Day one, post exam, and I finally have my life back. I feel I passed, and I’m thrilled just to have my time to myself again. Reflexology was a great way to relax after the pumped up adrenaline rush that you get from two hours of frantic thought collecting, semi-coherent sentence writing and lots of fast scribbling. Then I came home and DH made me a gorgeous salmon dinner. I forgot to have the beer, though, can you believe it? My only excuse is the weather is COMPLETELY wacky here and the warm-to-hot days have been few and far between. Yesterday was not one of them and thus not conducive to beer drinking. I did indulge in a glass of Pierro’s Blanc de Blanc, however, and it was sensational.
This evening we are drinking a Smallwater Estate Zinfandel, which we won at a quiz night a few months back. Goes well with the two pizzas I made (hot coppa/kalamata olive/portabello mushroom on a fresh tomato sauce base; chargrilled pumpkin, goats cheese and rocket on a homemade pesto base). Sure is nice to feel like I have the energy and time to cook again.
I would be watching the last disk of House season 4 right now, but DH is on call and has had to go in to the hospital to check out an x-ray for possible arm fracture. I thought it would be a good chance to throw together an update before the end of the month arrives!
Tomorrow is our wedding anniversary – 4 years. It is also the anniversary of the day we met (and have been together ever since) – 12 years. We never buy each other anything. We just never think of it, I don’t know why. I’m going to make a nice fresh artichoke and home-grown organic lamb dish for dinner. It isn’t worth going out to spend far too much on a meal that will be disappointing and badly served. I know what I’m getting when I cook it myself. Not to say I don’t like going out for a good meal, I don’t think I cook better than anyone else in the whole world. Just in THIS town.
What we have bought ourselves, and can readily attribute to the anniversary (if we need an excuse) is an espresso machine. Whoo Hoo. FINALLY!!! We’ve been mulling this over for about two years and doing solid research for a good 10 months. On ebay last week we successfully bid on a two group rancilio, ($770, what a BARGAIN!) which, from the pictures, appears to be an s20 model. And it is red! I realise most of that is probably jargon to all of you. What it means is, it is a ‘vintage’ machine (ex-cafe), looks sexy, makes two cups at a time and will outlast both of us. (If you’re checking the link, it’s the red one down the bottom of the page, but it is manual dosage, not automatic). There is also a dude who services coffee machines in town, so we can get it done at home and not have to drag the 70kg thing anywhere. One other major benefit is that the best cafe in town uses the exact model and are willing to give me (free) lessons on using it. Maybe I’ll become a barista bitch! We are still trying to organise insurance for shipping (it has to come from Melbourne) but still hope to have it by next weekend. It will DEFINITELY be up and running for Christmas. Now we just need to get a good deal on a top grinder. I know I want a mini mazzer or a Macap M4, but haven’t seen any secondhand. If anyone hears anything, give me a yell. We’ll be happy to pay anything under $500.
What else is new. Um, we have MIL visiting next weekend, which should be fine. I’m going to Perth to shop on the 7th and 8th of December, because I haven’t been since August and there are some essential items running very low in the house, mainly my Jurlique skincare products, nice Dandaragan extra virgin olive oil and assorted gourmet fare that is unavailable here. I normally wouldn’t venture into the city so close to the Christmas period, but needs must.
This weekend I am going to set about making 30 jars of preserved lemon to sell at the local markets. When a few jars sat around at the Natural Therapies centre last month waiting to go to the Cidery (I made some for my friend, the cook there), everyone who walked by the office said “are they for sale?” so I have taken that as a sign there is interest about and will try my luck capitalising on it. If it goes well, I may expand. I’m going to try and come up with an idea for a label design and have my artist friend execute it. The name is Devil’s Hollow, and I want to use a bastardised image of the evil pixie that is on my brass doorknocker. But I haven’t thought much past that. Any ideas welcomed…
Hmm, I think I’m done. Exam study has taken over so much of my brain there has been room for little else. I have read Nicola Barker’s Darkmans, which I thoroughly enjoyed, and also DBC Pierre’s Ludmilla’s Broken English – not as good, but satisfactory. Have begun, as of this morning, William Gibson’s Pattern Recognition and can’t wait to get right into it. In fact, I may just slope off and have a quick read before DH comes back from the hospy.
4 Responses to I’m free!