Pavlova Saga

Over the past few weeks our Spanish exchange student, Mum and I made several Pavlova's in an attempt to discover which tastes better: the packet mix pavlova from the shops or home-made pav. (Also to teach the exchange student how to make her own pavlova when she runs out of the packet recipes... which she should soon as she is back in Spain now!)

For anyone who doesn't know, the Pavlova is an Australian dessert, mainly made from egg whites which is fluffy and is usually decorated with cream and fruit. (Our exchange student liked to try decorating some with nutella as well!)

In my opinion the packet mix looked better because it rose more but the home-made pavlova tasted way better n there were more chewy bits... a rare thing for pavlova or just ordinary meringue for that matter.

Mum and Raquel (exchange student) >>

Let's compare pavlovas... shall we?!

The photos below are of the packet mix pavlova.

Straight out of the oven.

Decorated with whipped cream,

strawberries and kiwi fruit... yuuuum!

And now for the home-made pav. (Below left. The one with kiwi fruit and strawberries is the packet mix pav.) Photos aren't staying in the right position for some odd reason!

A bit flatter and rounder... but just as yum!

Here is the recipe for the home-made Pavlova. You are more than welcome to try it out if you so desire!


PAVLOVA

Ingredients

*4 egg whites

*1 cup castor sugar

*1 teaspoon vinegar

*300-500 ml cream

*About 3 tablespoons of icing sugar/castor sugar to mix with cream

*Fruit to decorate

Method

Cover an oven tray with aluminium foil. Preheat oven to 250 degrees celcius (400 degrees F.)

Beat egg whites stiffly with vinegar using an electric beater (mixer). Add 4 teaspoons of the castor sugar and beat until mixture looks "dry" (about halfway through mixing process).

Add half of the remaining sugar gradually and beat until stiff peaks form. Beat in remaining sugar on low speed for about 1 minute.

Heap pavlova mixture onto oven tray, then form a plate or round shape- it should be approx. 9 inches (22 1/2 cm) in diameter.

Put into oven then reduce oven temperature to 100 degrees celsius (or 225 degrees F.) and bake for 1 hour.

Once it is cooked, remove from oven and cool on tray. (For about half an hour to an hour... otherwise if you try to decorate too soon the cream may melt!)

Whip cream with about 3 tablespoons (or whatever your desired amount is) of icing sugar/mixture. Spread cream over pavlova then decorate with fruit.

How a bowl should be licked

Another cutesey email popped up this morning so I thought I'd share this one with you as well!


How A Bowl Should Be Licked:



How sweet. The owner grabbed a camera instead of chasing the puppy away!














"Until one has loved an animal, part of their soul remains unawakened"

The Invasion of the Birds

Over the past 6 months-1 year, our house (my parent's) has been home to several Spoggies (local slang for Sparrows). They usually inhabit the underside of our timber roof which is a part of our extension to the house.

"Tweet, tweet."

"Tweet, tweet."

"Chirp, chirp."

"Chirp, chirp," comes the reply.

Every morning or so I hear them tweet, flap, flutter and scratch around in our roof. I must say I admire their courage, they must have a nest up there, and we've been trying to get them out for I don't know how long. It seems like quite a while though.

The effort for us to try and get them out results in frustration everytime. The roof is far too high for Mum, Dad or me to reach and when they fly out from one end of the roof they enter from the other side when they think we aren't watching!

Honestly, it seems like "The Attack of the Birds" to me. The way they sit there, staring at us with their little beady eyes in the bushes, trees and on our gutter (pipes that lead to the water tank).

Dad has at one stage tried to block off their main entry point with some steel wool but they just pushed it out the end. It didn't really help much because, as I said before, there are many other entry points along the roof. As I currently can't find our camera I cannot show you what our roof looks like but nevermind. However I have added some pics of the "culprits".

We didn't seem to have this trouble when we still had our cat over 2 years ago. Unfortunately our previous cat died of cancer and we haven't got another one since.

I too have tried getting the cheeky chirpers out of the roof by banging on the ceiling with my fists. This has worked a few times to get them moving, but they are very determined little tweeters. About half an hr to an hr later, they pluck up the courage again and strategise how to enter the roof without my seeing them!

All the other birds in the neighbourhood seem to find it very entertaining as well. I swear half of them are laughing at us in the mornings as we try to scare the Spoggies out of the roof. Our neighbours must find the sight of us hilarious too. Picture me in my bright pink pyjamas, jumping up and down on a chair, hitting the ceiling with my fist and mouthing what must look like shouts of rage- or insanity.

As I write this, one of the pudgy culprits is perched on our TV aerial trying to make me feel sorry for it by showing off his cute little head, small shiny eyes and waggily tail. Well guess what buddy, that's not going to work on me.

How about you feel sorry for me this time Mr. Sparrow? Me with the bedraggled hair, the long, drawn out eyes from all the headaches you give me and my...

Oh who am I kidding? Everyone's going to believe the birds- cunning little chirpers!

Write Articles for Publication 2 -Assignment 1

Part 1-Search the web for some information that is wrong, dubious, or in some way questionable.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Wikipedia_vandelism.svg




This picture isn't very clear so if you actually want to beable to read what it says I'd use the link above if I were you!

It is meant to show a vandelised Wikipedia article on sponges. The paragraphs that have been changed have been highlighted in yellow. The sentence that has been added is highlighted in green, meaning it wasn't in the original version. I selected this page to show how easily Wikipedia pages can be changed by one thoughtless person who wants to edit or destroy someone's work. (The writing highlighted in green reads "Get a life losers".) I'm sure the author of the original article didn't find that comment amusing.




