The Masterchef Challenge

Near the beginning of the year I happened upon a book called ‘Jamie’s 30 minute meals’, where Jamie Oliver claims that following his recipes and methods, you can produce a 3-course meal in 30 minutes. “Really?” I thought. It seems too good to be true. And so began the idea of having a cooking challenge.

With some modifications to allow more people to be involved (thanks Marielle!), we had East London’s first Masterchef challenge on Friday night.

Marielle and I provided the basic ingredients (milk, flour, potatoes, spices) and everyone had to bring a mystery ingredient to the value of R30. Some were told to bring a dessert ingredient, and others savoury.

After a late start due to some illiteracy in reading e-mails, we drew out of a hat to split into teams and allocate the course. I drew and was in the starter team along with Juliet and Roelof. As mystery ingredients, we got puff pastry, peppadews and beef pieces.

Marielle, Pete, Rog and Craig were in charge of mains and they got chicken fillets, cashew nuts and peppers.

Finally, Simone, Lara and Jannes drew for the dessert. They also had puff pastry, as well as nutella and almond flakes.

Rolling out the puff pastry, we added cheese, diced peppadews and the beef, whivh had been cooked with wine, onions and garlic. Adding some herbs, we were ready to cook. Minor panic when our first choice baking dish didn’t actually fit into the oven. But ‘adapt, adopt, improve’ and after transferring and cooking them – ‘Et voila’. A delicious starter.

Marielle doing mains was sheer genius, and their team managed to produce mashed potato (don’t forget the cream!) with more onions and garlic cooked in wine and chicken crumbed with the cashew nuts. Gravy was red wine, cream and sweet chilli sauce – funny colour, but a delicious taste. Presentation, something we had overlooked in the interest of eating, was also great.

Dessert was more puff pastry encasing nutella, cinnamon-coated apple with pecan nuts and topped with grated chocolate. The coffee was also amazing.

Can’t wait for the next one.

Grahamstown Festival

Hello people!

It's been too long, but as promised, a review of Grahamstown and it's shows. Looking forward to having you in the country for a bit Zoo!

Early Saturday morning we all arrived to pile into cars for the trip to Grahamstown. The motivation to be on time was big, as out\r first show was at 10am and there had been only lightly veiled threats of being left behind if any of us dared to oversleep.

By the time we got to Grahamstown, the wind had picked up and would have made any Cape wind proud with its coldness and strength and any thought of wandering around the town had been abandoned.

Out first show was ‘Rocket Raiders’ – brilliant! A comedy featuring 2 actors and a heap of supporting crew, hand-picked from the audience and a ridiculous story line about a girl who tries to save her father’s tea-empire by importing his rocket-tea (its gives the men a lift when they need to most!) to Great Britain, all while finding true love and thwarting a plot against her life. Clever prop’s and hilariously awkward lines and audience members made it one of my favourite shows.

Most of the audience participation was from very shy non-acting types, but the guy they got to play Sherlock Holmes was ready. Ready to participate, ready to act and ready to speak, so thinking on her feet, the female lead gave him a bad case of laryngitis and he had to whisper all his findings into her ear.

After a short break, we headed onto our next show, called ‘The Table’, which a drama about a Jewish Shabbat meal a year after the Father’s death. Lots of talking, issues and revelations with symbolism about the table and a couple scenes of interpretive dance (which I didn’t really understand, but I think they were processing). While also a very good play with superb acting and a good story line, it was difficult to make the transition from watching a comedy to a drama. But as the week has gone on, certainly the one people have bought up in conversation the most, which I suppose shows that it was thought-provoking.

Lunch –oh my goodness! There were nine of us – nightmare. All I can say is we ended up at Spur. Seriously!

Our third show of the day (we really did pack the culture in!) was called ‘Big boys don’t dance’ and if you ever get the opportunity to watch it, go for it! On this tiny stage, 2 guys did a show, which while funny, was essentially a plot device for them to break out into dance. Hip-hop, contempory, even a bit of ballet. Excellent show!

Our final show for the day was called ‘Dekaf’, a stand-up comedy show produced by David Newton. While the comedian was funny, he reminded me a lot of Trevor Noah and his brand of humour – even some of the jokes were similar- which probably made it my least favourite show seeing as it was so unoriginal. For others, it was their favourite by far.

