Monthly Archives: May 2010

Not Deliberating

★ Posted on at 10:05 pm ★

creme brulee

We’ve been purchasing stuff to furnish the new place, and one of our recent acquisitions was a blow torch. Shown here is crème brûlée, a French dessert that’s made of vanilla custard. Once the custard is set, you dust the top with sugar and use a blow torch to caramelise the sugar. You get a nice cracking sound when you plunge your spoon through the surface to get to the soft, sweet contents below.

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It’s been painstaking from house hunting, purchasing to settlement, it seems a more casual affair with moving house. Been spending the weekends slowly moving stuff across to the new place. So far it’s been books, clothes and kitchen utensils. Heh, managed to cram an entire bookshelf into my car (the reason why I got a Honda Jazz, it’s amazing what the ‘magic seats’ let you accomplish when you fold it down) along with other stuff. Painted a wall over the weekend and it’s easier than I remembered it to be. Fortunately we don’t have too many walls to paint.

The end of financial year sales should start soon, so will start stocking up on furniture next month.

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Finally took out my résumé and it’s been more almost 2 years since I’ve looked at it. Have put through some changes and there are a few interesting jobs out there I’d like to try applying for. Don’t expect to even get an interview for the first few jobs I apply for, but the idea as always is to just get your foot out the door when it comes to doing things.

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While out shopping during the weekend, I stumbled across display demos of Apple’s iPad. The device was much smaller than I anticipated, but is a gorgeous device to behold. It’s like an iPhone, but the bigger screen gives it so much more functionality, as all the forms of media you’d consume on it are crisply presented on the screen.

I only spent a few minutes playing around with it but it does make a laptop seem cumbersome. Reviews have mentioned that it is heavier than it looks, but feels just about right in terms of weight in my hands. Your fingers just glide across the screen to jump from application to application, surfing through websites on the internet.

For an Apple gadget, it’s priced pretty decently and furthermore with the current drop of the Australian dollar, it seems an even more worthwhile purchase. I’d buy one just to experience this new form of computing. Heh, you can tell that I really want one.

Mushroom Hunting

★ Posted on at 10:38 pm ★

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Autumn is in full swing. The colours are here, even if the weather isn’t quite cooperating. The days are either too cold or too warm, rarely has it been just right. This was taken at Moorooduc Estate at the Mornington Peninsula. I get excited with the camera when I see the wild splash of colour and shapes right before my eyes. I need to get out more.

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The rain thwarted me today as I stepped out of the basement carpark at my apartment and felt the drizzle and droplets on my head. Had wanted to go run, but was hungry and cold, so those basic needs came first. It was wet the whole day and even with the heater on in the office, my brain barely left first gear.

I’m making trips to my new home every now and then when I travel in between sites at work. Heh, slowly packing away stuff and while I’d like to claim that I didn’t acquire much stuff over my 10 years in Melbourne, I still have quite a fair bit of stuff, which I think could fit about 30 or so boxes. With enough boxes and a few friends, I could probably get the stuff moved quickly. You know in your mind that you can do everything on your own, but sometimes it’s okay to ask for help to get things done quicker.

Juggling between testing out Starcraft 2 beta, packing my stuff and fixing up my resume. Only so many hours in the day to get all these things done and the weather’s not helping much. Would just like to curl up in a cocoon and nap but after plenty of years staying in a cold climate, the best way to fight the cold is to have enough warm clothing on, enough food to burn in your stomach, and just keeping active to keep the body warm.

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Vyanne had booked a mushroom tour a while back for the Sunday that just passed. These tours run during autumn, when the weather is probably more conducive for mushrooms sprouting. With Vyanne and my cousins, we drove all the way to the Mornington Peninsula and stopped at Moorooduc Estate. Had a cup of coffee before our guide started talking about mushrooms.

After the introduction, the whole group (30 or so people) hopped into their cars and we drove a couple of kilometres out. Stopped near a downhill slope littered with pine trees, which is the kind of tree we want as the mushrooms grow on their root system. Being a downhill slope also helps the water run off, but with enough of it to promote the growth of the mushrooms.

The most common mushroom are the slight orange coloured pine mushrooms, where they have this orange sap when you slice through it.

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They are still edible in this state, and once the hood becomes inverted, it starts to become poisonous. There’s also some bright vermillion/red ones that are definitely poisonous. The mushrooms mess with your internal organs and you can feel fine after eating them and suddenly drop dead a few days later because the toxins in it utterly destroys your kidneys/liver etc.

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Nice to look at, not so nice to eat.

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The one at the bottom here looks harmless, but notice the yellow spot on the top. You scratch these mushrooms and if they change colour, it means it’s poisonous. There are even mushrooms that turn blue after you scratch them (we didn’t see any though)!

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So we wandered up and down the slope, learning new things as our guide picked up mushrooms hidden in the dense foliage of pine needles and cones. We even had a go of looking for mushrooms ourselves. Those deemed as edible were put into a basket, and below is a showcase of the day’s pickings

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After an hour rummaging for mushrooms, we drove back to the estate, to be greeted by a glass of wine. After that we were served a bruschetta of mushrooms that were picked by the group from the previous week. We also had a mushroom soup, which had the heavy scent and flavour of porcini mushrooms (think Campbell’s mushroom soup in a can). The food was just so tasty after a cool, autumn morning walk out in the open.

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Spent the rest of the day at the Mornington Peninsula, having lunch at another estate and sampling cheese at a cheese shop nearby. Overall, a good way to spend the weekend. Heh.

Expending Energy

★ Posted on at 10:44 pm ★

Just went through the kitchen like a whirlwind, clearing it up. Heh, just pent up energy, needing to be spent. It feels good doing physical labour sometimes, just washing dishes, sweeping and mopping the floor. Some days I ignore how messy it is, other times I just want to clear everything up. Although I feel with cooking, as long as you clear up while you are preparing your meal, you don’t end up having to wash very much at the end of it.

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Went for a quick run a few days ago. The chilly weather makes it enjoyable, and you just need an extra t-shirt on to keep warm, as the energy you expend will keep you warm. The run from the apartment to Princes Park and one round through it and back home used to take me an hour (more walking than running), but can finish it at an average of 45 minutes now. Getting used to it and my body doesn’t ache as much after the run. It’s a sign that I need to push it harder now and that route is just a tad over 7km. Heh, need to do 3 rounds of that to match the 21km I have to run in July.

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Just want to keep pushing and pushing until I tire from exhaustion. Haven’t had that comfort in a long while, knowing you’ve used all your energy doing stuff. At the moment it doesn’t really matter what I do, I just want to do it.