How a rat made my day?

A rat you ask. How could a rat make my day? Especially, a rat I had never met.

[maxbutton id=”10″ ]

Normally, I’m not a fan of rats, especially the common Canberra water rat which can be found in Canberra’s artificial lakes.

I need to back up a bit and I’ll get to the rat soon.

Nothing especially special this week

Nothing has really stood out this week. There’s not really much to write about. Each morning I got out of bed, I weighed myself, I measured my blood pressure, I prepared for the day and I drove to work.

Each evening, I drove back to the flat, I prepared dinner and then I went to bed.
I’ve got this whole being an adult thing down pat. It’s easy.

That said, this was a short week because of the Canberra Day long weekend.

Short weeks are always good weeks. With Easter coming up soon, we have two short weeks soon too.

A weekend in Brisbane

The whole week, I had been looking forward to the weekend because I was flying to Brisbane to see my daughters and my parents.

My daughters are now all adults and they are living their lives, so time with them together is getting more difficult to arrange. That said, I’m proud that they are living, working, and playing their lives the way they want to.

Introducing the rat

On Friday night when I arrived, I was chatting with my youngest daughter, Ms17, and she was sharing with me her news about biology class from this week. Her class had a dissection practical and she got to dissect a rat. You know the type? The traditional white laboratory rat. This one was female and Ms17 explained how she enjoyed making the opening incision and after getting into the main body cavities, removing each major organ for further study. To her joy, she discovered the rat has been pregnant and within its uterus lay ten beautifully formed fetal rats. Judging by the way she described them, it sounded like the rat was about ready to confine. I wonder if you use the word confinement for rats the same way we use the word confinement for humans. I should ask a veterinarian.

This whole story made my day; it made my week! The joy on Ms17’s face was delightful as she described how she dissected the rat and learned about the internal anatomy and how she enjoyed doing it in front of others. It gave me a warm and fuzzy feeling. It was a proud Dad moment.

I shared with her how I had set up a laboratory at home so I could dissect dead animals when I was in high school and how before a zoölogy examination in medical school I stored a frozen rat in my mother’s freezer only to have her discover it before I got a chance to do my practice dissection.

Over the weekend we spoke about botany too and the fun we can have with cutting sections of leaves and some fruits, staining them and examining the sections microscopically.

I really miss being a biology student.

Weekend roundup

As you’d expect a weekend in Brisbane was spent enjoying the warm Autumn weather and the relative humidity of Brisbane compared with Canberra. Each day, the maximum temperature got to about 33 °C and the southerly breeze was delightful.

Food, and sharing time with family go hand in hand, so Saturday really had a nice food focus. On Sunday, it was good because I had all three daughters in one place.

I started Saturday after a really crappy sleep by having breakfast with Ms17 at Hermosa at Chermside. We decided to go meat-free. I had poached eggs, a slice of avocado crusted in dukkah and sesame seeds, with mushrooms and feta cheese. It was a delicious filling breakfast.

For lunch, I drove my parents along with Ms20 and Ms17 to Sandgate and we enjoyed some crumbed cod, chips, potato scallops, crumbed calamari and prawn cutlets at the Sandgate Fishmonger. The shaded outdoor setting with a lovely sea breeze was perfect. We all commented on just what a wonderful environment it was for a relaxing and delicious lunch. It certainly didn’t do anything for my weight loss plans but it certainly helped my mental health. I felt so good being with family on a warm day with some humidity in the air and eating really delicious seafood. I felt peaceful and at one with the world.

In the afternoon, Ms17 had a practice gymnastics competition (My Routine Rules) at Delta Gymnastics which is now based in Kedron.

I enjoyed a few hours watching young level 9 and 10 gymnastics practice their new routines for the competition season.

Delta Gymnastics in Brisbane is celebrating as much as possible because one of its gymnasts made the Australian Team for this year’s Commonwealth Games being held ‘at home’ on the Gold Coast. It’s pretty exciting for young gymnasts having an Australian team member in their midst.

