Zig Zag Railway

Donald's mum Joan has been staying with us for a couple of weeks.  One of her desires whilst in Sydney was to ride on the Zig Zag Railway in the Blue Mountains.  So by car and motor bike we headed up the Bells Line of Road into the cool crisp mountains.  Donald on Black Betty, Joan, the boys and I in the car (the Horrendous Falcon only seats five).  We arrived in the mountains to the sound of Bell birds and the smells of fresh green bush land.  After enduring the "When do we get there?" we arrived at Clarence Station, Platform 9 3/4. The train arrived to a bunch of excited passengers waiting at the station.  

The boys couldn't wait to get into the old carriages.  

The train's engine itself was made in Ipswich, Queensland and the carriages were made by Queensland Rail.  

Seeing the baggage racks on the train brought back memories of catching the train to school in Brisbane, Queensland.  The school kids used to get the old deisel trains with the pull down windows and creaky doors while the city going passengers got the nice new electric trains.  The Zig Zag train was a bit more fun though.  With charcoal dust and smoke blowing through the windows, kids getting ash and coal dust in their eyes, going through tunnels in pitch black as there were no lights on in the carriage, the train rattled and chuffed along.  Poor Toby got a little freaked out by the noise and motion and especially in the dark tunnels.  Lucky Joan had a torch in her bag which he clung to for dear life.

Once the train got to the Top Points station, the engine had to disconnect and swap to the end of the carriages so it could pull the train down to the the Bottom Points station.  Which is why it's called the Zig Zag railway.  Then once at the bottom it had to disconnect again and swap to pull us back up to Top Points station to repeat the same process again.  It was just fun watching, waiting and hopping on and off the train.

Just before we went through the last tunnel back up the hill the train stopped to pick up some Scouts who were walking the trail to the bottom station. As we went into the tunnel the train was working it's hardest so the carriages got smoked out, ash, coal dust and heat from the engine fogged up our glasses.

It was a lot of fun despite the ash, smoke and coal dust it was all part of the experience.

What Happens....

....when you let your mother in law touch up your roots?

Joan is a fantastic nurse, but a crazy hair colourist.

Uh Oh!

We're in trouble!

Just a little too much blonde.

So what do you do??.........You become brunette!!

PS. By the way this has been done before by me, so I was prepared with the brunette colour in the cupboard. Although poor Joan has just flown off back to Rockhampton thinking she's ruined my hair.

Sweet Love

My boys are all in love. 

They are all in love with the same girl. 

Her name is Dusty. 

She is only visiting for one week, and I know their hearts will be broken by the end of the week.

300th post and a recipe

I haven't put up any recipes for a little while so I thought I'd show you this easy roast chicken recipe which is lovely and fresh.  And seeing as it's my 300th post I wanted to share it with you.  When I prepare meals I want them tasty and I want them quick and easy.  This one has both those qualities.  I hope you enjoy it.

Flat roasted chicken

1 whole free range chicken

1 lemon sliced

  handful of thyme sprigs

handful of oregano sprigs, you can also pull the leaves 

off the stalk of oregano and thyme if you prefer it that way.

8 garlic cloves

olive oil

salt and pepper

Pre-heat oven to 200°C (390°F)

Prepare your roasting tray, lay half of the garlic cloves unpeeled, half the lemon slices and half of the thyme and oregano into the bottom of the tray.

Cut the chicken either down the breast bone or the back bone and open up the one cut side.  You'll need a big sharp knife or kitchen scissors for this.  Turn the open side down into the tray on top of herbs and garlic, press on top to flatten the chicken. Rub olive oil all over, season with salt and pepper and place remaining thyme and oregano over top, with the rest of the garlic cloves tucked in under the wings and in crevises.  Lay the remaining lemon slices over top of the herbs and chicken.

Now depending on how quick you want to eat your chicken you can put it straight into the oven for 40-45 minutes until golden brown, or you can turn down the oven to 180°C (350°F) and cover the tray with aluminium foil and cook it a little slower for an 1 hr 10 mins or so (this keeps it lovely and moist) and then take the foil off and put back in the oven for another 10 minutes or so until it browns up a little.  I've tried it both ways and have loved it either way.

If you want quick roast vegies too, pre-boil some potatoes, sweet potatoes and carrots, drain then sprinkle with olive oil and salt then put in the oven on another tray for about 30 mins.  Keep and eye on the chicken and vegies as I have a slow oven and yours may be quicker, you just don't want the chicken to dry out.

Retain the juices from the pan and some of the cooked garlic, squeeze the garlic out of the shell and mix up a little gravy, add some flour, chicken stock and water and bring slowly to the boil.  It is a lovely, lemony chickeny, garlicy flavour, delicious poured over the chicken and any roast vegies.

Sorry I forgot to take photo's of the finished product but I was so eager to dig in and eat it, so you'll have to make do with partial shots of the roasted chicken.

7 am

Where are you at 7 am?

Happy St Patricks Day

Yep soccer season is starting again.

Introducing...

The Millenium (Horrendous) Falcon, the fastest hunk of junk this side of the galaxy.  You may ask why we call her the Horrendous Falcon.  We bought her third hand in 2003, no not second hand, you see she's had a few previous owners since she was born in 1996.  I have this feeling that she will belong to us until her dying day.  We have been living with her previous owners mistakes and dodginess and keeping her alive so we can transport our family to all the places we need to go.

