New Washing Machine—Again
Back in January Bro Smith informed us that his daughter, whose washing machine he’d lent us shortly after we moved, would need it back in about three weeks. He’d forewarned us that this would be the case at some point; still, it came as something of a shock. All of a sudden, we were again facing the spectre of an expensive and inconvenient Canberra Laundromat or time-consuming hand washing.
Thankfully, once again everything turned out great. I immediately started looking at the online classifieds (which I’d done in October), but this time, within days, I found the perfect washing machine to buy. Only four years old, it was being sold by a family who’d bought a larger machine, and, being keen to get it out of their garage, they were asking for only $100.
I drove up to Ngunnawal on the Friday to check it out, came home to discuss it with Troy (who’s cluey when it comes to household appliances), and then drove back up with the trailer Saturday morning to buy it. I’m now the proud owner of my first washing machine, and I love it.
This is not just because it allows me to do my wash conveniently at home, either, though I do appreciate that immensely. No, this is more than just a household appliance; this is a washing machine for blokes. It has cool lights and an even cooler motor. It’s so fun to use that I actually find myself looking around for things to wash—a phenomenon I’ve never experienced before.
My favourite features: The SmartDrive DC motor has no brakes, pulleys, or gears, allowing it an infinite range of wash speeds depending on how much ‘resistance’ it detects in the drum. This ability to detect resistance also lets the machine know if it needs to add more water. It also means that it can spin at 1000rpm, about double the spin speed of a standard washing machine, resulting in wash that is already half dry when it comes out. In addition, the small load setting really is for small loads. Yesterday I tried washing three T-shirts, a pair of shorts, and two pairs of socks on this setting, and the machine actually had to add a bit more water to handle these few items. Lastly, the spin cycle (courtesy of the direct-drive motor and its super-fast speed) sounds like a jet engine taking off.
Now if I could just find something to making ironing more enjoyable….
13 February 2007
11 February 2007
Food Fest
Every year in February Canberra hosts the National Multicultural Festival, and the highlight of the festival is the food fair. In fact, in my opinion the food fair may be the highlight of the entire year in Canberra (a fact that likely reveals way too much about me). This much-anticipated event took place this weekend.
Consequently, I spent nearly three hours there yesterday eating lunch. Most of that time wasn’t spent in eating, however, but in negotiating my way past the 140 (!) ethnic food stalls which had been set up along City Walk and also across London Circuit in the courtyard of the Legislative Assembly. I of course had to inspect every single offering before making a selection, threading my way through the teeming throngs to do so. For someone who finds it hard to make a selection from even a limited menu, it’s tough to have to choose amongst Tibetan, Ghanaian, Argentine, and Danish, to name just a few of the 140 offerings.
To make matters worse, I knew I only had one shot at eating yesterday. Usually, I’d get both lunch and dinner at the food fair, but yesterday I had a wedding to attend in the afternoon with a reception taking up the entire evening, so lunch was it for me. In addition, I knew the reception was going to be a ‘multicultural feast’ in its own right (Samoan and Aussie), so I couldn’t even have a big lunch.
I ended up getting a ‘completo’—a Chilean hot dog smothered with guacamole, sauerkraut, mayonnaise, crushed green chillies, diced tomatoes, hot mustard, and red onions. I’d hoped this would provide enough of a flavour explosion without filling me up too much (like a platter of various Nepalese vegetarian curries would have done) to enjoy the food at the reception. It turned out to be a very good choice. I enjoyed every messy bite.
And I was glad I wasn’t too full for the reception since it was truly amazing. The rugby club catered a feast in itself: roast chicken quarters, roast lamb, oven-roasted potatoes and pumpkin, gravy, steamed veg, crusty bread rolls with butter, pasta salad, potato salad, cole slaw, and a fresh green-bean and tomato salad with balsamic vinaigrette. In addition to this, the Samoan families provided their own additions to the buffet: two whole fire-roasted pigs, roast taro, corned beef, fried chicken, Samoan chop suey, raw fish in coconut cream, a crab and prawn salad, curried chicken wings, and some kind of pink potato salad. On top of all of this, at the end of the night, we cut and ate the wedding cake.