Supper was a t lovely place called the ‘Red Cafe’, delicious food and divine hot chocolate, and we eventually headed back to the res we were staying at, which while warm had fantastic acoustics, so when the people leaving for PE early the next morning started getting up. I knew. And when the guy upstairs started singing, I knew. And when anyone left their room, I knew.

We had a slow start to the morning, with rusks and coffee for breakfast, before stepping out into the marginally warmer, but much less windy Sunday. Our final show was ‘The Complete Works of Shakespeare, Abridged’, which is where I discovered my school was adnormally fond of the bard, having studying 4 of them during high school. Everyone else only one or maybe two

The play was good, quite funny and prone to silliness, but covered all the works in record time, including doing Hamlet backwards – ‘Question the is that, be to not or be to.”

Our final stop was the market! Wonderful, so many things to buy that were beautiful, different and lovely. It was probably a good thing that had already spent most of my money.

A wonderful weekend, I had so much fun, and too little sleep and almost caught pneumonia, but completely worth it!

7 may 2011

Hello my favourite friends J

It’s been too long again but lots has been happening this side so brace yourself for a ridiculously long update J  last night I played softball, Tarryn et al play and they knew about a rival team who needed an extra player so I joined, (last night was only my second game and I am pretty bad, hahahah). And my team is SO random.  I don’t even know if I like them or not. They’re so competitive and serious about the game and I’m so not. The guys all want to be the captain and it’s definitely a case of too many cooks in the kitchen.  They ordered me to play keeper which might not have been the best idea because I have quite a bit of difficulty actually catching the ball. They were getting quite fierce with me and it was a very emotional match cos one of the guys on the other team ran into one of the girls from my team and there were tears and arguments and all that.  While some of the guys were shouting at each other and getting seriously intense I just canned myself and don’t think that made me very popular. It was just very funny that these guys were getting so upset about a SOCIAL softball game on a Friday night where everyone drinks booze instead of water.

This morning the Tanj and I got an early start and went to 2 garage sales before we went to the auction which was a real whale. We got there just in time (after the JOJO tanks and carpets but before the household appliances) it was an experience. To get a number you need to fill out a form and pay R500, once we had done that it was just about time for our stuff. The Tanj started with a R50 bid on a lilo which no-one else wanted so she got that. Then we got to the blow up mattresses (for camping) they were in quite serious demand but the Tanj managed to secure a Queen size for R120 and a Double for R100. Then she tried to buy a pressure cooker for her sis but was outbidded.  Then we got onto the dustbuster that I wanted which I had to bid for against a ponytailed Mautitian guy but when it got to R70 he dropped out and I got it – woohoo. We were on such a high by this stage!  So I made a quick decision to bid for a fancy looking electronic scale (again against the poor Mauritian who again came out the loser). [although it must be noted that he does have very good taste J]  and then the Tanj got the bargain of the day in a very cool pop up 2man tent (that she outbid a nice coloured man and his kid for – and then had to ask for his help to take the tent down and pack it away, awkward)  And that was that. We had a whale of a time at the auction and spent a massive R650 on a tent, 2 blow up mattresses, a lilo, a dustbuster and a scale.  J

The bad news is that since I’ve got home I’ve noticed that the scale doesn’t work (hope it’s just the battery) and the dustbuster that I’ve been charging all afternoon, also doesn’t appear work. Ahh the pitfalls of buying at auction hahahaha

So work has been going really well. I spend alot of time writing preliminary reports, design reports, progress reports etc. It’s great tho. Bongi and Roguey are also well. Haven’t seen the cat recently tho so no idea whether it’s ok.

My parents are off in Italy (got a call from them today they were whaling around at the leaning tower of Pisa)  so I’m home alone. It was weird at first but now I’m really enjoying, it’s gonna be weird when I have to share it again J

Tomoro I’m going to watch Tarryn and the Tanj play hockey and am also planning to go to the beach with the dogs which means I have to get up super early so that there are no other dogs around!!

Next weekend is Bridg’s big day – very exciting and Lise is getting here during the week which is also great.  Wish you could be here Zo but August’s not too far away J

Hope you’re all happy and healthy!!!! J  

of glass throwing and blossoms

I have been a terrible communicator recently. I apologise. Here is a little update on my life.

