What to do when it's 42 degrees?

The answer to that is very simple - close the doors, close the blinds, turn on the ceiling fan, watch tv, nap, and wait for the heat to break. It's tempting to open up all the windows and let air in, but it's much cooler to just seal the house up. Only amateurs bother with the beach - crowds, parking, hot cars and no shade do not a cool and relaxing day make.

It's now eight o'clock and it's still 37 outside. Ugh. Beer just tastes like water (and goes down about as easily). It actually hit over 42 today. Luckily, we went to the fish market this morning, so we just had a low prep delicious feast outside.

So - we had oysters (for me), scallops (for Jamie), whiting with a caper butter sauce, prawns and some bok choy. Nom nom. And importantly, very minimal time in the kitchen was required.

This is what the sky looked like just before 8. It's supposed to rain, but there's no sign of it yet. Pant pant pant.

Chilli

I make no secret of the fact that I loooove chili. There aren't too many meals that can't be improved by a bit of chili, and I could happily eat it three times a day. My lovely hubby however, isn't such a fan, and while I try to be considerate of this, I often find myself holding a chili in my hand and rationalising that it won't be THAT hot, and that maybe he won't notice. Plus, I just made things with chili for Drew when he didn't like chili, and now he does, so maybe it's just a learned taste... Jamie does notice, and after nearly four years together, he doesn't seem to be any fonder of chili. But he suffers on, and only occasionally tells me he actually can't eat dinner because it's too hot. But I just CANNOT put it down - I hold it and think I should go easy every time, and every time I actually think it won't be that hot, and of course, it is.
Last weekend I made these YUMMY eggs for breakfast. Baked Turkish eggs with mushroom and tomato. Holding a loaded tablespoon of harissa in my hand I went through the "Jamie won't like this with loads of Harissa, maybe you should put half back in the jar" thought process, but then justified it by thinking "well, the recipe calls for it, so who am I to deviate from the recipe, there are rules about these things". The harissa went in and I think it was just perfect. I didn't mention it to Jamie, thinking he maybe wouldn't notice. He did. But the eggs were ace.

Bring it on

OMG. I was just channel flicking and only the all time best cheer leading movie in the history of the world just came on. "Bring it on". Like perfect timing - I've just watched the whole opening sequence, which involves the "we're pretty, we're hot, we're everything you're not" cheer. And Torre's male cheerleader boyfriend isn't staying around to see the vote for cheer captain - what a total loser, this isn't boding well for the future for the two of them (and not just because I know the outcome of their relationship having seen this movie many times before), this is only like the most important moment of her life.
Jamie is in the kitchen, and I'm wondering how long it's going to take him to cotton on to the fact I've got a totally craptacular (but excellent) cheerleader movie on. I just hope I get to the part where the badass girls from the Bronx show them how it's done before objections arise from the husband.
p.s. Torres was just nominated captain and is lifting team morale.
p.p.s. Kirsten Dundst's life has only gone downhill from this movie.
p.p.s. The movie started at 7:30 - I will keep you posted on what time the first objection is registered.
p.p.p.s. The cute, funny, slightly nerdy and non-threatening transfer student - Cliff - has just arrived. Him and Torres are sitting next to each other in class.
p.p.p.p.s. The male cheerleaders just totally owned the footballers after they tried to pay out on them. Footballers 0 - male cheerleaders 1.
p.p.p.p.p.s. I could really do this for the whole movie, but this will be the last one. There are now cheerleader tryouts, and Eliza Dushku (which isn't how you spell her name, but I can't be bothered looking it up), aka Faith in Buffy, and whoever the lead character in Dollhouse is, is about to try out, with massive 'tude but remarkable gymnastic ability. The rest you'll just need to hire the movie to find out...

