Cake 2 out of the Australian Women's Weekly Childrend's Birthday Cake Book - Hickory Dickory Clock!

So start with one rectangular butter cake (I had to go hunting around for a tin the right size and found one at Woollies).

I tried making a meniscus...

It didn't help much..

Turned it out to cool

Once cooled, cut out bits of it to make the clock shape.  I probably cut too much off the sides.

They said to mix a tablespoon of cocoa powder with a tablespoon of water in three quarters of the Vienna cream to brown it up.. but it made it way too dark, I think probably only a teaspoon of each would be enough.

I also dropped the single drop of magenta food colouring into some water so I could control the amount of pink in the pink quarter of the icing.  I really didn't need much!

I started with the chocolate icing

Then filled in the pink stuff

This is two packs of Smarties.  I would have needed another three or four to get enough pink ones..

I just used my own colouring instead

Next I used the black "writing icing" to write out the licorice bits (we both hate licorice).  But it's a gel so it goes everywhere.  Not ideal.  Also, Chris didn't have Freckles, but even if he did they wouldn't have fitted, so I just used cachous instead.

You'll note there are no prune mice, because as I've said previously, we're not fans; or licorice bullets, because we both hate licorice.

This is what it's supposed to look like... 

Nailed it..? ;)

This is too funny not to share!  Noone that cares reads my blog, and Google doesn't even bother with it much anymore so noone will see.. but ABC accidentally posted the winner of this year's Classic 100 Greatest of All Time (GOAT) on their Instagram - Beethoven's 9th!  I commented "Spoiler much?" and the post was deleted shortly thereafter.  Not that this is any big surprise, I've called this as the winner in a previous year, and it looks like this year is no exception! 

One of these days I'm going to setup a proper blog for this sort of thing.

This is Narooma in April 1960

And this is from (almost) the same spot in November 2025.. sixty-five years later!

Notice the difference in caravans? ;)

I saw this in the Green Shed, sorry Vinnies, sorry Goodies Junction a while back and snapped a photo of it - 101 Places to See Before You Die.  From the font on it I thought it might be pretty old - like maybe 80s or 90s, but the Millau Viaduct is on there and it didn't open til 2004.  

I went through the list recently (copied off here) and noted which ones I've actually been to/seen.  I also noted, for the ones I haven't, whether I want to see them, I'd be open to seeing them, or whether I don't really have an interest (or would be impossible with the current state of the world).

Here's my list!

So from the 101 entries:
Seen 45
Bucket List 15
Maybe 23
Shrug 18

Not a bad effort :)

Sunday.  15th.  Kievs and brussels sprouts for dinner. Must be Friday. Wait, what?

DS9 4.14. Another episode to be endured. Then LegoMasters 7.3. Yayyy Karen!!!! haha

Monday.  Slept mostly ok. Gave Mum a call before work for her birthday and heard more about her trip. Sigh. Did a few tickets at work but mostly scripting which was nice. Google AI helped with one problem but sent me on a wild goose chase with another and needed Nick to help me fix. Pizzas for dinner, must be Thursday. Wait, what?

Andor 2.4 then Lego Masters 7.4.

Was impressed how well these things lasted - like a month!

Tuesday.  Slept mostly okish. 

Happy 3128!!  Whenever I see my clock/watch at around 13:52 I wish @Aquillaaudux a happy 1352.  So my step log at 3128 two days ago was pretty cool!

Stoopidly busy day. All. The. Tickets. The last week or so has been quite pleasant, so this was quite a shock to the system. 

Nissin miso ramen that I had for lunch.  Not miso-ey enough.  Next time I'll lump in some miso paste

Cooked up some leftover pork with some veggies for dinner. Andor 2.5. People are calling this like the best show ever, but I'm all what the actual f#$& is going on all the way through it. I have no idea who's who (I struggle with names and faces at the best of times, but no one has names that mean anything to me, and some of the cast look fricken identical), who's on who's side (hurray for espionage stories), or what anyone is doing. And that end scene?? What??? Fricken hopeless. A real estate agent (I guess) came to Kit's place today. But instead of turning off the lights in the kitchen that have been on for two weeks straight, they turned MORE lights on and left them on too! What a retard.

