Driving Miss Dulcie IX

'Jaxy' is not well. She has had a big lie in for 5 weeks, while Will has been off, and when he came to starting her again she wasn't having any of it and just coughed.He has a man coming on Friday to tinker with her nuts so until then our only wheels are 'Roxy'.All that was a the long way round to saying I had to take him to work this morning.....Thankfully it was a cooler night and I had managed to get some sleep but still felt like the walking dead at 7.00 am.I got back at 7.30 ish and Dulcie was up making her breakfast!!!!! What is going on?"Well, I woke up at 6.30 am and once I am awake I can't get back to sleep.""So, what about all those times we have had to wake you at 10.00 and you are lying in bed fast asleep with your clothes on having got up and got dressed?".....is what I wanted to say....but didn't."What time do we have to pick Bill up?""About 4.00 pm" I said, "But we'll set off at 3.00 and go to the bank."Dulcie had decided yesterday that she wanted to go to the bank on the way....it was a good idea.3.00 arrived. I got her walker ready."Oh, I don't think I will need that," she said."Well, if there is a big queue at the bank it's useful because you can sit on it."We got into the car."Oh, forget about the bank," she puffed, "just let's go and pick Bill up.""But we will be too early if we go now. We've set off now so we have time to go to the bank," I said."Oh, right then."We were halfway there."I better just check to see if I have my bank book with me," she said.I tried to concentrate on my driving while she unzipped and zipped zips to look for it."Yes, there it is."It was a relief."Just park in that space there," she said in the car park.....it was the space I was going to park in anyway but said."O.K."I went to get the walker out."Oh, I don't think I will need that.""But if there is a bit of a wait you will be able to sit down."She took it off me and set off but I had to go back and shut up the boot of the car. Thankfully she had been halted by a kerb. I found her holding onto her walker staring at the kerb as if she was trying to lower it by the power of her mind.....I lifted the walker up the kerb and we were off again.It was lovely and cool inside because of the air conditioning. There were two people in the queue but they soon went off to the tellers."I'd better get my bank book out," she said and started on the zips."Next!" It was Bruce."Oh, we better go Bruce is waiting, " I said.She stuffed her purse back in her walker and we walked over.She got her purse out and started on the zips again......."Now where was it?"She unzipped and zipped various pockets but couldn't find it.....the tension was rising......I leaned in to try and help and started to unzip and zip pockets myself.....One pocket was completely empty and that was the pocket that I thought it was in.'Crikey! It's not here! ' I thought and then......we found it.....in a tiny pocket that you wouldn't think it would even fit into.She asked to withdraw some money......I reminded her that she wanted it in £50, $20, $10 and $5's because last time she had just got it all in $50's and it was a bit of a pain to find change.She suddenly started on the purse zips again."What did I do with my bank book?" She was concerned."You gave it to Bruce," I said."Oh yes," she said and zipped her purse up again."How do you want it," asked Bruce."A bit of each," she said. Bruce disappeared into the back. He probably had to descend to the vault with a large key to retrieve the cash."This is lovely isn't it?" She said gripping the transparent screen and wobbling it with her hand, " I think it's bullet proof glass."The way it wobbled it certainly did not appear to be bullet proof glass. I had a fiddle myself and discovered it was plastic and cheap plastic at that.Bruce came back up from the vault and counted out the money. She put it in her purse, tossed it in her walker and thanked Bruce."Lovely to see you," he said, "take care.""Oh, I always do, Bruce," she said and she was off. I almost had to jog to keep up with her. It's a good job the sliding door slid open because she would have smashed straight through.We drove to pick up Will from work."Look at the the length of that grass. I don't know how people can live with grass that long. It's disgrace."We passed a church with a sign that said "Body piercing saved my life!""Lovely church. When I went round Australia I took lots of pictures of churches. I like churches."We were a bit early for Will.....(but actually it turned out we were late because he had texted to ask us to come early but I had not seem the message.)"Do you fancy having a walk inside and seeing where he works?" I asked.She shook her head.....she'd had enough exercise for one day."I'm tired, Nick.""Well, you were up at 7.30," I said.

'The Great Aussie Bake Off!'

Will and I have just caught up with last years 'Great British Bake Off.'The winner was not the one we wanted but I won't spoil it if you haven't seen it yet.Inspired I decided to use Sunday's left over roast lamb and make pasties!The pastry was 125g of chilled cubed butter, 125g of lard and 500g of plain flour.I had trouble finding lard......While Cecilia and her whale bearing hips were looking after Dulcie I went in search........Woolies was useless but at IGA I found 'Supafry', blended edible animal fat. Would that do?I googled it when I got back....it seems there are a lot of people who have had the same trouble but apparently 'Supafry' is ok. Such a relief.....the pasties were on.While Dulcie was engrossed in the Australian Open I got stuck in to my pastry making.When the butter and lard were blended with the flour I had to mix in 6 tablespoons of cold water to make a firm dough and then chill it for 20 minutes.I did all that and mixed my filling while it the pastry was chilling.....I was a little short of lamb so added a bit of chorizo, some chopped mushrooms, and onion.....and 2 medium potatoes sliced.What is a medium potato? In the end I think I did a big one and a small one......and then I got a bit of mint from the garden and chopped that up and tossed that in too.I had to roll the chilled dough into rounds of about 23 cm across......Crikey, it kept breaking and sticking to the rolling pin and I kept patching it up and then when it came to putting the filling in and lifting the sides to pinch over the top, it all started cracking.....I managed to make 4 ugly pastry covered lumps and had quite a bit of filling left over.They had to be baked for 10 minutes at 220C and then lower the temperature to 180C but I forgot because I was writing this.It was a good job I made some gravy.........they pretty dry and were eaten in silence apart from Dulcie 'Berry' saying"Did you make this pastry Nick?"I reckon I won't get 'Star Baker' and heck, I might even get sent home!

