Razor clams and chorizo, to scallops and lemon – seafood-y week!

Saturday night Miguel and Begonia came for dinner. I cooked razor clams with chorizo and wine followed by vegetarian lasagne, both of which were very well received (especially considering Miguel is not a seafood afficionado like me and Bego). A couple of bottles of very nice white later I was feeling no pain at all! Stayed up very late chatting, and Sunday was a bit painful indeed!

Was going to a film on Sunday night, or possibly visiting Sarah and Pim, but I was truthfully in too delicate a state.. It’s been a good while since I was like that! ;)

Monday to Wed 6th I was on holidays – trying to use the last of my paid holiday before I leave for my new job. Monday was recovery day, though I did make a run to tesco for supplies. Tuesday was cleaning day, and I got a haircut. No change, just a bit shorter. Wed 6 August the two people I’ll miss most from this job took the afternoon off and took me to Mersea Island for a seafood lunch at The Company Shed.. (photos now up on Flickr)

Now, we’ve been here before and loved every minute, and we always promised ourselves that we’d go in summer when it was warm, and go in Sarah’s convertible beetle just to make the day complete. Well, the day started muggy and rainy, so there was only a little topless driving, but about 5 mins after we arrived at The Shed the sun came out and stayed for the most glorious afternoon at the seaside!

We had to wait for a table for perhaps 30mins, but we were happy enough with our lovely wine and chatting to fellow ‘waiters’. Once inside and situated on the end of a table of ‘ladies who lunch’, we ordered the seafood platter, tiger prawns in garlic and lemon, scallops with bacon and lemon, green-lipped mussels with herb coating and a salad to share. All of it was fresh off the boat, all of it was fantastic, but the tiger prawns and scallops were so good we got another helping!

A lovely couple of hours spent before buying fishy for home and setting off back to The Beagle (Sarah’s topless beetle) for the 90min drive home. I sat in the back, drunk and a bit giggly by now but incredibly happy, and Sarah & Christine put the top down! YAY! Oh, it was a lovely drive home. I do like topless cars, I have to say.

Got home about 4:45pm, finishing off a bottle from The Shed that Sarah couldn’t finish cause she was driving, and ended up in bed fairly early – as you can imagine.

Work on Thursday was a bit of a trial, but I was more tired than anything else.. Could’ve been a whole lot worse!

So I’ve got fresh scallops for dinner tonight (they’ve been in the freezer for a day and then out last night) which I’m going to do with bacon and lemon, try and get them like we had at The Shed. A bit of fresh bread to soak up the juices, a nice glass of wine.. fantastic!

xxx

last night, thinkin’ bout last night.. (Cue the Travelling Wilburys!)

Last night Sarah dragged (well, suggested with some persuasive arguments and then gave me ‘the cow eyes’, which she bloody well knows I can’t refuse!) me to see ‘The Music Of Dirty Dancing’ at Audley End.  Now, I’m an unconfessed fan of that movie – though I usually fast forward the particularly cringe-worthy bits.  And after a few mojitos, some lovely picnic food and good conversation, I actually started to get into it. 

It was nothing special though, ten dancer/singers and an 8 piece band belting out songs from the film and some not from the film.  But there was dancing (I have to admit) and much alcohol – some of it free care of Jacques fruity cider.  Really quite a nice drop and about £4 in the supermarket, I’m told :) (Plug done.)

Anyway, the fireworks at the end were worth the entry fee alone.  What is it about fireworks that turn us all into kids again?  I love the big ‘death star explosion’ ones, the ones that fill the sky.  Then there’s the smell of fireworks, which I also can’t get enough of.  I’m curious about how they make fireworks..  Do you think that’s a fairly high paying job, firework designer?  Can’t be very many of them in the world, so it must be fairly high paying.  And you might not have any eyebrows left, but damn if it wouldn’t be fun! ;)

Today is a gentle day – a bit of cleaning, watching the German F1 Grand Prix (Hamilton on pole, Webber starts 8th – Raikonnen starts 6th!) then perhaps a run to the garden centre to get some grass for the cat-beast so he doesn’t eat his way through my herb  garden.  and that’s about it. 

