Feb photo a day

So this month I have been doing the feb photo a day challenge. It has been great fun because it has kept my mind active, particularly as I've been spending a whole lot of time at home recently.

It was created by a blogger who goes by the name of Fat Mum Slim, but I'm pretty sure in real life her name is Chantelle. Check out her blog, I aspire to have a blog as cool as hers some day.

I also joined a group on Facebook and could see what others were doing. It's really interesting to see people's different perspectives on the topics of each day.

I used instagram to take my photos on my iPhone. Admittedly, I haven't really used my camera since I got an iPhone. I then linked photos up on Facebook and Twitter, under the hashtag #febphotoaday.

Here's how my leap-year February has been, pictorially:

1st February 2012 - your view today

On this day I was at home, sorting out the impending nursery for my baby. This is the view out the window.

2nd February 2012 - words

These three words do not only just describe me, but it is my favorite book at the moment (Up the Duff). My sister gave it to me in my early pregnancy, and I can say that it has kept me sane. Kaz Cooke is a genius, and she has taken the edge off a lot of the anxiety I have been feeling! I have religiously read a chapter a week, being a 'week ahead' - as it goes week by week. My sister was so awesome she even bought me the sequel Kidwrangling for my birthday! I definitely want to send Kaz a 'thankyou' note when my baby is born.

3rd February 2012 - hands

This photo was taken at Lake Tekapo, New Zealand on our honeymoon, hence the new bling. In case you hadn't noticed, I'm a white European girl, while my husband is a dark Chinese man. Chinese are typically a bit fairer, but hubby is darker than the usual. Luckily his Chinese face makes up for it!

4th February 2012 - A Stranger

My friend Bel told me that this looked delicious but wondered why it was 'a stranger'. Truth is, this is one of many of the 'strangers' I now know. Foods that I loved to eat and now not allowed to. I can't have raw eggs like this, nor can I have sashimi or raw oysters. All because I'm pregnant! I tell you the first pit stop we make on the way home from the hospital will be McDonalds for a 50c ice cream cone! This photo was taken the day after our wedding. We treated ourselves to this breakfast with the money my Gran sent us. Thanks Gran!

5th February 2012 - 10am

Today is Sunday, and at 10am we were at church. The church is starting a series on loving people, and the theme is '3D vision'. I'm not exactly sure what the point of the glasses were this morning, but hey.

6th February 2012 - Dinner

We like to cook in our house. This is my husbands 'risotto' that we make in the rice cooker. A very simple meal indeed - just rice, flavour of some sort (sometimes simply stock or a McCormick mix from the supermarket), mixed veggies and meat, all chucked in the rice cooker. Husband eats everything with sambal. My husband tried to make acar for me, which is an Indonesian pickled veggie that I was craving. Unfortunately he went a bit overboard on the lemon juice and it tasted like dishwashing detergent.

7th February 2012 - Button

I don't know what my husband is doing but I keep sewing buttons back on his shirt! Although, it has brought out the creativity in me, and now I want to learn to sew. I keep looking for sewing machines on eBay and keep asking my mum for help because I don't know anything about them!

8th February 2012 - Sun

This is the sun out of my favorite childrens book: The Very Hungry Catterpillar by Eric Carle. Hope my baby likes it as much as I do!

9th February 2012 - Front Door

I only noticed this sticker a few months after it was put there. My mother in law put it there when she was here last April for our wedding. I'm guessing it's some sign of good luck. Any of my readers read Chinese and tell me what it means? Just a few days ago I discovered another one on a jewellery box!

10th February 2012 - Self Portrait

I drew this picture of myself, stuck it to a postcard of the Eureka Tower. I then sent the postcard to a girl in America via postcrossing. You can see the postcard and all the statistics here. 

11th February 2012 - Something that makes me happy

A beautiful husband who makes me breakfast in bed on a Saturday morning! Complete with rose petals! Pictured is a glass of milo, fresh grapes, spinach omelette and carrot sticks.

12th February 2012 - Closet

Nothing to see here.

13th February 2012 - Blue

My groovy 'mouse' has groovy blue mood lights!

14th February 2012 - Heart

The closest Facebook world is getting to a 'bump-pic'. (Seriously, stop asking. It's really rude!) Oh I miss wearing my wedding and engagement ring. Thanks puffy fingers and hot weather.

15th February 2012 - Phone

This is in the beautiful town of Arrowtown, New Zealand. Taken on our honeymoon. Oh how I miss New Zealand! 

16th February 2012 - Something New

(eep... Where has this photo disappeared to??)

