On Thursday evening Bron took me to dinner for my birthday (which was last week). We went to Eat86 in Braddon. This is relatively new and a new venture for the people who run Ellacure in Bruce.
Having enjoyed previous meals at Ellacure and hearing great reviews from work mates plus reading a blog post on Her Canberra by Trish, I was really looking forward to a nice meal and night out with Bron. Bron had heard good things so we were pretty confident of a great night out.
On walking in you can feel the vibe of the place. The staff are friendly and helpful. We had a table reserved near the bar and fairly central in the restaurant. The menu is written in chalk on the wall and as items run out they are rubbed out. We were advised to try a couple of cheaper meals and one large meal as a guide for the evening. We went for the ceviche, pulled pork terrine and ghetto beef.
These were all delightful. The ceviche was amazing. It was refreshing and full of heat but the chilli didn’t linger and was certainly sharp but not unpleasant. It was a perfect entrée to the evening. I love terrines and the pulled pork was pretty special. I’d happily eat more of it. Finally, the ghetto beef was perfectly cooked. The beef was tender and tasty and chewy in a really good way.
All these images are from my Instagram feed. Click on the image and read the comments.
The ceviche was a perfect start to the meal
The pulled pork terrine broke apart and could be scooped up on the bread
The ghetto beef is a must have
The serving sizes are modest and so by the end of these dishes dessert was not an option but a viable proposition. I chose a caramel popcorn sundae and peanut brittle. The restaurant was pretty dark so my iPhone photography wasn’t too flash. That said, the Instagram comments were pretty good. Click on the image to see the number of likes and comments.
Dessert. Nothing more needs to be said.
Okay onto other things.
It was noisy. My tinnitus was bad that night. I had to concentrate on looking at Bron’s lips the whole night. Not a bad thing Dunny score was 4.5+ out of 5. The music is piped into the dunny. The pedestal was of high quality. The towels were paper. The + comes because of the Aēsop hand products provided. This was a very good touch. If there was a Dyson air blade in there it would have received 5+/5 Nakpin score was fail. Bron believes I’m too harsh in having only a pass/fail for napkins. To me cloth is pass and paper is fail. Fair enough, these were thick paper napkins and better than most. What do you reckon?
Would I eat at eightysix again. Most certainly I would. I’d like to try a seat at the bar looking into the kitchen. If not for anything else, the lighting would be better for my iPhone camera. I feel embarrassed my images do not do the food justice. This is a great place to eat and I look forward to returning again and again.
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.
It’s not often I eat somewhere twice within a week. On Sunday morning I enjoyed breakfast at the Elk and Pea for the first time.
Saturday night’s dinner had been planned for a few weeks. After our Smoque outing it took about a week to agree to dinner at Elk and Pea. Funnily enough I suggested Elk and Pea because of the review that T1 had written for In The Taratory. In my mind (poor memory) T1′s review was for dinner and I recall her writing a good review except for the knives.
I didn’t want to mix up my water and the hot sauce.
For dinner I chose two dishes. I started with the corn and zucchini fritters and then the goat enchilada. The corn and zucchini fritters consisted of spiced fritters, plus a sweet and sour pepita sauce. The enchilada had slow braised goat wrapped in corn tortillas, corn puree goats feta. As a table we asked for two serves of the corn and zucchini fritters so we could share them.
The corn and zucchini fritters were really very nice.
Two of us asked for the goat enchiladas. Each serve has two enchiladas and this plate had three. They ran out of enchiladas so they gave us one for free and suggested we order another meal. This meant that others like twitter friends James Connor @DocConnor and Frala Fontaine @frala_fontaine who were at another table missed out. I’m sorry I didn’t get a chance to chat. Maybe another time at a tweetup.
We asked for one of the specials, viz., soft shelled crab with plantains.
I enjoyed the Peruvian pine for dessert. The dessert consisted of cane sugar, pineapple, coconut cream, pine crisps.
