Tuesday 28th - Friday 1st May 2020 - More Cooking, TV, YouTube, Tiktok, Facebook, Online Learning & Blogging

Tuesday 28th April 2020
I thought March was a very long month, April is even longer but maybe it's also because it is our Autumn(Fall) and our days are getting shorter and our night's are getting longer. It still isn't cold yet although it has been overcast. No rain yet though - there may be later in the week.

Firstly I would like to thank the few people around the world who are still reading my blog ( and any new ones as I have noticed there are also some) although it is nowhere as interesting as my previous blogs BCV ( that's my abbreviation for BEFORE CORONA VIRUS - could not name it BC as BEFORE CHRIST has already been taken. Technically I could have named it BCV19 but we are in 2020 and it sounds too much like the COVID-19 virus nomenclature). Actually BC should be BCE and not BC for those who are non Christians , BCE meaning BEFORE COMMON ERA. This does not explain AD though which is IN THE YEAR OF OUR LORD for the non Christians where there is no alternative. So what would I call it after the CORONA virus pandemic ends? My suggestions ASI ( AFTER SOCIAL ISOLATION) or ASD (AFTER SOCIAL DISTANCING) as these were and are part of the norm and everyone is familiar with these universal rules and regulations during the pandemic. Maybe not ASD as it sounds too much like AD or STD ( that's "sexually transmitted disease(s)"and not the very old telecommunication call term "subscriber trunk dialling" - "what's that?" you ask - don't ask me it's a bit before my time! I suspect it's some type of manual long distance calling by phone via an operator to connect you through. Google it - it eill give you something to do to relieve your boredom during the Corona virus pandemic.

Any suggestions anyone???

I love to read write and think as you can see from reading my blogs. Often the things I have done or written about don't happen until at a later time often decades later. I have noticed this from just reading and watching all different types of social media platforms.

I was watching a Tiktok video with thousands of likes the other day and someone had made an outfit out of plastic bags, it was some sort of top and bottom - very basic but I had sewn an entire formal dress back in 1992/1992 out of plastic shopping bags I had accumulated over time way before there was any option to return and recycle. I wore the dress one more then 1 occasion and it won a prize in a university art competition, I even submitted it years later as my project at fashion school where my teacher's only comment was " I can't believe you hemmed it!" - of course I did , I fully lined it as well - it was all machine stitched and not just glued and sticky tapped  together ( I broke so many needles sewing it!). I dtill have that dress somewhere in my offsite storage facility right down the back at the bottom however unsure where and what condition it may be in. Hopefully it has just faded and not completely disintegrated as plastic was indestructible back then - non of this compostable or biodegradable stuff we have today!

This was another interesting article I read and it is not about Donald Trumps recent suggestion of injecting disinfectant to kill off the CORONA virus in the system - WARNING NEVER TRY TO INGEST, INHALE OR INJECT DISINFECTANT IT WILL KILL YOU!!  If you remember a while back I wrote on one of my blogs about the shortage of tonic water and my somewhat humorous reasons as to why there may be a shortage of tonic water, well I was reading a random article a day or so ago and in it was the suggestion of drinking, you guessed it, tonic water due to the small safer amounts of quinine in it to prevent or even treat the Corona virus. I also said that drinking it won't prevent you from getting the CORONA virus nor will it cure you of it. I am probably correct since there is still no firm scientific proof that this old antimalarial treatment actually works in preventing or curing the Corona virus and that you would probably get more side effects or even risk death from drinking too much of it. So my tonic water theory was actually being considered seriously by some authorities out there as a potential preventative or cure against the Corona virus. No mentioned of just drinking straight Gin - does the same thing as the alcohol concentration will probably kill off the CORONA virus if it doesn't kill you first as a side effect ! - I hope that injecting ingesting or inhaling Gin isn't the next cure or preventive suggested by Donald Trump - he might as well suggest to people to inject ingest or inhale hand sanitizer! Can you imagine Trump announcing to Americans "Good news - we've found a cure for the Corona virus - bad news you have to die for it to work"

Above are just 2 examples , I am sure there are many more but I would like to write about however I want to write about what else I have been doing.

Besides watching YouTube, Tiktok, checking Facebook for humorous posts, watching TV mainly the SBS Food Channel, Masterchef Back To Win and the news , not much except pay bills cleaning updating my blog and cooking and also trying to learn a few more IT skills online although they won't get me a job they challenge my brain to keep it active whilst I'm out of work. Technically I still have a little less then 2 months more of my LSL ( long service leave ) which I was forced to take when stood down or was I made redundant? - results were the same thing. Who knows if the company I worked for is closing down or planning to reopen and rehire and when -  this is why I haven't asked my employer if they have applied for the government's JobKeeper subsidy in all this time as I am also unsure if the company would be eligible to register for it. I think I did the right thing registering for the JobSeeker payment as soon as I could (although due to a delay by my employer of redundancy notification it could have been done 2 days earlier) . I am assuming no JobKeeper and I won't be rehired by the company I had been working for after 10 years and almost 4 months with them.


OK I am going to talk about my blog now and the significance of writing it. I found another interesting story on the internet about a person who kept a diary during the Spanish Flu pandemic. I think if I had the time I would have read it in more detail. The history of why I write my blog goes right  back to when I was in primary school. I had no idea that I had a flair for creative writing. I do have a passion for writing although my spelling has always been my weakness ( thank goodness for spell check but not predictive text) since the beginning of my schooling, my grammar sometimes horrendous and my typing well - what can I say?.  English was not my first language and I went to school in transition without understanding a single word of English -  I could not speak read write English at all for at least the first year of school. I was in a special class with about 6 - 10 classmates , I think we were selected because we were "gifted"  in some way? I wouldn't say a child prodigy as I don't think that was a used term back then.  Amongst my classmates, one of them had broken her leg and was on crutches and these were hung on a coat hook during classes. One day she asked me to pass them to her and because I had no understanding of English I just assumed she wanted her crutches passed to her, I did so and she had no idea of me not actually understanding a single word of English. She assumed I had some command of English. I have no idea how I got through the first few years of school. I was very good at Maths though which is no surprise being Asian. I was having trouble with spelling and hated reading ( still do  hate reading books of fiction although I like non fantasy science fiction and biographies)  and therefore was struggling with my English kanguage skills  yet my creative writing skills were great . I remember one year my name was called out and I had won a book prize for a book review piece I had written in, I think, in the 2nd grade. To this date I still have no idea what I wrote, when I wrote it and how it came to be entered into a writing competition - was it a an actual book review I wrote or just some random made up story? - after all I hated reading!  By the 6th grade not only was I good at Maths, I won another prize for my creative writing  but still hated reading I did enjoy reading a rather mature Science book titled "The Displaced Person" though.

At school I always had a diary/schedule but it was a school requirement particularly through high school as our daily school schedule was very different to most other schools and was quite complex including alternating schedules from week to week therefore if you didn't keep a diary you were screwed!

It was only after school when I went to college and started working and having to start paying tax that I really took keeping a diary to the extreme. I was known for my huge financial year diaries I carried around up until a few years ago where my diary is now mostly on my phone however I still keep a hardcopy diary for receipts and extra notes. I became known for my extreme diary keeping and Dulcinea's Diary was created.

Unfortunately ( and I have bought this issue up previously) someone already owned the domain name Dulcinea's Diary although it had not been used since the early 2000's so I had to come up with an alternative name hence this blog Dulcineasdiarycontinued was created ( as I had a previous blog before starting this one).

Like the person who kept a diary of life during the Spanish flu, I hope by writing this blog it will serve as a diary of life before, during the Corona virus pandemic as well as a life after it for future generations to be used as an educational tool. I have always believed that preserving history is very important hence my interest in visiting historical places of interest, reading biographies and my interest in collecting old objects and colonial gastronomy. Imagine opening my time capsule(s)  - yes I do have some. One of these is somewhere buried in a time capsule at the H.R. MacMillan Space Centre in Vancouver BC Canada where there is a message or image I created back in 1999 ( amongst thousands probably of other people's messages and images) in it's time capsule. That is now 22 years ago! Therefore there is a chance that there are people that placed a message or image in this time capsule that are no longer alive.

