More food!

Hi All,

Struggling today. I've been sleeping really badly lately and it's starting to kick in. Think I'm going to have to dump the doona and get some kind of ultra light blanket. I have the AC on but not too cold because then I hide under the doona and then I overheat! Not sure if it's the heat or if I'm just having a rough patch but I hope it passes soon!

Work has been happily busy today. I've been switching from the Sun to the PC all day, which is fine except for the enthusiastic moment where I swung around and banged my knee on the sun box! Doh!

Tom and Matt are coming over for dinner tomorrow night so that's a good excuse to cook my bouillabaisse variant. It's a variant because it's easy! There is wonderful and fresh seafood available here at the moment, so I'd better live it up before Jo arrives. The local figs are just so gorgeous at the moment so that justified buying little blue cheese to share, doesn't it? There's also a wonderful soft cheese that I can find once in a blue moon. It's a little like the King Island Scrubbed Brie (one of my all time favorites) but not as soft, but it does have a similar yellowish mold on the outside. It's called saint something... I'll have to pay more attention next time I find it, but trust me, it's wonderful!

On Friday night I went out to a place called the Scenic Loop Cafe to celebrate one of my co-worker's birthday. This place is known for it's outdoor dining and live music, and there was a fab bluegrass band playing while we were there. The menu looked good, too many potential options for once, but I went with the Jackson salad (because Elan used to call me Jackson). I've learnt that salads here are usually HUGE, and more than enough to feed me, plus this one had artichokes, palm hearts, bacon and gorgonzola, as well as grilled chicken. It was yummy. The side of steamed asparagus was a let down, but it stopped me from ordering the fried okra so it's all good. The wine of choice was a pretty decent Australian red called Nine Stones (shiraz). Australian wine is very popular here, although my rule of thumb* is to avoid anything with a brightly coloured and stylised aboriginal drawing on the label. The drive to get there was a little nerve-wracking, not only because I didn't really know where to go (and it's easy to get lost around here) but also because I was on one of the rare 2 directional access roads that run along side the highway. Not only did I have multiple people drive straight towards me because they forgot or didn't know it was two way, but having oncoming traffic to my right (on the highway) was making me flashback to driving in Australia for the first time since driving here, and I had to keep telling myself out loud what to do and which side to stay on. Eek! Driving home was better because the highway traffic and I were going in the same direction, although working out how to get onto it before I hit the big crossroads that I knew were coming up was a little tricky! Being here has made me realise just how good our roads and road markings are in Australia!

*I heard today that "rule of thumb" is derived from an old English law that you couldn't beat your wife with anything thicker than your thumb! I'm hoping its not true and is just one of those things that goes round the 'interweb' but I'm not sure...