You can see the large pineapple ring with coconut cream and the smaller core of cane with berries and pomegranate seeds. I was given a tea spoon to eat it. I ended up chasing pieces of pineapple and sugar cane around the plate until Meredith found a fork for me.
The custard had a smooth runny consistency. It was delicious. Click on the image to see the Instagram banter. Apologies for those with weak stomachs.
All in all it was a pretty good meal. As usual the company was exceptional with lots of laughing and stories to tell.
Danny couldn’t make it and sent Nat an image of his lamb shank dinner. Nat was a little jealous and this image was sent to Danny.
The evening was interesting in many ways. We had a good sturdy table setting. No wobbly tables. We were seated next to the front door. The weather was cold (yes welcome to a Canberra summer evening) and the breeze was bracing. I don’t know how the people seated outside enjoyed their meals. The wait staff were polite and friendly although they weren’t really that attentive. The person who took our main order memorised the entire order which was pretty impressive, however, the story about the shortage of enchiladas wasn’t communicated with us until the plate had been served and we had asked for the second plate. This really confused me.
The main meals came out pretty quickly although in an odd order. We had asked for the corn and zucchini fritters to come out first so we could share them. The mango and chicken salad came out first for Tanya and then after about ten minutes the corn and zucchini fritters were served. There was about a thirty minute delay between the main meals and dessert. This wasn’t a problem but seemed to be a long time given the experience earlier with rapid delivery.
Would I go back? The food was really nice. I’d go back for the food. The restaurant was noisy and I could hardly hear what was being said. The confusion with the enchiladas was disconcerting. The service was okay and they get points for not taking away our plates while we were still eating. I don’t know, it’s not going to be a favourite place. I may go back but it wouldn’t worry me if I didn’t.
All in all I enjoyed a good night out. I’m glad I ate at Elk and Pea for dinner.
Last year I blogged a couple of times about the food at Ramas in Pearce. I have enjoyed the food there and the company on the occasions we dined there helped make the evenings memorable. After blogging about Ramas a Canberra Twitter friend, viz., Jude @Sister_Ratched commented (via Twitter and on my blog) that she thought there were better places in Canberra and Sydney for Indian cuisine. She suggested she could introduce me to such places. I was very happy to be introduced to new dining experiences.
Jude is lovely, she avidly comments on my blog and given the amount of food I post on Twitter and Instagram, Jude has shared her thoughts. At times this has been a concern for the quantity and quality of food I would post. I believe in some ways, the recent changes in my diet have been influenced by Jude’s comments about cholesterol, the importance of fresh ethically harvested produce and the health benefits of salad Jude is a Registered Nurse and currently practises in gastroenterology. I respect her opinion.
On Friday night Jude organised a Canberra Tweetup. I regret not taking names and Twitter handles because I’ll offend some new friends if I don’t mention them. Suffice to say this is not the last #CBRTweetUp I will attend. It was a most enjoyable evening and it really is great to meet tweeps in real life and get to get to know them a little better. One of my favourite Canberra bloggers was also there. T1 from InTheTaratory fame. T1 has been prolific recently on Twitter as part of the #LikeCanberra campaign for the Centennial celebrations of the Australia’s capital city.
We all met at Ruchi Belconnen. Ruchi specialises in Southern Indian cuisine. Jude recommended I try a Thali. A Thali is a tasting plate made up of a selection of various dishes. The food is served in small bowls on a round tray. In the middle there was bread and plus a piece of flesh (fish in my case). I asked for the Ruchi Special Non‐Vegetarian Thali for $24.50. This consisted of Chapatti, channa curry, Kerala chicken, beef vindaloo, pickles, thayir pachadi, rasam, and boiled rice. When the food was being served I heard the waiter say “special non-vegetarian Thali” and I assumed it was mine. It turned out not to be what I asked for but it was a Mysore Maharajah Non-Vegetarian Thali which consisted of Meen porichadu, chapathi, boiled rice, sambar, Mysore chilli chicken, daal, lamb korma, rasam, thayir pachadi, pickles, and a coconut dessert. This dish was considerably hotter in terms of spices than what I was expecting. It was not at all unpleasant, on the contrary it was delightful. I really enjoyed this tasting plate of Southern Indian delights. The company was great and in the end it was not a late evening but it was certainly a very enjoyable one. The next #CBRTweetUp is being organised. I’m looking forward to it.
