Category: General Musings

Plunder the Pyramids

Friday night was the hubbies work Christmas party entitiled Plunder the Pyramid. Located out at Ashton Court it is a large venue that caters to all types of groups. We were just one company amoung many which added to the festive mood. With an Egyptian style setting including belly dancers it was an interesting night. Everyone was dressed quite formally so that is always good to see people go to some effort to look great. During dinner a show was performed with a bit of fire dancing thrown in.

Afterward the “fun fair” opened and you could either have a boogie on the dance floor, go on the dodgems, have a game of Blackjack or Roulette, try your luck on the strength machine or throwing the rings to win a prize. Not a bad night out all in all.

Let the festivities begin

At a chilly 4 degrees today and everyone starting to depart for Christmas holidays it seemed a good opportunity to stay home and bake. As Shaz will remember from last Christmas it is time for the Christmas cakes to be baked.

However, with little (actually) NO baking implements, ingredients or tins I did have to do a quick shop. Having powered my way through the trolleys, granny bags, sniffling children and a ridiculous number of Tesco staff in the aisles I made it home with the ingredients minus the brandy essence! Oh well, who needs fake booze in a Christmas cake anyway.

My nana provided this recipe to me a couple of years ago, which I believe actually comes from a lady Aunty Marge knows…..anyhow, it is easy peasy and tastes fabulous even if you will be working it off over the next year.

I love making these and dressing them up in lieu of a purchased present. So here they are and how they turned out wrapped up. Not my best work but not bad with the limited resources here.

Smells I love

Hmmmm, interesting post for today but I have been thinking recently about how smell is so important. It provides an incredible trigger for our memories, happy or otherwise. So for today the smells that I love: (in no particular order)

1) The first cup of coffee for the morning brought to me in a nice toasty warm bed by my gorgeous husband

2) The lingering smell of chlorine on my skin after my much adored swimming

3) The perfumed smell of the “Lady of the night” plant we had outside our place in Sydney, its flowers open at night

4) The smell of jasmine flowers mixed in with the heat of a summers day

5) Ozone which precedes a summer storm

6) Fresh bread baking as you walk along the streets of Paris in the early morning

7) Lambs fry being lovingly made by my nana or my mum – who by the way make the best lambs fry & bacon!

8) My husband

9) The musty smell of books

10) Freshly mowed grass

Tomorrow – smells I dislike. What would be on your list?

T-Shirts

I have a very wise husband. When packing our bags for the UK I figured that as we were going into a UK Summer what would be the point of heavy jumpers. Especially as I would have to be lugging them in my pack all over France. Thankfully my husband instilled good sense into my thinking and I only brought 3 t-shirts along with me, as well as 1 pair of thermal pants, 1 thermal top, 2 pairs of jeans, 1 pair of trackies, 3 long sleeved tops, 1 Drizabone, 1 funky pair of Winnie the Pooh PJ’s (the NZ touring group will remember those beauties), 1 other night shirt and the obligatory under garments of course. Add to this 1 suit (shirt, skirt and jacket), 1 summer skirt and 2 pairs of shoes, hat, gloves and scarf and 1 pair of togs (swimmers for all the Aussies). Not sure where I thought I would be swimming but they did get used in Provence (although the water was freezing no matter how much I tried to imagine it wasn’t). After 10 years in Australia this is what my whole wardrobe was whittled down to. Can I tell you now that I am pretty sick to death of the above garments!

However, back to my wise husband. The English summer was very shortlived and would not really even rate, temperature wise, as a summer. Now, as I sit here next to the radiator trying to thaw out my hands and nose, I am thankful for the thermals and the long sleeved shirts. The only time I wear the t-shirts are for working out and even then that is indoors as it is far too cold.

Just a little insight to my muddled brain and the random thoughts for today. Ka kite ano!