Haven’t heard anything yet about the job I second interviewed for last week.  Though my agent is trying hard for a resonse, I guess I’m feeling kinds stoic about it – if it’s gonna happen it’ll happen no matterwhat.  No point fretting about it.  But I really want this job, so keep your fingers crossed for me.

Lead a rather exciting life, huh?  yeah – I’m sort of proud of it ;)

xx

last weekend – Bicester & good friends

Sorry for the lateness of this – been a busy week so far!

So Sat night I went round to Begonia’s.  Miguel’s off in Spain, so we had a real girly night with much seafood (Begonia indulges her seafood fetish with me, since Miguel doesn’t like seafood – the freak :)), much wine and Pride & Prejudice on DVD.  And that would be the BRILLIANT BBC six-part version, not the new and crap version with Please-force-feed-me Knightly. 

Anyway, we had mussels, calamari, seabass and prawns in garlic & wine – all of which were fantastic.  Damn that girl can cook!  So just when I was nice and squidgy, replete with good food and much wine, she said she was going to Bicester Shopping Village on Sunday, and did I want to come?  (Note for the non-uk people, Bicester is pronounced BISTER.  Don’t ask me why, one of those mad pommie things with using too many letters again.)  Anyway, got up early on Sunday, head hurt a little but not too bad.  Begonia picked me up at 8:30 and we drove for 2 hours to get to Bicester, which is just outside Oxford.  (Down the M11, round the M25 and up the M40 – I’m sure there’s a quicker way, but Begonia wasn’t really trusting the sat-nav.)

Bicester is an amazing place for shopping.  Almost all the big designers had an outlet store there (Dior, Versace, Jimmy Choo, Jaeger, LK Bennet, Ralph Lauren, Karen Millen etc etc) and I picked up a couple of bargains..  Top & skirt that are lovely & fit me perfectly, great for interviews in Jaeger for £50 – marked down from total price of £170.  Shoes for £70 marked down from £160, and had my eye on a £350 pair of Jimmy Choo’s, but the Bank Manager wouldn’t allow it.  Spoilsport. ;)  Also picked up a new summer handbag, which I love, and another pair of shoes for £15.  Lovely day all round, though a bit of a hike… 

Got home about 5:30pm, just in time to have a quick shower & get ready to go to Sarah & Pim’s for dinner.  Pim was doing Nasi Goreng, which he’s famous for, and Sarah had found some sugar syrup so was forcing mojitos down my neck all night.  Really!  She was forcing me to drink these fantastic minty-rum drinks, shoving a Wii controller into my hand and expecting me to take it all out on some poor defenseless little rabbids! ;)  Bit tired though after Bicester, so farily early night.  Was home and ready for bed by 11.

Monday was a horrid day.  My neck froze up again during the night, and I awoke having a head-turning range of about 35 deg before the pain set in.  Went & saw doctor, & was given diazepam, which knocked me out for about 6 hours.  When I woke up I was feeling a lot better.

Tuesday was a busy day, and I had to head to London for 5pm for a second interview, which went really well I thought.  But I obviously have no bloody idea about these things because I say that every time.  Anyway, I think I made an impression, and they said they’d let me know in about 2 weeks.  2 weeks!  That’s cruel & unusual punishment! 

Today (wed) has been hell busy, there’s an institute board meeting at the end of this week and boss has to present to the board.  He’s frantically been getting data from the lab that I have to turn into something actually readable and vaguely relevant, so there’s been much pains in arse from boss today.  And there will be tomorrow too, before the board on Friday.

And that’s about it.  You’re now all up to date.  If you’re making wishes for me, wish I hear good things about this job soonishly.  I’m not very patient when it comes to jobhunting.

xx

Hancock-ed, Primark-ed & cricket-ed

Friday – my interviews went very well. So well, in fact, that I got a phone call fro my agency this morning saying they were very impressed and want me back for a second interview! WhooHoo! Will happen in week commencing 14 July. Will keep you posted.

Friday night out to dinner & movie with Miguel & Begonia. Went & saw Hancock – have to say I wasn’t particularly impressed. All the good bits are in the trailers. The first third is fun, the laughs die in the second third and the end is just a little confusing and a bit twee. Anyway, make your own opinion, but mine would be to wait for the DVD. Don’t spend your hard earned only to be disappointed.

