I arrived in Sydney at the very uncivilized time somewhere around 6am on a Saturday morning. The only upside was that traffic was light - a plus, considering that I was being picked up at the airport.
The flights themselves passed quickly - I had interesting people to sit next to - we chatted for a bit before everyone fell asleep. I slept through most of both flights - so landed in Sydney a bit turned around but not too exhausted.
Who needs sleep?
Jetlag has now had me in its grip for the past 4 nights - the first night I fell asleep sometime after 7pm. I awoke refreshed and convinced I must have slept hours and days away, only to find out it was...10pm. The same night. The outcome of so little sleep - clumsy, tired and emotional.
Have also finally managed to have a full night of sleep. It was the first time since last week - what with the strain of waiting for exam results, packing, cleaning, travelling and - oh yes - jetlag - it was a struggle to get enough sleep (the most was on the plane trip over from London). 3 hours at a time or less = crazy person. 8 hours after lots of sleep deprivation = shiny, happy vacationer. Who knew you could have such trouble sleeping when normally it's the opposite problem?
Sad beginning
The first order of business in Sydney was to make an appointment with a doctor (to treat the cough which is still dogging me) and then to attend the funeral of a family friend. It wasn't unexpected, but I'm not sure one can ever really be prepared for the passing of someone dear. Anyway, I saw several friends there, whom I had already arranged to meet later during the trip - it was nice to see them, although not under the circumstances we would have liked.
Stymied...
The whole purpose of this trip was to spend as much time with my grandmother as possible. Unfortunately I have to wait a few more days - there is a sensible policy that one not go to the nursing home unless in good health - as the elderly may not have as strong immune systems as an adult in their prime - a consideration we take into account when in the kitchen as well, for "high risk" foods.
What vacation?
The upshot is that I have a great deal more free time for the first week than initially planned, with the result that I wandered into the office. Disaster! I found out that I had missed work (well, that I discovered a few weeks ago) but now I can't seem to stay away. Maybe I have been conditioned, like Pavlov's dogs...this is also my home when I am in Sydney.
Social butterfly - kind of...
There are many friends whom I haven't seen in ages - so the calendar has quickly filled up with various social doings, the ones from next week all planned around trips to the nursing home. Who knew that you could be so busy when you have neither job nor study to take up all those hours? (Speaking of jobs...I was hoping, and was offered, some work to do while home. I was told that was not quite normal to love my job.)
Anyway, on the agenda - a dinner at Tetsuya's. It usually has a long waiting list - for some reason 3 months is flying around in my head, but it may be less. Here are photos of a) confit of ocean trout (their signature dish) and the salad next to it; and b) my dear friend Pip, whom I missed. We had a wonderful time together and got to catch up on all the girly gossip that can sometimes be difficult to have when in a large group. Absolutely delicious food (except the foie gras - sorry, Mr Wakuda - I still don't like it, but the rest of the meal was wonderful).
Technologically challenged
My old phone had to be replaced because I had dropped it so many times in London that it had basically fallen apart - I was holding it together with sticky tape - very classy.
The good part is that my old phone was almost out of contract anyway so I could switch to a new one. It's a 2 year commitment but I have finally gotten used to that - and I kind of switched providers (they merged, but I got the benefits) so a better deal for the phone plan anyway. The new phone which came with the plan: a Blackberry. Possibly very cool - I wouldn't know because I am still trying to figure out how to get my messages from it. I basically push random buttons on it until it seems to come up with a message - kind of like the way that I turn on the music part of my DVD player which has an ipod dock. There is a huge question mark as to whether it is possible to turn on the music on purpose - currently the answer is "no" but I am hoping to change that upon my return to Sydney in January. As for any other options it may be able to do? Well, I figured out that if you lock the phone, the only way I know to unlock it is to turn it off, then back on. Otherwise? No clue...
Other things to do on this trip: visits, dinners, etc. with friends - I will be overloaded on coffee and food before I leave Sydney. There was a private little happy dance in what is not my office today at the news that one of my girlfriends has had her baby. I believe he was even a little early - so a big congratulations to SL & GL - I am so excited to be an Aunty to your little man!
So until next time - I wish you happiness, health and sweet dreams.
Ok, maybe not such a long time ago. A small band of students were either recovering from the brutality of final exams or getting psyched up to take them. Weary in mind, body and spirit, they gathered to chat, laugh and eat lots of yummy food.
It's not over until it's over
Exams are over...but classes are not! We found out today that they have rescheduled that truffle class which got postponed due to the riots - to Thursday at noon. They won't mark us absent if we don't attend - but for those of us still in London, it's a chance to do the class because we'll be doing this as part of the Superior Patisserie final exam - that is, temper 2 different kinds of chocolate - so truffles it is.
Drinking the Kool-aid?
In the meantime, there has been a rebellion against French cooking at home. Friday night was an early dinner for a friend as I had missed her birthday celebrations last week due to panic and preparation for my final exams.
The rest of it was rather an insidious rebellion - Saturday night I made a pasta that any of my French cuisine chefs would have approved of. I didn't have macaroni, so I made mac 'n cheese with broken up spaghetti noodles - and whole milk, butter, double cream, cheese - then to top it off because it needed a little something, smoked haddock for that salty kick. I thought I had been indoctrinated by the French cooking we've been doing - certainly it tasted pretty good. Or it could be because I was really hungry by the time dinner was ready - I had spent the day sleeping, reading and watching You Tube.
