Cooked chocolate pudding

Pudding in Australia is usually a cake of some type. And although it's hard to imagine, you can't get chocolate pudding in a mix in the supermarket. I've had an old recipe that I found on the internet that I wanted to try out, but I never got around to using. Finally I tried it out this afternoon.

I don't think I have the knack for food photography, but the pudding turned out great. It really doesn't take too long to make.

Yum!

Over here, this would be called a chocolate custard. I'll top it with whipped cream right before serving. Boy do I miss Cool Whip. :)

They're growing up

As the kids get older they increasingly want to have their own rooms. Luckily enough we live in a 5 bedroom house. The 5th bedroom is downstairs, and Dave has been using it for his office.

A few days ago we offered Donnelly the chance to use it for his room, and he jumped at the chance. So now all the kids have their own room. Everyone is happy because there is less arguing about who does what in the mornings and evenings.

Graduation party

The graduation ceremony was held in the evening, so we had a little graduation party the following afternoon in our front yard under the trees.

Plenty of goodies

And what every party in Australia needs...a wallaby in a bag.

Announcing: Dr. Di!

Although the PhD took a long time to do, the graduation came quickly. I made the last editing changes to the thesis about 3 weeks before the graduation date, and so I thought there wouldn't be enough time to get all the paperwork done in order to graduate.

However, the staff at the uni really worked together, and on Friday, the 13th of April I graduated with a doctorate degree.

Each faculty has a separate graduation, at for my faculty I was the only PhD graduate. This meant that I sat on the stage by myself with the important folks from the faculty. A bit nerve-wracking to say the least.

However, at last, after all the other students, my name was called, an abstract of my research was recited and then I was designated a doctor. At that moment, all the kids and Dave yelled "Go Di!"

Additional good news is that with several hundred people watching me I didn't trip over my own feet.

My friend Dr. Trina (graduated last year), and my PhD supervisors

Even with heels I'm still nearly the shortest!

Some relatives drove down for the ceremony.

The next two potential graduates...

And as usual someone is missing...Donnelly where are you?

Not too nice to use

A while back I blogged about taking an afternoon to make some gingham table napkins. The kids and hubby were very impressed at how much they "looked like bought ones".

But ...

"They are too nice to use and get all grubby."






However, I persevered and eventually the napkins got rumpled enough for the kids to accept them as bad enough for everyday use.

So much for any Martha Stewart aspirations that I might have. However it does save me from ironing them.

Mothra?

For some reason our bathroom attracts large moths. And I do mean large, check this guy out.

I find it a bit disconcerting to be brushing my teeth and see something like this. At least it's harmless.

I hope.

Antique or just old

This cupboard was left by the previous owners among a bunch of miscellaneous stuff. I've always wanted to bring it upstairs to store craft and sewing stuff in, but it looked too heavy.

Finally I asked Dave and Connor to do it, and it now sits in our front room. Built-in cupboards, i.e. closets are a modern invention, so our pre-WWII house doesn't have any. I imagine that this piece of furniture used to hold a child's clothing (going by the crayoned smiley faces inside the doors).



It might look old, but the inside drawers and cubbyholes are all made out of solid wood, and none of the pre-fab stuff that you see around today. I'm guessing that its from the mid-70s.

Dave doesn't see the attraction, but said "well, as long as it makes you happy I can live with it". :)