photo saturday: orphanage forking

So this week felt a little more... put together I guess, than last week.

We started off with what was definitely the last soup of the season, and very probably the last time I make that roasted tomato soup recipe... it's good, but it's just too rich.

Then DnD was fairly low-key over all, even though I could very easily have wiped out my whole party on Wednesday (and didn't by having one of the bad guys sit down on the unconscious body of one of the players while propping her feet on another body. They won out eventually though, but I did get to reduce the intelligence score of one of them to 0 for a brief period. Which was fun.

I also got to pay forward something another DM did to one of my characters by taking off his character's finger while he was flipping off the bad guy.

Also, the DM on Wednesday almost nearly wiped out the whole party when everybody but one person failed an important save at the end of the adventure. Fortunately we figured a way around it (with the use of a magic item), but it was touch and go for a hot second there.

Then Thursday we got back to our "regularly scheduled programming" and returned to our Underdark adventures. I always like those sessions becasue there is a LOT of roleplay... not just because of the nature of the story but very much about the way we play. And it's the first time we've all been back together where everything just worked properly. The DM and one of the players got into some deep roleplay, I managed to engage everyone else at various points, even if not for very long. And there wasn't a lot of fucking around, which I appreciate.

Otherwise I had my haircut on Thursday, which was pretty much the same as always, with the possible exception that we went a lot more silver with my hair... not perfectly or exactly the way that I thought it might look, but in the right neighbourhood.

Tink's older daughter was around, and I swear that she's currently 7 going on 13... or at least with the required amount of attitude for a 13 year old. Not that it overly bothered me, but I think Tink will be happy when school holidays are over.

Then Friday it was time to get the dressing on my finger changed again. I really cannot wait until I can type properly with all 10 fingers... this 9 finger typing is getting on my nerves.

But it was a quick in and out, the finger is looking much better, part of the "scab" already came off (although I have a strong suspicion that it was just scab that had formed over undamaged skin because of how the dressing was done), and they've downgraded the dressing again from the big plasticy kind to a small cloth dressing. Which is good and bad, because it's a little like I have a small pillow strapped to the end of my finger right now. And I have to be more careful about keeping it dry.

At least it's an improvement.

Afterwards I had a little wander around the city and ended up looking at various Christmas decorations... because, yes, we need to do the Christmas decoration thing in October... which was sarcasm by the way.

Today I was on my own for the supermarket portion of the day... which meant it was headphones on and speedy shopping... I'm also pretty sure I didn't buy enough stuff to actually makes meals for the whole week, but we'll see what happens, I may have to improvise.

I had enough time before Ma arrived to put everything away, do some washing up and catch up on some other bits and pieces I needed to do.

We had (unsurprisingly, given the photos in this post) plans to head out to the Fork on the Road in Unley later in the day, but that gave us a bunch of time this morning, so we headed into the city so Ma could go and ask at the Apple Store about an issue with her phone, and then I could show her a bunch of stuff I spotted when I was in town on Sunday.

The Apple Store visit was remarkably simple, and to be honest, I think their suggestion was the right one, Ma has been using the same charging cord since we got the phones and changing to a new one is probably going to fix the issue.

Then there was some general wandering looking at various Christmas departments (because, yes, I am part of the problem)... looking at some stuff, not really buying much of anything to be honest.

That was followed up with a quick visit to Dymocks, but then we headed off to Fork.

A very wise woman once said "timing is important"... and thus it was that while we could have tried to get a parking spot out on the street when we got to Orphanage Park in Millswood we tried our luck and managed to get a spot in the park with no trouble at all.

I will say that the Fork on the Road events aren't as exciting as they maybe used to be. Don't get me wrong, I still love that they happen and I love going when we do... but I just feel like they used to be... I dunno, more interesting. Or at least there was a wider range of stuff... I dunno.

But in this particular case the location was good, the range wasn't bad and the crowd wasn't bad.