I would definitely recommend Ruchi Belconnen. I’ll be returning.
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Friday was made even better with a Mavi Breakfast wrap which meant I didn’t need lunch.
A beautiful tongue of bacon.
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This afternoon. I enjoyed a pastry treat from Ricardo’s Cafe at the Jamison Plaza.
This is the Peanut Butter. It contains a very subtle peanut paste flavoured mousse with a heart of caramel resting on a delicate chocolate crumb biscuit base. It was lovely.
I just posted some images on Instagram and my friend Laura asked on Twitter if I’d blog the recipe. If asked, I’ll blog anything
So I had a fillet of Atlantic salmon which I bought from Coles. It was about $30 per kilogram.
I made the salad out of salad leaves from a packet from Coles. This is a really convenient way to get various types of lettuce leaf plus Rocket. The leaves keep for about four days in an airtight container.
In the salad I had grated fresh beetroot as an alternative to sliced pickle beetroot, freshly grated parmesan cheese, crumbled Australian feta cheese, chunky diced cucumber, sliced celery, sliced spring onions, quartered cherry tomatoes, ground pepper, and chilli flakes.
My method of cooking the salmon is dead simple and always works. I heat up a fry pan with some vegetable oil until it gets to smoking hot. I then add the salmon and add a lid. I time this for five minutes. I leave the fry pan for five minutes and don’t touch it. When the time is up I turn off the heat and move the pan and leave the lid on for another one minute. After the minute the lid goes into the sink of hot soapy water and the salmon is put on a plate to rest. The fry pan then hits the hot soapy water.
The salad is basically leaves in a bowl with everything except the beetroot added. The colour of the beetroot will bleed into everything so I add it at the very end.
Tonight I flaked the salmon and added it to the salad.
Normally I might use a salad type dressing for the salad but tonight instead of putting the fry pan into the soapy water I heated it up again and added a little white wine then soy sauce and then honey. I stirred that quickly and let it reduce a little. I drizzled the honey soy over the salmon and the salad. It was sweet but not too sweet.
For dessert I took inspiration from Rachael and Laura again with their advice on menz chocolates from Adelaide.
I had some menz Chocolate Honeycomb which I crushed a little with a meat tenderiser and added with Connoisseur Classic Vanilla ice cream. It was so yummy.
I was chatting this week on Twitter with a couple of very cool Adelaide ladies, viz., Laura and Rachael and I was introduced to Menz FruChocs According to their website Robern Menz is South Australia’s largest confectioner and maker of the famous Menz FruChocs. Robern Menz manufacture a wide range of chocolate based confectionery and gourmet goodies. The good news is that Coles also stocks some of their products, so Friday afternoon after work I went searching. Like a lot of supermarkets, there is an entire aisle dedicated to confectionery and so finding the Menz products took me a little while. At one stage I ventured into the health food aisles because I couldn’t find them. After a taking a systematic approach I found them
Violet Crumble wrapper (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
There were four varieties stocked. The classic Choc Apricot Balls, the Turkish Delight, Mini Choc Honeycomb and Choc Honeycomb (sort like the now gone forever Violet Crumble). I bought some of the apricot and TD thinking I’ll try the honeycomb later. I was told by Rachael and Laura that the Choccy Snakes are a must try. These are not stocked in my local Coles supermarket. Apart from being a science fiction fiend, I also discovered that Rachael is addicted to Menz to the extent she gets gift packs from the factory because she is such a good customer. That’s what I call good customer relations
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I waited until after dinner (see image below) to try them with a jug of happiness. I tried the apricot ones first. I like dried apricots and I like apricot confectionery but not in huge amounts. The chocolate is very nice and the apricot flavour not too strong. The good thing is they’re not too sweet. They were delicious. I then tried the Turkish Delight. I’m a fan of real TD with its lovely jelly and dusted with icing sugar. I know friends who regard the addition of chocolate coating as anathema. I’m not that puritanical about my confectionery, although I do like good chocolate. The TD was good, what I liked was the flavour of the TD developed over time and peaked after the chocolate had dissolved. We’re on a winner. I’m being careful to only have one at a time and to make them last
Haigh’s Chocolates (Photo credit: Wikipedia)
On the subject of South Australia and chocolate, another iconic brand is Haigh’s. Haigh’s Chocolates now has shops in SA, Victoria and NSW. The chocolate, whether it be milk or dark is delightful. When friends at work travel to Adelaide, Melbourne or Sydney I’m often asked if I want a fix of Haigh’s. I never say no.
