Monthly Archives: September 2008

Food and Drink

Yummy banana cake

September 10, 2008 – 4:53 pm

In one of my micro-blog posts I said that I’d made a really yummy banana cake, and Shai Coggins asked for the recipe. It’s worth sharing on my blog as it is absolutely deliciously moist, and did I say yum?

I managed to take this photo just before I wrapped up the last two pieces.

Banana cake - mmmm

I’m not sure where the recipe originated but it’s on a piece of paper handwritten by either me or my sister.

Ingredients

  • 1.5 cups self raising flour
  • .75 cup sugar
  • half cup (quarter pound) butter
  • 2 eggs
  • 3 bananas
  • 1 level teaspoon bicarb soda
  • half teaspoon vanilla essence
  • 2 tablespoons hot milk

Method

Beat butter and sugar to a cream then add beaten eggs and vanilla – beating well.

Mash bananas thoroughly and add. Sift in the flour. Dissolve bicarb soda in hot milk and add last Blend all thoroughly but lightly.

This makes a fairly stiff mixture but is very light and fluffy when baked.

Grease a tin (I put mine in a loaf tin and I usually line it with baking paper), and pour the mixture in.

Then fight with your child about who gets to lick the bowl and the beater.

Bake in a moderate oven (about 180 degrees celcius) for 25-30 minutes. In my oven it takes a bit longer which could be because of the loaf tin I use but I always test with a skewer to make sure it’s cooked through.

As you can see from the photo I didn’t ice it, but a cream cheese type icing goes well, or just whipped cream. I did have some cream left from something else and enjoyed a piece with cream over the top.

Let me know if you use this recipe. I would love to hear what you think of it.

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Topsy turvy day, and some photos

September 7, 2008 – 2:42 pm

Yesterday morning I woke up to a beautiful spring day. A few weeks ago I was shivering with winter, but now spring is here. My orange tree is soon to blossom and I can smell other spring smells in the air.

But, I was just about to walk into the shower and I saw Monty trying to go outside. When I say trying, she had trouble walking as one of her back legs wouldn’t hold her up. I called her to me and she still had real trouble. I immediately thought the worst and told JJ to quickly get dressed while I called the vet.

I told them what was up and they didn’t have an appointment for another three hours. Monty was a bit distressed and my heart was pumping fast and I of course thought the worst. I know that when dogs get older their back legs tend to go but I thought I had more time with Monty before that started happening.

She kept trying to follow me around with her very drunken looking gait and I ended up picking her up and putting her in her basket. JJ gave her some biscuits and we sat there for a bit patting her and trying to reassure her.

I got on with my jobs before the visit to the vet while wondering if I could carry a 25kg dog out to the car for the short trip to the vet.

Luckily it didn’t come to that. By the time we had to leave she was walking pretty well, with just a bit of a stiff back leg.

The vet checked her out and said that she’s okay but because of her age, arthritis could be a problem so we need her to take it easy and not take her for huge long walks.

Phew! I’m dreading the time for Monty to go and I’m certainly not ready for it now. She’s getting older though, about 11, so it will happen sooner rather than later. I think of Monty as my first child as I got her during a time when I’d vowed I wasn’t going to have kids. Now that I do have a human child, I still love having Monty around and so does my son so we want to keep her for some time yet.

While I’ve got you here, go check out some photos I’ve been taking with the Sony Ericsson phone I’m trying out.

Oh, and PS – Happy father’s day to all the dads. I tried to tell JJ that he could make me breakfast in bed but that didn’t wash.

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Please help Ivy

September 6, 2008 – 10:36 am

I’ve been reading Three Ring Circus for a while now, and following the struggles of little Ivy with her many trips to and from the hospital.

She needs some medication which she has been denied.

Please go read more about it, and sign the petition.

Thank you.

UPDATE: Thanks to the power of the interwebs – Ivy’s medication was approved.

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Killer titles

September 3, 2008 – 9:29 pm

Last week I participated in Problogger’s killer title group writing project. Participating in things like this gets me thinking outside the square a bit with content and also enables me to find some other blogs I might otherwise not have encountered.

I was pretty quick off the mark with getting my post up as it was one I’d been thinking about anyway. It was the Twitter and Plurk get Pinged post.

As Problogger is so popular there is no way I was able to get to all of the posts so the ones I’m linking to were posted on the first day of the project. Being one of the first certainly momentarily boosted my traffic and it was fun to do.

These four posts are the ones I found from that first day that caught my eye:

Other thoughts about this group writing project:

  • Read the rules. If you’re asked to submit a new post do so. Don’t submit an old one. That’s not getting into the spirit, or am I too much of a rules police?
  • If you’re asked to link directly to the post you’re talking about then do so. Don’t link to the main page of your website. I haven’t got the time to scroll down and find what you’ve posted one week after the project’s finished.
  • On a more personal note, for a killer titles project I’m not really interested in a how to do this or how to do that type title. Try to think a bit more creatively to capture that attention as that was the whole point of the exercise.
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Back to study

September 2, 2008 – 8:35 pm

Last night I started a course. It’s been a while since I’ve committed myself to doing something that involves after hours participation and work and I think the shock of this commitment is slowly catching up with me.

The course – in digital strategy – sounds really interesting and I’ll learn lots but there’s going to be a bit more work than I realised. The bummer is working in a group which is usually fraught with personalities but we’ll get there in the end I hope. It’s only 11 weeks worth but there’s a fair amount of assessment involved, and even an exam.

Attending this course means that I had to find childcare – which I was lucky enough to do – and I have to rush home from work, pick the kid up, feed myself, make sure he’s got all his bits to take to the babysitter (including his dinner), drop him off then drive back to near where I work to get to the course. I feel puffed just typing that. Then I have to pick him up afterwards, wake him up and get him out to the car. Unfortunately I can’t just carry him anymore but once he’s walking it’s easy. It’s just the waking up bit that’s hard.

I’ve already started my homework as I work better doing things in dribs and drabs. I’ve also created my first Google group so our group can communicate and have a place to keep our work. It’s private – so no spying!

There’s heaps of other stuff happening too, some of which I’ve alluded to ever so slightly around here and on my twitter/plurk sites, and my brain’s all over the place.

Now I’m signing off and going to watch some tv to drain the brain a bit.

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