Tag Archives: iPhone

OS X Mountain Lion

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I’m a converted Mac lover. For many years I laughed and derided Mac devotees. Then for many years I suffered the blue screen of death and Microsoft Windows based systems that drove me mad with frustration. While we have a MS Windows based system at work along with BlackBerry smart telephones; in my personal life I revel with my iMac, MacBook Air, iPad and iPhone. They all go with one another and work together. Last Saturday I paid some money and downloaded and installed OS X Mountain Lion onto my iMac and MBA. I like that I can send iMessages via both these platforms. I love that Notes has been dissected out of Mail and that Reminders is like what I have on my iPhone and iPad. With the iCloud this all works well. I can now send iPhoto images to Twitter and iMessage. It’s like I have a giant iPhone on my desk.

OS X Mountain Lion works well on my iMac. On my MBA however, I’ve had no end of frustration. On Sunday, something was consuming all my free space, I could see the space reducing before me. I couldn’t understand it. Soon I was receiving startup disk full messages and when I tried a restart I was presented with a grey (gray) screen (of death). It would not open in safe mode, refreshing the RAM did nothing and just hoping hard was useless. In the end I had to use CMD + r and then restored from a previous session from my time machine. That took all night. Today I’ve copied over all my documents onto an external hard drive. I think my problem is that when I installed OS X Mountain Lion I only had about 5 GB of free space and the time machine along with some iMessage space eating problem was consuming all the free space. I now have about 30 GB of free space and am trying to download and install OS X Mountain Lion again. This is the first time I’ve had a major failure of a Mac device. It was a shock to me that something like this could happen on an Apple device.

I’ll let you know how the reinstall goes. Wish me luck.

Gaz

PS If anyone has similar problems, please let me know. Thanks :-)

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Rainy day on Daydream Island

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I’m in bed and doing this from my iPhone. Today it rained all day. We sat inside for much of it playing board games and cards. We played a marathon Monopoly game with Miss11 winning big time.
We also swam even though it was about 15 °C in the water. Fortunately there was also a warm spa pool to warm up in.
Tonight we had our final dinner. We had to wear plastic ponchos to get to dinner (photos later). I’m now full after a burger, pizza, dessert pizza and ice cream.
Tomorrow we leave and I spend a night in Brisbane before heading back to Canberra.

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Best meal ever and #StateofOrigin Game 2

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Last night Bron and I visited some close friends who we often have dinner with. Mostly it’s us going to their place to eat wonderful food. Last night was no different. In the words of Bron (and I agree), “Best meal in my life“.

A few weeks ago we set up the date and started talking about a menu. We suggested we’d go to Costco and get King crab legs for an entrée and Bron said she’d make a lemon tart for dessert. P and LP came back and said they would happily prepare an Asian degustation for our main course.

Bron and I ventured out to Costco yesterday morning to learn that the seafood arrangement only came out every fortnight. We’ve been to Costco so many times on alternating weeks that we had not noticed this. This was disappointing because Bron was also going to make her gorgeous aioli and and another dipping sauce. Bron sent P a text message and explained. No worries, “We have prawns” came the reply.

The lemon tart was an experiment. Bron had not made this recipe before. She need not have worried. It was perfect.

So we started with a few prawns and homemade dressing. These had only been frozen once and were a delicious and certainly acted as an entrée or appetiser for us. I was so hungry.

What followed can only be described as awesome. I use that word advisedly. Like a good many words used on social media and on television and movies, “awesome” is over used. This meal was awesome.

We started with LP’s dumplings. Mouth sized and full of flavour. The spicy dipping sauce was just right. P then followed with some of his signature pieces, namely, a crunchy Chinese cabbage salad and seafood cakes. I could have eaten the salad all night. This was followed with LP’s tamarind prawns. Oh my the flavour was fantastic. This was a first time for LP. The Pièce de résistance was P’s twice cooked belly pork. The reduction could be smelled when we entered the house. The star anise and cinnamon wafting in our nostrils tempting us to pick up the jug and drink the sauce was an ever present danger.

With the ‘mains’ over, we entered the dangerous world of dessert. I say dangerous because no one gets between some of us and their dessert.

LP was preparing the chocolate soufflé as we arrived. She was so delicate in folding in the cream. It was certainly worth the effort. I have never had a soufflé so light and fluffy. Bron was concerned that I had left crusty bits of chocolate on the edge of my ramekin. I quickly fixed the problem without burning my tongue :-)

Bron’s lemon tart was also a triumph. Earlier in the day Bron had received a gift from a dear tweep who shared from her bounty of lemons. The quickly prepared candied lemon rind was also delicious along with the cognac whipped cream that LP had provided with her soufflé.

To finish the evening we all enjoyed a half of a small pavlova that P has now perfected. It was a perfect evening with fantastic conversation, lots of laughs and dare I say, for me at least, belt loosening.

