I made bread!!

I was very skeptical of this recipe.  I've never made real bread before.  I've made naan and cake breads, like pumpkin or banana etc, but not a real bread.  The reason I've never tried is because bread's such a bitch to make, kneading etc.  But this recipe said no kneading -- and basically no work at all.   So I figured if it goes wrong, whatev.  Didnt really cost me anything.  The only catch is you have to let the dough rise for 12-18 hours, but the recipe says more towards the 18 side.  


Here's the original recipe posted in NY Times by Mark Bittman, but it was actually invented by an NY baker named Jim Lahey -- who is now my hero.  I can't believe it took me 6 years to discover this!  Thank you Pinterest!!
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/11/08/dining/08mini.html?_r=2&pagewanted=all

I changed the recipe slightly just based on what I had in the house.  I used bread flour instead of all purpose flour (which we actually dont have in Aus).  And I used a whole teaspoon of yeast because that's how much is in one packet.  Oh, and I only let it rise 30 mins after re-flouring the dough.  Now the problem is chunkaaa wants to eat all the bread!

Here's the step by step instructions someone added to their blog:
http://www.kitchentrials.com/2012/04/03/crusty-rustic-no-knead-bread-aka-the-easiest-bread-youll-ever-make/

 Fresh out of the oven.  Yes, it's baked in a dutch oven -- you actually bake the oven for 30 mins before putting the bread in so it's nice and hot.  It's a normal size bread, that dutch oven is just massive.  

Just resting.  How beautiful does it look??  The most surprising thing is how hard and crunchy the outside came out and how soft and airy it is inside.  

I am having a really hard time letting it cool before tearing into it!

This is the bottom, nice color!

Sliced!  Look at that airiness!  

And with lots of butter.  Notice there is one slice missing at this point.  I couldn't wait to eat it!!

ANYONE can make this bread!  I am just picturing it with an antipasto platter, olive oil, cheese, mmmmm.  And I have the world's worst oven, and it still came out great.  Make the bread!

WEHHHHHH

I have decided I am not done bitching!  Making matters worse in this visa situation is I just feel completely alone in it.  I can't talk to Jason about it because I cant talk to Jason at all for another month -- by that time I need to have all this sorted out.  I can't really talk to my mom about it because she doesnt understand visas.  And I have no friends.  There is no one to help me!!!  And it's especially hard to stay positive being alone all the time without a constant reminder that this is all worth it.  But it is all worth it...and I can handle it.  I am not a pussy!  

My new visa: the saga. Chapter 1.

There is no more stressful situation in my life right now than my new visa.  Actually, I shouldn't say new visa, because I have been stressed about visas since I decided to move here last year.  They don't make it easy to live in other countries.  Well, living in another country is not so hard, have working rights is.  

So everyone prolly remembers my initial job search when I got here and then they strange coincidental timing of having 3 job offers all at once.  I ultimately chose the job which paid the least, but I thought had the most potential.  Truth is I am doing really well at my job and I have learned so much there.  It's almost hard to believe how much I have learned in the past 3 months.  I think I fit in well and I know if I stay with the gov in the future, I can be successful.  

Anyway, I am on this dumb backpacker visa where you can only work at each job for 6 months.  My 6 months will be up in Sept and my visa expires in Oct. I have 2 potential visa options.  Option one is I apply for a spousal visa.  I have to have lived with Jason for 12 months consecutively (to the day) to be eligible for this visa-- essentially it's like a green card.  I have to submit extensive, extensive paperwork, FBI issued background checks from every country I have lived in the past 10 years (so that's US, Korea, and Australia), and another medical check at my own expense (because the one I got last year expires within 12 months of getting it).  Also, I have to pay $3000 just to apply in addition to the costs of the background and medical checks.  All together, about $4000.  BUT that's not even the worse part.  I can't apply until I have lived with Jason for the entire 12 months -- meaning I have to go into immigration on the day I am supposed to leave the country and submit my application.  Talk about stressful.  Second, this visa takes 4-eva to process, potentially up to a year.  During that time, I cannot leave the country.  Meaning, I wont be able to come home this xmas as planned or anytime during the next year. That, to me, is the absolute worst scenario.  