Celebrate the renovate

I spent a lot of time feeling mild to strong levels of anxiety over our massive fridge purchase on the weekend, alternating being concerned that we now had a fridge occupying our kitchen which was too big to go where it was meant to and occupying a large amount of space in our not so large house and that we weren't going to get going with the renovation for another 6 months, with total excitement about having a new big fridge (it's nearly 1m wide!!!). The big boy...
As discussed on an earlier post, the idea was to buy the big fridge as a motivation for us to get on with renovating. I was sceptical about the theory (while of course still buying in - there was a free TV involved for gods sake, I'm only human), however, I am pleased and beyond excited to report that a deposit has been paid with the good folks at Freedom for a brand new kitchen!!! O.M.G. TOO EXCITING. The plan is to get them in while we are away next month, and pretty much to come home to a new kitchen. I'm sure there may be some details that need to be sorted out in between those two steps... but who cares, we are getting a new kitchen!!
We've picked everything already (in fact, we did that in like March when we first decided we were going to do it). The layout of the kitchen pretty much has to stay the same, but the cupboards are going to be a glossy white, squared off stainless steel handles, the benchtop a white-ish stone with flecks through it, we will have a rangehood (hallelujah), a shelf above the fridge for my cookbooks (!!!!!), and the cupboards will be taller and bigger. We'll tile the splashback and also get new tiles for the floor.
Anyone who knows me knows how important all kitchen related things are, so this is a very exciting and major development in my life. I so can't wait to be doing my thing in a new kitchen, and it's a great thing to come back to after holidays - I'll totally be jumping out of my skin to come home and play in the kitchen, as opposed to crying at the airport because I don't want to leave.

Sunday lunch

After our run we took ourselves off for lunch on Sunday - Locko and Michelle suggested catching up with Sam and Nat for lunch, so do that we did! I particularly wanted to post this pic for Dodd. I can imagine him sitting there doing that funny "huh" thing he does in a high pitched way over the fact we all caught up.

Running

J-Mo and I did a 10km run this morning out at Homebush. The course was basically around the Olympic stuff, and they called it a "run 4 fun". Let me tell you, there was nothing fun about it. Firstly it was in Homebush, which gets a big bap bow on the scale of fun places to be, and the course was just boring, secondly, it was HUMID and there weren't enough drink stations. We finished three hours ago and my fancy quick dry running top is still saturated with sweat.
To be honest, I pretty much hated every minute of it. I totally battled through the whole thing and just wasn't feeling good (J-Mo totally twisted my arm last night and convinced me to polish off a bottle of bubbles with him - we might take that out of our pre-race preparations next time). And I so don't go well running in humidity. But I had fancy new pants, and lots of fun music to make it all exciting.
A highlight was yelling at a woman (who was a spectator, but pretty much standing on the course) smoking. She let off this puff of smoke which pretty much got me straight in the face so I stopped and yelled "are you fucking kidding me, what the fuck is wrong with you" and kept running. I'm sure she had something to say back, but I certainly didn't hear it with my earphones in.
My motivation was pretty much finding someone fat who was in front of me and telling myself I had to overtake them because they were fatter than me. I guess it got me through, but it's perhaps not the best technique...
There were about 6,000 people who did it, and it was fun seeing so many people and running with them. And because it was in Homebush, there is parking galore, so it was easy to get in and out.
I have been training for this for a while, and wasn't sure if it was overly ambitious to try and do it in under an hour. Turns out that was a reasonable goal, I just didn't do it. Bummer. I clocked 1 hour 1 minute and 14 seconds. If I'd have known it would have been so close I'm sure I could have pushed it to get under an hour, but whatever. J-Mo did one hour and 50 seconds, so he was even closer. He zoomed off at the start but slowed his pace down, where I think I was more consistent with pace. I saw him a few times, because there are lots of parts where you double back on yourself, so that was fun. Really, I was more concerned about running that far than how fast I ran, but now I know I can do it, I'll try and get under an hour next time.
BTW - the pace we ran is pretty much the pace Muz and Em ran a whole marathon at. And let me tell you, the thought of doing what we did this morning four times makes me really appreciate what those two crazy kids did.
So now we are off for lunch with Locko and Sam (from Perth) and their respective lady friends. Fun!

Fridge.

Our fridge has carked it. Which isn't altogether too surprising given it's bout 15 years old. So, off we go to buy a new fridge. Rather than doing what most people would assume is the normal thing, and buying a fridge that fits the space it's supposed to go in, we bought a fridge that is far too big and means we'll have to renovate our kitchen in order to have the fridge fit. We've literally bought a fridge as an incentive to get on with renovating the kitchen. It's pretty cool - one of those double ones with the freezer down one side and the fridge down the other.... and it's going to look really nice next to our dining room table for several months while we get our act together and get the renos organised.
AND we got a FREE TV (which we don't want or need) with the fridge. We so fell for the sales gimick... In the store we were all "we'll definitely sell that on E-Bay" and of course as soon as we get home we are all "maybe it would be nice in the spare room". Jamie's been lobying for it to go in our room (I think that was his plan all along and the talk of E-Bay was just to convince me), but I am totally 100%, opposed to TVs in bedrooms, and I'm not budging on that.
I'll post pics of our kitchen being occupied by a massive fridge tomorrow...

