We're pretty much all moved in to the new place! The only hiccup? No internet yet (I'm using the hotspot thing on my phone). I'm hoping to post properly soon and show pictures of the new place and the baby. I've been doing a little knitting too.
Aurora and I are going swimming with some of the mums from my mother's group. Should be fun and a perfect day to do it, it's supposed to be 37 or 38C today.
Temperature: +28C
Sunrise: 6:59am
Sunset: 8:07pm
Showing posts with label trying new things. Show all posts
Showing posts with label trying new things. Show all posts
Saturday, February 25, 2012
Saturday, January 1, 2011
New Year
Now that Christmas and New Years is over and done with hopefully things can get back to some semblance of order and routine.
Not that I didn't have a good time during Christmas or anything but working two (retail) jobs sort of sucked all the fun out of it. I was looking forward to and dreading Christmas. On one hand it was going to be my first day off in a month (and it was CHRISTMAS) and on the other it meant the next day was Boxing Day which is pretty much the most dreaded day if you work in retail.
Anyway, we had a good day even though we were dead tired by the end of it. One of the highlights (comedy wise) was throwing Glen's 13 year old nephew into the pool because he was being cheeky and didn't think we'd actually do it haha
On the 27th we went to the MCG to watch day 2 of the Ashes in Melbourne (The Ashes is a cricket game between Australia and England). Australia did pretty bad but it was still fun - and it was my first time going to the cricket.
We had a pretty low-key New Years. We went to a BBQ at one of Glen's co-worker's and then came home around 11:30 and watched the fireworks on TV then went to bed. I know the whole point of going somewhere on New Years is to actually still be out at midnight but they were all driving 45 minutes down the road to the beach and we didn't want to be out driving that late.
It was also incredibly hot yesterday (+41) so that pretty much sucked the life out of me and I was asleep right after the fireworks finished.
It was pretty warm again today so we decided to take a drive down to the beach where it was MUCH cooler than it was in the city. We still managed to take a dip in the water though! (I told Glen we need to make 2011 the year of getting to the beach!).
Lets hope we all have a great 2011!!
Temperature: +16C
Sunrise: 6:01am
Sunset: 8:45pm
Not that I didn't have a good time during Christmas or anything but working two (retail) jobs sort of sucked all the fun out of it. I was looking forward to and dreading Christmas. On one hand it was going to be my first day off in a month (and it was CHRISTMAS) and on the other it meant the next day was Boxing Day which is pretty much the most dreaded day if you work in retail.
Anyway, we had a good day even though we were dead tired by the end of it. One of the highlights (comedy wise) was throwing Glen's 13 year old nephew into the pool because he was being cheeky and didn't think we'd actually do it haha
On the 27th we went to the MCG to watch day 2 of the Ashes in Melbourne (The Ashes is a cricket game between Australia and England). Australia did pretty bad but it was still fun - and it was my first time going to the cricket.
We had a pretty low-key New Years. We went to a BBQ at one of Glen's co-worker's and then came home around 11:30 and watched the fireworks on TV then went to bed. I know the whole point of going somewhere on New Years is to actually still be out at midnight but they were all driving 45 minutes down the road to the beach and we didn't want to be out driving that late.
It was also incredibly hot yesterday (+41) so that pretty much sucked the life out of me and I was asleep right after the fireworks finished.
It was pretty warm again today so we decided to take a drive down to the beach where it was MUCH cooler than it was in the city. We still managed to take a dip in the water though! (I told Glen we need to make 2011 the year of getting to the beach!).
Lets hope we all have a great 2011!!
Temperature: +16C
Sunrise: 6:01am
Sunset: 8:45pm
Sunday, November 21, 2010
Dragons, Pottery and Gold!
Glen and I finally had a weekend off together last week. It'll likely be our last days off together until Christmas day and even then, we won't have the day to ourselves.
We took advantage of the freedom and spent the day in Bendigo. The drive was quick and easy - basically we get on the freeway near the house and keep driving and it takes us straight there (no turns or anything!). One thing to keep in mind is that Bendigo basically closes on a Sunday. The streets were very quiet and a lot of shops were closed. Thankfully some of the touristy things were open.
Random shot of our rainy drive home.
We started off at the Chinese Museum and the Chinese Gardens (essentially a koi pond - not something I'd pay to see separately but admission was free when you buy a museum ticket).
We got to see the longest imperial dragon and the oldest imperial dragon.
The longest imperial dragon in the world - Sun Loong
Random other dragons (one is a guardian lion I think)
We walked through some gardens and saw a whole heap of bats (silver headed flying foxes).
