This post is to remind me just how easy updating my blog can be – and to remember the fact that I actually REALLY freaking enjoy blogging. Yep, my son is now nearly 4 months old – it’s time for me to update this blog a little more again!

So here’s a recipe for y’all! I’m so lazy I don’t even cook anymore! (not quite true…;))

All you need is Chia seeds, which you can get from hippy health stores for an exorbitant price, but a little goes a long way; any type of milk, any type of sweetener and a few flavours.

Ingredients

1/3 cup chia seeds

2 cups of milk – any type

sweetener – any type – to taste (about a heaped tablespoon of raw sugar was good for me)

2 tsp vanilla bean paste

1/2 tsp rose water

Method

Chuck it all in a jar and give it a shake then pop it in the fridge. It’s good to go pretty much straight away, but is nice the next day. It lasts in the fridge for at least a few days.

I used a jar – no, not because I’m a hipster! – but because this pudding needs a bit of a shake every once in a while to get it all mixed together while it sets.

This is really tasty served with berries

And there you go! Blog post in under 15 minutes with a dessert that’s even quicker! I promise to start using my DSLR camera again too – that thing is gathering way too much dust and Higgs Boson particles.

When I was 14 a travelling circus set up camp in a big park just down the road from my house. There were all sorts of animals including lions, horses, dogs and elephants. For a few weeks I would have to walk past their cages set up in the park to get to school in the morning. One evening my family and I walked down the hill and went to see the circus. The trapeze artist twirled, the clowns honked their horns, the elephants stood high on their back legs and performed their tricks, the lions roared, and the crowd cheered. So did I. But walking home that night I quietly decided I wouldn’t go to see another circus that included animals. It just didn’t seem right.

Why am I telling you this sorry little tale? Because I LOVE the circus. And back then when you say you’re not going to see a circus with animals in it, it wiped out a lot of options. But thankfully these days there are a number of circuses travelling the world with incredible talent, and the pinacle of these is Cirque du Soleil.

AND THEY ARE COMING TO BRISBANE!

After years of hearing of their shows and watching their TV specials I am very much looking forward to seeing Cirque du Soleil perform in their massive yellow and blue big top. This new show is based specifically around the world of insects. Who needs real animals when you have amazing circus performers dressed up as creepy little critters?!

Here’s a bit of info about the show:
Since its world premiere in 2009, OVO has visited more than 15 cities in Canada, United States and Mexico, delighting over 2 million spectators. Brisbane will host the opening of the 2012-2013 OVO Australian tour.

OVO, meaning “egg” in Portuguese, is a headlong rush into a colorful ecosystem teeming with life, where insects work, eat, crawl, flutter, play, fight and look for love in a non-stop riot of energy and movement.

When a mysterious egg appears in their midst, the insects are awestruck and intensely curious about this iconic object that represents the enigma and cycles of their lives. It is love at first sight when a gawky, quirky insect arrives in this bustling community and a fabulous ladybug catches his eye – and the feeling is mutual.

The cast of OVO is comprised of 54 performing artists from 16 countries specializing in many acrobatic acts. One highlight of OVO is the stunning Flying Act in which a group of scarabs soar high above the stage, from both edges to the middle landing on a platform. This breathtaking act combines many circus disciplines: banquine, Russian swing and swinging chair.

You can get tickets at the Cirque du Soleil website. I can’t wait!

[I have been given tickets to see this show - I'll give a little update on this post after I see the show!]

Entrée # 1

Jeremy Clark – Hilton Brisbane

Sous vide spanner crab, fennel and citrus salad

Hajime Horiguchi – Wasabi Noosa

Sugi smoked ocean trout, micro herbs, umeboshi dressing and Tasmanian Wasabi

Entrée # 2

Paul McGivern – The Jetty South Bank

Ballotine of Rannoch farm quail, poached grapes, parsnip puree

Kym Machin – Spring

Chawanmushi – Noosa spanner crab, kingfish, flying fish roe and quinoa

Main

Adrian Richardson – La Luna Bistro, Melbourne

Grassfeed rib of beef, braised, corn, avocado, tomato salsa

Tony Kelly – Stokehouse Brisbane

Twice cooked pork, crispy pig’s tail, smoked potato puree, apple jam, sauce charcuterie

Dessert

Alastair McLeod – Tank Restaurant and Brett’s Wharf

Bundaberg strawberry Cranachan, yoghurt Chantilly, bushmills

David Pugh – Restaurant Two

Chocolate and beetroot brownie, pear sorbet, licorice cocoa crumb, ganache

Here’s a bit of info about the charity:

“Variety the Children’s Charity is dedicated to empowering Australian children who are sick, disadvantaged or who have special needs to LIVE, LAUGH and LEARN. Each month in Queensland alone, Variety receives over $250,000 worth of appeal requests for children in need. Through grants to children who are sick, disadvantaged and who have special needs, Variety – the Children’s Charity fills a vital gap between what families, schools and communities are able to afford and what our special kids need to lead engaged and fulfilling lives.”