We started off with a Boerewors Roll, a South African sausage in a bun basically. Not bad, but there's not many ways to screw up a sausage in a bun. Following that was Bubble Tea, because I always like Bubble Tea. I still wanted something a little savoury so ended up getting some samosas and naan from Beyond India, then finished it off with loukoumades from the Honey Puff Lad (which may have previously been the Honey Puff Ladies, I'm not entirely sure).

I'll be honest, I really should have gone with the smaller serve of loukoumades... too much of a good thing is still too much. I didn't even finish them all off while we were there, I brought some home with me.

So that was, as they say, that.

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photo saturday: november fork on the road

Guess what... there was a Fork on the Road today... it's been five years (technically the anniversary is on November 30, but close enough) since the very first one in Victoria Square, which I dragged The Proto Nuthouse down to. It's also the first one we've been to since July last year.

Not really surprising considering the amount of crap that's happened in the last year, but they also moved to having them mostly on Sundays, which didn't help.

And of course, because this is the most amount of time I've spent in the sun for about nine months, I'm already a bit sunburned.

But more on that later...

This week... well, parts of it went in unexpected directions... mostly the DnD parts to be honest...

I ended up running a second game on Wednesday... which was actually the same module I ran a couple of weeks ago as it's the only one I've actually prepped. But I ran it for four people I really like, so that always helps. I managed to make some of the changes I came up with after the first time, and partially because of that and partially because there were only four of them, I at least knocked some of their characters unconscious.

Then Thursday we didn't get to play our regular Thursday characters... which annoyed me... doubly so because while I love the regular Thursday crew of people, I'm not a big fan of these new characters. We'll have to see what happens, but I either need to play a completely different character (maybe a fighter... since we're a little low on front line characters in this combo).

We did end up doing some role playing as those characters even though we weren't playing them... given things that happened the last time we played. That is one of the issues with playing Adventurer's League games... there's not all that much time to do things other than the adventure in front of you. The fact that we've managed the amount of role play we have says a lot... even if we had to do some of it out of play sessions.

I also had my chiro appointment this week... which was the second to last one before the end of the year. Yeah... that's a thing to think about.

Today was a little all over the shop... Ma was getting her hair did, so I was on my own for shopping. And that meant I really didn't get my ass into gear like normal. So by the time that I made it back home, Ma was already here.

We headed out to have a wander around Target, pick up a couple of things... but mostly to kill time before Fork on the Road started. I did pick up some new shoes... well, new as in new versions of the ones I bought last year and have grown fond of.

Then we had to try and FIND Fork on the Road. Which previously has been simple. But this time not so much. It turned out to be much further back from the road than it was the last time it was in that spot... and because we were on the opposite side of the road as we went past... and we ended up going all the way around the North Adelaide, then up to the Morphett Street bridge, because coming back around and finally finding it tucked away amongst the trees.

I don't know if it was just a very spread out location, or if there was just a lack of trucks, but it did seem a little bit light on for people, at least at the start. But then there are also about 150 different things going on around the city this weekend, so that may have been part of it.

We ended up trying a number of things, and the photos in this post correspond with the order...

We started with a Notorious P.I.G toasted sandwich from Cheesy Street, then the Bucket O'Balls from Delectaballs (I'll be honest, it was mostly full of corn chips, with only two actual meatballs... but the whole thing was tasty).

Then we stopped for a Bubble Tea (not pictured, because it's not a very interesting photo, but it was a very tasty lemon Bubble Tea)... and then headed in a dessert direction. We started with dessert fries from a new outfit, Hipster Chipster. And yes, dessert fries... they're savoury fries, covered in soft serve icecream and chocolate sauce, with little fried apple bites on top. The whole thing is really like dipping your Maccas fries in your sundae, which I haven't done a hell of a lot, mostly because I hardly ever get sundaes. And they were wrong... so, so, so wrong... so wrong in fact that they were VERY right. Totally insane but perfect.

