Mmmm .... Bread

I have finally found another thing that I miss madly and passionately about WA (Joe's Fish Shack being the first) - the Pizza Bianca from the New Norcia Bakehouse.

Just a bit of background - the Bakery was started by the Benedictine monks at New Norcia using their own milled flour and in the best woodfired oven you have ever seen. Actually, I have never seen it but I have tasted its produce so I know it is good. Btw, New Norcia is the only monastic town in Australia (which I knew but Wiki confirmed), Anyway a company now makes the bread - but uses the oven and recipes from the monks.

The pizza bianca is a little hard to describe but to give the experience a go: you pull up out the front of the Mount Hawthorne bakery to be greeted by the heady smell of fresh bread. You enter the shop and find an array of products that makes the mouth water - many are still warm from baking. Your eyes dart around but you know you are going to get the pizza bianca anyway. I always buy what I need plus one more - there is the drive home to consider.

I have eaten it warm and I have eaten it cold and, while warm is the sort of thing they talk about in heaven, cold is very adequate. The bread itself is golden but not crusty. Chewy but light. The sea salt explodes in your mouth. The rosemary hits both the tastebuds and the soul. The oil is *real* oil and caresses the mouth with a smooth fruitiness. And all of this happens at once.

I have tried to make it before (accepting that I don't have a wood-fired oven) but it just isn't right. Subject to how much time I spend on the computer, I think I will have another go today.

My longest drive to buy this bread - 4 hours each way. When I lived in Perth I was even known to sit in peak hour traffic (voluntarily) to cross town and buy this bread and thought nothing of a 45 minutes each way drive to get it on Sunday afternoons.

Life is so simple :-)

Smile

To wish you were someone else is to waste the person you are.

Sigh ... Computer Still Broken

Maybe today ... reloaded a few things .... eliminated some possibilities yesterday ... onto more options today ... will visit everyone as soon as I can ...

It's All in the Attitude

I have not failed. I have found 10,000 ways that don't work.

Thomas Edison

Magic Moments

Every since I was a teen I have been plagued by bad dreams - not nightmares, just unsettling or unpleasant manifestations of something or other. My solution to this has been to sleep with music, tv, the radio and now my pod playing - it slows them down considerably to the point that I might only experience them a few times a year. It also means that I don't really have dreams of any kind that I regularly remember.

This week has been different - I have been having positive, exciting and magic dreams all week. I awaken with a smile on my face and a zing in my step. Have I done anything different, no - pod still playing. Am I thinking about this too deeply - no - just enjoying the ongoing magic moments :-)

Imagination

Imagination is more important than knowledge...

Albert Einstein

Photo: "Imagination" by Andre Chave

First Kiss

My first kiss wasn't really my first kiss but it is the one that I count as my first.

It was the night of my 16th birthday and G joined us at the movies (The God's Must Be Crazy). He sat next to me. I had liked him since I was 12. He had apparently thought I was 15/16 then so asked my Dad could he take me out - and G, so the story goes, nearly died when he found out I was just 12, especially as G was 19 at the time lol.

Anyway I spent half the movie trying to figure out how I could 'accidentally' make physical contact with this man, to let him know that he was still oh so special when I eventually gave up and just dropped my arm on the armrest - to find his directly underneath! He wrapped is fingers around mine and yes, we held hands for the rest of the movie.

I don't quite remember what happened when we got home, I know it would have involved at least a cup of coffee with the folks (after all of these years G was definitely in the 'family friend' category).

Then it was home time and I was nominated to walk G to his car. So on a cloudless night, with the stars shining ever so brightly, we hugged and we talked. And then we kissed - his arms firmly around my waist, his lips on mine. Yes my legs turned to jelly and my heart skipped a beat and he just held me tighter.

I have never experienced any kiss so powerful since, nor has any other kiss ever made my knees go weak.

Computer Problems

Just in case I vanish for a bit - my computer at home is giving me the stick. I am being very optimisitic and sticking with the "I will have it fixed today" but .... welll ... you know how these things go.

Friday Feast 193

Appetizer
Do you consider yourself to be an optimist or a pessimist?

Neither - I am a realist with optimist, yet cynical, overtones

Soup
What is your favorite color of ink to write with?

Purple

Salad
How often do you get a manicure or pedicure? Do you do them yourself or go to a salon and pay for them?

Sometimes close to never lol

Main Course
Have you ever won anything online? If so, what was it?

Yes I have won new friends through this blog :-)

Dessert
In which room in your house do you keep your home computer?