In other news…
We now have a resolution at work that we’re going to try to do Pay Thursday Pies
This was a veal stroganoff pie which was delicious.
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Dinner was a simple hamburger and a jug of crushed ice with mint, pineapple and lemon lime and bitters cordial
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I finally emptied my work Christmas stocking. Goodbye last Christmas lollipop
Fridays are now dedicated to hot chips or sausages. This Friday was hot chips with aioli from the Urban Bean Espresso Bar.
After those chips it was a light chicken and salad dinner.
Saturday morning clouds on my walk
Last week it was plain hot cross buns, this week it’s chocolate ones. Still too early in my opinion.
For dinner tonight I was finishing a Heston Blumenthal steak project
This image was captured two nights ago. This is a piece of Angus Scotch rib fillet
I “aged” it in the refrigerator for two days. I just left it uncovered to dry out.
I regard this as an epic fail. The steak was about as good as I could hope for. The Heston method of rapidly turning each 15 seconds for a total cooking time of about 5 minutes works well. I enjoyed a delightfully rare steak. This was the first time I tried to make a blender Hollandaise sauce. The butter split and the sauce didn’t thicken. It still tasted good because after all melted butter tastes great
I hope I have one more post for 2012 to close out the year. This post however, will focus on the lead up and execution of Christmas 2012.
The last weekend was another quiet one. I didn’t have much to do besides wash clothes and clean the apartment. I’d completed all my Christmas shopping and so I enjoyed a weekend of lounging and watching DVDs. I ended up seeing the end of series three of Breaking Bad and watching what in the US is the first series of Strike Back. Apparently in the UK, there were six episodes shown before the US saw the seventh episode which it calls the first episode. I don’t understand the reasoning. The story can be found at IMDB and Wikipedia.
Because I was travelling for Christmas and New Year I needed to go through the contents of my refrigerator. Toasted sandwiches are always a good weekend lunch option.
Tomato, tinned red salmon and pumpkin seed bread.
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For dinner I had a scotch fillet steak.
I served it with a mango salad that also had salad leaves, cherry tomatoes and lots of Australian feta cheese. I made a light gravy from the marinade which was sherry, oil and soy plus some honey and mixed herbs and some minced garlic. I thickened it with some corn flour and used a little red wine to deglase my fry pan. I like my steak rare so this got about 90 seconds on each side and was rested for 10 minutes.
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On Saturday night a storm brewed but we didn’t see any rain. The clouds though were very pretty. I captured this image from my balcony but there were some much better ones from other IGers.
I like watching Jamie Oliver on television and if you search this blog for Jamie Oliver you’ll see a number of references. http://garydavidlum.com/?s=Jamie+Oliver&submit=Search I’ve heard though with Jamie Oliver’s recipes that sometimes they’re wrong, that is, quantities can be significantly off. This doesn’t always get corrected. If you know enough to know that’s fine but if you’re pretty ignorant like me, that can spell disaster.