Wednesday 29th April 2020
Today I made Asian style marinated chicken wings again and ate them for breakfast with baby Roma tomato and baby cucumbers - a quick and tasty meal. Absolutely yummy. I have kept the excess marinade to use in another udon dish later.

I also completed week 2 of my 2nd Future Learn online IT related course which means I can now concentrate on completing week 2 of my 3rd Future Learn online IT related course "Learn To Code For The Web."

Currently watching Masterchef then it will be a shower and off to bed. It's now been a week since I last ventured out so I have to try and do some grocery shopping as I am running low on groceries again tomorrow.

breakfast - yummy Marinated Asian Chicken Wings With baby cucumbers and baby roma tomatos ( taken with my good phone's camera this time)

Thursday 30th April 2020
Finally the last day of April ! It has been a very long month! Last night I was feeling very itchy on my hands and it became worse during the night although I still slept quite well. I had forcast that it might rain but it held off until I woke up this morning and looked outside my window - yep it was raining. My itchy hands were telling me that rain was coming and when it gets bad it means it is raining. This morning my hands were very itchy so I put some antihistamine cream on them. I still plan to go shopping today but will have to cover my hands to protect them  from coming into contact with Corona virus.

I am watching the news and making my udon dish with my marinade leftover from yesterdays chicken wings for breakfast - wasting nothing . I added cauliflower broccoli shallots corriander and some fish pieces to it and mixed everything up in the marinade with the parcooked udon noodles and placed them in the oven for a final cook before eating. Should be a yummy filling breakfast. Oh a little over baked - oops that's what happens when you get addicted to watching Tiktok videos!!! I ate it and had some left for tomorrow's breakfast.

After having a shower washing up , I get ready to venture outside for the first time in a whole week again! It takes me forever to leave the apartment as I am always ensuring I have my mask with a new filter, this time gloves to cover my hands, a rain coat as it is raining enough cloths on in case it becomes cold ( still not quite cold but I am starting to fill it at night sometimes)  keys card shopping list marker or pen phone opal card water enough resusable cloth shopping bags etc etc

Finally after lunch out the door I go. I decide to catch the bus out to Chatswood and walk down to the Aldi and Coles at the other end of Chatswood again. I  had a huge shopping list and had my wheelie bag and 2 shopping bags with me thinking I'll need all of them but I didn't in the end as there was still a third of the things I needed unavailable at any of the supermarkets some with no alternatives.

First stop was Aldi where I grabbed anything on my shopping list that I thought was available quality quantity and would be cheaper then the other supermarkets. Still no panty liners or much femininne hygiene products available - I am running very low and it's been 5 weeks that I haven't been able to get liners - still pads tampons pull ups left but no liners. Same at Coles although I didn't check Woolworths or the IGA as they are quite small stores but a good supply of paper towels, tissues and toilet paper GALORE!!!! although still no single  rolls without plastic wrappers around them. Coles had only 1 option of a 4 packet recycled toilet paper and I purchased that because there was noway i needed a 12 packet of toilet paper nor could I carry them home with me today or on any other shopping trip I make! Just the 4 pack took up almost half of one of my shopping bags filled with other groceries. Finally after 5 weeks of not being able to purchase any toilet paper I am able to purchase some - I didn't even ask how much it was. I was down to my 2nd last roll of toilet paper and would have been down to my last one this week if I had not used a box of my tissues which had been easier to get earlier. How's that for toilet paper budgeting!!!!See that's how you can you your accounting skills when you're  not using them for work.

Enough a out toilet paper now that it's back in stock and restrictions on their purchase have just been lifted. Onto what else I purchased . My typical shopping list may include odd things but there are certain products and brands I love and products I won't touch.

Here are examples of grocery items I love

1. Coconut milk powder - I always have a box of this in my pantry as it is long life or shelf stable. It is very versatile as you can make it up with water to a milk or cream consistency. It is great for camping or just travelling as it is much more light weight then the smallest can of coconut milk or cream. It comes in a box of 3 sealed foiled packets or sachets just larger then a single packet or sachets of instant cupa soup. There is only one thing about this product that  makes it unsuitable for people who are vegan or lactose intolerant - it contains dairy eventhough it is coconut milk powder. Is this a cost cutting measure or does it have to do with making it resemble coconut milk more when reconstituted?

2. YEOS sesame oil. I like this particular brand because it is made in Singapore and not China. I purchase another brand once in what looked like a similar bottle however when I unscrewed  the plastic top off it , it revealed a metal cap much like a cider bottle or beer bottle cap which required a bottle top opener to pull it off - I used one but could not get the cap off. With the YEOS  brand you pop up the plastic top and find a little plastic pull ring which you just remove with your fingers and the bottle is open , then you just put the top back on over it.

3. Fruit " leathers" , these come in many different brands and I have been a fan of these since they were invented many years ago. There are so many different variations on the fruit leather which are not 100% Australian made nor are they 100 % fruit and contain loads of sugar that is not naturally occurring from fruit. An example of these would be roll ups or variations on the apricot rolls which are mixed with coconut usually. Fruit leathers contain nothing but compressed pure fruit pulp and the original idea was from the minimization of all the pulp from Apple's and other fruits after they were juiced. The leftover apple pulp was found to be an ideal base for the fruit leathers which was later mixed with other fruit pulp or pureed to create different flavours of  fruit leathers. The result is a thin stop of chewy gummy gelatinous concentrated fruit strip which is shelf stable for a very long period of time as most of the moisture has been extracted from it and there is no need to add any sugars as there is a natural sweetness from the fruit concentration itself. I know there is an equivalent product in North America  which I purchase as well. Just be aware not to eat too many of these strips - they may taste good and are somewhat addictive as an alternative to lollies but they are full of fibre and you may find yourself running to the bathroom if you consume too many of them!

4. Everyone loves chocolate as a treat or for making desserts and I love dark chocolate over milk chocolate and hazelnuts over almonds in chocolate. Everyone loves Aldi chocolate and yes their dark chocolate blocks and dark hazelnut chocolate blocks ( folied wrapped in cardboard box not the foiled wapped one) are pretty good and quite a good price however I have discovered a better Coles brand Belgian chocolate block - The dark chocolate block is the best and although there is no dark chocolate hazelnut block in the Coles brand, I purchased the Coles milk chocolate hazelnut block and loved it almost as much as the Coles dark chocolate block! Aldi chocolate is good but Coles chocolate is the best imported chocolate of the two. Price is also on par with the Aldi brand chocolate blocks ( at times cheaper when on sale) - only drawback you have to look on the very top unreachable shelf for the Coles brand chocolate bars, there is only a small quantity of them and the range is very limited as well as being in short supply or out of stock especially during the grocery hoarding periods.

I'll stop here as there are many more great grocery products that stick with. There is one thing I have been doing especially since all this social isolation started and that is to spend more time reading everything on product labels especially product's origin and product's ingredients. I don't like eating anything which has preservatives or a lot of  additives in them whether they are long life or fresh. More importantly anything that is made in China I will not touch. It is very important to me to buy locally made and locally owned products. I have been a big believe in this to support local companies and to be less reliant on Chinese products. If I have to purchase overseas products ( as one country can't be 100% self sufficient) I ensure I buy products from all over the world not just from a few countries around the world. I also try to buy seasonal local produce. To do this I use an Australian month by month seasonal fruit and vegetable list and I used to subscribe to AusBuy a book which listed all Australian made and owned companies ( there are probably not many left these days). By doing this I hope to be helping farmers, keeping the local economy running and hopefully creating jobs so that I might benefit in gaining a job again one day. I believe everyone should be doing this then when local economies are doing well then countries can start negotiating balanced trade agreements with one another.

