12×12 for 2012 Week 2

Well another week full of challenges has gone by.

The garden is still a big focus. Unfortunately, we have made some mistakes with the pond. It looks like we will definitely have a long term challenge with it as we try to get the ecosystem balanced. The first mistake was not cleaning the barrel of all the wine toxins. The second involved using tap water which hadn’t been treated to remove the chlorine and ammonia from it. We have since changed the water, removed two dead white cloud fish and made a quick trip to the local aquarium shop. The barrel has now been refilled with treated water, some good bacteria for the pond and a cat fish. Sarah was really excited about the catfish only for it to die a few days later along with another white cloud fish *sigh*.

With a little sweat and effort I have also cleared all of the bush in the front garden. Once the garden waste has been removed we will be able to start setting up some raised garden beds for vegetables.

We had our first cultural outing when we went of to see Annie the musical. This was a late Christmas gift for my Mum who was visiting us last week. Annie was always a favourite of hers and she even saw the original version on Broadway many moons ago. Interestingly not everyone in the theatre got all the old jokes. For example Daddy Warbucks is told he has messages from a number of important people including Harpo Marx. When he asks what message Harpo left he is informed by his secretary that Harpo didn’t say anything. The joke here is that Harpo was a silent actor who never spoke on screen.

We went on a culinary adventure to Black by Ezard before the musical. The meals at this place was simply fantastic. Not only were all the meats very tender but the desserts were divine.It isn’t cheap but I highly recommend it to anyone interested in a top class meal.

Because my mum was in town we also had a lovely social gathering with an very old friend of hers and his family. This was a very rare gathering and resulted in an enjoyable lunch listening to many old stories.

Lastly meat free Monday is still on track.

Stay tuned for more challenge updates.

12×12 for 2012 Week 1

We are now back in Sydney after a really enjoyable 2 week holiday to Melbourne and the South Coast. Unfortunately this means we have to assimilate back into the rat race which is the real world. I am not sure how this will effect our enthusiasm and ability to meet the 12×12 for 2012 challenge but I can say we have gotten off to a really good start while we were on holidays.

First off, I survived my first meat free Monday. Luckily this wasn’t to difficult considering we were near a coastal town with plenty of fresh fish. Sarah of course loves her seafood but sadly I don’t share her enthusiasm but I do like fish which has been crumbed, deep fried  and sat on top of a nice pile of chips. We also took advantage of the fact that gelati has no meat thus we had two trips to the Bermagui Gelati Clinic which has some of the best gelati we have ever encountered. If you want to know more about the gelati check out the fantastic review Sarah wrote on Yelp.

Being on holidays we had to tackle at least one adventure. Thus we stopped off at Mogo Zoo on the way home. This private zoo provides people the opportunity to get up close and personal with some of their many animals. Despite being tempted to interact with the Red Pandas we chose to meet some African Servals instead. This “experience” allowed us to spend 30 mins feeding and interacting with 2 wonderful servals named Gundi and Nunni. These cats are about 3 times bigger than a normal house cat and have very distinctive large ears.  To say they were cute would be an understatement. Our zoo keepers Fran and Lisa even provided us with some toys so that we could play with both the servals. As a result of our playing we learnt that Gundi, the boy, can be a little bit of a fraidy cat, where as Nunni, the girl, was very curious and playful. These cats actually use a downward swatting technique to stun and hold their prey or “toys” which was interesting to watch. We both have a soft spot for animals and would highly recommend this experience to anyone who has a similar interest in animals.

During the weekend we also tackled two gardening challenges. The first challenge is now complete and involved a half wine barrel, purchased during our holidays. We both wanted a water pond and after looking at many glazed pots we felt the half wine barrel would be perfect for this project. After giving the barrel a good scrubbing we went off to Austral Watergardens for some advice on populating it with some aquatic plants.  Thanks to their help the barrel is now home to a beautiful white lily, a floating native aquatic with yellow flowers, a dwarf papyrus and lastly 5 cloud fish. Hopefully they will all continue to grow and thrive during the year.

