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Wednesday, December 30th, 2009
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11:48 pm - Too darn hot...
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Yes, I know. I'm posting constantly this evening.
It's because I'd like to go to bed but it's too hot. And I'm too tired to concentrate on a book. And if I watch anything on the TV, I'm far too far away from the weather site, which means I can't check it every ten minutes to see if it has *finally* got below 30°C. Which, actually, it just has, but 29.6° is still too hot for sleeping.
Too hot.
Too tired for this.
Also, hot + tired = headache, which doesn't seem fair.
In related news, Melbourne tried to kill my beans today. They aren't doing too badly near ground level, but all the ones climbing the trellis seem shrivelled up. This is very sad. My strawberries and beetroot also don't look especially thrilled by the weather, and I think my capsicum plants are about to give up the ghost (they've been contemplating suicide for some time now, and I think today was the final straw).
On the other hand, my zucchini, pumpkins and melons appear to be utterly ecstatic about the weather. I know what I'm planting in my Zone of Death next year.
Tomorrow, we're getting a shade umbrella. And at some point in the next week or two, I'm going to get some lengths of wood and some canvas and construct a moveable shade roof to go over that garden bed in this sort of weather.
Did I mention that it is too hot?
Also, if it gets up past 40°C tomorrow, we have nobody but ![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) lokicarbis to blame. He said at least three times in Melbourne's hearing that it was only going to be 35°, that it wasn't going to be *that* hot, and so forth. He, of all people, should know better.
I, on the other hand, have pretty much guaranteed chilly weather on Friday with the purchase of my beautiful sundress, which is definitely hot weather wear. And I note that the forecast for Friday has became a lot cooler and rainer after I bought that dress.
See, that's how you get a cool change. Do things that would make it mildly inconvenient or annoying. Forget your umbrella. Buy solar panels or outdoor furniture. Invite people around to move your washing line. But *don't* buy water tanks, and for heavens sake *don't* tell Melbourne what she is and isn't capable of. She's just as perverse as the rest of us, and will decide to suddenly heat up to 43° in the middle of the night just because someone told her she couldn't.
(which, incidentally, she can. I know she can. I've experienced it. So she doesn't need to prove anything to me, because I know she can be just that revolting and probably worse if she puts her mind to it, which, on the whole, I would prefer she didn't, but I'm certainly, definitely, absolutely not doubting than she can. Mind you, I've never seen her produce snow or hail during the night after a 37°C day. That might be a bit extreme even for Melbourne, don't you think?)
current mood:  hot
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10:22 pm - Picture books!
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I've been looking at picture books today (yes, as well as dresses and, incidentally, cross stitch designs).
Did you know there was a children's picture book called The Wonky Donkey? How can anyone resist a title like that? It's by a chap called Craig Smith, and is one of those poems which adds a line each page - so the donkey starts off with three legs as a wonky donkey, but continues on with one eye (a winky wonky donkey), listening to country music (a honky-tonky winky wonky donkey) and so forth. I cannot tell you how amusing I find this. It even comes with a CD of the song!
There's also a rather stunning book called The Skull Alphabet Book by Paollotta and Masiello, which is particularly fun because it never actually tells you what any of the letters are for... it just shows you these beautifully drawn skulls and says 'A is for... ' and then gives you hints. My favourite page is T: 'T is for... it is not a lion or a bear. Oh my! This ferocious carnivore is the largest cat in the world. If you see one of these, RUN, but it can run faster than you.' Also, apparently it has american presidents hidden in the pictures. And it has a warning upfront: 'This book contains the alphabet. If you are afraid of the alphabet, don't read any further.'
Altogether amusing, and I may have to get a copy for DourNewZealandPostdoc's children... especially the one who found the (decaying) bird carcass in our garden a year or so back and started evolving plans to get the ants to eat off the rest of the flesh so he'd have the skeleton, and so forth...
