Aussie fast food such as fish and chips, hamburgers, roast chicken, tired salads etc. However, we were there just to check out some whale action! So after booking ourselves on a 3 hour cruise, we decided to get some lunch before the tour started. We knew we didn't feel like fast food so we decided on one of the two cafes. This one, names Supply was also moonlighting as a deli and corner store with some tired looking, expensive fruit and vegetables. Also some "gourmet" type cookies, condiments and candy. I had a pumpkin, goats cheese and baby spinach salad.

At $12.50 it was passable... tasty, a bit greasy but on the smaller side. It was a blessing in disguise. Richard's burger, also $12.50 This was pretty good! I think he got the better deal. It was on toasted Turkish bread, with char grilled veggies, onion jam, bacon, a thick burger patty and of course being Aussie ... beetroot! After lunch, we walked Magic at the off leash area before finding him some undercover parking to snooze in the car whilst we went off. Our vessel to bringeth us ~~whaling~~ whale watching A picture taken from the top tier of the boat of the shore opposite the departure point. Quite pretty ... We chanced upon the resident dolphins within the bay and the skipper gave us a bit of a commentary about them. They were really cute and swam alongside the boat for a bit.

This is called point perpendicular. It formed one of the sides of the "gateway" separating Jervis Bay from the big bad ocean.

However, in order to spot whales, one had to travel out to the ocean .. hence we became whale paparazzi. The boat was literally tailing these whales, getting as close as was legal to them so we could get a good glimpse of these beautiful creatures. We only spotted "teenage" type whales though and they were extremely hard to see against the gray sea. I guess camouflage is good. You only knew they were there from the occasional sea spray from their spouts.

The sea was mighty choppy out in the open ocean. The smiling staff handed out hospital type seasick bags efficiently as soon as we were past the headlands. They were pretty used to it and the rocking didn't seem to bother them. Unfortunately, it bothered about a quarter of us. Richard succumbed to it first, followed by myself. And as I mentioned before, I was glad My lunch was half the size of his because, with the hospital style sick bags (complete with twist lock) you could see exactly what volume of stomach contents had been expelled! FYI Richards was an impressive 1 L (4 quarts!) and mine was 500ml. We returned to shore after three hours feeling pretty weary. If it was any consolation, the skipper mentioned cheerily that we did much better than the morning tour group!

Supply
Shop 1 54 Owen St
Huskisson 2540 NSW
Phone: (02) 4441 5815

Jervis Bay Whales
50 Owen St
Huskisson 2540
Phone (02) 4441 6341
http://www.jervisbaywhales.com.au/

Flat out ...

2008-08-11T22:45:00.003+10:00

*Sigh* been so busy lately that i feel the days are going by like lightning. I love spending time with friends both here in Bathurst and in Sydney but work has also been getting busier. Hence, I get home later and my whole day gets thrown out more. Been also getting to know more Bathurst people so we tend to do stuff in the evenings or on weekends, leaving less time for housework and other neccessary but boring stuff. I have still yet to unpack and sort out some cartons from our move last April!

Its odd that twice now I have noticed that patient base seems to pick up just after the two year mark. It must take that amount of time for word to get around and for people to decide they need to see a dentist again and since they survived the last visit, they probably could bear to see you again.

I know our last move was neccessary for Richard to not have to drive 1000 kms a week and be zombie-fied every night. However, since I left Cowra, there has been no one taking up the position at my old surgery. This is sad as most dentists are unwilling to work in the country. Most city folk don't even know something exists over the Blue Mountains! Hence, the waiting list in Cowra to see my old employers is about a month long, even with him working until 7 pm or later most nights!

As a result, some of my old Cowra regulars make the 100 km trip to come and see me! Also some other people in desperate toothaches as well. Its a fair drive just to see a health care professional. Hopefully someone will take up the position soon.

Just as we were getting comfortable, the wheels may be in motion for rusticfillings to not be so rustic in 2009. Its not concrete yet but we had talked about it over the years and there is probably going to be another move at the end of this year. More details as time goes on ...

Anyway, hopefully will get to post more on assorted stuff soon. Meanwhile, put two pics of my most favourite dog in the world up as I haven't done so in a while :)

Winter comfort food - orr nee

2008-07-27T15:35:00.004+10:00

It is right in the heart of winter here now, with heavy morning frosts and our water taps froze a couple of times last week. But not just because it is cold and one's thoughts automatically wander to warm rich food, I have been yearning on and off the last few years to have a teo chew (chau zhou) yam dessert my grandmother used to make. It is not commonly found but it can be bought at a few selected stalls in Singapore. I bought a serve the last time we were back but it just wasn't the same. Only hers and a few Teochew restaurants just taste right.

Unfortunately, my grandmother is now bedridden and doesn't communicate anymore, so I am unable to let her know how much I miss her or her cooking. Well I guess I could but realistically I am not sure that she would understand. The worst part about being this far away from the place I grew up in is that each time I return, she seemed that much more frail and the last two years, she couldn't recognise me anymore. The previous years when I held her hand, she still squeezed it although she didn't say much. And of course even 6 or 7 years ago, I could still talk to her on the telephone.

Anyway, the last time in Sydney, I actually bought a taro (purple yam) and decided to have a hand at making it. I always knew that the original recipe would be quite unhealthy as it calls for copius amounts of lard and sugar. I decided to research it on the internet. A google search of "orr nee", "or nee" and "yam paste" brought about some recipe results. The simplest of which was found on Rasa Malaysia's blog. Although there is a great picture from wikipedia here

It is sometimes made without pumpkin but it is very often made with ginko nuts. I didn't have any gingko nuts but for those interested, there is a recipe here for those with access to ginko nuts.

Taro Paste country healthy style

1 Taro (about 500-600 gms)- cubed
1 cup soy milk
half cup castor sugar
2 tbsp peanut oil
water as desired

Some recipes suggest to boil the taro pieces but I know my grandma used to steam them. I microwaved them until tender. I then transferred them into a large saucepan and started mashing them and adding some water, the soy milk and caster sugar and oil slowly over a low heat until it was a smooth paste. For those who would prefer a much smoother and richer (and more authentic) taste, lard or more oil can be used in the place of the water and soy milk. Sugar can also be added to the desired taste, however, the main aim of the taro is to get the rich tasty texture and the sugar enhances rather than dominates the flavour.

Or nee is sometimes made with coconut milk or served with a splash of coconut milk. This is probably the southeast asian version. Amazingly coconut milk is difficult to find in the country. Most supermarts sell coconut cream but not milk.

I enjoyed mine with a splash more soy milk which added to the nutty taste. While it didn't taste like grandma's it was enough to remind me of home and was definitely comforting! Always served hot, to me it is like hot ice-cream!

A blue lagoon afternoon

2008-07-23T23:22:00.006+10:00

The boat usually cruises while we lunch to another island or another beach on an island. At about 2:15 the afternoon shore excursions start. Most days it was to a beach where once again, we would park ourselves somewhere.

The crew would set up the afternoon tea table but if you notice to the right of it, another table is also set up... yes! It is a massage table for those who would like a beach massage under the coconut trees. It cost FJ $30 for 20 minutes but neither of us got round to getting one. We were too busy trying to fit in snorkelling which can actually be quite addictive!

A word of warning about coconut trees to those who haven't had much experience with them... coconuts can actually fall quite suddenly without warning. Hence it is always wise to see where you are parking your mat. Richard was quite shocked to find after coming back with a scone for afternoon tea one day, a coconut about a foot from his mat when there wasn't one 3 minutes before! I am sure if Newton had been lying under a coconut tree he wouldn't have discovered gravity.

For something different, one afternoon we had a sulu (local word for sarong) tying demonstration. I learnt about six different ways to tie it other than just as a long skirt! They also demonstrated how the guys wear it, tucked in closer to the front rather than the side.
Yet another day, on one of the islands with a hill, Henry the cruise director organised a hill climb (aka hike aka bushwalk). The view was quite magnificent.
This was a pic of a village house on one of the islands we swam at. We were told not to approach any of the villages as it was a big cultural no-no unless we had been welcomed through the official Yaqona ceremony. At most of the beaches though some of the village women would set up a little shell markets selling mostly sulus, laquered shells or necklaces and bracelets made from shells and seeds.
Outside pic of what was our home for 7 days. There was usually an afternoon snorkel session followed by some afternoon tea at 3:30 pm. At 5 pm, the tender boats would start to take us back to the boat where there would be a large drop in water pressure as most people would freshen up for the evening.

Somewhere between 6:30 and 7:30 pm, some of the crew memebers would start playing music up in the bar/ lounge deck. There would usually be a tray or two of canapes and most of the passengers would wander in after they had freshened up. There would be chatting and laughter accompanied by a cocktail or drink. It was on the first night that we learnt there was a couple right from our town on the boat as well! What a small world! Although we had never met them before, the guy who owns a printing business actually printed for both the companies we work for.

The crew members would also come around and encourage us to do the island shuffle. This is a pic of Richard with Serevina one of the lovely girls who always helped with the morning and afternoon teas. The island shuffle consisted mostly of just stepping a few steps forward and back, holding each others hands behind the back. It was quite fun and there was no pressure for fancy steps.

Some of the nights had themes such as indian night, fancy hat night and fancy dress night. Not everyone participated but we did get into the spirit of things and it made for a few laughs. (Pics in a future post ... maybe ....)

At about 8 pm (kids ate earlier) we would all troop down for dinner. Most nights it was served buffet style but the first and third night was a sit down four course dinner with a choice of entree, soup, main and dessert. A lot of the meals were quite standard western fare. I was quite self conscious of snapping pics so these were the only two I snuck in.

My first entree at the captains dinner. Prawns in coconut broth with island fronds. The fronds were nice and tasted alot like seaweed. The coconut broth was served cool and was very mild in flavour. My chicken main at the dinner on the third night. Crumbed chicken stuffed with local spinach. Filling and tasty but nothing to write home about. Was sitting next to one of the girls from California who has finished her SATs and is going to UCLA in Fall. She said " I can't believe you just took a picture of your food." I tried to explain blogging to her but she didn't quite get it. Sadly, she also told us who won the Amazing Race by accident *sigh* Teenagers nowadays! If we ever have kids I hope they metamorph right into adults bypassing the teen stage.
Every night after dinner which would conclude at about 9 pm, most people would just head back to their cabins. There was a quiz night one night and a disco night another but I think most people weren't night owls. Our fellow passengers were lovely and we made quite firm friends with a few of them. There were roughly 10 from NZ, 14 from Aus, 11 from the US, 2 from Norway and 2 from Italy. The largest contingent was from Fiji with 22 crew members. I can't believe that they do the same cruise 50 weeks of the year, yet they are so friendly and enthusiastic, you feel like you are just joining them for the first time! They cruise the 6 nights and have one night at home with their families and do 6 weeks on and one week off. That is a pretty hard life! Yet they are always laughing and giggling either with us or amongst themselves. Hopefully the sunny island attitude will stay with me the remainder of these cold winter months.

and there was this one time, at snorkel camp ....

2008-07-19T20:56:00.005+10:00

As we have had quite a stressful few months, we looked forward quite a lot to this trip, yet at the same time, besides reading up on a review on Cruisecritic.com we didn't do much preparation or have many expectations.

A typical day ran according to a schedule which was placed in your room during the evening turn down service the day before. While the activities were optional, unless feeling unwell, most people would participate in them. Since most of the day was spent swimming or snorkelling, after the first day, it felt a little like camp ... so Richard and I dubbed it snorkel camp :)

The cabins were quite roomy for ship standards. There was a small wardrobe and pantry/ minibar area with dressing table and lcd TV mounted on the wall. The LCD TV was merely turned off since there was no TV reception. There was a DVD player in the public bar area which you could put your own DVD in or borrow one (not sure how many titles they had) and then go back to your room and watch it. We only did this one quiet evening.

The bed was queen sized but had a strange lump in the middle. The bathroom was sort of a Formula1 motel moulded plastic type shower/ toilet combo. Fortunately there was also a vanity unit/ mirror to store your toiletries. The lovely crew would also make the floor mat fan shaped to pretty it up everyday. When we first arrived, they had also placed Singapore Orchids here and there for decoration.
I guess I'll do it as a two parter and run through a typical day in luxury snorkel camp. I will hopefully also finish off two separate posts on a village visit and a school visit.

There was the option of an early morning swim everyday with a wake up knock on your cabin door at 6 am. Although we thought about it a few times, that is as far as it got.

Breakfast was served in the dining room from 7:30- 9 am. Most days we made it there by about 8:30 am. I didn't get to take any photos at breakfast but everyday there was a hot buffet of bacon, sausages, baked beans, tinned spaghetti and pancakes or french toast. There was an egg station set up with eggs to order, including made to order omelettes with a choice of mushroom, ham, onion, capsicum or the lot. We had this twice and it was very well made and yummy. There was always a fruit platter, bread next to a conveyor-belt toaster ( I love those!), cereal and yogurt.

At 9:15, a tender boat would take us out to the morning island. Most days we would actually have sepearte spots in the morning and afternoon. We would then take a beach mat and beach towel which was provided and set up a nice spot for ourselves on the beach.
Whilst we were reading or swimming or walking or lazing around, the crew would be busy going back to the boat and retrieving trestle tables, table cloths, urns etc.

At 10:30 or thereabouts (remember we are running on Fijian time) there would be a holler of "moooorning tea!" Thereabouts we would look up and most of us would mosey over to see what the pastry of the moment is. (There was a dedicated pastry chef on board). It was amazing that every time it would be something different but there was always a fruit platter with the standard watermelon, pineapple and pawpaws. There was always a selection of teas and freeze dried coffee.

This would always be closely followed around 11 am with "snooooorkelling!" Whereby we would don our fins, mask and snorkels and either swim out like our own school of strange fish or the tender boats would drop us off to the reef spot. If we were far from shore, they would always circle us to make sure we were safe.
I have never been snorkelling before (unless you count using a shower cap and putting over my face and planting it into the bath tub when I was 6) yet I owned my own mask and snorkel, bought at a fair from a bargain bin (but it was so cheeeap!) Well! I sure am glad I had my own and brought it along! Snorkelling is truly amazing and we were fortunate to have a few guides point things out to us as we swam along, telling us which things we could touch and which to avoid. Before we knew it, we would be slowly swimming back to shore or signalled back onto the shore. There would then be a quick pack up of our things on the beach and the tender boats brought us back to the big boat for lunch.

Lunch was usually about 1 pm. There was different themes for the hot food section such as stir fry day, burger day, pasta day, BBQ day (which was on shore for something different) etc. And there was always the salad bar. The food was nothing that would make you go "wow" - with the exception of a very tasty bolognaise sauce on pasta day which had everyone getting seconds, even people putting it in bread "sloppy joe" style. Yet it was always freshly cooked, hearty and satisfying.
There was a coffee machine which produced pretty good coffee.
And ... to our surprise, there would be a fruit based type dessert with lunch. There was fruit cocktail the first day, these bananas rolled in cocoa and freshly grated coconut (simple yet divine) the second, chocolate mousse a third, trifle a fourth etc.
Next post ... the rest of the day ....

The Lovo - A traditional Fijian Feast

2008-07-14T23:18:00.006+10:00

A week ago, we came back from Fiji, most of our time spent in the Yasawa Islands. Our home was the Fiji Princess for 6 of the 7 nights were were there. The cruise company, Blue Lagoon Cruises were awesome and the crew took really good care of us. It was a wonderful way to visit many different islands and beaches, see lots of marine life when snorkling as well as participate in cultural activities. More in future posts.

If I thought Bathurst was rustic, I hadn't seen anything yet! These islands don't have any telephone lines and the village generators are run only on special occasions. While almost all of the meals we had were quite westernised, my favourite and most memorable was the lovo. A special Fijian feast usually prepared only at huge celebrations such as weddings, we were fortunate that it was part of our tour to experience it and we were invited to watch the cooks prepare it.

First, a hole about only as deep as your arm up to your elbow is dug. Depending on how much you are cooking for, a typical size is about 2 by 2 metres. Firewood is placed in the hole and a fire is lit. Medium sized rocks are then piled on top of the fire. When the rocks start glowing hot and the firewood has collapsed so the rocks have sunk into the hole (needs a bit of gentle persuasion from a shovel),

it is time to make a "grill" on which the wrapped meat and root vegetables rest. This is made of layered banana leaf stems.

Next various meat such as sides of pork, lamb, whole fish wrapped in banana leafs or foil as well as the traditional root vegetables dalo (or taro), cassava and kumela (local sweet potato), are laid onto the strong stems. I can't believe they weaved the baskets housing the meats and veggies so intricately!

A blanket of banana leaves is then laid on top.

And yet more banana leaves ... can't have too many banana leaves!

This is followed by coconut? fronds

Then some sack cloth ...

And finally some tarp ... nothing like a bit of plastic for insulation

Although an island beach party was planned, we had to have dinner back on board the boat as a torrential rain storm hit in the evening. The crew so nicely ferried us and then later our dinner back in the rain!

Simeli the head stewart ran through the different meats and vegetables and a few additional dishes. This included a divine local raw fish salad known as kokoda (pronounced kokonda) and cooked curried vegetables and sauteed local spinach.

My plate from the buffet...
Clockwise from bottom, piece of taro, curried veggies, lamb, pork sitting on a bed of rourou, kumela, bit of fish and cassava to the left of the fish. The root vegetables were cut extremely big and chunky. Though tasty and tender, they were extremely starchy and filling so I couldn't finish them. The meat was spectacular, all of it was fork tender and had the most exquisite smoky flavour. I think the rourou (local spinach) might also have been cooked in the lovo then sauteed because it also had that smoky flavour.

More pics and stories to come but this is one of my favourite pics, taken just off a village shore.

going away ...

2008-06-27T23:18:00.002+10:00

Wow the days have just flown by but the time for our holiday is coming up! A totally new country with a new cuisine. Sun , sea and surf to escape the harsh Bathurst winter ... can't wait ! Only 3.5 hours flight from Sydney. Only for a week though ... back soon to report and share :) Any guesses?

The Great Southern Hotel, Berry

2008-06-18T15:15:00.007+10:00

An icon on the main street of Berry, which is also part of the Princes Highway (a 900 plus km long highway joining Sydney to Melbourne) lies the Great Southern Hotel.

Both outside and in, the decor is wildly eclectic yet seems to harmonise and give it alot of character. Homage is paid alot to signs. The signpost has distances which vary from "Donut van 0.5 km" to "Melbourne 710 kms" to Grand Canyon 12,363 kms" ... Just in case you were lost. There are also a few boats mounted on the roof and a wall of hubcaps decorate the outside wall of the bottle shop (not in picture).

Inside, the main pub area has a chandelier made out of an old wagon wheel, a modern heater sits atop of an old fuel stove in the corner, a special bar seat is made out of an old saddle. There are lots of interesting things to look at.

A warning to all bears who dare enter ...
.. you might end up on the ceiling!

A trophy bucks head ... just nicely positioned over the video arcade game "Deer Hunter" to give you some incentive.

The main bistro area with polished log tables.

We decided on eating here on Sunday night after a day further south in the town of Huskisson. Ironically, Berry had a few more places open to eat in than a larger town on the way back. After checking out a few places and their menus, we decided on good ol' fashioned pub grub.

The menu was short but had lots of classics like beer battered fish and chips, caesar salad, steak, quiche and salad etc. We started with a plate of cajun spiced wedges to share ($8.80) as greasy potatoes were needed to settle our stomachs (will explain more in the next post).
Wedges are something I have grown to love since living in Australia. Similar in size to a US favourite, potato skins which I was more familiar with, they taste nothing like potato skins. They are fully peeled potatoes and cut into wedges, coated with a spicy coating and deep fried. Wonderful on their own especially when freshly cooked and crispy on the outside and mealy on the inside. However, some genius somewhere started dipping them first in sour cream and then in sweet chilli sauce! This craze has spread in the last 12 years and most bistros and take aways will serve them with these condiments either on top or on the side. Sometimes you do have to request and pay extra for them.

The combination of hot crispy, slightly salty wedges dipped in cool sour cream and then doused in the slightly sweet, sticky chilli sauce is a taste and textural sensation that is extremely addictive.

I had the chicken caesar salad ($13.50). No complaints here ... just the right amount of dressing, bacon, croutons and nice warm tender chicken.

Hubby ordered the quiche lorraine ($13) which came with a side of the nicest, crunchiest beer battered fries we have had in a long while. It makes me wonder how nice their beer battered fish would be. The quiche itself had a pastry which I found a bit greasy and heavy but my hubby said he had no problems with it. The filling was nice and cheesy and bacon-y.

Ahh ... Aussie pub grub. The fail-safe comfort food option especially on a cold winters night.

The Seahaven Cafe, Gerroa

2008-06-14T22:24:00.007+10:00

Last weekend was the Queens Birthday holiday. Australians love long weekends and fortunately this public holiday was on a Monday, hence I could escape after work on Saturday and have 2 nights at our destination. We took the opportunity to escape to an area of NSW we have holidayed twice before and really loved it. This time was no exception. The area has lush green hills facing the ocean and the highway down is somewhere in between which makes for a lovely drive. All the towns in this area, known as the Illawara coast, are about 30 kms apart and strung along joined by the highway.

This cafe we re-visited on the Monday. (Will probably be doing my posts in a reverse order.) There was a 15% public holiday surcharge which is now rampant due to the increased cost of living. It has been noticed as well in NSW to have a 10% sunday surcharge at most places *ouch*! Anyway, while on holiday, I guess we don't have a choice but to eat out and we really enjoyed our meal here the last time.It is located in the sleepy little town of Gerroa (pop 476) and has just the one post office and general store and this 'lil cafe. (Grr my faststone photo resizer chucked a spaz again and so my photos have a "sample" watermark on them! :P Its late and I am too lazy to re-do them though.)

The Seahave Cafe has a lovely view of an inlet just adjacent to the beach.

We had lunch last time we were here so we decided to have breakfast this time. It has a page long menu with all the usual suspects. My hubby had one of them - the big brekkie. An Egg, bacon, sausage, mushrooms, grilled tomato on thick cut buttered toast ($14.50) While hearty and well cooked, nothing special.
I love ordering unusual stuff so my eyes zoomed in on the "Mexican eggs"($14.50). Poached eggs on a spicy chorizo and tomato sauce served with turkish bread, it touted on the menu. It was either that or the vegetarian breakfast which would have been like the big breakfast only spinach and and extra egg to subsitute for the meat items on there.

Anyone expecting Huevos Rancheros would have been dissapointed. However, the taste of the chorizo and tomato mixture was very very good. It went well with the egg which was able to be all mopped up by the bread. I guess this dish is very much an example of the modern Australian "fusion" type dishes. I do like sauteed spinach so I ordered it as a side ($2.50)
A very decent cafe for the area. We would probably visit again since it is just a stone's throw from the beach which as you can see from the footprints is adored by humans and animals of all shapes and sizes. Pity it was a cloudy winters day ... Seven mile beach is gorgeous and seems to stretch on forever.
After a lovely digestive walk, we headed on home with a few little stops along the way.

Seahaven Café
19 Riverleigh Ave
Gerroa
ph 4234 3796

Beetles on Darling Harbour

2008-05-31T16:00:00.005+10:00

Parents arrived last week and it was pretty busy preparing the house for visitors and then having them stay and then also going to Sydney with them for a long weekend while at the same time attending a dental symposium at Sydney's Darling Harbour.

On the first day they drove here from Sydney, they bought quite a spread from the Sydney fish markets. I just stir fried some veggies (cabbage, long beans,capsicum) in sambal chilli and used my pressure cooker to make a ginseng chicken soup in 30 minutes. They bought 4 half lobster mornay (only $12.50 each) some battered soft shell crab, seafood cakes, battered barramundi, and assorted chinese roast meats, namely duck, suckling piglet and roast pork.

Here are some pictures of Darling harbour I took while at the Convention Centre for my symposium.

Managed to coincide on the Saturday with the celebration of the 70th birthday of the Volkswagen Beetle.

Aeriel shot from the second floor where our convention was...

Being beetles, the engine is the back.
Original "breadbox" all surf and camping ready...
Trunk in the front.

Haha this ibis was found wandering the foodcourt in search of food scraps.

