Canberra Day Long Weekend

It’s the Canberra Day Long Weekend. I love a long weekend, especially a Monday public holiday after I’ve enjoyed a Friday working at Canberra Hospital and Health Services.

It probably comes as no surprise that I’ve never attended any of the Canberra Day events despite living here for >10 years. At the moment, the Enlighten Festival and Night Noodle Markets are on. While seeing colourful lights being used to create murals on government buildings would be an interesting spectacle it’s not really that interesting when I’d prefer to be in my warm bed rather than out on a cool Autumn night with crowds of people.

The noodle market would be more appealing if I wasn’t trying to lose weight at the moment. Noodles aren’t going to help me lose weight especially when I’m trying to control the size of food portions I consume. I’d be wanting to try all the different types of noodle dishes. It’s better I focus on cooking for myself than going out and being tempted by noodles 😂 🤤 😋

Oh, and there’s also lots of hot air balloons in the air every morning. The weather at the moment is perfect for hot air balloons. The air is dry and the sky is blue, they take off soon after sunrise so the photography would be awesome. Too cold for me though.

I’m a tad annoyed that Kmart is yet to have jumpers out. I need a new jumper to wear to work.

New clock

On the subject of Kmart, my bedside table clock radio died this week. Since I no longer listen to the radio I needed a replacement clock. All I need in a clock is for the time to be visible when I wake up in the middle of the night.

I bought this battery operated clock for $AUD7. What I like about it is I can have a 24-hour time readout and a temperature readout. It’s good to know just how cold it is in my bedroom.

New subscribers

I’ve noticed a few new subscribers over the last couple of weeks. Thanks for joining me here. I hope you don’t find it too boring. This blog is essentially a weekly diary brain dump.

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Weight loss progress

Check out the graph. I started making a conscious effort to lose weight in October last year (2017). I’ve managed to lose about eight kilograms (about 16 pounds or one stone) and while I’d like to lose more, I seem to have well and truly plateaued at about 78+ kilograms. I would really like to stabilise around 75 kilograms (165 pounds 5 ounces). I still have a good ‘handful’ of adipose tissue on my belly that I’d love to see gone.

We’ll see. The last week or so has seen some travel and meetings and attending meetings and travel always makes a routine difficult.

If you’ve been successful in shedding some resistant weight please let me know how you did it.

Sharing some blogger and podcasting love

It’s been a while since I shared some link love. I really love the blogging community and the friendly nature of people who share bits and pieces or their life. I’ve made so many friends as a result of blogging. While my main blog, viz., Yummy Lummy, is focussed on food and recipes, I know a few other food bloggers who also have second diary blogs like this one.

Diabetes Diet

Emma Baird and Dr Katharine Morrison write for Diabetes Diet. Emma, reblogged my whisky-flavoured chicken casserole recipe this weekend. I’m so grateful to have a recipe shared.

Emma is also a writer and book author. Her other blog is High Heels and Pink Glitter. Please visit these blogs and check out the posts there.

Travelling Tim

Tim is a Canberra resident who loves travelling and photography.

Scruff and Steph

Andrew and Steph are Canberra food bloggers. Sadly, despite being Brisbane born, Andrew is a cockroach lover. Check out the comments of this Facebook status update from Wednesday.

Joy Passion Desire

Ann-Christin writes short posts a few times a day and each one is an uplifting message to help her readers improve their self-esteem.

 

Meet the Microbiologist

While I’m very keen to see the Australian Society for Microbiology (ASM) grow and get better known, I’ve also been a long time member of the American Society for Microbiology. The American Society has a very popular podcast named “Meet the Microbiologist”. The most recent show coincidentally dropped on International Women’s Day and it was an awesome show. The guest was Italian scientist and politician Ilaria Capua who now works in the USA after she was wrongly maligned by malicious journalism aimed at discrediting her. She is an amazing example of a scientist who won’t let stupidity and ignorance get her down.

Brining

On Saturday night I did my first sous vide salmon dish. Apparently, to cook salmon by sous vide it’s important to first brine the salmon otherwise an unsightly white membrane forms on the salmon flesh. While it doesn’t affect the flavour it does look ugly. Brining is the preserving or seasoning of food with salt water.

So on Saturday, I bought three salmon fillets and when I got them home I put them into some iced salt water and let them brine for about an hour before vacuum sealing them with a little dill and a little olive oil massage.

You can check out how the meal turned out at this link http://YummyLummy.com/20180310

Chifley’s Bar and Grill

On Tuesday night I went to dinner with an old work friend from Darwin. He was in Canberra to do some teaching at the Australian National University. He offered to buy me dinner so long as it was somewhere that served decent steak.

I suggested Chifley’s Bar and Grill in the Hotel Kurrajong in Barton. Read my review.

We both asked for the Wagyu rump steak which came with a cauliflower purée. I asked for my steak to be cooked rare. My steak was perfectly cooked. The cauliflower purée though was a little thin and I didn’t think it had much flavour.

What I ate this week

Rather than embed all the images in this post I created a gallery. Click on a photograph and scroll through them all.

Canberra Day 2018

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What I nearly ate this week 🤤

Final thoughts

I love a long weekend. Will I do anything special tomorrow (Monday aka Canberra Day)? My aim is to complete my tax return for 2016–2017. I still have an accountant from my Darwin days and so I have until May to get this together. In Australia, without an accountant or taxation agent, taxpayers have to have their returns in by 31 October.

If the weather is good I also hope to go for a walk.

Catch you next week.

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Disclosure

I’m a fellow of the Australian Society for Microbiology, the registrar for the National Examination and Qualifications Committee and on the editorial board of Microbiology Australia.