Quicky from Vic-y

Hi there peeps. I found out that a few people actually check this blog so I thought I'd better keep things interesting. So here are the top 5 places to eat food in Victoria:

1. The East Brunswick Club for "chicken" parma

2. La Panella bakery in Preston for pies, sausage rolls, apple scrolls, jam donuts and more!

3. Mystery secret locations that only hip people know about, I can't tell you their names because I don't know them. My hip pal C takes me to new places every time I visit and I eat amazing things. Like french toast with poached pears in Balaclava. Marinated coconut bagels in Brunswick. The list goes on.

4. Lord of the Fries in various locations but usually at Northlands, the burgers rock okay and I'm a sucker for tacky shopping complexes.

5. Thooft in Bendigo. Because I'm always visiting family in Benders and this place makes a mean vegan breakfast called "Vegan is not a dirty word". Also they make good juices and coffee. 

There are more. There are dumplings and many more treasures but these are all the things that I can't get in shitty Armidale. Burgers, pies, fancy food. I miss this stuff. I bet there are way more places that I don't even know about because I've been away so long. OH SHIT! I almost forgot. I love to eat some good quality hand made potato cakes while in Vic because apparently in NSW they don't know how to whip up a simple batter, slice some potatoes, dip, fry and serve. They get pre-made frozen things and call them potato scallops. Freaks. Anyway, I am having a gay old time and my jeans don't fit anymore. I Love VIC!

Anx-i-et-ea

I have a new theory. Actually, I'm pretty sure this aint new. Caffeine makes me panicky. Green tea gives me "anx-i-et-ea". Does everyone have anxiety these days? Seems like it. For me, it's all about the coffee and tea. And today, I had a coffee AND a tea. Stupid stupid little lady. 

So, I just had a little episode at a little party. I just had to get the fuck out of there! Didn't even say goodbye to anyone. Now I feel guilt. Not just any old guilt, anxious guilt. Ick. Anyway, I decided to just go with it. I know that's probably not what the shrinks would suggest. I think "going with it" leads to agoraphobia, but for now, it's all I can do. Anyway, this is a bit deep, but I just thought I would share because I'm sure every single one of you has felt this way before.

My big conundrum is the coffee/tea consumption vs productivity trade-off. Without the coffee I'm a blob of useless goop but with the coffee I'm a ball of nervous energy.  With coffee I do get more work done, in short bursts, but I follow that up with a few hours of wanting to squeeze something really tight until it bursts. I almost feel like collecting data on my productivity with and without coffee. If only there was a way to measure how destructive those panicky times are to my general sense of well being. I think they are pretty bad. Okay, now I've hit the wall. Time for bed. I'm sure I'll sleep like a baby. Not a good baby though; one of those bad babies that scream all night. Poor N. Poor Dougy.

Ecology and my social life

Well, it's been a while. I've neglected you. I've been busy though, so get off my case. Things have been going pretty well since the sun arrived in Armidale, like, mental health-wise. Although, around eastern Australia there is extensive flooding, so yeah, it's also been a bit wet. Perhaps I am so resilient I haven't noticed the rain, or perhaps I have a short memory and it's sunny right now. Anyway, we've been swell.

N and I have really cranked up our productivity now that we only have 6 months of PhD left. I might look back on this post in 6 months and think "wow, who was she kidding, there was no way she'd get that thesis finished in 6 months", but I'm really hoping that's not the case. I REEEEEEAAALLLLLYYY just want it to be over. There are days, like yesterday, where I think I've got it in the bag. Then there are days, like today, where I fuck around with a graph for hours and suddenly it's dinner time. If you are a PhD student, you will understand this. It's just like trying to create a beautiful statue out of a slimy turd. 

We've just returned to Armidale from Canberra where we attended the 50th anniversary conference for the Ecological Society of Australia. Canberra: our nations capital. It's a really ugly city, but it provided some very fun and pleasant opportunities. 1) Lots of mock meat; 2) Lots of beer and fun ecologists to hang out with; and 3) a pool. The combination of these factors, every day, made for a memorable week. I lost my voice. My talk went well. N's talk went well. All of our friends also smashed their talks. We danced and drank lots of wine at the conference dinner. I have a bruised knee. 

I didn't get a chance to photograph anything other than food. Here it is (all from a vegan restaurant in Dickson, Canberra!)...

deep fried sweet potato coated in nuts

Roast "duck" with buk choy. Effing yum!

Yummy spicey "chicken" and veg

Pineapple fritter with soy ice-cream and choc topping, anyone? HEAVEN.

