Start a new job on Monday

It's doing the same job I had last year, setting up a new store. I am feeling anxious, though I know I can do the job and enjoyed it last time. Am hoping that this will lead to something more permanent, we need the extra income right now. Could have kept the last job, they wanted me to but I didn't have a good feeling about the place - strangely enough they were robbed the week after I finished, also they have had to cut everyone's hours down. Have a better feeling about the new store, they are in a great position, close to public transport. I'll see how I feel in 6 weeks time.

One thing that is bothering me is what the state of my house will be, last time it was bad, it's bad enough now but I don't want to let it get any worse. I don't envisage myself having a lot time to do things - will be leaving home at 6AM and probably not getting back til 7pm - or later (last time we had some 10.30pm finishes in the rush to get done. Last time my daughter was working with me too but this time she won't be, she is going to have to take over much of the housework. Am thinking about printing up chore lists for each day for her and my son to work through.

Like I said it's only for 6 weeks and when the store opens if when I get a permanent job there the hours won't be as long nor will I be working everyday. Talking of a permanent job I have been told by my old manager (last job) that she has openings there as well and has hinted that I should apply for her second in command position. Told her will see her after the set-up is finished.

Commuting time will be over an hour - train leaves at 6.36 which means I have to out of the house by 6.20 at the latest to walk to the station - will leave earlier, don't want to be hot and sweaty first thing. That will give me plenty of time to get to the store, it's not far from the station. There is a later train that will still get me there in time but gives me much less time at the end of the trip. Better to be safe than sorry.

Waffles, pie and Spinning

I've been looking at the appliances I have in my kitchen, ones that haven't been used for a long time. The waffle maker and the pie maker in particular.

I have 2 waffle makers, I can't remember where one came from, could have been a gift from my mother or I had asked her to get me one, the other was my grandmother's. I accidently melted the wire on mine so took Nanna's until David repaired my one. I will give the other back to Mum, though I don't think she would use it. The piemaker was bought in our last house and I am ashamed to say was only used a few times there and not since we moved here in 2001.

Thought I'd give them a try out before deciding what to do with them, do they stay or do they go. First off I made waffles, they not bad at all. Might do a waffle breakfast on weekends.



Then I trid the piemaker, pies looked lovely but where a little anemic inside - need to be more brave when it comes to browning. I did try again and had a better result. The second batch I doubled the meat, as David thought the pies where too oniony. He isn't an onion fan, my son however said they were the best pies ever. Pies for dinner tonight, going to do this weekly I think they are very easy to make.

I've also been looking at my craft supplies, I have way too much. I've decided to give a lot of my scrapbooking things to my niece, keeping supplies for cardmaking. I've decided I'm just not that into scrapbooking - sorry Kathy. I don't have a real forte, haven't got an ultimate favourite craft. When the mood hits me for something in particular I concentrate on that for a while. Last night I pulled out my spinning wheel in an effort to use up the roving that is taking up cupboard space.

Free postcard

I've had the confirmation that I have a place in theworkshops. While I was at the site I also requested a free postcard. It has seeds imbedded in it so the postcard can be planted to grow into a tree. The seeds are Bottlebrush, native to the
Sydney area and the offer is only available to Austalians. The postcard arrived within days, though I've not yet planted it. I need to get more potting mix.

I did get some yesterday, 3 bags and used the lot to plant vegie plants that DH bought me last week. Didn't have the heart to tell him that I had decided not do anything with the yard until Autumn, wanted to wait until after my workshops. I went out, bought polystyrene boxes from a greengrocer, they sell them for 50c and $1 instead of throwing them out, to plant the vegeies in, also used my son's toy wheelbarrow that I turned into a planter. He is now taller than I am and the wheelbarrow is around knee height. I still need more boxes or pots, have tomatoes and strawberries to plant.

I had to refuse a request to sew a bridesmaid dress today, have never sewn anything like that but have done hemming for a couple of weddings in the past - I remember how stressful just the hemming was, couldn't imagine how I'd feel about doing a whole dress. I feel guilty about refusing but know that my sanity is more important as well as my loved ones who also suffer when I am stressed.

I've also decided to less of a lurker, I usually click on links in comments on favourite blogs (it's how I found my favourite ones, the list keeps growing), sometimes I leave a comment but often not. Decided that each day I visit blogs I have to leave comments on at least 3 of them instead of just lurking.

The Urban Sustainability Workshop Series

Free workshops held through Watershed Sustainability Resource Centre in Newtown, Sydney.

Courses include
Worm farming, no dig gardening, Natural Cleaning and Home Detox, Intro to sustainable Living, Natural Personal Care, Composting, Natural baby care and Eco Choices for Home Renovators.

I've just booked into No dig Gardening and Intro into sustainable living in March, I hope they have a spot available for me.

Shop looks interesting too, I'll definitely be heading there.

This weekend has been a real shocker!

We have been getting record highs in temperature 43oC locally but heat was all we suffered with, many other Australians have not been so lucky. It's been a tragic weekend, in Victoria over 80 deaths have been confirmed and 640 houses have been lost due to bushfires, more aptly described as wildfires. Whole communities have been devastated. In NSW (where I live) there have been around 50 fires burning around the state. We have not been affected not even the scent of smoke hit us today. There was smoke around on Friday night from a fire about 40 minutes drive away and a slight smell last night. The heat has been the cause of many of these fires but there is evidence that many have been deliberately hit - a man suggested that when arsonists are caught they should be tied to a tree in the path of a fire. This man was livid, though lucky because firefighters were able to stop a deliberately lit fire about 4 metres (approx 4 yards) from his house.

