some candy talking

superfreak

2007-01-24T22:13:00.000+10:00

i see this stencil art almost every day at uni, and i finally made time to immortalise it on my blog.

nissa's housewarming party

2006-09-18T13:23:00.000+10:00

hash's birthday

2006-09-16T10:55:00.000+10:00

hash's birthday dinner was at the laksa hut in toowong. it's such a great establishment, the food was amazing, but they need to invest in appropriate tablewear:

after dinner, it was onto the RE for several drinks:

new golf clubs

2006-09-14T10:42:00.000+10:00

i finally got my own set of new clubs, a relative bargain from eBay. perimeter weighted, steel shaft, oversized heads, nice grips, graphite driver, a couple of hybrids... all just in time for the annual school of biomedical sciences golf day at the end of this month. it's going to be a great summer of golf!

sunday

2006-09-04T09:10:00.000+10:00

made madeleines for my step-father for father's day yesterday:

they were flavoured with rosewater. the recipe (from memory):
50g unsalted butter
1 egg
40g caster sugar
45g italian "00" flour
1 tablespoon rosewater
- beat up the egg and sugar for five mins until thick like mayonnaise
- sift in flour
- fold in rosewater and butter
- let sit in fridge for 1 hour, then room temp for 30 mins
- put in madeleine tin, about 1 teaspoon per madeleine
- bake 5 mins at 220C (makes about 24 - 36)

some flowers in the garden:

1989

2006-09-04T08:18:00.000+10:00

how cool would that be?
go nuts at http://www.says-it.com/cassette/index.php

the life of a scientist

2006-09-03T09:09:00.000+10:00

last weekend, i spent ALL weekend doing this:

unlike this weekend. this weekend i am at work. doing 12 hour days. writing. and doing this:

back!

2006-08-31T21:08:00.000+10:00

now that i'm over my temporary infatuation with mog, i can get back to entertaining the seething masses with my phone pics...
first up. things i've been doing in the last couple of months
1. demonstrating how to extract strawberry DNA for the kids at the brisbane ekka:

2. going for a bike ride in the city with some mates:

3. my first attempt at using my phone's panorama function (glasshouse moutains, qld):

new toy!

2006-07-17T19:16:00.000+10:00

mog

bmx bandits

2006-07-13T11:29:00.000+10:00

started biking with claire and hash this week. i have several owies. my legs hurt, my arms hurt, my arse hurts. apparently i have calluses to look forward to. in the meantime i can enjoy the gentle tinkling of claire's spokey dokes.

in other news: i got my package from labrador the other day. purchased: the radio dept. - pet grief; sambassadeur - coastal affairs and self-titled; skwbn - #3; and the acid house kinds - sing along with. i can't get the radio dept. out of my stereo, it's that good.

sunday driving

2006-07-13T11:22:00.000+10:00

birthday

2006-06-26T11:09:00.000+10:00

apparently, the 23rd of june is the happiest day of the year. unfortunately for us this only applies to people in the northern hemisphere. hash has a nice little write up of the evening on his blog, so i won't go on about it. other than that it was super smashing great. in other news, i was shopping the other day and finally got time to smell all of demeter's fragrance library. my verdict: most of them smell awful. who would want to smell like dirt? or even... laundromat?

b&s pics

2006-06-22T12:19:00.000+10:00

check out the pictures on the triple j website from the b&s concert at the tivoli - they certainly put mine to shame. and i think you can see us in the audience in one or two...

labrador / the radio dept.

2006-06-21T13:19:00.000+10:00

i'm probably really behind the times, but i just discovered a new label on which two or maybe three of my new favourite bands reside. check out my latest crush in mp3 format. the dude over at chrome waves is correct, the radio dept. are a perfect blend of jesus and mary chain, belle and sebastian and trembling blue stars. just when i was all jaded with the current state of music...

new bike! + toga party

2006-06-19T20:09:00.000+10:00

this is my brand-spanking new bike in the store minutes before i shelled out a substantial amount of cash for it:
claire, hash and sam's toga party pics:

belle and sebastian

2006-06-16T10:51:00.000+10:00

camera obscura

2006-06-14T12:08:00.000+10:00

i love that the wallpaper on the cover of the new camera obscura album is exactly the same as the wallpaper in my favourite breakfast cafe, cirque. also i heard the new camera obscura single on the radio this morning and it put me in a great mood for work! go listen to it now, it's called lloyd, i'm ready to be heartbroken. it will put a spring in your step, honest.

