Sunday, August 17, 2008

What we now know about C H E E S E !!!!!!!!


Billy and I went to the Australian Association of Specialty Cheesemaker's annual cheese and wine tasting extravaganza today. Best Sunday of recent months... We thought we'd pass on some of the knowledge we gained today in the 'wine and cheese pairing class'...

All the cheese we tasted in the class was from Milawa Cheese Company (from Victoria)... and all the wine was from Mount Langi Ghiran Winery's "Cliff Edge" series (also Victorian).

Cheese - Wine
Bocconcini - Riesling or Pinot Gris
Brie - Riesling or Pinot Gris
Cheddar (hard, 3yr) - Sangiovese*
Blue - Shiraz* (but also good with whites and Sangiovese)
Washed Rind cheese (strong!) - Pasito Riesling (sweet dessert style)

* The winemaker who was there told us that usually he prefers to have white wines with all cheeses, but he wanted to show that red wines are also quite good. They were beautifully paired as it happened.

Also, did you know that when making brie, they dump in the white mold which then hardens on the outside to form the skin? When first made the brie is actually hard, and then the enzymes in the white mold break down the cheese and soften it as it ages. Cool, huh? Also, brie is nearly exactly the same as camembert - the size of the wheel is really the only difference!! (except if you're super critical, there is a slighly different maturation rate because of the different surface area to volume ratio.)

And did you know Rennet is traditionally made from the stomachs of baby cows? Sad... but if we're going to be sad about that, we should probably re-examine our view of the entire dairy industry! To start producing milk, the cows have to get pregnant and give birth to a baby cow... the farmer then has the option to let the baby drink the sow's milk, or let us drink it... Well, I'll let you consider your own position on that.

Anyway, we must have tried 40 types of cheese today, and they were nearly all delicious!
Alaina and Lindsay (Lindsay had just arrived from a visit to Pennsylvania!)
Here's Billy - still standing as we exited onto Southbank!

Saturday, August 16, 2008

Quick trip to Sydney

I (kersti) was up in Sydney for work at the beginning of this week... it was quite a treat! On Monday we (the 5 of us who make up a team) had a planning day in Palm Beach, which is north of Sydney. Despite being winter, we sat outside on the deck all day and had spectacular views of the ocean. At lunch we walked along the beach. Not a bad day at the office!




And the fruit of our hard day's labour: the schedule.
I was at the Sydney office on Tuesday, and as it was a beautiful day, I took a picture from the balcony that runs the length of the office. This puts our Melbourne office to shame. The Sydney crew are lucky ducks... one of the best spots in Sydney, I reckon. It's right on the edge of Hyde Park with views of the harbour. The opera house is hiding behind the buildings on the left.

Paolo was here!

Paolo, my friend from Stanford, was in Melbourne! We had a wonderful time sharing some meals and walking around Melbourne. We went up to the top of the Rialto Tower for a view of the city, walked around the Melbourne Uni campus, and toured Ormond. There was a massive power outage covering all of the campus and all the colleges, so it was not the best of times to visit! But the lights came back on as we were in the great hall (dining hall).

He also introduced us to two of his friends who live here in Melbourne... an old buddy from his university days in Switzerland and his wife whom he met while he was in China for several years. Here are some pics!

We had tapas at the Long Room


Monday, August 4, 2008

New Job for Billy

So I started my new job last week at e_connect. I think I am really going to enjoy it, and the work looks like it will be challenging and rewarding. The company specialises in connecting renewable electricity unto the electricity network, especially wind power. It requires a lot of power engineering, so I have been busy-busy trying to learn it all as fast as possible. It is a small and quiet office, but there are a lot of young people. Unfortunately, I have been quite sick for a while (blast this cold winter), but I think I am on the mend now finally. The job is really the type of work that I want to do, and it helps to feel like you are doing something constructive.

Sunday, August 3, 2008

It's still winter....


Unfortunately, it appears that we are still in winter, and the conditions will persist for some months to come... We have some nice sunny days, but it's cold, windy, spitting rain, and on the whole, it's not so lovely. But, here are some picks of Ormond on such days...

Here was a lovely wintery sunset from the bedroom...

This is the path we take to the dining hall (unless it's raining in which case we go through the building)...


Our apartment is on the 6th floor of the white "modern" building!

Ormond Musical - City of Angels

Last week we attended the student musical, City of Angels. It was a spectacular performance that turned out to be fairly professional. This was a surprise given their lack of funding and little time to really prepare as the show was the first week back from school holidays. The singing was great, the dancing was great, and the music (a 17 or 18 piece band made up almost entirely of Ormond students) was fantastic.

The only downside (in my opinion-this is kersti), was that it was totally, totally, over the top. Sex, sexiness and inappropriate innuendo's were the feature... As we attended "Master's Night", the audience was made up entirely of College administration, tutors like us and academic fellows. We weren't the audience that was going to laugh hilariously at such things! (Plus, it's a bit awkward - the girls are just barely 18 years old!!!) I, for example, sat next to the College's resident MINISTER... so it was a wee bit awkward when women were prancing around in bustiers, thigh high lace stockings in high heels and tiny, tiny bottoms... and when they actually had a sex scene! It was a bit too much for me! And all the women in the play had these similar roles... very sexist and terrible!

Anyway, the music was good :)

Re-Commencement Dinner


Last Saturday we had another big formal dinner at Ormond... this time we didn't wear robes, but wore formal attire instead. Billy and I have seemed to run out of formal outfits to wear... I swear we have another picture of us wearing the exact outfits. Oh well, no one knows but YOU!

One of the resident fellows, Jane Freemantle, gave a lovely address to the students. Her talk addressed the major issues that Australia must tackle regarding Indigenous australians... and hopefully she inspired some of the students to help solve all the injustices! This is Jane in the red, next to a fellow residential tutor, Bei-En:

The dinner was lovely, which boded very well for the new Chef! She has transformed the food regime and it is now WAY BETTER. Anyway, here are some pictures from before the dinner...

Here we are with the Master, Hugh Collins

and with the Dean of Studies, Jenny Holmes

Kristen and I wore very similar outfits... black dresses, gold shoes, gold accessories, and black shawls! American Twins!

And here I am with Jane H and Jason... heaps of cameo's that evening...

After the dinner Billy headed to the party (I headed to bed)... here's the only in-action dance shot!

The start of my last semester!

My final semester has begun... I have just three more classes to pass and I will have my masters! Whoopee. Here's a run-down:

1. Property Investment - a rather hard core financial class with lots of spreadsheets and calculations (Eeek), but it will be very useful for me to have some idea of what asset managers do to compare investment options.

2. Regenerating Activity Centres - from an urban design perspective, how do you transform a town hub to allow for higher density living while still making it a nice place to live, work, recreate, etc. Fun!

3. Urban Design for Planners - an excellent accompaniment to #2... here I will learn to draw, they say. Nice, I've been looking for a drawing and coloring class. But no, I think it will be great and a hopefully it will be quite fun.

So that's it on the classes, which will round out my "Master of Environment, with a focus on sustainability in the built environment" degree!

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And in addition to classes... I'll be tutoring one subject for Ormond and also working 20 hours a week, so busy busy, I will be!

$37

Yesterday I went to borrow Billy's backpack so that I could take it to Safeway on my bicycle. It felt quite heavy so I went to empty out his treasures. In addition to the usual things you would expect him to carry around (like 9 highlighters, 4 pens, 3 rubber bands, post-its, etc), I also found $37 in coins. THIRTY-SEVEN DOLLARS. Granted we have $2 and $1 coins in this country, so it's not like he had 148 quarters, but it was a lot.