BrisVenture 2023 Day Six and Seven: The Final Edition (also, I LIVE!)

HELLO FRIENDS, I AM ALIVE!

I don't know how it has been almost three months since I have posted on here. Time and things just got away from me. Then I fell into a spiral where I was really far behind on catching up on blog posts, but then for some reason blogger and google wouldn't communicate properly and stopped me from commenting a bunch, so then I felt bad about posting again before I'd caught up. Which is silly talk, I can post and then catch up! Also I have fixed the blogger/google thing so now I can comment again on the posts I still haven't read.

So, what have I been doing?? I have been pretty much working, being with my cats, and my hyperfixation on Our Flag Means Death is as strong as ever. Did you know that MAX cancelled the show even though pre-production for the third season was already underway, and it is one of their highest rating shows?? They did. And it may sound silly, but that really put me in a very not good place. Thankfully part of my OFMD hyperfixation is that I have a wonderful community online of fellow fans, how great is that! Also, we are going to save our show, or possibly die trying.

With that in mind, before you read on could you please visit SaveOFMD.com and sign the petition? Sign it from every email account you have. Share it with your friends, family, colleagues, strangers. The petition is just one part of the campaign to save the show, but every signature could help!

But I know what you are here for, food times! So, time to finish up my adventures with my friends who visited me in November. On our final day, we went to a vegan market. Not one of the regular Brisbane Vegan Markets, this was a ticketed event for one weekend only. I was thinking it was going to be like the Brisbane Vegan Expo I'd been to before. I could not have been more wrong. It was tiny, and had almost no interesting stalls. We were so disappointed. Luckily, it at least had a small collection of food stalls that we visited. And it was in a pretty location.



Helen went straight for this plate of Balinese food.



I started with some tofu rice paper rolls. Molly also got a noodle bowl from the same stall, but I forgot to take a photo of that!



And Sharnette tried a cheeseburger served on a doughnut bun from Vegood!



I also got a pretzel with mustard beer sauce, and a trio of bao from Vegood.



And we all got some lychee iced tea, lychee was the flavour of the day!



What did we do after this? We went home and did... things. I don't quite remember what we got up to in the afternoon. But I do remember we got pizza for dinner from Pizza Hut, and everyone was very impressed that we had several pizza chains with vegan options. We also had fairy bread and Vegemite on toast, and watched the movie of What We Do In The Shadows.

We had a pretty low key day for the final day, starting with Helen making us all beans on toast. This is a very common thing here in Australia, but apparently not in the US!



We ate some vegan meat pies for lunch (apparently also not a thing in the US) and then went back to The Green Edge for everyone to do a final shop. Then home for Helen to make us dinner! Helen and Molly had bought some Plant Based Garlic Kievs, and we cooked those up with some sauteed brocollini and roasted potatoes.





Early the next morning, I took them to the airport and they headed off to Sydney. I had so much fun with them while they were here! Australia is so far away from most of the rest of the world, and Brisbane doesn't have the general appeal of Melbourne or Sydney, so the fact that they came and spent a whole week with me was so special! And I'm always open to visitors from cool overseas friends!!

I plan to be back as much as I can. I still have so many photos to share for things! Though lately I have hardly been cooking, thanks fibro! Chronic pain and fatige sucks. I also have some cool things coming up - I am going to Sydney on the weekend to see Taylor's final Australian Era's show on Monday the 26th of Feb, and then this time in two months I will be on my Scotland/Barcelona adventure! All with my N95 mask strapped to my face, of course.

How have you all been??

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



Ignore the messy background, but this is a rare photo of all of the girls! They are all doing pretty well, and are as adorable as ever!

BrisVenture 2023: Day 5: Kangaroos, Koalas, and Izakaya Midori

Hello and welcome back to the penultimate post about my adventures with my friends from American.

I took then out to Coombabah at the Gold Coast, for some guaranteed kangaroo watching and probably koala sightings. I am happy to report that both were achieved! Excuse the fuzzy koala picks, it really is like trying to photograph a backlit blob high up in a tree.













Then we hit up Izakaya Midori for a late lunch.

Smoked Edamame.



Agedashi Tofu.



Edamame Chips.



Okonomiyaki and Veef Sushi.



Teriyaki Tofu Don.



Katsu Sushi.



Terichiki Don.



Chiki Avo Nigiri.



Aka Ramen.



After this incredible feast, we headed home, and there was a little bit of resting. Molly made us a late dinner, which included some Lamyong Salty Crispy Chicken she had bought from The Green Edge, rice, salad, and croutons.



Only one more post to share with you about our final two days together! A week goes so quickly.

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



This Monday just gone (the 27th of November) was the three year anniversary of Dim Sim's passing. I miss her so much.

BrisVenture 2023: Day 4: Cranky's Farm

Hang on a minute, you say, where is day 3? On the Wednesday, after two hectic days and several early mornings before they arrived, my fibro came knocking. So they all caught a bus into the city to explore, and I stayed home and watched Buffy and rested.

