I can't remember (and I'm too lazy to search) if I've mentioned this before, but I try to practice at least one Random Act of Kindness every day. It doesn't have to be a grand gesture. It could be something as simple as holding open a door for someone who has their arms full. Or saying "bless you" to someone who sneezes. Or admiring those FABulous shoes/blouse/skirt the lady in the lift is wearing and letting her know. So it's really not a big impost to do one act per day.
Something I've discovered is that, sometimes, an act you don't even think about is perceived as a huge kindness to someone else. Take this morning, for example.
Myself and other passengers were patiently waiting on the train platform when, three minutes before our train was due, we received the advice that the service was, once again, stuffed: "Please board the next train, change at Newport for a bus service to North Melbourne, then change for a city-bound train". Um, no thank you. So I looked around the group of people near me on the platform (most of whom I see nearly every working day) and said "I'm not gonna do that. My car is here, I'm driving to the CBD - does anyone want a lift?"
Well.
I know that, while I see these people most days, we're still strangers. But is that really an excuse to look at me the way a lot of them did? The looks on their faces were... well, I could perhaps understand if I was dressed like a derro, with a big lugey hanging out of my nose, and offered to murder their dog while I was at it. Which I wasn't, and didn't.
As it was, only one person accepted my offer, a lovely lady originally from Bulgaria. She had to get to work, and these transport issues would have made her REALLY late. So once she understood what I'd said, she came along for the ride. It was no big deal to me, I was driving to the city, I just took a little detour via Flinders St station. But this lady was so happy to be able to get to work on time. We had a great chat during the drive, and it certainly livened up my trip - much more fun than being by myself and listening to the radio.
Since I got to work today, I've mentioned the train problems and what I did to a few people, and discovered that a lot of people wouldn't have offered others a lift, or even thought to. Which of course they're absolutely entitled to do. Of course!
But am I really so strange?
Thursday, July 02, 2009
Thursday, June 18, 2009
It's My Blog and I'll Ramble If I Want To
My post today might not be overly coherent, and I apologise in advance, but it's only a fraction after 9am and I've been awake for... wow... nearly 9 hours already. With a bed-time of 10pm last night, you do the maths on sleep-hours!
Today marks 3 decades of this life for me. I was thinking, at about 4am, of the things I've learned in this time. Sadly, the meaning of life hasn't dawned upon me, nor even the meaning of MY life! There are a few things, though, that I realised I've learned along the way.
The first is that my family mean more than the earth to me. There is nothing that I wouldn't do for them. To me, close friends are also family, so this extends to them. This has meant a few kicks in the teeth in the trust-stakes many times through my life (99.9% of the time from "friends"), but I don't want to be any other way.
The second is that you should never assume anything about the effect you have on the lives of your family, friends, and even strangers. The most random and thoughtless act on your part can have a massive effect, positive or negative, on others. I try really hard to make sure I leave the former. The simplest things, like saying "please" and "thank you" to the check-out chick, or the person who serves you lunch, cost you nothing, but can make a lasting impression. It seems to me that manners and consideration of others are dying habits. Maybe it's because I was raised in the country, by people who taught me that manners were NOT optional, that I feel this way.
The third is that friends are fabulous, wonderful, people to have. But when a friendship becomes toxic, and can not be salvaged, you have to have the strength to walk away, and try to remember the good times. Being any other way is a miserable way to live.
The fourth is that you should always follow a recipe as closely as you can the first time you attempt it. Then get creative.
The fifth is that if you really want something nothing can or will get in your way.
There are possibly quite a few more, but those are the first that leap to my mind.
Now, I'm off to buy myself a red dress for dinner tonight :)
Today marks 3 decades of this life for me. I was thinking, at about 4am, of the things I've learned in this time. Sadly, the meaning of life hasn't dawned upon me, nor even the meaning of MY life! There are a few things, though, that I realised I've learned along the way.
The first is that my family mean more than the earth to me. There is nothing that I wouldn't do for them. To me, close friends are also family, so this extends to them. This has meant a few kicks in the teeth in the trust-stakes many times through my life (99.9% of the time from "friends"), but I don't want to be any other way.
