Recently in Friends Category

Last week's French class captured the imagination of my classmate, K and I, as we saw a very beguiling and charming short film called Gratte-papier.

 

Fist of all it is necessary to know that not a word is spoken during the film, which won an award at Berlin in a film festival a few years ago.

 

The scene is a metro railway carriage, and a young man who gets on to the train, in a crowded carriage and an attractive young woman who sits in the vacant seat next to him, and how two people can connect without speaking a single word.

 

The communication comes, as he is reading a book, he shows her some words as he is underlining them: the words aren't necessarily the correct spelling of what he wants to say, but the sound is, as he underlines:

 

"Les regards autour son sur vous

Je ne peut voir votre visage mais les regard parle... »

 

(Everyone around is looking at you, I can't see your face but their looks tell)

 

She underlines and shows him, in the book she is reading :

 

Ils ne disent rien pour vous

 

(They say nothing about you)

 

Etcetera

 

Eventually, she writes her phone number on her book, just as she arises to get off the train

 

Suffice it to say, almost every female I have related this to, gets a little weak at the knees at the idea of the romance evoked in just a few minutes of film footage and nine sentences. On the other hand, most of the males are completely underwhelmed...

 

What does grate-papier mean? According to my dictionary- pencil pusher...

Welcoming Tristan Edmond to the world, weighing 4.1 kg, to P and A, born yesterday evening!

A busy couple of weeks, working long hours has meant that I have had little time for updating here, and as I have been so busy, not much time to think about anything else but what needed to be done.

News from a couple of weeks ago: a new baby boy to G and A in Brisbane, a little brother for William.

Another arrival is imminent in Melbourne to P and A...

A 90th birthday party a couple of weeks ago, too, and an 83rd on Saturday.

Time to celebrate.

 

 

• Kittens playing games (This is Millie, who is looking for a home, isn't she sweet?)
• A long conversation on Skype with Aussie Lass (but I was very envious of the platter of seafood she told us about)
• A colleague receiving 6 red roses for Valentine's day
• Prawns with homemade mayonnaise for lunch on Saturday.
• Friends and dinner on Saturday night
• C & Y on our couch on Sunday morning
• Being able to participate in a debate in French

It was a busy weekend, after last week's hot weather. It is strange how temperatures in the 30's which we would normally be complaining about now seem quite mild. A busy Saturday: I managed to get some major re-organisation of my wardrobe done in the morning, mainly throwing out some stuff, and reorganising like into like which should make the work day morning easier to manage.

Any plans for Saturday afternoon were thrown into disarray by a severe headache, presumably brought on by "challenge" of sodium metabisulphite, shortly before. Alas, this means I will have to continue to be careful to avoid preserved meats, wine and anything in the 220-228 food additive range. Luckily, some paracetamol and rest made a Vietnamese BBQ (no additives) a very pleasant diversion in the evening, followed by a long Skype session with Aussie Lass who has been suffering with pharyngitis, followed by a severe ear infection, complicated by an allergy to penicillin.

Sunday lunch: prawns, salad and home made mayonnaise, goes to show that you can still have a really nice meal, even with food restrictions.

Sunday afternoon: a lovely snooze, before heading off to the Melbourne Zoo Twilight Concert, for the 21st birthday party of the lovely S.

The final activity of the weekend, keeping up with cricket and tennis matches being concurrently played: the final of the Australian Open Tennis and the first One day cricket match between Australia and NZ, both of which were pretty exciting matches kept me out of bed much longer than I had intended. (Flicking between the channels, until I could stay awake no longer)

Earlier in the evening, with Australia all out for 181, and in contemplating the prospect of an easy NZ victory in 30 or 40 overs, I contemplated finding some excuse for not going to work this morning: just to avoid the hard time I might have got. Thankfully, the game turned into a thriller, not a walkover, and I can hold my head up high this morning, despite the Aussies losing.

A thrilling five set tennis match with Nadal coming out the victor over Federer just made us appreciate the skill of these fine tennis players, who were definitely not just going through the motions.

 

Christmas Eve was one of those busy days, a trip to Queen Victoria Market, to pick up supplies for the Christmas Day Feast, a visit to the supermarket for some last minute things, finishing wrapping the gifts, the arrival of visitors, then out to friends for Christmas Eve dinner. A relaxing evening, and fun to see the excitement of small children opening their presents, then putting them aside, for the next package. Good food, and excellent company, and as I am still on a diet without wine, a sober one! 11 pm service at the chapel at my old school, then home by 12:45 am.