And we finished up with way too many of the honey puffs from the eponymous Honey Puff Ladies... they're really, really good, but we really only needed the smaller amount.

So that was my day... full of food, a little bit sunburned around the edges, but generally okay.

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photo saturday: port fork on the road the fourth

This week has been mostly about preparing for my apartment inspection...

I spent quite a large portion of Sunday cleaning the house... from more or less when I woke up to about 2pm in fact. Granted that wasn't flat-out hard-core cleaning, but I did get almost everything done. But given that the inspection wasn't until Thursday, I had a little extra time to do some of the last minute things later in the week.

Then the evening was taken up with me having another crack at chicken noodle soup. And I think I hit it a little out of the park I have to say. The down side is that I don't remember precisely what I did. I know I went light on the carrots, and used both leek and onion, and bacon and about six litres of stock to ensure it was suitably soupy and didn't get too thick. I also included three chicken breasts, which I poached in the soup before taking them out, shredding them, blending the soup and returning them.

And because I didn't think I had any of the angel hair pasta (which I discovered that I did today, but only after I bought another packet), I broke up some spaghetti and used that instead. I possibly should have broken it up even smaller, but it did do the job.

The rest of the week was fairly quiet... work was work, I felt like I got things somewhat back under control, although my desire to be included in the loop on things (I'm not technically sure if it's FOMO, as I don't necessarily need to be involved, I just want to be given the option to know what's going on) combined with a feeling that I'm being undervalued, taken for granted and overlooked is slightly problematic.

I know that some of it is just me being me... and I understand some of the other reasons, but it still annoys me a little. And if I end up winning the position I'm doing (when it finally gets advertised), I'll expect some things to change. But for now, I remind myself that a good portion of it is my own brain working against me.

I finished off the last of the cleaning and organising for the inspection on Wednesday night then went out and got pizza so I didn't have to worry about doing any dishes or cleaning up once again.

When I got home on Thursday night, the note I'd left out for the rental agent was gone, but unlike last time when she'd left the note with additional commentary on it and photographed it, this time it was just gone. And unlike in the old apartment, there was no inspection sheet left behind. So I'm guessing everything was fine. But can I just mention that compared with my last agent, this one both sucks and blows.

This morning Ma was getting her hair did, so I was on my own for shopping. I really didn't have an idea for soup, but someone mentioned potato and leek yesterday, and that kept rattling around in my head, so I went with that. I didn't end up buying all that much to be honest... I still had a bunch of stuff left over from last week as I'd visited the supermarket a few more times than usual this week.

Ma messaged me fairly early on in my trip around the supermarket to say she was on her way down, but fortunately I had more than enough time to finish shopping, come home and unpack almost everything before she arrived.

As the photos and the title of this post indicate, we had a Fork on the Road to attend down at Port Adelaide, but it didn't start until noon and we didn't really have anything else planned, so we just decided to have a poke around the shops until it was time to head off to Fork.

We started with the Kmart on Anzac Highway... mostly that was just a general wander... and then since we had to head down to the Port anyway, we ended up at West Lakes for another wander. Then we headed off to the Port.

It's been a while since we've been to a Fork... well, just over a year to be exact, and in the same location. Part of the problem is that they keep doing Fork on the Road on Sundays, and I'm usually less bothered about going on my own.

And maybe I was spoiled by some of the really, really big Forks I've been to previously, but this one felt a little small. I mean the weather was nice and everything, but, yeah, kind of small. And the fact that it's now on the south side of the mill instead of the north side, it does feel more cramped with very narrow paths between some of the trucks, which doesn't help traffic flow.

It was nice to see the boys from Burger Theory on site... I do sometimes wonder if they every sit back and look at the other trucks and take pride that they were really the first Adelaide truck and really the one that started it all (or at least they are as far as I'm aware).

