Sydney harbour bridge walk

I took the memory card out of my camera today and found these photos I took when I was in Sydney in February to apply for my Finnish passport.  It wasn't the nicest of days in Sydney that day but it was interesting to see the people doing the bridge walk.  I took these from the ferry.  Even in the photo with the opera house beneath the bridge you can still just make out the people walking along the arch of the bridge.  They look like tiny dots beneath the patch of blue sky on the right.   I don't think I'd be game!

Seeya Paul & Elaine

Jealous, jealous, jealous.....

The very last of our Aussie based narrowboat contacts are off on their adventure.  We wish Paul and Elaine and The Manly Ferry all the best for their travels.  Can't wait to read all about it and see lots of boaty photos.  We'll catch you up one day!

A dong on the head!

My mum seems to be having a rest from injuring herself so Mick thought he'd make up for it.  Tuesday he split his head open!  It seems it didn't knock any sense into him but he's got a nice long row of stitches and will have a nasty scar.

He was late coming home from work and about an hour after he'd usually be home he rang and said he was running late and was 15 minutes away.  Not long after Peter, the man he works with, arrived and got out of his car with his hands full of bandages.  I had a fair idea of what may have held Mick up at work.   Peter had driven him to the hospital and Mick had left the bandages in his car when he got in his own to come home.  When Mick got home he said he hadn't told me on the phone what had happened because I wouldn't have wanted him to drive home.  He was right!

Not the first time and won't be the last.

Bonegilla migrant centre

I've just had a couple of days away with my mum.  We did something we've talked about for a long time and drove to Wodonga (at the border of Victoria and New South Wales) to visit her first home in Australia.

It was the Bonegilla migrant centre which operated as such between 1947 and 1971 with more than 300,000 migrants spending time living at the centre.  The first migrants at Bonegilla were refugees from refugee camps in Europe following WW2.  They learned English while living at Bonegilla and were assisted with finding work.  From 1951 the migrants arriving at Bonegilla changed from refugees to assisted migrants from many European countries, including Finland where my mum was born. 

My mum was the eldest of 10 children and was 13 years old when the family arrived at Bonegilla at the end of 1959.  Of the 20 something blocks of buildings (each like a little village) they have kept one block as a museum.  It was the block where my mum's family had lived so it was excellent for her to see it again.

What a shock it must have been to arrive from such a cold country as Finland to the blistering Australian Summer.  The accomodation was in un-insulated army huts, there was no trees or shade or grass as there is now.  The migrants lived in small one room cubicles, each with one tiny window and a door to outside.  Larger families like my mum's had 2 of the cubicles.  The toilet and shower block was a couple of hundred metres away and they ate in a canteen.

Many of the migrants who have written in the guest books don't remember their time at Bonegilla fondly, they disliked the food and hated the living conditions.  My mum remembers it all as a big adventure with lots of other kids around, a great place to swim in Lake Hume beside the camp, and the start of a new life. 

Recipe - penang chicken

This is a recipe we've tried a few times before.  This week I started cooking it and then realized I had no evaporated milk.  I rummaged frantically through the pantry and found a tin of coconut milk which I used in place of the evaporated milk, coconut essence and cornflour.  Mick declared it delicious - better than it's ever been before.  Hmmm.... it goes to show it is difficult to get the same flavour when you replace ingredients with low fat alternatives.  Sorry Mick, but this was a "one-off" special treat!

From STGTBT Book 4

INGREDIENTS

500g skinless chicken breast, cut in strips

1 medium onion, sliced

1 tsp crushed garlic (in jar)

1 tsp crushed ginger (in jar)

1 cup fresh green beans, halved

2 cups zucchini, sliced

2 cups cauliflower, small florets

3 tsps Penang paste

2 tsps fish sauce

1 tbsp sugar

1 tbsp chopped basil

2 tbsp cornflour

375ml can light evaporated milk

1 tsp coconut essence

Handful peanuts

METHOD

In a large frying pan, sprayed with cooking spray, sauté garlic and ginger and chicken until chicken is nearly cooked.   Add all vegetables and cook a further 2-3 minutes. Add the Penang paste, stir well and cook for 5 minutes.  Add fish sauce, sugar and basil.  In a bowl, combine the evaporated milk, coconut essence and cornflour, then pour into the frying pan.  Stir continuously until thickening.  Serve with rice and sprinkle with peanuts.

Flexible solar panels

Mick and I have talked about solar panels before and I wrote something about it at that time.  The Waterways World magazine we received a couple of weeks ago had an article about installing flexible solar panels on the the roof of a narrowboat.  We read it with interest but it raised an interesting question.

The article said the panels are glued to the roof of the boat.  What happens to moisture between the solar panel and the roof?  Wouldn't it cause rust?  I think I better investigate!

Will there be water left for us?!

The blog reading lately is increasingly alarming.  Are you guys running out of water?  It's hard to imagine that here we are at the tail of our Summer and everything is awash from the heavy rains, and over there in England you're supposed to have just done Winter and there is already talk of canal closures and restrictions.

We just hope there is some water left for us by the time we get there.  Please save us some!

Passports.... tick!

One more item on our list has now been ticked off.  We now both have appropriate passports to fulfill our dream.

Next?

Hopeful

We had a second inspection by one of the prospective house buyers.  It turns out they are looking for a property for 3 people to buy together, and so far two of them have seen it and loved it.  There were phone calls between them and the agent with questions for us about the flooring and the gardens and now they say they'll bring the third of them to inspect the house on Friday.  Fingers crossed... again!

Recipe - Tabouli

I'm a big fan of Tabouli and really like this recipe - it makes a small batch because I much prefer it fresh. 

 

INGREDIENTS

1/4 cup dried cracked wheat (bourghul)

1 cup water

1/2 tomato, de-seeded and diced small

1/2 cup fresh parsley, chopped

5-6 mint leaves, chopped fine

1 tbsp lemon juice

1/4 onion, diced

1/2 tsp crushed garlic (in jar)

Pepper to taste

METHOD

Put the cracked wheat and the water into a bowl and stir occasionally, leaving it for about an hour.  

Drain off any unabsorbed water and add the other ingredients to the bowl, mixing well.