The other book that I have completely fallen in love with recently is a book called On The Night You Were Born, by Nancy Tillman. It reads to me like a secular Christmas carol (perhaps it's the time of year); she uses rather lovely poetic phrasing to talk about all the world celebrating the night of a child's birth - but she also has science in there! Gravity promises to hold on to the child tightly and never let him/her spin off into space, the trees deep in the forest create oxygen for the child to breathe, the sun promises to circle the earth each day and provide a new sunrise, and so forth. And the conclusion makes me go weepy every time I read it (which is four or five times so far - I bought it for little Gordon, but I had to keep rereading it before giving it to him). So very sweet.
Of course, having said all that, I'm now eyeing off the wonky donkey again and considering which CD player to play it on. I wonder if it can possibly be as bad as 'The Wedding' by Prieto (an earworm of some distinction), or worse, that dreadful 'Christmas time, Mistletoe and Wine Children singing Christian rhyme' song, which Andrew made the mistake of singing two lines of to me once, but which is an earworm of such unnatural potency that not only do I keep singing it by accident (and occasionally, I confess, on purpose, because I am a slightly evil Catherine), but when we heard an entirely different melodic section of the song in a shop today I instantly recognised it for what it was and found myself singing along...
current mood:  cheerful
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7:58 pm - Dress!
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So, I'm singing in this wedding on Friday, which I am developing a very bad attitude about (for a number of reasons, not the least of which is that I very much doubt we're actually going to get paid after all, since the person allegedly organising it first negotiated our wages *down*, and then promised to fix it but didn't actually send an invoice... and still hasn't sent it as of today...). But it's going to be 30+ degrees and yet again I'm faced with the problem of needing something nice to wear to a wedding that isn't black (because you just can't wear black to a wedding, it's bad luck).
Anyway, I found something. In fact, I found a Dress.
It's beautiful. The fabric looks like van Gogh's irises or something - blues and greens and yellows in a somewhat impressionistic manner, the skirt is long and flowing and looks ideal for skipping through the hills singing about the fact that they are alive with the sound of music, the bodice is just the right depth to be neither excessively cleavagey nor so high it looks silly with my pendant, and above all it FITS.
This is the really exciting part, actually. I can count on one hand the number of dresses I've bought since I was eighteen. If I go to the number of dresses I've bought in the last seven years, then I could count it on two fingers. And that would include this one.
It isn't that I don't like dresses, you understand. I love them. I always try them on, and I always despair because I have an hourglass figure - admittedly, a large hourglass, but I had the same problem when I was thin - and anything that fits over my bust goes nowhere near my waist.
This doesn't really have a waist - it's more empire line - and it wants a bust to hang right, which I certainly do have. And it's so pretty!
Best of all, I actually feel reasonably confident that it does look good on me, because I actually went shopping with other people for the first time in at least a decade, and after objecting to everything else I tried (and trying a few things on themselves), we were all unanimous that this was a glorious dress, and my helpful co-shoppers were unanimous that it actually didn't stop being gorgeous when I put it on (another frequent problem).
So now I have a dress. Which I must *not* wear before the wedding from hell, because I don't want anything bad to happen to it.
It is truly a thing of beauty and a joy forever.
And I'm set for the next few summer weddings... assuming I can resist the urge to wear it every single day until it falls to bits...
current mood: excited
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| Tuesday, December 29th, 2009
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11:32 pm - Brief review
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I forgot to mention that I've recently finished reading a highly enjoyabl novel called Soulless, written by Gail Carriger.
It's a Victorian, possibly steampunk (I'm fairly sure steampunk, but since I am unclear on the definition I don't want to mislead anyone), vampire-and-werewolf-ridden, comedy of manners, romance novel.
With parasols.
I don't quite know how to write about it. It is absolutely not the sort of thing I would normally pick up - I avoid paranormals like the plague - but I loved it so much that I wanted to reread it immediately on finishing it. The heroine, Alexia Tarabotti has no soul, in a very literal sense (which is not the same as having no heart or no emotions, though I rather like the way a side character thinks to himself that her clothing is just a little bit *too* precisely in accordance with style, and then more or less shrugs and goes, well, you know, she is soulless... ), and she is magnificently pragmatic and self-possessed, and definitely likes her food. The hero, a werewolf, is the first werewolf I've met in a romance novel who didn't annoy the hell out of me (I did say I don't read paranormals). Though I liked his beta even more.
