This year we made a last minute decision to head up to Mt Coot-tha to watch the fireworks from up there. They are fairly distant so we figured that it might not be as busy as the city. So off we went, roads extremely clear, no delays to find that every man, woman, child and a few dogs as well were up there as well even on the lower reaches. We managed to find an illegal park and caught the end of the early display in the city at which time, most people started heading off. We hung around to see a few more of the more distant displays starting up. An hour later, we had provided enough food to the local mosquito population and we just headed off home again on even clearer roads and not a single police officer to be seen.

All the lights made the night time view a little special, even if you could sometimes barely make out the fireworks in the distance.

Happy New Year, welcome 2012!

So back to reality it is. Only to be reminded that this Friday night is our annual Christmas party come combined birthday party for a few of my co-workers who are celebrating the big 5-0 this year. It should be a real blast but there is one major issue slight problem.

I have to wear something pink. :O

Seriously, this is a disaster. I do not own anything pink. The closest thing I have is maroon and I’m SOL on that account because I wore it to work today and the party is Friday. Enter problem solving mode for which I am famous – I will just accessorise with pink! No sweat, this will be EASY.

Except it’s also Pink for October and the only thing remotely acceptable is a weird looking “pendant scarf” purchased at a ridiculously cheap price. I figure I will just wear it as a belt given it is far too hot to wear a scarf now. I have visions of looking something like this.

Image courtesy of Grace N Glamour

Only my stupid jeans don’t have belt loops. Curse the twits who decided that women don’t need front pockets or belt loops on their jeans but sadly my favourite jeans have neither. Thanks for that clothing manufacturers! No problem, I’ll just get one of those belt buckle thingies that I see girlie girls wearing and hopefully that will keep it in place.

Do you think I can find one of those thingies anywhere? Or even what it is called? So I can’t even Google it effectively to come up with a list of retailers that might stock it. It’s just all too bloody hard so I will just tie the stupid scarf around my waist and hope that it doesn’t look completely stupid. May the force be with me.

I imagine we made the same mistake as a lot of folks do when they visit Aaustralia. They look at the map, think it is a lot smaller than it really is and think – yeah sure! Sydney to Cairns in one days drive is totally doable!

We crammed both islands into 17 days and given the airfares were so expensive, we aimed to go everywhere. The end result was some horrendous 12-16hr drives, often in abysmal conditions. We still enjoyed our trip but arrived home absolutely shattered.

This time we have 19 days but visiting the South Island only. Hopefully this will allow us more time to get off the beaten track and see more of the fabled “real” New Zealand.

Time will tell whether this is doable or not.

I guess you could call it a transition zone between the garage and the house. So theoretically you could dump your boots in this area and not traipse them through the whole house. So there is a bit of that – our work shoes typically live here and we have some hooks on the wall for hats, jackets and backpacks. We also put an Ikea book case in there to use as holding area for stuff we grab when we go out the door but don’t necessarily want on view – like reusable shopping bags, bicycle helmets, rain jackets and sunscreen.

The basket on top of it was recycled from a Christmas hamper I got given one year. It’s a great place to keep my handbag of the day. Oh – and the odd cat as well.

Generally I have opted not to do clothes shopping from OS, only because I have a weird body shape and I am a bit scared of the return/exchange cycle if things don’t fit the way I imagine they will. I get a fair bit of stuff from Ezibuy and while I do love a lot of their range, sometimes I think the price is just a wee bit steep. Particularly when I see a top that looks identical from somewhere like Old Navy and I can get it for less than half the price.

As the Aussie dollar has climbed up to give the US dollar a run for its money, I decided to take a gamble and get a shipment of stuff from Old Navy. They are on the opposite season’s cycle of clothes which helps because their discounted stock is stuff for summer/spring. Sweet! Even with the shipping costs, it worked out to approximately $20 per item*. I really can’t complain about that – even the full item garments I got would be twice that in the store. I even got a super snuggly long line belted cardigan for the cooler months which got a trial run at a wedding I attended this weekend. Definitely don’t regret popping that in the shopping cart as a last minute click.

Courtesy of Old Navy website

What really surprised me was the shipping time. Five days! I’m not that familiar with US geography so I had to Google whereabouts West Columbus even is. It turns out it’s in Ohio, on the more western side of the good old US of A. That’s some 14 761.7 kilometres! In 5 days! If I sound a little amazed, it’s more than likely because I’m lucky to get a package from Sydney or Melbourne to Brisbane shipped in under that time frame. That really makes me wonder what on earth is going wrong with our domestic postal system.

* You’ll notice the jacket cost is $40 AUD – overall cost apportioned over items bought including postage indicates the bargains that can be had.

I’ve hardly ever heard it used successfully to train cats. I’m still waiting to hear that the ongoing “poop in the toilet” training process courtesy of Rainbowtatt has been fully completed. Humans may think they have trained their cat not to do certain things but I guarantee that if you set up an infrared and normal camera to record their activities while you’re not home or are asleep, you will find they are not as well trained as you may imagine. Particularly if they have virtually free run of the house. The best you can really hope for is that they will be compliant with what you want them to do when you are home – usually reinforced by yelling their name in that tone that says they are doing something that makes you unhappy.

It’s occurred to me over the last couple of years, particularly since we have had two cats in our house, that cats are in fact the absolute masters of operant conditioning when it comes to training humans. The whole premise of operant conditioning is that behaviour has consequences right? So consider the following scenario.

Cat wants to be fed. Human thinks it isn’t ready for dinner time yet. Cat rips at carpet or chews on plastic (those are most frequently occurring in this house). Human yells at cat or tries to ignore it. Repeat step 3 (sometimes ad nauseum). Eventually human feeds cat and cat is happy for now.

