crazybrave

… from this morning’s rally in Canberra.

Important for all the family.

Update: lots more photos in the Your Rights at Work flickr group.

I’m a fan of this “weekend youtube” habit that people are getting into, and I would very much like to share this with you. It goes for about 7 minutes (the last minute or so is blank), but 4 or 5 should brighten up your day considerably – it’s the Helsinki Complaints Choir:

How did I manage to miss this?

It promises an “entertaining after-dinner speech” in which Ms Arndt “will give some amusing insights into her early career as a sexologist and how this has given her a unique perspective on some of the social issues facing Australia today.”

And be careful of looking too closely at that that hairdo – Wiggity-wiggity-wack!, as Mel might say.

She scans the room quickly and leans in to me – not too far, she’s due two days before I am.

“The problem is – I don’t like babies. They’re very demanding and you get nothing back from them.” Her laughter sounds slightly brittle.

Procrastinatory memes don’t work so well when you’ve given everyone at work your blog address so they can find out about the joy of blogging. But Sage is all tucked up in bed, Owy’s having a beer after cricket training and it’s quiet and still.

1. When you looked at yourself in the mirror today, what was the first thing you thought?
Must get haircut before baby is born and I don’t get another haircut for six months.

2. How much cash do you have on you?
Can I reach my purse? No? About $40 I think.

3. What’s a word that rhymes with “DOOR?”
Klaw, my dear deceased cat, seen here making Ampersand Duck’s smart black clothes all furry:

RIP Mr Klaw

4. Favorite planet?
The Moon is hands down my favourite celestial body, but earth wins for planets.

5. Who is the 4th person on your missed call list on your cell phone?
(a) I already said I can’t reach my purse
(b) The battery’s flat. It’s probably message bank, that’s what it usually is.

6. What is your favorite ring tone on your phone?
It meows. The cat doesn’t like it. There is only one “song” as such, and it is REM’s “Losing my religion”. I find this choice incomprehensible. If it was “The End of the World as we Know it”, that would be my ringtone.

7. What shirt are you wearing?
An old long sleeve white bonds t-shirt that miraculously still goes around my middle.

8. Do you “label” yourself?
Only to the extent that I am an ENFP with my sun in Cancer in the 4th house and a Taurus rising. Also, my moon is in Leo.

9. Name the brand of the shoes you’re currently wearing?
I am chillin’ in the Target slipperz.

10. Bright or Dark Room?
Bright in daytime, dark at night. Natural-like.

11. What do you think about the person who took this survey before you?
I like them all so much I have made them into a “playlist” (which is a very exciting new feature in Bloglines) called “Ladies”.

12. What does your watch look like?
It’s simple and elegant, a silver Fossil one that was a 30th birthday present from my bestest girlfriends.

13. What were you doing at midnight last night?
Probably padding down the hallway to wee, again.

14. What did your last text message you received on your cell say?
See 5; I’m sticking with “call messagebank”

15. Where is your nearest 7-11?
There’s an all-night service station in the next suburb.

16. Whats a word that you say a lot?
“O RLY?”

17. Who told you he/she loved you last?
Sage, as I kissed him goodnight.

18. Last furry thing you touched?
I pushed the cat off the table at dinner. Does that count?

19. How many drugs have you done in the last three days?
Only coffee.

20. How many rolls of film do you need developed?
Rolls of film? Get with the times, meme writer dude.

21. Favorite age you have been so far?
I’ve been surprised how many people said 27. 27.

22. Your worst enemy?
I don’t really have any enemies. I have had, but I got over it. Mind you, they were scared. I liked that.

23. What is your current desktop picture?

It’s a year old now, and he looks quite different, but I love this picture of him.

24. What was the last thing you said to someone?
“I love you too, darling. I’ll come back when you’re asleep and give you another kiss.”

25. If you had to choose between a million bucks or to be able to fly what would it be?
If I had a million bucks I could pay some other sucker to fly for me.

