It's time

Is there anything as wonderful as the feeling of anticipation that comes when you have an exciting holiday coming up, with plans to visit places you've never been before, a visit to one city you have visited before and loved, and time with a good friend to look forward to?

What to do now?

What to do now? A question I ask myself a thousand times a day. With 'now' meaning a load of different things from 'right this minute' to 'for the rest of my life'!

Every now and then the possibilities overwhelm me. There are so many options. Just think about it ...

Thinking about setting up a business? The internet has opened up opportunities that didn’t exist 10, or even 5 years, ago. What talents can I use? I start a list and soon find myself with so many options I can’t make a choice. Write some ebooks, teach English, freelance writing, editing – writing seems to be a theme but now I need a niche. Silent scream.

I decide to stick to the day job a little longer and think about what to read in my spare time. I’ve decided that six bookcases full of books – well, it’s somewhat excessive for one person and I need to cull the collection. But where to start? Of course, I can’t remove anything without re-reading it. So, fiction or non-fiction, light or literary, European, Asian or Antipodean ...? Too many choices. Maybe I’ll work on the holiday planning.

The countries are decided. I had help with that ... So we have a list. Macedonia, Serbia, Croatia and the Czech Republic. But only two weeks. And in each of those countries there’s so much to see, so much to do. Then there's the question of which websites to trust for travel information.

Maybe it’s time I cooked dinner – but of course, a rummage in the kitchen means more choices, more decisions.

I am now completely overwhelmed. Maybe I’ll just distract myself by writing a blog entry – and asking for advise. What do you do when you’re confronted by so many choices that you can’t make a choice?

I have ground to a halt. I am wasting time doing trivial things to avoid making decisions about the things that will make a difference.

Perhaps I should read some self-help books ... that might be a place to start.

I've been cooking again ...

Paprika spiced cannellini beans

Dice two onions and finely chop a couple of cloves of garlic. Cook slowly in olive oil to soften, not brown – no caramelising here, okay – soft and pale is how you want it to be. Add about three tablespoons of Paprika and the same of ground cumin. Stir and cook for a few minutes. Then add about three tablespoons of cider vinegar and a couple of tablespoons of brown sugar. Also add a stack of chopped tomatoes (I used some preserved organic cherry tomatoes from Organic Foods and Cafe) and squashed them up as they cooked. Season with salt and pepper. Cook for about 10 minutes. Then add a couple of cans of Cannellini beans.

Play around with the ratios – look at how much tomato you like with your beans or how many beans you like with your tomato – I went for two lots of tomatoes and two cans of beans ... Cook some more – maybe about ten to twenty minutes.

You can serve this with all kinds of things. Crumble over some feta cheese, add some chunks of avocado, serve with rice, or mop it up with bread. Pile on toast (bruschetta style) or serve with salad. For extra richness top with some sour cream. Use your imagination and have fun. The recipe is just the starting point.

Friends

What is a friend? Are our true friends more important to us than even members of our family? A popular, and oft-repeated Facebook post claims: “Family isn't always blood. It's the people in your life who want you in theirs. The ones who accept you for who you are. The ones who would do anything for you, and love you no matter what.”

In the words of Alain de Botton, a friend is someone “kind enough to consider more of us normal than most people do.” And when we think about the importance of friends, one can’t help but think Nietzsche was right to find Epicurus’s ideas on friendship appealing: “Of all the things that wisdom provides to help one live one’s entire life in happiness, the greatest by far is the possession of friendship.”

This past week I have managed to catch up with two wonderful friends. The next week will, I hope, see me have the opportunity to spend time with others. I am blessed with a collection of special people – not a large collection to be sure, but a collection nonetheless – of people who I consider to be true friends.

Then there are the new friends. The people we meet by chance who touch our lives and who, for whatever reason, reach us in a way that makes us want to open ourselves to them and to meet up with them again and again. The people we want to build a friendship with because of that spark they have that lights our hearts and our minds (and if we’re very lucky, our bodiesJ).

They may, over time, become family. Or we may realise that we were mistaken. Or they may not like us quite the same way we like them.

I guess what counts for me is that amongst all the people that I have met, there are a few people I find it easy to support and love who support and love me back.

More things that delight me (Part 2)

• The smell of eucalypts after rain
• The Fog Sculpture at the NGA in Canberra

• A good strong blue cheese
• Staying at home with a good book
• Ripe tomato with fresh basil and some good Murray River pink sea salt
• Waking up in the morning and knowing there’s no one I have to see, no where I have to be
• Making the decision about where to spend my next holiday

•  The look on visitors’ faces when they see Dubai’s faux Egyptian shopping centre Wafi in all its glory for the first time – think sun streaming through glass pyramids, concrete statues of Ramses II and general typical, over-the-top, Dubai style excess
• Stormy seas – waves pounding against rocks under dark clouds, with or without rain
• Swimming in a thermal spa in Italy in the rain in autumn

•  The faded splendour of Venice – the boats collecting the city’s garbage in the mornings, the subtle Christmas lights in December, getting lost walking and discovering glimpses of gardens, eating a crepe with melted cheese near the Rialto Bridge
• Dipping my feet into an icy cold river on a hot summer day
• Bach’s Cello Suites – Pablo Casal’s recording is my top preference but there are many other good ones
• Mario's gorgeous tower in Montemarcello 

• The sound of a lover's voice on the phone when you haven't seen them for a while ...

I want to break free

I know some of my older readers will remember Freddie Mercury and this wonderful Queen song. I've been reflecting recently about how many barriers we create for ourselves to prevent ourselves breaking free. Why is it that people need to feel safe and secure, even when it's clearly not making them happy and is, on occasion, even damaging them?

How can we remove the bars that cage us and take action to go to another place in life? What is the worst that can happen?

Any thoughts, encouragement, random hints, etc. welcome.

I know it will be worth it in the end.

Back to the kitchen

Today I ventured back into the kitchen. I long for a larger kitchen, an easier-to-work-in kitchen. But my kitchen is not enough to make me stop. So today I ventured back to make some Caponata.

Chop aubergine - a couple of them - organic ones are great because they are less spongy and water-filled than the others. Fry pieces in oil until golden - I do this in small batches so that the oil remains hot.

Finely chop onion and celery. Cook briefly in boiling salted water. Add to fried aubergines with the following:
tomato paste
salt and pepper
capers (I buy the salted ones, and then soak them for 30 minutes to get rid of the salt)
chopped green olives
white wine vinegar
sugar

For about 2 aubergines, I use 4 sticks of celery, a large onion, about 20 olives, 1 tablespoon each of tomato paste, sugar, vinegar and capers.

Cook this wonderful mixture for about 15 minutes and get ready to eat it. But don't eat it all now. It tastes even better over the next few days as it ages, and the vinegar preserves it. Lovely at room temperature with toast or on a spoon.