Temples

We went to Nikko the other weekend. It is up in the mountains and was just at the end of Summer so conditions were pretty nice. In terms of how it looked it was as I expected, but it was much much bigger than I thought. The initial entry fee of around $AU 20 was chocked upon, but looking back that was a great price for where it could take us. The time we spent was not nearly enough to see it all though; a full day would have been great.
Getting there in the morning before the crowds started would have been great. Although towards the end of the day the crowds started to thin and I could see the temples as they were without so much human. One particular thing I like about this place was an enormous spreading tree. It was supported by countless crutches where its branches rest. It looked very old.

I tasted maybe the best noodles ever in Nikko too. I can’t recall the name now… hang on, I will google it. I think it is called Yuba Tofu. Anyways, that is the stuff that we were eating with the noddles (Udon) that made it the best ever.

Also, on that weekend, we had another best ever noodles. We followed a friend (who was following a guide book) into the dodgiest hovel of a restaurant ever imagined. The chef was out the front feeding a cat with a bowl that looked like one you might find in a dodgy restaurant. I feared he was doing the washing up. We wended our way up the short drive way dodging the car and motorbike blocking our way. Inside was more of the same. Stuff everywhere and non too hygienically looking tables. Because we were hungry and had been looking for the place for a long time (we drove past it twice without seeing it as a restaurant) we decided to dine. As you already know (because I told you already), it was the best noodles every. Probably the biggest and the cheapest too. We also got free veggies with salt on then which I did not appreciate and did not eat. Salt on veggies. Really. But if you are saying “yeah, but…”, then I will say; “no.” And then; “no, no, no, no.” It was a visible lump of salt. The amount of cheese a cheese loving cheese freak might put on their pasta. It was wrong.

The end.

Draft

“I would have been a Willow”

Quick Quote

If all economists were laid end to end, they would not reach a conclusion.
– George Bernard Shaw

QuickQuote

It is not enough to succeed. Others must fail.
– Gore Vidal

GImp on Mac

If you use gimp on the mac, then you need to check this link out:http://macosx.com/forums/unix-x11/42553-gimp-2-0-out-there-2.html It stops you from having to click twice between windows.

Autobots

Autobots

The Lovely Bones

The Lovely Bones

QuickQuote

Doing nothing is very hard to do … you never know when you’re finished.
- Leslie Nielsen

QuickQuote

I respect faith, but doubt is what gets you an education.
- Wilson Mizner

From the quote of the day gadget I have on my igoogle page.

I am not a cook

I know I am cooking well if I am making lots of mess. If I am cooking more than one dish, I will make a mess regardless of if I am cooking well or not. So to tell if I am cooking well when making more than one dish, I can just check if I am making a really big mess. If so, I am cooking well.

I am not a bad cook. But I am not great. My skill is taking a very long time to cook something really simple – this is something that not many people can do. It takes lots of practice and patience. One of my weaknesses is walking away from my cooking and expecting it to continue cooking without any input from me. So far, I have not had much success with this. For example, as I am typing, I am also ‘cooking’ risotto. I hope it is doing ok…

I am bad at following recipe, but I can eventually. On top of this, I can’t cook without a recipe. When I go shopping I need to look at recipes before hand to figure out what I am going to buy. I then proceed to buy the items in mass. I then cook the recipe and end up with the left over ingredient; not enough according to the recipe I just used to make another dish. So what to do? This is what used to happen: I put them in the fridge. I leave them there until I discover them again. If they are still good I will put them back where I found them. This will continue until I find that they are no longer good. I then throw them out. This is what happened when I lied by myself. It is not as bad as it sounds; it was only with certain types of ingredient and I do know how to make a omelet. But there is only so much omlete that one man can eat. So I had to stop buying those type of ingredients. That was then. When I was living by myself. Happily, I am no longer so solitary and have someone who will cook my left overs. Happy days.

One type of cooking that I particularly enjoy is baking. I make many types of cakes and cookies. Many people think it is too hard for them. Most of the recipes for this (and above) come from the internet. I will give you one link that I think is good:

• exclusivelyfood.com.au

This is a personal recipe blog and one of the best I have come across. It is the type I like. Most of the big ones that I find just annoy me. When googling for a recipe, if the search result takes me to a page with just more search results, I will close it immediately (if it is one of the ones I don’t like then I will remove it from my google results just to spite them). The link above will take you to my favourit bananna cake recipe. Update on the risotto: it is looking ok.

Moving on to a different topic entirely, I am going to download and run my own copy of MediaWiki (if I can figure out how). At work we have a wiki and I think it is great. I am editing on wikipedia, but it is hard to get into since there is so much that I don’t know – it is a bit overwhelming. I have a few project ideas that I want to details before I forget them. A wiki is a good media to use for this sort of thing.

Listening to	Wake Up by Arcade Fire (great song!)
Reading	Trekkers Guide to Nepal (Lonely Planet)
Watching	(the preview to) Where the Wild Things Are
Eating	Shushi!!!
Drinking	Tea
Cooking	Risotto and Cheese Cake