31 posts from March 2008

I am feeling surprising fantastic and full of light this afternoon.  Surprising because it has been a really busy week and I didn't get a great night's sleep last night either.  I am attributing this feeling to a great yoga session this morning especially the handstands I managed to do for the first time.  I was pretty crap at handstands even as a kid so wasn't confident of doing them today.  The type of handstand was similar to that shown in this little how to animation How to do a handstand except I had a partner holding my hips to help me up and was positioned so I could rest my legs against the wall.  Wasn't able to stay up there for too long as my arms couldn't take the weight very well but it was such an adrenilan rush just getting up there and doing it.

 

 

 

After the great banana shortage of two years ago (this was due to destruction of banana crops in North Easterrn Australia), I thought I would never again take bananas for granted.  Fast forward to today and once again I have a whole fruit bowl full of black bananas.  I think I will make a banana cake but this only uses 2 or 3 bananas.  It really galls me to throw them out even though bananas back to a reasonable price again.  Might get some low fat yoghurt and use them to make smoothies.  Don't think the kids will drink them though.  They are so spoilt - only like smoothies with exotic ingredients like fresh mango.  I had never even tasted a mango when I was their age!  I had my first mango was in Indonesia at the age of 19.  My kids get to eat them by the box load and some of them even go bad and have to be thrown away.  The valuing of fruit has really changed in just a few decades.  Also remember avocadoes being impossibly exotic when I was a kid.  Mum would serve them in halves with seafood in the middle when she had a dinner party. 

What one common food item do you refuse to eat? 

I don't refuse it but have never been particularly keen on too much pepper.  Had a curry in a restaurant once completely ruined by an overdose of pepper.  It wasn't even a recipe that I thought would normally include pepper at all (think it was meant to be a Thai style green curry or something). 

 

 

Yesterday I moved up to my new floor at work.  I am to be working with a bunch of old engineers  as a policy/project manager (with the secret brief of dragging my new colleagues kicking and screaming into the 21^st century).  I am the only woman to have ventured into this unit for a few years and currently just about the only one under the age of 50.  The guys here have lead a very privileged lifestyle for quite a long time, earning very good money considering the level of their output.  I could see quite a lot of synergies between what I do and what they are meant to be doing so agreed to come up here on a trial basis.  

 

The senior manager with responsibility for this unit and the rest of the division (a very dynamic and capable woman in her thirties) has long despaired of getting these guys whipped into shape and said I am doing her a huge favour by going up to work with them.  She also said she would give me any back up necessary, for instance, if they tried any tricks like asking me to make them cups of tea etc.  

 

Sure enough on only my second day in my new desk, the manager alludes to a job he is hoping to get me to do for him.  From his brief description, it sounded like a menial clerical job which would be more appropriately allocated to one of the junior (male) staff who seem to have plenty of time to sit around playing computer games and toasting hot cross buns.  My ‘back up’ senior manager is out of the office at the moment and this guy wants to discuss my work allocation this afternoon. 

 

I have decided that I will just have to be assertive to nip this in the bud.  As this is only a trial position, the other alternative would be for me to suck it up and then just go back to my old job when the trial is up.  However I really do want to make it work up here and for this to happen, I will just have to firmly establish my boundaries.  Just didn’t expect to have to do this so soon!    

 

 

 

 

Liked these tips for eating less processed food in Paula Goodyer's Sydney Morning Herald blog (she got them from Michael Pollan, author of The Omnivore's Dilemma):

 

• Don't eat anything your great grandmother wouldn't recognise as food
• Avoid food products containing ingredients that are a) unfamiliar, b) unpronounceable c) more than five in number.
• Avoid food products that make health claims (food products making health claims are in packets and more likely to be processed, he points out)
• Shop the peripheries of the supermarket and stay out of the middle - processed foods dominate the center aisles, while fresher food is around the walls.
• Get out of the supermarket whenever possible. Pollan's advice here is to try and shop at farmer's markets whenever you can.
  

  The Omnivore's Dilemma: A Natural History of Four Meals

  Michael Pollan

Can't say I always stick to these rules (especially regarding the 5 ingredients) but they are good ones to aim for, I thought. 

Here is what I bought:

 

 

This is quite a thin little book from Japan and is described as 'A picture of an eccentric world that clearly passes on what goes on in the minds of young women today: a radical depiction of our time' (Ryu Murakami).  Probably wouldn't have taken a chance on it except for the price ($6.94) and the fact that it has won a Japanese literary prize.  Can pass it on to my mum when finished as she is interested in Asian literature.

