Non-holiday

It has been scorching weather here for the last few days. And more on the way. Touch has been cancelled all week :( Although I have to say that running around in this heat is even a bit much for me. I spent yesterday arvo at the pool just getting in and out of the water and reading the book I borrowed from MM; Naomi Klein The Shock Doctrine which I recommend, but don't read it if you are already depressed with the state of the world...



It was a pretty long weekend, we were intending to go to Robe with some friends but life got in the way, as it tends to do with us. MM's sister passed away after an unexpectedly brief battle with cancer. He is obviously very sad and I didn't want to go to Robe without him - seemed kinda mean. But really there was not much I could do. MM isn't very help-able. I am pretty much a 'fixer' - I like to confront problems and iron them out as soon as possible. Activity is what helps me, but this situation is something that cannot be ironed out. So I guess the best thing to do is stay away, which is really hard but I guess that's the point of the whole 'for better for worse' thing they put in the wedding vows - probably the only part of the whole bizarre arrangement that I could agree with. Sometimes poeple just don't behave the way you expect them to so you have to change your idea of 'being there'.



So, not a great start to the year. I am hoping that my time away from Australia this year will somehow re-jig things and we can start getting some better breaks upon my return. It would be nice for things to be easy for a while!

Long weekend awaits

I am off until Tuesday. Yay! I am going to Robe to hang out with some friends. There will be jetski action too. Fun! I am making snickers rocky road to take along. Hurray!

Back to work

The weather has finally started being warm, warm and warmer and I am back behind my desk with the freezing aircon. But I can't complain too much. Four weeks is plenty long enough to forget about work and really relax. I spent the last 5 days of my time off in Canberra and had a great time. I didn't go and see any of the sights like I did last time, this trip was just for relaxing and catching up with my mates. We were going to see an exhibition at the art gallery but the tickets were $20 and none of us could justify that.

On the Thursday and Friday my friend was working so I hung out at her place. I went for a swim, did some tidying up and generally wasted time. On the Friday I spent quite a while in the kitchen making a chocolate peppermint mousse cake and pavlova for the party that evening. Yummo. It was Mexican food and plenty of tequila for us! Felt surprisingly perky the next day though. I must be incorporating some moderation into my drinking in my old age... My friend made The Best vegetarian sauce for the tacos and tortillas. I will try to replicate it myself at home sometime. Satisfaction.

Saturday kicked off with a quick game of tennis. Well, less of a game and more of smacking the ball around with no skill what-so-ever. I have never played tennis and it showed. I could chase the ball down fine, I just couldn't get it to go where I wanted it to, when I wanted it to! I small rest and then off to 'Civic' for some window shopping and a bit of late lunch at a great cafe - cheap and tasty. Then we decided to head to the Lake and hire a paddle boat. It was a really lovely warm day and everyone else had the same idea. We ended up waiting for about 20 minutes for one to come back it, but it was worth it. We discovered that no matter how fast you peddle the boat aways goes the same speed! If you start trying to speed it up, the paddles just skip over the water and your basically just churning it up rather than pushing through it. That was a little frustrating since we wanted to careen around for a bit. Oh well. While we were chilling out under the bridge a body fell off it right in front of us! Some guy had decided it was fun to jump off the bridge and climb onto his mate's canoe. Clever.

I wouldn't put my head under in that lake for all the world!

So now I am back at work - same as ever. I am trying to find things to keep me busy but it is difficult. I have already exhausted my "List of things to look up on the internet" for my holiday planning. Only an hour and a half til lunch...

Canberra Times

Today I am making peppermint mousse cake and a pavlova. It's all for a good cause; we are having a party tonight! I am in Canberra staying with my friend and chilling out a bit before I start work again next week. Ick. Let's not think about that. Yesterday I got to thumbing through some Super Food Ideas mags and found heaps of great recipes. We made some vegie burgers for dinner last night and today the dessert baking kicks off. No matter that the party is Mexican themed, dessert just needs to have sugar in it. I don't know what they eat for dessert in Mexico.

I am doing some research for my holiday. It seems I need to get cracking on the visa front if I want to visit Cuba... We are looking at heading to the "poor man's Galapogas", aka, Isla de la plata and Machalilla National Park. It seems that is way more affordable and has a similar amount of crazy animals and we may even see some whales as they start migrating through there in June! It would be nice to get some diving done - we'll have to see.

OK, off I go to whip up some egg whites...