Jenny’s Journies

Wednesday, 26 March 2008 @ 11:30am.

My beta fish passed away yesterday. We put him in the creek at a nearby park. He had been with me for almost a year, so I was sad to find him floating near his colorful castle with some kind of fungus on him. Sigh…

I’m going to the Melbourne Comedy Festival tonight. I’m catching up with a gal pal of mine and we’re gearing up for laughter and tears (of the good kind!).

I recently updated Indopedia. Please check it out at http://editthis.info/indopedia/Main_Page .

The heat wave ended a few days back… Fall is now officially chilly.

I just saw the film “Atonement.” It was beautifully depressing.

In the news… “U-M grad instructors strike:” http://blog.mlive.com/annarbornews/2008/03/instructor_walkout_stalls_cons.html Graduate students from my department are quite active with the union. The Graduate Employees Organization (GEO) has paved some important roads in the past for students at U-M and been a trailblazer for other university unions around the U.S.

Tuesday, 25 March 2008 @ 1:45pm.

I hope you all had a wonderful Easter weekend. Did you know that fish & chips shops experience their highest sales during Good Friday in Australia? Did you know that hot cross buns are popular sells here, too? Chocolate seemed to be everywhere. I was at Big W on Saturday and the lady in front of me in the checkout lane actually purchased a hundred dollars worth of chocolate eggs, bunnies, bars, etc. Amazing! I attended a very lovely mass on Sunday. The new priest at the church has changed things up a bit in small (and in my opinion, good) ways. He told a Buddhist story at one point, which of course thrilled me.

Vik and I went to a wonderful Italian restaurant called “Via Veneto” for lunch/dinner at Lygon Street on Easter. I especially liked their spicy seafood spaghetti dish. I also indulged in a fantastic chocolate hazelnut pudding. We later walked off our meal and took a break at a nearby park.

Pluto got his stitches out and is doing really well. He is currently playing with a big stuffed animal that I got for him from a local thrift store.

I was finally able to visit my friend who recently had a baby. We had fun catching up. Her little ones (five in total now!) are all characters. They got along splendidly with Pluto as well. It was almost an adventure of sorts later into the evening when the power went out on the street during a heavy storm. The electricity eventually came on, which was good. Oh, and the baby threw up on me like three times. Apparently in Albanian culture, this is a sign that the child likes/will like me.

I discovered http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Main_Page the other day. I recommend it to those who have web pages and need images.

Monday, 17 March 2008 @ 6:45pm.

Happy St. Patrick’s Day! Are you wearing green today?

Victoria is experiencing unusual heat waves. It’s supposed to be the beginning of autumn. Poor Pluto and I have been doing our best to stay cool at home during the day. We both have been sucking on ice cubes. Well, he actually crunches them. The pup is healing well so far. Stitches will come out next week.

I recently saw the films “Return to Me” and “Run, Fatboy, Run.” I recommend the second one more because of the comedy, but both are cute.

I’ve been saddened by the news that Tibetan rioters ‘killed 13 during protests.’ Click here for an article from The Age.

I’m presently researching tickets for my return back to the States. Any website or travel agent advice would be most appreciated.

I have to attend to my cooking now… I’m making toor daal… I had to adapt an online recipe because I didn’t have all of the different types of pulses, but I think it’ll turn out nicely.

Friday, 14 March 2008 @ 3:47pm.

I’m watching a special news program on the show Living Black about substance abuse (not just alcohol, but also petrol and paint sniffing) within the Aboriginal communities, particularly amongst youth. I thought one commentator made a good point, saying that simply criminalizing certain behaviors will not make the problems go away, but rather we need to get at the root causes. The following website provides links to some important services for indigenous communities: http://www.adin.com.au/content.asp?Document_ID=3

On a positive note, the next segment is on Aboriginal artists thriving locally and some going global successfully.

At home, Pluto is sleeping at my feet while I type. It’s hot today, almost 40c despite the fact it’s supposed to be autumn. More than the heat, he is tired from his desexing surgery the other day. I’m happy to report that he still wags his tail, sometimes so hard his whole butt moves side to side, so I take that as a sign he’s still Pluto. Sad, but also funny-looking is the thin plastic cone around his neck and head which prevents him from licking and pulling out his stitches. He’s adjusting to it well enough, but is clearly not a fan of the set-up. We’ll have to return to the vet in about a week to get the stitches removed.

I’m grumpy about my dissertation work. That’s all I can say about that at this point.

As a distraction, I managed to make up a wonderfully simple and addictive non-chocolate no-special-name-yet dessert:

Purchase a ready-made unfilled sponge cake at the grocery store. Cut it in half with a bread knife. Line canned peaches on top of the bottom layer. Add canned whipped cream (be sure to shake the can well beforehand) on top of the peaches. Place the remaining sponge cake on top of the whipped cream, peaches, and bottom layer of cake. Cut a slice and add extra whipped cream and peaches if you like.

