French phase.

I've enjoyed a few random french songs that have been on movie soundtracks, and in wandering through itunes I found French Songs - 50 Best Tunes Ever for $15.49, and I'm playing it to death. They're old, mellow, piano-filled, quirky. One advantage is I don't know french, so I don't get distracted by the words, so it's ideal background music for me. Another advantage, which I recommend universally, is that EVERYTHING feels more glamourous with old french music. Washing up—glamourous. Putting boots on—glamourous. Cooking pumpkin soup—glamourous.

Teabag technology.

Did you know that you shouldn't squeeze teabags?

I did not know that. I have been enjoying the Dilmah Exceptional teas, Arabian Mint with Honey Tea is really nice, the leaves are big like fish flakes not fine like dust. That is a sign of quality, because teabags were originally invented to use up all the poor quality dust left over from the proper loose leaf tea. And they come in those fancy silk pyramids. I wrote in because I broke a few strings when squeezing them.

I have a personal email from Dilmah customer care informing me:

Please note that teabags are not for squeezing, when squeezing the teabag it can bruise the tea leaves, leaving a bitter taste in your cup of tea.

She offered to carry out a further investigation if I send in the teabags, but I'm happy to take her expert word and restrain myself from bruising the tea leaves so cruelly.

Something like this:

http://www.realestate.com.au/property-house-nsw-maitland-107204397

It has 5 bedrooms, so $715,000 divided by 5 is 5 manageable mortgages... do 4 people want to move to Maitland with me? Please please please... It only has 2 bathrooms, but it has EVERYTHING else.

I am a very proud sister.

So one sister is blogging, and the other sister is eat-streeting! I received a postcard from a restaurant in Perth, marking the occasion of the inaugural Perth Eat Street. The report on the back of the card said "reasonably nice italian place, with good ravioli and a nice chicken, avocado and aioli pizza. But there was a hair in the ravioli! Also it was expensive for an Eat Street but I don't know where the cheap food is in Perth. It's very challenging." Brings tears of joy to my eyes.

Walking therapy.

I know I have raved about walking before, but it's just so great I have to keep plugging it.

When I walk, I'm cut off from screens and people and things to do. This means that not only do I process my thoughts (have imaginary conversations, worry about things, appreciate the weather, think of jelssie posts) but I get to process my emotional state as well. Walking home from work is the time when I realise I'm relaxed, or randomly happy, or I'm depressed, or lonely, or stressed. Everything bubbles up, and if I'm happy, I get a moment to wallow and be thankful, and if I'm sad, I'm less likely to just rush on with my life and not notice.

Practically, I wish I didn't have to walk home tonight, because I am underdressed, lulled into a false sense of warmth this morning by a few warm days and my post-jog glow. It's cold and wet out there.

Aussie Aussie Aussie

I nearly cracked up when my Chinese Chinese (i.e. from China) friend emailed me this:

Need your help

"Select stories of two convicts (one male and one female) who came to colonial Australia and demonstrate how each were able to turn their lives around and become founding members of modern Australia."

I think u must have learned about Australian history, could u plz give me the names of the people required by this question ? u don't have to give me their stories, only names will be enough. i would really appreciate that.

I hope I'm not outing myself here, but I think it's universally acknowledged that Australian-born Aussies are deficient in their knowledge of Australian history. My first reaction to the email was, "Poor fella, he thinks I must know stuff cos I was born and educated here!". Sadly, I could NOT think of a convict done good. I could think of non-convicts done good e.g. Macquarie, Governor Arthur Phillip, the people on our currency and other people who've had suburbs named after them.

So tell me fellow Aussie, how is your knowledge of Australian history? Can you think of any convicts done good without resorting to google? I couldn't :P

Blogcitement!

My sister Julia is blogging! I encouraged her to, because she wrote me lots of rather good emails and she has a lot of time on her hands. If you want to read her news (you may have met her, or you may just wonder what it's like moving to a small town on the NSW/QLD border to nanny on a potato/cattle farm for a year… she's living the dream,) go and read it. And be nice to her, she's taking her first baby steps into the world of blogging and is shy. And encourage her to take photos of cows—that's what I really want.

Good music hour

Listen to 2MBS FM between 12 and 1pm. Then switch to 702 AM for James Valentine between 1 and 3pm for good talking.

Musical lunchtime interlude.

Anna reported a piano in the lane behind the op shop. It being a beautiful day, Elsie and I were out for lunch so we stopped off to shoot a music video. It's 40 meg and not that special, the Chopin video didn't work so this is the Missy Higgins video if you like. If my uploading doesn't work, Elsie is a pretty good photographer!

Pianos on the open street are awesome.

Morning Tea.

The Ginger Snap biscuit is perfectly designed to dunk in tea. It is incredibly hard to bite when dry, but when dipped in you cuppa it is strong enough to retain it's chewiness and stability.

In related morning tea news, I do not like my new box of Twinings Chai. Scarbrough Fair has a much nicer taste, and the tag just fell off my Twinings tea bag when I was squeezing it on the spoon.

Finally, Coles has Capilano honey squeezers for half price this week. Honey is much nicer than sugar in most teas, especially chai and peppermint.

Ayam Goreng 99

T'was yummy. Lamb and chicken satay skewers. Green vegies of some sort. Ong choy I think?

Deep-fried chicken, grilled chicken. Breast was dry. Go thigh. Otherwise delicious. Beef rendang. Avocado drink.

Noodles & soup.

KESC 29: Shalom

Next in line is Shalom, another halal indo student-level place. It's got red signage. 6.30 on the 27th May.

Underrated: old information technology

Old technology doesn't get as much hype as the new ones. People are suspicious of the new, so it needs to be discussed, whereas the old is understood and taken for granted, but the lack of discussion of old technology makes it sound redundant compared to the twitters.

Here are my 3 favourite old information technologies.

1. Radio. I have a digital radio at work, and a bedside clock. I would like 2 bedside clocks, so I can fall asleep with one station and wake up with another. I would like a digital radio at home, too, but they are too expensive. But I listen to a lot more radio than TV, it's how I structure my whole day actually, and it's where I get my news. The only reason I watch the ABC news is for Alan Kohler and his charts. Nothing has replaced radio.

2. Library. I'm not sure why they aren't redundant since the internet, but I go at least once a week, for fiction books, Miss Marple dvds and non-fiction books (recently crochet and european history). I guess on the internet I could browse and hire from a bigger range more conveniently at a reasonably low price, but the library still works for me.

3. The movies. I happily outsource the home theatre system. I like the formality of the session times, the red seating, the automatic lighting. It's the only place to eat pop-corn, although I don't like pop-corn I still think it's a valuable ritual.

I don't have the web at home, and I could live without TV (if I could still watch DVDs of my favourite two shows), and I could be happy without social media, but I would be rudderless without radio...

Salt-free salt

My McCormick's Szechuan Pepper Salt does not contain any salt in its ingredient listing.

Has anyone noticed those 7-11 Slurpee ads at the bus stop? Some have a picture of a pear and lime (implying the slurpee flavour), then in smaller writing at the bottom, there are words to the effect that the actual product does not contain any pear or lime.

As we say in accounting, substance over form i.e. what it actually is over what it proports to be.

And the Szechuan Pepper Salt is very tasty.

How to buy a banana.

In these days of hardship and banana famine, the bendy fruit is a special treat. My frugality normally makes me stop buying things when I don't like the price, but I have bought 3 bananas since they went past $10/kg. I reason that they are one of the few fruits I can easily eat with braces, so I deserve to have one sometimes.

