![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
angharad_gam So, I am laid up on the couch with a rotten cold, which is probably going to stop me from getting the 'flu vaccine at work this week. This normally wouldn't be a problem, but apparently we are having a flu epidemic here atm, and there are shortages of the vaccine. As you might guess from the title, it's been an eventful few weeks, and since I have nothing to do but sit around and feel sorry for myself, I thought I might pop in here and complain about it.
It hasn't all been bad, mind. We had a nice Easter lunch with Andy's family - I made a gluten free carrot cake which came out rather well. Baking is always a bit hit and miss without gluten, and this was actually the first time I've ever made carrot cake. And I took the week after Easter off work, and we had a very pleasant week with nice weather and a bit of pottering around in the garden. I dug 3-4 years worth of compacted compost out from underneath the compost bin and promptly planted some peas in it, and the plants I acquired for the courtyard whendirtygreatknife and I went to the ABC Plant Fair are doing really well.
But the week before Easter Erin got up one morning and noticed that the ceiling in the lounge room was falling in. To understand this, you should first know that Adelaide is built on big chunks of reactive clay which expand quite substantially when wet, and shrink just as drastically when dry. It's a problem all over the place to some extent (at our last house 0.5cm wide fissures used to open in the back garden during summer and then close up again in winter and that was a relatively stable area). Houses getting big cracks in the walls or ceilings because the ground is moving under them is a pretty standard problem.
Our street has a bad case of the reactive clays (if you have ever driven down it you would notice how remarkably bumpy the road is). This manifests in all kinds of ways, including weird bulging spots in the driveway and courtyard pavers. The house itself is pretty solid, except for one narrow spot where the lounge and dining room meet. To add to the 'this small part of the house could easily be snapped off the rest' effect, there are a couple of vents for the heating and air-conditioner in the ceiling in this part. Not long after we moved in the ceiling started cracking from this corner to one of these vents. We got a guy in to fix it and he did a pretty good job. But for a while now there has been another crack creeping across to the other vent. We have been ignoring this for probably longer than we should have. Add to this the driest start to the year since the 1880's and the weight of the vent, plus the weight of the fancy cornice tore a dirty great hole in the ceiling.
We propped it up with a bit of wood, and the same guy who fixed our previous crack has come around to have a look at it. The ease of the fix will apparently depend on whether they can cut out the broken bit of ceiling without breaking the fancy cornice along the top of that wall (if they do then the whole length of cornice will also need to be replaced). Anyway, they will be starting late this week or early next week, so that will be fun.
I also ended up having an ultrasound just before Easter because I have been having some rather unpleasant pain in my right breast. The ultrasound showed nothing to be concerned about, which is always a relief, and apparently breasts just get that way sometimes. I can't help but wonder if this is some sequelae to the terrible case of mastitis I had after Liam was born (I had a 3cm x 3cm x 2.5cm abcess in that breast - that was some fun I can tell you). If there's scar tissue of some kind in there the sonographer didn't say anything about it. I had some pain on and off in that breast afterwards, but not really anything since Ashwyn was born.
Our local greengrocer also closed over Easter. We have been going there since we moved back to Adelaide (nearly 15 years ago - yikes!), so that was a bit of a blow. I do not like buying fruit and veg at the supermarket, so we are experimenting with getting our fruit and veg at the Central Markets. It's difficult to go to the Central Markets and just buy fruit however. There is a great temptation to splurge on fancy cheese and smallgoods and beautiful pastries. We got some amazing asparagus there last week, and this is what I did with it:
Pasta primavera (yes it is autumn here)
1 small onion, finely diced
2 bunches asparagus (16-20 spears)
1/2 cup frozen peas
1/2 cup of shelled, peeled broad beans
1/2 cup white wine
1 cup cream
1/3 cup parmesan cheese
1 generous tblsp fresh sage leaves, finely chopped
black pepper
olive oil
Set some pasta to cook. Wash and trim the asparagus (the best way to do this is just flex the stem gently - it will snap off at the point where it is too woody to eat). My theory on asparagus, btw, is that the skinnier it is the better.
Heat 1-2 tblsps of olive oil in the bottom of a frying pan. Add the onion and saute on high heat until it is beginning to soften. Add the asparagus and continue cooking until the asparagus has turned a much brighter green colour. Add the broad beans and then add the wine and let it boil down until there is less than a cm left in the bottom of the pan. Stir in the cream, then add the peas. Once this also begins to boil, turn down the heat and add the cheese and sage. Season generously with pepper (and salt if you're into that) or according to taste. Simmer gently for 10 mins or until your pasta is cooked. Toss the sauce through the pasta and serve with additional parmesan.
This is still pretty nice if you don't have any broad beans.