Actually, you know, about the most useful thing I can do, I think, is paste the blurb here and comment that this book more than lived up to it.
Alexia Tarabotti is laboring under a great many social tribulations. First, she has no soul. Second, she's a spinster whose father is both Italian and dead. Third, she is being rudely attacked by a vampire to whom she has not been properly introduced! Where to go from there? From bad to worse apparently, for Alexia accidentally kills the vampire, and the appalling Lord Maccon (loud, messy, gorgeous, and werewolf) is sent by Queen Victoria to investigate. With unexpected vampires appearing and expected vampires disappearing, everyone seems to believe Alexia responsible. Can she figure out what is actually happening to London's high society? Will her soulless ability to negate supernatural powers prove useful or just plain embarrassing? Who is the real enemy, and do they have treacle tart?
Really, how could you not want to read it? I know this isn't much of a review, but this is a book that made me very happy. It's clever and witty and charming (if occasionally a trifle self-conscious in its use of clever language, though it's so delightful I have to forgive any flaws at once), the characterisation is charming, the plot is clever, the romance is sweet, the villains entirely disturbing, the comedy very funny indeed, and Alexia's mother appalling. Though really, I just fell for Alexia on page one and never looked back. I hope you'll give it a try.
(look who still isn't organising food for Shakespeare on Sunday. Bad Catherine!)
current mood: happy
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10:55 pm - Home alone, and beetroot??
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I have the house to myself! This is very rare, because while I go out fairly regularly - to work, to choir, etc - while Andrew stays home, the reverse is less true. And while I love my Andrew very much, I am a Catherine who likes a spot of solitude now and then, so this time on my own is rather delicious.
Of course, I'm mostly doing exactly what I would be doing if he were here, I suspect - gardening, cooking, practicing my music for the Insane Catholic Wedding on Friday (seriously, who gets married on New Year's Day? And why didn't I realise from the start that anyone who did want to get married on new year's day would be the sort of person who drives you absolutely crazy with bad catholic music and insanely disorganised and demanding behaviours that only get worse as the wedding approaches?), reading, planning food for the next Shakespeare, feeling bad about not tidying or washing up but not actually doing either of those things, and so forth. I'm just doing them more quietly. Also, because Andrew isn't here to turn up his nose at it, I got to have my absolute favourite dinner, which I haven't had in over a year - chicken breast coated in flour and cooked incredibly slowly in butter, accompanied by potatoes and carrots roasted with garlic and rosemary and sage and olive oil, and tomatoes, capsicums, red onions and zucchini roasted with oregano, balsamic vinegar and brown sugar. A feast! There's no way I'd ever get Andrew to eat it, so it normally just isn't worth the trouble, but oh, it is so very delicious! Also, it's probably very bad for me, but hey, I haven't had it in over a year, so I reckon I'm allowed.
Today's gardening has been quite fascinating. My stevia seedlings all died in the recent hot weather, but my beans are going strong, my zucchini are considering flowers, my strawberries are producing flowers and are beginning to set fruit, my pumpkin and melon plants are getting big and considering whither they wish to ramble, my basil is going nuts, my capsicums are surviving, though not very enthusiastically, my carrots are definitely looking like carrot seedlings, my tomatoes mostly have flowers and, in some cases, fruit, and my beetroot are getting so big that I'm trying to figure out how you can tell when they are ready to harvest, because I suspect at least one of them is. Also, I have at least one self-sown tomato seedling and at least three self-sown ruby chard seedlings, one of which I had to remove, because it was growing right next to my most fragile tomato seedling.
