Sunday, January 29, 2012

$2 bunting to get us into the spirit!
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Do you like our back yard pool - the girls chilled out here all day, listening to Triple J's Hottest 100 on the radio...
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Our visitors arrived from Melbourne at 3pm so they hung out under the pergola...
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Bri got a bit chilly so she chucked on her uggies...
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Aussie, Aussie, Aussie...
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We had an Australian flag hung outside our window.
Angus cooked Rack of Lamb for our dinner....
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We had homemade potato salad, tangy tomato noodles and a tossed salad full of veggies...
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Brianna turned out another winning pavlova which was lovely and chewy on the inside, yet still crunchy on the outside....
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Sitting around the table, just talking...
That concludes our Australia Day but we still have Friday and Saturday with our visitors to go...
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FRIDAY
Gus had teed up to get some freshly cooked crayfish from Beachport so the men went and got them before we headed off to Number 2 Rocks...
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Off we went, over the dunes in Ruby...
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More sand dunes and clear blue skies...
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Nearly there!
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Picture perfect as usual...
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We set up our camp and the girls decided to sit in the shade and play 'Spit' and 'Gin'...
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A selection of rocks and shells that get tumbled by the tide...
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Our camp all setup...
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Two 'you beaut' sheilas...
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Crayfish...
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and salads...
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Delicious!
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Watching the waves roll in...
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Flying the flag of Australia...
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Two more Aussie 'sheilas'...
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Playing beach petanque...
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Bri found some lucky starfish for me...
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We showed our visitors Lake Bonney and the wind farm in the distance...
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Time for home...
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Pizzas at 10pm!
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Wow, that was a big day. Tomorrow we head for Coonawarra - wine tasting and fine dining.
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Cheers - Joolz

Thursday, January 26, 2012

Happy Australia Day, Cobbers!

Today is a day for kicking back and to enjoy the privilege of being safe and free in this beautiful country. We are very lucky.
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Kimmie at The Serendipity Cafe posted a recipe for Lamingtons (along with the history of this yummy cake) - I just had to give them a go. I didn't do the really naughty chocolate and cream (ganache sauce), just mixed icing sugar, cocoa, milk and boiling water. They are delicious!
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You know you're Australian if:
* You believe that stubbies can be either drunk or worn.
* You're liable to burst out laughing whenever you hear of Americans "rooting" for something.
* You pronounce Melb...ourne as 'Mel-bin'.
* You can translate: 'Dazza and Shazza played Acca Dacca on the way to Maccas.'
* You believe it makes perfect sense for a nation to decorate its highways with large fibreglass bananas, prawns and sheep.
* You call your best friend 'a total bastard' but someone you really, truly despise is just 'a bit of a bastard'.
* You think 'Woolloomooloo' is a perfectly reasonable name for a place.
* You're secretly proud of our killer wildlife.
* You believe it makes sense for a country to have a $1 coin that's twice as big as its $2 coin.
* You understand that 'Wagga Wagga' can be abbreviated to 'Wagga' but 'Woy Woy' can't be called 'Woy'.
* You believe all famous Kiwis are actually Australian, until they stuff up, at which point they again become Kiwis.
* All Kiwi's are sheep shaggers. No exceptions.
* Beetroot with your Hamburger... Of course!

* You believe that the confectionery known as the Wagon Wheel has become smaller with every passing year.
* You wear ugg boots outside the house.
* You believe that every important discovery in the world was made by an Australian but then sold off to the Yanks for a pittance.
* You believe that the more you shorten someone's name the more you like them.
* Whatever your linguistic skills, you find yourself able to order takeaway fluently in every Asian language
* You understand that 'excuse me' can sound rude, While 'scuse me' is always polite.
* You know what it's like to swallow a fly, on occasion via your nose.
* You know it's not summer until the steering wheel is too hot to handle and a seat belt buckle becomes a pretty good branding iron.
* Your biggest family argument over the summer concerned the rules for beach cricket.
* You shake your head in horror when companies try to market what they call 'Anzac Biscuits'.
* You still think of Kylie as 'that girl off Neighbours'.
* When working on a bar, you understand male customers will feel the need to offer an excuse whenever they order low-alcohol beer.
* You know how to abbreviate every word, all of which usually end in -o: arvo, combo, garbo, kero, metho, milko, muso, rego, servo, smoko, speedo, righto, goodo etc.
* You know that there is a universal place called "woop woop" located in the middle of nowhere...no matter where you actually are.
* You know that none of us actually drink Fosters beer, because it tastes like shit. But we let the world think we do. Because we can.
* You have some time in your life slept with Aerogard on in the summer. Maybe even as perfume.
* You've only ever used the words - tops, ripper, sick, mad, rad, sweet - to mean good. And then you place 'bloody' in front of it when you REALLY mean it.
* You know that the barbecue is a political arena; the person holding the tongs is always the boss and usually a man. And the women make the Salad
* You say 'no worries' quite often, whether you realise it or not.
* You understand what no wucking furries means.
* You've drank your tea/coffee/milo through a Tim Tam
* You own a Bond's chesty. In several different colours.
* You know that roo meat tastes pretty good, But not as good as barra. Or a meat pie with dead horse.
* You know that some people pronounce Australia like "Straya" and that's ok.
AUSTRALIAN and proud of it!
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Wednesday, January 25, 2012

