Easy dish

I really love these easy dishes where you just need to throw everything in a baking dish, into the oven – and ready. A friend made this for us for dinner once. It is so easy and tastes soo good!

Put potatoes (maybe boil them shortly) and chicken (breast or thighs) into a tray with a far bit of olive oil put on top:
cherry tomatoes
kalamata Olives
capers
rosemary
lemon Zest
Cook in the oven for 20 – 30 min. at 180 degree Celsius *yum*

Quiet weekend

It is winter now and the weather changed from warm and sunny to cold, rainy and stormy. So our weekends are much quieter now.
On Friday we went to a friends place, ordered pizza and watched “Team America”. What a great movie!! I mean I liked marionettes when I was a kid and I loved to watch the “Augsburger Puppenkiste”, but this is more the adult version ;-)

This is the trailer of “Team America”

This is a short scene of “Jim Knopf und Lukas der Lokomotivführer” from the “Augsburger Puppenkiste”.

On Saturday we went to see “Shrek the Third” But it was rather disappointing. Not near as funny as the first or the second. I don’t think it is worth watching in the cinema.
On Sunday we had friends over for dinner. We cooked Kassler with mushrooms, asparagus and sweet potatoes – a good mixture of German and Australian cuisine :-)
And I made “Russischen Zupfkuchen” for dessert. But somehow it took a long time to cook and by the time the middle wasn’t liquid anymore, the top was much too brown already ;-) But it still tasted alright.

Unlucky and Unhappy

After we had such a happy day yesterday Ian was really unlucky today. He rode to work with his mates and they caught up for breakfast as every Thursday. But in the café he slipped, because of his bike shoes and the small plastic patch underneath, and smacked his nose. And he actually smacked it soo hard that it split open.
So he went to a doctor and it looked like it needed to be stitched. The nurse scared the hell out of him already telling him that this is definitely going to hurt a lot! [What a nice nurse… ;-)] But the doctor decided to use some self-sticking strips instead.
So now he has a headache and is really grumpy and annoyed – my poor chap! :-)

My Birthday

I had a really nice and actually really long birthday. We got up very early at 6am in the morning. I wanted to open Ian’s presents before he had to leave to work. He wrapped all my presents already last night and put them on the couch in living room for me to guess what they might be, that was mean ;-)
So I sat on the bed this morning opening my presents – what a great start into the day! I opened Ian’s presents and the 2 small parcels that arrived last week already from Germany. My parents gave me this book "1000 Places to see before you die", but reading this I will be home even less often :-)
And I was really surprised how well Ian remembered the things I once said I would like to have. A couple of weeks ago I mentioned that I would like to have a thermos flask – so I got one. And when I told him last week that I really love this body butter, he remembered this as well and gave it to me for my birthday! He was so cute and earned lots of brownie points ;-)
At uni I was invited for lunch from my office mate Thorsten. So we went for lunch with a bunch of other people from the research group to a café on campus. They even got my a little chocolate brownie with a candle :-)
I finished early, went home and made myself ready for dinner. We went for dinner with a couple of friends of mine to this really nice little restaurant in East Freo, Limones. The restaurant is not much bigger than a living room and so we filled half of it. We had a really lovely evening! Everyone was happily chatting along and we all enjoyed the food! Limones is apparently famous for their lamb shanks, so I tried them and they were great - really soft and tender!
When friends asked me what I would like for my birthday, I told them – socks! So I got lots of socks, especially of my favourite brand – Holeproof explorers. And I am very happy about that!!! :-)
So I had really lovely day and enjoyed my birthday very much! And thank you all very much for your good wishes, skype messages, emails and little gifts!

Wobbling Stubby on the boat

Busy weekend

I started training for the City to Surf again. Just like last year I am going to do the 12km run from the city t o the beach. So after doing a couple of 3km runs in the last 2 weeks I increased the distance to 5km on Saturday. I am still stretching and pausing in between but there are still 2 months to train :-)
Saturday night we’ve been out for a birthday party of a friend of mine. She is from Naumburg (about 30km from my home town) ;-) but she lives here in Perth now.
We went to the Brisbane Hotel which is a really nice pub in North Perth. I had a really good time and practised my German a lot ;-)
Sunday morning we went for a ride around the river (40km) and had a lovely breakfast right next to the river in a little café. In the afternoon friends invited us for their maiden trip. So we had champagne and nibbles on their new boat while cruising up and down the river – marvellous :-)


And we even saw dolphins!