All of this is incredibly exciting. My track record with basil is that it dies when I so much as look at it, and I've never managed to convince a strawberry plant to produce more than about four strawberries. I've managed to get tomatoes to crop before, but everything else is new to me. I've never grown a vegetable from seed. And the beetroot is really exciting, because not only are the leaves big and floppy, in one case I can actually see what looks like the shoulders of a beetroot sticking out of the ground (I covered it up with a bit more earth, just in case)! I've never grown a root vegetable before, but I have a feeling that might be the sign I'm looking for. How *do* you know when root vegetables are ready, anyway? Does anyone know?
In other news, I'm still being bemused by a conversation I had recently in which I was informed that I have a very strong personality and moreover exude a sort of confidence that apparently discourages people from trying to dictate to me and sends a clear signal that there is no point trying to get me to change. This is rather surprising, as I do not feel at all confident or sure of myself in most circumstances and was fairly certain I exuded an air of someone who will be walked all over, on the whole. I mean, yes, I will organise people if nobody else is doing so, but if someone else is feeling bossier and is doing a reasonable job, I'm not going to argue. Actually, that's probably it right there, because if I don't think they are doing a good job I probably do tend to take over.
Food for thought, anyway. And it does go some way to explaining why my mother backed down so very fast when I disagreed with her (about something pertaining to me and my job) in that conversation after choir the other day. That's never happened before, and I nearly got whiplash. Do I really come across as that scary?
...
... I sort of like the idea that I might...
...
... I am so excited about that beetroot!!
(see, that's not scary at all)
current mood:  surprised
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| Saturday, December 26th, 2009
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8:22 pm - Christmas
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Yep, definitely had Christmas. And a very nice one too, though I am now in the early holiday slump phase, so describing anything coherently isn't within my abilities just at present.
Mind you, the bit where I got to bed at 3am, was woken by lots of sirens about an hour later, and then got a phone call at 8am asking if we were alright because apparently there was a major fire in our street (a long way down our street, which is why I went back to sleep after the sirens, presumably)... was not how I would choose to start future Christmas Days.
Still, I'm glad to note that my Christmas cracker poetry has been generally falling into the correct hands... tenors J and L managed to get matching gifts and complementary Shakespeare sonnets, which I certainly didn't plan for. J was especially pleased that his sonnet was the genderbendy one (he had been unaware that 'Shakespeare wrote gay sonnets!', and was quite delighted by the notion. His little gift was a beaded brooch shaped like a face ('a woman's face with nature's own hand painted', though most natural faces are not green); likewise, L got a similar brooch, with black beaded hair ('if hairs be wires, black wires grow on her head). I carefully gave ![[profile]](http://s.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png) asagwe a Shakespeare cracker, since he is not fond of Christmas... and it contained the one and only Shakespeare reference to Christmas that I was able to find.
And I now have a lot of DVDs, including Leverage, all of the 7-Up documentaries, High Society, and countless other things. Most of these are from Andrew. I suspect an attempt to thwart my intentions to watch every single special feature, documentary and commentary on all three Lord of the Rings DVDs in a row, but he denies this...
Also, I've just finished reading 'Dreamers of the day' by Mary Doria Russell and now I have an enormous crush on Lawrence of Arabia. That is all.
current mood:  tired
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| Wednesday, December 23rd, 2009
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10:45 pm - Oh dear..
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There's nothing like a *really* bad romance novel cover, with a Smart Bitches captioning competition - Christmas themed, no less! - to cheer up a Catherine who is depressed about her inability to make a cake with no flour, no sugar or sugar substitutes except stevia, no salicylates, no amines, no fructose and no lactose, and has decided that this is proof that she is completely useless (though, actually, now I've calmed down I suspect it is in fact proof that you just can't make a cake while avoiding all those ingredients - pretty much every possible sweet flavour ingredient is excluded, as far as i can tell).
I've been amusing myself with very bad puns.
Anyway, go forth and admire - this is a truly magnificent example of terrifying seasonal romance cover art. You know you want to...
(in other news, I don't want to go to work tomorrow. It will be vile. But then, that's hardly news...)
current mood: amused
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| Tuesday, December 22nd, 2009
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10:51 pm - Gratuitous baking!
