Christian cooked dinner tonight and he made scrambled eggs. In order to complete his culinary vision, he had to go buy some eggs. When I saw the eggs he had bought, I smacked him round the head and told him very plainly that in this household we don't buy cage eggs, only free range or cage free.
This is the conversation that followed.
Christian: Does it really matter?
Me: Yes! I don't want anything to do with stuffing chickens in tiny little boxes! See, listen to this. 'These fresh eggs are laid by healthy, grain fed hens that roam free in large, cage free barns, safe from predators. They have fresh air, natural light, perches, constant access to food and water, and nests in which to lay their eggs'. See, much nicer than a box!
C: (laughing) Nests???
M: What's so funny? My chickens had nests when we were kids!
C: They don't have nests, they have the floor of a warehouse!
M: No they don't, it's a barn! They have perches!
C: Oooooooh, they have a bar! (waves his hands around like a pansy)
M: You're not very nice sometimes, did you know that?
C: I just recognise reality. You seem to have this delusion about the chickens being in a day spa! (waves hands around like a pansy again)
M: Bugger off.
Honestly, sometimes he drives me mad. Anyone want to take him off my hands??? lol
Thursday, January 27, 2011
Monday, January 24, 2011
Fresh is best
This time of the year is one of the best times here for getting a good range of fresh fruit and veg and since I've been making a real effort to eat more fresh foods, this has been very timely.
I thought that tonight I would take some pics of what we had for dinner :)
The menu is Teryiaki chicken stirfry with fruit salad and icecream for dessert.
It was only after I got back from the shop that I realised that I didn't have as big a selection of veggies as I would normally include in a stirfry so tonight's ingredients were pretty basic.
Cooking the chicken. Somewhere in there is a chunk of my thumb...
Add veggies and sauce. Nom nom nom.
I'm one of the weird people who can't handle eating noodles. It's the soft, squishy texture. I know they're essentially the same as pasta but I eat my pasta al dente...
So we have our stirfries with rice.
It's stone fruit season here which means that for about two months we get a supply of nectarines, peaches, apricots and cherries. For about two weeks they are actually affordable.
I live down the road from the major wine region in WA but as of yet, the vineyards aren't selling their table grapes and so I had to part with a large sum of my hard earned cash to buy them from the supermarket.
The fresh peaches didn't look all that nice so I went with tinned. Tinned peaches always make fruit salad feel a little more 'desserty' anyway I feel.
And serve with icecream. Yummy!
We enjoyed our dinner very much. It might not make for such exciting photos as octopi but it was tasty and healthy :)
I thought that tonight I would take some pics of what we had for dinner :)
The menu is Teryiaki chicken stirfry with fruit salad and icecream for dessert.
It was only after I got back from the shop that I realised that I didn't have as big a selection of veggies as I would normally include in a stirfry so tonight's ingredients were pretty basic.
Cooking the chicken. Somewhere in there is a chunk of my thumb...
Add veggies and sauce. Nom nom nom.
I'm one of the weird people who can't handle eating noodles. It's the soft, squishy texture. I know they're essentially the same as pasta but I eat my pasta al dente...
So we have our stirfries with rice.
It's stone fruit season here which means that for about two months we get a supply of nectarines, peaches, apricots and cherries. For about two weeks they are actually affordable.
I live down the road from the major wine region in WA but as of yet, the vineyards aren't selling their table grapes and so I had to part with a large sum of my hard earned cash to buy them from the supermarket.
The fresh peaches didn't look all that nice so I went with tinned. Tinned peaches always make fruit salad feel a little more 'desserty' anyway I feel.
And serve with icecream. Yummy!
We enjoyed our dinner very much. It might not make for such exciting photos as octopi but it was tasty and healthy :)
Friday, January 21, 2011
Whiteman Park
I can't really think of much to post about today but since I want to try and keep up regular posts, I thought I'd post some pics of Whiteman Park. We were there just after Christmas for a bbq with friends and it was a glorious day :)
We always head down to the areas surrounding Mussel Pool. Honestly, when you drive into the park it looks bleak and barren and not really a nice place for a picnic, but once you get into the heart of the park, you come across places like this.
Scattered about the park are old farming relics such as tractors and machinery. They've also bought in an entire windmill.
The windmill isn't attached to a bore as far as we could determine (if it is, there's no taps or other outlet to access the water by) so this sign was pretty pointless...
Most of the trees had numbered metal tags on them. We have yet to determine the reason for these although some of our theories included : Dieback surveys, orientation marks and general tree species surveys. Next time I see my brother Scott, I shall ask him since he's a fandangled botanist and all!
Not the best specimen I've ever found but the best found that day. Our beloved Honkey Nut! When Boo and Mouse came a visiting, we made sure they collected some to take back to Scotland with them.
A chain that was around a tree log that was being held up by a big tractor.
Some of the frisky wildlife. I wonder if it was the same bugger who took a chunk out of my birthday cake when we were there last year...
That is all :)
We always head down to the areas surrounding Mussel Pool. Honestly, when you drive into the park it looks bleak and barren and not really a nice place for a picnic, but once you get into the heart of the park, you come across places like this.