I had no idea what time it was whilst I was shopping and I looked at my phone and it was already after 6 pm -  time to leave to get home in time to watch Masterchef 2020.

I walk outside and it is really dark and miserable - wet. I walk instead of wait for a bus back to the station with all my shopping - just as well I didn't buy anymore stuff from my stop off at Kmart!

Final stop was to Woolworths to see if anything I could not get that was on my shopping list from Aldi or Coles. Basil and some coins for the laundry - Done! Time to head home by bus.

Just in time - I unpack my groceries have a snack of crackers and cheese while watching Masterchef before going to sleep.

Friday 1st May 2020
Thanks again to everyone out there still reading my blog. I woke to continue blogging again and surprised to find that the number of my readers has increased today after a month of slumps.

Other news - I check my facebook account and I think someone I don't know has made a comment on one of my public posts - I probably won't be able to track  who and what and whether it is malicious so I have changed my posts to friends only. I haven't actually posted much for a while on Facebook only commenting or liking humorous posts or messaging friends and family privately. Most of my posting is done on this blog.

Also on Facebook I find out publicly that the company I was made redundant from is opening up again as of today - it looked as if it was planned. I haven't been contacted to return to work so assume I have not been rehired. I still have some stuff that belongs to me there and I still have their stuff too.

Not a good start however my cousin texted me and asked if I was ok so that was nice of her although she did begin if an " Oh shit I forgot to ask you ......"

Today I actually slept in and am not going out again - the sun is out and it is a beautiful day but I have to complete week 2 of the 3rd IT related Future Learn course by this Sunday. I also have to pay any bills due today.

I am busy not watching tv YouTube or Tiktok at the moment but catching up on my blogging.

One issue that has come to light recently (speaking in my previous blog about trade agreements), is Australia has been criticised by China for putting pressure on them to tell the truth basically about the origins of the Corona virus when Europe for example have kept quiet.

When a few ex prime ministers and ex politicians were interviewed, they were very diplomatic about how the current Australian government was handling the situation - yes they need to find out the truth behind the Corona virus from China but they don't want to sour the relationship with China as to destroy trade relationships with them as China is a major trading partner with Australia ( you all know how I feel about this - if you don't here's a clue I don't believe Australia needs China as much as China needs Australia and the rest of the world - caution!!!) . These ex politicians also had another point ie we're all in this together so everyone has to work together for a solution to this worldewide problem that has been created and not to blame anyone or withold (hide) information.

I know there has been a lot of conspiracy theories that The Corona virus did not originate  from the wet markets in Wuhan but escaped from a nearby testing laboratory into the community via the wet markets. I sort of believe that from comments I previously made but I also believe it has to do with illegal trading of wildlife bats and poor hygiene. There are 2 top visiting or resident scientists from China in Australia at the moment being investigated for their roles working in a laboratory involving viral research in animals. They have not been charged but are "under investigation"  - Pandora's box - let's not open it yet. At least the Australian government have not taken the Trump ( I don't think it was all his idea though) extreme of trying to sue the Chinese government for billions (or was that trillions) of dollars for their economic downturn as a result of the Corona virus pandemic -  good luck with that one America!

Just baking some curry turkey pies at the moment. One of these will be for dinner. I used the leftover dough from the Knishes I made previously. I had some olive oil turkey mince in my freezer and frozen peas as well as some shallots in the fridge. I mixed some curry powder some ground cumin star anise cinnamon  cloves salt pepper 2 vegetable stock cubes celery  fresh coriander leaves a dash of cream water flour oh no I forget the chilli!!!!! and a dash of sesame oil!!! And the corn and carrot and potato!!!!! Oh well it is still a curry pie.

Probably looks better then it tastes!!! Yep they did look better then they tasted but edible with a bit of bbq sauce.

Did not get to finish my 3rd Future Learn IT related course but had a start of it. Had trouble loading it

It was quite late go I fell asleep.

Sunday 26th & Monday 27th April 2020 - Another 2 days Of Doing Nothing Except attempting to make Knishes

Yep another 2 days of not going out or doing anything.

However I was intrigued by a Jewish recipe I found to make Knishes with a corn beef onion and potato filling. This recipe involved making the Knish(es) pastry from scratch as well. There were other variations on this recipe such as using store bought puff pastry and different fillings but I decided on a making a simple filling of canned corn beef, potatoes, onion, spinach, cheese and peas. Traditionally it would just have been a filling of potato, onion and possibly cheese and or meat. I haven't quite finished as my dough is resting in the fridge ready to roll out and stuff tomorrow with my filling also in the fridge. I think I need a little more seasoning in my filling after having a taste of it but I will check it again tomorrow as the flavours may have intensified overnight. I hope my pastry is ok as I didn't use the chicken fat that was in the original recipe instead substituting it with olive oil and butter as I didn't have enough olive oil - again substitute where possible during hard times with whatever you have.

TBC......

Tuesday morning I woke up really early and took the dough and filling out of my fridge. The dough was a little hard but after kneading it a bit and rolling it out, it was a very easy dough to work with. I made about 10 mini Knishes and 2 larger ones. I did not egg wash the top of each as I thought they had enough fat in the dough already. They smelt delicious  and I took one of the mini ones out to try while still really hot. Yummy! I will have to make these again! I have plenty of dough and filling left so will make a few more large ones later.

Apologies for the poor photo - it was taken on my backup phone. Still needs a bit more time in the oven. Oh no a few exploded but they still tasted great!

Here's a few better photos  below

I rolled out the dough as thin as I could which made a big difference. The cooked pastry turned out nice and crispy and not greasy or oily at all and a coat of egg wash or a brushing of butter or oil would have made it even better. Amazing what good old mash potato corn beef and onions can do! Just yummy.

OK so it looks like people reading my blog like to see me writing more about things I bake and cook. So far I think I've baked 3 batches of brownies, chocolate tahini 'bark' cake biscuits, a loaf of bread with LSL, a version of Asian style marinated soy honey chicken wings, a few meals of congee, knishes, salmon dip, a few pizzas ( that has been put on hold since the pizza dough scare - if I ma ke pizza again I will make it from scratch like I used to do) , quite a few meals of baked corn chip encrusted salmon and roasted herb potato and carrot chips or wedges, quite a few bowls of udon noodles with various ingredients as well as made litres of various fruit and vegetable smoothies. In the fridge I am trying my hand at pickling some mini cucumbers infused with some fennel seeds apple cider vinegar and molasses ( this will be interesting as I have only fermented cabbage once in my life a few years back at a Good Food & Wine Show). 

I have some pumpkin so I intend to cut it up and make a nice pumpkin soup on a colder day - still not cold enough yet in Australia but it has been quite overcast yesterday afternoon and all of today so far. 

Other things I plan to make are hommus dip from scratch, some type of chocolate tapioca pudding  (usually I make my famous chef tasted and approved coconut mango tapioca pudding with fresh mangos but mango season is over so it may have to be some other flavour). I am dying to make an apple and pear pie with custard or my other chef tasted and approved 4 ingredient non baked cheese cake with a stewed caramel apple and pear topping. ( I haven't really blogged about this or maybe I did at some stage but if you go back quite a few years I took both recipes for my auditions for a failed reality tv cooking show  called "Recipe To Riches" (Australia) - the original series was from Canada but was discontinued after a few seasons. The Australian version of the show lasted just 2 seasons only (2013 & 2014)  before getting the chop. I made it to the second round of auditions of the first series however could not attend the filming as I had to travel overseas. My work collegue also got a call back for the second round of auditions and she managed to get her ( what described as) 3 minutes of rejection fame! - I think it was 3 minutes or it could have been 5 as the camera kept panning in and out of focus on her. ) Never again will I audition for another reality tv cooking show now that I know how it all works behind the scenes and how much time and effort it takes. The only fun thing about the audition process was meeting and talking to people who had similar interests and occasionally tasting what they made.  There certainly was a lot of waiting around and yes there was an awful lot of cooler bags and eskies around! There was a lot of planning as well as to what you were going to cook and present to judges due to long waiting times - it had to still be presentable and edible by the time it was your turn to present your dish therefore my cheese cake was a risk but it survived audition # 1! If anyone can remember it was Woolworths who sponsored the show and not Coles and the winner of series # 1 was the  "Chococorn Man" - yes chocolate popcorn! - I wonder what happened to him after there series was over and after he signed his life ( not quite but his secret recipe) away to Woolworths. We all had to sign our lives away from the very first round of auditions it seemed! If you have any questions about what we could and couldn't do during and after auditions feel free to contact me via the comments section and I will try and answer them.

