christmas meme

via pav’s cat.
I am really enjoying having endless time to just sit online and talk and write crap. The last six months of insane teaching and busyness have made me realise what a luxery doing a phd is – you get to sit about and write and read and write and rewrite and edit as much as you like. I miss it all ready.
The nicest thing about this holiday with the ps is that we’re all superbusy people (The Squeeze does crazy late night systems admin support stuff, the mother … mothers and stuff, the father is a busy suepracademic) and we’re all really enjoying doing nothing. The father’s family are big on sitting about and talking and enjoying each other’s company. There’s been some shouting, but not as much as usual, and not me. Surpisingly. I have a history of Big Shouting, but as I pointed out to The Squeeze, we don’t shout at each other (though I do shout, generally, and sometimes in his direction. But not angrily), so it was actually strange to find my parents shouting at each other strange. But it wasn’t angry shouting – just kind of loud emoting.
Because it’s that time of year (and pav says it’s ok to be in the Spirit), here’s the most useful advise I’ve had all year:
The Squeeze said (when I was busy being worried about some nasty and insensitive comments from acquaintances):
think less about people you don’t like, and more about people you do like.
Or (the hardcore version)
think less about the people you hate (just give them a punch in the bum and fuck off) and more about the people you love.
It was the best advice ever.
But on to the meme.
1) Do you have a tree, and if so what is hanging on it?
Some nice white lights, some red/gold/green baubles. It’s a fake tree, but it looks nice.
2) What’s the most successful bit of Christmas cooking you’ve done so far?
Mince tarts!
3) And the least successful?
Fried rice with herbs. Boring boring boring. Too dry. Dumb. Waste of nice prawns and pink ling (that’s a fish).
4) Which bit of your Christmas shopping are you happiest with?
The p’s present: it’s one of those amazing toilet seats that’s clear plastic but with wonderfully tacky sea shells and things inside it. They will LOVE IT. Especially the father.
5) Have you opened any of your presents yet? What was it / were they?
Nope.
6) Do you have any bad Christmas associations that will have to be tackled?
Well, family stuff with my sister in law. But that’s largely sorted. Because she’s in Brisvegas and I’m in Hobart.
7) What’s your favourite carol? Why?
The Holly and the Ivy (I think it’s called that), because it’s really nice to sing. But the other day I discovered that the tune of Deck the Halls works really nicely with all sorts of lyrics, especialy when you’re riding your bike.
8) Which part of your Christmas plans is most likely to go awry?
Turkey. It can suck if it’s over cooked.
We are also flying back to Melbourne Boxing Day for dinner with The Squeeze’s mothers and grandfather. That could be a bit tiring.
9) What’s your most favourite thing about Christmas?
I like the hardcore food (cooking, more like).
I like coming down to Tasmania.
I like the way The Squeeze is really relaxed and fun.
10) What’s your least favourite thing about it?
Spending so much money on crap (though we have become less present-centered since the year the mother was really ill. We had only a couple of days after she came out of hospital to get presents, and because we were all kind of preoccupied, we didn’t fuss about presents or food too majory – we were more mellow and just spent time enjoying each other’s company and plain old counting our blessings.
It feels like we now spend less time fretting about crap like whether we got people good enough presents or will have a ‘proper’ christmas (something that always seems on the mother’s (English) mind).
Now we just do nice things. And I like that. We’ve also learnt to really enjoy grownup christmases without kids…so I guess this is mostly a story about the good things about christmas.
11) What Christmassy thing have you seen or heard in the street or on the teeve or in the blogosphere that has
(a) touched your heart

Ummm a version of ‘from little things big things grow’ being sung by Paul Kelly. Not quite Archie Roach, pav, but still, it’s a wonderful song.
(b) hit a nerve
…nothing?
or (c) made you want to barf?
I felt a little nausious afte eating too much last night.
12) Who do you wish you had contacted to say Happy Christmas but haven’t so far?
Most everyone. I have been super slack this past six months, generally. I owe my friends some communication.

berry it up, baby

The wonderful pavlov’s cat has blogged her recipe for trifle and I figured, what better thing to do with some of these sexy beasts?

These are wonderful organic raspberries, purchased at the Salamanca Markets yesterday. We will make trifle with them tomorrow (though I must admit, I find it difficult to resist nabbing a couple each time I go into the fridge): YUM.

And of course, thank you so much, pav: you’ve saved me from urky trifle! And prevented family dischord! Huzzah!

hot christmas fewd action

Yesterday we made mince tarts. Well, actually, a few days earlier we made the mince meat (currents, sultanas, a couple of golden delicious apples, a ya pear, orange and lemon rind, brown sugar, butter, contreau… and some other stuff I’ve forgotten) and then kept it in the fridge. But yesterday we made 20 odd mince tarts. The Squeeze is King of Pastry – I am crap with pastry – and these were fabulous.