I went to the zoo yesterday with our pre-school classes. It was hilarious and more of a petting zoo/touch farm than a zoo. But fun nonetheless. here are a few pics

Jae Yeon not so excited on a sheep

very excited on a tree.

Last night I went to a pub with Danielle to have some chill time. I was rather tipsy and feeling merry only to have this guy sit next to us and start chatting. When he found out I was from South Africa he began to tell me about his trip to JHB. The next part is a bit fuzzy, but he managed to start laying into South Africa and say how all the white people are racists and such things. So I quite calmly told him to stop talking about things he didn't know and asked him to leave our table. I was angry and in no mood to rationalise with a dick. He proceeded to try and get Danielle, a fellow Canadian, to agree with him that South Africa was full of racists and Canada had no racism. at this point I was raging, so I threw a drink at him in my frustration at being drunk and unable to articulate all my anger through words. She then told him to leave. So he stands up, turns around and calls me a South African racist, loudly for the whole expat pub to hear. I then threw a beer mug at him. I know I know, not the wisest thing to to, but by now I would have gladly torn his tongue out I was so angry. Now I was close to tears, having been insulted like this, by a person who has no idea who I am or what South Africa is actually like, Danielle is trying to calm me down, and the pub is trying to pretend like nothing happened. Then one of his mates comes up to our table and sits down, then he says "Thank you, that guys is an asshole and no one actually likes him, he offends everyone he comes across and doesn't care, he does it for the reactions." yikes. I was fuming, but that did make me a feel better. So that is my experience of ignorance, I am a bit ashamed I didn't handle myself very well, but I reckon he deserved it.

On a lighter note, the cherry blossoms are in full force and it is a sight for very sore eyes that were so used to bare trees and cold icy days. It is truly breath taking seeing these trees with thousands of little blossoms all over them. It is almost as if they are covered in flower snow. and when there is a breeze or the wind blows then the petals gently fall off and swirl around you. i.love.it. I have been known to stand for ages just letting petals fall around me. I am going to a cherry blossom festival on Easter Sunday. i am rather excited. It is a two hour bus ride from Seoul, the place is Chungju-ho Lake and it is the lake that supplies Seoul with water. The lake is surrounded by mountains and caves. So we are going hiking and cave exploring and ferry boat riding. I can barely contain myself I am so excited.

talking of excitement I went to Varekai last Sunday. the Cirque du Soleil show. IT.WAS.PHENOMENAL. I simply cannot explain the magic they create and they visual stimulation that makes you want to never leave your seat. I want to join the circus and live in bright costumes and have wondrous make up all the time. Life seems so dull after that. I was transported into this magical world of tricks and laughing and bendy people. sheesh. words are so inadequate to describe such an awesome experience.

Love you all and sending many hugs and wonderful Easter peace to everyone

Zoo

Out into the deep blue

Sunday was a whale. (as Cheri would say) The Tanj, Cheri, her add an I went fishing. And not just fishing off the dock, but on a mission to point 60 (according to the GPS), about a 40minute boat trip from East London.

Cheryl and Tania were not such happy campers floating about on the ocean, in fact Cheri spent most of the trip curled up in the foetal position. But we did get a pod of dolphins swimming with us – looks like you're going to hit them, but you never do, and I managed to catch a Miss Lucy (looks like an oversized stripy goldfish), which became my supper on Monday night. And it was delicious. The muscles in my arm were sore the next day from all that reeling I had to do. My slowness in reeling was not due to a lacking in enthusiasm, but rather having no upper-body strength.

Lovely day. And my hands smelt like fish for ages afterwards.

Cheri driving the boat. That life-jacket never left her side.

My fish :)

The compulsory "me and my fish" photo. And 2 on one line nogal!

Tania focusing on the fishing in the background.

Forever Young

Hello hello!

Time for an update!

Saturday was the wedding of Grant Young and Gail Miles. Both are in my Biblestudy and Cheri and Zoo were at school with Gail. Being my first East London wedding, I was quite excited, and slightly in awe of the fact that I've been living here long enough to crack the wedding nod.

The ceremony was at the Ann Bryant Art Gallery, set to start at 3.30pm. I arrived precisely on time and had the momentary panic that I was late when I saw a Mercedes Benz stopped in the road with the emergency lights flashing. Trying to look elegant and unflustered (imagining scenes of awkwardness that would rival "4 Weddings and a funeral"), I moved with all speed towards the entrance and then breathed a HUGE sigh of relief when I saw it was just some random parked in the road.