I apologise for the quality of my iPhone photography. I was trembling with multiple foodgasms that I had trouble focusing.

Prawns with homemade seafood sauce (iPhone)

Pork dumplings (iPhone)

Crunchy Chinese cabbage salad and seafood cakes (iPhone)

Tamarind prawns (iPhone)

Twice cooked pork belly (iPhone)

Twice cooked pork belly (iPhone)

Chocolate soufflé served with cognac cream (iPhone)

Cognac cream (iPhone)

Lemon tart with Cognac cream (iPhone)

Pavlova served with Chinese gooseberry, passion fruit and strawberries (iPhone)

More as a post script than anything else, I have not blogged for a few days and I should comment on the second game in this year’s State of Origin series. NSW defeated Queensland. As much as I wanted the Queensland XXXX Maroons to win, it wasn’t to be. The game was fierce, it was tight, it was superbly played. Queensland played well and NSW played better. NSW were the best team on the night and deserved to win. This now means a decider in two and a bit weeks. This is not a bad thing. If Queensland had won, this would have made game three a fizzer and given Queensland has won the series in the last six years it would severely damage the State of Origin concept. Dare I say it, NSW winning the series in 2012 would not be a tragedy. The important thing is ensuring the greatest game on the planet, i.e., Rugby League is maintained for everyone to enjoy.

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Unlike @bron99 I cannot poach an egg to save myself

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Regular readers will know I love eggs. I especially like them for breakfast and I’m a fan of poached eggs, fried eggs, scrambled eggs and omelets. I regularly post images to http://breakfastforwoojm.posterous.com/ which is a Posterous site established by a primary school teacher in NSW with a focus on breakfast. Many of the images I’ve posted have been courtesy of Bron who is an expert egg poacher. I, on the other hand am hopeless. I can fry an egg with the best of them, but my poached eggs are a mess. Last night we were watching Bill Granger’s Bill’s Tasty Weekends and Bill demonstrated an easy method to poach an egg with an additional tip from Bron. It was to simply bring water to the boil, put in a egg ring (Bron’s tip), crack in the egg, turn off the heat and put a lid on.

I tried it this morning.

Poached egg and ham (iPhone)

When I cracked the poached egg, the yolk was nice and runny.

Poached egg and ham (iPhone)

I normally post breakfast images with my Brisbane Broncos mug. They lost to the Melbourne Storm on Friday night, so here is my new mug from my recent meeting in Frederick, MD.

I hope everyone has a great breakfast.

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A big day for Chinese food | Noble Palace | Dumpling Inn

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Yesterday was a much better day at work compared to Wednesday. I woke up feeling ill with a sore throat and a headache yet I was euphoric because Queensland had defeated NSW in  the first game of this year’s State of Origin series.

For lunch we went to the Noble Palace in Phillip. Seven of us enjoyed lunch to thank a dear work friend who had acted up for an extended period of time and performed superbly. We enjoyed Hong Kong roast duck, Crispy skin chicken and plum sauce, Sizzling Mongolian lamb, Peking shredded chilli beef, Pork fillet with chili lemon grass, and rice (I could have forgotten a dish). One of our party also had a vegetable and noodle dish which she generously shared. The Noble Palace is a well known Chinese restaurant in the Woden district and consistently produces high quality meals. They also do wonderful yum cha.

Duck, beef and lamb (iPhone)

Last night Bron and I went to the Dumpling Inn for dinner. This Chinese restaurant is a fantastic suburban venue. It’s relatively small but like the Noble Palace consistently produces high quality food including yum cha on weekends. Last night we enjoyed duck pancakes and fried flounder with rice.

Preparing a duck pancake (iPhone)

Finished duck pancake (iPhone)

Left over duck (iPhone)

Deep fried flounder (iPhone)

After dinner we had dessert at Bron’s. This was some leftover vanilla cheesecake with salted caramel sauce and berries.

Vanilla cheesecake with salted caramel sauce and berries (iPhone)

Because I can’t help myself I’ll share an image from a friend at work from today.

 

Enough said for now :-)

 

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Big day and a big result and shout out to @phonakins (#QUEENSLANDER #StateofOrigin)

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Today was huge with back to back meetings all day. I did an hour session on record management systems and came back to the office to be greeted with cake. Readers who follow me on instagram will know I regularly post photographs of cakes and biscuits that work mates make and bring in to work. It makes for a wonderful work environment.

During the training session I answered some questions and received chocolates :-)

Cake and chocolate (iPhone)

Tonight is the first of three State of Origin games. As I was driving away from work I thought about dinner. It needed to be a footy dinner. Hamburger I thought and hamburger is what I made. For readers who don’t know me, I’m a convinced and convicted Queenslander, that is, I am passionate about Queensland the greatest state in Australia; and Rugby League the greatest game of all; and State of Origin, the greatest sporting contest known.

