Christmas and Mum's Visit

I felt that five weeks flew by pretty quickly as we dropped mum off at the airport last night. I haven't been spending much time on the computer for blogging and the like while she was out here so I figured it's about time now to catch up on things.

Most of our time with mum was spent, as is expected in this family, discussing and consuming copious amounts of food. There were lots of favourites from home that Alison and I both missed and thought to replicate with mum's guidance over here in Brisbane, one of the simpler ones being Tau Suan which we had the last time we were back in Malaysia. Now that we discovered a source of pandan leaf in the packed freezers of a grocery store in Sunnybank along with deep fried bread from the same provisioner, we should be able to make our own batch as we need.



Even minor improvements to the house were with the view of expanding our culinary options. Alsie and I have often discussed the merits of having an outdoor stove for all the stir fries and oil splatters that accompany mum's efforts in the kitchen. While the results are often great for the taste buds it does little for our figure and wooden floor boards. Simply buying an outdoor cooker would have been insufficient without accommodating for the fatty projectiles of enthusiastic wok-manship, which was why finding a cheap splash back solution was a necessity. A quick trip to Ikea solved this for us as we picked up a half dozen DIY kitchen panels that we could affix with liquid nails to protect the wooden enclosure and introduce a fiery highlight of its own. While there we also picked up a handy side table which now completes the outdoor kitchen.



Mum made full use of the area to prepare a bevy of delicious dinners, much to the contentment of our bellies and polished wood floors. Char Keuy Teow showed up on the menu a couple of times now that we were finally cooking with gas.



The eating certainly wasn't confined to Brisbane, as we were also treated to the annual Christmas feast in Toowoomba. It's always a treat to spend the season with mum around but this year was a little smaller with some uncles and aunts with other commitments. The volume of food however had not diminished to account for fewer mouths so there were considerable left overs. John's ham was juicy, succulent and expertly cut as always. Mum contributed an asian prawn salad with a beautiful spicy bite. Sheena's terrine was under appreciated by the party but I devoured as much as my belt would permit. It was a wonderful way to top off a little over a month of indulgent eating that must now cease as I've put on at least 1.5KG according to our scrutinising scales. Well... we'll stop once the last of the Christmas chocolates have been dealt with of course.



Time certainly does seem to fly when you're having fun. Mum will be out again in May for a short visit and I'm sure it'll be a blink before it's next Christmas, which she hopes to once again celebrate with us in the Southern Hemisphere. This visit was certainly good fun, but something tells me that the next few will be even more special. For mothers and grandmothers alike.

Jolly Old England

Just spent the majority of the last week in the air bouncing between Australia and the UK for a little bit of work. It seems glamorous but I could probably do without the jet setting lifestyle, far more comfortable staying at home with the family and my own bed. Not that I didn't take advantage of this trip back to blighty of course to catch up on some food that I've missed.

When I was a spoiled undergraduate student in Canterbury I used to cycle to the local Tesco supermarket to pick up bags full of these candy yoghurts that had far too much sugar to be healthy for me. The attraction was a super sweet crumble or crunchy mix in and a tub of similarly sweet flavored yoghurt, my favorite combination being toffee yoghurt with caramel encrusted cheerio-like cereal. I couldn't find it this time but got a few tubs of other varieties to get my fix.



Flight Centre are looking to build a few websites in the UK so I was flown over (cattle class as per company policy) to have a chat with some of the businesses over there. Unfortunately the business in question weren't based in some classy district in downtown London, rather the sleepy town of Ipswich some two hours drive out of the city and civilisation. Weather was less than pleasant, though survivable thanks to warm clothing loaned by concerned parents and cautious packing by the family. We barely had time to wander about in the cold aside from scampering between pubs and places for dinner, not that there was much to see in the area. The one landmark in town was a manor house converted into a museum that we covered during a lunch break one afternoon.



After three days in Ipswich we got to spend an afternoon in London before flying back home. Sightseeing was postponed for far more important duties, in this case making a bee line for Selfridges to continue mum's tradition for chowing down beef sandwiches in the food hall there. I got a large portion with a mixture of tongue and pastrami which was awesome.



For dessert I scoffed a cookie from Ben's Cookies, a new fixation that was recommended by Ross at work. Soft and chewy goodness, in this case milk chocolate and orange. Probably not the sort of thing one would eat at an oyster and champagne bar but I get my sweets where I can.



Sufficiently stuffed we slowly made our way back to the Flight Centre offices with a stop by South Bank to check out the London Eye and spy Big Ben across the river. It was a pretty sunset but the temperature soon dropped so we didn't stay out for long.



It was a short trip and I think I would have spent as much time in the air as on the ground but it was kind of nice to be back in the country for a while. Still couldn't wait to get out of the cold and come back to warm and sunny Brisbane. I made a decision a long time ago not to work in the UK and I'm still pretty happy with my choice, don't think I could handle the weather, but it's a nice place to visit from time to time.