On the other hand, I can get a business sponsored visa -- paid for by my employer (super cheap too, like $400), no medical check required, etc.  Use the same paperwork I submitted for current visa, takes 2 months to get, easy peasy.  I spoke to my boss about it and he said of course.  Boss spoke to big boss and she said absolutely.  Big boss spoke to department HR and they said no way.  Apparently they are worried about what kind of message it sends if a gov dept has overseas workers taking jobs away from Australians.  Which, OBVS, makes no sense because I ALREADY HAVE THE JOB!  I have taken the job away from an Australian.  So basically they are saying you can continue to work here, but have to sort out the visa on your own.  But these are peeps that have never met me, in another building across town, making ridiculous decisions that are fucking up my life.  Luckily my office is 100% on my side, so I am ready to play some hardball, lol.  But seriously, I feel I should be supported in this and if they want me to continue to work there, they should help me out.  Yes, I am starting to rant, but if I said I was stressed it's the understatement of the year!  Monday, I will have another convo, so will keep posted on how that goes.  UGHH

Just when you think things cant get any worse...

Magic Mike doesnt open in Aus for a whole nother month!!  They havent even started advertising it yet.  UGHH, I watched the trailer a while back and knew the release date was July 26th here, but didn't realize it was opening tomorrow in the US.  FML I want to go home!! NOT FAIR!!  

There is a murder suspect on the loose in Darwin.  Obvs I am scared!  This dude is wanted for a murder in New South Wales 5 days ago.  They found a headless body with a hat where the head should be.  They still havent found the head!!  I guess they found the guy's car abandoned about 30 miles from here.  Ok, just typing that is freaking me out.

Not much is happening with me lately.  My job is driving me kind of crazy, but that's normal.  We had an all staff meeting yesterday where they announced budget cuts and change of positions, one of which was my position.  That was a surprise to me.  Unfortunately it turns out that 'increased responsibilities' does not mean increased pay.  I will die broke.

That is it.  Overall very boring week so far.  

And now pics of Darwin

Here's some shots I took around town today.  I don't want to hear comments that it looks pretty here because this place obvs ______________s.

Darwin Harbor, home of the most massive jelly fish I have ever seen.  Unfortunately, there weren't any today. 

A little further down the pier.  

This is the waterfront.  On the right in the convention center, in the middle is the hotel I stayed at for a week when I first got here.  In front of the hotel is the wave pool, lol...One of the major tourist attractions!

Mitchell St, where all the bars are. 

This is the park where I eat lunch everyday. 

And this is my view.  Too bad you can't swim here!  But it is a great place to eat lunch and relax.

One of the hotels along the water.  

This is the Smith St. Mall...I think they are trying to make it like a 3rd Street Promenade or Quincy Market.  Problem is all the stores here blow.  

This is my work on a Sunday!  

Crocosaurus Cove downtown.  "Crocs in the city!"

It's 3pm on a Sunday and all the bars are packed. 

Pics as promised

These are pics of my neighborhood, Bayview :-)  It's a very nice place to live among the millionaires!  Now if only there were no douches or midgees...

Welcome to Bayview :-)

Those apartments are the Michie Court!!

This is the running path.  Bayview is a circle.  Start at Michie Court and then I run down 

this path for half a mile.  

The marina is in the middle of all the houses.   I run the path then take 2 little bridges and end up here.  

Here's a shot of the marina without the sunset, a little further down the circle.  

Typical massive Bayview homes.  Everyone pulls their boat right up to their house.  

Sigh, how the other half lives...lol

Now turning back towards my place.  Idk if you can make it out, but this hill over looks the Darwin harbor.  

And right back near home, the start of the marina at sunset.  

Just cause, here is my balcony with some of my plants.  My mom says I look like an old Polish woman, whatever that means.  I think she is referring to the number of pots with struggling plants...

Baking Soda!!

I'm obsessed.  I saw on damn Pinterest that you can wash your face with just a paste made of baking soda and water.  Obvs I tried it tonight and now I am officially obsessed with baking soda!  My skin feels awesome!  I washed with the paste, left it on only a minute and then followed it up with a moisturizing mask.  However, my research has shown me you can leave it on overnight!  I read tons of reviews because I was nervous and the only negative I found was that it dries your skin, so make sure to moisturize.  I love baking soda!

There are tons of other uses for the BS.  I found this article very interesting:  http://voices.yahoo.com/25-amazing-uses-baking-soda-youve-never-thought-11585.html  


Try it, it's great :)

Quinoa

Over the course of time I have finally eaten a one pound bag of quinoa.  I tried to REALLY hard to like it, but truth is quinoa blows.  It's so bland!  Today I made baked quinoa with broccoli and cheese.  Obvs I want it to be mac and cheese but instead it's quinoa and low fat cheese made with skim milk and no butter.  Not delicious.  I found this shit on Pinterest.  I clicked on the link to see the recipe and reviews.  Lots of people say they love this, but much how mashed cauliflower tastes nothing like mashed potatoes, quinoa and "cheese" is nothing like velveeta shells and cheese :-(  People who say it's delicious are lying to themselves.  