I checked my e-mail and discovered I’d won a prize. On 16 May @phonakins at littlelioness.net posted on her blog a competition to win a Red Rock Deli Corn Chips hamper. The request for the competition was to let Fiona know in the comments your ideal corn chip and dip combination (fantasy or reality) and why they go so well. I answered, “I want a sweet corn chip coated in icing sugar that can be used to scoop up thickened chocolate sauce or melted chocolate and then eaten whole, that is a chocolate corn chip slam ;-) Perhaps then http://wayfaringchocolate.com/ can review.“Thank you very much Fiona. Much appreciated :-)

So I better show images of my hamburger.

Cheese and barbecue sauce with Wagyu beef burger (iPhone)

With it’s top on (iPhone)

And to all my friends and family who support New South Wales and the Blues, I’m sorry if you find me offensive on nights like tonight.

For readers not familiar with State of Origin rugby league history. Queenslanders (Maroons pronounced marones) are known as the cane toads (Buffo marinus) and NSW (Blues) are cockroaches. These are affectionate terms of endearment. As they say, State of Origin is mate against mate, state against state. For those interested, it was Kangaroo great Barry (garbo) Muir who coached the Queensland side from 1974 to 1978 (two years prior to the adoption of Origin selection criteria) and during this time Muir coined the term “cockroaches”, the descriptor of the New South Wales rugby league team still used by the Queenslanders.

In the end, Queensland defeated NSW 18 to 10. There was a very poor decision that resulted in a Queensland try in the last ten minutes that soured the victory. But as they say, a win is a win. I will attend work tomorrow a happy Queenslander.

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Cheesecake returns

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Earlier this year Bron made a claim that she would cook a different cheesecake every month. We’ve certainly enjoyed some great cheesecakes however, the one a month concept hasn’t quite come to fruition.

Today we started with breakfast at a sort of new place. The old Hudson’s in the Gardens is now floresco in the Gardens. Bron had Eggs Benedict with bacon and I had Eggs Benedict with Kransky sausage (A cured cooked sausage of dubious contents and indeterminate age). The café was only a week new under the new management. The Eggs Benedict tasted really good with a really smooth and tasty Hollandaise sauce. The Kransky was a little small and not as spicy as I was hoping for. I like a big spicy Kransky sausage. They also didn’t have any cracked pepper on hand which was a slight disappointment.

Eggs Benedict with Kransky (iPhone)

After a bike ride and then a walk I had a late lunch. The other day we did a trip to CostCo and bought a box of pork buns and yesterday Bron bought me a can of pineapple Fanta from a shop (she won’t tell me the name). The pork bun was really good.

Pork bun and pineapple Fanta (iPhone)

Tonight for dinner Bron made a slow roasted chicken with preserved lemons and risotto. The preserved lemons come from a twitter friend who is well known for her lemon curd, lemon jam drops and preserved lemons.

Chicken with preserved lemons and risotto (iPhone)

And for the Pièce de résistance we had vanilla baked cheesecake with salted caramel sauce and vanilla cream. This was so light and yet so rich and so so sweet and unctuous.

Vanilla baked cheesecake with salted caramel sauce and vanilla cream (iPhone)

 

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Chong Co Thai Restaurant and Max Brenner

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Last night we went out with some friends to the Chong Co Thai Restaurant in Belconnen and then enjoyed dessert at Max Brenner which was in the same area. Bron and I had been to Chong Co a couple of times before and enjoyed the food.

There were five in our party and we quickly agreed to start with the mixed entrée which consisted of a spring roll, curry puff, fish cake and and Satay chicken. The spring roll was quite peppery and the fish cakes had a lovely firm texture that wasn’t rubbery.

The mixed entrée consisted of a spring roll, curry puff, fish cake and Satay chicken. (iPhone with flash)

For the main course Bron chose the deep fried batter soft shell crab topped with tamarind sauce, ginger, shallot, coriander, crispy onion and mixed vegetables. The dish was enormous with at least two crabs.

Soft shelled crab (iPhone with flash)

I chose the Pan fried batter barramundi topped with chilli, cooked in coconut milk, kaffir lime leaves and sweet basil leaves.

Fried barramundi (iPhone with flash)

The barramundi was rated with two chillies. For me it was bordering on hot. It was not uncomfortable but certainly sinus clearing. Mixed with some rice, this was delightful.

The service at the Chong Co is remarkable. The ratio of wait staff to customers is very high, nothing is too much trouble.The restaurant was fairly full with a good turnover of patrons. When full the place is very noisy and hearing conversations can be difficult. It would be good if the owner added some sound baffling to the ceiling and walls. The wait staff all look very good in their costumes and the decor is very inviting.

I would recommend this restaurant to anyone who wants a good night out.

