~
Well, what an attractive bed partner I made last night! Thick, black & aqua striped knee high socks; old lady flannel nightie over the top of two tourist-type tee shirts and snuggled under two quilts. I considered putting a scarf around my neck but thought I might roll over in the night and choke myself.
Bundled up as such I survived the night in a house with no heating - though the morning trip to the bathroom was not pleasant. A lot of hot water was used in a fairly futile attempt to warm up the bathroom before I disrobed. It was in the 30's when I left home this morning with a brutal wind making the "real feel" about 16 F - I think it was about the same inside the house!
The manservant got to stay home and wait for a repairman who arrived at the promised time, took one look and said the electronic ignition system had burnt out and could be repaired for $250. As the manservant does not feel the cold like I do, I half expected him to tell me that he had then contacted another company to come out and give a second quote! Fear for his life was greater than the fear of an overdrawn account and I came home to a lovely cozy house.
It's so hot in here now that I could almost believe it's warm enough outside to have a bbq! Here is my son getting the barbie ready on Christmas Day:
We had fairly good flights in spite of the new airline security arrangements and arrived back in Washington DC late Saturday night. I went to bed pretending that I had just had a big social night hoping that would help me get back into the time zone quicker. I'm not sure it worked as I still needed a big nana-nap yesterday afternoon.
First day back at work today and by 3pm I was wishing for a little lie down. It's a three and a half day week this week as we close early on Thursday - a nice re-introduction to a full week. I was not so thrilled at the bitterly cold winds this morning and I've come home tonight to find that our heater is not working!!!!!!! I'm going to have to go to bed now to stay warm.
Last images of Sydney taken from the plane - a cloudy take-off: (I wanted to also take photos of our arrival in Los Angeles but we were not allowed to have any items in our laps for the last hour)......
While we were in Australia, Washington had a 17" snow fall ...... this was all that was left on our top deck yesterday, one week later:
Sherlock Holmes was AMAZING. Neither of my parents like it, but well, my dad hates all movies and there wasn't enough pretty scenery for my mother since she doesn't watch movies for content, but only pretty pictures. Whatever. I thought it was brilliant. And wow. So. Much. Gay. Seriously. Friggin hilarious! Everyone did a fantastic job. Rachel McAdams was great, so was Jude Law, who I'm not usually a fan of. And then that one guy (one of the bad guys) just drove me crazy because every time he came on screen all I could think was 'MORDRED'. I'm hoping someone out there knows what I am talking about!
Anyway, brilliant movie, everyone should see it.
Also saw Princess and the Frog last week and loved it. I'm such a huge fan of old Disney and have been so horribly, horribly disappointed the past few years. But this one was right on track. Hand drawn and with music. Fantastic. And New Orleans made me homesick :) I enjoyed mixing it up with the art deco number and the jazz music. A bit different for Disney. The story was fairly obvious, the villain was terrifying, but all around a good Disney movie! The Prince confused me though. His accent sounded Spanish but he would occasionally throw out Russian phrases, was from the mythical Disney kingdom of Maldonia and has a Hindu name. I was perplexed. But another rec for anyone who used to enjoy Disney. It was cute.
And I'm going to see Avatar on Monday! Finally! No one I know has really had terribly awesome things to say about it, so I'm not going expecting much, but I'm sure it'll be very enjoyable.
Oh, and I also watched an old black and white movie tonight called 'It Happened at Sun Valley'. Stay away from that movie. I found it very offensive. And the 'lead' woman was a horrible, manipulative, obnoxious harpy. I was not hoping she would win to say the least. She infuriated me. She just wanted to get herself a husband so she could cook and keep house for him. So he finds someone, is amazingly deceitful in trying to actually 'compromise' herself so that his girlfriend would break up with him. It was a terrible movie. Not even the Glen Miller Band could save it.
Hope everyone had a fantastic day!
~Nikki
See you in 2010!
~
Merry Christmas; Happy Holidays; Best Wishes for whatever you celebrate at this time of year.
I will see you on the other side of the 25th ......
We will have Christmas day with my three children and my new daughter-in-law..... firing up the barbie and tossing some prawns and seafood on it.
On Boxing Day (26th) we start the flights back to DC - arriving in Los Angeles before we leave Sydney - LOL - I love that International Date line!
~
We spent yesterday with my parents who live about 3 hours drive north of Sydney - in Tea Gardens/Hawks Nest. This will be my last visit with them this trip. It is always really, really tough saying goodbye to them as the thought is always in the back of my mind that this might be the last time I see them.
Their little town is sandwiched between the Pacific Ocean
The river is also lovely and clear....
The pelican was hoping we had some fish for him - he was disappointed.
Cinnamon Roll Coffee Cake adapted from Cuisine At Home Magazine
Makes one 9" cake
Total time: About 1 1/2 hours
For the Caramel-
Stir Together in a measuring cup:
3/4 cup brown sugar
1/4 cup heavy cream
Pinch of salt
Sprinkle:
1 cup chopped toasted pecans (toast whole pecans in the oven at 350 degrees for 10 minutes. Let cool slightly then chop)
For The Streusel-
Process:
1/2 cup brown sugar
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
4 tablespoons unsalted cold butter, diced
1 tablespoon ground cinnamon
1/4 teaspoon salt
For The Cake-
Whisk Together in a measuring cup:
1/2 cup buttermilk
1/4 cup lowfat vanilla yogurt (I used plain with 2 tsp. vanilla extract)
2 eggs
Sift Together:
1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
1/2 teaspoon baking powder
1/2 teaspoon baking soda
1/2 teaspoon table salt
Cream:
1/2 cup unsalted butter, softened
3/4 cup sugar
Preheat oven to 350 degrees; coat a 9" cake pan with 2" sides with pam. Place pan on a cookie sheet. [Pan needs to have 2" sides or the cake may overflow.]
Alternate dry and wet ingredients by hand with spatula, starting and ending with the dry. Blend each addition just until incorporated. I blended by hand with a spatula so that I wouldn't over beat and get a tough cake.
