CuppaTea

Sadly, I expect to be defeated by my own challenge. And yet it was so much fun designing it, and contemplating it, that I plan to continue with it, even though the 2020 deadline looms far too close. When I drafted a list of recipes I might try for this challenge, I expected to have a cake for this category - specifically Black Forest Cake. Just, yum! But now that I am living on my own I am doing much more savoury cooking because people need to eat every day, apparently. ;) And so there are a few recipes, a few dishes, which I have made several times because they are familiar and/or simple enough to throw together after a day at work. My Mum's potato quiche recipe is a favourite of mine. I associate it with Thursday nights when my sisters and I had netball training, because it was something Mum could cook during the day to have ready. This could be a false association, a false memory, but that is where it fits in my mind. And since I have only myself to please or displease...

When something goes wrong when you're driving home, who do you call? If you're like me, you now have the Ghostbusters song in your head. I'm sorry/you're welcome!

I have always loved libraries, and I have always loved my local library. As a child, the school library held wonders beyond imagining. It seemed the biggest room in the world (perhaps except for the school hall) and it was full of books! A few snug corners to curl up in, and friendly staff who always helped you borrow what you wanted. I have revisited that school library as an adult, and I must say, there was less magic there. Perhaps the magic lurked at my knee level, or hid under the bookshelves, only within reach of the smallest students. Invisible to adults. It seemed so much smaller! And yet, still filled with books! Still a wonderful place for many other children, just as it once was for me.

We all deal with pain differently, and we all respond differently to the pain of other people. I remember once sharing with a close friend about some of the things I was struggling with at work, and she responded to my pain with attempts to fix the problems. As a testament to how good our friendship is, I stopped her, and told her all I needed was for her to listen, to let me tell how I felt about the situation, because she couldn't help me 'fix' anything. As further proof of how good our friendship is, she did. Because I wonder how often I have had someone respond unhelpfully to my pain, and never said anything. I wonder how often I have deliberately chosen not to share my pain because I expect that the person's response will be unhelpful, perhaps even hurtful, even when they actually really want to help.

Yesterday I used a recipe I've never used before, one from my great-grandmother. I have no personal memories of this woman, as she died when I was very small, and the main reason I chose the recipe was to use some of the huge amount of plums we have at the moment. My Mum has fond memories of this cake, so I was really looking forward to giving it a go and tasting it for myself. Only to find that it is difficult to follow a simple recipe if the woman who passed it on to another generation was the kind of person who deliberately gave less than the full information required...

I have had the privilege and the pleasure of taking several of my nieces and nephews to the library over the last few months. As libraries are among my favourite places, because books are one of my favourite things, I have thoroughly enjoyed sharing them with the children in my life, and I have been thrilled to watch them enjoy time spent in the library too.

I love libraries. So many books, so many exciting stories, so much information - I could spend hours in a library, and often have. I also love sharing my appreciation of a library with others, In June I took my four year old niece to the library, to read stories, to look at books, and to borrow a few things for us to enjoy later. She picked a CD of nursery rhymes, a dvd she wanted to watch, and then as we were walking towards the borrowing station I spotted a book about crochet, a skill I had been meaning to learn for more than two years but that I hadn't gotten around to yet. So, I borrowed that book for me.

How much do you actually remember of your childhood? I find my memory shaped more by impressions than actual events. Things which were habit, or done many times, are more likely to be a collection of linked scenes or ideas, and it can be difficult to discern what actually happened on individual occasions. My eldest nephew had his first school Sports Day recently. I had the day free, so I went

It has been a long time since I have posted anything here, but I am going to do more writing from now on. Thank you to those of you who have dropped by in the meantime! It has been a pleasant surprise to see that some people are still checking the blog out! I have been away from home for more than two months now, and I look forward to getting home before my birthday. Which has made me think about how I plan to celebrate my birthday this year, and wonder about how other people celebrate their birthdays.

We are in the final term for the year! Still about eight weeks of study to go. Plenty of study and plenty assignments to do before then, but we are getting into some very interesting topics. It has been good to see all the other students again, but it has been hard to get back into the swing of studying. I think part of the problem is knowing that I'll be back home just for the weekend, flying there tomorrow morning, then flying back Monday morning. The wonderful reason is partly because I can, but mostly because I have three family events across Saturday and Sunday, including my nephew's birthday party! Unfortunately this means early morning flights in order to keep it as inexpensive as possible. Thankfully, I will have my Kindle with me, and I can continue reading Murder on the Orient Express by Agatha Christie. I am loving her writing - she manages to surprise me every time! And I'm looking forward to reading Heat Wave by Richard Castle next - the fictional author ...

It's been a while since I posted about any baking exploits. So here is a brief summary of what I've done in the last few weeks.

With the birth of a royal baby, which I am pretty thrilled about, as well as meeting the babies of a few friends over the last few weeks, I have been reflecting on how I feel about babies. Specifically other people's babies (as I don't have any of my own).

So, now that the halfway point is past, what have I accomplished so far with all this time? A lot of time spent with family, which has been great. My nearly eighteen month old niece has developed the adorable habit of taking hold of a finger on my hand to pull me to the location she has selected for me to do something for her - food or door related, usually. (I am not the only person she does this with, by the way!) Meanwhile, my nearly three year old nephew has commandeered my television in my room for his own viewing purposes. He actually pulled a video out of the pile of dvds recently, The Lion King 2: Simba's Pride . Luckily for him, I have an older television, with inbuilt video and dvd players, so he could watch the 'tigers'. Also, I have spent a lot of time in the garage and in my room, sorting through some of my hoarded items. The skip out the front of our house has been filled and collected. And I realised how many folders I have bought over the years. I just k...

I have four wonderful weeks of holidays ahead of me! And I have so much planned for those weeks, and yet not many specific, scheduled plans yet. My plans involve getting stuck into a new craft, catching up with a lot of friends I haven't seen in a few months, and spending lots and lots of time with my family. I now have two nephews and one niece to play with, and I plan to spend a lot of time doing just that before I head off interstate again. I also have a stack of books I've been waiting to read!

The weather has turned truly wintery here over the last week or so. Days seem to end in sudden darkness by 5:30pm, but are often so overcast that the outside lights automatically turn on before 4pm. It gets harder and harder to get out of bed in the morning, to get ready and make it to class on time - or at least not very late! Only two weeks of classes to go, and I think lecturers and students alike are ready for a change in pace. Unfortunately for them, the lecturers will need to mark all the assignments which we have to submit in the next two weeks before they get to relax. And then some of them will need to begin getting ready for next semester! But not all has been dark and dreary and difficult. With another birthday comes another opportunity to do some baking! And today we had a baby shower - another opportunity for sharing fun food! And tea!

I had the brilliant opportunity to fly home for the weekend, so I did! And I loved every minute of it (except for travelling to airports at unreasonable dark hours of the morning).

The sky is clear blue, and through the window I can see the green grass and bright afternoon sunshine and a splash of autumn yellow on one or two of the trees. Yesterday it rained most of the day, so everything seems a bit cleaner and clearer. There is not a breath of breeze to disturb the scene. But today has been a Taylor Swift day.