Manly

Hello all!
We just got back from an exciting day at the beach! We went to Manly again and remembered to bring our cameras. The following pictures are from this trip. The beaches as you can see were very crowded despite chilly temps. We had sweatshirts while the sunbathers had to be freezing as they were wearing quite a bit less. There were skads of surfers out in the water all waiting for the few paltry waves coming in today. We saw several good runs and many more wipe outs! There is a trail we discovered following the harbour side waterline that goes for 12km each way. We only did about three and a half down and are saving the rest for next weekend. The trail goes through some protected bushland so we'll be away from civilization.





The day's excitement didn't start there either: for breakfast we had coconut milk pancakes! It all began yesterday morning....I was making pancakes and had everything mixed up except the milk which had gone bad. Not wanting to have flour/water paste for breakfast I turned to the open cabinet and saw the cans of coconut milk and thought "Why not?". Anyway, it works very well if you should want to try it. The pancakes don't come out too coconutty either-more of a hint of the flavor.

Also, we found crisco today! While this may not excite you, it excites us a great deal. We can now make the infamous Lucille's chocolate chip cookie recipe and bribe the secretaries at the Con into giving us more work. Also, we like to eat these cookies. We bought all the ingredients at the store one time only to find that they didn't have crisco(nothing else really works very well in the recipe). We found said crisco in a tiny little shop in Manly called 'Hello Sweetie.' They import a lot of foods from North America. We extolled the virtues of Cheezits and Goldfish crackers so hopefully next time we go, we can have those too!

BUT today's culinary excitement didn't stop there either!! When we first got to Australia, Kim Walker gave us a bottle of wine. It looked like something she had been given as a gift and she didn't want it. Anyway, I opened it and tasted it and it was pretty bad. Very dry and unpleasant-the tannins were too strong and the after-taste was a might peppery (I haven't lost my touch have I, Carolyn?) Since Ruth Ann and I don't really drink wine I started cooking with it. Everything it touches turns to gold! We've braised with it, marinated with it, used it in countless sauces....and now it's sadly gone. But before it left us, it caused a very good lamb roast to be braised. We googled the wine after dinner and found that it was preeettty expensive. We think it went to a much better use!

BUT THE DAY'S EXCITEMENT CONTINUES!!! For no apparent reason, fireworks were being shot off in the direction of the Harbour. We had just finished dinner when the first barrage went off. We threw our shoes on and ran down the street until we could see. The display was impressive and well coordinated. We have no idea why the fireworks were shot off. These impromptu displays have occurred several times before. We've asked several people while watching them and they have no idea either.

The day's excitement has run out now so we're going to sleep. May your Sundays be as eventful as ours!
~Mike