Anatomy of a Sunday

Today we...

Felt that fairpalooza had been a bit of a bust, so decided to swing by the Hawker Primary School fete.

 We decorated cupcakes, and then spotted on the horizon...

Both boy and father were bitterly disappointed the cut off age for the hot air balloon ride was 4.  I suspect we'll be back next year for that if nothing else.

Other verdicts: as a school fete, it was pretty big, with quite a bit to do.  Thanks to daylight savings and my inability to realise that while some of my devices change automatically not all of them (hello oven!) do, we arrived as the very beginning, and it was still quite crowded.  A truly bizarre white elephant stall could have revealed some treasures, but Toby entered melt down phase so we headed off for the markets.

To puzzle over this one.  Mighty Perky Nana chocolate bars.  I .... I just.... I don't...   Part of my problem is I keep thinking of Nana as Nanna, not as (ba)nana, which leads to all types of questions about what exactly is perky.  And leaving you with that image,

Smoked meats!  I love a good deli.  But we abstained this week and came home to clean, and to make a muti-layered Indonesian spice cake.

And Toby did his first watercolour painting.

Not bad, kid.

Finally, I headed outside, lured by a flash of colour.  You see, we bought these nasturtiums at least 4 weeks ago.  And then failed in the whole planting stakes.  But they grimly held on despite our total neglect, and have even decided to flower, still in their pitiful little pot.

So I planted them into the flower bed.  What's the bet they're dead by tomorrow?

PS - The cake is delicious.

In defence of Canberra

I was driving into work this morning listening to 666 ABC, and heard a few comments by one the guests disparaging Canberra.  It's sort of trendy to Canberra-bash.  We moved here from Perth 5 years ago.  When people found out we had just moved, the inevitable question would always be (often accompanied with a look of pity) 'Ohhh.  How are you finding it?'.

You know what? We love it!  We weren't expecting to (my husband particularly) and for a couple of sand gropers the lack of an immediately accessible beach still grates sometimes, but overall I love this city.  For its body and its brain.  Where else would you have the stunningly beautiful sight of hot air balloons over Lake Burley Griffin at dawn coupled with a city that buzzes with so much politics that even the local baristas have their opinion on the latest spill saga?

(picture from the ABC)

The thing I increasingly come to realise about Canberra is it's not really one city - or if it is, it's a split personality.  There's the Canberra that is the national capital, and there's the Canberra that is just a big country town.  The national capital Canberra is centered around the parliamentary triangle, and is populated by a mix of fly in/fly out politicians and their staff, and public service types doing the requisite three years at DFAT before they can score an overseas posting.  It is by its nature impermanent and transient, and I'm not sure the people who live in that Canberra ever really consider it home.

Canberra the big country town is another place all together.  It's a place of the EPIC farmers market and Murrumbateman field days.  (Being a country town, a lot of what is great about this Canberra is actually in its surrounds - though there's a lot within the territory borders as well.)  It's a place where the local radio station has a jam making afternoon and invites listeners to drop in with a jar.  In this Canberra, we don't have just a plumber and an electrician - we have a milkman (yes, he delivers!), a chicken lady and a direct line to at least 3 local producers of alpaca fleece. 

It's not to say Canberra is perfect.  There is a lack of really good dining in the city itself - some good second tier stuff is pretty good (Italian & Sons, Pulp Kitchen, Dieci e Mezzo and the like) but a Flower Drum or a Quay?  No.  The funny thing is the actual produce here is fantastic, and most people I have met have been produce driven like I have never seen in any other city.  Backyard veggie patches are the norm, chickens a common accessory, and the various markets on the weekend (EPIC, Woden, Belconnen and Fyshwick) are always packed.  Perhaps all the really good cooking is just going on inside the homes of Canberrans.  Some of the complaints though always strike me as a little sheltered.  Housing affordability?  We bought our 3 bedroom, renovated, on a big block house in 2007 (well after the fabled boom) for a good deal less than we sold our 2 bedroom, somewhat renovated, on a smaller block house in Perth for.  Now, we're not in a salubrious suburb (*coughCharnwoodcough*) but even that seems overrated.  It's quiet, clean and filled with trees.  And at a 14.5km commute from my front door to my work at the ANU, it would be considered practically inner city in most other capital cities.

