glory day

Pretentious and arrogant, certainly, but definitely pretty too.

Look at my pretty apron - vintage Australian wine bottle labels on Polish linen:

I feel the need to take up baking again.

On Friday a large group of us went to Encasa for a birthday party.  I had been drooling over the menu all day, and it wasn't until we got there that I found out we would be eating from the set banquet menu.  That news nearly broke my heart, seriously. Luckily I wasn't actually able to eat most of the banquet dishes (onion allergy FTW!) so the lovely waiter agreed to bring me a steak with a cream and prawn sauce.

It was divine and I positively swooned.  A tender, juicy steak, plump prawns, creamy garlic-y sauce and little bits of fried potato - I would marry this dish if I could.  I'm sure David wouldn't object.  And I shall be having this dish again.  Divine.

Mr Puss works that blanket like a champ:

On Saturday we watched the All Blacks lose to France.  After the inevitable wailing, rending and gnashing it was all a bit of a relief, really.  For the past few years the AB's really haven't played well yet they still keep managing to win (except for that debacle of a World Cup, obviously).  And because they've kept winning they haven't really addressed some of the basic problems (cough*coaching staff*cough).  Hopefully a home loss to an NH team will force some changes, and hopefully we haven't left it too late for the 2011 World Cup (oh please oh please).

On Sunday night we went to see the Fire Water presentation, which was a huge disappointment.  Despite watching from the Opera House as suggested we couldn't see very much, and what we saw didn't look that exciting.  We debated hanging around for a later session but couldn't really be bothered. 

The lighting effects around the Harbour were fun - particularly on the Opera House - and while we took about 957 kajillion photos none of them really came out.  This photo of the Harbour Bridge isn't too bad:

Actually that photo looks a hell of a lot better if you click and enlarge it, otherwise my apron looks three times the size of the Harbour Bridge.   Strange.

David and I were reading in the paper the other day that Sydney is not regarded as a pretty city, but that's just such bullshit.  Any city that has the harbour and the Rocks area (not to mention Hyde Park, Manly, Darling Harbour, I could go on) is a very pretty city indeed.

Actually I assume an overvalued dollar would be a bad thing

Last Monday was the first Monday of April - time for Hobo Monday!  The challenge is to make a meal costing no more than $5US (which translates to $6.94AUD, and let me tell you watching the converted amount slide from $7.50 to $6.94 over the past month was a tiny bit stressful*) - and the additional rule for April was 'no pasta'.

I present The LambShank Redemption:

Braised lamb shanks with rosemary, roasted sweetcorn tossed with parmesan and pine nuts, small green salad and tinned beans (only for David; I loathe beans)   It was awsome - the meat was melting off the bone, the corn was crunchy and cheesey - two thumbs up!

The total cost was $6.60AUD ($4.74US) - $4.10 for the shanks, 0.98 for the sweetcorn, 0.53 for the pine nuts, 0.36 for the parmesan, 0.40 for the salads and 0.20 for the beans.  My pantry staples were olive oil, wine, homemade stock, rosemary and garlic.

I enjoyed doing this!  It was fun to think up and price a dish, and try new [to me] suppliers to try and keep the price down.  There were highs (I have found a new favourite butcher in the Golden Horn) and lows (the price of sweetcorn went from 0.40 to 0.98 overnight which nearly made me weep) and it's made me even more conscious of cost-cutting - or at least cost-watching.

So now y'all should participate in next month's Hobo Monday challenge.

* I am told that the Australian dollar is actually overvalued against the American dollar, but I have no idea if this is a good thing or a bad thing.  All I know is that lamb shanks are delicious things.

Not that I really want the full-blast Sydney summer either

Today is one of those days, you know?  When it's cold and raining outside (in November, why?), and it doesn't seem worth going outside and the dishes won't do themselves you know, and it seems like the best thing to do is just stay home and tidy up.

On the plus side, however, now that downstairs is cleaned up FrockProject can continue to ramp up the pace tomorrow (the downside of sewing on your dining table is that you need to move all the food-related items off before you can start sewing).

~~~~~

An open letter to the Welsh rugby team:

Wales, I have always tried to like you.  My surname was apparently derived from the Welsh some centuries ago.  Years ago when I learned Highland dancing I also learned the Welsh clog.  Your supporters are passionate yet generally polite.  I enjoy the choral singing (great work with our anthem, btw).

Your players strike me as genial and hirsute men collectively surnamed Jones (and the occasional Alfie just to keep everyone honest).  You have a long and proud rugby history and are current holders of the Six Nations trophy.  So why on earth do you persist in talking yourself down?

To be fair it's always been likely that the AB's will get a Grand Slam this tour - but Scotland and Ireland both talked themselves up, showed a bit of moxie.  Yet you have your former captain quoted as saying: a loss by 10 points or less would be "a virtual victory".

Sorry, I can't get behind this.  If you don't believe in yourselves I don't see how you can expect anyone else to do so.  So being beaten by 20 points was, really, a fitting outcome.

PS: loved your response to the haka, appropriate and spine-chilling on both sides.

~~~~~

The frock I made on Friday has a bodice printed with little reddish-burgundy dragons:

Interestingly the Welsh rugby team are also known as the Red Dragons - see how much I want to like you, Wales?

The day I didn't mean to have

I had today all planned (run some messages, plan some sewing) but when I woke up this morning all I wanted to do was clean.  That sort of thing happens so seldom that I felt it was best just to go with it.  I even did the upstairs bathroom, which I generally only do when people come to stay (oh, I exaggerate!  although actually not by much).

I was listening to my iP*d while I was cleaning, and I had on an old 70's mix which I found the other day.  Gosh, the people back in the 70's were so happy, weren't they?  So enthusiastic about hitchin' a ride! and the carwash! and being stuck in the middle with you! it's so good I can hardly stand it!  Frankly I suspect drugs.

The reason I bought the mix was for my favourite song as a child, The Night Chicago Died.  Billy, Don't Be a Hero was my second-favourite, and it's only recently I worked out they were by the same band.  So I was out sweeping my front courtyard, while singing and dancing along to The Night Chicago Died, when I looked up to find my neighbour (male, 20's, student) staring at me - and I could see he was embarrassed for me.  Look, at this point in my life being hip is a lot less desirable than being happy, neighbour-boy, so stop with the judging and put the bins out sometime.

I'm often caught out singing and/or dancing along to my iP*d (actually I'm often caught out talking to myself so I'm not blaming the iP*d, it's just me), and I've had to remove a number of songs from my 'going out in public' lists.  All the anthemic songs, all the songs that require air drumming or particular dance moves  have been banned from the list, as has everything by Cold Chisel.  Those songs are strictly for my own personal use in my own home.

After all this cleaning I spent an hour or so in the attic trawling through my patterns:

 

I was quite shocked to realise just how many there really are (this is about half of them).  Hopefully once I get the hang of pattern block manipulation I won't have to buy any more.  So I picked out a couple of patterns which might still work, and some of these fabics look appealing:

Now it just remains to be seen what can be done within the time available, and preferably without yet another trip to Spotlight.