We started with Burger Theory of course, partly because they'd only just opened and the line was short... I had a craving for a cheeseburger and Ma tried the falafel burger (which is fast becoming one of my favourite items on the menu), which she enjoyed. And while were were sitting down eating our burgers I noticed long time Twitter friend Prakky taking photos, so when we went to get our next course (tacos from Tacocat) I stopped and said hello, which was nice.

And we finished off with honey puffs from the Honey Ladies... always a good way to end.

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driving and forking saturday

Today didn't quite live up to expectations, but at least it was mostly something different from the usual.

It started in the usual way, although I did get up quite late, threw myself in the shower and then made a vague show of straightening up the kitchen before Ma arrived.

Shopping was about the usual, although neither of us bought a ton of stuff... I did buy way too many mushrooms for my mushroom soup tomorrow... and hopefully that works out okay.

We also had a wander around Target briefly, and I noticed they had some glass cloches on sale... so I grabbed one. Granted it's a bit tall and thin and I have no idea what I'm actually going to put in it... but I'll work something out, even if it means I have to reshuffle some things around.

After we were done and had come back here for the unpacking and associated general things that go along with Saturday mornings, we headed off to pick up Ma's two artworks from the framers.

It was essentially a quick visit, and we were only there for as long as it took him to wrap both frames up in brown paper.

Since we really didn't have any other plans until the afternoon, we ended up taking the two frames back to Ma's place... which isn't the most exciting thing, but we did take the new Northern Expressway, which was kind of groovy, if only because I hadn't driven on it before today. Plus it was quicker going that way than the usual way.

We only stopped at Ma's for long enough to drop off the frames and then headed down to Port Adelaide for the first Fork on the Road in a good while.

Whether it was the fact that we got there later than we would have previously, whether it was because it was in a different spot from the last Fork down at the Port and everything was more closely packed... or whether it was just because there hasn't been a Fork in a good while so it brought out a lot more people than usual...

Or even if it just came down to the fact that the number of trucks was slightly less than other Forks, and a number of them were what I would call "second string" vans.

But it was all a little bit m'eh.

To sum up, everything was fairly close together, which when added to the fact that there were a whole lot of people and not that many vans just meant the lines for everything were fairly nuts and the waiting times were somewhat excessive for the amount of food you got.

The food itself was good, we started with a trio of tacos from Tacocat, then Ma got some sort of pumpkin and coconut soup from one of the newer vans while I waited a good twenty minutes at La Chiva for their Amazon Rice.

I did miss the lime wedge that they usually put on the top, but otherwise the rice was really nice. But by the time I got mine, Ma had order, gotten her soup and eaten it.

We finished up with a Bakers Dozen of honey puffs from the Honey Puff Ladies which are essentially just carbs, fat and honey, but damn they're tasty.

But by that point we were pretty much done.

Hopefully the issues were just about the location, and Fork will be back to full strength by the next one.

And maybe it was just me having a bit of a hipster whinge... "I liked this shit before it was popular, now all the mainstreams have ruined it"... and yeah, that could also be part of it.

But at least it was something different for a Saturday.

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central city forking with adding spendingness

My claim to want to go to bed earlier from yesterday didn't really hold a lot of water, so while I wasn't exactly running behind this morning, I didn't have a lot of time for goofing around.

But as always (seemingly), I ended up heading downstairs just as Ma arrived... which is awesome timing wise, but still a little spooky generally.

There was a small hiccup when we got to the supermarket though... and it's well documented that I'm not a massive fan of small random change (or large destructive change for that matter). But the small trolleys I use every week which take two of the carry baskets were nowhere to be seen. They've dicked around with their location before, so I had a look around but there wasn't really anyone around to ask who was free and to be honest there weren't that many staff around. Eventually one of the dudes putting out stock in the fruit and veg department took pity on me since I kept wandering back and forth aimlessly and found somebody to ask.