We picked up a free tourist guide at the museum and we flipped through it to look for other things to do. The pottery place and the gold mine happened to be open so we decided to take a drive out to the pottery place first. The pottery place was AWESOME. I thought it might be some fancy-schmancy-arty pottery place but most of the pieces were utilitarian type things - sugar/flour/tea canisters, mugs, plates, bowls etc. We bought a few Christmas presents for family and picked up a sugar container for us. I'd love to go back and get their flour and tea bag container.
After that we drove over to the Central-Deborah Gold Mine and took a 75minute underground tour. That was awesome too. I thought I might be a little freaked out by taking the elevator and being 20 storeys underground but I was fine. Part of what made the mine tour great was our tour guide and there were only four people in our group (us and an older couple). They have an even longer tour available (you go further underground!) and I'd definitely consider doing that one as well (and it's definitely on our list of things to do when people come to visit).
We did a little bit of driving around Bendigo and happened upon this great sight:
Unfortunately it was closed so we'll have to take a trip up again.
We're in the process of planning an even more exciting trip for around March but I'm sure we'll get in a day trip or two before then! (more details when we have a few things confirmed!)
Temperature: +17C
Sunrise: 5:56am
Sunset: 8:16pm
We took advantage of the freedom and spent the day in Bendigo. The drive was quick and easy - basically we get on the freeway near the house and keep driving and it takes us straight there (no turns or anything!). One thing to keep in mind is that Bendigo basically closes on a Sunday. The streets were very quiet and a lot of shops were closed. Thankfully some of the touristy things were open.
Random shot of our rainy drive home.
We started off at the Chinese Museum and the Chinese Gardens (essentially a koi pond - not something I'd pay to see separately but admission was free when you buy a museum ticket).
We got to see the longest imperial dragon and the oldest imperial dragon.
The longest imperial dragon in the world - Sun Loong
Random other dragons (one is a guardian lion I think)
We walked through some gardens and saw a whole heap of bats (silver headed flying foxes).
We picked up a free tourist guide at the museum and we flipped through it to look for other things to do. The pottery place and the gold mine happened to be open so we decided to take a drive out to the pottery place first. The pottery place was AWESOME. I thought it might be some fancy-schmancy-arty pottery place but most of the pieces were utilitarian type things - sugar/flour/tea canisters, mugs, plates, bowls etc. We bought a few Christmas presents for family and picked up a sugar container for us. I'd love to go back and get their flour and tea bag container.
After that we drove over to the Central-Deborah Gold Mine and took a 75minute underground tour. That was awesome too. I thought I might be a little freaked out by taking the elevator and being 20 storeys underground but I was fine. Part of what made the mine tour great was our tour guide and there were only four people in our group (us and an older couple). They have an even longer tour available (you go further underground!) and I'd definitely consider doing that one as well (and it's definitely on our list of things to do when people come to visit).
We did a little bit of driving around Bendigo and happened upon this great sight:
Unfortunately it was closed so we'll have to take a trip up again.
We're in the process of planning an even more exciting trip for around March but I'm sure we'll get in a day trip or two before then! (more details when we have a few things confirmed!)
Temperature: +17C
Sunrise: 5:56am
Sunset: 8:16pm
Tuesday, September 28, 2010
Second Time Around
There are a lot of fruit that I've had here for the first time and then there are the ones that I've had back home and didn't like because well, eating tropical fruit in a decidedly non-tropical location is a bit of a gamble.
I tried a real mango for the first time in 2007 after having one in 2000ish and thinking they were gross. One thing I will do is re-try foods and I'll try new foods especially at the urging of someone like Glen who knows my tastes so well. Guess what? Mangoes are actually my favourite fruit now! Funny how that happens!
Anyway, this post is actually about the mighty papaya or pawpaw as it's called here (after doing some research, papayas and pawpaws are actually different fruit all together. What makes things confusing -or fun- is that Australians actually call papayas pawpaw even though they aren't actually pawpaw. See what I mean?).
I've had papaya before back home and I've had dried papaya which I don't mind at all. Now that I think about it, I've also had papaya in canned tropical fruit mix. Yuck again. The "fresh" papaya I had back home was could probably be considered in the same category as my first mango tasting. Definitely inedible.
I went into this little experiment thinking it might be the case of the mango. You know what? Not so much. First off, papayas have a very distinct smell. I was trying to decide what it was and it almost smells... Sour? Like garbage? Baby vomit? Anyway, it has a gross smell to start with and it's actually one that is mixed with a nice smell so you think "Oh! That smells so nice... Wait! Ew! What's that other smell?!?!"
As for taste... It kind of has a plain taste with a hint of a taste that could be awesome. It's sort of firm yet soft like a banana with a little bit of juiciness thrown in... I almost thought while I was eating it that it was a lot like eating flavoured dessert tofu. The texture (and a bit of the taste) was quite similar once you chewed it a little. I did notice too that it started tasting better the more you ate.
