What (was) for dinner Wednesday - update

So we made our seafood salad last night. I chopped up garlic, crushed a dried chilli, and mixed those up with the seafood, salt, pepper and olive oil.

Then I looked at my seafood mix... and it was looking back at me.


Kind of freaky.


I'm not the most squeamish of people but this just wasn't cool! Milord pulled out the octopi and cut them in half before we stir-fried the seafood in a hot wok, then served it on salad.


Next time we're going to have to cut them up much smaller though, as I had a definite hesitation a couple of times during dinner!

What (was) for dinner Wednesday

I haven't cooked anything photo worthy lately, except maybe a roast leg of lamb with heaps of roast veg on Sunday at a friend's house, and I didn't take a shot of that! We had strawberries and cream for dessert... mmm.

On Monday I took all the leftover roast veg (parsnips, carrots, butternut pumpkin, courgettes), boiled them up with a couple of stock cubes and blended them to a thick rich soup. Delicious, but an icky orange/brown colour so you won't be seeing it!

Yesterday Milord swung by the fish market and brought home enough seafood for the next week, and we had baked barramundi with baked courgette strips (put fish fillet and courgette pieces on a baking tray in a very hot oven for 20 min, then serve). The fish fell apart while dishing up, so it looked terrible although it was yummy!

Tonight we're going to cook up a seafood mix which includes baby octopus and scallops and have that on green salad... if it looks nice I'll take a picture!

Septsober halfway

Day 16 off the grog. Halfway, and downhill from here I hope!

Weight Lost: none (wah)
Energy Levels: normal
Concentration: normal
Skin: normal
TV watching: reduced by 80%
Book reading: up by 80%
Money saved: lots
Sleep quantity: increased
Snoring: stopped (yay)

Conclusion:
We're sleeping more, eating more, reading more (we've lost all tolerance for rubbish TV and would rather sleep or read than sit through it) and going out less. We are finding the experience as a whole rather unrewarding, but we are halfway now so may as well complete the month!

I am working flat out at the moment, so I'm not posting or even reading blogs much... at least the days fly by! Then I go home, cook dinner, check email, watch a little TV then go to bed and read my book. Every. Single. Day. Life is pretty dull.

On the weekend we worked around the house because we intended hosting a bbq on the Sunday. Saturday was a glorious day - it turned into a scorcher - the first day of summer perhaps. It was so hot that Milord ran out to buy a huge sun umbrella for the back yard to shelter our guests. Then of course on Sunday we awoke to pounding rain! We contacted out friends who offered their kitchen, so we went over to their place and cooked Sunday lunch and watched everyone else get drunk. How annoying are drunk people when you're sober, eh?

Sunday was a major test for us as our friends not only did not respect our desire to stay off the grog ("Oh go on, just a small one!"), but they also wanted us to taste the wines they are selecting for their wedding in a few weeks time! We've discovered that we are stronger as a team - if I didn't know that succumbing would take Milord with me I'd be far more likely to have "just one", and the same is true for him.

Oh well. 15 days without a hangover is not to be sneezed at I suppose!

Here's a sculpture I passed on the way to work the other day, of a group of sheep leaping through a curtain. It's called "Curtain Call". Surreal, and the sheep are sculpted amazingly well.

First Love

I was reading a newsletter from my old high school yesterday when I realised that next year will be my 20 year reunion.

20 years! Wow that happened fast.

The year I left school I was 17. I look at 17 year olds today and want to dismiss them as "babies", but I wasn't a baby at 17. I wasn't even a child any more. I'd already made some hard choices regarding my future, and I'd fallen in love and had my heart broken by another 17 year old.

Gosh we were young and beautiful. I saw a picture of my first love on Facebook the other day and he's now completely bald and hairy and pale. Ugh. It can't be the same guy - he was an absolute Adonis at 17 with floppy blonde hair and a firm tanned hairless physique!

We met at the birthday party of a mutual friend, who was a girl in my class. Attending a girl's school boys were in short supply, so anyone with brothers/friends-of-brothers/friend-boys was expected to bring them along to any party. I can't remember the girl now, but I sure do remember the friend-boy she'd invited! I probably introduced myself and I'm fairly sure he asked something totally cheesey like "What's your sign?". We were instantly smitten.

He lived in the neighbouring city and attended a boy's boarding school so we only saw each other on the occasional weekend. Because it was so far to travel we'd take turns staying over at each other's houses - I was supposed to be sleeping in his sister's room but I'd sneak to his room most nights for a snogging session. Heavens he could kiss! We'd work ourselves into a frenzy but my panties stayed firmly in place while he called me a tease and tried every trick in the book to sway me.

It was the end of the year before he finally talked me into "going all the way", which was a total disappointment. I remember wondering what all the fuss was about, and it didn't improve the handful of times that we tried it. Final Exams passed, school finished for good, he and his family went away on holiday for Christmas and New Year, and when he came back he broke up with me by telling me he'd cheated on me.

