Good Morning Sunday

[Marguerite]

G'day people.

It dawned sunny and hot here again today. We had a lazy morning although I was back out in the garden in my swimsuit pruning roses for easy child & SIL1. I planned to do the tasks in a series of spells, but easy child rang to book a yum cha lunch for us, and found the restaurant could only fit us in if we went immediately. So I quickly got back into real clothes and off we went.
A lovely lunch. A bit early, but yum cha is great for brunch. Then we dropped in to a game fair, saw some friends from Sydney there. Headed back to easy child & SIL1's place. We alternated between watching a DVD, playing a new board game (bought at the fair) and me doing a bit more pruning.

husband & SIL1 loaded the washing machine into our van, so we're all ready for tomorrow. They head off to work at about 7.30 am, we'll hit the road soon after, I think. So we've had a bit more of a holiday than we have had for a while. It's been the longest we've stayed here - the kids have been here less than a year, the place is really taking shape. But next time we come here, it won't be so darned hot! Can't wait to get back home and the chance of a swim at the beach! Canberra is well inland!

Enjoy your Sunday, everyone.

Marg

 

[HaoZi]

Morning all. Marg, what is yum cha?

Laundry day again. Tree is still up. Boxes for Janet and the library still sitting here. It's either 3 or 6 degrees here depending on which weather program I look at. Truck has been so cold that only the passenger side doors will open since Friday morning and they like to freeze open, too. Not going anywhere unless I have to, crawling across from that side isn't any fun. Don't even want to go outside to take the trash to the dumpster that's 50' away, but that's a gotta do thing. So glad the set-up here involves a laundry room that's inside the same building (every four units have one outside door and one washer/dryer set downstairs), sure beats places I've lived where I had to walk to a distant group laundry room or go to a laundromat.

 

[Wiped Out]

Good Morning!

Marg-I'm also wondering what a yum cha is? Sounds like a nice holiday but I know how nice it is to get home (plus living by the beach would give me extra incentive to get home).

HaoZi-I totally understand the not wanting to go outside thing!!! I'm feeling much the same way.

We are starting out with a 12 degree below 0 temp this morning (and that's without a windchill)! husband is going to do the grocery shopping and I'll just do my Wii Fit at home because I don't want to go out in the cold!!!!

The major part of the afternoon will be watching the Packers/Bears game! Go Packers!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Wishing everyone a peaceful day!!

 

[Marguerite]

OK, Monday morning here, we're about to leave Canberra in a couple of hours.

I can't believe you guys have not encountered yum cha! It would go down big in the US! It's a kind of Chinese morning tea, it suffices for breakfast and lunch although commercially it's usually a lunch thing. Or a morning tea thing. You sit at the table and they bring out trays of food, generally all small bites of things. Little dumplings, steamed pork buns, custard tarts, tiny spring rolls, har gau (steamed prawn dumplings in rice flour wrapper) and so on. Chicken feet, sticky rice, barbecued squid, rice noodles, bundles of steamed bok choi with soy and sesame poured over it. All very yum. You take what you want, each dish you take is noted on your bill according to its cost, and at the end of the meal it gets added up. This way you can enjoy lots of tastes of food while sharing good time with friends. It's also a very fast meal because there is little to no waiting. The food is always coming out from the kitchen, it's a constant stream of food around all the tables. A busy yum cha restaurant is full, noisy, bustling and a lot of fun.

If you ever have the chance, give it a try.

Marg

 

[GoingNorth]

It sounds like your 'yum cha' is what we call 'dim sum' in the US. If you have a Chinatown near you, you can easily find dim sum restaurants. It's a lot of fun and gives you a chance to try all sorts of different things without making a commitment to an entire entree of one thing.

 

[TeDo]

We woke up to an actual temp of 24 below zero. The "breeze" made the wind chill 30 below. I didn't want to leave my house this morning but had to teach Sunday School. I couldn't wait to get back to my nice toasty house. Hope everyone had a nice day. I spent the day helping the kids get their homework done. I think I was as happy as they were when it was finally ALL done.

 

[HaoZi]

*notes that neither yum cha nor dim sum are the type of things for her*

 

[HaoZi]

Found something that clarifies the yum cha/dim sum thing: http://goaustralia.about.com/od/ausx/f/yumcha.htm