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WARNING Sad Image
One of the saddest images I’ve captured is this one. Last week I posted this image of a friendly blue tongued skink. Sadly it was run over in my apartment car park.
From last week
What I came across on Sunday morning.
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I love pistachios
Snack time.
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Another toasted sandwich for lunch.
This time with blue cheese because like bacon and butter, everything tastes better with blue cheese.
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On Sunday night I cleaned out the refrigerator.
Salmon with mango salad and blue cheese.
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Normally when I’m walking back from the post office you can see heaps of people at work.
Barren on Christmas eve.
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There are no calories for the next two weeks.
Caramel doughnut.
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I was tempted, but this was for a work friend.
Jam filled doughnut.
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Because a work mate was ill last week when we went to the snag stand, we went back with her on Monday.
Spicy cheese kransky on brioche. This was delicious. Our plan is to eat through the entire menu.
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I finished work early on Christmas eve and I went to the airport as soon as I could.
A White Christmas snack at the Qantas lounge.
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I also had a couple of chilli beef pastizzi in the lounge
They were a little hot.
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I managed to secure an upgrade on flight QF960. The flight was meant to leave a little after 1745 however a couple of storm cells hit Canberra and to keep the ground crew safe they were evacuated from the tarmac and we stayed in the aeroplane for more than an hour connected to the aerobridge. If you follow me on Twitter you’ll see were we able to use our telephones.
For dinner I had the crumbed beef. The crumb also contained feta cheese. While the beef was well done and tough, everything else was very nice.
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When I got to my parent’s place I put out presents for them and my girls (who I’ll see later this week).
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It’s Christmas Day. I had a poor night’s sleep, not through Christmas excitement, but because I’m sleeping on my childhood bed. Dad woke up early and we sat together for a couple of hours while he told me stories.
I had a light breakfast in anticipation of a big lunch. The breakfast of champions, vegemite on toast with a couple of coffees.
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And so lunch preparation begins…
This is chicken after we’d tightened the skin with boiling water.
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Mum made a 1000 islands dressing for our lunch time prawns. If you click on the image you can work out the ingredients in a chat with Hilah from hilahcooking.com
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The poultry preparation continued with a duck drying and draining.
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The bowl may not look elegant but that mattered nought.
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I love prawns.
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I could not help capture an after image.
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The duck had a reasonable neck attached. You can tell my intent by the strategically placed Chinese meat cleaver.
With the duck added. I like to cut the breast off and slice it. It makes it easier to eat because you bite end on into the grain of the meat. Do you see the size of the duck’s neck and cloaca? I’d already bagsed (http://www.urbandictionary.com/define.php?term=bagsed) them.
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Because of the small size of Mum’s kitchen and oven, rather than roasted vegetables, Mum made a potato bake yesterday and we heated it up in a small toaster oven at lunch time. We also had broccoli, asparagus and peas.
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This is my plate. Mum made a nice orange flavoured sauce too. It was sublime.
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The neck has such nicely flavoured meat. I also managed to dissect out the trachea too. This started a nice little chat on twitter and instagram.
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So that’s it for now. Mum decided against making a pudding or a pavlova. This evening we’ll have fruit and some cheese. I’m pretty grateful. I don’t really want to blow out. I can fit into a pair of shorts I like to wear at Christmas time so I’m happy holding back a little.
I hope everyone reading this blog had a wonderful time if you celebrate Christmas. I hope your day was full of happiness and peace and good food.
This week I’m attending a meeting in Leesburg, VA. I’m writing this post as I go, if I was in the mood I’d add a timestamp with each entry but given the different time zones I’m going to be in that is a little too anal retentive even for me and my obsessive compulsive personality.
Since my last post I’ve been spending time going over my meeting briefing notes and watching DVDs. I picked up the first series of The Walking Dead and I’m hooked.
