Off To Vietnam!!

Sunday 27th April, 2014

Last night we went to Vietnam, no, not the country, but the Vietnam Restaurant.  For her birthday Robyn wanted something Asian and so in consultation with the surgeons and anaesthetists that she works with, they recommended this restaurant.

We didn't know what to expect.  They serve a variety of Chinese and Vietnamese food.  This restaurant is so popular they have to have two sittings, the first sitting is from 5.00pm-7.30pm and the second is from 7.30pm -10.00pm.  Robyn opted to go for the first sitting.

We all ordered soup, chicken and asparagus, chicken and mushroom, chicken and corn and crabmeat and corn.  None of us were that impressed.  My soup looked awful and then when they told me that it had egg white floating in it that was the last straw....yuk!!!

By the way I had the chicken and asparagus soup.  For entree we ordered bar-b-qued quail, spring rolls,  pork cold rolls and skewered cane sugar prawns.  Oh my this food was delicious!!  Never ever having eaten quail before I tried some and it was so tasty.  The spring rolls were very nice, but I didn't go much for the pork cold rolls.

BBQ'd Quail

With the skewered cane sugar prawns came a bowl of hot water and a stack of rice papers.  On the serving platter was the minced prawn meat rolled into balls, mint leaves, lettuce leaves, shredded cabbage and vermicelli.  They also gave us a bowl of peanut dipping sauce.

I can now understand why the waitress questioned us as to why we would want the separate pork cold rolls.  She tried to explain to us that the prawn skewers were cold rolls but we didn't realise that we had to make them ourselves.

There is an art into making these cold rolls.  You put the rice paper into the bowl of hot water to soften it but don't leave it sitting on your plate for too long before you put the ingredients in and roll it up.....the paper just sticks and goes like a clear rubbery jelly.

Tony's rolls looked like mine...lol

Thank goodness we had some Asian people at the next table to us and they showed us how it was done.  I don't think anyone else would have eaten mine if they saw the mess I made of them but they were absolutely to die for.  Yum Yum!!  I am going back there just to have them again.

For main course we ordered honey king prawns, king prawns and cashew nuts, curry chicken and I ordered crispy chicken with chilli and ginger.  Who would've thought that you could make chicken chewy.  When I first bit into it it was like eating really tough calamari and that's what I thought they had given me.

I questioned the waitress but she assured me it was chicken and that's the way it's supposed to be.  They coat it in this white salted batter and when cooked the chicken becomes very chewy.  It was not what I expected but the more you ate  it the tastier it became.  Bob liked it.

After eating all that food we were rather full until we spied the table next to us desserts.  After questioning the waitress and telling us that the cone shaped thingies were almond nougat and ice cream how could one resist?  

I ordered the white chocolate and Robyn had the dark chocolate and Bob ordered ice cream with hazelnuts and Bailey's.  Tony was the only good person not to have any but I got him to share mine with me.  Well, those desserts were to die for too.

Can you believe that this flower is made from 3 pieces of carrot with a pea for the middle and stuck onto a piece of celery leaf.

We left just on 7.30 and the queue for the next sitting was already lined up outside.  Apart from the soups, overall the food was excellent. Good choice Robyn!!

Happy Birthday Robyn!

Saturday 26th April, 2014

                          Happy 60th Birthday Robyn!!!

Yay you made it!!  Who would've thought all those years ago when we were kids that we would reach the age of 60.  Back then, if you were 60 you were sooooo old.  How does it make you feel? lol

We hope you have a wonderful day filled with many happy memories and enjoy many more birthdays to come.  Love you!!

Lest We Forget

Friday 25th April, 2014

Lest We Forget

Today is the day we stop to remember the sacrifices made by all those men and women who gave up so much to go and fight to protect this country.   It is the day that the Australian and New Zealand army landed on the shores of Gallipoli back in 1915.  Next year we will celebrate the 100th anniversary.

We also remember those who fought in all the wars Australia has been involved in, such as World Wars 1 and 2, Vietnam, Boer War, Korean War, Iraq, and more recently Afghanistan.

It would be great not to have these days as it would mean that the world has been able to co-habit as one big happy family but unfortunately that is not the case.   While we have despots ruling countries like the one in North Korea and a "hard liner" (Putin of Russia) wanting to reclaim Ukraine, the world sits and waits.  Let's hope common sense prevails!