I have paid between $1.60 and $2.60 for a single banana. The trick, I've realised now, is to get a sense of the thickness of the skin. A fibrous, thick-skinned banana is poor value, because you are paying for the weight of the skin. Also, consider the length of the stalk. It is only a minute difference, but it all ads up. But definitely choose a banana that feels thin-skinned.

Boheme.

Tune out now if clothes are boring.

I have a skirt which is a good half dozen years old now; it's brown patterned and in that scrunchy peasant style which was all the fashion back then. I've not got rid of it, because it's a nice skirt, but I haven't worn it much for a couple of years after an incident in which it betrayed my trust.

But it has suddenly because a centrepiece in my wardrobe, worn over leggings and my Aragorn boots for warmth. I can wear any sort of cardigan or coat or scarf, and I look arty. And the beauty of the bohemian style is that the less things match, the better they go together. I can wear the brown skirt with orange, red and bright teal at the same time, all sorts of cheerful colours I normally only wear in small helpings. The joy of randomly putting things on and still having a cohesive "look"! It is perfect for Autumn as well, because of the light layering thing. The only problems I have is that a) I lack pockets and b) I'm dreading putting proper waistbands back on. The longer you wear loose floaty clothes the more torturous a pair of jeans is.

Garbage Ibis.

My teenage friends who now live in Namibia have been back in Aus, and I took a half day off to entertain them while their parents had meetings at CMS office. After lunch we walked to the ferries and caught one to Manly, hanging over the front of the boat we saw a dolphin, at Manly we had a hot chocolate before rushing back for the return ferry. Ferrys are so much fun.

I learnt many things about Namibia, such as they have not much Chinese food, and mostly all the restaurants do steak. They have mint flavoured toothpicks: I reckon there should be flavoured paddle pop sticks inside icecreams so you can lick the ice-cream up without tasting wood. And they pointed at an ibis, which they hadn't seen. I filled them in on how disgusting they are.

But I did have an interesting thought on garbage ibises. If Sydney suffered a severe depression or apocalypse type event, and food was scarce, we could eat ibises. They look about the same size as a chicken, but on taller drumsticks, and although they do fly they are currently pretty bold and slow, so they could be caught and eaten more easily than seagulls and pigeons.

File that away and hope you never have to use it. (Note: Ibises are apparently a protected species.)

Bible: reading/thinking.

You know how you're a bad Christian if your mind wanders off while you are reading the Bible or praying?

I have had an epiphany: This rule must be a construct of our time-poor, outcome-driven society, and I refuse to be guilty any longer!!!

I realised this because I'm now sometimes dipping into the Bible at breakfast and lunch. I normally don't do this because my "quiet time" is mostly done reading out loud, to aid my concentration and comprehension, which you can't do with food in your mouth. What I'm liking about the meal-time dip is that I read a bit, and then my mind wanders, and I don't instantly rouse on myself and try and pull it back to finish the passage. I think it's good to think about random things that reading the bible has stirred up in your mind. It's not a waste of time to follow some trail of pondering on a relationship or life issue or some biblical or doctrinal tangent you don't understand or an imaginary conversation or a memory.

Be liberated from attention-span guilt! The yoke is easy!

Cold, but not yet winter

Signs it's cold
- the uggs, doona and scarf are out
- it's harder to get out of the shower in the mornings
- switching from running shorts to 3/4 leggings, and sleeveless to short-sleeves when exercising
- making soup for dinner

Signs it's not yet winter
- heater, beanie and electric blanket are not yet out!

Things that are not actually useful #2: Toblerones. They are impossibly hard to bite. And they taste a bit weird. *Blogger not letting me post body text today. But quite I like the look.

Damn you, successful advertising.

Everywhere I go I see a packet of chips. Lime with cracked pepper, I believe. Not my favourite flavour, I prefer Sweet Chilli or Honey Soy Chicken. But after a week, noticing has turned into craving. I would really have bought some last night, at 8.30 on an empty stomach, if I hadn't fortunately happened to meet an acquaintance at the bus stop at Martin Place who lives in my street… so I leveraged her company into enough willpower to avoid detouring to Coles when I got off the bus. I bet they are doing quantity discounts on those chips, too. EVIL!!!!!

KESC 28: Ayam Goreng 99.

6:30pm this Friday
Ayam Goreng 99
464 Anzac Parade Kingsford NSW 2032

Delicious Indonesian chicken!!

Winter skirts and learning things from books.

I walked to work in a skirt today, and unfortunately this morning was considerably colder than all the other mornings so far. It is officially no longer skirt weather, unless you layer up with stockings and boots, which is a very nice look but rather more effort to put on and destroys the freedom and simplicity of the skirt. A skirt on it's own is easier than any trouser, but a skirt with stockings is harder than any trouser.

As I was pondering the temperature of my legs, I had a flash of inspiration: flannel petticoats. In The Railway Children, one of the first children's adventure books every written, Roberta and Phyllis tear up their red flannel petticoats and make flags to stop a train from crashing. I filed 'flannel petticoats' away in my mind as old-fashioned and ridiculous. But now I want one. Imagine the freedom and ease of the skirt, with the softness and warmth of pyjamas! I shall make one this winter and report on my success.

Here's your opportunity to live with me!

I'm looking for a flatmate. Preferably a mature-minded woman. You know how to contact me for details.

What I'll be doing to celebrate the The Royal Wedding:

Getting on with my life.

A season for everything

I don't know how I used to live without it, but CAJUN SEASONING IS AMAZING! It is the most delicious way to a quick meal.


For example, if I want a quick dinner, I steam vegies in the microwave (two-three minutes max), shake bucketloads of cajun seasoning on a steak and pan-fry (a minute each side if it's a minute steak), serve with mixed beans (for carbs, takes you as long as it does to open a tin) or with bread. EASY! Add some walnuts or olive oil for healthy fats.

Soy fish earrings.

As suggested. Took no time at all to put these together on Saturday morning. I used my tiniest screwdriver to drill through the tails, cut some hooks off some old earrings and pulled open the wire circles enough to put the fish tails through.

They are a little bit heavy to wear, I suspect. They might look good half-filled with liquid. I shall experiment with that later. After I've eaten the soy. I plan on wearing them to the shops to buy sushi for lunch one day.

Tea/Time.

Every blogger will eventually make a chart. I should make a chart about that. Which reminds me, I love that episode of How I Met Your Mother with the charts. I felt like making one today. Maybe I already made one about thongs, optimal comfort being a short window of time between discomfort and breakage of the toe bit. I forget if I ever posted it.

I call this one Tea/Time. The name is a pun! The point where green and red overlap indicates the short minute I have to scull my tea.

KESC 27: Red Hat review

Red Hat Noodles is a Cantonese style Chinese restaurant, apparently. The place was busy with families as well as students. There are fishtanks which they fish dinner out of. We were sitting at the front, which means you play door lotto because of the gale when someone walks through and leaves it open a crack. It is the worst door in Kingsford.

We decided to go fancy and ordered some quail for entree. Tasty. Having been so bold, we were then very conservative with the mains we ordered: Shan Doon Chicken (which was super delicious, could not complain about it at all except the price, but it was a big serving) Shredded Beef (rather aptly described by Matt as 'lolly chicken') and a stir fry veggie thing (the sort with black rubber mushrooms) and I forget anything else.

The food was all very good, by the way there was the usual average-tasting soup for starters but this one had lotus root in it. It came to $16 per person for the 6 of us, which is more than usual because of the quail but also prices were higher than most Chinese dishes in the area. The service was friendly and quick, the main annoyance was the door.

ALAS! ABCafe was closed. We explored the new Bread Top where Kevin bought Durian ice-cream and then retired to Gloria Jean's to share some cake.

Air!

