This "food" freaks me out

Yes that's right. Someone who voluntarily eats roast nori snacks and beef jerky has found an even more disturbing food. It's going too far when people come up with vegetarian jerky.

The sign says it all

Hopefully next year the crop will be a little bigger. And a little bigger.

Beef jerky vs roasted nori

Jalepeno flavoured beef jerky pitted against chilli roasted nori snack this afternoon as my snack food and although I suspect both of them are novelty items only and not real food, the jerky seemed slightly better. Just had to put that down in writing.

In unrelated news I now own one of those funky push-mowers (those unpowered ones with the rotating barel of blades). I didn't even know they made them anymore!

Femmes and thence to Shoalhaven!

Well that was a big weekend. A little tired now. Went to see Violent Femmes down at RWC on Friday night. They rocked. Hard. The audience didn't. Maybe the anti-mosh crowd has finally got it's way? Maybe the band is getting old? Maybe it's the audience (yes, including me....) anyway... loved it. Went nuts. Band rocked. Loved the range of instruments, including stuff I don't know name of. They used a conch shell, a stick with a single electric string, a bouzouki, some kind of wooden box thing which you sit on and hit with your hands... and to top it off, they all had a lot of energy. Especially the drummer.

After having been convinced by the delightful DV that it would be a good idea to go to Shoalhaven and drink wine, we did! It was great :-) We got to see the chickens at the Lyrebird organic vineyard (although they weren't in at the time because the fruit was ripe). That was fine though because that meant we got to taste the grapes!

The Chambourcin grapes tastes rather nice. A little in size, shape and taste like blueberries. There were also some "special" grapes there. You know how there's this artificial grape flavour that tastes nothing like grapes and tastes just disturbing? The one they use in bubblegum and some lollies? Well... it's real. And it occurs naturally. In this grape. Wrong I tells ya! We did have some very yummy wine at Two Figs and some others. Mmmmm.... wine stash :)

Great views all round...
...and I want one of thest for Christmas:
(yes, the whole thing).

Sunday involved a BBQ and Monday was just far too busy although I don't even remember why anymore... so now I'm looking at the fact that I'll be studying again soon! Eep! Next week is start of session....

Another online timewaster :-)

I found this one on the livegerbil of her with a viking name.

A COPPER Dragon Lies Beneath!

My inner dragon is the mighty warrior of dragon-kind. I don't play silly head-games or use fruity magic, I stick to the basics: big muscles and lots of flame. Wipe that smirk off your face, pal. Click the image to try the Inner Dragon Online Quiz for yourself.

Roadtrip!!!!!!!!!!!!

What a weekend. We went on our last roadtrip for Aveline this weekend. It was a phenomenal experience. I was in very good company with DestructoMeg and Worldpeace_and_a_speedboat; we managed to keep the mood light the entire way and our time in Melbourne apart from the service itself. That was difficult.

We stopped in at Pheasant's Nest on the way down. We also stopped in at the Dog on the Tuckerbox, which just isn't the same anymore with the new petrol station nowhere near the dog. We also tried to get an international-roast-a-cino but they've renovated the Albury truck stop and have employed staff who seem to want to make marginally better coffee. Once again the coffee had great froth but the coffee itself was not so good. Not sure how they managed it this time but it still tasted like instant even though there was evidence of coffee grounds.

We arrived in Melbourne at ar0und 6am and wandered around Vic Markets. Amongst other things we bought some Chilli white port and had some doughnuts from the doughnut van. We had some lovely hosts who put up with us at the last minute and took us to a nice place for breakfast.

I won't write too much about the service here except to say it was remarkably unusual and very very appropriate.

In the afternoon we had a relaxing early dinner on Lygon street. Very much enjoyed. That night there was a wake in the local goth club which also seemed very appropriate. I got to meet a number of people whom Aveline had spoken highly of, and also see some faces I had not seen in years.

The next morning we had breakfast with Master Vladmir who was responsible for running the funeral, as well as Aveline's mum. It was nice to see the photos of Aveline from the birthday party she has been to not that long ago. I would also like to thank Master Vladmir for doing such an awesome job of organising as well as showing us a fabulous place for breakfast the next day. "The Illy Place" was great. Also many thanks to Kitling for more organising, Mistress LadyJane for being the MC, and to Worldpeace for letting me speak as well as doing most of the composition work, and finally to DestructoMeg for being a fabulous support for me. Don't know how well that would have gone without her there.

So that was the last road trip ever for Aveline... or was it? Stranger things have happened.