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See, a person with two christmas puddings, a christmas cake and about 80 mince pies in the house (not to mention leftover gingerbread and a little bit of ginger, chocolate and raisin tea cake); a person who, moreover, is going to her mother in law's house for Christmas and has been told she doesn't need to bring anything - such a person should not need to bake.
And yet...
I have been itching to bake for *days*, I just haven't had the time. After all, Andrew asked about treats for the elves (true, there are always the mince pies, but that's hardly exciting), TheMadProfessor's birthday is on Thursday and I am determined to have a birthday afternoon tea for him tomorrow (if only to get away from that blasted RGMS for half an hour), I have a new vegan cookies cookbook, and also, I just feel like baking.
So tonight I have made:
- vegan lemon and coconut bundt cake (I liked the idea of coconut milk replacing dairy milk in the batter; sadly, I didn't read the coconut milk tin as I was in a hurry and there wasn't much available, and the variety I got was rather substandard, but I think it will still be OK, if not stunning). I've drizzled a passionfruit icing over this, and plan to decorate it at the last minute with redcurrants and pineapple sage leaves dusted with icing sugar - very Christmassy
- apricot crumble, because I needed to use up all those apricots MrsMadProfessor gave me
- tahini and lime biscuits (vegan), which I have to say are surprisingly good - sort of like sesame halva, only yummy (sorry, I do not like halva)
- mexican chocolate snickerdoodles (vegan), which are very tasty and also *quite* spicy, possibly because I realised my half teaspoon of cayenne was a bit heaped, and then shrugged and put it in anyway before remembering that I really should not do that with chilli and its friends
- almond and raspberry jam thumbprints (not vegan), using an organic, rather wholegrain almond meal, which has given them quite a nice flavour and texture.
I was going to make another 15 christmas crackers tonight, but even I am not sill enough to start such a project at ten to eleven when I need to work in the morning. Maybe tomorrow night. One can never have too many crackers, especially when one feels the urge to give them to absolutely everybody...
Anyway, I feel nicely satisfied in the baking department, and ever so much less headachy than I felt when I got home, except that now I have about seven dozen assorted biscuits and I really don't need that many, so I will clearly need to find people to feed them to. Perhaps the girls down in accounts and the IT people whose lives I have made a misery all year...?
ETA: and it's taken me less than five minutes to get from 'oh dear, what am I going to do with all these biscuits' to 'oh dear, there are so many people I need to give biscuits to - what if there aren't enough? Tomorrow will be too hot for me to bake more!'
Yes, I am quite neurotic, thank you.
current mood: calm
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12:31 pm - Christmas comes but once a year...
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But in these parts it lasts all month...
So, let's see. We had the carol service on Sunday, which was really fun, and I made the most of the descants because the Catholics aren't doing Christmas carols in their midnight mass this year. I am terribly disappointed by this - quite apart from my obsessive carolling disorder, midnight mass just isn't midnight mass without the 'Once in Royal David's City' solo and the Hark The Herald Angels Sing descant, even if I don't get to personally sing either of them. Which, admittedly, I usually do. I hadn't realised how strongly I felt about this until they were taken away.
I had my last work carolling today, in which (be still, my beating heart!) we had more men than women and I had to keep trying to get them to sing more quietly. ( More on my work choir, because I am proud of them )
And then I got back to my office and found that the Director had sent me flowers to say thank you for the Christmas Choir stuff and Food for Families stuff that I organise, so that was very nice.
Anyway, speaking of things to organise, I'm currently drowning in a sea of NHMRC grants and logins and a new grants management system that is a good idea in theory but hell in practice (it will be good once everyone's CVs are on there, but getting them on there is going to drive me to drink). This being so, I think I'd better post my online Christmas Card right now, before I forget.
( Merry Christmas to all! )
Yes, that is a photo of Mr & Mrs Claus. Doesn't Andrew make a cute Santa?
Merry Christmas (or holiday of your choice) to all, unless I blog before then! May you hear precisely as many carols (and descants) as you prefer, eat lots of delicious food, and feel the minimum possible urge to strangle any of your relatives and loved ones.
