A Byootaful Life

At the end of 2008, my parents went to Japan and when they came home, they had some gifts for us. They brought, amongst other things, two lovely sets of chopsticks for Phill and me (which I refuse to use because they are so pretty!) and a little Maneki Neko. They had two identically-wrapped boxes which were for my sister and me. I was able to pick which one I wanted and they explained that they were the same thing, but different colours. Inside the box was a beautiful black-red musical jewellery box with a shimmering top depicting Cherry Blossoms and a Japanese temple.

When opened, it tinkles the tune of “Sakura” (Cherry Blossom), a traditional Japanese folk song which depicts spring. I’ve always loved the simplicity of the song - apparently it was written for children who were learning to play the koto. It’s such a beautiful and delicate box, which suits the song perfectly. Oh, and I’m glad I got the black-red box because the colours are just so pretty together! In the top left of the picture below, you can see a bit of the box and the way the black swirls through the red. Just squint a little!

Another favourite gift was a handmade pin, made out of metal and shaped into my name with a love-heart on the end. Mum was nice and asked him to do “Kate”, rather than “Katherine”, which would have been extremely long!

Mum said the man making them was very patient, especially since she gave him a list of twelve or so names to do! I can’t imagine how long it would take to bend each piece of metal into a name but I’m sure it would be quite a task. Each pin is one continuous length of metal! The bell and beads are a nice touch, giving it a bit of colour. And of course, my parents couldn’t resist a gimmicky gift:

That’s actually a teddy bear on the end of a pen, with dangly arms and legs. So cute! Puddy immediately took to it, rubbing her head against it. It must have smelled good and it’s so soft. It’s fun to use, because as you’re writing (sometimes something serious) the teddy bear’s arms and legs are flopping all over the place!

You may have heard by now that Phill and I will be going to Japan this year with a group of friends. I was stressing out about what we were going to do with Puddy, since it’s too long to leave her at home and I wasn’t keen on putting her in a cattery. Puddy, being a former feral, has huge abandonment issues, and putting her into her carry-cage and taking her to an unfamiliar place and putting her in another cage, where we’d then leave her with strangers, would just be too much for her.

Luckily, my brother has offered to baby-sit Puddy. He’s going to baby-sit the house as well, so while we are gone he will live here and take care of Puddy. This means we don’t have to worry about her, as she’ll be staying in familiar surroundings with a familiar person. She likes my brother because he’s not exactly a cat person - it’s strange how a cat seems to gravitate towards the only person in the room who is avoiding eye contact with her!

Ever since I saw Nigella whacking away at the ugliest fruit I’d ever seen, I knew I wanted to try one. I mean, anything you whack in order to eat, just has to be tasty, right?

I decided to try at my local shopping centre and found pomegranates … for $5 each. I couldn’t justify that, so I left it … and imagine my delight when, the following week, I was browsing the produce section and discovered them for just $1.95 each! I grabbed two and took them home (but not before having to explain to the check-out operator what they were!)

From first appearance, they look quite ugly. They have pretty damaged skins and weird stalky bits where I assume they were attached to something. I love how the sign in the store had to explain which part you eat - I can just picture someone picking one up and crunching into it like an apple!

I got out a chopping board and cut them open. They were surprisingly juicy.

Now was the fun part - and the part which doesn’t have photographic evidence since I needed both hands to whack them! I decided I wasn’t going to try anything too fancy for my first taste, in case I didn’t like them, so I decided to copy Nigella and simply whack them over some vanilla yoghurt for breakfast.

Let me tell you something - this whacking thing is not as easy as it looks! I had to really put some muscle into it, and even then many of the little pips remained firmly lodged into the membrane. I also found that some of the yucky-tasting white membrane (yes, I ate some) also fell out and had to be fished out of the yoghurt with a spoon. I squeezed some juice into the yoghurt after most of the pips were out.

Doesn’t it look pretty? As ugly as it is out the outside, the red jewels inside are really beautiful. What a strange fruit! I took my first spoonful of pomegranate and yoghurt and found it to be delicious. I like pomegranates!

The only thing I don’t like is the fact that each little red pip has another pip inside which is unfortunately, very hard. I googled it and it seems that you can either spit them out, or just swallow them. It seems rather messy to have to constantly spit out little hard pips and I wondered how many people just tolerated them and ate them.

Do you like pomegranates? Do you eat the hard little pips? And more importantly, do you have any recipes you’d recommend for me to try?

If I had a dollar for every person who said that to me on December 31st, I’d be one rich woman. And having it as my blog title really just makes my obsession with capital letters that much more obvious, doesn’t it? I have issues.

