Aquarius

Well .. if smashed avocado isn't de riguer on every breakfast menu in every foody cafe in Victoria then I don't know what is!
So far January has been a slow month. Too much time to think. I needed a project.
So quite unexpectedly I fell into the groove of ordering smashed avocado every time I ventured out for breakfast.


And being the holidays and all, and being grounded in Australia I ventured out quite abit.

I grew up with an Avocado Tree in the back yard. Just to keep the Mango and the Macadamia company. Though the word Macadamia was all just abit too posh back then. It was the Queensland Nut Tree. No pretentions in our back yard.
Our little Garden of Eden was all very well balanced.

Thankfully my Mother didn't charge us $17 a pop for Avo on toast. Though she could have upped it to $25 - for most of the time we were eating prawns AND avo on toast. Big fat juicy and fresh off the trawler prawns. We didn't pay for the prawns either but that's another story for another day. Sometimes she even grilled a little cheese on top for us!
Yes .. it was all very well balanced indeed.

At Christmas time I bought myself a new camera. It's quite flash! It has all these lovely little icons - landscapes, food, fireworks, the ocean, people, etc etc etc and it can even sense when someone is smiling! I had visions of uploading a plethora of gorgeous gorgeous pictures to my blog. The only problem is the the UPLOAD icon on BLOGGER IS NOT WORKING! How ghastly! At first I thought it was just me, until I did a little online research. Seems it is an epidemic! Fix it BLOGGER people - please please fix it. I don't have time for all this hoo har.

And a blog with no pictures would be quite unbalanced indeed!

For 5 days in a row I ate smashed avocado.
In this exact order I ate it - in Lorne, Yarraville, Brighton, Port Melbourne and Williamstown.

When I came 'home' to Victoria from 'home' in Queensland I felt a little glum. No rejuvenation for me in Hawaii this year but I craved the ocean. The real ocean, not the bay. The sea. The salt. The waves. The sand. So in the New Year I headed to Lorne for a few days. With my new camera! And I must say. It has been quite a number of years since I have been to Lorne and I had forgotten what a beautiful stretch of beach it is. And it really is. The colour of the ocean was magnificent. Turquoise. And pristinely clear. It was perfect. Except for one thing. The ocean was freezing. Oh my. It really really was. FREEZING!



Even I who will throw myself into any body of water at any given moment .. like I said - oh my!


Many many years ago I read that if you splashed icey cold water on your breasts at the end of every shower they will forever stay firm! And of course I believed it! And my God can you believe it - it's turned out to be true!
Stop laughing .. for when I emerged from the ocean in Lorne, Ursula Andress I truly was. That's how freezing it was!
I was feeling extremely well balanced!

One morning I took myself off for a very long walk along the beach. From one end to as far as the eye could see. I climbed over the many rock pools and thought about all the years the ocean has been washing away at them creating all kinds of interesting formations. No matter how many times the waves kiss the shore, only to be sent away - the waves keep coming back. Sort of like birthdays. I will be forever grateful to my lovely friend Rosie for teaching me very early in life the benefits of exfoliation! I can't find any new wrinkles today though who knows what tomorrow will wash up!  Just like the waves on the rocks. Smoothing smoothing smoothing. I'm telling you - get onto it. There's alot to be learnt and to be gained from the sea.
Very balancing indeed!

 
This week is my birthday. God. To be honest I am trying to kind of not focus so much on that this year, but reading the Sunday magazine a few days ago I turned the page and along the top screamed AQUARIUS! I did have a slight quickening of the heartbeat I do confess! I love being an Aquarian. And I love to meet other Aquarians. Kindred Spirits.



And I LOVE LOVE LOVE always having a holiday the day after my birthday!

Balanced?

Lorne is a very long stretch of beach. The first day I threw myself into the big freeze I was surprised at how small the flagged area was. Considering the hoardes of holiday makers I really was very surprised.

That morning when I walked up the beach quite early-ish I was quite a long way from the flags when I saw a very large, what I guessed to be an extended family swimming just a little way off shore. At first I was a little worried for them as they didn't really look like they could swim very well. There was an awful lot of splashing going on. And then I realised that the women were covered from head to toe. They didn't want to be in the flagged area. Coming from a family who spent their lives devoted to Surf Life Saving I found myself feeling a little edgy.
Until the next day.

The next day it was 42' and the entire length of the beach both in and out of the water, flagged or not, was heaving with people. And I realised that for just that day there was enough water for everyone. Enough beach for everyone. And everyone got on. And very nicely. And for that day it didn't feel so cold. And everyone found their place. It was a happy day.
Very well balanced.

But back to the avocados.
The winner was Yarraville. My favourite little cafe. Cornershop. Hands down the winner.
Out of the 5 contenders it covered all the bases.
Avocado - not too smashed!
Rocket - fresh and just enough.
Goats Cheese - so much better than Feta or Haloumi. Just a little.
Chilli in the avocado. Grated very finely. Just a little.
Sourdough. An oily sourdough.
And the winning edge - a slice of lemon.
Because it balanced everything else out.
Beautifully.

This year I will aim for more balance, I will stay on my toes but I will never forget the beautiful 
little touches that always keep it interesting..