Bedroom - which was a default choice because I wanted to use the space in other rooms for other things :-)

Spiritual

Still Here

I been scared and battered.
My hopes the wind done scattered.
Snow has friz me,
Sun has baked me,

Looks like between 'em they done
Tried to make me

Stop laughin', stop lovin', stop livin'--
But I don't care!
I'm still here!

Langston Hughes

Me and My

I can't go back to yesterday - because I was a different person then.

Lewis Carroll

Photo Challenge

First of all, humblest apologies for not posting this last week. Not sure how that happened but, well I don't plan on making a habit of it.

Anyway, our upcoming topics are:

Friday 13 June (this week): Spiritual
Friday 20 June: Texture
Friday 27 June: Body

Our current list of topics, submitted by the delightful Miss Abbey, runs out at the end of July so I am beginning the call for new ideas. Come one, come all! The only thing I would suggest is that the topics are broad enough for us all to be ale to play - let's face it 'snow' or 'beach are a bit limiting for those that aren't near it while 'cold' or 'water' are far more inclusive lol.

Live Life

When you take charge of your life, there is no longer need to ask permission of other people or society at large. When you ask permission, you give someone veto power over your life.

Geoffrey F Abert

Art: "Dance" by Leonid Afrimov

Booking Sunday ... A Few Days Delayed

This pile is my latest haul of books (Yippee) - $90 for the lot. The pile is generally two deep around the edge but it comes to four-to-five deep towards the centre. I just don't have enough lounge room to spread them all out for one photo :-) And yes there are some bonus books in the pile lol

So, this fortnight I have got mainly cook books, with a smattering of gardening books, art books and fiction. Sigh ... life is grand :-)

Love Q #7

Many people believe that love is everything in a relationship. We all marry for love expecting that it will see us through the good and bad times. Love gives rise to passion and can make our lives happier. But in a relationship, we cannot love in isolation. We may have people around us with nothing good to say about our partner. We also cannot survive on love. We need money and the lack of it may lead to quarrels. We certainly cannot expect our partner to change to suit us. We need to accept and even tolerate his character or bad habits. And a host of other issues confront us daily that test the strength of our relationship with our partner.

So, for Love Q #7, tell me this: Is love alone enough in a relationship?








Absolutely not I say! Love is transitional at the best of times, let alone when a relationship is under stress! A friendship (and a genuine liking of each other) and a commitment to stick together through the tough times are the only things that might ensure long-term success.

I mean how many times have we heard someone say "I love you but I don't like you" at which point we all roll our eyes because the inevitable is coming - maybe not immediately, but it is coming. "Like" and a decision to stay has to be the basis from which love can grow - and will sustain through those moments when love isn't there (your partner has just announced they have had an affair, you can't pay the bills).

And if it gets so bad that staying is no longer and option, then no amount of "I love you's" is going to change that for you.

As the song says "sometimes love just ain't enough"

Maya Says ...

Success is liking yourself, liking what you do, and liking how you do it.

Maya Angelou

Art: "Enchantment" by Solveig Larson

While I am on a Roll

The Answer

Should have just done this yesterday when I was feeling flat .... and if I am going to dance, then this is my ultimate :-)

And I have taken Abbey's advice - I am going to make some changes. No I shall never be conventional and I really don't want to be, but I am a little unsettled (or uncomfortable) about some other bits so I am working on a tweak or two.

One part of me says that someones words shouldn't be able to effect me, the other part says that if they do then I need to pay attention.

Pooh Says ...

Don't underestimate the value of Doing Nothing, of just going along, listening to all the things you can't hear, and not bothering.

Winnie the Pooh

Val's Rose

Heads or Tails

Gotta Love the Rain

Feelings Check

Feeling a bit sad today. Actually more accurately a bit un-loved. Nothing major - this too shall pass - just had a couple of little things that happened yesterday, a few words said, that have been playing on my mind.

Incredibly self-indulgent (and probably over-sensitive) I know, and I will pull myself out of it by the time I got to work tonight but for now ... well self-doubt creeps in. I question my verve and my bodaciousness. I begin to shout internally "what about me" and ... well generally feel sorry for myself.

And, as usual for a Monday, if I could get a bit more sleep ( had only three hours yesterday and 2 hours today - so far) I know that would make a big difference. Even my beloved pod isn't drowning out the words circulating in my head so that isn't really an option for at least the next hour or so.

It is funny because for the vast majority of my time I am Mountaingirl - I am the self-portrait that I use in my About Me section. I am not conventional in a lot of ways and that is a cause for celebration (you can't be Mountaingirl and be 'regular' - that would be 'Raelene' and I left her in WA) but on days like this, well I wonder if a bit more conventionality - in personality, in body, in mind - might not be a bit easier.