Running away

When shit hits the fan, I run away. I just noticed this recently. Is that a bad thing? A lot of the good things that have happened to me have come about because I've run away from a bad situation. For example, when I was living with a friend who liked to pick on me and make me feel bad about myself I moved out, into a share house with people I didn't know and who became some of my bestest friends. Then, when that house got too cold and busy and depressing I ran away and moved in with another bunch of strangers, one of those strangers is reading this blog now and is one of my bestest friends also. Again, when N and I finished our undergrad studies and couldn't find jobs or PhD projects in Melbourne we ran away to Armidale (the jury is still out on whether this was a good idea). Now, I'm getting sick of being here. Should I run again?

Something tells me I should stick it out. Someone tells me that too. I like a challenge usually, or do I? I don't know, I'm confused. This time the running will probably take me back to some of the stuff I ran away from originally. I guess there are a limited number of places to run and eventually you have to face the shit. Problems don't go away, they just look less menacing from a distance. This little pickle may never be resolved. So that's how I'll leave my post.

Rural vegan life...

I am writing this from a little shack on the eastern slopes of Mount Kaputar in New South Wales, Australia. N and I are on a field trip, finishing up N's vegetation surveys and doing some fixing-up, weeding, and general mending of my ongoing competition experiment (even further west of here). Basically, you couldn't find us if you tried. Doug is at the kennel with all of his fellow abandoned friends. He is probably sitting in his little shack having flash-backs to his pound-puppy-past. I wish he had a mobile phone, I'd text him and say goodnight. (This is me in the present: we picked up Doug and he was having a whale of a time. We are watching him sleep it all off now.) 

Anyway, back to us (N and me). We've actually had a fun trip so far. This is new for me because I usually hate field work. The weather has been mild (present me: just moments after I wrote this a wild electrical storm hit the farm we were staying at. I didn't sleep because the farmer had just told us horror stories of people being struck by lightning on the hill we were staying on. BEST. STORM. EVER. all the same - we had to leave early the next morning (today)). Yesterday was a tough slog but we finished everything at my sites before the rains (predicted, then happened: 27mm in 1 hour), so I don't have to come out again for a month! N's work is much more interesting because we get to hang out on farms all over the slopes and plains, with pretty views, flowers, quad bikes (yes quad bikes), and lambs with long fluffy tails. Did you know that sheep are supposed to have long luxurious tails? It's sad that when we imagine sheep we don't see tails. That's some ingrained mutilation. And the calves! So happy, so energetic, as if they haven't figured out that they only exist to be eaten. 

The main point of this post was to walk you through what it's like to be vegan in very rural Australia. REALLY rural. Not like Dandenong or other peri-urban centres. These towns are inhabited by hillbilly folk who wear big hats (like in cartoons), and go to rodeos and ute musters for fun! Food is an issue for us. We try to cook most of our meals but sometimes that's not possible. This trip included some interesting examples of 'eating out' in really tiny towns. Have a geez:

Chips, potato cake, corn jack, vegie dim sim from "The Chip-In" - Gunnedah

The innards of the vegie dim sim (they rock)

Home brand corn flakes, OJ and Oat milk for b-fast before a HUGE day at my field sites

This was fairly gross, it's curried veg at the Chinese restaurant in Wee Waa (which is inside the RSL)

Vegie singapore noodles from the same place (N liked it but I thought it tasted like arm-pits)

Satay vegie thing at the shack; with a nice view of the brewing storm

10 things I love about Armidale

Ok, for those of you who know me, you will be acutely aware of how hard this is for me. I basically winge about Armidale every hour of every day. For those of you who have to put up with this winging, I'm sorry. Yesterday I had a crazy thought: there are some things I love about living in this town. The thing is, I'm just a big old winger and I never say positive things. So this post is like therapy for me. I will try to include funny things for you.

1. October, November, (not December because everything is closed), February, and March (if it's still warm). Those are the best months to live in Armidale. It's sunny but not too hot. Everything is green (well the plants are). There are sometimes kick-arse electrical storms (which I love). You can have BBQs and you can sit outside to eat dinner.  (oh shit, have I put all of my fave things in the first point? Maybe, let's see).

2. There are heaps of nice parks and places to go for walks within a few kms of our house. Actually, this is Dougy's fave thing about Armidale. But during our fave months we are too scared to let him off the lead because he has been known to get bitten by snakes and nearly die. Sniff.

3. There are amazing gorges and waterfalls and nature-y things less than an hour from town. So when people come to visit we can impress them with scenery.

4. NO TRAFFIC. Although I kind of hate that I use my car as much as I do, it is pretty cool that we never have to burn fossil fuels stuck in traffic. I don't think I have ever sat in the car idle behind a build up of traffic (Coles carpark doesn't count - that place is a nightmare). 