Sat went to Norwich with Christine. Never been there before and although there were some very strange looking people about (the local 6-toed pesantry, no doubt) we had a lovely lunch in a brilliant tapas bar, then a bit of shopping in Primark that was good for the bank balance! No, really! Got 3 pairs of work trousers, a linen blazer, a bed set (doona cover, two pillowcases AND a fitted sheet) for £66. Brilliant! Missed the F1 qualifying, but entirely worth it. Norwich is a strange place. Full of very weird people, but great shopping and quite a pleasant vibe to the place.

Sunday, woke late in my new bedding (lovely!) and rose just in time for the pre-race warm up for the British F1 Grand Prix. And what a race! After Aussie Mark Webber kicked some serious ass in qualifying to get on the front row of the grid (WHOOHOO!!) he spun on the first lap in the seriously wet conditions (understatement of the year!) and ended up finishing 10th. But the wild & wet conditions drove Ferrari to distraction, with Massa having a hell of a lot of trouble keeping his car turned in the right direction. It seemed he was spinning every 5 mins! Raikonnen only managed 4th after a late attack at Alonso – the Ferrari’s just seemed to have a hell of a time maintaining pace, even in qualifying. With Kubica, championship leader, out of the race and thereby scoring no points, the way was clear for a stampeding, rampaging Hamilton to secure his first place and the vital 10 points. Hamilton was never really in doubt and romped away in the awful conditions to win by more than a minute – almost unheard of in F1!

After the F1 I went to Wendens Ambo for their annual Village vs Pub cricket match, which Christine and Anne (who runs The Pub in question) roped me into doing some scoring.. I think it’s because I actually know a little about cricket, thop never scored before. But it was fun! Good day out. Weather was crap, and the rain bucketed down for about an hour or so, but it held off long enough for the Village to win by 3 wickets. A fun (and slightly drunken!) afternoon, got home about 8pm to a hungry cat and brand new Top Gear – which seems to be getting better and better. Love that show.

Also got some ‘new’ music. A few weeks ago I bought the Desperado Soundtrack, and have been loving the hell out of it! I’m really into dirty mexican blues at the moment, dirty messy guitars and a vaguely latin americal feel. Anyway, got the From Dusk Til Dawn soundtrack and also Tito & Tarantula’s ‘tarantism’ to groove down to now. Brilliant! Happy musical days :)

Anyway, happy Monday everybody. Tho the weather’s crap and will be all week, I feel optimistic..
xx

where she drowns some worms (not really) and preps for departure

Tuesday we went to Batemans Bay.  Dad plays lawn bowls, and he had to go do an umpires test at Malua Bay, so Jan & I dropped him off then headed on to Batemans for our errands and some window shopping.  I posted a box of stuff back to myself in Britain so I wouldn’t have to pay excess baggage charges - $96!!  I could have almost got a courier for that!  Dad passed his tests and we’d picked up some lovely prawns and mussels for dinner – so apart from the ridiculous prices for Australia Post, everything was pretty good. 

Yesterday we went fishing.  There were mini-arguments about where we should go.  We both won. :)

Dad likes beach fishing, but me not so much.  Beach fishing isn’t at all interactive – you can’t tell nibbles from surf movements, you just sort of hurl your line out (hopefully) past the breakers and then leave it for 10mins or so before reeling back in to see if you’ve got anything.  I’m not skilled enough at it to cast my own line out, it always goes sideways and I can never get it out past the breakers, so Dad does it for me.  So all I get to do is sit there and watch the surf, occasionally put bait on my hook, smoke cigarettes and wish we were fishing somewhere else. 

We went to the beach near Brou Lake, just north of Dalmeny, and beach fished for perhaps 2 hours before realising that we all had the same bit of bait on the hook as when we started, so gave up & went home for lunch.  Lunch was pies from Bodalla Bakery (YUM!) and a wee lemon tart – also YUM!

