xx Kari

I can’t really outline all the reasons why I’m deliberating about it on here as some of the reasons are privacy related and that would kind of shoot myself in the foot. I guess I have a bit of conflict between my professional role and my private life and I worry that this could end up bringing the two together in a way that might be less than ideal. I’m not sure what I’ll end up deciding in the long term, but I think for the time being I will keep posting. And irrespective I’ll keep following the blogs I follow. So we’ll leave it at that for now

On other topics, this week signalled the official start of winter here, and the mornings and evenings have been cold! I should say that I just checked out Ange’s latest Oh She Glows entries and saw the snow that they’ve had the last week…it hasn’t been that cold here, but it’s felt cold all the same I’ve definitely pulled out my winter coats and scarves. I really love winter clothes so that’s been quite fun, but I think it’s almost time for gloves too…lol.

I’ve had a good week exercise-wise. After getting back from my holiday I think I put pressure on myself to up my running, due to having a low mileage week when I was away. I’ve since realised how unhelpful that is – not just as a way of thinking, but because it makes me less likely to run – and have decided to go with what I feel like doing. Yesterday I ran for 50 minutes instead of the hour I had hoped, but I enjoyed it and I didn’t worry about my pace too much. That’s what exercise should be about, in my view, so I’m going to keep with that mindset as much as possible.

Food-wise things have been a bit erratic; a few nights I got home semi-late and just wanted to curl up with a book, not worry about cooking. Thus, there were a few light-on-veggies, heavy-on-carbohydrate meals (i.e., toast or similar), but I think that’s ok sometimes too.

Some pictures to finish things off

I've had soup on a few occasions - perfect cold weather food

This was a lunch-time version...

...with a piece of pita bread and some strawberries

Mini pikelets with low-sugar jam and banana as an after work snack one day

And my new favourite snack bars

I like the low sugar content, but wonder if I should be worried by "oligosaccharides"?!

xx Kari

I snapped photos of the various dishes pre-people arriving, but this is what we ended up with…

Kebabs (still marinating, no post-grilling pictures I’m afraid):

Sweet chilli and soy chicken and vegetable kebabs

Tandoori chicken and vegetable kebabs

The kebabs had sweet pepper, zucchini, mushroom and onion, in different combinations and amounts. I put more vegetables with the sweet chilli and soy ones as I knew that would be the flavour I’d want to eat myself

The vegetable and noodle stirfry had carrot, bok choi, baby corn, green beans, water chestnuts, rice noodles, and a mix of garlic, hoi sin sauce, soy sauce and sweet chilli sauce. I can’t say it photographs all that well, but nonetheless:

Vegetable and noodle stir fry

Mediterranean cous-cous also looks pretty boring in a photo…I should have snapped everything together instead of separately

Mediterranean cous-cous

Of course, the most exciting part of any cooking effort is the dessert…

Strawberry jam tarts

Strawberry and blueberry chocolate tarts

All together

I should perhaps note that I did cheat on the pastry cases…I bought empty ones to fill. I don’t think homemade ones by me would ever look so even!

Last but not least, the icecream with mix-ins…

Icecream

I had 2 of the sweet chilli and soy kebabs, some of the vegetable/noodle stir fry and a big serve of the green salad someone brought for my main meal. I had mostly fruit salad (also brought by someone else) for dessert, plus a chocolate truffle out of a selection someone brought as a gift. I am going to try one of the tarts at some point though – half of the 12 are left so I’m going to keep one of each flavour to try and take the rest over to my parents/siblings later today. I’m sure my brother and sister will be happy!

It’s a public holiday here today so I’m also going to enjoy an extra non-work day

xx Kari

• Sweet chilli & coriander chicken and vegetable kebabs
• Tandoori chicken and vegetable kebabs
• Vegetable cous-cous
• Vegetable stir fry (lots of Asian style vegetables, thin rice noodles, and a mix of chilli, soy and hoisin sauce)

Some of the guests (there are 5 people coming, 3 are bringing food and 2 wine) are bringing a green salad, bread and dips for beforehand, and a fruit salad to go with dessert.

The dessert menu is:

• Mini chocolate tarts, with strawberries and blueberries
• Plain (low fat, although it will end up very high fat!) vanilla icecream with mini marshmallows, crushed up choc-honeycomb and choc-wafer pieces, and chocolate sauce mixed through

Hopefully it will all go according to plan and I’ll have some nice photos to upload later

My Saturday yesterday was pretty low-key; I had thought to get a start on the cooking but somehow didn’t quite get to it. I did do all the necessary grocery shopping, plus picked up some photo frames and other household things I’d been meaning to get, and went for a long run. I missed this last weekend with being away, and it was great I did 60 minutes and about 10km…not the best pace, but it felt good nonetheless.

