strange things happen

I am a little excited and a little breathless.  I have just received an email informing me that a job I applied for 'is now available'.  I'm hoping that this means I get to go to a interview - please keep your fingers crossed for me.

In other job news, I was offered two jobs overnight last week.  On Wednesday night, a customer at work offered me a job at his cafe.  Now, either the world has become really cut-throat or there is a shortage of good waitresses in Australia.  The second happened whilst I was at the GP's on Thursday .  After my consultation, the doctor offered me a receptionist's job at the surgery.  I'm hoping that this is a run of good luck or divine intervention rather than coincidence - especially since that email arrived today....

The yummy things in the picture are pastizzi.  They are, according to Wikipedia, 'the most popular and best known culinary export of Malta' (surely that is opinion rather than fact?  Unless there has been a study regarding the fame and popularity of Maltese food around the world, I guess).  They come in savory and sweet versions and are very satisfying after a lazy Sunday spent browsing for furniture.  I highly, highly recommend them for being tasty and cheap (but not the kind of cheap where the price makes you think they're more delicious than they really are - I'd still recommend them even if they cost more).

catching up is hard to do, part one - food and books

Ooops.  I have been meaning to update - I even have ideas for two yet-unwritten posts - but PMS exacerbated my sadness at CNN going back to school and my rejoining of the lonely hearts club for one.  I definitely was not in the mood to blog.  That's not to say we haven't been busy though...

We have been sampling local restaurants.  Corn fritters for breakfast certainly brighten up a grey Saturday - especially when it's followed by a trip to Newtown.

Despite what everyone has told me, Newtown is most certainly NOT the Bethnal Green of Sydney.  We didn't have the best start to our visit as we were both a little grumpy when we arrived but we got into the swing of browsing through clothes we couldn't afford (for those who worry about me, please note that our cash flow issues have ceased now that my husband has had a pay day) and a visit to Elizabeth's bookshop helped too.

CNN has been reading from (and collecting) the novels in a book list for men put together by Shortlist (oh how I miss it's sister magazine!) and he found a novel that is apparently very hard to get secondhand.  He also purchased the Arden edition of Hamlet for work.  I spied The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet by David Mitchell for $16 so that had to come home as well.

My sister called today and I gave her a mini-review of The Thousand Autumns thus far (I am just under a third of the way through).  My basic premise is that whilst reading Cloud Atlas and number9dream is like taking drugs: lots of crazy things happen and you have a great time, but you can't remember what happened when it's over, The Thousand Autumns feels much more grounded.  My sister pointed out that mindfuck part could happen at any point.  She's a smart lady but part of me wishes she hadn't told me that.  I feel like I'm trying to look around the corner all the time now, on high alert for it all to unravel.

Mrs. S - my A-level English teacher

the australian food dilemma

I have been finding it hard to cook in Australia.  The dishes I knew and loved in the London summertime don't feel right here.  Christmas and a fortnight's babysitting for the nephews put the issue on hold as we mostly fed them pizza (CNN makes homemade dough that I reckon is better than in a lot of restaurants) and fajitas (the avocados and tomatoes here are amazing - actually, all fresh produce here is lovely and tasty).

I have been on a roll with our last two meals though.  When CNN was out having boy-time at the cricket, I watched Luke Nguyen make tofu in tomato sauce and, being low-tech (I didn't realise I might be able to find it online), made a list of the ingredients after the show.  I made it last night (having forgotten all about the black pepper) and it was highly reviewed by my loving husband as one of the best things I've cooked.

Today's lunch -  laksa - wasn't quite as enthusiasticly received because CNN sees it as a soup dish and thinks it should have a higher soup to noodle ratio than I do, but we did agree that the flavours were yummy.  We finished the meal off with cold sweet limes to counteract the heat (both temperature- and spice-wise) of the meal - something delicious I would have never done in London.

a long weekend

• watched England win the Ashes at the SCG
• went to three different beaches, but didn't swim at one due to bluebottles*
• had lunch at Bar Italia (as well as a post-swim smoothie and a consoling fish and chips when we couldn't get in the water)
• bought some very sour sourdough that is extremely tasty with lemon curd and pretty good with peanut butter but yuck with everything else
• acquired my latest charity shop find (see above!)

*For the English - bluebottle refers to the Portuguese Man O'War (which, as wikipedia helpfully points out, is not a jellyfish, but a closely related stinging relative) and not a fly