June 2006 - matnkat.com

Thursday, June 29, 2006

Can't back out now

Kat: After much toing-and-froing about our plans after Australia, we've finally settled on an idea long enough to book tickets. Apart from being abroad longer and enjoying all that Melbourne has to offer, the main motivating factor for staying here was to avoid the British winter. The problem is that when our visas expire at the end of November we have to leave the country to apply for new ones. Here's a quick recap of our previous schemes:

Hop over to NZ and get 3 month tourist visas - unfortunately it's a Catch 22 situation because NZ immigration won't let us in without the visa that we need to enter NZ to apply for

A holiday in Fiji sounded nice until it turned out they have the same policy

Indonesia are less fussy, but it would be a costly exercise ($3000/£1200) for a relatively short extension to our stay in Oz. Also there's the minor matter of a volcano; it's even on the government list of countries people should avoid except for non-essential travel

Assuming we'd left Australia in March next year, we had thought of doing an Intrepid trip around China on the way back to the UK

Plan - what are we up to now? - E: stay in south-east Asia for 3 months. Couldn't think of a good reason why not, so we've booked a flight into Bangkok on 27th November and from Bangkok to London on 15th March!

If all goes to plan we'll cycle around Thailand, Laos, Vietnam and Cambodia for three months, with lots of days off and sight-seeing in between. We have a route of sorts planned out which we'll bore you with later, but it won't be a strict regime: we're planning to fly between some places and catch buses, trains and boats between others as we get bored of cycling. Our main source of information is the highly entertaining but very helpful Mr Pumpy - read it, you'll be inspired to come along!

Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Anni(mt)versary

Mat: Monday was our seventh wedding anniversary! Kat and I disagree about how long it feels like: I think it's a lot less than seven, she thinks it feels like a lot longer. I'm sure both of those mean something, but I've no idea what - where's a psychiatrist when you need one?

Being our wool and/or copper anniversary, we of course gave each other wool and copper gifts (not). Who came up with these? It was a fairly low-key but lovely day, and last night we went out to a great Mexican restaurant to celebrate.

Also exciting, but totally unrelated, I did my first TV interview this morning! MTV Canada got in touch yesterday through I Used To Believe asking if I'd be on the show talking about their daily topic of bad habits. The interview lasted for all of three minutes, but it was a lot of fun and I got a round of applause from the studio audience ;)

Wednesday, June 21, 2006

Sewing

Kat: At St George's primary school Mat and I both remember sewing lessons from the ample-bosomed Mrs Hutchinson. We sewed cross-stitch patterns on fabric ruler-holders; more strange than the idea that a ruler needs protective covering is the fact that I didn't question it at the time. The strongest memory for Mat is her overwhelming perfume but I just remember everyone sewing their ruler-holders to their laps each lesson. At Berkhamsted School for Gals I had to take Home Economics for a year. BSG was not exactly a progressive place. In semester one we made aprons on hand-turned Singer sewing machines then wore them for the cooking semester when we learnt to make fruit salad and other unimaginative stodge.

Surprisingly this hasn't turned me off the subject. Over the years I've attempted to make up a number of patterns but they consistently turn out bodged, ill-fitting and very obviously home-made (in a bad way). Despite this I've always been hopelessly optimistic about making my own clothes - I hate shopping and being shortish and pear-shaped, most shop-bought clothes have to be adjusted or more likely remain the wrong size.

So for the last six weeks I've been attending a sewing course on Monday lunchtimes at the CAE in the centre of town. Our teacher, Monica, has a wealth of helpful hints and tips. This week I finished making a cotton top with a square neck, sleeves and a zip at the back; I'm hoping to whip up a pair of draw-string trousers in the remaining two lessons. I need more practice but that will have to wait as I don't have access to a sewing machine - a wardrobe full of hand-sewn clothes would be a bit too much of a challenge.

Tuesday, June 20, 2006

Film review: The Chumscrubber

Mat: We saw The Chumscrubber last night, and both absolutely loved it. It's a very dark, very funny, dark comedy set in middle America, and is easily the best film I've seen this year (but that's not really saying much really - up until now the best has been Dave Chapelle's Block Party). The main themes are synchronicity and the lack of communication between kids and their parents.

The recipe would be something like: two cups of Donnie Darko, one cup of American Beauty, two teaspoons of the less disturbing bits from Happiness and a light sprinkling of the outdoor scenes from Edward Scissorhands (be sure to remove the gothic elements with a sharp knife). If your idea of a great film is one that features suicide, kidnapping, prescription drugs and the guy who played Billy Elliot, this is for you. 5/5

Sunday, June 18, 2006

Walkies

Mat: I've been working an average of 20 hours a week for the last few months, which is about perfect because it gives me enough time to do the important things in life: make cheese, play squash and take photos. This last week has been a bit of a shock to the system - back to work after a week off with Ben & Vickie, and over twice the number of hours for a normal week! One of the bonuses of working from home is that you don't need to go into the office, but one of the downsides is that you never leave the house - two days last week the furthest I went was out into the back yard to hang the washing out. All in all I've felt a bit cooped up, so I leapt at the chance to go walking with Marcus & Tash yesterday in the Dandenongs.

