We went up to Sydney on the weekend for a PJs themed party… Way too many things didn’t go to plan…
We stayed at the Diamant who mixed up out booking – so rather than a Suite with champagne on arrival we had a regular room… which would have been nice if that’s what I paid for. The bed WAS deliciously comfy! The hotel was fully booked with other party people, so they couldn’t move us.. All seems to have been resolved now, they were actually very good with the manager calling us today once she was back on deck for the week to sort something out :)
We’ll have the right room on them next time we’re up – for Halloween!
There were also ‘issues’ with the venue of the party… it seems that even if you’ve booked the room for a private function, they may just open it up to anyone. Sausagefest? ugh.
Plus Macca’s wireless HATED us in the morning…
But we had Yum Cha for ‘breakfast’ on Sunday! Yum Yum!
Proportions are a little whacked, as I don’t really measure these things:
6 or so chicken bits like the one above. You could probably do drumsticks also!
Marinade with:
about half a cup dry cooking sherry
2 tablespoons soy sauce
a tablespoon sesame oil
about the same again of honey (though I kinds just drizzled mine in!)
tablespoon “Chinese Five Spice” from a jar.
Cook in about a 180 degree Celsius over for 30 minutes covered, then another 30 minutes uncovered.
Serve with whatever veges you can find (like steamed broccolini with oyster sauce. Yums!)
On the quest to till be able to eat yummables without nasty things happening inside of me, I’ve been trawling the “health food” aisles… can’t do health food stores yet, aisles will be my starting point.
There is so much out there now for gluten free! A few years ago when I’d heard of such a thing as Coeliac’s Disease after having a friend and a relative diagnosed with it, and earning how to eat with them, it was all specialist stuff, now you’ll even find gluten free products alongside the ‘regular’ floured stuff…
My eyes were looking for anything that was dairy-free or vegan (because then i KNOW there’s nothing complicated hidden down the label).. and I managed to find a sugar-free chocolate bar :)
The Sweet William“I’m Sweet Enough” bar…
It does, however, have Maltitol in it which, according to Wikipedia is a “sugar alcohol”… which is large doses could unfortunately have a laxative effect. Not one side effect I need right now!
Anyway. I’ve eaten half the bar (25g) and so far so good on the stomach front… It also tasted reasonable. Not as yummy as anything from the Lindt Cafe but better than missing out on chockies altogether! :)
Went and got my hair cut yesterday (at Just Cuts. Pay for what you get :p) and dyed it this morning (Ultra Violet Red)
What you can’t see in that photo (aside from all of my awesome new Threadless tee) is the bit at the back that’s … well a bit too long for the rest. Rish is still unsure whether he just needs to get used to it, or if he needs to trip my mullet-like tail :p The girl cutting it tapered the end rather than cutting it straight along the bottom, so it’s a little “different” looking with the layers. Oh well, only hair!
I recently went off dairy. It started with chocolate, as I made an immediate connection between it going in my mouth and about 20-30mins not having a happy stomach at all. Then all other things yummy and creamy were slowly dropped until I think I can have a small amount of dairy in something (like the small amount of condensed milk in the creamed rice Rish made last night, and I had for breakfast today!) but really don’t want to push it.
So, a couple of weeks ago, Vitasoy longlifes were on special, so I thought, okay, I’ll get one each of the lite soy, their oat milk and the rice milk… and see how they go on my Weetbix!
Week 1 (it take me about a week to get through a litre of milk. Sue me :p) we the soy. I know this was bearable, and I think I like the lite a lot more than the regular… haven’t done a direct comparison between it and So Good though…
Week 2 I did the rice milk…. ew! I should have just used water! The taps would have given it more taste. It soaked into my weetbix strangely… I’m exactly sure how to describe it… I think it was just like water though…
Week 3 oat milk… this was nice and creamy… too a lot though to make my Weetbix soggy enough but not too soggy!
So, yeah, sticking with the Lite Vitasoy for now… good thing too, because Rish seems happy enough with its taste in his cooking (sago one night, and the creamed rice another)… not that this is necessarily good for my waist line :p
I had my first “study leave” morning this morning… and since it was freezing at home, I headed down to Coolo, and to Sakeena’s to sit, read, have a late breakfast, and drink coffee. Sakeena’s tends to be my cafe of choice in Weston Creek… though I usually get takeaway.
There is nothing permanent except change – Heracleitus, 560 BCE.
Definitely a good way to settle, to read my uni readings, to get out of the house, and to warm up! Got some good thoughts flowing towards my final project – I have to design a full-day workshop for a school on Inclusive Education (I don’t have to give it, but it will be a good one to have in stock, because I’m sure I’ll want to one day!). At least for teachers, a full day is 9am-3pm, with decent morning tea and lunch breaks! Teachers have the best morning teas!
Spent 7 hours on the road to and from Sydney (Mt Druitt/Rooty Hill) for a workshop day for one of my subjects. It was a good day – though I wish it had started a little later! Those of us who had traveled from Canberra were there and ready to go at the 8:30am start time, but others were wandering in up until about 9. Grr. “Jokingly” suggested that we should be giving the Sydney-siders a guilt trip, having left home at 5am and all.
I’m probably going to buy some sort of netbook in the next few weeks, to help me with being able to take notes from all my readings, work where ever I like etc. The Samsung N120 looks good, but i have to do my homework on some others before I buy. Hoping to get something that will stick with me over the next 2 years of uni. Any suggestions?
Driving to Sydney this morning, past Goulburn and the rest of the towns. Frost covering the paddocks, birds waking up and flying around. Clear sky, slowly turning to blue. Crisp air. Wattle and other Spring flowers blooming.
(and I didn’t hit any roos. At least not any that weren’t already, um, hit by what I think was a truck..)
You can tell when people have hit that point where they tip from “stretched” in their work – the busy, adrenalin-inducing pace that we tend to work well in – to “stressed”. Instead of the “stretched” 20-30 minute lunch breaks, they either become non-existent, or people will sit in the lunch room for the full hour, staring blankly at the gossip magazines, but not chattering about what Britney’s doing now.
They will probably start to take more sick days, after pushing through the sniffles for a week, it then hits and they’re off for a week or more at a time.
The counseling sessions in the car park also begin. De-briefing, letting go of all that baggage before going home, you’ll find 2 or 3 staff members up in the carpark ten of fifteen minutes after they left the building. Still talking clients, off-loading it all before concentrating (hopefully) for their drive home.
I found my OTs up there today, and joined them, giving them one more person to share it with, to empathise, to give an example of my own, not to be a part of it, but to acknowledge that, yes, it’s a general feeling right at this stage, it’s not just you, or your profession, or just our team. It’s across the board.
There is a lot of change about to happen, with all the “big decisions” coming down on August 10. We may need more than a carpark debrief then.
