Yum

It's all been a bit serious recently, so here's some tasty food to lighten the mood. Barbecued chilli prawns with home made smoky 'slaw. Low-carb as well, apart from the beetroot beer...

Needs more prawns...

Putting the gas into degustation

The local Institute of Technology runs a catering course, and once you sign up you can get invited to regular demonstration meals cooked by students for the public at their in-house restaurant '66 On Ernest'. We were lucky enough to get invited to a degustation menu, which is lots of small tastings of food cooked in imaginative ways which shows off the chefs flair and originality. The menu had 5 courses and 17 dishes in all (click to see the large size)

It was a tad embarrassing taking photos of food, especially as I didn't have an iPhone so the pictures are a bit rushed but -

Course 1 - Amuse (short for 'Amuse Bouche', or 'amusement for the mouth'). These are basically pre-dinner snacks, and we had a duck liver parfait with cornichon and a lotus crisp with pork crackling & orange miso. Yum, although it would have been good to have something to soak up the miso.

Course 2 - Seafood. Four offerings here - scallop prosciutto with an orange tarragon reduction, tempura prawn with rice noodles and nahm jim, a kingfish ceviche with lime jelly and a sesame cracker and butter poached snapper with chorizo & garlic crumb. My favourites were the ceviche (and I don't even know what that is) and the nahm jim

Course 3 - Veg. It was a bit weird having this separate to the meat course as they were all essentially sides, but the options were tomato cucumber, roasted vegetable tombe with pesto, hommus with chilli salt crisps and pumpkin gnocchi. The chilli salt crisps were lovely and the gnocchi had a smooth smokey flavour that worked well

Course 4 - Meat. We were starting to get full at this point but persevered against a beef cheek tortellini with cauliflower crisp & jus (lovely), pulled pork rillettes with apple & pear chutney served on brioche (a little sweet for me, and probably more of an amuse dish), venison cardamon with chocolate sauce, blue berries, an onion maple stock and parsnip tobacco cream (as odd and sweet as it sounds but strangely balanced), seared lamb with a sumac fennel puree, cumin crumb and jus (i'm a sucker for fennel) and kangaroo fillet with a tomato & capsicum chutney, kumera rosti and game jus (tasty and the kumera / sweet potato contrasted well with the gameyness of the 'roo)  

Course 5 - Dessert. By this time we were struggling but the polite yet prompt and efficient service kept the pressure on - we could have asked for a pause, but it seemed somehow cheating. And I forgot to take a photo until half way through. Dessert consisted of a goats cheese bavaroise with rhubarb compote and a praline crisp (sugar with the great smell of goat), a baked fig with raspberry coulis and pear ice cream (tasty), a dark chocolate frangelico ganache tart with creme Chantilly (nice but with over-thick pastry) and a creme brulee with raspberry compote (a bit un-set). I don't have a sweet tooth, so I was probably most critical of the dessert course.

We finished off with Petit Fours, four little tasty chocolate morsels that pretty much tipped me over the edge and into Mr Creosote territory.

All in all it was a great evening. The service was excellent, the food very tasty and well presented, the wine & beer list was small but inebriatedly inexpensive and the full menu for two including two glasses of sparkling wine and a bottle of Wild Oats Tempranillo came to less than $120. Certainly not cheap, but a bargain for the quality of food presented, and of course the perfect place to play 'Masterchef judge'. We're looking forward to the next evening they host.

The students may have done a great job, but a sign in the toilets showed that although they have educated and aspiring minds, they still have their feet firmly on the ground.

Living in interesting times

Sorry, this is a bit of a whinge and I have a more entertaining post lined up for later today which includes the words 'rillettes', 'bavaroise' and 'ceviche'. So probably best to scroll down to the tune, skip the words and wait for the next one...