Okay I am just venting. Tomorrow I shall be laughing at all of this self-indulgent crap but for now ... well I could use a hug :-(

Art: "Firelight" by Charnine

I Love You (as it should be)

When I say, "I love you," it's not because I want you or because I can't have you. It has nothing to do with me. I love what you are, what you do, how you try. I've seen your kindness and your strength. I've seen the best and the worst of you. And I understand with perfect clarity exactly what you are. You're a hell of a woman.”

Josh Whedon

Photo by daurina

Things That Annoy Me

I have to speak out. I canna hold my tongue no longer. It irks me when people misuse the word "literally". We use similies and metaphors continuously in our conversation - a perfectly acceptable way to demonstrate a point, or to express an idea more clearly. It is not acceptable to insert the word "literally" (meaning "actually" or "word for word" or "in a strict sense").

I have heard two examples of the misuse of 'literally' this morning alone. The first was describing a concert in which the audience was "literally blown away" by a new single. In actually fact they all retained their seats, or their places in the mosh pits. They may have been impressed by the new song but no one was removed from the building by a big wind.

The second was she "was literally green with envy". Now let me tell you (and this is an important piece of life advice), if you are with someone that literally turns green - call for medical assistance immediately. Envy is not the cause and it is definitely something that requires further tests and probably hospitalization.

I know I am ranting. I know that we all have these things that bug us (don't even get me started on the use of the comma). And for the most part, if it is on commercial television I know I have to suck it up because they don't make programs for people like me. But I heard one on my beloved Radio National this week too. Has the world ended? Has SCOSE gone on holidays?

Sigh ... it's all too much :-)

Smile :-)

Photo by fedrus

Joy

Joy is the feeling of grinning inside.

Melba Colgrove

Photo by ~reeed

Magic Moment

One very easy choice this week - Pita thought of me when she did one of her 'song of the day' posts. It made me cry with happiness :-) And yes everyone can also share my joy (although you don't have to cry) by visiting here :-)

I did have a 'theme of the week' which was "Co-incidences" which continually made me smile. I picked up the phone to call a friend only to have it ring and they were ringing me. I hear about a book that I think is worth keeping an eye out for - and visit a blogger who is reading it now. I ring to make arrangements for ssomething specific when the other party asks me about it before I open my mouth. But as lovely as these moment were, Pita still beat them all, hands down :-)

For Zimbabwe

Photo by Westia

NaNoWriMo

After finally figuring out what this was - a challenge to write a 50,000 word novel start to finish in the month of November (thanks Jason) - I am beginning training.

I will start by writing two 2000 word essays a week and build up as time goes by. No I won't be posting them, 2000 words is far to long to be sociable on this blog lol.

To be honest I haven't really got a plan for the novel yet so I am also hoping that this will provide some impetus towards plot, theme and architecture. And, if I get very efficient, I should also have some work that I can use as a portfolio to go towards my dream of having a newspaper column.

Scary but I am diving in the deep end and trusting that I remember how to swim :-)

Opposites

The opposite of love is not hate, it's indifference. The opposite of art is not ugliness, it's indifference. The opposite of faith is not heresy, it's indifference. And the opposite of life is not death, it's indifference.

Elie Wiesel

Art: "Voyage" by Jose Ventura

Dairy Memories

When I was young my Dad worked at the local Agricultural School in charge of the dairy. On school holidays or long weekends I got to go and help him out - not just in the dairy but across the whole farm.

The day began with rounding up the cows for milking. I loved sitting in front of Dad on the motorbike and seeing the cows eyes reflect in the headlights on the dark winter nights/mornings. Only years later did I realized that I was wind-protection in that position lol :-)

So we milked the cows - and yes I am quite competent in that area - and cleaned down the dairy. Then the calves were fed (ah Dencovit). Then we headed to the chook sheds to collect eggs. These needed to be collected, cleaned, graded and packed.

From there the day could vary - something to do in the orchard, or with the pigs, hay or silage might need to be distributed, fences shifted, sheep tended, maintenance done - but it all ended with a milking at the end of the day.

I might never have lived on a farm as a kid but I still call myself a farm girl. I drive past Friesians whenever I go to work and still can't help but sigh and think pleasant thoughts.

Friday Feast #192

Appetizer

When you drink soda/pop/coke, do you prefer to drink it from the bottle, a can, or after pouring it into a cup?

I should be polite and say 'from a glass' but it is from the bottle for me - disgusting habit but no impetus for change as yet

Soup

What television show are you willing to stay up late to watch?

Test cricket :-)

Salad

Name one person, place, or thing you think of as brilliant.

