Knitting on the Brain?

Tres amusink. Knit me a zombie for my birthday, will you?

it's that doing unto others thing...

came across this a few hours ago ~

Transform Homelessness

and although it's a joint venture with a corporate entity, it's an easy idea to get people involved. and kind of nice to see at the end that other people in your area have done the same thing.

Zierholz at the Brewery (Canberra)

We had our staff Xmas party here this year. OMG there was so much excellent food. We chose the $40 a head Xmas banquet (there is a choice of three from $35 per head to $45 per head). There were 19 of us and we couldn't eat it all. I'm so glad we didn't go for the more expensive banquet (with extra dishes) and in fact the cheaper banquet probably would have fed us all quite well. So, here's what we ate:

Mini swiss brown mushroom, onion and caraway tarts
A hot and cold selection of German meats
Over roasted duck and spatzle salad (this was so good)
Grilled chicken breast
Zucchii fritters
Beer battered fish and chips
King prawns sauteed in garlic and sage
Sauerkraut, warm potato salad, braised red cabbage
Traditional German bretzels (giant bready pretzels, yum)
Slow cooked pork belly with caramelised Zierholz Porter sauce

Their everyday menu looks pretty good too.

For the beer drinkers (we were in a brewery after all) there were a number of different German style beers on offer, which had been brewed on the premises. The best part was the 'paddle'. A paddle is 7 shots of the beers made by the brewery in a neat little rack for $10, plus a middy of your favourite beer once you had finished all the shots. A great way to sample all the beers without having to drink too much of one you didn't like. They also do mini kegs, which my boss had for his 40th (unfortunately before I started work here) and which he said were very good.

Zierholz is in Fyshwick so there are no issues with parking. They also do bar snacks for casual diners. So next time you are in Canberra and wondering what to do, maybe a visit to the brewery might help pass the time?

"A name's a name."

sure. but I suspect in 20 years time when this child turns round and backhands his father (and mother for that matter), he'll say, "... and a c0ckhead's a c0ckhead."

"Little H1tler can't have name on cake."

uhuh.

what defines "Teh Outback"?

via a few peoples on LJ. a number of these hinge on what you call Teh Outback - which can mean "anywhere west of where you currently are" on the east coast, and vice-versa on the west... but I'm presuming here it means "where it's really flat and hot and there's not much stuff around."

also, wouldn't mind a reference to Pavs, lammos, drop bears and Midnight Oil. oh,and Sandmans, or Chargers. still, one of the more coherent memes I've seen in a long while.

