I’m Back!

Its been too long since my last post, and lets not even talk about the guest post that wasn’t…but I’m back in Australia now, ready to cook my way through the food of the rest of the world.

The best things about being in Australia:

• The variety of food – I nearly cried when I saw Thai basil, new potatoes, tempeh, watermelon and macadamias in the shops.
• I know where things are and how they work, so I probably wont get lost, or accidentally order cool-mint flavoured smoothy (actually happened in Malaysia, tastes worse than it sounds).
• Family and friends!!!!!

Worst things about being back in Australia:

• Job hunting – I want a job, and I’m not complaining about the work, but the rejection gets old quickly.
• Racism and bigotry. Seems to me that Oz actually rates fairly low on the xenophobe scale, compared to some of the places we visited lat year, but it is confronting after a year of seeing it in others, to come back and remember how easy it is to find in those I know.
• Understanding nearly all the conversations that occur on the train. Not understanding the language can be challenging, but the fog of incomprehension is really nice when it means no advertising, and no over-hearing. We got back to Melbourne and got straight onto the train, at night, on Big Day Out. Some conversations I’d rather not comprehend.

I’m actually in Newcastle instead of Melbourne at the moment, staying with my ever-patient mumma while I look for a job (seriously, the Melbourne job market is the worst), so I wont be doing any Melbournite things such as the Sydney Road Festival Radical Grocery Vegan Bake-Off, or ordering drinkable coffee (not something one can do in NSW).

What I will be doing is cooking food from Spain, Ethiopia, Cambodia, and China, applying for every job I am remotely qualified for, and trying to get the book published.

What all this comes down to is that I have nothing much to say today, but felt guilty about my tardiness in posting.

So I promise to be back with actual content soon, and in the meantime, here are some pictures of cats:

Aussie Cats in a death match

Italian Cat naps in style

Micronesian Mumma and Kittens (there are three cats in this picture)

 

History Cat at Epheseus, Turkey