2012 Variety of Chefs Ball

When: 6.30pm Saturday 16 June 2012

Where: The Grand Ballroom, Hilton Hotel Brisbane

Dress: Black Tie/Formal

Cost: $225 per person
$2250 for table of ten guests

Limited Platinum packages available

Website: http://www.varietyofchefs.com.au

Tickets: 07 3907 9300 or georgie@varietyqld.org.au

Tea is the new coffee, so says May King Tsang. And if you spend a little bit of time around her, her energy and passion for the brew may well rub off on you. She’s one of the world’s top 50 certified speakers on the subject of tea, one May King holds very close to her heart, and has just recently made Brisbane her home after moving here from her native London.

I was invited to experience a Gong Fu tea ceremony last week. Unlike its very ritualistic Japanese cousin, this Chinese version is all about the tea itself. The tea leaves, oolong in this case, are “washed” first with hot water and this first brew is poured away. The leaves are brewed again. The tea is poured into tiny ‘sniffer’ cups placed onto a slotted tray to catch the drips, then covered with a smaller cup, which makes them look a little like mushrooms. Each cup is given to the participants. They pick up the cups and in one fluid motion flip the cups over. The sniffer cup is removed and rolled in the hands, being sniffed to really enjoy the subtle aroma of the brew. The tea is then sipped, sloshed around the mouth and “chewed” to capture all the beautiful characteristics of the tea. Please watch the video below!

During this ceremony May King explained the traditional fables behind the names of tea and the actions within the ceremony.

May King’s passion for tea is infectious, her knowledge impressive. I expected for it to be a very serious event, but in fact it was very light-hearted, educational and accessible. She may love the Chinese and Taiwanese teas such as Tie Guan Yin, but also enjoys having a big cup of western style sweet milky tea.

T-licious at South Bank and MayKingTea are collaborating to hold a series of tea education events – The Friday Tea Club. Over the next few Fridays May King will hold traditional Chinese Tea Ceremonies, discuss Oolong tea and herbal tisanes.

Bookings: 3844 3305

Www.maykingtea.com
Twitter @maykingtea

I am a major advocate of social media being used in business, especially twitter. Gone are the days where one used it simply to stalk one’s favourite celebrity. It can now be used in a much more intelligent way. I use it to connect to many people socially, but also to interact with a number of businesses.
Twitter is being used widely for marketing purposes, but customer service and trouble shooting is becoming a lot more prevalent. And it makes a lot of sense. When a client has an issue, it can often be quite frustrating for them and they can become quite emotional, sometimes leading to drawn out explanations, agitation and even insults (can you tell I’ve worked in help desks previously?). Even in the other end of the scale, pleasantries and general chit chat can take time too, which is important to have for building customer relations, but can take up valuable time especially for busy help desks. Twitter’s 140 character limit prevents any superfluous details or long explanations, you simply don’t have space. Only the important, relevant details get tweeted and this makes troubleshooting a whole lot faster.

When it comes to business use of twitter, there are a few rules that the company should follow to make the experience for the client much more pleasant.
These include:

So, who does this well? A number of local businesses and services are now using twitter extremely well. A couple to note are Queensland Rail (@QueenslandRail) and QLD Police Service (@QPSmedia). Both provide excellent, up to the minute, relevant information and do so in down to earth and sometimes amusing ways.
Another is Brisbane City Council (@brisbanecityqld). There has been a lot of complaints about the council recently due to the upcoming elections, but one thing they have always excelled at is customer service. This has now extended to the use of twitter.
Here is an example. One of my local parks had a broken swing seat in the playground. I took this photo (below) with my phone and sent it to them via twitter. The whole process took me less than a minute. Within 1/2 hour the message above was sent back. Now, next time I go to my park (next week) I’ll let you all know if it has been fixed by then.
I was truly impressed by the swiftness of not only the response on twitter but also of the park officer.