another long weekend

2006-06-13T13:33:00.000+10:00

first stop: the farmer's market, for some new season strawberries (they were too good to do anything with, other than eat as is)

a rainy saturday evening was spent at the AFL (bris v adelaide)

footy food

sunday: lawn bowls with work people. our team (kristin, malcolm and i) were both semi-finalists and outright champions with this final score.

malcolm's lentil, cumin and coriander soup:
- cook diced onion in a splash of oil with a big spoonful of ground cumin, add chopped mushrooms, potato, vegetable stock and lentils, simmer for a while
- puree and at the last minute add fair bit of chopped coriander for the final puree
- serve with a dollop of greek yoghurt and extra coriander

another sunny day

2006-05-29T11:17:00.000+10:00

had a great time barefoot bowling...

until the weather turned.

and introducing my sunday night gourmet: cinnamon spiced duck with ruby grapefruit!
- score skin of duck breast and rub in some cinnamon and brown sugar
- quickly fry each side in hot pan until crispy, roast 10 mins @ 180C.
- make grapefruit jus by whisking juice from half a grapefruit, cranberry jelly and chicken stock, reduce by half
- serve duck on red cabbage with a few grapefruit segments and some potato mash

hello wall art

2006-05-23T19:58:00.000+10:00

found a couple of cool photography links just now.
the rasterbator turns your image into a big pdf so you can put it on your wall, and photojojo is full of great ideas.

spicy

2006-05-22T14:09:00.000+10:00

i tried to make a curry this weekend: saag murgh? (chicken spinach). it turned out ok, but would look disgusting if i took a photo, so the pretty spices will have to suffice. i wasn't entirely happy with how it turned out so maybe jai could give me some help? anyway very quickly:
- saute one chopped onion, some ginger and 2 cloves garlic
- add spices: equal amounts (one teaspoon) of ground turmeric, cumin, coriander, cinnamon, chilli to taste, paprika, cardamom pods and a few cloves
- add chopped chicken, a spash of water, two diced tomatos, cook until reduced
- add a can of spinach and a teaspoon of garam masala
- leave on low heat or let cool and keep in fridge until next day

rhubarb and tulips

2006-05-17T13:29:00.000+10:00

someone bought me flowers on the weekend...

rhubarb is wonderful at the moment

fettucine with chicken and leek:
- finely slice one leek and crush a clove of garlic
- saute in some butter
- add cubed bacon
- add cubed chicken, cook for 5 mins
- add a small amount of water with finely sliced zucchini and halved mushrooms, cover to steam for a few minutes
- remove cover and take off heat, stir through a decent amount of sour cream
- stir through fresh fettucine

quick gnocchi recipe

2006-05-12T16:46:00.000+10:00

i know it doesn't look as nice as it tasted, but do try my recipe for gnocchi with chorizo and basil, it's a great last-minute thrown together meal for weeknights:
ingredients -
chorizo sausage
fresh basil
some tomato pasta sauce
gnocchi
vegetables - i used zucchini and pumpkin

1. pan fry the chorizo and slice it diagonally
2. steam the vegies and heat up the pasta sauce
3. cook the gnocchi (don't forget to remove as soon as they start floating)
4. put it all together in a big pot and stir through some fresh basil at the end

grant mclennan 1958-2006

2006-05-07T13:04:00.000+10:00

grant mclennan died today. i wonder what this will mean for the remainder of the go-betweens. they are a band close to my heart for so many reasons. when i was living overseas i listened to their music whenever i was feeling homesick. the only time i saw the go-b's was about this time last year at the tivoli - and it was pure magic. not an easy thing for a jaded australian music fan to admit. the show was being filmed for a dvd and was recently released.
i just can't express how i feel exactly. not grief, because i didn't know the guy. but sad that a chapter of the brisbane music scene has closed. if you've never heard of them, you've been missing out. the go-betweens were years ahead of their time. they were influential. they were the essence of not giving a shit about trends, establishing themselves well and truly in the brisbane pub-rock scene and doing their own lo-fi accoustic thing knowing full well that they'd never be a commercial success. they made pure, heartbreaking, beautiful music well before it became cool. they were the antithesis of blokey aussie bogan rock, and because of this they were either dismissed or ignored by the critics. in my opinion are the most underrated band of the past 25 years. i just can't talk this band up enough. you will be missed, grant.
listen to this. read this.
pitchfork's dedication.