My Uncle and Aunt are volunteer firefighters, last week they both were out working on burnbacks, fighting fires, one would crawl into bed after a 12 - 15 hour shift and the other would crawl out to do it themselves. They even did 15 hours days down in Melbourne. People just like them are risking their lives trying to save properties, lives and wildlife, I am very thankful for their selfless contributions. To think that others think they have the right to put lives and communities at risk is utterly disgusting, we need tougher punishment for them. I caught part of a news story where a 19 year old man was being charged with arson, he was actually a volunteer firefighter and lit fires in the hope that his team would be called out. How astounding is that?

On the homefront, we have been having lots of electrical equipment troubles lately, the stove stopped working a couple of weeks back, the car cost $1500 in repairs after playing up at New Year. This weekend it has been the washing machine and fridge. The washing machine threw it's belt, it's happened a couple of times before and we had bought a new belt but decided to wait til it happened again before installing it. Basically get as much use out of the old belt as we could, it had developed splits going around it. I think the heat and the fact that the door of the fridge has been found to be ajar lately got to the fridge. Supposed to be frostfree but it had inch thick frost that took ages to defrost. It started chilling when I turned it on but took hours to do so. I tossed everything out seeing as fresh milk had curdled, put bottles full of ice in to aid in cooling and just before bed took milk from the esky, putting it into a crisper drawer and surrounding with giant blocks of ice. David was blaming the kids and I for not closing the fridge properly but a few minutes after he put ice water from the freezer into it I found the door not properly closed - the temp went up 10 degrees in that time. He swears he checked it was closed so we now we know the seal isn't the best. I made sure it was properly closed before going to bed and woke up to find the temp was on the high side of safe chilling temp. I start another temp job this month and it looks like I'll be using my pay to get a new fridge. Brand new - no more second hand ones for us. We've had 2 in the last 3 years (one free, the other bought). We bought a new one with wedding money 20 years ago, decided it was too small and was looking ugly with rust so we sold it on to be used in the canteen at soccer 2 years ago. It's still running strong.

Hot Weather and a rescue.

Have been hearing of heat waves and flooding in parts of Australia, it's been very hot here but the forecast for the weekend is for hotter weather, 44 degree heat (that's 111.2 Fahrentheit) I swear I've already started melting! Having no air conditioning isn't going help either.

Had to do a rescue tonight, I was sitting in my sewing room when I heard cheeping from outside. I went out to investigate and noticed it was on the other side of the fence, the neigbour has a chicken run along our side fence. I stood on a chair to look over the fence and noticed a tiny duckling on it's own, lost in the darkness. I was wondering what to do when my cat came out the door I had left open, heard the cheeping and jumped onto the fence to investigate, she was on the top of the coop before I could get to her. I knew I had to get to the duckling before her so grabbed a hammer, prised fence palings off to squeeze through the fence. Was able to catch the duckling easily, it was attracted to my torchlight and snuck around to the front of the coop, turning off the torch when I got in veiw of the house. Didn't want to scare the elderly lady if she noticed torchlight in her chicken run at midnight. The door was chocked closed but I managed to pry it open a little to push the duckling through, took 2 goes as it came right out under the door the first time. I'm hoping that it finds it's mother or at least a substitute for tonight. Very glad it wasn't the cat's dinner, apart from mine there are many roaming around here. My cat refused to come off the roof so I had to leave her, she's only just knocked on the window to be let in. I tied the fence palings up, I'll nail them tomorrow, can't even explain what I did to the lady, she doesn't speak a word of english.

Yoghurt and Butter Chicken Recipe

Pulled out the Easiyo last night to make some yogurt, kept it really simple by using UHT milk instead of heat treating milk, no dirty pans or extra heat in the kitchen. This morning I poured the runny yogurt into a cheesecloth lined strainer over a bowl and put the lot in the fridge. A couple of hours later I scraped the now thick and creamy yogurt out of the cheesecloth and put it into one of the small easiyo containers, had enough to fill it. There is a lot whey left, it's in the fridge I may freeze it for later use.

My son and I tried it, he had it plain and I had mine with a nectarine. It is delicious. Best I've ever made. I only read the tip of straining it through cheesecloth on the net last night to make it more like Greek yoghurt.

Used 1 litre of lowfat generic brand UHT Milk and 2 - 3 tablespoons of plain yoghurt. Milk was $1.19, carton of yoghurt $1.50. Used the rest of the yogurt in the recipe below.

My daughter and I love Butter Chicken, we usually buy it takeaway or use a bottled sauce but I've been wanting to try making it myself. It was very simple to do, just took time, it's not a last minute dish.

Butter Chicken

1.5kg chicken thigh fillets, trim fat and roughly chop
4 cloves garlic crushed
2 tsp garam masala
2 tsp ground coriander
2 tsp ground cumin
2 tsp sweet paprika
1/2 tsp chilli powder
1/2 cup plain yoghurt
60g butter
410g can tomato puree (this is not the same as tomato paste!!)
1 chicken stock cube, crumbled
1 cup cream


1. Combine chicken, spices and yoghurt together in a large bowl * I mixed the spices and yoghurt first then added the chicken combining until well coated. Refrigerate for 2 - 3 hours.

2 Melt half the butter in a large pan, add half the chicken mixture. Stir over heat until chicken is lightly browned. Remove from pan, set aside and repeat with remaining chicken.

3 Return all chicken to pan, then stir in tomato puree, stock cube and 1 cup water. Bring to boil, then reduce heat and simmer uncovered for 30 minutes or until chicken is tender, stirring occasionally. Add cream and stire over heat without boiling until heated through. Serve with rice.