Category Archives: Friends

Posts about my friends.

Week 51 2012 Christmas party season

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Saturday night I went to a Christmas barbecue with some friends. It was a good night with lots of tasty food and good company. I’d like to say it was unseasonably cold, but this is Canberra. It’s snowed close by on a Christmas day before. What can I say, I’m looking forward to being in Queensland for Christmas where the weather is more to my liking.

Again like Friday night I was a bit slow with my iPhone and I didn’t capture images of the nibbles. There were lots of nibbles. Lots of nuts, dips, cheese, pâté, crackers, bread, chips, and stuff. For dinner we had a barbecue with steak, hamburger patties and sausages plus potato bake, coleslaw and other salads.

Like a lot of my previous posts I’m using images from my instagram profile. You can get more information on each image by clicking on it to see comments from other IGers.

Dinner is served. Ping @macjam1 @chat2tb @natmcb

The spread

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Okay so there's lots of meat. Ping @chat2tb @natmcb @macjam1

My plate

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Burger

Some of my friends queried my burger contents of steak, sausage, hamburger pat tie, coleslaw and potato bake. I thought it all went well together.

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Pavlova. Thank you @sonia_with_an_i Ping @natmcb @macjam1 @chat2tb

For dessert we had pavlova.

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I was cold

I was cold. I’m glad I brought a hoodie and was given a wrap.

View the twitter conversation here and here and here

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I spent most of Sunday relaxing. I did a little grocery shopping and then got into watching series two of Breaking Bad. This is a surprisingly good series. Like The Walking Dead I’m addicted.

I felt pretty full from the night before so my breakfast and lunch was an iced coffee banana smoothie.

I still feel full from last night at @macjam1 barbecue. Iced coffee banana smoothie for breakfast.

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One of the things I don't like about Christmas.

You can tell it’s Christmas with cars wearing reindeer antlers and candy canes. I’m not a fan :-)

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Pineapple smoothie

I love pineapple and a pineapple smoothie was in order for afternoon tea.

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Dinner. Salmon, salad and @macjam1 's potato salad from last night's barbecue. Lots of lettuce, tomato and feta.

I took home a left over potato bake from Saturday night so now I have potato bake for a few nights this week.

This meal was a piece of salmon, some potato bake and some salad.

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On Monday morning as I was checking out my post office box the new art was standing proud, all shiny and new.

It looks shiny and new #publicart #igerscanberra

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Workplace birthday celebration for a youngster.

One of my work friends turned 32 on Monday.

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Dinner. Pork with @macjam1 's potato bake and salad.

Monday evening’s dinner was a rasher of pork, some salad and some potato bake.

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Sneaking up on Mr Owl #publicart #igerscanberra

I read today the new terms and conditions of use for Instagram. If Instagram wants to use my images I really don’t mind, I can’t imagine any of them are worthy. My only concern is that some of my images contain people and I may not always have permission to include them. Many IGers moved to Flickr. I received more e-mails from Flickr in the last few days than in the few years I’ve had an account. http://www.flickr.com/photos/garydlum

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Dinner. Salmon, salad and the last of @macjam1 's potato bake from the weekend.

Tuesday night’s dinner was a piece of salmon, some salad and the last of the weekend’s potato bake. The drink is made from pineapple and mint leaves plus some lime cordial.

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On Wednesday I forgot to make my lunch.

Lunch. Salmon and caper quiche.

This was a smoked salmon and capers quiche from Urban Bean Espresso Bar. It was very nice. The raspberry soft drink was also pretty good too.

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Food regret

Afternoon tea. Jam doughnut. #BreadTop

Jess went out for doughnuts and I said yes. I shouldn’t have. It came from Breadtop in Woden. The Breadtop franchise has grown well in Australia. See below for details.

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A friendly visitor

This guy greeting me when I got home.

This cute blue tongue lizard greeted me when I alighted from my car in the apartment garage.
Wikipedia entry

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Wednesday dinner was a pork rasher and mango salad. It was delicious.

Dinner. Pork rasher with mango salad.

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On Thursday we had our branch Christmas morning tea.

Work Christmas morning tea

Many sections, branches and divisions have out of office get together. When we’ve tried that in the past something has gone wrong like a health emergency necessitating staff to return to the office. It’s just part of working in an emergency management team.

These were amazing. Thank you @xamyclarex Ping @kecozanat @jacquimkane

These were amazing. Cylinders of crunchy nutty brownie goodness topped with a chocolate ganache with a white chocolate tipped strawberry which is sitting in a white chocolate disc for stability. The person who made these has made some great strawberry based treats in the past, especially her chocolate drizzled strawberry and marshmallow kebabs. I think nearly everyone in the branch has a cooking or food bent. It’s amazing.

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Everyone in the branch received an end of the year award.

Workplace awards at Christmas morning tea for the branch.

I think everyone knows I love capturing images of food and then posting them to Instagram.

