Into the fog (AM)

Our trip to Hobart is sadly over. Gee it was a nice time. Hobart is as lovely as the first time J, Chickpea, Baby and I went there in 2012. That time we saw art, drank stout and  ate bienenstich. This time was much the same but we didn't drink stout our eat bienenstich. We did, however, drink regular beer and wine and ate oysters and donuts (one of which was a sourdough donut with chocolate and pistachio filling) and a wallaby burrito. There's very good eating in Tas. 

I have no photos to share of course, because these days all my photos involve KB, and that won't do. But take my word for it: Hobart is beautiful and warm and lovely and we had a great time. 

Coming home was pretty lovely too. Like J said a couple of posts ago. You can have pretty great time away but still really really really want to go home. 

Now it's only three weeks until we go to Europe. That's no time at all. 

Obviously it's very awesome to be going to Europe for two and a half months, but I'm nervous about it too. Being far far away with a new baby. The cold. Moving around a bit. Not knowing what to expect at a stage of life where I don't know what I'm doing. There's this saying in Sweden, 'in i dimman' which people say in place of our 'cheers'. It means 'into the fog'. I really feel like that's what we are doing. Literally and figuratively. So I am really hoping that the unseasonal warmth continues in Melbourne. Today is clearly a write-off but the other days. Let them be super warm. Because though the weather in London doesn't seem too diabolical, the clouds have very thick black lines on the outside and I could use the boost.

Bear with us (AM)

Look readers, I can't lie to you. It's been a rough couple of days for the Misses Soft Crab. This is largely due to a close shave with something that pretty much goes to the core of what this blog is about but I'm pretty sure neither of us a ready to talk about yet .  One day, readers, one day. When we learn how to feel again.

In the meantime, I'm afraid I'm struggling to find inspiration. Frankly, I'm struggling with respiration. I just want to lie around and make the moaning sound that Harry makes in that scene in When Harry Met Sally when he makes the moaning sound.

Remember? Here, let me show you. This version is dubbed in Italian but it doesn't matter because the moaning sound is the same in Italian. And it's the only version I could find on the internet.
But it's pretty funny, so you should watch it.

Cheese! (PM)

Oh baby. Cheese! is right.
I barely go a day without cheese. I guess that's bad, from a cholesterol intake point of view. But from the point of view that life is precious and miraculous and tomorrow is promised to no one, I can not see the sense in a day without cheese. Take cheese away from a day and what do you get? A bad day, that's what.

I guess that's part of the reason I recently spent a lot of my dollars buying Tasmanian cheese on the internet recently.  Remember last year when Miss Soft Crab went to Hobart? Remember how we went to the Bruny Island Cheese Company for a little snack? Well those fine people have a Cheese Club, where they offer a bunch of cheeses that are particularly good at that particular time for sale to club members. Then they deliver them to your door. To your door!* Or your workplace's door, if, like me, you want to make sure that the cheese stays cold after delivery because you spent a lot of money on that cheese and goddamn it, you want to make sure it gets looked after. If you like cheese, I'm pretty sure you will like it when you get a call from the woman at reception saying "there is a very ripe smelling delivery for you waiting at reception".

So right now, I have all of this in my fridge, waiting for the night (next week, hopefully...Chickpea, are you free?) that J, Chickpea and I will have a little cheese eating/Hobart remembering salon at my house.

You can read all about them, and join the club, here.

Also, just because I like cheese so much, I also have these in the house at the moment. Cheddar, cayenne and spring onion biscuits.

I made them on Saturday because I had a bunch of cracker barrel in the fridge and I wanted to consume it quickly and efficiently to make may for the Bruny Island cheeses. In my experience, if you want to eat something quickly and efficiently, put it in a biscuit.

After writing this, and taking that photo, I have two less of those biscuits.

Cheese!




*Writing that makes me think of the Paul Kelly song To Her Door, which makes me picture a bunch of cheeses in a box singing that song as they wing their way towards their cheese loving homes and it's a nice thing to think about.

Favourites list - 2012 (PM)

I completely agree about bed. That's going to be a favourite of mine until they put me in a bed in the ground. Also Pinkman and getting drunk at the end of the year.

But here are some others.

My garden. I love my garden so much that sometimes, when I look at it, it makes my heart swell up in my chest a little bit.

This year, I put some astro-turf down and got some new plants, like hydrangeas and a gardenia. Of course, I like to eat a lot.
Oops! Of what I grow. That sentence was meant to say I like to eat a lot of what I grow. This year, I have planted capsicum, strawberries, jalapenos and of course, tomatoes which have begun to fruit. From the first, this tomato plant has been my favourite.

It's such a bonnie boy. I love all my plants of course, but this one. This one is my pride and it is my joy.

Coconut and chocolate butter. The other day, I was at that organic shop on Lygon Street getting some eggs and flour, when I happened upon this product.

I didn't know what I was going to do with it, but I knew I wanted it. I bought it then and there and since then, have been eating it out of the jar with a spoon because I still don't really know what to do with it but I know I want it in my mouth.

Running. Exercise has never been my favourite thing, but running has traditionally been my least favourite of all the exercisey things. But then, things changed. I got sick of trying to avoid running wherever possible. I started doing it a little on the treadmill at the gym. Then doing that more. Then doing more still. Then I started feeling kind of good for ages afterwards. I guess it would be fair to say I started liking it.

The other night, Pickle and I went for a run around Princes Park. I know that's something you guys probably do all the time, but not this crablet. Until Tuesday, I had never once run around Princes Park. But now I've done it and once Pickle makes me that mix tape of running songs she told me about, and once we get Miguel to make us both a new mix tape of running songs, I am going to do the shit out of it again.

The time we went to Hobart. At the moment, I have a pretty big crush on Tasmania. Perhaps this is making me see the world through apple-coloured glasses, but I feel like the time that Chickpea, J and Baby went to Hobart belongs on this list of favourite things for 2012. Eating and drinking and gazing at beautiful things with my favourite people was perhaps the loveliest time I had this year. Is it not the loveliest time one can have? I think it is, and may it always be.

Gifts from the Internet (AM)

I have to write a report for work this week. It's a slow and painful process and sometimes it makes me want to smack my head against the keyboard, sometimes cry, sometimes throw up. Mostly, it just makes me want to look at stuff on the internet, and then feel guilty for looking up stuff on the internet.
To make me feel less guilty for all the things I've been looking at on the internet, I am going to show you guys some of the things I have been looking at on the internet. Don't worry, this will only take a minute.

I like this thing.  I find the way the dog looks at the camera at 15 seconds extremely hilarious, and then the kiwi guy towards the end. But it's the suave canine that really speaks to me.

I also found this kind of interesting. Efficient. Takes the awkwardness out of it.

This I find hilarious because I spook easily and can totally relate, but also find people falling over extremely funny, even when they are not people but raccoons.

But this Tasmanian Devil is currently my favourite thing on the internet.

Honestly, have you ever seen anything so lovely? Certainly nothing that is both as whiskery and as lovely as this guy. I hope he doesn't get the facial tumours.
Anyway. that's all I'm doing today. Hope you guys have it better than me.