Turns out they got rid of them somewhere between last weekend and this one. And instead they had some of those stupid "half trolleys" that are still giant trolley sized things, but just really shallow. It honestly felt like pushing some sort of yacht around the store. Initially I thought it might have worked against them because the trolley wasn't as deep... but thinking about it I think we spent slightly more money than usual, although we both bought a few things we don't normally do.

After we'd done all of the collective supermarket shoppery for the week, I wanted to look in Target and EB Games... both of which turned into slightly expensive trips. Target because I've been half thinking about getting new crockery for a while now... the plates I have at present are all cracked, plus I'm kind of over the whole square shape thing.

And Target just happened to have the Canteen range, which was available as individual pieces... which is good because I only ever need two of everything, not four.

Also, I have something of a weakness for bowls, and the range had a mini bowl, a cereal bowl, a general bowl and a giant salad bowl... I resisted the giant salad bowl, but I did go a little mental with the other three. Now normally I would have gone with the red ones, but this time I resisted and instead got the "blue"... which honestly is more of a soft robin egg blue... a tiny bit green but not a strong turquoise.

It also turned out that Target was having a sale on crockery, and because I spent over a certain amount I got $10 off, which is always a nice surprise.

Then we swung by EB Games where I found Assassin's Creed III and Revelations... plus LA Noire, since I needed a third game to take advantage of the deal that got me all three for half the sticker price.

Plus they just happened to have a Captain Jack figure from the Disney Infinity game... and they're really nice figures... worthy of being displayed even though I don't have the game and don't really have any intention of getting it. And it was cheap.

We ended up spending longer in the store than I'd intended since the two people before me in the line were both doing overly complicated things (and the guy at the head of the line was a little bit of a douche since he was challenging the wording for some promotion they were having. And doubly annoying since he got what he wanted in the end.

All of that added up to the fact that we got back to my place quite late, relatively speaking.

By the time we headed back out into the city it was already noon, but for once we weren't heading straight to Fork on the Road, I wanted to head into the Mall and grab the extendible curtain rod I totally forgot about last weekend.

We couldn't find a park close to Victoria Square, but we got a close as we could and then wandered over to the Mall for a quick raid on Spotlight before we headed back, dropped the rod in the car and then wandered over to Fork.

This is the third Fork on the Road that I've now been to in Victoria Square... it's where the first ever Fork was held, and then there was one held on the road between the two halves of the Square... so you could say that this was the first proper Fork in Vic Square.

And there were a large number of old and new trucks in attendance, including one that has now officially become one of my favourites.

As is traditional whenever Archie is in attendance, we started off with a couple of pastizzi... pork and mushy pea for Ma, and I tried the green chicken curry one, which was quite tasty.

I didn't really notice until I just looked at the photos in this post, but most of what we ended up was fried in one form or another... not for any particular reason, it just turned out that way.

And it was good given that there's lots of possible spots to sit in Victoria Square, so we could just wander around the trucks and find spots to sit and soak up both the sun and the atmosphere.

Next stop was Papa's Hotdogs for a serve of their onion rings, which really are the best onion rings while we watched the kids frolic in the fountain.

From there we went around to try my new favourite, Cheesy Street for a Cheese on Cheese on Cheese toasty and a banana milkshake. The three cheeses were provolone, vintage cheddar and provolone piccante on dark rye bread... and very tasty. As was the milkshake.

Once again we kind of hung out for a while watching toddlers do amusing things after we'd finished eating before we eventually wandered back around to La Chiva to try some of their Tapioca chips... which ended up being pretty much just like big fat potato chips but with a slightly different texture. Interesting, but not mind blowing.

We finished up with first some Barossa Valley ice-cream... Salty Caramel for Ma and Pear and Verjuice sorbet for me... both of which were really, really nice. And then we revisited the honey puff truck (Honey Ladies, Honey Girls... something like that I think) for some sugary, fried balls of honey soaked dough deliciousness.

It was then a very slow but highly contented walk back to the car.

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