17th February 2012 - Time

Our local newspaper back home is called The Border Times. It isn't very big - less than 10 pages and comes out weekly. This is my Mum reading it in Egypt somewhere.

18th February 2012 - Drink

I love gardening. But I'm good at killing plants too. Need to remember to water them, particularly in the hot weather. We have a rose, lots of succulents, a few herbs and tonnes of solar lights!

19th February 2012 - Something I hate doing

Calm down. I just hate cutting raw vegetables with my swollen, sore, pregnant wrists!

20th February 2012 - Handwriting

Today I sent another postcard via postcrossing. It is going to Beijing, China. I tried to write in Mandarin on the card, although I don't think it's necessary.

21st February 2012 - Favorite photo of me

This is me when I was about 3-4 years old. I remember I loved this swing, but my bottom quickly got too big. Behind me is our bird cage - we used to have lots of budgies. This photo makes me wonder what my own children will look like. I was such a blonde child, and my husband is so dark. One thing I know though: is they will be drop dead gorgeous!

22nd February 2012 - Where I work

Well, this is where I used to work. Every day I would wake up at 6am. I then eat my breakfast, get changed, put my make up on and wait. I wait from a phone call from an agency to tell me whether they have work for me or not. I live my life on call. I'm what they call a Casual Relief Teacher (CRT). Because I'm loyal to this lifestyle, I tend to pick up plenty of work. My car is my office. My boot is full of teaching resources and books that I can pull out in a second. Sadly, at the end of last year I had to say goodbye to my Toyota Corolla, who I named after it's previous owner and my Grandpa, Roy. I have loved this car so much, but would not accomodate for a new baby. So my new office is a Honda Jazz, but it's yet to be an office. 

23rd February 2012 - Shoes

These were my feet in 2004. I had just finished year 12. I went to a schoolies event with my good friend Amy. She wears the other pair of shoes, which also belong to me. I loved these shoes. Why don't they make Dunlop Volleys like these anymore?

24th February - Inside my bathroom Cupboard

Duckies that were given to me in various baby shower gifts! I have a few more, but this is a representation of what my family is soon to look like!

25th February 2012 - Green

This is Bogor, Indonesia. I went there in January 2011. I miss Indonesia every day.

26th February 2012 - Night

Watching Kung Fu Panda on a sticky Melbourne Sunday night with my hubby.

27th February 2012 - Something you ate

I love Indonesia for their range of food. I love it because never could I eat something like this in Australia for such a low price. This is toast, topped with bananas, ice cream, strawberry and chocolate topping. I think I recall getting heart palpitations after consuming this.

28th February 2012 - Money

Do you think I could feature on a $5 note?

29th February 2012 - Something you're listening to

SBS Chill is a live streaming radio station that you can listen to via an app on your iPhone. I really am enjoying it for a bit of variety.

***

And that's it, that's February! I am so thankful to have taken part in this 'project' this month. And just when I was sad that it was over, guess what....

Spill

Source:
http://ffffound.com/image/a2111b4992a2bf206fbe6e4577307de844ba2948

So today was a significant day in Australian politics - a 'respill', a fight for the Prime Ministership of Australia.

I'm not really into politics. I don't understand a lot. I voted for Kevin Rudd (don't tell my Gran that) back in 2007, my reasons being that I didn't like what was going on in the liberal party at the time.

Then 2010 came. It was a day much like today. I wasn't called into work that day so I stayed at home. I lived in a sharehouse at the time and we were lucky to get any local TV reception, as we had one of those big satellites that broadcast TV from China and nowhere else.

I was really upset when Kevin lost his job. I think Kevin is a top bloke with the world in mind. I didn't vote for Julia, and I thought that the way it all happened so quickly was horrid.

After getting over it, I noticed that Julia annoyed me more and more. I didn't like a lot of their policies, such as Carbon Tax, Assylum Seekers, Gay marriage etc. It seemed to all go down hill from there.

I have a lot of respect for Jessica Rudd, who wrote an excellent article here. She reminds me how we are lucky to live in a country like Australia where we have a voice.... most of the time.

Good on Kevin for trying. I still have heaps of respect for him. I am disappointed that he isn't the foreign minister any more because I think he was as awesome at that job as he was at being Prime Minister.

But with all that said, I really admire what Julia had to say about Kevin today: He has done so many great things for this country, and that it must be disappointing for he and his family.

I'm not sure what my opinion is about either party now. I think time will tell. In a lot of countries there would be war over this kind of thing that happened today. I need to put my trust in that all those MPs know the inside information in Canberra. Obviously there was a majority vote for a reason.