Night shots with my new Panasonic tz3. At times like these, really do miss Sydney and I think it has one of the prettiest harbours in the world.

Lebanese sweets!

2008-05-18T01:10:00.006+10:00

A recent flying trip to sydney to celebrate Mothers' Day with Richard's mum in Sydney only meant one thing ... food! Err I mean quality time with the in-laws *whistle*. We took MIL out to a thai restaurant near their home (they dislike venturing further than 2 suburbs away) for a Mothers day lunch. I was too embarrassed to snap photos but it was quite a nice place and we will probably be back.

On Saturday night, we had dinner on the way down (post to come soon). But on the way home on Sunday, I suggested to Richard that we try a lebanese sweet shop I had read about in the Good ~~Living~~ Eating section of Tuesdays' Sydney Morning Herald. You can read the review here.

When you first enter, the sights and smells and decor really tantaslise your senses. There is very modern decor and large glass showcases of lebanese sweets to your right. It also includes a smaller section of western type cakes, petit fours and some gelato. There is an area with lounges and a TV as well which looks pretty relaxing.

We got pretty overstimulated and must have looked like deer in headlights. A waitress soon asked if we needed help and motioned for us to sit down. We didn't recognise anything on the menu but were keen to try anything new. However, we must have had to wait another full ten minutes before she came back as she got distracted by people visiting. There was only one other table of people in the cafe! We were about to stand up and leave when a guy quickly apologised and asked her to come and take our order. I must say that she was quite patient and helpful after this point.

I ordered two smaller things, one of which was this semolina based biscuit filled with a walnut and almond paste. This was extremely morish. It was chewy yet crunchy and the nut paste wasn't too sweet.

My other order was the ladies finger/arm (Zroud el sit). It is a filo pastry filled with halawet or stretched curd cheese and topped with ashta (they spelled it kashta on the menu), the marshmallowy sweet heavy cream found in many lebanese desserts.

Here is a pic of the inside ....

I would definitely have this again. The tissue thin filo was crisp yet tasty complimenting the slight saltiness of the cheese and the sweetness of the ashta. There was a squeese bottle of rose water syrup on the table for those who like it done traditionally doused with the syrup. I just put a little bit on.

Richard ordered this as he thought it was interesting looking. We forgot what it was called. It was a pisachio overload (whos complaining?) with pistachios sandwiched between semolina and topped with loads of ashta which is topped with fresh pistachios. I personally find there is something in ashta that tastes a bit strange to me so I can only have a little of it at a time. Richard seemed to really like it and he finished the whole square which was larger than our digital camera.

My order of lebanese coffee .... I had it black and it came with authentic sludge down the bottom.

We were so impressed with what we had that of course we had to have take away. These shortbread type biscuits known as mammoul(cookies for any Yankee readers) were filled with date pastes or nut pastes and yes 5 days later they are definitely all gone. A real bargain at $22/kg these 4 biscuits were only about $3. A bite of these sent me to heaven ... smooth date pastes inside crumbly tasty nutty shortbread.

We are still working our way through these baklava. All are extremely fresh with just the right amount of butter and syrup in the pastries. Extremely reasonable, all of this including the takeaways and a cappuccino that Richard had which wasn't pictured .... $26.50 ! We are already planning our return.

El Sweetie
73-75 South Street, Granville, 9760 2299 Mon-Thu and Sun 7am-midnight, Fri-Sat 7-1am

P/S for all fans of lebanese food, I found a fantastic site with recipes! It is aptly titled an Introduction to lebanese cuisine

Hubby's birthday celebration @ the Treehouse Restaurant.

2008-05-05T23:08:00.008+10:00

Its late but this was Hubby's birthday "cake" bought from la cachette (270 Mitchell Rd Alexandria) in Sydney. Unfortunately I had to be away most of the day to learn from and observe an IV specialist dentist in Sydney but I made it home with takeaway and this yummy berry tart. Also including pics from our dinner which I will elaborate on soon.

This tart was extremely morish with a nice buttery shortcrust pastry, chockful of berries and a nice almond filling which wasn't too sweet and complimented the berries nicely. The cafe deserves another visit as it had lots of interesting cakes, tarts and gourmet deli meals such as fritatas, savoury pies and rolls.

Anyway, this restaurant, The Treehouse used to be in a different location, slightly out of town. We went there for the first time a few days after moving to Bathurst in 2006. Hubby thought it was a cafe since a flyer advertising lunch and dinners had been stuck to his windscreen at school. So, we went in our sunday best ... NOT! He was in his paint smeared old working jeans and t-shirt with holes in it and I was in my largest most comfortable tracksuit.

We were greeted with a smile by the waitress and seated off to the side in a front room. It was when we opened the menus and saw that the entrees were about $16, mains $29 and desserts $12 that we realised it was a classy modern Australian restaurant by night! It was like the movies when the world comes tumbling in and you feel like the walls are narrowing and wish the ground would swallow you up. We looked around and saw everyone was in evening attire with dresses and shirts and ties. It was too late to walk out then! We ordered two main courses which we loved and have been back on a regular basis since.

The maitre d' Dannii whom we later found out was her name always has a friendly smile for us and we have gotten to know the chef Michael who is from Eastern Europe. He mostly comes out from the kitchen for a chat to us. He knows that this is my favourite dish. I always order it .... the Treehouse antipasto platter as a starter $16.
For the person who can't make up her mind ... a little bit of everything - a sample of some of the other entrees. It changes a little everytime. Today it has (clockwise) olives in the small pot, pork terrine with chutney, a mound of smoke eggplant, smoked salmon terrine served with beetroot relish, roasted cherry tomatoes, a bit of fresh tabouli and on top a small mound of salad with balsamic dressing and proscuitto wrapped around asparagus. It is served with some char-grilled turkish bread.

My DH had the eggplant wrapped around cous cous with ricotta baked parcel. It is served with a tasty tomato reduction and balsamic dressing.
Richard's main $29... the roast duck with walnut and mushroom tart. It is served with sauteed spinach. A firm favourite of ours, the duck is always tasty and the sauce is a duck jus with a hint of walnuts. The tart itself is superb with melt in the mouth puff pastry, the mushrooms and walnut melding together, each having absorbed the other's flavours.
My main- the basil mousse stuffed chicken breast served with lentils. Sadly the chicken breast was a little dry and the mousse although tasty was also on the dry side and more like a stuffing than a mousse. The lentils I could have had double serving of and left the chicken alone! It was melt in the mouth and buttery with rich tomato flavours. It was also served with sauteed spinach.
We were much too full for dessert. We found what works for us is to share a starter, each have a main course and share a dessert but we each had a starter today, hence we just had coffees after. I ordered an irish coffee and Richard a cappuccino. We got them complimentary because they had no cream for the irish coffee and hence made it just putting some froth on top. Dannii knew we wouldn't mind ....

after all ... we did first start our custom on a very casual note! :)

The Treehouse Restaurant
Dinner Mon- Sat
Country Comfort Bathurst
Cnr Brilliant and Stewart St Bathurst
(02) 6331 1800

A day in Orange

2008-04-26T21:22:00.006+10:00

While I was hard at work two Saturdays ago, Richard went with Casey and Clare (from Eatstuff) to the Orange Farmers Markets. These are on once a month but this time it was in conjunction with Orange Food Week hence they made an effort to check it out. Orange is a country town about the same size as Bathurst and is 60 kms away. While I was beavering away at drilling and filling, Richard used the camera to capture sights I missed.

Lady with assorted produce

A local belly dancing club for entertainment

Even a pet treat stall!

I joined them after work and they had already covered some ground having visited two wineries before that. We had a bit of a quick lunch and headed to Indigo Ridge Winery. This had a few sculptures in the vineyard to contemplate while tasting their wine. None of the wines there grabbed us but C & C bought a bottle of their unique Sparkling Sav Blanc.

This is a photo taken from Phillip Shaw Winery which I missed out on but Richard bought a bottle of his No. 8 Pinot Noir. At $40 a pop, I hope its something special!

As the sun set (yes daylight savings has come to an end) we hurried to our booked event, the walk, talk and taste tour at Cargo Road Wines.

This was a fantastic tour of the vineyard done personally by one of the owners, James Sweetapple (ironic last name for a vigneron?). We started out with him showing us a map of the property and explaining the different grape varieties grown on it.

He went through measuring the sugar content of the grapes with a cool device that looks a bit like a thermometer and bobs up and down in the liquid. It is roughly equal density of sugar to final alcohol percentage of the wine at the end.

Next, testing the pH to see it is right.

He poured from the beacon of crushed grape juice for us to taste. Anyone who has told you that wine making grapes don't taste nice is leading you up the garden path! The juice (this particular variety was Zinfandel) was full bodied, extremely sweet and had a lot more dimension and depth than regular dark grape juice. It made you want to zip around the place in a sugar high.

Next we walked around the winery inspecting the different grapes. He showed us how different varieties had different shaped leaves and the vines grew slightly differently. Some were more bushel-ly than others tending to willow over and grow too long to cover up their own stalks and these had to have regular haircuts to ensure adequate ventilation for the main trunks. We got to taste the different grapes as well as James went through the science of how different mulches could be used to give the plans various nutrients. I never knew wine making was such a science! And that so much happened in the grape end as much as the pressing and fermentation.

Back at the winery, we got to taste the end result. We started out with the Riesling, went on to the Savignon Blanc, Gurwurztraminer, two years of the zinfandel, two vintages of Cab Sav, their rose called the primitivo love and finally the dessert Zinfandel. All of them were exceptionally good quality and we were blown away by the taste of the rose which was very fruity. James's passion certainly carries through into the wine and you can tell they were made with a lot of care and quality control.

More about the pressing and fermentation of the different wines red and white was explained here. We were invited to sniff the difference between the French and American Oak barrels. Yes that is a coffee cup squashed into Richard's back pocket.

We really enjoyed the tour and tasting. At $12 per head, we highly recommend it to anyone. It was an eye opening experience to know more about the process. I don't think I will look at a glass of wine the same again!

We had dinner at a pub in town. It had great steaks that you could choose to cook yourself over an open grill or for them to cook it for you. I didn't get a photo of the others' meals but this was mine, a New York cut that I grilled myself to about medium-rare with a large helping of salad from the salad bar. There were about 8 different types of salad. I picked a nice rocket, red onion one, a bean one and some coleslaw. It also came with a par-baked potato I tossed on the grill and some mustard butter on the side. ($19) it was nice aged steak and very tender. Cooking it myself meant I got my meal sooner than the rest :P lol Faststone chucked a spaz so the watermark is saying this is a sample steak.

Our combined haul for the day ...

Lots of fresh fruit, bags of hazelnuts, prunes, wines , wines and more wines!

I'm Back?

2008-04-19T18:48:00.002+10:00

Wow its been so long since I last posted. About 13 months ago! So much has happened since then including having our rented home sold and only given a short period of time to find a new place, deciding to buy a place, buying a old place that needed renovations and knowing nothing about them, doing some renovations, still having ongoing renovations until today when lots of people from work came over for a working bee in the front garden! I was really touched that they did that. Gardening is scary for me who lived in Singapore with only a few potted plants on the balcony.

Also since the last post, I completed my Graduate Diploma in Conscious Sedation in December, went back to Singapore in January with a mini break to Hong Kong. Work has also been pretty busy since then with the weeks flying by.

Anyway, hope to get posting more including food places around Bathurst and my pilgrimage to Tetsuya's some months ago but still fresh in the memory! Bought Hubby an espresso machine (Breville 800ES)which we will be playing with, especially since he went on a home barista course. We also went on an eye opening vineyard tour last week as part of Orange food week. Where we were educated on how wine is made, from grape to wine and tasting several different varieties.

Net problems

2006-11-03T12:42:00.000+11:00

Just a quick scribble from work. We are having net probs at home due to a defective phone line, hence no posts recently. It is not handled very efficiently by Telstra whome we fear are going to be even more inefficient once it is 100% privatised. I just hope it comes back soon!!! We have to re-boot our modem anywhere from 30 seconds to 30 minutes and then it is active for a while and then dies again. bleah.

Other interesting tidbits...

2006-10-22T16:12:00.000+10:00

Ah well back at home now, only to leave again in a couple of hours. This time not to Sydney though, but to Cowra doing a one week locum for my ex-employers. I really enjoyed my week doing the OT round in Westmead Hospital. The whole anaesthesia department there worked quite well as a team and they seem to have quite a few socials such as a trathlon and a fancy dress ball coming up. Its good to see they can also have fun together. Every morning, they get some loaves of bread in the tea room and there is always an endless supply of those little packs of jam, peanutbutter, honey and butter or margerine. I know that the dental departments don't get treated as well !! They even have cordial as an alternative to tea and coffee :P

During the last few days, I saw some other interesting things such as a caesarean delivery ... you could tell when the gynae cut through the uterus because water suddenly went everywhere! The patient had told us before she went under that this was baby no 4 so she had also requested for the surgeon to tie her tubes after the caesarean. Thus the baby was all cleaned up and put in his little crib and checked out by the paediatrician and mum was still asleep. The crib had a cool incubator heater thing over the top like a little shelter, but they didn't have to turn it on as he was quite healthy and pink. I had never seen a live delivery before ... really interesting to see something so new in this world.

I also saw the last bit of a leg amputation, a toe amputation (mostly diabetic patients), and I even had a day in the emergency OT where a guy on a motorbike had had a match with a truck and lost. He had a broken tibia (front bone in the calf) and a nail wedged between the two bones in there. When he met the surgeon he said "Your job is like mine ... you are like fitters and turners I've seen your instruments!" The surgeon just smiled ... I haven't seen what fitters and turners do but there was quite a racket trying to push the bone back in place without doing open surgery. Nowadays, just cutting a small opening and putting different tools in to move the bones or vessels is the norm rather than opening up the length of leg similar to the length of broken bone and setting it and sewing it all up again.

Another guy they brought in was eating an ice cream and driving on a freeway when he rammed up into the back of another car and had gotten caught under the dashboard. Not sure what happenned to the ice cream but he was a concern for doctors because he was very much overweight. This is a particular concern as drug dosages may need to be higher than advised just to get him asleep and that is a problem for his liver and kidneys. Also, they are concerned as the respirator machine also has to crank more gas in there to blow up his chest as his lungs are under quite a bit of weight. It was one case where I did not even want to try intubating and let the professionals do it instead.

Also heard .. patient to anaesthetist," Can you do me a favour? When I am under, can you watch where they put the leg tourniquet before they operate? Last time they caught my scrotum by accident. I couldn't move for 3 days and my balls went blue black!!"

I look forward to my next round of OTs which will be in March '07 and so will the sedation clinics. Meanwhile, back to normal drilling and filling. Will be looking forward to going back to Cowra and meeing up with friends again. Not sure what my net access will be like while there so I think the earliest I will be blogging again will be in a weeks time.

OR rounds...

2006-10-17T13:50:00.000+10:00

Blogging live from the hospital library so no pics. Am doing a OR round or rather known as OT for operating theatres here in Aust. I'm attached to an Anaesthetist everyday and will be learning about maintaining an airway, even if the patient is unconcious. As well as the different levels of sedation and also getting a bit of cannulation in.

Yesterday was a good day. It really reminded me of hospital shows like my favourite at the moment, Greys Anatomy. I don't really know why I like it since there are so many things wrong I can pick with the occupational health and safety side of things. They would never, ever let anyone into the operating theatre with loose hair or even without a surgical cap on. Yet the main character moseys around the set with hair half in her eyes and flipping it here and there just because it makes her look pretty. Also, maybe someone from the US can also tell me why they let people walk around outside the street as well as in the dining room in their scrubs !! The main idea of scrubs is that they have no germs or coffee spills etc from outside that could contaminate the theatre. We have a zone that you have to get changed out of outside clothes into the blue scrubs plus big socks over your shoes and a sexy hair cap that makes you look like the canteen lady. Surgeons get to wear the ones that look more like the ones on TV ... but thats coz they are surgeons.... you gotta have some incentives.

Anyway, I got to peruse the whiteboard type thing just like on TV and see which room I was assigned to and away I went. Morning was a few small surgeries to free vessels so dialysis patients can have a better blood flow to some areas. Afternoon, I got the Anaesthetics Professor who beelives the only way to learn is to be totally free of aids such as the tubes so I had to hold the gas mask over the patient's mouth and nose manually for 6 operations for which a urologists stuck a very long steel tube up people's hoo hoos to check any cysts in their bladders. I am so glad I was not on the other end of the table. Its gotta be bad when there are stirrups.

Anyway, the registrar (or intern for you yanks) took pity on me and was giving me helpful hints like "The surgeon is going to stick the long steel tube up now so you want to make sure you have a very good complete seal around the mask so the patient doesn't wake up when he stick it in." Gee thanks. I never knew holding a mask down and holding a persons jaw up to have a clear airway could be so tiring. Some people's heads are really heavy!!! I got a good nod of approval at the end of the day though as the machine had good readings of oxygen saturations, and the patients were all comfortable at the end of the day. *phew*

Today it was the type of sedation I was more likely to do, which is using drugs IV to just send them sleepy but not unconscious. It was in a totally different department to what I am used to though .... colonoscopies. Still, I am impressed that the drugs were enough to make them not mind a metre tube being shoved up where the sun don't shine. I have never seem the inside of someones mouth and gut all the way to the other side before. Its enough to make me glad I am working on the end I am working on. I asked a gastroenterologist ..."whats that yellow stuff stuck to the walls?" "oh thats just poo" ooookay.... sorry I asked. It was neat how the camera could swing around and a little clippy thing could take some small samples from strange looking lumps in the walls. They were mostly looking for sources of bleeding though.

Well, back to the OTs now ... will write if have more interesting things to report on. Sorry no piccies. I am sure most of you out there will be glad not to see them though.

Assignments !!!

2006-09-24T18:32:00.000+10:00

Ack same old problem of "should have started earlier" now I have to churn out 2 x 2000 word and 1 x 5000 word essay by 1st october. Glad that it can be emailed so I will probably send it at 11:59 am on the 1st ;) I have started but I can say that it is much harder than pulling teeth. Which by the way is an incorrect expression as teeth aren't really pulled out. They are elevated and the periosteal bone around it is stretched and the socket expanded before the tooth is finally extracted. But I digress...

We just spent a nice little break in the Blue Mountains which are the mountain ranges dividing the eastern seaboard from the country plains in New South Wales. It is full of little quaint towns with cute shops and cafes. We stayed at a historic hotel, the Hydro Majestic which was completed in 1904. It is rich with olde world charm and has been decorated with furniture reminiscent of that era. Will post pics of that too and the great food at a wonderful restaurant with similar fare to a restaurant dear to our stomachs,Neila. This restaurant, Ashcrofts was recently awarded a chefs had by the SMH good food guide (Sydney version of New York's Zagats) and the food was definitely not over-rated either. But more on that too after I finish the shanghai backlog (!)

Oh well back to my assignment now ... *sigh*

The wierd and whacky in Shanghai

2006-09-11T23:05:00.000+10:00

Been pretty busy with friends coming to visit from Cowra as well as being invited to a girl from work's place for dinner. Both were lots of fun, however, our social calander is booked up all weekends bar one from now until my next prac in the middle of October! I had anothre glance at when my assignments were due and it is the 1st of October so, I really need to juggle my time well from now till then. It is wierd having assignment stress all over again. Its been a while now since my last assignment, a bit nervous about handling it and completing it. Its amazing what working full time does to you - I suspect it kills brain cells!

I was going to do chronological posts about Shanghai but I decided I will divide it into topics: wierd or different things, food, day and night scenes. I unfortunately only really had 2 out of the 4 days to explore. Alas on the second night, a terrible tummy bug got hold of me and I got the works. This included fever, cough and cold and the usual dehydration from both ends. Needless to say, I am now a bit wary about going back there. At least I had 2 days to have a good look around!

The following two pictures are from a shelf in a shop selling typical shanghai delicacies. It was located in their tourist tower (you know what I mean, alot of cities have one) called the Bright pearl of Asia (literally translated).

Amongst other things which were "normal" for me such as dried or fried marinated fish and shrimp, various candied or dried fruits etc. lay these interesting snacks. The yellow bulbs on the left are actually stewed garlic and the brown things onthe right are marinated, roasted duck tongues. All hygenically packed ... of course. I decided that those were a bit too strange as snack foods and besides, I had to buy the whole packet, what if I really disliked it?? Hence I gave these a miss.

Over on this shelf was salted chicken gizzards (the strange brown things) on the left and dried fish on the right. I happen to have had gizzards in the past and didn't mind them too much as they were in a soup. Hence, I bought a package of individualy wrapped ones to share with my sister. How were they? Pretty salty but a nice crunchy texture. Anyone who has had kidney in steak and kidney pie will know what I mean by crunchy. Not bad ... just that probably having two might blow your daily sodium intake.

Another interesting thing about Shanghai was these literally hole-in-the-wall places selling various cooked snacks such as fried bread, dough sticks, dumplings etc. The following picture is quite a large "shop" compared to some I saw which had a hole in the wall the size of some large computer monitors! Yet there was someone on the other side of the window and a small sign advertising their wares, mostly food or drink.

We passed this market in the tour bus on the first day, onthe way to our hotel. It was about 7 am in the morning and the street was milling with people. It was definitely a shared zone with people, cars, buses, bicycles, scooters and people all trying to get to where they wanted and all in different directions. People were buying their groceries for the day and this included vegetables, fruit and meat/seafood. If you look closely at the bottom right corner of the screen, you can see a small tank full of eels. These were live but were killed fresh on the spot when you purchased them.

Does this look familiar to you? Yes! It is gyros (yeeros) or kebab meat going around on a small spit, just in the middle of the street. The price is low like most food in shanghai - 3 RMB/yuan for a pita pocket, 4 for a burger or 5 for a large wrap bread. And 10 RMB for a large box of meat. This equates to $0.60 AUD for the pita pocket !!! Those grimacing about the hygiene should have thier gut feeling confirmed, around the corner was a guy squatting by a drain and sharpening the kebab knife in it!! *bleah*

No I definitely did not eat questionable food and ate at pretty high standard restaurants, yet I got a tummy bug. The rest of my family were ok but I guess it just takes one different order to get hit big time! Anyway, next post will show a bit more about shanghainese cuisine.

Something to ponder

2006-09-01T21:34:00.000+10:00

Still haven't been too well ... also hurt my shoulder on Monday night doing a ninja roll in my Jujitsu class ouch ...Everything was looking schmick until then. I know its a bit late in life to start but its amazing how your body learns stuff when you keep practicing. I'm only a beginner but its pretty fun and its interesting learning some stuff you see on TV. I don't know if I'll keep at it long enough to get a high grading due to work commitments and stuff. Also, its interesting how you feel you can do anything until you injure yourself, and then all that self doubt creeps in. But for the meantime, I'll still enjoy it ... when my shoulder eventually recovers from that shock.

Anyway, heres a poster from Shanghai to ponder ...

Stay tuned

Braces - a masochistic self experiment

2006-08-24T23:28:00.000+10:00

Before I post about my misadventures in the East, I should go about teling my story chronologically. Even before I set foot on the aeroplane, the Saturday before (12th August) in a foolish attempt to eat less in Singapore, I decided to have braces put on just before I left.

This wasn't exactly a spur of the moment thing. I have always felt self concious about my smile due to a few spaces (the dental term is diastemas) somewhere near the front, as well as a slightly rotated front tooth. As a result I have always smiled with my lips closed. An ex- called it a mona lisa smile... I have yet to find out what that was supposed to mean.

Front view- red spot is a chili flake, not gingivitis!!

Anyway, now that I have started working one day a week at an orthodontist's, braces is much the culture there and being the tooth perverts we all are, he had already checked my pearly whites out (as of course I had sussed his). He generously offered a consultation and once he had a look, he also very very generously offered free treatment. At the moment it is worth about $5,700 for standard treatment (not including cases that require surgery etc.) so I didn't think much of it and jumped at the opportunity. Hehe he also mentioned that he wanted his lower jaw crowding (a very common problem) corrected and said we could treat each other, him of course being a guinea pig for my unexpert hands at wiring and bracketing.

We also decided to try out a revamped old method of quick bonding (called indirect bonding). I won't go into details here but it was something he wanted to try out as it could save time and also mean that I better understand how treatment was applied. Hence we were the first two in his clinic to try out this new method which wasn't too bad. It replaced the traditional method of glueing them on one bracket at a time which can be very slow and you need to have lots of moisture control.