Back to Pinterest, it irritates me that when you look at the women's apparel section, all the bitches on there are so skinny.  Then you look at the food, and so much chunkaaa food!  I am an emotional mess!  LOL  but seriously, neon and bright colored skinny pants are all the rage right now.  My question is how skinny do you need to be to wear these? Soooo tight and soooo bright, if you are bigger than a size 2, can you rock this look?  I tried on some burnt orange cropped pants today, not even that bright.  From the front they looked ok and then I saw my butt!  Not a good situation!  I saw some posted on Pinterest and bitches that wear this shit have legs that are small as arms.  Can I rock the bright pants or do I leave that to the supermodels?  

Oh the shame!

Guess what I JUST did?  I bought a Nicki Minaj song on itunes...  I AM the problem!  But ughh, that Pound the Alarm song is so good for running.  I am not admitting it's good, it's just so upbeat!  Don't judge me, I will still continue to hate on her!

SPEAKING OF HATING, I finished "50 Shades" this week.  Only took me 6 weeks.  I was telling my mom about how much I hated it, to which mom replied, "Alexandra, I don't have to read that book to know that it sucks."  Mom is so wise.  Still, I am happy I read it just so that I am not in the dark.  Happy to have read it, sorry that I paid money for it.  I read Eat, Pray, Love for the same reasons, but managed to get that one from the library.  The worst is people on my facebook who say things like, "Trust me your husband is going to thank you for reading it" and then I cant help but think of what that means and the mental pictures that follow!  WHY?!

So Jason has been gone again for 2 weeks now.  I hate to be one of those girls who whine about missing their boyfriend, but c'mon this is ridic.  Gone 2 weeks and still another 6 to go (on top of the 2 months he was already gone for).  What makes it less bearable is that we cant even talk on the phone...  no phone, no email, no communication at all.  And since he is still the only person I know here aside from work peeps, it especially blows.

Good things are work is busy, so the days go by quickly.   Looks like things are only going to get busier in the future.  Most days I enjoy my job, although there are of course those days when I want to die.  As I have mentioned before, as busy as things are, you're never expected to work overtime.  I am out of work before 430 and I love it.  So we'll see how things go there in the future, but I am thankful to have this job while I am in Darwin.

And most importantly, I have a VACATION coming up!!  YESSS, the DAY Jason is back, we are going to Malaysia to RELAX with good friends Scott and Brandon.  It has been wayyyy too long since I have seen all 3 of them and I couldnt be more excited for this trip!  :)

crock pot?

Soooooo, I really, really like the idea of a slow cooker.  I have one, but it is soooo rarely used.  I make pork in it for carnitas, which comes out nice.  I made chili once and that sucked.  I also will make beans on occasion.  Beans with chopped veggies is prolly the thing I make best in it.  I like throwing a bunch of shit in the pot and not having to do a damn thing until I eat it 12 hours later. The problem is, whenever I search for crockpot recipes, they almost always include a can of cream soup or sour cream or some other foul ingredient I would rather die than eat.  C'mon, how white trash is canned cream soup?  Who knows what they put in that shit!!  Well, my point is, if you have good slow cooker recipes that do not contain cream in any form, please send them my way!

I am still reading 50 Shades of Grey.  I hate it so much I go out of my way to avoid it.  But I am determined to finish.  I am now at the point where Christina (typo, but it stays) confesses something like "the woman who birthed me was a crack addict, Anastasia!!"  WHOA the drama.  As if you couldnt see that coming.  These 2 suck so bad.  This book blows.  "I will teach him, I am not going to ask for my panties back!"  The defiance!  Ughh, why did I buy this book?  Even the people at the book store told me it was good!  The chick that sold it told me to sit back with the air conditioning on and enjoy!  She also said I would be back in 3 days for the 2nd book.  I should go back and tell her off.  I'm pissed!

Next week I am going to go around downtown Darwin on my lunch break taking some pics.  I think peeps have the wrong idea of how Darwin looks.  Yesterday I attended a conference session at the one of the hotels on the waterfront.  A coworker of mine said, "It feels like Miami down here."  I laughed out loud --- not quite Miami :-)

Ni hao ma?

Did facebook just become even more stalker-ish, or I did I click something weird, because I now see EVERYTHING you do!  Every time someone likes a status or a photo, writes on someone's wall, etc, it's in my newsfeed -- not just the ticker, the newsfeed!  I dont want to see this shit!  So now it's like annoying pics and statuses x100.  If I didnt live abroad, I would delete my account.  But I already feel like I have lost touch  with so many people, I keep it just so I dont feel so out of the loop.

