Vacuum...

This is what happens when you argue with the vacuum...

You bark a lot, grab it by the wheels, doing that, you manage to back into a door. You let go and somehow you cause a hello kitty lolly necklace to smash from the door handle to the ground and scatter into a million different directions.

Roses

This year we have had a lot of rain in Canberra, and finally FINALLY my climbing rose bloomed. It was worth the wait.

Clafoutis

20 grams butter

400 grams cherries

200 grams flour

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

300 ml milk

300 ml cream

6 eggs

300 grams castor sugar

There is a tricky recipe way to this and a yellow house way.

Pre heat oven to 200 degrees celsius.

Melt butter and coat whatever it is you are going to cook clafoutis in.

Sprinkle with castor sugar.

In a bowl mix flour with baking powder and the all the rest of the ingredients except the cherries. Take the stalks off the cherries and place on the bottom of pan - but keep in the pips because that helps keep in the flavour.

Pour batter on top and cook for 20 minutes and the check and probably cook it for a further 10 (all depends on the size of dish you are cooking with)

Sprinkle with icing sugar and serve quick sticks.

Pinjata

Some super ace people made these for me!

How to build a shed in 7 hours

You just need a flat pack from Bunnings, a screwdriver, dog to monitor birds and to bark during the really stressful bits, and a very patient friend. A tip if you were ever thinking about doing the same.... get a drill bit for your drill before you hit the 5 hour mark.

Pulp Kitchen

Pulp Kitchen - the perfect neighborhood bistro. Great food, buzzy atmosphere and clever menu. They do big size and small size. I had small size steak with fries and béarnaise sauce. This meant I had room for one of the best chocolate tarts I have ever eaten. It was baked in the oven and not quite set...molten, chocolate, loveliness.

Feeling less dumbs

You'll be relieved/ happy/ indifferent to know that I'm feeling much better about things.

Two girls, a strangers wedding, a future wedding, a chocolate tart, LCD soundsystem and some filing seemed to have help me make good with my sanity.

Wedding

Today we went by the lake and sat in the sun eating gelati. There was a wedding party, of groom and groomsmen, wearing hats, sunglasses and dark suits - drinking pre wedding beer. We stayed to watch the bride walk in to a country and western song. My gelati melted in the sun. Her dad shed a tear. They got married in front of their friends and us spying at the back. One lady walked past and said "been there - done that". We didn't like her much.

The bride looked beautiful and she cried too. After they got married and there were more country tunes. And everyone lined up to say congratulations, except for us up the back. The man watching next to us explained to his little girl that men should be able to marry men, and women should be able to marry women. As long as they loved each other.

We should all be able to live happily ever after, just like the couple from Yass.

Own worst enemy

Do you ever psyche yourself out of stuff? Or are so horribly self critical that you obsess about the most minor details? Do you seek praise from all of those around you? These are new traits of mine, and no matter how hard I try - I can't seem to stop. And it is getting worse.

Logically I can pick it all apart and tell myself to stop being stupid, and then I fall into the cycle of feeling stupid - not because of my original thoughts per se...I'm just reminded that I'm stupid, by the thoughts. At this. Stuff. Smart stuff. See does that make sense? No...no it doesn't because I'm stupid.

So then I talk myself around. You're not stupid. You've got all these other skills that some people just don't have. You're good at....formatting, fetching and organising stuff.

I just feel like it is all a bit beyond me, you know. I live in a world of big thinkers and I'm just a wee little thinker, who is trying to think...about smart stuff. Like them. And I can't quite catch up.

And I'm not sure what or where my place is, well in anything, and I'm unsettled and yuck. It has occurred to me that I use being busy (well I actually am busy) as a way to stop my brain ticking over about the important stuff. The stuff you can't control. The stuff that makes you sad. I'm pretty sad now just thinking about this, so I am confident I've just proven my point.

Kids - I'm going to make myself a deal. I'm going to stay keeping busy until the end of the year. And then I'll be brave and face it all head on.

PS - this post made my computer crash and I made a deal. If content was saved I'd post it. If not happy to keep it all between me and the mac. Turns out the universe wants me to unburden, sorry about that ♥

Dieci e mezzo

Have you been to the new restaurant in the AGL Building on Bunda Street Canberra?

There seems to be a bit of hype with an ex Otto chef in the kitchens and a schmick fitout. Maybe I was expecting too much, and it isn't fine dining, but more on the casual side? Either way, I don't think it is too much to ask to be seated before questioned about still or sparking water. Nor is it too much to ask for a bit of time to settle before the main appears. We only had a few minutes to graze on our order of olives before my steak came out! There also seemed to be a self service on the wine and obtaining the bill to pay. I don't know, when the most expensive main on the menu is $45 I think it is fair to expect a little more.

On the plus side my minute steak was wonderful, cooked perfectly with discs of herb butter and a smatter of tiny crisp potato cubes. Plus they do a roast chicken for two, which brought back fond memories of one of the best meals I've ever eaten at Allard in Paris. I don't think I could do the chicken (nothing could do Allard justice) but I'd like to go back to try a more casual breakfast, or lunch.

I took away all the star balls

Lanterns...by day and by night

Places in America - Oliver Jeffers

I got this print! It was given to me. As a gift. I LOVE IT!
It is a signed print of a hand painted map of America, by Oliver Jeffers. It has pins.

I once criss-crossed around America a long long time ago. We drove up and down and around and around and I'm going to use the pins that go with this print to mark the states we drove through on that trip. I'll nearly use all 51 pins. It was a big long trip.

Check out Oliver's work.

Balancing things out

Today I got a phone call from the boy - you know the one.

It was to say he was back and we should get together for my birthday. It made me sad and happy at the same time. But truth be told, maybe more sad.

Then I got home and there was an email from far away, with talk about tea and texas and stuff. That made me happy.

Dog Love

Sometimes the dog in the yellow house makes me so so cranky. He barks at birds, and taps taps taps when he wants you to play ball, and insists on barking at the possum every night.

And I scowl, and I yell and give cranky stares.

And this morning in the rush of the day I looked down, and there he was. With big brown eyes looking right into mine.

And I could tell with those eyes that he was saying that he loves me more than anything in the world.

And I felt sad and happy all at the same time.

Radio silence

It has been quiet around here hasn't it? My arm is sore from typing. I have to type in the day, and then to type in the night is bad, bad, bad! I'm trying to be good.

One of a few hundred important crushes

Wow - James Freud. I had no idea.

I thought I'd try and find my old high school smash hits diary to find the bits where I said I was in love with James. But I just got home after a long day, and a trip up a ladder into my dark roof space didn't come up with the goods - and with that I give up and will just go from memory.

It was somewhere in the 80's and I was in the living room in Austria watching MTV. We didn't have MTV in Australia then - so watching it was a big deal. The Models were on high rotation. I guess Out of Mind Out of Sight was big in Germany. So I'd stay up to watch. I thought James Freud was such a looker. At that time I was so into music. You know, in an opinionated, teenage kind of way. I was really passionate about Australian music, and whenever they would come on the TV I would beam so much with pride I kind of got the shivers. Weird, and hard to explain - but do you know what I mean? Anyway, I still love the Models and I have Models Media in my computer to listen to, from time to time. I'm listening to it now. RIP James.

Meet Parker

Macaron - Bus Depot Markets