A beautiful alternative (actually my first and preferred version) is to take fresh strawberries, slice them into smaller pieces without stems and leaves, sprinkle some white sugar on top, cover, and place in the refrigerator until the sugar dissolves and there’s a bit of a syrup in the bowl. Instead of the peaches, first spread strawberry jam on the sponge cake, then add the strawberries (with or without the sugary juice/syrup) and whipped cream, and follow the rest of process mentioned above.

Sunday, 09 March 2008 @ 9:40pm.

Working on the dissertation. Frustrated that writing a paragraph takes ages because data is not fully processed. Writing what in theory should be a simple sentence ends up taking lots of time because of searching for a statistic, cross-checking its accuracy and source quality, and then questioning its usefulness in the first place! Agh! My goal was to write 5 pages today. I am at 2.5 and that’s only if you are lax enough to count the missing bits in red and in between brackets. Sigh…

Wednesday, 05 March 2008 @ 4:12pm.

Apologies for the absence… I don’t know what happens to the time sometimes… Well, actually I do. Life just gets busy, right? I hope all is well wherever you might be. I could be better at keeping in regular contact with family and friends, but please know that I am usually thinking of y’all.

We have some friends staying over for a while until they move into their new place. In the mean time, I have had the pleasure of eating fabulous curries every other night. My favorites so far have been an eggplant and potato dish and a tuna one. With wholewheat rotis and tasty yogurt as well, it’s been like having our own chefs at home. What a treat! Though on the negative side, this has not been good for the hips or thighs!

I recently returned from a weekend trip to the Great Ocean Road and Great Otway National Park. I had a wonderful time. All the fresh air, breathtaking ocean views, educational sites, trails/hikes, cool wildlife, and yummy foods did me a lot of good. Though things could have gone smoother at the campsite the first night and there were little frustrations in some of the small towns (e.g., broken ATM, cash only gas station, no direction signs), I had fun. I must say that there’s nothing quite like not being able to fall asleep because a koala is making loud strange noises outside! Pictures are posted below:

I thought I’d post the best picture first. Here is the definition of “adorable.” Seriously. If you open up a dictionary, this is what should be pictured. We saw this lovely creature in the Great Otway National Park on the way to the lightstation. Cars were stopped along the road as tourist after tourist made their way to snap photos. The koala barely budged and had what I think was a very pleasant afternoon nap:

This is the Cape Otway Lightstation. I climbed the stairs to the top and was able to circle around it on the narrow path high up. The lightstation is no longer in use besides for tourist purposes. Instead, there is a much smaller, yet more powerful solar-powered lightstation not too far from it. It’s eco-friendly and apparently a lot cheaper than running the older lightstation:

The famous Twelve Apostles are just simply amazing coastal rock formations:

I read that the Twelve Apostles, along with some additional formations, used to be called the “Sow and Piglets!” We later returned at dusk to see the fairy penguins come to shore, but we were far away and couldn’t see them that clearly. It still was cool seeing groups make their way inland, though.

Near the Twelve Apostles is Loch Ard Gorge and the beautiful Island Archway (see below):

In the tiny town of Port Campbell, we stayed at Cairns Cottage. A friendly man named Jack was renting out his old place. The 1970s and 1980s decor inside was quite tacky, but in a charming kind of way:

A’ hiking we will go:

Triplet Falls is a 1 hour looped rainforest and waterfall walk.

Here are the Triplet Falls:

I just love the sound of running water in the forest.

One of my high school friends (Cober, I am so calling you out!) used to tease me for being a treehugging liberal. Well, I guess I haven’t changed much, have I?

Next stop was the Otway Fly Tree Top Walk, which is the tallest tree-top walk in the world. So even though I can be quite scared of certain kinds of heights, I had to brave it:

Nervous laughter at the top:

One of the tree top paths:

The metal paths and the top of the spiral tower sway/flex by the way, thereby making the experience that much more scarier, but also more thrilling and worth doing.

Pluto spent time in a dog kennel while we were away. He seemed happy and relieved to return home. He slept a long time that first day back; perhaps he didn’t sleep much with other dogs around. He continues to grow. He is still very fond of carrots, ice cubes, and raw bones. He has totally taken to jumping and playing in the creek at a nearby dog park. Unfortunately, he does this on the very same days (or the next morning) that I give him a bath. I can’t really blame him, however. I would probably do the same thing if I were in his shoes…er…paws, I mean. On perhaps a less happy note from his perspective, he will be going to the vet soon to get desexed.

In other news, I am very disappointed that the post office lost a recent birthday package. I am in the process of filling out a formal complaint. :< It didn’t help matters that I saw a news special not too long ago about postal workers stealing mail to get cash, lottery tickets, presents, and the like. Bad karma if you ask me.