Happy Christmas 2017

We enjoyed a very relaxful Christmas with no plans except having a buffet lunch with friends at a cozy French restaurant. It was excellent with a wonderful spread of dishes. Santa was kind to all of us and the weather was cold and windy. We checked out many Xmas lights and are still indulging in the Xmas pudding I brought back from Australia. Please check our movie of highlights and here's hoping you had a fantastic holiday with family and friends. HO HO HO !!

Xmas is coming

The lead up to Xmas was busy as usual with much cooking and social festivities. The houses are fully decorated in lights and displays, except ours. Our street is much the same so we don’t look too scrooge’y. I love watching people pick their xmas tree at the sale lots and put them on their car roof for the drive home. It’s really a different xmas feel when it’s winter.

Our friends took us to the Mormon temple nearby to see the xmas lights and nativity scenes. The whole grounds are covered in beautiful lights and there were about 15 xmas trees inside decorated so beautifully. They also had about 30 nativity scenes from around the world which were beautiful and interesting to see the different cultures being shown. There was no Australia but I did like Hungary, Estonia and Alaska. The picture with me and Xmas tree is an international tree with all the country flags. I’m pointing to Australia if you look closely. It was a nice place to see and we’re glad to have good friends who enjoy showing us the special local things to see at xmas.

 

 

The Embassy had it’s children’s xmas party and I did the catering again. It was a simple spread with chicken nuggets, cocktail franks (US style), sandwiches, fairy bread, cake and of course, my homemade sausage rolls. But Santa is always the star of the show and kids really make Xmas. It was like watching 5 year olds chase a soccer ball on the field – they just flocked to him and followed him to his chair where they waited to hear his Ho Ho Ho and receive their presents.

 

 I also went to the xmas morning tea for the school the Embassy hosts each year. These kids were awesome. They were treated to sausage rolls (not mine) and tea. I made some white Christmas slice which was frankly a shocker. It’s difficult to make here as the ingredients are not available nor the same. I have to make my own mixed fruit peel and the copha alternative is not the same taste. It totally crumbled when I sliced it and while it tasted ok for a stranger, I was pretty disappointed with it.

I also cooked a few dishes for the work Xmas ‘potluck’ lunch. I cooked a lamb, lasagna and a chicken tikka curry and in the slow cooker. The curry was really nice but the house, the car and me stunk of curry for two days. 

We also went to our friend’s annual Xmas party – they’ve been running it since 1992 so this definitely an event not to be missed. It was very exciting to meet and mix with some good American people and their friends were totally wonderful. It was a secret santa affair also. I made a pavlova which was very popular. I think pav is really simple – just meringue, cream and fruit but meringue is not as common here so it’s a very interesting sweet here that catches a lot of attention. I was glad they liked it and it went pretty fast. I have to thank my dear friend MB as I use her Nanny’s recipe – I always like using family and friend recipes, it’s just nice and personal. We both ended up with gifts from Secret Santa and there are a few that keep being returned every year. Deb scored one of them – the Taxi light. Of course I loved it and have decided I will wire up a switch and battery to it. While it might get wrapped again next year, I’m sure the ability to flash it will make it a bigger hit. I know, you are all saying ‘tell her she’s dreaming’.

Not much else to report in this xmas lead up. I’ve pulled out the ugly xmas sweaters and enjoyed the few snow days we’ve had. 

Also, check out the wedding cards I saw in the shops. It took me a few seconds to work out what it was. Very refreshing to see. Won’t be long before they sell in Australia.

Here is a bunch of photos of the past few weeks including us at Georgetown Cupcakes to grab some of their special Xmas cupcakes - love this place.

 

 

 

Visit to Australia

Well time is moving fast as it’s been a few weeks since I tapped out a blog post. My last blog saw my big sister head home in mid October and since then, I’ve been up to lots of fun things including a short trip back to Australia. But before the photos of me eating everything in Australia, my first adventure was a flying lesson. My good friend AH is keen to learn to fly and we agreed to take a ‘discovery’ flying lesson. This is a one hour flight where you get to learn the basics and get some hands on the stick for a while to see what it feels like. We also agreed to back seat in each other’s flight so we got a little more air time. We flew in a little Piper aircraft and it was quite a buzz really. It was pretty noisy and little bumpy due to the low cloud cover that day. Unfortunately we didn’t get to touch the controls – not sure why? But we were both excited and thrilled to feel the experience of flying. I have had a fear of flying for many years now so this was a little challenge for me but like most fears, the ability to control the situation reduces the fear so flying the plane myself (well the pilot in this case) didn’t seem to scare the crap out of me. I was overwhelmed by all the dials and could not understand a word on the radio from air traffic control. It sounded just like the McDonalds drive through people – shhhk blkjdfjsdkl sdfkjsdklj theolji kejjekjre….