Saturday 25th April 2020 - Anzac Day Thank You & My Attempt At Baking Anzac Biscuits

Today is Anzac Day - normally a public holiday complete with dawn services, huge parades through the cities and get togethers for drinks and a games of twoup  as well as families friends and fellow veterans getting together to share a meal and a catchup to honour past and present service personnel in the armed forces -- but not this year unfortunately.

Instead in a time of social distancing and isolation, it will be people standing in their driveways at the crack of dawn starting dawn service at 4.30 am or a more reasonable start time of 6 am playing the last post, candles lit in hand, baking and sharing of Anzac biscuits and making poppies. ( I was up at my normal wake up time of between 5 am and 6 am each morning this morning). At this time we observe a minutes silence.

I wish A Happy Anzac Day to everyone.

"Lest We Forget"

Thank you!

and

Stay Safe.

This is how most Australians will be commemorating Anzac Day today via tv broadcast. Above is a screenshot of live telecast of dawn service in Canberra with glimpses of dawn services around Australia of other dawn services.

As I was watching night turn to day I spot 3 Ibis wondering along the highway across the road- an unusual sight as they are usually found up trees or around the grounds of parks, zoos and gardens where they can dig up dirt  scronge bins or just forage amongst the greenery and water features not along busy highways - that's why they are called "bin chickens" . Maybe they are a sign - a sign of hope.

By 10 am I had baked my marinated Asian chicken wings as well as roasted potato and carrots. The chicken wings were great as I couldn't wait and ate them for breakfast.

After breakfast I attempted to make some Anzac biscuits. What is an Anzac Day without Anzac biscuits? Anzac biscuits were a sent by wives and womens groups to soldiers abroad as the ingredients used to make them did not spoil or deteriorate easily during naval transportation and is associated with ANZAC established during WW1.

I found a recipe online and followed it however as with many families during isolation, you don't always have on hand all the ingredients in your pantry so I had to substitute some. The reason why Anzac biscuits do not spoil easily is because they don't contain any eggs, vanilla, cream or milk. They do contain butter sugar and golden syrup  all purpose or plain flour bi carb and oats with a dash of water though. The addition of desiccated coconut to the original recipe is optional as this may not have been readily available during war times. Anzac biscuits can be hard or slightly chewy. Leaving them to bake a little longer in the oven will change the texture of them. I like this type of biscuit crunchy rather then chewy myself.

So I had to substitute the following ingredients:

1. Brown sugar with a combination of pure icing sugar and maple sugar as I don't use any white or brown sugar.

2. Golden syrup with dark molasses as I don't use golden syrup and have run out of maple syrup manuka honey and rice malt syrup

3. Desiccated coconut with coconut milk powder as I hate desiccated coconut but always have coconut milk power around for use in curry dishes.

4. This is a no no in Anzac biscuits but because I used a smaller amount of combination of sugars in the recipe I added some dark chocolate dots to my biscuit mixture just to boost the sweetness - hey in times of hardship everyone did it ie used whatever they could find to make a dish they were cooking work or be more palatable. Usually I would add a lot more maple syrup instead as a brown sugar substitute in most of my baked desserts I make however I am still trying to conserve any non perishable pantry items I have and I love molasses for it's long shelf life and bitterness - it makes cakes fudgier and is a great maple syrup substitute if you run out of it.

5. Rolled oats I substituted with instant oats which is all I had in my pantry. It worked however I noticed these absorbed the butter water and molasses quicker in the raw biscuit mixture.

I Could not stop myself from lasting a little of the raw biscuit ( do not call it a cookie mixture it is very unAustralian and you will get a fine for doing so) a mixture as itself so good - I think I could have used a little less butter in my mixture which was my own mistake as I estimated the amount of butter by eye from 1 standard stick of butter according to the recipe amount required.

Photo below of the biscuits in the oven baking - oops too close together and therefore not quite round (they grew 5 times their original size within a few minutes - I am watching them so they don't burn!)

They didn't taste too good straight out of the oven and I didn't quite cook them long enough so I flipped them and put them back into the oven for a few more minutes so the bottom wasn't so soggy and then took them out to cool them completely. They are now delicious and I have placed them in the fridge to let them firm up even more. When they were hot they were too soft and cake like. Like a lot of things you cook you need to rest things or cool them down before they are ready to eat!

The rest of the day I watched the SBS Food Channel, Tiktok, checked Facebook and watched Youtube videos. I also put stuff away which I had avoided doing the last few days such as my laundry which was nicely folded ironed and sorted but not put away.

Shower dishes and bed. End of another Saturday. I did not go out again today. Maybe a walk tomorrow? Maybe not!

Wednesday 22nd - Friday 24th April 2020 - Running Out Of Groceries

Wednesday 22nd April 2020
Today I finally received my $750 support supplement from Centrelink. Most of it is going towards bills overdue or due this week with just a few dollars saved for weekly groceries again for the following week's grocery shop.

It's been over a week now since I last stepped outside and went for a walk or to the supermarket to do a shop ( I hate going to the supermarket as I have an allergic reaction to them and don't do click and collect because half of  the items on my weekly shopping list are unavailable each time I do a shop so I  need to look for alternatives each time)  . I am down to my last bits of vegetable and protein. I only have 2 more rolls of toliet paper  and 2 more boxes of tissues left - fat chance I will find any toliet paper as I haven't been able to buy any of the single rolls or So Soft brand toliet paper that I normally buy for 5 weeks now and no I don't want to purchase a packet of $7 toliet paper which are much smaller rolls and don't flush very well  or last very long. I may just have to purchase some more boxes of cheap tissues.

The only times I've left my apartment is to take my rubbish out ( which I need to do again soon) and to go downstairs last Monday to do my laundry ( wash & dry)  - still not using the disgusting kitchen downstairs! I hate leaving my apartment as I fear contracting the Corona virus. My allergies are getting worse - every morning and night my eyes tend to water, my nose runs and my skin is itchy ( I fear the virus can make it's way via any broken skin on my hands I have from scratching my ezcema and dermatitis probably made worse from the stress and continuous handwashing and eating truck loads of cheese which I should not be eating). I also have this cough which I get during Autumn (Fall) and Spring mainly at night and sometimes in the morning ( I thi k rain maybe coming again!) - I managed to trigger this from just ironing my clothes at night over the past 2 days. I try to keep my apartment free of dust by vacuuming almost every day and dusting when I can to reduce the amount of dust but it is impossible to eliminate any carbon that manages to creep into my apartment from the main road even when I keep my window closed. It is not so bad that I can see it settling on my desk but I do see it settling in between the window frames. My one and only succulent I originally purchased to try and counterbalance the carbon doxide I am producing in the apartment is not working efficiently - although my greenery is getting heaps of sunlight to photosynthsise, and the moisture from the condensation I create and ocassional watering, it seems to be dying in parts. I should have just planted the 2 healthy disease free succulents I purchased from the markets instead of adding the cuttings I received from my manager which did not look so healthy. I am going to have to remove any dead or diseased plants when I get a chance - hopefully this will improve my succulents' health. Hopefully it will over time improve my health too.

By 5 pm today I still haven't left my apartment instead opting for a dinner of tinned salmon mixed with small amount of mayo yoghurt pepper finely chopped shallot ground cumin and the finely grated 2 small pickle gerkins I had left which I ate with a cracked pepper water crackers from my stockpile of non perishables.

