twenty twelve

I am never one to be good at saying goodbye. Saying goodbye to 2011 was bittersweet in a good way. It's been one of the biggest years I have ever had - definitely the biggest in terms of work and something akin to self discovery.

Monday of this week marked the end of my 18 month stint at Airport Link. I will sadly miss it from time to time. I know that it's not going to be a goodbye to construction, more like see you later, maybe. I have gotten used to and strangely comfortable with the intensity of work required. This week is my week off while I prepare myself to transition into a more normal lifestyle. I can't say I've fully gotten the hang of it.

carport Christmas decorations

what I'd like to do more this year..

Camp more - without having to work Saturdays, so much easier to accomodate 2 nights away.
Cook more - it has sadly become a chore more than a love because it takes time. Gotta get back into it, stat!
Live more - i've always wanted to try bootcamp. now's the time!

....and also something like sit back and smell the roses.

camping at straddie

Christmas tree cheese platter

new friends at Woodford Folk Festival

happy 3rd week of twenty twelve x

3.5 months later...

A lot has changed! For the better!

Job - I have come to tackle it and not allow it to rule and overcome my whole life and people around me. A Tibetan guy at work once offered this advice to a colleague "just focus on something else and the problem/nuisance will fade away". So. True.

Here's why:
I've changed my diet quite dramatically. Coming from Singapore with flavours from all over the world means I have eaten quite a lot of foods (think intestines, livers, hearts etc.) that many will never even think of trying. After my latest trip back to Singapore and our whirlwind visit to Bali, I came home feeling "contaminated" with a strong urge to get everything out of my system and start again. Don't get me wrong I ate like there was no tomorrow not being able to get enough of everything that I ate. I practically force fed myself on most days, happily. I wouldn't have changed anything if I went on that trip again. But I remember towards the last few days I was feeling like I haven't gone to the loo to do #2 for ages, my skin was in a mess, I didn't have a lot of motivation or energy. So I came home with a mind to eat vegetarian for a week. Thankfully, The Boy also thought it was a good idea. A week later, I felt it was right. Two weeks later, it still felt right.

One day I went mad and made 7 vegetarian meals at one go. Vegetarian lasagne and green lentil vegetable soup.

Now, it's 1.5  months later and I'm still feeling great : ) Mind you, I'm not a strict vegetarian either as the decision to become "vegetarian" was more based on what my body was telling me rather than for 100% ethical reasons. I will still eat meat if I went to someone's house for dinner and they have prepared a meat dish; I will still eat meat if I went to a restaurant and vegetarian options are negligable. With that, I can definitely see the environmental, ethical and especially the monetary benefits of not buying meat (at home). Other changes in my diet has included an almost cut-out of gluten. I don't eat much bread or pasta so it really hasn't been all that "big" a change. The lasagne you see above was kept in the freezer for when The Boy returned home from Denmark - polished it off within the week.

I have also officially quit the gym. I was paying but never going. I have also been going back to yoga and am loving it. I went to a yoga retreat a few weekends ago - boy was it worth the money! We had awesome vegetarian food, lovely lovely company, great classes - everything! Today I tried hot yoga and am not quite used to it. The yoga school (Australian School of Meditation and Yoga - who organised the retreat too) I go to take a very step-by-step approach to poses focusing on getting it right without injuring yourself; the hot yoga teacher was zooming from pose to pose so quick that only the very experienced could keep up and he was saying things like "doesn't matter if you can't get it right". I'm not sure if I like that but I definitely enjoy the heat and feeling like I've just ran a marathon at the end of the hour. I will try their other classes like pilates and wall yoga.

The computer is not cooperating so I will have to put off pictures and recipes till another time.

Sanity, check!

While I am still trying to get my head around these time-lean weeks, I thought I'd do a quick post on what's been keeping me sane and grateful.

Daisy the iPhone - it pretty much holds much of my life these days...it helps me keep appointments, wake up, internet bank, read the newspaper, check the weather, check my email, listen to music, read other blogs, online shop, calculate, take pictures and most importantly, never gets me lost (thanks sat nav application!).