The office air-con has been literally on the blink most of this week. After 20 min or so it stops and the light blinks. I start to feel stuffy and sleepy and get up and push the button to get air out of it again. If we had windows it would be so much easier. It's even the right temperature outside and everything. All that autumnal freshness going to waste.

Things that are not actually useful #1

Soy sauce fishes. I don't make my own sushi. What else are they good for? Why do I keep them?

KESC 27: Red Hat

We're trying again, this Friday at 6.30.

Job hunting and dating

I think I understand why it's hard for some guys to ask girls out. It's a lot like applying for a job. You send the company your resume and cover letter. You sell yourself and put yourself out there. Only you don't know if they're going to like you or reject you. It can be tough, but you've got to do it if you want the job. You've got to be in it to win it. You've got to be tough enough to handle rejection and move on.

Amen and Shared Amen.

I'm a bit weirded out by the lack of Amening in my new bible study. I'm used to group prayer times where you pray, say Amen, and others say Amen like an echo. The Shared Amen says "yes, I am with you in that prayer." Without the Shared Amen, I pray, say Amen, and feel like the other group members have been listening respectfully but may or may not be with me. It's just taking turns to pray, not group praying.

I guess maybe it's different depending on culture and shyness and habit. Praying in front of people is pretty nervous stuff. But I think the more Amen love the better. I'm a recent fan of the Mmm mid-prayer, as well. When you pray for something, and someone agrees so much that they can't wait till the end so they need to add a "Mmmm" while you pray, it's very encouraging.

Moneysmart plug

There is a new government website, I saw on TV last night, to inform consumers. It is a confusing world. I know I dread buying phone credit and comparing plans.

In my family I was the spender, but frugality was beaten into me with meager allowances ($1 a week from which I had to put half in the bank and give 10% to church so that only left 40cents to actually spend) followed by meagre fast food pay rates, and family jokes about my spending habits ("fashion victim", which I wasn't). As a result, I am now pretty frugal. Pay cheap rent, don't get a credit card debt, shop the sale racks, never update technology, avoid takeaways… it's hardwired into me now. I have confess I do need to fight to be generous, because it's easy to feed your frugality with greed.

Anyway, I've never been disciplined with actual budgeting, cos it's so fiddly. I did once force myself to live off $400 per month (by instantly transferring out my rent, saving and giving). It didn't last very long. But it was nice in a way.

Moneysmart.gov.au has an excellent excel budget. I like that you can put your different expenses in weekly/monthly/quarterly/annually. Rent is monthly, haircuts are quarterly, don't make me do maths! It's all done for me. I also like that you can see instantly how much something costs over a year. Like eating out once a fortnight or so: the annual total is significant. Good thing we eat in Kingsford! So at least I have a budget to work off now. If I can follow it that would be nice.

Actually—what would be nice would be if you could divide your bank account into dozens of sub-sections, flow your pay into them in designated amounts, and then when you get money out or use your card you choose which pool it comes from: entertainment, clothes, medical, travel etc. When your clothes pool is empty, no more clothes. If you have any left over let it accumulate, or if really good designate another pool to switch it into like holiday saving or appeal giving. I shall write to a bank about that.

Plug for Julia Booth.

Our friend Julia is having some "gigs". Her last show was lovely fun, she played her own contemporary Christian music plus a pop set, with her band of boys. The next concerts will be even better cos she's rounded up a bit of a string section and written some new songs. Should be a fun, relaxed night of live music.

Upper Chapter House, St Andrews Cathedral
7.30pm on 15/16th April
$25

Stages of loss.

1) You see your camera lying around somewhere and think "I'll take that with me on the weekend".
2) The next day you pack for the weekend, and it's apparently not lying around somewhere.
3) You spend a few days waiting for it to turn up, because maybe it's lying around somewhere under something or behind some stuff.
4) You start randomly looking under stuff on obvious horizontal surfaces where things might lie around.
5) By this point it is the next weekend. You tidy up significantly, because if it is lying around it won't escape exposure if you tidy up all the way down to the surface of the furniture.

It's still lost, so I'm currently at this stage. My plan going forward is:

6) You wait a few more days or a week, because you need to build up strength and give it another chance to be found accidentally.
7) You look behind heavy furniture.

You buy a replacement. Lucky always buy cheapest camera.

White not-chocolate.

I'm trying to think of a better name for "white chocolate". It bites like chocolate but it isn't chocolate. I would almost say it has no right to exist at all, except that white chocolate raspberry cheesecake is one of the best desserts in the history of the universe and the future also, so really all of time and space. So it does have some good uses.

Name ideas:

White not-chocolate
White compound
White chompound
Foux white (chocolate)
White notolate

They are all lame. I'm going with the first one, until something better comes up, because at least it speaks of my protest.

Vests.

 Wear a vest.

1. Vests look smart and slightly old-fashioned. Like stockings or tweed.
2. Perfect for light layering weather: warm torso, cool arms—when a shirt is not quite enough but long sleeves are too sweaty or constricting.
3. Makes a nice change from a cardigan.
4. A vest extends the life of an old shirt, as long as the collar* is still nice.
5. Also conceals a multitude of shirt sins: un-ironed, stained, thin, lost button.

Also applies to waistcoats. Patrick Jane The Mentalist wears waistcoats. I think waistcoats are a bit too fancy for everyday wear myself, but I do think they should be more widely worn.

*Vest over a t-shirt is also a look I'm quite fond of at the moment. More soft and comfy than a collared shirt, and it's more urban than old-fashioned. I'd like to see it being worn. I'm trying to start the trend.

Sydney: an anti-rant.

Apart from the fact that the last NSW gov was a ship of fools, I think there is a lot of unwarranted negativity about Sydney which no government will be able to fix. Transport plans and so on will not materially change the stuff people don't like. Sydney is a city. Cities are congested, crowded, and expensive. What you want is the rest of Australia!

Sydneysiders do a lot of wishful thinking. If you are choosing to stay, shut up and enjoy it. As someone who can't afford to buy but is fortunate to rent close to work, I can highly recommend not having a mortgage or a commute: it does save quite a lot of worry, once you click with a landlord and a flatmate. I have a long list of likes about Sydney (cities are convenient, social and have cheap asian food), but when I am finally fed up with living here I won't moan and wish, I'll LEAVE.

Garlic.

As many of you know (since I may have blogged this already), I believe in the healthful powers of raw garlic (and cooked garlic—although is is not as potent it is very much more delicious). The best way to eat raw garlic is to chop it up fine and drink it with mouthfuls of water so that it doesn't burn your tongue or create garlic breath. It goes straight down and kills the baddies. Just yesterday I heard a news story about garlic even preventing arthritis!

I've remembered a snippet from my childhood: robot shaped chewable garlic tablets for kids. They were delicious, like lollies. I was a sickly child (God blessed me with large and germ-receptive tonsils) so I got one to take to school each day. While other 7-year-olds had packets of twisties and meuslie bars, I had 2 westons oatmeal biscuits and a garlic tablet. Doesn't this explain a lot.

Good things about voting (other than democracy):

Cake stalls.
Sausage sizzles.

Underrated: Old TV.

The set top box has led to the rediscovery of some quality TV, at least for nostalgia's sake. And I'm not talking about Gilligan's Island. That show is for stupids. I keep discovering BBC treasures like Pie in the Sky, Jonathan Creek, and especially The Good Life. I AM Tom and Barbara! I love the way they dress in gumboots, old jeans, green jumpers, and how they cut their own hair, and they have such a fun repartee it's sometimes hard to remember that they must have a script, and Penelope Keith and the guy from Yes Minister are so droll. It's like a friendly hug in TV form.