Wednesday.  Slept ish-ish I think.

Baby fish!  Not sure who's babies they are.. either from the very unwell big female I took from the four foot a couple of weeks ago, or maybe one of the super young females I took from the two foot..  There's only like three babies though so who knows.

Not quite as crazy a busy day but still pretty busy. I tried multiple times to do some scripting, but whenever I started someone would interrupt me. Even after 17:00 when most people were offline, people came to talk to me in real life and I *still* didn't get any scripting done hmmmm. KFC for dinner. Whoops. Andor 2.6 (somewhat better episode, easier to follow), Lego Masters.

Thursday.  Slept mostly okish.

Fairly busy day again.

Saw these guys at lunch attacking a new grass seed mat

Good drinks, heaps of people, and even a whole heap of pizzas (thanks Timmy!) so I had dinner before I even got home. Lego Masters .. awwwwwwwwwww so sad to see Owen and Gabby go. Someone must have come to Kit's place again today because most (not all) of the lights are off now.

Friday.  Okish sleep. Took an RDO. Got some things done in the morning. Went out before lunch to do a couple of things, but ended up being out for nearly four hours #grunt. There's a couple moving into Kit's today, including a dude with an actual truck. Leftover beef from the freezer for dinner. DS9 4.15,  urgh another tedious episode. Then The Bomb and the Cold War episode 7.

Saturday.  Ok sleep I think. Semi productive day. I asked the sweetie what he wanted for dinner and so he got Dumpling Inn haha. Had that while watching Jaws, on account of it being fifty years ago yesterday that it was first released in cinemas (in the US). Also because Stu has never actually seen it. !!

Sunday.  Slept okish. Less productive day today. Did get some photo culling done and some food shopping, but a lot of the day went on a horrible jigsaw.

Windoze Explorer has been continuing to drive me crazy.  This week it refuses to honour settings I've previously set like sorting and icon size.  I was trying to file email attachments and it would reset the settings to whatever it felt like EVERY SINGLE TIME I NAVIGATED AWAY.  Or it'll just randomly jump to the top of the window and I have scroll back down to find where I was working.  FFS windows is trash.  Tonight it actually remembered my blog photo directory by some miracle, although Chrome reset itself.  I hate windoze.  

Had to go to an appointment on Friday, and on the way home we went up to the Mount Stromlo Leisure Centre so Stu could check out the place.  And also saw the Big Crane.

They have a "viewing area" setup out the back of Whitlam, although the view isn't as good there as it is further back.  They do have some info boards though.

Ended up going back to the better spot, and walked down closer to it

Fun stuff!

Sunday.  11th.  

Dinner at EffanC's which was very nice - pumpkin soup and miso salmon

Monday.  Slept okish I guess. Ok day at work, got some stuff done. Talked to Mum after work. Epic stress. Epic drama. Not to mention the STRESS that Mum and I are both feeling. Epic depressed about it all. The sweetie cooked some nice pork rissoles for dinner which was lovely of him.

DS9 3.14 which was pretty silly.

Tuesday.  Took well over an hour to get to sleep. This is what happens when you *don't* drink. Somewhat restless sleep. Bits and pieces at work and even managed some programming in between interruptions. Europe photo culling, DS9 3.15.

I'm not sure which I prefer.  Probably the phone photo - everything is in focus.  The Canon's depth of field is so ridiculously shallow that you can't get everything in focus, and there's abberations.  At least most of the crap on the window is blurred out.

Did I mention the shallow depth of field?

Also, rainbow

Stu cooked up some very nice bok choy with oyster sauce, and the rest of the rissoles

Wednesday.  Took til like midnight to get to sleep.  Sigh.  This is what happens when you *don't* drink. Somewhat restless sleep.   Rinse and repeat.  Pretty good progress on a script I'm working on, although hit a roadblock doing something simple. Leftover butt cheeks and cabbage for dinner, DS9 3.16. More Europe photo culling. Holiday stuff for Mum.