I was devastated. This stunning, highly intelligent, awesomely hot young man didn't find me good enough to hold his attention. He'd taken something precious and smashed it for the sake of a one night stand... that probably wasn't that good anyway! Oh the pain, the humiliation, the loss. The sense of worthlessness stuck with me for a good few years, exacerbated by some very thoughtless young men along the way. I can't blame it all on my first love of course, but it did take me a long time to get over his betrayal.

I hope that when a child of mine has their heart broken I don't say something silly like "You're young, it doesn't count.", because I've found the opposite to be true - nothing has hurt as much as the first time my heart broke.

(I found out years later that all he'd done was snog some girl, but he felt guilty about it so told me he'd cheated, and I'd assumed the worst. He probably didn't mean to break up with me! Guys, a kiss is sometimes just a kiss.)

What (was) for dinner Wednesday

Day 10 off the grog. The cravings have passed, Milord is losing a kilo a week and we're sleeping amazingly well. I'm not losing weight but my belly is flattening nicely and my fitness is coming along so I can't complain!

Dinners hmmmm. I haven't taken any photos, but over the last couple of days we had:

- Garlic and rosemary crusted lamb rack cooked over charcoal, with salad.
- Chicken thighs roasted with vegetables, potato wedges and pumpkin.
- T-bone steaks, grilled, with steamed asparagus tossed in butter.

Tonight Milord intends to get home early, fire up the kettle bbq and cook us a whole chicken over coals. We're missing the gas bbq for the convenience, but coals give a far better flavour!

A little piece of England

Although I'm a lost South African I spent seven years in England during my late 20s and early 30s and that became home to me too. In fact, when I'm totally blue and "just want to go home", it's my cosy little house in a small village at the edge of London that I long for, far more than the soaring majesty of Table Mountain in Cape Town. I loved England. I loved the history, the humour, the infrastructure, the free healthcare, the sleepy villages and the crazy bustle of the cities. I'm happy here in Australia, but sometimes I really miss my last homeland.

I'm generalising based on my experience, but Australians seem fiercely patriotic and surprisingly xenophobic. They practically deny their colonial heritage, while at the same time hanging onto the British monarchy. The Union Jack dominates their flag and Queen Elizabeth is on their banknotes, but they villify the "Poms". As a South African I am more welcome here than as a Brit. The fact that the UK took home more medals than Australia from the Olympics completely freaks these guys out - and I'd be prepared to bet that no non-Aussie even noticed (Kat?).

So I was startled this morning to find a little piece of England on my way to work. I caught the wrong bus and was halfway to the airport when I realised and jumped off! Luckily I was next to a railway station so I bought a ticket to the city and walked down to the platform... of a picture-perfect Victorian English train station! Small red brick buildings with roofs edged in iron filligree - all that was missing was a few hanging baskets of flowers and I would have been on the train station of my old village!

The train was all wrong - a big silver double decker electric train - but each station we passed through on the way to town was "English". Once into the city we dove underground... and the underground stations were absolutely transplanted from the older parts of London's Tube! The station name on a horizontal strip surrounded by a circle - all in glossy green tiles on a cream tiled wall. All the walls were covered in small cream tiles in fact, with a border of green tiles and the occasional big advertising poster. I got off at St James station (!), and walked though a tiled tunnel to the surface where I emerged in a wintery green park on a crisp morning...

Wow. Talk about dislocation!

Morning Walk

Day 8 off the grog. At what point do I start to feel marvelous?

I have found myself a very nice walk to work from our new house. I catch the bus half the way (I walked the whole way once and it took nearly 2 hours, which is a bit much) then jump off and walk the rest of the way to work. The stop I alight at is on the edge of Sydney University and Sydney TAFE (Technical college), and I walk through bits of campus and bits of residential area for a while. Away from the busy main roads there are very few people around, and the campus has that desolate tumbleweed quality of all educational institutions when the students are not there.

Here and there I will chance apon the odd tai-chi devotee in a park (I always want to stop and watch - what's the etiquette when someone is doing wierd exercises in public?). After about 20 min I leave the quiet back streets and take a walkway and bridge across monorail and tram lines which gently deposits me in Darling Harbour, right next to the Chinese Gardens (well worth a visit by the way). This area generally heaves and bustles with tourists and folk out on the town, but in the early morning it is quiet and tranquil. Groundskeepers wade thigh-deep in the fountains, cleaning them, and ducks snooze with their heads under their wings in quiet corners of the ponds.

From here I walk next to the water around to the right, under the pedestrian bridge, past the aquarium and then turn and head into the city, arriving at work after a total of 45mins.


A very nice start to the day!

Fridayitis

Friday at last. Man, that was a long week...

Day 5 off the grog. I broke out in pimples a couple of days ago on my chin, upper arms and in my hair. Luckily the face ones never really showed - I know better than to touch them apart from a good cleanse morning and night - and after a couple of days they dried up and disappeared. The others have nearly cleared up too. Damn detoxing! It's a bit like when you give up smoking and develop a horrible cough for a few months as your lungs clear.