The last few weeks have been pretty hectic, and it reminds me of a curse raised by the great Terry Pratchett - 'May you live in interesting times'. Our new rental fell through spectacularly on the day we tried to move in – we were supposed to gain possession last weekend (the owners being the ones who pushed the tenancy date forward two weeks from what had originally been discussed), but when we rocked up it was still being worked on by the owner. When we questioned it we were told that the owners kids had been sick so he hadn’t had the chance to fix it up, 'it wasn't like a bought house' (I have no idea what that means) and they didn’t appreciate our attitude in requesting that the place be clean, empty, unbroken and ready to move in to on the agreed date. There was a bit of low grade shouting, he told us to piss off, we gave him the keys back and we’re on the hunt for a house again (with a month to go before our lease ends).

In some ways it's a blessing as they obviously would not be good people to have as landlords, but dear god I'm bored of driving around & looking at houses. It seems to eat into every part of my life -  to spend time doing anything but hunting through the real estate sites, booking viewings or driving around checking out suburbs feels like wasting valuable time. I'm not exercising, not riding and I can't get any cheese or beer brewing on as it would be a pain to move. Terry Pratchett also says that 'people say there's no place like home. That's rubbish, there are a million places just like home, it's just that you haven't chosen to live there' and I'm trying to keep that in mind as we view one broken down house after another...

Works pretty full-on at the minute as well. It seems like I'm the backstop of every problem so something similar to this seems to happen far too much in both the software side and the project planning side - 

• Another consultant finds an issue in their specialist area
• They ask me if I know why it's happening
• I have a quick look at the configuration, try and figure out what it's supposed to be doing and say no, I can't see anything obvious. It'll need to get logged with the UK team.
• The support guy gets told to log it, but as he's new and the information he's given is overly brief he has no idea what the problem is.
• I sit with him and show him how the area works, what the problem is and how it should be logged
• I proof-read his call and make sure it makes sense
• The UK team ask some dumb questions that our support guy doesn't know enough to answer, so he sends them on to the consultant
• The original consultant can't understand the questions and asks me to assist
• I send back the reply they need to give, which goes back to the UK via the poor support guy. I try to spend some time with him as part of this to help train him up, as he's a good kid and he wants to learn and not just shuffle emails about.
• The UK respond with a fix
• I send the fix on to our technical team who installs it on one of our local systems
• I tell the original consultant that the fix is on and needs to be tested 
• They tell the support guy to test it
• They local system isn't set up the same way as the clients system so the support guy can't test it
• I configure the local system so that the support guy can test it
• I assist the support guy in the testing process
• The support guy decides the fix is OK but asks me to double check
• I send the OK to the tech guy to install the fix on the clients site
• The original consultant then reports in the project meetings that they've fixed the issues on site.

All of this whilst overloaded with my own stuff to do. It's also worth noting that all three of the people I'm supporting in this way are all paid more than me..... I don't really handle stress that well and although I should be meditating, practicing mindfulness or other such zen noodling I just seem to be wandering round in a permanently tense state with a constant vague sense of unease in the pit of my stomach (which if you think about it is the source of the phrase 'worried sick'). I'm also waking up every morning at 3am and worrying for a couple of hours before dozing off just before my alarm sounds, which isn't the best.  

 Alrighty, thanks for letting me get that off my chest..... 

 

Clinton's Law

We've been developing a new law in the office recently, dubbed Clinton's Law. This states that 'When faced with a number of equally valid choices, you should choose the one that is funniest'. It turns out to be a corollary of Murphy's Law, because someone following Clinton's Law will generally inflict Murphy's Law upon someone else. Which is of course, funny and hence matches the requirements for Clinton's Law.

That leads obliquely into this weeks music choice, 'Miracles' by the Insane Clown Posse. Sorry Marin, last week it was looking up but now - *sigh and double eyeroll*. Warning - rude words ahead.

How do those magnets work?

Summer Cx

Cyclocross is slowly gaining popularity in Brisbane - so much so that they're now running a few summer races as well, with the hope of getting some mud. Alas there was nothing but sunshine at the Toowong race yesterday, and the 30 degree + temperatures didn't look pleasant to ride in. In fact it was hard enough to spectate in those conditions.

