Images and videos that I’ve taken on-the-go
This is the most amazing thing ever. My Mom sent me a big ol’ box of Halloween stuff this week, and inside I found… a pumpkin. WHA–? A BIG FAKE PUMPKIN. It’s made out of some space-age foam stuff and you can actually CARVE IT. Oh, the things you can get in America! Thanks to Mom, Snookums has just carved his first jack-o-lantern.
At last, a finished object to report! I’d seen this famous jacket before but this is the first one I’d ever knit. It was for Tia and her newborn little son, Rohan. I took it over to them at the RPA Hospital tonight, and wonder of wonders, it actually fit! I’m also happy to report that this is officially the first knitted item the baby’s ever worn (as poor Tia was too sick to knit for most of her pregnancy). It was knitted out of Debbie Bliss Baby Cashmerino and I used size 3.25mm needles.
Step One: Knit this thing. Doesn’t look like much, does it? I couldn’t even figure out which bit I was knitting for a while, which interfered with my plan to use stripes. Finally I just decided to throw in some random stripes and hope they turned out well.
Step Two: Fold it up. Believe it or not, that floppy thing actually folds up into this little jacket. The only seams you have to sew are the two shoulder tops.
Step Three: Finished! Here I’ve completed the shoulder seams and added buttons. In an elaborate attempt to avoid actually having to sew, I decided to try picking up along each shoulder and then doing a three-needle cast-off. It worked pretty well! Probably took me a lot longer than it would’ve to just sew the thing, but I’m nothing if not stubborn.
The back of the jacket.
The only problem I had with my shoulder joining method was that picking up on the back side of the shoulders created a weird little strip of stocking stitch on an otherwise all garter stitch garment. I decided that Rohan probably wouldn’t mind, but I may try to find a workaround for this in the future.
So tonight the Snook and I headed over to the hospital to deliver the jacket to the little nipper in person. He was all swaddled up asleep when we got there but that didn’t stop Mum from dressing him up right away. How cute is he? I’m sure he’ll outgrow it quickly, but for now he’s got one cozy little cardigan to keep him warm.
And five seconds later, there I was in a chair with a baby in my arms. He really didn’t like being woken up though, and he really didn’t like being that far away from his Mama. Poor little thing started to buck and cry, so here I’m like, “Hurry up Snookums and TAKE THE DAMN PICTURE ALREADY!” As soon as I handed him over to his dad Daniel, he turned into a little angel again.
Tia and Daniel are doing great, by the way, and it’s wonderful to see them so happy with their new little family. It blows my mind to think back to a year ago when Tia confessed they were trying for a baby, and all the complications and problems that arose. But there in that little hospital room, I got to see the happy ending to the story. Welcome, Rohan Porter.
While everybody else was moaning about the heat yesterday, the Snook and I decided to get out of the house and enjoy it. We headed down to Darling Harbour to visit the Maritime Museum, which we chose on the basis of two criteria: 1) we’d never been there, and 2) it’s currently free. We walked over from Chippendale and soon discovered a Japanese Festival happening in Tumbalong Park. I took some photos…
Along with the usual array of food stalls and travel booths, the Festival featured lots of visiting Japanese performers drumming and dancing onstage. We joined the crowd, and I snapped this picture of some Samarai dudes coming out of the VIP tent.
This act featured about fifty of these dancing girls along with a lot of drummers. The traditional dance was related to the rice paddies and featured a lot of movements of the workers.
Down at the harbour foreshore, some of the “less-polished” groups were performing. We stood to watch this troop of, uh, older Japanese ladies. They were dressed like very sparkly Golden Girls and I swear for the first sixteen bars of their song they were all doing the Robot.
The Maritime Museum had a “Pirates” thing going on for the kids over Spring Break, so here’s the Snook doing his pirate imitation. (I wanted to pay the extra $7 for the Pirates, but upon further inspection it was basically a pirates-themed kids’ playground. So we gave it a miss.)
The museum itself – to be honest – isn’t super engaging. They’ve got the world’s fastest speedboat, along with a few interesting things they’ve brought up from shipwrecks. The one section where I learned the most was on immigration. I had no idea that they basically coerced British parents into signing away their kids so they could be brought out here to “inject some good British stock” into the gene pool. This was back during the White Australia policy, when the white folks were worried they needed to “populate or perish.” Another phrase from this time was Ten Pound Pom. This referred to the scheme – advertised in this poster – that assisted Brits in moving here for only ten quid.
They’ve got a lighthouse! It was from up the coast and they moved the whole thing down here. We decided to climb up it.
Here we are at the top of the lighthouse. What a gorgeous view! Sydney on a sunny day cannot be beat.
