Outfit #140 - Come Rain and Come Shine

When I left home this morning, it was raining.  By the end of quartet rehearsal, it was blue skies and sunshine.  It alternated like that all day.  Anyone would think we were in Melbourne.

Top: Dotti. Dress: Cue (op shop). Boots: Sandler. Stockings: ?

There were several other contenders for the title today - the least horrible being "What Up, Hair?" (it's a good thing I forgot earrings today, trust me).  I had coughing fits to and from work, I was meant to be at school 12.5 hours but was given a reprieve, I had less than 5 hours sleep so felt... not good...  So right now I'm snuggled up on the sofa with a cup of chai, looking forward to an early bedtime.

Poached Eggs and Extreme Weather

Brisbane is in emergency, again.  Most of Queensland, it seems, and New South Wales as well.  Thanks to Cyclone Oswald, we've had torrential rain and howling winds.  Never has my house shaken so much.  Trainer Dan was confident it would be fine to train yesterday morning, but as I'd hurt my foot on Sunday I asked for a different day.  Glad I did, too, as Monday morning was scarier than Sunday.  This meant that I had all the time in the world on Monday morning.  I also had more eggs than normal in my fridge.  I nearly chickened out (ooh, sorry for that), but I made poached eggs.  For the first time ever.  I am pleased to report success.

A friend had shown me recently how to poach eggs, without saucers or swirling water.  I had a quick check on the internet, just in case, and figured I'd just give it a go.  I had plenty of eggs, just in case, but I got it right on the first try.  Slightly nervous about it, and having to coordinate differently with coffee and toast, I cooked them just a smidge longer than I'd like, but I still had a nice ooze from the second egg.

Other things that have been happening due to Extreme Weather: I've been beading - so far, I've mended a bracelet, made another bracelet, made a necklace that will most likely be worn as a bracelet, and made a 9-strand necklace. 

For the last weather emergency (the 2011 floods) power went out about lunchtime on the first day, and stayed off for 5 days.  Although it was a little tough not being able to see what was happening, I now appreciate the silence.  Yesterday I channel-surfed for most of the morning, and I watched the news in the evening, and by the end of it all I was over-newsed.  And unsatisfied, as there was little to no coverage of the places I really wanted to see (where my parents live, for example).

I also resorted to comfort food.  I baked my white chocolate, date and cardamom cookies (not so successfully, but they still taste good); I made corn fritters (first time); and I made pumpkin soup which I guess I'll be eating for a while. 

Sunshine Beach

We often play for weddings in great locations.  Yesterday the daily photo was a superb view of the Glasshouse Mountains.  Today's gig was at Sunshine Beach, north of Noosa.  Substantial travel time, but it was worth it.  Often, when we have a gig near a beach, we say beforehand that we'll go to the beach once we've played.  The only time this has come close was October last year, for a wedding in Byron Bay.  It rained most of the way down, and when we were done (for a wedding in which I didn't actually see the bride), it was about to rain again.  We spent about 5 minutes on the beach.

Today, however, none of us had anything pressing.  The weather was gorgeous.  We finished playing at 3:30.  We went to the beach.  YAY!!!  Admittedly, not for a super long time.  And 2 of us were still in gig blacks.  But I still went in the water up to my knees, gleefully.

I don't think I'd been to Sunshine Beach before, either.  Rather lovely.  It reminded me of Lorne, in Victoria, actually.  I know it often won't be possible, but my goodness it was nice to get to the beach after today's gig.

Outfit #67 - Minjor Miracles

Outfit details:

Skirt: Sunny Girl (op shop).  Blouse: Witchery.  Top: Avocado (from Jeannie).  Stockings: Ambra.  Shoes: Pulp.  Earrings: made by me.

I actually took photos of this outfit without the top.  I didn't expect it to last.  It is, after all, September in Brisbane.  However, it was a minor miracle that it stayed on all day, and I only felt mildly warm when collecting students in the middle of the day.  Previous wearings of this top have resulted in non-ideal temperature (too hot or too cold), but today was just right.  Win.

A more major miracle (hence - minjor) was the fact that I woke up at my normal time; I watered my plants before breakfast; I had an outfit change; and I had time for outfit photos all before leaving for work.  I hope you're all impressed.  I was rather surprised, myself.

This was an outfit I had merely thought, not tested.  Once I'd put on the skirt, I knew I would be pulling at my clothes all day.  Not a good way to spend a day.  I mused for a bit, and nearly pulled on a dress, then remembered this skirt.  Bingo. 

