Packing, shopping, packing.

Sunday, 27 December 2020

We've spent the last day and a half preparing for our south coast hike which we are leaving for in a matter of minutes!  It's a week or so walk from Melaluca in the south west, out to Cockle creek. 

All the preparation has been exhausting - I'm sure the hiking will be the easy bit now! Unfortunatly Clare had to drop out due to dodgy knee, and Andy got stuck in Sydney. Robin is a last minute new addition though (and we raided all of Clare's supplies and his brother's hiking gear to get him ready) so we'll be setting out with 5 of us. 

Adventures with GumTree

Monday, 14 December 2020

It should be a simple process. Put an ad with photos on gumtree.com.au , respond politely to people who ask if they can come and inspect the item. Sell the item.  Simple.

We put our two old couches onto gumtree. Originally the older sofa bed was free and the slightly nicer one was going to be for sale, but when I inspected it in the harsh light of day I decided it should be free too as although it looks good, the cushion zips are broken and there are a few marks & stains on it.  I figured that just giving it away would be so much easier and quicker.

And it looked like that was going to be the case.  30 minutes after putting the ads online, we got a call from a Huonville family who happened to be nearby who wanted to pick up the one with the sofa bed.  I gave them our address then rushed to uncover and vacuum it. I'd just finished as they reversed their ute down the drive and 3 primary aged children jumped out and dispersed themselves through the house and garden.   A few minutes later the sofa was loaded and the adults were ready to go. I'm glad they didn't leave though as two out of the three kids were missing and the other one was on the toilet.  As we made awkward small talk I noticed out of the corner of my eye that the youngest child was loading up her hands with the sunscreen that we keep by the door, and heading towards our new couches! I dashed inside to defend them but luckily she had become distracted with something else along the way and the sofas were safe.

Back outside we waited and waited for the third child to finish on the toilet. After ten more minutes of awkward small talk interspersed with increasing agitated instructions from the parents to the remaining children to get back in the ute the third child appeared and after a bit more cajoling they were all loaded up and on their way. The whole process was successful but quite stressful. 

The 2nd sofa (what I thought was the nicer one) has been a different story. I immediately got messages from people wanting to come and get it so I tried to be fair and give the first person a chance to show up before letting the 2nd person know our address etc etc.  Jon advised me that this was crazy and I should just give everyone our address but I argued that it was simply how I'd like to be treated - I wouldn't want to get hold of a trailer and drive across town to pick up a couch that was gone before I got there. 

It turns out Jon was right simply because people are unreliable. The first respondents, to their credit, came when they said they would but they rejected the couch (they clearly have high standards for a free couch). Since them it's been a procession of no-shows. In fact I've had enquiries from  11 different people and to our knowledge, NONE of them have turned up to look at it.  Person A couldn't get a van, Person B's dad had a big concreting job and couldn't come by to pick it up with his truck. Person C got a couch from a friend instead, Person D had a long night with the 9 month old baby, Person E (and I'm not kidding) had her car stolen so didn't have transport, Persons F, G, H, I & J simply didn't respond again after asking if it was still available, and Person J wanted to know if we could deliver it (sure we'll deliver your free couch and would you like us to pick you up some stuff from the supermarket on the way??).  So it's been a bit frustrating. Each morning Jett and Jon have carried the couch to the top of the drive, each evening they have brought back down.  We're all holding out hope that tomorrow is the day it won't have to come down again.

Update: It took another week or so, but a nice family from Kingston finally came to get the couch. Yep. Clare and her dad picked it up for Clare's brother Luke.  

Beautiful Summer Days

Sunday, 13 December 2020

Yesterday Jett, Jon and I went up to the Springs so they could wear in their new hiking boots and packs, and so I could just go for a jog-a-hike.  The weather was amazing..

I went up the Icehouse Track to the summit, then down the Zig Zag. All along the way the waratahs were beautiful and the views were fantastic.

While I did they Jon and Jett hauled 15+ kg packs up the Organ Pipes track then down Hunters Track.  They did really well and avoided blisters which was great! 

Recipe Challenge - Book #38

Wednesday, 9 December 2020

Recipe Challenge - Book #37

Wednesday, 9 December 2020

At this point in my life, this recipe book is un-necessary - who really needs a book filled with quick pasta recipes?  Pasta is always quick.

Nevertheless I played along and rather than choose a variation of roasted vegetables tossed onto dryish looking pasta, I selected a recipe for fresh pasta from the section at the end of the book - Coriander and Chilli.  It went pretty well in preparation and it was nice to use coriander from the garden. I must say the pasta seemed to be a bit rubbery in the final dish but that's probably my fault for not squishing it any thinner with my Aldi pasta machine:

So that's another one down (and out)

The Two Capes Hike

Monday, 30 November 2020

Although I'm not a huge fan of rogaining, the one Jon and I did last December in St Helens was a bit of a revelation. Before that I wouldn't have thought that I could possibly cover so many kilometres in one day. Together we walked and ran about 50k before going to bed just after midnight then the next morning we got up and walked another 16. 

