Apparently some gun toting, jebus loving Alaskan is set to become nominee for some weird religious sect political party in the US. On Twitter we have been amusing ourselves with some little known facts about Ms Palin. Here are some of my contributions:

• Little known fact: Sarah Palin cooked a lamb roast for Tom Cruise.
• Little known fact: Sarah Palin keeps her pownce account up to date and shares lots of links.
• Little known fact: Kyle really liked Sarah Palin’s Australian Idol audition, but Marcia gave it a no.
• Little known fact: Sarah Palin reads playboy for the articles.
• Little known fact: Sarah Palin bakes dead parrots in pies.
• Little known fact: Sarah Palin was Jeanette Howard’s bridesmaid. Or was it the other way around?
• Little known fact: Sarah Palin is repelled by garlic.
• Little known fact: Sarah Palin won 8 silver medals at the 1908 olympics.
• Little known fact: Sarah Palin can’t actually read…
• Little known facts: Sarah Palin wants a cracker.
• Little known fact: Sarah Palin is Margaret Thatcher’s mother.
• Little known fact: Sarah Palin was an extra in Debbie Does Dallas.
• Little known fact: Sarah Palin proofread the Magna Carta.

You can read more contributions from others here!

Yes, I did it! I managed to get an iPhone! And after all this time s/he is yet to be named! At the moment it is called Fifikins’s jebusPhone but I do think it needs a better name… Ideas gleefully accepted!

I’ve had it for 9 days and used 60.4MB of data. This is my main worry- I know it will be hard to keep under the 150MB/month plan I am on. I think tripping to the food court whilst at work and using the free wifi might be the go to helping alleviate this. I also need to remember that I have just spent 7 days straight at work, including 2 days off and they have all been full days so usage may be a little skewed. But I am monitoring it.

Now some observations and comments:

• I totally <3 the threaded SMS function! Now I can follow conversations with different people simultaneously and not have to scroll back through messages to find their last message, then change folders to see my reply and then finally see what is happening! You know this is possibly the most exciting bit I have found so far! I know… small things amuse small minds, but still! Now I can keep conversations going with MIML™, Mum and various other people with whom I am in regular contact and have less blonde moments where I am trying to work out what the conversation is about!
• The battery… Sigh. I had one evening where it died on me. Now I did spent both breaks and lunch at work on it (maybe an hour total) plus a couple of calls and a few texts but still I was a little disappointed in the battery life or lack thereof. Since this time I have not had similar issues. I am trying to be less touchy feely with it and it seems to be working! Now to see how it holds up when I put some music on it.
• There are some way cool applications out there. I am most attached to both Twitterrific and the Facebook app and the kids love Flashlight and myLite. I used ShoZu to upload a photo to flickr last weekend and Tris (kinda like tetris!) caused a big discussion with Imogen as to how you could actually play a game when you never win and it only ends when you lose. Actually this was a very interesting conversation and perhaps a topic of another post on here!

• I love having everything, especially my calendar and contacts synced with my computer. I am using my calendar a lot more and may start taking note of it. I have had Gee’s birthday staring at me all week and yet I am yet to post her card! Doh! One of these years I’ll be on time! I am planning on experimenting more with menu planning and shopping lists which should also help me be more organised! I used to menu plan down to the last potato for the week and need to get back towards that sort of budgeting. Having it backed up on my computer (and then on my time machine) means that Ceiling Cat forbid I lose my phone I won’t lose everything.
• I alternate between having my lunch with the young uns at work and the more mature people. I can’t stand Dr Phil and if he is on in the lunchroom I refuse to sit and watch so I sit in the other area. It has been really interesting to see the reactions of colleagues though. One younger colleague told me he didn’t think he would make use of his phone because all he does is text and no one sends him emails. So I showed him the threaded texts and he was impressed! Other more mature colleagues were amazed on Monday when I showed them Richard Giles’s photos from the Beijing Closing Ceremony. Then told them I had some of my own photos on there, showed them and told them how they could use it as a brag book utilising online photo sharing or by simply storing photos on their phone.

• I have not had much success with the maps and this is something I will investigate in the near future. It may be just where I live. If I stand out on the front verandah and poke my tongue the right way then sometimes I have some luck, but not all the time. So the GPS thingy is not something I will be relying on! Well at least not in Cairns!

Oh and the pricing and plans? Yeah, the guy in the Telstra shop confirmed the loophole I have found! Well perhaps it isn’t a loophole, but still!

I am a happy little vegemite with my jebusPhone. I am looking forward finding other creative ways of using it and am almost at the stage of wondering how I ever coped without it!

