Just Stuff...

Last weekend was busier than usual for me. On Saturday Matilda & I headed up the highway at 7am bound for Eumundi & the famed Eumundi Market, some 120km away. We left home sans breakfast, in anticipation of the foodie delights that the market has to offer but stopped briefly for a hot chocolate on the way.

Seems that on such a gorgeous Winter morning that every man/woman and their dog was at the market...After arrival at around 8.30am we headed straight for the very popular Tibetan Momo stall. Two gorgeous young Tibetan men sell around 700-800 serves (my guesstimate) of vegetarian Momos each Saturday. Momos are delightful Tibetan dumplings, either meat based or vegetarian, that can be steamed or deep fried. I discovered this recipe & photograph at Helen Yuet Ling Pang's blog, World Foodie Guide, a wonderful blog for lovers of all things food. It's well worth a look and has inspiring recipes...I lingered there for quite some time. The men at Eumundi have perfected their recipe...the dumplings were delightfully hot, a little spicy and filled with cooked to perfection vegetables, served with soy &/or sweet chilli sauce.

We wandered the market, lots of the stalls don't grab my interest...I particularly enjoy the stalls that display/sell original arts/crafts/artisan made furniture. There are some vastly talented people out there. We broke up our wanderings with little food stops along the way and came home with Olive & Fetta Bread, containers of mixed olives and a delightful salt scrub for ridding me of my Winter dry skin.

The Paella Fella was hugely popular...

Arrived home to discover that John was preparing a delightful Asian style steamed fish dinner using a number of ingredients from our garden for the paste...lemongrass, ginger, garlic, turmeric & coriander on a bed of julienned vegetables and a little soy sauce...he wrapped it in a turmeric leaf and foil and baked it in the oven for 10-15 minutes. It was so good...even better that I didn't have to cook it myself.

Sunday was a gloriously sunny mid-Winter day, the kind of days that Queensland is famed for. It was 24C (75F)...a perfect day for 3/4 pants and a t-shirt, so lovely to wear a t-shirt again. The boys headed off to the football, (Myles games are just about always on Sundays) and Matilda & I headed off to the TSEXPO - Tertiary Studies Expo.

Matilda is heading into year 11 next year - only two more years of secondary school left for her (eek, how on earth did that happen..??!!). She is very keen to study medicine at University so off we went in search of information for her to consider and plan for. Perhaps it's a little early, but I thought it was a good idea for her to speak to various Uni's so she knows what she is in for. Academically, she is very clever, her mid-year school report contained nothing but A's and positive comments about how she is a delight to teach.

While at TSEXPO I spoke to the Midwives at The University of Queensland (UQ) about potentially returning to study and completing a Bachelor of Midwifery. This would be my dream job, you know, the one job that everyone desires that you would do if you could. I'm quietly excited about applying. I am going to apply and see what happens. I spoke to a beautiful woman, (who studied Midwifery in her mid-late 30's) who said that women & men in their 30's & 40's are considered favourably for the course due to their life experiences. I just have to work out how I could study and work for a few days per week. The course has only 3 contact days per week, one day set aside for self directed study and another for lectures, which are not compulsory and available online as both transcripts and streamed. Am thinking I could work some night shifts in a hospital/nursing home.

What an amazing privilege it would be, to be able to be there and assist a new little person coming into the world, to be there for the parents & families. My feeling is that a birth centre environment would be great for me to work in. I had such a positive experience at the Royal Women's Hospital Family Birth Centre when pregnant with Matilda, even though she ended up being an induced birth (two weeks post dates) with an emergency caesarean after 25 hours+ labour, the antenatal and post natal care I received was amazing.

Wish me luck...even if I defer for a year I will be able to get it together next year to begin studying the year after. John is very supportive which helps enormously and feels I should go for it, that if it is what I really WANT to do then I should do it.

