August 25 - Food with Friends

  Woke up when my alarm went of at 9am.  Most of the time I don't need an alarm for 9am but I've been so tired this last few weeks that I figured I'd set it as a precaution.  I had breakfast: yoghurt, berries and fibre toppers.  I did actually forget to get the berries out last night so I zapped them in the microwave for a minute.  It changed the texture a bit as they released a lot more juice that their slow defrost in the fridge produces, but it still was a pleasant breakfast.
  After catching up on facebook, emails, imgur, abebooks newsletters and Erik T's zombie apocolypse blog I got into my work out gear and got on the cross trainer.  I like to get it out of the way early in the day on the weekends so that anything fun I'm doing is not impeded upon.  After my Buffysworth of exercise was done I got into the shower and minor disaster struck!
  The hot tap came off in my hand!  Luckily my dad always felt his girls should be able to look after themselves so I looked at the problem (the lock nut had come off the stem) and was able to temporarily fix it with some thin nosed pliers.  I only temporarily fixed it as I really wanted to get showered and leave for lunch!  I think
  I've been very good with my food and exercise this week, you may have noticed, but that has a pay off.  The pay off has been the knowledge of my impending all-you-can-eat chinese lunch date at Noodle Kingdom Box Hill with Captain Cupcake.  She got one of those online coupon deals.

Round 1

  It was quite clever how they did it.  In order to reduce on wastage from people with eyes bigger than their stomachs they said you could order two items from the Snack/Dumpling Menu and one thing from the Noodle Menu and then if you finished all of that you could re-order.  For our first round of ordering we had Steamed Shanghai Pork Dumplings (I ate 3 of the 7), Fried Stripped Noodle with Beef (of which I ate about half) and Pan Fried Chicken and Prawn Dumplings (I at 3 of 6).  The pan fried dumplings were a clear favourite with both of us.  We got through the first lot without too much groaning.

Round 2

For round two, we ordered Steamed Pork and Shrimp Buns (I ate 2 of 4), more Pan Fried Chicken and Prawn Dumplings (again, I ate 3 of 6) and Combination Seafood Fried Noodle.  The second noodle dish wasn't as enjoyable and we were getting pretty darn bloated by that stage.  I was happy enough to admit defeat before we finished it.  I did overeat, but I knew I would a week ago so I feel that I made appropriate allowances for it.  I didn't need to untie the waist strap on my jacket though,so I did better than in the past.
  I dropped Cupcake home and went on to my place where I was promptly encouraged to leave again and go round to Mr Smart's.  Tonight Mr Smart and I babysit his two year old nephew.  He is adorable, a very bright and happy little boy.  It wasn't long into tonight's episode of 'In The Night Garden' that he marched himself off to bed.

  With him asleep there wasn't really to much to babysitting apart from sitting.  Mr Smart's sister had left an undressed salad (and ingredients for dressing) and a couple of snapper fillets in the fridge for us for dinner.  I set the table and got water and things while Mr Smart made the dressing and pan fried the fish.  He even cut up little lemon wedges.  It was a lovely meal, all light and fresh, especially after such a heavy lunch.
  After dinner Mr Smart started on some study while I watched The Avengers (lots of fun) and beyond that, he started making me watch Joss Whedon's Cabin In The Woods.  When Mr Smart's sister got home from dinner I didn't hear her come in and I nearly jumped out of my skin!  I hate scary movies but I will admit that I want to see how this one turns out so I shall probably reattempt it at some point.
  We drove back to my place and it was already midnight when we got here so we went straight to bed rather than slog it out to finish my blog on the day, hence the 'late' publication.
  Hope you all are having a lovely weekend.
  Jess

PS: My little green machine Hester turned 50,000km today, just as I pulled up to collect Captain Cupcake.  I'm not sure why it made me smile, but it did!

Hester is named after my second cousin who lives in England.