Today I was a slob.

That's all. I blame the damp: the weather and the chaos of my slowly flooding kitchen. I am wearing my oldest sneakers, cos they might get wet in the rain. I tried to make my hair last another day before washing it and that never works on humid days, NEVER DO IT AGAIN, and I have a slight toothpaste stain on my black top, which I have tried twice to wash out with cold water and hand soap and only succeeded in feeling even more damp. Then I was photographed, just to test the camera for a photo of my boss (who looked glamorous), and I got to see myself all wacky-haired and shadowy eye-bags.

Tomorrow I will be so smart, clean and fluffy dry.

KESC 26: Ratu Sari Review

This is a very popular Indo restaurant, a little bit upmarket from the rest of Anzac Pde, and famously spicy. It was very quiet at first because we were so early.

5 challengers eventually found the right restaurant and eventually got the right number of seats for our group. We ordered their specialty beef rendang, very yummy, and the one with the lettuce and egg and satay, some chicken with Bali sauce which was hot hot hot, an eggplant dish and some salad and crackers. It was all nice. I was surprisingly full after it, it didn't look like a lot but I guess big chunks of meat fill you up more than cunningly sliced stir fry meat.

It was $18 each, so that's more expensive than average, but I guess the food and service is more consistently good than the el cheapos around it. It's a safer option than Indo Rasa, which is a little cheaper but they ran out of Rendang when I was last there, which is disappointing. The place was full by the time we left (at 7.30pm) and it was less of a student crowd and more of a "night out" crowd than the cheapos.

We were all happy with the food, service and atmosphere, and I'd give it a 3.5 our of 5, it was a bit on the hot side and a bit on the pricy side and the air-con was a bit strong so I was worrying about the food getting cold. Kevin took photos on his phone, if he sends them we'll post them.

Bus roulette.

It being a wet day, I opted for the bus. I tucked a book under my arm as I left the house. The 400 timetable is always an emotional roller-coaster, because it is such a long route. This morning, the 8.09 didn't come. The 8.13 didn't come. The 8.17 came, but it was an old bus, and I don't like old buses, they are leaky and steamy and also it was standing room only, so I let it go. This was a bit silly under the circumstances, but I wanted to sit and read my book on the bus, and I was prepared to sit at the rainy bus stop for as long as it took. The 8.23 didn't come. The 8.31 came with the 8.23, and they were both new, and I got the seat at the front and read my book for 10 minutes! In the end, I got to work no quicker and only slightly dryer than if I had walked.

Yes, I know there is a thing for texting I could have used.

KESC: Change of venue!!

Eep! My mistake. I said Red Hat was the next restaurant but it's actually Ratu Sari Indonesian Restaurant. 470 Anzac Parade, Kingsford NSW 2032. See you there tomorrow 6:15pm.

Giant lightbulb.

I found a giant lightbulb on Belambi beach on the weekend, took it home and accidentally dropped it on my driveway. It made a nice tinkly smash. Lightbulbs are amazing, I was told they have a slight vacuum in them to stop them oxidising. I don't know what that means, but I'm sure it's amazing, and they look amazing. It'll be sad to lose the classic incandescent bulb to the energy saver ones. They are not amazing that I know of.

The main amazing giant lightbulb, however, is the metaphor for realising something. Last night at singing I learned that men and women can sing the same note, ie C, and it sounds deeper for the man but is NOT ACTUALLY AN OCTAVE DEEPER, as I had always (in my own simple logic) thought. It's the same C! The lower pitch is an illusion. WOW! I had to do some googling today to make sure, because it sounded so amazing.

Now, I've done sound mixing, I know you can turn the lower and higher frequency up and down to make people sound like Barry White, but you aren't retuning their voice lower… the frequency strength is different to the pitch, so it's like men have a boost in the lower frequencies in their voices. It's all so obvious, and I've never ever got it before in my 20 years of music. This is mind-blowing for me! And at the same time, I don't know how I didn't know it.

Wonderful, there is already a label here for 'lightbulb moments'.

Dental Value.

Back when I was getting my jaw splinted and x-rayed and quoted for orthodontics one of the biggest stresses was making decisions about money. Decisions are hard anyway, but I hate spending big amounts and there is no way to know if one treatment will be better than another. $8000 for this or $7000 for that? What do I know?! When I got the quote for the oral surgeon to remove 3 wisdom teeth for $1600, + more $ if I wanted a general anesthetic, I literally sat down and cried on the street behind Coles. Actually having the teeth pulled was less traumatic than the financial decision. Wisdom came much later, when I was reflecting on it to Elsie. Who didn't have the same struggle as I did, so it was one of those times when you preach to yourself via a listening friend.

"In the end, dentistry is one of those areas you can't ever be satisfied about the price, it is always expensive. You just have to be satisfied with some peace of mind about your dental work. You will forget about spending the money in 12 months time, but if something goes wrong you could be in for long term problems and more money as well, so don't worry about the money as long as you are comfortable about the dentistry."

Probably also applies to expenses relating to cars and tradesmen.

KESC this Friday night at Red Hat Noodle

This is the restaurant Georgina has eaten at either 60+ or 110+ times (I couldn't remember the exact figure). I ate there quite a bit in my undergrad days too. I suspect we will order shan dong chicken and salt & pepper squid/calamari, judging by our previous orders at the past Chinese restaurants. And probably sweet & sour pork...haw haw haw!

6:15pm <- Note the earlier start time!
Friday 18 March
Red Hat Noodle Restaurant (Chinese)
466 Anzac Parade
Kingsford 2032

We are doing the earlier start time so we can go to UNSW Astronomy Outreach Public Viewing Night afterwards :) Something a little different from super fudge brownie ice-cream ABCafe.

Come see the stars with UNSW Astronomy Outreach at our FREE public telescope night!

Date: Friday 18th March, 2011
Venue: Physics Lawn [map]
Time: 7:45 pm - 9 pm
Objects of interest: the full Moon, Orion Nebula, Jewel Box open cluster

Please note, in the event of heavy cloud and/or rain the viewing activity will unfortunately be cancelled.

This event is suitable for all ages.

Wild TV.

When I watched The man from Snowy River I lamented the lack of any gritty outback dramas today. The farmers are all wooing their harems (hateful FWAwife) when they should be galloping and shooting and solving crime and stuff.

Have I heard right? That woman who died on Rafters told Adam Hills she is going to be in a show LIKE THAT! The name isn't promising, Wild Boys or something. But at least it's not a suburban/police/doctor show. Hallelujah!

"Wild Boys will combine horses, gold, bushrangers, power and corruption - all set against the backdrop of an 1850s penal system."

Unfortunately Daniel MacPherson is in it. I don't hate the guy, but he is just so… suburban/police/doctor. He hosts talent shows. Why don't they just cast the Bondi Vet as well to be really sure.

I shall certainly be watching with interest.

Shoemaking.

I had a FANTASTIC IDEA YESTERDAY. I am going to make a pair of shoes. Possibly using this pattern, but it would be fun to design my own and problem solve through it, like with my thong-and-tshirt-lined gumboots. Sticking jeans to thong bases, for example. Great minds think alike and I found this knitting pattern for thong slippers.  Or this would be an interesting craft, so I'll keep an eye out in op shops for old woolly jumpers.

In terms of usability, they are just to wear at work really. I walk to work in expensive joggers and I don't want to waste the jog value by wearing them under my desk. Also not professional to look at. Whereas home made thong slippers would be just so cool.