Scattered about the park are old farming relics such as tractors and machinery. They've also bought in an entire windmill.
The windmill isn't attached to a bore as far as we could determine (if it is, there's no taps or other outlet to access the water by) so this sign was pretty pointless...
Most of the trees had numbered metal tags on them. We have yet to determine the reason for these although some of our theories included : Dieback surveys, orientation marks and general tree species surveys. Next time I see my brother Scott, I shall ask him since he's a fandangled botanist and all!
Not the best specimen I've ever found but the best found that day. Our beloved Honkey Nut! When Boo and Mouse came a visiting, we made sure they collected some to take back to Scotland with them.
A chain that was around a tree log that was being held up by a big tractor.
Some of the frisky wildlife. I wonder if it was the same bugger who took a chunk out of my birthday cake when we were there last year...
That is all :)
Monday, January 17, 2011
Kick me when I'm down
Urgh, why is it that as soon as you're unwell or out of sorts, your body decides that you're not suffering quite enough and throws even more at you?
Last Monday I noticed very early on in my work day that my back was giving me some trouble. I limped through the day and made an appointment with my chiro for the following day.
I headed off to see him early Tuesday morning and then had the day off work. It's always an uncomfortable day after one of those appointments because it always takes a while for my back to settle down and it's very hard to get comfy anywhere. I was resting on the couch when it started - nasty, nasty period cramps. And the worst bit? Not even a stupid period to go with them, just the pain.
My back get much better during the week although I had to be extra careful with it. I have organised with work to drop a day from my schedule just to give it a bit of a break. On top of that, apart from swimming one day, I've avoided the gym as well, just to make sure I don't over do it.
So by the weekend I was hoping life would get back on track. But no, it wasn't to be. Saturday night I had a slightly sore throat, by the time I woke up on Sunday I had a full on cold. I ended up napping through most of Sunday and have dosed myself with cold and flu tablets and strepsils to try and get rid of it as quick as I can. It seems to be working because I feel much better today although still rather lousy.
I just wish it would be one thing at a time, not a whole load of shit thrown at me all at once.
Anyway, just wanted to have a bit of a whinge since with the floods over east I haven't really been able to whinge lately. If you complain about a bad back or having a cold you very quickly get shot down because with what those poor people are going through, back pain and the sniffles are trivial things that people don't want to hear about. I agree mostly with that but I just thought I'd come over and hide in the corner and just have a quiet whinge. Promise not to yell! ;-)
Last Monday I noticed very early on in my work day that my back was giving me some trouble. I limped through the day and made an appointment with my chiro for the following day.
I headed off to see him early Tuesday morning and then had the day off work. It's always an uncomfortable day after one of those appointments because it always takes a while for my back to settle down and it's very hard to get comfy anywhere. I was resting on the couch when it started - nasty, nasty period cramps. And the worst bit? Not even a stupid period to go with them, just the pain.
My back get much better during the week although I had to be extra careful with it. I have organised with work to drop a day from my schedule just to give it a bit of a break. On top of that, apart from swimming one day, I've avoided the gym as well, just to make sure I don't over do it.
So by the weekend I was hoping life would get back on track. But no, it wasn't to be. Saturday night I had a slightly sore throat, by the time I woke up on Sunday I had a full on cold. I ended up napping through most of Sunday and have dosed myself with cold and flu tablets and strepsils to try and get rid of it as quick as I can. It seems to be working because I feel much better today although still rather lousy.
I just wish it would be one thing at a time, not a whole load of shit thrown at me all at once.
Anyway, just wanted to have a bit of a whinge since with the floods over east I haven't really been able to whinge lately. If you complain about a bad back or having a cold you very quickly get shot down because with what those poor people are going through, back pain and the sniffles are trivial things that people don't want to hear about. I agree mostly with that but I just thought I'd come over and hide in the corner and just have a quiet whinge. Promise not to yell! ;-)
Sunday, January 09, 2011
Sunshine, swimming and sweltering heat
Hello there my lovelies :)
Just a rambling kind of post today.
First of all, I love this piece of music. I first heard it on 'The Walking Dead' and asked Christian to find out where it was from. Turns out it's the main piece from the Sunshine soundtrack. We hadn't seen the movie and so Christian downloaded it so we could watch it. The movie was ok, rather depressing to be quite honest but the soundtrack was awesome so it wasn't a complete loss.
It's been so awfully warm lately. Well, to be honest, hot. I know, I know, Perth isn't the hottest place on Earth and we actually have rather mild weather on the grand scheme of things but all the same, it's felt bloody horrible lately. It's more the humidity I suppose. I can handle dry heat well but throw in some humidity and I'm sweating up a storm. And yes I know, compared to somewhere tropical (Darwin or QLD) our humidity isn't that bad but it's all relative to what one is used to.
The trouble I have is I do a rather physical job in differing environments. The majority of my clients don't have air con and so I have to put up with sweltering conditions while doing my job and it's not pleasant. I never thought I'd miss my cushy office job but it's times like these that I do...