The second is that you should never assume anything about the effect you have on the lives of your family, friends, and even strangers. The most random and thoughtless act on your part can have a massive effect, positive or negative, on others. I try really hard to make sure I leave the former. The simplest things, like saying "please" and "thank you" to the check-out chick, or the person who serves you lunch, cost you nothing, but can make a lasting impression. It seems to me that manners and consideration of others are dying habits. Maybe it's because I was raised in the country, by people who taught me that manners were NOT optional, that I feel this way.
The third is that friends are fabulous, wonderful, people to have. But when a friendship becomes toxic, and can not be salvaged, you have to have the strength to walk away, and try to remember the good times. Being any other way is a miserable way to live.
The fourth is that you should always follow a recipe as closely as you can the first time you attempt it. Then get creative.
The fifth is that if you really want something nothing can or will get in your way.
There are possibly quite a few more, but those are the first that leap to my mind.
Now, I'm off to buy myself a red dress for dinner tonight :)
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
Gingerbread
If ever there was a time when I wished I could blog smells, this would have to be one of them. There's something about the smell of ginger and treacle baking. You might remember my opinion of treacle and ginger from quite a while ago. This is another example of sheer mouthy-delight.
I got this recipe from "The Margaret Fulton Cookbook", and had to adapt it slightly to fit with what I had on hand. Instead of ground cloves and allspice, neither of which I had in my cupboard, I used 1/4 tsp of nutmeg. I also didn't have any buttermilk, so used normal milk and soured it slightly with a few dribbles of vinegar. Still, I think it's damned yummy. Also, I didn't bother with the lemon frosting (which was basically runny lemon icing) - instead I dished it up with a sprinkling of icing sugar. And then some more for dessert, heated up, with ice cream.
Delish...
Gingerbread
(Recipe copied straight from The Margaret Fulton Cookbook)
1 1/2 cups plain flour
1/2 tsp bicarbonate of soda
1 tbl ground ginger
1 tsp ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground cloves
1/4 tsp ground allspice
125g unsalted butter
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup treacle
2 x 60g eggs
2 tsp vanilla essence
1/2 cup buttermilk
Preheat the oven to 180C. Butter and line with baking paper the base of a deep 23cm round cake tin. Sift flour, soda and spices into a bowl. In the bowl of an electric mixer, cream the butter and beat in the brown sugar, until the mixture is light and fluffy. Beat in the treacle and then the eggs, one at a time. Beat in the vanilla essence. Lastly, stir in the sifted flour mixture thoroughly, and then the buttermilk.
Turn the mixture into the prepared tin, smoothing the top and making a slight indentation in the centre with a spatula. Bake 35-40 minutes, or until a skewer inserted comes out clean. Let the gingerbread cool in the tin on a wire rack. Turn out onto a serving plate and serve plain or spread with lemon frosting.
Tuesday, May 12, 2009
Dong Que Vietnamese Restaurant
102 Hopkins Street, Footscray
P: 03 9689 4392
Last night's train schemozzle wasn't all bad news. I wouldn't go so far as to say there was all that much GOOD about it, but I managed to salvage one good thing out of the evening. It wasn't having my feet crushed on an over-crowded train from Flinders St to Footscray. It wasn't spending 40 minutes just trying to get off the platform at Footscray. It certainly wasn't being crushed underfoot as 6 carriage-loads of people fought to be the first to get onto the two buses that were replacing that train as far as Newport.
I made an executive decision: it was likely to take a LONG time to clear the crowds and the problem at Spotswood, so I decided to go get myself a little bite to eat to pass the time.
My selection criteria was quite simple. The place had to have an appetising menu. And it had to accept eftpos. After a couple of false starts, I ended up at Dong Que. They offer take away as well as eating in, and I think there'd have to be something on the menu for everyone.
I always find it hard to pass up an entree. And when there're vego spring rolls it's even more difficult. These little babies have only 5 ingredients in them... carrot, cabbage, mushroom... and I'm not sure what the other two are. But they all combine to form an amazingly yummy package that, with a drizzle of chilli oil, are an incredibly good way to start the meal. I'd planned to only eat a couple and take the rest home to eat today.... but I scoffed them all. Bad me.
I chose the lemongrass and chilli beef for a main. Good choice. Tender slices of beef lightly stir fried with carrot, snow peas, capsicum, onion and spring onion, chilli, and fragrant lemongrass. Lovely. So fragrant. Half of this (and half the serve of rice) became my dinner tonight too.