I commented the other day that instead of putting in so many hours at work I would love to be baking as I use baking as a method of relaxing.

Then yesterday I was reading Orangette, the gorgeous food Blog by Molly and empathising with her about the multitude of banana bread recipes and how so many of them call to be baked. I too have a thing for baking with bananas! Whilst we love bananas, often we have some left over. I tend to freeze them and use them in smoothies direct from the freezer, but ones that don’t make it there ususally make it into some form of banana bread or cake or muffin!

The thing that struck me about the recipe posted at Orangette was that you got dry ingredients, then wet ingredients, then mixed them together before baking. Now I don’t know about you, but that just screamed muffin to me! So having leftover bananas and a limited time before starting work I went the muffin path!

Dry… including a little extra cinnamon as I was worried about so much sugar and honey…

Wet… I scored with 2 very yellow eggs as well. Love it when that happens!

Mixed together and smelling divine!

Into the oven…

25 minutes later 16 gorgeous looking muffins!

Oh… and a minute after that…

The verdict is divine! More a light cake consistency than a muffin, but they are still hot! And not too sweet either!

Found wordle which creates word clouds. Here’s one from recent posts here:

To say I’ve had a fair bit going on would probably be an understatement. Never do anything by halves I suppose! If you want anything done, ask a busy person. Or something!

Twice a year they have their stocktake at work. Basically it tells us how much has been nicked. The figure given to us in training is astronomical, but I take their word it is correct. A manager told me once that if stock is being lifted then it means the buyers have done their job properly as it is desirable. Whatever! I actually enjoy the process of stocktake. I don’t have to talk to anyone, I am methodical and turn into a robot. For the first time in a while I was a scanner and not a coordinator or part of the tech team. It was rather nice!

This scancount (stocktake) they have introduced a new system. It would have been great if it had been fully tested and an eighth of the store was in a dead spot and unable to get scanner reception! I put my foot down to starting at 6.45am like I was asked to and said I would be there by 7.30. I stayed until 7.30 tonight and could have stayed longer, but needed to get the kids. Today was my day off too. Tomorrow is also my day off and I am working 7.30 til 5.30. Wednesday I am meant to work 5 hours but am rostered on for over 7 and there is word I will again work until 5.30. I am making sure I get the hours as time in lieu. Should accumulate almost an extra week off.

This time off will give me a week to focus on my thesis which again is being neglected. I need to and want to finish it, but the emotional exhaustion I have makes it difficult. I really am juggling so many balls and trying to keep them all in the air. It is the thesis that seems to be easy to just put on the back burner but I need to get stuck into it. Perhaps a week fo solid thesis work will help. Perhaps I need to find another week too… Something I am looking into. If anyone has any ideas how I can finish the damn thing, then please let me know!

And in other news I upgraded to the new wordpress and it seems to be working better now than a few days ago. I even worked out that my google analytics code had gone missing. Well I figured 4 days in a row with no visitors was a bit much so investigated! Hope it is back now!

And to think this morning I was reading more about Conroy’s Internet crusade… 

It has been ages since we have had a meme around here! And since I have been including many food related posts, this one seems rather apt! It comes from Very Good Taste which is a great blog about food and stuff!

Here’s what I want you to do:
1) Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2) Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3) Cross out any items that you would never consider eating.
4) Optional extra: Post a comment here at www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results.

The VGT Omnivore’s Hundred:

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue
8. Carp
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari
12. Pho
13. PB&J sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar (it was at College, ok!)
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more (but I am willing to accept donations towards achieving this!)
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frogs’ legs
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette (maybe! Not willing to cross it out, but then again…)
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant. (This is definitely on my list to do though!)
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare
87. Goulash
88. Flowers
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

OK! So I am an adventurous eater (58/100), but there are plenty of things on the list I have not eaten but do hope to try! How do you score? Post your results to your blog, link to www.verygoodtaste.co.uk but also let me know here how you go! Oh and yes, there is only one thing on the list I probably won’t try! And I have eaten a Four and Twenty Pie and many people say they contain horse meat…

My grandfather was a Soldier Settler at Dunkeld in Western Victoria. Predominantly he grazed sheep and I have fond memories of a young girl visiting the farm during shearing, mulesing, dipping and other times. I remember riding on the back of a tractor feeding out hay as a 5 or 6 year old and hand feeding the orphan lambs who lived in the chook yard with a milky formula using long teets on long neck beer bottles. I remember Pa finding orphan lambs and placing them in front of the wood stove in the kitchen to warm them up.

