Happy anniversary!

Dear Country Road,
First of all, thank you for remembering our anniversary.  After so long together, they years start blending into each other, but you never fail to remember and get me something nice.
You have become a very big part of my life, and it's just snuck up on me over time.  At first I didn't really pay that much attention to you, but you grew up and matured, and all of a sudden I wanted all of you.
I think of you every morning when I'm getting ready for work, and even when I'm just hanging out on the weekends.  You fit me so well and I think we make a great team.
I hope we are together for a long time to come.
Yours in love,
Marsha.

Dinner v Mag

On the left - Jamie's version of dinner (pork mince with onions and anchovies wrapped in proscuitto, with a cream, mushroom and fennel sauce), and on the right, Cuisine's version.  Pretty impressive!  It tasted SO good too.

Fried neighbour snacks

We have a lovely old Italian lady who lives next to us.  She's a widow, and LOVES living in Surry Hills - she walks everywhere and gets all dressed up to go to church on Sunday.  So cute.  She has us over for coffee (which I stopped drinking four years ago - with the exception of trips next door - you try telling an 80 year old Italian you don't drink coffee), and force feeds us cookies "Why you no eat?  Take it, take it".  She also regularily passes fried snacks over the fence.  They are so awesome.  I don't know what it is, but I'm pretty sure it consists of grated zuchinni (grown in her brother's garden) made into some sort of pancake like thing and fried in oil.  I like to add salt on top for that extra bit of health benefit.

We have to mention this on the billboard when we sell the house: "stone benchtops, built in master robe, original floors, neighbour cooks fried snacks" - that's at least 10 grand extra value right there.

Friday's installment:

IKEA!

I'm definitely the sort of person who wants to have organised kitchen cupboards with neatly labelled containers.  It gives me great satisfaction.  And while a bout of pantry moths was really the motivation, I don't know why I haven't done this sooner.  BTW - those moths are the most annoying things ever.  EVER.  How do they get into EVERYTHING??

 

Needless to say, the trip to IKEA was fruitful.  I bought storage containers for the kitchen, document boxes and tealights (naturally - it wouldn't be a trip to IKEA without buying tealights - seriously - 100 for $4 - you just can't beat that).

The IKEA here is huge.  We needed sustainance before hitting the and home organisation section - smoked salmon for me, pasta for Em.

We were giggling about how much fun we were having extensively discussing pros and cons of different containers, wandering through sections we didn't need to, squealing over funny stuffed animals, talking at length about whether we needed certain things or not etc, and how it would be the definition of hell for the hubbys. Clearly it goes without saying they stayed home...

Time lies

Hmmm, the title of this post was supposed to be time flies, but a typo means it's time lies.  I quite like it.  It's been a while since I posted - hence the time flying/lying - work has been full on and I just don't know where the last couple of weeks have gone.  Jamie is really busy too, and we just seem to be passing each other by in the evenings and mornings.  But despite that, I'm feeling really close to him - we are both aware that each other is under the pump, and trying to do what we can for each other.
I wrote a piece in this weekend's paper that I'm particularily pleased with.  Normally I just do what I need to do in the quickest time possible and don't really think about style - I know how to do a story, so I just go on auto pilot.  But this piece was longer than normal (1500 words) and I really worked and re-worked it over a couple of days with some help from wiser people at the paper.  I'm really happy with the outcome, and I got a really touching message from the person it was about this morning, which of course makes it extra worthwhile.
And speaking of time lies - my Cole time was 36 minutes - not the 35 I posted about.  I haven't been in the pool since, but we are planning on going tomorrow morning.
Em is on her way over right now and we are going to IKEA (which is an epic journey out to Homebush)!  Obviously, that's asking for a post when I get home, so I'll be sure to let you know about all the things I couldn't possibly live without, but didn't know I needed until I saw, ASAP.