This is my right side profile. As you can see, I do have about a 2 mm gap between my lateral incisor and my canine tooth on the top jaw and about a 1.2 mm gap same place on the bottom jaw.

Similar story on the left side but with 1 mm gaps each. I didn't have the fancy camera or special mirrors to take photographs to show you the back teeth, however, my top permolars are also quite rotated, one almost turned 90 degrees.

Ok so whats the lowdown? It did hurt. The first 3 days, it felt like my mouth was incredibly scratchy. The teeth did not hurt if you were doing nothing but once you start chewing something, it feels like it is under immense pressure, like someone is jamming something in between all the time. And the food just gets caught everywhere. Quite a few of the teens don't seem to mind this! However, personally I dislike the fact that certain foods get caught between the wires and there is no decent way of getting them out except with a toothbrush.

By the end of my time away, it had improved to a point that I could chew again. Although I feel it isn't as efficent as before, at least I can chew. It is hard to bite things off though eg. bread roll, celery stick, spring roll. Everything has to be pinched off or cut up and chewed on the back teeth. I really don't know how teens manage it! They seem to eat as per normal. Maybe its because my bones are getting older. Or it might get better after a few more weeks...

We didn't have time to completely place the rings around my back teeth before I had to go, hence I still have another appointment to go before I officially start treatment on the top and bottom teeth. I think I might put in a 6 weekly report on how its going. It will be an interesting experiment to see how things change over time. Thankfully I like soup, oat and rice porrige. As for the orthodontist, he chickened out of full banding top and bottom and only decided to have the bottom jaw done so hes only half as uncomfortable as I am!

Note: The top rubber ring colour was meant to be white but somehow picked up tea etc. stains along the way and went yellow! I have since changed the colours to the same as the bottom ones ... bright pink and blue.

Hero Quiz

2006-08-22T20:23:00.000+10:00

Ok, a real post is coming up shortly but while catching up on blogs that I have missed while I was away, I came across this on Milgwimper's blog and I thought it was so cool that I decided to do the quiz and here are my results.

You scored as Batman, the Dark Knight. As the Dark Knight of Gotham, Batman is a vigilante who deals out his own brand of justice to the criminals and corrupt of the city. He follows his own code and is often misunderstood. He has few friends or allies, but finds comfort in his cause.

Batman, the Dark Knight

100%

Indiana Jones

79%

Lara Croft

67%

James Bond, Agent 007

67%

Neo, the "One"

67%

Maximus

58%

El Zorro

54%

The Terminator

50%

The Amazing Spider-Man

46%

Captain Jack Sparrow

38%

William Wallace

33%

Which Action Hero Would You Be? v. 2.0
created with QuizFarm.com

hehe I thought they should have put in some X-Men characters!! but oh well, the dark knight has always been my hero and I used to collect his comics in my teens. I think the best Batman was played by Val kilmer .... or was that just because I was biased from Top Gun?? or The Saint ?? hmmm.......

Quick note

2006-08-05T00:32:00.000+10:00

Just to say that we were invited out late for dinner tonight at a workmates house so no time for a real post as tomorrow after work, we are leaving for Sydney to watch Hugh Jackman in The boy From OZ!!! I am pretty excited. I wanted to watch it when they announced he was doing it in NEw York but of course by the time we got there last year, it wasn't on anymore. Then, they announced he was doing a few shows in Australia ! So of course we went and got tickets as early as possible (sometime in Feb) And before we know it, the date is tomorrow or rather in about 18 hours yaay! I am sure it will be a real cracker. Hope to be able to take photos although my camera is crappy and our seats aren't the best. Oh well ... will post about it anyways !

True gross dental story!!!

2006-08-01T22:40:00.000+10:00

A patient came in yesterday, the reason being that she chipped her tooth. She brought the piece in wrapped in some cellophane wrap. I can never get over why so many people do that! Its not as if we can do anything to it or with it. It fell off for a reason!! Unless its a crown or made of gold or porcelain, the general public are far better off just throwing it away.

Well, I had the initial examination and did not find any of her teeth to be missing a piece. She carefully unwrapped the piece and showed it to me saying, "I bought a cake from (insert grocery store name here), It had almonds in it and I thought it was an almond but I had a look at it and it was a piece of tooth! So I relaly need to get it fixed as it is quite large. I carefully examined the facing (also known as veneers) whicha ppeared to be made out of composite (white filling material) It was quite large and possibly coming from one of the central incisor teeth. I turned it around and it had traces of brown decay on the uneven side which joins the tooth. This was probably the reason why it fell off in the first place.

I had a second long look at her before slowly telling her, " I don't quite know how to say this but ... this is a lost piece of filling ... but it is definitely not from one of _your_ teeth." She looked up in a silent scream before choking out, " And I used my toothbrush to scrub it and everything!!!!"

Ick this is definitely one of the yukkiest cases I have seen. Perhaps the lady was better off not bringing the piece in? Ignorance is bliss sometimes. Not sure if that grocery company will do anything for her if she chooses to bring it up.

Anyway here is a picture of Magic with his bandana just to detract from the yukky story.

Hooray!! Pictures!!! Err too bad for the tree

2006-07-27T23:18:00.000+10:00

A week and a half ago, it was a pretty grey and drizzly Saturday. Our friends from Cowra Mick and Deb were staying over Friday and Saturday night. A pretty exciting thing happenend in our backyard while I was at work. Here are some pictures that tell the tale, will elaborate on more tomorrow.

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I called home when I finished work at about 1 pm from the surgery as I forgot my mobile phone. Deb picked up the phone and I asked if they wanted to meet me in town for lunch and she asked me "Haven't you recieved your sms? Half a tree in your garden fell on the shed and flattened it. The SES (State Emergency Services) have been here cutting it up and everything!"

Wow I thought, I hurried home and by then, the stuff in the shed (which was holding it up) was already cleared out so the shed just lay like a flattened card house. Amazingly, everything in the shed (bike, mower, whippersnipper, extra chairs etc.) was unharmed except for a few scratches on my bike. Apparently, Ricahrd, Mick and Deb were at the breakfast table when they heard the sound of a sheet of tin dropped a few houses away. It was quite soft and muffled so they didn't think much of it. About ten minutes later, there was a knock on the door. A man identified himself as the guy on the block behind us. "Umm are you aware that your tree has come down?" The blank look from the 3 of them confirmed to him that they were blissfully ignorant and enjoying coffee and thick cut raisin toast. (This is a mostly food blog ... had to mention food in here somewhere).

Richard contacted the real estate and everything moved quite quickly after that, them contacting people to cut up the tree and organise for people to take away tree bits during the week etc. Insurance assessors also came out so hopefully we will get a new shed soon.

I am so glad we didn't try to climb into the treehouse! It was pretty tempting but I think it might have caused a pre-mature crash. It was raining pretty heavily for the couple of days before then so it might have weakened the tree.

This is the picture of the neighbour next door to us. The 4 corners boundary that the fences shared was flattened and there was tree in everybody's yard.

Umm wonder if this large wood grub had anything to do with the tree's demise. Look at how big it is!!!! Eeew.
Here is a pic of the neighbours behind us. Today, most of the tree has been cleared up but the fence hasn't been fixed yet. Our neighbours have just leant the broken pieces of fence up to form some pseudo wall. The dogs are extremely happy as they can't stay outside during the day now. They much rather snuggle inside where it is warmer. Here is a pic of Raven soon after grooming a few weeks ago. The pet salon we send our dogs to make them all nice and pretty before they are picked up. Last time they had ribbons on the head and this time they have bandanas.

Raven really didn't like it as you can tell :D Hence as Deb said in the comments, the Bandana went to her dog Missy, a cute beagle type cross, instead.

Well goodbye tree, although we didn't really know you very well, I know it was the end of your time. A few weeks ago, us and all the houses in the surrounding area made urgent calls to plumbers. There was gurgling noises coming from the toilet and the level was going up and down. I told Richard there were alligators in the sewer but he didn't buy it. The council people came knocking on our door an hour or so later and said they needed to access our backyard as it was the nexus of all sewer pipes in the neighbourhood. They cleared the blockage and informed us that the tree (yes that same one) had roots that started clogging up the sewer and getting into the system. He said he would suggest it get removed to the council. However, nothing more was done. The owners told us that they tried removing it in the past but the council wouldn't let them as they were trying to preserve trees. Guess now they don't have a choice!

MIA

2006-07-20T23:14:00.000+10:00

Just a quick note to explain why I have been MIA. Apart from tearing my hair out over the lack of pictures and difficulty in uploading them, wild country weather caused a branch of a willow tree in our yard to absolutely flatten our garden shed, (pictures to follow, that is if I can ever get it working again), and my extended family in S'pore has been going through a few crises. Hence, will be going back to S'pore again in a few weeks. We were supposed to be going on a holiday to Shanghai however, it looks like that is not to be ...

Anyway, hope things will return more or less to normal soon. Meanwhile, will work on the picture issue.

Mudgee holiday

2006-07-08T23:36:00.000+10:00

First, my most exciting news of the day is that I have a new mouse! I had been using my old ball mouse for about 6 years now. But recently, I read in a geek mag about the Razer diamondback which is a high precision gaming mouse. I couldn't find it while I was in Singapore but lo and behold, my hubby pointed it out to me today at the Electronics Boutique and it was 25% off. So I am now the official proud owner of the official mouse for the World Cyber Games. All future opponents in RTS games such as Warcraft 3 should fear now!! ok ok I shall stop rambling on now :)

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Now onto a subject which I wanted to share that is almost a month old. June 12th was Queens Birthday holiday. Australians love long weekends so even though is it not the current Queens Birthday (it is the previous) and I am not sure if it is the exact date either but they try to make it fall on a Monday so Aussies can go on their beloved mini-breaks.

As you know we went to a wine growing region known as Mudgee with our dear friends Casey and Clare of Eatstuff. The first two days it was incessant dripping of rain, however, it did not dampen our spirits. We were there primarily to have a good time and also to do stuff like tasting the food and wine of the area. The area is also a popular one for olives. Hence we also got to sample olive oil and products such as various tapenades.

The town of Mudgee is pretty historical and thus their buildings are quite pretty. The photo shows an example of their architecture. The building on the left used to be the Town Hall (looks like the one from back to the future, I reckon). It is now the city library and the other building is now a law firm.

There are lots of cafes and boutique shops to explore. This photo shows the archway leading to a cafe and a shop or two. I love the cobblestone path leading up to it.

An exciting discovery was a vietnamese bakery which made see (sp?) mi. This is a vietnamese pork sandwhich similar to the beloved banh mi found in vietnamese bakeries of the big cities such as Sydney and Melbourne. The difference is that the pork is a steamed pork ball which is that warmed and smashed slightly into the roll. All the other condiments are similar such as the pickled grated carrot, shallots, cilantro and sauce. This was the first time I had tried it and had to ask about its name from the lady. It is interesting that she chose to make it as most vietnamese bakeries in country towns stick to Aussie things such as the meat pies, apple pies, cakes and slices. Nonetheless, I enjoyed it very much and we returned the next day for another one.

We stayed in some cabin style cottages. The original plan was to stay at a Bed and Breakfast but there was a shamozzle with our booking. Fortunately Richard found us this place that was about 20 minutes out of Mudgee. However, it was only 10 minutes to the wineries. It had one bedroom and an attic. C & C who had thier cat kiri with them took the bedroom (as it would be impossible to confine Kiri to the attic). And we took the attic which was warm and cosy.

The first day we visited a winery as well as a cheese factory and ate out at a local pub for dinner. The cheese factory had a great selection, of mostly fetta style cheeses as you can see in the picture. The best thing was that they talked you through each and every cheese and you got a small sample on a paddle pop stick of each. Those who have read my blog last year know that I have confirmed my aversions to blue cheese so I skipped their blue selection. Everything else was very tasty and it was hard to make up our mind what to buy. I decided on a hard goat's cheese and the pesto fetta.

We then went back to the cabin that night and shared our spoils as well as played Taboo until the wee hours.

More about the next day in my next post. I am having problems with blogger again to upload the pics but hopefully they will be up soon!

Weekend Sheep Blogging

2006-07-02T23:10:00.000+10:00

This weekend was spent trying to rid myself of the last few evidences of my bad cold and flu. It struck me that it was exactly this time last year, before our great USA/Canada trip that I fell just as ill. I guess this means that next year I should get a pre-emptive flu shot sometime in May. I guess this also means I am getting old :/

Richard had a surprise for me as he told me last night that the Agricultural teacher at the school he teaches in, said we could go and visit their lambs. This is one great thing about being in the country - the schools are large enough to have lots of land. His school has a few paddocks and even stables and a riding ring set up!

I love all creatures great and small and it is nice to be able to pet animals you usually only see from a distance. We got up close to the paddock where they were grazing peacefully.

We had filled a bucket with what is called "sheep nuts" (err oookay I thought... poor male sheep wandering in pain somewhere) It turned out to be a mixture of molasses, soghurm, wheat germ, hops and other sheep goodies. The sheep instantly recognised it and came baa-ing in great excitement to the gate. We were mobbed!!!!

I tried to spread some out on the ground, but yet I also wanted to get close enough to pet the lambs. They were really skittish though and came close enough to sniff at you but if you even moved a muscle, they went galloping off... and half a dozen other sheep would gallop off in great panic as well, without ever knowing what the matter was.

This cute lil lamb was trying to muster up some courage to come closer. Baa ram you!!
Here lamby lamby lamby....

In the end one lil lamb did come up and nuzzle some food from my hand! Its nose felt soft and velvety. I noticed that there wasn't any strong smell which was quite nice. One big sheep (the one you can see in the foreground in the last picture) was so brave that he just come up and allowed himself be petted so he could eat straight from the red bucket. We called him Einstein for he was truly a genius among sheep!

Sadly these lambs will be chops at christmas time ... it has made me consider not having lamb anymore as they are such gentle creatures. Well, perhaps until someone else makes a nice roast ;)

Flu bug

2006-06-25T14:17:00.000+10:00

Well it was official when the thermometer read 38.5 degrees celcius and I felt like my head had been tossed in a washing machine. I was sick with the flu. *cough cough* I don't fall sick very often but I feel everytime you move to a different town, you body needs to get used to lots of new things, new air, new water, new people you come into contact with etc.

There has been a bad bug going around Australia, it sounds like people everywhere are getting sick. They even put it on the news and the newspapers that there is a stomach bug going around. My poor lil sister in Melbourne even had to go to the hospital as she was getting more and more dehydrated. They gave her two bags of IV fluid! That is quite a lot. Thankfully she is better now :)

It has been pretty busy too, with those dramas at work, with the added excitement of a possum going on a rampage every night at the dental surgery, peeing and pooing everywhere. We set a trap for it and it looked very ashamed indeed at being caught. It was a cat sized thing with a cute face. My employer is going to drive out of town and set it free there. Meanwhile, it smells a bit like a zoo near the roof access where the trap was laid.

We also had our grand opening of the new surgery with drinks and hor d'oeuvres which were really yummy on thursday night. I kinda crashed after that ... I'm driving to Sydney later today as I have my first prac week for my course!!! I will be poking needles into peoples veins to try and get them to forget their dental experience. It will be a bit hard with needle phobes ... but we have cool patches that stick on skin to numb the area. And they really work!!

Hope I have some interesting cases to share here ... meanwhile, I think its back to bed for a bit of rest before the 2.5 hour drive.

pant

2006-06-15T23:03:00.000+10:00

Work has suddenly gotten busy again. Was at work from about 8:30 am to 8 pm today just due to string of difficult cases. I offered to do my own denture repairs as it was quiet the last few weeks and all of a sudden, it got so busy, I didn't have time to do it at all today. So I had to stay back into the evening and do it then and so did my patient. I felt bad for making her wait so I only charged a fraction of the cost.

For other reasons, it hasn't been a great day either. A patient that I and my boss saw last week turned up with a face full of rash like symptoms and asked to speak to the practice manager. He allerged that he had been to the doctor who thought it was herpes. And he felt that he might have caught it from dirty instruments at our surgery. My boss had a look around and got him to open his mouth and there was no lesions inside at all. Hence, it was highly unlikely that he got it from the surgery. Second of all, all our instruments are autoclaved and sterile, hence it is impossible to get anything at all.

He was off to get a pathology report so it will be interesting to find out what exactly this thing is. Meanwhile, it is always stressful if you think someone might sue you, even if you know you have done everything by the book. Such is the life of a healthcare professional.

The week has been so busy I haven't had a chance to blog about my great weekend last weekend! Richard and I went away with Casey and Clare to a town called Mudgee which is one of the major wine growing areas of New South Wales. We visited 13 wineries all up but that wasn't even half of them! Will post more about it soon. This weekend, Richard's family is coming up to visit, thus I have to scoot soon to clean up the place. His family has an intersting habit of changing plans at the last minute. They said they wouldn't get here till late Friday night until this evening when they called and said that they would get here sometime early afternoon so now I need to think up and cook dinner for 5 for tomorrow as well as clean up when I had planned on doing it tomorrow evening after dinner. Outlaws .... can't live with them, can't shoot them. Don't even get me started on how his cousin and her husband arrived at our doorstep unannounced, having driven 3 hours to check out our area for something to do on their anniversary!

The post that almost wasn't- Cowra's Lachlan Hotel

2006-06-05T22:07:00.001+10:00

I recall a few months back saying I would go a bit more into pub grub here in Oz. In the excitement of moving and going away, it was neglected. I am missing Cowra a bit. Even though work keeps me busy, we haven't made any good friends here yet. Well, in searching through memories, here is a fine example of your typical Ozzie hotel which I only got more intimately aquainted with in Cowra. (Remember hotel as in licensed accomodation, not as in 4 star sleeping establishment ... we *are* in the country here! For those who are confused, here is a link to an earlier post) In fact as you will soon see, the Lachlan's style of dining is not even labeled 'bistro'. It is more commonly known as 'counter meals' as these are ordered over the bar counter and you sit somewhere in the bar area and someone brings your order out shortly. I was way too scared to go into the few remaining ones left in Sydney due to its dim smoky interiors. However, in Cowra, everyone knows everyone and even little old ladies go in for lunch together.

The exterior of the Lachlan was only re-painted last year. It was also sold to new owners but they fortunately retained the two little old ladies who ran the kitchen. These two ladies are so quick that you have hardly placed your order and gone to the bathroom before they are calling your number! It is due to the efficiency of their service and the close proximity to the dental surgery I used to work at in Cowra that myself and some of the girls often frequented the joint.

(insert resized pic of interior here. grr blogger!! old one pushed sidebar out and now can't upload new one)

The interior is extremely dim but if you can make it out, the board has the usual menu as well as room for specials to be written up on the right side. In a tiny corner of the blackboard, it is written "Established 1843" I always thought that was prety cool. The fluoro lights on the left side is actually illuminating a salad bar with a small selection of salads. These are usually green, pasta and coleslaw. However, I always opted for the cooked vegetables because the selection changes daily. They have a million and one ways to bake, boil and roast different vegetables. I even grew to like chokoes!

The daily special is usually rissoles or some sort of casserole and you get that for a bargain $6.60 and it is served with 2 slices of bread and salad or vegetables. I did not get to have one before I left nor did I get to take better photo of the menu :( Hopefully this gives some idea anyway. There is also the daily roast for $10 and the carvery changes daily.

This was Richard's choice one Saturday that we had lunch there together. It is the crumbed snapper with veggies. It is always beautifully done, the fish still sweet and firm and moist on the inside, and a nice tasty crunch on the outside. It is on the regular menu and it is usually about $12

The lady that usually takes my order did not work on Saturday and so when I ordered the steak dianne, I was surprised when I got about half a cow on my plate.

I did not realise that the usual lady orders a half serve on my behalf and it is a nice managable size. I should have realised when I usually pay $10 instead of the usual $15 for the meal. This steak was just about hanging off the sides of the plate, and I noticed, was about the same shape as Australia (Tasmania not included). Eek! I ended up packing some home for the dogs. It is a no nonsense what you see is what you get steak. So by about halfway (though I order med rare), the jaws and tummy get really tired. It is by no means tough, just ... beefy. The dianne garlic sauce is really yummy though, and made fresh too. (One needs lots of mints afterwards)

Well, in short counter meals are a great way to get a large quick meal and they have been a way of feeding tradesmen and farmers ... since the 1800s! No pubs really close currently to where I work, thus a lot of the girls actually bring lunch in. Thus I have begun to do so too.... *sigh* guess its a lot healthier. Tuna with green salad tomorrow. Hope the scales at least show the sacrifice the gut is making this winter!

My first meme

2006-06-01T23:19:00.000+10:00

This is my first meme and I am doing it only because there are so many scattered bits of news here and there and everywhere that I can't decide which to post about first so, characteristically of me, I am procrastinating that and jumping on this meme instead :) So all thanks to Clare here is a 5x5 meme

5 items in my fridge

1. Yoplait no fat yogurt
-trying to up our daily calcium intake
2. broccoli
-I have this thing with always having to have broccoli in the fridge. As soon as I am almost out, I buy another 3 little 'tree's. I even have backups in frozen format. No offsite backup though...
3. Flora buttery taste
-Most of you will know it as "I can't believe its not butter" Its not the healthiest thing you can buy but since Richard likes having something to spread on his bread, its a better alternative than the real thing.
4. diet soda
-*gasp* even though I am a dentist!!! Well I make sure I drink lots of water after to wash away the acid! No holes in the last 10 years :)
5. assorted condiments from Singapore
-half of which are different types of chilli. Currently there are 6 different types of chilli blends mmmm

5 Items in my closet

1. Skeleton
-okay just one plastic skull
2. Board games
-They occupy one whole closet by themselves. Always an open invite for friends to come over and play (no we don't have twister)
3. Ex-box
-no not an x-box... a box full of ex's photos, gifts, cards etc. I guess I am too sentimental to throw them away just yet. It is sealed up though ...
4. Camping/BBQ gear
-for the once in a blue moon that we go ... though we wish it was more often
5. Fireworks
-Cause they are illegal!! Don't know when and where we will be able to let them off !!

5 items in my car

1. Box with change of clothes, blanket, paper towels, rope (it *is* a 4wd!!), first aid kit and flashlight.
-read point 4 above
2. Crumbs
-I always eat breakfast in the car ... sad but true
3. Street directory
-habit from my pizza hut driving days
4. Bottled water
-rehydrate self, cool down car or fill up wiper reservoir
5. Dog mesh thingy. See here
-So we can let the dogs be safely ventilated when parked under shade

5 Items in my purse (assuming purse = handbag)

1. bunch of tictacs
-from when box somehow opened in bag
2. Asthma reliever
-'nuff said
3. Dell Axim x50v PDA
-I love it!!!
4. Mobile phone
-Cell phone for those in the US of A
5. Wallet
-except rare occasion when forgotten and very dearly missed then!

5 people who are thusly tagged
1.Ms Flatfeet
2.Kirk
3.Ron
4.Doc Mommy
5.Katie

Million Paws Walk

2006-05-30T23:23:00.000+10:00

Every year, the RSPCA here in Australia has a fund (fun?) raising event known as the Million Paws Walk. The largest participation happens at the Centenial Park in Sydney, however 59 other branch ones are organised in other parts of Australia. This year it happened on the 21st of May in all other parts of Australia except Western Australia where it was on the 30th of May (They always have to do things differently don't they!!)

Basically you make a donation and/or buy paraphenalia, bring your poochie and go for a 2 km walk to meet other animal lovers and their pets. We were fortunate enough that one is organised right here in Bathurst. Hence, here are some pictures to share the event as well as a bit of the local scenery.

According to the paper, there were about 200 dogs (thats 400 paws!) that turned up to this event. We proudly contributed 8 paws, 4 feet and some $$. There were dogs and humans of all shapes and sizes.

Little ones...

and Big ones !

This is Richard with Raven. She is often scared of big dogs but she did really well that day.