Canberra may not have the best nightlife in the world, and frankly I wouldn't know.  But I think it embraces a different rhythm.  A rhythm that includes incredible local fairs, which I'm determined to visit this year.  (They run sheep down the main street of Bowral, for goodness sake!  The Collector Pumpkin festival!  Cherries! Young!).   And the lack of fine dining?  Head over to Grazing at Gundaroo and it all starts to feel a little better. It's a city of stunningly blue skies and bitingly cold winters - all the better to snuggle down in your handknit alpaca scarf (you've got to do something with all that fleece you bought!).   And the national capital side has its perks as well - with the National Museum, the National Portrait Gallery and the National Gallery of Australia, there's no excuse for feeling culturally deprived.  In need of a political fix?  Head out to Griffith Vietnamese during a sitting week.  Or just hang out near Parliament House at around 6 or so to see all manner of politicians having their morning run.  (This may or may not appeal - a sweaty Tony Abbot is not perhaps the best thing early in the morning.)

I can understand for those who never venture outside of the Parliamentary triangle Canberra may seem a little sterile.  But for those of us who live in both Canberras, the city's pretty great.

A Fair to Forget

We've had a little bit of rain in Canberra lately.   A fairly wet end of Summer.

(Our backyard, where the chooks used to live.  Luckily we foresaw this and moved them while they were only damp, not sodden.)

 Sullivans Creek at ANU is flowing rapidly for the first time I can remember.

My mother's basement didn't fare so well.

All of this was ok (well, I wasn't the one with a flooded basement) until the rain began affecting FAIRMAGEDDON!.  You see, we'd had a busy couple of days last weekend ripping up carpet and building a bunk bed, so we decided to skip the Canberra Show.   Never mind, says I, there are lots of shows in March.  Why, next weekend alone there's 3 events that I want to go to.

And then it rained.  And rained.  And rained and rained and rained and rained and rained and rained.  (You get the picture).

And then:

It's the Crookwell Potato Festival I'm most upset about.  It sounds like it just walked off the set of Gilmore Girls.  I was going to go and revel in all things potato.  Eat potatoes! Dig potatoes! Throw potatoes! Potato prints! Potato sack races!  It was going to be a glorious, spudtastic celebration of everyone's favourite tuber.  

But, that rain.  By this time Canberra was starting to feel limp.  Grey and drizzly and soggy.  It felt like perhaps it would never stop raining - that this was just the way it was from now.  So I decided to embrace the weather and cook something for dinner that longed for rain and damp as a backdrop.

An oxtail stew with bright spinach dumplings, cooked in lovely English ale, courtesy of Jamie Oliver.  It seems that all of Canberra had the same idea, because I couldn't find oxtail anywhere today.  I settled for osso bucco, and started chopping.  The brightness in my kitchen was a nice antidote to the washed out world outside.

So now the stew has been bubbling away for a few hours, filling the house with all kinds of depth of winter, comfort food aromas.  And outside?

Well played, Canberra.

Many cultures, food on sticks

What else could this be then the National Multicultural Festival?  The first of our February fairs (the Canberra show is coming up soon - vegetable sculptures and all...), and it was fantastic.

Unlike the Lucky Dragon, the day didn't start with a toddler tantrum.  Rather, I got out of the shower to find a very happy toddler and a very patient dog.  It's amazing how she can look long suffering even when blindfolded.

She forgave him for the indignity.  At least, I think that's what the kiss was for.

After dress ups was over, we headed off to the festival.  Although we've lived in Canberra for 5 years now (I still can't quite believe that), we've never managed to get to the festival before.  And we have been missing out.  The festival takes over the city centre, and stalls from pretty much every country, each organised by region, more or less.  The embassies had their own tents, with information and displays.  But the food tents - oh, my, the food tents.  All kinds of community groups from many cultures have their own stalls (my end gozleme count was 6 stalls), all offering bits and bites at really very reasonable prices.

 We got into civic early(ish) - half an hour after we planned, so on toddler time that's a win.  It wasn't too crowded when we started, so we got right to the eating.  We had Cambodian beef satay - very lemongrassy, very good.  Then we continued the food on a stick with Thai chicken satay.  Very peanuty, very good.

Then a quick trip by the Iranian stall, to sample saffron and blackcurrant juices.  The saffron in particular was amazing.

Unfortunately the lamb spit roasting over charcoal wasn't quite done when we went by one of the Greek stalls.

But then Toby decided to get into the action with Chips on a Stick - a whole potato, spiral cut, battered and deep fried.  Tragically good.