From here, we both plan to start flying lessons for our Private Pilot’s Licence and finish it in Australia as we probably won’t have the time or money to do it all here. The hours and training are transferable so we hope to get started in January. It felt good to be surrounded by technical things and the chance to think like that again with pilot training is quite exciting for me. Stay tuned for some great stories as the flying adventure unfolds next year.

I also did a 10k run on Veterans Day – our Armistice Day 11 Nov. I ran with my friend AH again and he unknowingly pushed me (as I tried to stay with him) and managed to run just under the hour. I have not done this in over 20 years so it was a blast for me. It was a bloody cold morning start but I somehow cracked out some quick k’s and thought I’d go for as long as I could hold it. Somehow, I made it to the end and beat the hour. Pretty pleased with myself and a well deserved breakfast out and afternoon nap was my reward. Thanks AH for the PB.

Just before flying to Australia, the results of Australia’s survey on Marriage Equality were announced. Many of our US friends were shocked that gay marriage was not legal in Australia, yep we still have the convict ball and chains on in many issues. After much bullshit and political and religious propaganda, Australian’s were asked to tick yes or no in a marriage equality survey – that was NOT binding on our politicians to support once the results were in. Yes, I did say it was a bullshit process. After 80% of Australians responded, 62% of Australians said YES, they wanted marriage equality (32% NO). Incredible. I was cooking dinner here in DC and watching ABC on the internet as the results were read live in Australia. I was quite emotional at the result to think that finally, gay people had taken a major step forward in equality despite the majority of politicians not having the courage to do the right thing years earlier.  So, as of 8 Dec 17, Australia legalised marriage equality. It disgusts me how both the Govt and the Opposition are trying to take credit for this achievement and while they say they are not, they really are. I only have thanks to those who have fought for this equality for years despite it not being politically popular, despite it not being what the political party stance is but because it was the right thing to do. Well done Australia, I am thankful the support was there and the one benefit of this bullshit survey process is that the arguments can end now – the numbers speak for themselves. Australia says YES. Marriage equality brings legal rights to us that we have never enjoyed – many Australians fail to know or understand that – we did not have those rights that many married people enjoy. Now, we can.

The real major news for this post is that I took a quick trip home to Australia to see some friends and family. I went on my own so the journey seemed to take forever. It’s a bloody long way and a bloody long time on a plane. As soon as I was in the boarding queue at Dallas for the Qantas leg to Sydney, I immediately felt at home. I was listening to the Aussie chat and banter and loved hearing the older guys in front of me being dickheads – just typical Aussie larakins really. The flights were good and I arrived in Canberra feeling like a bit of a stranger really. I managed to visit our house and was pleased to see it was in great shape and caught up with our lovely neighbours who we miss dearly. Food was clearly on the agenda so I was enjoying bacon and eggs and coffee at every opportunity and my dear friend MB spoiled me with good food and drink. She was brave to let me drive her car and while I did drive ok, it was a mental challenge at times to stay left at exits, driveways and intersections.

I managed to get some chores done including getting a Carpet 101 lesson at Harvey Norman in preparation for carpeting our house when we return. Who knew that carpet could be so complicated !! And I didn’t even look at colours – just carpet types. And most exciting was my trip to TAFE to check out the cooking school and discuss the possibility of doing chef training when I return. Good news is that chef training is definitely possible and it is now my goal for when we get home. Very excited.

It was great to see my family up North and the weather was totally gorgeous and tropical. I ran most mornings and it was around 30 degrees C despite being 8am. I was definitely on a food mission for this trip and the first day saw me indulging heavily. It was my Dad’s birthday so we enjoyed pies and sausage rolls for lunch and some sweet treats – apple slice, vanilla slice and a long jam cream donut. Fantastic – we stopped by Phelan’s Pies who are long time favourites at home. The owner was only too happy to get my photo with him and I starred on their facebook page as a visitor from DC hungry for a good Aussie pie.