Maya Angelou - poet extraordinaire, writer, actor, role model, strong black woman

Main Course

Would you be willing to work 4 10-hour days instead of 5 8-hour days in order to save gas?

Most certainly - and I try and have a gas free day once a week - aiming for two but I can do one almost every week (I miss about 3 or 4 a year)

Dessert

If you were a superhero, what would you call yourself?

Why that is very easy "Mountaingirl" and my costume would be purple and turquoise. I would have a cape but forget the leotard - definitely a pants girl here lol :-)

Rain

Let the rain kiss you. Let the rain beat upon your head with silver liquid drops. Let the rain sing you a lullaby.

Langston Hughes

Photo: "Where Rain Grows" by x-horizon

Photo Challenge - Nature

Reading Tastes

Have your book-tastes changed over the years? More fiction? Less? Books that are darker and more serious? Lighter and more frivolous? Challenging? Easy? How-to books over novels? Mysteries over Romance?

I probably wouldn't say that my tastes have changed per se, more like refined.

Authors I like get collected to a degree, books that are "important" find a place on my library and there is a wider range of authors and styles available to me.

I don't dismiss the frivolous - I love my Agatha Christies and read 20 - 30 of them each year. My range of Australian authors is growing. My cookbooks now probably make up 50% of my library.

I also get to read books chosen by a friend who manages to surprise me every time with something new and exciting.

Happiness

Thousands of candles can be lit from a single candle, and the life of the candle will not be shortened. Happiness never decreases by being shared.

Buddha

Photo by WolfcatStock

That Time of the Year

I have a mouse in the house. I know this because I saw it this morning. I am being incredibly optimistic and insisting there is only one. The traps are down and I am now just hoping for the best.

I often wonder which is the most annoying vermin to have in the house: mice, ants or cockroaches. Today I am definitely voting for the mouse (still using singular).

So True For Me

Writing eases my suffering... writing is my way of reaffirming my own existence.

Gao Xingjian

Cooking Lives Again

After last weeks disaster, cooking group is back on track ... well almost anyway - still have two lovelies who don't know how to follow a recipe.

Anyway, made the recipes very, very simple this week - I used items from my mental bag of recipes- to- teach- 6- year- olds. I don't mean that in a negative way at all - I just rate recipes based on developmental skills (ability to read, follow directions, complexity of skills involved and the like) as well as my assumed experience of the age group. Last week I used the recipes- to- teach- 10- year- olds and some of my lovelies generally struggled with the reading of the recipes.

This week I selected the theme of "Mighty Mince" and is was a long way from being boring :-)

The menu was:
Savoury Mince with Soft Polenta
San Choy Bau
Tortilla Stacks
Pastitsio
Steam Dim Sum with Lemon Soy Sauce
Vege-Loaf (as opposed to meatloaf ... and yes the chickpeas were crushed - or should that read 'minced' lol)
and a big Garden Salad

So next week I just need to come up with even easier recipes for two lovelies, but I think we can motor on a bit from here. Gotta love Wednesdays :-)

Vote 1 Obama

Everyone else will have a lot to say on this issue so let me just add my very short bit ... "yippee".

Love Q #6

What are your top 5 criterias for choosing a mate, in order of priority? In other words, what is your ideal partner like?

Hmmm, I reserve the right to change at least some of the points on the list (after the first) lol

1 Has to be able to stimulate me intellectually - over a broad range of subjects
2 Has to be someone who respects themself, and others
3 Has to be relatively baggage free
4 Has to be honest
5 Has to be looking for a partnership (as opposed to be the "head of the house")

It would be a bonus if they want me for my body instead of my mind ... well every now and then anyway :-)

OMG, I have actually completed this without a cynical thought. Am I sick or am I mellowing lol - this might just be a good meme for me after all!

Petrol Prices

Okay I need to have a quick vent.

The price of fuel is something that no Australian government (of whatever flavor) can do anything about. Dropping the excise means a reduction income and a similar drop in services (say off hospitals or school), and at the present rate of worldwide price increases, will be gobbled up in a week anyway.

Fuel prices are subject to supply and demand on a world scale, overlayed with the real availability of the product, as well as that determined by the cartel that determines how many barrels a day are made available to the market. I personally also blame the war in Iraq but let's stick to the point.

I hate paying $1.50 a litre for fuel (more for diesel I know) and it is blowing my fortnightly budget to do so but we have some of the lowest OECD fuel process available in the world. Europe has been over $2 for the last 5+ years. The US is so heavily subsidized (at the cost of tax payers of course) that it isn't a real price - but it is still fast coming up to Australian levels.