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A local Gourmet Deli Belconnen does good coffee
This deli is full of good stuff from an amazing range of chocolate to other sweets to large containers of beans and cheeses and cold meats. There are all sorts of oils and spreads and spices to choose from. The staff are pretty friendly and always happy to assist.
The shop is opposite Coles so if your heading to Westfield Shoppingtown in Belconnen for your grocery shopping, the Gourmet Deli Belconnen is a good place to relax and have a coffee.
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After some early morning shopping I made myself some scrambled eggs for breakfast. I like to make thick and rich scrambled eggs. I usually use a couple of free range eggs that I’ve warmed up to room temperature plus an almost equal volume of pouring cream. I whisk vigorously (now using my Magic Bullet®) along with a pinch of sugar, salt and pepper. I melt real butter in a small heavy fry pan until the butter foams and starts to brown, then I add the egg and cream mixture. I wait a minute before touching the mixture. I slowly pull away from one side the mixture and watch the liquid replace the solid fluffy curds. I repeat this slowly until most of the mixture has has formed soft shiny curds. I removed the pan from the heat and scoop the scrambled eggs onto freshly toasted bread. If you like you can garnish with parsley and if it feels right a little freshly grated cheese (Mersey Valley or Coon) can be added.
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Avocado and tomato on toasted light rye sourdough bread
Avocados have been expensive lately. It’s been a while but I wanted some so I bought a Hass avocado for $2. This makes a great lunch.
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Fruit and the Magic Bullet®
I have been enjoying the warm days and there’s nothing more refreshing than crushing some ice with mint, adding a little fruit and some cordial. These are the fruits I used today.
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Mango coleslaw with a little salmon and a crushed ice minted lemon lime and bitters
This is the last coleslaw I make for a week. I think all my Instagram followers are happy not to see any more red cabbage spam
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The start of my journey in the Qantas Business Lounge at CBR
Even though I made myself a caramel coffee banana smoothie for breakfast, it’s hard to pass up some yoghurt while in the lounge along with a nicely made flat white.
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The snack served on QF704
This biscuit was a little too sweet. I should have chosen water instead of juice. Too much sugar at the start of a long day.
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An awful cup of coffee at The Terrace near the check-in aisles at SYD (T1)
This was disgusting. Too milky and the coffee wasn’t strong enough. It was also tepid rather than the right temperature for frothing milk.
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After checking in I made it to the code share lounge for United Airlines, viz., the Koruclub which belongs to Air New Zealand
The Koruclub is well appointed and always has fresh supplies. It’s not in the same class as the Qantas lounges, but with the best fare of the day policy, I cannot complain. I am grateful that I get to travel for work and work with international colleagues.
They also have a hot dog stand.
This is a chilli dog with onions and cheese. I really should stop this senseless eating.
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So the flight to San Francisco was delayed by about an hour which in my mind at the time made my connection with Dulles just that little more tight than what it already was.
This is the view from my seat. I was facing backwards.
It’s nice to see the engines intact
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This is the menu for the main meal. The question was steak or salmon. Given the amount of salmon I’ve eaten lately I chose steak.
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To start we always get some nuts, usually almonds and peanuts that have been warmed up. That’s always a nice touch. The entrée was a nice salad plus some smoked salmon so I wasn’t missing out on salmon altogether.
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The fillet mignon was okay. The flavour was pleasant but the meat had been cooked too long for my liking and it was a little dry. The mashed potato was okay with it plus the little fried onions as part of the gravy.
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What I like about United Airlines is the dessert is always a sundae of some sort. For some reason the flight from Sydney didn’t have much choice. There was either strawberry or chocolate sauce. I chose strawberry.
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I spent most of the flight reading for this meeting but I did watch one movie, viz., The Expendables 2. A great action flick with the classic modern day action actors.