5. Hills and high-ish altitude make me a fit rabbit. 

6. Cheap rent means we can afford to live in a architecturally designed 60s mansion.

7. Op shops still have cool shit because there aren't many hipsters raiding them.

8. You are considered hugely stylish if you wear something other than a rugby jumper.

9. We have become vegan master chefs because we can't go out to eat (EVER). This also means we can survive on our meager scholarships.

10. We have met HEAPS of amazing new friends who we will love forever (and who live all over the world so we could do a massive overseas adventure and never pay for accommodation).

Well, now that was nice wasn't it. Appreciating things doesn't come naturally to me but I promise to try harder in the future. 

Day in the life...

I have a theory. Well I have heaps of theories about heaps of stuff but today I will tell you about a theory I came up with yesterday when I was scoffing down a burger and chips with 'da boyz' (Doug and N). You know how people often have dinner parties, BBQs, picnics, go out for dinner etc? Well that's always when people find out we are vegan and they say "shit! What do you eat? Don't you miss cheese?..." and I never know what to say because I can never think of a way of explaining how awesome food is when you're vegan. Being vegan opens up a whole new world of flavours blah blah blah. But they can't seem to see past the cheese. 

Here's where my theory kicks in. People (when I say people I mean omnivores) only see vegan life from the unfortunate perspective of missing out on stuff, but I think this is because they only ever see us when we are at these awkward social functions where we are trying to get by on whatever is on offer. For example, when we go to a BBQ (if we are silly enough not to bring our own food) we are left with white bread with sauce, green salad and maybe a dry, over-cooked vegie burger. So I don't blame 'people' for thinking we must eat really bland food, because compared to their plates piled up with creamy potato salad, sausages, steaks, cheeses, bread with butter etc, our plates look pretty sad. I can handle missing out on good food on these occasions because I know when I get home I get to eat awesome shit. 

So the point of this post is to show you what we ate yesterday. One day in our life...

Breakfast - FRONCH (vegan french toast) with fruit, 'cream', and maple syrup 

Lunch - Burger with fried onion and mushroom, salad and mayo. Plus three spiced chips.

Cous cous with vegies and chick peas. AND a chick'n snitzel.

Note: I forgot to take a photo of our actual dinner last night but we had this dinner a couple of weeks ago so whatevs. Last night we had vol au vents with a bean and avocado salad. Oh and Dougy had a pretty shit food day yesterday because we forgot to buy his kangaroo meat, he had dry food and a really small bone. Poor love. But, he's not vegan so he misses out. 

Why I hate the Melbourne Cup

1. Extreme animal cruelty disguised as extreme animal admiration (the horses don't care who wins, they just don't wanna be shot for losing)
2. Another nationalistic day for bogans to celebrate, I'm sure there will be lots of Australian flag tatoos on lots of flabby white arms again. It doesn't even have to be Australia day any more.
3. Really rich people tossing away lots of coin just so they can drink lots of champagne, wear designer clothes, pull feathers out of birds to adorn their stupid heads, strip cows of their skin to adorn their stupid feet, all in a hopeless attempt forget how empty they feel when they go to bed at night. Oh look here are some now.
4. Total glorification of gambling and binge drinking.
5. The worst thing, the main reason I avoid leaving the house on cup day, is the way no one seems to understand how anyone could possibly hate the Melbourne Cup! Oh the indignation, the confused looks, the "oh just lighten up, the horses love to race" shit we cop on cup day. Sorry for thinking.

How do your jeans relate to my PhD project?

So I survived the cotton conference. My PhD project is funded by the Cotton CRC which means I have to go and present my work at cotton CRC conferences. I was worried. This is what your average cotton farmer looks like. I thought that my work was meandering off into some territory that I wasn't sure the Cotton growers of NSW would appreciate (ie. I kind of want them to stop clearing Coolibah woodlands). I was planning on maybe making my work a little more acceptable by, well, fibbing. Then I just threw caution to the wind and busted out my data with no apologies. To my surprise, people loved it. Granted, I used cutesy cartoons and made lots of jokes so it was impossible for anyone to hate me. But they didn't just not hate me, they didn't just tolerate me, they really wanted to marry me and my data. So I suppose I have to admit that I was wrong about the cotton CRC. Turns out, they do encourage independent research.

Another thing I was dreading was conference food. Being vegan is hard at conferences. They think all we eat is salad and fruit. Here's some news, I basically hate salad and fruit. Unless the fruit is berries or unless the salad has some beans and avocado in it. So going to a conference in a rural town where everyone eats meat all of the time, I assumed it would be green salad and oranges for me. I WAS WRONG. There was heaps of good food for me. Stir fries in a box for lunch. Tofu and mushrooms and roast potato and pumpkin and vegie sausages and vegie burgers. They had it all. No yucky vegetable stacks. So, it was no Green gourmet vegan yum cha, but it was pretty good.