There are some pretty cool homemade shoes out there on the internet. Using old car tyres as soles and stuff. Some of them look really well made and frankly a lot of shop footware is not all that supportive or hard wearing for the money you spend. If anyone else wants to have a go too I'd be interested in the results! I'm not going to buy a last or do a course, I'm just going to glue junk together and experiment.

KESC 25: Ying Something Review.

Pork ribs in Beijing Sauce

Yong Jing + 10 people: 2 new people and 1 brave man with 9 ladies. We ordered 7 dishes between 10 of us, plus spring rolls. We had the favourites Shan Tong chicken, Salt and pepper squid, Beef with black pepper, Pork ribs (in Beijing Sauce) and also a few different things, mushrooms with greens, shredded pancake stir-fry and combination noodle.

Shredded Pancake

The Shan Tong was generous, but ungarnished, and while the sauce was quite interesting it wasn't the tasty garlicy sour soy I like the best, and there wasn't much sauce. The sauce on the ribs was very nice we agreed, and the plum sauce with the spring rolls was also a little bit different and very nice. The squid, both in the combination and the salt and pepper, was probably the softest squid we have had so far. Not rubbery at all. The shredded pancake dish was savoury and very yummy too. Just about everything asians do with pancakes is delicious, I've noticed. So the food was all in all very good, and the place was full and noisy with students.

The service was super quick, they brought water too. But they didn't clear away plates as we finished. The interior was pretty nice, I don't remember but it wasn't gross like the cheap places usually are, and the menus were full colour pictures and laminated.

Shan Tong

Speaking of cheap, the meal came to $9.60 each, which is tremendously affordable, obviously partly because we ordered 7 for 10 which is on the tight end of the dish to diner ratio. But we ate enough. And had room for ice-cream.

4.25/5, or 5/5 if you are just going for the S&P squid.

Breakfast serves are not big enough.

Single sachets of porridge are a handy breakfast to keep at work so that if I go straight to work from a swim or something I can eat brekky at my desk. Convenient and a bit fancy. But my normal breakfast is a bowl 2/3 or more full of oats and other dense low GI things, and these fancy porridge sachets are only about a quarter of a cup of quick oats with some dried apple and powdered flavouring.  THAT IS NOT A MEAL! It's like having a small fries for dinner. Not a meal! Even worse at breakfast because it's the most omportant meal of the day. I just made up that word Omportant. It means all important. And cereal sellers KNOW they are mocking me, because in the ads they have big full bowls of hearty steaming porridge and similar big amounts of Just Right and multiple Weet Bix. But when they sell me a single serve it is like starvation rations. Arrgh. rage.

Sample twitter.

I'm not giving jelssie as much love these days. I need to lower the bar a bit to get back in the swing. So I'm posting today's experiment in twitter. I do actually have a twitter, jess_is_ but have never tweeted anything. Seems pointless, since my only internet access is at work, and I all do at work is work and eat and think of jelssie posts (which take up more than 140 characters). To prove it, this is an offline day of tweeting.

8.50 - I see icing sugar crumbs from friday on my desk. I want turkish delight. [this prompted a facebook status]
9.25 - I wonder where I can find chord chart for For All The Saints by Indelible Grace.
9.30 - Just as well I'm checking this FA. Centre column lines too tall in places.
9.50 - Morning tea! Water and a nice bit of cracker barrel sharp cheddar cheese.
10.02 - Don't really need chords, do I. It sounds easy.
10.36 - Eating 8 almonds. Have finished all the work that was on desk, tidied desk.
12.49 - Most disappointing tin of tuna ever. Watery puree thai green curry, with khaki peas in it.
2.29 - I think it would be awesome for Matthias Media to have a tea lady with a trolley to bring me snacks. [this I facebooked]
3.34 - Hope: finding a forum thread on my exact same InDesign problem. Despair: nobody has a solution.
3.36 - I am unusually hungry today. Must be stomach missing all the good food from the weekend. Or my slightly faster walk to work.
5.12 - I read today that pumpkin is high GI. Next time I make soup I'm adding in ground chickpeas. Will put chickpeas in to soak tonight.

The best one is probably Tin Of Tuna Review.

Fortuitous error

Is there a phrase or word that describes a good discovery when you make a mistake?

Case in point: I was after genmaicha (green tea with roasted brown rice), but I bought sencha (green tea) by mistake. Boo hiss :( But I drank some sencha and discovered it was quite nice. I probably wouldn't have bought it otherwise. Fortuitous error.

I still want my genmaicha though!

Making life easier.

Ring pull tins. Best packaging invention ever, although I'm always nervous about using them without breaking them. Second is the pop-lid Moccona jar. Third is the the 2 litre cordial bottle with a handle you can fit your fingers in placed low down for comfortable centre of gravity. Cottees were amply rewarded by sales growth when they developed that, while the competition still had ouchy little handles up near the lid. Why don't they do that with milk bottles, I wonder.

CS Lewis is the hammer.

When I name posts I just type whatever comes into my mind after I've written the post, I think this one doesn't make much sense. It has nothing to do with hammertime. But on to business.

Friday morning I was checking a friend's gift registry list. I've never used one before. I discovered I felt a bit envious, not that I wanted all that stuff especially anyway but because people who get married get presents and a holiday and the whole party, and single people don't, although if you are chinese I guess the red envelopes at CNY make up for it. I think I've blogged before about the singlemoon, the luxurious holiday on a tropical island or whatever I'd like to have one day whether I get married or not, because why live in a state of delay for an uncertain event like marriage to enjoy a holiday? Like that book I haven't read, called something like Single Women Should Have Nice Plates Too. Grrr, another friend getting a scanpan and I'm not. Although I could buy one if I wanted too, but that's not the point.

And then I checked my inbox and read my CSLewisDaily twitter:

Pride gets no pleasure out of having something, only out of having more of it than the next man.

Nail on the head. Well, I went to Magnolia Square on Saturday and was all inspired to use my art and craft skills, so she'll get something home made now, which circumvents the envy enormously, I'm much better at loving people by making things.

Randomness and insanity.

It's been rather too quiet around jelssie for some reason. Here is some gap filler:

An underground ping-pong revival has sprung up in New York. All the hip, cool people are playing it. There are even hip, cool ping-pong bars.

I don't like apes in ads. Orangutans are the fashion at the moment. And sometimes they are people dressed up as apes. But I find chimpy faces off-putting. And I don't trust animal smiles. 

Does anyone actually watch Two and a Half Men? If so, is there a more horrifying reflection of our society then the fact that TAAHM is prime time TV?

WSFM has a digital station playing only Billy Joel all month. Awesome. I didn't realise so many songs I know are written by Billy Joel. They have a limited playlist unfortunately but I still get to sing along to Uptown Girl and For the Longest Time every day, there is nothing (musicly speaking) that makes me happier than a doo-wop backing vocal.

KESC 25: Ying something.

This is a Save The Date: Friday the 4th March, at the place to the left (north, towards UNSW) of Wang Wang, number in the 470s Anzac Pde, the name is Ying something I forget.

Socks.

I peg my socks on the line in pairs, 2 on one peg, to save pegs. And fold them together as I take them off. It's an efficient system I invented myself, but a bit fiddly to find your wet socks in the basket and pair them up.

I recently bought a 10 pair pack of socks, so that I don't have to wash as often, and I made a terrible mistake. I bought the pack with all pretty colours, instead of the 10 white pairs. I realised my error when I hung out my washing and had a basket full of different coloured toed socks to match up. If I had bought all white, I could be saving a lot of time. Stupid, stupid me.

So the logical solution, other than getting rid of the colours and buying whites, is that I now don't match up my socks. I pair them, and if they have mismatched toe colours I don't care. No one else knows if my toes are a different colour. I bet that's really annoying some of you.

