Tuesday, August 21, 2007

Don't drink and drive, not even for the boss


Last week and this has not been good for our team here in Australia. Our Captain who was on a wine tasting session with our boss got nipped by the coppers on a DUI (just over the limit) and today our landlord called us that we have exceeded our internet cap by the double and the bill is 4200 ozzie dollars.

Holy s*it was our reaction. It seems that here in Oz they don't warn you if you exceeded your cap, they just open the throttle fully and laugh all the way to bank after they have presented the bill. Quite the different in other countries I've been to, there's a fixed rate and you can d/l as much as you like. Feels very ugly.

Oh well, the coppers came by today and gave our Old man a 500 ozzie dollars fine and banned him from driving in Australia for 3mths. We called our landlord and we promised to pay the bill. Easy come easy go, you could call it the revenge of Hollywood, but fear not, I am not on the negative side yet. So, there you see, keep the positive thinking up, use cosmic ordering and believe in the secret, all will come to you eventually despite some hiccups on the way.

Did I tell our Boss is changing route plans, we are skipping autumn/ winter in Europe for a better alternative. We plan to go east instead, our initial plan is something like Bali-Lombok-Great Barrier reef-Tonga Is, Tahiti, Galapagos, Panama, Cayman Is, Ft Lauderdale and Bahamas. By this time we should be in April 2008 and then we are heading over the Atlantic to the Mediterranean.

Wednesday, August 08, 2007

A millionaire's dinner


Yesterday our Boss came to inspect the ship he is building here in Australia. He had loads a meetings and finally settled down to discuss matters with the Captain.

I let him be as I saw it was gonna be a long time so I said to him to call me when he's ready and I'd pick him up as we have only one car to use. At around 6.30pm the Old man called and asked whats for dinner and I replied that we have that pot roast to put into the oven. Then he asked how long it'll take, so I replied 1.5hrs at most. Well, then he said cook for 4 as the Boss is coming for dinner as well.

Ok, I replied. The man wants to risk his health by eating my cooking, so be it. So, back to the stove I went, threw the roast in a baking bag together with some tomatoes, onions and garlic. Close the bag and shoved the whole thing into the oven in 170deg. Then I boiled some potatoes and grated some carrots. When the potatoes had boiled I peeled them and put them in a bowl where I added melted butter and started to mash them. When I had a somewhat consistent mash I added whipping cream (unwhipped) and also dry dill. On I mixed and mixed until it was ready. Then I prepared some brown gravy.

Dinner was ready and there the Boss came with the Captain. The Hotel Manager who also lives in the same house as we, was quite surprised, I did not tell him as I was afraid he'd mix with my cooking effort. Well, we sat down had dinner with some wine and surprise surprise the Boss went for seconds. First time ever I cooked for a millionaire. Maybe my cooking is not bad after all...