Glebe Point Market

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I woke up early this morning to the sound of heavy thunderstorms, and so I went back to sleep, only to awake at noon to brilliant sunshine! The day was absolutely gorgeous, in contrast to the past few days of rain and cloudiness. So, after a quick breakfast, I made my way to Glebe Point Rd where there are all sorts of cute shops, second hand bookstores and street cafes. There was a military band playing in the park, and after watching that for a bit, I headed up to the Glebe Point Market. Every saturday, vendors take over the playground of the Glebe Public School and sell handicrafts and clothes, paintings, jewelry... it was so fun to just wander around and look at everything! I managed to get some Christmas shopping out of the way. What did I buy? Some of you will find out soon enough. :)

I ended up back at Broadway Shopping Mall just in type of watch Showgirl, with Steve Martin and Claire Danes. I have to admit that it was funny in its own way, albeit disconcerting to see Steve Martin and Claire Danes kiss. Eew. But did some grocery shopping, and am now at home trying to get organized for registration for George Brown that is coming up in a few days.

Work the last few days was pretty good, it was just so nice to feel appreciated and productive. It was pretty easy, and I'm going to doing a few other contracts with the same company before I leave. I'm flying to Hong Kong a few days earlier than I'd originally planned - on the 18th instead of the 21st so that I can hang out with my mummy while my dad is on a business trip. Tomorrow I'm going to the market at The Rocks... boys are so difficult to shop for. The only presents that I have yet to buy are for my favorite boys. Ideas???

I must admit, I am having a huge amount of fun here just being able to go outside and not freeze my butt off right about now, but talking to Roopa made me somewhat sad this morning. It's -5 in Toronto and at times like this I would be bundled up in blankets at home watching movies, baking cookies, ordering in pizza, drinking tea and hot chocolate, all next to the Christmas tree with the little fairy lights on. There's something that's pretty spectacular about something as simple as that... and while Roopa reminds me that I'll be in the winter soon enough (only one more month.. ahhhhh!!!) that I'll be deeply missing the summertime when I get back.

I am absolutely addicted to the food here though, especially Anzac Biscuits. The Coles supermarket across the road from me bakes them fresh and packages them which saves me a lot of work of making them myself (impossible since I only have a microwave), and are 50 times better than the Arnotts packaged ones. Anzac Biscuits really started during the war because they don't use eggs, and eggs were firstly difficult to find while in the battlefields, and also due to food rations. They are named as such for the Australian and New Zealand Army Corp... Here is a recipe:

1 cup plain flour
1 cup rolled oats (regular oatmeal) uncooked
1 cup desiccated coconut
1 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup butter
2 tbsp golden syrup (or honey)
1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
2 tbsp boiling water

Combine the flour (sifted), oats, coconut and sugar in a bowl.
Melt the butter and Golden Syrup (or honey) in a saucepan over a low heat..

Mix the bicarbonate of soda with the water and add to the butter and Golden Syrup.

Pour the liquids into the dry ingredients and mix well.

Spoon dollops of mixture, about the size of a walnut shell, onto a greased tin leaving as much space again between dollops to allow for spreading.

Bake in a moderate oven, 180C / 350F, for 15-20 minutes.

Cool on a wire rack and seal in airtight containers.

This is taken from: http://www.aussieslang.com/features/anzac-biscuits.asp which is a cool website about how to speak Aussie etc. A tip: if the mixture is kind of dry, don't be afraid to add more butter or golden syrup as it will just make it chewy instead of hard. YUM.

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