No, really. You are a wonderful group of people, and I hope you all have a fantastic day, however you choose to spend it.
Love,
Catherine
PS - Christmas Newsletter can be posted by request, but a good half of you would have it already and I didn't want to add anything more to anyone's to do list at this point...
current mood: cheerful
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| Thursday, December 17th, 2009
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4:34 pm - !!!!!
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!!!!
!!!
... I'm just a bit beside myself with excitement because we just sang at the work christmas party and we had THREE men in the choir! One of them was even a tenor! That's two more men and one more tenor than I've ever seen in this choir in ten years.
Tomorrow, we might even have TWO tenors.
That's practically a tenor SECTION.
Do you know how awesome Good King Wenceslas sounds when you actually have three male voices for the King Wenceslaus parts? I didn't. It was all I could do to restrain myself from making the choir sing it five times. We did do it twice.
Also, Away in a manger with four parts, plus harp, plus descant (which actually fits in with the four parts) may be as schmalzy as anything, but it really sounds amazing. We did that one twice, too. And two rounds of I saw a maiden (different verses each time, but we did do all five), even though it flummoxes the men, because our alto section is loud and unionised and I know better than to argue with an alto.
Also, at one point we had seven sopranos, five altos, one tenor and two basses. Given that I was lucky to get five people at any given rehearsal, this is pretty exciting.
Of course, we did cheat a bit. We set up shop with our harp at the top of the stairs going into the Christmas party and shamelessly shanghaied any passers-by who could hold a tune. Since everyone had to pass us to get into the Christmas party, this worked quite well. Though they did mostly come back for the second set, so they can't have minded all that much...
I, meanwhile, have been singing soprano all afternoon, which is really strange because I have to really concentrate not to wander off onto a harmony line - it's been so many years since I sang the melody for any of these, especially after the first verse.
So, yeah. !!!
!!
Tenors! And basses! And a choir with 15 people in it! And a harp! And dynamics, even!
It's a very good thing GrumpyProfessor wasn't on a teleconference this afternoon. He wouldn't have liked it one bit.
But I did.
It's possible that I will be unbearable at choir tonight.
But then, aren't I always?
current mood: excited
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1:59 pm - Presents!
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I'm doing well today! Right after I arrived at work, I had a visit from a lady at our conference venue who had come to give me a present - which turned out to be a bottle of their local olive oil. Much more useful than red wine - I can guarantee the oil will be used.
Then rosevair gave me christmas cookie cutters, which will also be used, possibly as early as this evening after choir. Sleep, who needs sleep?
And then I had a lovely visit from msss, who came bearing peat pellets and instructions for their use, as well as a christmas present - the cheapass game "Enemy Chocolatier".
Words can't describe my delight in the notion of a game called Enemy Chocolatier.
So altogether, I'm feeling very spoilt, which is nice. Shortly, I get to go off and sing at people, which is also nice, and in the meantime, it turns out that one of my granting bodies has actually managed to get their site up and running today after all... albeit slowly, because every AO in an Australian scientific institute is currently madly typing CV details into the system, but at least it is running. I was betting on it going live this time next week...
current mood: cheerful
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| Wednesday, December 16th, 2009
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11:46 pm - Christmas spirit?
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| Sunday, December 13th, 2009
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2:02 pm - In which Catherine is a trifle obsessive
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So far this weekend, I've made 45 mince pies and 23 super-deluxe fairtrade christmas crackers.
This achievement would be more impressive if I didn't have enough fruit mince for about 150 more mince pies and if I didn't still need to make 27 more crackers.
The crackers are amusing me. They are also taking me hours. There are two reasons for this. ( Read more... )
Actually, now I think about it, there are really three reasons. Because the primary cause of this entire debacle is clearly that I do not know when enough is enough...
Anyway. I must go now. I have crackers to make and mince pies to bake and a garden to inspect and cakes to make for tomorrow's endless round of evil meetings, and carrot and broccoli lasagne to figure out, and miles to go before I sleep, and miles to go before I sleep...
current mood:  silly
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| Thursday, December 10th, 2009
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11:05 am - Cookbook of awesomeness!