I guess this same response could have also been achieved by calling up the council via phone. This involves a whole lot more work: finding the number, calling, waiting on hold, explaining the situation and waiting on the phone to find out the response. Quite frankly I wasn’t that emotionally invested in this swing seat to go to all that trouble. I simply would have ignored it. This way it took me less than one minute of effort to achieve a good result.
This, of course, is a very basic example of what can be achieved through social media, but it’s day to day problem solving that I can see becoming more widely utilized.
If more businesses realise that in only 140 characters the client can only give you the important details, and not a whole lot of hot air like through use of email or over the phone, they may find a decrease in time spent troubleshooting, and an increase in customer satisfaction.

UPDATE! It’s fixed! BCC contacted me on twitter to say they fixed it and I checked it today. They also refurbed the other swing seat too!

Long time no see, etcetera etcetera…

Our family is complete!

Mumma
Pappa Bear
Miss3
… And the Man Cub.

He came into the world 8 days after he was expected, after 17 hours of labour and only 2 pushes he was born and we snuggled for over 2 hours before they weighed him!
He weighed 9 pound 6 ounces and was 57.5cm long. Exactly 3 pounds heavier than my daughter was!

He’s beautiful and perfect. Just like all children are.
I love being a mumma to two now, it’s a time management challenge, but everything else about it is fabulous!

Yum!! I just had to share this quick, sweet delight with you!

Ingredients
A piece frozen puff pastry
3 tbsp almond meal
10 tinned apricot halves
1 tsp Vanilla bean paste
1 tbsp Raw sugar
2 tbsp Glayva Liqueur (or any fruity liqueur)
Egg wash (egg yolk whisked with a dash of milk)
Ice cream to serve

Method
1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees or 160 fan forced, preheat a flat baking tray
2. Put puff pastry on a sheet of baking paper, cut corners off to make a round
3. Sprinkle almond meal into the centre, leave an inch around the edges
4. Place apricot halves on almond meal, cut side up
5. Smear vanilla paste around the edge of the pastry
6. Pour liqueur over apricots with a spoon
7. Sprinkle over sugar
8. Fold up edges of pastry in a devil-may-care fashion.
9. Egg wash it
10. Pop it in the oven for a about 30 minutes. You want it to be firm and crisp on the bottom, so it needs a bit of time
11. Dust with icing sugar, cut and serve with ice cream

Serves 2-4 people.

I used to love the rain. The soft pitter patter on the roof would bring relief from a hot, sticky day. It would wash away the drought-induced dust that would cling to the weatherboard house and nourish the dry, grey grass in the back yard. It reminded me of my childhood where I grew up in the highlands of Papua New Guinea. The rains would come in small doses each afternoon, just enough to annoint the the long grasses and banana trees, just enough to soak into the soil and ensure a healthy crop of taro, sweet potato and sugar cane. It was beautiful, calming, healthy.
But since the floods one year ago, my feelings towards rain have changed. As I sit here and watch the droplets fall to the ground I still hear the beauty of the rains, but I also see those small drops gather and flow across the grass, along the roads and flow into the swollen, rushing creeks. It makes me nervous. The flooding last year devastated large portions of South East Queensland. And now there is flooding happening again on the outskirts of Brisbane at the moment. The same broken faces are shown on the television, showing a year of wear in their wrinkles, their houses again under the waterline.
I don’t wish for the rains to go away, neither do I wish for 10 years of draining drought. I know there must be balance within nature, and a natural ebb and flow of the patterns in weather. I just hope one day we strike a finer balance.

My Country, 2nd Verse
By Dorothea Mackeller

I love a sunburnt country,
A land of sweeping plains,
Of rugged mountain ranges,
Of droughts and flooding plains.
I love her far horizons,
I love her jewel-sea,
Her beauty and her terror -
The wide brown land for me!

(photo above taken at my back door, of the rains last year, a few days before ‘the peak’. )

It’s Australia Day today, and as it is most important that you aren’t seen as Un-Australian (whatever that means) by your peers, today for lunch we had chip butties.
They’re probably not the most Aussie food you can get but they do involve many empty calories and a very large portion of tomato sauce, and that, my friends, constitutes true blue Aussie tucker for me.

Let me take you through the chip buttie / Australia Day process.

1. Wake up way too late and praise the gods it’s a public holiday
2. Turn on the radio to Triple J and listen to the hottest 100 in either a bikini and sarong or for the men a pair of boardies and an apron. This goes for if you have a pool and BBQ or not.
3. Listen for tummy rumbles and start said BBQ
4. Or… If you’re like us, mosey on down to the nearest strip mall and grab a serve of chips and a fresh loaf of pearly white bread.
5. Butter that bread, choose a handful of chips that fit geometrically perfectly on half the bread, smother it all in more tomato sauce than you think you need.
6. Fold the bread in half, eat half-perched over the chip paper on the loungeroom floor.

Happy Australia Day mate.