  

The Royals Charm Elizabeth

Wednesday 23rd April, 2014

It has been many, many months in the planning and finally the day has arrived when Prince William and Catherine, (Kate) the Duchess of Cambridge, visited Elizabeth.

The Premier, Jay Weatherill, invited the young Royals to visit South Australia over two years ago and they accepted his invitation.  They asked to visit Elizabeth, a suburb of Adelaide that was named after his grandmother, the Queen, when she visited back in the 1950's.

Elizabeth does not get too much good publicity.  A lot of the residents there are from a lower socio-economic class but as with all suburbs there are the good and the bad.  Unfortunately the bad get the most publicity and so a lot of people look down their noses at anyone who comes from Elizabeth.

A lot of well known people have come from Elizabeth including our Governor, Kevin Scarce.  

The people of Elizabeth along with thousands of others from around the State and interstate turned out in force.  They estimated the crowd to be around 50,000.  William and Kate were fantastic.

The  Make A Wish foundation made this little girl's dream come true....she wanted to meet a Princess

They asked to meet with the young people from the Northern Sounds Centre.  This centre is set up for young talented people to enhance their musical talents such as hip hop dancing, rapping, singing and DJaying.  Both Kate and Wills had a turn at "scratching the vinyl" otherwise known as being a DJ.

Kate got more of the rhythm than William

They also witnessed singing, aboriginal dance, hip hop dancing, legal graffitti painting where William sprayed some paint on a wall and watched some skateboarders and bike riders at the skate park.

Skateboard given to the couple with George's name

They took a walk among the people and were showered with gifts and flowers.  Many of the gifts were for their baby son, George.  He didn't come with them, instead he stayed back in Canberra with his nanny.

We didn't go out to see them.  I thought that as there would be so many people and having to wait and stand around for hours I would rather watch it on TV, which is what I did. 

One day William will become King and I hope he and Kate will always be the down to earth people that they showed today.  The debate still goes on whether this country should remain a country with a monarchy as our head of state or become a Republic.

Going by the reception that this Royal couple were given I think the monarchy are here for a long time to come.

                                                                  
                                                                     Photos taken from the internet

I Hope This Weather Never Ends

Tuesday 22nd April, 2014

So Easter is over for another year.  Now watch the rest of the year fly by.  I always seem to find that once Easter has been the rest of the year seems to go by so quickly.

We had a rather nice Easter.  Katie came and stayed on the Saturday night. On Sunday we went out for lunch and then she wanted to go swimming at the swimming centre.  Thank goodness we have been having the greatest of weather, the days are perfect, warm but not too hot.  In fact, here we are nearly at the end of April and so far we have not had to turn on the heating.

The only thing we could do with is some rain.  The gardens are starting to suffer.  They have promised us showers but for some reason they just pass us by.

On Monday we went into the city as I needed to replenish my coffee supplies at Nespresso.  Geez the Rundle Mall has changed!  They are in the process of putting down new pavers, removing the trees and putting in new seating.  I particularly don't like it.....the area looks so barren and the tiles look awful.

The new pavers that they have already laid look filthy, I don't know how they plan on keeping them clean.  The City council keeps saying we have to wait until it's totally completed before forming an opinion but my mind is already made up and I don't like it!!

Giant Easter Bunnies in the Mall

Needless to say Tony and I didn't stay around for very long in the city.  We ended up driving to the beach and at Semaphore we saw the last of the Kite Festival.   It had been going on all weekend and today was the windiest day out of the four days.

The last few weeks Tony and I have still been keeping busy.  We went out to dinner with Robyn and Bob at the Buckingham Arms Hotel and were very disappointed with it. Once, this Hotel was once the premier place of the 'all you can eat buffet'.  

We found that they don't replace the platters once they are emptied and people even had to ask for more desserts.  We had booked in for 6.00pm.  We noticed that people who came later didn't get the full selection of food.  It was so different to the Watermark Hotel.  There, they are always replacing and refilling the food platters. 