Part 2-If you do not already have one, start a blog. Write an article about blogs and include interviews with three bloggers. Take a photo and put it on the blog.


Blogs are becoming more useful everyday.

Regular bloggers: Sarah Jones, Tanya Souter and Hannah Graul explain why blogs are so useful and popular in these technological times.

"So what is a blog?" This is what I have asked myself over the past few weeks as I have undertaken this assignment. A blog is an online diary; which an individual records their activities,events, feelings and interests for anyone on the internet to view on a fairly regular basis. The earliest 'blogs' were recorded in 1993 and 1994. The term "weblog" was coined by Jorn Barger on 17 December 1997. Peter Merholz created the short form, "blog," and jokingly separated "weblog" into the phrase "we blog" in the sidebar of his blog Peterme.com in April or May
1999. By August 1999, Evan Williams used "blog" as both a noun and verb ("to blog," meaning "to edit one's weblog or to post on one's weblog").

Professional Writing student Sarah Jones has a personal blog at http://sarahshideaway.blogspot.com/ which features some of her interests... scouting, politics and humour. Sarah believes people use blogs to "... share with friends and family what is happening. Alternatively it is used to have their written work out there in the public arena or to have a platform for their message (political, social commentary etc.)"

Tanya Souter reads a lot of genre based blogs because of her love of craft. She visits blogs such as http://www.dawnmcvey.typepad.com/ , http://www.makeeshabyl.com.au/ , and http://www.sew-and-so.blogspot.com/. Genre based blogs can be focused on just about anything from photography to travel blogs. Blogs can also be used to advertise one's business. Tanya also explained people use blogs so "...they can link up with people that are interested in the same things. It could be a hobby or it could be your job. You can get your ideas out, or pick up ideas from other people; practical ideas about what other people do in their profession. I know my husband looks at ambulance blogs and gets ideas about what goes on, how paramedics work in different countries."

Tanya also added, "It's kinda fun, reading about what other people think about everything, their experiences. Some blogs are also used for information because a lot of blogs will have how to-s like craft blogs that explain how to make things."






Medical student Hannah Graul reads a lot of health blogs and stated, "It's not boring like reading a book full of research papers. It's good to read those kind of blogs as they tend to link to other blogs. So I start reading that blog and work outwards. There are lots of other sites that are connected to that blog. It can be interesting to read something that's scientific but it gets really dry and boring really quickly. It's a good way to put myself to sleep so I try not to read them too much."



One particular science blog Hannah reads is called "Mind Hacks". http://mindhacksblog.wordpress.com
" That's about Neuroplasticity; about how people are researching how the brain can change and do interesting things that weren't previously thought possible. So that's quite interesting and the person (author of the blog) is usually quite entertaining to read."




I have discovered that blogs are useful for many things. Whether they are being used for business, finishing an assignment, catching up with family and friends, reading about special interests or buying products, blogs are helping many people achieve their goals in one way or another. So what would you like to blog about?



References

Part 1
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Wikipedia_vandalism.svg

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Criticism_of_Wikipedia



Part 2
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blog

http://www.blockstar.com/blog/blog_timeline.html

http://www.slais.ubc.ca/courses/libr500/05-06-wt1/www/A_Cho/history.htm

http://sarahshideaway.blogspot.com/

http://www.makeeshabyl.com.au/

http://www.sew-and-so.blogspot.com/

http://mindhacksblog.wordpress.com/

Cute Koala Photos

I received these pics in an email this morning from a friend and couldn't resist adding them here.
Give me cute and cuddly animal photos anyday :D


The photos are entitled: The New Baby.
A Koala's Progress


Enjoy!




Hope you said "Awwwwwwwwww" as many times as I did!

Positive points for today

1. I am still alive
2. I have started my tafe assignment
3. I haven't abused the neighbour due to his loud music
4. I haven't eaten all the chocolate biscuits
5. Have refused to listen to the voices in my head saying give up

Introduction of myself and where I come from!

Hi there,

Despite my youthful appearance, (for which I have been assured that I will be grateful for in the future) I am older than what I appear... unless you thought I did look 20, but I doubt it! Sorry for the previous mouthful but I want to eliminate any presumptions about my appearance asap.

Waikerie is my home town, in the Riverland. Waikerie has a population of approx. 5000 and is about a 2 and a half hour drive from Adelaide. Where is the Riverland you ask? Well here is your education now!

The Riverland is situated next to The River Murray, North-East of Adelaide, about a 3 hour drive from Victoria. Riverland farmers grow citrus fruit and wine grapes and has the largest winery in the Southern Hemisphere (The Berri Winery). It is located on the Sturt Highway.

There have been some rumours which I have heard about and read in a local newspaper that some of the Adelaide residents think that there is NO water left in The River Murray. Well this is false. We haven't run out of water yet as we still use ferries! Just thought I'd clear that up. Sorry for all the others who know all this already.

This is a photo of The Murray I took at the Waikerie Clifftop Lookout Tower. As you can see, there is still water there!

I am a Christian and have believed in God and Jesus for most of my life. I attend the Uniting Church in our area (but I don't think people should be classified by what they believe or what church they attend; that is if they do go to church).

I have been studying Professional Writing at Tafe for a few years now, so I hope my writing has improved. I know I have learnt quite a bit from the various course books I have studied. I am very passionate about writing and hope to one day publish a book of some sort. At the moment I have been studying children's books as I am illustrating a friend's book.

I'm not sure what I want to focus my blog on yet, so any advice would be greatly appreciated.

That's all for now. Hope I haven't ranted too much XD