The jewel in the crown of the Maritime Museum is this replica of Captain Cook’s ship Endeavour. It costs about $15 to get in, but I think it was worth it. The volunteers onboard were all really knowledgeable about life at sea, and at least one of them actually sailed it on its last trip around the world. We clambered up and down and asked lots of questions and tried not to fall over when the waves made it sway side-to-side. I especially liked a nondescript round metal plug in the Captain’s office at the stern of the ship, which had apparently been taken up into space on the shuttle Endeavour. It’s such a neat way to tie this new era of human exploration to its older ancestor. (As you may imagine, Cloud Atlas was on my mind a LOT when we were on the ship.)
This little kid was on the ship with his parents, and he was dressed in a full-on pirate’s costume. I asked him if I could take his picture steering the ship, and he assented. “What’s your pirate name?” I asked. “CAPTAIN BLOOD!” he responded. Good pirate name.
And that’s it! We headed home – well, with a slight detour to Simon Johnson for some delectable cheese – and felt we’d earned the right to laze away the rest of the day…
I walked up to Giordano after work last night to buy some new pants, and as I left there I found myself walking past “85C”, the coffee-and-cake shop that opened last month. (Grab Your Fork has a review.) I figured “What the hell?” and went in. I asked the guy for two pieces of their signature cake. “Uh… you mean the most popular?” Sure, as long as it’s good. I left with “strawberry cardina” and “Black Forest chocolate cake” wrapped up in an adorable little box. After dinner, the Snook and I embarked on a taste test. I think the strawberry is the definite winner. Very fluffy and light, and pretty much as close as I’ve gotten to a strawberry shortcake over here. The Black Forest cake was disappointing though. If you got a bite that included a cherry, it was divine. Unfortunately there weren’t a lot of cherries, so the majority of it was just chocolate with whipped cream. And that bit wasn’t great. It had that Michel’s Patisserie quality of making you feel like you’re eating nothing but sugar and fat whipped with air. There wasn’t a lot of flavor to the non-cherry bit, is what I’m sayin’. (Of course, the Snook got to this one before me, so it’s entirely plausible that he surreptitiously ate more than his share of cherries.) Anyway, two pics:
Sydney’s lack of decent Mexican food has been well-documented. After another okay (but not excellent) dinner at Baja Cantina in Glebe Friday night, I was about ready to throw in the towel. Imagine our surprise then when we happened upon the Grand Opening of Guzman Y Gomez Taqueria in Newtown yesterday! We stopped for a minute to talk to one of the founders, a genuine Noo Yawker named Steven. He told us with pride how he’d actually brought one of the best chefs in Mexico to cook here in Sydney, and how many of the staff (which included some lovely ladies) were Mexican as well. We were loaded down with worms though, so we made a mental note to come back another time.
We lasted about 24 hours. We walked over to Newtown today and debated over whether a “taqueria” would survive on King Street. On the plus side, cheap and cheerful ethnic takeaways seem to do well there. On the negative, they’re in the Cursed location on the corner between Newtown Thai and T2 (where Pasta Shot and a dozen other concepts have bit the dust over the past few years). The fitout and branding looked pretty slick to me, which might work or might not. The Snook thought it might look too “American,” but I countered that Gloria Jeans and Crumpler seem to be doing pretty well there these days. So with trepidation, we arrived to see what all the fuss was about. And DUDE, there was a LINE out the door!The odd thing is, there were literally about ten people running around the tiny kitchen. I think working out the inefficiencies in the food production is going to be their first major task. We probably waited fifteen minutes or more just to give our order – a lot of Aussies needed to be handheld through the menu items, and Steven was also trying to stall the line to keep pace with the kitchen – and then it probably took another five or so to get our food. Their main menu items are Tacos (11 different varieties), Burritos (9 varieties), Quesadillas (7 varieties), and sides. (And there are three different salsas as well.) So while it looked simple, it really wasn’t. There are way too many choices. That’s my first critique. It might speed up the kitchen assembly line if the options are simplified.
Anyway, we told Steven to give us half a dozen tacos in whichever salsa combinations were best. He also upsold us on a cup of chili. The place was too packed to stay though, so we took the whole lot home to unpack. Here’s what we got:
Disappointingly, everything was a bit cold by the time we got it home. Nevertheless, we persevered. The highlights of the taco selection were the Pork Adobado and Prawns in Yellow Mole. Overall, though, I wasn’t really impressed. Nothing even seemed very spicy, even though I knew he’d used the hot tomatillo salsa on at least a few of them. We were left wondering if they’d gone light on the spiciness out of concern for the Aussie palate or something. I could taste the dry rubs and everything seemed very nice, but the flavour could’ve been ramped up about tenfold. The only taco I didn’t care for at all was the “Baja” Style Fish. It just seemed really dry and weird. It might’ve been better with, like, a tablespoon of salsa, I guess. The rice had some greenish spice on it – the menu says it’s “sofrito” – but I didn’t quite get if we were supposed to eat it straight or spoon it on the tacos or what. The tacos all just seemed a bit interchangeable and bland. (Could the kitchen staff have forgotten the salsa altogether? There’s not a lot in these pictures. Next time I’ll ask for extra.)