Pat and Daisy - aren't they a good match ; )

 The Boy - I can't imagine how much (more) of a mess I would be without his constant encouragement, love and support. Not to mention all that cooking!!! ♥

My two favourite boys

And other simple pleasures...

Beautiful sunrise from my kitchen window looking out into the backyard

 

Watching Pat going about his busy life : ) Like throwing tissue (and anything his little beak can push/carry) onto the floor, then chasing after it.

Pat again, for being cute and never failing to remind me that he is a Good Boy and how much he Loves You (me).

You know life isn't all that bad when the public service/transport authority/road designers can make you stop at a red light for over a minute for a road that leads to nowhere 50 metres in the distance (see the 'no access' sign in the distance?)

Click here to see what others are grateful for this week!

Work and what else?

The last few weeks hasn't been altogether enjoyable (aside from my 25th, which I will blog about another time).

Work has literally taken over my life. I wake up at 5am or thereafter and am out the door sometimes before 6am or otherwise on the dot.  I can understand the nature of the work and the sheer amounts to do, but I'm slowly coming to terms what this means in the larger picture. Already I'm feeling the effects of not having enough time to eat (I admit I am one of the slowest eaters out there but I'm definitely not prepared to change my eating habits!). Can you believe it (I still can't!) I have lost a lot of my appetitte for food (shock horror!) and as a result have shamefully went to a health food shop asking for meal replacement shakes. Shame. Shame. Shame! This is a ringing more than a few alarm bells for me as this has never happened even during the busiest times at other workplaces or even during university. Anyhow, I guess let's watch this space on that one!

Below is a beautiful picture I took one afternoon walking from the site office to the car park. No matter how busy it gets, I always have time for a beautiful sunset.

Featuring the airtrain rail line and several cranes over the Schulz Canal

New Layout + Panfried Barramundi with Roasted Vegetables Recipe

This is the 3rd week of day shift and I am nursing Day 4 of this horrid cold/flu/headcold, whatever you want to call it. I made a massive mistake of not increasing the intake of vitamins with the 'timezone switch'. So there, I am properly sick for the first time in 2 years. Hence, I dedicated my morning/afternoon/day really, into changing my layout. What do you think? I am quite happy with how the owls turned out. Hoot!

Otherwise, I still have been out and about AND still cooking. I'll let the photos do the talking : )

My first West End markets installment in years! Spot the budgie - Pat was very excited about my celery purchase.

2nd weekend at the West End markets - this is a shot of Farrago Band playing to a crowd in front of the Chai Van. Bliss.

And then I met Oliver, a scaly breasted lorikeet. Here he is devouring a grape : )

Such beautiful flowers - 40cent each?! Unbelievable!

Dinner last night

Pan fried Barramundi served with (pesto covered) Roasted Vegetables

If you are reading this and firmly detest my choice of combination please close window right now. I only realised after I started preparing how wrong the combination of Asian style marinated fish would go with Italian pesto-y roasted vegetables. Oh well. I really enjoyed it and so did The Boy; that's the most important thing about cooking right?

I am a big fan of garlic (almost dangerously so) and since this sickness I have been taking lots of garlic oil tablets and adding copious amounts of garlic to all my cooking. And I really felt like a dish full of garlic, ginger and flavour.

The Barramundi

marinated with ginger (I put 2 inches worth, chopped up)

garlic (about 4-5 cloves)

chilli padi (just 1 really hot chilli, seeded)

fresh coriander (a bunch?)

Macadamia nut oil infused with lime and chilli (otherwise sesame oil is fine too)

The Roasted Vegetables

Mix in olive oil, salt and peper to pumpkin, potato and swede (or whatever vegetables that take your fancy)

Roast in oven at 200deg for 35 mins (this may vary for different ovens but whatever's required to brown the sides of the vegetables)

Nuke fresh baby spinach leaves for 20 seconds in the microwave to wilt it

(the lazy person's) Pesto

Bunch of basil (finely chopped, see, Lazy Person's Pesto!)