As cliche as it is, I think we need to move forward and get on with the job...

Coffee Dilemma

I can't believe I'm blogging about coffee, when it is currently 35 degrees outside!

I love coffee. Not instant coffee, real coffee. The kind you buy from the shop. We got a coffee machine for Christmas but we haven't played with it yet. I'm hoping to play with it after the baby is born so that I can sample the coffee and not be as 'at risk' if I drink too much as I play with the settings to perfect the perfect coffee. I've always wanted to learn. I even considered doing a coffee making course while I was at uni. Maybe I could do one now, in my 'time off'. Perhaps it could count to all of the Professional Development I must do to keep my teaching registration (and I'm not even teaching).

Okay, I confess.. I'm not that big on coffee at present. Since becoming pregnant and my taste buds can't handle a range of tastes, coffee has not been a daily thing for me. It's probably good in a way. While it's the taste I don't miss, it's definitely the feeling that coffee gives me. Although that said, I feel like something inside of me is awakened when I walk into a coffee shop and smell that beautiful aroma of fresh coffee. Damn living in Melbourne!

This week I have had two things on in the morning whereby I've had to drive a reasonable distance, causing me to miss out on my morning nap. This caused for desperate measures. Coffee. I will admit that I am liking coffee much more now than earlier in my pregnancy. The problem is I'm pretty sure when I drink the coffee, the baby is the one who actually drinks it and I get none. The baby kicks around like a happy little coffee bean while I feel no effect of the coffee.

Everyone has a local coffee place. When I was teaching at a particular school, I would always stop in the morning for a coffee from Muffin Break in a food court. I got the coffee there because the Chinese guy who sold it to me was always smiling and friendly. For my next job I started getting coffee from the 'coffee time' at the BP on the highway. Sometimes, I'd even get it in a glass and sit and drink it for 20 minutes before I conquered the stresses that awaited me at the workplace. When I started working 'on call', I would get my coffee locally, at the local Coles shopping complex.

Coffee A (left)... Coffee B (right)
Okay, so it may be slightly obvious about the identity of Coffee A.

Now comes this dilemma. I cheated on that coffee place. To make it easier, and to protect the identity of the coffee makers, I will refer to them as Coffee A and Coffee B.

Coffee A is what I'd call my regular. The 'cheatee'. It costs $3.30 a cup. Which is really expensive, but about what you pay for a cup of coffee in Melbourne. Sometimes I can wait well over 15 minutes for my coffee. The service isn't always the best, depending on who is on. I am big on customer service - if you can't show interest in your customer you shouldn't have a job. The benefit of coffee A - it has a coffee card, so every 10th is on the house.

Now onto Coffee B. Coffee B is not from a franchised place, but a small pie shop that I noticed had a coffee Machine every time I walked past. I became curious so I tried their coffee the other day. The people here are generally friendly. It probably took about 2 minutes to make the coffee, and it had a strong crisp taste (although you shouldn't trust a pregnant woman on how things taste). The downside of this coffee is that unlike Coffee place A, there is no place to sit down as it's not a cafe. Also, it costs $3.30. No coffee card. Also if you look at the picture closely, you will notice the cup is smaller (but the coffee IS stronger).

So it looks like I will have to have a bit of an affair with the two of these coffee places. There are pros and cons for both. I'm going to suggest a coffee card for Coffee place B.

And while we're on the subject of coffee, here's a little clip about corporal punishment for bad coffee in Melbourne:

(you don't have to watch it all).

Have a great weekend everybody.

Just love

⁴³ “You have heard that it was said, ‘Love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ ⁴⁴ But I tell you, love your enemies and pray for those who persecute you, ⁴⁵ that you may be children of your Father in heaven. He causes his sun to rise on the evil and the good, and sends rain on the righteous and the unrighteous. ⁴⁶ If you love those who love you, what reward will you get? Are not even the tax collectors doing that? ⁴⁷ And if you greet only your own people, what are you doing more than others? Do not even pagans do that? ⁴⁸ Be perfect, therefore, as your heavenly Father is perfect. - Matthew 5:43-48 NIV

I've been trying to take my sketch book to church. It helps me concentrate if I draw while I listen. I think it's the type of learner that I am, which is both a teaching and spiritual belief, really.

I really like what Pastor Dale had to say on this particular scripture. I'd always known this scripture existed but just never thought about it. That's probably what I'm like with most of the bible, I just tick it off as, 'yeah I believe that', but never really think about it.

