Days go by

I've been a bit quiet on the blog, mainly not much of greatness to write about. We have been busy socially catching up with friends, running and recovering and me working odd hours. We continue to broaden our cultural experiences. We enjoyed dinner out with a good friend at a Cuban food restaurant. It was yummy. I ordered a mixed plate so to speak with pork, chicken and beef. Despite the protein overload, it was lovely food and I enjoy eating different things. While at the airport I spend a little time in the crew room with the aircraft ground crew while waiting for my plane to arrive. One young fella had some interesting homemade snacks and of course, I asked what it was. He was very sweet and explained it was ‘yuca’ with a sweet brown sugar topping. He gave me some to taste and they were pretty tasty. He said they are an El Salvadorean tradition. Yuca is like a root (similar to potato) and he mixes with cheese, crumbs it and grills it. He said that they eat it as a mid afternoon snack with ‘chilate’ which is like a hot chocolate but it’s not sweet. Well, that was an interesting lesson. I am definitely going to bring something in for this crew – maybe Anzac biscuits? Sausage rolls would be difficult here so I’ll think of something Aussie to return the favour. I do have some 4n20 pies in the freezer, maybe they’d like some of those.

We took a day trip to southern Maryland to visit a friend’s house by the lake. We took the dogs so they could meet/greet their dog as we are going to mind their dog next weekend. It was just a gorgeous day, a gorgeous house and a great day trip. They have a girl dog and she kinda took a fancy to Cricket. Lots of sniffing, licking and following so must keep an eye on them on the weekend.

I worked function at the Amb residence again and enjoyed fair dinkum real Aussie beef snags. OMG, I had literally gone to heaven. The chef’s dad in Australia is a butcher. When she went home recently, she brought back a few kilos of seasoning and had a good butcher here make the sausages from beef. I cannot say enough how awesome they tasted. There is  baker in Atlanta, Georgia that makes pies and sossy rolls and they also did a big order of those. So needless to say I ate quite bit that night but it was so good !! And of course there was pavlova and lamingtons to top it off.

The weather is completely dreadful, the humidity is heavy, thick, wet and suffocating. Running is very hard and wet work. Deb’s injury has healed and she is getting her fitness back. We are still running 15-20km each Saturday and I’m pretty shattered for the day.

We’ve been binge watching some TV shows. There was a great Australian drama called the Heart Guy (also known as Doctor Doctor in the UK I think). It’s based in a small country town (actually filmed in Mudgee, NSW) and has a great cast of Australian favourites. It was the first season and a second will be made. We also finished the latest Janet King series on ABC and Deb is working her way through Offspring which frustrates me most of the time. The movie Dunkirk is starting soon and we plan to go with friends to see this at the Smithsonian IMAX theatre. 

I have to say that my niece recently moved into her new little house. She built new and she has worked/saved hard to get herself in the market. I couldn’t be prouder of her and my facetime walk-though was very exciting to see it all complete. The joys of doing what you want in your own house are something she is now enjoying...and together with the mortgage club of course.

I finally met our neighbor last week. We knew his wife was not well and it never seemed the right time to pop over but we were wheeling our trash (wheelie) bins in and had a nice chat. He was lovely. His wife is in care so he lives alone now but has family around him. I had baked several banana cakes that day so I took some over to him as a treat. He was thrilled. On the weekend, he came over with two big loaves of bread he had bought fresh that morning. One was pumpernickel (a sourdough and rye type bread) and challah (a jewish sweet type of bread). He is a lovely man and I look forward to popping over more often to deliver treats and say hello.  Our other neighbours are moving overseas on posting so we are currently waiting to see who will rent their house. They are using the same real estate agent that rented to us and they said to her the wanted lovely people like the two Australians next door. How nice.

On the cooking front, I made a bunch of chocolate crackles for a lady at work as she mentioned she hadn’t eaten them in over 20 years. That was an easy thing to fix and I think she took them nearly all of them home. She only shared a few with her workmates. They must have been very precious to her. I also made a rum n raisin chocolate slice from a recipe I saw in the Better Homes And Gardens mag. It turned out nice but couldn’t taste the rum. That plate emptied pretty quick also.

And to finish, I have to say well done to the Maroons – once again, dominating the State of Origin. For my non-Aust readers, State of Origin is a rugby league battle between the best players from Queensland (Maroons) and NSW (Blues). As a Queenslander, it’s always good to stick it to NSW so well done boys, yet another series win leaving the Blues thinking about next year.

