A digger

for Junior.

In bloom

These trees are blooming with gorgeous purple flowers all over Sydney. Here's one at the Quad.

Yerushalmi Kugel

Recipe is here.
Does anyone know how to avoid getting burnt noodles on the top of the pan (which becomes the bottom of the kugel after you flip it out)??

Flightpath

Yoga on horseback

The King David Stables. Sounds like a pretty amazing place. And this is very close to where we'll be staying near Jerusalem. (OMG! Just a few weeks left till the big trip!)
They offer good old horseback riding, and if that's not enough then there's horseback yoga and tai chi.
And I thought yoga was hard enough on a mat...

Bird of Paradise

Today I cannot blame blogger for not posting this yesterday.
What's my excuse then? How about having an opportunity to go to after-work drinks at the pub in Coogee? I haven't done that in ages!
And we didn't even need a babysitter. This must be the only country in the world with family-friendly pubs. One area of the pub is especially kid friendly, with a ball pit and toys and games. The place was full of families with prams and toddlers. And I got to have a glass of my favourite (Strongbow) (because I'm not 100% Aussie and can't drink a whole beer).
The occassion was a farewell party for a good friend who is moving half way around the world...

Today's pic

I love these freaky gargoyles.

Yesterday's pic

Happiness is (nearly) instant gratification

Blogger was being a lemon yesterday so I couldn't post my daily picture. I'll have to snap something new and see if I can download it here at work.
Meanwhile, I'm a happy camper! I finally gave in to my desire to buy an mp3 player. Hubby offered his old iPod by I tried it and didn't like it. It was heavy and clunky, the battery doesn't last long, and besides it has all of his music on it. So I bought an iRiver T30. It's so cool!!!! I plugged it in and Suse recognized it immediately. Drag 'n dropped my ogg files into it and voila! Perfect. And it's small and cute and (if you believe the company) the AAA battery lasts for 20 hours!
Since I could never get my sound card to work on Suse Linux, I have never been able to listen to music at work. So now I can! When you share an office with 4 other people, it's sometimes necessary to be able to tune out and focus.
I just need to get some comfy headphones instead of these horrid stick-in-your-ear thingies.
Oooooh I'm so happy...

Quad Gargoyle

A Uni intersection

Where are all the students? Studying?
My bet is they're all at the pub...

363 to go

Coral at the Sydney Aquarium.

1001 uses

I have some soda water left over from Rosh Hashana's kneidalach. I don't drink the stuff, so I started experimenting with it in the kitchen. So far I have had success.
As well as making fluffy-as-clouds matza balls, soda water also makes fluffy:
1. scrambled eggs, and
2. pancakes.

365 - I'm in

Noorster has started a photoblogging project in which, briefly, she posts one picture every day and has also challenged others to commit to similar projects.
Well, I accept the challenge!
I'll have to get used to carrying the camera around, but I reckon if it'll help me post more, and also learn more about photography, then why not.
I've wanted to learn more about digital photo editing and I never had the time to read about it as much as I'd like.
So let's see if I can keep this up. A whole year! wow.
First day: Boats in Junior's bubble bath.

You don't have to put on the blue light

Lately in Sydney the Electric Co. has been handing out free six-packs of energy efficient light bulbs. You can get them if you sign a form saying that you won't take more than one pack, and that you promise to install them in your home.
Like many people I happily took the freebie. I wanted to change the light bulbs in the dining room anyway because they were rather dim. But after about an hour with the weird bluish light of these new bulbs, I got hubby to switch back to the good old yellow ones. The blue tinted light is just weird, it messed with my eyes. I couldn't stand it.
We replaced the light outside on the porch, and also my bedside reading light, but that's it. The others we keep as spares.
Apparently we're not the only ones who didn't install them. And of course, there's quite a lot of politics and money involved in the whole story, and not just green concern for the environment.
When it comes to reducing carbon emissions and all that, I reckon the best bet is to invest in fusion technology. Australia missed the wagon but is now trying to jump back on, while France and Japan are firmly in the lead.
In the 19th century, people thought that cities reached their population limits because of the incontrollable amount of horse shit on the streets. Help eventually came in the form of the internal combustion engine. I think energy from fusion will one day--maybe in 50 years, maybe in 100--bring about a radical solution to our dependence on fossil fuels. I long for that day both for the political changes that it will bring, as well as the environmental.

Parallel Universe

I share my office with several other post-docs. One of them is a woman I totally admire. She's my age, married but no kids. I was talking to her when I suddenly got this bizarre feeling that I was talking to myself in some parallel universe.

Here is a woman who has had a similar education to mine, some industry experience like I have, has been in a relationship for about a decade like I have. And yet our careers are totally different.

She does great research. She's published a gazillion papers in the last year. I'm still writing the draft of my first one at this job. She is involved in committees ranging from simple university tasks to multi-million dollar government funding schemes. She does so much and gets lots of deserved praise for her hard work. And she works hard, long hours and weekends and business trips all over the place.

She was telling me about one of her committees, and then she asked me, "aren't you involved in anything like that?". No, I said. I don't have time.

I have to leave at 4:30 every day to pick up my son from day care before I get slapped with a $1 a minute fine. I can't work weekends and nights. I chose a completely different life, and I am a mother first and foremost.

But still, sometimes I think to myself: that could have been me achieving all that.

It would have been nice, but I'm not jealous and I don't regret a thing.

I just have to keep reminding myself that I will have quite a few decades left to invest in my career after the kids (yes, there will be more than one...) grow up enough to allow me the time to work as much as I need to. I guess this is a dilemma lots of working mums have...

Three years ago today

Today is Junior's third birthday. Much excitement; this is the first year he actually understands what a birthday is and everything that it entails, like cake, balloons and presents. We are having a small party at the day care centre this afternoon, and a big party this weekend. Which is odd because they will both invlove mostly the same kids. But still, I just had to do something on the actual day.

Since last night I've been annoyingly saying every once in a while, "three years ago right now, I was having contractions." I will be like a broken record till this afternoon, then it will change to "three years ago right now, I was writhing in agony" for a few hours, followed by "three years ago, my son, the doctors finally yanked you out since you absolutely refused to leave after overstaying your stay by nearly two weeks."

It was the happiest day of my life... and every day since as well.

Tzom Kal...

... if this applies to you, then I wish you an easy fasting and blessings for the new year.

Australian Jews don't need to take a day off this year for Yom Kippur, since it falls on a public holiday. I think it's officially Labour Day or something, but essentially it's yet another sports day. I'm not sure if it's the rugby finals, or the footy, or maybe both? They both look the same to me; big men running around in tiny shorts and violently throwing oddly-shaped balls. The tiny shorts occassionally cause other, more hairy, balls to enter the field. I think this is a ploy to get more women to watch the game. I'm not sure, I'm still figuring it out.

Anyway, so last week everyone was telling me about their plans for the long weekend. These mostly involve having friends over to watch the game and also a BBQ and assorted food.

Now, I'm not a religious person. I don't fast, and I don't go to synagogue. But still, having a BBQ on Yom Kippur just seems like a bit too much, you know what I mean? It doesn't mean I won't enjoy the long weekend... just not so blatantly.

So, if you are more observant than me then let me wish you once more, a happy new year and Gmar Hatima Tova!