Thats just a chicken on stilts

I gobbled up all my internet early in the month, and have been unable to post anything because I keep getting disconnected from sites for being too slow. So now I have a few pictures to share, the best being what I thought was some sort of brown long legged relative to the jabiru. Being fairly short sighted I took a photo and figured I would see what kind of bird it was later. I was quite excited about it and was all prepared to send the picture to a friend who never quite got to see the jabiru's while she was in Gove.

It turns out it was a bird on a pole. Damn! I felt like a slack jawed local at a sideshow expecting to see a unicorn that turns out to be a large dog with a horn sticky taped to its head.

I also went out to see some of the drilling work being done on site, and part of the expedition involved a bridge crossing. Although the bridge had been constructed of plastic pallets which sort of floated on the water held in place with ropes. As you can imagine, we had arm loads of stuff to carry and the pallets were bobbing about in the current. I had a strange moment when I thought I was in sonic the hedgehog...

We got across (twice), with only some wet socks to show for it

Its not aliens

On Friday (when I originally intended to post this) there was an alignment of three planets (I can't remember which ones though) which were theorised to be either satellites or (of course) aliens by the astronomers at work. I know I much prefer the aliens explanation because then I probably wouldn't have to worry about spending 10 hours in front of a computer at work.

Besides there have been many instances of unexplained phenomena that could probably be attributed to aliens. For example, I tried four new pens and none of them worked, and we went through a whole roll of paper towel in one day.

Unfortunately my photo of the stars (not aliens) didn't really work out. I think you need a special camera to take these kind of photos...

5 hours later and I have a Katy Perry song stuck in my head

I have been horribly slack in keeping this blog updated. My grand plans for daily updates, or at least every couple of days, has been thwarted by my inability to get back into a routine. I am finding that after 10 hours at work, I am no longer able to even think coherently let alone string a sentence together. I figure either I'll get used to it, or I will become tiered enough to go to bed early and catch up on my sleep. Hurumph! I still want a puppy though.

So I thought to myself that I should get it together so I could resume my carefree blogging. This of course requires a topic, or at least an idea, something that has been eluding me lately. This afternoon on the way home inspiration finally bludgeioned me over the head- I would share the joy of carpooling with a MADD person. Let me explain...

When I was growing up, I had the misfortune to share a TV with a chronic channel flicker (this disorder is formally known as CCFD). It used to drive me bonkers, not so much the occasional channel change during the ad break, but the crazy mental flicking where the sound on the telly is broken up into incomplete words. This also results in a disco flicker, that would have had me fitting on the ground if I hadn't already gotten annoyed and left the room to read a book (I think had the CCFD suffer found you could create the same annoying effect by rapidly turning pages and trying to make out the story as the pages flashed by, they probably would stood over my shoulder flicking the pages wildly whilst commenting that if I drew a dot in the corner and moved it a bit for each page, it would look like the dot was bouncing around*).

Anyway, the point of this is that I have now identified another version of the terrible CCFDs- MADD. Thats music attention deficit disorder. This is where an aflicted person flicks through music tracks (or if that isn't possible, radio stations) never quite hearing an entire track in its entirety. At its best, the effect is like a mash-up of vaguely familiar songs that may or may not be intentional by the MADD sufferer. At worst, they wait until after the catchy bit of the song has played and then flicks. This results in not one but five horrible pop songs getting stuck in your head during a 10 minute trip. They then drop you off and leave you humming a song you just know will still be with you the following day. Damn MADD people.

*Actually they did impart this magical piece of trivia to me, along with the trick of making shrinky dinks out of chip packets on the stove. I shared both these gems with my best friend, and subsequently was banned from her house by her parents when she nearly burnt the house down attempting to shrink chip packets on the stove while they were at work.

Inspiration is like a squishy banana

I thought to myself this afternoon that I should stop being lazy and post something. All my grand plans to write something almost everyday is slowly resembling the squishy banana on the sink that I never get around to eating (and now throwing out).

As you can see, its just not happening this evening. I will have to find something interesting for next time...

*sigh*

The fat Jack sat on the mat

During the move, Jack got a little bit... fat. We thought perhaps he is stressed, especially since we cant explain to him what is going on....

Or maybe he is confused and depressed at the loss of being able to sit on the couch all day watching day time t.v...

Or perhaps it's because we don't walk him twice a day anymore now he has a yard to move around in...

What I am now starting to think, is that perhaps its because he is scoffing on the sly. They do say you are what you eat, and if Jack were to finish as he began, he would be 20kg of Bonnie Lite- food for fat old dogs. I can only imagine his delight when he found the box of food equal in size and weight to himself with the lid slightly ajar...