Chopin and Long Service Leave

I’ve been to my first classical concert last night! It was pretty exciting. – sitting in the Government House ballroom, together with about 100 others, watching / listening Piers Lane playing Chopin. I’ve never been to a classical concert, so I didn’t know what to expect. But it was really good and not boring at all I actually recognised one of the pieces – the famous Funeral March.
Friends from uni actually asked us to come along to this concert, as friends of them again recommended this “Government House Foundation Concert”.
After the concert we all had dinner together and I got to know ‘initiators’ – a German couple from Dresden. It was really fascinating to listen to their story; and I just loved to hear their accents – it reminded me of home.
They flew from Dresden to West Germany just before the wall was built. They never felt home there so he applied for a job in Perth and got it. So they travelled with their little daughter on a ship to Perth, it took them 24 days!!! And since then they’ve been travelling around the whole world by making use of ‘Long Service Leave’. I just love this concept!!! But the conditions were much better at that time. For every 7 years he worked for his company he was granted 1 year of fully paid (!!!) Long Service Leave.
Another employee entitlement that I really like is ‘Leave Without Pay’ – if 30 days annual leave are not enough just add some more days without getting paid, provided your boss is happy with that.

Rouladen and Parents

We had Ian’s parents over for dinner on Saturday night. So we went to the German butcher and bought all the ingredients for Rouladen, Rotkohl (red cabbage) and Klöße (dumplings), including freshly cut beef. *yum*
So I was busy the whole morning preparing and cooking Rouladen in our small kitchen. I think I haven’t posted a picture of our kitchen yet, … well I did not understate when I said small kitchen!! We are still waiting for approval to do the planned renovations, after which we will have a huge kitchen ;-)
But until then the kitchen is really tiny and the bench top space is really limited. And apart from the fact that Ian and I will always end up arguing about cooking procedures and stuff in the kitchen, we literally can’t cook together in kitchen because there is not enough room – which is, in this case, a good thing ;-)
Anyway we had a very nice evening with his parents.
But I wish we could have my parents over for dinner sometimes… I really hope that they will come to Perth again so that I can show them where we live, have breakfast together in our court yard on a Saturday morning, go out for dinner in a fancy restaurant and watch the sunset over the ocean, spend a weekend over at Rottnest,…

Rottnest Island

Rotto is the best destination for a short holiday – also because there is not much else around Perth ;-) But, serious, Rottnest is fantastic!!



After we miss out on the German May holidays like Himmelfahrt and Pfingsten, Australia had a public holiday on the 4^th June (Foundation Day). So we went to Rottnest with a couple of friends to enjoy some very relaxing days on the Island. We have been there a couple of times already but it is always really good!!
Basically we don’t do anything much :-) sleeping in, going for a walk, swimming and doing bombies of the jetty, a bit of cycling, reading, Gin&Tonic on the balcony while watching the sunset :-), card and board games, a bit of tennis, going for a run. Nothing much really, but it is great!!! A fantastic place to relax and enjoy life!

North Fremantle at sunrise

Moon Set

A friend of us had a really good idea – watching the full moon set over the ocean while the sun rises on the opposite site of the sky. This only happens every couple of months. So we got up very early on Thursday morning and drove to Cottesloe beach. According to the Perth observatory website the moon was suppose to set at 7.20am. But when we arrived at 6.30am we couldn’t see the moon. A guy then told us that I was a fantastic moon set about 10min. ago….

Ha, well, we got up early again the next day and this time we didn’t miss it! It was really beautiful and kind of unreal. The sun wasn’t up yet but because of the full moon it was quite light. And at 6.30am in the morning people were lying on the beach in their bathers and going for a swim. It was a really strange atmosphere. And the colours were fantastic!