One further revelation was that if I take a pair of sock off and they go inside out, don't turn them back in. Wash them, peg them and the wear them inside out and next time you take them off they will turn back through again. Again, nobody knows! I can now wear odd socks with one inside out, and it is LIBERATING!

The other trinity

Diet, sleep, exercise. I like to call that the other trinity. Or small-t trinity. I've realised how important those three things are to my health, general well-being, and how inter-connected they are.

For example, when I start sleeping badly, it starts to affect my diet. When I'm tired, I crave junk food more, so I eat more junk food than usual. This in turn makes me feel bloated, lethargic and I put on weight. Being heavier makes running or exercising that little bit less pleasant, and when you add tiredness on top of that, it makes exercise really unappealing. People generally find life harder to cope with when they are tired.

However, when everything in the trinity is going well i.e. eating healthily, sleeping well and exercising regularly, you have a much more positive outlook on life and you deal with situations a lot better.

KESC Review: Tensaya

• We went to this in October last year.
• Really lovely to have an authentic, reasonably priced Japanese restaurant in Kingford!! They greet you in Japanese when you walk in etc etc. I would definitely come here if I felt like having affordable and tasty Japanese nearby.
  
• Saw the sashimi dude run this hands through his bleached hair and then massage the fish. At least they use a fresh whole fish! I think Jess K was put off and vowed not to return. I've been back :D I still like it.
• Near the door there is a sign that says " I Heart Tensaya". I agree.

KESC Review: Wang Wang Shanghai Silverstar Restaurant

Speciality: whole fish in Szechuan sauce with noodles

Jellyfish

Chicken in wine (drunken chicken) at the back. Some pork dish with pancakes in the front. Latter was sweet.

Dumplings aka xiao long bao 小龍包

• They have seating upstairs, so can cater to slightly larger groups. We had nine peeps.
  
• They served us with disposable cutlery: wooden chopsticks, plastic spoons, plastic cups
• The tables looked quite new
  
• Their sizzling plate was not in the shape of a cow
• The food came quickly
• They were reasonably attentive with water.
  
• I didn't pay too much attention to the food, except that I was satisfied
• I was surprised to find the Szechuan fish a bit sweet. I am not familiar with Szechuan cuisine (except that it's spicy). Is it meant to be sweet?
• Very pleased to have three newbies join us
• Very pleased to see people try jellyfish
• They have dumplings and I squirted Hayley I think. I like pan-fried buns.Mmm...bunly goodness
  
• I quite liked it. I'd go again :) Next time I'd like to try more of the fried/oily stuff e,g, shallot pancakes, taro cakes/buns, pumpkin thingys and egg custard bun which is one of my favourite buns!
• Quite good value. I think it came to $84 for nine people? Can't remember how many dishes we ordered.
  
• ABCafe ran out of super fudge brownie ice-cream! So Dave and Felix got two scoops of another choice instead. Also you don't get a mini biscuit with a hot chocolate; only with a chai latte or coffee.

Hairdresser, style thyself.

Getting your haircut is totally a matter of faith, because if you were going to base the decision to let someone cut your hair on the hairstyle of the person with the scissors, no WAY would you trust them near your head. Hairdressers have the ugliest, unhealthiest, weirdest hair. And half of them don't know the definition of the word "trim". I place my faith ultimately in the unchanging truth that hair re-grows.

The one redeeming skill they have is that they can do amazing styley things with a hair-dryer, and I can only use it to dry my hair.

Mango cheesecake, Re: lack of.

Dear Sara

One week ago I was looking for a mango cheesecake. There are none. I bought a chocolate cheesecake, and it was very nice, but I feel that there is a hole in the market and if you developed a mango cheesecake it would be very popular.

I am in general a satisfied customer. Please accept my appreciation of your other fine dessert products, and consider my suggestion in all seriousness.

Regards,

Jessica

Write it out.

Tests have been done: worry takes up brain space. Writing about what you are worrying clears the brain before the worrying event, e.g. speech, exam, swim race or whatever. Then with a clear brain you perform better. It only works if you write about your worry, apparently.

This is proof, in my opinion, for the helpfulness of lists. Lists take things out of your brain and put them on paper, so you don't have to remember them anymore.

KESC: Wang Wang Shanghai Silver Star

Jelssie is your "someone special" this Valentine's Day. Join us at 6:30 pm on Monday 14 February at Wang Wang Shanghai Silver Star Chinese Restaurant, 476 Anzac Parade. Here's a penalty notice to put some thrill into your life, and a review or two.

Come on time or let us know beforehand you're coming otherwise risk being a nigel.

No news is good news.

I heard that the new channel ten all news all evening lineup isn't rating well. I could have told them. I'm their target market, and I don't want more news. Who wants more news? I watch a rare fragment of news on ABC or SBS, if it isn't about sport or anything depressing. Gen X and Y get a drip feed of news all day long, on the car radio and smart phone, and I personally don't want to sit down and watch the same news again at night, in a big block, with ads. Boring. I want to watch How I Met Your Mother or QI.

KESC 23. Tasty Eating House REVIEW

Monday night went off. Who would have known you could have so much fun on a school night? Monday morning we had 4, by the time we sat down we had 10 challengers, 1 a newbie.

This seems to be Chinese food.  They had no banquet menu so we just ordered off the menu: 2 entrees and 8 mains, I think. The rice came right away, then the mains interspersed with entrees, which was an interesting way to do it. I guess if you don't have to wait for your main the entree is redundant anyway. The staff were very efficient and fast, giving us chairs and water very quickly.

We ordered some Aussie fav dishes like mongolian lamb and sweet and sour pork, some more adventurous like a fried potoato and eggplant thing and cumin beef, and some special favourites like San Dong chicken and honey pepper pork ribs and salt and pepper squid. A few of the dishes were a little bit too salty or soy or oily, but overall they were tasty, as the name promises. They had lots of meat, but not much veggies: onion and capsicum was in every dish, must have been on special this week. The San Dong was good, although I prefer it with nuts as a garnish, not herbs. The cumin beef was unusual and a pleasant surprise, cumin not being a tradition Chinese sort of flavour.

We were in and out in an hour and it was pretty busy. It came to $13.50 each, so was good value, considering we all got to eat so many dishes. I think the last 2 thai places we went to were better, but this was at least 3.5/5, and one of the better Chinese joints on the street.

Kitchen real estate.

When you have a small kitchen or you share a kitchen with a flatmate who also has kitchen stuff, there just isn't much space to stack plates and pots, let alone store appliances.

There are essential appliances, like toaster, microwave, mixmaster, kettle. There are also so many appliances it's really handy to own, like a breadmaker, electric wok, rice cooker, food processor, cafe grill, slow cooker… let alone the novelty things like donut maker, milkshake maker, popcorn maker, deep fryer...

What do you reckon is the most useful appliance in the 'handy' category? I'm trying to decide. Grill? Slow cooker?

Bonus thought: I reckon a great idea for bible study dinners or something similar would be everyone taking turn cooking with a rarely-used appliance using the appliance cookbook. Soup from the food processor, skewers from the grill. Use those forgotten kitchen treasures.

Puma Love Run

Puma Love Run. Meet someone fit. The weekend before Valentine's Day. Love the concept!

Dessert/clothes analogy.

From lunchtime conversation with some members of the cheesecake club (a worthy alternative to Eat Street! just get together to cook and eat different cheesecakes):

Cheesecake is the dress of desserts. i.e, you wear a dress, which is an easy thing to wear because no matching the top and bottom, and you get compliments because you look a little bit more fancy than normal. Cheesecake isn't always hard to make, tastes great even if it doesn't work 100% (I have been known to freeze a chocolate cheesecake I messed up, and it was like a bavarian, whereas a failed normal cake is not really presentable), and you get MASSIVE kudos for having a go! Like dresses, they are expensive, because of the creamy ingredients. Like mud cakes they are best made the day before, rather than needing to be baked fresh on the day—I can't find a parallel dress analogy for that one.