I worked over the new year but managed to get myself to a party in time for a few drinks and a midnight kiss (aww). I was originally planning to be designated driver, but a friend of mine offered to drive us home so I could have a few drinks and well, let’s just say I’m still recovering two days later, with a fresh reminder of why I don’t drink. I hate hangovers. I hate not feeling 100% and most of all, I hate the allergic reaction I get to alcohol. It’s not technically an allergy, but my body doesn’t break down alcohol well (and it’s been getting much worse lately). I end up with rashes on my stomach and legs and red, itchy, swollen fingers and feet.

But it was sooo worth it. I think.

Because yesterday was a public holiday, my work closed early. Of course, this meant nine out of ten phone calls throughout the day was to ask what time we close. Customers tend to get annoyed when you tell them we closed five minutes ago. One lady replied with, “Well, that’s fucking rediculous!” and hung up on me. Happy New Year to you too.

I thought I’d start the new year off by giving Puddy some worming paste, but the little she-devil saw the syringe and took off. We’ve tried to tablets but even when we mush it into her food, she’ll lick the entire bowl clean … and leave the tablet pieces in the bottom of her dish. The paste may be gross, but I can usually get it in her mouth easier than trying to push a tablet down there. What sort of worming stuff do you use for your pets?

I hear a the tinkle of her bell … Happy (belated) New Year everyone!

Well Christmas is officially over and now we’re in full-swing for the New Year. My Mum, Dad and brother came down to stay and left only a couple days ago. On Christmas Day, my little sister came over and spent almost the whole day with us, which was nice, since we haven’t been together as a family for a long time.

As a special treat, I made Christmas Cheesecake. Well, it’s really just a cheesecake, but because I made it on Christmas Eve, I guess it qualifies as a Christmas Cheesecake. Either way, it is the best tasting cheesecake I have ever made and it only had one crack on the top. And a few cracks around the side. Don’t judge me.

We opened our presents on Christmas morning and I got quite the haul. One of my favourites was a giant pestle and mortar from Phill, made out of granite. It was so heavy I could hardly lift it! I’ve always wanted one and now I need a perfect recipe to break it in - any suggestions?

It’s a bit fuzzy. Phill took it because I was too busy tucking into my piece - I was fine with just the intact cheesecake shot, but Phill felt there needed to be some sort of “slice” shot. The sauce is a reduction of strawberries in syrup. It turned out quite well - Mum and Dad had brought a can of strawberries with them. I didn’t even know strawberries could come in a can!

I hope everyone had a fantastic Christmas and a safe and happy New Year.

I wanted to jump online and wish you all a very Merry Christmas (none of this Happy Holidays shit) since I will be pretty busy over the next three days with family. Our celebrations begin tonight when Phill gets home from work with a BBQ which will hopefully not get washed out by the huge storm which is currently heading our way. Tomorrow of course is Christmas and my younger sister and her boyfriend are also coming to visit, which will be nice, and of course we will be opening presents and generally being merry and jolly. As you do at Christmastime.

I also have Boxing Day off so we’re probably going to watch the 20/20 cricket (the only cricket I find bareable because it’s quick) and band together to make numerous spring rolls. Strange, I know, but I thought it might be something fun to do. And then we’ll get to eat spring rolls at the end of it - how can that be a bad thing?

I hope you all have a fantastic holiday with your family and friends and have a very safe Christmas!

… was my 23rd birthday.

… was my graduation ceremony from two degrees.

Understandably, I had a pretty full-on day yesterday. Phill woke me up and presented me with a gorgeous silver and diamond watch, with a pale pink mother-of-pearl face. He also gave me a beautiful necklace which had a circle of diamonds and later in the day, as we were getting three links taken out of the watch, he bought me a pair of joggers (running shoes) since I was using joggers I’d bought in year 9 when I started netball. That would be, uh, about eight years ago…

The ceremony was at night-time and consisted of a lot of waiting around in long queues. We queued for our tickets, we queued for our gowns, we queued for our five seconds of fame as we crossed the stage, doffed the Deputy Chancellor and received an empty folder which represented our testamur. My five seconds of fame turned into a little more since I was graduating from two degrees, after having deferred my previous graduation ceremony for my first degree. I had to stand on the stage while the announcer addressed the Deputy Chancellor with the information that I was graduating from two degrees, and when she finally said my name I heard Phill whistle from the crowd.

All I was thinking was: don’t trip, don’t trip, don’t trip!

We stopped at McDonalds on the way home for some dinner at 10pm. It was a long day, but a good one. No photos yet - I simply haven’t had time. Mum and Dad came down yesterday and met me at the ceremony. They are staying for the Christmas holidays so I am really excited about spending time with them. They have gone for a morning walk and should be back any moment for breakfast. I didn’t go because hello? Walking before 9am? As if!

I didn’t have time to finish making my birthday cake yesterday, so it’s sitting in the fridge waiting to be frosted. I think I might go and do that. Birthday cake for breakfast anyone?