 

My niece finished building her house recently and it was fantastic to see her new home (and first home). She now joins the rest of us in mortgage bliss but at least it’s hers even if she only owns the front door at this stage. My dad was eager to show me his computer skills having played on my sister’s old computer for the past two years. He was interested in how to print but I said he first needed a printer so I decided to buy him a printer for his birthday. When I got home and looked at hooking it up, I then decided it was just too painful to use his old computer and Noah needed it back on the Arc so I treated him more and bought an iPad for him. Despite his initial grumbles, he was pretty taken with it when I came home and gave him a quick overview. After a few training lessons and some handy info sheets I made for him, he was surfing the net a lot easier and now able to access his email, take photos and even facetime me. I have created a little monster I’m sure but he was getting the hang of things quickly and it will be so much easier for him, and us, when he has questions. The first morning he was already reading the local paper when he asked, how do I get to the funeral notices. A few swipes and taps later and there they were so we saved it to his favourites – can’t say I’ve seen funerals as favourites before. I set up his world clock with Washington DC time and said he could use this to check the time before he thought about facetiming me. Had to laugh though, I was on the journey back to the US when I was walking in Dallas aiport, my phone was ringing, it was Dad facetiming me. I’m not sure if it was me or him that was shocked to see the other on the phone. He said he pressed the wrong button !!  We had a quick chat anyway but it was good to see him on the screen.

My sister, niece and I went cruising down the Strand on the weekend like all local chicks do. I miss the weather so much and have been putting the pressure on Deb to retire somewhere warm – much warmer than Canberra. We had lunch and then went to a good local fish and chip shop called Harolds where they sell real (not frozen) potato scallops (or potato cakes for those Victorians). I also bought a Chico Roll. After dosing in salt, we sat on the grass and took a trip back to the 70s eating these deep fried Aussie favourites. For the foreigners, a potato scallop is a slice of potato dipped in batter and deep fried. A Chico Roll is hard to explain but it’s a meat and cabbage and carrot mush in a thick chewy savoury pastry that is deep fried. It is the food of champions and brings back memories of the drive-in and Friday night fish and chips. Hopefully the photos will give you more insight but the taste is quite yummy even though it’s a heart attack in a roll.

 

 

I had a spare suitcase with me to fill with food and gifts so we filled the trolley at the supermarket with bags of lollies, weetbix, TimTams, passionfruit tins, chocolate and some Pascalls marshmellows for a good friend. I bought some Aussie gifts for friends but one of note was an Akubra hat. This would be my challenge to get home without losing it. More to come later on that one.

After a few lovely days with my family, I spent the last day visiting my niece at work and having lunch with my sister. As always, a tearful goodbye only interrupted by me losing my sunglasses. Have no idea where or how, but I’d lost them at lunch, nowhere to be found. Well they were scratched so good excuse for a new pair. I seem to lose them a lot – my last pair was lost at a tollbooth in Croatia a few years ago. Fell out of the car door when I opened it to pay a toll. I had another hour with Dad for some last minute iPad training before we loaded my bags into the car and headed to the airport. As I was checking in, I realized I’d left my Australian phone at home on the lounge. Shit, not enough time to get it but no problems, I will only turn it off when I get back to the US anyway. So that was the 2^nd thing I lost. No problems, at least I had that Akubra hat in a bag with me. Another tearful goodbye with Dad and then off to Sydney for a late night flight and stopover. 

I arrived at the airport hotel late and facetime’d my sister for a quick hello. I was telling her I’d arrived and was scoffing at how I’d lost my sunnies, left my phone at home and that I wonder what the 3^rd thing will be as things happen in three’s. I laughed and said I’ll probably lose that bloody hat. At that instant, I flashed my head to my bags and said SHIT (or probably F$#@ really) – I had left the bloody hat at the aiport !!  Gotta go sister and I hung up, rushed downstairs to get a taxi back to the airport. I could not bloody believe it. When I collected my bags, I stopped by the hire car counters, put the hat bag on the counter, bent down to get my wallet out of my carry bag, stood up and walked away with all bags except the hat, which was on the counter top. I dashed into the airport baggage area and thankfully, there it was sitting on the counter where I’d left it. I think I was lucky as it was late at night but clearly security were not in action that night as it had been nearly an hour. Oh bloody hell, that bloody hat. I’m glad I found it. For the rest of the trip I tied the hat bag to my carry on luggage so I would not lose it again. It made it safely back to the US with me and I have yet to give it to my friend who is quite excited about getting an Akubra.

