The exodus continues

I’m feeling a little abandoned today. CB left for her big adventure in the US last weekend and The Boy has headed north for his rural general practice rotation. He’s literally in the outback, in a town of 800 people where, in order to get to nearby indigenous communities, he flies in a 6-seater plane. The hospital is staffed by two doctors. Yes, that's right, two. I’ve only spoken to him once since he arrived in Wyndham and it’s been a real eye opener. The first indigenous community he visited consisted of about 50 people who still use traditional methods of food collection subsidised by a small shop which doesn’t stock fresh produce. It’s literally flour, sugar, tea, tinned food and powdered milk - all highly processed offerings in my opinion. No wonder diabetes is at epidemic proportions in rural Aboriginal communities. But I digress.

The Drama Queen opens 'the package'.

The Drama Queen received her mission call yesterday. She’s been anticipating its arrival all week so when it finally came it was a welcome relief. I figured if she was to serve her mission in Australia she’d get Sydney or Adelaide and if she was to venture overseas it’s be to either Auckland or Salt Lake City. All of her friends were able to place their bets (one location only) while I, as the older sister was able to place two with the prize being a delectable ice-cream. I went with Adelaide and Auckland. She got Temple Square, Salt Lake City.

Official envelope.

It took us a while to get this out of her as she erupted in laughter while reading her letter before blurting out where she was headed. Apparently this location is a big joke amongst the Church youth who profess that girls who head to Temple Square (only girls serve their missions here) are glorified tour guides. I think it’s perfect. As a big sister it’s a big relief to me that she’s serving her mission in a relatively safe and friendly location in an English-speaking country. Plus she’ll have some excitement having to deal with all the anti-Mormon protesters. And she’ll be required to wear extremely modest clothing, which amuses me no end as The Drama Queen is rather trendy and likes to express herself through her clothing and accessories. Imagine J-Lo spending 18 months dressed like Barbara Bush senior. Hilarious.

The Chief inspects the guidelines.

On the positive side she doesn’t leave until early August so there is still time to enjoy her before she heads State-side. I’m also glad that The Boy will return with plenty of time before she departs. The Drama Queen had a teary moment when we dropped him off at the airport and it dawned on her that she may be gone by the time he returned. This way we get to say proper good byes. But it does mean that she won’t return until February 2011. Yes, that’s right, 2011. The Boy will have a whole year as an intern under his belt by then and I will have submitted my PhD thesis and will (hopefully) have a job. We may even have a mortgage and a token diamond. Clearly there will be no piece of paper without my mandatory witness *wink, wink*.

So I have three months left before I lose my baby sister for a year and a half. It’s still far away enough to feel surreal but I’m sure the reality of the situation will creep up on us quickly enough. Until then, I plan on creating enough happy memories to get me through.

Another anniversary

Yesterday I celebrated having my DSLR for one year... by taking the lovely donation gifted me by the almighty K-Rudd and ordering a macro lens. Woohoo! In honour of this occasion I thought I’d post a few more poladroids of photos I’ve taken over the past 12 months and make a promise to myself to put some extra effort into carrying my camera with me so I can practice, practice, practice (and yes, move on to the fully manual setting). Here’s to many more years of happy photography!

Les macarons

When I was in Paris, nearly 7 years ago now, I was too busy gorging myself on pain au chocolat to indulge in any delightfully colourful macarons. However over the past month I’ve had an insatiable craving for those chewy delights. Unfortunately in Australia ‘macaroons’ tend to be sweet treats that are essentially giant clumps of shredded coconut. Not what I was after at all.

Behold the power of Facebook. I posted my plea and within hours had two recommendations, one for a patisserie the other for a fine food importer, both of which had real Parisian macarons. It turns out the food importer is no longer planning on stocking them as they have a tendency to arrive in hundreds of crumbly pieces. This made me sad. But The Boy ventured to the patisserie after hospital duties yesterday and returned triumphant – 10 sweet, crumbly, chewy, cream filled macarons, each a different delightful flavour.

So naturally out came the camera. Don’t they just look all pretty and French and feminine? They make me want to host a high tea with frilly dresses, fascinators, cucumber sandwiches and vases filled with garden roses. I think I’ll put that on my list of “things to do when I no longer live in a slum”.

Les macarons courtesy of Choux Cafe

A very good Friday

Yum!

My friend CB leaves for her new postdoctoral position in Cincinnati, Ohio this Sunday. I can’t believe it’s come along this quickly. It great that she’ll have this opportunity to work in research at a quality children’s hospital but my mind keeps wandering to all the things she’ll miss over the next three years. Birthdays, engagements, weddings, babies. So many events will come and go that she simply won’t be a part of because she’s on the other side of the planet. It seems surreal.

Getting crafty at the slum

CB, AL and I managed to catch up on Good Friday. It had been so long since I’d seen those girls. AL has 20 weeks left until her thesis is due for submission so clearly the pressure is on, and CB has been busy trying to get everything organised for her departure. We decided we’d put on SATC, crack open some champagne, serve up cheese and crackers and attempt to get creative with some paper craftiness. CB had us make something she could hang on her new fridge in Cincinnati.

