Eating and cooking in Oz

My grandmothers homemade tomoato sauce - delicious!

It has actually been very nice to cook while being back in Australia. For the best part of a year I haven't cooked, instead opting for eating out or occasionally ordering in. The main reason is laziness but it is also nice to eat out with the locals. We have a big kitchen which is rarely used; something we won't have when we move back to a developed country.

Eating out is extremely cheap with meals starting from a $1. There is little meat in the meals in Hanoi so cooking up a big steak or some pork chops every night here is great. I am still waiting for my grandmother to get out of hospital so it has been George and I holding the fort at the farm. I have been cooking our meals while he is doing things around the house that he shouldn't be doing - he has just had two operations and needs to be resting. I try to feed him vegetables on the grandmothers instructions which he refuses outright; a similar response to that of my two year old nephew.

After threatening to ground him I went to check my emails only to later find he was outside collecting firewood. I couldn't find him the day I arrived because while I was having a shower he went outside, jumped on the bike and rode around to check the sheep. I spent a weekend at my old man's farm and while I was away he jumped on the lawnmower and mowed the lawn. He is fiercely stubborn and independent but is as tough as nails.

Tonight I am cooking a big fat steak with mash potatoes and peas. George will undoubtedly refuse to eat the peas but I will persevere on the bosses orders.

Must go now - George is yelling abuse at the cat who seems to have vomited all over the carpet. I will go and clean it up I guess. The cat wouldn't get away with that in Vietnam.