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March 1, 2008

music, food and photos.

Yet another post condensing most of a weeks activity into one blog post. I am so behind. I have dreams of posting a blog sooner after an event but I just get sidetracked. I have a whole week where I actually did things to blog about/process photos. Sunday I was at two concerts, Tuesday I baked, Wednesday Andrea and I went to the movies, Thursday I went to photograph Clap Your Hands Say Yeah at the Zoo, Friday I went out to dinner with Andrea and some of her friends, this morning I went into the city to watch the spires lifted into place at St John’s Cathedral. This arvo I went to the movies. Quite a week and now I am busy catching up.

I probably should start off with Sunday.
I had one goal for the arvo and that was to see Yeo and The Fresh Goods at Rics and that I did. Right next door at Kaliber, Nightillion were doing there Sunday afternoon sessions/jam thing. Fusing all sorts of musical goodness together, it was nice. Meanwhile at Rics, Mr Laneous (pron. similar to miscellaneous) were taking care of getting the arvo started. A wander round The Valley and then it was time for Yeo and Co to fill the stage at Rics and play to a bar full of Shiny Happy People. I was fancy free and relatively footloose or really it was a Sunday where we weren’t’ going to The Farm as Mum had taken Grandad road tripping and left us all at home. It is a catch 22 of sorts. I would love to go more of the Sunday arvo session at Rics/Powerhouse/etc but Sunday arvos/night is the time we spend with Grandad and I am smart enough to know that those days are a whole lot more numbered than Sunday arvo sessions at Rics. It was so great to see Yeo play live. Tom and Tiana were outside and asked me what sort of music Yeo plays, I described as sort of electro reggae, I much prefer the three myspace genres; French pop / Punk / Reggae. Much better.

Yeo, (click image for the gig gallery).

Random Valley Shot. 56/366

Sunday evening it was the Creative Vibes shindig at The Troubie, not much of a turnout but it was still good, the couches were “pulled” from the walls and arranged in a few more social friendly rows near the stage, made it feel even more like a lounge room than it normally does. The bill for the night was Tess Henderson (what a voice), Tom Woodward (see x previous posts on Tom) and Justin Grounds (technically interesting but I was too tired to appreciate it). The light seemed to be at half strength to what it normally is at the Troubie which was a bit bleh for me.

Tess’s piano player, (click image for the gig gallery).

Random Desk Shot.

Monday. 57/366.
Yep Christmas Cards are still up, it is only February (when this photo was taken) after all.

Tuesday. 58/366.
I was really tempted not to take a photo on Tuesday, was just so tempted to chucking this whole project in but I took a photo of my saeng cover, I love those flowers dearly. Yay for Ikea.

Wednesday night. 59/366.
Andrea and I went for fish (Barramundi-Andrea, Calamari-Me) and chips and a movie at Portside (Hamilton). We had 1hr 45mins between when the fish and chip shop closed and when our movie started. Granted we probably didn’t leave the fish and chip shop till a good 25mins after it closed, it meant we had quite a bit of time to laze around by the river talking, laughing, chatting and playing. The movie we went to see was Charlie Wilson’s War, which was not as funny as I thought it would be.

Thursday night I went to photograph Clap Your Hands Say Yeah and Manchester Orchestra at the Zoo. I met Alain Bouvier, that was a laugh. I started talking to one of the other photographers, he said he was French etc etc, I asked if he knew Ange Takats, he said of course and we laughed, we knew of each other through Ange, that was a laugh. Music wise I preferred Manchester Orchestra over CYHSY, I left shortly after our three songs were up for CYHSY. I think that explains it.

Manchester Orchestra, (click image for the gig gallery).

Drinking Receptacles. 60/366

Friday was a hell of a day at work, just never seemed like I was going to get my work done. I got it all done though.
Friday night I went out to dinner at Sitar with Andrea and some of her high school friends who I had met round her parties before.
80% of us had the deluxe banquet. I was glad I wore a dress as I wasn’t unbuckling a top button like the others. Oh it was good, of the four curries we picked, the only one which we all disliked was the Bengal Prawn Masala most likely because the prawns were like rubber. The Lamb Korma was oh my and don’t get me started on the Peshwari Naan. I could eat that for breakfast, lunch and tea for the rest of my life.

That brings us to today, Saturday which will very much be another blog post as that has photos, photos, photos of the spires going on St John’s.

February 25, 2008

yesterday was yesterday, today will be yesterday, tomorrow will be today.

Yesterday, I went to Campos and didn’t get a coffee. I got a iced chocolate instead. It was a spur of the moment trip. One girl, five guys (they all had coffee). Where are all the girls with cameras?

I went to Rics, for a Sunday arvo session. It was quite comfortably filled, and every single person had this smile on their face.

I sat round the dimly lit Troubie whilst it was bright sunshine outside. That was weird. Waiting for people to turn up.

I watched a group of people turn the Troubie into a lounge room and listened to a few songs.