BUSTED!

He was genuinely surprised when I snapped this photo of him. Poor little dog also thinks he can hide under a dining table or behind a curtain and not be seen. Its a mixed blessing this is about as smart as he is going to get.

Better than bad, it's good

During the move I bought a few books to help pass the time. It seems I get just as much fun out of reading about things as doing them. One of the books had instructions for a wooden pincushion (here is a link to the book).

I took one look and was instantly transported back in time to being a kid and watching Ren and Stimpy (for those who have no idea what I am talking about, here is a link that should explain everything). I thought how great it would be to have a log pincushion, and with a few small modifications I could have one. I mean, everyone needs a log!

Another of my achievements that I feel compelled to share is today's lunch. I am one of those people who must have a recipe to cook from and must do a specialised shop just for that recipe. I have long envied Luke who can take half a potato, some stale bread and a paperclip and create an amazing meal (which I have to say is more impressive than MacGyver defusing a bomb whilst hanging upside down under a jumbo coming in to land with nothing more than a can of hairspray, a poem about cats and a post-it note).

Anyway, so here is the picture... and because I feel like a bit of a twat for taking a photo of my lunch and posting it on the Internet (a bit like the photos of people's feet while standing in a circle around a clover daisy or the pictures of someone holding an apple while looking vacantly at something above them and slightly to their right) I thought I would include the recipe that goes with it. I call it.... Chicken Noodle Soup (because that is what it is and I am not very good with names. I was thinking of calling it "chicken and noodles with bok choi and mushrooms in a clear broth", but thought that was a bit long and slightly pretentious).

Ingredients

4 cups chicken stock (make up according to directions)
1 tsp ginger
1 tsp chilli
1 tsp garlic
1 tsp coriander
1 tsp lemon grass
1 chicken breast
1 packet rice noodles
sesame oil
rice wine vinegar
1 bunch bok choi, washed and chopped in large chunks
1 handful of button mushrooms, washed and sliced
1 handful of chopped spring onions
Sesame seeds to serve
Pickled ginger to serve

Instructions
1. Pour chicken stock, ginger, chilli, garlic, coriander and lemongrass into a sauce pan. Add chicken breast and cook over a high heat until chicken breast is cooked (approx 7-8 minutes).
2. Remove chicken from stock and allow to cool, keep stock mixture.
3. Cook rice noodles according to packet instructions. Drain and toss through a splash of sesame oil and rice wine vinegar.
4. Warm bok choi and mushrooms in stock mixture, remove before bok choi wilts.

To serve
Place a serve of rice noodles in the bottom of the bowl. Add shredded chicken, mushrooms and bok choi, sprinkle over spring onions. Ladle in some of the stock mixture. Sprinkle sesame seeds over everything (in the bowl obviously) and add pickled ginger on top. Serve immediately.

To keep for Ron; put all ingredients into a bowl and the stock mixture into a glass. When ready to eat, heat each separately and combine just before serving. This will prevent the noodles turning to slush.

Too many boxes

I have almost finished the move to Jabiru, and I will be pleased not to have to scrunch another handful of paper for a while. I kind of fell off the edge of the world for a few weeks while the move happened and many hurdles were jumped (namely a few threats by the movers to not move me unless their demands were met. I was partially disappointed the demands weren't fired through my living room window tied to a flaming torch- some people have no understanding of drama at all!). I only have a few boxes left to unpack and I am hoping to get them finished by the end of the week so I can send all these boxes back (or have a fun bonfire in the vacant lot behind my place).

I have started on the week long series of inductions, the first being the cultural heritage induction to the area. I was expecting to be told how evil I am because I am white and cant possibly know what its like to be black, but actually had quite a good time (mainly because I wasn't voraciously ripped into by a hypocritical greenie extremist telling me how horrible I am before they even know my name... no, that was saved for the afternoon but I am choosing to ignore that person). Part of the day included a walk out to Burrunggui and the rock paintings there. I took a few pictures to share, mainly because it is a really amazing place.

The picture above shows three pillars called 'lightning dreaming' and Namarrgon left his eye up there to watch over everything that happens around Jabiru. This site can explain the Lightning Man better than I can.

This is a picture of the Mt Brockman ranges. It looks more impressive in real life (damn my tiny little camera that fits so easily into my bag!)

Of course I had to grab a photo of some of the rock art. Here are the mimi spirits that come out of the rock to show you how to dance (or hunt, I'm not sure since I was at the back of the group for this one- this is probably an important difference, I mean if you have an angry bear running at it you probably want to know the difference between the Charleston and a gun).