Needless to say, I think I may have eaten a bit too much. But it sure was good. And, if today had not been the Sabbath, I think I would have been back at the food festival this afternoon.
Every year in February Canberra hosts the National Multicultural Festival, and the highlight of the festival is the food fair. In fact, in my opinion the food fair may be the highlight of the entire year in Canberra (a fact that likely reveals way too much about me). This much-anticipated event took place this weekend.
Consequently, I spent nearly three hours there yesterday eating lunch. Most of that time wasn’t spent in eating, however, but in negotiating my way past the 140 (!) ethnic food stalls which had been set up along City Walk and also across London Circuit in the courtyard of the Legislative Assembly. I of course had to inspect every single offering before making a selection, threading my way through the teeming throngs to do so. For someone who finds it hard to make a selection from even a limited menu, it’s tough to have to choose amongst Tibetan, Ghanaian, Argentine, and Danish, to name just a few of the 140 offerings.
To make matters worse, I knew I only had one shot at eating yesterday. Usually, I’d get both lunch and dinner at the food fair, but yesterday I had a wedding to attend in the afternoon with a reception taking up the entire evening, so lunch was it for me. In addition, I knew the reception was going to be a ‘multicultural feast’ in its own right (Samoan and Aussie), so I couldn’t even have a big lunch.
I ended up getting a ‘completo’—a Chilean hot dog smothered with guacamole, sauerkraut, mayonnaise, crushed green chillies, diced tomatoes, hot mustard, and red onions. I’d hoped this would provide enough of a flavour explosion without filling me up too much (like a platter of various Nepalese vegetarian curries would have done) to enjoy the food at the reception. It turned out to be a very good choice. I enjoyed every messy bite.
And I was glad I wasn’t too full for the reception since it was truly amazing. The rugby club catered a feast in itself: roast chicken quarters, roast lamb, oven-roasted potatoes and pumpkin, gravy, steamed veg, crusty bread rolls with butter, pasta salad, potato salad, cole slaw, and a fresh green-bean and tomato salad with balsamic vinaigrette. In addition to this, the Samoan families provided their own additions to the buffet: two whole fire-roasted pigs, roast taro, corned beef, fried chicken, Samoan chop suey, raw fish in coconut cream, a crab and prawn salad, curried chicken wings, and some kind of pink potato salad. On top of all of this, at the end of the night, we cut and ate the wedding cake.
Needless to say, I think I may have eaten a bit too much. But it sure was good. And, if today had not been the Sabbath, I think I would have been back at the food festival this afternoon.
Rain!
It’s been over a month since we last had any precipitation here in Canberra. It’s been hard. Water restrictions have allowed us to water the plants (not the grass) in our gardens by hand only once a week during a three-hour window on Sunday evening, and this has not been enough to counteract all the moisture which the summer sun has sucked out of them most days. I’ve watched the trees and shrubs in our back garden basically start to die. Their leaves have folded up and drooped lifelessly, and one tree’s leaves have already turned yellow and started to fall.
Imagine how pleased I was then to be woken about 6:00 yesterday morning by booming thunder accompanied by pouring rain. It didn’t last long, but I was literally grateful for every drop that fell. Thankfully, those drops from the morning weren’t the last. It clouded up again yesterday afternoon, and by 6:30 it was raining again. I’m not sure how hard or how long it rained since I was inside a rugby club attending a wedding reception all night, but things seemed quite wet when I walked outside at 10:30. Again I was very grateful.
This morning we woke up to more puddles, so it must have rained at least a little bit during the night. At church, of course, we expressed our thanks for the rain and plead fervently for more. Then, during priesthood meeting opening exercises, we heard the pounding of rain on the chapel roof. That was about six hours ago, and it’s pretty much been raining since, mostly lightly though sometimes heavily. I’ll gladly take whatever God in His mercy will allow us. I just looked at the shrub outside my window, and already it is looking perkier.
It’s been over a month since we last had any precipitation here in Canberra. It’s been hard. Water restrictions have allowed us to water the plants (not the grass) in our gardens by hand only once a week during a three-hour window on Sunday evening, and this has not been enough to counteract all the moisture which the summer sun has sucked out of them most days. I’ve watched the trees and shrubs in our back garden basically start to die. Their leaves have folded up and drooped lifelessly, and one tree’s leaves have already turned yellow and started to fall.