The world is a-changing and this is here for the long term. And I am not even starting on the debates that it should be 50% higher still to reduce to offset the damage done to global warming. Fuel prices are high, and will only ever really get higher - that's the truth. I am tired of it being on the news every hour. Move on folks - and welcome to the 21st century. Sigh ...

Grocery Shopping

Doing the grocery shopping for work is not everyone's favorite chore - and with it taking 5 shopping trolleys to get everything done these days I can understand why.

This is the second week it has been back on my list of things to do and it is working wonderfully well. I take two of the lovelies with me - on the condition that they do all of the lifting that my back can't do and they genuinely help - as opposed to just skive off in the supermarket.

We now have lovelies trying to out-shop the team of the previous week - both for speed in getting the job done (about an hour and a half to get out of the checkout) and the quality of produce.

We have a basic rule that if it isn't on the list then it isn't bought so that makes things easier but for two weeks in a row I have had lovelies actively doing price comparisons so we can get the best possible options (and so earning the praise of the other lovelies) within the usual constraints of budget and my personal bias towards real food and not the fake stuff that is listed at length on the back of labels.

And that is another thing that amazes me - I can't help but impart my wisdom as we go shopping - and no one has protested yet - not even rolled-eyes (well not that I have seen anyway lol). So this week we learned that those products at eye level pay for the privilege so it is always worth looking both up and down on the shelf for alternatives; that the ingredients on the majority of generic brand products is exactly the same as those on name brands (except for tuna which I will only buy a name brand because the content of the fish is less in the generics), that you buy fish from the deli on the day of or the the day before use, that comparing items on special doesn't always provide a bargain - but sometimes does, and that no-one needs icecream cones for their survival.

And for those that genuinely help (which I haven't had any of the other sort so far) I buy them the equivalent of a bottle of coke ($3.50) each without me complaining or lecturing them on their choices. Personally I think this is very fair as they have to get up 45 minutes early, push the trolleys, pull everything off the shelves after proving to me they can do their math on each item we buy, put up with my mini-lectures, unload everything onto the checkout, repack all of the trolleys and then load everything into the van (in the pouring rain today) - as well as help pull it all out at the other end. And do all of that without complaining, swearing or otherwise disgracing themselves in public. I did notice that today's lovelies were eyeing all sort of things off as we went up and down the aisles - a particular brand of fruit juice, chocolate ... how to squeeze every cent of value out of their combined $7. I thought they performed a miracle with their final choices - two bread rolls topped with bacon, cheese and pineapple ($1.95 each) ... and five 1 litre bottles of softdrink ($3). If nothing else they are learning to spot bargains lol

I know I live in a strange world but this is definitely the highlight of my week so far :-)

Yes

There's a big world out there. Bigger than prom, bigger than high school, and it won't matter if you were the prom queen or the quarterback of the football team or the biggest nerd. Find out who you are and try not to be afraid of it.

Photo from "The Breakfast Club"

Head or Tails

Smile

...If you can make a girl laugh - you can make her do anything...

Marilyn Monroe

New Favorite Artist

I so loved the painting that accompanied Friday's Quote that I have added Leonid Afremov to the list of "Artists I Like". I found Leonid's work on deviantArt but Leonid has another website here. Surprisingly, his prints are available for $1.95. Oh, this is sounding like a poorly written ad but I really just wanted to commend his work to you - it is so exciting and vibrant and alive. I just love people who can paint light and yes, you will be seeing more of it here :-)

Art: "In The Alley" by Leonid Afremov

Maya Says ...

We may encounter many defeats but we must not be defeated.

Maya Angelou

Art: "Life Wide Open" by Paulette Insall

Magic Moments

I started to count my magic moments for this week but they all seemed to be revolved around cooking but, in an effort to step out of what could be a regular habit, I am choosing 'having my car repaired' as this weeks MM.

Now I was hoping for it all to be a $30 problem (hey a girl has got to dream) but $155 is close enough - and much better that the four-digit numbers that appear in nightmares :-) Okay so there is a bit more to be done but it is all okay - and affordable.

Part two is when I went to collect the car the owner was telling me about the test drive one of his workers had done - culminating in a little bingle. Before I could say anything he showed it to me and assured me it would be fixed. I am not sure what he was expecting me to do but when I just nodded with an "okay, that would be great" he nearly fell over backwards. Twice while I was paying and organizing the final bit of my transaction (fuel filter in the tank needs to be changed) he again apologized and I reassured him that while I love my car, it was still drivable and is only "stuff".

I am guessing that people would sometimes have a very different reaction but I ask myself why - after all we all make mistakes, and the business has apologized and it is going to be fixed . Anyway, it gave me my Magic Moment for this week :-)