View from the bridge of the river and the fast trotters. Everyone went at their own pace so we were spread out over the 2 kms :)
This is the start and finish point. There was a sausage sizzle and a raffle going on as well. Some dogs just loved the river so much they ran in it and played. It was a good day and we got to meet some people and pet lots of dogs. We are definitely going to next year's Million Paws Walk

Back in the saddle again

2006-05-28T14:00:00.000+10:00

As the last of my boxes are to be unpacked today, I decided to take a peek into the blog world once more. I have missed reading lots of friends blogs but a lot of other things have also been going on in my life besides new job(s) (yes two!), new home etc. I know that nothing loses readers faster than no new posts, however, once again, I ponder the inverse connection between real life and online life. People are most often online when life is quite ho hum and has mostly a predictability or pattern about it. However, once a change, usually a big one, occurs, it is sacrificed over most other things.

Well besides the move etc. I have also been back to Singapore and did a 3D 2N visit of Malacca in Malaysia which was as usual a great culinary experience! I have yet to upload the picutres onto the computer so I can hopefully start blogging about that soon.

It has been a bit of a reverse shock moving into a larger town. In Cowra, I used to know to whom most cars belonged and would wave if I drove past them or when parking at the shopping centre or supermarket, I knew who I would bump into in there etc. There hasn't been even the hint of a familiar face here in Bathurst, a town about 4 times the size of Cowra. I know it will take time ... but in the meantime it has been a bit lonely.

We have been to a couple of different church services as well, mostly in the evening ( I am so not a morning person! ). You know you are feeling old when you don't quite click with the uni student crowd anymore! Bathurst has the main Charles Sturt University campus and thus we have been amusedly watching Orientation groups dressed up in various outfits made to walk the streets of Bathurst as part of an initiation.

It has been great having real "late night shopping" here on Thursdays. I feel I can get stuff done too as I got from 8:30 am to 5 pm ( as opposed to 9 am to 5:30 - often 6:30 pm) Here in NSW Aust, the normal shopping hours are 9 to 5:30 M-F and varies on the weekends. In Cowra, it was 9 to 12:30 on Saturdays and not at all on Sundays, and here in Bathurst, it is 9 to 4 on Saturdays and to about 3 on Sundays. This has been truly great ! Although I am not a huge shopper, I am a huge window shopper. Coming to Australia was difficult as Singapore used to have hours from 10 am to 10 pm for shopping centres and markets from about 7 am to late !

Also, I feel lucky to have about 3 Chinese restaurants ( Still mostly Australianised chinese), 1 Thai, 1 indian and 1 Korean/ Japanese restaurant. While not much sashimi or many raw fish sushi varieties, there is a decent bibimbab and kimchi to be had there. We have yet to try the other restaurants.

Well, hope to be sharing more pics of the new town soon! Meahile, its back to housework etc. :)

I'm still here .... kinda

2006-04-11T21:46:00.000+10:00

My place has gotten increasingly messy and my computer has been moved to the dining table. Cooking has become one dish meals due to everything being reduced to bare minimum and playing the game of trying to fit everything we have into the cartons everything came in. The tricky part is that we have since gotten married and hence scored lots of wedding and engagement presents.

The solution: Offload older junk so we can fit newer junk into cartons yaaay!!

The plan: have a garage sale and make money to offset moving cost $980 plus coming up with bond $1120 etc etc.

Saturday morning dawned early. We had been forewarned by D who works with me that garage sale people can be persistent and arrive as early as 6 am!!! Richard errected a sign that said "Triple prices before 9 am" We stay up late as we can trying to get things ready in boxes to lay out the next morning. I have a fitful nights sleep as I did not want to be awoken with a start from people banging at the door.

We got up at quarter to 7 despite going to bed at 2:30 am the night before. We had been to a nice dinner party organised by B and did not get home until midnight.Anyway, Michael who is Debs husband came to give us a hand. We took down the sign so we could start laying things out and not 5 minutes past 7 cars started arriving and people literally started pushing past boxes to rummage through our things!! I was really shocked and asked them to please leave and return at 9 am. It fell on deaf ears and people started offering money for this and that. I was really unruffled but accepted their offers so they would leave. Yet more and more kept coming and I was really upset as I could not set things out the way I wanted, people were asking for this and that and it got really stressful. It was a totally harrowing exprience. I had never met the kiasu Australian before today. Kiasu is a Singlish (Singaporean English) term, defined at www.singlishdictionary.com: as kiasu /kiah-soo, ÈkiAsU/ n. & a. [Hk. kia fear + su loss; Mand. 怕输 pàshū] Also kia su. A n. One who is afraid to lose out to someone else, often to the point of selfishness; an over-cautious person. B a. Afraid of losing out to someone else, and therefore often behaving selfishly and disregarding others.

Singaporeans often laugh at this sort of behaviour and it is generally frowned upon, yet comes up quite often in social circumstances eg. arriving early to a buffet to beat the crowds and get the freshest foods etc. It is often a big part of their local satires. But I digress... I was extremely shocked as I had not seen much of this behaviour here in Australia yet here it was rearing its ugly head in my garage. I commented to a lady who asked if three were anymore books that they were gone because some inconsiderate people had arrived before time and took them. There was nervous shuffling from the group further towards the front who had arrived earlier. I felt bad but I could not hide my frustration at that point. Which part of 9 am in the newspaper did they not understand??

There was a lull from 10:30 am to 12 and that was the best part of the day as Deb and Michael (who bought some of our stuff) just came and hung out. We brought out the futon sofas to sun (as well as to see if we could get a reasonable offer for them) and we lay on them out on the front lawn. We had chips and juice and lazed about. We finished up at 3 pm and started deciding which of the remainder to toss and which decent items to give to charity. We ended up about $280 richer. Which wasn't a lot but it would help towards the cost of moving. Also it cut down the things we felt were too good to throw out find new homes. As D's daughter E plugged for her mum. " Come to our garage sale!!! Make our sh*t your sh*t!!" or Michaels milder version," Garage sale... where our crap becomes yours"

P/S For those who think wikipedia has not provided enough info about singlish, more can be found at http://www.une.edu.au/langnet/singlish.htm

Girls weekend away 17-19 March

2006-04-05T23:49:00.000+10:00

Hmm been so busy lately with packing that blogging has become not even secondary but tertiary on the list. What with garage sale this weekend, hubby sick, packing, organising changes in work, finishing off patient's treatment plans and referring those that I can't see before next thursday to my bosses here or to relavant specialists, writing referral letters ! Eek stress is reaching boiling point. Err thankfully stress relieved with Mario Kart double dash on the game cube. *cough*

Anyway here are some pics taken at a girls weekend away with some women from work a few weekends ago. It seems like a lifetime but thankfully we always have photos to remind us. These pics were mostly taken on the last day and will elaborate more on that later but quickly, our itenarary was:
Fri night - picked up people after everone dashed home after work for bags and goodbye kisses. girls helped themselves to beer brought along in coolers as I could only drink diet red bull being the driver :P to them. Stopped at Red rooster (aussie fast food chicken chain) in lithgow for dinner. Girls added scotch to the bottles of coke bought at fast food chain, pile into car and continue sipping. !!!
Arrived Sydney at 11 pm, settled into rooms, elected one room and brought munchies and grog there. chatted until 1:30 am. Went back to respective rooms and chatted more until 3 am Zzzz
Saturday-Morning walk to Bondi Beach (sorry forgot camera pics on linkpage!) had brunch there, browsed markets, stopped at pub. Hmmm I think these country girls have a theme going on here. Got in car drove to suburb of Paddington with swish markets more expensive artsy stuff. S and I browsed and were called on my mobile (cell) phone by D and B who had (surprise surprise) found another pub, the Elephant and Wheelbarrow. We met them there after perusing all the interesting decorative items, homewares and jewellery at the markets. This was an extremely English style pub. With leather lounges and wooden bar counters. (Check out the website and you'll get the idea)Went back, freshened up and went to big Johns for dinner. Two of us tried to share the seafood platter for 2 ($99) but it took up the whole table! Had to pack more than half of it home. It had a dozen oysters done in different styles, a dozen bbqed bay bugs, a whole snapper, 2 kgs of bbqed octopus, about a kg of crumbed calamari. Our tummies were quite sore trying to demolish the mountain of seafood in front of us. Clare of Eatstuff has a good review written up of the place here.

Sunday morning-packed up, went to pancakes on the rocks for breakfast. It serves a pretty mean American style breakfast with sausages, eggs, bacon etc. in different combinations served with really nice thick, fluffy buttermilk pancakes. I have never had pancakes this way elsewhere in Australia. The quality is similar to IHOP, but less greasy. It has a 24 hour menu so I actually chose a dessert one (bananarama) as I didn't feel like a greasy breakfast after all that seafood last night.

After breakfast it was surprise surprise more shopping as we perused the rocks weekend markets. I am not sure why this area of Sydney, close to the harbour is called the rocks. It has many beautiful old buildings though. Here you see the markets all set up and busy.
The back alleys are full of cobblestone path areas crammed with little shops and nooks and crannys to explore.

I snuck away just down the road for photos of this famous icon, taken from the opposite side of the cove. You can also see a ship called the bounty in the foreground which has a floating restaurant.

Another famous icon, the harbour bridge taken from the rocks. The warehouses you can see peeking out the back face the water.

Here are the warehouses lined up. They are now restaurants and very expensive ones at that too!

After that we went to ikea for a "quick" stop. It was meant to be an hour but 3 hours and a matress top, eggslicer, squeegee, CD boxes, etc etc. later, we conceeded defeat and decided we had to return. It was a good experience to go away and spend time with people you normally associate with work and it was quite enjoyable.

Cowra Smokehouse

2006-03-30T00:30:00.000+11:00

Just on the Great Western Highway as you come into Cowra, an old converted train warehouse houses one of Cowra's biggest successful small business. (I know the last sentence sounds a bit of an oxymoron) This is none other than the Cowra Smokehouse. It opened ,mid 2004 if I remember correctly, and started out mostly as a trout farm as well as selling mostly smoked trout and smoked trout pate made on the premises.

We, the city folk craving new experiences checked it out soon after it opened. We tried catching our own fish with handlines from the "adult" tank. No its not the tank for fetishes ... its the tank where trout grown to a certain size are placed so people know they are mature and a good size for eating. It was $6 a fish if you were successful and they helped you clean and gut it too!

As you can see the tank is still here today but they don't do the catching thing anymore as they are pretty busy promoting their goods all over NSW. When we went before, we got a tour of the place and Tim, the owner explained how smoking worked, what kind of bark they used etc. I caught a glimpse of him on Sunday but he just waved as he was unloading goods off a truck as he had just been to markets in Wagga Wagga. They also travel once a month to Sydney's Pyrmont markets and got a brief mention in Grab Your fork one of the better and more popular food blogs in Sydney.

What was here today was a tasting platter and I see that they had actually increased their range and included sundried tomato, smoked salmon and mushroom pates to their flagship smoked trout pate(AUD $4.50 each). They had also added their own line of sheep fetta, separate to the COWRA label, produced by a local farm. The fetta was absolutely delicious!! I tasted the basil and garlic flavour that was there and immediately bought a jar.(AUD$9.50) There was also olive and plain available. The tubs on the left contain the 'large' size of their sundried tomatoes. These were also dangerously addictive as they are marinated in spices such as garlic, and cracked black pepper.

The place is nothing much to look at and most of their wares are held in this refrigerator. The fish are on the left....

And the right side contains the other goodies such as the cheese, the pates and on the lower shelves you can find the smaller packet of sundried tomatoes ($5) smoked chicken ($8.50 for the maryland), available in plain, spanish or morrocon spices. Also, smoked duck ($8.50) for a piece about the size of the average palm.

I noticed that prices had risen a bit since the last time I was here. (The chicken used to be $6.50.) Hence, the pleasure of the food was not as high as the last time. Its funny how if you find a good eat that you consider cheap or reasonable, you enjoy it so much more than if it was expensive because you expected it to be good anyway?

I am glad though that Tim managed to start small and think big and has risen to the challenge of the growing demand for fresh, unusual gourmet foods. I am sure that the high demand for this produce at markets everywhere are a testimony to that. If you ever chance upon it, it is defintely worth a try as all the flavours are unique, tasty and fresh.

Believe it or not... I'm walking on air

2006-03-28T23:30:00.000+11:00

Sunday the 26th of March was Cowra Aero Club's open day. It featured joy flights as well as short intros to the world of ultralight flying and information on certification. They had a sausage sizzle around lunchtime and there was also a raffle on. I missed a lot of that as friends of mine came up to visit and helped me to start packing (eek!). We visited the Mulyan winery as well as Cowra Smokehouse (post to come later) which smokes many of their own farmed trout as well as other delicacies.

I was extremely curious about learning to fly, especially since one of my patients is just about to become an instructor. He invited me to visit that day and said he would take me up in his plane. Thus, I decided to brave the unknown and went along by myself (since Richard was at an engagement party in Qld).

When I first got there, there were quite a few families still there (it had started at 8 am) I could see that they had a steady flow of traffic as a few more arrived in the time I was there. Kids were pretty excited about seeing the planes take off and land. I met another patient of mine Les who coincidentally is the father-in-law of Sue of the noodlebowl fame. He services planes and explained a lot to me and quickly hooked me up to go on a flight. It cost a mere $20, understandably for petrol and running costs.

I watched planes take off and land and families go up in some of the slightly bigger ones ( four to eight seaters) one even did barrel rolls in the sky!! This is an example of an ultralight. It seats just two people but is exremely fuel economical and can travel four hours on a full tank at about 200 knot's( I think that's what he said). This will take us approximately from here to the middle of Queensland.

A "Jaberoo" type ultralight plane.

Soon it was my turn as Mick arrived to whisked me away on his white plane. This is a slightly different type of plane to the Jaberoo as you can see the cockpit is not under the wings. It can get hotter on longer flights but this also enables the plane more manouverability. "This particular plane is also built for some aerobatics." Mick tells me, but only after I have walked up on the wings already and buckled in the seatbelt. "Its time for revenge!!!" He says and gives me the evil grin. I think to myself ... what am I in for??

The "Brumby" - my flying coffin

As the plane starts to taxi, he starts explaining things such as the foot pedals are not clutches and brakes but to steer the plane on the runway. I am only half taking it in as I start to think about who I haven't said goodbye to yet. However, the takeoff was unbelievably smooth and very soon we were up in the air!! He explains to me some of the various instruments on the dashboard and what they were.

Steady now....

As soon as we reached a cruising altitude of 5000 feet, he got me to take the controls!! The feeling was indescribable... like anything was possible. The plane, being partly aerobatic was very responsive so I had to hold on to the err joystick (never quite asked what the right word for it was) pretty firmly. Mick got me to try turns as well and those were a bit nerve racking as you felt like you were tipping over. I flew for a few more minutes as Mick said to turn here or there and try and keep focused and level with the horizon. (It was like driving instruction, but in 3-D) He then took the controls back and asked me if I liked roller coaster rides. Of course! He then took us down in a negative G with the tummy left behind kind of feeling. That was great. Positive 1G was good, but 2G was getting a bit stressful. He then right into some 360 degree turns which had a spiraling effect. That, I was not as good with! However, I didn't feel sick ... just a little bit off. All too soon, it was time to land and it was an extremely smooth landing too.

I am pretty fortunate living in the country and getting to experience so many new things. In the cities, hangar fees are a lot higher so to experience something like this today would have been hard to do, lots more crowded and probably cost a lot more too. The flyer I got at the place said that flying lessons cost around $120 per hour and it takes a minimum of 20 hours (although the majority of people need more than that) After certification, we are able to rent the planes for $80 and hour or for the more serious hobbyist, buying one starting at about $70 grand (not including insurance and maintenance). Wow... it is so much more accessible here than I ever thought possible. I am definitely going to look more into this and maybe start with one or two lessons and see how I go. But once you've had that feeling ... well, I can't wait to go up in the air again!!

Cowra from the air!!

Grr!

2006-03-26T16:33:00.000+11:00

I still can't get blog bot to accept my offerings of pictures :( Its been a bit frustrating as there are definitely new things I would like to blog about and some things are just not the same without pics.

To tantalise your tastebuds and ignite your imaginations, these include going to the Cowra Aero club open day and getting a joy flight. I even got to take the controls once we were up in the air!! Also a visit to the local smokehouse as well as a girls weekend away with some of the ladies at work and we did touristy things. Yes there are pictures of the opera house and the harbour bridge :)

I feel a bit frustrated as I believe a picture paints a thousand words and it just won't be the same as describing it. Besides, I can tend to be a little like tolkein and write on and on describing something if I don't have a photograph as an adjunct.
Oh well. I will keep persevering. I have even tried using a different browser with no success :~( I'll give it a few more days otherwise I'll just have to keep writing in this journal so it gives me a good look at my days, months and even year gone past.

Making and Baking - Hooray its finished!!

2006-03-16T23:10:00.000+11:00

***Hooray!! Its finally finished!!***
Ok its kinda just past mid-week and I don't have heaps new to report. So this is the time when I bring out a few things I have been saving to share about. Lots of people ask me what I cook. I kind of find that a bit odd because its hard to list the things you cook. I give a vague sort of answer like "oh all sorts of things." To which the other party begins the spanish inquisition. "Do you only cook chinese food?" (This is most often asked by caucasian Australians) I am unsure whether to be offended by that or not, especially as they start asking "How about Richard? Does he like all the things you cook?" At this point I wonder if they have been sent by Richard's mother to spy on me.

So anyway, I have decided to share a few things which I have made, actually all the baked ones have been quite successful experiments here in Cowra. I used to have a huge fear of ovens, mostly because I have no control over what comes out the other side of the tunnel. I think it also may be due to the fact that alot of my cooking was learned from watching and I am glad my mother made spag bol as well as she made hokkien mee and mee siam. She also made a mean chicken tonight ;) However, I have never once seen her bake in my life. She made wonderful stews in the pressure cooker so I am dreaming of acquiring one except they are quite rare here. She made crispy chicken in the turbo broiler and smoked chicken and duck on the outdoor webber. So I am fine with rotisseries and such but mention the word baking and I freeze.

When I first came to Cowra and visited the baptist church, I had not been to church in a very long time. I knew I would like to learn more about God again and get close to him as I always believed in my heart that His words were the truth. Austin the minister here grabbed me and got my contact details. He then never gave up knocking on my door to invite me back as well as calling me and inviting me to dinner with his family. I know that he could see I needed some persuasion (he hasn't really tried it on anyone else) and when I finally started attending it was really nice as the church was a great family church but also with singles, single mums, widowers, old retired couples etc. This will be one of the places I will really miss about Cowra. Its been the most welcoming church I have been to my whole life. Anyway this paragraph has a point: All the morning teas every sunday have been amazing. Pikelets, cakes, slices ... and all made by the ladies and brought along on Sunday. It was very inspiring so I decided to try my hand at making a few things in the dreaded cave of fear. The first thing that triggered off was a zucchini slice made by Mrs Atkins. It was sooooo good I had to ask her for the recipe and I braved my phobia of a large batch of failed goop and tried it at home.I would say it is a cross between a fritata and a quiche with no crust. The first batch worked a treat! The one in this photo is a bit too moist as I got overexcited with my leftover veggies.

The recipe is basically 1 1/2 cup of chopped veggies eg brocolli stalks, grated carrot/zuchinni
1 small onion chopped fine
1/2 cup cheese
1/2 cup bacon (optional if vegetarian)
2 eggs
1 cup self raising flour
salt and pepper to taste
Adjust the flour according to how big your eggs are. It should turn out like a thick batter and will set firm to touch like a fritata. Skewer test and medium oven should do the trick.

This other one has no name and is surprise surprise a concoction of my own! I made it when we had a guest over who was vegetarian. It is basically layers of filo pastry, chargrilled capsicum and eggplant, crumbled fetta, ricotta and spinach(silverbeet).

This one is simply heavenly when done right and because it is sweet means it is in the I-know-absolutely-nothing-at-all zone. It turned out way to dry in this pic. It is a basic "rubbing in method" half fat to flour and add some egg and water and sugar until it is a a doughy batter and bake. The magic is in the passionfruit icing which gives this shortbread a bite. The bar at the back is my product. We had leftover icing so we iced a box of Walkers shortbread. BTW although dry, the homemade shortbread was wayyy better!!! Walkers was a bit too rich.

This wasn't done in the oven but its another example of something I throw together. I was given sage (but no parsley, rosemary or thyme) by the female half of the husband and wife team who are my employers. She suggested cooking it in some butter with pumpkin and shredded parmesan and toss it all with some pasta. It turned out really well and was eaten with marinated wings and a salad.

And last but not least, some real 'roo action! Yessiree all you non-aussies this is prime kangaroo steak, fresh off the road, hit by the car in front of us that morning. Ok I jest! It was bought at the supermarket as they are farmed and definitely disease free. They are very lean (0.3% fat only !!) and have lots of iron and nutrients. It is also very cheap (about $6 a kg for prime steak)
This was just grilled and served with mash and stir fried veggies in teriyaki sauce.

Hope this gives some people insight to the fact that I don't just cook Singaporean/ Chinese stuff!

The Naked Lady Cowra

2006-03-14T21:57:00.000+11:00

This is a photo of the mosaic and statues forming the back wall for the outdoor water feature at the Naked Lady. The cafe is a well decorated spot, featuring both an outdoor and an indoor water feature. Everything here is available for sale, from the potted plants surrounding the tables and outdoor area, to various garden decorations scattered throughout. The cafe raised a buzz when it first started, one of the reasons was due to its icon; a sillhouette of a lady, with three strategically placed small flowers. After a while it bubbled over and has become an accepted part of the town, it serves breakfast and lunch seven days but can be hired for late functions as well.
This was my brunch, the nudie burger. I missed out the important part that the pattie was going to be made of BEANS. I only saw burger, chargrilled veggies, pesto and cheese and went Bingo!! I'll have that thanks. So I got a rude shock when the pattie arrived looking as un-beefy like as it could. The saving grace was that it was extremely tasty ... it just kept sticking to the roof of my mouth. The pesto was also very creamy and didn't taste much of basil. The char grilled vegetables were very nice. Overall I enjoyed my lunch but found it a bit too rich and greasy. It was also very large and I ended up giving my chips to Richard, and still couldn't finish it.
Richard ordered this salt and pepper squid. It was very tender but it didn't have enough salt or pepper in it to jazz up the batter. The salad was nice and fresh but was sans dressing. A suace looking suspiciously like my "pesto" sat in a dish on the plate. It is unknown if it was meant to be a dip or a dressing.
This was B's choice, the farmyard sambo (aussie for sandwich) it had ploughmans bread, chicken, bacon and mushrooms plus other veggies. A simple hearty meal for any boy or girl next door.
This was J's choice, supposedly southern fried chicken strips with salad served with chilli-lime and pepper dressing. I wanted to point out that it looked like a cut up large crumbed chicken schnitzel. The dressing was also a bit strange. Overall it worked but they could have given it a different name. All meals were about $15 which, for Australia and for this town was pretty average. It made for a very relaxing venue and location. It is defintely a place to go on a nice day, just make sure you have lots of time.

The Naked Lady Cafe Cowra 14 Railway Lane. Phone 6341 1455

Cowra's Festival of International Understanding

2006-03-12T21:52:00.000+11:00

Once a year, Cowra celebrates a weekend festival of international understanding. A guest country is chosen and that becomes the theme for that year. All the schools invite kids to decorate the shopfronts of main street, there are various workshops on the country's culture and displays in the art gallery might also reflect that nature. A silver birch is also planted every year in honour of the guest nation. The highlights of the festival include a parade with various floats and decorated vehicles. We saw antique vehicles, even an old 50s style rusty truck which putt-putted along. Another highlight is the festival carnival which has the usual games and rides, farmers bring some of their produce such as cheese, jams and chutneys, honey etc. to sell and there are country craft stalls as well as the token sausage sizzle.

We were a bit late to the parade so missed a lot of good bits. This is the group which you will see later dancing on stage. They are a polish dance troupe with a branch in Sydney.

Here they are singing and performic various folkloric dancing.

Here is the polish style fencing with various rapiers and swords. They also gave a talk which was pretty interesting, about the weapons including maces and shields.

This was from the polish foodstall at the carnival. It was a slice of porkneck with 3 potato pancakes and salad with yogurt dressing. The porkneck was tender enough to cut with the plastic fork and knife! It was extremely tasty as was the pancakes. Mmmm They also had black pudding which we gave a miss as well as other smallgoods for sale such as hams and sausages.

