Mine was relaxing, which is always good. No on-topic post today, because work is taking all my time today (not just a bludge day for me ^_^).
Icy
27 December 2007
21 December 2007
Merry Christmas
I’d just like to wish you all, your family and friends a very happy and safe Christmas. Hope you have a great time, and if you don’t, remember all things pass in time.
And to husbands who spoil the best/greatest/coolest/most wonderful surprise present of all time, I still love you, I think.
I’ll see you next Thursday.
Icy
An Australian Christmas – Carols
Ahhh, Australian Christmas carols, they’re truly unique. And much more appropriate that songs about snow or sleighbells. There is the classic Six White Boomers, the Carol of the Birds and Christmas Day. I could only find Rolf Harris singing his original song, the rest you’ll just have to imagine.
Six White Boomers
Early on one Christmas Day, a Joey Kanga-roo
Was far from home and lost in a great big zoo
Mummy, where's my mummy, they've taken her a-way
We'll help you find your mummy son, hop upon the sleigh
Up beside the bag of toys, little Joey hopped
But they hadn't gone far when Santa stopped
Un-harnessed all the reindeer and Joey wondered why
Then he heard a far off booming in the sky
Six white boomers, snow white boomers
Racing Santa Claus through the blazing sun
Six white boomers, snow white boomers ..
On his Aus-tra-lian run
Pretty soon old Santa began to feel the heat
Took his fur-lined boots off to cool his feet
Into one popped Joey, feeling quite OK
While those old man kangaroos kept pulling on the sleigh
Chorus
Six white boomers, snow white boomers
Racing Santa Claus through the blazing sun
Six white boomers, snow white boomers ..
On his Aus-tra-lian run
Joey said to Santa, Santa, what about the toys
Aren't you giving some to these girls and boys
They've all got their presents son, we were here last night
This trip is an extra trip, Joey's special flight
[Chorus]
Soon the sleigh was flashing past, right over Marble Bar
Slow down there, cried Santa, it can't be far
Come up on my lap son, and have a look around
There she is, that's mummy, bounding up and down
[Chorus]
Well that's the bestest Christmas treat that Joey ever had
Curled up in mother's pouch all snug and glad
The last they saw was Santa headed northward from the sun
The only year the boomers worked a double run
[Chorus]
By Rolf Harris
Christmas Day
The North Wind is tossing the leaves,
The red dust is over the town,
The sparrows are under the eaves,
And the grass in the paddock is brown;
As we lift up our voices and sing
To the Christ-Child the Heavenly King.
The tree-ferns in green gullies sway;
The cool stream flows silently by;
The joy bells are greeting the day,
And the chimes are adrift in the sky,
As we lift up our voices and sing
To the Christ-Child the Heavenly King.
Carol of the Birds
Out on the plains the brolgas are dancing
Lifting their feet like war horses prancing
Up to the sun the woodlarks go winging
Faint in the dawn light echoes their singing
Orana! Orana! Orana to Christmas Day
Down where the tree ferns grow by the river
There where the waters sparkle and quiver
Deep in the gullies bell-birds are chiming
Softly and sweetly their lyric notes rhyming
Orana! Orana! Orana to Christmas Day
Friar birds sip the nectar of flowers
Currawongs chant in the wattle tree bowers
In the blue ranges lorikeets calling
Carols of bushbirds rising and falling
Orana! Orana! Orana to Christmas Day
By William Garnet James and John Wheeler
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19 December 2007
An Australian Christmas – Trifle
Trifle is a true delight of a desert and totally traditional at Christmas, at least here. I know we do it here in Australia, and I suspect also in New Zealand, but I don’t know if it appears anywhere else. Conveniently enough, it’s also super easy, though of course you can make it complicated like any desert.
Ingredients
- 1 packet of miniature Swiss jam rolls
- 2 packets of complimentary of jelly
- 2 different sorts of fruit
- Thick custard
- Fresh cream, whipped
- Alcohol (probably some sort of spirit or fortified wine, please don’t use beer)
Method
Make up the two sorts of jelly. If you’re using tinned fruit, use some of the liquid from the tin in one of the jellies. For example, I like port wine jelly and raspberry. If I’m using tinned cherries or raspberries, I use the juice from the tin to part make up the jelly.
Make the custard. You want quite firm custard, at least the same consistency as the jelly. If you don’t have time, thick bought custard is fine.
Whip the cream till soft peaks form and refrigerate.
Once the jelly is set and the custard cool, slice the miniature Swiss rolls in to 1cm slices and place a layer in the bottom of a decorative glass bowl. Pour some of the alcohol into a jug and moderately douse the cake layer. In this particular version I’d use port. Then cover the cake with a layer of custard, then a layer of one of the jellies, then one of the fruits. Repeat the layering again, this time using the other jelly and fruit. Go all the way to the top, leaving a few centimetres gap. Fill the gap with the whipped cream and top with fruit.
Put it in the fridge for at least a few hours, overnight is better, to allow the flavours to develop. To serve, just scoop out into a bowl.