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At lunch the other SES (Senior Executive Service) staff from the division went to lunch. We went to The Palette which is in the Beaver Galleries.

Crumbed lamb brains and capers Ping @DrOffal

I’m sorry this is so blurry. I was so excited to be having crumbed lamb brains with a capers and vinegar side. The piquancy of the capers and vinegar offset the fattiness of the brains perfectly. The brains were lightly crumbed and not overcooked. Kept into small portions like these, the taste is delicious and not overpowering. Lambs brains brings back great childhood memories of Mum cooking crumbed lambs brains with a white sauce with onion and parsley.

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The Beaver Galleries are a landmark of Canberra art and culture. I’ve been there a couple of times now. The gallery is full of exquisite pieces. That said, the prices are very high.

One of my favourite food bloggers is Hannah of Wayfaring Chocolate fame. Earlier this year she did a review of sweet selection at The Palette

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The trifecta for Thursday was Christmas dinner with dear friends.

Fresh prawns

We started with freshly cooked prawns. These were cooked in sea water, yes sea water that had been specially collected.

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Amazing crackling

The main was a roast pork and vegetables. The crackling was sublime.

Roast pork and vegetables

The peas were home grown in the garden along with the snow peas.

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Violet crumble semi fredo

For dessert we devoured a violet crumble semifreddo.

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While Friday was not the last day of work for 2012, it had a very holiday feel. Ursula, our branch executive assistant gave me a toy car filled with lollies for Christmas.

Today's Christmas present. It is full of lollies. Thanks Ursula.

I played vroom vroom throughout the day.

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Office moving day. I won't be able to fly these where I'm going. Yes I know the NT flag is upside down. It's a distress signal.

I moved offices as part of my new role. In my old office I had a big pin board on which I could hang my favourite flags. The top one is Queensland’s flag. A quick search of this blog will reveal how I feel about being a Queenslander  and Queensland.

The bottom flag belongs to the Northern Territory of Australia. Brisbane may be my home town and I am a passionate Queenslander, however, Darwin is my spiritual home, it’s where my soul lives. For that reason the flag has always been hung upside down in my office. An upside down flag is a maritime distress signal. I want to return home. I expect Australian readers to recognise it’s upside down, for my non-Australian readers, the stars represent the Southern Cross and it is upside down.

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We’d heard some weeks ago about the Snag Stand. A new franchise from Sydney and Melbourne had opened two outlets in Canberra, one very close to where we work.

I'm at snag stand Woden

They cook and assemble onsite. It’s a pretty busy place.

The menu for the Sydney outlets is here and for the Melbourne outlets here. They don’t have the Canberra ones posted. I assume they are similar.

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We brought our food back to work.

Swiss bratwurst. It was good. Ping @alivicwil @abefrellman

I chose a Swiss Bratwurst. It was topped with a really yummy Sauerkraut

Close up of my Swiss bratwurst sausage.

It was excellent. Not too big and not too salty.

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Last night I needed something light.

Free range organic chicken drumstick with salad.

Organic free range chicken drumstick and salad.

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This morning on my walk I tried the new Instagram Mayfair filter when saying hello to the Owl Statue.

Good morning Mr Owl #ProCamera #Mayfair #publicart #igerscanberra

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I hope at the end of next week to write a short piece about 2012. It won’t be much. Hopefully I’ll be enjoying myself in Brisbane where it will be warm and moist.

Places and things mentioned in this post in more detail.

Breaking Bad
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Breaking_Bad
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0903747/
http://www.amctv.com/shows/breaking-bad

Breadtop
http://www.breadtop.com.au/
http://www.westfield.com.au/au/retailers/breadtop/woden
Google maps http://goo.gl/maps/Z5Bdv


View Larger Map

Beaver Galleries
http://www.beavergalleries.com.au/
Google maps http://goo.gl/maps/Di7Yr


View Larger Map

The Snag Stand
http://snagstand.com.au/


View Larger Map

http://www.westfield.com.au/au/retailers/snag-stand/woden
Google maps http://goo.gl/maps/Z5Bdv

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Tabitha’s tablet (or the Tab tab)

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Today we had a very special lunch for a very special person. Tabitha lives in Canberra and is the daughter of @sonia_with_an_i and VB Man. Amongst Canberra tweeps and many tweeps in our circle of friends around Australia we all love Sonia and Gerry. Tabitha has Hurler syndrome and is doing very well. She is due for some orthopædic procedures in the near future and will be immobilised for a long period of time.  About a year ago @t_a_n_y_a suggested we try to raise some money to get Tabitha a tablet to use while in hospital and unable to move around. We ended up agreeing on an iPad. If you know Tanya, you’ll know this was a significant decision for Captain Android. Tanya developed a website and opened a bank account for the fund. It didn’t take long for us to have the money and we just needed an opportunity to share the gift with Tabitha. Some time ago a few of us had dinner together and plotted the plan to have lunch today. I won’t name everyone who contributed, they know who they are. We had a lunch today and a good proportion of those who contributed were present to enjoy the look on Tab’s face when she opened the gift and saw what she’d been given. Her first reaction was to poke her tongue out at her older sister Rebecca which was priceless.