The Cole

Sydney has been beset by absolutely terrible weather for the last week - thunderstorms, POURING rain, and humidity.  And on Sunday morning we were due to do our Cole Classic open water swim.  All Saturday I was announcing to everyone that there was no way they'd let it go ahead and it would be cancelled for sure.  Turns out no.  The swim was supposed to be from Shelly Beach to Manly beach, but they changed the course because Manly beach was closed.  I was really dreading it, but we'd resolved that if it was on, we were doing it.

To prove I'm not embelishing the weather conditions:

http://www.smh.com.au/environment/mopup-has-begun-but-more-storms-on-way-20100207-nk95.html

So, bright and early, the support crew - Em, Muz and Pedro tuned up, and we were off. It is apparently the biggest ocean swim in the world - 4,500 competitors. Because there are so many people they do the starts in waves

Here we are before the event - with our fears of pounding surf somewhat allayed, but still a bit hesitant.  My game plan was to get a prime possy in the start pack and get out the front and then just... swim. 

I've acquired some contact lenses to aid with that whole business of being able to see - even looking at myself in the mirror without glasses freaks me out a bit, but they really are useful for occassions when you can't wear glasses i.e. when swimming.

In the zone...

And the 20 - 30 year old girls are off.  I could have been quicker off the beach, but I was in the front of the pack, so didn't have to climb over people and get smacked in the head to get away.  My biggest concern was getting beaten up in the water, but I think I was overly concerned.  I did some damage - way more damage than was done to me.  I think having played a bit of water polo certainly helped and gives you the instinct to kick out at anyone who touches you.  And I also deployed the move taught to us by an ocean swimming coach last week, where if someone is in your way, you basically swim over the top of them, and grab them by their hip and pull them out of the way.  Fun times.  I think there were a few stunned people after I tried that.  Ha ha.  I heard one person swearing at me.  Pee hee.  Toughen up honey.

Of course, Pedro was an integral part of the team, and helped lick salt water off me at the end.  And when I say helped, there wasn't anyone else licking salt water off me, nor was I licking salt water off myself.  He was totally soliciting pats and having a fun time.

And here I am - done.  I think my time was around 35 minutes (for 2km), and we had big swell, so I was pretty happy.  Em said I finished top 10 in my age group, which is hilarious given how much I trained.

Of course, Jamie did it too, and did a great job.  We think he did it in about 50 minutes, but we'll find out tomorrow in the paper.

Naturally, I had a humongous burger and chips, with a side of aoili for lunch.  It was so delicious, especially because I felt I'd earned it (this whole mentality of rewarding myself with food when I excercise is going to get me in trouble).

We enjoyed the whole thing so much, we are going back for more (ocean swims- not burgers, it goes without saying we'll be going back for burgers).

The bathroom

Spurred on by our renovating success in the kitchen, we've gone back for another dose.  Yesterday we put a deposit on a bathroom renovation!  We are getting a bath, and doing a bit of a reconfigure of the layout.  Same tiles as the kitchen on the floor, white tiles on the wet walls, and a mosaic tile on the side of the bath.  Totally excited for it to start happening in three to four weeks, and to staying with Em and Murray for three weeks while it happens.

Baking

I'm not a big baker, never have been.  I'd rather have my way with a hunk of pork belly than faff around with flour and sugar.  I just think baking is too unpredictable.  You have to be exact and so many things can go wrong.  You can't just freestyle like you can with say, a stew.  Plus, I don't really have a sweet tooth, so my motivation levels for whipping out the cake tin are minimal.

However, this weekend I gave it a crack with some pumpkin and lemonade scones, the recipe of which featured in the latest Delicious, via Ben O'Donoghue.  This is the finished product.

Just FYI - turns out you can't whip low fat cream.  YES, I bought low fat cream.  I had it going in the kenwood for about five minutes, where it thickened, but didn't whip properly.  End result was yummy, but I think I used pumpking that was too "wet" which thwarted the scones rising.  So, They were a bit doughy, but still yummy.  Not great though.  I rest my case against baking.