It's been a while since we've done much walking - the last proper walk we went on was the 18km Tongariro Crossing in New Zealand, which was awesome but my knees were causing me a lot of pain by the end. Yesterday was a 10km jaunt through rainforest, along a fairly well-trodden path, and gave me a good opportunity to indulge my latest fad - mushroom hunting. I borrowed a mushroom identification guide from the library, and spent the whole walk eagerly trying to indentify the fungus we saw. Don't worry, I didn't pick or eat any of it, as I don't trust my skills and a lot of the edible varieties seem to have poisonous lookalikes, but I was excited to find at least a few species that I recognised and (possibly) identified. By the end of the walk we were all pretty tired from a couple of long steep hills, and my knees were a bit sore, but it was fantastic to be outdoors again.

We celebrated in the evening with a great curry, only marred slightly by finding a strange UCO (unidentified curry object) in the chicken korma which looked like a used napkin, but turned out to be a bag for infusing spices without letting them escape into the sauce.

Finally, I've been caught out once again by the international conspiracy to get me in trouble with my parents. I totally failed to send a Father's Day card because it's the first Sunday in September here instead of the third Sunday in June in the UK. This last got me on Mother's Day, the second Sunday in May here, the fourth Sunday in Lent in the UK. If anyone can explain why it's on different dates, let me know!

Wednesday, June 14, 2006

Cheese problems

Mat: I'm sad to report that my first experiment with blue cheese has ended in a sticky, smelly mess that I've just thrown into the bin. Along with my helpers, Ben & Vickie, I started a blue cheese off last week but after nine days it was very liquid, leaking quite badly and covered in some moulds that I'm pretty sure weren't meant to be there. I think I know what the problems were, so I'll be starting another one soon...

Sunday, June 11, 2006

Ben's birthday week extravaganza

Kat: Ben and Vickie are en route back to Wellies after spending a fantastic week of sight-seeing and cafe-hopping with us. Vickie has been to Melbourne before but it was Ben's first visit to Australia and his 30th birthday. Based on past experience (not to mention Ben's planned birthday treat) we weren't expecting great weather, but apart from a couple of foggy mornings it's been glorious.

On Sunday we went to the Queen Vic market and St Kilda (with frequent lunch/cake/beer stops). That evening we introduced Vickie to Australia's famous game Squatter^®, which she took to like a sheep to sheep-dip. I've lost count of how many games we played over the course of the week but we've definitely had our money's worth out of Robert C Lloyd (inventor of Squatter^®) now.

On Monday we wandered round the CBD. Ben and Mat found a chocolate shop whose owner who was mad as a snake ("You Brits have all got great singing voices - look at Robbie Williams!") Tuesday we took the train down to Williamstown for lunch then caught the last ferry back; there was time for a quick game of Squatter^® before Sam joined us for Mat's latest curry spectacular: lamb vindaloo and malai kofte.

Wednesday morning we collected Ben's birthday treat: a Saab 9-3 convertible. With the top down and music blaring we headed to Healesville; in the front seats Ben and Vickie looked cool in shades and with the wind in their hair while in the back Mat and I were wrapped up with hats, gloves and scarves. After a visit to the Sanctuary and Badger Creek (plus the first outing for our picnic set!) we watched the sunset from Mount Dandenong.

On Thursday it was Ben's Big Three Oh. As you can see, our presents helped him blend in with the locals and serve as a fitting reminder of his stay. We headed out of town towards the Great Ocean Road, which Mat and I previously saw on a day trip with Fi and Kevin. This time we could take our time, so after lunch in Lorne we visited Erskine waterfalls and mosied along to Angela's Guest house (building number 2) at Apollo Bay. Our attempts to secretly book the B&B, buy and decorate a cake and sneak it and a bottle of bubbly into the car must have looked very suspicious but luckily Ben didn't notice a thing.

The "close by" restaurants turned out to be a half hour stumble along an unlit road without pavement, so we called the only taxi in town (and former dairy farmer - we got his life history over the course of the journey into town and back to Angela's). The next day we visited the Otway Fly and nearby Triplet Falls before reaching the 12 Apostles and Loch Ard Gorge for sunset. It was the perfect end to a perfect trip ... apart from a 3.5 hour drive back through fog so dense that we sometimes couldn't see the road at all. Mat drove the whole way while we shouted "left" or "right" when we caught a glimpse of which way the road was turning - good on yer, mate!

Yesterday was the aquarium, squash with Ben while Vickie met up with an old friend (judging by this morning he'll feel the effects for the next few days!) and Advanced Squatter^®. After supper we tried Mat's latest hard cheese which has been maturing for a month. The verdict: very tasty but a bit too salty.

Seeing Ben and Vickie has made us feel quite nostalgic for friends back home; it's nearly been a year since we saw him at Mel and Joel's wedding last July. It was lovely to see them but we miss the rest of you!

Saturday, June 03, 2006

Got my number

Kat: I'm in the phone book! I know there won't be a significant difference apart from an increase in cold calls for Mr K Smith about double-glazing (or whatever the equivalent is here) but it makes me feel like I'm a proper Melbournian.

On the other hand, Mat is craving English food like a proper ex-pat. Today we visited Treats from Home and he gleefully filled his basket with Shreddies ($15 = £5.98) and chocolate rich tea biscuits ($5 = £1.99). The biccies are proper Cadbury's ones which I've never seen before. They even sold Cadbury's dairy milk shipped over from Britain, though I'm suspicious of their claim that it tastes different to Australian dairy milk because of an ingredient added to raise its melting point.