The carnival had a good turnout and it was a great weekend of fun for lots of people. I'm glad it had a revival as they had a different, off the main street location the last few years and numbers had started dwindling. Sunday had Polish dancing lessons and also easter egg painting but since B and J were visiting us, we decided to visit The Naked Lady cafe instead. A bit controversial in the town when it first opened, this cafe proved to be a stayer. A photo to pique your curiosity, more to be said in the next blog.

And so it begins ....

2006-03-10T01:00:00.000+11:00

Tutor demonstrating right way to introduce canula.

Well the graduate diploma course in dental sedation has officially started. It was a very interesting two weeks. The first week consisted of theory stuff like physiology and pharmacology, revising first aid on dummies. The best part of this week was that we got to practice various levels of nitrous oxide (happy gas) sedation on each other. At the level we like to achieve, it can produce a light buzzy happy feeling, like you've had a couple of drinks sort of feeling. At higher levels, it can even induce some analgesia. We were poking each other with probes and pinching each other at that level and the subject could feel we were doing something but didn't care as it didn't hurt. Interesting...

The second week, we had anatomy of veins in anticubital fossa (area other side of the elbow) and back of the hand and practiced on a dummy as well as each other! Well I got out of it but since for all of us it was the first time, there were a few blood baths! Well not that bad but a friend forgot to take the torniquet off after inserting the catheter and a little river of blood started flowing down even when she applied pressure to the site. She couldn't figure out why until she noticed that the tourniquet was still on. Many others wore bruises the next day. Let it not be said that students don't sacrifice for the sake of medicine! We also learnt to use a semi-automatic defibrillator. It was pretty interesting as I had never used one before.
My 60s room at the hospital accomodation complex.

Other highlights of the fornight include:
-going to a free music under the stars night with B and J, had the sydney symmphony orchestra playing mozart. Quite soothing especially when a picnic was thrown in.
-my first blogmeet with flatfeet which was really enjoyable actually so enjoyable we met up 2 more times in the 2 weeks :) Posts on food and stuff we had to come later.
-staying with Clare before the course started. My first taste of paella when we went to a spanish restaurant in Newtown
-Richard visiting with the doggies
My gorgeous boy Magic (Anshaygav Ashlea)
My beautiful girl Raven (Ecebe Raven Beauty)

I apologise for the picture quality and it wasn't because of some romantic soft filter I used on my camera. It was due to my phone having a VGA camera which isn't as sharp.

I'm back!!

2006-03-05T22:44:00.000+11:00

Just a short post to say that I enjoyed the 2 weeks of lectures but it will only be the beginning of 2 years of work. My first clinicals start in June ... a bit late but my nearest and dearest has volunteered to be my pin cushion as I practice cannulating. I didn't take too many from the hospital so hopefully will get it right in the first few gos!

We had a few turns practicing on each other. I got out of it as I was told they could only feel very "small veins". I will have to ponder that one. I think they just didn't want me fainting on their hands as I told them that I had fainted when giving blood. Its fine as long as it isn't my own!!

I have graphic pictures (ok not that graphic) and stories but its late at night so off to bed now. Will fiddle with software from my new mobile (cell) phone so i can upload some pictures. I love new technology! It even still has the new technology smell fresh from the factory ... *sniff*

I have been thinking about setting up a separate blog for clinical and dental cases and keeping this to food, life, travel and musings. I would appreciate some comments to see what people think.

Neila

2006-02-17T23:11:00.000+11:00

*** Note: This blog will be in hiatus for about 2 weeks as I will be away in Sydney starting a postgrad diploma, hopefully will return with stories from the hospital, stories about food and maybe even stories about hospital food. If I survive it that is ... my stomach having become more refined to tastes such as what I am about to review, and less like cold pizza.***

Within the first few weeks of arriving in Cowra, my bosses had sussed me out to be a foodie and raved about a local restaurant, Neila. At the first special occasion we got which happened to be Valentines Day, Richard surprised me by arriving from Sydney (we were dating long distance at the time) and whisking me to a dinner booking here. We were floored by the unique dishes on the menu, including oyster shots which I had tried to emulate in my humble kitchen.

Hence, it seemed apt that we spend our final (belated) Valentines celebration in Cowra, back at the same restaurant which we gazed starry eyed upon each other, and less at the food. This year I have to add that it is five years later and so more attention was paid to the food ;) I have been extremely lucky that my boss has chosen this elegant venue to hold each years staff Christmas dinner. The produce on their menu is always local but the flavours change with the seasons and with chef Anna Wong's imagination. Born in Australia and of Chinese descent, Anna's dishes bring new meaning to the term 'fusion cuisine'. There is never an overstatement of one particular flavour. A hint of ginger here, a dash of kaffir lime there, married with ingredients fresh from the farms, including their own herb garden, is enough to create an extremely enjoyable and unforgettable meal.

A humble shopfront, Neila is the first in its block entering from the west side of Cowra, just after the bridge over the Lachlan River. Its interior is modern and cozy, with dim lighting to create a comfortable ambience. The menu is not extensive, but extremely varied to cater to most. Entrees are $16, Mains $29 and Desserts $14.

My entree, the steamed shitake mushroom custard with wagyu-x beef roll. I had half expected a hot Japanese chawanmushi style custard and eyed the cold shotglass full of custard with some doubt. I took the first spoonful and stand corrected. Being still summer and with the night outside balmy, this was perfectly refreshing and an excellent appetizer. The brown sauce on top tasted like shitake mushrom essence, slightly sweet and bringing out tasty flavours of the silky tofu-like custard. Each of the two beef rolls were wrapped around julliened carrot,scallion and seaweed and they were carefully cooked to maintain its flavour and tenderness.

Richard's entree, the asparagus in sesame batter with lime and peanut sauce. This is a good way for getting kids to eat their veggies, if mum and dad don't grab all of it first! The fresh crunchy asparagus had a wafer thin coating of batter randomly dotted with black sesames and was dressed with a tangy slightly sweet dressing that also hinted of ginger. We commented that we had never seen such huge asparagus stalks, nor tasted asparagus done so well.

My main, the caramelised pork hock with green papaya and cashew nut salad served with jasmine rice. Again I had half expected a small pork hock sitting on the dish. However, the hock had already been pre-cubed for eating convenience and more importantly, thorough infusion of the flavours and a crisp even caramelised coating of dark sauce. The pork was melt in the mouth although dieters beware! The tenderness in pork comes with a price of having fatty regions. I merely trimmed these away and enjoyed how well the soy based sauce went with the magical green papaya salad which had mild flavours of five spice in it. The slightly salty taste of the soy pork, the sweet sour of the green papaya, the crunch of the cashews and the fragrance of the jasmine rice ensured that all my taste buds were kept extremely entertained.
Richard's main, the roasted atlantic salmon fillet with avacado and soba salad in wasabi dressing. Everybody knows it is hard to cook fish well but nowhere else have we had fish cooked to perfection as this. Richard has ordered this a few times over the years we have been here and it is always slightly crispy skinned to remove the fishy taste, with pink to orange flesh in the centre, tender yet with substance to ensure that it melts in the mouth yet never falls off the fork in flakes. The soba noodles salad with its slightly bolder soy and wasabi taste, softened by the avacado chunks complimented the milder tasting fish.
Our shared dessert, fresh fig with black sesame praline semmifreddo. I had to look up the definition of semifreddo on epicurious.com and it states that it is italian for "half cold". Culinarily,it refers to any of various chilled or partially frozen desserts including cake, ice cream, fruit and custard or whipped cream. This was really amazing. It was the second time I have ever had fresh figs and the soft slightly sweet flesh drizzled with honey went with the velvet texture of the praline, given a bit crunch with the black sesame. It was a perfect dessert. Not too sweet and full of new flavours and interesting textures.

After taking the last picture of the dessert, Jerry who is the maitre'd and also Annas partner could not contain his curiosity any longer and asked me what I was doing, photographing all the food. I went red as I had been busted! I had to explain that I have a blog and a ring of blogging foodie friends who would be interested in food from other parts of the world. I hope if both of you (Jerry and Anna) have time to read this, that you will like my little review. I am of course neither a food critic nor expert but defintely a food lover and a fan of this restaurant which has put Cowra on the dining map, having been awarded a star a few years in a row now by the Australian Gourmet Traveller magazine and a 'chefs hat' award four years in a row by the Sydney Morning Herald's good food guide. If you're not from these parts, it is defintely worth the drive out here to investigate.

Neila 5 Kendal St Cowra (02)6341 2188

Monday the Thirteenth

2006-02-15T22:54:00.001+11:00

Two days ago, as I was running out the door to work, I grabbed my coats ironed from the night before and left on the door knob so I don't forget them in the rush to get out the door. I threw them over my left arm and immediately felt this searing hot pain. I looked at my coats which bit me and found a huge spider on the underside of them!! EEEEEEEK !! I threw them down immediately and stood dazed for a minute. I then picked up the coats and shook the beast out. It was huge!!! As big as my hand when the legs are included. It immediately ran up the wall of the hall. I ran to the kitchen and got out a can of insecticide and started spraying it like mad. The big mother still refused to die. Finally it weakened to the point of falling to the carpet. I stepped on it and it curled up after a satisfying crunch. I kicked it outside so my 'babies' wouldn't eat it or lick it.

By the time I drove to the surgery, my hand was starting to swell. I walked into the door of the surgery and my dental nurse said I should ask them at the hospital what to do. It was about 200 m walk away and so i walked there. They were pretty nice to me and put some ice on my hand. They sat me on a bed and took my blood pressure. At first, I felt ok, but i got pretty drowsy and lay down. The next few hours were a bit hazy. I remember that a doctor came to look at it and they gave me panadol but not much else. They asked me what the spider looked like but being brown and furry it was not on the top two dreaded spiders in Australia, them being the Sydney funnel web and the Red back. I remember my arm feeling hot and I had hot flushes throughout my body. a few hours later though I woke up feeling ok. Arm was a bit sore but the swelling had gone. All that was left were 2 puncture marks from the bite. It was about a cm (half an inch) apart.

I told hubby and he is usually a nature loving person, letting any spiders I asked him to get rid off in the past free outside of our home. He vowed revenge on all spiders from this day forth and he also felt helpless that he was an hour away instead of being able to send me to hospital. Soon that will be better though, we are really looking forward to us working in the same town.

The nurse at the hospital was surprised when I jumped up and said I would go back to work. The doctor said to take the day off but I already felt better and would feel bad sitting at home doing not much else. So, I walked back to the surgery and did a crown prep and a few cleans and that was my monday.

This is a good link to the Australian Museum Online on huntsman spiders, which is what Richard thought I got bit by. A spider by any name is as yukky to me. It looked huge, brown and furry with a few lines so I guess it kind of looked like the ones in that link. Here is another pic I found on the web of one.

It was taken from http://www.giftlog.com/pictures/spider_picture.htm which also has some pictures of a red back. I guess the plus of being in the country is the warm hospitality and next to no wait at the outpatients department of the hospital. The negative being many insects and even snakes spotted often in gardens every summer. I can't wait for autumn.

Mulyan Winery

2006-02-13T00:05:00.000+11:00

On Saturday, we took a leisurely drive around town, doing some shopping, had lunch (post of it to come later) and visited the Mulyan winery where the tasty red we had a few weeks earlier came from. It was a short drive out of town (about 5 minutes) and we were in rural landscape. A small dirt track off the main road, with adequate signage led us towards the airy building with a wide porch front.
These were a few grape vines growing close to the house but the main crop was grown elsewhere on the property.

Despite the rustic exterior, the main function room with tasting bar, was bright and modern. We were quickly seated and offered the currently small range of wines. There was a 2000 and 2001 Chardonnay under the Bushranger's Bounty label, a 2001 Chardonnay under the more premium Mulyan label, a 2000 Mulyan Shiraz and a 2001 Bushman's Bounty Shiraz. Other regional produce such as olive oil, home made sauces and chutneys, sheeps cheese and various salad dressings were also displayed on the counter.

We quickly decided that we loved the 2000 Bushman's Chardonnay which has won a few awards. It was light and very refreshing, fruity on the mid palate. The second tasting of the Bushman's Shiraz only confirmed that we needed to get half a dozen bottles of each. We knew that it would make great presents and we would keep a few as we wouldn't know when we would return. The shiraz retailed for $15 a bottle and the Chardonay for $11. We got the half dozen of each for $122 which was a good deal.

A quick stroll around the building revealed a sunny courtyard out the back where people could sit and enjoy their wine with a picnic at tables complete with large umbrellas. The function area indoors was also decorated with various scultures and art pieces.

If one was to chance upon the Bushrangers Bounty label, I would recommend you give it a try. Both the chardonnay and shiraz have lighter, less complex overtones than this winery's flagship label but this means that it can be enjoyed both on its own or with various foods, be it a fresh salad or a creamy pasta.
Mulyan Winery North Logan Road Cowra (02)6342 1336

Virtual Vacation Comp

2006-02-11T01:05:00.000+11:00

Since Cowra is a small town and this was a weekend we were staying here in the country, I decided to take you readers on a virtual vacation with me. Well actually, I just wanted to score a really cool food hamper from Reid of Onokinegrindz. He and his pal Alan are organising a virtual vacation contest to help bloggers beat the Febuary post holiday blues.

I thought back to our recent vacation to the US of A and my mind floated to what was easily the best sector, Las Vegas!When we visited in July, it was a sweltering 41 degrees celcius (106 F). Currently, it is a cool 17 degrees (61 F). We did a lot of walking on foot and I felt that was one of the best ways to explore the strip and all it has to offer. We did a split trip of Vegas, staying one night then driving through Arizona to the Grand Canyon, before continuing on to New Mexico where I met up with some long time net friends and stayed a couple of nights with them. We then headed back to Vegas for 2 more nights.

There is so much to gush about but I think I should get back to the main points of what inspired me to make a dish to recreate the feeling of "Viva Las Vegas!"

This is a picture of us getting ~~plastered~~ geared up for a great night. While walking through the Caesars Palace Mall, we came across people sipping from giant mugs of various shapes and sizes. They all said 'Fat Tuesday' and close to the Expensive Car Showroom and a dessert cafe near the Fate of Atlantis exhibit, we found a haven of frozen margaritas. They came in many different sizes but we chose a quart which is about a litre! I chose one with armaretto and pineapple flavours and Richard chose the 190 octane which has lots of spirit and an orange flavour. It was much bigger than we expected but hey! The night was young and we had much exploring to do. There is an amazing energy about the place, something in the air makes you feel like you can go on and on- and we did, staying up for 30 hours!

We started one end of the strip and wandered into various resorts. We were staying at the Luxor which was the egyptian-themed hotel, boasting a real exhibit of king tuts tomb, various themed simulation rides and a museum. All resorts have activities and features, most of them working around their theme. For example, Excalibur has decorations throughout spouting medieval merchandise, a live show featuring knights on horseback, various side shows with magicians and musicians and a fun park. I just can't believe how much effort is placed into each resort. New York New York had a "Coyote Ugly" club with of course bar top dancing, and had a roller coaster on top of the hotel. Forget the gambling! We were there for the fun and experience of stepping into another world behind each front door.

This was taken near the front entrance of the Venetian, I looked up at the massive paintings and had to take a shot of its ceiling.
This was also taken inside the Venetian. Of course we also went on a gondola ride. And our own gondolier sang for us as she poled the little boat through the waters.

There is just so much to share! The shopping on the strip includes many specialty shops throughout the malls, Caesar's Palace easily being the largest. It has about one mile of shops!!The shops are made to look like you are walking through a roman village, including fountains, statues and little stalls. There is a false sky with the light changing from dawn to dusk with every hour. Then there are the fashion factory outlets located just outside of the strip with many branded outlets at greatly reduced prices. The food!! There are just so many buffets to choose from. Naturally you get what you pay for but when dining at a few recommended ones such as the Spice Market buffet at Aladdin (sadly soon to be remodelled into Planet Hollywood), the french one at Paris(oh the way they serve it in cute little "shops"), and the one we had at the Luxor, you get quality as well as quantity. The nightlife!! We went to watch the Blue Man group live which was interactive, very creative and enjoyable. We also couldn't resist going to the Star Trek Experience the little geeks that we were and scored a free backstage tour as they were trialling it out! We got lots of great show facts and how everything works at "The Experience".

Needless to say, we had a lifetime of memories and all I can say is, leave at least 5 days to see everything, not forgetting the day tours such as Hoover Dam and Valley of Fire which we didn't get to visit.

Now that I am home, I made a few cocktails to put us in that party Vegas mood. I arranged it on this 3D collage of our souvenirs from Vegas. The strange looking litle glass is a Ferengi shotglass, conical and on a stand. The other two are one creamy cocktail and one fruity refreshing one.

These are my own creations that I know of, so please feel free to experiment according to the ingredients you like. We have given them names we feel capture the spirit of the drink (no pun intended).

Desert Rose
To make a smooth, creamy cocktail;
2 shots Baileys
2 shots Frangelico (hazelnut liquer)
1 shot butterscotch schnapps
Add some cream and blend with ice till smooth. Goes down easy and preps you for a great night.

The Strip
To make a strange green coloured refreshing cocktail;
1 shot blue curacao
1 shot Stones green ginger wine
1 can (250ml/metric cup) of V or other citrus energy drink
serve over lots of ice
Richard really really loved this one and said we had to make it again

Hairy Chested Klingon
To make a nutty coffee shot;
1 third Kahlua
1 third Frangelico
1 third Vodka or Butterscotch schnapps if you have a sweet tooth
Toss it back and enjoy!! Guaranteed to bring out the growl in you

Vegas baby yeah!!!

I scream for Ice-cream!!

2006-02-10T21:13:00.000+11:00

As mentioned two posts ago, here is more of our weekend away in Sydney (aptly labelled by Clare as "the weekend of excess") She has done an amazing job of capturing the bulk of our gastronomic tour of Parramatta area last Saturday night. Except for some of these pictures taken at Cold Rock. She was probably too embarrassed, but I didn't mind playing the country bumpkin and snapped away. I got asked if I was a tourist LOL I just said that I was from the country.

Step 1:Pick from a large range of ice cream flavours, including a low fat range. They come with little suggestions of what mix-ins go with it eg. fruits, chocolate bars, cookie dough, candy etc.

Step 2: The ice cream is placed on a specially refrigerated slab, optimum for keeping ice cream cold while it is mixed.

Step3: Your selected mix-in is first broken up into little pieces in a "well" made in the ice cream and mixed throughout.

Step 4:Enjoy your ice cream! This is what magic thinks about ice cream, any ice cream!

Ok ok, Claire has a pic of the finished product on the link above. But we all agreed that we had made successful choices for part 1 of our dessert. Mine and Richard's was Ferrero Rocher with cookie dough, CnC's was Rum and Raisin with caramel fudge and Kit Kat addins. We enjoyed them walking by the Parramatta River where people were trying to fish and old folk were canoodling in the moonlight. Ahhh sometimes I really miss the city.

A Singaporean/Malaysian CNY in Australia

2006-02-08T00:20:00.000+11:00

Chinese New Year is often the time I feel the most homesick. Many Australians might relate to that because it is as big as Christmas is to Aussie families. There is lots of food, lots of presents, more food, and the chance to see some family like cousins and Aunts you might not have caught up with all year. And before you know it, it comes around again.

While Christmas is also pretty big in Singapore, it is not in anyway as big as CNY. You might have a few friends over for a roast and pudding and you might exchange presents and cards. But for the latter, there are days of preparations for the feast- all the condiments must be ready, the house must be cleaned from top to toe and decorated with ribbons and lanterns. The pussy willow (yes its a real plant) is the traditional "tree" on which decorations are hung. All the freshest produce must be bought on the eve, and traditional greetings and gifts of various cakes and mandarins must be ready. There is a buzz in the air and shops everywhere blare out traditional tunes to remind you that the time is coming!

The past eleven years in Australia, my own celebrations have been low key. There was one year when CNY was in mid January (it follows the lunar calender) and I got to spend it back in Singapore once more. The last 4 years it has been virtually non-descript here in the country save for eating at the Hong Kong restaurant here in town. This year, things were a bit different as my childhood friend J who got married last year in October, had her own place and we decided to have a mini celebration of our own. Previously she had it mostly with her own family or extended family who also live in Australia.

I bought some char siu (chinese bbq pork), noodles and roast duck. She prepared the Yu Sang which is the lucky raw fish salad Singaporeans and Malaysians traditionally have during the festive season, and also obtained some of the traditional cakes and biscuits served this period.

This is a before shot of the salad. It consists of candied ginger and melons of various description. Some consist of fresh grated carrots and radishes etc. Everyone's recipe is slightly different. The fish J used was smoked salmon. This went beautifully with the dressing which has plummy overtones. The traditional fish is a white fish but salmon sashimi is also used.

An action shot of the tossing of salad. This is tossed high together saying "loh hei" and various toasts are proposed to each other, wishing each other good health, success in work, good results for studies and generally a smooth and happy year.

These are the various biscuits and cookies. They are popular only in Singapore and Malaysia, as they are made by the straits born Chinese. These were chinese whose forefathers arrived in the straits many decades ago and settled amongst the indigenous malays. They resulted in a unique breed known as Peranakans, Nonyas or Babas. Keeping their heritage, they kept celebrating chinese new year and the malay influences led to these unique biscuits served during this time. It can also be bought at other times of the year but you need to hunt around for it.

On the left, the white biscuits have a melt in the mouth quality, similar to powdered sugar but much less sweet. These are called kueh bankit (kueh meaning biscuit or cake). The fan shaped arrangement of striped cake is kueh lapis. A variation of this is also served in Indonesia with prunes amongst the layers. It has a buttery taste is very fragrant. The things that look like mini spring rolls, I have absolutely no idea what they are called! I cal them mini spring rolls and my mumknows what I am talking about. They are filled with sambal shrimp which is dried, fried, spiced shrimp paste. Richard reckons they taste great with beer. The little golden logs are pineapple tarts. They are a shortcrust pastry filled with pineapple jam and they come in many shapes and sizes.

It was really nice having the opportunity to share this experience with friends. Also, it gave Richard a little more insight to some of the traditions I have grown up with. He loved the yu sang and I am happy about that as it is one of my favourite dishes too! I don't know if I will ever be able to completely reconcile the differences in culture and lifestyle I experience and what I have grown up with. I suppose it is harder for me as my parents are still overseas, rather than say someone like J whose family are all now Australian. I recognise that there is no perfect country or place to live in and somehow I hope that our kids (if we end up having some) will be able to carry on the best of both Singaporean and Australian cultures, practices and traditions no matter where they might live in the future.

And after our busy weekend, I feel kind of like Magic, my doggie.

Chinese New Year Parade in Sydney

2006-02-07T23:43:00.000+11:00

We spent Sunday the 6th of Feb in Sydney's Chinatown watching the CNY parade. It was a great way to end a perfect weekend. We had spent a big bulk of it catching up with Casey and Clare and we are hoping to do some joint blogging to share our Saturday night which involved lots of mexican food, feeling seedy after Sangria (what was in that stuff anyway?), cold mushed ice cream, and turkish sweet shops with hookah smoking. But for the meantime, here were some pictures that I tried to take amongst the crowds to try and capture the colourful event.

One of the first few items to come through the parade. Love the big red lanterns and firecrackers.
Always a favourite of mine... the lion dancers. Many a kid has tried this at home with bathtowels and a willing accomplice to prance around with. Yes, of course I mean me! Hope my cousin doesn't remember the time I tried to get him to stand on my shoulders to practice 'cai qing' or picking the vegetables dangling from the ceiling and we all fell into a heap on the ground. Many tears and bribes ensured he didn't tell mum about it :P

Dragon Dancers ... very colourful but not as cool as the lions!

Various mythical figures in operatic costumes on stilts as one of the items. The one on the left who looks like his pants are falling down is supposed to be the Monkey God. The balloons say 2008 as these items were presented by delegations who had flown in from China for the event.

The 'Roo and Panda, probably signifying friendship between China and Australia.

The Olympic colours... heralding the coming of the 2008 Beijing Olympics as one of the last few items. Overall it was pretty good quality...many acrobatics were performed as well as marching and dancing in costumes. Richard said he saw children on stilts doing the caterpillar! Pity it escaped me due to the crowds and my slow camera. We were glad we went as although it was crowded, it wasn't like a cattle crush and the slightly overcast day meant it was not too hot!