Imagine how pleased I was then to be woken about 6:00 yesterday morning by booming thunder accompanied by pouring rain. It didn’t last long, but I was literally grateful for every drop that fell. Thankfully, those drops from the morning weren’t the last. It clouded up again yesterday afternoon, and by 6:30 it was raining again. I’m not sure how hard or how long it rained since I was inside a rugby club attending a wedding reception all night, but things seemed quite wet when I walked outside at 10:30. Again I was very grateful.
This morning we woke up to more puddles, so it must have rained at least a little bit during the night. At church, of course, we expressed our thanks for the rain and plead fervently for more. Then, during priesthood meeting opening exercises, we heard the pounding of rain on the chapel roof. That was about six hours ago, and it’s pretty much been raining since, mostly lightly though sometimes heavily. I’ll gladly take whatever God in His mercy will allow us. I just looked at the shrub outside my window, and already it is looking perkier.
08 February 2007
Yabbying
For Mutual last night the bishop taught the Young Men and me how to catch yabbies. To do this, we drove out to Bro Laney's farm, across the border in New South Wales, where he has a small dam for watering his cattle which his sons have introduced yabbies into. (They usually live in rivers.)
A yabby, by the way, is an Australian freshwater lobster, similar to a North American crawdad. And one 'fishes' for them in a similar manner. We each took a length of string, tied a chunk of fresh kidney to the end, and tossed it out into the water. Since the water, in good Australian fashion, was the colour of milk chocolate, we couldn't see when a yabby had taken the bait, but it usually only took two or three minutes. Once there was a bit of resistance at the end of the string, it could be drawn in slowly, luring the yabby close to the shore. A quick swoop with a triangular net then completed the catch.
All that remained was to extricate the entrapped crustacean from the net—a none-too-easy task due to rather vicious and rapidly snapping claws—and toss it into a bucket of water. We caught about 40 of them but kept only about 20, throwing the smaller ones back for a later catch.
Whilst fishing, we got a pot of fresh water boiling on a gas ring next to the dam, and, after rinsing a bit more mud off of our catch, we tossed them in. Once they’d turned orange, it was time to pour the water off and feast. As with lobsters, we ate the tails and claws. The meat was white and sweet and fresh, similar to that of a lobster or prawn. I liked it.
And I liked the simple pleasure of standing on the banks of a muddy dam, surrounded by lowing cattle, breathing in the eucalyptus-scented air, and watching the sun set behind the red hills whilst waiting for some ‘bush tucker’ to take the bait.
For Mutual last night the bishop taught the Young Men and me how to catch yabbies. To do this, we drove out to Bro Laney's farm, across the border in New South Wales, where he has a small dam for watering his cattle which his sons have introduced yabbies into. (They usually live in rivers.)
A yabby, by the way, is an Australian freshwater lobster, similar to a North American crawdad. And one 'fishes' for them in a similar manner. We each took a length of string, tied a chunk of fresh kidney to the end, and tossed it out into the water. Since the water, in good Australian fashion, was the colour of milk chocolate, we couldn't see when a yabby had taken the bait, but it usually only took two or three minutes. Once there was a bit of resistance at the end of the string, it could be drawn in slowly, luring the yabby close to the shore. A quick swoop with a triangular net then completed the catch.
All that remained was to extricate the entrapped crustacean from the net—a none-too-easy task due to rather vicious and rapidly snapping claws—and toss it into a bucket of water. We caught about 40 of them but kept only about 20, throwing the smaller ones back for a later catch.
Whilst fishing, we got a pot of fresh water boiling on a gas ring next to the dam, and, after rinsing a bit more mud off of our catch, we tossed them in. Once they’d turned orange, it was time to pour the water off and feast. As with lobsters, we ate the tails and claws. The meat was white and sweet and fresh, similar to that of a lobster or prawn. I liked it.
And I liked the simple pleasure of standing on the banks of a muddy dam, surrounded by lowing cattle, breathing in the eucalyptus-scented air, and watching the sun set behind the red hills whilst waiting for some ‘bush tucker’ to take the bait.
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