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Exhibitionists
There are probably other words I could use to describe the phenomenon that happens to the block of flats across the road from me, but exhibitionist is what I thought of.
I live on the second floor of an apartment block and it has a lounge room with full length windows and a balcony which overlooks another apartment block across the road.
I have lived here for over 7 years and I can’t work out why the tenants over there want the world to see them parading around in their birthday suits. You might say that they are comfortable in their own skin and their image, but everybody else doesn’t have to see it.
There are two offending apartments with tenants that stroll around from the bathroom to their bedrooms/loungerooms nude. But that’s not the strange thing. Both the apartments have changed tenants at least three times in the 7 years I’ve been here. Bit of a coincidence that everyone that moves into those 2 apartments feels they don’t need to close the curtains when they are not wearing anything. It’s like there a ghost or some spell in those apartments that makes the tenants do it.
Like this morning. The lower of the 2 apartments had been vacant for the past 6-8 weeks. I thought thank god that I don’t have to see that middle age man sitting on the toilet or walking around his lounge in the nude anymore.
When I woke up I got my bowl of cereal and opened the curtains and stepped out onto the balcony. I look across and sure enough. Nudie nude nude!! New tenant. Or should that be newd tenant. Grrr!
What gives?
Epic fishcake FAIL!!
I’m going to try to blog about food from now, whether it’s my own cooking, something a friend cooked for me, or something I ate at a restaurant. At least if I write about it hopefully I will come back to this and see what worked and what didn’t.
In tonight’s case of the fishcake, it didnt…
So I saw something on TV once about fishcake and it seemed simple enough to make. I had some sort of meaty white fish cutlets which I had thawed. Can’t remember what it was but I bought it whole and ate the back part as fillets steamed. Was nice.
I was left with 2 think cutlets so I thought I’d attempt to make fishcakes for the first time. Now if I was smart I would have Googled a recipe first. But I’m pretty good in the kitchen and I figured I could just put a few ingredients together that made sense.
So first I carefully took the flesh off the cutlets, making sure there was no skin or bone in the mix. Then I minced it up by hand. Done. The ingredients I added were some sweet chilli sauce, corn flour, minced ginger and corianda. Unfortunately I had no egg (whites) to use as a binding agent. I figured this should do though as the mix should harder in the pan as it cooked.
So I heat the pan and put some oil in. At this stage I put a small amount of the mix in my hand to try to shape it into a pattie. I wetness and texture should have told me something was wrong, but I had nothing to loose (except part of my dinner!).
In the pan the patties go and even after a minute when I tried moving them around in the pan I knew it was all wrong. The mix was just way too wet and soft to cook properly. I let them harden enough to turn them over. They had only been frying on a medium heat for maybe 3 minutes but when I turned one over it was all black, yet didn’t smell burnt. I figured that the sweet chilli sauce must discolour so I kept going.
A few minutes later I turned them over again. But as soon as I press on them the mix in the middle oozed out the sides and was still wet and raw. Somehow the hard, blackened surface was preventing the inside from cooking.
I left them in for a few more minutes but they just wouldn’t cook properly. And they just got progressively darker. So I stopped the pan and cut one open. The black crust was about half a cm thick and inside was raw. YUM!!!!
Straight in the bin.
So I just ate stirfry chinese veg and instant noodles (both of which I was eating anyway but would have been nice to have an entree).
What dawned on me as I was cursing was that because the fish was frozen and thawed that I should have squeazed all the moisture out of the fish before adding the ingredients. Then the mix would have not been so wet.
As to why it wet black so quickly and yet was not burnt I’m not sure.
Will check recipe next time before attempting something for the first time!
Creature of the night
First bit of news is that I have become unemployed. Well, actually I quit my new job of 3 months. I finished a week and a half ago. I was doing a tech support job. It was a good experience and I learnt a lot in that time. The people were really nice as well. Without going into it too much it just didn’t work out. However, I would like to think that we left on good terms (Admittedly I didn’t give them any notice). I had a big chat with the boss on a Friday and that was that. I really should email them to apologise and see how everyone is.
So now I’m looking for work again. That job opened my eyes to the world of tech support and sys admin work. I am still interested in that area to a degree and I think I am capable. But there are so many other areas in IT like testing and training, which of course I was doing at my previous job at The Smith Family. Guess I’ll just apply for all jobs and see how I go.
Anyhoo, my leaving my last job coincided with the Tour De France. Actually it started I think a couple of days before I quit. As mentioned in my last post this is the first time I’ve gotten into the event properly, and boy do I love it!!!! Its everything I thought it would be…I’m watching it right now as I’m typing this. I might dedicate another post about the TdF later.
The plan after I quit was that I would do heaps of riding during the day (and job hunt of course) and then watch the tour at night. Unfortunately the weather hasn’t been so kind and I’ve somehow become a bit soft and not wanting to ride if there is ANY wetness at all. As a consequence I’d only ridden about 60km in the last fortnight. I was averaging around 120-160km a week previous to that.
To make matters worse I’ve been eating a lot more than normal as well. This is due to the down town I have “in between jobs” and of course staying up late watching the tour. So I’ve become a bit of a creature of the night. I even watch informercials for a little bit because I eat sugary junk food during the tour and I can’t sleep. Then I sleep in until after 8 every morning feeling lazy…blerh
So the lack of exercise and overeating has seen me put on 2.5kg in a fortnight. Pretty drastic for me. Not that I’m overweight. But I’m trying to keep fit and that weight makes a difference when I’m trying to ride up a hill.
Good news is there’s only a few more stages left so no more ultra late nights and shoving chips and tim tams in my mouth. And I hope to get a new job in the next couple of weeks. At least then I’ll be doing regular commute rides again.
End of an era
Last Monday was my last day of work at The Smith Family, where I’ve been there 3 years part time and nearly full time all last year. I have had such a wonderful time there and I’ll take away so many fond memories. I have so met so many wonderful people, both staff and the other people I’ve had contact with. I was mainly an IT trainer for disadvantaged people in the community. I ran a variety of classes and workshops for people of all ages, backgrounds and ability.
It was a truely rewarding experience and I would have been able to get that anywhere else. I really do believe in the organisation and what they do. The focus has gone from pure wellfare to education and change. There are many ways you can help The Smith Family, be it sponsoring a child, making a small donation, mentoring or volunteering. Every little bit helps. So please visit their website for more information.
