Friday, November 25, 2005

You say to-may-to, I say to-mar-to

Everyday Stranger is one of my favourite blogs. Helen has such a way with words, it makes me feel tongue tied, (or is that finger-tied as I'm typing not talking ...) and awkward.

It had been a little while since I'd been over there, so I had a bit of catching up to do. I came across this post, and it just cracked me up.

It deals with the linguistic differences between America and England.

I don't think I even knew until a few years ago that 'aluminum' and 'alminium' were the same thing, it still doesn't really feel right! I just know though if I was in America I couldn't make myself say aluminum, it just wouldn't come out.

Same with the word semi. I'm not sure if this is just part of America or not, but the pronunciation 'sem-eye' always tickled my funny bone for some reason. Here we pronounce it sort of like 'sem-ee'

A lot of our words in Australia come from England, not surprisingly. Some Americanisms do creep in though.

We have mobile phones (or just mobiles), not cell phones.
We have both flats and apartments, but flat is the more common usage.
We fill the car up with petrol, not gas.
We say nappies, not diapers.
Some people here still say trousers, but mostly it is pants.

One thing Helen wrote was 'The car does not wear clothes, it has no boot or bonnet.' I wonder what they do have? We call the back of the car the boot, and being totally not into cars I have no idea what we call the front bit ...

Comments

Was bound to happen I guess, over the last week or so I've been getting a fair few spam comments. Only goes through to the Blogger comments part, not Haloscan so far.

So, I've had to turn on comment moderation for Blogger. Shouldn't affect anyone putting a valid comment in, as mostly people use Haloscan, which I prefer anyway.

Hmm... wondering if I turn off comments completely in Blogger whether the Haloscan ones will still work. Might give it a try sometime.

And if that is all gibberish, when I say Haloscan comments, they are what comes under the "Comment" link, and Blogger comments are under the link "Pre Haloscan"

Monday, November 21, 2005

Can't sleep

Well, it's 3 in the morning and I can't sleep.

Last night for dinner we had fish and chips, and I decided to have a glass of red wine after that. Apparently doesn't agree with me, I feel crap.

Today is the last day of my two week leave, then it's back to work for me.

What to do on my last day, besides hopefully feel better and get some sleep ....

First thing, I have to put my car in to get new brake pads on the front.
I have a physio appointment for my knee (still improving slowly) at 1pm.
I have to go to the RTA at some stage to register my car.

So looks like on my last day, I will be getting my purse out a fair bit! :(

On the upside, Brian has the day off too, so we get to spend the day together. That's nice, he's a great guy and hubby, love spending time with him.

When I can't sleep I get up and read some blogs, go on It's Your Turn, and obsess and worry over things needlessly! What do you do when you can't sleep?

Sunday, November 20, 2005

Yummy prawny limey recipe (can be done with chicken)

Last weekend when we had our friends over we did this dish. Normally we use prawns (shrimps), but this time we decided to use chicken instead. End result? Both are good, both work well. Oh, also, in this recipe it says to skewer the prawns and limes but we can't be bothered with that so just chuck everything onto the barbie and squeeze lime juice over it after.
Once again this recipe comes from Ainsley Harriott's Barbecue Bible, which like I said previously gets a lot of use from us.

Ainsley likes to give his recipes funky names, I'll give the title below, but we tend to just call it the yummy prawny limey recipe (can be done with chicken).

Orla's Bamboo Thai Prawn Satay with Griddled Limes

Ingredients

450g (1 lb) raw, headless tiger prawns
1 stalk of lemongrass
3 limes
2 cloves garlic, finely chopped
120 ml (4 fl oz) canned coconut milk
6 tbsp light soy sauce
2 tsp palm or light muscovado suger

8 x 15 cm (6 in) bamboo skewers soaked in cold water for 30 minutes.

Method

  1. Peel the prawns, leaving the last tail segment in place. (I also take the intestinal tract out).
  2. Remove the tough outer leaves from the stalk of lemongrass and finely chop the tender core. Finely grate the zest from one of the limes and squeeze out the juice. Cut the remaining limes into small wedges.
  3. Put the lemongrass, lime zest, lime juice, garlic, coconut milk, soy sauce and sugar into a non-metallic dish. Add the prawns, mix together well and set aside to marinate at room temperature for about 15 minutes or for up to 2 hours in the fridge.
  4. Thread 4 prawns on to each skewer in pairs together with 2 lime wedges. Pierce through the tail of one prawn, add a lime wedge and then skewer the head end of the prawn so that it wraps itself around the lime attractively. Do this once more and repeat for the rest of the skewers.
  5. Barbecue the skewers over a medium hot coals for about 1 minute on each side or until just cooked through. Serve at once, garnished with the remaining lime wedges.
A good drink to serve with this is a Corona with a wedge of lime in it.

Monday, November 14, 2005

Carnival of the Recipes

Eric from Myopic Zeal has done a great job with this week's Carnival. I didn't realise it was supposed to be a patriotic themed dish, in honour of Veteran's Day (or Remembrance Day as it is called in Australia). So I didn't manage to come up with a red, white or blue dish, but hopefully people like it anyway.

So go take a look, some even have pretty pictures to go with them. Nice!

Saturday, November 12, 2005

Pass the butter please?