Hong Kong Chinese Restaurant

2006-02-02T21:58:00.000+11:00

We usually celebrate Chinese New Year at this restaurant because the first time we came here in CNY 2003, we got to know Jasmine, the owner. Jasmine like myself comes from Singapore and she was extremely excited to know of this the first time we went there. At the time, she was the only Singaporean in Cowra. Her husband Kevin, the head cook, is Malaysian but they met and got married in Singapore.

This year, we were just reflecting on how Cowra now has 4 Singaporeans! There is a new male doctor at the large medical centre, a female doctor who has been there since late last year and myself. That has been a population growth of 200 percent in 3 years *grin*. Richard was joking that at this stage, we would soon have a hawker centre/ food court down in the main street.

This is the picture of the outside of the Hong Kong. It is one of the first blocks you see on the right when you drive into town from the Sydney side. As you can see, it was built as Parris's village plaza owned by the Parris family. They own one of those ubiquitous milk bars I was talking about two posts ago on the right. This was a fifth one in Cowra but shut down in May last year after the matriach of the family passed away at a ripe old age. She was a lovely lady and always had time for a chat if you ducked in for a drink or the paper. They used to own the Hong Kong as well but it was sold to Jasmine in 2000. On the left of the restaurant is a laundromat and over beyond that is the town fire station.

We started the meal with a traditional CNY celebratory dish, sharks fin soup. This is usually enjoyed with a dash of white pepper and red wine vinegar. It had a really tasty seafood and crab broth and lots of crab meat. Richard did not really fancy sharks fin soup at our wedding dinner but he really enjoyed this one.

For our next entree, we tried the chicken and ham rolls which were minced chicken and ham patties, made on premises and deep fried. They were very tasty and not overly processed. They were served with the usual Aussie-chinese entree complement, sweet and sour sauce.

Jasmine gave us a bottle of local wine to enjoy with our meal. It was a really tasty red, the 2001 Bushranger's Bounty Shiraz. We learned that it was from the Mulyan winery and have made a mental note that it would be one of the places we need to visit before we move.

In the forefront, is a dish concocted by Jasmine and Kevin themselves, pork fillet in tomato-garlic sauce. It rates very high in the yumminess factor and has the perfect blend of sweet and tasty. In the background is a dish I have actually grown up with, seafood in a basket. I am used to it being served in a rice vermicelli fried basket (you know the white shredded stuff normally used to decorate the bottom of plates?). Jasmine has somehow sourced a shredded potato basket instead, making it extremely tasty, especially after soaking up the stir-fried seafood sauce. It tastes kind of like a crunchy rosti. This variation was even better than the one I know and love.

On the whole, even though the food here has westernised items on the menu like sweet and sour, mongolian etc. It is done really well as it is not oily and has a home cooked freshly made taste to it.

We have been really fortunate getting to know Jasmine and Kevin as they have been kind and generous to us. We have always expected (and tried!) to pay for our meals. But sometimes, when things are going well for them, as Jasmine insisted this time it was, the meal is on the house. My estimate is that it would have cost about $43 for the lot (wine not included - no idea what that would have cost). Jasmine said that our friendship was priceless and this was but a token. I will definitely miss her and her family and knowing them has helped me appreciate how hard they life of a restauranteur is. They typically wake at about 8 am to make wontons, spring rolls and other appetizers, get ready for the lunch crowd, have lunch at about 3 pm, prepare and cut veggies and meat and marinate it, have the dinnertime crowd, eat at about 10 or 11 pm and clean up, washing tablecloths etc and going to bed at about 1 or 2 am. We babysat their youngest Zoe when she was newborn and it was a busy weekend at work and now she is almost 3! I will also miss our DVD/movie swaps, local and S'pore gossip and recipe exchanges. She sometimes even brings homemade soups to the surgery and leaves it at the reception desk for me :~)

I wish her and her family, and all of you out there:
Gong Xi Fa Cai (or Gong Hei Fatt Choy in cantonese) - Congratulations and many happy returns for a prosperous new year,
Wan Shi Ru Yi- May ten thousand wishes go your way,
Long Ma Jin Shen- The energy and health of horses and dragons,
Xin Xiang Shi Cheng- may anything your heart desires come true

Yes I'm a bit late but its still the fifth day of the fifteen day celebrations!

Seoul Ria review

2006-01-31T22:44:00.000+11:00

As mentioned in my odds and ends post in December, my cousin and I went to Seoul Ria on the 8th of December. Now to fill my blog, with an otherwise mundane existence peppered with playing Command and Conquer on the PC, I shall recount the tasty delights of the night.

We arrived quite late at about 10:30pm but much feasting and merriment was still going on. There was a extensive menu with pictures (always good when you are unsure about the cuisine). Korean is a cuisine I had only recently gotten to know a bit more about. This is because when I was living in Singapore a little more than 10 years ago, the experience was limited to korean BBQ buffet places where you fill your plates with raw marinated meats and bbqed then over a charcoal hot plate at your table. I loved the taste of bulgolgi but unfortunately there was not many other varieties to choose from. My cousin who studied in Melbourne berated me last year for not having tried the other dishes which made up korean food. She said she loved it for its variety in side dishes. After reading many food blogs such as Mmm-Yoso, making new online friends such as Milly from Some like it HOT and hanging out with Casey and Clare, I have learned that these are known as panchan.

There was quite a variety here and forgive my ignorance at what the names of these dishes were. I can only say that variety is the spice of life! I enjoyed the texture of the clear blocks of agar like substance which had a texture similar to tofu and had a soy based sauce. The kimchee was very very good, a mixture of sour and salty and hot at the same time with good fresh crunch. Bean sprouts have always been a favourite of mine and these were tossed with some oil and chilli in a wok. The potatoes and green veggies were ok, a bit unmemorable but it made a great time filler snacking on before the dishes arrived. Rice was served in the traditional little stainless steel bowls. There was quite a variety of drinks of the alcoholic nature but we resisted having any, as June had to catch a 7 am flight the next day and guess who was driving her to the airport?

We filled in our time also chatting about what she had learnt about korean culture from watching the TV drama serials which have taken the asian market by storm. She told me that in korean culture, if one is drinking with ones boss or any other superior, you had to turn your head to the side to drink, as a sign of respect. That was really interesting. I love how the world is getting smaller and how we are able to learn about different practices and traditions that make countries and people groups unique. Soon, the entree she had suggested arrived.
This is whole marinated raw blueswimmer crab. I have no idea how long it is marinated for but the sauce it was marinated in sure packed a punch and would probably kill any bugs in it. It was extremely tasty and spicy, hinting of bean paste and hot pepper paste flavours. The texture of the crab was something I might take a while getting used to as the texture of raw crab is not as firm as my beloved raw fish. It is more flaky and in places mealy. The sauce was so good that I scooped up lots to have with my rice, forgetting that we still had a hotpot ordered as our main!

This was waaay more than two girls to eat, even two asian girls with hearty appetites. It was served on top of one of those portable gas stove things and we let it simmer for a while before tucking in. We ended up fishing the "good stuff" such as the prawns and fish out and having to leave a good half of it there. The soup was really tasty and had a kimchee base to it but with a tinge of sweetness from the vegetables. I would definitely recommend it to anyone who loves steamboat/hot pot stuff. There was a lot of ingredients and defintely more than enough for two. It was pretty reasonably priced too. The whole meal set us back AUD $55. I would defintely be back to Seoul Ria ... there are too many dishes I would love to try.

Seoul-Ria Level 2, 605-609 George St Sydney Chinatown, NSW 2000 Ph:(02) 92690222

I will end this post with a picture taken at the now defunct (yes they went bust, all you ex-Cowra people who might have grown up going to it annually) Marti's Balloon Fiesta. It used to be an annual weekend long festival held each March, the mornings starting with hot air balloon rides and every evening ending with a glow show co-ordinated in time to music and fireworks I went to it twice and the balloon glow was the best part. Unfortunately, rising cost of public liability coupled with dwindling numbers (mostly due to rising costs of tickets) got the better of it. Luckily I got some photos for memories. Love the nudie balloon ;)

Early afternoon around town

2006-01-29T18:15:00.000+11:00

LOL I didn't check my settings before using the handy FastStone photo resizer to resize and put a lil template on my photos, hence you will see Sample at the bottom corner instead of Rustic Fillings. That'll teach me! :)

We slept in 'till 11 am yesterday and headed for town as we had to run a few errands such as geting another fish to keep Comet company. As you can see even around noon the street is pretty deserted. This is due to the shops shutting at around this time. On a Sunday, its even worse ! You could roll a bowling ball down the street and not hit anybody.This is the main shopping street in Cowra. It is taken from a point halfway down the street, pointing to the east (top) side of the street.

This is a basic milk bar/ cafe place. It offers roast chicken, salads, and other short order stuff such as dagwood dogs, battered fish, burgers etc. It is very common in suburban Australia and definitely present in country towns.
It is also called a milk bar because most of them make old fashioned milk shakes (the kind you get in the tall metal shaker container - bit of ice cream, mostly milk and with your choice of flavouring). This is the biggest one in town- The Golden Key Cafe(the only one offering roast chicken and salads) and a town this size (10,000)has four of these. Just as a side note, this business has changed hands twice in four years and has been refurbished once to add a juice/smoothie bar. (Yes you get all the goss at the dental surgery)

Not having had breakfast, I felt like something naughty so I ordered a burger with the LOT (AUD $5.50). In Australia, this means cheese,pineapple, bacon, egg, pattie, lettuce, beetroot and tomato. What makes the Australian burger unique is the presence of beetroot. I noticed that egg also doesn't feature much in other countries. Take a look at mine.
As you can see the pattie is mostly obscured by the bacon, egg and pineapple. Eggs are fried flat here too, as opposed to in rings. The short order cooks here wield a spatula similar to a paint scraper as their weapon of choice. They flatten the ball of meat as soon as it hits the hot plate. The flavours meld well together, adopting the charred juices of the hundreds of burgers fried on the same hot plate before. Patties in aussie burgers (standard ones with no extras) are pretty flat and thin, hence in fast food tests done recently, it was found to have the lowest amount of fat compared to burgers bought at all the usual chains. As burgers go, this was a pretty good one! Nice bit of bacon, not fried to a crisp, just the way I like it!
Richard had his with cheese and pineapple (AUD $4.50) and he found that it hit the spot too!
Here is a photo of the outside of the Townhouse Hotel Motel from the review before. It is a variation of the typical pub hotel found here, most of them being part of a block. More pics to follow in later posts of country fare and aussie lifestyle :)

Country Fare - The Townhouse bistro

2006-01-27T23:23:00.001+11:00

Since yesterday was Australia Day, I thought I'd do a post on good ol' country fare. Outside pictures to come later. This is a picture of a typical bistro attached to a motel. Yes thats Richard trying to hide and become part of the furniture. The menu is basically written on the blackboard in some of these establishments and there was a large selection at this one, the Townhouse.

As I mentioned previously, country business change hands a lot. This particular motel/pub has changed hands 3 times and been refurbished twice in the 4 years that I've lived here. So meals have ranged from good to pretty ordinary. Its extremely hard to pick if a place will be good or bad in this town (with the exception of Neila, a gourmet restaurant in a class of its own, which has consistently won many awards yearly and has put Cowra on the map in the dining scene. You need to keep your ear to the ground and hear what friends recommend is the 'in' bistro at the moment and you in turn give feedback to them. Most of the dining with the exception of 2 chinese restaurants and a roast chicken and salad shop is in the pub bistros. Motels here are called "hotels" when they have a license to sell liquor. (It only took me 11 years of living here and a bachelor's degree to find this out.) Don't expect the Ritz Carlton by any means, most of these are your average 2-3 star motels. The pub area ranges from seedy and 60s looking to the slightly modern.

We had these first two dishes for dinner 3 weeks ago. This is the "fillet mignon"($19.95) dish listed under the steaks section. It is a large eye fillet topped with bacon, musroom and onion suace, served with a choice of vegetables or chips and salad. It was a large steak, done medium rare quite nicely and quite tender. The sauce was a bit rich for my liking and the veggies were a bit overdone. We had come here before the change of ownership a few months ago and the food was a bit less tired looking.

Richard had this dish, the "tropicana chicken" ($17.95) which was a chicken schnitzel topped with pineapple, bacon and cheese. He chose the option of chips and salad. The pineapple was actually quite burnt and the taste carried through to the cheese and bacon. Again the salad is better than your average lettuce and tomato salad but also a bit tired and dry.

Wanting to give our old favourite place another chance, we came back for lunch a few days later. We both had caesar salads, Richard's was chicken ($11.95)
Mine was calamari ($12.95). It was interesting having something else with a caesar salad other than prawn or chicken. However, the sauce was quite sweet and rich and hence the fried calamari rings only added to the heavyness. Richard described the chicken as "like a whole chicken chopped up, cartilage, bones and all." Sadly, unless someone tells us otherwise, we probably won't be back again here (since we're moving and all).

So here in a nutshell is basic, everyday country fare, mostly steaks and schintzel sometimes pasta with a variation of different sauces , some topped with seafood. Mostly meat and potatoes! I might do another post at another place if I get the chance, probably on a cafe since that is the standard lunchtime food. Stay tuned ...

Hug-a-Dentist Day

2006-01-26T02:18:00.000+11:00

Tis the wee hours of the morning now so expect some rambling. You have been forewarned !

We came back at 1:30 am from mick and debs place, the traditional place where we hang out on the eve of public holidays. In the past we have stumbled home at about 4 am after PS2 sing star comps and eye toy comps :) We have been doing this for the past 3 years since we have gotten to know them well. Richard had lots of stuff to do and we almost didn't go but we decided to go because we realised that this will probably be the last public holiday we live in Cowra. Our planned move is at Easter time so that will probably be full of moving stuff.

Yes its 2:20 am and I'm still up. Its bad sleeping habits yadda yadda but there is so much stuff you want to do after work and so little time. I usually only need 6 hours of sleep a night but Richard needs about 8-10. I just read in January's Australian Readers digest that this may be due to the amount of chilli I eat! This may explain our observations of asians being awake to late at night and still being able to function the next day. When I told my best friend in S'pore that they put kids to bed here at 7:30 pm, she said," Who on earth goes to bed at 7:30??" Over there kids sleep around 9 or 10 pm, yet awake full of energy at 7 am.

The main point of my post tonight is actually to reflect what got my goat today and how thinking about positive stuff helped me. Today, one of the public patients came in with pain and the tooth was loose with gum disease and she wanted it out. (There was no other option as it had a hopeless prognosis). She asked if I could give her a check up and see what other work needed to be done. I explained that as a public patient ( as I explained before, they don't need to pay a fee for emergency work. We have a schedule of items we can do, mostly fillings and extractions, attach the x-ray, write out a voucher for a nominal fee that the government gives private clinics for providing the service, get the patient to sign it and send it away. It is about half of what the Australian Dental Assoc. has as average fees, and in some cases does not even cover our cost of the nurse, sterilizing the instruments etc. etc.) there was only a limited amount of funding allocated so she would have to pay for a check up herself. She demanded to know exactly what could be done and she wanted to make as much use of the service as possible. She then proceeded to say," how about all the stuff on my teeth, can't you clean it off too?" I explained, trying to keep my cool, with as much patience that I could, that it was only meant for emergency work, there was a limited amount of funding and cleans were not included, only extractions and fillings. She then started to argue that her friend came here and got a clean done for free. Oh lordy! They are just scheming amongst themselves to rort the system as much as they can!

This town is extremely lucky that my boss has agreed to do this service because only one other dentist in this whole area does it. Hence we get public patients driving 200 kms just to see us as there is a drastic lack of dentists working in the public sector. Actually, Australia is lucky full stop as they are only 1 of 3 countries that provide free dental service to low income earners and pensioners. On the whole, I have mixed feelings about public patients. I pity them but I also feel that they could do a lot more to help themselves. One of my classmates at uni said that the funding could be better spent elsewhere because dental disease is the only one that is actually preventable. If people were honest about how much they brushed and flossed, there is a linear co-relation between that and the number of holes people get in their teeth. I tend to agree with that to a certain extent, barring people who were invalids, had brain damage etc. However, don't even get me started on people claiming to be low income earners and getting free dental, medical and pharmaceutical yet give their kids a brand new Playstation for Christmas. My nurse even observed that the above mentioned patient drove a nicer car than she did.

So I was feeling really made used of. Here I was trying my best to provide a public service yet this person was not only ungrateful, she was trying to get as much of out the service as possible.
Another type of patient that gets me down is the sort that you say hello and they just say, " I hate being here, I hate the dentist." And I think hang on, I'm that person, you don't even know me and you're telling me that you hate me. Its really an emotional drain as you need to work extra hard to make that person comfortable. No wonder it is the job with one of the highest suicide rates!

Then, along came a patient in the afternoon who was also a public patient. I had known her for a few years now, as she had a few problems having been on too many medications etc. We were coming to an end of an era as a few months ago, she was tired of having repeated treatments and after some discussion about pros and cons, decided to have all her teeth taken out and have a full set of dentures. This was approved by the regional head public dentist and so this drastic decision was done. Today was the day she was getting her dentures and apart from a few adjustments, she would probably not need any treatment again. (However, it would be hard for her to eat normal food as lower dentures are notoriously uncomfortable.) Before I could say anything, she gave me a hug and said she was really grateful I had organised everything for her and she was really happy with my treatment. That really changed everything and made my day. The whole day of stress from phobic patients and dealing with demanding ones just melted away with a hug. It also made me think of patients who had written me cards and letters, brought me produce from their farms (yes one of the great perks of living in the country) and one elderly lady even knitted me a teddy bear.

Hence,I declare it offically hug a dentist day. If you haven't done so lately, hug your dentist. It will really make a difference in their life.

Fishy Obituary

2006-01-23T22:50:00.000+11:00

***Dearly beloved, we are gathered here today to celebrate the life that was Blackie Goldfish. In the short 9 days that he was with us, he brought us peace and joy. Though he lost an eye on Saturday to unknown circumstances, he fought valiantly on for 2 more days. May he rest in peace in the big fish tank in the sky.***

My sister gave us a fishtank set Christmas of 2004 (but she gave it to us a few months late.) However, we had 2 bettas (Siamese Fighting fish) at the time and we didn't want them to get jealous (actually, we didn't have time for any more pets! We had 2 fish, 2 dogs, a budgie and half a cat [don't ask- well, ok it was next doors cat but spent all its time in our yard]). During the course of 2005 our neighbours lost the cat to a snake (but it chose to die in our yard), the budgie fell off the perch and the 2 fish swam to Davy Jones locker - yes lots of sad fatalities that year. So when a petshop/ nursery decided to move location, we decided to check it out to see if there would be something suitable for the tank. Country businesses are confusing! They change ownership, move, rename themselves and close down at the drop of a hat. We thought this was a new place, however, it was just the old pet shop moving to a new location.

Anyway, it had a very good selection of birds and fish. There were really cute silky chicks that we had to fight hard to control the urge to keep them.There were lots of beautiful tropical fish but our tank had no heater. We also pondered getting one of these creepy creatures known as axolotl. To me it looks like some sort of strange mutated fish which has lived too close to toxic waste.
However, because they are half reptilian, we would have to feed it insects, meat, other fish!? etc and would need a much bigger tank than the 7 litre one we had. Hence we went home with Comet (the carpy looking goldfish), Blackie, and Puss (a tendenous catfish which is freshwater).

They had really different personalities. Comet is a big greedy fish which would come to the surface and make gulping noises whenever you opened the lid. Blackie was peaceful and loved swimming into the jet of the filter, swimming hard but going nowhere (probably exercising) and Puss just hides under that blue glass mountain thing where the light is. Poor Blackie, Richard noticed on Saturday that his right eye was missing. We wondered if it was involved in a fight with the innocent looking catfish (silent assasin?) or the big bully gold fish or if it was some strange pop-eye disease. Nevertheless, sadly he is gone but we will have this picture to remember him by.

Survivor Cowra ...or I just really wanted some seafood

2006-01-21T12:51:00.000+11:00

Out here in the wild wild west, your survival skills and hunting acumen are honed. You realise you have to kill to eat and its a rough world but its all a matter of survival. Well its what I kept telling myself when I was faced with killing a bowl of hapless oysters.

I had never killed a living thing other than ants, small spiders ( I relate to Garfield) and the 2 pet terrapin I forgot to feed when I was about 6 years old. Until I came to Cowra that is. Sometime the year before (2003) when I looked at the Fishman's menu it said Live Mud Crabs.So I happily ordered a half kilo one. I was really surprised when the guy just handed it to me in a bag. It's claws had been tied up but it stared at me with its beady looking eyes, as if willing its claws to free itself and bite me. "Err aren't you supposed to kill it ?" I asked trying not to appear like the city bumpkin that I was. " No mate," he said cheerfully, "tastes much better if its killed just before cooking. Have a go love! Try it boiled and chilled with some seafood sauce." Well, actually I was dreaming more of Singapore chilli style or grilled with butter and freshly cracked pepper like how my dad does it. I carried my pet dinner home gingerly and presented it to my husband. He didn't fancy seafood even when it was filleted and deboned and shelled for him so I couldn't imagine he would be of much help.

I was surprised when he thought it was all very interesting (still had no idea of course) so I picked up the phone and talked to my mum and dad (should have paid more attention to how they did it in the past). They gave the advice to turn the crab on its back and drive a chopstick into the area at the apex of the "triangle" this is a weak spot as the triangle can be lifted up to reveal the gills of the crab. Then, quickly put into a pot of ready boiling water.Don't know if its true but they said that if you put it straight into boiling water, the crab panics and so the flesh is not as nice, also its more humane to kill it quickly first. Other tips were to put into the freezer so the crab becomes sleepy prior to stabbing it in the chest. A quick boil (10 mins) later, roughly break up the crab and my mum offered this recipe which was great! stir fry lots of ginger, garlic, chilli, soy and chinese wine and add the crab pieces with smashed shells so the flavour can absorb into the meat. It was a really tasty dinner and the previous thoughts of killing a hapless creature were soon forgotten.

We also visited the Cowra Smokehouse when it first opened. This deli features a fully functional smokehouse and trout farm so the trout are smoked fresh. It also smokes duck, chicken, salmon and offers sundried tomatoes and local marinated sheeps cheese. (Hmm so many details... I'll do a post on it sometime) Anyway, you can catch trout of your own from the tank for $6 each successful fish caught. It took me a while but I finally caught my own !

The owner Tim helped us to gut the fish and we went home to cook it. We took his suggestion and wrapped one in foil and grilled it with lemon and tomato in its belly. I fried the other and doused it with soy and mirin mmm both were yummy in their own way.

The main crux of today's story (yes I'm finally back to the oysters) is that yesterday, I walked past a pub where the blackboard read "3 dozen Batemans Bay Oysters $15" I had been having oyster cravings for a while now and I thought a few fresh oysters would hit the spot. I could ask them if they would sell me a dozen. I tried looking into the bottle shops refrigerators trying to see the tasty beauties. I asked the girl behind the counter about the oysters and felt the familiar sensation of ACK! when she lifted a damp towel up from an ice cream tub and showed me a bag of 36 closed, unshucked LIVE oysters. I squeeked "Oh I thought they would've been shucked" She explained that it was fresher that way out here and they could still be kept for another few days in the same cool damp conditions if I didn't plan on eating them all at once. I gulped and thought "How badly do I want these babies?" "OK I'll take them!" I also bought a bottle of McGuigans Traminer Riesling from them for good measure.

I got home and surveyed my prey. The label in the bag said they were Clyde River, Batemans Bay Sydney Rock Oysters. I swigged half a glass of Riesling and proceeded to try attacking one with a butter knife. I felt the oyster tighten and decided to give up. I could always try to grow an oyster farm in my bathtub ... Richard said," Where are you going to get the seawater from?" I took another swig and got him to try and call Casey and Clare. They would surely know how to open an oyster ! They could hunt and spear abalone and fish. If anyone could shuck an oyster, it would be them! All I got was an answering machine ... Richard looked it up on the internet and we found a handy video of a man opening Maryland oysters. Great! I knew we had to wash and scrub them first! We were getting somewhere ...