The Seekers - I Am Australian (Live - 2000)


(The Seekers - Keith Potger, Bruce Woodley, Judith Durham & Athol Guy)
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This is my favourite Australian song and it makes me teary whenever I hear it.
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How are you spending Australia Day? Kirby is coming home from Adelaide so we will all be together and we have 4 friends arriving later in the day to spend the next couple of days with us. We are having lamb racks and all the trimmings for dinner on Australia Day plus pavlova & strawberries for dessert.
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Friday, Angus & I are doing the very Aussie thing of 'chucking a sickie' and having Friday off work (we won't tell the boss - us!). We are taking our visitors to our favourite beach, No. 2 Rocks. We will have a beach barbecue and we have bought some crayfish (Southern Rock Lobster) which we will really enjoy.
When we get home from the beach, we are having pizza for dinner. Nice and easy.
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On Saturday, we are heading to the Coonawarra to sample some wines and have a lovely lunch at Upstairs at Hollick. We are staying the night in Coonawarra.
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Sunday, we farewell our guest back to Melbourne and we will go home, tired but very happy.
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What are you up to?
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Happy Australia Day~

Tuesday, January 24, 2012

Waiting in anticipation...

I pre-ordered Rhonda Jean Hetzel's much awaited book from Fishpond last night. I can't wait for it to arrive ...
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On the weekend, I pre-ordered Downton Abbey Season 2 - can't wait for that either!
I missed most of the first season as it was on while MasterChef or something was on so it's easier to get the DVD to have on hand so I can watch it whenever. I am currently re-watching Season 1 and loving it all over again.
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Joolz

Monday, January 23, 2012

What a guy...

My poor overworked hubby drove 400kms and spent the weekend painting feature walls and the bathroom at our flat in preparation for Bri to move to the big smoke. It has been hot, hot, hot in Adelaide! He got this wall finished, painted the bathroom, has rubbed back all the wooden doors on Kirby's built-ins and is now starting on Kirb's feature wall. The place will look amazing! It won't all get done this trip so we'll have to go to town once more to get it finished!
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Don't work too hard, Hon!

Sunday, January 22, 2012

Homemade Vanilla Icecream...

QUICK VANILLA ICECREAM
1.5 cups full cream milk (I think it is about 15 years since I bought full cream)
1.25 cups cream (not the thickened kind - hard to get on a Sunday in my town!)
1/2 cup caster sugar (not in picture)
2 eggs
1 teaspoon vanilla essence
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My special freezer bowl was put in the freezer yesterday. I whipped all the above ingredients together in a normal bowl for about 2 minutes then had to refrigerate the mixture for 2 hours.
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Now place the mixture in the special freezer bowl and start whipping for 15 minutes...
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This was at about 8 minutes...
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This is at the 13 minute mark...
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and this is after 15 minutes of whipping and freezing ...
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Brianna wanted Clinkers crushed up and mixed through it so I dolloped out a bowl for me which I will have with strawberries later tonight...
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Did you eat Clinkers as a kid - suck all the chocolate off then try to guess what colour you had in your mouth?
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Clinkers are green, yellow and pink - how funny that the first half of the bag that I tipped out and hammered into smithereens were only green and yellow (?) ...
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There were pink ones in the second half that I crushed...
how good does it look?
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I am super impressed with the gadget so far and can't wait to give a mango/passionfruit sorbet a go but that might be next Sunday - diet wise I can't keep trying all these yummy things!
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Cheers - Joolz

Saturday at home...

I zipped to Mt.G to pick up my icecream maker attachment for my Breville Mixer (it was on back order) and while I was there, I ran my car through the Wizard car wash. This is the Tri-colour wax that is applied before the final rinse.
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I also had to fill a prescription for Gus' gout tablets - both chemists in our town were out of them and only one chemist in Mt.G had a bottle left. Lucky - he can't go a day without the medication.
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I bought some new bath towels too as we have visitors coming for Australia Day and the weekend. It is 6 years since I bought a set of new towels and it is starting to show! Ugh!
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When I got home I thought I would do some baking so I made my Cherry Shortbreads.
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For something wickedly different I thought I'd plop Rolo caramel chocolates in the centres as well as some cherry ones.
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It was the right decision...
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Gus has gone back to Adelaide to paint feature walls in the flat in preparation for Brianna moving there and Bri was having a night in Mt.G with her friends so I was home alone. Ssssshh! Don't tell anyone.... but..... YAY!
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I made a huge pot of Chicken Chow Mein and ate it when I was good and ready...
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I treated myself to two new CD's - Kelly Clarkson and Tim McGraw so I had that blaring on our new Bose soundwave system...
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I kicked back with a glass of wine and watched a bit of TV...
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Later in the evening I watched a DVD - Easy A - which was okay.
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This morning I had a wander out the back to see how my weeds are growing and yup, there's work to be done.... maybe this arvo!
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Stay tuned for my icecream making escapades this arvo too!
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Cheers - Joolz