My time at home was short but really great. It made me very homesick which took me by surprise. I’m not sure why it hit me hard but I came back to the US feeling relieved it is only one year to go before we return the Australia. It’s hard to believe it’s been two years already but there is no place like Australia, no place like home. No matter how far, or how wide I roam, I still call Australia, home. Bless Peter Allen for making this classic song an Australian theme.

I was hit with jetlag back in the US and caught the obligatory cold from being stuck in a plane for 20+ hours. I think being homesick didn’t help either but jetlag emphasizes everything. It’s been nearly two weeks back now and I’m mostly over the jetlag and kicked the cold. We’re demolishing the weetbix and working hard to ration the chocolate. The cold weather has set in and we enjoyed our first snow for the season, yesterday - Saturday. Like kids waiting for Santa, we tend to get up through the night looking out the window to see if it’s snowing. It came in the morning and snowed most of the day. Pretty special stuff really. I am prepared this winter with a tarp to place on the grass for an area for the dogs to pee. They do not like pee’ing on snow and Cricket prefers the lounge chair leg inside!!  So, I remove the tarp at toilet time to reveal the grass and it’s an instant success.

 On a final note, I finally saw Justice League with all the superhero’s in action. Deb went nextdoor to see Murder on the Train as the ticket chick said instead of Orient Express. Deb managed to fall asleep in the middle she said, not sure how much of the middle she slept? But I was glued to the superhero’s and totally enjoyed the movie. I loved the Flash – he made the movie I think. Not quite the normal superhero but he made me laugh. Not sure I liked Ben Affleck but I still loved the movie and will probably watch again at some stage.

Christmas is 2 weeks away and the houses are decorated in lights and now fresh snow so it’s definitely looking a lot like Christmas as the song goes !! We are going to see some Xmas lights this week and I want to see the White House Xmas tree again before Xmas. Time to pull out the ugly Xmas sweaters and get excited about eating the Xmas Puddings I brought home in my suitcase full of Aussie goodies. 

A few final pics of the snow and a xmas tree in my dreams....full of bikes !!!!

 

 

 

Dallas with Big Sister

Well my sister's 6 week visit was coming to a close and it was hard to tell her how fantastic and wonderful it was to spend time with her. I couldn't tell her too much personally because I would start crying and goodbyes between us always gets teary. We don't spend time together often and certainly not for 6 week blocks on a holiday. I hope she reads this here and knows how much I love her, how much I enjoyed being with her, that I miss her dearly and more so as we both get older, and that I am so lucky to have her as my sister. You see, I've got tears in my eyes now as I type this. Love you big sister. xx

To finish her American adventure, we flew to Dallas to see the Fort Worth cowboy city and do the JFK experience in downtown Elm St, Dallas. Now, it's been a fairly constant 6 weeks of travelling and sight-seeing so we were all dragging the chain. But, go hard or go home I say. We'd been out the night before to see Margaret Cho so it was a little bit late getting home. We had a 7am flight out of DC so it was an early start at about 4.30am. Well, things didn't quite go to plan. Here's my post off Facebook.

Woke up to my sister shaking me, it's 5.10am, shit I totally missed the 4.30am alarm, she's dressed and ready to roll. Meant to get Uber at 5.15 to airport. Quick math, yep, can still do this and make plane. Deb still sound asleep. Jumped up to shower, a bit too quick, woah, feeling woozy, yep gonna faint (I am a professional fainter so I know the drill). Laid down on the bathroom floor in my birthday suit ready for it. Woke up to panic stations, again to my sister yelling at me and Deb yelling 911. Both were wondering WTF happened? Thankfully 911 not called, all good, just too quick and overtired. Aborted the flight plan, slept all morning and managed to get the later flight to DALLAS tonight. Pity we missed our Fort Worth tour but it's JFK day tomorrow.

So yes, I've fainted a few times during my years and while Deb is a little used to it, she gets scared and hates it. Fair enough. Apparently my eyes were wide open and I was pretty stiff. Deb wasn't sure if I was breathing!! They reckon I was out for about 5 minutes but that can't be right? Anyway, a good sleep fixed it but I'm annoyed that we missed our flight and the tour of Fort Worth. My sister and I had a good laugh about it that night in bed as we shared a hotel room - some sisters never grow up.

