referring to a declaration I made a little over a year ago. Number 8 in fact.
I made a rainbow cake, not the style of rainbow cake I had planned to make a year or so ago but an easier one both to make and to consume. I used the butter cake recipe from *that birthday cake book*, doubled it, split it in to a number of bowls, added a liberal amount of food dye to each bowl, stirred that food dye in very well, dolloped it into a bundt pan, baked it, covered it in yummy chocolate ganache (the secret to shiny ganache is a little dollop of a plain veggie oil) and then sprinkled gold sugar over the top.
It was well, it was smile material.
In progress shot.
One of the girls at work is a day younger than me, so to celebrate our birthdays we made each other a cake. Oh it was a day of cake last Monday at work.
This is the oh so so so yummy double layer chocolate cake she made me.
mmm rainbow cake.
Well I’m most certainly 25 now; I had a lovely weekend, went to Gerties on Saturday night with some friends, had breakfast at Sassafras on Sunday with N and then a browse at the Paddington Antique Centre, where I picked up the most amazing find; a Figgjo Lotte Salt Box/Cellar. I remember when I first saw one of these listed on ebay, I just was awe; the amazing shape, the placement of the designs, the everything. I also remember the price the auction finished, whoa that was some money. The next few times I saw one come up on ebay, the auction finished at similar prices. I can happily say that I picked up mine for a whole lot less.
Isn’t it beautiful? I’m not sure what I will put in it yet but I can assure it won’t be salt.
Yesterday I had a great day. It was a training day at work so no candidates and a chance to have lunch together as a department. I went to the orthodontist and got the news that I’ve been wanting to hear for the last nine months or so, it’s time to go see the prosthodontist, yay! I have an appointment on Oct 5, which will hopefully be an x-ray to confirm root placement and the like and that we can move forward with the implant procedure. Cross your fingers. It’s now week 9 at Uni which is hard to believe, it seems like just yesterday I was looking at my lecture notes for week 1 and thinking it sort of makes sense. I’m really looking forward to next year. When I got home from uni I was presented with the most amazing bunch of red, magenta and orange gerberas from one of my flatmates as belated birthday present. It’s gorgeous, I’ll have to take a photo later.
Now to to the meat of this post. 25 things that I wish to do/complete before I turn 26 next year.
- Be finished with orthodontic work.
- Challenge myself to take more thoughtful photos.
- Ride my bike more.
- Get a will.
- Get better with my practice of one thing in means one thing out for my belongings.
- Spend more time creating.
- Print and frame more photos.
- Bake a rainbow cake.
- Do more study.
- Go to the Drive In – hopefully the Wonga one if it re-opens in the next few months.
- Go media-free for at least 48hrs.
- Make marshmallows and honeycomb.
- Be more regular on my blog (gee, that sounds like an All-Bran ad).
- Grow my investments.
- Reduce the stack of clothes in my mending/alterations stack.
- Make my own tea blend.
- Make strawberry jam.
- Get fresh flowers more often.
- Write and comment more.
- Grow professionally.
- Get my routines started again – planning meals for the week and exercise.
- Read some more classics.
- Finish my granny square blanket.
- Make mulberry crumble or pie from the mulberries in the freezer.
- Turn 26
There it is, some things are small, some things not so, some things are little, something things require effort.
And we’ll end off with two books that I’ve been enjoying immensely at the moment. 50/60/70 : Iconic Australian Houses by Karen McCartney and The Iconic House by Dominic Bradbury.
Tomorrow I turn 25. As of tomorrow I am most certainly in my mid 20s. 25 it sounds so much more formal than 24.
For everything that the last 364 days have brought me, from the good, the bad, the ugly, the forgettable, the unforgettable, the amazing, the challenging, the one thing that I think will always be a hallmark of my 24th year is of course Pabbi dying. My 25th year starts to unfold tomorrow and as the year passes it will be interesting to see what it brings. I’ve got a number of things I want to complete/accomplish next year but mostly I’m here to live and to make the most whilst doing just that; living life.
and to move away from birthdays but onto happenings of the last week.
For the past week I’ve been literally overdosing on strawberries.
I am very pleased to announce that I got 80% for my accounting exam last week, it put me in the top 9% of the class, I aim to improve on that as the semester continues. The exam was Saturday morning and Saturday evening was Riverfire which we watched from a hill in Wooloowin. Oh sigh, we had 3, yes 3 dump and burns this year from the one plane. Oh the F-111 is one special plane.