Tomorrow I must go shopping but I can't guarantee that I will end up going. I still have some frozen turkey mince and frozen peas left in the freezer as well as plenty of cheese butter some plain yoghurt shallots a capsicum 2 mushrooms and avacado and other bits and pieces left but no fruit except for a lime and a lemon. Time to get creative if I don't go shopping tomorrow. I can always whip up something from my non perishables as well - a can of bully beef a spring onion some ginger frozen peas an egg stock cubes and a packet of Jasmine rice chilli as well as some capsicum or some corn and bang fried rice! - although I will have to make it somehow in the oven - sure I can make it work!

Yesterday I made some sort of bark - it was not a cake or a biscuit but a hybrid of both. I was trying to make the 3 or 4 ingredient peanut butter cookies but I only had tahini and not peanut butter so I mixed together tahini a teaspoon of baking powder dark molasses maple syrup 1 egg vanilla paste ground cinnamon ground cloves a pinch of salt dark chocolate chips pitted dates cocoa powder and a few teaspoons of self raising flour really well - I tasted it and it was rank!, I could taste the bitterness of the tahini not helped by the taste of the dark molasses. I spread it out using a rolling pin as it was so thick and sticky between 2 sheets of baking paper spread out over a roasting tray. Because I could not remove the top sheet of baking paper, I left it on and baked it very low and slow. After about 15 minutes the mixture started to cook and viola! the top piece of baking paper peeled off so easily. I continued to bake it low and slow for about another 25 minutes ensuring it did not start to burn. I cooled it down and broke it up into smaller pieces and what do you know? it actually tastes quite nice - nowhere as bitter as the raw concoction! I don't recommend anyone try and make it though - it is my attempt at depression/iosolation or survival cooking during hard times. I put the pieces after they have cooled into a snaplock bag zipped it up and placed it in the fridge. Hopefully they will taste even nicer like a fudge brownie if I leave them in the fridge at least for a few hours or overnight.

Thursday 23rd April 2020
Today was a very productive day.
First I started a second Future Learn online course and completed week  1 of the course in a few hours.

I had a shower and took my rubbish out AND travelled to Chatswood by bus and walked down to the larger Aldi and Coles at the other end of Chatswood.

I managed to get the majority of the groceries on my shopping list from Aldi then Coles then finally from Fruitez. Coles had toliet paper in stock but they were in packets of 6 or more and only in 2 brands - Quilton and Kleenex with no prices on them. I think the lady in front of me said the packet she purchased cost her around $6 - still rather expensive as the rolls of toliet paper seemed to have shrunk in size - they were tiny! So no purchase of toliet paper for me yet again and it't now week 5 without purchasing any toliet paper I think. I had purchased a box of the last few boxes of tissues left at Aldi which I can use as loo paper if I need to. I spent so long at Coles as I could not find the things I needed and when I could , could not make up my mind which one to get!

Time to go home with my 2 very full bags of groceries. It was an uphill walk all the way back to the station about a km away so I caught the bus as my groceries were quite heavy.

Before I caught the bus I had a quick look at Kmart - first time i  a very long time. They did not have what I wanted so no purchases today. It was really awkward making my way into the entrance of Kmart with my trolley as there was a one way only maze marked out to enter and exit the store - a bit extreme as the shopping centre has become a virtual ghost town since the Corona virus situation began. Only places open are the Coles, Fruitez, an Asian grocery store, maybe Oportos and KFC with limited opening hours, a chicken concession, a florist, a chemist, Kmart and possibly a Bakers Delight ( or Cobs as it is known overseas) - everything rlse seemed to be closed or had no customers in them at all - even the main butcher shop was closed.

When I artived home I unpacked my groceries and could not be botheted to make dinner so made mysrlf  2 wholemeal promite cheese and avocado sandwiches to eat with a cup of tea which I have been drinking a lot of lately.

I watched Masterchef but got bored and a little tired - I fell asleep again.

End of another day.

Friday 24th April 2020
Today I paid a few bills which I had thought I would not be able to pay but could after checking my bank account. I was surprised to see that the Governments Supplement had been paid on 22nd April. I wasn't expecting to receive this until later this month. Straight away I set aside next week's rent, paid this weeks rent due, paid part of my phone bill due 6th May in advance ( the balance I did not pay due to complaint lodged awaiting response) and the balance of my offsite storage facility monthly rental ( which I thought I would be unable to pay until 29th April making it just a few days overdue).

Other then watching tv, watching Youtube and Tiktok, checking my emails, Facebook  ( which I do most days) and lodging a few complaints - today was a very do nothing day. Another not going out day - just easting sleeping and blogging. I skept a bit more then normal today as I was really bored. I had more promite cheese and avacado sandwiches today as well as some crumbed oven baked whiting ( fish fillets) - no oven baked chips today  . No baking today but I did make a marinade for my chicken wings to soak in overnight - food preparation for tomorrow.

Hoping to wake up early tomortow to pay tribute to Anzac Day sevice personnel.  There are no dawn services or legal games of twoup this year due to the current situation  ( it will have to be calked oneup this year)  - Can you actually play twoup by yourself? of course you casn you just win all the time or you can play via Skype Zoom FaceTime etc etc....

Thursday 16th and Friday 17th April 2020 - Another Do Nothing 2 Days

Thursday 16th April 2020
Today I did not go out again but watched tv and did more filing and organising of my stuff.

I fell asleep before Masterchef started. Must be bored or just tired.

Still haven't done my laundry but did wash all my dishes.

Caught up on my blog and had another look through my photo library. Could not find the cable for my very old card reader therefore still have not gone through the rest of my collection of SD and XD cards. Still unable to read at least 2 of my micro SD cards for some reason and they are not that old.

Sunset from my window

Friday 17th April 2020
Finally received my first payment from Centrelink - just enough from the government's welfare payment to cover 1 weeks rent with a few dollars left over to buy food. I would rather be working. I wish things were back to normal. 4 weeks is a very long time to wait for welfare payments - I am lucky I had my LSL to survive on until I received my first welfare payment. I am luckier then a lot of other people. I have not asked for any rent relief from my landlord, telecommunications provider or storage facility. I will probably be evicted by my landlord if I did ask for rent relief although recently the government has tried to pass non eviction laws for commercial and residential properties.

I am watching the SBS Food channel at the moment and just made a cream of mushroom soup. It is difficult not having a kitchen in my apartment. The communal  kitchen and laundry are downstairs and I don't want to use the kitchen as it is disgusting. I am trying to avoid coming into contact with anyone else living in the apartment block to minimise contracting the Corona virus.  My ear is still blocked and my allergies are already really bad so I don't want anymore health issues.

I am cooking everything in my benchtop oven and my smoke alarm keeps going off when it shouldn't as it is very sensitive. I don't even want to try cooking on my portable induction stove I have. Everything I make is slow and low. Tonight I am making a cream of mushroom soup in the oven in a ceramic  pot with a lid slow and low. I blended a punnet of mushrooms water some cream 2 stockcubes some salt snd freshly ground pepper a dash of olive oil a roughly chopped onion a packet of instant rice and a green shallot with a stick blender  making it as smooth as I can before popping it in  the oven. I hope I have seasoned it correctly as originally I was going to take the lazy way out and use just a half packet of French onion soup powder to season my mushroom soup but decided against it as I want to keep any longlife or non perishishable food and drink products for when I absolutely need them eg prolonged or total lockdown, food scarcity/shortage , unable to receive welfare payments or any other desperate situation.

I don't have any bread but will probably add some semi dried mixed herbs chilli flakes or cheese to the soup as a garnish.

I eat my simple dinner and go to bed. Another day over.

Tuesday 14th & Wednesday 15th April 2020 - I Must Go For Another Walk

I have not been out for another 2 - 3 days now so again dragged myself out for a walk down to Lane Cove and do a small shop at the 2 local supermarkets as I have almost run out of leafy greens and protein.