Since then Clare and Jon and I have planned and executed (and also, due to various reasons,  cancelled) a number of epic hikes. Clare and I did a 37k walk at Freycinet in July, and yesterday, while Jon and the kids were doing another rogaine at South Arm, Clare and I did the an el-cheapo version of the 3 Capes Hike. We were basically going to do 2/3rds of the route of the fantastic 3 night walk that we both did a few years ago with kids.

As it was so long, I wanted to get an early start so I forced us to drive down the afternoon before and pay for non-tent style accommodation.  In retaliation Clare forced us to stay in a cabin for which its greatest attribute was that it housed a cheese grater.  Fancy huh? Actually if it had been so fancy as to contain a couch as well, we could have sat there and admired its steely shininess all night.  

Anyway, after a night spent tossing and turning (I have a bad habit of lying awake fretting about adventures the night before actually doing them - in fact I may as well have been in a tent after all), we got up at 6, made ourselves lunch (using a plate as a chopping board because.. well you can guess) and were heading off from Fortescue Bay in the light drizzle by 7:30. We weren't the only ones starting out with grand plans - about half an hour in we overtook a group also heading to Cape Pillar. Wisely they were just doing the out-and-back route, as opposed to our out-and-back-and-then-around route.

The first hour and a half is spent on the old Cape Pillar track, which is really pretty, particularly in spring with all the flowers. After a delightful 10km we arrived at the first of the huts whereupon we chatted with the nice ranger (who was happy for us to fill our water bottles), and admired the view from the deck. 

From there it was out and back to Cape Pillar - 6kms each way from the hut.  It was typical Tasmanian spring weather - occasionally windy, sometimes sunny, sometimes rainy - we must have put our rain jackets on and off about 50 times during the day.

 It was pretty nice when we got to Cape Pillar - so after admiring the stunning view we enjoyed some lunch in the sun before returning to the hut to refil our water again.  We passed lots of people on day 3 of their hike also making it to Cape Pillar.  In fact during the day we passed people on the 2nd, 3rd and final day of their respective trips.  It certainly seems to attract a mixed bunch of decrepit old hands, fit teenagers, families and hiking newbies. It's fantastic that the provision of such nice accomodation makes the trip so accessible (at least physically if not financially) for so many people.

With half of the journey done we then faced our highest climb - the ascent of Mount Fortescue.

I'm not sure how it gets to be a mountain as it's really not that high, and without big heavy hiking packs it only takes about 20 minutes to hike up. After that we had a delightful 5k lope down the hill to the intersection of the shot but steep out-and-back track to Cape Huay.  With 30+ k under our belts the relentless steps were starting to get a bit tiring but we toughed it out and got some spectacular views from the end.

Thankfully from back at the junction it was another mostly-downhill section to the finish. By this time Clare's toes were getting pretty sore, and my knee was a bit niggly so it was a bit of a relief to be in the final stretch.   We arrived back at the beautiful Fortescue Bay beach and had just enough the energy to walk another 500 metres to make sure the total trip was over 40km.

 So we did it! yay us. We both agreed that apart from our annoying injuries (Clare's toes, and my knee), we felt pretty good considering! I am a bit sore today but otherwise fine.  What's next?

Oh - and while we did our hike, Jett and his team-mate covered almost 30k on foot, Zali did about 20k,  and Jon and his partner did 71 (but they were on bikes).That's a lot of kilometres between us in one day!

Recipe Challenge - Book #39

Sunday, 29 November 2020

I know what you are thinking.. How can there possibly have been room for almost 40 recipe books on your shelf?  My thoughts exactly, but unfortunately there is room for many more than 40 books, so we aren't done yet.  At least I am getting some variety.

The last time I had a macaron was in Paris. We bought some from an alleyway near Sacre Coeur.  Those were the days.

Anyway - I didn't want to  have to buy a whole lot of ingredients so my choices were limited - in the end I went with hazelnut recipe with chocolate ganache filling. 

I followed the slightly complicated and time consuming recipe exactly, and if I do say so myself, the results were spectacular.

Voila!

Recipe Challenge - Book #36

Sunday, 22 November 2020

 We were forced to contribute to, and then buy this book as part of a school fundraising event. Aside from noting that the vegetarian section included a number of fish dishes, I've barely opened it since.  We contributed 'our' choc-orange mousse recipe although I'm sure copyright lawyers would have some issues with the claimed ownership of much of the contents of this book.

Unlike other more fancy recipe books I've used lately, this one did feature some pictures, unfortunately they were done by 8 year olds.

I took a chance on the lemon drizzle cake recipe, and it was fine.