A Beach Day

Even though there is plenty of house work to do.  Even though we need to do some serious work in the garden at our other house.  Even though it's blowing a gale outside.  I can always be convinced to change my plans and go to the beach! Justin - not so much... but there were friends in town to see and we had a fridge full of beer and they had bait so fishing it was!

Driving along the beach to get to the best spot to catch whiting. Actually last time we were here we timed it perfectly with the incoming tide and caught about thirty whiting.  We gave them to a friend's mum who is Vietnamese and they dry them with lots of lemongrass and spices and then freeze them.  Then you put them on a barbeque grill and toast them up and eat them like chips, they are a really good snack!

We drove along the beach under the jetty to get there... Its always a little bit scary because driving in sand you have to keep your speed up so you don't get bogged but in order to drive under the jetty you have to thread the car through those pylons carefully to come out the other side!  The jetty is one mile long (hence the name One Mile Jetty!!) and there is a little touristy train that runs out to the end and back... I have walked to the end but never taken the train. 

Stopped on the beach, "Where are you guys?" they had gone to a different part of the coast about ten minutes drive away so off we went!

This is grampa Grant and the beautiful four month old Ainsley May - enjoying her beach day too!
We didn't end up catching as much whiting this time, only about six, and a few other awful fish like flathead and yellow tail that got thrown straight back (awful to eat!!). Next time we catch a whole lot of whiting I want to try to make rollmops again... I tried a few years ago but must have added too much sugar or the recipe just didn't taste like I expected it too! Anyone have a recipe I can borrow?

Saturday... and Why I Am Not A Great Blogger

So I have decided that I am probably a poor candidate to have a blog.... Although I have plenty of experiences, recipes, occasions etc that are worthy of being blogged about I am terrible at photographing them all. There it is, it's all out in the open now.  I can't take a photo of that great meal I have just cooked - not because I am a bad photographer but because I am greedy and want to eat it.  I can't capture that great laugh and smile that someone had on their face because I am too busy enjoying the joke to whip out the camera.  And I can't show you how great that sunset was because I was too busy drinking my beer and watching it for real. So now that I have put this out in the public forum we will have to agree that on this blog there is likely to be much more typing than pictures!
This morning mom came over and we had homemade breakfast sausage on the barbeque with fried eggs, toast, smokey beans and then a fruit platter for brunch.  It was all very good! Australia does not make a breakfast sausage that tastes anything like American breakfast sausage so it has to be DIY.  I have found a good recipe (and interesting blog to read) here:http://homesicktexan.blogspot.com/2008/02/breakfast-sausage-to-begin-day.html
After that then it became a regular Saturday: reloading, cleaning guns, putting brass from last week in the tumbler, picking up all the spent primers off the floor, missing one and stepping on it and swearing..... fairly typical Saturday stuff. We usually have about 100 rounds each to use every Saturday for a club competition and can get it done in about 45 minutes.

Yes this is the same table in the foreground that minutes previously was a breakfast table.  We have a small but versatile house!