The lowest point of the meal was definitely my dessert. I chose a banana fritter with ice cream and chocolate topping. Don't get me wrong, the banana was delicious with a crisp coating. The chocolate topping was your basic, fresh-off-the-shelf topping (possibly the cheap brand), but it was still ok. No, the real let-down was the ice cream. I'm not sure what brand it was, but it has to be one of the worst vanilla ice creams I've had in a while.
Still, all in all, that was a bloody good meal. Enough so that I'm thinking of making dinner in Footscray on the way home a regular occurrence. I mean, I can't find anything decent as far west as where I live, so I might explore Foot-es-cray a little more thoroughly.... Hm...
Oh, and when I went back to the station a little before 8 buses were still replacing trains from Footscray to Newport, but instead of a mad crush there were only 6 of us. Much nicer.
P: 03 9689 4392
Last night's train schemozzle wasn't all bad news. I wouldn't go so far as to say there was all that much GOOD about it, but I managed to salvage one good thing out of the evening. It wasn't having my feet crushed on an over-crowded train from Flinders St to Footscray. It wasn't spending 40 minutes just trying to get off the platform at Footscray. It certainly wasn't being crushed underfoot as 6 carriage-loads of people fought to be the first to get onto the two buses that were replacing that train as far as Newport.
I made an executive decision: it was likely to take a LONG time to clear the crowds and the problem at Spotswood, so I decided to go get myself a little bite to eat to pass the time.
My selection criteria was quite simple. The place had to have an appetising menu. And it had to accept eftpos. After a couple of false starts, I ended up at Dong Que. They offer take away as well as eating in, and I think there'd have to be something on the menu for everyone.
I always find it hard to pass up an entree. And when there're vego spring rolls it's even more difficult. These little babies have only 5 ingredients in them... carrot, cabbage, mushroom... and I'm not sure what the other two are. But they all combine to form an amazingly yummy package that, with a drizzle of chilli oil, are an incredibly good way to start the meal. I'd planned to only eat a couple and take the rest home to eat today.... but I scoffed them all. Bad me.
I chose the lemongrass and chilli beef for a main. Good choice. Tender slices of beef lightly stir fried with carrot, snow peas, capsicum, onion and spring onion, chilli, and fragrant lemongrass. Lovely. So fragrant. Half of this (and half the serve of rice) became my dinner tonight too.
The lowest point of the meal was definitely my dessert. I chose a banana fritter with ice cream and chocolate topping. Don't get me wrong, the banana was delicious with a crisp coating. The chocolate topping was your basic, fresh-off-the-shelf topping (possibly the cheap brand), but it was still ok. No, the real let-down was the ice cream. I'm not sure what brand it was, but it has to be one of the worst vanilla ice creams I've had in a while.
Still, all in all, that was a bloody good meal. Enough so that I'm thinking of making dinner in Footscray on the way home a regular occurrence. I mean, I can't find anything decent as far west as where I live, so I might explore Foot-es-cray a little more thoroughly.... Hm...
Oh, and when I went back to the station a little before 8 buses were still replacing trains from Footscray to Newport, but instead of a mad crush there were only 6 of us. Much nicer.
Sunday, May 03, 2009
Two Bikkies, Different Looks
One of my christmas presents this year was a "Cookie-A-Day" desk calendar. It's been useful, particularly last night when I couldn't sleep and was feeling bored (VERY bored, as you might realise). And I decided I wanted to try an old favourite that had been given a little revamp in there. But first of all, I found passionfruit in my local Coles, so decided to whip up a batch of melting moments for old-times sake.
These little guys are always popular. They're a fool-proof standby for me when it comes to having to make biscuits. I have NEVER been able to stuff them up. But by the 60th little ball of dough I was VERY sick of rolling and pressing, so with the bit that was left I did...
... something a little different. Yep, I rolled the dough out flat then cut out a solid disk and a disk with a teddy bear cut out of it (aw so cute) and made sandwiches. You might also spy some cute little teddy-bear-shaped bikky sandwiches hiding on the plate too.
But back to the calendar. Jam drops were listed with a variation that suggested substituting a little cocoa for the flour, and nutella for jam. "Interesting", I thought to myself, "Worth a try".