I’m off for a quick gym workout now and will then rev myself up for cooking and cleaning (I’ve learnt from experience that it’s best to wash my kitchen floor after I do lots of cooking…otherwise I just have to do it twice. lol.)

xx Kari

I've never seen a closed beach before

I don’t think my pictures do the waves justice – they were big!

On the evening of our second full day we found a great sushi bar about 15 minutes from where we were staying. I had actually never been to a sushi bar before! I’d always ordered from take away places or occasionally at a sit-down Japanese restaurant, but not from a revolving belt. It was great! We could watch them preparing it right in front of us and it was definitely the freshest sushi I’d ever had. Plus, it was fun checking out all the things that revolved around in front of us…there are definitely some exotic sushi options out there. I was boring and stuck with tuna. We actually went back again on our next night and I had tuna and veggie then too…why change something that works, right?!

We also checked out a mix-your-own icecream place on one of the evenings…you choose your icecream flavour, pick a mix-in (or a few!), pick a topping if you want one, and they smoosh the icecream together in front of you. It’s a fun concept. My sister picked chocolate-honeycomb icecream with maltesers and mini m&ms as add ins, and I picked sugar-free almond icecream with an oreo add in. I don’t really eat that sort of food much at home so this was definitely a holiday treat, but I am proud to say I truly enjoyed it

Day 3 we caught up with some family on my Dad’s side – my cousin and her husband and little boy and my uncle (my cousin’s Dad/ my Dad’s brother) and his wife. We went to a rainforest area between the Gold Coast and Brisbane:

Mt Tambourine rainforest

Waterfall

Stream (sorry about the lighting)

I love this sort of scenery. Queensland gets a lot more rain than the other Australian states, which is why they get these sorts of forests and we don’t.

Our final day we spent in Brisbane (the capital), mostly wandering around and checking out the main city centre. And then we flew back! Quite a quick trip all up but I am so glad we took it.

This week it’s been back to work, but it’s my last week in my current jobs before starting a new position next week. Lots of farewells! Today is my final day of saying goodbye to people and places…it’s been a bit bitter-sweet finishing up.

On that note though, I had actually better get to work…

xx Kari

It was also a bit of a bonus as the weather in Queensland, where we went, was shocking in the lead up to us going! Flooding, serious rain and wind, areas being declared a ‘natural disaster zone’… The beaches were really rough when we were there and there was definitely rain about, but as we weren’t planning a beach holiday it didn’t really affect us too much. We had enough sunshine to do the outdoor things we wanted, which was the main thing, and were happy to focus on shopping when it was raining

Our hotel was also amazing – we stayed at the Sheraton Mirage as part of a package deal and I have no idea how we got the rates we got! It was super impressive:

View from the lobby across the outdoor water area/pool to the beach

Our room

View from our room

On day 1 I checked out the hotel gym first thing and did a speedy holiday workout (30mins cardio) before we headed to the buffet breakfast included with our room. This was also amazing! Luckily I wasn’t by myself or I’d have dealt with the “how much should I have?… Should I get my money’s worth?… But I really don’t need it” thoughts – which usually end with me being so overwhelmed I eat hardly anything, or going all out and feeling super guilty for the rest of the day. I find being with another person (whoever it is) can be helpful for reminding me of sensible and ‘normal’ eating. The choices at the buffet were:

• Amazing fruit. Lots of fresh fruit (watermelon, honey dew melon, kiwi fruit, grapefruit, orange, berries, pineapple, paw-paw), plus stewed fruit (pear, apricots, peach, mandarin) and some dried fruit toppings.
• A cereal bar. Little boxes of all the main cereals, plus muesli and a make-your-own kind of thing with various toppings (nuts, dried fruit again, some different grains/flakes)
• Different sorts of toast and English muffins
• Eggs and other cooked things (I didn’t really pay much attention to that side)
• Danish pastries, muffins, etc
• Icecream (??!!)
• Assorted savoury Japanese-style food (??!!)

I could live off the first three dot points above and kind of wished we could have the breakfast buffet for dinner too! The first day I just had lots of fruit, the second I had cereal and fruit, the third I had toast (I think it was pumpkin bread; nice) and fruit, the fourth I had a super fruit plate again. The fruit really was brilliant! We’re kind of out of summer fruit season here but somehow they had it all anyway.

