Tuesday Tastings and other tales

I will begin with eating. After I moved to the city, Dharshi, Devi, and I wanted to make sure we still saw each other. Tuesday Tastings were born. We are tummies about town with Cheap Eats 2007 from the Food and Wine Festival (concurrent with the FINA World Swimming Championships, just before the Melbourne International Comedy Festival, Melbourne International Beer Festival, Melbourne Jazz Festival, and the Palm Sunday Peace Parade and Festival: Nuclear Fools Day 2007).

So far we've done antipasti, Argentine tapas, Mexican, "brekkie" (breakfast), Moroccan vegetarian, Asian infused Italian, Eastern European bakery, crepes. Burmese or Afghan on the menu this week.

My subscription gig has come and gone, sold 50 odd. Not so bad, lots of people-watching. Lots of women who might be old moms or young grannies pushing SUV strollers. The shopping center had an IKEA.

The ethanol conference has also come and gone. It was held at a the Crown Casino complex which is below Bellagio but above Kevin Costner's Midnight Star in Deadwood. I helped alongside the steering committee, salt of the earth farmers and down-to-earth scientists who used "bloody" and "bugger" more than other people I've had contact with these weeks. In their self-effacing way, they reminded me of the Wyoming ethos.

For my stuffing nametags and folders, I was given the generous opportunity to see Australian of the Year, Tim Flannery, on Gala night, and wined and dined with the committee the next evening, enjoying Yarra bubbly and kangaroo steak (which was very nicely done).

Rant: for our (America's) follies in the world, I resent when people suggest that if the US wasn't Iraq, we would all be living in perfect peace and harmony. Like George W. Bush is all that stands between Miss Universe and her dream.

Things Australians say:
"I had a chat to my sister on the phone today"
"How you going?"
"Ta" - thanks
"I reckon . . ." used by the likes of news anchors, not just people reckoning they ought to go wrastle up some possum

I spent Easter with Chris', my landlady, family. Her parents immigrated to Melbourne in 1948 from Poland. It was between Australia or USA, but the Oz visa was $5 cheaper. I watched a Polish-produced movie about John Paul II's life the night before Easter and I wept through the whole thing. The suffering of the Poles during WWII, his craft as a writer and professor, his humility in becoming pope, his prayers.

Occasionally, I listen to audio books on my iPod. One is John Paul the Great, just so we know where the author, Peggy Noonan, stands. I also weep on the train sometimes when I listen to that book. At different times, I'm drawn to Catholicism. JPII's witness draws me to Catholicism. In the meantime, I go to an Anglican church called St. Jude's.

Someone was selling biodynamic sausage at Victoria Market. That sounds like a terrible idea.

The family who I will begin nannying for tomorrow morning was set for the mum to have her gallbladder removed on Thurs. I talked to her today and things have changed a bit. The husband/dad has pneumonia and she'd also having a hysterectomy on Thurs. Please pray that I am a good driver on the left side of the road when I start taking the kids to and from school on Thurs. I haven't driven since July. They do not need to deal with any car wrecks right now. But in all honesty, I am so thankful to be stepping into this with them.