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I have to share something

I am 22. Well 22 point something.
For Christmas. I got a few books and a few CDs.
One of those CDs was a box set. 3 CDs of Peter Combe goodness. I have no shame admitting that. I want to know why Peter Combe is not playing at Big Day Out. The man is selling out venues across Australia. Could you imagine him at BDO? 50,000 plus people, many slightly inubriated singing along to Newspaper Mama, that would be magical. If I was booking a festival, he would be one of the first acts on my list.

This morning it is raining. What did I do after waking up? Why play Rain of course.
and the rain keeps tumbling down, listen it’s a wonderful sound. If you want to have a listen press the play button below.
[audio:Peter Combe-Rain.mp3]

The other CDs were from The Mountain Goats and Brindle that evens it out a bit.

Books.
Well one of them was instructing me on how to be an American Serviceman in Australia in 1942. I now know everything I need to know about Australia from the point of view of the Special Service Division, Services of Supply, USAF. It is 54 pages of pure gold. Put out as part of a series by the Bodleian Library, others in the series include Instructions for Instructions for British Servicemen in France and American Servicemen in Britain. Gold!

I particularly like this section.

Australia’s Democratic Traditions.
In many ways Australia is the most democratic government in the world. Certainly in the short space of 150 years, it has made many notable contributions to social legislation in which it has pioneered. it set up one of the first central banks in the world. Also the nation pioneered in social security and workmen’s compensation laws and developed a unique and workable system of industrial arbitration courts which have helped reduce strikes and disputes to a minimum. p.39

or

Australian Songs and Singing.
Australians, like Russians, are natural group singers. It’s one of the great differences you’ll notice between American camps and Australian – the singing. p.21

One thing I have noted is that throughout the book they continually point out that Australia is one of the greatest democracies of the world. 😀 well yeah.

At the back there is a section on Australian Slang. “Australians can give us a head start and still win”.
I will now use the listed slang to illustrate the bog standard New Years Eve party.
I might go to a shivoo (party) where the plonk (cheap wine) will abound, some people will get shikkered (drunk). It will be ding dong (swell) though. It won’t be a beano (gala affair) but I might be a bit crook (sick) in the morning.

It is a cracker of a book.

One of the other books I got is a cracker read. Titled A Teacup in a Storm: an explorer’s guide to life, it is set out like an instruction manual giving me advice on how to go about organising a grand expedition as well as how not to go about organising such an expedition. The sections include Getting There, Getting Along, Getting Started etc. The book was La Dolce Vita by Isabel Coe.

It is still raining. but now the Old 97’s are playing instead.

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in the kitchen

A lifelong investment Pasta

Today I spent the day off and on in the kitchen, just having fun. Mixing and matching flavours. Listening to the radio, watching the wind outside blow and swoop all over the yard. The wind that we have at the moment is something alright. Last night I made a batch of Tomato/Capsicum Pesto. So so so so so yummy. Today I made pasta for uno. Yep 90g flour, 10g semolina, 1 egg = pasta for one. Mainly it was pasta for one because I rolled it out with a rolling pin and well I enjoy making pasta but hand rolling pasta is a whole lot more intensive than with a pasta maker. I had planned on having it for tea tonight with some anchovies, mascarpone, bit of basil and a bit of sun dried tomatoes. That can wait for tea another night. Instead for tea. I had a brothy soup of sorts. As we do every year we have a smoked leg of sheep (it is meant to be a leg of mutton but in reality it ends up a leg of lamb), every year it gets hacked to pieces till it gets left in the fridge with just a bit of meat left on the bones. Today I decided that I would make a broth. I grabbed my shiny new Le Creuset and set to work, sweated down an onion, a few cloves of garlic and then in went some carrots and beans. After they had softened a bit, the bones went in, covered it with water, put a few bay leaves and peppercorns in and left it. It simmered away for a good hour or two, then I threw in some chopped up chorizo to add to the smokey flavour of the sheep. A good while later the rest of the meat had fallen off the bones and I now had a very fragrant, wholesome brothy soup. Toasted a few slices of bread and mmm dinner was nice 😀 especially soaking up the liquid with the bread 😀

Of course I finished off the last of my pesto the other day so I made a new lot which was a blend of Lemon Basil, Greek Basil and Sweet Basil. I love pesto. Just so darn tasty. There is nothing quite like the smell of basil.

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Benazir Bhutto

I was woken for the 2nd time this morning with my father telling me that Benazir had been shot. I still can’t comprehend it.
My alarm had just gone off. I walked into the hall. Pabbi walked from the lounge room and said “Benazir Bhutto has been killed”. It took a millisecond for the brain to plug in and process the information. I don’t know what I said. I got in the shower and wept. Throughout the day I have weept as I have listened to the radio. Now as I type this I am weeping. I knew from the moment she arrived back in Pakistan the odds were stacked against her life, she knew it too. I like to be optimistic about life, politics, all those big things, I was wishing so dearly that the mechanisms would click into place and that the engine that is Pakistan would start to run in tune again. Tonight looking at tomorrow I don’t know how they are going to get in tune any time soon. I would like to think that her assassination would be a wake up call to the people of Pakistan that this is not the path they want to go down. I want to stay optimistic, in this day and age can you be anything else if you want to live the following day? I just hope so dearly that Pakistan does not implode, that out of this terrible event a ray of light emerges for Pakistan.

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Christmas Morning Tea

Morning Tea

Morning Tea on Christmas Day is always a sugar filled event; rum balls, apricot balls, vanilla rings, lebkuchen, loftkökurs. Then a touch of savoury with pineapple dip and salmon dip.

It is also a time for all of Grandmum’s good china to come out. I think Grandmum would roll over in her proverbial grave if we used anything but the good china (proverbial because she was cremated). The glasses are one of the most treasured pieces in the good cupboard, my aunt brought them back from Venice many years ago, it does feel quite refined drinking lemonade out of those glasses 😀

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Christmas Ornaments

2000 Christmas Shooting Star

I was given this star by my host family in Germany where I spend Christmas 2002. It well actually Germany in general gave me the Christmas ornament bug. I could quite easily decorate our entire tree with my ornaments. I received a very cute little star this year from the Oxfam shop and I plan on getting the 2007 Swarovski star in the next few days.

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6 past 6

It is now 6 past 6 on Christmas Eve. Mum is in the kitchen preparing dinner.
The tree is now decorated and the presents are under the tree.
I am sitting here listening to a mix of Dar Williams, Joni Mitchell and Eva Cassidy. Pabbi has not yet broken out the Mahalia Jackson, possibly because the record player is downstairs connected to his computer. I have actually just added some Mahalia into my playlist.

We talked to Karl for a while this afternoon which was really nice. Yay for Skype! I have had a headset for a while now but the mic port on my old computer didn’t work. It certainly works on the new computer. We have now talked to Karl twice in the past couple of days. It is almost like he is living down south which is why he doesn’t come over for tea or home for Christmas instead of up north.

It would be nice to have Christmas in Iceland one year though (Mum, Pabbi. hint, hint). Next year looks like it could be a very nice Christmas though as one of my brothers and his family are planning to have an Australian Christmas.

I have been going through my photos from a concert the other night, which at this rate will probably be up some time after Christmas.

I am about to go set the table and then it is the waiting game till it gets dark enough to light the candles and eat dinner (another reason why daylight savings is bad for Queensland, I don’t want to have to wait till 8pm on Christmas Eve to have dinner).