Safety first...comfort second

I was reminded today about the real role of a steward/stewardess on an air flight.  


This morning, on my 6:30 am flight from Canberra to Brisbane, a passenger had a heart attack.  Almost immediately after take off, the gentlemen approached the stewardesses and told them he wasn't feeling well.  They sat him in the first seat so he could catch his breathe and then escorted him to the toilet when he looked ill.


The passenger passed out in the toilet and the stewardesses discreetly and calmly enlisted the help of two passengers to pull him out of the restroom and lay him on the floor.  For the next 30+ minutes, until we could land, the stewardesses took turns performing CPR to help try and keep him alive.  The pilot very quickly diverted to Sydney where they cleared the runway for us and had an ambulance waiting.


I am in awe of how well the ladies of DJ1207 handled the situation.  They were calm and never hesitated to do what they thought needed to be done. I'm not sure I could have handled myself so well.


Unfortunately, I don't believe the gentleman survived but I can't be sure.  My thoughts are with him and his family.


Next time you're on a plane, please remember that the stewardess and stewards of the flight are there primarily for your safety.  In any situations while in the air, they will be your champions and your rescuers.  Give them the consideration and respect that comes with that role.

Paper or Plastic?

The ACT (Australian Capital Territory) government recently passed a law banning plastic bags b/c they believe they are detrimental to the environment.  It's fantastic that Australia is trying to look out for the environment.  They do this in many other ways as well - like asking everyone to limit their showers to 2 minutes and encouraging people not to use their dryers.


But back to the plastic bags.  So what does this mean to me?  Well, it means no more spontaneous trips to the grocery store without a very large purse.  Gone are the days when I think to myself, "Oh, I need milk...oh, I should pick up some bread too...oh and maybe some ice cream."  Cause now when I do that, it means that I have three choices:  1) buy the legal, biodegradable plastic bag for $0.20 each, 2) buy the reusable plastic bag for $1.00 each, or 3) carry it all in my purse.  My purse is already heavy enough so that option is out.  I already own a million reusable bags, I don't need another one.  So, I guess I'm paying the $0.20 each for a couple of bags.  That adds up with enough spontaneous trips to the grocery store.  Adam and I now leave about 4 of the reusable bags in his car so that we never get stuck without them.


But this got me thinking - are plastic bags really that bad for the environment?


I've read around on the internet and it seems like there's a split decision.


It's generally agreed that while it's easier to recycle paper bags, the energy and cost to the environment is too high.


The energy and cost to make a plastic bag is quite low and they're very inexpensive.  But apparently, even though they're recyclable, people don't generally put them in the recycling bin.  Instead, they reuse them for other purposes and then throw them in the trash bin, thereby clogging up the landfills.


The reusable bags on the other hand, again don't take alot of energy to make and, obviously, they're reusable.  The one thing that I did find interesting is that there's a concern around bacteria growth with the reusable bags.  For instance, lets say you put ground beef in your reusable bag and it hasn't been put into a separate plastic bag because those are illegal, and the blood from the beef gets all over your reusable bag....there's a fantastic opportunity for bacteria growth and germs.


Hmmm...i think I need to go clean out my reusable bags.  What do you think..paper or plastic?

Baby Brooks

On the second half of my trip home, I spent about five days in Phoenix.  I went to check on the house, to get some warmth (Canberra has been freezing), and to attend my friend Kim's baby shower.  Kim found out she was having a baby back at the beginning of the year and she has been so excited.  I think she was even more excited when she found out it was going to be a girl (look out Cooper Tew!).  She's going to be a fantastic mom and Blaine...well, Blaine is going to be in for an interested ride with two Brooks women in the house.

I've been slowly building my portfolio of portrait photography (you know, in case I ever decide to quit my high-paying corporate job that flys me all over the world).  I've done an engagement, a family, a baby, and now, thanks to Kim, I've had the chance to do maternity pictures.

It was around 114 F in Phoenix the day we decided to do pictures and I couldn't talk Dad Brooks into heading out to the park for pictures.  It was just far too hot.  So we settled on their backyard so we could go inside to cool off every now and then.  As it turns out, we got a fantastic sunset and fantastic light.  

I hope you enjoy the pictures!  I think the pictures came out pretty well.  Thank you Kim and Blaine for letting me capture this precious time for you!

Hello Cooper Tew!

During my last trip home, I made a special stopover to North Carolina to visit with my friend Merritt and her husband Morgan.  But the real reason of the trip was to meet the newest member of the Tew family - Cooper.  I missed most of Merritt's pregnancy so when an opportunity arose to get to see her and the new bub, I did what I could to make that happen.


I got to meet Cooper right away - they brought him to the airport to pick me up but it was midnight and he slept through the whole thing - already a good sign.  As it turns out, Baby Tew is one of the most chill babies I've ever had the pleasure of hanging out with.  He hardly ever cried, he let me hold him without being freaked out that I was a new person.  He was the best kind of baby -quiet, chill, and not mine.


If you follow this blog, you know that I've been trying to get into this photography thing.  Lately I've been focusing on food photography b/c I've suddenly become very domestic.  I think it's a need to nest that I can't fulfill b/c I live in a fully furnished apartment where, when I decide to move home, have to fit is a 5x5x6 crate.  But I digress, this blog is about Cooper.