After lunch we went to my preferred spot – off the boardwalk on Narooma inlet, where the water is almost crystal clear, a lovely blue, and I can do almost everything myself.  Literally 30 seconds after I cast my line in, out came my first of 3 leatherjackets!  30 seconds!!  Love it! :)  My 3 leatherjackets were perfect size for toast (Jan’s preferred breakfast) and I also caught a wee bream that we threw back in with instructions to notify its parents of our yummy bait.  (It didn’t, but we didn’t mind too much.)  Jan also caught a leatherjacket for the pot and another wee bream, which we think could have possibly been the same one – what’s the learning curve on a fish?  Anyone?  Dad didn’t catch anything – which also happened last time I was here and we went out in the tinny (for those non-Australians – a tinny is a 12foot aluminium boat, a couple of metal seats and an outboard motor.  Luxury!  Just beware of touching the sides or changing seats on very hot days.  But it does mean you can find fishing spots that those without boats can’t access).

We were on the boardwalk for perhaps 2 hours, and Jan & I caught all the fish, in between spotting the stingrays that inhabit the inlet (they just cruise up & down, eating fish bits from incoming boats, getting their photo taken – quite a good life really) and watching the enormous bloody pelicans skim over the water.  Lovely way to spend an afternoon, especially since the fishes were throwing themselves on my line!

Today, Thursday 10 April and my last full day here, we went into Narooma and wandered about for a wee bit before heading off to Dalmeny Point for a picnic lunch.  After lunch a few hours sitting in the sun were followed by a trip to Naroom a to pickup the fresh lobster we ordered yesterday – lobster thermidore for dinner tonight!  :) 

I’ve been so spoiled on the food front this trip.  Thurs 27 = fresh fish & chips in Ulladulla on the way home form the train station.  Fri = fish & chips for lunch, spag bol for dinner that I cooked.  Sat = pies for lunch, steakfor dinner, I cooked.  Sun = roast chicken, roast pumpkin & lost of roasted veges, I cooked.  Mon = fresh flathead.  Tues = fish & chips in Batemans Bay for lunch, prawns, then fresh mussels in white wine & cream for dinner.  Wed = whole snapper (which I didn’t manage to finish on account of the size of my plate compared to everyone elses).  Thurs = lobster thermidore!!  WhooHoo! I’ve been properly seafooded, which is what I wanted.  The memories of this fabulous aussie seafood has to last me until my next trip, after all, so there’s no point mucking about! :)

I’ve had a great time here, I really do like coming to Dad & Jan’s.  And not just for the seafood!  Really! :)  Swimming in the sea, fantastic countryside, lovely wildlife (rosellas visit the balcony every morning, bellbirds everywhere, magpie and kookaburra song in the mornings, galahs eating grass-seeds in the lawns, fishies, dolphins in the sea that you can see from the balcony, seals, penguins…).  If you’re visiting Australia, I heartily recommend the Sapphire Coast – the NSW South Coast.  Bateman’s Bay to Bega.  You won’t be disappointed.

I’ve had a bit of a fab time all round this trip.  Nell & Gavin’s was lovely – it’s wonderful to be with my sister again.  I miss laughing with her so much!  Mum & John’s was good – brilliant to see all the family (tho exhausting!) and I’m glad I got to set Mum up on the internet.  It should make our conversations much easier! ;) 

But I think, after all this, I’m ready to go home.  I want my own bed and to cuddle my cat.  I’ll even suffer the bloody snow (now I’ve got a reasonable tan ;). 

Oh – and as a final note – thanks to every one of my readers.  I average 45 readers a day, and have passed the 11,000 total mark.  This post makes 299, I should do something special for number 300 I think.  Thanks for your support, thanks for your comments, and thanks for making me believe that someone, somewhere is vaguely interested in what I have to say.  Bless your cotton socks. :)  

See you in Britain. xx 

where she dips rods and toes in the Pacific

‘there’s this stuff in the chemist called Quell’

Up at 05:30 this morning for a quick breakfast before heading out on Dad’s mate, Gary’s boat for a bit of deep sea fishing.  And luckily I’ve got my body clock so well trained that I tell it I have to wake up and it does the job for me – I woke on my own at 05:22.  Nice when things work how they’re supposed to.  Tried to stay up late and watch the Bahrain F1 Grand Prix, but it started at 22:30 here and I was fading by then.  Jan & I sat up for perhaps the first half hour, then both gave up & went to bed. 