Today we have some very good friends coming over for a brunchy lunchy type thing. We're looking forward to it, will be lots of fun. Temperature is not supposed to get too hot, but it will be hot enough for a swim, and we'll be cooking a BBQ. Gotta love a BBQ!

To go with the meal, and to put on the bread, I'm making up a butter that we've had a few times, and is very tasty. It's from Ainsley Harriott's Barbecue Bible, which I can tell you gets a lot of usage from us in the warmer months.

Italian Pesto Butter

100g (4 oz) slightly salted butter, softened
2 tbsp pesto
2 heaped tbsp chopped fresh basil
2 tbsp finely grated Parmesan
1 clove garlic, crushed
salt and freshly ground black pepper*

Mix the butter with the rest of the ingredients. Spoon on to a sheet of clingfilm (or cling wrap as we call it here) or non-stick baking parchment, shape into a roll and wrap up tightly. Chill until firm or until required.

What I tend to do, instead of shaping into a roll in cling wrap is to put it into the dish that I'm going to serve it in, put cling wrap over the top of that.


* no, I don't know why he says to use only slightly salted butter, then add more salt. You can leave it out if you wish, is very tasty either way.

What day were you born on?

Got this over at Caltechgirl's place, and couldn't resist putting it here. You can go to this site to find out what day you were born on, nice! Turns out I was born on a Monday. Caltechgirl also had a poem to go with this, although in my case, I'm not too sure it's true. :)

Monday's child is fair of face.
Tuesday's child is full of grace.
Wednesday's child is full of woe.
Thursday's child has far to go.
Friday's child is loving and giving.
Saturday's child works hard for his living.
The child that is born on the Sabbath day
is bonny, and blithe, and good, and gay

So what day were you born on, and is the poem spot on, or far off the mark?


Wednesday, November 09, 2005

Phew!

Ultrasound went well, all is fine. Hooray! What a relief.

I arrived a couple of minutes early, very nervous and a bit shaky. I didn't have to wait long, which was good. When I first walked into the examination room, the lady asked me my age. When I replied 32, she gave me a bit of a funny look. I thought for a sec that I hadn't understood what she said, as she had a bit of an Asian accent. So I repeated it, saying "my age? I'm 32". "Oh", she said, "you look much younger, I thought you were about 18". Have to say I felt pretty chuffed about that, not bad at all if someone thinks you look 14 years younger than you actually are! :)

The actual procedure didn't take long, and it wasn't as embarrassing as I thought it might be, the lady kept up a constant conversation. She was quick to say it was fine, but before I left she got it double checked with a doctor, who confirmed all aok. An hour and a half later I went and picked up the results, on the back it is sealed with a sticker saying it must only be opened by the referring doctor .... hmmm .... will have to see how well sealed it is, maybe I can pry it loose, take a look, then seal shut again :)

Worries, worries

Two things I have going on at the moment.

The knee. Today marks two weeks since I hurt it. It is still a bit swollen, although improved from what it originally was, and I still have some pain from time to time, especially when I've been sleeping. I think I bump it when I sleep, or try to move it more than it should be moved. It looks like I will be out of action for some time to come. What makes it more interesting is that the GP and physio have different opinions. On Monday I went back for my checkup, and he said it seemed to be healing itself, no problem. Yesterday went back to the physio, he still thinks that there is a deeper problem, a problem with the meniscus, and thinks I should see a knee specialist. He is going to consult with some of his colleagues first, and see what they think. So at the moment, I just have to rest, do the exercises, and put ice on the swollen bits. One good thing, it is hot today (3o degC) so I'll get in the pool later. Walking in water is a good exercise for the knee.

Other thing. On the weekend I felt a lump in my breast. I don't often examine them, so I'm not sure how long it has been there. Instant fear hit me. Brian has been good, calming me down, chances are it is nothing. When I went to the doctor on Monday I told him about it, he took a look (or a feel I should say), and thinks it is all ok. But to be on the safe side he wants me to have an ultrasound. I have that at 2.30 this afternoon. I feel nervous. Everything should be ok, but I can't help but worry. I just wish it was over and done with, the waiting is getting to me a bit.

Will give an update later today to say how things went.

Wednesday, November 02, 2005

Slowly getting better

So I went to the physio for trip number two on Monday, and he wasn't super happy with how my knee was going. One of the ligaments was a bit loose he thought, and he wasn't sure if I'd done damage to my knee joint. So, he requested I go to my GP to take a look, and thought I'd probably have to get some scans done, at the least an xray.

I made sure I went and saw my doctor that very afternoon, didn't want to have to wait and worry that I'd done something major to myself. But, good news. The doc thinks I haven't done anything serious. He ruled out mensiscal damage (some discs that form part of the knee joint), by getting me to stand on my bad leg, and do a twisting motion. My knee didn't give way, and it didn't hurt, so that cleared that. Nice. He thinks that I've strained a ligament and that it should heal itself ok. Hooray! I go back in a week for another checkup.

In the meantime I am doing all the exercises that the physio recommeded, and I am starting to see a slight improvement, so I am now cautiously optimistic all will be ok. If all goes well, I should be back on the field running about in around three weeks time.

Thanks for everyone's kind wishes, much appreciated.

And hey, guess what? Tomorrow marks a year since I started this blogging caper! Time really does fly.