After our main course we elected to enjoy dessert at Max Brenner. We’ve been to Max Brenner a few times before. Last night we tried a few different things.

I had a passion fruit waffle sundae.

Passion fruit waffle sundae (iPhone)

Michael had a Max-wich

Max-wich (iPhone)

Bron had a banana crepe.

Banana crepe (iPhone)

Max Brenner Chocolate Bar on Urbanspoon

It was a really good night out. Given the proximity of Max Brenner to Chong Co, it was a great combination.

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Seasalt Dining for Sunday breakfast

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This morning we went to Seasalt Dining for breakfast. We’d been here before for dinner and quite enjoyed it.

This morning was reasonably cool in Canberra so a warm place and a good breakfast was called for. I was keen on eggs and posted this on instagram as soon as I saw the menu.

Bron and I had Eggs Benedict with bacon and coffee.

Eggs Benedict with bacon (iPhone with filter for instagram)

The eggs were soft and the yolk ran free on cracking the white membrane. The toast was nice and not too stiff.

I’d rate the experience 6.5 out of 10. The service was friendly but a little disorganised. The orders didn’t come out together and there was a sense of confusion to the place. The food was okay but the menu was a very standard breakfast/brunch list. There was nothing special to it. I’d go again with a crowd if better Canberra venues were not available.

As I said to Bron, her Eggs Benedict are close to an order of magnitude better.

 

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Travelling to Frederick, MD

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Last week I spent five days in Frederick, MD. I was there for work and knew I wouldn’t be able to spent much time looking around. Fortunately the people I was meeting with knew places to go to dinner.

The flight over and back was with United Airlines. I’ve flown with them before and it was an enjoyable experience. Over the Pacific Ocean I flew in a Boeing 747 and over the continent it was a Boeing 737. The flight attendants were friendly and cheerful and the food better than average. The flight from LAX (Los Angeles) to IAD (Dulles) was great with a really good main flight attendant who was incredibly friendly and helpful. I managed to sleep reasonably well on all the Pacific Ocean legs.

On the first night I stayed in the Washington Dulles Airport Marriott. It is very close to IAD and very convenient. It was very good value for a one night stop over. On the Monday morning I took a shuttle bus transfer for the 70 km drive from Dulles to Frederick. The countryside was beautiful. The architecture was really interesting.

On the first night in Frederick I ate at Brewer’s Alley. The memorable thing about that night was sitting at a table with a jug for beer that had a core that could be filled with ice to keep the beer cold.

Beer jug with a core for ice to keep the beer cold (iPhone)

While in Frederick I stayed in the Hampton Inn Frederick. The hotel does a free breakfast and one of my colleagues told me he thought it was great because you could make your own waffles. Having tried a waffle, I’m not so sure.

Fresh made waffle with pork sausage pattie and pork sauce (I don’t know what pork sauce is) (iPhone)

The waffle was also served with breakfast syrup and I’m assuming it contains a lot of corm sugar. For the rest of my time there I ate a banana for breakfast and read the paper.

Banana and paper (iPhone)

On the second evening in Frederick I went to the local Cracker Barrel store and restaurant in Frederick. The menu is great and I chose from the fancy fixin’s area. I asked for the chicken fried steak with hash brown casserole, corn, breaded okra and sawmill gravy. For dessert because it was my birthday I had the house special coconut cream custard pie.

Chicken fried steak with fancy fixin’s (iPhone)

Coconut cream custard birthday pie (iPhone)

The following night I tried the crab cakes in the hotel’s restaurant. They tasted okay but the next morning I was feeling quite ill.

Crab cakes with asparagus and chips (iPhone)

The following night I went to the Black Hog. This place is known for its barbecue and its ribs. I asked for ribs, brisket and collared greens.

Ribs, brisket, collared greens and corn bread (iPhone)

After five days of meetings I took a shuttle back to Washington and stayed at the Melrose Hotel on Pennsylvania Avenue NW. I would highly recommend this hotel. It was small cosy and relatively inexpensive. On the Friday evening I went to Macy’s to buy a new bag because my bag was damaged on the flight from Sydney to Los Angeles. I ate dinner at a place called One Fish, Two Fish on Pennsylvania Avenue NW. I enjoyed a small wonton soup and twice cooked pork.

Short (Wonton) soup (iPhone)

Twice cooked pork (spicy) (iPhone)

The next morning I enjoyed my best breakfast while in the USA. Crab cake eggs Benedict.

Crab cakes Eggs Benedict (iPhone)

After breakfast I went for a walk and visited the Lincoln and Albert Einstein memorials.

Abraham Lincoln memorial (Panasonic DMC-TZ10)

Me and Albert Einstein (Panasonic DMC-TZ10)

The flight back to Canberra was via San Francisco (SFO) and was uneventful.

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