The chilli was good though. I’m used to Tex-Mex chilli, so this sweeter and smokier version was nicely different. (Still not very hot though.) The meat was tender and shreddy, while the cheese and onions were a nice touch. The absolute best menu item of all though? The tortilla chips. They call them “Totopos,” and they’re friggin’ FANTASTIC. They made me realise how crappy the grocery store Doritos-type chips I’ve had here have been. Crisp and salty with just the right amount of grease… Heaven. So even if I can’t bring myself to pay $3.50 per taco again, I can definitely see myself stopping in for chips and salsa. They were that good.
Moblogging under sedation. Just had my endoscopy, or so they claim. I don’t remember anything after the first drugs. Just feel like I’ve had a nice nap. Drugs are nice.
Me and Mary-Helen at SSK. Lots of people venturing out to knit in the sunshine!
I was at last able to pick up the Snook’s super-secret birthday surprise tonight – two beer mugs that I made him in my Ceramics class! (He didn’t mind that they were late; I couldn’t get them out of the kiln any sooner.) I had a lot of help from my tutor Peter. They have extruded handles and I finished them with a hand-painted pewter glaze. They turned out pretty much exactly as I’d hoped. They’re pleasantly heavy without being too chunky; they’re slightly wonky and obviously handmade; they look rather medieval and masculine. The photo makes the one on the left look chipped, but that’s actually water from where I’d just rinsed them out. Snookums only had them out of the wrapper for about two seconds before he’d filled the big one with beer!
And yes, that is a football-sized ball of Silk Garden. I pulled my cardigan apart. It’s a long story.
That last picture is my dinner creation for tonight – Chicken Pot Pie. Yes, I decorated it with a bird made from puff pastry. It was delicious!
Recipe:
Okay, this is just a slightly-modified version of the Chicken Pot Pie recipe from the Better Homes and Gardens New American Cookbook, which is my all-time number-one go-to cookbook for just about everything.
First, you’re gonna need some cooked chicken. (The recipe calls for three cups.) You can either pull it off a roast chicken, or you can poach your own. Poaching’s pretty easy so I go with that. Just whack a couple breasts in a skillet and fill it with water. Cover and simmer until they’re cooked through. Sometimes if they’re really thick I cut them in half so they cook faster in the middle. Once they’re done, fish out the chicken and set it aside to cool.
Now get out a pot and fry up a chopped onion in a quarter-cup of butter. (Mmmm.) When the onion is soft, you’re going to dump in one-third of a cup of all-purpose flour, half a teaspoon of salt, half a teaspoon of dried thyme, and a good grind of pepper. Stir it around a bit so the flour soaks up the butter and cooks a little. (This is what makes the sauce thick.) Now you’re going to dump in two cups of chicken stock and three-quarters of a cup of milk. Stir it around and cook until thickened and bubbly. Now throw in your vegetables. Tonight I felt like using a lot so I put in carrots, potatoes, peas, broccoli, and green beans. While that’s cooking, go back to your now-cool chicken and tear it up into chunks. Add that to the pot. You’re nearly done!
All you have to do now is pour your mixture (basically a thick chicken stew) into a big Pyrex baking dish (or you can be fancy and put it in little individual dishes). Cover it up with some puff pastry (buy it frozen but let it thaw first) and cut a few slits to let the steam escape. If you’ve got some left over, you can go nuts with the decoration (a la my bird). Pop the whole thing in the oven on a fairly high heat (at least 180C if not more) and let it bake for 15 minutes or so, basically until the pastry goes flaky and golden. Pull out and eat!
Here’s me and Amy kickin’ it at this year’s ABC Knit-In. There were hundreds of people there knitting squares and sewing together blankets for Wraps With Love. Several members of the Knitters’ Guild Inner City group turned up, and we even got our picture taken with Adam Spencer! I’ll post more pictures as soon as Amy gets home and e-mails them to me…
Melbourne has been great so far! We just had dinner at Crumpet’s. The best part is that the heat in our hotel room was broken, so they just upgraded us to the Rain Man suite! SCORE. Snookums is pumped.
