Tuesday, June 21, 2005

7-5, 6-4, 6-2 - Wimbledon

In a satifying 7-5, 6-4, 6-2 win over Karol Beck, Mark Philippoussis goes to the next round of Wimbledon on the first day of play.

Andrew, Lulu and I made our way in blistering 32 degree heat and humidity to Wimbledon to support the green and gold. We figured we should go at least once to Wimbledon to hear the crowds roar. The hiss of the ball as it speeds across court... And the agony of people in pain as they get whiplash from swinging their heads left to right to left at incredible speeds!


Wimbledon 2005 lawn/Andrew and Lulu by the 2005 Wimbledon lawn.
Acting cool.. Acting swarve.Mark Philippoussis about to serve another ace.

Monday, June 20, 2005

Bread making. You learn something new every day.

My dough... my dough.. my dough won't rise!

I followed the same steps as last time to make my pimpkin seed bread, but for some reason the dough refused to rise. Bummer! The used by on the yeast is fine. I used a little less butter this time, but that shouldn't stop the dough rising.

Google. Google is my friend. Google good.

Yeast is a living thing. A plant / fungus that eats gluten that comes in packets perfect for one loaf when mixed with warm water. Warm water it seems does not mean adding yeast to boiled water, and then adding cold water. The problem is that this kills the yeast culture.

Damn.

Wish I had known that before. The bread faq is now required reading it seems.

I'd wager the bread is going to come out heavy again because of the yeast. Note to self - yeast + sugar works... should give a softer loaf.

Oh.. and if you like sourdough then you might like to read the faqs available here.

Friday, June 17, 2005

It just doesn't pay...

It doesn't pay to work with fellow geeks especially when they blog too. Jonathan is more geek than the rest of the team put together but I probably wouldn't encourage him by saying that to his face (the fact that he reads my blog defeats that though!). Either way, Jon is a wonderful bloke, cheers to you mate!

Reading through more of Jon's blog, I seem to get mentioned every so often... the latest regarding twig tea!!

Thursday, June 09, 2005

Here's the rest

A couple of posts ago I posted a Dilbert comic strip... here's a few more in the series:





Monday, June 06, 2005

We 'av bread G'ovna

Harrods isn't just a place of expensive merchandise. It is the reason for my latest inspiration for a bit of bread making (despite walking out with a loaf of pumpkin bread). This attempt sure beat the first time when I made Chinese Fighting Muffins, or bread that was just eatable.

This is the way we knead the bread, knead the bread, knead the bread...Flour, yeast, heabs, butter, salt and bird seed = the basis of one nice bread loaf.
I actually used a pack of Omega Seed Mix that I got from a health food store in Bath, UK.And there it is folks.
It turned out a bit heavy (could do with more rising) but quite tasty!! All in all I think I'm getting closer. Closer to the perfect loaf!

Friday, June 03, 2005

The English Accent

When I come home to Australia, I hope I come back with an accent (and not sound like Kylie Minogue):