Hi there. It’s been a while since I’ve posted here. Sorry about that but nothing new or different has really happened.
Life is pretty much work, eat, sleep, work, eat, sleep, wash and rinse, and repeat.
The best example of the periodicity of life is in my weight chart for this this year. You can see every weekend my weight rises as I cook and eat more. During the week because of a lack of time and motivation, the food I’m eating is more plain and less voluminous and my weight goes down.
I’ll get to losing weight the wrong way soon. This week, I was in Manila for work. When I landed the air was warm, humid, and polluted. I can deal with the pollution when the air is warm and moist.
Warm, humid, and polluted
The area outside of the border control region in the Ninoy Aquino International Airport is not air conditioned. It’s open to the outside and it was gloriously warm and moist. It was drizzling and about 30 °C (86 °F). While the air is polluted and has a distinct odour, my skin reacted well to the humidity.
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.
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.
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.
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.
I’ve been relatively well behaved this week in terms of my food consumption but the end of the week saw me blow out a lot.
It started on Friday when I chose the staff special chicken schnitzel with chips and gravy for $10.50. That evening I went a little further and enjoyed a crispy Balsamic Brussels sprouts and Spam dish with fennel salad.
On Saturday morning I weighed in at 78.5 kg/173 pounds and enjoyed a Coon cheese® omelet with sesame and poppy seeds. The real weekend splurging started at lunch when I bought a plate of roast pork, applesauce, potato bake and roast vegetables from Fancy Fillings at Westfield Belconnen. I asked for a small plate. A big plate must be huge.
Saturday dinner was huge with a 300 gram/10.6 once piece of scotch fillet steak plus cheesy horseradish cream roasted vegetables. Not to mention the bags of almonds and cashews I ate in the afternoon.
When I weighed myself this morning (Sunday, 11 February 2018) I was 79.5 kilograms/175.3 pounds. An ordinary bloke would look at that and think he should refocus and be more careful with what I ate today. Not me though, I had a special date to keep.
Dobinsons has recently opened at Westfield Belconnen and I’ve been enjoying a coffee every Saturday and Sunday. Today I was due to claim my free coffee and cake 😃💚👍😋🍰 Of course what cake would I choose but a vanilla slice.
What else has been happening?
I’ve been missing podcasting. I have been planning a regular weekly show which will be called the Yummy Lummy Cooking for one Podcast. I’ve been prevaricating though, I’ve been busy and the planning has been placed on the back burner. The feeling to do something hasn’t gone away though and I thought I needed something short sharp and random. Hence, the Random Yummy.
I’ve recorded two episodes and dropped them Friday and Saturday night. The first was on cooking Balsamic Brussels sprouts and the second was on cooking a cheese omelet with seeds. These shows will drop randomly and you can listen to them in your favourite podcatcher. Just search for Yummy Lummy and hopefully you’ll find them. If you like them, please subscribe.
MEATER® review
Last night I released a review on my MEATER® meat thermometer. I really like using it. It’s so easy, the iOS app works well, and so far, the meat has been perfect. I’m cooking a lump of lamb with it tonight.
What I’ve eaten this week
Monday
Lunch
Leftover chicken thigh and a recipe
Dinner
Baked salmon and fennel salad
Tuesday
Lunch
Leftover salmon
Dinner
Pork chop and stir-fried kale slaw
Wednesday
Lunch
Leftover chicken thigh and reading about date formats
Dinner
Bacon and cheese wrapped chicken maryland with fennel salad
Thursday
Lunch
Leftover chicken thigh and dreaming of Spam
Dinner
Chicken maryland and more fennel salad
Friday
Lunch
Chicken schnitzel with chips and gravy
Dinner
Crispy Balsamic Brussels sprouts with Spam and fennel salad
Saturday
Breakfast
Coon cheese® omelet with sesame and poppy seeds
Lunch
Roast pork with apple sauce, potato bake and roast vegetables
Dinner
Rare scotch fillet steak with cheesy creamy horseradish roasted vegetables
Sunday
Morning tea
Coffee and vanilla slice from Dobinsons at Westfield Belconnen
Final words
So, I ate too much this weekend. It’s not the end of the world and my goals are still clear. I’m still headed in the right direction.