I went back to my ~~pets~~ dinner and proceeded to give them a bath and knock the excess hard stuff off them. I felt them tighten some more and I felt so bad I wanted to give up, but I convinced myself they were playing their part in the food chain. They still didn't look like the ocean type oysters but at least I could see where the hinge was now (in rock oysters they are in the pointy end) I also went to look for my trusty Victorinox camping knife where the main blade has a sharp end that rounds off to both sides. It looked more like the shucking knife the man was holding, rather than the harmless butter knife. It was a pretty amazing feeling to feel the hinge loosen as I pushed the pointy end in, and then I carefully slid it all the way aroundthe perimeter to prise the flat side open.

In the picture, I am not using the red checked teatowel. But this is only for dramatic license. It is dangerous to shuck without a towel as a safeguard in your hand while holding the oyster. Also, don't try this at home kids, but loosening it actually felt like loosening a tooth before extraction!! I was right at home after that and opened a dozen quickly. I ate them with a dash of tabasco sauce but for Richard, I popped them in a shotglass and topped it with mirin and some grated ginger. Ahh heavenly how it slides down ...the sweet mirin, the salty smooth oyster and the spicy ginger. We had it done this way at the local gourmet restaurant Neila and never forgot how it tasted. Today .... we could have some in our own home at less than a $1 per shot. I had always preferred pacific oysters but after tasting how really fresh rock oysters were, I think all oysters are yummy in their own way ... especially those you can open yourself. Oysters 3 dozen $15
Ikea star shaped ice cube tray $1.20
McGuigans Traminer Riesling $9.99
Learning how to shuck your own oysters- priceless

Cowra Summer Breakout Bash

2006-01-18T21:46:00.000+11:00

Every summer for the last ten years, Cowra has been flooded with an extra 70 or more residents for a week in summer. This eager group are made up of people from different churches around Sydney and comprise of people from 18 to 30+. They run a morning program from 9:30 to 12 noon catering specially for school aged kids but there are also afternoon activities like bbq and games at the pool for teens and evening activities for grown ups, such as mens cricket and pizza night and womens coffee and craft evening. You may also know of this kind of program as beach mission or vacation bible school. Whatever the case, it is a good chance for the town kids to get to know people of their age group from other schools and to burn off nervous holiday energy doing craft, skits and singing.

Why it shares its namesake with one of the saddest parts of history in Cowra escapes me. (During the second world war Cowra was a POW camp and to protect their honour, some Japanese soldiers tried to escape but were shot and died in the process. IT was known as the great Cowra breakout of 1944) Anyway, I digress ...The activities culminate in a Bash on Saturday held at Brougham Park( one of the larger parks in Cowra) and features the team setting up little booths with free face painting, hair wraps, balloon crafted animals and games (including catch the lolly man where a big strapping lad has lots of lollies taped to a caftan he wears. It is truly a great sight to see 20+ kids crash tackling a grown man to the ground).

The hair wrap stall ... very popular with the girls

This pavillion was a hot favourite ! kids everywhere had face painting, painted nails and fake tattoos

Aha ! What you see here is young D. Hayes had kicked his mate's footy too high up this palm tree. It took lots of thinking, a few failed attempts, 2 strong guys and a poking device fashioned out of one of the veins of the leaves to get the foot ball down. Fortunately his mother, the local high school teacher didn't see this or she would've chucked a spaz.

This band did great covers and kept us entertained. Love how they didn't bother to load the drum kit off the trailer. You can see the drummer in the background playing while sitting on the trailer.

Aussie BBQs are a must for every occasion. Even the commentators at the Rose Parade on New Years Day mentioned that the 2 countries which had the most number of BBQs were Korea and Australia. Onions and sausages are a must and sometimes steak and shrimp. I helped to sell canned drinks and opposite was the queue for the sausage sandwiches off the barbie. Traditionally, sausage sandwiches are served on a slice of white bread (since your eating sausages, you might as well go the whole unhealthy hog), topped with grilled onions, offered a squirt of tomato or bbq sauce and served to you on a napkin, folded together like a hot dog.

After cleanup, we were all tired but it had been a fun day :)

The Mill

2006-01-17T01:07:00.000+11:00

The Mill is one of those little gems you find just where you least expect it. Right in the heart of Cowra, a block from the main street, lies this building which was built in 1861 of local granite. It ceased to function as a flour mill in 1905 and laid dormant until 1996 when a local family who owns a vineyard just outside of Cowra decided to renovate and re-open its doors, injecting new life into the beautiful structure.

It was re-opened as a cellar door and restaurant. However, while it provides tasting platters to accompany the wines, the restaurant is only operational for special occasions.

While the wine is a little dry for my palate, as is many found in this region, Cowra wine is growing in popularity. I guess I'm glad I'm not that fond of it otherwise I wouldn't be getting much work done :) It doesn't prevent us from taking people who come to visit us around on a local wine tour and The Mill is always a stop due to its accessability. We took Casey and Clare the last time the came to visit and we had a yummy tasting platter of local sheeps fetta, olives, smoked trout dip, sundried tomatoes and a few other things served with crackers. It was heavenly ! We sat at these benches out here enjoying the atmosphere.

Here is a picture of the main wine tasting area. Some local produce and country knick knacks are also presented nicely on barrels at the back of the room. The lady is always helpful and tells you a bit about each wine before pouring it into a little glass for your tasting pleasure. Water jugs are provided as well as bins for your to swish out your glasses or to cleanse your palate. We were fortunate as Richard had done a website for the lady working behind the counter so we got a tour of the place that day and told a bit about its history. All in all, it makes for a relaxing afternoon and defintely has added to the character of the town.

Wyangala Dam and Darbys

2006-01-12T22:12:00.000+11:00

The closest body of water to us is Wyangala Dam. It is 36 kms from our town and despite being a dam for irrigation, it is also part of the state recreational park. People swim, canoe, water ski and wake board in it. The dam is very low at the moment at only about 30% capacity. However, this is actually an improvement from the last 2 summers where it was at 12 and 8%.

The hills of Aussie countryside as we drive the road to the Dam

The little town of Darbys Falls we have to drive through to get to the dam. Famous to me for the town where a public(person on a pension or social security-we see them at no cost to them) patient who attended our surgery murdered someone the day after I extracted a tooth from him. It was black humour but I was teased about it for the week afterwards. Totally coincidental of course! No one else has gone on to do the same thing *phew*

A small cute note about country life. A patient rang up once who lived I think it was this lil town and needed a course of antibiotics. She was old and couldn't drive so we racked out brains and a lady who happened to be standing at reception said her son could pass it to the bus driver going along that route and if she could wait at the bus stop, the driver would pass it to her that afternoon. Thats a small community helping each other out. This is special and unique to a country practice :)

Blurb at lookout point outside the dam

See how far away the water is? Last year it was twice as far and old dead trees were sticking out of the water.
The Old Dam Wall almost covered. The new dam wall is behind it and about 2 and a half times the height.

It was a nice Sunday drive out there. We knew we might not ever come back as there will be more things to see and do close to Bathurst so it was a kind of farewell and a small tick off the list of things to do before we moved.

Tidbits from around the world

2006-01-09T22:19:00.000+11:00

Here is a collection of international goodies I recently acquired on my trip to Sydney. On the left, is more of the naeng-myun which I recently discovered the wonders of. The guy at the korean supermarket I went to was extremely helpful. I guess I was walking around with a slightly dazed expression. He explained that this was what they referred to as the summer noodle as it was eaten after rinsing with cold water thus it was eaten cold. He told me that this particular brand was from a popular province in north korea. I am keen to find out if it is similar to the one I had before which I felt was extremely good. I followed the pictures at the back of the packet. (Thank God for pictures!) Below the naeng-myun is a chocolate pie. Or rather it was something like what we called choco-pies in Singapore. It had a layer of blueberry jam in the middle, has chocolate casing and is as light as air on the inside, yet a bit cakey rather than biscuity. It was quite yummy although a bit sweet and much lighter than the pies I used to have growing up.

In the middle is stuff bought from Ikea in Rhodes. It has a little grocery store area after you get out of the checkouts full of Swedish goodies. At the top is some crispbread, quite different to any other I've had because its actually in a half bun shape like someone cut a mini bread roll in half and toasted it to a crisp. It has some major crunch to it and is *really* wholemeal and has little grains in it too.
This is a photo of it closer up and I spread the 2 pastes I got from the cold section. I skipped the herring as I find it a bit too salty. The paste on the right is a smoked cod roe paste. I put it with the cucumber on the toastie and it tasted really smoky and creamy all at once. Like a rich caviar mousse. The paste on the left was labelled crab paste however, on closer look at the ingredients, one finds roe also high up amongst the list. There was some crab flavour but also if you look closely, three are green specks of dill. It was pleasant and less fishy tasting than the cod roe.

The green packet contains macaroni that is meant for soup. Yes macaroni soup is a common dish in Singapore and Hong Kong. its a comfort food mostly and warming and easy on the stomach if your not feeling the best. I found that this brand, Nissin, which makes excellent cup noodles and instant noodles also takes the cake in this instant macaroni.

The last lil packet was an old fave of mine. We bought huge bags of these back from the US and I usually get some in Singapore to tide me over snack attacks. However! Target Aust has just started importing them. I really hope people like them and they stay!! Could this be a good beginning to the free trade agreement? Alot of people feel that Aust has more to lose out if US stock flood the market. I agree if it involves fresh stuff and the prices are lower than what the farmers here can afford to sell at. However, I am all for new products on the shelves. The supermarkets here have a whole aisle of breakfast cereal, BUT! there are about 5 different brands of cocoa pop type creal, 5 different brands of rice bubbles, 3 different brands of wheat-bix etc. Either the companies are too lazy to come up with something innovative or they are too scared to try making new products. Either way, I hope that we get to see lots of different ingredients and spices and sauces.

Anyway, this was meant to be a short post! Hope I can see what people think on the comments.

The pictures (they are so last year !) ;)

2006-01-01T17:39:00.000+11:00

These pics accompany the previous post as blogbot obviously took a christmas/new year vacation.

Action shot:Omelette flies into sis-in-laws mouth slow mo

O Christmas Tree

The centrepiece for a blue and silver Christmas. Co-starring Gravy Jug and a third of Potato Salad

My strategic spot at Boxing Day dinner, surrounded by three dishes.

I have never been so happy to look up a birds bum

The belated Christmas Post (quick get it in before 2005 finishes!)

2005-12-31T16:28:00.000+11:00

** Sorry no pics yet due to problems with blog bot**

The extra long Christmas weekend was lovely in Sydney. It was wonderful not just because of the food but the fact that we got to spend time with each other, the family and friends.

We drove straight after work on Friday to Sydney, arriving at about quarter to 11 pm, not bad at all a time. We labelled and hung candy canes on the tree for ourselves and our guests (some friends from Richard's parents church, Hornsby Baptist who had no family around that day to celebrate with).

The next day (Christmas Eve) we lazed around, then braved the crowds at Westfield Hornsby to gather up groceries to be used for the 2 dishes I would be contributing to the lunch/ dinner the next day. Sometime in the afternoon, in the scorching hot heat, I decided that would be the time I would make my potato salad. It was probably a touch of heatstroke but I prepared and cooled, cut the potatoes, fried and diced the bacon, hard boiled the eggs and smashed them, diced the onion and when everything had cooled (but not refrigerated) I mixed it all with mayonaise, dill and mixed herbs. It started out looking good but I kept noticing that the salad wasn'at adopting the "creamy" look and kept adding more mayonaise. All of a sudden, it hit me, especially looking at the oil that was starting to gather on the bottom. The mayonaise had *separated*. I gave a squeal of horror and Richard came running. He comforted me that the taste was the same even though the texture wasn't. But I felt like that was my biggest cooking faux pas of 2005.

I was quickly cheered up though as we went to Hayashi Teppankayki at Castle Hill. Its been a while since I had teppanyaki and it was the first time we had an "interactive" chef. We chose a banquet type option with a prawn course, a chicken course, a steak course and fried rice. All had different seasonings and all were cooked to perfection. We could even choose how we liked our beef and the chef would tilt our plates to his own code and timed it all wonderfully. I chose mine medium rare and all the 11 of us got our beef exactly the way we liked. Then, the fun began. We had to catch raw eggs in rice bowls (which were later beaten for omelletes and the fried rice), catch omellete in our mouths and catch our bowls of fried rice expertly tossed to us. My egg caught on the lip of the bowl and it cracked itself half in my bowl and I got some on my hands and the table got the rest of it. We all had a very good time but the big surprise was that Richard's parents had mentioned in passing that we were celabrating their birthdays belatedly. Well, guess what!? They were presented with their fried rice packed tightly in the rice bowl and then removed and placed upside down on a plate with a candle and "Happy Birthday" sign on the front. They put on the usual cheesey canned tape and we all sang happy birthday to them. It was a really nice surprise and was a very enjoyable evening. The staff were attentive to our needs and extremely quick to clean up any of the messes we made.

On the actual day, we went to church, came home and I made my other dish, sushi rice rolled with smoked salmon, avacado and japanese mayo. This one was edible *phew*. We had a blue and silver theme. Since Christmas in Aus is so hot, we had cold meats and a large variety of salads for Christmas lunch.

The hot weather got to me and I got a really bad sore throat so Richard and I stayed at his parent's place while the rest of his family drove an hour up the coast to his Aunt at Umina. We nibbled on leftovers, watched DVDs and played one of his christmas presents, Jenga.

On Boxing day, we went to my friend Js house a bit earlier. The boys caught a snooze (I notice lots of men tend to do that, especially married men) sitting on the sofa, while J and I prepared some food for the night. We were treated to a perfectly roasted turkey and stuffing. J had wrapped the turkey in rashes of bacon to retain moisture and the trick worked a treat. Yes, it was indeed a good night and I find it is always a perfect party when people chat late into the night, after the coffee and dessert. Some of them played mah jong, while I and a few others caught up. I smiled when I saw some people start to stand around the kitchen and pick on leftovers after midnight. It was indeed a wonderful end to Christmas 2005.

Happy New Year one and all !!!

Odds and Ends

2005-12-16T22:39:00.000+11:00

Hmm haven't been back in the saddle for more than a month now. Not sure what to write about first... the nice albeit few days back in Singapore? Or about the dental concentration camp I voluntarily signed up for where I got chewed up and spat out? I was tested and tried and found wanting. *sigh* Well I decided to do an odds and ends post since I still can't really string two coherent thoughts together.

I guess I'll go chronologically. The trip to Singapore was quick, I mostly stayed at home, only venturing out for my friend's wedding and for a meal. Here is a picture of a lane in Chinatown where the road is closed and it comes alive late at night with hawkers selling all sorts of tasty delights such as satay, hokkien mee,
chicken rice, fried kuay teow, cheong funn, seafood "cooked food" stalls(where you can order any style you like eg. pepper crab, chilli crab, butter prawns etc), dessert stalls and drink stalls.

The meal I had was at an Indian "banana leaf" canteen type place. You go up to the counter and point at various things you might like, enquiring when the meat looks too cloaked in thick curried pastes to tell its origin. I had a black pepper lamb biriyani set. It was delici-yoso! And pretty cheap at $5.50 SGD. My mum also ordered some curried blue swimmer crabs on the side and had dosai (a thin crepe like bread made with yogurt, a delicious complement to the many curries) A man soon delivers your set meal complete with cucumber raita, acar (picked veggies), papadum and an egg doused with rich red curry. A guy walks around during the course of your meal with a tiffin carrier offering other "side" curries or chilli sauces should you wish. These have no meats but are useful for mopping up with excess bread or rice. Also they are complimentary.

The wedding was beautiful, my friend of 15 years, A. and her new husband J. had their tradtional 9 course dinner sans sharks fin soup (substituted with abalone fish maw soup instead) as they are environmentally concious. The restaurant was by the Singapore River and they arrived in a decorated little bum boat decked with white balloons and ribbons, the boat comming in close for a photo op with them waving from the bow. We the guests then formed a welcome arch armed with sparklers as they walked in from the pier. Everyone had lots of fun ! No photos for privacy reasons of course but I guess you the readers can use your active imaginations :)

Then came the hard slog. I had never studied so hard in my entire life. I arrived late on Thrusday but from Friday morning until the following Wednesday, my cousin and I studied really hard, sleeping only about 4 hours a night, and even that was pretty fitful. We stopped only to shower and eat (20 minute breaks). I am happy to say that my cousin made it! However, I on the other hand fell really short :( I think the number of subjects we passed was proportional to the amount of time put into preparation before and since I worked 5 and a half days a week until october, I put on my students cap too late.*sigh*

Here is a photo of my cousin and a friend we made at the hostel fervently studying anatomy. We named our skulls Fred (left) and Harry (hairy getit? ;)) You could say we really put our heads together *kaching boom!*

Well after the 2 week nightmare, it was great to kick our heels up, my cousin and I gretting a great meal at Seoulria in Sydney (review to follow). I enjoyed a beautiful drive home, stopping at a truck stop just after Lithgow, close to the Mt Piper power station. To take this photo of a Christmas tree/ pine farm which backed onto it.

Well I must leave now to pack for our Christmas weekend in Sydney which will be spent with Richard's parents as well as my friend J. who got married in October.
As I wrap the last of the presents, I will leave you with some of the famous Orchard Road lights in Singapore, taken from my Dad's car on the way home. This is only the tip of the iceberg and doesn't do the mall section any justice. Hope you like it though.

Bits and Pieces

2005-11-14T19:52:00.000+11:00

Hmm haven't posted for a while but my life has been mostly around books and facts and boring stuff. Well except for the fact that we might be moving 106 kms closer to banh mi next year. In a strange twist of events since my last post, I came across an ad in the dental magazine for a IV sedation course starting in Sydney next year. ( no this is not the end of rustic fillings, calm down!)I have always been interested in that side of dentistry, putting people to sleep, yup thats me! :D

So anyway, I apply for it and at the same time (almost it seemed like) I got job offers from about 3 dentists in Bathurst, which is the town Richard is working in that he has to drive an hour and a quarter to and from each day. We had an offer earlier this year which was later retracted as they decided not to expand their practice. At that time, it was really depressing as our plan B was that Richard stay in Bathurst during the week. I was really sad about the whole thing. I shared about it with Jo at Truly Thankful who encouraged me to pray decisively about things and look what happened!? It was really truly amazing looking back at it.

Anyway, I prayed that if I got accepted into the course that we would move to Bathurst as it is only part time and it would be easier to travel to and from Sydney. I have not been formally accepted yet but it looks like things are moving in that direction so wow Thank you God !! Even if I'm not, more doors than I could want have been opened out of the blue for me and I still have the choice to move now instead of feeling like we were stuck in plan B. Mind you, I love my current employers to bits but its a time where I feel that I need to put my husband first. After all, he did move all the way out here for me.

Well, I will be away in Singapore for a wedding and Sydney for exams in the next 3 weeks. Hopefully will have photos and stuff and definite news on whether it will be (slightly less) rustic fillings to be on for 2006. Bathurst is where the car races in Australia are held and its also a larger country town of population 35000. Sooo what will the verdict be?

Sydney Food Part Trois (the final installment in this series...)

2005-10-31T18:02:00.000+11:00

Hmm not much has happened here in the country since I got back from Sydney. The weekend passed as a blur of Pathology, and trying to fight the rising panic that I did not know enough! Anyway to finish off the trilogy of last weekend (because we know all good things come in threes) here are the pics and reviews of 2 other places we ate at.

The first was Bravo Tratorria in the suburb of Crows Nest. This was an oldie and a goodie to us as we had our second date here! It has 101 pasta dishes and about 16 different types of Gelato. We were all geared up for gelato so we shared a small pizza and a small salad. The pizza was fresh but it was nothing to write home about. It had tomato base, bocconcini, basil, cheese and salami on it. The salad was a chicken caesar. The chicken was crispy on the outside and tasty on the inside. The dressing was a little on the sweet side for my liking but nonetheless, it combined well as a whole.

Our friends the newlyweds, B and J joined us for coffee and dessert. So me (as usual can't make up my mind) ordered the coppa jumbo which was 16 mini-scoops, one of every flavour. I had the assurance of J that she would help me. Richard ordered two scoops naked,one cassata and the other raspberry.
I'll see if I can remember most of the flavours. There was of course the above-named two, chocolate, hazelnut, pistachio, chocolate hazelnut(bacci), mango, lemon, almond, apple-pie, coffee, rockmelon and the rest was a blur. The trick is to take a bit from every scoop as fast as you can before they melt into one pool at the bottom of the glass. J wimped out after eating the equivalent of 2 scoops and I braved on for a bit more but the guys managed to help finish it off. It was very satisfying as each flavour was distinct from the rest. They do a rotation of flavours so its not always the same each time you visit. All that food plus two coffees and two diet cokes set us back $57.

The next day, Sunday, we had lunch in before we left in the suburb of Hornsby, which was close to where Richard's parents live. I had always wanted to try the Japanese place in a food alley with different restaurants attached to the shopping mall. It was called Asagao and some reviewers on the web had given it quite high a rating. I ordered the Teriyaki Seafood Bento ($16) which turned out to be reasonable. The sashimi was fresh and the california roll was very tasty, as was the teriyaki sauce. It wasn't too sweet and all around it was ok value for money. The agadeshi tofu was a bit bland but the salad had a miso dressing which was quite tangy. Yum.

Richard decided to go for a new dish supposedly concocted by the chef there. It had a chicken katsu smothered with an eggy sweet sauce on top of a bowl of rice and topped with ginger, radish and spring onion garnish. The sauce was on the thin side apart from the egg in it and was reminescent of the sauce that agadeshi tofu sits in.
It blended well with the chicken and was refreshing and filling.

Oh well enough remembering. I will probably do a segment on restaurants and cafes in my town as I chance upon them. Sadly as they are but a handful, you get a bit tired of them after living here for four years so I mostly cook at home. Tonight ... a strange concoction of minced pork in little balls, spinach, garlic in a bearnaise sauce tossed in a linguine. Wierd huh?

Sydney Food Part deux

2005-10-26T20:18:00.000+10:00

Ok ok since I got the ball rolling last night, I should go on with our culinary adventures in Sydney. (Any excuse to get away from books?)

Richard the sweet guy that he is drove to Sydney on Friday night with the dogs so we wouldn't have to have the weekend apart. He arrived shortly after I completed Friday with a mind numbing Immunology lecture that I was lost in after the first five minutes. It was refreshing to take a walk down the main street of Glebe. Things always look different when you have someone with you I think.

After some hmm-ing, we picked on " The House of Kathmandu" Nepalese cuisine. It was one of two tibetan restaurants on the main street. The other, "The Yak and the Yeti" was empty albeit for one table of 2 which we took to be not a very good sign. Kathmandu was about 75 % capacity and most of the diners looked happy. We were seated quite quickly and presented with menus.

We ordered chicken momos to begin with which were dumplings not unlike chinese dumplings but the inside had the distinct taste of coriander and ginger. The dish came with a little dish of Golbera ko Achar which was a salsa type sauce made with cooked tomatoes with herbs, spices, garlic and lemon juice amongst other things.
The insides were juicy and exploded with interesting flavours which was a nice surprise from something that looked like an ordinary little dumpling.

Richard ordered a Piro Kukhura for his main and also ordered a bowl of rice to go with it. The picture also shows a cup of nepalese tea which was really comforting and soothing milk tea infused with flavours of cardamon and nutmeg.
The piro kukhura was a stir fried chicken dish with vegetables. It tasted overpoweringly of thick soya sauce. The result was ok but nothing too fantastic. Richard seemed to really like it though.

I, being a typical Libran can't realy make up my mind so I ordered a mixed sort of plate. I can't remember the name but it had 2 types of curries, kalo daal which was a black lentil soup, rice, a papadum (called papad in Nepal apparently), and yogurt and cucumber raita. The curry on the left is chicken and it didn't seem to have much flavour. The one on the right is known as Khasiko Masu or traditional goat fillet curry. THAT was something special. The curry sauce seemed to have a tomato base, yet it tasted of indian red curry. It was really yummy and the goat was tender. Richard didn't seem to think the Goat had much flavour but I was instantly reminded of the Hainanese goat herb soup I used to have in Singapore. Goat has a slightly sweet but strong and gamey type of flavour. If you don't mind strong tasting meats, its worth a try.

