More Air

I went to a wedding on Saturday last. It was stunning. So very casual (I wore shorts and a rather smart white printed linen shirt) and yet so very appropriate. It's the second marriage for both bride and groom and they love each other with so much passion that it makes me a little jealous. More than a little actually.

But that's not what this air is about. I had a conversation for the second time in a week (the first was at the wedding, hence the mention) this afternoon with my friend Ms K about kids names.

I have mine picked out.

Thomas, for a chap - after my maternal grandfather,
Kyra, for a chapette - after a name I heard that I really like.

Is it just me or do other people (single, unmarried, no prospects etc...) have the names they want for their as to be conceived children already in place?

Thoughts?



(I took the the above pic at the wedding and it's of two daughters of friends. Gorgeous, well mannered kids. Who like swinging on trees.)

Air

Many people can air guitar. Some can even do it well enough to win prizes at events for people who air guitar well enough to enter events where they might win prizes for air guitar.

However, not many people can air drum.

Just a thought. As I try to air drum.

Another thought... is it possible I'm my own worst enemy? Is it possible that we're all our own worst enemy? Or do we all have a nemesis out there waiting behind a corner with a 'your life is fucked' gun?

Just a thought.

Vacate

I've had a little ripper of a summer so far... trips up and down the country with people that I love and weather that has treated us to one of the best summers I can remember. Which is not saying much given that I usually spend summer in a vodka induced haze. Still, I've been lucky enough to have people there that can take some photos for me... So thank you to Ms J and Ms K. All the below pics were taken by them.
Luff you both lots.


The jetty which I jumped off nude on New Years Eve. Forgetting that my friends were all sitting right where I'd have to climb up the ladder.



View from the water back up to the bach in the top left of the picture.



I can read, drink wine and relax... all at the same time. Who said men can't multi-task?



View from the deck of the bach we were staying at in the Marlborough Sounds...



My little car... 1967 Triumph Herald convertible... drove north with the top down and got a wee bit sunburnt.

Add More Cream

A couple of months ago I decided to plant a seed. Several seeds in fact. And these weren't metaphorical seeds either. They're the real deal baby.

So into the ground (planters actually... I've had to move too many times to actually put things in a piece of land I might not be around in a few months) went tomatoes, basil, mint, parsley, coriander, some stuff I found outside my house that looked like seeds, thyme and some raspberry bushes.

Oh my sweet baby Al Gore - my raspberry bushes. They've given me a green finger boner. Sorry, a little graphic but still...

Ok, ewww.

Aaanyway - havng harvested my crop of raspberries I had to work out what to do with them. I like cooking. I'm pretty good at it if I do say so myself. Somewhere along the path I learnt how to make the perfect creme brulee... Many have been made, but none with a crop from my own seed... ha ha ha... sorry I'm more than a little drunk.
He he...seed.

So - creme brulee then. Here's my recipe. Got it from a chef in my home town that had made the best one I'd ever tasted. I bought him the worlds biggest mojito and got him pissed. Eventually he gave it up.

8 egg yolks
1/3 cup plain white sugar
2 cups cream
seeds of one vanilla pod
1/4 cup castor sugar (for the tops)
1 cup raspberries (also for the tops)

Preheat oven to 150 celcius. Whisk together the egg yolks and sugar until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture is thick and pale yellow. Pale yellow like a jaundiced sailor. Add the cream and vanilla seeds, continue to whisk until it's well blended. Strain it into a bowl, skimming off any foam or bubbles. This is important... air will kill it like a ninja kills the advertising execs in charge of the coca cola account.

Divide the mixture among 6 ramekins. Place the ramekins in a water bath and bake until set around the edges, but still loose in the center, about 50 to 60 minutes (it might be more depending on your oven... my oven at the moment takes about 70 minutes to get them just right). Remove from the oven and leave in the water bath until they're cooled. Remove cups from water bath and chill for at least 2 hours, or up to 2 days. I've got the best ones after leaving them for about 12 hours but up to you...

When you're ready to serve, sprinkle a handfull of raspberries over the brulee and push them in just a little... don't be too heavy like Heavy D. Then cover those bad boy berries with about 2 teaspoons of castor sugar (or however much you like, I like a thick crusty crunch so I go all Michael J Fox on the sugar...) Now go freakin nuts with the blow torch. I swear, the burning makes the combo of the castor sugar and the natural sugars in the berries make a caramel that will make a midget taller.