 

Hall Oates Fears and Wonderwoman

What a busy week or so both work wise and social life. The clear highlights this week began with seeing WonderWoman in 3D at the Smithsonian. The movie was awesome, I really enjoyed it. It started great with a Bruce Wayne reference which got my hopes up but the dark knight was not to be seen, just the Wayne assistance. Here was my facebook post just to capture my feelings at the moment.

Movie Review - WonderWoman on IMAX 3D. Went in with an open mind and I was impressed and captivated. Opening scene has a Batman reference so off to a very great start. Gal Gadot did a top job and Robin Wright (House of Cards honey) was eye candy in her muscle outfit. I enjoyed the storyline and just when I was wondering WHY is a man was leading the mission in the WonderWoman quest, the Amazon Godess lassoed her rope and took charge of her movie - awesome. A superhero and hot women doing Charlies Angels flying kick stuff, this was heaven on a stick for me. Possibly hoped for a little more muscle on WW herself but, I still give this 9/10. Definitely my cup of tea and you straight chicks can enjoy Chris Pine.

The next highlight was seeing Daryl Hall and John Oates in concert with Tears for Fears as backup. What a cracker of concert. I LOVE Hall and Oates and they played so many hits – they’ve been around since the 70’s so they have plenty of hits to choose from. They are 69 and 70 years old which I could not believe. They sounded amazing and I just totally enjoyed myself. 

Tears for Fears were incredible also. Wow, they have had a bunch of hits also and they were great entertainers. Their voices were so good and again, it was a great hour of memories and singing out loud. Next concert is Aretha Franklin in a few weeks – definitely looking forward to hearing the Queen of Soul live. I think she is 72 !!

 

I have been working again and it interrupts my easy lifestyle, but the money helps pay the travel. I worked at the Amb residence again for a long day as the Aussie golfers were in town. I enjoy working there as the other helpers are mostly Phillipino and just good fun to be around. I know them relatively well now and they feel like extended family to me. There was a Mexican theme night and the food was divine as always. I learn good little tips and tricks from the chef and always get to practice my chopping skills which I could use all the practice I can get.

We’ve been running a lot, me more than Deb as she slipped over a few weeks back so running hurts her back. She is gradually improving but not able to do the long miles. I am running between 15-20km on Saturday’s at the moment and it’s a bloody long time to run. Cycling is much easier. The hot weather and humidity is tough also but I seem to managing ok. I have gotten back on the bike which felt great and plan to ride every Sunday with a friend who is showing me some roads. I also plan to ride the mtb with a womens group which rides every week. I have a ‘plan’ to do a 5 day guided ride in Utah or Colorado next year so I need to get riding again.

Deb took a work trip to Miami for the weekend. She was pretty busy but managed some down time. We exchanged texts at one stage – hers by the pool and me drenched as it poured rain about 2 minutes after I left home. It was a short easy Sunday afternoon 5km run but I was soaked. 

 

It’s 4^th July Independence Day today and Deb is having a well earned rest. Not sure we will get to the fireworks tonight. The best we will manage today is a walk with the dogs in Bethesda and grabbing a bagel for lunch - seriously good bagels at this place and the dogs love the outing. I was proud of myself having answered all the trivia questions, all 5 of them, on the radio the other day about US history. I have certainly learnt a lot while being here and must ensure I know my Australian history more when I get home and of course, visit New Zealand - I feel like we are missing out and should have been by now given it's just across he water.

I made a new slice for a guy at work. He’s originally from New Zealand and was raving about Ginger Crunch. This was a famous Edmonds recipe – Edmonds makes flour, baking powder etc. So I had crack at it and was surprised at the result. It was bloody tasty, quite crunchy-hard and really simple to make. He was most thrilled and another NZ guy was pretty pleased to taste a treat from home. The photo is off the internet as I forgot to take a photo of my own. But it looks just like this.

I added some new photos to the blog if you’ve noticed some new tabs on the front page.

Well it's tax time for us Aussies so I will likely spend my day off preparing tax stuff. It's nice to be home to rest and I can't believe we were actually talking at breakfast about starting the process for the dogs to get home. While we are half way through our posting, we have to start the process about one year out. Wow, so much we've done, so much more to do. Speaking of the little munchkins, here they are keeping me company as I write my blog.