The second garden challenge saw me begin to remove the overgrown bush from our front courtyard. I expect the cleared area should provide us with plenty of room for a small veggie garden. Some of the seeds we have initially purchased include: carrots (orange and purple), radishes, spring onions, brown onions, leeks and a variety of lettuces. We also purchased a young capsicum plant to go with the 3 purple chilli plants which have just begun to flower. Hopefully we will get to try the chillies before any possums do.  There is still a lot of effort ahead for the vegetable garden but hopefully we will have it setup in the next few weeks. As a side note, Sarah used some of our lemongrass as part of her dinner the other night. We purchase it early last year and this was the first time we have tried to use it. I can happily report that it was very fragrant and tasty.

Last but not least, we purchased a small composting bin so that we can reduce some of the landfill waste we create. Unfortuantely the bin isn’t very big and it is already 3/4 full after just a few meals. This was mostly as a result of the vegetable stock Sarah was preparing for our spring vegetable soup. Ah well some effort is better than none.

So that is our start to the 12×12 for 2012 challenge. We are still looking for lots of ideas for the year ahead so if you can think of any let us know.

12×12 for 2012

As Sarah and I hurtled down the very beautiful roads from Barinsdale to Central Tilba on New Years day, we started talking about New Years resolutions. We were pondering the question, “Was it worthwhile making New Years resolutions, and if so, how to make them stick.”

I usually don’t make new years resolutions. Perhaps I’m lazy, perhaps my life is filled with resolutions every day (yeah, right). But in talking about them this year, we agreed that if you make New Years resolutions, then they should at least be achievable, and a little challenging. This led me to the idea of tackling 12 adventures during 2012. Surely one a month is achievable?

My idea of adventure is pretty broad. I could see that Sarah and I had accomplished about 12 fun activities last year. These ranged from outdoor adventures such as horse back riding and kayaking through to cultural activities like opera and live comedy. We discovered locally and internationally: overnight trips to the Blue Mountains and Hunter Valley and two weeks in Japan. We baked for Cupcake Day for the RSPCA to raise money for the animals we love and started a small herb garden in our townhouse.

Sarah argued and won me over on nomenclature, and we agreed to set ourselves 12 challenges instead of resolutions. What we didn’t agree on was the broad category of adventure. Sarah felt we needed to be more specific and narrow down the concept of adventure, whereas I liked the simplistic nature of 12 broad and flexible challenges. It just seemed more achievable to keep things loose.

But then inspiration struck. Or maybe it was stupidity, because at that stage we weren’t really sure. What if we were to set ourselves 12 x 12 challenges?

The concept is that we would set ourselves 12 categories of challenges, with each category containing 12 challenges. We already had 2 categories, so why not 12? Yes, we were suddenly leaping from 12 challenges to 144, a point that Sarah was very quick to point out.

I eventually cajoled her into playing a 12 x 12 brainstorming game to ‘see if we could’. It was really just my way of sneaking under her practicalities and, in all honesty, to annoy her and pass the time as we meandered along our 4 hour drive.

And so I broke out my best… ahem… singing voice and proceeded to butcher Sarah’s beloved 12 days of Christmas and sing out categories to that tune.

Our third category, “On the 3rd day of Christmas my true love gave to me 12 culinary creations!” lead us to define improved guidelines.  A cake, for instance, was certainly not challenging enough for us, but may be for a non-baker. Hell, for some people, boiling an egg could be a challenge! We also agreed that the 12 x 12 had to be fun and creative, so resolutions like fitness and finance were relegated to the boring, practical list and certainly didn’t belong with our 12 x 12.

New categories were born, debated, accepted or rejected. In the end, it didn’t take us long to arrive at our 12 categories of challenges.

12 Outdoor adventures – Last year we did a few challenges which would suit this category and many of those we may repeat again like UrbanMax, kayaking, caving, horse back riding and a tall ship cruise. Some new ones we shall consider include scuba diving, rock climbing and abseiling.

