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Archive for January, 2007
4 egg yolks Beat egg yolks, sugar, vanilla and cornflour until smooth and creamy. Transfer to saucepan and gradually add cream and milk. Stir until smooth. Stir over medium heat until sauce thickens. Bring to the boil, stirring continuously, then reduce heat and simmer for 2 minutes. Remove from heat and allow to cool, stirring occasionally. You know these photos I took out the window of the plane? I found them on Google Earth!
The Jetstar flight from Melbourne to Newcastle was pretty standard and I was starkly reminded of how cramped their seats are. Cheap though, so I shouldn’t complain. I got some awesome air shots on the flight with the curvature of the earth appearing visible but the skeptic in me suspects the camera lens. My iRiver was useful in blocking out the token screaming baby. The 2 hour drive from Newcastle to Forster was interesting for the bits when I was awake. I immediately noticed how green everything was. You get that when you’re in the 7% of New South Wales that isn’t declared a drought disaster area. From the air the drought was quite obvious if not alarming.
Tonight I went to my first ever French restaurant. It’s called The Little Snail, and before you ask, yes they did have snails and yes I tried them. After previously trying chicken feet at Yum Cha purely out of curiosity, Im starting to notice a pattern emerging with these weird delicacies; you pay through the nose for something that wouldn’t feed a newt. These snails were absolutely tiny, the size of a smoked oyster with similar texture but more chewy. The chewiness would be about half way between a smoked oyster and not overcooked calamari. Maybe getting fed isn’t the point though, perhaps its supposed to be about flavour. It’s hard to say what snails taste like because these were doused in garlic butter; a preparation I suspect exists for the benefit of sooky westerners. You know the ones that think sushi is just “oh so gross”. In summary I’d say it was worth $10.50 to satisfy my curiosity, but I doubt I’ll have the urge to eat snails again. The rest of the menu looked pretty darn tasty and I ended up having duck for the main with a fig and ginger pudding for dessert, which at $9.50 was a major anticlimax. The service was great, though and they even called us a cab. Overall it was pretty good experience and I would recommend French food to anyone who hasn’t yet tried it.
Today I played my first real game of Go and here is the result. I was playing as white, and was shamefully defeated. The size of the board (19×19) is intimidating, and I had no clue how to play the game. I mean I know the basic rules from watching Hikaru no Go but my strategy consisted of a lot of head scratching. My opponent who wishes to remain nameless (out of humility, I’m sure) explained the concept of “eyes” as four stones surrounding an empty space and how they are apparently good to have because it’s secured territory that can’t be recaptured. So for a while I tried to get as many of these as I could but that became predictable after a while. In the end it was just trial and error with no real aim except to experiment with different moves. Then we stumbled upon the situation of Ko which I still don’t funny understand. Go seems like a fun game but I need more practice if I’m to be any good. I got some cool macro shots of the finished board too.
Happy New Year to the 3 people who read this blog ;-) It was a pretty good year for me, really, topped off with a nice display from your friendly neighborhood pyro (pictured). I headed down to Melbourne for the celebrations and we wandered south to try and catch a glimpse of the city fireworks. Couldn’t see much of them past the buildings and trees but no matter, the ameteur displays were still pretty cool. There was nothing to which I could attach my Gorillapod, so I took a few wobbly ones before it dawned on me that the ground was an ideal place to put my tripod…
Today, I submitted this photo to Cute Overload. We’ll see if it is cute enough for them to post on the site. I named the cat Schrodinger after the cat that Samantha gave to Narim in an episode of Stargate SG-1. There’s no real connection between the two, but I think Schrodinger is a cool name for a cat, and I could just see in this little kitten’s eyes that he longed for a life filled with adventures to other worlds by means of an intergalactic ring-shaped portal. |
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