science quiz night I

2006-05-02T11:11:00.000+10:00

all the geeks were herded into the "special area" of the uni bar.

our team name. note the first few words we came up with when trying to scramble "fruit flies".

sam experimented with some strongly pigmented candy to retain her trivia "edge".

claire got all over-stimulated when we won not only laser pens but also glowy egg lights.

sam and katrina eating the oggz.

sydney

2006-05-02T11:00:00.000+10:00

easter long weekend

2006-04-18T12:05:00.000+10:00

fine dining

2006-04-05T14:26:00.000+10:00

so we ate at sizzler last night. the very same store where they had the rat poison issue a few months back. here are the highlights.

brisbane sizzler does gourmet (the 't' is not silent here) desserts like nowhere else

claire freaks out after ingesting several plates of food

claire, hash, sam and their happy sizzler baby

piled higher and deeper

2006-03-30T13:11:00.000+10:00

my desk really does look like this:

pocky

2006-03-25T10:56:00.000+10:00

saturday night, hash and i had dinner in chinatown and saw sophie koh at the troubadour. it was a nice show. before the show, we were really hungry, so we had men's sized pocky instead of the regular kind. as far as i can tell, it's not really any bigger than regular pocky, except maybe there are more pocky sticks in the men's packet. i like the blue, no-fuss packaging. no girly flowers or kittens here.

hash found a pair of fluffy dice in the gutter, so naturally i used 'em as headphones. don't worry, they were in a hygenic wrapper so i didn't get gutter germs on me. they are now in my car, which does not make my car happy. claire do you need replacement fluffy dice? they still have the correct number of dots on them.

yum cha overhang

2006-03-13T08:48:00.000+10:00

persons who shall remain nameless enjoyed a yum cha brunch with hash and myself yesterday.

our sunday outing included a citycat trip on the new cat. it's called "tunamun" and i think that is because it cost a tonne of money.

hash creates flambe bananas with lime and frangelico. you can do it too!
1. cook up the bananas with lime, brown sugar, frangelico and gin*.

2. set it alight.

* i was particularly impressed by hash diligently spending his sunday afternoon burning gin and tasting it to make sure it reduced to water, all for the banana recipe. that boy will do anything for science. he is practically an alchemy genius, but he has to work on turning water into gin...

drinks @ the bowery

2006-03-10T11:08:00.000+10:00

some obsolete photos for you. over a week ago i went out with claire to the bowery in the valley. the minute we parked the car it started to rain. torrential, brisbane summer evening rain. after searching the car for something protective, we found only a towel. claire tried to use this towel as an umbrella, bless her. needless to say we got utterly drenched. so, after casually making our grand entrance to the bowery, we stood at the bar, towel-dried ourselves as best we could and ordered cocktails.

i told claire we could pretend the towel was in memory of douglas adams. failing that, we could always say towels are the new black.

bellini at the bowery.

claire's farewell drinks

2006-02-27T11:09:00.000+10:00

this weeks DCC was claire's final week at work and to commemorate such a colourful employee we held a claire-themed quiz.
this is briony asking claire for hints for the question about her sex life

hash knows all the answers

the back of dan's shirt. all of us really are obsessed with napoleon dynamite.

chips...

... and a trio of sauce. drinking in style.

great workmates, or, i'm a sucker

2006-02-23T22:49:00.000+10:00

so i left work a little bit early today knowing i would have to come in at 10pm for some experiment. i came in just now and saw this on my computer screen. it makes staying in the lab until midnight bearable...

something gross

2006-02-23T22:39:00.000+10:00

this, believe it or not, is a seafood pizza smothered in a red wine reduction. gross, yes?

dinner with the gang

2006-02-21T08:10:00.000+10:00

even with a thrown together meal (which was fantastic) we still eat in style...