1. Heard a kookaburra in person
2. Slept under the stars
3. Seen a koala
4. Visited Melbourne
5. Watched a summer thunderstorm
6. Worn a pair of thongs
7. Been to Uluru (Ayer's Rock)
8. Visited Cape York
9. Held a snake
10. Sang along with Khe San
11. Drank VB (flat, for a dare, blech!)
12. Visited Sydney
13. Have seen a shark
14. Have used Aussie slang naturally in a conversation (really? well bugger me)
15. Had an actual conversation with an indigenous Australian (Aboriginal)
16. Eaten hot chips from the bag at the beach
17. Walked/climbed over the Sydney Harbour Bridge (legally - want to do it illegally too)
18. Used an outside dunny, and checked under the seat before sitting down
19. Seen Chloe in Young & Jackson's (sorry but this is too Melbourne-centric)
20. Slept on an overnight train or bus
21. Been to Sydney's Mardi Gras
22. Have gone bush-bashing
23. Taken a sickie
24. Been to see a game of Aussie Rules football
25. Have seen wild camels
26. Gone skinny dipping
27. Had a Tim Tam Slam
28. Ridden in a tram in Melbourne
29. Been at an ANZAC day Dawn Service
30. Watched a sunrise or sunset
31. Held a wombat (seen one in Teh Wild but didn't approach, I'm not stupid you know)
32. Been on a roadtrip of 800km or more
33. Seen the Great Australian Bight in person
34. Had a really bad sunburn
35. Visited an aboriginal community
36. Seen a redback spider
37. Have watched Paul Hogan (pre-Dundee)
38. Seen Blue Poles in person (and loved it)
39. Wandered barefoot in the bush/outback
40. Eaten Vegemite
41. Thrown a boomerang (but it didn't come back)
42. Seen the Kimberleys
43. Given a hitch-hiker a lift
44. Been to Perth
45. Have tried Lemon, Lime and Bitters (didn't know this was Orstralyan)
46. Tried playing a didgeridoo (failed dismally. have seen Rolf Harris play in person and got his autograph though. have heard that females aren't actually meant to play the didge. anyone know if that's true?)
47. Seen dinosaur footprints
48. Eaten Tim Tams (as opposed to just sucking them down a la point 27? silly)
49. Been to Darwin
50. Touched a kangaroo
51. Visted the Great Barrier Reef
52. Listened to Kevin Bloody Wilson (not by choice)
53. Killed a Cane Toad
54. Gone to a drive-in theatre
55. Have read and own books by Australian authors (I collect Norman Lindsay and Mary Grant Bruce amongst others)
56. Visited Adelaide
57. Know the true story behind 'Eternity' (and have the t-shirt)
58. Been camping
59. Visited Brisbane
60. Been in an outback pub (country yes, outback no, at least, I don't think so)
61. Know what the term "Waltzing Matilda" actually means
62. Gone whale watching (not with a tour group though. anyway, if you live in Sydney you just have to loll about the harbour on the right day)
63. Listened to Slim Dusty (not by choice. where's the 'Listened to Nick Cave' question?)
64. Own five or more Australian movies or TV series
65. Sang along to Down Under
66. Have stopped specifically to look at an historic marker by the side of the road
67. Eaten a 4'n'20 pie
68. Surfed at Bondi (swum, body-surfed, and never gone back in. too crowded! visit to eat occasionally)
69. Watched the cricket on Boxing Day (quintessential Boxing Day fare)
70. Visited Hobart
71. Eaten kangaroo (yum)
72. Seen a quokka
73. Visited Canberra
74. Visited rainforests
75. Used a Victa lawnmower
76. Travelled on a tram in Adelaide
78. Used a Hills hoist (both the accepted usages)
79. Visited Kata-Tjuta (the Olgas)
80. Used native Australian plants in cooking
81. Visited the snow (once, it was pack-ice and boring as bat shit))
82. Chosen a side in Holden VS Ford
83. Visited the desert
84. Been water skiing
85. Read The Phantom (as in comic? is that particularly Australian?)
86. Visited Parliament House
87. Gone spotlighting or pig-shooting
88. Crossed the Nullarbor
89. Avoided swimming in areas because of crocodiles
90. Listened to AC/DC
91. Called someone a dag
92. Voted in a Federal Election
93. Have been swimming and stayed between the flags (was made to when I was pregnant. usually I'm a rebel)
94. Had a possum in your roof
95. Visited the outback
96. Travelled over corrugated roads
97. Hit a kangaroo whilst driving (scared the living shite out of me. roo wasn't happy either)
98. Been well outside any mobile phone coverage (Bogan's Gate!)
99. Seen an emu
100. Have woken to the smell of bushfires

Discounts

ur doing it wrong

Next Week-Strip Seaching The Brocolli

Posh Nosh

I'm embarking on a dangerous mission.
It involves leg hair.

Boys, leave now.

Girls, should you be accursed with this same dreadful affliction, should you be brave enough, come witness my pain and humiliation optimistic foray into the realm of the beauty industry's latest money-grabbing vehicle of the impossible promise - permanent hairlessnessness.

Banishing the Werewolf is the story of one girl's adventure with her new fluorescent pink friend, the curiously named and annoyingly punctuated no!no!

Squeeeeee!

From email I got yesterday.


"Guess whose back? THE CAT EMPIRE.
After a quieter year by Empire standards, we are pulling our troupe together again to hit the road in Australia, for 16 shows, and more to follow…
Having declared some ‘long service leave’ for 2008, after being on a seemingly never- ending international tour, we have spent this year closer to home; Felix delved into his classical side, Will returned to study town planning, Ollie has been seen on stages in Melbourne almost every night of the week, Ryan has been doing whatever Ryan does, Harry has been on tour with Jackson Jackson, and Jumps spent a month in India, leaving Mumbai just 24 hours before trouble started.
Having tasted some ‘normal’ life, we are keen to get back on the road, and hope you will be there. We are taking the show back into our favourite theatres, a bit different to the big outdoor stages of the last tour – this time you will be able to see us!
Joining us on the road for this tour are PAPRIKA BALKANICUS (Romania, Serbia & Slovenia). We first met these self proclaimed “masters of great atmosphere” in the wee hours of Edinburgh Festival in 2003. Paprika Balkanicus play a fiery blend of Balkan, Eastern European and Gypsy music. Mio Matsuda Japan sum up their show as an "Amazing performance - they hit the audience like a Balkan storm!" You are going to love them.
And guess what else? We are finally about to give you what you have been asking for all these years….a new LIVE ALBUM. It’s called LIVE ON EARTH, and you heard it here first! We will come back to you soon with how you can pre-order it. A dvd will come out at the same time…more about that later.
Tickets go on sale December 15 from the outlets below, and will sell out quickly. Don’t miss out!"