Anyway, up before the sun today, and at Gary’s house for 06:30.  He’s got an 18ft fishing boat that he takes out as often as possible and offered Dad & me a mornings fishing which, of course, we jumped at.  Gary had all the tackle and equipment, so we rocked up to his place and then with his other mate, John, headed down to the boatramp.  On the way to the boatramp saw a pod of 4-5 dolphins frolicking off the beach near Dad’s. :)  Quiet morning on the sea, very still and calm in the inlet, I was feeling quiet good about the whole thing.  When we got out of the inlet and headed into the actual sea things got a bit rougher.  The boat was being tossed a bit, partly because of speed, partly wind, but I could see a slight swell picking up – nothing to worry about though, and I was with guys experienced in these waters and the boat had plenty of lifejackets.  I felt fine, looking forward to a good day’s fishing in the deep blue.

We headed out to the north end of Montague Island, about 5 miles off the coast, and paid a brief visit to the Australian fur seal colony there.  The sun was just coming out from behind the clouds and I got a couple of lovely photos, as well as just marvelling at the lovely furry beastie’s amazing abilities in the water.  And the fact that they really did like to show off! :)  We headed around the eastern side of the island and then down to the reef on its southern tip, where the water shallowed to about 50-60ft to wet our first lines.  Didn’t have much luck, seemed to feed lots of fish but none came on the hook!  John caught himself a lovely big leatherjacket, but that was about it so we moved on to spot 2. 

I was starting to feel a bit green around the gills at this point.  See, a small boat tends to move to every single little wavelet in the bloody ocean.  I was having trouble finding my sealegs, I seemed to have left them bloody far from where I really needed them.  Despite the bit of toast and cup of tea that constituted breakfast, my stomach started to feel that there was a hell of a lot more in there than that.  I held myself together with a stalwart determination.

Spot 2 fared better.  We each caught a Maori Rasse, which are really pretty fish but not very good eating so they all went back in the sea.  A few little rock cod also jumped on John’s hook (‘See it takes talent to catch one this big!’), and I got myself a small grouper, which was very pretty as well, but all also went back to the sea.  Gary started asking if anyone had a banana on board, which apparently is the cause of most of the fishermen’s woes.  We didn’t, but we were beginning to wonder where the fish were – we’d been out there about 2 & a half hours and only had one leatherjacket to show for it (good eating, but not my favourite – I was after a nice snapper).  I was feeling greener and greener.  My hands and feet were cold and my feet were tingling.  I couldn’t stop yawning or burping, but the nausea seemed stuck in my chest – it wouldn’t come up or go down, it just sat there.  Tried to concentrate on fishing, but looking down at the water made my head spin.

Moved on to spot 3 for a final go before giving up.  Gary found the spot by GPS and said that he’d never come away from there without a few flathead (lovely eating fish!).  I think by this point he was feeling a bit guilty that we hadn’t caught dinner and I was feeling poorly.  I halfheartedly threw my line in again, lost some more bait, then gave up & just tried to control my stomach.  The men kept it up for another 30mins or so and Dad also caught a lovely leatherjacket to add to the lonely one of John’s in the bucket.  The guys were all giving me advice and apparently ‘there’s this stuff in the chemist called Quell’ which is brilliant for seasickness.  Pity the bloody chemist was 6 miles away, onshore!!  Anyway, shortly after they took sympathy on me and  called it quits.  The fish weren’t biting, only nibbling our bait away, and I definitely wasn’t up for an extended session.  We packed up the gear and pointed the boat toward home.  As soon as the boat started moving again my stomach felt better – it was purely the movement of the open sea in the drifting boat that made me queasy.  Took a slightly circuitous route home so I could take some photos, and I was feeling loads better, before getting back to the boatramp about 11am. 

John gave us his leatherjacket to go with our own, and Gary felt bad enough that we didn’t catch anything that he gave me half a dozen fresh flathead fillets from his previous trip out the day before!  Bless him!  Gary, we had them for dinner tonight – absolutely lip-smackingly beautiful!  I do love a good bit of fishy. :)

Got back and went for a swim with Jan.  It’s the middle of autumn here but the water temp is still 20deg and it was lovely!  Spent an hour in the back garden with a book, trying to make the colour on the back of my legs sort of match the residual colour on the front of my legs. My sumburnt legs have healed really well, and they just look brown now – but only on the front.  The back is still pommie white.  Anyway, the hour yesterday and the hour in the sun today helped, there’s a bit of colour there now, definitely enough to prove I’ve been on holidays. 