First stop Coles  then a top up afterwards at Woolworths - oh look a six packet of toliet paper for around $7! ( I think that was the price per packet as the price sign had fallen off) still in a cage and not on the shelves yet and there were not many packets left - at least Coles had some but I did not purchase any today instead I purchased another box of no name tissues for $1 - easier to carry home as I was walking and only had 1 smaller reusuable bag with me.

Still no plain flour although I spotted just 1 or 2 packets of self raising flour on the shelves. No pasta - shelves were empty and just as well I didn't need any. Very similar situation at Woolworths

There was still no wipes except for plenty of boxes and packets of baby wipes, antiseptic, antibacterial, handwash, hand sanitiser etc.

Laundry liquid and powder was limited in stock and antibacterial or laundry sanitizer was also limited in stock. There were quite a few bottles of laundry sanitizer left at Coles however none at all left at Woolworths ( even the Woolworths brand that nobody touched for 2 weeks was now out of stock).

After grabbing what I could at Coles which was only about 4 or 5 items including the very last packet of free range chicken drumsticks , I headed for the checkout then onto Woolworths.

Here I also managed to only grab about 2 items - a packet of beef mince which was about to expire in 2 days - there was quite a bit of mince left. I thought why not as I was going to use it tonight or tomortow anyway and if I don't will freeze it. Unlike chicken lamb and beef can last longer.

Shopping done time to walk home. Getting dark. I could not be bothered cooking dinner therefore ate a punnet of rasberries for dinner.

End of another boring day. Don't know how much longer I can handle this social distancing thing. Loads of people going for  night runs.

Wednesday 15th April 2020
Another day not going out but I did do some filing today and I made yet another chocolate brownie - I think that might be brownie # 3 as I try to bake a brownie a week. May look the same as my other 2 brownies however it wasn't no plain flour so used self raising flour which made it more cake like and used milk chocolate which made it not as dark and fudgey. I had to add a bit more cocao powder and molasses. ( and no that is not the same photo as the one I posted in a previous blog). I added dark chocolate dots, bits of strawberry liquorice, hazelnuts, macadamia nuts, glace cherries and mixed candied peel.

Received a text message from one of my "ex work collegues" asking me about the property I am currently renting as her brother is moving and the location I am living in is ideal for him. She is well but bored just like the rest of us. There are only so many chocolates and biscuits you can eat during social distancing or is that social isolation now? I told her that I managed to not eat a single Easter themed chocolate this year - work collegues are a bad influence when it comes to Easter and chocolates - this year we were not working over Easter so I managed to not eat any chocolates - easily!

Watching Masterchef season 11 now I think. New judges and Gordon Ramsey is spear heading the first week with being the guest host of the show. A new format with all returning contestants in the top 12 over all seasons of the show. Very interesting and audience ratings right up aga in. A lot of people commented that it was about time there was a fresh set of judges. The show was getting tired and I am surprised that it was not axed last year. I always agreed with the "Is there anything else left to cook?" comment.

Almost end of another day of boredom and still no payment from Centrelink today.

Saturday 11th April - Monday 13th April 2020 - Can I Get Through Easter Without Eating A Single Easter Themed Chocolate ?

OK so Easter is now half way over. So far I have not bought or eaten a single Easter themed chocolate ie bunnies chickens or eggs etc. This is a first but can I really get through the entire Easter long weekend without eating any? The answer is yes this year because Easter for me is just another day(s) and for once I am not at work or working which means 1. I would rather budget any remaining funds towards more necessary needs and 2. My chocolate addicted work colleagues are not around to leave sweet treats around the work place therefore there is zero temptation for me to contribute to the pile or sneak a few of them each day with a cup of tea or as an after lunch treat.

On Saturday I again managed to drag myself out of my apartment to get some fresh air and sun. It was windy but not cold - ideal for a short walk - which ended up becoming a long walk all the way not to Lanecove or up the road to the KFC or the Seven Eleven but all the way to Chatswood.

I decided to have yet another attempt at getting some toliet paper tissues wipes disinfectant laundry sanitiser laundry liquid plain flour and dark Belgian chocolate as well as some fruit and vegetables ( gee I go through a lot of fruit and vegetables every week!). You probably guessed I failed yet again to get any of the above items at 2 supermarkets except fresh fruit and vegetables. Not even pieces of chicken with the skin on - why has the skin been removed from every piece of chicken everywhere except for wings, drumsticks and whole birds? Is keeping the skin on chicken pieces a Corona virus hazard? I don't think so. Even Southern style chicken ribs and pieces were scarce and any left in the refrigerated sections were on quick sale because they expired today! So no chicken purchased today. I did end up buying a packet of mini dark chocolate baking bits and a packet of plain chocolate biscuits which I hope to use in a blackforest brownie ( I think it will be my 3rd brownie made in 3 weeks - there is only so many brownies I can make so I may need to atrempt some other chocolate dessert next time). Also what's with no plain flour on shelves of supermarkets but plenty of self raising flour!? I don't need self rasing flour  - I make brownies not mud cakes!

After shopping I took the bus home rather then walking. I forgot what day it was and thought it was Sunday night when in fact it was another boring Saturday night.

Time to sleep.

Sunday 12th April 2020
Today I did absolutely nothing,  I didn't even finish my coding course off. I couldn't even be botheted to take a shower but I did go through most of my micro sd cards today and there were old photos on them that I had forgotten about. I haven't gone through all my SD cards yet to see what's on them as I don't have a cable for my sd card reader.  Some of my really old memory cards actually don't read anymore so I will never find out what is on them. If you remember the old 110 and 126 rolls of film, I still hasve some of those in my storage which have never been developed - who knows what's on them.

This is just a collection of my XD, SD, Micro SD cards  and USB drives containing hundreds of thousands of photos and videos on them. I have only gone through about a third of them so far. I am sure I have heaps more photos stored on old phones and lap top internal drives I haven't been able to transfer acrosd to external storage drives as well. Some of these portable storage devices I have been unable to access as the content and technology is too old.

OK I have been looking at my ginormous amount of photos for most of the afternoon today . Time to switch off and go to bed. One more day of Easter left then it is officially over and another 2 days and The Royal Easter Show if it had not been cancelled due to the Corona virus would also have been over.

IF ANYONE WOULD LIKE TO READ AND VIEW PHOTOS FROM MY OLD PRE NOVEMBER 2015 BLOG SITE - THIS IS THE ADDRESS AS IT IS QUITE DIFFICULT TO FIND ONLINE

dulcineayee.simplesite.com

This blog site consist of 15 pages of photos and information on places of interests I visited , events I attended and public art installations I viewed between August and October 2015. ( format may be a little different to this one). A simple counter at the bottom of the blog site indicates a total number of approximately 490 people who visited or viewed my blog to date. It does not break up how many people viewed or visited each page of my blog, where they come from or the last date someone visited my blog.

Notes: There were a few places of interest, events and art installations between October and November 2015 that I have left off both blogs. 

Still waiting on my first back dated payment from Centrelink. Will see what happens tomorrow when it is due.

End of another boring Sunday.

Monday 13th April 2020
Still no Centrelink payment.
Caught up with and Finished the Introduction To Coding Course. End of course quiz completed PDF of certificate downloaded.

What next?

Another do nothing day. Eat Sleep Eat Sleep Eat Sleep.

End of another day where I did not go out again. I have decided to give up on hunting for the things on my shopping list that I can't find. My ear is still blocked but my vertigo has almost completely disappeared. Maybe I am having a reaction to the ear drops I am using. There is definitely still wax in my ear but it's softening. It is not serious enough to see a doctor and I don't want risk getting the Corona virus going to one.

Yeh I have made it through Easter without having a single Easter themed chocolate this year!!!! Easter themed chocolates are now probably all going to be on sale - does not mean I am going to hoard them all now. If they get really discounted I may buy a few to break up and make more desserts out of them - but I need to find plain flour first.

Monday 6th - Friday 10th April 2020 - It's Easter & I 'm so bored!

On Saturday I decided to go for a brief walk outside at night as I have lost count of how many days I had not been out and I was running out of groceries but did not want to go to the supermarket.