I am still waiting for the floor to be replaced in our hallway.  We have decided to go for a floating wood floor instead of tiles.  I thought it may have been done before Easter but it looks as if I may have to wait another few weeks as in a couple of weeks we are going away for a few days.

We are going to one of South Australia's premier tourist spots.....Kangaroo Island.  I have never been there before, Tony has been on several occasions especially when he was an electrician with the Dept of Civil Aviation.  He would have to go over and maintain the airport at Kingscote.

As we are taking the car with us we have to go by ferry and even though it only takes about 45 minutes they say it is one of the roughest passages of water to cross.  The passage is known as Backstairs Passage and I am definitely not looking forward to it.  I am not a fan of boats, ships or ferries but they say as long as I have a good supply of barley sugar I should be alright.  We will see!!!

Katie and her Poppa

Happy Easter!

Sunday 20th April, 2013

Happy Easter everyone!!!

Design by priss

It's No April Fool's Joke

Tuesday 1st April, 2014

The weatherman said it was not an April Fool's Day joke but our temperature should get to a hot 36C degrees today.  Whaaattt, that's summer temperatures!!!! 

But then he did say the temperatures would drop down to the low 20C's for the remainder of the week.  That sounds more like my kind of weather.

Tony and I have not slowed down any.  Last Thursday we were out of the house early as we had another power interruption day.  The power supply company is doing some maintenance in the area and this is the 2nd of one of those days.  We have another one this Friday.

The day was spent running errands and going for a short drive through the hills and along some roads that we rarely travel on.

On Saturday we took a drive up to Port Broughton.  Robyn and Bob were spending a few days up there fishing and had asked us to go up.  We left early and got up there mid morning.  They had been fishing but there wasn't too much around they said.  Robyn had got a silver whiting and Bob got himself a few crabs.

For lunch we went to the local hotel where Tony and I shared a lovely seafood platter.  It had Moreton Bay bug tails, grilled fish, prawn skewers, salt and pepper squid that was melt in the mouth, and prawn twisties. There was more than enough for the two of us.  Robyn and Bob had Parmigiana schnitzels. I so wanted to have dessert but after the main meal I was feeling a little over full.

After lunch we went and had a walk along the jetty.  Hardly anyone was fishing, we saw a handful of people but they weren't catching much.  One family were catching a few trumpeters that maybe they were going to use for bait later on.  

While walking along the jetty this critter came to say hello.....a stingray.  Apparently there are two of them that frequent this area, this is the smaller one of the two.

Robyn and Bob then took us on a drive around the town and area.  They revealed to us that a few years ago they were sincerely thinking about retiring here.  They had even come close to buying a house/land package at the retirement village.  

In a way I think they were glad that they didn't commit themselves because the town is very quiet and the fishing is practically non existent unless you have a boat and Bob doesn't seem very interested in having a boat.  

After our drive we went back to the cabin.  They had rented a cabin at the caravan park.  The cabin was right on the sea front.  

We sat around talking and laughing and watching the football.  The showdown was on between Port Adelaide (Power) and the Adelaide Crows.  Power came out the victors by 55 points.  Yay!!!!

After the football finished it was time for us to head back home.  By now it was after 7pm and so we left.  Instead of coming straight back to Adelaide we decided to head a little further north and to Port Pirie.  We couldn't believe how large that town has grown.  Mind you it's been a long, long time since we were last there.

As it was too dark to see too much we decided to head on back to Adelaide.  We vowed to return though.  We got back home closer to 11.30pm.

On Sunday morning we didn't get much of a sleep in.  The phone rang with the guy wanting to come over and measure the passageway for the flooring.  The shop in Hahndorf also rang to let me know my cleaning product had come in.

After the guy had come to do his measure up we decided to go to Hahndorf and pick up the cleaner.  It was rather warm out (temps were in  the low 30C's) and so there were lots of people out and about in Hahndorf.  One shop I particularly wanted to go to has now closed down.  It was the lavender shop.  

There is a lavender farm and hopefully shop in the Barossa so that may have to be a trip for another time.

Well the temperature got to 36.8C, just 0.1C lower than the record temperature for April.  The skies are very grey and overcast and it looks as though we may get some rain.  It is still very warm but the weatherman said the cool change will come in overnight.  There's not much mention of the 'R" (rain) word so I don't think we can expect too much.