Miz Blo’s Neighborhood

Tuesday's Beauty 12/29/09

This woman appears very relaxed as she stretches out on the wooden bench.  She doesn't seem to have a care in the world.  Pretty outfit, too.

• 06:09 Bloomin' jet lag #

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Sandwich Bedroom

I can not believe that someone would go to such time and expense to create a bedroom like this one.  I'm hoping it was some sort of contest; otherwise, we have a psycho walking the streets..just waiting to get home and curl up inside his bacon/lettuce/tomato sandwich.  And it's not even whole wheat bread!!  That looks pretty white to me.  I wonder if he's one of those people that wake up in the night and find that they have been chewing on their pillow??  Jeepers, I'd be scared the DOG might attack me!  Lol.

Redneck Swingset

Well, you have to admit that the swingset would be comfy to just slowly rock back and forth in, but......a couch is pretty darn heavy.  What are those ropes tied to?  It almost makes me think they are tied to power poles/lines because the trees that we can see don't seem to be of the hardy, sturdy type.  Hey, maybe the juice from the power company makes it vibrate!  Cool!  I wonder how many kitty cats mark their territory on that "swingset" each night, though?  Lol.

As the year draws to a close, I thought it would be fun to look back at the books I read in 2009 and share a list of my favorites. (Read, but not necessarily published in 2009.) I've finished 110 books to date and will probably read at least one more before New Year's Day. It was tough narrowing the list, but here they are:

FICTION - 5 STARS

City of Thieves by David Benioff

The Girl Who Played With Fire by Stieg Larsson

Little Bee by Chris Cleave

Ghostwritten by David Mitchell

Ender's Shadow by Orson Scott Card

Interpreter of Maladies by Jhumpa Lahiri

Serena by Ron Rash

FICTION - 4 STARS

 A Fraction of the Whole by Steve Toltz

The Year of the Flood by Margaret Atwood

The Sparrow by Mary Russell Doria

Doomsday Book by Connie Willis

The Calligrapher's Daughter by Eugenia Kim

Catching Fire by Suzanne Collins (sequel to The Hunger Games)

Sacred Hearts by Sarah Dunant

The Help by Kathryn Stockett

Wolf Hall by Hilary Mantel

Last Night in Montreal by Emily St. John Mandel

The Outlander by Gil Adamson

The Selected Works of T.S. Spivet by Reif Larsen

The Last Unicorn by Peter S. Beagle

Tales from Outer Suburbia by Shaun Tan

NONFICTION

How We Decide by Jonah Lehrer

Death by Black Hole: And Other Cosmic Quandaries by Neil deGrasse Tyson

Kitchen Confidential: Adventures in the Culinary Underbelly by Anthony Bourdain

Microcosm: E. Coli and the New Science of Life by Carl Zimmer

Summers With Juliet by Bill Roorbach

Outliers by Malcolm Gladwell

What were your favorites this year? I hope you'll share a few in comments.

Public Urinal

I don't know about you, but if I were a man....this type of urinal would stop the flow immediately.  Lol.  I know that everything is completely hidden, but still....you're out in public, watching people walk by.  No dribbling!  Lol.

Of course the disadvantage of having no internet access while away is that I come back with enough material for a dozen posts if I had the time to write them. Instead I thought I'd pick out a handful of pictures that represent just some of the highlights. It was hard, there are so many, in fact I cried when I left, something I've only done on one previous holiday (New Zealand).
Pic no.1: Sunset arrival
I'd been awake for nearly 36 hours and just wanted to collapse into bed as soon as I arrived but in order to get to Koh Ngai you take an hours long-tail boat ride and the sun was setting. It was enough to revive the weariest of travellers. That and having to wade through thigh high water to the beach once there because the tide was out and that's the closest the boat could get to shore.

Sunset arrival at Koh Ngai

Pic no. 2: Koh Ngai
It is a beautiful island. No one lives there it just has a strip of beach with a handful of resorts. They aren't cheek by jowl so there are plenty of quiet spots with only the occasional person walking by. There aren't roads so no street lights, the beach is it. You walk bare foot in the sand to go to dinner or for a drink at a neighbouring resort taking a torch for after dark. There are no hawkers. Oh and you can swim out to the reef from the beach.