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For breakfast rather than the poached eggs I went for the deli plate. The plate consisted of ham, cheese and some smoked salmon. The passenger next to me chose the eggs and the yolks looked like yellow squash balls. I’ve had poached eggs on many airlines and it’s uncommon for them to serve the yolk soft let alone runny.
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Scenes coming into San Francisco.
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On getting into San Francisco International Airport (SFO), I had a mad dash to get my connection, UA525 to Washington DC Dulles (IAD). The lines at Customs and Border Protection were really long, fortunately as a government employee I carry an Official Passport and along with a Visa and the correct forms I don’t need to spend time with finger prints and photographs. The usual questions are usually asking about the meeting I’m attending and that’s it. I picked up my checked-in bag and moved quickly to the domestic terminal area to drop off my bag and dash to the departure gates. About half the time I travel to North America the airline or connecting airport (usually LAX) doesn’t get my bag on my flight so I have to wait another day for it. That means I attend a meeting in crushed clothes I’ve carried as carry-on luggage.
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On UA525 to Dulles we had a choice of cannelloni or chicken caciatori. I chose the chicken because I didn’t want the pasta and the cheese. I should have had the pasta and cheese. It looked very appetising while the chicken didn’t and it tasted blergh. It was a breast and it was dry.
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That said United Airlines made up for the main course failure with a nice ice cream sundae. I had vanilla bean ice cream with caramel sauce, nuts, glacé cherries and whipped cream.
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I got to Dulles at about 2200 and waited for the shuttle to the National Conference Center in Leesburg. The bus arrived and started to back up and despite the bus behind it honking its horn and flashing its headlights the bus driver didn’t stop and connected with the bus behind causing some minor damage. This little bingle caused a 45 minute delay so I didn’t check into the National Conference Center until after 2300.
It didn’t take long to get to sleep. I ended up sleeping 5 hours without my CPAP machine which is pretty good. I still felt a little tired.
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The Center has a good dining room. I had eggs prepared by an egg chef. I like fried eggs sunny side up.
The Center is pretty cool. The closest thing we have in Australia is the Australian Emergency Management Institute (AEMI). The NCC used to be owned by Xerox. It has accommodation for nearly 1000 guests and 250 meeting rooms. The better thing about the rooms compared to AEMI is that the en suite is private and not shared. The rooms are very small but there is enough room for a double bed and television. There is no refrigerator in the room but there is a drip filter coffee maker. The best thing is free high speed broadband in each room and free high speed wifi across the entire site.
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The same dining room is used for lunch. I had snapper, beef and pumpkin.
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The snack machine options were mostly these very sweet granola bars.
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For dinner we went to the Black Olive Sports Bar. We ordered a few pizzas. I tried pepperoni and a super deeper deluxe.
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Okay that’s enough for this post. I’ll continue blogging about my travels in another post when I get back to Australia. Catch you later.
Gaz
It’s been an interesting week. Nothing much has happened with that piece of public art that I’ve posting about on Instagram. The weather has improved out of sight. It’s finally warming up in Canberra and while there have been some hot and dry days, the humidity hasn’t been as low as in past years. I know it’s only early but I really hope we have a warm and moist Summer in Canberra. Unlikely I know in Canberra but I live in hope.
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This image was captured on Monday morning. Since then nothing much has happened. I noticed some cabling so I assume there will be lighting at night for the piece.
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On Friday it was announced that I would change roles. From Monday I will be the Specialist Medical Adviser in Health Emergency Management in the Office of Health Protection. I will then no longer be the Assistant Secretary of the Health Emergency Management Branch.
My areas of interest and activities will continue to align with my specialist medical and healthcare management experience in pathogen security, CBRN medical countermeasures, the health aspects of national security, and health emergency management. This should be a good move for me. I get to focus on the areas I am best suited for. I will miss managing people but the best thing is I still work my same work mates.
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My weight has been much the same for the last week. I haven’t been losing any weight although I’ve maintained the walking and trying to avoid snacking. Snacking though is a perennial problem when surrounded by amazing work friends who bring in treats and have special morning and afternoon tea sessions.