When I say the whole of the city centre was taken over, I meant all.  Public art doubled as dumpling price holders:

Not pictured: the nepalese momo and the cannoli we also took on board.  If we had wanted to (and perhaps if it had been a little later in the day), there was also beer from many countries and vodka from the Russian tent.  It wasn't all food and drink though.  Toby got up close with a police motorcycle.

We also sat in on a Bollywood dance workshop.

The audience (including me) gamely tried to follow the instructions.  Toby wasn't too impressed.

By about 12:30 the crowds really started to increase, and moving about with a stroller became challenging.  Toby decided this was the time for his tantrum (like we were going to escape without one!) and although there were still many, many things I wanted to see (eat), we decided to call it a day. Lesson learned for next year:  go early, go hard.  Or leave the kid with his grandmother and go in the evening - the festival was open until midnight Friday and Saturday nights, and I think it would be great fun.  Overall, good fun, cheap (everything free except the food, which was very nicely priced) and the potential for educational.

Lucky Dragon, Crying Toddler

We decided to start off FAIRPALOOZA (how many bad made up words do you think I can come up with?) with a festival with a cultural bent:  The Lucky Dragon Family Festival at the National Museum of Australia.

On the way, Toby initiated a conversation about all the activities we had done in the past month or so that ended with him having a tantrum.  Oh-oh, we thought.  This does not bode well. And sure enough, as soon as we got out of the car, the meltdown started.  Fast forward a running away, a telling off, some tears and finally a kiss to make up and things started to look better.

The Festival wasn't a Fair really, more a gathering at the museum with crafts for the kids, and performances.  It was billed as family friendly, and held on a public holiday, and it seemed every parent with a toddler in Canberra had decided a little appreciation of other cultures was needed on Australia Day.  We managed to squeeze into the craft tables and Toby made his own lucky dragon.

Then he posed with it.  The meltdown was still fairly recent, so smiles were not forthcoming.

However, the icecream changed that.

The ice cream was excellent actually - big cones of really nice ice cream for $3.50.  The raspberry sorbet did stain quite impressively though, and Toby managed not just to dye his face, but his belly also.  The scarlet splotches all over his torso caused momentary concern later in the day, before I worked out he hadn't actually come down with a sudden and virulent rash.

The festival itself was fairly small in what it offered, and I do wonder if the organisers expected quite the crowd they got.  The performances were good (the Choy Lee Fut Lion Dance troupe in particular) but it was so crowded it was impossible for us to see properly.  (Those of us not on Daddy's shoulders, that is.)

Still, in value for money terms (read: free admission, cheap ice cream and quite tasty sausage sandwiches for $5) it was a cheap, fun way to spend a few hours.  And sitting on the grass outside the museum with friends eating our lunch and watching the dragon boat races was a lovely, low key way to celebrate Australia Day.

A Fair to Remember

So, way back when I set up this blog, I was intending it to focus on what I was cooking, hopefully from the garden.

I thought up a title I liked, set up the blog, and promptly abandoned it.

I've been thinking about getting back into blogging for a while. I really enjoyed Things I've learnt from Magazines, and I do intend to revisit it. Now I have a full time job along with the kidlet, it's not going to be a new magazine a week, though.

In the meantime, there are things we are up to that I would like to write about.  I quite like the randomness of the title of this one though, especially if it won't mostly be about the colours of my kitchen.  I'm sure that will creep in here and there though.

In non kitcheny matters, the first thing to share is one that is going to be a monthly or so project in this house for the next year - FAIRMAGEDDON!* We live in a small country town masquerading as the nation's capital, and like all small country towns, it does fairs well. Not only does it do fairs well, but all the (proper) small towns surrounding Canberra also get into the local fair action.

This comes coupled with a 3 year old who is obsessed with fairs, thanks to My Naughty Little Sister at the Fair. (On a side note, Felicity Kendall deserves a medal in this house. Her voice and those stories have saved bedtime and our sanity on more then one occasion.)

So I've had a look around and we're planning on going to a least one fair/festival a month. Some are the ones we go to every year (like the Canberra show, or the wonderfully self-conscious bogantastic Charnie Carnie), others will be new to us (I'm looking forward to the Collector pumpkin festival in particular).

It should be a fun year. In the meantime, the colour of my kitchen for the past few months has been... green. Green for monster zucchinis, green for mint.

And green for the tomatoes that are longing for some proper summer so they can begin to ripen.

* Or fairocalypse if you prefer.