Of course cyclocross also involves beer and pre-race visits to Archive & Scratch

 We got to the race in time to catch the end of a hard-fought battle in the open race

Imogen & Emma matched each other every lap, until a dropped chain gave Emma a slight advantage that she was able to capitalise on and make a break

 The A & B grade race was equally tough

 (This was intentionally an artistic photo and not my camera auto-focusing on the wrong thing...)

The true spirit of Cyclocross...

 

Saved by the boil

I was supposed to go down to Sydney again for a couple of days this week, but on the way to the airport my car overheated and left me sitting at the side of the road around half a kilometre from the airport carpark waiting for a tow. Turns out the radiator was badly leaking, which explained that puddle under the car when I left - in my defence it was 5am and half-light so my brain was suggesting a weird condensation pattern.

I ended up missing my flight out, and after assessing what I had to do and how I could do it I decided that it would better to use GoTo Meeting instead of rushing around for what would have ended up as a day in total on site. After getting the car delivered to my Land Rover guy I made it back home at just before 8.30am, so I spent 3 1/2 hrs getting nowhere in a very expensive way. It looks like I didn't damage the engine but it still needs a new radiator & thermostat, add labour on top of that and that's an expensive way to avoid two days in Parramatta. Wonder if I can claim that on expenses?

Still, just before the temperature gauge peaked I heard this awesome tune from a Brisbane 2-piece on 4ZZZ on Wednesday and thought it sounded lovely and deserved a post - enjoy :)

 

Minimalist shoes

It's been a while since I talked about barefoot running, partly because I think I tried to do too much too quickly and managed to give myself a mild stress fracture in my left foot. Injury free? My foot *arf*. But after my last post, Gordy reminded me of this video . It reminded me that I'm totally into barefoot running

From left to right:-

Invisible shoes, you buy them as a kit and after a year they remain unmade

My trusty Nike Frees - about 5 years old. Would not be considered minimalist by most barefoot runners but are very comfy and have been around the world with me

Vibram 5-finger KSOs - I should wear these more often as they feel really good to walk in, but it's hard being one of THOSE people. Plus they slap loudly when I run

Inov8 f lite 195s - my new buy. They're very light (395g for the pair) so they'll be good to travel with, and a 3mm sole and a 3mm heel to sole drop means there's a little more structure than the Vibrams. They don't scream 'look at me' when I wear them around, and on a short run last night they felt good but still allowed me to quietly run with a mid-sole strike. I was able to run on dark wet stick-covered paths with no worries and my calves hurt the next day as though I had been running barefoot. I consider that to be a win.....

Another week, another Sydney visit

I was back down in Sydney for a few days this week. Work was dull as always, but I try to get out a bit and make it worth my while.

Escaping this gloomy weather is never a bad thing, even if it is 6am

When I got to Sydney I found my hire car had been upgraded to an Nissan X-Trail. This was probably my favourite hire car so far - a bit noisy and not as well equipped as some of the Fords & Holdens, but fun to drive and surprisingly responsive. Once I figured out the sequential gearbox - put the gearstick in the slot on the right and you flick up and down through the gears manually without a clutch. I didn't realise that and thought it was in normal 'drive' position, and I redlined it out of the carpark trying to get it to change up..... 

Paramatta has a large Indian community around the Harris Park train station, just a short walk away from my hotel, so after the first day I went to pick up a takeaway and spotted this little guy just loose & minding his own business in an empty lot

The takeaway was good - chicken dophiaza, naan bread, deep fried stuffed mushrooms and some IPA. Not up to Manchester level, but still good

The next day I avoided the unhealthy and overpriced hotel breakfast by soaking oats in apple juice overnight and mixing with fresh yoghurt. It tasted better than it looked, unlike the instant coffee.