The Seven Eleven up the road

First thought was walk up to the KFC up the road ( remember Christmas when my plan was to eat KFC and whatever I could find at the Seven Eleven across the road except I decided not to in the end?) to pick up something to take home to eat but I never made it there again, instead I purchased a lamb wrap from the Seven Eleven across the road to eat for dinner. Along the way there is a petrol station with a "DAVID JONES FOOD" sign displayed outside it's concession building - I've always been curious as to why there would be a David Jones Food concession in the middle of nowhere attached to a petrol station so I walked in and spent a bit of time looking at what groceries were available. The crackers were cheaper then the crackers for sale at the Seven Eleven across the road. Although they were on my shopping list to buy,  I decided against purchasing them there. Lamb sausages were also on my shopping list to purchase and these were also available however were rather pricey and with a used by date of tomorrow - no thanks David Jones Food! OK enough looking around time to head home after purchasing my lamb wrap and have my dinner.

A bit more of Tiktok, a bit more of tv ( the SBB Food channel only) , a bit more of Scottish Banter on Facebook and a final watch of YouTube then off to bed. End of another boring Saturday night!

Sunday I dragged myself out of my apartment today  for a big trip to the supermarket. A big trip meaning my usual weekly shop of groceries except maybe 2 weeks worth as it has been a while since I went to the supermarket and I only went because I really was down to my last bits of food. I don't hoard months of food like a lot of people and after 3 weeks of being unable to get my hands on toliet paper ( single rolls) - it was still unavailable. Plenty of tissues though ( as Americans would say no toliet paper but plenty of tissues GO FIGURE!) .

First stop was Aldi - no toliet paper or tissues but I managed to get food, it's a start. No flour either or chickpeas so next stop I tried Coles - again no toliet paper but plenty of tissues- cartons of them! No plain flour but still quite a few packets of self raising flour on the shelves - I didn't really need self raising flour just plain flour but grabbed a packet anyway as I never know when I will be able to get my hands on any again. On my list apart from toliet paper wipes disinfectant and laundry liquid/laundry sanitiser were French onion soup packets and a can of Campbells condensed tomato soup - plenty of Heinz condensed tomato soup but no Campbells condensed tomato soup ( it has to be Campbells brand - it has to do with what's in it) or French onion soup packets. Chickpeas yes! and not much choice in the meat and poultry section so I purchased some lamb steaks, 2 tail pieces of fresh salmon and something naughty- Southern style chicken ribs because it had a longer expiry date - should be yummy as they are precrumbed and cooked & all I have to do is place them in the oven to bake. Almost done as there were quite a few items on my shopping list that were still unavailable at both supermarkets and I won't bother going to the Woolworths Metro as I know there will be no chance of getting anything there except extra boxes of tissues which I already had 2 boxes of from a previous shop there.

I get to the register and decided to remove 2 items I had in my shopping trolley - a bar of Coles brand dark Belgian chocolate ( it wasn't on sale and there was only 1 packet left when I needed 2) and an avocado. Why?because I only wanted to spend as close to my $50 budget as I could. I was a few cents under so usually I buy a chocolate snack but the cashier said how about a bag? - I didn't really need yet another disposable plastic bag then she thought of something better - a box of plain $1 tissues - I thought why not I might as well since I haven't been able to find a single roll of toliet paper for 3 weeks! Shopping done time to head home.

End of another Sunday!

Monday 6th & Tuesday 7th April 2020

I didn't leave my apartment for 2 days except to sneak out very briefly on Monday afternoon to take my rubbish out to the bins in the rubbish area. Besides hating to go to the supermarket to get groceries and essentials, I also hate taking my garbage out too. I only do it when my bin is full which could be once a week and sometimes once a fortnight if I don't have much rubbish. My bins don't really stink as I separate my rubbish into 2 fully sealed bins lined with scented bin liners.

For the past 3 days or so I have been suffering from really bad vertigo brought on by a bad ear ache and very blocked ear. Everytime I got up the world would spin around me and to equalise  myself I would have to put my head down on my knees and wait until the spinning stopped, it was constant. Standing up was the only way I could avoid this happening. To unblock my ear I placed a few drops of olive oil in my ear before running water into it when I had a shower to try and loosen the wax to unblock my ear. This partially worked to the point my vertigo has decreased to about 80% but my ear was still a little blocked so I decided to walk to a pharmacy on Wednesday about 20 minutes away to purchase some proper ear wax remover. I hope this will clear my ear.

I stayed up on Tuesday night to play with Blockly Turtle (coding game) which was used as part of the Future Learn Introduction To Coding Course I had been working on online. It was a bit of fun similar to the Creative Coding Course I completed a few years ago also online through Future Learn ( refer my previous blog). This course is a lot simpler and shorter as it is a beginner course. If you have ever used the kid's coding program called Scratch - this is similar to that.

I even went onto Flickr and search in the archives to try and find my old artwork. I may have lost all the coding behind creating the artworks but I managed to find them on Flickr and took screenshots of them ( as I wasn't sure how else I could download them) to share with you all as very few if any of my readers would have seen them. ( See below)

This was my second creative coding exercise.  The first exercise I completed I had no idea what I was doing and what the result was suppose to be but it was correct and had something to do with a circle or a bullseye. This piece of artwork I created was by mistake but it turned out to be a very creative mistake. Look at it closely - what do you see? Do you see the optical illusion I created?

Towards the end of the course, one of our final exercises in creative coding was to create a digital postcard. I had heaps of trouble with this one but it was mostly with photo rotation. My initial idea  was to create snow randomly falling on a tree but I could not rotate the photo of the tree ( snow does not fall upside down or sideways) so I abandoned that for the above photo of snow randomly falling over this photo of the Boatshed at Cradle Mountain ( see previous blog on Bruny Island Tasmania - it really is my Winter Wonderland although there was snow it actually wasn't snowing at the time I was there so I added just a touch of random snow to it)

This was one of my creative coding attempts about 2/3 of the way through the course. By this stage I was still having a lot of trouble with my coding so decided to "cheat" and combine my knowledge of basic coding with physics - specifically "gears". How I created this piece of artwork was with a library of code used to draw on the screen with some type of stylus. I used my tablet which is pen enabled, grabbed different spirograph thingamejigs and just drew repeated spirals on the screen. You can see my love of that pantone pink and blue in my artworks.

Wednesday 8th April 2020
Today I actually left my apartment ( although not to do my laundry which I have put off doing for 2 weeks now!) but to take a walk down to the supermarket - a different one or two  to try and find toliet paper and things that I could not find on my last shopping trip. First stop Coles - no luck with toliet paper disinfectant wipes or laundry detergent or sanitizer or dark chocolate but there were lots of boxes of tissues so I grabbed 2 boxes before making a last minute decision to put them back after I read they were not made locally but imported - no thanks! How about French onion soup and condensed tomato soup - ok found. After picking up and managing to find only a few items on my shopping list it was then off to find a pharmacy that had ear drops - found. Onto another larger supermarket Woolworths. Still no toliet paper but plenty of boxes of tissues - fraganced or with something added to them to make them extra soft - no thanks, if I get desperate and need to use them if I can't find toliet paper they have to be the cheapest locally made no frills non fraganced 1 ply variety as not to clog up the septic systems.

Plenty of $4 larger bottles of Woolworths brand laundry sanitizer nobody has bought since last time I was here - I am trying to figure out why - Is it too expensive? I don't think so the similar sized bottles of brand named laundry sanitizer were more expensive and were sold out. Maybe because it was positioned right next to all the washing machine cleaners and people thought that the laundry sanitizer was actually not laundry sanitizer but washing machine sanitizer. I read the bottle at least twice and it was definitely laundry sanitizer and antibacterial to be put in a small quantity with your laundry detergent or fabric softener - did not buy any though as I did not need it at this stage - remember I don't hoard.