Mert was cool enough to agree to let me photograph her bub as I hadn't done babies before.  Thankfully, the day we decided to do the session was gorgeous and we happened to catch some beautiful light.  I'm not completely happy with them but the colors in them are very pretty and I think we were able to catch just how chilled out the kid really is.

Love the hat!

Honey Beer Bread

For this week's baking experiment, I decided not to go with a sweet dish like I have the last couple of weeks.  Instead, I decided to go for what looked like a very easy bread.

The bread recipe was really pretty easy - flour, a little sugar, some baking powder, beer and honey.  Mix it all together and throw in the oven.  Can't get much easier than that.

All the ingredients

Bake it up in the oven for an hour

Enjoy yummy warm bread!

Banana Oreo Peanut Butter Cupcakes

While pinteresting the other day, I came across a recipe for Oreo Peanut Butter Brownies.  They looked heavenly in the pictures and I decided I wanted to make them sometime.  This afternoon while HA was playing some war game on the computer, I decided I would give the brownies a go.  Unfortunately, I didn't have any brownie mix and the closest grocery store was already closed for the day.

After rummaging through my pantry, I found a banana cupcake mix I had bought a while back and decided that banana goes with PB and oreos, so why not give it a try.

The ingredients and recipe are pretty easy.

Cupcake ingredients

Mix everything together to create the cupcake batter

The next part is about figuring out how much peanut butter you want to use.  The original recipe I found said to put PB between the oreos and on top.  Australians aren't as fond of PB as Americans so I chose to only do half of the cupcakes with the extra PB.

Here's all the oreos ready for cupcake batter.

Now you have to add in the cupcake batter.  Because the oreos take up most of the cupcake holder, I had to put the batter in, let it sit so gravity would fill in the gaps, and then refill it until all of the cupcakes are full.

Put the cupcakes in to bake for 20 to 25 minutes and then let cool.

They smell really yummy.  I'm thinking the banana cupcake was a good idea.  After a bit of cooling, I hand them over to my taster - more commonly known as HA in this blog.

I got a thumbs up from HA and a comment that more peanut butter could have been used (I'm slowly turning him into an American!).  I was pleasantly surprised with my experiment.  I would definitely make these again!

Two more passport stamps!

HA's brother turned 40 in August and to celebrate, he and his wife hosted a party on the Indonesian island of Batam.  HA and I were invited to the party back in June when I originally thought I was moving back to the US.  I was very disappointed because I had been wanting to go to Singapore for quite some time.  Thankfully, I was extended in Australia and was able to make the trip with HA.

Singapore is an island in Asia which has a total land mass of roughly 249.5 sq miles or about half the size of Phoenix, AZ.  The average temperature is about 80 F with about 85% humidity.  The island of Batam, Indonesia is about an hour's ferry ride from Singapore.

HA and I arrived in Singapore on Thursday evening.  The one thing I will remember about the Singapore airport is that they have the EASIEST immigration I've ever encountered.  On both departure and arrival, I did not have to wait in line and not once did I feel like I was going to be arrested (unlike when I come in Australia where I'm constantly afraid I forgot to declare something). 

On Friday, HA and I took a later ferry to Indonesia so that we could explore Singapore a bit.  Unfortunately, nothing opens in Singapore until after 10am so we had breakfast at Starbucks and then enjoyed walking around Little India to admire all the closed shops. We eventually gave up and went out to Orchard Road to do some real shopping.  Orchard road is 6 km's of stores - including a number of American stores.  The prices weren't any different than what you'd pay in Australia so HA and I didn't really buy anything.

My observations on Singapore:

1.  It's super clean - like anally retentive clean
2.  It's super quite - you never hear sirens or construction
3.  It's significantly more green than I thought it would be.  I had it in my head that it would be all high-rises with no green space - I was wrong.
4.  You can get anything you want - there were a number of American and Australian stores and fast food joints (there was even a Long John Silver's!).


Rooftop garden on Orchard Road

From there, we hopped the ferry and headed out to the island.  This Indonesian experience was very different from my Bali experience.  There weren't as many people up in your face and it was a much more relaxed experience.  The resort we stayed out was quite nice and right on the water.  Our room had a view of the ocean and of the pool right in front of us.  We spent Friday evening hanging out by the pool and having a nice dinner with all of the guests.

For Saturday, all of the boys went off golfing while the women stayed back to watch the kids and have massages.  A good portion of GW and AW's friends have children as well so this meant alot of time hanging out by the pool to make sure they didn't drown. Once the boys were back, everyone started getting ready for the evening festivities.

AW, HA's sister-in-law, arranged for the party to be held on the pier which is a beautiful location.  The party was fantastic.  Everyone had a really great time.  AW did a brilliant job with the organization!

The pier during the day



The walk out to the pier



Beautifully setup

On our way to the party

Lots of dancing

And even a little karaoke

On Sunday, we headed back to Singapore and had dinner with HA's family at a beautiful Japanese restaurant.  On Monday, HA and I didn't have to leave until the evening so we spent the day doing a bit more exploring of Singapore.  We rode in the Singapore Flyer, took a Duck tour, visited the Terracotta Warrior exhibit and tried to buy some electronics (but the prices were not any different from Australia).

The Watts family in the Singapore Flyer

The famous MerLion

Terracotta Warriors

Pop Art Exhibit