This morning I weighed myself. I haven’t done this for a couple of months. This morning standing naked I weighed 80.2 kg (or 176 lb for my friends in the USA). Since about Easter I’ve felt myself thickening a little. At the beginning of the year I was about 76 kg. At Easter I was suffering from ManFlu and then had an ankle problem which meant exercising was not a high priority for me. Coupled with some more extravagant eating it should come as no surprise that I’ve got over 80 kg.
I really need to stop eating so much, exercise more and watch what I’m eating. This last week has been a little out of control. Let’s take a look.
Now we need to remember I started the week with the ham hock (which was delicious). I also experienced my birthday (and much of Bron’s generosity). Finally I had one of the best quick meals I’ve ever had last night [click on the links for the images in the posts].
So in between I also ate pretty well.
Roast belly pork
Yes, I ate all that to myself and there was nothing left over.
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Friday morning signalled my last Friday working in the department so I had my last Friday Mavi breakfast wrap.
This doesn’t mean my last Mavi breakfast wrap, just the last one on a Friday. From next Friday I start working as a Visiting Medical Officer in Pathology at The Canberra Hospital every Friday.
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On Friday night I was late at work and so that means takeaway
Before I went to see GI Joe Retaliation I needed lunch. I don’t want to spoil this for anyone. I loved the movie. It’s well worth watching if you like ninja action, guns, heavy machines and very athletic looking actors. I will definitely purchase the DVD when its available.
If you click on any image in this post you’ll see the IG comments made by my IG friends. Some are pretty funny.
It’s autumn
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Mr Owl
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New speed dampening cushions have been installed on local streets. I’m not a fan of them. I am a supporter of better road safety.
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Saturday’s early morning clouds
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Mr Owl this morning. Beautiful blue sky.
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An abandoned car outside the local cop shop
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On a depressing note, my footy teams have not done so well this weekend. The Brisbane Broncos were defeated by South Sydney. The Reds drew their game. The Melbourne Storm were defeated by the Canberra Raiders. So very very sad…
So this week it’s back to a five day work week after two Easter associated short weeks. I’m currently nursing a sore ankle so I’m not walking around as much as I would like.
Sunday’s breakfast was a salad wrap as opposed to a banana smoothie.
Breakfast wrap
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For dinner I kept to the wrap theme and made a salmon and salad wrap
Salmon and salad wrap
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On Monday for morning tea I had coffee with Bron at a local coffee shop at work. Bron brought in one of her peanut paste salted caramel biscuits. It was delicious.
For Monday evening dinner I used the two remaining Elite Meats chicken rissoles and continued the wrap theme
Chicken rissole wrap
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Lyme disease coffee
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On Tuesday morning Bron brought me another biscuit
Tuesday biscuit
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For lunch on Tuesday rather than a meaty treat I went with a mango yoghurt
Mango yoghurt
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On Tuesday night I prepared the Elite Meats scotch fillet steak
Scotch fillet steak
Raw goodness
Cooked happiness with a salad
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Extreme weather coffee
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After collecting my mail I thought I’d capture an image of the building I work in
Scarborough House
Scarborough House
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For lunch I had a mixed berry yoghurt. If you click on the image you’ll see the Instagram comments. They’re hilarious.
Mixed berry yoghurt
“Blood” in a Petri dish disease themed lunch
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I went to Bron’s for dinner on Wednesday night and she made a delicious Toad in the Hole
Toad in the Hole
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Bron also made a dessert with fresh free range eggs that we got from Elite Meats
Portuguese custard tarts
These were amazing. So good.
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Thursday Style Manual coffee
So many good Instagram comments with this image
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Thursday was pay day so it was #paydaypieday. This is a curry lamb and potato pie from Urban Bean Espresso Bar.
Curry Lamb Hot Pie
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In the afternoon Bron visited my office and brought over a sweet treat
Portuguese custard tart
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For Thursday dinner I cooked some of the Elite Meats sausages I got. I bought six Black Angus and Burgundy snags and put away three lots of two sausages.
The last weekend in Sydney was amazing My Easter | #ManFlu | #bestblogs13 We ate so well. This week albeit a short one I was back to the run of the mill. On Monday evening I considered a Meatless Monday but reconsidered and cooked a chicken schnitzel.
Meatless Monday
A nice green salad
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Chicken Schnitzel
I love chicken thigh schnitzel
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Of course after dinner I needed to try a couple of Zumbarons®
Zumbarons®
I have no idea of the flavours. They were delicious.