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I have just received the most *magnificent* cookbook from ThePeripateticDancer.
It's a cookbook called 'Adventures with Chocolate' by Paul A Young. I have a number of chocolate cookbooks, so this is not intrinsically exciting.
Still, one can never have too many recipes for chocolate pasta, especially the savoury kind (I have only ever made sweet chocolate ravioli - cocoa in the pasta dough, ricotta, orange rind and spice filling, raspberry sauce and grated white chocolate garnish; or sometimes with mascarpone and cointreau, or with brandied raisins in ricotta, but you get the idea). And mulled wine hot chocolate sounds wonderful for winter. And who wouldn't want to try safron and thyme honey ganache?
But where this cookbook stands above - or possibly below - others of the genre is in the deeply unnatural things Young likes to do with chocolate, every one of which have me itching to go straight back home and make, for example, port and stilton truffles. Or sweet garlic chocolate ganache. Or - my favourite - marmite truffles.
Marmite truffles. Of course, it would be positively un-Australian of me not to take this as a challenge. If I have not created the perfect vegemite truffle (which will, of course, be vegan) by Australia Day - Anzac day at the latest - I will be unable to live with myself.
I don't think the world is going to escape the spectre of roasted garlic truffles, either. I've never quite recovered from my disappointment at my lack of success with roasted garlic fudge, after all. And I love the idea of using caramelised red onion and rosemary chocolate ganache as part of a pizza topping.
Coming soon to a kitchen near you, unless you have been sensible enough to leave the country recently.
Oh yes, ThePeripateticDancer knows me very well indeed.
And it is possibly not a coincidence that she has sent me this cookbook at a time when I am in Australia and she is in London, safely removed from my more appalling culinary enthusiasms (including the ones she herself has instigated).
current mood: gleeful
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| Monday, December 7th, 2009
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11:12 am - To get you into the Christmas spirit
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| Sunday, December 6th, 2009
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9:35 pm - An immodest little note
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I sang really well this evening.
Yes, this is immodest, but I can't remember the last time I was actually happy with a solo I did at Wesley. For once, I actually managed to sing as well in performance as I did in rehearsal.
I put this down to the presence of Alto U (who I really should start calling Soprano U) in the congregation - she always sits there beaming with delight when I'm about to sing a solo and this convinces me that I must be sounding OK after all. Also to the fact that my cough and stuffy head had returned with such vigour during the course of the evening (I couldn't hear properly for a couple of pieces, which wasn't helpful) that when I opened my mouth at the start of the piece I honestly wasn't sure if any noise was going to come out at all, and when it did I was so relieved that nervousness didn't come into it.
Anyway, I shall stop bragging now, but I did want to record it somewhere that I actually sang well enough to satisfy *me* for a change. Well, mostly. There were a couple of bits that could have been better. But so nice to finish a solo without the customary feeling of despair at having once again bollocksed up my voice in a piece of music I can sing perfectly well at home...
In other news, Andrew appears averse to actually posting in his livejournal, so you read it first here, folks - my husband is the Barkley Square Santa this year. You can get your photo taken with him, and everything (possibly as a Dolly magazine cover, but then again, possibly not). He looks very cute - there is an awful lot of beard and even more suit, and not very much Andrew inside. I find this highly entertaining...
(it's a fake beard, which is probably a good thing given the death-grip a certain small baby had on it when I went to witness this phenomenon)
current mood: pleased
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5:37 pm - Adventageous
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So, about to head off to Advent Carols, but I feel the need to write a post demonstrating that I did, in fact, get stuff done this weekend, even if I didn't get everything done that I wanted to get done...
1. First batch of Christmas cards is ready to be posted!! If you want a Christmas card, now would be a good time to let me know...
2. Did lots of Christmas shopping, or rather, not very much actual shopping, but it was fairly arduous because the specific requests we had from in-laws were all decidedly not available in most parts of Melbourne.