Now that first part of the loop will go on for a long time in humans who are resistant to the training process. These humans are called stubborn. These humans are foolish and will eventually be beaten into submission. Because no matter how hard you try to ignore the bad and reward the good, the cat will win. Because they usually are that much more persistent. Cats have known this for centuries and frequently use it to their benefit.

I’ve learned that my life goes much more smoothly (and less things destroyed) if I simply comply with what my cats want me to do.  Less stress, less yelling and more time for cuddles. The cats usually dictate their dinner time and on days where I don’t feel like fighting the process, I will just give in and feed them. So they know they have me beat already.

Bring on the second example of cat-initiated operant conditioning. Human uses the computer a fair bit. Cat wants a cuddle. Cat gets in way of human trying to use computer. Cat gets put down on the floor, gets back up. You get the picture. Eventually human resorts to trying to use mouse and keyboard with cat half draped across up causing a semi paresthesia (yes it is so a word, go Google it) of the affected limb. This is not satisfying for the cat or the human. Eventually a compromise is sought and both parties are content.

Happy Caturday!

In my next life, would it be too much to ask to come back as a cat?

This is mainly because I am notoriously bad at baking pretty much anything. I don’t mind having a crack at things but it’s a rare day when I produce something that not only tastes good but looks good too. I’ve had Anzac biscuits reminiscent of macaroons, chocolate biscuits that reminded someone of dog turds. You name it. People just don’t like my style of presentation which is mostly accidental.

Yesterday was fairly cool even by my standards so I decided to have a crack at some good old fashioned cooking FROM SCRATCH! This is something I almost never do and really, what is from scratch cooking anyway? Do those people go out and mill their own flour? Perhaps culture their own cheese? Of course not. So really everyone is a packet cook – it’s just the degree of dependency on product packaging that differs. It always cracks me up when someone gives me a recipe for something FROM SCRATCH and it contains a packet of cake mix or a packet of something else. Anyone can embellish upon a basic packet mix but it takes some kind of talent to come up with a recipe that consistently turns out right time after time.

I found the perfect pancake recipe in the Better Homes & Gardens magazine (July 2011 edition) and now I’m just a tiny bit obsessed with different types of toppings. Pancakes are supposed to be easy but I’ve always had trouble with getting them to be perfectly round and golden. And the flipping bit….for some reason that always goes terribly for me. I’ve since discovered the Breville Pancake Creations gadget which now has a happy home in my kitchen drawer. They turn out much neater than the pan flipped ones below but just as yummy! It’s a spin on banoffie pie and for anyone who is a fan of that, they’d love the combination. Pssst! For a lower fat content in the topping, substitute the double thick cream for Philadelphia Cream for Desserts. It’s lower fat content but has the sweet taste. If you want to lower the energy content in the caramel topping, you could just use Queens Maple Flavoured syrup instead but it won’t taste as awesome as if you had just gone all out and used Toffee icecream topping instead.

Banoffie pie inspired pancakes - awesome!!

So on the back of that, why not a pizza made from scratch? Sure can! I even made the dough, with a little help from the Kenwood mixer. Even so, the messiness involved, the noise and all that – I’m not convinced that the end result is better than a store bought base with toppings just thrown on top. It certainly takes a lot more time! Rest the dough, knock it back and divide in half, rest again, roll it out, trim off the edges to try and make it more round. It’s a painful exercise really. Trust me – ditch the home made dough and just go get a base from the shop if you want to make your own at home.

I do have some leftover dough which I was thinking of making a foccacia with but maybe I’ll just make some pizza scrolls instead. Hope you’re all enjoying your long weekend if you have one wherever you are.

The first part of the year has flown by but at the same time it has felt incredibly long and draining. Strange considering the abundance of public holidays on offer. I blame the late appearance of Easter for needing to get away for a holiday in May. Usually in the first half of the year, I get a constant run of 3-4 day weekends, thanks to a particularly awesome 9 day roster. With Easter and Anzac Day combined, there were just far too many 5 day weeks in between for my liking. What can I say? I’ve been spoiled.

So I’d put in for my leave but still hadn’t decided on anywhere to go. Given we really only had 5-7 days to go anywhere, I didn’t fancy any 14hr drives to get to where we were going. The Sunshine Coast is a little too close to home to feel like a proper holiday so we decided on a little further up the coast at Noosa. I was remembering what it was like years ago and thought it was what we both needed. A bit of peace and quiet away from the city, somewhere relaxing.

Only Noosa is not how I remember it. Not that this is a bad thing necessarily….it’s just more commercialised than it was many years ago. It’s something that the local tour operators commented on a lot – the closer you get to the river mouth, the more expensive everything tends to get. Having said that, we were lucky enough to have a decent 6 day stretch of fine weather to enjoy the place and it was wonderful to just kick back and play it by ear. Being the low season, there wasn’t a lot of crowds to compete with, apart from at Hastings Street for the Food & Wine Festival (which we didn’t even visit) on the weekend.

We even had a cruise out to the Noosa Everglades which ran with a grand total of six people on the boat. It was almost like having a chartered cruise, except with people you don’t know. Our skipper Andy was fantastic and even when we had some unexpected troubles with the boat, he kept his sense of humour and just got on with the job. He even got us back to the jetty after the steering went, somehow shifting the twin motors with his feet at the back of the boat while another passenger helped out with the throttle. It was a wonderful afternoon and because of the slower speed coming back in, we had a gorgeous sunset to drink in during our return.

On a less windy day, the water is like glass

Fishing from the Spit at sunset

Unfortunately the dinner cruise wasn’t running while we were there which was a shame because I was really looking forward to it. But hey, it just gives us an excuse to go back, maybe for a long weekend.