Mud cake is probably little black dress, a trusty staple, non-spectacular but quality. Cupcakes are the high heel of desserts. Pretty but useless. Cookies are sneakers. Always loved, but don't have the fancy factor.

That's as far as I've got.

CNYE Dinner

When Chinese New Year comes around, it's a really big deal to have dinner with your family on the eve of the new year (think of it as the Chinese Christmas lunch or Christmas dinner). My family has started going out to Chinese restaurants for that meal since it's a lot less hassle than cooking up a storm. That's great for us, we get to gather as a family on an important date. But what about the Chinese restaurant workers who are serving us? Kinda ironic that in order for us to eat at said restaurant, they have to miss out on the same meal with their family and relatives.

Happy Chinese New Year. It's on 23 January next year.

Hot nights, cold cuisine

If you go out to eat during this hot weather, cold cuisine is definitely the best. Think Northern Chinese (cold jellyfish salad, cold mixed noodles, cold sliced meat) and Japanese (sushi, sashimi, seaweed salad, cold soba, other salads).

I don't think the Cantonese do cold food except for dessert. So you might want to rule out yum cha (but I guess you'd be in air-conditioned comfort).

Sydney should have a Cold Food Festival (you heard it here first). Cold desserts. Cold drinks. Cold mains. Get Sensodyne to sponsor the event. It'd need a jazzier name. Can someone make it happen?

Hair, no hair

I spent $2.50 on new hair ties. Then I went and chopped off my hair, so that those new hair ties are useless for the next five months. WHY?

Dressing for an Aussie summer

Summer's here and I'm wearing a lot of sleeveless tops because I don't like what I call the farmer tan (i.e. t-shirt arm tan line) and it feels cooler than wearing sleeves. However, I've noticed a lot of freckles, moles and sunspots appearing on my arms (even though I wear sunscreen sometimes), so I don't know if cancer scare and vanity will get the better of me and I start wearing long sleeves in summer.

I know I've mentioned this before somewhere, but I really feel we should dress like this in summer:



With sunnies.

If I weren't so self-conscious and I knew where to get an outfit like that from, I'd wear it.

Hmm...Jess can sew though...

KESC 23. Tasty Eating House

Monday 7th Feb, 6.30. Elsie's last proper feed before her wisdom teeth are ripped from her jaw.

Girly gigs

PROS

• No bad B.O.
• No fear of being squashed up against shirtless, sweaty guys
• No fear of drunken males

CONS

• Epic toilet queues

Have I left anything out?

Tea.

I'm a late-comer to the tea world. A year or so ago Wendy told me that if you drink green tea all day you don't get PMS or something, so I gave it a go and was obsessed for a few months. I tried to keep black teabags handy for my parents etc when they visited, but usually didn't. Then I discovered Chai Lattes, and it's like a hot chocolate version of tea. And then I discovered flavoured green teas and herbals with lemon myrtle and stuff. So I actually have 4 types of tea now. I now call myself a tea drinker. Pity it stains teeth and that's bad when you have braces, but oh well.

When I was buying some loose leaf chai at T2 (I had a theory of using nice tea as chocolate replacement therapy) I was advised to buy a T2 canister for it. I said no, I had tupperware, and was informed that tea should be stored air-tight in glass or metal, not plastic or the cardboard box it comes in (T2 and everyone sell it in cardboard, so it's ok for them, but not us). The ideal thing I've found is the small moccona coffee jar. It even fits back into the T2 box. But who drinks moccona instant coffee? Nobody. Not even my parents anymore. And who keeps jars in case they are useful? Also nobody. I'm waiting to scab them from friend's workplaces. I'm seriously considering buying some coffee if there is ever a quantity discount at Coles. I think they sell coffee near the tea. Will I drink the coffee, so I don't waste it? Then I might be a coffee drinker as well. That's going a bit far.

Nectarines are nectarines.

I have been under the impression for many years now that a nectarine was a cross between a peach and a plum. Many people have agreed with me. Last Saturday I was picnicking with Jess K and she disagreed. She was firmly of the opinion that it was a peach and an apricot. How silly. Plums have smooth skins, so that's where nectarines get their smooth skins, and the reddish colour, whereas peaches and apricots are hairy, so how could you get a nectarine from that? But nothing would change her mind, so as we wandered home we stopped in at Randwick fruit shop and asked the man stacking the nectarines what nectarines are made of.

His answer: nectarines are just nectarines. We were both wrong. Then he gave us each a slice of nectarine. We were only 50% convinced, and 50% still in favour of our own theory, so we vowed to google it: and lo, wikipedia backs up the fruiterer. They are in fact a sort of peach with a recessive gene for smooth skins, but they aren't a hybrid or anything. So there you go. Nectarines are nectarines.

Layer laws.

Very very sometimes I come across a person who is not wearing a shirt under their jumper or cardigan. Recently at the ABCafe one Eat Streeter pointed out to the rest of us that another Eat Streeter frequently flaunts nature in this way.

I had only ever half noticed it, until it was pointed out, but then I remembered past instances. It puzzles me. It puzzled many of us that night. A cardigan is a layer, not a main thing. No, that needs emphasis. It's a layer, not a main thing!!! It needs at least a singlet under it otherwise it's a knitted long-sleeved shirt, and who wants to go there? And even if you have a fashion-based comeback for that, or an excuse about saving time or washing (not to attack you personally, Eat Streeter who shall remain nameless), what about when it's hot and you need to take off your jumper? You can't! I can remember when I was little, my best friend was caught in that dilemma on a hot day—even if it had occurred to me to wear a jumper with nothing underneath, which it never would have because a jumper is a layer not a main thing, the problems inherent in such a practice were self-evident.

A Tasting of Age.

2010 was the year of 3 big changes, 3 significant steps into eating like a grown-up.

1. In an effort to slow down my chocolate intake, I switched to dark chocolate. My tastebuds adapted and were refined, so that I actually got really specific and ended up disliking some chocolate altogether (not a fan of Lindt, for eg), whereas in the past I liked all chocolate indiscriminately (apart from Picnic and Snickers and fruit and nut). This is quite a breakthrough.

2. This was incidental and surprising: I started to like olives! I can actually name the date that I went from disliking or just tolerating olives to looking out for them: I think it was when I had some tapas on Halloween in Newtown (the weirdest night to visit Newtown). I went out and bought some soon after.

3. Tea. I've been into green tea in the past because of various short-lived health obsessions, and Chai Lattes are a good alternative to hot chocolate, and when I was just at Summer School I drank about 25 cups of peppermint tea with honey because I was sick and it was cold. I've collected 4 types of tea and I now drink them for fun. My favourite sorts of teabag teas are Nerada. I favour herbal types over actual black tea.

More on tea later.

Regressive adaptation.

At the moment my mad cool talent is Missing The Bin. Missing the bin with my hand right over it, missing the bin when I sit right next to it. I've stopped even being annoyed anymore, I just drop my nectarine stone or whatever and before it hits the floor my hand is halfway down to picking it up again.

Junk love.

There is one nice thing about the temporariness of the renting situations we (don't) enjoy. One bright side to the rent increases, evictions, flat hunting, moving, flatmate changing, and generally living in run-down-looking neighbourhoods full of transitory young people in overpriced investment properties.

