My current crochet project for Xavier …
A bowl/basket for his bedroom to house bits n bobs such as his asthma inhalers, and other miscellany boy things.
To match the bunting I made him and blogged about here and here. Oh and yes, those are bars on his windows, after all, we do live in Papua New Guinea:)
pull-apart focaccia dinner rolls
I had to give these a whirl after stumbling across the mother huddles easy pull apart dinner bread rolls. I used my own bread recipe, but shaped the bread rolls with their method. Pinch off and roll small dough balls and place 3 together in a well oiled muffin tray. In my hot hot oven (I keep a pizza stone in the bottom), they took just under 10 minutes to cook at approx 220 °C.
I do belive Xaria is shoving aside her big brother
Drool worthy as far as my husband was concerned. Mr 7 wasn’t into the focaccia-ness of the bread. Miss 21 months had fun pulling her’s apart. Miss 9 took the left over rolls in her lunchbox today.
Also, I no longer use sugar to activate yeast when I make bread. I use flour instead and it works perfectly. The yeast converts the starch from the flour into sugar. It’s all part of my hatred against the evilness of sugar. I can’t believe how much added sugar is hidden in our every day foods, so I now refuse to use it (where possible) when I am cooking from scratch.
… that eating out in Port Moresby is always a monumental fark-up. Period.
I took Xaria down to the yacht club for playgroup this week. In the restaurant I ordered a coffee for me, soft drink for Maria my haus meri, and a juice for Xaria. I pay them and wait for my change. Get told they will bring it all out to me at the play area. It arrives without my change. All so happens to be the wrong order. Explain to them what I’ve ordered, what’s incorrect, and that I’m still waiting for my change.Then they finally bring me the correct drinks order, still no change. I give up, and go home still out of pocket (I never did get my change).
At Hogs Breath cafe today for lunch we place our order and wait an extraordinary length of time just to get our drinks. In the mean time another group have been seated and place their order. Two minutes later their food starts coming out of the kitchen. I highly suspect they’re getting our food order … mention this to the waiter and the supervisor comes over and attempts to lift the food from their table and give it to us. Even though they’ve started eating it. Un-fricken-believable. I assure them in a not so quite voice that we will wait for “fresh” food to be cooked.
As the saying goes “Welcome to PNG“. Love it or hate it, it is what it is.
I think all the kids were pretty worn out by Friday afternoon this week … they got a little R and R time in front of the TV before we headed down to the yacht club for the evening.
Max, Xanthe and Oscar
Xaria attempting to wear a tshirt as a skirt, and Xavier draped over the footstool
We’ve been picking up Max and Oscar from school this week whilst their mum’s offshore. Xaria’s adored having two extra big brothers to play with her in the car :)
My daughter came home with a notice the other day. A permission slip request to attend a school musical held at Port Moresby International School (POMIS).
That’s nothing new to me. Back home in New Zealand, my kids school would often be invited to their “sister” high school to watch musicals too. The kids LOVE it. Unfortunately, as the school here in Port Moresby is so much bigger, field trips like this are restricted to the middle/senior grades. Sorry my wee man, next year aye, when you’re grade three (equivalent of NZ Year 4).
However, the bit I’ve highlighted below in red is something that still takes a little bit of getting my head round…:
“Security guards will accompany the students and be present at the theatre the whole time“.
Fingers crossed the dog handler and his “doggie” don’t go on the bus. The dog will bite and take a chunk out of anything that moves. Welcome to International Schooling in Papua New Guinea 
And yes, we are still loving our PNG adventure.
My Husband