Variations
My favourite variation is with port wine and raspberry jelly, with cherries and raspberries, and port as the lubricant. The traditional Australian combination is red and green jelly, pineapple and kiwifruit, and rum as the flavour (bleh). Other lovely versions were lime and pineapple jelly, pineapple, passionfruit and kiwifruit, some coconut milk in the custard, and white rum as the liqueur. Feel free to be inventive!
The other variation is to assemble individual trifles rather than one big one. Not a bad idea, because after a few scoopfuls come out, it’s not what I’d call the most attractive dish.
Oh, and by the way, leftover trifle for breakfast is also an Australian tradition, hmmmm.
18 December 2007
Personal Top 10
A great idea inspired by the Fashionable Kiffen via The Space Between my Peers. My personal top 10 are:
- Fitted jackets, leather, wool, etc, just love ‘em
- High waisted, wide-legged pants of a very particular cut
- Black bootlegged jeans
- Ballet flats with interest
- Pencil skirts
- Fitted t-shirts with scooped or crew neck
- Long flowing black skirts
- Knee-high boots, flat or tall, preferably black
- A long black winter coat with some swing in the skirt, preferably lined in red
- A seriously good, interesting, flexible handbag
What are your top 10? Consider yourself tagged.
I know I said I'd publish my trifle recipe today, but I've just realised don't have a photo at work. Tomorrow will have to do.
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17 December 2007
An Australian Christmas – Food
Most of you readers come from the Northern Hemisphere so for you Christmas is all about cold mornings, large hot lunches, and possibly snow. In Australia, it’s about sun, the beach, and often inappropriate large hot lunches. This is a bit of a series about Christmas in Australia.
Like all Christmases all around the world, food is a big part of an Australian Christmas. However, we do have a somewhat schizophrenic attitude to it. It’s all to do with the weather. We have hot Christmases here, even Sydney can get the occasional 35 degree Celsius day, so the question all comes down to do you go for a stodgy traditional hot Christmas lunch, or do you go for the modern Australian approach of seafood.
Australia was a British colony, so we have all the British traditions to live up to. Roast turkey with stuffing, roast potatoes and pumpkin, hot vegetables and steamy plum pudding for desert is all delicious, but imagine eating it when it’s 35 degrees outside. No don’t imagine eating it, image cooking it when it’s 35 degrees outside. But still, in my family we regularly do the big hot lunch. What can I say; we’re insane, like much of Australia.
The other (more sensible option) is the more modern Australian option of seafood. Lines to fish markets on Christmas day and before can be hundreds of people long. Oysters, prawns, salmon, lobster, crab, all yummy and all so quick to cook, keeping the kitchen cool. Desert might be trifle, hmmm trifle. If you’re lucky, I’ll even provide you with a recipe tomorrow.
RELATED The Australian Experience Christmas Presents, Tim Tams
14 December 2007
Match your tights to your dress
I saw a girl the other day wearing a lovely green and white patterned dress. It fit her perfectly and the colours were delightful on her. Unfortunately she chose to pair it with heavy black tights/pantihose and heavy black shoes. There wasn’t a problem with either of the separate elements, it was just when she combined them together it all fell apart.
There was no black in the dress, so it didn’t balance at all with the tights, and it was a warm day, so the heavy black tights looked out of place anyway. If the dress had black in the pattern, she might have been able to pull it off, but as it was, it wasn’t working.
Please people, when you put an outfit on in the morning, make sure all the elements work together. If she’d lost the tights she would have looked fine. As it was, she looked silly.
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13 December 2007
A classy meme
Meg from All About Appearances has tagged me with a classy meme, and I love it. The rules are “devise a list of 5-10 courses you would take to fix your life. It’s more fun to be in classes with friends, so include one class from the person who tagged you that you’d also like to take. Tag five other people.”
So, my classes would be:
How to dress well – this is a high-school level course designed to teach you how to pick inexpensive clothes that suit you yet allow you to express your feelings about yourself. Includes such subjects as “man that haircut looks bad on you, let me show you another”, “don’t let your mum buy the cheapest clothes in the shop because they’re a good deal” and “seriously Icy, don’t wear glasses chains, they don’t look cool”.
Be grateful – as per Oprah’s gratitude journal, learn to recognise the things in your life you are grateful for. Start out with the basics such as sunny days, chocolate, and getting out of bed in the morning; before moving onto more challenging subjects such as a being grateful that you were stuck on the train for an extra hour, because you got to finish that great book.
Self confidence for you – Learn who you are and why you should be happy with yourself. Analyse un-emotionally parts of yourself that you aren’t happy and why with and work towards resolving the issues. An essential for all people everywhere. You may find the course “How to dress well” helpful though not essential to completing this course.
How to talk to your mother – an essential for all young women, start out with how to make light non-emotional conversation with your mother, up to addressing true emotional issues that you feel strongly about. “Self confidence for you” is a recommended pre-requisite.
Keeping on track – this essential life course takes you through techniques for making sure you do the things that you need to do, even the ones you don’t enjoy. Particularly valuable at work.
I’m good with all of these but the last one. The fact I’m writing this post while at work should give you a good idea of how well I’m going.
And my favourite class from Meg was:
Get Up 101 – How to put down the lap top and go do something offline. Topics would include: finding motivation, clearing a spot on the table for the laptop, what to do when your legs are asleep, and dealing with computer withdrawal.