Saw on the news tonight that it’s still snowing in the UK!  Hehehheeeeee! :)  Got picture message from Begonia showing me the snow in her garden.  I sort of half hope it’s still there when I get back.  Only half though, because I want the warm weather to come now!

Have also made a decision about my job.  My mind rests better.  Tell you later.

hope all are well & happy & not suffering cold feets.. :)  xx

where she travels forever (!) and meets again her family, 2

At Dad’s now.  Got here about 7:30pm Thursday, after rising at 6 so I could farewell John before he went out on his school bus run.  Mum & me got to Tamworth airport about 8:30am, and waited around for 30mins or so before check in.  At check in I was told that due to the ridiculously high winds in Sydney the 09:45 flight was delayed until 10:30.  OK, I can understand that.  They’d had an almost hurricane in Melbourne the night before, trees down, buildings damaged, people killed.  So I called Dad, so he wouldn’t be waiting at the train station for 3 hours.  No problem there.  And yes, the plane took off at 10:30, or as close to it as nevermind.  But it didn’t quite sink in that we didn’t see a refueling truck on the tarmac, though I realised that with the wind it was going to be a really pleasant flight and touchdown in Sydney could get a little hairy.

About 45mins into the hour flight, the Capt got on the blower to say that we were diverting to Newcastle – because we didn’t have enough fuel to stay in a holding pattern over Sydney for the hour it would take the controllers there to clear the queue.  Only one of the runways in Sydney was working, and there was starting to be a bit of a parking lot overhead.  So we went to Newcastle, had a lot of fun landing, and sat on the tarmac there (weren’t allowed out of the plane) for 45-50mins whilst we refueled and got a new landing window in Sydney.

Finally landed at 12:40, almost two hours behind schedule.  Can’t blame anyone but the weather, so no point getting in a fuss about it, but was worried about Dad sitting at a train station (with no mobile phone) waiting for me and getting worried when I didn’t show!

Got on the train to Bombaderry 2 hours later than planned, and had to rush my way through baggage claim etc.  Had no lunch because no time, and only a museli bar and a banana to sustain me til I reached Bombaderry (about 3.5 hrs later).  Dad was waiting, and it was damn good to see him!  But I was hungry, so we stopped at Ulladulla for some lovely fish before going on to Narooma.  Got here about 7:15ish and I lasted maybe another hour before falling into bed.

Next morning I was up with the sun, which was good, because Dad and dog were heading out for their morning beach-walk.  First thing in the morning is a lovely time of the day to be on the beach, and after a good hour walking we got home, had breakfast and headed out on mission 1: find a pair of Ugg boots for Christine.  Headed to Tilba Tilba, a lovely little tourist town about 20kms from Narooma, and scored!  Got in the car & headed to Bermagui for lunch.  Were going to go to Bermi Pub, where we went last time, which does good honest food for cheap prices, but it seems to have gone a bit upmarket, and we weren’t up for paying $25 each, so ended up with fish & chips in the picnic spot on the point overlooking Horseshoe Bay.  (I know, fish twice in as many days, but honestly, I so miss Aussie seafood that I could eat it every day!)  Headed back to the house in time for afternoon dog walking and a wee rest in the shade before I cooked dinner for Dad.  He’s 66 and never cooked for himself, and (possibly) thinks it’s a bit pointless to start now!  Anyway, my spag bol got the nod of approval. :)

Haven’t done much at all today.  Morning dog walking, and afternoon walking as well, before bbq dinner of prawns, steak and salad.  YUM!  Jan’s back from her bushwalking adventures tomorrow (she’s been bushwalking all week in Kosiosco Nat Pk, nasty weather and all!) and I’m doing a roast chicken to welcome her.  My chicken’s somewhat legendary (in my own mind, anyway :) so I hope she likes it.

That’s it for now.  Sunday tomorrow.  Swimming and lounging, before going deep sea fishing on a mate’s boat on Monday.  Never been before, quite excited! xx