A few leaves of mint (also finely chopped)

Garlic (again, I put something like 3 cloves? Clearly you won't need this much)

Olive oil

Grated parmesan cheese

(ideally) chopped up pine nuts too (but I didn't have any at the time)

In order to serve up all at once, I would 1. Marinate fish 2. chop up vegetables 3. roast vegetables 4. make pesto 5. when the timer says there is 15 mins left for the vegetables, start pan frying the fish 6. wilt baby spinach leaves in the microwave (I do this because my stomach isn't too keen on uncooked vegetables. Obviously fresh and uncooked is best.)

Once cooked mix the roasted vegetables, pesto and wilted baby spinach leaves in a large bowl, serve with freshly cooked fish. If you are sharing this meal with you partner, rest assured both of you will be so garlicked up that you won't even notice his/her breath. Promise.

Wordless Wednesday

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It's cold again

Can't believe the temperatures are soaring below 2 digits when it still isn't officially winter yet. I am definitely feeling the cold these last few nights at work. I start my new day shift role in 2 mondays' time.

While there are several reasons to be looking forward to working during the day time like 95% of the population, I have some reservations as to how that would change my lifestyle. Night shift has turned out to be super awesome for me as I am naturally a night time person. I am and probably will always love the fact that night time work is like a mundane after-thought that gets tacked to back of a great day. Almost like the act of brushing teeth, after a great day/night, before bed. Get what I mean?

What I am most concerned about is....COOKING! How am I suppose to find enough time to pursue this true passion of mine? I'm expected to be at work Monday to Friday, from 7am to 5pm at the very minimum. How does one find a life outside of work?

I'm determined to be twice as organised with meal planning/marinating and also to take advantage of having time to do yoga and meditation at the acclaimed Australian School of Meditation and Yoga at West End.

Oops, bell's rung. It's dinner time. Hopefully tasty lemon and garlic chicken breasts roasted with tomatoes and potato wedges, served with a generous dollop of freshly made brocolli pesto. I'll post the recipe if it's successful!

(I'm writing this whilst sitting in front of the oven that's roasting dinner.)

Five things

Work has been a little more hectic than usual in the last week. I have had nights where I hop into bed just as the birds outside start chirping. It actually felt comforting as it reminded me of university days; where me hopping into bed around that time usually comes attached with a feeling of fulfilment after pulling an all nighter to finally go to bed with one less assignment on the shoulders.

Each weekend of the next month is filled with fun activities. We have one engagement party, one trip to the beach and hinterland, one trip up a mountain, one 100km ride (not me, thankfully), one band competition (again, not me), one down to the tunnel where I work. November/December for us has almost always classically been filled with lots. Hopefully we've timed it correctly this year such that our busiest time during the crazy-time-of-year is in November with a few breather weekends in December before we plunge head first into the holiday season where everyone else in this (inevitably car dependent) continent is also on holiday (read: road madness!)

This has been on my mind for quite some time now so here goes my list....

5 things that I have made an effort to change/am going to make an effort to change in the near future:
1) No more buying of water in disposable bottles (I'm not sure how I'd go when we do go overseas when water out of a tap is a no-no..cross that bridge when we come to it I guess)

2) No more buying of commercialised cosmetics/skincare/haircare/household cleaning. Have you read how much palm oil derivatives those $3 bottles of shampoo contains? Not to mention tons of chemicals and petroleum derivatives!! Ideally I would love to make my own but I see that as a not now but maybe 5-10 years down the track change. I've been using jojoba oil and rose hip oil (certified organic of course) as moisturiser and they work a charm!!

3) Home cooked meals. At the moment it is that way for during the work week. I think that's good enough for now?

4) 30 minutes of exercise. I have this fear of 'don't use it and lose it'. My grandmother is (unfortunately) a specimen. She has trouble walking and I can slowly see my parents going down that track. Coming from Singapore, any activity that involves perspiring is a no-no. "too hot" seems to be an acceptable excuse to lead to older aged immobility. I have been victim to that myself until 3 years ago after a total of 18km of bush walking left me with swollen knee caps and practically bed ridden for 2 weeks..not. fun. Can you imagine feeling like that every day for the rest of your days?? 

5) Learn to ride the bicycle (again). Falling over the handle bars has left me scarred. I think 4 years is enough recovery time.

I'll have another list of probably 5 other food related changes that I would like to make.