Speaking of which, Milord and I were discussing last night how the urge for a glass of wine is exactly like the urge for a cigarette (we're both reformed smokers). We were out for our 5th montheversary dinner and a movie (Tropic Thunder totally rocks!) and as we sat down in the restaurant I automatically picked up the winelist. And put it back down.

A little voice in my head was shouting
"Want!"
"No."
"Oh ok... ...Want!"
"No."
"Oh ok... ...Want!"
"NO!"

Milord said he had the same internal dialog! Then we ordered a coffee and our meals and the need just went away and didn't come back. I had a guilt-free pizza (think of all the points I saved by not drinking) and we came home sober at a reasonable hour feeling frisky... bonus!

So that's a montheversary done sober. Now I need to get through a Friday night sober, and a weekend sober. I sound like an alcoholic... I suppose I am an alcoholic (everyone who knows me just nodded and said "Duh, yathink?").

I made it to the gym 3 times this week so far, and have my kit with me to go today as well. I ran 5km yesterday in 32 min - need to work on getting back to 5km in 30min - but usually I just do 30min on the cross-trainer. We're eating healthy and I've generally been right on my weightwatchers points (what a pleasure to eat 20 points a day instead of trying to save 10 for the booze!) so I reckon the weight will start creeping off soon.

I also expect the detox symptoms to finish soon. I am less achey and I've started sleeping better - Milord has just about stopped snoring which is brilliant!

Remind me why we drink again? Because it's fun, because everyone else does, and because most social events are structured around booze...? Mmm

Remember all those smoking ads not that long ago showing cigarettes as fun and sexy? I saw an ad last night before the movie selling wine as fun and sexy and it reminded me so strongly of the old cigarette adverts! Beer companies now sponsor the events that cigarette companies used to sponsor. In my parent's youth it was normal to take cigarettes to a party to share - now we take booze to share. I'm seeing a powerful parallel.

Just a decade ago I couldn't envision smoking being outlawed and now it's definitely on the way out. Smokers are thrust out of social gatherings to nurse their habit alone, and are regarded with contempt by the rest of us. I reckon in a generation's time alcohol will be regarded in the same light as smoking is today. Health-wrecking and dangerous... and it is.

I predict that my grandchildren will not be able to fathom what drove us to drink alcohol, in the same way that I goggle at a 60s movie where they all chain smoke like it's normal!

What (was) for dinner Wednesday

Things are a bit busy at work, so I'm not posting very often... looks like this is turning into a recipe blog! Oh well. (Day 3 off the grog and feeling slightly toxic. Milord has lost 4kg [wtf?] since the weekend and I've lost 400g.)

The other day I was browsing through the supermarket looking for inspiration and I saw these adorable baby red capsicums. I just had to buy them.


Then I had no idea what to do with them... I didn't want to chop them up because then I might as well have bought big ones - that would be silly. Ok, so no chopping... maybe stuffed? I googled for recipes and nothing took my fancy, so I threw together stuff I had in the kitchen instead... it was a hit and I've made it twice now to Milord's delight!

Tuna and Smoked Mussel Stuffed Baby Capsicum with wild rice and sugar snap peas

6 baby capsicums (or 2 big ones)
1 200g tin basil and sundried tomato tuna in oil
(If you don't have the fancy tinned tuna just add some sundried tomatoes and basil to a large tin of tuna)
1 100g tin smoked mussels in oil
4 spring onions, finely chopped
1 clove garlic, crushed
Wild rice (or normal if you prefer)
Sugar snap peas (or any other green veg)


If you are cooking wild rice it takes ages so set it going. Preheat your oven to roasting temp (180C).

Mix together the tuna, mussels, onion and garlic. Do not drain the tins first, the fishy oil totally makes this meal!

Very carefully cut the tops out of the capsicums and remove the seeds. Stuff tightly with tuna mix then press the tops back on.


Place the capsicums in a lightly oiled roasting tray and bake in the oven for 30 min or until they go slightly squishy. Steam your green veg with 5 min to go.

Serve the capsicums on a bed of rice and veggies. When you cut into the capsicums the juices will ooze out into your rice... mmmmmm.


If you don't eat shellfish you could skip the mussels, but Milord reckons they are the secret ingredient here. Funnily enough I only threw them in because the tin had been in the cupboard for ages and needed eating!

Septsober

39 days to my sailing holiday! Squeee!

Time to get serious about losing a little weight and toning up. I have challenged Milord to join me for a month off the grog and he's keen, so here we go! It's not going to be easy but at least we have no major engagements lined up this month. A detox should be good for our fertility too... the poor little drunken swimmers don't seem to be doing their job very well!

There is a charity drive in Aus for people to do a sponsored dry month in October - called Ocsober. It's not going to work for me though, as October is my holiday time and we also have 2 weddings happening then. Septsober it is instead!

Here's my monthly weight graph (just the to date one as I haven't changed much):


I've been awfully lazy lately and haven't made it to the gym for weeks. My weight has somehow stayed steady, but my middle's gone a bit flabby. No more excuses! No more lunches reading blogs instead of getting to the gym!