We only had one day in Dallas and I was familiar with the JFK stuff as Deb and I had been there in April. Dallas post

We slept in a little and enjoyed a nice breakfast. Took the train to Dallas and found out quickly that the Texas State Fair was on (runs for 3 weeks). Wow, I would love to have gone but we just couldn't squeeze it in. 

In Dallas, we took the JFK Trolley tour which was a one hour trolley drive along the route JFK drove and the route Lee Harvey Oswald took after the shooting. We drove past the spot where Dallas Police Officer Tippet was shot and the movie theatre that Oswald was finally captured. We also drove past the police station where Jack Ruby shot Oswald. The whole trip was narrated to explain what was happening moment by moment. It's a great way to live the experience and prepare you for the museum. 

The Sixth Floor Museum is the JFK assassination museum on the sixth floor of the former School Book Depository. This museum is excellent and you do a self guided audio tour around the museum. It continues to be one of, if not THE, most interesting mystery of the modern day. Who shot JFK? Why? I enjoyed reading all the exhibits again and since my last visit, I've watched a documentary called The Lost Bullet which was done in 2013 and  tries to answer what happened to the first bullet fired at JFK. It re-evaluates the famous Zapruder film that shows the murder of JFK and states that Zapruder stopped filming and missed the first shot fired which changes the timeline of the bullets fired making it possible that the first bullet hit a traffic signal. The documentary also features other home movies taken on the day. It's worth watch if you're a JFK fan or conspiracy theorist cause this blows it all away. 

 

 

The photo of JFK and Jackie above is a collage of tiny photos of each other. So JFKs photo is made up of tiny tiny photos of the Jackie photo and vice versa. Very cool.

We had an early dinner and tried to get to bed early as it was going to be another early start as we both had 7am flights out of Dallas. I was going back to DC and my sister was heading back to Australia. Thankfully I heard all THREE alarms, woke early, didn't faint and we both made our flights. We took an Uber and had to get out at different terminals which was a good thing as it made for a quick huggy goodbye in the car and minimised tears and sobbing. I hate goodbyes. I slept all the way to DC and the house felt and still feels very empty without her here. Cricket misses her too and both dogs looked for her for a few days when we come home in the car...wondering where the other person was? I was pretty tired for a few days and caught up slowly on things at home and got back into routine.

 Forgot to mention that I went to a chef presentation by Yotam Ottolenghi and Helen Goh. They are very famous chefs and a friend invited me to go (my sister came also). They have released a new book called SWEET which is chock full of awesome baking recipes. I've already made a Spice Cake which was pretty good for a first attempt. I'll be making a few others as they are pretty special.

There are Ottolenghi bakeries in London and they are super popular. I'd never heard of either of them but I enjoyed listening to them talk and learning more about the culinary field.

It's Halloween and the houses are decorating their yards and verandahs with scary stuff and pumpkins. I've got into it a little bit this year but putting our Amish pumpkins outside and hanging some pumpkin and fairy lights on the verandah (porch for the US folks). I had hoped to carve the big pumpkin with my sister but we didn't get time. I'm thinking of having a last minute attempt over the weekend and I'm sure it will be a messy job and look even more evil than planned. 

I finally got to my first cooking class - it was a knife skills class for 3 hours. We cut up lots of vegetables for stir fry and I learnt some good tricks. The class was a mixed skill level and I was cringing inside as I watched others cutting with their knives. Now I'm no expert but some people were a little wobbly for my comfort. I ended up turning away and not looking because I was scared they were going to cut a finger off and then I'd faint at the sight of blood - cause you now know I'm a professional fainter right !!  We then had a raw whole chicken and they taught us how to cut a chicken into pieces. I admit I was a little squeamish at pulling the chicken bits but it was a great technique to know. One lady had to leave the class cause she couldn't cope with it - poor luv. We finished the lesson by cooking a chicken stir fry and it was pretty nice. This cooking school offers volunteer roles so I am keen to volunteer to help with classes in order to learn more things without doing a class but they also give you a discount if you volunteer for a certain number of classes. 

And the cooler weather has hit us after a long delayed summer. We're searching the drawers for winter running gear and waiting for daylight savings to end next weekend (2 Nov). But winter will be here soon and I wonder if it will be a super cold snow winter after a pretty hot summer.

I took this photo of Cricket as he slept while I ironed. He's such a beautiful boy. The dogs are getting back into regular walks again now that the travel season is over so we are all on the path to eating better and getting fitter. Love these two.