Home of the ultimate 'Death by Chocolate' cake

I’ve been neglecting my photography of late. I’ve had my camera for nearly a year and I’m still not off the automatic settings! They say practice makes perfect and if that’s the case I am waaaay off perfect. CB (who also has a penchant for photography) and I have been meaning to head to King Street in Perth to take some architecture pictures for over a year now but we just never seemed to be able to get ourselves together. On Friday The Boy drove us in to town and CB and AL played supermodel for me so I could take some photos. Note to self: do not consume copious amounts of champagne before taking photos. It turns out a substantial amount of pictures I could have sworn were in focus were not. Lesson learned.

Gucci + Louis Vuitton + Tiffany & Co = undeniable poverty for The Girl

We also headed to The Old Brewery to take some night-time shots across the Swan River and to allow CB to have some fun with ghosting during the slow shutter speeds. I’m seriously going to miss that girl. On the positive side CB comes home for 6 weeks of every year to complete lab work at the children’s hospital here so even though she leaves on Sunday she should be back at the end of July. I think breakfast at (read: adjacent to) Tiffany’s and another (less intoxicated) photo shoot may just be in order.

CB the ghost: drunk photographer or slow shutter speed? You decide.

Happy Easter!

Cupcake goodness

Because our birthdays are so close together The Drama Queen made some cupcakes for The Boy and me to share. They were presented on a tray and made to look like a bunch of flowers. Very cute.

I was really impressed that she took the time to put so much effort into making them. They were chocolate cake with strawberry butter cream frosting. Yummy!

Putting it in words

What do you do when it’s your boyfriend’s birthday and you have a broken ankle, are finally getting over a chronic illness and haven’t been grocery shopping in about two weeks? Panic. Then raid the cupboards. And write birthday greetings on EVERYTHING. Especially dinner. Luckily The Boy was too distracted with med school to realise we had given very little thought to his birthday which gave me enough time to attempt (and fail) to turn a chocolate muffin mix into a birthday cake and a series of leftovers into a gourmet pizza. He did appreciate the thought though. Bless him.

The cake was going so well until I attempted to make a chocolate ganache to ice it. In my panicked state I tried to melt too much chocolate at once which meant that by the time the chocolate on top was finally starting to melt, the chocolate at the bottom of the dish was starting to burn. The congealed mess which resulted once I added the cream made wonderful goo which I pressed into the top of the cake. Classy.

The pizza was a little more successful, apart from the fact that I ran out of flour when making the dough. The Boy made a dash to the local shop to buy a frozen pizza after work which we beefed up with the remaining toppings I had collected. The enormous HAPPY BIRTHDAY I wrote on the pizza base in leftover béchamel sauce made up for the fact that he was sent off to the shops on his birthday. Because we all know that taking the time to write words in food makes everything better.

Birthday Central

Just looking at my facebook reminders you’d think March/April was THE time of year to have a baby. The past two weeks have been birthday central – a birthday everyday from March 24 to 29 inclusive and then from April 2 to 8 inclusive (including a couple of double-ups). These birthdays have also included The Boy’s, The Drama Queen’s and my own, as well as The Boy’s parents’ 44th wedding anniversary – also on my birthday. The last week in March is a killer!

The interior of Chutney Mary's

The most special occasion was the Drama Queen’s birthday. My baby sister has turned 21. I remember when she was born, all wrinkly and blue. Now she’s officially a twenty-something and I’m getting nostalgic about the years that have passed since she arrived in my life. Time really does fly.

Chicken tikka and lamb sheesh kebab

We had a family dinner the night before her birthday at Chutney Mary's, a lovely Indian restaurant in Subiaco. Indian food is just soooooooo good. The Boy and I decided that a special birthday requires a special gift so there was a trip to Tiffany’s for a pair of earrings that have a special meaning to the three of us. We got her a set of silver heart earrings – one representing The Boy and one representing myself. So she can take our hearts with her when she leaves. You see my baby sister has put in her papers to go on a mission.

A Tiffany heart

You may have guessed by now that I am a scientist at heart. My understanding of the world is based on fact and evidence. To me religion is a social construct, not a divine one but I understand the value of faith. I would never be so arrogant as to deny someone else their beliefs, as long as those beliefs did not conflict with basic human rights. So while my sister’s religious beliefs are not my own, I support her wholeheartedly in her decision to go on a mission.

Pistachio kulfi - yum!

Plus Mormons are so much fun to be around. I have the utmost respect for anyone who doesn't take themselves too serioulsy and is able to poke fun at themselves on occasion. Case in point, a joke from my baby sister:

Q: Why do Mormon women stop having babies at 35?
A: Because 36 would be too many.

Respect.

Night time in Subiaco

So now I face 18 months without my baby sister and all the drama and excitement that seem to follow her. She will miss Christmas and my 30th birthday. She will miss The Boy’s graduation from medical school and will return weeks before I submit my PhD. She will miss engagements and weddings and births and birthdays and all those things that happen with the natural progression of time. But it will be worth it because she will return older, wiser and stronger and ready to find her place in the world.

Fireworks as we arrived at the foreshore - someone obviously knew it was her 21st!