Did you know that the average age of Midwives in Australia is 47 years old..?? If I start study next year I will be able to graduate before I will be 48 when I finish.

What else have we been up to...lets see...

School has resumed after a two week break. I really enjoyed the kids company these holidays. They were really in need of wind down time, just time to sleep in, read, watch a few DVD's, have a PJ day and just generally slow doen a bit. We didn't go out a lot...they had friends over to stay and went & stayed with their friends in return. On the last day of holidays I took them to Yum Cha (Dim Sum)...Myles had never been before. We did a little online research and found Landmark, reasonable close to home and apparently very good, a great range of choices and good prices.
We arrived around 11.30am and the place was packed...I estimate it seated around 300 guests and it was chock a block full. We took a ticket & waited our turn...some 20 minutes later we were seated. The best thing about Yum Cha is that the food starts to appear immediately, no ordering & waiting. Myles had a great time, found a lot he enjoyed to eat (as well as some things he didn't but he tried them which was more than he used to do). Both Matilda & Myles were very taken with the dessert trolley...I even let them go back for seconds of dessert...!!!

This weekend my sister, Sally and BIL, Chris will be in town on holiday...they are huge Yum Cha afficionados so we think we will take them to Landmark for lunch on Sunday.

I see a bit of a dumpling theme to this post...

That's about it for me...have spent enough time sitting here catching up on my reading this morning.

Balance & Peace...

Could certainly do with more balance & peace in our lives. Sometimes life gets so hectic we spend far too much time "doing" and not enough time "being". I try but don't always get there.

Was listening to a travel writer being interviewed on ABC Radio one evening last week (unfortunately her name eludes me at this point)...she was in Bali during March and celebrated the Lunar New Year, Nyepi Day, a traditional day of silence, fasting and meditation.

It really struck a chord with me...am wondering how much it has to do with my being in the middle of Eat, Pray, Love by Elizabeth Gilbert..??

Nyepi is primarily a Hindu celebration, however, almost all Balinese follow the tradition out of respect. There are four rules, or prohibitions, known as Catur Brata Penyepian which guide people to refrain from worldly and physical activities.

First is the principle called Amati Geni. People are not allowed to set lights and fire for the whole day, that includes not burning or setting a stove on, and they can’t cook for meals. This symbolises turning the fire off in the five senses of the soul, along with any unscrupulous emotions.

The other principles are...

Amati Karya, no work

Amati Lelungan, no travel

Amati Lelanguan, no entertainment & pleasure.

These prohibitions help "people to control their five earthly senses in order to increase the quality of life for the upcoming year". In addition to these prohibitions, many Balinese also fast and do not engage in conversation at all.

Bali becomes deserted and virtually shuts down. Tourists are not exempt and are expected to follow tradition, however what they do behind closed door is entirely their own business. People with higher spiritual ability or desiring to have higher spiritual life are expected to perform further prohibitions including fasting by not eating or drinking, stay still by not talking, meditating by focusing the mind on God and praying.

This really appeals to me, a time to be quiet and still, to make & keep the balance of nature, to self reflect and focus inward. I don't do it nearly enough and would love a public holiday that encouraged it. It is an enormous contrast to the way most Western cultures acknowledge the New Year.

This past Easter I really enjoyed that shops were closed on Good Friday and Easter Sunday, people had time off work to spend with their families. I am often astounded though by the way people shop on the day before Good Friday, like the supermarket is going to be closed for a week. I used to enjoy the time when shops closed from midday on Saturday through to Monday morning, that people had time to rest and unwind, it just doesn't happen nearly enough.

Maybe retiring to Indonesia is for me...?? John used to joke to Josh that he was going to retire to Goa. Maybe he could be convinced that Bali is equally as desirable..??

Extreme Sheep...

I haven't been around much of late, for a number of reasons really...been a bit busy, a bit unwell, a bit down, a bit lost for ideas...