The garden had been set-out beautifully, with the long walkway up to the main entrance serving as the aisle and the guests were seated on either side. Note 1 for attending an outdoors wedding: arrive early to secure a spot in the shade, or bring a hat. Most of us were sitting with the sun in our eyes. Sunburn can ruin the photo's.

I managed to find a seat that was in the shade for all of 10 minutes and took a moment to admire the flowers they had planted along the aisle (pink and white - it could only be Gail) and waited for the bride.

Arriving fashionably late, we were finally told to stand as the "Wedding March" began. Gail entered at the gate and began probably one of the longest walks down the aisle that I've ever seen. Of course she looked beautiful in her dress which a photo will describe more aptly than I ever could.

When she got to the front, we were all welcomed by Matt (the pastor), prayed and we sang. Note 2 for outdoor weddings: Lovely as they are, save the heels for the firmer ground. Being pegged to the ground is completely over-rated and if anything, makes it more difficult to stay upright. Then the Miles and Young family lit a candle to signify their families that Grant and Gail were leaving.

From there Matt performed the wedding ceremony, the registry was signed and then he gave a very short talk highlighting some passages from the Bible that speak about marriage. They then lit the candle to signify that they are a new family and we then formed an arch to throw confetti as they walked back down the aisle a married couple.

From there they had laid on a tea, where the 4-tier chocolate wedding cake extravaganza was eaten. Delicious. It was made by her younger sister Sandy and tasted amazing! While Grant and Gail disappeared off for photo's, we milled about in the usual pre-reception wait. Note 3 about outdoor weddings: Mosquitoes. Many of them. And hungry.

The reception was at the Osner Hotel on the beachfront. As the bridal couple arrived (to the song "Forever Young"), we all lit sparklers, which was a fantastic effect, until Gail bumped into one and flames appeared on her dress. Momentary panic. The fire was quickly extinguished and thankfully there was enough dress to easily hide the holes in the top layer.

The rest of the evening was great, a brief speech by her dad, Grant's brother and then his bestman also gave nice speeches. The dj interrupted and made an awkward joke about cattle from Bloemfontein, we ate, more speeches. Unusually,the bride also gave a speech, mainly thank-you's, but my tea-habit came up. Who knew addiction could make you semi-famous.

The rest of the evening was great, a brief speech by her dad, Grant's brother and then his bestman also gave nice speeches. The dj interrupted and made an awkward joke about cattle from Bloemfontein, we ate, more speeches. Unusually,the bride also gave a speech, mainly thank-you's, but my tea-habit came up. Who knew addiction could make you semi-famous.

Grant also made a speech, and the dj played havoc with the sound, making him sound like a chip monk at the start of his speech an other small things (apparently it's an Afrikaans thing?!), but he managed to redeem himself somewhat by getting everyone onto the very small dancefloor.

Around 11pm, Grant and Gail left, we all made an arch for them, and then, quite unexpectedly, the music stopped, the lights came on and it was time to go home.

But a good evening, an awesome wedding, and lots of fun.

random asides

I have had a rather random few days and I thought it was a good time to send an update from Korea.

Since the Japanese earthquake and tsunami and the subsequent radiation issues we should no longer buy Japanese produce or meat...which was casually told to us by our Korean collegues. However, country of origin is not always listed AND if it is, it's listed in Korean - so it may as well not be listed when it comes to me. Good thing I don't eat meat at all now and spinach was never really a big deal in my life. I am also a bit paranoid now about the yellow dust and radiation rain. We had a random flurry of snow the other day (winter REFUSES to let go, it is still so cold here, lighter for longer, but icy icy still, it is getting to me, I am developing SADS, I am horribly grumpy and sad at the moment and I am almost positive it's the weather) sheesh, sorry for the distraction there, right where was I? Ok, so random snow fall last week, despite being cross about the cold I do still get disproportionately excited about snow. So as a class we all rushed to the window and watched the snow for a bit. Then when I was in the staff room I was merrily babbling away about the joys of snow when one of our Korean teachers, Lynn, said: 'oh no, it could be radiation rain. Make sure you don't get too wet. Be careful.'