Gucci!

The florist up the street has worked out the best marketing tool ever - a really cute dog. Her name is Gucci and she's AWESOME. So cute, so fluffy, super friendly and always hanging out at the front looking for pats. She knows she's not allowed out on the footpath, so stands right on the edge, straining with every bit of her bodyweight out over the edge, but technically still being inside. Or just has a lie down and looks cute. I totally want a cocker spaniel now. SOOOO much. Awwww.

Sunday brunch

Home made smoked trout cakes, asparagus and poached egg. With pink bubbles, naturally. There aren't too many better ways to start the day...

New York marathon - done.

Chances are I'm never going to be able to title a post like this in relation to myself, so I'm taking this opportunity to do so in relation to Em and Muz, who on Sunday, did the NY marathon!! They did the whole thing together, and crossed the finish line holding hands. Awww. It's such an amazing thing to do, and I'm so proud of both of them. So massive snaps for Em and Muz. And now they get to kick back and enjoy NY for another week! Awesome.

Books!

One thing I like about who I work for is that twice a year they have a book sale from all the books publishers send in for reviewing or promotion. There are tons of books, and they are all new, and they sell them for a couple of bucks each. I go nuts, and today was no exception when the sale took place. I was lined up ready for the sale to begin the second it started, pushed everyone else out of the way, and within five minutes loaded up my arms with as many books as I could carry. Back for round two I picked up a few more. Sixteen books later, I was feeling very satisfied with myself. The rest of my colleagues were far more moderate, picking up one or two choice titles, whereas I chose the binge option and had a stack as high as the edge of my cubicle. And I got tons of crime books - fiction and non-fiction, so good times are ahead...

Missing my peeps.

J-Mo has been away most of this week, and I've been filling in his absence by working on my relationship with the TV, and DVDs I got in Indonesia. Which has been wholly satisfying, but as we are all prone to finding out occasionally, there is such as thing as too much TV and alone time. So yesterday I got up, went to yoga, got the papers and pottered around the house. I started feeling a bit melancholy and thinking how much fun it would be to have the Perth gang over for a boozy afternoon of food and just sit around in the sunshine talking crap. It made me feel a bit choked up, and I missed each one of you peeps (you know who you are). We aren't overly social here in Sydney, and there's something just so easy about people you have known forever that know you back to front and you just don't have to try with (maybe it's laziness at the heart of my feelings). So I went to Fratelli Fresh and did the groceries, and also bought a cute new hat and scarf . Even that didn't fill the void (they are very cute though). I'm not usually taken by moments like that, but I would have just loved one of those days that used to be reasonably common. I hope it's not too long before we get the chance to do it again, but I guess life has moved on, and things will never be like they used to. Not that there won't be great and exciting times in the future, but if everyone could just move to Sydney, that would be ace.

Oh - since my last post about the jasmine - check this out - a GARDENIA bloomed!! I'm totally high fiving myself about that one. So this pic is for my peeps.

p.s. since yesterday, I've picked up the hubby, who is now pottering around in a bathrobe before we make smoked trout cakes with asparagus and poached eggs for breakfast (OMG - Yum!!!), I've spoken to Drew and Liam who were arguing about directions on their way down south, and this morning spoke to two happy but understandably nervous little New York marathoners (less than 24 hours to go now). Feeling much better, but still would love to have everyone around.

Halloween

I know I'm certainly not the first person in the world to observe this, but adult women getting dressed up for Halloween seems purely an excuse to wear something slutty which wouldn't otherwise be acceptable. Driving to get Jamie from the airport last night at about 8:30, there were a lot of people obviously on their way to parties. I saw a sexy vampire, sexy nurse, sexy devil and sexy cat. And they were all seperate sightings. And in a clear sign that I'm getting really old, when I was trying to find a radio station to listen to I was APPALLED by "the best dance hits in the country right now" and switched it over to the golden oldie channel.
Halloween also made me slightly anxious because I became concerned that children would come to the door and I'd have nothing to give them except a nice apple. I weighed up the liklihood of parents letting their children knock on random doors in Surry Hills (surely we are at the far more moderate end of what it's possible to encounter around here) with the effort of going to get treats, which would probably not be needed, and sit in my cupboard until I ate them. I decided that if anyone knocked at the door I just wouldn't answer it, and positioned myself on the couch so that if anyone did come knocking they wouldn't see me down the call. Turns out that particular effort wasn't needed... no one came.