RELEVANT BIT:

Friday Feb 27 SYDNEY, The Enmore Theatre

I get to bounce around like a lon on my birthday. Hooray!

Let me know if you want to join me.

Tate bothersTennant

Quick hide! But not behind the sea cod!

... is a quote from a Pate Biscuit story (aka Glyn Nicholas on the Big Gig)

And is now apparently the official noise that whales make.

I'm sure most parents will have been in the situation of going through a book of animals and making all the noises with the child. And there are some animals that don't seem to have a noise. So we jokingly quoted Pate.... and the Crankmaster was saying it over and over until bedtime. It was so hard to keep a straight face.

Usually our default animal noise is gronk. A friend told me that giraffes say "well, hello there" and Tops decided that camels say "It's a lovely day".

Anyone got any other animal noise suggestions?

Quote of the day

"Any sufficiently analyzed magic is indistinguishable from science."

(Its from Girl Genius, but really, if you're not reading it already, nows a bad time to start - he's doing a fairly silly side story arc that mostly has that quote to recommend it so far.)

Social skills and the SCA

Never the twain shall meet.

I just have to tell someone. Otherwise I will have to get out the flaming sword of (indignant) righteousness.

We just got an email from someone explaining to us why Yule bookings were down. They are? This is news to us.

She and her 10 newbies won't be attending because you can't have a Yule without a feast! Goodness! What were we thinking?

And it wasn't right that we wouldn't be having the Boar's Head and Wassail. Hmmm. So why did we order the pigs head from the butcher?

But she did mention that the event was 'wonderfully cheap' this year. But obviously not enough for her to give the event a go.

She seemed to think that she was doing us a favour for letting us know a week out what was the fatal flaw in our planning. As if having the date we were told to run the event clash with a combined 40th and a graduation party wasn't enough.

How is that sort of email helpful in any way?

It has just enraged us completely and I'm quite glad she has promised not to come (not that we had given her a moment's thought before this nor have we seen her in nearly 2 years).

I might be quite rude to her if she did....

Free + Cat Empire + Outdoors + Summer = Win

A freiend recently mentioned that the Cat Empire were playing the Sydney Festival. I was hoping it was part of the opening night street party, and voila! I was right:

http://www.sydneyfestival.org.au/2009/Festival_First_Night

So, put on your two shoes for dancing, and get ready to get the party started.

Famous people in our midst

Says it all, really.

A gift for that person who has almost everything....

A real periodic table. Of the coffee variety.

Science AND interpretive dance!

Mousicles will love this...

Dancing Phds - Go on, you know you can't look away.



(This was the grad student winning entry, she's from Sydney Uni)

Some people are people we wish we knew

Such as the people who came up with this!

http://apcmag.com/gods_wicked_sense_of_humour_on_facebook.htm

Quick! Go clicky before they censor the whole boiling!

*** Under the article is a screen grab of the page in question. Read it!

Stuffing Mark II

Or - what you get when you send the non-chili eater to buy the ingredients whilst distracted...

The chilies - they were long, green & de-seeded before being chopped (I have no idea what they are called)

The chili powder - stayed in the shop and the hot curry powder came home instead (what??? they are both hot, have 5 letters and start with c and end in an eee sound- even sort of the same colour.) So the husband gently points out that they are, in fact, two entirely different things, searches the cupboard and finds chili flakes instead... Adds the same amount in flakes as the recipe calls for in powder.

I flee the house while it is all being cooked to buy ice. Rob's original recipe & Mouse's cornbread recipe can be found back in Nov 06.

Kiva...Go Do It

Cross posting from Cunning Plan cause its awesome.

Amanda, aka Flopearedmule aka younger sista send me this for my Birthday- 3rd December, in case you have a spare speedboat laying around.

Kiva- Loans That Change Lives

I got $50 to loan to people around the world to help them get started. Gawd, what a choice.
The idea, you loan the money and at some point down the track they repay you, to loan again.

What a wonderful concept. I'm planning on adding to it and doing more.

After much nail biting, tooing and froing and a glass of Chardy I chose these two loans.

Zareena M. Nazir Group


Husniya Boturova


Tell and give to your friends, better than socks for Christmas.