Now that squashed any snow joy I was experiencing. We took a taxi home and tried not to get too wet with potentially cancer causing snow rain. Once we were in the taxi I had a paranoid hyperchondriac moment and thought my skin was burning slightly. Danielle swiftly informed me it was all in my head and I was to stop it immediately. 2 minutes away from home I tried to get some money out of my pocket and felt a tug. I thought I was just sitting on my mitten (witch is niftly attached to a string so I never lose them;) so I tried to move it only to discover that in my haste to get out of the possibly toxic rain I had closed the door on my mitten. Thus, not only was it randomly snowing in March there was also a white taxi driving along Pyeongchon with a red mitten frantically flapping in the door. It took a long time to dry and now I am a bit suspicious of it...it was exposed for a long time to the rain snow.

Gretel is now a rather large hedgehog (by hedgehog standards that is) and I have taken to letting her run lose in my apartment in the mornings while I am getting ready for work. Then I find her and put her back into her cage. But on Friday morning I forgot she was out and went off to work just being excited that it was Friday. I got home at about 7:30ish and recalled that she was on the lose. Now, my apartment is essentially a room, and there is no escape from this room if you are a hedgehog, which is why I wasn't too concerned about her being out. However, after a quick look in her usual haunts I could not find her. So I tried some other potential areas and still no Gretel. At this point was a big alarmed, she could only be under the bed...but I put up like a little fence around my bed so that I didn't have to worry about that when I fist got her. With not much enthusiasm I checked under my bed, but she was not there. At this stage I was really alarmed. But I was meeting friends for dinner and reckoned that I would leave some food out for her and go and when I came home and switched off the lights she would make a noise and I would locate her, hedgehogs are most active at night and they dont like bright lights, so I thought this was the best idea having looked everywhere she could have been.

Now, in Korean homes and some restaurants, you take your shoes off at the door and walk around with her socks on or slippers. I do this in my apartment too, so all my shoes are in my little entrance. As I was putting on my one boot I happened to lean over and look down, and what do I see, but a little prickly bundle squeezed tightly in my red leather boot. She was wedged right in there and try as I might I could not get her out. I skyped Danielle straight away and showed her the boot with Gretel inside, it was hilarious. But I was concerned that she was actually stuck in there and that I was going to have to cut my boot to get her out. I left my red boot sideways on the floor with a bowl of food at the opening and went to dinner. She had extracted herself by the time I came home, thankfully she had not poohed in my shoe (which was another concern) and I only had to extract 9 quills from the sheep skin...those quills hurt like something else when you stand on them.

Every month our pre-school classes have a field trip or an activity day. This month we went to the fire station. Since my last pre-school classes graduated to the first grade I have not been teaching pre-school, but I get more excited about the field trips than most of the kids, so I was invited along. Woot! Now, this fire station has an entire area created for educating children about what to do in fire situations. So they have a giant wall that they project fire scenarios onto and the children are taught how to use a fire extinguisher and then they have to extinguish the fire by spraying it! If they don't aim right or start soon enough then the fire consumes the room. It was fantastic to watch! Interactive video game that teaches you how to use a fire extinguisher. Yes please.

They also have a smoke passage, where it is really dimly lit and there is loads of smoke and you have to walk really low to the ground so you get some air and then find the exit. Fun fun fun.

Then they have a room which has a maze made out of cages with doors that open or are dead ends...they switch off the lights and there is only a red emergency light that flashes periodically and you have to find your way out of the maze using touch and hearing and some vision. Awesome.

Finally, they have an earthquake simulation room!~!!!! oh yes. They have built an entire kitchen on a raised platform and you have to sit at the kitchen table, each person is assigned a task to do, so I had to turn off the gas for the stove, then the mains had to turned off, a kitchen closet had to opened and then we all had to get under the table. For the teacher run they let us experience a 3.0 tremble and they worked it up to an 8! It was hectic, I felt all wobbly for ages afterwards. It was possibly too soon after the Japanese quake, but still a cool experience in a contained environment. Not for real real.

So that is my random news. I was devastated by the Protea's loss, but the team still did well to get where they did. I am missing home so much that I actually found myself streaming Algoa FM...it was a low point, it did make me feel better though.

Lovelovelove to everyone!