(I can think of several unpleasant things that dollop of nutella reminds me of, but I'm trying really hard to ignore them)
Again, rolling dough (and trying to make all the little balls the same size) really got old after the first two dozen, so with the last of the dough I cut out circles, put a dollop of nutella in the middle, then folded them in half to cook and...
... came out with these little pillows. I think I prefer these. Very nice. Have had positive comments from all who sampled.
It's amazing what just modifying one little ingredient, or the presentation, can change something as simple as a biscuit.
Melting Moments:
Preheat oven to 160C. Cream 250g of softened butter with 1tsp vanilla essence and 1/2 cup pure icing sugar (not icing sugar mixture). Sift in 2 cups of plain flour and 1/3 cup of cornflour and mix until dough forms. Roll teaspoons-full of mixture into balls and place onto greased baking trays (or just use baking paper). Dipping a fork regularly in some flour, press down on the biscuits. Bake for 15 minutes or until lightly golden and cooked. Cool on trays for 10 minutes before moving to a wire rack to cool completely.
When completely cool, mix 60g of butter with the pulp from one large passionfruit and 1 cup of icing sugar (or more, depending on how much icing you want and what consistency you like). Spread on the flat bottom of a biscuit then sandwich another on. Yum.
Jam Drops:
I've previously posted the jam drops recipe I use, but the link I put in doesn't work any more :-( So here it is.
Preheat oven to 180C. Cream 126g of butter with 1/2 cup of caster sugar and 1 tsp of vanilla essence. Add 1 egg and beat well. Sift in 1 1/4 cups self-raising flour and mix until dough forms. Roll teaspoons-full of dough into balls and place onto greased baking trays. Lightly make an indent on top with your thum, then fill with a little jam.
For the chocolate ones I substituted 2tbl of cocoa for some of the flour (to make the total still 1 1/4 cups of dry powdery stuff), then dropped nutella on instead of jam.
Yum again.
These little guys are always popular. They're a fool-proof standby for me when it comes to having to make biscuits. I have NEVER been able to stuff them up. But by the 60th little ball of dough I was VERY sick of rolling and pressing, so with the bit that was left I did...
... something a little different. Yep, I rolled the dough out flat then cut out a solid disk and a disk with a teddy bear cut out of it (aw so cute) and made sandwiches. You might also spy some cute little teddy-bear-shaped bikky sandwiches hiding on the plate too.
But back to the calendar. Jam drops were listed with a variation that suggested substituting a little cocoa for the flour, and nutella for jam. "Interesting", I thought to myself, "Worth a try".
(I can think of several unpleasant things that dollop of nutella reminds me of, but I'm trying really hard to ignore them)
Again, rolling dough (and trying to make all the little balls the same size) really got old after the first two dozen, so with the last of the dough I cut out circles, put a dollop of nutella in the middle, then folded them in half to cook and...
... came out with these little pillows. I think I prefer these. Very nice. Have had positive comments from all who sampled.
It's amazing what just modifying one little ingredient, or the presentation, can change something as simple as a biscuit.
Melting Moments:
Preheat oven to 160C. Cream 250g of softened butter with 1tsp vanilla essence and 1/2 cup pure icing sugar (not icing sugar mixture). Sift in 2 cups of plain flour and 1/3 cup of cornflour and mix until dough forms. Roll teaspoons-full of mixture into balls and place onto greased baking trays (or just use baking paper). Dipping a fork regularly in some flour, press down on the biscuits. Bake for 15 minutes or until lightly golden and cooked. Cool on trays for 10 minutes before moving to a wire rack to cool completely.
When completely cool, mix 60g of butter with the pulp from one large passionfruit and 1 cup of icing sugar (or more, depending on how much icing you want and what consistency you like). Spread on the flat bottom of a biscuit then sandwich another on. Yum.
Jam Drops:
I've previously posted the jam drops recipe I use, but the link I put in doesn't work any more :-( So here it is.
Preheat oven to 180C. Cream 126g of butter with 1/2 cup of caster sugar and 1 tsp of vanilla essence. Add 1 egg and beat well. Sift in 1 1/4 cups self-raising flour and mix until dough forms. Roll teaspoons-full of dough into balls and place onto greased baking trays. Lightly make an indent on top with your thum, then fill with a little jam.
For the chocolate ones I substituted 2tbl of cocoa for some of the flour (to make the total still 1 1/4 cups of dry powdery stuff), then dropped nutella on instead of jam.
Yum again.
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