just another term-time sunday..

Skirt came out to play on the 9th. It missed out on the soccer, that was earlier in the day (skirt is a late sleeper. [Aw, sorry skirt, I do actually know that you'd love to be out and about in the crispy morning hours, it's just I don't think soccer is your thing. No, really. Maybe if I cut slits down the sides? No, I'm sure you wouldn't really appreciate that. You just have to miss out now & then. Suck it up.])

ANYWAY, what skirt did get to be in on was a mother's day chat, some super-exciting-washing-doing, a statistics group meeting (which was made more fun than it sounds by heading down to Raj's Corner on Beaumont Street, where we enjoyed sauce on rice, naan, and lassis and took advantage of the free wireless!)

Oh, and then I went babysitting. My perky nearly-two-year-old friend and I took the pram for a walk. Here's what we returned with:

-two cake tins (they doubled well as drums).
-two washing baskets (only slightly mangled)
-a perfectly good sieve
[the above were from hard rubbish. My small charge's idea, I swear!]
-grapes (the ones that didn't get eaten on the way home)
-cheese
-chocolate (on special!)
-hmm some sugar, eggs, and tomatoes (only dropped twice).

Pretty good walk, hey?

Still Slack.. smart skirt though

I wore BS (that's Blue Skirt, whatever you were thinking..) on the 6th April. Was home in Dubbo on Easter break. I went for a walk down by the river, then came back to find my mum and sisters had gone out shopping. I dithered for a while, then took the other car and followed! I was glad I did, because there were sales everywhere and I managed to pick up a few cheap tops (most of my tops are rather worn & torn..) and $3 thongs.
I thought about study but didn't get around to it. I think some gingerbread men baking and decorating had something to do with that...

Slackety-slack

I have worn my friendly blue skirt a couple more times in the past month but have so far not gotten around to noting them down.. oops.

I know one time was on the 8th March. I went along to a couple of classes at uni, then went to see Alice at the movies with a whole bunch of friends to celebrate one of their birthdays :). My first (and the skirt's) 3D experience. It was amazing we actually got in cos we turned up as it was meant to be starting and then there was a massive line. But as there was so many people they put the starting time back by 20mins. So we didn't miss any - yay!! Pretty cool movie. A bit of a sadder and spookier tone than the books and other movies.. but an interesting take on it.
Then we came back to my place after and had a birthday supper - choc cake and gifts and other goodies..

Then I wore it the next day as well. Pretty average, just more uni, and hanging with housemates that evening.

In and around el D.F.

Wed 10th Feb

Staying with friends on the outskirts of Mexico City at the moment. Today we went to check out a few things for my friend's brother's wedding. We went to a cute little colonial town called Tepozotlan, where they got paperwork sorted and we enjoyed tacos de barbacoa (really really yummy pit-roasted goat in tortillas) and quesadillas de mixote (toasted tortillas filled with cheese and black, smoky-flavoured mushrooms).
We continued on to check out the wedding venue - a lovely house and garden nearby, and made enquiries about chairs, tables, pavilions, and things of that sort.

That night a bunch of us went to see El Libro de los Secretos (yeah you guessed it; The Book of Secrets) - it was in english, just with spanish subtitles, so I was able to understand _all_ of it, for a change!

Last day in San Cris

Sunday 24th Jan

The weather has been brilliantly sunny here lately, so I did some washing. My hair got a much-needed scrubbing too!
We had lunch (actually, I think they called it breakfast! I am a bit confused about the meal names and times here!) with the Baptist pastor and his family. They are very lovely. They had a big green parrot which I managed to coax into sitting on my hand and letting me stroke it. I only got pecked once!
We had chicken soup (with tortillas, of course!).
I went and farewelled a few friends that arvo. One lady was weaving me some little beaded bracelets, so I went to see how she was going with them. She & her husband were there, beading away.. I heard all about their family, and was shown about 100 photos of various members at various ages by her daughter Anna! It was nice.
Quesadillas for supper! Yum. And some fast & furious games of Take Two later on..

Thurs 21st - Tortilla Time!

Today I started learning to make tortillas, with the lovely lady Goy nextdoor! She'd soaked her maize kernels overnight in water with lime in it. Then we rinsed them and took them to a lady who has a molino (grinder). Out came the dough, just like that. We added nothing more.
Started a little fire under Goy's komal (cooking hotplate thing).
They used to do the tortillas by hand, which I tried (hard cos the dough is very soft and sticky), but now the people all have little metal tortilla presses (basically there's a flate metal plat, and you press another plate over it). They put the pastry inbetween bits of plastic (like the plastic of a plastic bag) so it won't stick. You carefully peel off the plastic, attempt to place it smoothly on the komal (without it ending up as a crumpled mess, which is harder than it looks!). It rests there for a couple of moments, then you flip it, then you flip it again, then you flip it a third time, and if you're lucky it'll have separated into 2 layers & will puff right up, leaving you with a lovely, light-textured tortilla. Mine turned out ok, but I've got a way to go yet..
Goy shared some coffee and frijoles (beans) with us, which we ate with some fresh tortillas.

San Cristobal Amatlan

I spent a week in a bustling indigenous village by the name of San Cristobal Amatlan. The skirt got a bit more of an airing, which was nice for it as I think it had been feeling sorely ignored, if not entirely abandoned!

On Wed 20th we spent a bit of time in the kitchen, making fresh mandarin juice and coffee and slicing fruit (yummy red mamey!) for morning tea. Then we helped make mole negro (really rich, spicy, chocolatey sauce) for lunch. We served it with rice, fresh tortillas made by the lady nextdoor, and sticks of a sweet, crunchy white vegetable called 'jicaya' (I think).
Visited the Baptist church that night. Although they speak Zapotec, their traditional language here, the songs and bible readings are all in Spanish. And a bit of the preaching too.. Partly it's cos they don't have many resources in Zapotec, but partly because they seem to think doing things in spanish is the 'right' way (even though pretty much only the school kids speak it well!)

First wear outside Oz!

After about 10 days away, the skirt finally got to strut its stuff (on Friday, 8th Jan). They´re not the most practical attire for travelling, as I don´t like to carry money in a bag (maybe I should sew a little pocket inside it?). But it was a lovely breezy afternoon in Belize, so after arriving in sleepy little Corozal, just near the Mexican border, I decided to get it out.
I strolled down the streets, wandered along the edge of the bay, got chatted up by a guy - politely refused his offers to act as my guide, watched a bunch of other guys pulling in nets of lots of little white fish on a jetty, and just enjoyed soaking it all in.
I ate dinner - freshly made empanandas - at a little stall just outside the ´guesthouse´where I was staying. The couple who own the place were having dinner as well, so the mother got her oldest daughter to make them. They had a TV set up there, so I sat on a stool outside with them and caught up on the latest events of Belize.