Lazy Sunday afternoon. Feeling very unstressed. Not looking forward to coming in to work tomorrow and being tense again.

And for sick Americans I have included a soup recipe in the hope that they get a change from chicken soup.

Potato and Leek with Chives and Cream Soup Recipe

Serves four

Ingredients

500 grams of potatoes – quartered for chunky soup / cubed for smoother soup
3 leeks – sliced thin
1 litre chicken or vegetable stock (for a vego version)
1/4 to 1/2 cup of cream
chopped chives

Instructions

1. Heat oil in large pot. Put in the leek. Cover. Cook with moderate heat for five minutes or until soft. Stir occasionally.

2. Add potatoes and stock to the pot. Cover again and bring to the boil. Reduce heat and cook until potato is soft. Season to taste with salt and pepper.

3. For smooth soup let cool and place in a blender and blend until smooth. For chunky soup leave as is.

4. Can be served hot or cold. Stir in cream and cover with chives and serve with crusty bread.

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New design actually working after had burst of inspiration last night – still in test mode though as always having second thoughts about changing *smile*. Tired though and a bit tense over a bloody grant application. First one in new job and don’t want to mess it up (read fuck it up and have everyone come down on me like a ton of bricks). Due on Monday and still need to get someone to read the bloody thing. Then next week is flat out doing a proposal that needs to zoom to Europe shortly thereafter. And then another response to a whole bunch of questions. Not totally sure how it’s going to fit in next week but it’ll work out somehow. *sigh*

Went to see J&J last night – Girl J’s birthday – she’s very pregnant – 8.5 months worth and due in early April. Caught up with several old work people at her birthday too. Things sound positively awful back there. May have issues in new job but better than old one. Well off again – chain of meetings this afternoon and a search to find someone to read my grant application and approve it.

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In the process of starting a new design. Tired of current one. Always a good thing to keep brain off things happening in the world to do a good bit of thumping out HTML and seeing the results. So tinkering with CSS code and trying to get some columns nicely aligned and then choosing colours and then going ‘geez you suck at this’ a few million times at myself.

Okay ditching new design after complete lack of inspiration. Hmmm. Typical got the technical details right. Just haven’t got a creative bone in my body *sigh* and *lol*. Another day perhaps.

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So whilst I was meandering in the rainforest, reading a small mountain of books, eating fine food and drinking too much booze the world went to the dogs again. The US wandered off the straight and narrow and invaded yet another sovereign nation. What can I say that hasn’t already been said at :- Michael Moore.com or MoveOn.org and a variety of other sites? Probably very little. The actions of the US government are reckless, illegal and likely to provoke a long term violent response both within Iraq and globally. The events in Afghanistan post the Russian invasion should spring to mind. Where the Afghani Mujahedin successfully and aggressively resisted the Russian Army eventually causing 15,000 Russian deaths and 500,000 wounded. The lesson learnt: Do not engage guerrillas, especially in direct combat, while the population supports them. Anyone want to lay bets that there will be guerillas after the war if the Americans decide to occupy Iraq? And you can’t kill guerillas with smart bombs. You need to do it with men and rifles. And as in Vietnam and Afghanistan those people die in large, and given the position of the media in war these days, public numbers. Yet again lessons unlearned and history repeated.

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Back from Daintree. More when not so disappointed about being home instead of sitting by the pool with my beer and book.

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Well I’m off for a week – back Tuesday the 25th of March. Until then there will be no updates.

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Well that was a hell of a weekend. Sympathies go out to C – who tripped on her dress at the end of Saturday and banged her head rather badly. Which resulted in four of us standing outside the JPM waiting for the ambos to rock up. Thankfully in looked worse than it was as head cuts tend to bleed rather profusely. When I saw her yesterday she was one big bruise on the side of her face and shoulder. So poor C – looked bloody painful. Quite a few hang overs I think – some people went on drinking Saturday Carly and Matt looked like they were going to make a serious night of it and a few others wandered off to the Rocks and I believe finished up at about the 6am mark or so. By which stage I was well and truly asleep. Still quite a few people at the house until Tuesday which is annoying but whatever. Just need some peace and quiet I guess.

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Long night. Now going to sleep. Tired and hungover. Though I have an inexplixable craving for Turkish pizza. Hmmm.

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Went back to work as have been immensely bored. With my lady love at work helping sick kiddies and me being at home with only the cats for company – whose idea of fun activities on a rainy day is to find the warmest and darkest place to sleep and claw anyone who interferes with this mission – I have been somewhat at a loose end. Know the 50 channels and nothing on syndrome? So for a while there my mental state was in the balance and indeed without R keeping me sane (even at the occasional expense of her mental well being *grin*) and if Z and K hadn’t shown up I’d have shot myself by now.

Z and K have been staying the last day or so and doing the tourist thing in Sydney. It’s been fun – sorry Z I didn’t have the bed you could properly fit in, several inches of 6 foot and then some stick over the end of my little double futon spare bed. All I could see this morning when I said goodbye was a pair of giant feet hanging over the end of the bed and a shaggy head at the top. *lol* And it’s been really good to meet K after hearing so many good things about her. Though she needs to be give up smoking if she wants to get rid of that cough. *smile*

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I have bloody bronchitis and a touch of pneumonia according to the doctor. Which is fucking great given the week I’ve got. Trust my body to let me down now *half smile*