I am watching America's Hardest Prisons right now.  They must mean all the Americas because this prison is in Mexico.  Omg, you do not want to go to jail in Mexico!  There is one American dude in there who had to have his leg amputated.  Idk what the deal is, but dude has a prosthetic leg that is held together with duct tape and a string he holds in his hand when he walks.  So when he walks, he picks up the leg with this string. Not like some medical device, the string is part of the duct tape...it might be a long piece of tape even.  Dude is fucked too, he is serving a 22 year sentence.

So terrible news of the day is Chinese level one ends next week!  I assumed I would continue right into level 2, but there is a break in between.  A 6 week break!!  So after next week, no Mandarin class til August!!!!  WHAT AM I GOING TO DO WITH MY TIME?!  I look forward to class every week and I study during my lunch breaks. What do I do now?!?!  Dont they realize I have no life and I dont need a break?!?!  WHAT DO I DO NOW????

Speaking of the word 'realize,' I now type words like that wrong all the time.  When I say wrong, I mean I am in the habit of using the Australian English spelling now...  'realise.'  I automatically type it like that now and have to correct myself when not at work.  Realise, familiarise, organise, colour, neighbourhood, favourite...  GRRRRR.  And the other day I asked someone if they had acclimated to the weather and they said, "Dont you mean acclimatise?"  Huh?

Facebook rant of the day!

How could I forget?!  Seriously, I want to punch everyone on facebook (and pinterest) who says NOM NOM NOM or OM NOM NOM!!  What is with this phrase?!?!  All I ever see is some version of nom nom.  You are not cookie monster!

I know it's that time of year and I am at that unfortunate age, but if it wasnt for pics of weddings, kids, and food (with nom nom captions), my newsfeed would be empty.  The wedding pics are nice, but I hate kids and I am tired of looking at kid pics.  I didnt sign up for this!  Save those kid pics for emails.  Or the xmas card.

Ok, back to watching "Embarrassing Bodies."  

I AM BORED!!!

OMG I am so bored and I am watching the Voice Australia and I dont think it can get much worse than this... overall.  Obvs I have chosen to drink wine to put myself out of my misery, but unfortunately it's 9pm and I am not even close to tired.  Damn you long weekend with nothing to do!  I got too much sleep!

So I have never seen The Voice in America, but I imagine it has to be better than the Aussie version.  This shit is bad!  (Side note -- commercials are on...does Subway in US have a Moroccan lamb sub now?  That shit looks fundamentally not right).  The judges are Seal, Joel Madden, Delta Goodrem, and Keith Urban.  Seal is the most ridiculous -- he changes his nail polish every week, currently gold sparkly.  He usually has his shirt unbuttoned to his belly button but this week has thrown a major curve ball and is wearing a turtleneck!  Who would have thought?! It makes it even weirder that I think Joel is def in love with Seal.  The chick on right now is singing Hallelujah and I am legit scared.  Anyway, enough about that.

So today was an action packed day, as uge.  (Omg Seal is now crying because of the Hallelujah performance.)  Woke up this morning, had some coffee then had to tend to my plants.  See, I might be the world's WORST gardener.  My mom says it's because I try too hard.  All the plants were unhappy.  First, I have 4 hanging baskets with pink impatiens.  I bought the baskets and planted the impatiens myself.  Easy enough to grow, right?  Well they were off to a good start and then 3 of the baskets started looking like shit.  One was taken over by ants, another just died, and another had something eating the leaves.  So I pulled apart all the baskets and planted some seeds in them.  Idk why I did that as I never successfully grow seeds, but we'll see.  Next I had to tackle my tomato issue.  I bought a cherry tomato plant in January, not realizing that they wont pollinate in the humidity of the wet season.  Without getting a single tomato, I ended up with an enormous leggy plant.  It's probably 10 feet long.  I FINALLY started getting tomatoes this week though!  I was going to get rid of the plant, but I felt like it was unfair to the plant to get rid of it when it was just starting to produce tomatoes.  So as I was replanting it in a new container, I broke the stem and now RIP cherry tomato.  I still planted it but have no idea if it will grow.  THEN some massive fucking bird has eaten all my peppers, the only thing that was actually growing so I had to protect the pepper plant from terrorist bird.  I also planted chives for the 3rd time which I hope will work.  How am I this bad at gardening?!  I have had a garden every year for the last 10 years and it is always bad!