Beautiful Koh Ngai

Pic no. 3: Yoga
After the disappointment of Turkey a lot was riding on the yoga this holiday. Fortunately I had a great teacher in the form of Vincent who has been practicing yoga since he was 17 and is a swami. And we had the most amazing location for our classes. I wanted to finish the week being able to do a head stand again and I did. I also did my first tripod headstand. And of course I will never forget Vincent's pronunciation of the word 'focus'. He's Italian and it sounded like 'fuck-us' which amused my childish sense of humour.

Pic no. 4: Crabs

It was so difficult getting a snap of these little fellas. They are small, virtually see-through and therefore camouflage well and move bloomin' quickly. It's a fine balance between them not getting too used to you so they carry on doing their thing ie scurrying around, or scare them so they scuttle away. Got one eventually though.

Crab

Pic no 5: Tina & Wendy
We were a small group of three yogini's and a lovelier couple of people you couldn't meet. This picture was taken on Christmas Day. We hired a long tail boat to take us to another island for some amazing snorkelling and then to the Emerald Cave. It's more of a tunnel than a cave which leads to this little cove. It was used by pirates to hide their swag. When you swim through the 'cave' in the pitch black following only the small torch light of your guide you can understand why it appealed to the pirates.

Fellow yogini's Tina and Wendy

Pic no. 6: Sunrise
I arrived with the sunset and departed with the sunrise. It was breathtakingly beautiful and put a smile on my teary face. I took lots of pictures but this one just captures not only the beauty of the colours but also the stillness. It will always take me back to that boat ride.

Sunrise

And if you really want to see the entire slide show then click here.

Have you ever eaten something so good it gave you a tongue-gasm?

Do you tend to prefer breakfasts that come with a syrup decanter or three?

Aren’t waffles a serious pain in the dumper to prepare?

And really, don't you think pancakes are more exciting as headwear for small to medium sized mammals*?

Right. Well, here’s what you’re gonna do…

Turn your oven on to 350° F (175° C), then go about getting all this stuff together: 5 cups bread cubes, 4 eggs, 1 1/2 cups milk, 2 tablespoons white sugar, 1/4 teaspoon salt, 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon, 1 tablespoon softened butter, and 1 teaspoon vanilla extract.

Next, mix the eggs, milk, salt, and vanilla all together. Works best if you do this in a large bowl or something similar. Milk and eggs need boundaries or they’ll just run roughshod right over you (figuratively speaking, of course).

Anyway, liberally slather the inside of an 8x8 baking dish with whatever edible lubricant you like – I recommend butter – and then evenly fill the bottom of the dish with bread cubes. Dump the egg/milk mixture all over it, pat the whole mess with butter in random spots, and then let it sit there for a few minutes while you mix the sugar and cinnamon together and whip up a can of frozen orange juice. Some people don’t like coffee, you know.

After you’ve sprinkled the cinna-sugar all over the top of your casserole, stick it in the oven for around 45 minutes. Might take longer. Might not. Just let it get nice and golden brown and try not to freak out when you look in the oven and see it has expanded to forty times its original size. That’s totally normal (and completely humane).

Finally, scoop a big ol’ wad out onto a plate, douche it with your favorite syrup, and push it in your pie-hole. Don’t just gulp it down like a starving Rottweiler, though. Let your tongue take a run at it a few times first; have its fun for a bit. It works hard everyday; helping you talk, picking your teeth, gesturing provocatively to the ladies.

C'mon. Go make your tongue some funky French Toast Casserole. You know it’s the right thing to do.

FTC

*Yes, I know it’s a dorayaki, not a pancake, and that Oolong has gone on to bunny nirvana. I am also fairly certain they have plenty of syrup there.

A baby squirrel is having some difficulties, even with mama trying to help.  Then humans step in to help.  It's a touching video, and there is a song by the group Chairlift played throughout.