How much do we hate our enemies? I know that there are plenty people in this world who piss me off at the moment. In fact, I think when you become pregnant you become increasingly intolerant of others (or that could just be me).

The world tells us to love people who love us. Treat people how you want to be treated. And that's exactly right. But how do we react to people who drive us up the wall? The bible says to pray for them.

We're all living on the same earth. We all breathe the same air. My enemies flowers get watered from the same clouds that my succulents do. The sun still shines on rapists and murderers as much as it shines on me.

And God loves them all the same.

So should I?

Wholemeal Chia enriched healthy pancakes!

Every Saturday morning I make these pancakes for my husband. They're really delicious and healthier than your typical pancakes (I'll tell you why at the end!).

You will need:

• 1/2 Cup normal self raising flour*
• 1/2 Cup Wholemeal plain flour*
• 1 egg
• 1 Cup of skim milk
• 1 teaspoon of Chia Seeds
• 1 tablespoon of Extra Virgin Olive Oil
  
• A frying pan
• Mixing bowl
• Mixing spoon
• A spatchula
• measuring instruments

Makes 3 Pancakes - Double the mix if you need more!

* - I use 50/50 composition of wholemeal and normal flour so it's not too 'gluggy'. I also found that a 50/50 composition of self raising and plain flour made my pancakes not rise too much. So basically, just use 2 different flours, one being self raising the other plain, one wholemeal and the other plain. Hope that makes sense!

Step One

Mix flours, egg, milk and Chia seeds in a large mixing bowl. Make sure you mix it well as you can't sieve wholemeal flour. Don't worry if it's a bit lumpy - it's got to be. You've got Chia Seeds and wholemeal goodness in there! If you feel the consistency is too thick, add a bit of milk to it. If you feel it's too watery, add some flour.

Step two

Heat about a tablespoon of olive oil in the pan, depending of course on the size of your pan. I like to 'deep fry' my pancake a little bit (not excessively, but enough to get that olive oily taste).

Put it on medium to high heat.

Move the olive oil around a bit so it is roughly but evenly distributed around the pan.

Step three

Pour the pancake mix into the pan. 

Move the pan around so that the pancake can get to your desired size.

Can you see the bubbles?

Step four

Wait until you can see little bubbles on the surface of your pancake. 

Don't get excited and flip it at the first sign of bubbles, actually wait until the pancake is full of bubbles (it will make it easier for flipping).

Step five

Flip your pancake!

If you have done this successfully well done. It's the hardest thing about making pancakes!

Wait about 1-2 minutes and check the other side carefully. 

Transfer to plate.

Now eat!

Some suggestions for toppings we frequently have.

• Banana and honey
• Banana honey and yogurt!
• Vegemite! (Ok, that's just me.... But try it it's delicious!)

Don't stop reading here. I'm going to tell you why these are so much better for you than 'normal' pancakes.

• I used wholemeal flour, instead of just lots of plain flour. Wholemeal is better for your digestive system and is low GI.
• I used skim milk, and we all know that skim milk is better for you than fat milk.
• Chia seeds - these are the secret ingredient. Chia seeds are rich in protein, omega-3 and are low GI. There are many proven health benefits of having chia seeds, check them out. (For those poor buggers in the country - I believe this will cure Ross River, get some into you!)
• I used extra virgin olive oil. Traditionally, to make pancakes you use butter on the pan which is full of fat. Olive oil is much better for you!
• The 'shake and bake' pancakes you find in the supermarket are full of sugar and preservatives. These pancakes have no nasty sugar, the ingredients come straight from the pantry so it has no yucky preservatives either!
• They're delicious AND healthy, meaning less guilt!

If you try them out, comment and let me know how you go!

 

You've Got Mail!

I've been reminiscing about New Zealand lately. I went there for our honeymoon last April. It is quite honestly one of the most beautiful places on earth. I really hope to go there again when the baby is born, perhaps for Easter 2013. Especially with our high Aussie Dollar at the moment!

I've signed up for Postcrossing, and I'm anxiously awaiting mail and news of my received postcards. I'll blog about this another time, but in the meantime, I would love to show you all of these groovy ideas for postboxes I saw near Queenstown, South Island, New Zealand. I would LOVE to make a postbox out of something groovy like these, but unfortunately I don't think that that's the culture in this end of Melbourne. Enjoy :)

Made out of road signs!

A microwave!

Coffee Machine!

Birdhouse

For the Geek in all of us

For the beer fan - a keg! 

Someone got artsy

A big fish

Esky. Perfect use as it's not hard to keep things cold in this part of NZ.

A truck radiator!

Which one is your favorite?