After that was all sorted I went shopping and to the movie rental store (they know me there).  I discovered today that they dont have the Last Samurai so idk how I am going to complete my Tom Cruise collection!!  I got Valkyrie and I might have to stop there!  Yeah, major problems.  Came home and cleaned my house, had to make it look like Al's place again as boys disrupted my feng shui.

The best part of my day was my run!  I have started running outside again these past few days and I am so pleased with how much I am enjoying the dry season runs.  It's still too hot for daytime, but sunset is absolutely perfect.  I live on a marina, there is a cool breeze at night, and the sun sets over the water.  I just have to make sure I run fast enough to avoid the midgees (those mini mosquitoes I bitched about before).  Running is great though and I enjoy it even more knowing how much I hated the same run in the wet season.

Other than those exciting events, I am incredibly bored and lonely.  I STILL HAVE NO FRIENDS!  I am over friends, I am like the 40 year old virgin now with a million hobbies.

back in biz

I am back, I apologize for the 3 week hiatus.  Lots to discuss.

First off, thanks to all who showed their concern about my new hair cut.  I went to a place someone from my work recommended.  Haircuts, like everything else in Darwin, are super expensive.  I am talking upwards of 100$  --  and Darwin is not exactly LA.  You're not paying 100$ because you're getting a great trendy cut, you're paying 100$ because they can charge what they want.  This place said 75$ with blow dry or 50$ no blow dry. Considering I was going home to clean my house after, I went with the 50$ option.  The chick from work did not recommend a particular stylist, so I just got whoever they gave me.  I will admit, I almost left when I saw the girl!  She was wearing an absolutely ridiculous sequin outfit, tons of make up, and had bad hair!  I thought, I am so screwed right now.  Thankfully, I had taken a picture with me and she was very concerned about sticking exactly to the picture.  In the end, all was good and I left happy!  Since it is so hot here, hair grows so fast, I am almost ready for another cut.

Jason ended up being able to stay home for 2 whole weeks!  Little bit longer than we had thought, which was great.  But he is gone now and I am sad :-(  He is not coming back til the last week of JULY!  Anyway, we had a great time while he was here despite a few minor setbacks.  We had planned to go down to Katherine, about 220 miles south of Darwin, to go kayaking in one of the national parks there.  It is supposed to be really beautiful, but you can only go during dry season.  We both took last Friday and Monday off work and the plan was to head down early Friday.  Jason called ahead to book the kayaks and turns out the park is closed because of salt water crocs on the loose.  UGHH!!  Obvs we didnt anticipate this happening and didnt have a back up plan, so we decided to just stay in Darwin and head to the classic Darwin golf.  Turns out BOTH Darwin courses were closed!  Terrible luck.  We ended up going BOWLING at noon on a friday, LOL.  We were the only bowlers.  Then we went to the beach for a little bit to relax, but obvs no swimming as it's not safe to swim here.

Next plan was since we can't go to Katherine Gorge, let's go to Kakadu National Park. Kakadu is enormous, hundreds of miles.  However, most of it is only accessible by 4 wheel drive and some places only by air.  Obvs the fiesta is not 4 wheel drive.  Our plan was to rent a 4WD vehicle for the day, until we went to the rental place and they said a ONE DAY rental would be $400 PLUS GAS!!  I wont pay that based on principle!  hahaha.  So we ended up rolling to Kakadu in the Fiesta, which was still a great time.  We had wanted to go swimming, but the swimming holes are all off road, so we climbed rocks all day and hiked through the bush.  Lots of ancient Aboriginal art paintings on the rocks there, and the scenery is amazing.

Dry season weather is awesome.  Same same everyday.  80 during the day, 60 at night.  The most hilarious thing is, people are dressing for winter!  Especially in the morning.  Scarves, jackets, boots, etc.  Darwin will always be a very interesting place to me!

Mandarin is going well.  I study all the time.  Learning the words is not so bad, but learning the characters is a BITCH!  Shit is so hard.  I really want to stick with learning it though.  I am almost at the end of level one. There are 2 more levels after this and then I will have to find another place to learn.  One thing about my class is it is moving a little slow for me.  It is an adult learning class, so geared to people who are busy with work, kids, schedules, etc.  Not for people like me who are anything but busy and study everyday just to have something to do!

For any peeps that missed it, I FINALLY posted some pics on FB.  With the slow internet connection it took absolutely forever, which is why I dont post regularly.  But the pics are a smorgasbord of shit since my trip in Dec.  Enjoy, time for CSI Miami (it's Saturday night!).