Loving Hut

For lunch today I tried the 'Loving Hut' restaurant around the corner. I feel like I'm adventurous when I go there because I'll eat anything on the menu. I'm pretty picky so usually I won't eat at least half of a menu. But not at Loving Hut! It's 100% vegan, including their waitresses. I don't need to worry about getting served shaved sheep scalp or salad with bits of mutton in it. I ordered a 'potato pancake' and it turned out to be MORE than just potato in a deep fried pastry. That plus an apple juice that TASTED like apple juice was 2000T which is approx $1.25AUD. It's the cheapest meal I've eaten so far, and I even ate too much.

One time when I was staying with Ashleigh Webb we had minor problems with mice and major problems with maggots. Hah. The beauty of living on a farm. The maggots were easy. The mice was not. I saw this mouse just sitting in the corner checking us out. I remembered catching a mouse in a tea towel when I was little and feeding it to the chooks. I was obviously a brave child as I was not brave this time. I got a tea towel, caught him in it and then freaked out. WHAT DO I DO WITH IT NOW. I thought I could suffocate it but for some reason I couldn't. So we ran a bucket of hot-ish water and thought we'd drown him. But he kept swimming. So we took the bucket outside and put Redback work boots on each hand, slowly tipped the bucket out and BANG hit him once he poured onto the grass. He was still moving so I hit him again and the Ashleigh decided that he wasn't dead enough so she JUMPED on him and he POPPED. Oh man, it was so disgusting. Then we had to hide him from the puppy which meant we had to PICK HIM UP (as flat as he was) and put him in the bin.

And now he's in mousey heaven.

What made me think of that was the tea bag I just flavoured my hot water with (that tastes like jasmine tea with that blue smelly toilet stuff in it). I threw it in the bin and it didn't make it and it fell 'flop' on the floor like a dead mouse does.

I just ordered some meat from Joel the butcher. Order as follows:
3kg diced UN-marinated chicken breast (smallish cubes if possible)
1kg pork loin steaks marinated
1kg fillet steak marinated
2x UN-marinated chicken breast (whole)
1kg ground beef mince

We're having a dinner party on Friday night. A little unexpected and I feel slightly unprepared but if anyone can do it, I can! (right?! RIGHT!)

It's Sarah's birthday so we're having some people over. A friend of ours is conveniently an ex-chef so between him and I (and Sarah's grocery shopping skills), we'll cook up a storm on Thursday and Friday. We will mise en place (that's French for prepare) on Thursday night and then cook on Friday night. I will bake a cake, make some tomato salsa (I promise I won't eat much), make green chicken curry, clean my room (oh yes I know, I could just shut the door. I probably will) and serve lots of tea. You could choose from: Lemongrass and ginger, peppermint, lemon, pink tea, pink tea with ginger, jasmine tea or boring black tea.

There will be approximately 15 people at our house on Friday night, which I feel is a good number. ALSO, great news - our Mongolian friend's sister has had a baby. A nameless little girl (yes, I offered Sally- what a good name) who weighed 3.9kg and is very healthy and all the rest. I'm pretty excited to meet her.

I have also decided that instead of writing Trevor a book (sorry mum, my writing skills aren't good enough - it would be setting a bad precedent for him), I will make a blanket. Out of pretty Mongolian material. Sucked in Nikki, you'll have to use it even if you hate it. If it turns out like I'm thinking, it'll be nice anyways. A good picnic rug if nothing else.

Perhaps it won't work though. I have a piece of shit sewing machine. That cruise control that I was bragging about the other day is more efficient than I want it to be. Imagine pressing 'cruise' on your car, driving at 100km an hour for a good period of time and then pressing the button again to stop it. BUT IT DOESN'T STOP. That's what I'm facing, except it's a sewing machine and I feel it's just as dangerous. Digits (ie fingers) are super important and every time I need to stop the machine I feel like I'm putting my digits in jeopardy.

I'll give it one more garment's chance before I round up a Mongolian/English speaker and take it back to demand one that works.

Sooooooooooo many boogers up my nose. I can't imagine winter time. I don't WANT to imagine winter!

Still no hot water. At the gym or at home. My hair is getting stinkier by the day.

I am after someone that may want to meet me somewhere full of VitaminD (read: tropical) in February 2012. It's a long time away, but keep it in mind. I will need a winter respite.

I am also taking nominations for accompaniment. I need/want someone to catch the Trans-Siberian with me at Christmas this year. It would be probably 19 December, starting in Ulaanbaatar (stay with me a bit too if you want, beforehand) and going all the way to St Petersburg. I'd be flying from there to London. You could come too if you wanted.

So far it's taken 6 weeks for mum's parcel to arrive - if you have sent letters or parcels, allow at least 2 months for them to arrive. Literally. It's bloody crazy!