26. Do you like someone?
I like most people.

27. The last song you listened to?
Some Afro-Caribbean thingy that was on Radio National.

28. What time of day were you born?
2:20 am

29. Whats your favorite number?
27

30. Where did you live in 1987?
Near Lake Macquarie, just south of Newcastle. I was in Year 11.

31. Are you jealous of anyone?
Sometimes, but usually fleetingly.

32. Is anyone jealous of you?
I expect so. Heh. For real, I am very grateful to be expecting another child. I know how hard it is for some people who would love to have kids, and it makes me sad that they struggle. Sometimes when strangers look at this big round belly I see sadness.

33. Where were you when 9/11 happened?
My flatmate got a call late at night and came downstairs. We had cable so we watched it again, and again, and again. Owy and I hadn’t been together for very long, and I remember him talking about how frightening he found it, and how marvellous I thought it was to hear a man talk so easily about being afraid.

34. What do you do when vending machines steal your money?
I don’t buy stuff from vending machines. If they sold schoolgirls’ panties I might, just to piss off the old pervs.

35. Do you consider yourself kind?
Yeah, I am. I’m also grumpy, but I try.

36. If you had to get a tattoo, where would it be?
My friend Pammy and I have discussed this. If I had to, I would get a sacred heart smack in the middle of my chest. Something like this:

Not in my freakin’ armpit, that’s for sure:

37. If you could be fluent in any other language, what would it be?
I used to be pretty fluent in spoken Portuguese. I wish I could write and read it well. If you’re going to have a second language I think it’s good that it’s a largely “pointless” one.

38. Would you move for the person you loved?
Yes.

39. Are you touchy feely?
Oh yeah.

40. What’s your life motto?
Oh, fuck it, why not. This motto can get you into a bit of trouble.

41. Name three things that you have on you at all times?
Pen. Something to read. Fetus Foetus.

42. What’s your favourite town/city?
Bermagui, I think.

43. What was the last thing you paid for with cash?
Fish and chips for dinner. Sage did not eat the fish. Rotten child.

44. When was the last time you wrote a letter to someone on paper and mailed it?
Ohh, long time. I do send parcels with notes a bit.

45. Can you change the oil on a car?
No, but I pick boyfriends well.

46. Your first love: what is the last thing you heard about him/her?
He and his wife and kids were just about to go to the States to visit his family.

47. How far back do you know about your ancestry?
Far enough for me not to believe in the old days. My maternal grandmother was illegitimate, and was brought up as her mother’s sister. Never, never, did she call the woman she and everyone else knew was her mother “mother”. My great grandmother pissed off when my maternal grandfather was one, leaving him and his two year old brother with their father. She married another man, who was (according to his descendants, who have traced us recently) such a bastard that “he wouldn’t have fed ‘em”. They had ten more children. My paternal grandmother was sent to relatives on a farm when times were tough. She got no love and was treated like the help. She told me stories about the old Irish women with corncob pipes, and children tied to potties with water thrown on them each time they tried to get up before they’d done a poo. She used to deliver bread with a pony and cart. They used to stick the “stiffies”, the stale loaves, in between the steaming fresh ones and pass them off.

48. The last time you dressed fancy, what did you wear and why did you dress fancy?
I wore two beautiful shirts by friend of friend designer Brigitte Thorn. This one underneath and this one on top. Oh, and the only pants that fit. I needed a little boost.

49. Does anything hurt on your body right now?
No.

50. Have you been burned by love?
I wouldn’t have it any other way.

In response to a request from ThirdCat for okra without sliminess, Galaxy last month posted about okra without the mucilage, posting two yummy looking recipes that used sliced okra to minimise the slime. And ThirdCat was tickled!

Like Galaxy, I’m not anti-slime, but I knew there was another technique that could let you use whole okra without any unpleasantness. I had thought it was Claudia Roden’s (probably because she is about my favourite cooking writer evah), but I couldn’t find it anywhere.