We had lunch at the Turkish Pide House at Jamison. The food was good and the service friendly. They were kind enough to call me this morning to confirm the reservation and the numbers. I would recommend the Turkish Pide House at Jamison for lunch and dinner.

Tanya created a card that looks like an iPad and had images of us all with our Twitter user names. (iPhone)

Sonia, Tabitha and Gerry (VB Man) (Panasonic DMC-TZ10)

Tabitha and her New iPad (iPhone)

We all hope Tabitha enjoys her new gift and enjoys the extra goodies that Tanya also provided.

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Shout out for @kecozaphoto

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I have a friend at work. Her name is Nat. She’s new to twitter (@kecozaphoto) and instagram (kecozanat). I recommend her for following. She has a great website and Facebook page. Check out her photography and lens bling at http://www.kecozaphotography.com.au/ and https://www.facebook.com/pages/Kecoza-Photography-Capture-Life/118674384815323

A really great tweet up

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Prologue

About a month ago Meredith @macjam1 asked a bunch of us to her place for a Christmas barbecue.

Canberra has a really good and very active group of tweeps. There are circles within circles. I’ve found myself spending a lot of my twitter and facebook time with a small group of friends based in Canberra. We’ve met a few times already and have become firm friends. Some of us know each other through listening to @markparton on @2CC and others have work connections. Mostly though it’s through twitter and facebook. In addition to this group we also have some close twitter buddies in Queensland and Victoria who one day we will visit.

The barbecue

Each of us had in mind something to bring along while @macjam1 and her husband provided an excellent venue and more meat that we could throw a stick at. The weather ended up being great after forecasts of rain and cold. The afternoon and evening air was fresh but not cold. The sound of mosquitoes was held at bay with Aeroguard and Citronella candles.

The food was heavily influenced by most of us recently taking to various weight loss programs. Some are doing variations on low carbohydrate systems, others are exercising like crazy (cycling and Zumba are popular) and there are those on combinations. We started with combinations of spicy sausage and mushrooms cooked on the barbecue along with a cheese ball and Turkish bread and dips. Then @NatMcNazz brought along these awesome Parmesan cheese biscuits flavoured with chilli and fennel.

Fred the tooth pick holder was popular

This image reveals @tinythecabbie ‘s hand

Turkish bread and dips

Here is a close up of Fred and his partner Cork

Fred and his mate

The tooth picks later became popular with the kids who lit them in the candles and then played with fire (all under close adult supervision of course).

There was so much great food. By the time it was dinner time, I’d already eaten enough for a few nights anyway. Our gracious hosts and other friends had brought along enough to feed us all including children and then some.

Plate one for me

The coleslaw brought by @Bron99 was awesome and not traditional. I the potato bake was fantastic. Creamy and good. I haven’t had a snag and hamburger for ages. So this image has been captioned Plate one for me because I ended up going back twice more. My second plate was piled high with coleslaw and potato bake and a piece of honey soy chicken. The third plate was mainly coleslaw and another piece of chicken.

Then came the desserts. I’ll just list them through photographs.

Pavlova, Australia's greatest invention. I LOVE PAVLOVA!!! :-)

I can never resist pavlova. It brings back so many happy childhood memories.

This white chocolate cheesecake was amazing

@Bron99 made this lovely white chocolate cheesecake which came with a strawberry coulis.

Apple pie

I confess my eyes were bigger than my belly. I wanted apple pie but after the pavlova and cheesecake I could not go back for the apple pie.

Chocolate wafers, jaffas and spearmint leaves

I do not know what this is called but @TinyTheCabbie brought them. So colourful and everyone raved about them.

My plate of dessert

I have with much sadness and self condemnation have to admit I could not finish this lovely plate of food. My grandmother’s voice echoes in my head about the starving children in Africa, but after the gluttony of snacks and then three plates of dinner, my dessert stomach (also known as the œsophagus) failed me and certain sphincters sending signals to my brain to stop eating or eject food upwards.

At the end of the evening, we had a tweet up photograph which I won’t upload because I don’t have everyone’s permission to share. Suffice to say it is a great photograph and it was a wonderful and happy evening.

I think I can safely post one blurry image of a subset of us who preferred the company of mosquitoes so they could talk about the others :-)

Some of the tweeps

It really was a fantastic evening.

Epilogue

This morning I woke up feeling full. What better way to celebrate a new day than with brunch. Off to Black Pepper we went for a Black Pepper big breakfast.

Black Pepper big breakfast poached eggs, bacon (lots of bacon), chorizo sausage, mushrooms, tomato and a potato cake

Did I say there was lots of bacon?

Lots of bacon

Yep lots of bacon.

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