 

Bought this one to read for Rory's Book Club.  Think I might have read it previously but honestly can't remember!  Also a bargain at $7.94.

 

 

This is the first book in a YA fantasy trilogy.  Thought it looked intriguing. 

 

  An old favourite and a gift for a girl turning six this week. 

Why do you think it is some people don't get along with you?

 

My dad used to have a little sign stuck on his study wall that said "People who think they know everything upset those of us who do".  Unfortunately I seem to have inherited the "know it all" gene from my dad and I think this rubs people (especially people who just think they know everything) up the wrong way sometimes!

 

What's the most valuable thing you've ever had stolen?

I had my handbag snatched about 5 years ago now. 

 

 

I was taking my daughter (then 3 years old) to her playgroup and was walking down a lane way to the back entrance of the building when I heard footsteps behind me and felt a tugging on my bag. Adrenalin kicked in and I put up a pretty good fight and made enough noise to attract a few witnesses.  Alas, the guy was physically stronger than me (and probably more desparate) and managed to make off with my bag. 

Apart from the bag itself (which was an Oroton knock off given to me by my brother) and about $100 in cash, the main item of value was a tiny ancient coin (probably Mesopotamian) I had found on the ground visiting some ruins in the Middle East (only had it in my bag as I had been trying to get a coin dealer to identify and value it).  Not sure what the bag snatcher would have done with it as it probably wasn't something that could be easily pawned.  Some water utility workers later found my purse thrown in a creek (along with the purse of an old lady who had been robbed in the same spree).  It still had all the credit cards in it but no cash and, more importantly, no coin. 

Oh well, even though it was pretty special to me, it was still just stuff.  It would have been much worse if I (or even worse my daughter) had been physically hurt in the robbery. 

Show us something you're allergic to:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I have been popping anti-histamines like crazy the past few days - probably a combination of the dust from the renovations and the new growth following the rain we have been having in Sydney lately. 

 

We had my son's party for his 5th birthday at our house yesterday.  Was a bit of a challenge getting ready for it as my husband, in his wisdom, had decided that last week would be a good week to have part of the back of the house demolished!  Nevertheless after a supreme effort, we managed to get things ready at home and even had a new improved view to show off to the visiting parents (this as a result of another wall my husband saw fit to partly demolish on Friday - the day before the party!).   

I had cunningly thought that by scheduling the party on Easter Saturday, I could count on at least a few of the invited guests not being able to make it but alas this was not to be!  Only one little boy from J's class couldn't come at the last minute due to illness.  Everyone else came and a few even brought siblings.  I think we worked out that that was about 15 kids all up - not a bad effort for our tiny house.  A few of the mums stayed as well but they pretty much looked after themselves, making their own coffee and hanging out on the balcony admiring the view and only intervening when it was their child causing mayhem! 

Had two mega tantrums to contend with - not sure what one was about but resulted in the offender being bundled into the car and taken home.  The other was towards the end of the party and started with a girl whining about the contents of her treat bag which soon developed into a full scale tantrum because the toothbrush she had got was "ugly" and she wanted one the same as her friend's one (who would have expected that cheap toothbrushes would be such a popular and controversial treat bag item)!  One other little boy was so beside himself with excitement that he would break into spontaneous screams before planting big smacky kisses on J's cheek!  Another little girl spent some time in the passageway pretending the to read the Turkish-English dictionary.  She told me she was upset because J had been ignoring her in favour of her twin brother.  It took me, J and a couple of other mothers to persuade her to come in and re-join the party. 

There was a little tension during pass the parcel was  as some kids wanted to hang onto the parcel until the music stopped (also found out later that treat bag tantrum girl had managed to swindle a younger child out of his prize which she claimed was "only for girls" - had previously seen the delight on this kids face when he won this particular prize - a fake My Little Pony!). Only the girls participated in the craft activity for some reason (boys off in the bedroom playing a raucous game of "dress ups").  We managed to drag the pinata activity out for a good 20 minutes AND avoid anyone getting whacked on the head so that was a bonus. 

Afternoon tea went well (although the scene of devastation at the end was a sight to behold!).  I had been a little worried about one of the guests being coeliac (ie, gluten intolerant).  Her mum brought along a few things she could eat including a gluten free pizza base so I could make her a pizza like the ones the other kids were having.   In place of a slice of birthday cake, I made her a cup of raspberry jelly which she was very pleased with especially as some of the other kids were so open in their envy of this treat (far better than birthday cake apparently).  She took her time eating it, savouring every mouthful while the others looked on mournfully.

Have already told both kids that they can only have birthday parties every second year so have pretty much paid my dues for the next 24 months now.  Woo hoo!