And that's it bitches.

Is it any wonder I'm directing a food show in a few weeks, which is also going to be on Channel 7 for our Australian audience too I just found out today!

Yay, as I skip around my lounge.

I really need to stop skipping.


(this is for Ms P, who's blog inspires and who couldn't make a bad cupcake if she had a loaded midget held to her head. Or so I've heard.)

Step Lively

The past reflects. It reflects who we are. Who I am, who I am to you and who you are to me. It also guides us. Shows us a path to take, or not to take. Paths are funny things. Some have cliffs on either side and they fall all the way down. Other paths have sunshine and scattered light, and if you fall it's onto a bed of memories and laughter.

I'm on a memory trip down a certain path at the moment, while trying hard to remember all the paths I've walked before. I'm trying to remember that language can be used to provoke or criticise, or to embrace or comfort. I'm trying to remember all.

After Ms MJ gave my personality a thorough dissection weeks ago my confidence took a sharp dip. Into some cold and deep water. It shouldn't have, but it still went deep and dark. The year 2008 was the toughest of my professional and personal lfe and it is with my greatest feeling that I want 2009 to be different in so many ways. So I've decided to walk slowly. Take the path that seems to call.

Love can occasionally be a brutal thing. When I've been with someone for a length of time sometimes my heart starts to feel like an overcrowded lifeboat. I throw my pride out to keep it afloat, and then my self-respect and then my independence. After a while the only next step is to start throwing out people I love. My friends, my family, everyone I used to know. The lifeboat is going down and I know it's going to take me down with it.

So, no more. Never, ever say no to love, or to the opportunity to love. But walk the right path. The one that has memories and laughter on either side. And the farther on that path I walk, the more memories and laughter are created.



I think we all deserve that.

I know I do.

Smiling Is Easy

Her hand was resting in the curve of my arm, near the elbow. The touch was exactly the same as the touch of a lover's hand should be. But we weren't, aren't, weren't, aren't... I felt an almost irresistible urge to take her hand and place it flat against my chest, near my heart. Maybe I should have done it. I know she would have laughed if I'd done it. So we held the stare.

And the stare is where it stays. For now.


- the above photo is from this morning. I did a runner out of town and went surfing. Should have been writing. Surfing seemed like much more fun.

Wisdom

Watching an Eddie Izzard dvd last night I was reminded of my favourite legend of all time...

Basically the 3 wisest men in the land were asked by the king to write a
definitive history of the known world. They did. 24 volumes. It was the first encyclopaedia. The king said it was too long, could they make it shorter? A year later they came back with one volume... too long still, said the king. Another year later they came back with one piece of parchment.
On that parchment was written the condensed knowledge of the known world. The parchment had one line written on it.

"This too shall pass".

A great line to think of when you might not be feeling so flash.

Mistakes

Someone once said to me,'it's always a mistake to be alone with someone you shouldn't have loved'. I can't recall who it was that said it, but they were probably in a loving and stable relationship when they said it, so I probably punched them in the face for being smug, profound and correct all at the same time. No one likes a smart arse.

The wise, sultry and lovely Kimba has asked about dating and what people want... oh boy... oh dear...

The comments on her site are for the most part brilliantly honest and true (aside from mine of course, which was my inner 14 year old boy typing for me), which has lead me to wonder today, what the hell am I looking for?

At Christmas my Mum told me in a moment driven by two glasses of wine that I should marry either one of two of my best girlfriends. Then on Christmas day my Dad decided to have a man-to-man chat about how my life was going off the rails because I'm in a creative industry that offers no security and by the way when are you going to meet a nice girl and marry her and settle down and calm down etc etc etc...

I adore my parents. They've bailed me out financially, emotionally and physically (I got stuck in a sinking boat) over all my life. That's not why I adore them though. The reason I adore them is that they are the most in love couple I've ever met. Ever. Married 36 years this year and my Dad still can not sleep if my Mum is away. Her job takes her overseas twice a year and twice a year I get phone calls from Dad at 7am, 2am, 11pm, 2pm and so on... I want that love. Everyone deserves that love. They've worked so hard at it but it's there, still.

Wow, random post.

I should get a girlfriend.

Or do the dishes.