I have a couple of posts I am working on and should be up in the next couple of days but thought I'd post this video I received by email today. It's just brilliant. We happen to really love Sheep Dog Trials in our household and have been to watch them on more than one occasion...this really made me sit up and take notice...the way these people work with the dogs is nothing short of incredible.

Homesickness, Illness, Matilda's Photos...bit of a ramble...

I haven't been a good blogger...

My apologies for being absent this last week...sometimes my attentions and energies are needed elsewhere, at home and for me in this case, perhaps selfishly.

I have a big case of homesickness at the moment. We left Victoria over 18 months ago and I have found that it can strike hard, really hard without warning. It usually hits on the weekends, times when I would be doing things with them

I am missing my friends...I could live anywhere in the world with my friends within reasonable distance. Despite many promises there has only been a visit from one friend since living in Brisbane. I understand and feel no malice nor blame for broken promises...I just miss them.

John has suggested, even insisted, that I take a trip to Victoria for a week or so to catch up with them. I won't even entertain that thought at the moment, he is still very much unwell and although back at work is finding the vertigo and constant tinnitus quite disabling. He is being stoic, very much so...to the point where I just haven't been able to read what is going on with him and was so worried he was much sicker than he was letting on or that there was something critically wrong with him...his wall was about ten feet high and he wasn't letting me in. The higher the wall became the more morbid & skewed my thoughts became. I crumbled last night, the tears came and we had a full & frank discussion and I impressed my need to understand exactly what is going on with his health. I think he "gets it" now and I am feeling more relaxed tonight.

Anyway...I won't go away and leave him holding the reins until he is well again or I can take Matilda & Myles with me...it's too much to ask of him to do it all here. I can suck it up and put on my big girl knickers for that long.

Hmmm...I wasn't going to post much tonight, it's way past bedtime and John is already sleeping soundly. I have been up way too late these last few nights, have been caught up with watching the track & field events in Beijing.

However, I did promise Matilda I would post some of her recent photos.

She has taken a keen interest in photography of late, always has her camera with her and has taken some fantastic action shots. She has an "eye" for unusual angles...she uploaded these yesterday...I find them oddly compelling.

They were self portraits taken through a magnifying glass. She was just "playing" with her camera as she often does...the results are almost creepy.

Time for bed...it's late and I'm tired. I promise I'll try to post more regularly over the next few weeks.

...and I thought I had seen it all...

This afternoon Matilda and I went to see Mamma Mia...we felt like a girls afternoon out and couldn't think of anything better to do. The film was great fun, we loved it...I remembered all of the lyrics to the soundtrack (as did many others in the audience judging from the singing) and it was fun spotting the ABBA cameos. I want to swim in the sea surrounding the Greek Islands now, it was turquoise and glittery, just beautiful.

Afterwards we wandered through the Asian Grocery Store near the cinema. I love those places, always full of strange & wonderful ingredients...we do quite a bit of shopping there. I was perusing the toiletries/personal hygiene section and look what I found...

PINK NIPPLE CREAM...!!!



Utterly bizarre...!!! Are pink nipples desired by Asian women...or perhaps Asian men..?? There was also various unguents to whiten armpits and facial skin, to get rid of stretch marks and cellulite, to whiten teeth and burn fat.

...and I thought I had seen it all...

And yes, for those who are curious, I did buy a tube (on sale at $7.50)...I just had to...it captured my sense of the absurd. Not sure if I will ever try it out though. Perhaps I can use it on one nipple and have the other as the "control" sample.

Will keep you posted.

Hmmmm...

I just logged on to add a new post...our Parental Control Device didn't like that and blocked me out. It stated that the website I was trying to view contained matter suitable for adult viewing only.

I wonder which post..?? Perhaps the conception one..??

It has amused me no end...

My Scrabble friend Lynda has rejoined the blogging world...go and say hello to her here.

Lynda and her husband adopted their daughter when she was 13, she tells it like it is. Their story is heartwarming.