4th July, Masterchef and a new Bike

The week started with 4th July Independence Day celebrations. We went to the baseball with our good friends and once again, the Nationals lost (so I've only seen them win once!)  The weather was very average and we dodged the rain with it pouring just after the game finished. There was a special national anthem sung for Ind Day and a massive flag brought onto the field. While I had studied the Star Spangled Banner song the week prior, I only managed a few lines and a lot of hmmm, brrrr, hmmm, hmmm's. We enjoyed the game regardless of the loss and the atmosphere was great as always. 

Other friends went to the 4th July parade in the city so next year we will try get to that. I think the big fireworks went ahead despite the weather but I heard they were affected by the low cloud. 

This week I prepared for the work social club happy hour. I have volunteered to cook the hot food and provide a mix of homemade and Costco snacks. There were about 250 people and the Canadian's were invited guests. My aussie mate Bob helped me and I could not have survived without him. We served up zucchini slice, sossy rolls, ham/cheese toasties and roast lamb sliders. I was stoked with sossy rolls as they were the best I've ever done - taste and look. They were all well received and the lamb was divine. The rest of the food was good ol' pizzas and other frozen snacks. I proposed they call the Happy Hour 'Skippy's' as it gave the function an Australian identity and it was a catchy name. Hopefully it will stick and continue to be a success. 

 I'm using this as a great opportunity to practice cooking, try new things and all while the social club pays for it (for the food anyway, I do this for free). Besides, it’s not like I have anything else to bloody do once a fortnight. I had to go to Costco a second time to get extra food. Christ, it’s a big place. It’s a bit like home really, not much bigger but still, it’s huge. I will go back and get some stuff for home as it really is much cheaper to buy bulk in some things. It opened at 10am. I got there just before 10 and there were people lined up in about 5 separate lines for 100m with their trolleys !!  I thought it was going to be a race or something. I nearly took a photo as it was very grand prix like. I have to admit in my head I was revving the throttle as I had visions of boxing day sale madness. But, it quite civilised and I managed to get in safely with no trolley’s clipping my ankles.

There were more shootings this week, terrible, in Texas 5 police were killed and 7 others wounded. It was in retaliation for police shooting a black person which honestly, was pretty bad and caught on camera. But here they seriously think this (shootings) is ‘normal’ around the world. Most of the US have never been to Australia so find it hard to believe daily shootings are NOT normal outside the US. I haven’t followed the news on it too much but it’s bad enough from the bit I have seen.  While I am very conscious of it, I don’t stress about it. Deb had a weirdo black guy come up to her at the train station this morning and started yelling at her. We wondered if he was being that way because of the black/white clashes at the moment. 

I bought another bike ($280). Just a cheap second hand commuter bike to ride to the shops and into the city. Deb has the car most days which is fine as I can use the bus and metro to get around. But a bike is helpful to get to the local shops or ride to the city for fun. I prefer a cheap commuter rather than my good bikes cause bikes get stolen a lot apparently so this bike will be perfect for riding around instead of my good bikes. It's near new and half the cost of what a new one was going to cost. Very happy indeed. 

I ordered some goodies from Amazon. Am bringing some money from home over as we need to get a few things – we are living on a tight budget and I finally decided to get a few things once and for all. Bought a good knife block, coffee pod machine and some bike bits.  I miss coffee so the little pod machine should alleviate some of my withdrawals – although I think I finished cold turkey phase months ago.  

We've been following the election results at home and well, have to say I'm glad to be out of the country for a long time while Pauline has done a a boomerang and returned to spit hate and bullshit at the Australian public. I am very ashamed to be a Qld'er knowing they voted her in - AGAIN !! I enjoyed watching an interview on the 7.30 report earlier in the week where a pollie said they had learned they need to listen to the electorate as this was part of their dismal result. WTF?  Thankfully the interviewer (very smart chick this one) said to the pollie - but shouldn't you be listening to the people anyway, isn't that you're job?  Gold star to the interviewer there.

We have enjoyed an easy weekend at home to get some rest. It has been a busy month or two and we needed the down time to sleep and chill out. I went for long bike ride today exploring the bike paths. There are two main bike paths/trails to the city about 15k long, one is straight through but the second one has a small section that has no bike path - you need to use the road. There are walking trails in the bush but you can't take bikes on them. So I went to confirm they were dirt trails and not paved. It's not safe on the roads in that area so I won't be able to ride that section during the week (the road is closed to cars on weekends so that's great, but opens again on weekdays). So, I'll ride the other route and brave my way through the city to work in a few weeks when I start a 3 month block of work. 

Something funny, in Safeway the other day, the checkout chicks and guys were chatting to each other as always. They were asking who was working the weekend. One guy said he was. He then said, you know how it is, don't you know what Safeway means backwards??   You Always Work Every Friday And Saturday.  I had to laugh. 

My song of the moment is Justin Timberlake's 'Can't Stop the Feeling'. They play it at the baseball and everyone gets up and just dances. Love it.

President William 'Bill' Taft