Fatoush and Sumac and Fukushima.
A few months ago I tasted what is possibly the most delicious salad around. It's called Fatoush & it's lebanese. Now unfortunately, when I Googled "lebanese restaurants" in our little burg all that came up was Ali Baba. I can not believe we don't have any lebanese restaurants here, I thought we had just about every cuisine possible! So while I was sick & away from work last week I had the brilliant idea to look up a recipe on the net and make it myself. One of the essential ingredients for Fatoush is the spice Sumac (which are those pretty little purple flakes they sprinkle on everything lebanese). The web said I could get it at my local grocer. Well, Coles didn't have it. So I drove out to the Indian Spice Centre only to find that it has shut down! Can't believe it - it's been there for years and the one time I need it they've closed :(
So I went home and ordered it on the internet. With any luck, I'll be making Fatoush on the weekend.
Yum! Otherwise I'm going to have a lot of radish, parsley, mint, spring onions and cucumber that I'll have to find some other recipe for,.
Also, we're getting a lot of news reports that "safe" levels of radiation from Fukushima are being measured in the US and lots of other places. I didn't know there was any such thing as a "safe" level. They're saying there isn't any immediate health danger, but I understand the half-life of this stuff is like, 500 years. So If it's anything like interest at the bank, say 7% per year times 500 years is like 350%. So I'm guessing in a few generations it may not be so safe any more? I'd be interested to know a little more about it. I mean I'm probably totally way off & have no idea what I'm talking about because I'm not a scientist but ignorance is Not bliss. Use this opportunity to educate the people, governments!

Clunker.
Our possum is getting used to having us around, we sometimes put fruit scraps (apple cores etc) up in front of her box and she sticks a little paw out to grab them & pull them in. Very cute. I'll have to get a pic of her. She seems to love grapes & plums best. My only concern is that she might get a bit excited when we put fruit up there & accidentally scratch us while she's grabbing the fruit. So I might have to make Moda do it from now on. It's also getting tricky for me to get up and balance on the rickety plastic chair to reach her veranda.
I'm really looking forward to finishing up at work in May. 7 weeks to go! It's weird but I just can't focus on work right now. I'm also very very tired, 6 to 8 loo breaks a night will do that to you. Apparently it's my body's way of getting me used to interrupted sleep. Fantastic.

School, school, school.
I have one presentation to give in about a week, then I'll have one short essay (1000 words), one long essay (3000 words) and one creative project (4500 words) and I'll be done for the semester!! Yay! Then Rex will be here and I don't know where I'll get time to finish my degree..... but after these two units I'll only have another two to go. I can totally see the light at the end of the tunnel. How awesome. Monday is a public holiday which is lovely. Moda will be doing rennos so I think I'll need to go to Mum's to study. Otherwise it'll be noisy & even though I can't help much, I'll still have to go and get light tools or hold measuring tapes or help with figuring out angles and all those kinds of things that I get into trouble for (because I do them wrong, I'll be the first to admit it).
We'll have an overnight trip to SYD this weekend too, to catch up with family which I'm looking forward to. I made a home-made insect repellent for the garden - some recipe off the internet:
3 large onions, a whole bunch of garlic and two hot chillies all sliced up. Then you soak it in a bucket of water over night & the next day you strain it & spray the juice on the garden. My house reeks. Don't know if it will work on the mozzies but it'll keep people away for sure!! The poor princess was getting eaten alive so I had to do something & didn't really want to use poisons at the moment. We'll see if she's less itchy over the next few days...