With much a plumb

It's been a very exciting week. After what feels like an eternity of planning and careful negotiations, we finally break ground with our renovations with some necessary plumbing work.

The previous owners made some pretty dodgy additions to the pipes around the house, resulting in a bunch of outlets that just spilt out onto concrete or bare dirt. That's if the water didn't just overflow from clogged gutters. It's a great feeling to know that these problems will be fixed along with the addition of pipes for the new toilet and outdoor sink.


Monday morning started with a big digger just squeezing by our garage to dig up our backyard, absolutely destroying one of the lilly pillies on the way past. The workers had to do a little archeological exploration to find the sewage line as this was no where near the mark on the council plans. They ended up going through a few layers of building history, eventually digging up the old septic tank, grease trap and terracotta pipe work.


By the end of the first day we had a wrecked backyard and a good start on the pipes laid down. It was all good until we realised that the old pipes from the toilet were broken and left open for all the world to see.


After briefly considering checking into a motel, we decided to test our luck and impose on Kath and Andrew for emergency lodgings (and amenities of course). Our hosts were very hospitable and we got our share of licks during the visit, mostly from their adorable dog Frankie.

Everything was fixed up the day after thankfully and I'm developing an appreciation for what plumbers do. The work is certainly messy but I have a feeling that this is just the tip of the iceberg with our renovation.


The inspector came by this morning and gave the work a green light so we're good to go for the next stage. At least we would be if we had our engineering plans which are taking a little longer to get through than we expected. The builder thinks we should have our plans back by next week and then it's just another three days or so to get building approval before work can begin in earnest. In the mean time, we just have the return of the digger tomorrow to look forward to as those big holes need to be covered up before the weekend. Especially this one...


Things are going quick, we'll be pretty busy moving things out of the garage and picking paint colours over the next week. Better buckle up for the ride.

Searching for Snow White

I was so into the idea of geocaching back when we first started that I even added a tag on the blog for all the treasure hunting posts that would no doubt follow. It's now almost two years later and we haven't cracked out the GPS in search of caches since that initial foray.

Holding my breath to see if this is going to keep, but we went on another walk today to find caches. Well, I did anyway... Alison just came along for the stroll and to humour me. It all started when I downloaded the official geocaching application for the iPhone. Pretty snazzy app actually. Amazing that I can get away with one device while I had to lug out our Garmin GPS, a camera and a notepad when we first tried geocaching.

As part of my cunning plan to keep us going with this fascinating hobby, I picked two caches to hunt for that are actually part of a set of seven (or eight depending on how you look at it). The people that maintain these caches have themed it after the Seven Dwarfs (yes, I'm normally one to use the "Dwarves" plural form but I'm being faithful given the context) with each cache providing a clue to find the final cache, Snow White.

The first cache we found was Sneezy, hidden in the rock wall beside a shaded path around a duck pond in the Edenbrooke estate nearby. With all my appreciation for convergence of technology, my phone was useless when it came to writing in the supplied log book as we forgot to bring a pen along. Doh.



At least we got the clue though and the ducks were cute. Jumping on the opportunity to do another nearby cache, we headed north in search of Grumpy. This one took a little longer and a touch more courage as I was sticking my hand into fallen tree stumps, hoping to find a plastic container rather than a redback. The iPhone GPS isn't all that accurate either which certainly didn't help but I managed to get there in the end.



Two down, five more to go. Here's hoping I can stick to it this time.

Ocakbasi, I've found you

There are lots of things I miss about the UK, though people usually give me a peculiar look when I mention that it's often the food that I pine for the most. Given that I did a fair bit of growing up there I'd say a big part of my junk food palate was defined by my adolescent binges, initially at boarding school in Exeter, then at university as a starving undergrad. While I've had some success in locating comfort snacks of the prepackaged variety, I haven't had as much luck with take away food. One kebab shop in particular.

It was a combination of factors that resulted in the rise of Ocakbasi, a non-descript kebab place in Canterbury, to become the defining establishment of my uncouth culinary experience. For one, they delivered at all hours which no doubt appealed to the English drinking public and lazy students. They were also one of the few halal restaurants, so my predominantly Malaysian muslim friends could gorge themselves guilt-free. The key point however was a magical mixture of the British willingness to serve chips with anything, topped with a curious assortment of available sauces. Thus was born the Ocakbasi chicken doner meat and chips, with burger sauce, garlic sauce and mayonnaise.



Oh yeah, it looks disgusting and you'd wake up feeling like a grease truck the morning after, but we kept going back for more.

Initially when I came to Australia I didn't find as much love for the spud in Aussie culture. Few of the kebab shops here served chips, and even if they did none were willing to honour my reasonable request to slop some kebab meat on a bed of chips. I even went as far as to buy a kebab from one store, chips from another and smack them together. It just wasn't the same though... no where near. It seemed like such a simple thing but my hankering for kebab and chips went unsatisfied for six long years.

Then it all changed. Alison and I popped by Mt Ommaney to pick up Beatles Rockband on Friday, which was when I did a double take on a menu item at Ali Baba's in the food court. They called it an "Aussie Pack" but I knew it for what it truly was... my chance to relive the Ocak. The stars must have been in alignment. They didn't have burger sauce but they did have a "grill sauce". They didn't have a garlic sauce, but even better they had a garlic mayonnaise.



The servings aren't quite as indulgent as Ocakbasi but by golly the taste was there. Now I just hope this isn't some special offer only available for a limited time. Make room in Fat City 'cos here comes Shazza!