Commentary: October 2012 Archives
Last night the sweetie and I went along to the Nara Candle Festival.
Along with half of Canberra it seemed.
But unlike Japanese festivals, which have similar sorts of numbers, this festival was hopeless under resourced. Which meant queues for everything. One bar, one okonomiyaki stand, one gyoza stand, one noodle stand and a generic Asian stand. We've totally been spoilt by festivals in Japan where they have long rows of stands selling all sorts of amazing food - and no queues!
Crowds
Queues :(:(:( Long ones too
Drumming
Flower arranging
Kendo
Our first lineup at the bar was actually relatively short. Rotary were there serving, but needed some practise at this point.
The sweetie
So we went off to sit and watch some of the acts.
This is a student group from Nara University High School. I missed most of their act though, because I was queueing so long for another drink.
This duo did western songs
The sweetie went off to get some dinner. And while he was gone a group of people came and sat *right next to me*, taking up the space Stu was sitting. #grunt
The udon noodles we had for dinner. Apparently the queue was much longer for the chicken variety. What's with that?? Glad we had this - the okonomiyaki that I saw people eating looked like a big pile of dough with no vegetables to speak of.
So then the sweetie went off to see if he could find his Japanese teacher. And while he was gone this couple came up and setup their directors chairs *right in front of me* #epicgrunt
Had to lean uncomfortably in different directions to see anything, and stand up to take some photos.
When the sweetie got back I was grumpy as, so we went off for a walk.
I thought these kites by the lake looked pretty cool
And the candles sure were pretty
So slightly disillusioned, and still hungry (I wanted meat on a stick!), we stopped in at KFC for meat on a stick.
It was six months ago today that I left on my last great adventure...
I had thoughts that I'd get photos up for the six months ago type photos .. but alas that was not to be..
I finally gave away this laptop last weekend. It was originally a uni laptop that belonged to Jim, but was thrown out when it reached the end of its useful life. I took it all around the USA/Canada in 2004 to download my photos, a trip to Queensland in 2005 and Lord Howe Island in 2007. It was a great little laptop because it was so small and light. But it was what, thirteen years old?, and only running Windows 98, so attaching devices became problematic. We replaced it with the first Eee PC in 2008 and I hadn't used it since. So last weekend I gave it to my Dad. If he can make his camera and memory sticks work with it, he'll probably find it useful, but otherwise it's probably only good for landfill :(
Lunch with Neil and Doc at Chong Co, behind Belconnen Mall
Chong Co Belconnen
Goong Maprao - deep fried prawns with shredded coconut, served with sweet chili sauce
BBQ Lamb - grilled marinated lamb with Thai herbs served with homemade mints sauce
Chicken with cashew nut sauce
Yum yum yum! :)
hey.. for once I'm blogging a photo the day I took it.. that never happens...
After being inspired by Lisa, we decided we'd try out Aussie Farmers Direct. Today our first box arrived - very exciting! I love the idea of it, because I'm not going to look in advance to see what we get each week, so it'll be a little surprise every week :) And hopefully force us to be better at eating vegetables.
Stu wasn't feeling up to eating much tonight, but he did cook up the broccoli and I had that with some sausages.
Two weeks ago now we went with Damien and Amanda to Mork's.
I think it's a tad overpriced, but certainly very nice food.
For entrée, the sweetie had "Scallop and Pig" - scallops and pig's ear terrine ($16) (nicer than it sounds ;) )
And I had "Cauliflower" - cauliflower fritters ($12)
For mains, the sweetie had "Duck" ($25) - duck maryland with red curry sauce and cool crispy rice cakes. That's the dish I had last time.
I had "Pork Ribs" ($25) which were super tender, although a lot of bone and not much meat in the dish
Again, they brought out some gelato while we thought about dessert
And we got some fried ice cream ($8.50)
Dinner conversation was .. hrmmmm.... somewhat embarrassing actually .. definitely politically incorrect... hrmmm :/
Dinner with the sweetie at Sammy's Kitchen
Sizzling fried bean curd with Chinese broccoli and needle mushrooms
Shredded roast duck with rice noodle
Nommmm!!