Yesterday, with a guest list of 17 for lunch, I had planned for a later sit down than normal at 2 pm, and a roast turkey buffet was cooked to perfection with the aid 250g of butter, seasoned with thyme and lemon rind, pressed into the space between the breast meat and the skin. A leg of lamb, two roast chickens, several kilos of prawns, some schnicken (chicken schnitzels), roast potatoes, cauliflower cheese and salads completed the main course, very happily. An icecream later for those who wanted one, was the dessert of preference, although I had plum pudding on hand.

Then a very long session of Skype on a call from France. It was such fun to see the members of our extended family on the screen, albeit blurry, and with the occasional delays as the screen was refreshed, and lags as voices caught up with the pictures. Fun to see KylieMac, too, and it would be such fun for all of us to gather once again. Maybe in August. I do feel sad that we can't be together for special days, but when you can take part in a hilarious group conversation over that distance for nothing, then it does make up for it in part.

Boxing Day (26th December) is always a quiet one. I felt no need to hit the post Christmas Sales, instead, a sleep in, leftovers for lunch and a visit to the chickens and PU and Y and we have returned home this evening ready for a light meal and quiet evening before the weekend starts.

And I can contemplate another week off work before heading back on the fifth. Yaaaay!

 

Post script: I cannot believe I made a typo- with 17 for lunch being entered as one!

The joy of new arrivals...two ex-colleagues are now proud mothers of their first babies

The stress of sudden illness takes it toll on dear friends. May God be with you all.

 

Many days of business, means little time for blogging, so here's a quick update...

• AFL has finished for the year with my lovely Saints in fourth place, which is an improvement from 9th last year
• The Hawks were a surprise winner of the AFL grand final, after Geelong had been the form team all year long. The Hawks supporters might tell you something different...
• An enjoyable afternoon watching the grand final with our lovely neighbours...
• A small moment of embarrassment at Auckland airport involving a (very) small apple, meant that I am $200 Kiwi dollars lighter than I should be. (Plus foreign currency charges) (And the amused chuckles of my colleagues....)
• A house warming for C & Y at the weekend, with so much food left over that we had to go back yesterday to eat some more food!
• My step mother is finally home after almost four weeks in hospital following her fall of 4.5 metres in September. Walking, talking. WHich in itself is a bit of a miracle.
• Warm, dry weather at the weekend reminds us that summer is on it's way, and parched crops in the North of the state will be struggling, even more.

I was looking forward to a quiet weekend, but I should have known that it was not to be..., firstly because we had a work outing to the footy, with good seats, meal and the Geelong/ North Melbourne match...

And then an outing with the Princess and Y, followed by Middle Eastern lunch in Sydney Road- delicious falafels for me, and meaty stuff for the others...yumminess...

Then an offer from my Dad, to buy me another cat, and discretion being the better part of valour, have kindly declined the offer, for now...The history to this offer is that he has bought himself another kitten, after the success of Eugene, earlier this year, and the breeder had two others, not yet sold, with equally lovely natures which led to the offer.

Sunday another outing to the footy, but my Saints are causing me some grief, but not to worry, a very nice outing with our lovely neighbours, followed by dinner, and a few drinks- a really nice way to end a Sunday on a long weekend...

Monday saw a sleep in, then a visitor from the country, amazed at the array of period style fittings that can be obtained if you know where to look...

Too soon, Tuesday has rolled around again, and back to work for another week, happily a short one!

One of the pleasures of living in Melbourne is the opportunity for a range of culinary experiences drawing from a number of different food cultures. Add to this an opportunity to dine with friends visiting from the Middle East, and you have the ingredients for a lovely evening. Even more special when the dinner is the result of a wager that is being honoured, albeit not quite the one that I was expecting. And I acknowledge that making assumptions may not always be the wisest thing to do, but reading between the lines, and reaching a considered conclusion on the basis of known facts will often reap rewards.

Approaching the eve of the Melbourne Cup weekend is not an easy one to find a restaurant with bay views in St Kilda, as most of the signature restaurants were already booked out by mid week, however, a recommendation from a colleague saw us heading to Mirka at Tolarno in Fitzroy Street for an early dinner, with G rostered for a 4am start the next morning, and our companions still to recover from jet lag after arriving in the morning. This restaurant has a menu which is strongly influenced by French and Italian cuisines with some classic dishes like Bouillabaise,

The restaurant has kept the murals painted by the artist, Mirka Mora, and windows overlooking Fitzroy Street, where you can watch the world go by

As I had perused the menu on the internet before we went, I had pretty made up my mind by the time we got there to have snails, served as an entree, without shells but with garlic and parsley butter and a flaky pastry topping, which proved to be absolutely delicious. Other choices for entrees included oysters, black pudding with scallops, and mussels marinière.

Other delicacies included Pork with crunchy crackling, the afore mentioned Bouillabaisse, Sword fish and a range of other yummy stuff too numerous to mention.

And, yes, I found room for dessert, too...

And I'm looking forward to the next one...