I didn’t get a picture of the buffet (my sister was horrified at the idea), but took an angled shot from the stairwell leading down:

Given that the first day was sunny, we also decided to do dreamworld that day (one of 5 theme parks in the stretch of Queensland between Brisbane and the Gold Coast). This was my sister’s activity choice but it turned out to be a really fun day! I had warned her ahead of time that I wouldn’t go on the super scary rides – like this one, where you drop from over 100m high in about 2 seconds flat:

'Tower of terror' - so called for a reason

She did get me on a rollercoast that loops-the-loop twice though, and I have to say that I actually found it quite fun (once the initial panic stage had passed) And we went on most of the rides rated as ‘moderate thrill’, which were all good.

'Moderate thrill' rollercoaster

We also checked out some of the animal exhibits:

Tiger show

Seriously fat wombat!

Sleeping wallaby

We also got lots of incidental exercise in…we walked pretty much all day between rides. I find that is often the case on holiday actually, unless it’s a travelling day, where there’s usually no exercise.

After we’d finished at dreamworld we went back to the hotel for a bit, went out to a nearby Italian restaurant for dinner (I had a chicken salad) and then picked up some dessert snacks to watch a movie with back at the hotel (I got a small packet of chocolate coated fruit and nut mix)…we watched He’s Just Not That Into You which worked well as a end-of-the-day sister chick flick

Updates on days 2 through 4 to come later!

xx Kari

Not sure when I’ll next post but I’m sure I’ll have lots to update next week!

xx Kari

I think in some ways this is also a double hit for me, as one of my current positions is at the university where I studied for 8 years – 4 years undergraduate and 4 years postgraduate – so finishing up there means I cut official ties with the uni too. I know I’ll get over it though, and of course the new job is exciting…I’m just not a huge fan of sad

On other topics, I used some of my market-fresh vegetables last night to make tuna-stuffed-pepper. It was a pretty simple mix, but it tasted great! I had bok choi, some cooked celery (I love it cooked!), carrots, cherry tomatoes, and half of the big red pepper filled with “sundried tomato” tuna (I didn’t snap the tin):

Lots of colour!

I had my carbohydrate as a separate meal A bowl of special k advantage with a few tsps of skim milk (I was in the mood for crunch) and some frozen berries:

I also had a great interval-training run at the gym this morning. I did 25 mins on the cross-trainer to start, and then did 25 mins on the treadmill with the speed set at 12km/hr for my “work” speed and 7km/hr for my “rest” speed (both with 2.5% incline). The running time didn’t equate to much all up (half of the 25mins) but the speed felt good!

I have a presentation to practice for work tomorrow (one of the jobs I haven’t finished lol) so I think I’d better go and do that now

xx Kari

I finished off the weekend with a great Sunday afternoon! I wanted to get some new black ballet flats as my current pairs are either scuffed or super dirty inside or both, so I went into the city with a bit of a shopping mission. Luckily I was successful…I found a pair that I love:

Sorry about the blurry pictures…I think my shoe photography skills leave a bit to be desired!

I feel like I should point out here that I already own an inordinate number of ballet flats. I guess in part this reflects that I still have shoes I bought 5 years ago, and I tend to go for quantity over quality with my shoe shopping. I’m definitely not a designer shoe girl, at least not at this stage of my life!

I thought I’d take a snap of my current (pre-new purchase) ballet flat wardrobe for reference

Lol…from top left:

• A red pair I bought a couple of years ago and wear pretty occasionally – really if I’m wearing a red top/accessories and jeans or black pants
• A dark grey pair I bought in London this time last year on sale for 10 pounds
• A black (super dirty inside!) pair I bought in London this time last year before finding the grey ones…I can’t remember price but they were quite cheap as I was really just buying them due to my own shoes inexplicably giving me blisters.
• My favourite pre-existing black pair that have straps crossing over the top. Sadly, the front of them have become very scuffed. Still great for weekends but not so much for work.
• My other pre-existing scuffed black pair, that also have the disadvantage of being about a 1/4 size to big.
• On the bottom row, far left, some slip on polka dot shoes that don’t really belong with the ballet flats but are stored here for lack of a better place…bought in NY this time last year (it seems I spent a lot of my trip last year buying shoes, which I hadn’t actually realised until writing this!!) and which, sadly, are not very easy to walk in. Still, I really really liked them and love the fact that I have shoes from NY
• A goldy beige pair also bought this time last year in NY (!) but from the Gap…I really like these but made the mistake of wearing them to Niagara Falls. Of course, they got soaking wet and ever since they’ve had a tendency to fall off my heels at the back. Definitely not for walking around in.
• A silver pair that are identical to the black ones far left on the top row…also 1/4 size to big.
• A light pink pair I bought 5 years ago and still love, but they give me blisters EVERY time I wear them.
• A darker pink pair that also give me blisters. I didn’t really have much luck with pink.