Back to work!

Well, that went quick!.........That's Will's summer holidays over for another year!I never heard him go......he didn't wake me to say goodbye as he knew I had slept badly last night.....it was the hottest Brisbane night for a decade and could I sleep?........could I buffalo! I even had the fan blowing on me......nearly 27 degrees.....I checked the temperature at 2.00 am on my phone......it said it was 26.4 C and the temperature was going up!......How can the temperature go up at 2 o'clock in the morning? It's not normal!Dulcie was up at 8.30.........she has never got up at 8.30 for the last 5 weeks.....she was obviously back to work too.She had a very busy day watching the Australian Open.I kept myself busy by blitzing the kitchen.....wiping the shelves and all the pots and glasses thereon. I tidied the cupboards, cleaned the fridge and washed the floor."Are you ever going to come out of that kitchen?" Asked the busy tennis watcher."Eventually," I said.Watching the Australian Open must have been tiring......or boring....."I could fall asleep," she said." Well, why don't you get up and walk about a bit?" I suggested before her legs she seized up.She frowned....... but she did before going back to work, watching the tennis.My work was not done either.....I hoovered, tidied the linen cupboard and then cleaned the bathroom....I reckon that was quite good for the first day back at work.(Thankfully.....the temperature has dropped and may even dip as low as 21 C tonight......a lovely, cool breeze is finally blowing into the Man-Cave, past the gecko lying in wait on the mesh screen over the window, for bugs that are attracted to the light.......I might actually get some sleep tonight.)

Scorchio!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MuSPdsPWit0 (From 'The Fast Show.')I now copy out a small piece from the 'Southern Star', the free local newspaper that gets thrown into the front garden, from a passing car, every Wednesday...."Cold Winters take their tollBRISBANE residents are more likely to die during unseasonably cold winters than Australians  in other major capitals, QUT research has found after analysing data from 1988 t0 2009."When you live here it can get very tough when temperatures drop to.....heck!.........single figures!!!!! Some people even have to wear long pants or are even forced to buy a jumper.I know it has been cold 'Up Over'.....with even some snow!..........sorry, to rub it in but......It has been almost 37 degrees here today....but feels hotter with the humidity. We were up early to go to the markets and it was already almost 30 degrees by the time we got back before 9.00 am.I am wilting in the Man - Cave by an electric fan, forced out of the air conditioning upstairs by 'Sport' (yawn!) on the TV.Basically, we are all Billy Goats Gruff looking over the bridge wishing we were on the other side.

Keeping cool.

Wendi came today about 11.30 and said she would stay until Blue Care respite began at 2.00 which meant we could stay out until 4.00 pm.We had originally thought we would drive up to Bribie Island and go for a swim in the sea but realised that most  of our four hours would have been taken up by driving so we went to the pool at Southbank instead.The World and his wife were there too. It was packed!As I stood up to my neck in the warm water the optimist in me surmised that probably 50% of the liquid was urine. I never once put my head under!It could have done with being a bit cooler......Heck, I walked straight in up to my neck without so much as a gasp as the water reached my equator.It did me good though......not only was it helping me to keep cool on a very hot day.....but looking around, I also felt quite slim.We wandered off to find some lunch and enjoyed some battered flat head, calamari and chips at Kapsali, the Mediterranean restaurant with Indonesian owners. I wondered if they had ever been to the Mediterranean, or knew where it was.We wandered back to stand up to our necks in the pool at Streets Beach. I almost stood on some lad lying in the shallows trying to take arty 'selfies' with his new 'Gopro and selfie stick.'.....Damn, I should have stood on him!A very muscular man was standing waist deep throwing a rugby ball to his weedier mate. I couldn't see the point. It was pure posing.He had six chinese symbols tattooed down his back......from where I stood it looked like 'W, A, N, ?, E, R'.....I couldn't make one out......but I made a very good guess.We left and having some time remaining parked at Dutton Park and walked over the Eleanor Schonell Bridge to the University of Queensland. The University grounds are lovely.It was so hot and humid and it was nice to get back to Dulcie and the air conditioning."Wendi came for lunch," she said."We know," said Will, "we were here when she arrived.""Oh, well, I'm old......I forget," she chuckled."It's not that hot is it?" She said from her lounger."That's because you've got the Air -con on!" Said Will."Oh." She laughed again.