I needed my rest because the next day I had arranged a private tour of Cranky's Farm, a farm animal sanctuary that I had been to a few times before. We had an incredible tour, and got to meet so many glorious animals. The goats were off doing their own goaty thing in a far paddock, but we met cows, pigs, equines, and birds.

Jonny is one of two mini horses they have at the farm. Both were rescued at separate times, but both had horrific foot conditions. Happily both were rehabilitated, and now they are silly little jerks together. They also have three donkeys as well.



Marley is a tiny calf, only 39 days old, who they rescued and are hand raising. He was so tiny and gentle and sweet. He has been unwell for the last week, so please keep him in your thoughts. They also have a calf there called Fern, a bit older than Marley, who is partially blind but very sassy.



Their big paddock houses a beautiful herd of cows! They were thankfully up the top of the paddock, not down the bottom of the giant hill where the goats were, so we could easily visit with them.





I also got to meet my favourite cow Freckles. I love him. He is typically a shy cow, so when I have been there before for open days he stayed away from the big group. But this time I was blessed with a little sniff and a tiny pat. Thank you Freckles! Isn't he handsome?



Next up was a visit with Lopez, an ex-racehorse. He is beautiful! I love horses.



Lopez was in a paddock with a beautiful giant Moreton Bay fig tree. The rest of us waited under the shade here while Helen trekked down to the bottom of the property to see if she could find their resident platypus who lives in a pond there. She did not have any sightings, but was definitely in a platypus vicinity.



The final cow on our tour to meet was Peggy, who is a lovely girl. She had a femoral head osteotomy for a broken hip after she first arrived. We do that on cats and dogs, I had no idea it could be done on a large cow! She was chilling and snoozing in the sun, and couldn't be bothered getting up for us but was very happy to receive pats and adoration.



We finished by meeting some of the birds they have there, including Gloria the turkey and (not pictured) Frank the duck.



After our tour, we went to a lookout just a few minutes down the road to admire the view and also use the public bathrooms. It was a pretty view!



And then we headed to another little park called Cedar Creek, which claimed to also be home to platypi and other wildlife. It was a pretty place, though my ankles absolutely did not want to stabilise on the rocks so I ended up sitting under a tree doing some reading while the others explored. We only saw birds, but birds are still cool, including a kookaburra.





Then we headed home. We had eaten a decent breakfast before we left, and I had packed some Clif Bars and dried fruit for snacking on, but we found ourselves close to VeganYumm, a vegan bakery, so stopped in to get some treats for a late lunch when we got home. I had a creamy chicken pie (not pictured), which was OK. But I was able to get a naked cinnamon roll, my favourite! I hate it when people ruing a perfectly good cinnamon roll with glaze or icing.



We had a small dinner after our very late lunch, and ordered in some Pizza Hut vegan pizza and vegan cheese garlic bread.



Stay tuned for a much more food heavy post from day 5!

Cute Kitty of the Post



Close up of Mirabelle's little white chest sprinkle, and her whiskers (which are not white but are just shiny in the light).

BrisVenture 2023: Day 1: The Green Edge, Sushi

Hello friends! Last week the magical happened, and I had three friends from the US come and stay with me! My friend Molly had come and stayed with me in 2017, but this time she brought my long time Seattle friend Helen with her, plus new friend Sharnette. Helen and I have known each other for just over ten years, ever since she slid into my DMs on my second visit to Seattle and we had dinner. I have since visited her there twice more, including staying with her during my final visit, but it has been EIGHT YEARS since we have seen each other, and for her to be here in my hometown was incredible! They arrived early Monday morning, and I picked them up from the airport. I also saw these two coming through customs.



After initial pick up, it was home for them to all have a shower (it was a long flight, made longer by delays) and get situated. Then we headed out for some food and vegan shopping at The Green Edge (see my previous posts about The Green Edge here). We ordered a lot of food! And some very fun drinks. Including the Strawberries & Cream Frappe for Sharnette, colourful lattes (turmeric for me, matcha for Molly, beetroot for Helen) and Helen also got a Salted Caramel Milkshake.







Lunch started with some chips and some Buffalo cauliflower wings.



Helen was committed to trying Australian things while she was here, so she got the Origin Burger (it has beetroot, which makes it Australian), where as Molly and Sharnette for the VFC Four Piece Meal and the VFC Burger respectively. I had the Mac & Cheese with a side of turkish bread. Sharnette also got the Truffled Mac & Cheese to try and take home for later.











After lunch, some shopping was done at The Green Edge for fun things. Then I took them to our two major supermarkets, Coles and Woolworths, so they could see and buy some of the vegan things we have available here. It was a pretty fun shopping trip!

After that we headed home for a very relaxed evening and early night. For dinner we ordered in some vegan sushi from a place called Sushi Too: Mini Tofu Rolls, Mini Avocado Rolls, Mini Pickle Rolls, Tofu and Vegetable Rolls, Inari, and Seaweed salad.



I am very excited to share our adventures and food with you from the week. Can't believe it is already over. At least I can relive the magic through blogging!

Cute Kitty Photo of the Post



One of the joys was introducing my girls to my friends! Eloise is pretty shy when you first meet her, and it took her a few days to fully warm up, but she was much admired. Obviously.