I don’t remember seeing a sheep killed, but I do remember the boot being packed out with a side of lamb. Mum even had a butchers saw at home and would saw the chops if it had not been done previously. So yes, we ate a lot of lamb! I never got into the lambs fry like my father did, but I have alwyas adored roast lamb and lamb chops.

One of Mum’s favourite ways of cooking forequarter chops was to make a casserole called ‘Jarred Chops Sweet and Sour.’ I am pretty sure the recipe came from the PWMU Cookbook, or it may have been on a handwritten card from one of the women in the Dunkeld district. Wherever it came from it is so yummy and easy and just brings back so many very happy memories.

Jarred Chops Sweet and Sour

1 1/2 lb. chops, 1 tbl sp flour, 1 tsp sugar, 3 tbl sp tomato sauce, 2 tbl sp Worcester sauce, 1 tbl sp vinegar, 1 large cup water, 1/4 tsp pepper, 1/2 tsp salt

Remove fat from chops, roll in flour with which is mixed sugar, pepper and salt and place in casserole. Mix all liquid ingredients together well and pour over chops. Place in a moderate oven & cook until tender (about 1 3/4 hrs.)

This is comfort food! Perfect with mashed spuds and peas. The kids love it, I love it and it reminds me of my early childhood. I only hope my kids have as many happy memories of holidays visiting grandparents as I do.

I know so many people (including my mother!) were surprised I did not get a jeebusPhone the day they were released. I thought about it but the main thing holding me back were the plans, the physical availability in Hicksville, I mean Cairns, and the network availability in this backwater tropical paradise.

In telecommunications in rural and regional Australia, monopoly is spelt T-E-L-S-T-R-A. When Vodafone received their first iPhone at work I searched for this blog and it took forever to load. Of course they don’t have access to 3G technology yet up here and browsing is at dial up speeds. Bugger that for a joke! Optus sold out of the phones early on with preference given to Optus customers so I missed out.

And heck, we all know technology changes rather quickly so the idea of signing up to a 24 month plan does not really appeal with a new jeebusPhone likely to be released in 12 months time.

So the plan was to save (I know a hard concept for me to fathom, but one I have learnt a lot about and am grasping rather well) and buy one outright and then insert my SIM card and go from there.

That was until today! I went into one of the Telstra licenced shops after hearing they were selling pre-paid phones. The poor girl didn’t know a lot about the phone and gave it to me to try and could not really point out any of the features of benefits (mental note if she applies for a job when I am interviewing!) so I pretended not to know much either. Then someone else came along and showed me YouTube videos of English Premier League Soccer. Can’t say that sold it to me, but still!

So there were none in stock but my name has been added to a list and they hope to have more next week. I did mention that I would probably pre-pay and was told that I would then miss out on the free wireless hotspots. After visiting Canberra and discovering that these are $12/hour this was a thing to consider, especially as they are at many McDonalds in the country, including food courts at shopping centres.

So I then do the dumb blonde, ‘But I think I have a few months left on my current contract.’ This is when it got interesting! I was told that as I had signed up on one plan and increased it to another plan after a few months, then if I do need to pay it out I only need to pay out the amount for which I signed my contract for. Then I was told that I may not have to pay it out as it is a little under 3 months until it runs out, but they would have to see.

So I get thinking! I know I will keep this iPhone for 12 months. I could pay the $836 (or whatever it is!) for a 16gb jeebusPhone and then extra for calls and data or I could make the system work for me. So now I can pay $399 upfront and $30/month. Of course that would not be enough for calls or data, but I will realise this after a few days and ring them and tell them I need to increase my plan! After 12 months I have to pay $360. So I get all the benefits of the iPhone, it is cheaper than a pre-pay and I can increase it to around my current spend. I am actually thinking I will just drop my current plan back a bit and add more data. Hey! I can even pay $289 upfront on the $40/month plan and then keep it for 13 months at the same cost.

Why anyone would consider signing up for 24 months on a $100 if they cannot use it as a tax deduction is almost beyond me. I do think I have found an answer though that will suit me. And it feels like I am roting the system too so that makes it even sweeter!

A lot of people complain that private school kids finish school not being able to think for themselves. Perhaps this is not the case in all instances…

Last year the kids school sent out a promotional DVD to all parents. Not sure why. Don’t think it made it to the school’s website. Not sure what we were meant to do with it as parents- play it at our cocktail parties? Put it on loop in our waiting rooms? Anyway, I think these kids show a pretty good grasp of critical literacy. Apparently they got in trouble, but as they say all publicity is good publicity and knowing that senior students can take the piss and have a laugh might mean that they are getting a decent education after all!