Sunny Winter Days Down Under

     Nursing a bit of a cold this past week so was rather low key. Took a couple of days off work and vegged out on the sofa with Dundee, the super cat. He is quite a nice kitty, and still very much a kitten when he gets wound up, racing around the flat. Good thing the floors are tiled concrete - can't hear him run much, and he certainly gets up some speed. He is a very snuggly kitty, so nice to curl up with him. He has settled down at night too, a few flicks in the nose seemed to have sorted that out. Now if I can just keep him off the counter top...
     I had some friends over for my first real dinner party last night - roast pork, mashed potatoes, green salad, corn on the cob, and burnt garlic toast were on the menu, with peanut butter chocolate chip cookies for dessert, including take-away bags for all (of cookies). Who knew the cookies would be the biggest chore? I went to the local IGA just down the street for some shortening as the recipe I use calls for it, and could only find a small one cup block in the cooler, so I bought it, assuming it would be the same. Um, no. It was more like the consistency of paraffin wax. I left it out for a bit, hoping it would soften like regular Canadian shortening, but no dice. I had to chisel at it to break it apart, and even then it failed to soften, so I ended up having to melt it, now that it was chiseled into pieces covered in peanut butter that was already in the bowl...nice peanut butter soup is what it turned into. I warmed it up and it melted quite quickly, so I took it off and left the last bits of shortening to melt in the heat already stored in the melted shortening, and then poured it over the peanut butter in the bowl...yup, soupy. So then I put in the white and brown sugar...thick soup. Great, what will happen when I chuck in the flour and eggs? And me with out an electric mixer...brought a whole bunch of shit from Canada that doesn't work in these plug ins even with adapters. And then surprisingly, the dough worked its issues out, and I was able to roll the mixture into balls just like I ought to and they baked just fine, and tasted just like they always did. Wonders never cease...
     After supper we retired to the courtyard for some drinks and stories, trying ever so hard to steer the conversation away from work talk since we all work for the same employer, and were successful in doing so which was GREAT! Plans are in the works for my friend F. and I to head to Cambodia in October, which will be fabulous. We have both filed out Aussie tax returns with healthy refunds so WHY NOT? Has to be some benefits to losing so much on our paychecks to the taxman.

     Sunday was a lazy morning before heading out to Desert Park again, this time with my friend K. who hadn't been there yet. The birds were in fine form, as were the kangaroos, which she really wanted to see and touch...she touched the leg of one and he jumped. I had the camera ready just in case he kicked her...that would have been cool for the camera, not so cook for K. I touched his tail and he jumped then too, but neither of us got a kick...the parrots tried to be elusive but I was able to find most of them this time. The weather was of course, gorgeous...blue skies and 25C with the faintest breath of wind. I even managed to get some Christmas shopping done at the gift shop. As I was leaving the park my sister called from Canada and we chatted (via Bluetooth) until I got home, after which we played Canasta online for several hours...I won some, and I let her win some...heh heh...and now the weekend is drawing to a close and it's back to work again tomorrow...