You’ll notice that there’s a little gap in the middle of the top row where my new black shoes can fit in

I do realise that this really is more shoes than I need. This is just one category after all – although granted my most prolific one. I also have boots, quite a few pairs of running/casual outdoor shoes and a few pairs of slip on sandals and heels for evenings. I think part of the problem (aside from the quantity over quality thing, and the tendency to keep shoes even when I don’t wear them anymore) is that I am seriously prone to blisters. I definitely appreciated Angela’s post on the topic here. I don’t have so many problems with runners, which is something to be very grateful for, but with pretty much any other shoe I can never tell if they’ll give me blisters or not. I know what to steer clear of – sharp straps, straps with lots of buckles or accessories that might rub – but it is beyond me why my pink ballet flats give me blisters when, for instance, my red ones do not. I thus waste an unfortunate amount of money on shoes that will forever give me pain!

Anyway. I think this may be enough on shoes for one day. I also bought 3 books in the city (in a 3 for 2 special), which was perhaps not sensible seeing as I go on holiday this Thursday and will no doubt be spending extra money when away, but I just received a big back payment of pay and have been waiting a while for the middle book below to come out in paperback:

The books, in order, are “When will there be good news” by Kate Atkinson, “The unbearable lightness of scones” by Alexander Mcall Smith (the one I’m excited about – latest in one of his series and apparently some of the characters come to Australia Plus I love the 6-year-old character in this series called Bertie) and “The lucy family alphabet” by Judith Lucy, which I hadn’t heard of, but looks  good.

To finish of the shopping I bought another block of the sugar-free carob I love:

And clearly that was quite enough for one afternoon

xx Kari

I had a great dinner on my first night back at home. It was simple, quick and easy and tasted great! I made a chicken wrap and had the first half of it open/unwrapped (I had too many veggies to fit in the wrap rolled up )…

And then rolled it up for the second half…

As you can probably tell, the vegetables were from frozen The rest of the mix was a piece of mountain bread, and a small chicken breast grilled and sliced. I also sprinked from mixed herbs and paprika over the whole thing.

Today so far has been busy, but in a good way:

• I went for a run first thing (50 mins, 9km, 10.8km/hr)
• My family went out for a late breakfast as a belated mothers’ day celebration
• I took my car through the car wash (usually I try to do it by hand to save money and because I think it’s better for the car, but my car was seriously dirty and I didn’t really have time!)
• I did a load of washing, and sorted/folded clothes from my last wash
• I went to the fruit and vegetable markets that are open on the weekend not too far from me, and
• I went to the supermarket briefly to pick up a few things I was low on

At breakfast I had toasted fruit and nut bread and a skim flat white coffee. Because I always like knowing what other people eat/order, the choices from the rest of my family were:

• My sister had a ham and cheese croissant and an iced chocolate (bless her 17y/o metabolism and appetite )
• My brother had “the lot” – i.e., bacon, eggs, toast, hashbrown – and an orange juice
• My dad had poached eggs on toast with a side of 1 hashbrown, and 2 flat white coffees, and
• My mum had poached eggs on toast with avocado, and a pot of tea

No pictures because I’m not up to photographs in public yet!

I did snap what I bought at the fruit and veg market before I put it all away. It was a fairly small shop because I’m away from the end of this week and so only wanted things I’d either eat before then, or which would last for up to 2 weeks. I got:

In more detail…a bunch of bok choi (which, incidentally, is pretty much my favourite vegetable), a red pepper (which would be my other favourite vegetable ), celery sticks, 6 plums, carrots and 1 banana (I’m not much of a banana person):

Some cherry tomatoes:

2 golden delicious apples,  6 red apples (I forget which type I picked now) and some strawberries:

And some grapes that were on special…washed in preparation for going in the freezer. I only really like grapes frozen.

The best thing is that the produce only cost AUS$12.85 all up! It is so much cheaper than buying it at the supermarket. I suspect fresher too…the stories of apples stored at the back of the store for 9 months worry me sometimes. Even with organic there’s no real guarrantee of freshness in the big stores. Next spring (September) I’m hoping to plant a veggie patch of my own so I can pick some things really fresh

xx Kari