Replaced so far:

Batteries, various bits of engine wire, starter motor, flicker switch, various engine bits, interior roof lining, it all started caving in and leaving foamy bits all over the inside of the car, we call it car dandruff.

The radiator and every part attached to the radiator have been replaced at one time or other and we came back to square one again last month when we needed to replace the radiator cap again.  Every couple of years we replace the front two tyres, just done last week, a last minute job to make the registration requirements.

  

Also a last minute job the front left head light needed replacing, again a requirement for registering the car.  Don Solo has managed to scrape up the parts needed to replace all necessary bits so the Millenium (Horrendous) Falcon can fly again.

The front protective plastic panelling (a little alliteration there), that fell off on our Canberra trip that protects the under side of the engine from stones was taken care of by Don Solo yet again.

Rear plastic panelling flew off on the way to church one morning, couldn't find it again, and hasn't been replaced.

Side plastic panelling on doors, never replaced, just taped up and held in place (due to a dodgy paint and repair job from previous owners, they tried to silicone it up) not much else we can do there.

And don't forget our trip to Gunnedah when the steering column started smoking and it took two days to replace it because we had to get the part from Tamworth.  Oh the journeys we've had with our Horrendous Falcon.  We do look after her and she does get a bath a least once a year.  We're saving water you know.  

I do love my Horrendous Falcon, she's comfy to drive, she fits us all in, we can load up the back and drive halfway up the country to Queensland or down south to Canberra.  Yes a new Ford Territory would be nice but I don't think we'd have half as much fun on our travels if we didn't have bits flying off the car, or steam coming from the radiator, or smoke from the steering column.  She's another part of our Earth Walker family and we wouldn't be without her.

Grateful

There are days that go by and you are rushing through it to get to the end of the day.  You are hurrying the kids along, hurry up and finish your breakfast, hurry up and get dressed, hurry up we're going to be late for school.  You want that peace that comes with having survived another day.  You kind of forget that each and every child has their own agenda that they're trying to get through.  I just want to play, I was in the middle of  a good chapter of this book, I just want to escape from homework and play with the magnets in a battle, I'm singing on the toilet...... can I play nintendo?  We forget because we're just too busy trying to do the right things for our kids and get them where they need to go or feed them so they will grow.  I love the moments they are together and interacting as little people do, in the bath, at the table, on the floor or reading books together on the bed.  It's moments like these you just don't want to rush, savour them and be grateful.

Did I tell you...

I missed this guy while he was at pre-school today.  As I said good bye to him this morning, I felt like staying and playing as he watched me go with his serious face and tongue poking around in his cheeks.  But I know that after I left, his happy face came back and he got on playing without me.

Before.....

.....and After

The boys room is finally finished, remember we started stripping the wallpaper after Christmas?  It is so refreshing now, it's lighter and brighter and they actually want to sit at the desk to do their homework, for the time being anyway.  I asked Sam which did he prefer the wallpaper or the new paint, and he replied "I liked them both".  You mean we could have left the wallpaper up and they would have been happy?  I think I prefer the new paint job though.

We used Taubmans Easy coat with Microban (to protect against mould etc.) for the walls in  Tahnee Blue and Milk Dew for doors and trim.  For the yellow cupboard doors we used Nippon  Advance, deep gloss in Gleam 3, however it becomes rather textured and took on the grain of the brush or roller which we didn't really want but finished it up with about 3 coats to smooth it out as much as we could.  It's not so bad with the textured surface though, we can live with it.

We had to move the boys dressing tables out into the spare room as we didn't have enough room for all of the book cases as well as the dressers.  At least there's a little play space and lots of books for them to choose from.  We love books, we love space, but somehow the boys still gravitate with their toys and books into the lounge room to play.  

Canberra trip - day 3 continued

Before we left Canberra we decided to visit the Royal Australian Mint (RAM).  

I had visions of it being bigger like a factory with the workings of the mint and money making in view.  Alas no, so a little dissappointed there.  No viewing gallery, just the shop, a little video telling us to go and stamp your own $1 coin, which we did, it cost $3 to get $1.  We knew that was the case, at least the boys have a little keepsake.  

If you're planning on going to the RAM don't go until after Easter, I understand they are doing a revamp of the place with viewing gallery and tours etc.  at least check the web site for details.

On our way home I really wanted to drive through a town called Taralga, it is just north of Goulburn and that big ram.

The country is really lovely around there rolling hills, lots of stone houses and stone walls, sheep and cattle.  

Anyway the best way home (I thought) was to drive along the Wombeyan Caves road instead of driving home through the Blue Mountains.  Little did we know it was a windy single lane dirt road that hugged the southern end of the Blue Mountains and took us past the Wombeyan Caves, up and down the mountains all the way to Mittagong. FYI very slow going, honking your horn around every corner on the one lane dirt track it took us over an hour just to get to Mittagong.  Beautiful scenery along the way though, if you don't mind 50 foot drops from the edge of the road, a few cows along the way and a bit of wild life.

My bubble gum chewing children, notice the purple gum on their teeth.

So we arrived home with a dirty car, minus a few bits but it was good to get away.