Our farewell

Not sure how many of you are going to tune in here to get a copy of the group photo but here it is. If you would like a higher quality one just email me and I will email it back to you. I didn’t want to go too high res on here as it would take forever to download for some people. Been a pleasure guys and good luck to all. Cheers – Carleen

P.s. I never noticed that we are a rather female dominated bunch really. How did David, Will and Dom ever survive us?

Climate change – man made or cyclical

Today in the Metro News there was a story about ducklings being born in a park in London. Not so strange if it wasn’t 2 weeks away from winter!

However what made me think about commenting on this was that today as I was walking through Castle Park I had a bit of extra time and decided to go through my favourite garden. Great view from here and in particular some cherry blossom trees. Low and behold today, although the trees are nearly stripped bare of all their leaves, they have started sprouting cherry blossom flowers. Now tell me, is that bizarre or what!

So, climate change. Is it happening? Is this evidence of a strange shift in our climate patterns? And if so, is this a manmade issue, cyclical occurrance that we are going through or cyclical with a manmade push to speed it all up? Climate change or not, we need to start respecting our environment and increasing our efforts in being better custodians of all that we have been entrusted with.

Guy Fawkes

My first poem in a long time to accompany this weeks photos. We went to the Bristol Fireworks Charity night on Saturday put on in advance of Guy Fawkes (Bonfire night) on Monday.

The Gunpowder Plot by Carleen Dekarski
Guido Fawkes
You know him as Guy
It is November the 5th in 1605
The date meant to change their history
Here is the story of that not meant to be

It is the year in the reign of King James the first
Persecution is rife through the land
For all of those wanting to live peacefully
The Oath of Allegiance is planned
To swear to this oath mother Rome is diminished
The King is your ruler and God
Some take nought to this oath, it is time it is finished
And forthwith set about on a plan

The King with his family and all his allies would soon to gather as one
On October the 3rd which then was delayed
To the 5th of November now done
The date was then set to unleash a full fury
The date to end the whole mess
But how would they do it?
What means would they choose?
Let me tell of the plan in the next

The Gunpowder Plot actioned by three
Catesbury, Wright and Thomas Percy
Wintour and Fawkes to now make it five
The intricate plan now does come alive

With Wintour and Fawkes pulled into the plot
Their part the most dangerous you know
With 36 barrels of powder to source
No small feat was this task to grow
And of course in secret they must purchase this lot
Then at night they must carry their score
Along Thames River to where it be stored
‘neath parliament building be sure
That when it goes off on that ill fated day
It would truly settle the score

Having successfully avoided all manner of spies, watchman and the odd thief
Their plan is unhitched by anonymous note
Who gave them up do you think?
Those that survived, to the tower they went, to be tortured and tried to the last
A fate worse than death then did they face
To be hung, drawn and quartered, no less
But Guido or Guy, Mr Fawkes if you please
Jumps the scaffolding with a loud crack
Successfully avoiding the butcher you see
No quartering here if you please

Lang and Noonan

Something a bit different this week. We did a trip into Wales and I have photos to share as well as some great destinations however our laptop is crammed full of stuff currently and we have to work out a contingency plan at the moment. That’s what happens when you have over 46,000 photos on your laptop! Who knew we had so many.

Anyway, back to this weeks blog. I am totally loving the new albums of Jonny Lang (US) and Katie Noonan (Aust).

Jonny Lang has a new gospel/blues album out which totally rocks. I love his gravelly, raw voice and he totally rocks on the guitar. This is a bit more laid back than the album that I bought last time (a few back from this one called Wander this World). I would highly recommend his music if you are after some fab tunes, gritty vocals and great bluesy guitar. OK so the guitar work is a bit “main stream” in this album but he truly is talented. In particularI love the song One Person at a Time, just makes you feel good and want to dance.

Katie Noonan (formerly of Brisbane band George) has a solo album out. This chick has the coolest dress sense and her voice is heaven sent. The album is pretty girly but so easy going and great to just have playing in the background while you chill. Love her! See the attached website links where you can listen to some of their recent tracks for free.

www.jonnylang.com

www.myspace.com/katienoonan