I've been trying to chop and change the types of exercise I do so I don't get bored with the one activity. When I stop exercising I just lose so much energy and get grumpy and it's just not worth it. So to make sure that I'm getting enough, I've expanded my horizons.
Besides the gym I have had a friend teach my kick boxing basics, I've been going for bike rides, hiking and I've now started swimming.
I've never been a great swimmer. I could never get the breathing down pat since putting my head under water at all made me panic and bring on asthma attacks (considering swimming is supposed to be good for asthma, this was rather counterproductive) so by the time I came up for air I would be hyperventilating and wheezing. So apart from the first couple of levels I never did swimming lessons and the only strokes I really can do are doggie paddle and side stroke.
But after seeing my niece at her swimming lessons I thought that perhaps I should just give it a go and so I did.
I went to the pool with Jo and Darcie this morning and spent a whole hour doing laps. I did a few laps in the walking lane but mostly I swam. Not very well and not very fast but I wasn't there to break world records so it worked rather well.
I ended up doing breast stroke (keeping my head above water the whole time), side stroke and survival back stroke.
I had fun and plan to go back every Sunday.
Finally, across the road from us there is a park and in the centre is a pond thing fed by drains. Living in the pond is a flock of Ibis, whom we regularly see wandering about the park. Tonight we were walking down to a friend's house for dinner and as we were passing the pond I noticed that none of the Ibis were there. I commented to Christian but we thought nothing more of it. We crossed the park and were heading down the road when Molly stopped to sniff at some bushes. Christian happened to look up at a white gum in the front yard of the house we'd stopped in front of and low and behold, the entire flock of Ibis were perched in the tree! I was surprised as it was because I thought they were water birds and didn't think they could fly to be quite honest (apparently they can since they didn't have any abseiling gear on them) but also because of the company they were keeping. In the same tree were magpies, galahs and pink and greys. We're not sure what it was about that tree but apparently it's the coolest place in town to hang out if you're of the winged variety.
It's not the most world stopping event I'd witnessed but it made my day.
Just a rambling kind of post today.
First of all, I love this piece of music. I first heard it on 'The Walking Dead' and asked Christian to find out where it was from. Turns out it's the main piece from the Sunshine soundtrack. We hadn't seen the movie and so Christian downloaded it so we could watch it. The movie was ok, rather depressing to be quite honest but the soundtrack was awesome so it wasn't a complete loss.
It's been so awfully warm lately. Well, to be honest, hot. I know, I know, Perth isn't the hottest place on Earth and we actually have rather mild weather on the grand scheme of things but all the same, it's felt bloody horrible lately. It's more the humidity I suppose. I can handle dry heat well but throw in some humidity and I'm sweating up a storm. And yes I know, compared to somewhere tropical (Darwin or QLD) our humidity isn't that bad but it's all relative to what one is used to.
The trouble I have is I do a rather physical job in differing environments. The majority of my clients don't have air con and so I have to put up with sweltering conditions while doing my job and it's not pleasant. I never thought I'd miss my cushy office job but it's times like these that I do...
I've been trying to chop and change the types of exercise I do so I don't get bored with the one activity. When I stop exercising I just lose so much energy and get grumpy and it's just not worth it. So to make sure that I'm getting enough, I've expanded my horizons.
Besides the gym I have had a friend teach my kick boxing basics, I've been going for bike rides, hiking and I've now started swimming.
I've never been a great swimmer. I could never get the breathing down pat since putting my head under water at all made me panic and bring on asthma attacks (considering swimming is supposed to be good for asthma, this was rather counterproductive) so by the time I came up for air I would be hyperventilating and wheezing. So apart from the first couple of levels I never did swimming lessons and the only strokes I really can do are doggie paddle and side stroke.
But after seeing my niece at her swimming lessons I thought that perhaps I should just give it a go and so I did.
I went to the pool with Jo and Darcie this morning and spent a whole hour doing laps. I did a few laps in the walking lane but mostly I swam. Not very well and not very fast but I wasn't there to break world records so it worked rather well.
I ended up doing breast stroke (keeping my head above water the whole time), side stroke and survival back stroke.
I had fun and plan to go back every Sunday.
Finally, across the road from us there is a park and in the centre is a pond thing fed by drains. Living in the pond is a flock of Ibis, whom we regularly see wandering about the park. Tonight we were walking down to a friend's house for dinner and as we were passing the pond I noticed that none of the Ibis were there. I commented to Christian but we thought nothing more of it. We crossed the park and were heading down the road when Molly stopped to sniff at some bushes. Christian happened to look up at a white gum in the front yard of the house we'd stopped in front of and low and behold, the entire flock of Ibis were perched in the tree! I was surprised as it was because I thought they were water birds and didn't think they could fly to be quite honest (apparently they can since they didn't have any abseiling gear on them) but also because of the company they were keeping. In the same tree were magpies, galahs and pink and greys. We're not sure what it was about that tree but apparently it's the coolest place in town to hang out if you're of the winged variety.
It's not the most world stopping event I'd witnessed but it made my day.
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