This turned out to be because it was in fact a technique of Tess Mallos’, from her The Complete Middle East Cookbook:

Wash well, handling okra gently. Trim stem end without cutting pod. If desired trim around conical stem attached to pod, removing a thin layer. This is the correct way to prepare okra, but it is time consuming and only serves to remove the fine brown ring just above the pod and the outer layer of the stem. Middle Eastern cooks prefer to do this as the whole vegetable is then edible.

Fuzz can be removed if desired by rubbing pod gently with a fine nylon scourer. Do this under running water. If okra is young, there is no need to remove fuzz. Dry okra well in a cloth, or spread out and leave until dry. Place in a bowl and pour on 1/2 cup vinegar to each 500 g okra. Toss gently by hand so that vinegar coats okra. Leave for 30 minutes, drain and rinse well. Dry and use as directed in recipes. The vinegar treatment prevents okra from becoming slimy during cooking.

I think one of the real tricks to okra is the gentle handling – use the same light touch you would for asparagus. The other is to go for the little fellers, particularly early in Spring – because, as Galaxy put it so beautifully “you’re not trying to buy the results of the biggest vegetable competition“.

I sliced off the tops just above the little ring and put them in a bowl with a big glug of vinegar on top. I used cider vinegar because there was plenty of it. I also figured that the acid was the important part so using your top shelf fancy vinegar would be wasteful. It seemed to do the trick anyway.

One thing to be careful about in preparing middle eastern food is that elaborate preparation is a mark of great respect to your guests. If the people you are feeding are already impressed and you just want to enjoy a meal with them before 10 pm, you can generally omit a good two thirds of the preparation niceties. Of course, it helps to always do it the long complicated way once, so you can best pick which steps to leave out.

The same applies with the recipes. This one is from Claudia Roden’s superb Tamarind and Saffron, where she makes the point above about preparation and omits a lot of fancy schmancy stuff you don’t need to worry about when it’s Tuesday night after work and you’re hungry.

Okra in tomato sauce

Trim 500 g little okra and splash with some vinegar. Let it sit for a while as you faff about gathering the other things you’ll need.

Heat a big wide saute pan or a largish frypan – you want everything in more or less one layer. Fry a finely chopped onion in some light olive oil until golden. Add 2 cloves of chopped garlic and stir until the beautiful smell rises.

Rinse okra, dry gently in a tea towel and saute for 5 minutes, turning (still gently). Add 500 g peeled and chopped tomatoes, salt and pepper, the juice of a lemon and simmer for 15 or so minutes. The recipe calls for skinned tomatoes, but I don’t do that when I’m busy. It also has 1-2 teaspoons sugar which with sweet spring veg should be unnecessary. You can substitute dried limes or dried lime powder for the lemon, or if you love sour tastes you can use dried limes and the lemon. This is particularly nice if you’re going to eat the okra warm or cold. Dried limes (or loomi) can be a real bugger to find, but wowzer! they’re worth it. I get mine from a local posh cooking shop that stocks Herbie’s spices.

When the okra is soft and it smells delicious, stir through a small bunch of coriander (or parsley). It will obediently wait until the rest of dinner is ready – I like it best just a touch above room temperature. I didn’t do the lovely prep photos like Galaxy, but here’s the finished product:

Which tasted better than it looked. Could’ve wiped the bowl couldn’t I? We ate it with some fat little lamb cutlets, baked pumpkin, and wilted English spinach which had been turned quickly in a little warm garlicky olive oil.

Look who’s back – the Canberra blogger formerly known as Nick Crustacean has returned, this time in a much bigger way. Yes, it’s Nick Cetacean, blogging at whale sushi. The fact that Nick didn’t put finger to keyboard from the time his daughter was born until she was old enough to chase her big brother and bite him is a bit ominous for my own prospects, but we’ll see how I go!

And the lovely Dean is furring hisself up for charity:

Go sponsor him like Ducky and I did.

Speaking of Ms Duck, she has been awarded a substantial materials grant to make beautiful art books by the ACT government. I’m lucky enough to know how very beautiful her art is – way to go Ducky!