However, Sunday morning was brunch with some friends and the rebellion occurred over eggs. Omelettes, to be precise - the power of more cream and butter failed to sway us to the dark side. Instead, I used olive oil for almost everything. We have to make and present things the "proper" way in class. So I made my omelettes with color (quel horreur!) which is a more rustic way of doing it. One of the Roux brothers (Albert?) likes his omelettes colorless - i.e. the proper way. The other Roux brother (so I'm guessing it must be Michel) likes his with a bit of color. I made mine his way - except my omelette wasn't runny in the middle, although I made runny middles for CD and NR.
Had planned on poaching eggs and making hollandaise sauce, but changed the plan because we didn't have enough stomach space after all the other cooking.
We also had a Spanish omelette (someone said it's called a tortilla - I have no idea) - which is more potato and onions with a little egg to bind it together. We also had some sauteed girolle mushrooms with garlic, crispy bacon, Scottish smoke salmon with country style bread, jamon, lemon wedges, dill and...I can't remember if there was anything else.
Yesterday was a lovely day off. The sun was shining for most of the day - I opened the blinds in my flat and enjoyed the sunshine while reading a book, sprawled out on the bed. It was bliss not having to do anything - although I did take the opportunity to get my things together for class today and to do some laundry. Yes, we had class today...
In which we don't need AA...
Today was Patisserie - finishing our celebration cakes. They are basically like the Christmas cakes you find in Australia / Europe - the ones which are rum with some dried/candied fruits thrown in and a little starch to make it all stick together. It's apparently also the top layer of an English/Australian wedding cake - the layer you freeze and keep until the Christening of your first child. Anyway - you could still smell the alcohol we put in it back in July and if you wanted to, you could give your cake another "drink". Mine didn't need more - besides, I'm not sure how Kirsch goes with rum.
So these are the cakes we made back in July - where the smell of the rum was making some of us drunk in class. We made the flowers last week because they needed a few days to dry. Then we covered the cakes with marzipan and royal icing today, before putting our decorations on the cakes. The concept in my head was sound, but I think the execution was a bit lacking.
One of our Patisserie chefs told us in Basic that you know when you leave the kitchen if you failed. If you're unsure, you're still in with a chance.
So Tuesday's Patisserie debacle was temporarily put on hold while we studied for our Cuisine theory test yesterday (no idea where my handout is on shellfish) which I managed to finish pretty quickly. Think I did well on it - which is necessary given the implosion at the Cuisine final exam today. We had an 8am demo which I thought was a bit hard on those of us who had our final exams at noon (2 groups).
Ugh - we had the lamb for our final exam. Apparently I looked crappy enough that some nice guy whom I don't know (Superior Cuisine?) handed me a cup of water as he passed by because I was "all red". I was on Station 6 so had half an hour to stew and calm down until I could get into the kitchen to start my 5 minute prep, then start cooking. No doctor's note, so the choice was to skip the exam and fail Intermediate or to take the exam and give it my best, which I knew would be far from my best. I was prepared for the exam, just knew that I wasn't moving very fast.
I'm not the only one who was feeling crappy. I had a friend in town for work and we were supposed to have a quick dinner last night. We had just sat down and the food arrived when we had to bolt the restaurant - he had been taken ill and we cabbed it to the London Hospital where we couldn't find the ER - we wandered around until we found it, then there was the inevitable wait for triage where they sent us next door to the NHS (National Health Service) walk-in clinic. No paying, which was great - and he didn't need to be admitted so that was all good. A relief that he didn't need to stay the night.
Visions of Grey's Anatomy
Preparation for today: blue paper surgical mask for the coughing. Definitely did not look like I belonged on Grey's Anatomy.
Outcome: 5 minutes over = 10% penalty on top of the problems with the lamb dish - I think I forgot my mint chiffonade, the sauce was under reduced and greasy, some of the vegetables weren't going to be hot enough and I am praying that the lamb was not overseasoned or undercooked and did I leave smudges on the rim of the plate when I was carrying it over to the kitchen chef? Rumor has it that the tasting is being carried out by all the French cuisine chefs - I am so going to get killed on the debrief.
Some reassurance by Superior students that if the cake is still standing in Patisserie and you get (most) of the lamb on the plate and if it's still standing in Cuisine, there's a good chance of passing. Any hopes of doing well have flown out the window and now it's just a matter of hoping and wishing and praying - is that how the song goes?
I suppose if worse comes to worst, I will be the best prepared Intermediate next term - but I really don't want to repeat it...especially cuisine - rabbit and bouillabaisse once was enough. I can still feel those rabbit bones under my fingertips as I write this post.
Sorry for there being no photos - there was no time. I think everyone just wanted to go home and have a hot shower after class. I had a small snack with some friends then fled home, only to find that the work in my bathroom - recaulking in the shower - hadn't finished. The guys were working on the second coat but they had a very glum audience watching them finish, not bothering to hide the fact that she wanted them out as quickly as possible. They finished quickly and I had a nice long scrub - it was so nice to wash the lamb off.
Anyway - until next time, may you all have no period of uncertainty where you await your fate.