I’ve also been receiving encouragement from some Twitter friends who have been reminding me that my diet lacks vegetables and has too much processed food in it.
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Toasted tomato sandwich on quinoa and flaxseed bread. No cheese and no processed meat
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A work friend has a house mate who works in a bakery and we were blessed with free pastries. This is a chocolate filled butter-rich pastry.
To celebrate the rain I had salmon and potato gems.
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More celebration food. Neenish tarts and cream. This is it. No more Neenish tarts.
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Wednesday was really busy and a long day at work. I didn’t feel like cooking so I got takeaway from the local shops in the Jamison Plaza.
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I love battered fish and potato scallops that have been hand made like these were.
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We had a full moon this week. I need to cut back on the light and use a faster shutter speed.
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On Thursday a work friend brought in morning tea. I had a chocolate caramel fudge brownie and a Queensland nut shortbread biscuit.
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At lunch time I went to the local shops with a friend and bought some Pâté, bread and butter. Then three of us shared this for lunch. The Pâté was by Maggie Beer, I bought two types, viz., duck, sherry, and green peppercorn and duck, vino cotto, and star anise. The butter was from Tasmania. The bread was fresh and it all tasted delicious.
We’re thinking of doing it again and getting quince paste too.
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That night I only wanted a light dinner. Floured chicken thigh and potato gems.
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The moon over Lake Ginninderra. I need to cut back on the light and use a faster shutter speed.
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Friday lunch started out as toasted pumpkin seed bread and tomato.
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But then I got told about my job change and thought I needed more food This is a cheesy bacon pie and lime quench. The pie was really nice. The beef is chunky and very tender. These are made in the Urban Bean Espresso Bar.
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For dinner to make up for the lack of vegetables this week I made some coleslaw and cooked a piece of salmon with it.
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This morning I went for a walk in shorts and T-shirt. It was lovely and warm. The sky was full of dark clouds. The leaves on the trees are so green.
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The Owl statue, known to me as Mr Owl, looked spooky with the swirling clouds behind him.
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Today for lunch I had some toasted light rye sourdough bread topped with a mixture of avocado, tomato, Tabasco sauce, chilli flakes and pepper corns.
It looks disgusting but it tasted good.
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I opened my Instacanvas recently. I don’t know why. I just did it for the sake of it I think.
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In terms of the CPAP business I visited the CPAP technician and had my last three weeks analysed through the software associated with the machine. While I still feel worse than before and always tired it appears I get a good seal, the pressures are good and I don’t need to change from nasal pillows or add a chin strap.
So I hope you had a good week. Let me know about it, write a comment below. Eat well, sleep well and be nice to everyone.
Okay an update. At 0830 AEDT a Telstra technician, Grant, called my mobile telephone and said he’d check the exchange. At 1030 AEDT Grant called and said he’d found a loose wire and everything should be fixed. Guess what, it is! I have my line, ADSL and wifi. Grant called at 1040 AEDT just to make sure everything was working. This is Good. Thank you Telstra.
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From Thursday night
I need to rant. I got home from work and went through my usual routine of turning on my modem/router so the home wifi would start to work. I turned on the iMac only to discover that there was no signal. The modem showed a problem with the telephone LEDs. The telephone line was dead. I called Telstra (the main provider in Australia) and after a couple of failed attempts of calling the fault line I spoke with a man who was trying to be helpful but his accent was very thick and I think my strine was also too much for him too.
After 30 minutes of line testing and me pulling out devices and cables from sockets in the walls he determined there was a problem he couldn’t work out. He’d send a technician as soon as possible. I had high hopes someone would come tonight, after all I’m a loyal customer. The earliest someone can come and see me is Saturday. No specific time could be provided although it’s likely to be the morning.
I vented on Twitter and Facebook which always helps. I was interested in the number of people who no longer rely on a landline and seem to be happy with wireless broadband.
