Aloha!

Yes. It's locked in. No more pie in the sky or flights of fancy! I'm going to Hawaii with the mighty PD girls for the penultimate canoe race! Molokai to Oahu channel crossing. It's HUGE! Never before have PDs sent a team. For the last two years, Lisa Curry Kenny's Mooloolaba team (consisting of iron women and professional atheletes) have won it and last year they set a new record for the fastest time 5 hours 22 minutes and 11 seconds. Our team is hoping to finish it...even if it takes 8 hours. It's the race of a life-time! 65kms in distance roughly. So it's back to the gym, back to wearing thermals in winter training but i don't care coz i'm going to hawaii! And since i'm there i'm going to be on the look out for Keanu look-alikes and pose on hawaiian beaches like the 'Blue Crush' girls in the movie.

Yeah. I'm abit scared - but who wouldn't be. I'm also v. excited by the challenge! Aloha big waves! Bring it on!

hot coke

This weekend is OC time trials and bootcamp for Hamo Cup. And as nature intended..i am sick. I don't know why but i always seem to get sick at crucial moments. Maybe it's stress related. (The ice water changes session that went for 3 hours yesterday would also be a factor... but i'm not going to blame that. What has being cold got to do with getting a cold? ;-p ) So I've decided to take my parents 'traditional' hongkie cold remedy.

Hot coke with lemon. I am too congested to care enough to take pics - trust me - coke with boiled lemons aint that visually appealing. Take your can of cola - i would say on this occasion do not use diet coke coz who knows how artificial sweetner changes once it's been boiled. Throw in some sliced lemon - the more the better I say! Tonight's mixture used half a lemon and was very ..lemony! Boil it over high heat and cover it with a lid to trap in all that cola and lemon goodness! Then serve it up and wait for it to cool just a moment or so and slurp that hot sugary lemon mixture. My parents prefer to boil their coke with ginger - but i find the 'heat' chi from the ginger is too much for my already 'heated' body, but if you have bad circulation then ginger is good.

Sometimes I think I can actually feel my teeth disolving as I drink the hot coke and lemon mixture, but it's so good when you've got a head full of snot - the sharp tangy lemon and hot sugar makes it all better...temporarily of course. I guess it's like drinking cough syrup - but there's something novel about drinking coke to make you feel better!

IC Part 2

As promised - investment cooking action "take 2"! From the top left: Maggot meatballs (pork actually), 'shallots in the daylight', getting my hands dirty, the results, multi-tasking on the stove, scribbling in the sweet and sour sauce, Joe massages the chicken, and cleans their asses, try-hard artistic stovetop shot.

So last month Johann and I spent a good part of a sunday cooking up a storm. After a review of last month's dishes, this time the boys decided they wanted less chicken and more chinese food. I was abit skeptical at first, considering cantonese food is all about using fresh ingredients and retaining delicate flavours,(err plus i hardly ever cook it since my mum does such a great job!) but you gotta give the boys what they want.

So the menu was this:
Sweet and Sour pork meat balls
Kung Pao Chicken (which is actually a szechuan dish that is popular in The States, but rarely heard of in Oz, except that one time we went down to Jindy and found it in some dodgy chinese restaurant in the outback! It's kind of spicy chicken stir fry with some peanuts).
Cola chicken casserole, which had a subtle caramel flavour and not quite as COLA as i thought (must try the nigella cola ham next time),
A huge pot of bolgnaise sauce
Creamy chicken
Chicken burritos

It still took 4-5 hours and we were exhausted by the end...again. And there was still alot of chicken (there is a budget!)And somehow Jpeg managed to get out of it all again - and complain about havin to travel the distance to get the food that is already prepared for him. *sigh* But otherwise a more successful attempt. There has been some discussion about whether nuking (or *dinging* as we call it in chinese) the food to re-heat actually zaps out all the nutritional benefits of our hard labour. But then it's gotta be better than eating maccas or pizza..right?

Here's the link to some photos of our weekend away! Iron Chef action didn't quite pan out...because we went to the wrong part of Nowra for groceries -apparently the town centre has EVERYTHING but i mistakenly went to Stockland Mall instead! Anyhow the food still tasted great and pink grapefruit challenge turned into buffet bits of grapefruit and juice incorporated where possible. haha! So check out the Birthday Beach Bonanza Weekend! and Jaysun's blog for his story and more photos. I'm still waiting for Elainers' pics, but I could be waiting until my next birthday...hehe! Thanks to everyone for making the weekend fun! Love your work! (pics courtesy of Johann - the other birthday boy!)

The drought is broken

Tonight was a Grand Final basketball game at KGV. I don't remember how many seasons I've played but let's just say it's more than I can count on both hands. However - this season is rather special - it was my comeback after one year off for dragonboat, and it was Mandy and Jess' final season as they head off to the UK. After our awesome semi-final game last week we were ready to take on The Deathstars team. Mandy even made us wear 'light saber blue' side of our uniforms and we prevailed after a tight game with the final result being 25-23 or something like that. This year instead of drink bottles or socks, the winning team received caps with the KGV logo on the front (hey! that's generous for local government organised competition!). If you squint it actually looks abit like the Polo Ralph Lauren logo (but only if you really really squint!) The new season starts..next week! From top - time out with guest starring coach Wayne; our jmale cheer squad; winners are grinners; mars and I trying to look hard core in our championship caps.

The dilemma? How do I make my shiny new and white ipod shuffle PINK? I found this little gem at hotromz.com. The one on the left is abit too much like a bottle brush flower gone wrong, but I'm lovin' the simple chunky knit look on the right. I only learnt to knit last week so I won't be trying this at home folks! The shuffle was my bday gift from a whole bunch of generous friends - yay! Now all i have to do is actually find somewhere to go and use it while I wait for my gym to open in June!