I shook my head at boy who has hair like an Icelandic sheep and smirked with a girl who I should always be sitting down when talking to.

Today though.
I set the alarm for an extra 15 minutes.

My lunch was two matching containers of tupperware, one with a chopped up mango (honey gold thank you) and the other with grapes (green please).

I am reading Kabul in Winter. Which must be the fifth, I think, book on Afghanistan post 2001 that I have read in the past few weeks. It is really good to see how a lot of the main people and history are written in the different books.

I have numerous photos that I could illustrate this post with but strangely I have no desire to put photos with these words.

I watched the last episode of Alias season 1. I had forgotten there were only five seasons, I kept on thinking there were seven and I had the timeline stretched out a lot longer in my mind.

I just found out that one of the girls from high school who I have probably kept the most contact with works in a building across the street from where I work. We catch the bus from the same stop each afternoon. weird.

I haven’t taken my photo for today yet.

Tomorrow.
I have a bunch of kids enlisting. That means I get to wrap med docs in brown paper (it was that, not the view that cinched me taking the job). Every week or so it is like Christmas. Wrapping all those “presents”.

I will make biscuits when I get home.

I will wake up at 6am and get out of bed at 6:03am.

I will watch an hour of something trashy on TV and shake my head the entire time at myself for watching it.

I well who knows what else I will do because tomorrow is tomorrow.

February 11, 2008February 11, 2008

Hot Wok

6:20am Sunday Morning. I was laying in bed. The phone rings, should I get up and get it or let Pabbi get it, I think. Ahh stuff it, more likely to be for him or Mum then for me. But it was for me! On the other end was Leanne feeling quiet bad for ringing so early but she had an offer for me. Leanne and her sister had been given a voucher to do a cooking class (Hot Wok) at the Spirit House up at Yandina, her sister couldn’t go and Leanne has just found out that the replacement her sister had organised couldn’t come either. Did I want to go? Of course I did. A quick shower later, breakfast and flat ironed hair later it was time to go. A pleasant drive up to Yandina, a very nice class, a very yummy class, a poke round the setting taking a few photos and then it was time to make the trip home again. So happy to have had the chance to take the class.

It was a fantastic class, really enjoyed it. What I enjoyed the most was those little tricks, like deep frying basil leaves for a garnish – soo cool looking, they go really glassy and pretty darn tasty too or making fried shallots. What other little tricks were there mmm. Also enjoyed the time spent at the beginning of the class going through all the ingredients, getting the chance to taste them/smell them etc.

The dishes we made were –

1) Dry Red Curry of Cuttlefish with Wild Ginger
This was fun, the Cuttlefish can easily be swapped out with squid. Really liked this and it looked good on the plate too.

2) Braised Pork with Sweet Soya & Cinnamon
This was another really really yummy dish, we didn’t use a wok but actually just a large pot. Diced pork neck/scotch fillets were used and were quite tender by the end, the spices used were star anise, ginger and cinnamon, oh the flavour was so nice.

3) Sweet & Sour Stir Fry Chicken
This was a good dish, a lot more mellow in taste than the other dishes, which meant when we were sitting down to lunch, it was the least popular. Though it had pineapple in, big hunks of it. Anything with pineapple in is going to go down well in my tummy.

4) Stir Fried Beef with Roast Chilli Paste
This was one of my favourites along with everyone else in the class. Stir fry sliced rump steak in a cumin/coriander/fish sauce marinade. Then fried in the wok with chilli paste/jam (that stuff is so tasty), oyster sauce, fish sauce and just before serving some Thai Basil leaves were tossed through. The sauce was so thick and yummy.

5) Stir Fried Chinese Broccoli (Gai-Lan) with Asian Mushrooms and Oyster Sauce
Nothing like some stir fried Asian Greens with a nice sauce 😀

some of the food.

Leanne with the Sweet & Sour Chicken

Leanne

Bamboo

Hibiscus

February 5, 2008

The three Ts and I

Thursday arvo, Tom and Tiana/Tiana and Tom arrived in town after making the drive from Canberra. The Hotel Chelsea show of Tom, Ange and Cam was going to be playing Joes Waterhole in Eumundi on Saturday night. Thursday night though we hung out at Thor’s, I bang up my ankle, we laugh etc.

Saturday, Thor was working. I spent the day resting my foot to conserve as much energy as possible before the marathon of Saturday night started. Tom and Tiana went up early in the afternoon, they are from Canberra…they had places to explore. Thor and I made the trip up after Thor finished work. No trip happens without a saga, the day before Thor’s car broke down, this meant that she was bussing to work. A bus trip that takes the better part of 90 mins. I had a new car and a tank full of petrol so I drove south and we rendezvoused at a bus stop. We made it back to Thor’s and then after getting organised we were back on the road a while later than we had originally planned but most importantly we were all going to be up there for the show. We had a really good run up the highway and it was only a little more than an hour to get up to Eumundi. Talking, eating fruit and chocolate, making the most of the mini-road trip.