After the gymnastics session, Ms20 went to work and I took Ms17 to Motto Motto at Westfield Chermside for some dinner. Ms17 had a delicious looking chicken karaage roll and I had two ‘sides’ of soft-shelled crab and chicken karaage. We both shared some edamame. This was about the right amount of food given how much we’d already eaten for breakfast and lunch.

Motto Motto has quick service so we didn’t have to spend too long waiting for our meals. As always, the food was delicious and Ms17’s company was delightful.

For dessert, we decided to go for a drive to Wilston to get some ice cream from the Cold Rock ice creamery there. I enjoyed a condensed milk ice cream with freckles and a Caramello Koala. I had wanted half a chocolate Easter egg filled with ice cream but they had already sold out.

I posted this on Facebook and an American friend asked about freckles and the Caramello Koala. I explained that freckles are disks of milk chocolate covered in 100s and 1000s are and in Australian slang, a freckle is another word for anus. You can check out the comments here by clicking on the embedded photograph.

After a really crapulent sleep on Friday night, I had a much better sleep on Saturday evening. I managed six hours which is remarkable for me.

On Sunday morning, Ms22 joined us and we went to Ivy and Lark in Westfield Chermside for what turned out to be a really substantial breakfast. I had poached eggs covered in turmeric Hollandaise sauce, wilted spinach and lashings of bacon on a piece of sourdough bread. The amount of bacon was a little overwhelming but have no fear I got through it. I managed to also eat ‘spare’ bacon from others too 😃😋🤤

I wonder why the Hollandaise sauce needed the turmeric. I’m guessing it’s a gimmick to attract the people who are getting sucked into the TV advertisements going on and on about the potential benefits of supplementing what we eat with turmeric. Adding a little turmeric to a sauce is really only going to change the colour. I couldn’t taste much difference between this turmeric coloured Hollandaise sauce and any other Hollandaise sauce I’ve eaten.

While some supplements have proven population health benefits like adding thiamine to bread and iodine to table salt, the vast majority of supplements only benefit the pharmaceutical companies which sell them. I’d prefer to spend my money on good quality meat and produce.

Blog post of the week

Mabel Kwong

I would like to mention a really great blog post I read this week from my friend Mabel Kwong who lives in Melbourne. Mabel writes about many things, and her enduring perspective is writing as an Asian woman living in Australia after growing up in Malaysia, Singapore and Australia. As a young adult, she shares her analysis of life having experienced living in different cultures and being part of the societal change in contemporary Australia.

This week, Mabel wrote about gender discrimination in Asian cultures and her experience as a woman in such cultures. It is well worth reading. Please check it out and subscribe.

My Favourite Pastime

Another favourite blog is My Favourite Pastime by Liz. This is a food blog and Liz does a lot of great cooking and recipe sharing. Lately, though, Liz has been sharing food facts which have been really interesting. Please check it out and subscribe.

Random Yummy

I dropped a random yummy this week after cooking sous vide four days straight. You can find the show notes at http://YummyLummy.com/RY0004.

What I ate this week

After four days of sous vide on the long weekend, my eating was mundane by comparison. The highlight though was buying some roast duck from 2 YUMMY on Thursday night and pairing it with some roasted crunchy creamy cheesy vegetables.

Final thoughts

Have you dissected a rat? Did you enjoy it? What is your favourite animal (including humans) to dissect?

I’ve dissected many rats and I love it. I dissected the left side of the head of the cadaver I shared in medical school. I remember spending days removing facial fat from the cheeks to expose various nerves and muscles. I really enjoyed doing that. These days, I like dissecting out the bones from the raw leg of lamb to butterfly it, but the most satisfying thing is slowly roasting a shoulder of lamb and then easily removing the scapular as the muscle bundles fall away.

[maxbutton id=”10″ ]

I hope you have a wonderful week. I’ll catch you next weekend. Bye 😃