What I think, watch, listen to, and eat each week
The thoughts and words that I want to share
Today I took Miss 15 and Ms 19 out to Sandgate for lunch. We haven’t been back since November 2016. We went to the Sandgate Fishmonger and bought three pieces of battered cod, four potato scallops (not cakes), a serving or crumbed calamari and a large serving of really nice chips.
We also had the company of quite a few seagulls.
The Canberra Hospital staff tuck shop was offering this today for lunch. Normally I go for the seafood plate which is a piece of battered fish, a few crumbed prawns, a seafood stick and some other things that I’ve never really worked out but it’s all deep-fried and it tastes good.
For something different, I asked what was in the main tray and I couldn’t really understand what the server was saying. It was very noisy and my deafness doesn’t help.
It has asparagus, mushroom, rice, cheese and I think it was bound with eggs. It was stiff and kept its shape. It tasted okay. I don’t know what to call it, though.
Do you know what to call it?
It’s pay day, which is always a good day.
It’s an especially good day when there are no bills in the post office box 😃
For lunch, I had the SHISH special from Urban Bean Espresso Bar. The lamb was delicious.
I was meant to be in a few places at once today but I had a priority to attend to, unfortunately. It’s a good thing I love my job.
By the time I left work all I could think about eating was half a tin of hot and spicy spam on a bed of ramen noodles covered in Coon cheese and dressed with vegetables.
I hope you had a good day.
Do you remember your dreams? I love dreaming. Dreaming is so enjoyable, mostly. Occasionally I have nightmares, but mostly I have pleasant dreams. I usually don’t remember what I’ve dreamt about unless it’s something really special.
Last night I dreamt I was on a cruise ship of all things and of course I was trying all the buffets. One buffet was Chinese food and had a bowl of clear marrow broth with pork bones. As I was going back for more the cook brought out a big plate of cooked pork ribs with meat on them. They looked delicious. I grabbed some on a plate and went back to a table. Sitting opposite me was my maternal grandfather. Goong goong. That’s what we (his grandchildren) called him. His name was William Que Hee. He was a cane farmer and a cook, a husband and grandfather and all round good bloke.
He died in 1974. He, along with my maternal grandmother effectively raised me as a small boy. I have many fond memories of Goong goong. He was a kind and gentle man. He turned our backyard into a vegetable garden full of Chinese vegetables. He cooked, he cleaned and he kept me safe. I still miss him though he’s been dead for so many years. In the photographs below he’s holding me.
Do you remember dreams? Do you write them down? Do think there’s any value in keeping a dream diary?
It’s Monday night so that means salmon. I’ve been mixing it up lately. For a long time, I’ve been baking my salmon in my bench top oven. It’s simple and only takes 12 minutes with minimal mess.
However, I do enjoy crispy skin pan-fried salmon though and now that I have a portable induction hob, getting a really hot pan is simple. I also coat the salmon in flour and this minimises oil splatter because it dries the surface of the salmon.
I didn’t eat dessert last night because I was feeling full after my leftover pork and beef meatloaf with extra bacon. Even my dessert stomach (also known as the œsophagus) didn’t feel like it could cope.
Adding bacon to leftovers is always a good thing.
This is what was leftover from last night’s pork and beef meatloaf cheese pie.
Today’s lunch was yummy
If you want to see a bigger better version of the cut sandwich click here.
It was surprisingly cool in Canberra this morning. When I went out for a walk I should have worn a long sleeve shirt, it was quite nippy.
I had charged the batteries in my Sony α7ii and had my 24–240 mm f/3.5–f/6.3 lens attached.
I like shooting brackets when I’m out so I can exploit Adobe Lightroom’s HDR capacity. Some people don’t like HDR especially if it’s too ‘crunchy’. I don’t mind it really.
It was still this morning with a gentle breeze. The surface of the lake was smooth and offered a little reflection opportunity. Yesterday it was quite overcast and there was a moderate breeze.
Not a bad lap around the lake really. As much as the Canberra weather is uncomfortable, it does make for some nice photography.
Canberra started to warm up towards the end of the week with yesterday getting to 35 °C (95 °F). Overnight it remained warm. I slept poorly, not because it was warm, but it seems every Friday night I wake up at about 3 am and just lay awake. It’s so annoying.
At 5 am I got out of bed and ground some beans to make a strong coffee. I got a sense the day would be cooler. This is a good thing because I wanted to make sure I got to walk around Lake Ginninderra to get some exercise.
It’s hard to beat a weekend classic. Streaky bacon and fried eggs.
Before the shopping, there must be coffee!
One of the new annoyances in Canberra is the ACT Government imposition on shopping centres to attach locks and chains on shopping trolleys.
This is being done to reduce the number of trolleys abandoned on footpaths, in car parks, in the lake and elsewhere. The problem is instead of trying to develop a nuanced and tailored solution, a cheap inconvenient method has been adopted.
What I’ve noticed around Belconnen and Woden is abandoned trolleys are still there and some of them have been locked together.
The relatively cool weather should have meant more people walking around the lake, but it was oddly quiet. The clouds were quite good and with a little extra editing in Adobe Lightroom and Luminar or Aurora HDR I hope these photographs don’t look too crunchy.
I know a lot of people really prefer a more natural look, but for some reason, I like crunchy HDR.
It was good to see the cows back under the trees on the north-east side of Lake Ginninderra.
Despite having done the bulk of my grocery shopping earlier, some things weren’t on the shelves. Given I finished walking around Lake Ginninderra at about noon, I thought I may as well have lunch in the mall. I had no idea what I wanted to eat. I knew I didn’t want a burger or Mexican or Chinese food. In the end, I went with potato gems (also known as tater tots in the USA).
I spent the afternoon editing photographs and thinking about what to make for dinner.
I’ve blogged on Yummy Lummy about what I had for dinner. It was a pork and beef cheese pie.
Not a bad Saturday really. I feel quite full. I wonder what I’ll get up to tomorrow.
Yay, it’s the end of a Friday and the weekend is nearly upon Canberra. It was quite warm today, I think the bureau of meteorology predicted it would get to 35 °C (95 °F).
I was fortunate, I was in a laboratory all day and it was nicely air conditioned.
I’ve already shared a photograph of the hospital but I played around in Adobe Lightroom and enhanced it a little.
Even though I had a Mavi Special breakfast wrap (bacon, hash brown, fried egg, mushrooms, cheese, barbeque sauce) for breakfast with a coffee in a mug, I still ate a reasonable-sized lunch.
The Canberra Hospital has a staff tuck shop and on, Fridays they usually do a seafood ‘basket’. It’s so much of a basket, but a plate!
After a busy afternoon, I wasn’t feeling very hungry so I thought I’d go very simple and go meat-free. I decided to cook some corn using a technique that I’ve described elsewhere and on YouTube. You can see I like adding some corn with my butter 😂😋