Phone vs Canon again.  Neither are super crisp up close.

Thursday.  Slept kinda okish. Got a few bits and pieces done. Pizzas for dinner. DS9 3.17.

Friday.  Woke up at dentist time and only got like 3/4 hour more sleep after that. Hurray. Frustrating day fighting with Powershell. I too dumb. Leftover lamb and veggies for dinner. DS9 3.18. Dumb episode.

Saturday.  Woke up early I think. Mostly uneventful drive to Sydney. Followed a Murray's coach from the Barton Highway to Picton Road which was pretty cool. At one point a Tesla passed us which had a sticker to the effect of "I bought this before Elon went crazy". No rocks on Hanging Rock Road. Bumper to bumper traffic all the way from Yarrawarra to Mum's because of Heathcote Road closure. And the fact that Sydney traffic sucks all kinds of donkey balls. Got to Mum's and we spent most of the afternoon going through holiday stuff. Also checked out backup hard drives and I backed up her computer again. Had TV dinners for dinner. Went for a walk after dinner so Mum could get some milk and I could get a beer. It got very late very quickly.

Mum has these textas of mine that she used long after I stopped using them.  I've had them since I was in primary school, so they're at least forty years old.
They still work.
Mind. Blown.


Sunday.  Slept okish. Had to have the door open because it was like 22C in the room - way too hot! It got down to about 19 by morning - just barely tolerable! :) Did some copying of Dad's photos off an external hard drive (possibly the only copy she has of his photos). Also looked at a lot of photos. Went for a long walk around lunch time and picked up a bbq chooken for late lunch. Saw David briefly, went through holiday stuff, then everyone left in different directions. It was after 16:30 by the time I left, way way way too late, so was a pretty tense drive in the dark and the rain. Two wallabies jumped in front of my near Broughton Pass, but luckily didn't hit anything. Late dinner when I got home.

This little house is for sale.  It's on a 1220sqm block.  I guarantee it will be at the very least a duplex but more likely three or four townhouses the next time I see it...

Hotham House


Monday.  Slept okish. Day of appointments and trying to keep on top of crap.

On our anniversary last weekend we did a bit of a magical mystery tour of Canberra.  We went to a heap of "our" places (mostly friends/family).  

We drove past Annie and Stu's, Mishi's and our old place

Through Gungahlin

Past Scott and Kerry's old house and Flemington Road

Through Dickson

Past Scott and Kerry's old old house (which has been demolished and replaced with two townhouses)

And into Ainslie

Where we returned to the scene of the crime!

Had a long chat with the lady cleaning the church.

Then into Ainslie shops.

Past the War Memorial

And up Mount Ainslie

Then we headed for home

It was a lovely way to spend a couple of hours with the sweetie!

I saw this at the Green Shed sorry Vinnies sorry Goodies Junction.  Because of the red dot special it was 50% off so only $2 so I figured I could give it ago.

When I opened it I found someone had made a start on it, but most of the pieces were still in orginal (opened) bags

So I pulled it all apart and separated the pieces

It became evident fairly quickly that there were missing pieces - the little meeples out the front of the church were missing (the bits in the photo below I reused elsewhere where they were missing)

Other pieces were missing too, but I made do with spares that Nanoblocks sets always come with plenty of

The spires on either side couldn't be completed, but this was really the only obviously visible bit that was missing

As complete as I could get it!  It's very cute!

A shot of the rear

By the time I used up extra pieces in other places, this is what I was left with

And a fun shot of the stained glass windows

Not bad for $2 worth of entertainment!

Was reading a r/pettyrevenge story about someone that changed the Solitaire icon to their work app, and was reminded of the time my brother and I changed the default beep on the family's windoze computer to Yosemite Sam screaming Noo that's not it! Try it again!.  My brother and I got years of laughs out of that!