I love: The hard rubbish market. The easy availability of anything you need, passed from friend to friend around the Christian grapevine, and the practical way to help others by getting rid of something you don't need by passing it on to a new renter or leaving it on the verge for a stranger.

I just think it is wonderful. You can pick something up off a nature strip, an opshop or a friend moving away, use it for a couple of years, and donate it away again when you don't need it anymore. You never know if you'll be forced to move house or downsize next year, so there is little point being proud about your stuff. Easy come, easy go. As a designy materialist I would love to buy things new and matchy matchy. But junk love is cool.

It's as close as I think we could get to that verse in Acts where "everyone had everything in common". People who own houses full of things they got from Ikea or put on 24 months interest free at Harvey Norman are missing out.

A gentle nudge

In case you didn't know, I'm currently a student. As a student, I've noticed the general reticence of fellow classmates to speak up in class. Not all students mind you, but there is a general reticence.

Over the summer, I've been doing a course and I've gotten to know J better (which is one of the rare highlights of spending your summer in lectures). He's young (early 20s), from China, bright, studious, hard-working and his English is good. He taught me a lot when we did a study session together so I knew understood the material and had a good grasp of it. However, I could never work out why he wouldn't answer questions in class.

So during one class, while the lecturer was waiting for someone to answer a question, I gave him a nudge and whispered, "Go J!". The lecturer saw me nudging him and picked on him :) And J did brilliantly! He answered the question articulately and correctly (even if he didn't, good on him for having a go).

We haven't had classes together for the last few lectures, but he sent me an email saying, "btw, i answered question on recent classes, thanks for the encouragement before~".

Aww! Isn't it powerful when you believe in someone's ability and you encourage them to act on it? It was very clear to me that he was capable. He just needed a gentle nudge :)

Life lessons at the Ritz.

This is a bit out of date cos it was before I went away, but it's still interesting.

I saw The Kings Speech. I went alone: it's nice to see some movies on my own, and movies are a good thing to do on my own. The first time I went to the movies alone I missed having someone to make comments to, but now I enjoy it.

Anyway, I was by far the youngest person in the cinema. It was Sunday afternoon and there was a full-on queue of oldies waiting to get in. I went to see Dawn Treader a week ago, different crowd, I think TKS crowd came ready to laugh, and they cackled their heads off at that CBA ad about the woman who faints in her garden and gets fanned with palm leaves by CBA customer service, whereas DT people didn't think it was funny, maybe weren't the target market. The funniest part of the DT audience experience was a man next to me who randomly stated the obvious: "Rachel McAdams, she's gorgeous" and "I am Eustace!". I wasn't annoyed, it was funny cos it's the sort of thing I used to do, when I used to go to the movies with friends.

Back to The Kings Speech. Three ladies behind me shared tips on what to do if someone is stalking your daughter: redirect his calls to Maroubra Police Station. Useful tip. They were also talking about being menopausal in air-conditioned environments. I came prepared for the cold cinema, I had a light scarf stuffed in my handbag, and when I got goosebumps I whipped it out and wrapped myself up in it, and I heard a soft whisper behind me "that's a good idea!". I was pleased to that they could learn from me as I had from them.

It's a pretty good movie, anyway. Plummy accents. And I like it when an Australian is something other than a novelty Australian. Spot Mr Collins.

KESC review: In Chan Thai

Thanks to Georgina for her guest review below:

The first KESC for 2011 found 4 intrepid explorers ready to investigate the delights of Nasi Goreng. But not. Yes, you heard it, the challenge was issued to rise to the challenge and try every
restaurant in the Kingsford eating strip, and the 4 intrepid explorers (let the reader understand that only 3 made this fateful decision) decided to move on, to In Chan Thai restaurant.

As one explorer said, “We know we’re not going to get poisoned at In Chan”, not, it can be said, that any other restaurant might possibly poison us! (Insert legal disclaimer here). Apparently, it was “stuffy” and In Chan has air conditioning.

So, the 4 explorers headed to In Chan, where futuristic chairs were sat on, and food ordered.
We ordered curry puffs for entrée, and Beef Pad Siew Ew, BBQ Kai Yang chicken, and Sizzling Soft Crab. It was tasty. The Pad Siew Ew tasted differently, but good, the chicken was yum, and the soft crab amazing.

We gave it 4/5 (I think, actually I make that bit up).

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I (Elsie) would like to add that we had an in-chan-ting Thai-me (enchanting time) ;).

Cool down yer porridge

My microwaved porridge was too hot and a tad dry. So I stirred in an ice-cube. It cooled it down and gave it a nicer consistency. Perfick.

Pintastic

I have this ripcurlgirl aqua skirt that I bought years ago (in my very early 20s). I never wore it very much over the years. It's a very stretch-y loose fitting skirt, so I can't wear it just as it is. I'm not handy with sewing, so I was thinking of different ways I could make it wearable for me.


I considered wearing it as a strapless top/dress, but it made for a very short dress and I wasn't convinced about wearing it strapless. So I ruled that out.

Maybe I could wear it higher and hold it up with a pin?


I used a Little Twin Stars pin that Karen gave me a few years ago, while helping her clean out/pack for a move. I really liked the pleat/ruche-ing it created.


Then I thought, why stop at one, when Karen gave me two pins??


Granted, that's a very untidy pinning of my skirt. You can definitely make it look neater and more even.

So here you go: a pencil skirt thanks to two pins. I like the pleats it creates.

I'm so chuffed to have found two wearable, easy solutions to this skirt AND to have put those Little Twin Stars pins to good use.

2011 is the start of something annoying.

Here is something you might not know about my job. I kern the year. 2011 unkerned above, 2011 kerned below. Kerning makes words more aesthetically pleasing by adjusting the spaces between the characters. 1 is a very bad number because it always has enough room to swing a cat, so 2011 looks all big and fat on the left, and all skinny and awkward on the right. Imagine 4 people of different sizes sitting on a bench and two of them are bumping elbows while two of them are unsociably alone. It's much nicer if everyone has the same amount of personal space. That's why I kern 2011. I will have to kern every year until 2020.

The 2011 above is unkerned, the 2011 is kerned.

Open house.

I'm really enjoying how my flat is at the moment. My new flatmate is very easy-going (and I've quickly relaxed to accommodate her!), so while it's not the tidiest flat in the East, it's the best place I've ever had for hospitality—I can just invite someone in for tea or dinner or sewing without especially checking or lining it up on a certain night. It's important to have time and space to withdraw, but personally my home is truly my home when I can share it. Not that I'm a kitchen queen, I just like to see the couches all sat in and all the cups out of the cupboard at one time.

I was surprised how many people I talked to before New Year were ambivalent about NYE. Some years I feel a little bit dreadful about NYE, cos I suspect that my nanna tendencies preclude me from doing really fun memorable things like kissing strangers and getting drunk on public transport (I think this is the sort of fun our culture wants us to get up to), but then I remembered that one of my favourite new years was when I watched fireworks on the hunter river with my mum. Low key can be sweet, so just do what you enjoy. And this year was weird cos it seems like people did whatever they wanted with 1 or 2 friends, no big group thing. So it was nice to set my own plan, not go along with others just so that I'm not left out. I was also surprised how many people don't like fireworks! I was happy this year because JK and I went to Coogee beach for the 9.30pm fireworks. I love fireworks. And it was just nice, watching kids throw glow sticks and run around with sparklers. Lets do it again this year, God-willing.

KESC 22. Nasi Goreng.

It's a weird time of year, but we seem to have a core of people around so we're going to slip a challenge in this Friday. Nasi Goreng needs to be got out of the way. We may get entree there, then jump across to one of the nicer places that opened behind us for proper dinner. 6.30