Stormy weather

The weather has been pretty dodgy lately. I guess that's why it's called "The Wet Season". Since i've got my snorkel for Christmas, the water has been murky with stormwater run-off. Darn. That crystal clear water in Pumistone Passage suddenly looks a bit like a chocolate milkshake.


So that storm that i sent photo's of, it was a nasty piece of work. Strong winds, lots of rain and apparently 1,300+ lightening strikes in just 1 hr. Mad.


Can't wait to see everyone next week!!!!!! Only 8 more sleeps and we're flying down. Yeah!!!!!! Get ready for Cyclone Kirrily. she leaevs a trail of destruction (well toys anyway) everywhere she goes. There is no stopping her.

My New Hat!

Kirrily was proudly wearing her new Christmas hat at Golden Beach and I managed to snap these.

Stamping Up!

Today I've been to a stamping class at "My Scrappin' Shop" in Caloundra. It's a bargain class for $6 for 2 hrs (well it extended to nearly 3hrs) and we made 3 things:

- a box card

- a landscape card

- a portrait card

When i went back to my car, the Loriket's had eaten all the flowers from the tree onto the car, so I washed the windscreen and then grapped the flowers from the windscreen without noticing something lurking in the flowers. I should have know a bee was hiding in flowers. He has then bitten me on my finger and boy did i squeal. I think it was more "what on earth is happening and why is my finger hurting" than anything else. The shock of it. So now, typing this, I have 2 thumbs on my left hand. Nasty bee.

Harry's Graduation

Well they always said it would happen. Harry (aka my Honda Civic) has Graduated. Just like a beautiful caterpilla turns to a butterfly, so too has Harry the Civic turned into Harry the Euro.

Yes, my little boy has grown up to become a Honda Accord Euro and here he is:

Do you like the funky number plates!!!

Harry has 4 doors. I know that's not much to a lot of people but to me it was a huge selling point. Never mind the flashy bits inside and out - 4 doors!!!!!!!

Brisbane Adventures

Well Monday was a huge day of adventure for us. We packed the car and headed south for a trip to 'The Big City'. Only 1 hr and we were in the heart of the Roma Street Gardens which is a bit like Honeysuckle/Carrington to Nobby's distance from the city and the River. The Roma Street Gardens are a newly established garden right in the centre with new buildings surrounding it with a train station. It occured to me when we started walking past the train station that i hadn't heard a train since October last year. Something so simple but it was nice to hear it again. We were armed with a simple sketch map of Brisbane City but somehow we managed to negotiate our way around just fine. We went through the Queen Street mall first but nothing was open as we had arrived too early for a Public Holiday. Nothing opens much before 10.30am in Qld. :-) We then wandered down to the river and walked and walked and walked and walked and walked (you get the idea) all around the river edge, past botanic gardens, mangrove walks, floating walkways and many other bits and pieces along the river. The temp was 33 deg and the humidity 82% so it was thirsty work. We had lunch in Fortitude Valley. A bit like a mini Kings Cross (what were we thinking) but the Indian Food we found for lunch was superb. Our sketch map then showed a short walk to Farmgate. WRONG!!!! another hour later and we were still nowhere near the river. Eventually we found it and decided that our feet were VERY tired so we'd catch the City Cat back up the River. I refused to sit down and just watch this beautiful river go by so still standing at the front of the Cat and loving it. Back to Southbank we went which was still a good 5klm+ back to the car. Oh well.

We had heard about the new DJ's store in Queen St Mall so we headed in and found it. It's official opening isn't for another 2 wks but it's unoffically opened now. It's the biggest in the southern hemispher apparently. i'd believe that. the lighting, the fitout and everything about the store is just perfect. but i wasn't up for shopping, just some R&R in their airconditioning.

We didn't see anything majorly gobsmacking but just the novalty of a new city was enough to excite us. i'm sure we'll have many adventures again in Brissy.

We did stop at the Brisbane City Museum which used to be a Customs House (I think) back when..... It has a huge pipe organ with 4747 pipes. How awesome that would be to hear. We've signed up to find out when that is happening.





Outside/Inside/Pipe Organ


Brisbane Uniting Church - then & now




Storey Bridge/Bromiliade Flower/Lillipilli Garden

Thai Chilli Chicken - Spirit House Style

Just call me Hughie!!!!!

Do you love a good Thai Chilli Beef. Me too. But when you don't have beef in the freezer, it becomes Thai Chilli Chicken. :-)

I made it last night and it was sooo yummy. Here is the receipe. It's easy and very tasty. I also added a stack of stir-fry vegies and then doubled the below receipe for the sauce. Enjoy.

Ingredients

8 cloves garlic, peeled and chopped

4 small hot chillies, red or green (I added the seeds from my Firecracker chilli)

2 Tabs veg oil

2 sliced golden shallots

400g meat (chook or beef or tofu if your that way inclined)

1 Tab fish sauce

1 Tab soy sauce

1 Tab palm sugar

1 Tab sweet soy (ketcup manis)

1 cup Thai basil (home grown was pretty tasty)

Method

Make the paste with the garlic and chillies and shallot. Heat oil in wok and cook garlic mix for about a minute. Add meat and stir fry for a few minutes. I then added my already steamed vegies and stired in for about 1 minute. Add fish sauce, soy, palm sugar and sweet soy. Keep cooking until the sauces have combined and the meat is cooked. Stir through the basil and remove from heat. Serve on rice.

It tasted just like a bought one only a lot cheaper.

Ginger Flower Festival - Yandina

We've just returned from the flower festival. There were people EVERYWHERE!!!! i ended up parking about 1klm away but it was worth the walk. The flowers are just out of this world. they look like someone has done some origami and stuck in onto the plants. here are some photo's. The blue one is called "Blue Ginger", the red one is a "Heliconia" and the yellowish one is the "Beehive" ginger.





I ended up getting sucked in an bought some myself. I bought the Siam Tulip and the siam Jewel. This is the siam tulip. It's a beautiful little ginger with pale pink flowers and they are just like a real tulip. the Siam Jewel which i cant find a photo of and mine doesn't have flowers yet, are a more complicated looking flower but still a pretty pink colour.

There were hundreds to choose from but it was too busy to even think past these 2 plants. Maybe i might go up there next week when they have too many left overs.