12 Cultural excursions – We also did well in this category last year with trips to the opera, live comedy, Sculptures by the Sea and numerous festivals and markets. At present I am not sure what we will aim for in 2012 but I don’t think we will be struggling in this area.

12 Culinary creations – We both like to cook and thought this would be an interesting category of challenges. Last year we went on a cooking course in Japan and I also cooked my first ever roast Turkey in honour of Canadian Thanksgiving. At present the big challenge on the list is making macaroons which Sarah doesn’t think will work with our finicky oven but I am keen to try. Sarah did suggest we try cooking a turducken which I think is something beyond challenging no matter how ofter I joke about doing it.

12 Spontaneous gifts – I am always giving Sarah spontaneous gifts and I always joke with Sarah that she doesn’t give me enough gifts in return so I threw this category in to the mix. In the end Sarah agreed to it as long as it can be spontaneous gifts for anyone. I’m still pretty sure I will be the recipient of at least a few of those 12 spontaneous gifts.

Meat free Monday – Ok, this one definitely had a bit of debate around it considering how fond I am of my red meat. At first I agreed to 12 meat free days during the year but Sarah insisted that we should go without meat, excluding fish, every Monday. That is 52 days without consuming protein bursting, iron rich, glorious hoofed, footed or feathered meat. In the end I tentatively agreed although I will keep pushing to make it just 1 meat free dinner each week.

12 garden projects – This one may be a little tricky because we live in a townhouse with 2 small courtyards. Last year we started to play around with a few pots of colour, herbs and vegetables. The most notable result was us feeding the local wildlife (see blog post on pesky possums). We saw a lot of wonderful gardens in Japan and this got me thinking about a few gardening projects. The main project being the creation of a feature pond with water lillies and fish in a large pot. We would also like to grow more of our own fruit and vegetables with one project possibly involving a potted citrus tree. A couple bigger projects may include clearing out our small back and front yards, which are overgrown with bushes thus making more room for extra projects.

12 charity projects – Last year we supported 3 charities either directly or indirectly with Cupcake Day for the RSPCA being the biggest. This was a big step for both of us but we both felt we needed to do more. This year we will be looking to support 12 individual charities through a donation of either our time or finances.

12 social gatherings – I am not the best at organising any social gatherings and Sarah has struggled in this area since moving to Sydney so I felt it would be a good challenge for us. Last year we had a successful thanksgiving dinner with friends and hopefully in 2012 we can arrange a number of additional gatherings throughout the year.

12 environmental projects – This is a bit of a nebulous category and we are already conscious of our impact on the environment. In the end we agreed it would be a worthy category to challenge us. Some challenges we are considering include off-setting the carbon consumption of all our air travel for the year, growing some of our own food, using less water and energy and switching to electronic magazines and books.

12 books of learning – We are both habitual grazers of books but we tend not to read them in full unless they are fiction. Thus the challenge here is to read 12 books in full which could in some way help us be better. This could be anything from educational books through to self-help books.

12 artistic projects – Sarah usually spends once a month doing a craft class or making home made cards for birthdays and Christmas and as a result is really good at this. Unfortunately I have never really been very artistic. The idea here is to spend at least 12 days involved in anything artistic. For me this may involve trying my hand at painting or taking some music lessons.

12 geek free days – We both admit we spend way too much time with technology. Thus the challenge is to spend 12 days during the year without using the TV or the computer and possibly turning off the smartphones for the day. For 2 geeks like us this could be very challenging considering I cannot remember the last time I went one day without touching technology.

So that is our list of categories. As you can see we still have to flesh out some of the challenges. So if you have any ideas feel free to pass them on. One of my endeavors will be to document how we are going with meeting the above challenges throughout the year, unless it is a geek free day, in which case I will do it the following day. Overall Sarah and I both believe that if we can complete even 80% of what we aim for it will be a great accomplishment for the year.