Here I am adding the filing to the shells. Check out the rest of the pics for more enthralling fewd action.

after a few minor stacks and unpleasant jabs in the arse…

Today we actually did something other than watch telly, shop or eat.
I woke up really sore and achey from sitting on the couch, watching telly and eating (and sleeping in a terrible bed), and decided we needed to go for a proper walk to work our muscles. After a bit of discussion, The Squeeze decided we would walk over the Derwent Bridge. 100304936_e91c951d03.jpg At first he declared that we would walk to the bridge (about a kilometer and a half, or maybe two kilometers), then over it and on to the cenotaph. But we eventually decided to drive so that we could get a bit further than the cenotaph – into Salamanca as well.
We drove to the bottom of the bridge on our side (which is the east side), and carefully planned to walk up the left side of the bridge. The Squeeze estimated a couple of hours there and back, but we actually made it across the bridge in only twenty minutes (it’s only one and a half kilometers wide, though it looks far bigger). Ten minutes up I realised neither of us had brought a camera, but that was ok. I also realised that neither of us has hats, nor had I worn a shirt with sleeves (and I’m still recovering from an inadvertant roasting I gave myself last week riding to the city in a singlet). So I put on a jumper to cover my shoulders.
The bridge, though it looks quite steep, doesn’t feel it when you’re walking. But the footpath is actually quite narrow, so we had to press ourselves against the railing to let the occasional cyclist past (we saw about four in our twenty minute ride). The Squeeze and I spent most of the walk discussing whether we could ride over the bridge to work every day (yes from The Squeeze, who rides 10k to work every day and is currently made of iron, and maybe from me who is very competitive and hates being left out, but is more aluminum (foil) than iron these days), ogling the amazing view up and down the Derwent (it really is the most beautiful river valley – Hobart is the most beautiful city in Australia, I think, though Sydney’s harbour does trump it), pointing at jelly fish and shouting. I discovered that no one can hear you on the busy bridge, and that a good bit of shouted singing when combined with endorphines makes you feel really nice.
Twenty minutes later, we negotiate the underpass and start the hike into town to the cenotaph. This took us about twenty, twenty five minutes (it was only another kilometer and a half), but was a bit sunny and bright. There’s a bike path (called the intercity bike path because it links all the ‘cities’ on that side of the river – Hobart, Glenorchy, etc – separate city councils) which runs along the river below the main road which is kind of interesting. Well, not really, but we did see a seagull … If you call the place where rooks roost a rookery, would you call the place where seagulls roost a gullery? A gallery? ahahahahah. Anyway, they roost all along the train line there (which had resulted in a number of fatalities), and we saw many teeny fluffy seagull chicks. And were scared by a few aggressive seagull parents.
When we reached the cenotaph we decided (after a little negotiation, and some pleading on my part) to hire bikes and ride into Salamanca, and perhaps on to Jackman and McRoss in Battery Point. We did begin with a tandem, but decided (after a few minor stacks and unpleasant jabs in the arse) to go, for the sake of our relationship and my groin, with two normal bikes instead. The Squeeze was disappointed, but it all turned out for the best.
We rode on into Salamanca (I had a lovely time on the bouncy, wide-tired suspensioned mountain bike – no worrying about popping tires or slipping on gravel here! But much leaping on and off curbs and other serious Stunt Work), and I discovered that riding uphill (egads – Battery Point!) on that bike with slightly soft tires after a week on my arse was a bit of a challenge. But we had nice pies and then nice cakes (and a frightening bill) and then rode back downhill (woo-hoo!) into Salamanca.
I have to say, there’s nothing more wonderful than riding around a newly-emptied Christmas Eve Salamanca on a bouncy stunt bike. We zipped around and through traffic (they’re afraid of bikes here – and we found the Hobartians far tamer and less frightening than the Brunswick drivers), zoomed through the docks looking for the seal again (no luck) and then back to the cenotaph to return our bikes. About another three or four kilometers round trip.
And then back across the bridge through a bit of light rain, into the car and back up to Rose Bay.
Where we said hello to the ps, then went downstairs, took off an item of clothing or two, lay down and fell asleep immediately. Three hours later we awoke, consumed another lovely salmon dinner and embarked on the second round of mince tarts and a spot of tree decoration (we always do the tree christmas eve in our family). The father declared that we would watch all of the Star Trek films in celebration of the birth of our lord and saviour, and the tree decoration has consequently been interrupted by moments spent admiring William Shatner’s divine brilliance.
I have quite a few more photos to blog, but I’m being told to come and fiddle with ornaments.

hawt gardening prn

We finally revamped the veggie patch. I’ve decided to ditch the veggies and go for solid herbs. That bed there that I’m standing on is really difficult to get things growing in. We’ve a few tomatos who’ve self-seeded themselves near the compost there, and a few left over herbs at the front and to the side, but it’s pretty much empty now. The other bed, on the other hand, is now full of new herb seedlings, as well as the old rosemary and lemon grass and a lavender I should dig out. Now it has a million types of basil, plus other good bits and pieces. They’re left in the hands of The Squeeze’s mother – hopefully they’ll still be well when we get home.

But check out the photos for the whole mulching process. Keep in mind the fact that we weeded thoroughly before hand and dug in some sweet compost from the compost bin.