Lots to write. What topic to start, i've no idea.
Its a working day tomorrow. Day after is the KPI. so boring that i don;t even want to participate. Heard our managers are getting an increase. Atleast let them live.

It was our son on his 2nd B'day and we wanted to order a Thomas cake for him.- for the Party. I was n't satisfied with a picture of thomas on a round cake, and that triggered us to make a 3D Thomas cake for him. Did some research, goodled a lot and found this blog site -thomasthetankengine.blogspot.com. They have done a fantastic job, and ours is nowhere compared to their Thomas. Morethan me, my hubby was inspired and, we decided to go fwd. It was a winner when our son identified the figure as Thomas and excited for it!.

Method :
Note: Attempt this , only if you are ready to make a mess in your kitchen table.
Make the chocolate cake (basic ) 2 days in advance and when it is completely cooled, cover it and rest it in fridge. (The Blog site says, keep in the freezer. Making Thomas's face is the hardest part, and we did it with riceflour -made a dough with Boiled water and rice flour ( and caster sugar in case some kid wants to eat it ) and added few drops of blue colour. Once it was ready, steamed it to make it hard. This then went to the fridge to rest.

To make thomas's body, we stacked few layesrs of cake , did carving, stuck them with frosting (I bought buttercream icing and whipped it , and added colour to it ). This is a pretty messy job. We did the butter icing on the day of the party as I wasn't sure if this will melt/harden .

The short stumpy boiler and dom were also made with the same cake. The Red lines in thomas's body was done with lil trick - cut a piece of beling paper, and cut some striped holes. Put this on top of thomas' body and did the icing. when done, removed the baking paper(carefully , not to leave marks) and it took out the coloured portion along with the paper, resulted in nice (brown& blue)lines. Brown from the cake and blue from the butter icicng. This can be filled with Red icing or red MnMs. We didn't have any , so where those brown cake body was seen, and we pretended to see it as Red.

Anyways, here's the end result.


I bought some Thomas cups and glasses for Kids, and thomas' activity books (3$s) as loot bags. I didn't have much time to arrange the loot bags, so thought this would go along with the theme.

How to ease the anger ?

Think of the good times, the time when you enjoyed the most. You will find atleast one. If you can't memorise, browse for the photographs, and analyse everyone. Try to comment their pose. Call them.

On the Dance Floor

Feliz Navidad! Thats my Spanish Word of the day. It means Merry Christmas. Yes this is december , the cold, festive month. However the story is different here downunder. Here its summer, a dry time for Australia. But we are getting enough rains this year. All my garden crops are enlivened.

OK, Weather apart , December is the party month[-another reason for Aussies to celebrate] . Just be in the city and you will get inspired by the decorations and party invitations. Its amazing how people find time for themselves and enjoy , unlike in Kerala, where i lived for the past 25 years. Yeah, that seems like a long time. Here people live to celebrate. They don't believe in saving money for the next gen, or atleast for themselves for the coming months. They Earn, they spend, they party! I remember one of my little nephews in Sydney - shouting, while they were returning from church-- Mama, lets go party, mama lets go party! . The Young auzzi-ism is bubbling over already.

We also had a christmas party at our workplace. It was at 7:00 PM in the city and people were starting to leave by 2-2.30, to prepare for it . The party is from 7PM - 1 Am and unlimited drinks and dance! I told hubby abt this, and his question was , "you are not gonna drink,are you?". I couldn't help but say- "Of course I am!" just to see his response.

We reached there around 7,30 and the finger food was already served. After dinner all headed towards the dance floor, wearing a wristband, for unlimited drinks. I was astounded by confidence exhibied by some females on the dance floor. Really Amazing. They just dance, and dance.

Reached Home at 1 am, and little one got up. Another party time!

These events don't connect , do they ?