I think the papaya might be one of those fruits that should be enjoyed with others - like in a fruit salad or maybe a smoothie... Maybe even used in a savory dish.
So now I'm wondering if I have the papaya's profile all wrong? Have I had the misfortune of always buying a terrible one or is it really just one of those "meh" fruits? Or maybe it's sort of like cilantro where certain people taste it differently and either love it or hate it?
(All this talk of trying new fruit - and actually getting around to photographing it as I'm trying it - reminds me a lot of Maggie Mason's Mighty List and trying 1,000 fruits)
Temperature: +10C
Sunrise: 6:01am
Sunset: 6:21pm
I tried a real mango for the first time in 2007 after having one in 2000ish and thinking they were gross. One thing I will do is re-try foods and I'll try new foods especially at the urging of someone like Glen who knows my tastes so well. Guess what? Mangoes are actually my favourite fruit now! Funny how that happens!
Anyway, this post is actually about the mighty papaya or pawpaw as it's called here (after doing some research, papayas and pawpaws are actually different fruit all together. What makes things confusing -or fun- is that Australians actually call papayas pawpaw even though they aren't actually pawpaw. See what I mean?).
I've had papaya before back home and I've had dried papaya which I don't mind at all. Now that I think about it, I've also had papaya in canned tropical fruit mix. Yuck again. The "fresh" papaya I had back home was could probably be considered in the same category as my first mango tasting. Definitely inedible.
I went into this little experiment thinking it might be the case of the mango. You know what? Not so much. First off, papayas have a very distinct smell. I was trying to decide what it was and it almost smells... Sour? Like garbage? Baby vomit? Anyway, it has a gross smell to start with and it's actually one that is mixed with a nice smell so you think "Oh! That smells so nice... Wait! Ew! What's that other smell?!?!"
As for taste... It kind of has a plain taste with a hint of a taste that could be awesome. It's sort of firm yet soft like a banana with a little bit of juiciness thrown in... I almost thought while I was eating it that it was a lot like eating flavoured dessert tofu. The texture (and a bit of the taste) was quite similar once you chewed it a little. I did notice too that it started tasting better the more you ate.
I think the papaya might be one of those fruits that should be enjoyed with others - like in a fruit salad or maybe a smoothie... Maybe even used in a savory dish.
So now I'm wondering if I have the papaya's profile all wrong? Have I had the misfortune of always buying a terrible one or is it really just one of those "meh" fruits? Or maybe it's sort of like cilantro where certain people taste it differently and either love it or hate it?
(All this talk of trying new fruit - and actually getting around to photographing it as I'm trying it - reminds me a lot of Maggie Mason's Mighty List and trying 1,000 fruits)
Temperature: +10C
Sunrise: 6:01am
Sunset: 6:21pm
Saturday, June 19, 2010
More adventures in eating weird fruit
Don't worry, this one didn't come from the sidewalk! While we were at the grocery store the other day I saw a basket of mangosteens and thought for $1.98/ea we'd give them a try!
The outside is a lot like a pomegranate but there's a thick flesh between the outside and the fruit inside (almost like the white stuff on really fresh grapefruit). It was actually a little tricky to cut it so that I got the outside off but didn't cut into the fruit.
The fruit itself is slippery and is kind of like a peeled grape. It tastes kind of... like eating a Johnny Pop-up. It has a slightly sweet fruit-ish taste but when I ate one this morning I couldn't help but think it tasted sort of like eating pop-ups. I think it would make a nice addition to a fruit salad though - a lot easier than trying to take the membrane off oranges (for reference the fruit itself is about the size of a Christmas orange - maybe a touch smaller).
So that's another one off the imaginary list of weird fruit to try!
Temperature: +10C
Sunrise: 7:35am
Sunset: 5:08pm
The outside is a lot like a pomegranate but there's a thick flesh between the outside and the fruit inside (almost like the white stuff on really fresh grapefruit). It was actually a little tricky to cut it so that I got the outside off but didn't cut into the fruit.
The fruit itself is slippery and is kind of like a peeled grape. It tastes kind of... like eating a Johnny Pop-up. It has a slightly sweet fruit-ish taste but when I ate one this morning I couldn't help but think it tasted sort of like eating pop-ups. I think it would make a nice addition to a fruit salad though - a lot easier than trying to take the membrane off oranges (for reference the fruit itself is about the size of a Christmas orange - maybe a touch smaller).
So that's another one off the imaginary list of weird fruit to try!
Temperature: +10C
Sunrise: 7:35am
Sunset: 5:08pm
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