Tonight after work N and I had “dinner” at the 40 Days and 40 Nights of Chocolate Buffet at the Bistro Allure. Oh I’m just recovering from chocolate and sugar overdose. I’ll go again in a couple of weeks with some of the girls from work and I’ve got a game plan worked out. The plan from which I shall not deviate is to get one piece at a time, eat that piece and then go back for more. mmmm chocolate ….
One of the many cases of goodies
N’s plate
My plate
This is one of the adorable presents I got from one of the girls at work today. A mini tea set. The perfect desk accessory for a tea fanatic like myself. I had received the little sugar pot at Easter and was told that I would get the rest of the present for my birthday. Total gold. The best thing is that the tea pot actually pours 
It’s a training day at work today so I am able to get in a wee bit later than usual. Today Grandad turns 90! We had his birthday party last weekend and it was such a treat. The weather was perfect, a fair swack of extended family turned up which was great for a catch-up and of course there was food!
Lawrence Pryce Stephenson, born 29 Jan 1920.
Grandad is Grandad and for all that he is, I quite treasure the time I spend with him. We typically go to The Farm, once a week to visit and have dinner etc.
This was the cake.
The week before when we were up, Mum asked Grandad what sort of cake he wanted, his answer was a plain fruit cake with no icing and that is what we had. I of course couldn’t let it go undecorated though! We used to play with this fishing rod and fishes when we were younger and spending time at The Farm. Grandad is a fisherman, not so much at all in recent years unfortunately as it is hard for him to keep steady on his feet in a boat.
Just like we have done in the past for other milestone birthdays, Mum had taped together 90 party poppers in bunches of fives. With a slight breeze in the air, they looked fantastic when they popped.
Grandad with streamers all over him.
Pabbi
Max and Ian
Jim – Such a Stephenson face!
Of course, whilst historically hailing from the Northern Rivers district we are a Bundy Ginger Beer family. 
I can tell you all since Grandad does not read this blog. Today he is having a surprise party in the shed with all the workers. The workers all call him Poppy, which is just so different from Grandad. There will be a big BBQ lunch and who knows what else.
Happy Birthday Grandad.
I had a bit of flex time up my sleeve so I had a Birthday Eve day off (also because I was taking cake to work for my birthday and I wanted cake on my birthday not on the day before or after). I slept in till 7am!!! I did some washing, took care of the 1.8kg hunk of Pancetta I picked up last week, replied to some emails and then I headed off into the city. First off I collected my ticket for the Brandenburg concert and then I went to GOMA and checked out the Picasso exhibit at last (it closes on Sunday), that was everything I thought it was going to be and more. It was a really well presented exhibit. Getting a chance to see the works of Matisse, Cézanne, Rousseau, Renoir and all the other pieces that Picasso had collected presented alongside his own work was really good. At the GOMA shop I picked up one of the spilt pain teacup sets, it looks so good (I will take a photo of it later)
Then I headed into the city and made a stop at Lush to buy my birthday present to myself and had a wander round the shops and I made the best discovery in Mountain Designs. Keen now makes/sells bags! Oh they had some cool bags. So cool!
After a bit more of a wander and a visit to Blue Cats for some chocolate goodies, I headed out of the city and home and then onto my parents home. On the way I stopped at the flower market and picked up some flowers.
Pabbi cooked skonsur for dinner which was quite enjoyable, it has been sooo sooo long since I have had skonsur. I got to the kitchen table at dinner and there was a package waiting at my place. I was not expecting any presents at all as the deal is after you turn 21 you don’t get birthday presents any more. I opened the package after tea and it was pack of hankies Nice lady hankies. I had commented to Mum a couple of weeks ago that I hadn’t been able to find nice hankies. Now I have some After that I cooked my birthday cake (pretty much this recipe, photo coming soon) for work today as the oven at their place is just a little bit better than the oven we have at the flat.
Then it was home time to watch The Hollowmen(man oh man I love that show) and then bed so I would be ready for a busy as usual day at work today
Yesterday we headed up to 589, commonly known as Glasshouse Mountains Lookout or Forestry Lookout 589 for Birthday Eve BBQ Tea for Grandad who turned 88 today.
I made a pavlova for dessert, my first! I then ate a whole lot of pavlova for dessert. Pavlova isn’t exactly the most friendly dessert for a 1 day shy of 88 diabetic….
Eating a BBQ dinner.
I got a chance to play with my GNDs taking this shot of the soon to set sun.
Prior to heading up to 589 we did the usual lazing round the farm on an arvo, reading, watching the birds, photographing etc etc.
There were a few birds that were having a ball splashing their tail feathers in the water and of course making for a good photo.
And of course a Galah.
Loose Here by Kain