Okay, so I WAS WRONG. First about the vampire craze, and now THIS! Have I been wrong about anything else? Maybe Jesus did rise from the dead. Nah. 

Ok, so I finally understand the vampire thing

I really really tried not to get sucked in to the vampire obsession that kids these days have embraced. I generally don't trust kids these days. I also generally don't like fantasy/sci-fi stuff. For example, Avatar (what a pile of shit). But then a series of good friends, who I do trust and who have impeccable taste, were pushing the whole TrueBlood/Dollhouse thing. Dollhouse was first. Now TrueBlood.. 

We (N and I and Doug) were feeling a little bit hungover yesterday so N went and hired TrueBlood and we watched 5 episodes, drank Coke and ate waaaaay too many potato gems. It was total heaven. So now I'm hooked. Which is good because watching actual tv with ads sucks so we like to have a series to watch on dvd when we wanna chill. We think it's ok to be hooked on TrueBlood because it has the same quirky backwater town mixed up in weird creepy shit vibe that Twin Peaks had, and we love Twin Peaks. Have you watched Twin Peaks? You should. 

This doesn't mean I'll be rushing out to see all the other vampire movies. I love true blood in spite of the vampires, ok. But oh, no, actually I do love the vampires, but I really don't wanna go too mainstream. (that was a total TrueBlood reference). Ok, maybe I'm still a little hung-over. Bye.

This is what doug looks like when he's watching TrueBlood

Phrases that Doug understands

Breakfast

Roll over

No

Leave it

Okay

Wait

Slow down

Ut ut ut ut ta ta ut ut ta 

Hop up

OUT!

Come inside

Wanna treat

Do you wanna go for a walk?

(but he never hears the last word because he's already started a celebratory lap around the house and yard)

 Drop

Lay down

Into bed

Shake

Hop on the green chair

Come back

Wanna go see Belvie?

Where's your ball?

My fave things on the world wide web...

Awesome dresses and clothing:

http://www.modcloth.com/store/ModCloth/Womens/Dresses

http://www.poshgirlvintage.com/

http://www.sproutwatches.com/sprout_intro.asp

http://www.herbivoreclothing.com/

Best Vegan food and vegan stuff:

http://littlehouseofveggies.blogspot.com/

http://veganyumyum.com/

http://www.happycow.net/ 

http://vegandad.blogspot.com/

http://www.animalsaustralia.org/

Best pod-casts to listen to on long car trips:

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/podcast/

Food rut

Last night we went shopping for food at the stupid-market, WITH NO LIST. You know when you find yourself thinking, 'I'm so over food', well my friend, that's when you're in a FOOD RUT. Get the hell out of it. Do what everyone tells you never to do, go to the supermarket with no list and just wander the isles. This is how we rolled last night and we came up with some brilliant ideas. Here are a few:

1. Veggie Burgers with potato gems (oh so naughty)

2. Satay veg and rice (N's fave)

3. Pizza with whatevs on it (because N is the pizza KING and he loves to freestyle)

4. Black bean and coconut soup

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, we hadn't eaten in ages when we went shopping, another shopping faux pas. That explains how trashy our ideas were. The moral of the story is, we had no list and no one got hurt! Now we have a cupboard and fridge full of random foods and there is no limit to the crazy shit we'll come up with. 

Oh and Dougy got out of his food rut yesterday as well. He got through the hole in our fence and ate Tina's (older lady dog friend) dinner. His belly is so massive and he keeps farting.

Who is Doug?

Doug is my best friend in the whole world. I tell him all kinds of crazy shit and he doens't even care, he doesn't judge, he just lays there on his back peacing out to the dulcet tones of my voice. He pretty much loves the crap out of me. I wouldn't say he's my dog, I don't own him, we just live together and I feed him and take him for runs in the morn'.

Doug is really good looking too. He has friends and lovers all over the world, in weird, backwater countries like Estonia, Czech Republic, Canada, and Mexico. He's never been overseas though and I don't know that he wants to. 

Dougy, like me, has a dodgey past. We picked him up from the North Melbourne Lost Dogs Home back in 2007. We think he must have escaped from his previous family's yard because we happen to know he's pretty good at climbing, digging, jumping and squirming.

So, enough about Doug; this blog is supposed to be about all the crazy shit that I tell Doug. For example, I think a lot about tree dynamics and plant ecology (because I'm supposed to be writing a thesis on that stuff), vegan food and cooking, animal enslavement, childhood obesity, music, politics, dresses, hair styles, and sometimes I watch TV and try not to think.

I suppose you want to see the big D...here's a little pic for you to drool over.