After another same-old same-old day I managed to get out a little early, so caught a train into central Sydney. After all that rain in Queensland it was good to see a blue sky again 

and a bit of shopping culture

My main reason to visit the CBD was to get a new pair of minimalist running shoes - I think I've given myself a stress fracture running barefoot so am trying a pair of 'barefoot shoes' (sic). There's a minimalist running shop called Shoeological in Kent St and after trying on several of their range I settled for some Innov-8 F195s. 3mm sole and a 3mm heel - toe drop means they're halfway between barefoot and normal runners , so hopefully I'll be able to get some more miles pounding the concrete before I break or strain something else

Whilst I was there it seemed a shame not to visit the Redoak brewery as it was just around the corner....

  

At the airport about to head home now - can't wait, it's been a long week.....

Movin' on up

Busy times at the minute, our landlady is selling our unit block so we're having to move house. It's come at an unfortunate time as we were planning to buy somewhere over the next six months anyway, but because we need to be out by the end of April we don't have time now. We did discuss  the possibility of buying the unit, but as the landlady wants around $20K more than the price set by her own valuer ('because he's a dill') we decided to decline.

Luckily we've managed to find a house for rent from a friend of a friend fairly close by. It's a big change as I've been here and very happy for seven years, but we're looking forward to having some personal outside space with a garden of our own. We'll move ourselves in, give it a couple of weeks to get over the move and then start house hunting for the longer term.A few weeks ago I was a little overwhelmed by it all, now I'm getting excited.

 

Oh - and Primal Scream rock!

Life at the damp end

Queensland's been suffering from a lot of rain recently. Not just a bit but regular downpours that are saturating the ground and leading to frequent flooding - we've had over 640mm of rain this year. There was a bad cyclonic event over Australia Day, and the following weekend you could see the clumps of debris that had been left behind after the waters swept through the local flood relief drain

 Note the debris not just at the base of the lamp post but a third of the way up

A month later not much has improved - we had a weekend of solid rain, and on Sunday afternoon I cracked and went for a ride in what I thought was a dry period. It was a classic 'suckers gap' - in fact it was raining again by the time I closed the garage door - but it was good to get out and stretch my legs. You can see that the flood drain had been active again.  

Apparently there's yet another cyclone due to hit up North so this cycle will continue. Bring on the dry season!

Rack sheep vs black sheep

It appears that my attempts to brew a clone beer didn't quite work, because my Rack Sheep looks and tastes significantly different to a Black Sheep

The Black Sheep has a very fruity flavour with an underlying hit of bitterness. Very quaffable. The Rack Sheep is a lot darker - it has a much deeper flavour with an almost port overtone, much more like an Imperial stout. Which makes sense given that the Rack Sheep has almost double the alcohol content of the Black Sheep, and oobviously uses a lot more roast malt in the grain bill.

As a clone, it's a solid fail. As a knockout beer, I'm pretty happy. And I have some more ideas for next time...

Life's a beach

Last week I posted about Rhosilli beach in Wales, and coincidentally it made the news this week as being No 10 in Trip Adviser's Worlds Top 10 beaches list. Only one Australian beach has been ranked above it - Whitehaven beach in the Whitsundays (go Queensland!) - and this has caused some mildly outraged articles on what must be a slow news week. How could people prefer this

 to the fetid delights of Bondi?

(both pictures shamelessly stolen from the linked article)

I've been to both and I know which one I prefer, although of course the pictures only show part of the story. You'd need to feel how cold the water was before you made a final opinion.....

Goat Edition

The internet is a marvellous thing, making almost any fact in the world (regardless of how true) immediately available to  be poked, probed, debated, analysed and then generally dismissed unless it ties in with your particular world view. But sometimes we should remember the origins of the internet, which was developed by a few universities and research labs to allow quick efficient access to supercomputers and to allow free transfer of ideas that could change the world and improve the way we live. That spirit still lives on with the latest meme to flood the world - Goat Edition