3. Witnessed Andrew Santaing. Still amused by this.
4. Planted out capsicums and tomatoes, staked all of the above, put up trellis for beans, dug up excess bean and zucchini plants and put them in pots for the likes of tabouli, littleblueghost, msss etc. Also trod on my poor melon seedling, which is now in seedling hospital. Current seedling count is 4 pumpkins, 10 bean plants (5 to give away), 6 zucchini plants (3 to give away, I think), 4 melon plants (one not looking its best), innumerable beetroot seedlings in need of thinning, innumerable carrot seedlings, ditto, 5 tomato plants - all bought or donated, 2 capsicum plants, ditto. The six strawberry plants are all still alive, the basil is thriving, the parsley is dying and the marigolds do not respond well to being constantly sat on by cats.
5. Cooked, of course, including choc chip oatmeal cookies, carrot fruit cake and dinner for post-choir tonight.
6. Slept, insufficiently.
7. Gloated over my discovery (and immediate purchase) of Vegan Cookies Invade Your Cookie Jar.
8. Assisted Mayhem's shedding activities and became covered with white cat hair.
9. Coughed a lot, see previous activity.
10. Watched the second part of Lord of the Rings for the first time, and failed to recognise the Eye of Sauron as an eye at all. The less said about what I think it resembles the better. Which is another way of saying that I will undoubtedly be unable to resist posting about this in the near future.
I'm sure there was more. I am tired enough for there to be more. I still need to weed the garden, plant a healthier melon seedling and thin the beetroots and carrots, as well as write a letter or two, look up a couple of card addresses, and find Christmas presents for several more people. And then do the crackers. But that can wait for tomorrow evening, or maybe even the weekend...
current mood: tired
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| Friday, December 4th, 2009
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2:43 pm - Pretty music...
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If you are in the Melbourne area and like Elizabethan / Baroque church music, we have our Advent service this Sunday, and we are doing some really wonderful music.
Adam Lay Y Bounden (Boris Ord)
O Magnum Mysterium (Byrd)
Matin Responsory (Palestrina) (this recording is horrible, you really should come hear us instead)
Comfort Ye * / Every Valley (Handel)
And the Glory of the Lord (Handel)
The Record of John (Gibbons) (aka The Funky Gibbons)
Yes, yes, you can listen to it online, but wouldn't it be more fun to hear us sing it live? Address is Wesley Church, 148 Lonsdale St, Melbourne. Time is 7pm. Come and listen!
* apparently this is available as a ring tone. I find this deeply disturbing.
current mood: singy
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| Thursday, December 3rd, 2009
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5:36 pm - What, all my pretty chickens and their dam?
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I have grave news to impart.
My little tomato and capsicum seedlings, which yesterday morning were growing green and lovely, shrivelled up and died in yesterday's heat. This was the result of my folly in leaving my little seed-raiser out in the sun once the weather stopped being cold... and by the time I discovered my error it was too late for my poor seedlings.
Fortunately, bast_believer has donated two tomato plants, and I have a couple of others bought as seedlings rather than as seeds, so I will not be totally bereft. But I do feel guilty about my poor baked seedlings. They deserved a better fate.
And there is always the possibility that I will have one or two beans...
current mood: sad
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| Wednesday, December 2nd, 2009
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7:00 pm - Are you my mummy?
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The worst thing about this cold is the sense of being dehydrated to the point of being dessicated, all one's fluids converted to snot (I am currently a walking portal to the snot dimension) and ejected from the system. I have been drinking litres of water and I still feel dry.
Hence the abominable mummy pun. Because I have to amuse myself somehow in all this vileness.
Other than that, I don't actually feel so bad - very, very tired, sneezy, always on the verge of a cough, and so dry I wish I could grow gills and simply climb into the bath and breathe water for an hour or two - but otherwise OK.
Apparently, the only possible dinner tonight is a huge bowl of fruit salad with yoghurt. And possibly some asparagus with a little salt, pepper and olive oil.
And a lot more water, of course.
Three guesses where I don't want to go tomorrow (hint: starts with W and is rhymes with irk, jerk, and other similarly unpleasant words).
current mood:  dry
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