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Breakfast Smoothie
Back to the routine. Iced coffee banana smoothie with spinach.
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Morning office coffee and Zumbarons®
It’s so nice to enjoy a morning coffee with macarons
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On Tuesday evening I was going to make chicken schnitzel and salad again. For some reason I wanted to try something different. I thought about chicken and potato gems but after a weekend of really rich food I wanted salad but I also didn’t want salad. I think I’ve been watching too many cooking competitions on television, I thought about a salad in a different form. I love my blender so why not liquefy my salad. It contained the usual elements, viz., salad leaves, spring onions, red onion, tomato, coriander, plus some lemon juice and zest and olive oil. I added some chilli flakes and coarsely ground black pepper. I then liquefied it in my blender.
Experimental food
Honestly it looks like I vomited my salad. It tasted good though.
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Zumbarons®
My last Zumbarons®
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My morning office coffee felt empty just like the box without Zumbarons®
Adriano Zumbo Zumbarons® Box
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There were still Easter eggs at work. I was told I needed to help out and eat chocolate.
Chocolate
Who am I to object
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Wednesday night Bron came over to help put together my Ikea bookcase from the weekend.
Laying out the fasteners
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We took a break for dinner
Lamb Cutlets
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Bron made homemade non-church ice cream. There was violet crumble and Queensland nut ice cream.
Ice Cream
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The finished product
Bookshelf
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Thursday morning office coffee
Bertie Beetle
Bertie Beetle is having its fiftieth anniversary this year. Check out the wikipedia entry.
Thursday was a pretty long day, we’re ramping up at work to monitor the situation with Influenzavirus A H7N9 so when I left work I felt like takeaway
Fish and chips
Nothing better than freshly cooked battered fish, potato scallops and chips. I love potato scallops. I have friends from Victoria who call them potato cakes which cracks me up. A good potato scallop is hand cut, not too thick and not to thin. The best I’ve ever had came from a cafe in Brookside Shopping Centre in Brisbane.
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After the fish and chips I ate the rest of Bron’s ice cream straight from the plastic container
Ice Cream
This was Queensland nut caramel. It was delicious.
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Breakfast on Friday was a Mavi Breakfast Wrap
Breakfast wrap
These are so good. Sadly I ate this without Bron. I had an early start and needed to work through.
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Coffee
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On Friday evening after work I went to the local club with Bron to have dinner
Reef and beef
This is a scotch fillet and prawn cutlets with chips.
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So how is my ManFlu? It’s okay. I’m still coughing and spluttering. I should be fine by the end of this weekend.
This has been a fantastic Easter weekend. For my non-Australian friends; in Australia we get the Good Friday and the following Monday as public holidays. It’s one of the best public holiday long weekends we have.
It all started on Thursday afternoon and coincided with my manifestation of #ManFlu I shared a classic YouTube video on #ManFlu in my Mamak in Haymarket post from a few days ago. Every time I get a head cold I end up with rigors and sinusitis and I feel like death warmed up.
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On Thursday evening Bron cooked dinner.
Bron’s stir fry
This was delicious
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Bron cooked hot cross buns on Thursday evening
Hot cross buns
I so wanted one that I pestered Bron to break one off and share one on Thursday evening
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On Friday morning we had hot cross buns
Hot cross buns
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On the drive to Sydney for the weekend we stopped at Goulburn for a toilet stop and a break
MaltEaster
These won’t roll down the aisle of a picture theatre lol
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On arriving in Sydney we had to work out how to find and park near our hotel. We chose to stay at the Oaks Goldsbrough Apartments (on 243 Pyrmont Street Darling Harbour NSW 2009). Originally built in 1883, The Oaks Goldsbrough was Sydney’s original Goldsbrough-Mort Wool store. Maintaining many historical features, such as the ironbark columns and tallow-wood flooring, The Oaks Goldsbrough Apartment Hotel combines the facilities and service of a modern hotel with the privacy and spaciousness of a fully self-contained apartment. At first I thought it was an old gaol but then tweeps were telling me about the building’s history.
Oaks Goldsbrough Apartments
I really enjoyed my stay here. It was a relatively quiet well appointed apartment. The kitchen is spacious and well equipped except there was no oven. The microwave oven was a little dated and old. The bathroom/laundry was pretty good too. A little more storage and bench space would have been handy. The lounge area was fine with a big screen television, cable television connection and a DVD player that also accepted USB drives. The bedroom was fine except there wasn’t a set of drawers just very tall wardrobes.