I had a great night in hanging out with the three Ts and Ange, talking, laughing, whatever else we do. Musically and Photographically I didn’t get into the night till Tom played. Mostly a case of wanting to be able to enjoy Tom’s set 100% which meant that I couldn’t give anywhere close to that for Ange and Cam. I had to take photos because how could I not. I see photos everywhere I look, bung ankle or no bung ankle I was going to take photos. However, there was pain. Pain that made it difficult to get into the positions that I normally find myself in when taking photos. I only took a few photos of Cam and Ange. I did however take up a film camera and a roll of Fujipress 1600, it will come with me for the next few gigs, really looking to see how it fares. Cam and Ange played first. Both played good sets. I really can’t tell you much more than that though 🙁 due to my brain not been fully aware of the happenings.

Cam Elliot

Ange Takats

Then it was Tom. and Tiana giving some backing vocals for a few songs. Lots of new songs. Good Stuff. There was one song, it was really new and I was listening to and thought to myself, that is the song. The song that will most likely stick to everyone who was in that room. I mentioned it to Thor afterwards and she said the same thing. I can’t tell you what it was called or even what it was really about due to my brain and the fact that it does not like to remember songs.

Tom Woodward

Then the three joined together for a Ramblin Jack Elliott song and of course I Shall Be Released. The crowd went wild.

Rest of the photos are in a gallery here.

Post gig chatter, enjoying a few moments out on the footpath, before we headed to the cars and started the trip south.

Before we knew it, we pulling over just south of the Pine River for Thor to jump into Tianaâ€™s car and to go back to her house and there were hugs and laughs and plans made.

Speaking of Thor’s house/flat/home, I must share this photo of her ceiling. The plaster on her ceiling is raked. I swear every time I have visited, I tilt my head back and say your ceiling is sooo cool.

This is sort of what my ankle looks like at the moment – the bruise is a whole lot darker in real life than it looks in the photo. I also have a bruise on the inside of my ankle as well. oh joy. No it is going good, less swelling, less pain and haven’t popped any pills today.

January 24, 2008

Jan 24

Andrea and I got together tonight for some retail time. Well really time spent socialising at Chermie and not really buying anything.
I am after a pair of black pants. It sounds so simple. Anything but. I want black, 100% cotton or similar, real pockets, nice cut. I tried on pants after pants after pants. There were one pair that were sort of ok, probably about a 7/10 on the like factor. I came home pantless. The problem is that I have a pair of stoney camel Country Road pants that I got off the sale racks at Myer a little while ago. I love them, decent pockets, Italian cotton and most of all a really nice cut. This of course means that any pants I try on are held up against them. Do they have that same feel? Do they fit as well as the Holy Grail pants to? The answer was no, it always seems to be no. I am thinking that perhaps I need to make a trip to a tailor in SE Asia with said pants and ask for X copies in X different fabrics. Moving away from my tale of looking for that perfect pair of black pants.

One of the things Andrea had for me was this CD (click image for the track listing etc).

Andie knows that I have a slight thing for covers. I now have 7 or 8 Beatles cover albums. This is a really good album, feels very Sunday arvo BBQ. A more alt, slightly folk, with a hint of Americana style Beatles, it works.

and some photos.

today.
Backlit Leaves, aren’t they so pretty?

yesterday.
some cool yarn.

the day before.
Made in India. My most hippy skirt. I picked up this skirt many trips round the sun ago for a school dance. I never ended up wearing it to the school dance. It has sat at the bottom of my wardrobe all that time, with me not feeling flowers in my hair enough to pull off the skirt. I went to a party the other night and decided to wear it. Now I very much feel flowers in my hair enough to wear it.

January 15, 2008January 15, 2008

three up

Last night I went to catch a 9pm session of Atonement with Thor. There were four other people in the cinema with us, when the movie finished and we walked out, the others had disappeared. weird. Sweetness was the choc tops we got. Made at the cinema, the sticker on the package cheerfully proclaimed, they were choc tops from outer space. a real ice cream cone (as in conical), real chocolate instead of that weird tasting stuff but what really topped it was the ice-cream. I had after dinner mint and it was a nice pale green in colour and full of flavour. Atonement was good, I liked it, well I liked the first 95%. The ending was such a cop out though. Now I know you can’t always have happy endings but if you want to have a sad/angry ending, how they did it was not the way.

Popcorn, that was actually hot for once.

When I was at QAG on the weekend, I picked up this little beauty in the QAG store for 40% off, because two weeks into January, who wants a 2008 diary? I do! A limited edition 2008 Moleskine diary plus a cahier.

Sunday; Pabbi, Matthew and I went to the bookfest. They brought home a wall of books each. I on the other hand brought home a couple of books that I had been looking for and a stack of Delicious and Australian Gourmet Traveller magazines, 15 for $3, bargain.