I have no idea what's with the lines on these stockings.  At first I thought they might just wash out, but that's proving to be wrong.  Any ideas?

Today's photo:

Another school rose garden photo - they are so beautiful right now. 

Escape to Melbourne

My first visit to Melbourne was a high school music tour.  In the middle of winter.  It was freezing, raining and hailing, and they took us to the beach.  Needless to say, I wasn't a huge fan of Melbourne after that.  My second visit was only as the start of the Great Ocean Road.  I noticed just how flat it is (I like hills).  It was January.  It was freezing, grey and raining.  This did not improve my opinion.  However, when my bestie moved there a couple of weeks ago, I wanted to go and visit.  This was the only wedding-free weekend before the end of this school term. 

1.  I was actually looking forward to going to Melbourne.  Partly to see Jeannie, partly to escape a nasty neighbour situation, partly to learn to at least like this city.  Post-landing required a coffee by the window.  I caught the Skybus from the airport, then bought an actual ticket and caught the train to Jeannie's nearest station.  Later, I bought a myki (like Brisbane's gocard).

2.  Although even the pilot admitted the weather was foul (11C, blustery and raining), it was great to get some wear out of my coat.  And warm cap.  Thankfully, Melbourne knows its weather is horrible and compensates with heating.  This is good.

3.  Dinner was at the Oxford Scholars' Pub, then coffee (this was I think my 5th for the day...) at the Marriott (reasonable).

4.  Bennetts Lane Jazz Club.  Fabulous.  There was no cover charge, and the evening's entertainment was in celebration of the 20th anniversary of the Mabo land rights decision.  Not just the music was great, but the vibe, the service - and I noticed that we weren't at the older end of the age spectrum, there were people of all ages there.  The general vibe out and about in the city was so different from Brisbane, much less raucous. 

5.  Saturday morning.  Running.  In a new place.  With no fixed route.  Agh!  I had to remind my brain, this is a good thing.  We ran 12 km around the neighbourhood, nice long straight streets, a few gentle rises, a bit of bike path and oval.  It was lovely seeing the gardens - although not pretentious at all, just the difference between the plants in Melbourne and Brisbane was interesting.  We're both running the Melbourne half marathon, and now I'm really looking forward to it!

6.  A train and a tram and we arrived at the Ceres Organic Markets.  The actual markets were closing up, but they pointed us towards the cafe.  I could spend a whole Saturday there, easily.  90% organic, sourced as much as possible from the surrounding garden farm, recycling as much as possible - just imagine the greenest possible place.  We both had green eggs (no ham), I had my usual coffee and Jeannie had a dandelion latte.  A great place for kids, they were running around and climbing the hill and just generally mucking around.  Nice people, too.

7.  A couple more tram rides, including the city circle tram, to get to Federation Square and the National Gallery of Victoria.  We couldn't find the stained glass (next time!) but we did see the Felton collection (Aboriginal art - some of the red works were wonderfully intense) and the Joseph Brown collection, as well as a textile collection which was akin to ballet costumes, so vibrant and Australian.  In the Joseph Brown collection I finally saw many famous favourites, including The Shearing of the Rams and Lost, and some Grace Cossington-Smith paintings of the Sydney Harbour Bridge under construction. 

8.  Food was needed, and I found organic coffee bean yoghurt.  Yum.  We found the Chocolateria San Churro, a Spanish chocolate place and I didn't have anything.  Most likely, only because I had just had the yoghurt.  But still...

9.  We went to a production of Under Milk Wood.  In St David's Welsh Presbyterian Church (of course).  This was a Whistling Vicar Theatre production - still running until September 1st I think.  Both of us were a little anxious about having to listen to words so much, but there was enough acting to help us along.  Plus good singing.  Plus Welsh accents (yet no "but I am the only gay in the village"!).  And, as I was meant to have read this in high school (I admit it, I cheated), references by other family members previously went over my head but now I know what they're talking about.  I would have missed about a quarter of the dialogue still, but that's much better than I expected.

The weather was still quite overcast on Saturday, and the general landscape reminded me at various times of Sydney, Adelaide, and Canberra.  However, it is starting to grow on me.

Outfit #42 - Matching the Weather

Outfit details:
Pants: Hot Options.  Shirt: Miss Shop (from Jeannie).  Vest: Portmans.  Cardigan: Jeanswest.  Shoes: Pulp.  Earrings: made by me.

These earrings are the green version of the 'world' earrings - I also have them in black and blue (you can see the black earrings here).  This is my token spot of colour for the day, obviously.  