mini golf mayhem

2006-02-19T09:24:00.000+10:00

this week, friday afternoon drinks with workmates became a mini-golf competition. this course was unique in that not only did it have sand traps, the entire thing was built on the side of a hill. and forget about angles, every hole required rebounds off irregular curves.

claire shows off her finesse on the course. what a pro.

then there was the long drive home. the kids in the back get bored:

this is hash trying to scare me.

this is hash trying to scare himself.

and claire doing her best jack nicholson impression.

anarchy-lite

2006-02-13T17:57:00.000+10:00

started out at the port office

practising our napoleon dynamite moves on eagle st

ms naughty secretary claire and myself

claire's final breath test reading

australian neuroscience 2006: sydney

2006-02-06T14:22:00.000+10:00

nothing but work work work for us science geeks.

big day out: melbourne

2006-02-06T14:15:00.000+10:00

this is my friend patience belting one out for the grates. i am so proud of her. i remember when the grates first formed and i saw them play in someone's living room at a party... all borrowed second-hand gear, true thrift-store style, and they got everyone in the room to yell along with "spoke in the eye". i miss those days.

wheel of goon

2006-02-06T13:39:00.000+10:00

for australia day this year, hash, claire and sam went all out with a traditional aussie bbq at their house. there were shrimp on the barbie:

hash demonstrates the importance of the double-plugger as opposed to the inferior single-plugger:

and claire showed us all how australian she is with her temporary glitter tattoo:

lunch

2006-01-24T16:44:00.000+10:00

i caught you a delicious bass

2006-01-20T07:47:00.000+10:00

we were supposed to see napoleon dynamite at the moonlight cinema, but being brisbane, it got rained out like most of the summer cricket matches. we made these awesome t-shirts and everything, so what else could we do but go to the pub. if you ever want a lot of attention in a pub, wear a t-shirt with something obscure written on it, and if possible, do it in a group. for more lewd offers and phone numbers, wear your hair in a ridiculous 80's hairstyle. works like a charm.

iron chef: pancakes

2006-01-08T17:41:00.000+10:00

hash and i had a conversation last night (well, bragging) about our respective cooking prowess. we've set a challenge for later this month and it will be a three-round iron chef type arrangement, as judged by claire and sam and anyone else who might get roped into it. the first round will be a theme to be decided and we only get a day to prepare. the second round will be where we choose a recipe for the other person to make, and the third will be each persons own choice. only slightly related are the pictures below: the inaugural claire/hash pancake cookoff held at my house this morning.

sam demonstrates the ancient technique of mashing banana

there is a french saying : la première crêpe va au chien... first one to the dog.

about my friend sam

2006-01-08T17:27:00.000+10:00

i said i would try to get more of a social life this year, and judging by these pictures it has started out extremely well. sam, claire, hash and myself met up at eagle street for some bevvies and i could tell the evening was going to be awesome when sam started explaining binary to claire.

later, at the jade buddha, sam decided she was tired of her usual persona and decided to act all naughty stormtrooper. this came with saucy dance moves and everything. by happy coincidence, she later "found" a stormtrooper mask that some fool had stupidly left lying around.

all the upmarket clubbing got to the alpha geeks, so we retired early to a fine food establishment.

i love pretty things

2006-01-03T08:13:00.000+10:00

on reflection, i would say 2005 was the year i jumped on bandwagons. yes, plural. finally got an ipod (and i justify this by the recent banning of the radio in our lab); finally went speed dating (something i would rather forget); and finally invested in a moleskine, in the vague hope of having something of worth to write down. the cover mentions it was the humble notebook of choice for hemingway, matisse and van gogh. well, three days into 2006 and the only note i've made is one of my flight details for melbourne and sydney later this month. let's just hope the thought of this beautiful yet overpriced diary will spur me into action and get a social life.

the usual souvenirs

2005-12-31T18:53:00.000+10:00

home sweet home

2005-12-31T18:51:00.000+10:00

now i pack lightly

2005-12-31T18:42:00.000+10:00

jess: super dog

2005-12-15T16:29:00.000+10:00

my thai

2005-12-15T16:28:00.000+10:00

happy mondays

2005-12-12T15:41:00.000+10:00

salsa dancing in southbank

2005-12-12T07:13:00.000+10:00

dinner @ harvey's

2005-12-09T13:17:00.000+10:00