It hasn't all been bad, mind. We had a nice Easter lunch with Andy's family - I made a gluten free carrot cake which came out rather well. Baking is always a bit hit and miss without gluten, and this was actually the first time I've ever made carrot cake. And I took the week after Easter off work, and we had a very pleasant week with nice weather and a bit of pottering around in the garden. I dug 3-4 years worth of compacted compost out from underneath the compost bin and promptly planted some peas in it, and the plants I acquired for the courtyard when
dirtygreatknife and I went to the ABC Plant Fair are doing really well. But the week before Easter Erin got up one morning and noticed that the ceiling in the lounge room was falling in. To understand this, you should first know that Adelaide is built on big chunks of reactive clay which expand quite substantially when wet, and shrink just as drastically when dry. It's a problem all over the place to some extent (at our last house 0.5cm wide fissures used to open in the back garden during summer and then close up again in winter and that was a relatively stable area). Houses getting big cracks in the walls or ceilings because the ground is moving under them is a pretty standard problem.
Our street has a bad case of the reactive clays (if you have ever driven down it you would notice how remarkably bumpy the road is). This manifests in all kinds of ways, including weird bulging spots in the driveway and courtyard pavers. The house itself is pretty solid, except for one narrow spot where the lounge and dining room meet. To add to the 'this small part of the house could easily be snapped off the rest' effect, there are a couple of vents for the heating and air-conditioner in the ceiling in this part. Not long after we moved in the ceiling started cracking from this corner to one of these vents. We got a guy in to fix it and he did a pretty good job. But for a while now there has been another crack creeping across to the other vent. We have been ignoring this for probably longer than we should have. Add to this the driest start to the year since the 1880's and the weight of the vent, plus the weight of the fancy cornice tore a dirty great hole in the ceiling.
We propped it up with a bit of wood, and the same guy who fixed our previous crack has come around to have a look at it. The ease of the fix will apparently depend on whether they can cut out the broken bit of ceiling without breaking the fancy cornice along the top of that wall (if they do then the whole length of cornice will also need to be replaced). Anyway, they will be starting late this week or early next week, so that will be fun.
I also ended up having an ultrasound just before Easter because I have been having some rather unpleasant pain in my right breast. The ultrasound showed nothing to be concerned about, which is always a relief, and apparently breasts just get that way sometimes. I can't help but wonder if this is some sequelae to the terrible case of mastitis I had after Liam was born (I had a 3cm x 3cm x 2.5cm abcess in that breast - that was some fun I can tell you). If there's scar tissue of some kind in there the sonographer didn't say anything about it. I had some pain on and off in that breast afterwards, but not really anything since Ashwyn was born.
Our local greengrocer also closed over Easter. We have been going there since we moved back to Adelaide (nearly 15 years ago - yikes!), so that was a bit of a blow. I do not like buying fruit and veg at the supermarket, so we are experimenting with getting our fruit and veg at the Central Markets. It's difficult to go to the Central Markets and just buy fruit however. There is a great temptation to splurge on fancy cheese and smallgoods and beautiful pastries. We got some amazing asparagus there last week, and this is what I did with it:
Pasta primavera (yes it is autumn here)
1 small onion, finely diced
2 bunches asparagus (16-20 spears)
1/2 cup frozen peas
1/2 cup of shelled, peeled broad beans
1/2 cup white wine
1 cup cream
1/3 cup parmesan cheese
1 generous tblsp fresh sage leaves, finely chopped
black pepper
olive oil
Set some pasta to cook. Wash and trim the asparagus (the best way to do this is just flex the stem gently - it will snap off at the point where it is too woody to eat). My theory on asparagus, btw, is that the skinnier it is the better.
Heat 1-2 tblsps of olive oil in the bottom of a frying pan. Add the onion and saute on high heat until it is beginning to soften. Add the asparagus and continue cooking until the asparagus has turned a much brighter green colour. Add the broad beans and then add the wine and let it boil down until there is less than a cm left in the bottom of the pan. Stir in the cream, then add the peas. Once this also begins to boil, turn down the heat and add the cheese and sage. Season generously with pepper (and salt if you're into that) or according to taste. Simmer gently for 10 mins or until your pasta is cooked. Toss the sauce through the pasta and serve with additional parmesan.
This is still pretty nice if you don't have any broad beans.
no subject
Date: 2019-05-07 03:20 am (UTC)I hope the hole in the ceiling is not too bad today.
Yes you can get lots of good stuff at the CM. But what is this "vegetables" you are talking of?
no subject
Date: 2019-05-07 11:38 pm (UTC)The hole in the ceiling seems fairly stable for now. We got confirmation yesterday that someone will be coming to fix it beginning tomorrow.
no subject
Date: 2019-05-07 02:14 pm (UTC)The recipe looks yum, though odds of getting mum to eat it are pretty slim, sigh.
no subject
Date: 2019-05-07 11:46 pm (UTC)We were worried about the roof leaking too, but Andy went up there just before the rain started, and it seems like the roof itself is structurally fine, it's just the plaster ceiling underneath that has broken.
no subject
Date: 2019-05-08 08:30 am (UTC)That's a relief, I can only imagine how terrible it would if the water came in. I've had that experience in micro, and that was bad enough, but with a full size house (instead of a quarter house, hence micro!), yikes!
no subject
Date: 2019-07-20 03:44 am (UTC)