If you're reading this consider yourself tagged ^_^.
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12 December 2007
Fabulous! Festival at Dramatis Personae
Ashe has this edition of the Fabulous! Festival up over at Dramatis Personae. Go check it out for great ideas about what to wear, buy and do this Christmas.
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11 December 2007
Canberra, not as public service as it was
I was in Canberra on the weekend, and I’m pleased to report that the level of sartorial elegance of the city has lifted itself up out of the realms of public servant-ness to something more fashionable. I was very disappointed the last time I was there, but things have improved. Well done Canberra-ites.
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10 December 2007
Cross-over shirts and their perils
If your shirt has a cross-over details, make sure the cross-under bit sits under your boobs. These are reasonably popular at the moment as a variation on the baby-doll thing. However, if you have big boobs, please please please make sure that the under-bust line sits under your bust. If the shirt riding up across your boobs, (or worse, above) it’s not a good look, and I mean really not a good look.
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07 December 2007
It's wet
We’re just coming out of the tail end of a massive storm. This is what the view over Sydney Harbour normally looks like.
This is what it looks like now. 20 minutes ago, you couldn’t see the bridge at all. I’m waiting for it to clear before I leave.
RELATED The Australian Experience Christmas Presents, Tim Tams
An Australian Christmas - Present Ideas
Most of you readers come from the Northern Hemisphere so for you Christmas is all about cold mornings, large hot lunches, and possibly snow. In Australia, it’s about sun, the beach, and often inappropriate large hot lunches. This is a bit of a series about Christmas in Australia.
Christmas shopping is always a pain, so why make it hard for yourself and others? If you really don’t need to get or give any more stuff, give something that means a lot more than simple things.
A donation on behalf of someone is can be a much more thoughtful gift, especially if you don’t know them well, don’t know what they like, or they live a long way and postage would be awful.
This year I’ve donated through Oxfam Unwrapped, after receiving a particularly cool present from my brother last year (we got a goat ^_^). I also make a regular donation to The Smith Family (who help families in need) and to Bear Cottage (who are a hospice for very sick children).
If you don’t have money to donate on behalf of someone as a Christmas present, why not consider donating your time instead? Send a card with information about the charity you’re supporting, and maybe ask them to make a donation of time or money as well.
Who are your favourite charities to support, both during Christmas and the rest of the year? Let me know in the comments.
RELATED The Australian Experience Tim Tams
06 December 2007
Your LBD shouldn't have visible bra straps
I saw a lady walking to the train today wearing a lovely little black dress, well fitted, good length with 2 cm spaghetti straps. She looked good, the dress looked good and I was suitably impressed, until she turned around.
It was her bra, I could see her dingy white bra straps at the back of her dress. Such a shame! If they’d been black straps, or even nude, it would have been OK, but not dingy white ones. It just pulled down the whole level of the dress. Such a shame.
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05 December 2007
What can I say, I really want a pair of cantilevered heels
I know it’s silly but I really want a pair of cantilevered/backwards heels, I just think they look so cool. No idea where I’m going to get them from though. I can only really find the Irregular Choice Bam Bam for sale on-line, and they’re just a bit … bright. Not really me are they?
Anyone know some really good looking cantilevered heels, not too expensive, from an on-line store that delivers to Australia? Surely it’s not too much to ask?
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04 December 2007
Eight random things
Deja Pseu has tagged me to reveal eight random things about myself. The rules are:
- Link back to whomever tagged you.
- Post these guidelines before your list.
- After you list your eight things, tag eight (of however many you want) other bloggers
So, for your edification:
- I read all the time, at least 10 hours a week, often more. That usually means a couple of books a week, depending on how long they are. Paul and I have 6 full sized bookcases full of our books (and we need another one). One day I want a whole room to be a library of its very own.
- I did a Mining Engineering degree at Uni. Yep, I really did.
- I’ve never paid a mobile phone or internet bill. I (or Paul) have always been on call so work provides it (not that we use either of them a lot).
- I have one more month to work at my IT job before starting the stressful job of looking after a newborn.
- Overseas I’ve been to Argentina, Peru (and Machu Picchu), Shanghai in China, Turkey, Jordan (and Petra), Rome in Italy (and Pompeii), Egypt, and Singapore. In Australia I’ve been to Sydney, Melbourne, Canberra, Brisbane, Adelaide, Perth, Darwin, and Alice Springs (and Uluru), and lots of other smaller towns; pretty much all of the capital cities except for Hobart.
- I love sewing and find it lets me combine my artistic side with my logical engineering side, especially when I make clothes or bags without patterns. I find it really satisfying.
- Like Deja Pseu, I also prefer Picard to Kirk. Hmmmm Jean Luc.
- I love U2!
Wow, this is harder than it looks. Just for that, I’m tagging Meg at All About Appearances, Melanie at Slave to Shopping, and Lady Julianne at This Second’s Obsession.
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03 December 2007
Sorry
New guy starting today, and I don't have a post written. I'm bad I know, but I should have an update for you tomorrow. Thanks for your patience.
Icy
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