Let the Challenge begin!

My birthday is this friday and to celebrate I'm having a little weekend away with some friends in a house down on the South Coast. As part of the celebration we are having an inaugural 'Iron Chef Challenge' Boys vs. Girls. The secret ingredient is....Pink Grapefruit. Mostly because I wanted a pink ingredient and abit different from common ingredients (as opposed to pink SPAM). Johann had suggested ox tongue, which is highly appropriate since I am a taurean who talks alot (this is just to irk Marissa HAHA), but i'd rather not spend 5 hours 'softening' an ox tongue! Let the challenge begin!!

Life is sweet...

No matter how sour life seems...you gotta remember to savour the sweet bits!

These are Gregan's birthday cupcakes that i baked for his little buffet dinner party (note to self: if it's a buffet, there's probably already dessert). I tried to make them his fave colour bluey-green, but instead ended up with green, blue and ...ahem. pink. Yay to Cherie for her excellent camera skills.

Scooby Snacks

Last night after our basketball game we piled into Shar's family 'scooby' tarago and went off to our old haunt 'Superbowl' in Chinatown. They were under renovations so the walls smelt of fresh paint and it was rather unattractive (more so than usual). But it was an appealing change from having Maccas for the past 3 weeks (we only went coz it was free and it means I get to see jpeg in his sexy uniform). Dinner was the standard issue - crispy salt and pepper squid on a bed of crunchy fried seaweed and chillis, prawn hot pot in XO sauce on rice vermicilli noodles, 'tong choy' (i dont know the English name, i guess it's literally 'hollow vege') in shrimp paste, minced pork and eggplant hotpot and a terribly 'gwai lo' but delicious fried fish with sweet corn and pea sauce (even the honkie waiter chuckled when we ordered it!). Delicious and enough fried food to last me through hibernation this winter! Afterwards we all piled back into the scooby van and waited patiently for it to start. 5 times. "Go scooby go!"

866 Is it my lucky number? No.
It’s the number of emails I received during an audit period from March to May at work. Putting me at No.4 in the whole of council! Top 4 baby! And this isn’t to say I don’t do any work – as my colleague put it “I can’t help it if I’m popular!” , she’s only been here since Feb and she is No.2. Funny thing is three of the top 5 email receivers are from our little section…and we got nominated for team of the year. I put this down to us being constantly at the forefront of new information (even if it is about when Lincraft has a sale day).

The force is strong...

Yeah...someone is excited about Episode 3 coming out soon. And it's not me...at least I can say it will be the last time I have to endure watching Hayden "i'm a wooden puppet and digital yoda has more expression that I do" Christensen on the big screen.

After checking out this awesome foodie site by scent of green bananas. I was totally inspired by her most excellent photos and taste in food - so I decided that Mum's day was the perfect excuse to have a little morning tea. Scones, mini-cupcakes with my new mini cupcake tray, chicken and rocket sandwiches (from a Weddings edition of Donna Hay magazine that I couldn't resist...mainly because the cover was PINK), and divine salmon and cucumber sandwiches with wasabi cream cheese and a really cool jasmine tea ball that opens up like a flower when you drown it in hot water! Mum was so impressed that I didn't even have to do the dishes! ha!

Mountain Girl

On Saturday night, we had a circle farewell to Sia/little prawn/Clara and her rocky mountain man, Craig. They're off to Colorado for 4 years! I missed their 'surprise' wedding in November last year - but Cherie's sublime wedding photo album made up for it! So in tribute I post up two of my fave pics. 1. The lovely couple. 2. Clara's sister, Darn, testing the chocolate fountain. P.S - went to Jazushi in Surry Hills for an awesome japanese fusion meal! Delicious teriyaki duck and beetroot salad.*drool*

blah blah blah

Yeah so i'm too lazy to post up images so right now it will be text based review of my week.

1. Crappy psuedo designer. that's what i got paid for this week. My inferior skills at pagemaker and being able to line up text in block combined with tight deadline sent me off the deep end. Went a bit loopy actually and realised (a). How uncoool I am at the office when under stress - esp. when I smashed my fists on the table and started making dying animal noises. (b) how i hate incompetence and that includes myself (c) how i realise why i never went into design because I can't actually design! how many ways can you design a document. 1 trillion but i could only come up with 4 styles haha (d) how a little knowledge does not go a long way if you do not know how to use a publisher program correctly (e) how much a wrist can hurt from clicking action - gimmie keyboard shortcuts! The only reason I am doing it is because no one else can and they are too stingy to hire a professional graphic designer ha!

2. As a result of my deadlines I have relished the excuse to eat badly because of my 'high stress levels'. ha! So maccas twice this week - lots of sugar. pig fat, no fruit and thick butter on bread and full cream milk in coffee *gasp*. I can actually see the fat rolls growing around my stomach. mmmmmm!

3. Paddling. It's a mental and physical struggle for me to go from sprinting 250 metre races and being in the top team to 16km marathon races and being in the not so top team. Every training I try push myself, but I still want to have a little cry afterwards because I think I still suck! But... I have my own paddle now, so there's no quitting. I will push on.

4. Too many crafts, not enough time. When i have a spare 5 minutes i dream of a craftier life. To sew, to bake, to paint, to make...anything...and so the quest for the perfect cupcakes begins again - only this time in miniature form. I have purchased mini cupcake tins and mini cupcake cases and shall perform miniature feats in the kitchen this weekend in time for mothers day.

5. bedroom has exploded. again!.


6. Johann the not swedish chef has postd his review about our investment cooking adventure. STay tuned for more cooking action!