Those Pesky Possums

I have decided it is time to go Possum hunting. Now don’t get me wrong I am not a violent man and I am known to be a friend of all creatures great and small, although maybe not to every man, but enough is enough. Maybe I need to start from the beginning…

A few weeks back my girlfriend and I decided to expand the small potted veggie and herb garden. Over a 2 week period we added Parsley, Sage, Lemon Balm, Garlic, Chinese Veggies (cabbage and pak chow), button carrots and we moved to the garden a bunch of chilli seedlings I had been growing. These seedlings were purple chillies with purple leaves and the fruit was purple until ripe when it would turn red. We saw it at a garden shop and nicked one of the chilli fruits when no one was looking. This was all added to the existing basil, thyme, lemon grass, rosemary, blue ginger and strawberries which were already in the small potted garden.

Parsley Possum Food

So we had this nice garden coming along. That is until it all started to go wrong. The first warning sign was from a few months back I thought I would get my girlfriend some flowers for when she came home from an overseas trip. For a change I bought I nice potted Gerbera from the markets. It had 3 nice flowers and lots of new flowers about to bloom. Well over the next 3 nights each of the flowers went missing (aka eaten) and all the new shoots disappeared.  Obviously something “liked” the Gerbera flowers in the little potted garden we had created.This was mildly annoying but ah well we move on. Luckily enough my girlfriend at least was able to see one of the flowers before it also disappeared overnight. We never did find the culprit.

Pak Choy Possum Food

Then last week it all began to go terribly wrong. First the parsley began to disappear. Then some of the flowers on the chinese cabbage went missing.At this point it was still midly amusing watching bits of the garden disappear overnight. But then the damage escalated. On Thursday morning I noticed that one of the pak choy had been partly eaten. I would note this is a vegetable I really like using in stir frys and I was really looking forward to these seedlings maturing . To add salt to the wound the possum decided to eat one of the pak choy which hadn’t been attacked by bugs. I mean at least show the courtesy to eat the pak choy which was pock marked!

Possum Purple Chilli Food

But this morning was the final straw. The seven young chilli plants which I had grown from seedlings were gone. Nuked to the point where only a husky stalk was left.  I say to the public court that this was the last straw and WAR has now been officially declared. I don’t care if it is winter and they were only looking for a quick and easy meal. This was me trying to do the right thing by trying to grow some of the food I eat! On top of the chillies they/it also took a swipe at the button carrots.

I will keep you posted on the ongoing engagement between me and the possums. Only time will tell if there is any collateral damage.

Movie Review: X-Men First Class

Review of X-men First Class

For those who like their mutant movies they should not hesitate to see this movie. It stays true to the current X-men movie story line (which is slightly different to the original comics) and helps look at the history of Professor Xavier, Magneto and several other characters which were in the original movie. It even gets a nice cameo of Wolverine. Overall a good mix of action and comic release which makes for a very enjoyable film.

4.5 out of 5 stars

Movie Review: Sourcecode

Review of Sourcecode

The plot is basically a cross between Groundhog Day and Ghost in the Machine. There is a very interesting and unexpected twist in the middle of the film which leads to the more obvious second twist once you see the first. Overall I found it all a little too straight forward and repetitve. Despite it’s originality it is hard to recommend it as highly as most industry reviews.

3.5 out of 5 stars

Let there be life!!

You might ask  where OhMyDeity or OM<D> came from? Well I am not a religious person but I recognise many on this blue marble which is floating through space are. The difficulty I found was using OMG or Oh My God was a little inappropriate for myself everytime I came across something really interesting or mind blowing. After giving this some thought I decided to begin using OM<D> instead. That way everyone can just enter the deity of their choice and not feel they are supporting any particular greater power representation. It doesn’t matter whether this is God, Allah, Buddha, the Universe or Rory the Stuffed Rubber Chicken, it is completely up to the individual.

I now use OM<D> as my personal window/persona/medium for talking about the many interesting, frustrating and down right funny things I encounter on this wonderful world. All those things I look at and think Oh My Deity that is really cool!

I really hope you enjoy reading my random rambles and find insight and laughter in equal measure.

OM<D>