Aussie accent

So Harvey of Bad Example was talking about British and American accents, and why British people can seem to do American but not the other way around. What prompted this is the wonderful Hugh Laurie. I first came across his work in Blackadder, where he was comic fodder for Rowan Atkinson to work with. Hadn't seen him in too much since then, until House came along, quite possibly my fav TV show at the moment. If you hadn't heard of him previously you could be well excused for thinking he was an American, not a Brit. His accent is perfect.

Which led me to thinking and wondering, how come whenever actors try to do an Australian accent, they get it so woefully wrong, so crappy? Harvey's point for the US/British thing was that Britain has so many accents, so it is difficult to get an archetypal one to put on, whereas there is an 'accentless' US accent that is most commonly used in TV and movies. Fair point, makes sense.

But not so much for Australia, we just don't have that big a range of accents. Most of us do not (I repeat, do not) sound like Steve Irwin, it is a more toned down version of that. But when a US actor tries to do our accent it comes out sounding all mangled. I always wondered why they just couldn't cast an Aussie in, there's heaps of aussie actors out of work! :)

Although, that said, what annoys me even more is when they cast an Aussie, but make them change their accent.
Case in point: Emilie de Ravin who plays Claire on Lost. Now she's an Aussie through and through, hasn't lived in the US for that long, but somehow her accent sounds not quite right, almost a Kiwi accent for some reason.

Back to House being wonderful, Jesse Spencer has thankfully been allowed to keep his accent just the way it is. Can almost forgive him for his stint on Neighbours!

Carnival of the Recipes

Hooray, the carnival is up! Thanks to Physics Geek for putting it together. Go here to find it.

Word Cloud

Thanks to biglittlesister for this one. Don't think I'll be getting it on a tshirt, but pretty cool all the same. Want one? Go here
I like how it recognises that I have a hot hubby!

Pasta with tomato, basil and chevre sauce

This is one of our staple meals, very easy and quick to prepare, and yummy indeed. For those of you not in the know, chevre is goat's cheese. Last night we had this and substituted the goat's cheese with fetta that had been marinated in rosemary, cracked pepper, and a third ingredient I can't remember, maybe garlic? Anyway, it works very well also.
This recipe comes from an absolutely brilliant book called While the Pasta Cooks.

Ingredients

1 pound pasta, any shape
2 large ripe tomatoes (we tend to use 3 or 4, depends how much you like tomato)
1/4 cup extra-virgin olive oil
24 basil leaves, chopped
4 ounces fresh chevre, crumbled
2 cloves garlic, minced (again, we use about double this, love garlic)
salt and freshly ground black pepper to taste

Method

Bring a large pot of lightly salted water to a boil. Add the pasta and stir a few times to ensure that the pasta does not stick to itself. Boil vigorously for the time recommended on the pasta package or until the pasta is tender.

While the pasta cooks, remove and discard the stem ends from the tomatoes and chop the tomatoes into small dice. Toss the tomato in a serving bowl with the oil, basil, chevre, garlic, salt, and plenty of pepper.

Drain the pasta and toss it in the bowl with the sauce.

Serves 4

My work place

Here is a picture of the study where I work:

Yes, I am a messy sod. Not sure if you'll be able to make it out, but yes those are Star Wars figurines on top of my monitor!

It's going to be a hot one today

It's supposed to get up to 36 degrees C (96.8F) today, ewww.

Only 27 in my study at the moment, debating on whether to put the air con on now to have some sort of hope it will cope when it rises.

Hmmm .... yep, will put on.

I was going to mow the lawn at lunchtime, guessing I won't be doing that now. Pool looks inviting though ...

Working from home

Since my team was moved to a far off location, I've been working from home. Now, when I was in an office location, working from home seemed to me like it would be a dream situation. Work in your pyjamas all day, nobody hassling you, get up out of bed a minute before starting work.

And it is good for those reasons. But ... I am not liking working from home. I didn't count on how isolated I'd feel, how lonely I'd get.

Plus, I'm not the most motivated person in the world, I am finding it hard to actually sit down and do the work. Every time a car goes past in the street, I'm tempted to look. If someone actually stops, then gosh, I just have to see if they are doing anything interesting. Not to mention the plants that need watering, clothes that need washing ... you get the picture

Today, it is a bit after 12, and I can honestly say I've done almost nothing. Taken a couple of calls, read a couple of emails, that's about it. Mind you, I have caught up on all my blog reading, and now I'm actually writing a blog entry. Ok, not work, but something I've been meaning to do.
Alright, really must knuckle down now and do some work ...

Choccy Carnival of the Recipes

For all you chocolate fiends out there, you'll love this week's Carnival, it's all about chocolate. Mmmmmm ... chocolate.

Triple-choc cookies

So the theme is chocolate this week, eh? I think this fits the bill then, as it has three lots of chocolate in it.

I don't make it too often, as it is not exactly your health biscuit (translates as cookie in US speak). But, when I have made them, they certainly go quickly.

Any confusion on the ingredient front, let me know. Always fun, finding out what foods are called by different names in different countries! Ounces conversions are approximate, eg 1.2355 I round down to 1.2

Recipe comes from a book titled wicked sweet indulgences

Ingredients

125g (4.4 ounces) butter
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
1 1/4 cups (8.8 ounces) firmly packed brown sugar
1 egg
1 cup (5.3 ounces) plain flour
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda (baking soda)
1/3 cup (1.2 ounces) cocoa powder
1/2 cup (3 ounces) chopped raisins
1/2 cup (3.4 ounces) milk Choc Bits
1/2 cup (2.6 ounces) white chocolate Melts, halved
1/2 cup (2.6 ounces) dark chocolate Melts, halved

Method

1. Preheat oven to moderate. Lightly grease two oven trays.
2. Beat butter, essence, sugar and egg in small bowl with electric mixer until smooth; do not overbeat. Stir in sifted dry ingredients, then raisins and all chocolates.
3. Drop level tbsps of mixture onto prepared trays, allowing 5cm (2 inches) between each cookie; bake in moderate oven about 10 minutes. Stand cookies 5 minutes; transfer to wire rack to cool.

tips:
Choc bits are made of cocoa liquor, cocoa butter, sugar and an emulsifier; these hold their shape in backing.
Chocolate Melts are discs of compounded chocolate ideal for melting and moulding.