Ok onto some real groceries - sausages ( lamb only) , some baby cucumbers and some cherry tomatos to top up my supplies, how about some mocha hot cross buns? ( I should not be eating these as they give me a reaction) and no good plain dark blocks of chocolate so how about some soft strawberry licorice instead? ( these were the best thing I have tasted - not artifical or overly sweet and very important Woolworths brand and made in Australia @ $2 a packet - if I don't eat them all I may cut them up and put them in my chocolate brownies along with some crushed up biscuits to make a black forest brownie - there are no marshmallows ( which I don't really like) in a black forest brownie by the way - it's not a Rocky Road Chocolate Brownie!

A few other things and another round of the fresh food areas of the supermarket before deciding on not getting a  pizza ( a lot of them were almost expired and on sale and were the brand that made the contaminated raw pizza dough I had purchased previously complained about and now offered a replacement product and refund for at the Woolworths Metro in Chatswood  ( - refer my previous blog) , definitely no Easter eggs ( especially the licorice ones?) before heading to line up at the check out registers. There is a guy in front of me having a very loud and mad rant about something racist. I move away to another line and wait for another checkout operator before he does so to one of the other checkout operators who luckily is behind a perspex screen which is suppose to shield  them from "droplets" - poor check out operator having to put up with that type of behaviour - what's worse then an unmasked mad Caucasian guy ranting on about some Chinese person with a mask on but no gloves in the deli section picking things up? -  the guy himself was not even wearing  a mask himself and not even practising social distancing?!

Time to pay and make my way back home. Will try and get out again to find toliet paper- chances are getting slimmer as the so called " Easter Long Weekend" is coming up and everyone will be out shopping - goodness knows why because shops that normally close on Good Friday and Easter Sunday are now open everyday over Easter this year so you don't have to act like it's Christmas when the shops are all closed for 1 day and poeople act as if they are closed for a week and panic buy everything! or is that a year they shop for? No hoarding remember. There is plenty of fresh meat poultry fruit vegetables and other grocery items for everyone except I am unsure about the current carrot shortage where some major supermarkets are limiting 1 or 2 bags per customer - this is worse then the toliet paper situation! The vitamins in carrots are not a cure for the corona virus nor are they going to prevent you from contracting it - good hygiene and social distancing will. Speaking of which - tonic water is now back on the shelves so for all you alcoholics out there go for it but wait - bottle shops are now enforcing limits on the amount of alcohol you can purchase per person - of course they are there is eventually going to be a shortage of it especially :

1. Gin due to distillers switching to distilling alcohol to make hand sanitiser

and

2.Vodka due to all those people who can't find any hand sanitiser so have decided to bootleg their own and for that the alcohol content has to be not too low and not too high and vodka is a rather expensive but has the perfect alcohol concentration above 70% but not more then 85% or so for making it.

So for all those alcoholics out there you will have to ration out your gin and vodka purchases! Don't even think about doing the hard stuff like metho ( I don't mean meth by the way don't get the 2 confused - for some it might not make a difference either or both will get you wasted!).

Thursday 9th April 2020
I can't even remember what I did today - definitely not laundry or go out . Watched a lot of tv, Tiktok, Youtube and played around with Blockly again - no longer taking my course very seriously. I have been cooking a bit too. So much I could make but I am rationing my fresh and pantry stable foods I have now - just in case we have to srlf isolate longer. My favourite SBS Food channel is New Scandinavian Cooking.

Get text messages today from my cousin in Canberra and my bus buddy checking up on me. Still no payment from Centrelink but that's ok I am being patient for now. Estimated processing date is 13th April and due to the Easter Long Weekend this could take longer. I am probably better off then a lot of people who have also lost their jobs. At least I had my LSL to live off although it will only last me a few more weeks and I had not intended to have to use it all this way - it was suppose to be saved for taking real leave not in lieu of redundancy.

Friday 10th April 2020
Still have not left my apartment not even to do my laundry or go to the garbage area. I was intending to go to the supermarket this morning to try yet again to get some toliet paper but could not be bothered as there are probably hundreds of people out hoarding - I mean shopping for groceries today being a public holiday. Good Friday and for once the supermarkets are open - Happy Easter everyone the annual Royal Easter Show has been cancelled this year but you can still hoard your Easter eggs and even better buy a selection of rip off showbags from Woolworths supermarkets for $30 a showbag! Other showbags which are probably better value might be also available online. Being non religious I don't celebrate Easter by the way. I still have not had a single Easter egg too.

Thursday 2nd April 2020 - L3 Final Stage of Light Rail Circular Quay To Kingsford Opens & Day 9 & 10 of Joblessness Continued

Today I did nothing again except check the status of my Centrelink application ( which is being processed and estimated first payment is on 13th April about 3 weeks after being made redundant), cooked a chicken and vegetable curry ( sorry no photos - I ate it for dinner) and made a loaf of bread as well as watch Tiktok and The SBS Food Channel.

This is the loaf of bread I am still currently proofing ( 2nd proof). The dough wasn't rising much the first time I had it resting in a ceramic mixing bowl covered in plastic wrap so I popped the bread dough into the residual heat of the oven I had just made a slow cooked curry in and it is rising a lot faster and a lot more now uncovered. I will leave it overnight in the oven and bake it tomorrow. 

It's just after 10.30 pm and another accident along the Pacific Highway, this time the crash was right outside the apartment block outside the drive in drive out parking area driveway. Why do people always have to have an accident around the same time of the night? ( refer previous blog about the 1 car accident across the road from the apartment block). Police still outside, the car is parked in the front parking area and the airbag on driver's side is definitely deployed. This time there looks like 2 cars were involved - one coming out of the driveway in front of the apartment carpark and the other either passing along the Pacific Highway or driving into the driveway into the front parking area. Everyone seems ok. Just had a closer look and neither cars look as if they belong to residents from the apartment block I live in.
11 pm and a towtruck has towed away one of the cars. Have not looked at whether the other car haa driven off or towed away. Well this time the accident was cleared up faster then the previous accident. Both cars have been moved, the tow truck and police have gone, it is now 11.15 pm and there are workmen out the front sawing off a section of a metal barrier next to a tree along the highway's footpath that had been dented. Hopefully they won't be banging and sawing away for too long into the night and early morning. 11.30 pm and the workmen are still outside with 2 trucks - the metal barrier has now been sawn off and a red and yellow safety net barrier has been put up to replace it temporarily. Tradesmen finally leave at 12 midnight. I fall asleep

Above was probably my only bit of excitement for today.

( photo of temporary net barrier the following morning)

Friday 3rd April 2020

First thing I did when I woke up this morning was to check on my proofing of my bread dough - it certainly liked the warm oven overnight and did rise but not very much - maybe I used the wrong flour. I baked the loaf low and slow - not that low and it cooked really nicely but it still did not rise very much. In fact it looked as if it deflated and looked like a cake however when it was still really hot I took it out and it smelt like a loaf of bread although it looked like a slab of cake. I cut it and it had the texture of fresh bread - it was perfect except without the rise. I had half of it with unsalted butter and slices of cheese. It was just like a campfire loaf of bread! It had a perfect crust all the way round and fluffy on the inside so it was not dense like a cake at all.

Speaking of dough. I was just interrupted with a phone call from The Department of Fair Trading refer my previous post on contaminated pizza dough purchased from Woolworths. They have offered me a full refund and replacement product next time I go there - I don't think I want a product replacement now that I can make my own bread dough. I'll just make do with that and make my own pizza dough by just rolling and stretching it out.

The news of today was at 5 am this morning the final stage of the Circular Quay To Kingsford Light Rail L3 ( via the lower campus entrance of UNSW) opened.

Did anyone care? not really as it was completed a year overdue and heaps over budget. It was a very low key opening due to the current situation. It was primarily opened to transport essential services personnel to and from work and was not a time for people to have a fun ride on. I therefore did not venture out to take a ride on it. I am trying to stay away from the Eastern suburbs as much as possible as it is backpackers and students central in that area of Sydney's suburbs.