Friday - the market Day. Long time since we ate fish. Hubby called up around 4.00 from the market to ask if he should buy any fish. Any fish ? common.. Yes Yes. Snapper, Salmon, Trout.. anything available. I've been watching masterchef and inside i'm bubbling with inspirations!
There came a trout. A full fish. Ru was seeing it for the first time! He couldn't make out what it really is! he has only seen lil 'meemee's' .

ANyway. So its Baked Trout for dinner. + Roast Veggies.

Baked Trout

Trout - I cooked 1/3 of it. [with head]
Lemon - 1 squeeze
Salt + Pepper - to taste.
White wine - one shot
Tomato - 1

Marinate for 1 hr if you have time. Preheat oven 200 degrees. Place trout in a foil on a baking tray. stuff with tomato. Put a few on top and few pieces on bottom. bake for around 15 mins. Better not to over cook it. So just check after 10 mins .
Peel off the skin and pour lemon juice on top + salt.

Wonderful Yummy Dinner .Ru loved it a lot. So did hubby.
Its raining outside. :-)

Wonderful day out. Sunny, around 30 degrees. I want to do some gardening but can't, coz Ru is behind me all the time.Especially because Hubby is out for work, -on a Sunday. Some rollout happening. anyways, not my business. Decided to browse. Watched Youtube videos ,and found an amazing recipe. Microwave cake -
Ru Helped me to clean up the bowl after pouring the batter to cook. That brought back 25yrs old memories, when my mom used to bake cakes and how we helped her. . History repeatS!

I cup Flour
1/2 cup cocoa powder, brownsugar, while sugar, butter, milk
1/2 tsp vnila essence, baking powder.
2 eggs

Mix all dry ingredients, wet ingredients.. Pour into a bowl and cover and microwave high for 6 mins. YUmmmm. Please dont' underestimate the qualtity of the batter, as it will rise almost triple, and fall back. Use a bigger bowl for the microwave.

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Then hubby came back and wanted a drink. Quickly made a mango smoothie for him. The idea sruck as my friend sobha in Sydney was making it when I talked to her last time!. it was an instant hit!
Frozen Mangoes few pieces, + milk + sugar + honey .. Make sure of the consistency.

Day after Melbourne Cup. Have to send Ru to childcare ,hubby to office -which I don't have to worry,thankfully - and myself to office. The hardest of all 3 is the last one. Especially because of my runny nose and stuffed head , I can't think of going to my cold, boring office.

Decided Not to go. Wow. Decision made me feel a lot better. I don't hate my office. Its a place where I can sit and partially relax and forget all the household chores awaiting me once I get back. I have a collegue-friend, who is 30 years older than me, is on her holidays in her home country, Sri Lanka. If she was there, I would have considered going. So its better to be at home as I don't want to sneeze and blow my nose in front of the green screen all day.

Ru is running around in his T and Nappi. Made his poo -i'm sure- and climbed his high-chair for the breakfast. Dosa with Honey, for his sore throat. had 3 bits and thats it! Dressed him up and packed up everything in his Elmo bag. Kissed everyone, said bye and went back to bed after swallowing the cold-tea which my hubby made in the morning.

Got up close to lunch time, and thought of cooking something. yes I have lamb Neck in the chill-tray. Took it out , plucked a bunch of celery from the backyard, added some onion and black pepper corns, salt and dried bay leaves. Soup ready in 45 Mins. Wow. Best thing to have on a cold, windy day. Especially when you are on Sick Leave!

Lamb Clear Soup

Lamb neck or any Boney Portion of the Lamb - 250 gms.
Celery stems -2
Black pepper Corns - a spoonful
Bay leaves - 5
Curry Leave if you have - one strip.
Carrot cubed - 1
salt to taste.
Onion -1 sliced gently.

Add everything to a pressure Cooker and cover with enough water. I added some silver beet leaves to make it more healthy. After 1st whistle, cook in Sim mode for 30-40 Mins.
You can add butter if you want, for taste. Serve hot with Bread.