On Saturday morning we enjoyed the last of the hot cross buns
Hot cross buns
Bron’s butter with some bun
Bron claims this is a misrepresentation lol
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The plan for the day was to go shopping in Rhodes and visit Ikea.
Morning iced coffee
I was feeling pretty poorly and thought a hot coffee would make me nauseated. The iced coffee alternative was not too bad.
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I went in wanting to buy a cabinet for my kitchen equipment
Ikea purchases
I bought a heap of other things too
I also brought back a catalogue for a work mate
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Of course no visit to Ikea is complete without a meal of Swedish meatballs, Lingonberries, mashed potato and gravy.
Lunch
I chose a medium plate. Quite a number of tweeps and Facebook friends asked questions about horse meat. Ikea in Australia has declared their meat balls to be horse meat free.
I tried some Swedish festive drink. My #ManFlu was so bad I couldn’t tell it was sweet.
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Enjoying a meat ball
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In the evening as my #ManFlu was peaking at its worst we went to dinner at Rockpool on George. I blogged about this a couple of nights ago. It was an amazing dinner. It was so good. Rather than repeat the food images I’d encourage you to read the post. I’ll simply insert here an image of the afternoon.
Sydney Opera House
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On Sunday morning I woke up feeling pretty ordinary. We had planned to attend the Sydney Royal Easter Show 2013. The tickets also included public transport. We got off to an okay start and caught a train from Town Hall station and alighted at Homebush. We should have alighted at Olympic Park. This created a slight delay and a delay in accessing caffeine which was our most pressing need. We eventually got to the show grounds and found coffee and food.
Bacon and egg roll with a coffee
As far as shows are concerned and for my USA friends these are like County fairs I imagine, my all time favourite is The Ekka http://www.ekka.com.au/ in Brisbane every August. The next best is the Royal Darwin Show. http://www.darwinshow.com.au/ The Sydney one is also pretty good and given its proximity to Camberra (3 hours drive) it’s a good option for me at the moment.
Wood chopping as a sport started in Australia. My favourite events are the underhand, tree felling and the relay. What we noticed on Sunday was the unusual number of competitors who failed to finish. We hope there wasn’t something wrong with them. Given Australian axe men are also known for the drinking, I just hope they were hung over rather than ill or not up to the competition.
At any show I love looking at animals, produce and cake decorating. Rather than spend the day capturing images we simply enjoyed walking around looking at things. Some things though did need to be captured.
This year’s biggest pumpkin (618 kilograms)
This years smallest pumpkin
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Dog showing
Is that the best suit you’ve ever seen or what?
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For lunch we had chair sui bao
Barbecue pork buns
We ate these while in the main arena watching moto-X
We started feeling weary after the Flyball and decided to leave. The train journey into the city was uneventful.
For dinner we decided to walk around Darling Harbour and look for a place to eat. I had a hankering for some meat. We came across Braza Churrascaria and walked in. We were seated at a table and the protocol explained. This is not the sort of place that you can photograph everything. The wait staff walk around with trays of meat and serve it onto your plate. It’s basically all the meat you can eat.
Later in the evening was went to the IMAX theatre and watched Top Gun in 3D. A great movie in terms of scenes of fighter jets and an aircraft carrier. The Darling Harbour LG IMAX theatre bills itself as the biggest and the best in the world. I have no idea if this is true.
Okay it sounds weird. Not many men would admit it. My middle daughter loves cake decorating and my Mum was fantastic at it. I don’t do it, I just like looking at it at shows. Weather it’s The Ekka or the Sydney Royal Easter Show, I always look at the cake decorating.
I went a little crazy with the iPhone. I love the Mr Squiggle and Blackboard cake. The giant macarons also reminded me of tomorrow’s macaron visit. When there are too many images a slide show is best.
It seems wrong that soon after Christmas supermarkets in Australia start to stock and sell Hot Cross Buns on their shelves. I always thought of them as special and specifically for Good Friday. I’ve resisted the temptation to buy and eat them whenever, mostly because I don’t need the added carbohydrate load.
They are best (in my humble opinion) served warm from an oven and with real butter. Margarine just doesn’t seem to be right.
Bron had two different sorts. Both were nice. As you can see I had buns with my butter
We were at the Royal Easter Show today. I love looking at the farm animals. We were in the ovine pavilion and noticed the rams. I never realised that a ram’s testicles hung that low. Bron explained that any higher and they would be kept too warm given the whole idea of external male gonads is to keep them slightly lower than body temperature.