We got all that for $44.50 which wasn't too bad. I neglected to say though that we waited half an hour for the entree and it only came after we reminded them and thought something was wrong after the tables who came later than us were served their mains and we had not even recieved our drinks yet! Oh well, we were away and getting to try something new so that blip was grumbled about amongst each other but mostly forgotten at the end of the meal.

Hehe this isn't turning into a food blog! It just shows how much a country bumpkin I've become blogging about nondescript stuff ;)

Food in Sydney Part 1

2005-10-25T20:07:00.000+10:00

Was away last Thursday night to Sunday as I had cram lectures all day Friday and Saturday in Sydney. It only served to highlight how much I did not know and reassured my fears that I am truly crazy to attempt these exams. Oh well, what is life without putting challenges to oneself (I keep trying to tell myself).

After work on Thursday night, I drove to Sydney by myself. It was a bit of a lonely drive but I had a new 2 CD pack of 80s music soundtracks and after singing on the top of my lungs to hits such as "The power of love", "Day-O" and "Kokomo", the kilometers were quickly eaten and I arrived at my motel in Sydney, opposite the hallowed halls of my alma mater, University of Sydney. (Not that we spent much time on campus anyway)

I checked into room 13, wondering if it was a bad omen. The room was simple and clean and had a 70 style small tiled bathroom and plastic basin and benchtop. It was very reminiscent of Travelodge type rooms in the US.

I didn't stop for dinner so I was starving after checking in. Around the corner was the small Sydney suburb of Glebe. Glebe used to have a shady inner-city reputation when I was living on campus. However, it seems to have cleaned up alot and is full of restaurants, cafes, second hand bookshops and new age shops. A real bohemian atmosphere. A cafe on the corner was still open and looked really inviting with open windows, little booths and magazines. However, I thought I should just grab something and headd back to my room.

I remembered an old favourite pide (turkish pizza) place of mine, Mersin's Pide and kebab near the corner of Glebe Point Road and Parramatta Road. I have tasted a few pides when living in Sydney and I have found this one is the most authentic. They were all around the $9 price but I guess food in Sydney is getting more expensive all around. I chose the "Mixed" which had slices of turkish sausage, diced lamb, marinated minced beef, fresh spinach, fetta cheese, mushrooms and a freshly cracked egg on the top. This type is a 'open' pide as some of them are closed over the top. You can watch it being made and the guy places it on a long paddle and puts it into the oven. 15 minutes later, my pide was ready...

Most places use processed cheese for pide which makes this place unique. The taste was really good and the even though I wanted to leave some of it for the next day, most of it was gone before I realised it. I love a squeeze of lemon over the top as it makes the fetta taste stand out. Stay tuned for the next day as I dined in another restaurant in Glebe.

In study mode...

2005-10-19T19:41:00.000+10:00

Been having a bit of a blog mental block recently. Probably as been doing not much every evening after work and on the weekend except for studying. What!? You might ask. Well, I find myself asking that too. Why put myself through all that again? The 6 examinations in 3 days written and 6 vivas again the following week in 4 days really bring back memories of all my undergraduate years. And this is equivalent to about 2-3 years of undergraduate study too. All condensed into 6 subjects. Eek! The more I think about it the crazier it seems.

I had some patients look at me funnily when I tell them I will be away next month as I have to take exams. " Oh! Aren't you a dentist yet?" They ask. For the faint hearted, I explain it is an additional Fellowship diploma type thing which is by a College formed by dental professors across Australia and Asia. For patients who enjoy a wicked sense of humour I say "Oh no not yet, you have just been guinea pigs for me the last 4 years. How do you think I'm doing?" ;)

My cousin (also a dentist)is going to take 4 weeks off to study for this but I just couldn't bring myself to take 6 whole weeks off work for many reasons. It might mean going back to eating baked beans atop 3 minute noodles for meals again. It might mean no name brand toilet paper (scratch scratch). It might mean looking for the cheapest item on the menu instead of looking at descriptions to guide what I feel like for dinner. Or it might mean poor Juan my boss being extremely overworked for 6 weeks and having a month of patients waiting when I get back.

Oh well ... here is a picture to take me to my happy place (yes I have a thing for cows). Hopefully you wil like it too.

When Country Girls Go Out

2005-10-15T22:12:00.000+10:00

Note: Aussie Slang has been used liberally in this post.Idea borrowed from Kirk you can check meanings of words at the Aussie Slang Dictionary

My Cowra born and bred friend V turned 31 today so last night 4 of us sheilas went for a girls night out! We started out with dinner in one of the bistros (named Dek) also attached to the pub/motel. Most of the restaurants in country towns are of this style as I believe rent is a bit cheaper and it encourages people staying at the motel to eat there.

The tucker was a bit mediocre so I shan't really comment much on it except that the hokkien noodle chook stir fry (here in oz the modern thing is to have one or two asian style dishes in a cafe menu) looked like it could have been made better at home. This was ordered by Deb and G. and V and I ordered the "tempura" prawn salad. They were generous with the prawns but it was more of in a beer batter than fair dinkum tempura batter. The desserts were confessed Sara Lee frozen ones. Or as Deb commented "Aunty Sara visited and brought something

We had a few drinks while there and I had a banana colada (pina colada with banana liquer) as well as an old fave the screw driver. We stayed there until about 10 pm when most people had left just sitting on the lounges and chatting but V was champing at the bit to go somewhere else so we went to the Townhouse (known as the "Townie") G. decided to bail and go home as she is the ministers wife and the pub crawl thing wasn't her style. A band was in full swing when we stepped in as well as an eclectic mix of people ranging from the waitresses who had just served us at Dek, to the barely legal 18s, to a couple of farmers and grand-father types in their boots and flanelette shirts.

We sat in a booth and ordered a few more drinks and it wasn't long before a bloke who looked like he was 105 and obviously sloshed came over and drawled, "how yous girrrls doing tonight?" He rubbed debs back who was inching into me trying to get away from him and was almost sitting on my lap. "whould yous like me to shout you a round?" he slurred. We insisted we were fine and still had drinks in front of us. He then moved over to V and started rubbing her back so Deb decided to just tell him something so he would move away from us and in the direction of the bar. She asked for a baileys on ice and a cowboy shot for V. I still had a full glass of champagne so I said i was fine. He stumbled away and we were torn between running away and losing our comfortable seats and staying there and awaiting his grubby paws when he returned. He staggered back and put our drinks on the table but we were saved by the bell as his friend arrived and distracted him and he left us alone after that. I told Deb that I would've given her a pash if he had started to do anything anyway :P

We decided to check out the pub across the road (The Imperial) and went there at about 11:30 pm. There was also a live band there doing covers and people were dancing away. There were more older sheilas there in their 40s and 50s and I found it interesting that they were all wearing very low cut tops. I mused to myself that the blokes from the other pub didn't come across the road to pick up the women over here. I decided this must be where singles met in Cowra as there were a few people just hanging out and chatting. I recognised one of the nurses husbands as well as a few patients. We also had a few drinks here and by this time I was feeling pretty good :) Deb was a bit tired though so I called Richard (who took a million years to get down the main st, a cooee from our place) we walked down the street telling each other jokes that would only be funny after anyones had a few and of course singing on the top of our voices. A couple of other groups walked by but the only way to avoid attention by drunk people is to act *even more* pissed than them.

Well we had a ripper of a night and I guess when in the company of good friends, you can have fun even in the middle of woop woop. Camera was forgotten but I'll try and take pictures for 'ron (later on)

Weekend in the big smoke

2005-10-12T19:13:00.000+10:00

We spent last weekend in Sydney as we had quite an important wedding to attend. It was the wedding of my oldest friend J, whom I have known since we both were 4. I was really happy to be able to share that with her. She is someone who has an infectious laughter and is easy to talk to. It was no surprise that friends and relatives came from all around the world, from as far as UK and Malaysia.

We left Cowra at about 6:30 pm after fluffing around a bit getting organised after work. We drove over the blue mountains where Richard stopped at Mc Donalds for a quarter pounder (yuk). I think I object most to the aftertaste that McDonalds burgers always seem to leave behind in my mouth for hours and if you happen to burp, you can definitely tell its still sitting in there.

We arrived just before 11 pm at the Stamford Plaza Airport which was where the wedding reception would be held the next day. I got it at a really great rate on the internet of $125 per night. The room was really comfortable and the bed was larger than a Queen but smaller than a King size.
"Ooh look a magazine-esque picture!"

As I was starving by now, I ordered room service. I really didn't want to get out of the room again after sitting in the car for 4.5 hours. I had a fresh soft chewy multigrain roll spread with olive tempanade and filled with grilled mediterranian vegetables, served with a side salad ($13) and a sticky date pudding served with cream and ice cream ($7.5) Richard merrily ordered (seeing I was ordering) a berry crumble served with cream and ice cream also ($7.5) It was pretty reasonable for room service !!! It wasn't much more than a usual cafe at all! I took a shower and the food arrived even before I was done. The picture shows my order.

The pudding was moist and not too sweet. Richard scoffed all his crumble before I could ask how it was hehe. The roll was very nice but way too large. I kept the other half for morning.We soon fell asleep in the comfortable bed which I am sure had a more than 225 thread count sheets.

I awoke to Richard frantically saying " Honey its 8:10 !!" I jumped out of bed and into my clothes, dabbed on some make up and off we went. I was amazed that we reached J's house by 8:40 !! It was about 5 suburbs away :) I think we did pretty well.

In Malaysian/ Singaporean Chinese customs, the bride has a few of her friends at home in the morning whose sole job is to keep the groom from coming in to see his lovely bride. I helped J a bit with dressing and I could hear B's voice wafting upstairs " Saaaaying I loooove youuuu is not the wooords I waaant to heeear from youuu" I stifled a giggle as I guessed her friends downstairs must have made him sing a song as well. He failed one of the questions they asked but they finally let him in as he produced the red packet of money (Hong bao) as a bribe to let him in. He and his groomsmen delivered the roast pig which was quite a monster. This is also a custom as a present on the day. The pig is later divided up amongst the relatives. Its kind of a chinese version of the wedding cake as J wisely commented.
" You go granny!! Don't let that pig get away!"

B finally got to see his bride whom I thought had never looked so beautiful :~)Its wierd remembering all these times when we were young trying to toast marshmallows over a candle and sleepovers, staying up to all hours of nights as teens gossiping on the phone. and now seeing her at that moment where her husband to-be came to get her. *sigh*

Anyway, they went off to church for a catholic wedding mass followed by a roast and salad buffet with a great chocolate fountain for dipping strawberries in for dessert, as well as some Pad Thai and other assorted asian desserts. We then came back to Js house for the tea ceremony. Which to the chinese *is* the wedding ceremony. Red dates are added to sweeten the tea and to comemorate the special-ness of the occasion as well as to "sweeten" the couple's new life together
"Teacups quivering in excitement of the workout to come"

Tea is served to your elder relatives as a couple, starting with the male serving the male first and saying "First/second/third etc. Uncle please drink this cup of tea" The tea is presented and accepted with both hands and drunk as a sign of acceptance of the couple into the family. The male then serves the elder female and the female then serves the elder male and female. The number is the order in terms of age and the "Uncle" or "Aunty" suffix differs depending on whether the elder is from your mother or fathers side. The new married partner now then addresses the elder by that same name. The elders then give the couple a red packet of money as a wedding gift.

B's family is Dutch but they also wanted to participate in it so it was my job to orientate them on the customs. Everyone was a bit confused at first but everyone had a good time. Richard's job was to video everything so after all the tea serving was over, we rushed back to the hotel room to start editing. The video was to later help in B's wedding speech.

Finally after 2.5 hours we got a rush job done.(Mostly Richard) The reception was great and we heaved a sigh of relief after the video was presented. Everyone had a wonderful dinner and lots of people danced the macarena, locomotion, nutbush etc. We then tottered upstairs and crashed.

We did manage to meet up with C &C in their new home and we had a nice yum cha lunch with them as well. All in all, it was a very busy but enjoyable weekend and now I am back in the country freezing my fingres off as I am typing.

Here is the view from our room which overlooked the airport and the Brighton Le Sands bay beyond.

Away for the weekend ....

2005-10-07T17:53:00.000+10:00

I'm away at a friend's wedding this weekend and hoping to catch up with C & C at their new place. Heres a random picture for contemplation.

One Year older ...

2005-10-05T23:15:00.000+10:00

I turned a year older today. I can still tick the 25-29 bracket but only just ! The day went quite well. Work wasn't too stressful and the nice Singaporean woman who owns the "Hong Kong" chinese restaurant selling Aussie-fied Chinese meals, dropped over to my work some comforting home made soup and durian cakes. She didn't know it was my birthday but it was just a coincidence! We are kindred spirits I guess being one of 3 Singaporeans in this whole town. And she periodically brings food she has made over if she thinks I might like it. It was nice to have something special. My friend also made a sponge cake and dropped it over. Thats one of the really nice things about living in a country town. People drop stuff around and also drop over alot.

For dinner, Richard took me to a bistro attached to one of the motels in town. It had advertised a new chef so we decided to give it a go. We forgot the camera but were too lazy to drive the 5 minutes back to get it hehe. We had parmesan bread to start with which was good. I ordered a seafood risotto for a main and received a mountain of very rich, creamy and oily risotto with a single prawn, mussel and scallop. It did have a whole blue swimmer which was nicely barbequed I have to admit. The flavour of the risotto was nice and you could taste the hint of white wine. It was just very rich. The sad part was Richards main. He ordered Veal Parmigiana which was quite a small serve (only one small thin piece) smothered with cheese, and had some tomato sauce and a thin slice of eggplant on it. It was nice but small and the vegetables that came with it was defrosted frozen mixed veggies (the kind with peas and diced carrots that you use in fried rice mixtures) how scandalous !!! And it wasn't cheap either with his main being 21 dollars.

However, it was good that we got to try someplace new and for friends who care and the well wishes I had today from family and friends, far and near I am TRULY THANKFUL (to borrow from Jo's catch phrase)

Colour my world

2005-10-04T23:01:00.000+10:00

What's the Color of Your Blog Personality? Quiz at About Web logs and...

My Blog Personality's True Color Is...
BLUE
It's all about peace and serenity.
In everything that I do, I seek calmness. I do my best to stay away from stress and conflict. And, I try to reflect these things when I blog.

After some urging by Milly from some like it HOT. I did the blog colour personality quiz. Not sure if I quite agree with that but I did it TWICE and it still came up blue. What do you people think? Well I then took the blogging personality quiz. Well you know women and quizzes ... we love to analyze stuff and then discuss it. Why do you think we go to the toilet together so often? Womens magazines are full of them ! Quizzes and recipes and photos of other women. If you have all of the above, you've got a women's magazine. Anyway ...

I took the Blogging Personality Quiz at About Web logs and I am...

The Daily Grinder
I love blogging because it's like therapy. I can write about anything and everything that happens to me - from the food I ate to what I was doing when I heard the latest 'breaking news'. Being able to communicate with my friends (online and/or real life) through my blog is important to me.

I tend to agree more with the latter.The former makes me sound too much like a greenie or some placid pleb. *sulk* Well ! I might have to shake it up a bit ? Maybe grumble abit about people who don't brush their teeth or floss. Hmm...

Do you like mee?

2005-10-03T20:32:00.000+10:00

A little story about 2 teenage girls growing up in Singapore. They devised a cunning plan to ask their respective crushes if they felt the same way about them. They could ask, "Do you like me?" If the answer was unfavourable, or the pause awkward, they could answer "I don't! I like kway teow better! ohhh you thought I was asking you if you *liked* me! No lah! don't be silly of course not .... ha ha" but if the answer was positive, they could all live happily ever after. Needless to say, because I ended up marrying an Aussie guy, the plan didn't work for one of them, which was myself. However, it was because I chickened out of asking in the first place :)

Anyway, here is the dish I prepared a few weeks ago.

Hokkien Mee
3 parts hokkien yellow noodles to one part thick rice noodles (serves 4)
250 gms sliced streaky pork
bean sprouts
1 tube calamari
handful of baby octopus (optional)
16 shelled large prawns- king prawns are best (tails can be left on)
sliced fish cake
3 spring onions cut into finger lengths
2 cups of prawn stock (Super dooper magic ingredient!) You can make the prawn stock by boiling the heads of the prawns in 3 cups of water until it reduces to 2 cups with a pinch of salt. If you have pork stock from pork bones you can use one cup pork and one cup prawn. But the recipe is just as yummy if you only have prawn stock.
chopped garlic

1. marinade the pork in salt, sugar and soy sauce overnight
2. slice the calamari into thin rings
3. Fry chopped garlic, sliced pork, prawns, calamari, squid and fish cake together. You can add about 2 tablespoons of oyster sauce if you like. Add noodles and stock. Keep stirring to encourage the noodles to absorb the stock. Add a bit of salt and soya sauce to taste (if needed)
4. When the stock all absorbed, stir in the bean sprouts and spring onion and turn off the flame. This ensures the sprouts stay crunchy.
5. put into your serving bowl. ( I used a claypot to keep it hot) and garnish with fried onions

Hope you all enjoy it ! When eating out, most hawkers fry the ingredients in lots of pork lard as this makes the taste more rich and flavourful and the noodles less sticky however, as we are trying to make our lifestyles healthier, I omitted the lard in the list.

Koorawatha Falls

2005-10-02T20:15:00.000+10:00

The minor falls

We're crossing the weir !

The major falls

The 4 star amenities

And you asked for it folks ... picture of my gorgeous doggie, my baby Magic who I have had for 9 years. Taken today in our yard(the pic before was of the younger one, Raven)

Today we drove the 20 minutes to a town called Koorawatha population 300. Its main draw factor is the waterfalls. This part of Australia has been in drought for the last 6 years or so and recently we had a really great rainy season and had the most rain in years and years. We were told the falls were running again so we went to check them out today. We got to take the 4WD off road which was quite fun.

korean noodles mmm

2005-09-30T00:43:00.000+10:00

after ...

before ...

Food

2005-09-29T20:38:00.000+10:00

Loneliness makes you do crazy things. Things no ordinary, sane person would ever do. Things you might sometimes fantasize about but not actually carry out. Yup you know what I'm talking about ... eating blue cheese.

I have often seen blue cheese on platters and have even sliced off a bit but the smell has put me off enough to not actually eat it. However, the local supermarket stocks about 20 varieties of blue cheese. Soft and hard, in rinds, in paper etc. So in a sudden surge of madness, yesterday I bought a medium size wedge of "roaring fourties blue" complete in black wax rind. I also decided to cover all aspects of blue cheese curiosity and also bought a pack of blue cheese twists.(picture left) Now these South Cape twists come in a variety of flavours and their parmesan one is really delish.

I got home and opened the cheese and took the tiniest wedge. Before i popped it in my mouth, I had a sudden thought that there would be no one to take me to hospital if I developed a sudden, anaphylactic reaction to this. Oh well, I continued. The stuff was truly foul ! It had a really stinky flavour the aftertaste was even worse. The texture was creamy though and it was slightly sweet and nutty as they described, (which is how I like my men and cheese) But the mould flavour just over rided everything else. BLEAH! Juan suggested (when I tried to find a new home for my cheese) that I try it with some quince paste. It made it bearable but I think might consider eating it only if it was the last thing on earth.

The thing on the otherside was some comfort food bought as I had a craving for fudgy chewy brownie-type food. As you can see, the actual product was nothing like the picture and it turned out to be rather dry and too much air in it. The twists were ok nothing I would crave in a hurry.

I tried my hardest to steer away from making too many food posts as there are so many far superior ones out there. (my basic instincts took over, obviously) However, the rest of this post ties in with the country comments as I managed to get a full lunch for the first time in weeks today (usually we have toothaches and major cases, denture repairs etc so lunch is half an hour or even shorter). I dreamed about what to do for lunch as the time drew closer. I decided on using some of the carved lamb to make korean noodles. The picture shows the packet. I am not sure how popular they are or what they are called. Maybe someone can enlighten me. I found them in a korean supermarket in the Sydney suburb of burwood one of my last few visits to Sydney. You boil them for about 3 minutes until they are slightly translucent, then rinse the excess starch off under water, top with meats and veg and serve with the included chilli sauce. MMMmmm. Its spicy and yummy and also has some sesame oil with it. The noodles are very springy and slightly chewy and the chilli sauce went so well with the sweet tender lamb.

Ahh its not many places that you can live 1.1kms from work and drive home with no traffic lights in between to cook your own lunch and head back all within the hour. That is another big plus of the country.

P/S pictures of korean noodles to come ... hello/blogbot had a spaz attack again. Managed to get snack picture through though

yaay !!!

2005-09-27T21:38:00.000+10:00

To my relief, it wasn't me last night who was technologically challenged. It was the blog bot which was down so hence hopefully all and sundry can live our weekend vicariously through us, the same way I drool over clare and kirks food from eat stuff and mmm yoso blogs. My next step I have decided is to attempt putting links in this page as i am getting a bit more confident at the alphabet soup that is html.

I am "baching" or rather bacheloretting this week as Richard has gone to queensland to see his best mate. So what does one eat when one has lonely nights at home?? Everything one normally doesn't of course !!! I had extra spicy tom yum goong last night and I placed some frozen dumplings carefully transported the 4 hour drive from sydney in our previous trip in them :P~

On the menu tonight was roast lamb salad where I roasted a leg of lamb and carved it to have in a salad made with cherry tomatos, crumbled fetta, snow peas and stuffed olives in a mint and balsamic dressing. Richard doesnt like lamb so I don't usually make it. My handicapped oven with the guesstimate temperature dial played up and so my lamb was not as tender or juicy as I would have liked but it was ok :D

next post will prob include the hokkien mee recipe so if your interested, stay tuned !

Ahh photos at last or ... why the *%#@ was it down last night??

2005-09-27T21:09:00.000+10:00

Caves House ye olde heritage hotel where we stayed overnight

Kitting up ... otherwise, Richard the wanna be rap dancer

Goodbye cruel world !!!

A spring calf smiling as it continues its difficult labour out

Caught between a rock and a hard place

2nd Anniversary !!

2005-09-27T01:26:00.000+10:00

Well before I begin this post, some acknowledgements are in order.. *ahem* First I would like to thank Clare who spurred me on to blog more, but especially celebrating this weekend of mine and Richard's second wedding anniversary. I would like to let her know that it was not forgotten how she helped the boys picked their suits. ( Casey was Richard's groomsman) and how she helped make an entertaining and memorable hens night (ended with casey in hospital with a ear infection) lol but alls well that ends well and here we are 2 years later !

It was Richard's idea that we take turns to surprise each other with anniversary plans... so this year it was my turn and after racking my brains for a few months, I decided that what would be more romantic than wearing sexy mechanics overalls and crawling around in in a dusty cave and sliding around rocks on our bums for a few hours?

It was my first time caving and the experience was realy great. I loved it much more than rock climbing as it didn't feel as scary. There was a short abseil down into the cave and then lots of wriggling and sliding. More info on www.jenolancaves.org.au After 2 hours we checked into the only hotel at Jenolan Caves, Caves House. www.jenolancaves.com IMHO, it was pricey but as it was the only hotel for an hours drive, they had the monopoly. The rooms were average and had no TV. I guess because there is no reception in the area but it probably encourages more romantic activities.

Our package included dinner which was a decent 3 course meal. It was trying to be modern Australian but the taste and quality was average. My entree which was potato pancakes with smoked salmon and horseradish cream turned up with pancakes the size of a 20 cent coin. It was yummy though. Richard had the fetta tart with caramelised onion and rocket and pear salad. I couldnt taste the onion in it at all ! My main was the yuletide turkey and ham with baked vegetables in a cranberry jus. The turkey was juicy and done really well however the potato left much to be desired. Richard's salmon was bordering on being overdone but the chef saved it in the nick of time. It was flavourful though and all produce was fresh. Breakfast was your standard country breakfast with sausages, bacon, hotel powdered scrambled eggs, baked beans and mushrooms.

We then enjoyed a leisurely drive home in the countryside.

arrgh tried to put pics up to go with this post but spent 2 hours !!! and no sucess. might have to use Hello another day as it is down at the moment :(