I wish I'd been wearing an extra layer today.  Until lunch I was fine, and then the weather went all wintry and I got cold.  Only a cardigan, just regular stockings, and no scarf. 

Today it rained.  It wasn't heavy rain all day or anything.  In fact, when I left for work it was blue skies, mostly.  I knew there was a good chance this would change, and actually took a few minutes to sort out shoes - I figured (incorrectly) I would be too warm in boots, and they aren't quite tall enough anyway.  Flats had no chance of keeping me dry, but I wore some to and from stations and swapped into these heels at school.  All was going well until I had to leave school, when it was raining more than mist.  D'oh!  By the time I got home I was rather chilly (and soaked) in the below-the-knee vicinity (if you look closely you can pick the colour difference in the lead photo).  As soon as photos were done I was into jeans and slippers.

Out of Season Organisation

Weather is weird.  In the middle of March, I was feeling the need for some warmer clothes.  The fan left the living room just before Easter.  And then I lived in shorts and tees for a while because summer came back.  Tuesday was forecast for 28C.  Today has been wonderfully cool though, and the next few days (according to weather on the iPhone) will be similarly not hot.  For Brisbane standards.

This evening I finally put my summer clothes in storage.  There is usually a crossover period where I have the next season's clothing down from the attic but still have the ebbing season's clothes still in use, and for a couple of weeks I've had my winter clothes strewn about the place.  Barring any more emergencies, I have no house guests for at least 2 weeks so, until I work out the best way to organise the winter things in my newly revamped wardrobe, the warmer things are now on the spare room bed.

One thing I noticed this year as I was getting the winter things down was that I had to go digging through the bags to find what I was after.  Well, I'll be honest - it's always the pajamas I'm after first.  Thankfully they have a distinct texture, but I thought it might be more useful (and organised!) to label the bags.  Well, to sort the clothes first, then to label the bags.  So I actually sorted my summer clothes (instead of just piling them all into the bags randomly), and labeled the bags.  That is, separates, togs (and swimming-related things), and dresses and pajamas.  I have a lot of dresses.  Hopefully this will make the next crossover easier.

Spicy Fish Soup

Last night, I couldn't sleep again.  About midnight, with my brain very buzzy, I decided to find a new recipe to make today.  This Spicy Fish Soup in Tana Ramsey's Home Made was the only one to appeal enough for me to plan to make it.  Our weather recently has been decidedly summery (temperatures in the high 20s) and, even though we were forecast to have only mid-20s today, I thought that this wasn't too wintry a soup that I would cope.  Weather-wise, it was quite warm during the day but now (late afternoon) it has turned quite chilly and after I post this I'm getting warmer tops out of the attic!

Recipe:
Heat 3 tbsp olive oil in a large saucepan on low-medium heat, add 4 large onions (peeled and roughly chopped), 4 garlic cloves (peeled and finely chopped), and 2 red chillies (deseeded and finely chopped).  Cover and cook 8 - 10 minutes, until softened.  Add 3 each red and green capsicums, deseeded and chopped, and let them sweat until slightly softened.

Pour the contents of the pan into a food processor along with a 400g tin of chopped tomatoes, and blend until smooth.

Return the mixture to the pan and add 1.5 litres good quality fish stock, 2 tsp fresh or dried marjoram, and 1/2 - 1 tsp cayenne pepper.  Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat and simmer for about 10 minutes.  Add salt to taste, then stir in 700 g fresh cod or pollack (or barrumundi, in my case!), skinned and chopped into 4cm chunks, and 100g peeled raw prawns.  Cook gently for no more than 10 minutes - be careful not to overcook.  (I found this took more like 4 minutes).

Add 1 tbsp chopped fresh flat-leaf parsley, and serve in warm bowls.  If you like it hotter, add Tabasco sauce to taste.  These quantities serve 6 - 8.

My experience of Tana Ramsey's recipes is that her quantities are massive.  I halved mine for this, and still - huge!  I also don't own a food processor, so I had to process the first part in batches.

I must admit, this was a pretty good choice for today.  My complaint though is that it felt it was missing something in the flavour department.  Admittedly, I couldn't find any parsley, but that didn't seem to be the missing bit.  Maybe a rasher of bacon, but I'd like it to stay as a recipe suitable for pescatarians.  After a (much-needed) nap though, I realised coriander would be a wonderful flavour to add to this, and next time I'll do a Jamie Oliver and chop up the stalks to include with the onions etc, then add the leaves at the end.  I think I am a genius.