Tuesday, May 06, 2008

Labor Day long weekend.

As I said on May Day proper, the holiday is celebrated on the fifth of May in Queensland and NT. Townsville has historically been a very Labor-oriented place, and last year the May Day march saw 5,000 people turn up.
Photo from the Townsville Bulletin.

It wasn’t quite this big this year. There were still a buttload of people there, mainly union members. We marched along the beach, from one park to another. The march was fairly organised—each union stayed together, followed by the community groups like Amnesty. The Stolen Wages mob was in that section of the march. We carried placards and banners, we shouted till our throats were sore, and we got a whole lot of media attention. Once we reached the destination, two people from our group were amongst the speakers for the event. Listening to them speak gave me goose bumps; they were really deadly. Later on, the event organisers gave awards to the best represented union and community group—and we won!

Unfortunately, I forgot my camera. But, there were plenty of photographers there, so I will get some pictures off them to jog my memory when I’m writing. Because I wasn’t preoccupied with taking photos, I was able to fully absorb everything I saw, have really good, in-depth conversations with young and old activists, and just generally have a great time. This was the kind of day that makes me love doing a PhD. I get paid (well, a scholarship) to go to this and have these conversations. Sure, there’s a lot of reading and eventually writing in addition to these days, but it’s totally worth it.

After spending several hours in the sun at May Day, I came home, wrote up pages and pages of notes about the day, and then got stuck into a cookie baking extravaganza.

I made cherry chocolate chip cookies.

And Vegan with a Vengeance ‘sparkled ginger cookies’.

I made Anzac biscuits, too, but they seriously didn’t work. The dough was really runny, but I’ve never made Anzac bikkies before so I tried baking them anyways, with disastrous results. They were thin, hard, and inedible. Oh well, you can’t win ‘em all.

The cookies went into a box along with a few other things to sustain Andy between food barge visits up at Lizard Island. I don’t want to give away any surprises, since he reads my blog from the island, but here’s a peek.

During the cookie baking I managed to eat a lot of cookie dough. Like, seriously, too much. I had a headache from all the sugar I had ingested. To counteract some of the sugary effects, I made a very healthy dinner (which was also ridiculously easy to make). Step one, boil soba noodles and drain. Step two, boil water, add wakame flakes and chopped ginger and garlic. Step three, turn off heat and stir in a scoop of miso. Step four, pour broth over noodles. Ta. Da.

Miso soup. Delicious, and much better for you than cookie dough.

10 comments:

The Vegan Snorkeler said...

I LOVE miso soup!!! So easy and delish!

Amy said...

Awww Nacho. Send her to me! :P

I too have that cookie dough addiction but for me it results in a massive stomach ache (and the desperate need for some salad or steamed veggies! Your recovery meal looks yummy too.)

the little one said...

Go activist you! Cherry chocolate chip cookies?! Wow! Where is the recipe from?

Anna said...

Nacho just gets prettier and prettier. And how nice of you to send care packages to Andy!

Vegan_Noodle said...

So cute! Nacho must want to hide away to see Andy. Chocolate chip cherry cookies sounds amazing... did you use fresh or dried cherries?

That is so awesome that your PhD has such an impact and allows you to really get in touch with important social issues. I wish my thesis was as interesting! You'll definitely have to put up some excerpts on the blog when you're done. In the meantime, enjoy your research!

Unknown said...

Looks like a cool weekend. At least you were chowing down on vegan cookie dough and not risking getting salmonella from uncooked eggs! And the soup looks so delicious and simple!

Nacho in a box. It's funny how claustrophilic cats can be; at least mine seems to like to hide in boxes, tight areas, and paper bags too. (Nacho in a box reminds me of the funny SNL skit from a year and a half ago about putting something else in a box).

Bianca said...

I have the same problem when I make cookies! I can't stop eating the cookie dough and then I feel all icky from eating too much sweet stuff. Your soup looks like a good answer to that problem.

DJ said...

Now that is MY kind of soup! Plus your biccies look lovely - cherry choc chip - yummo!

Theresa said...

The chocolate chip cookie recipe is Dreena's, posted here: http://www.everydaydish.tv/Recipe%20Pages/dreenacookie.html

I added chopped glace cherries (a mix between maraschino and dried, sort of) and walnuts. They were slightly cake-ier than I like my cookies, but very, very good nonetheless.

Alec, I haven't seen the SNL skit you speak of, but I can just imagine...

Anonymous said...

Anzac biscuits are always dry and unpleasant. I think they're eaten more out of the fervrent sense of nationalism Australians tend to have more than anything else, though the cookie-type products I've had in Australia generally tend to be dry when compared to those found in the US. Australian breads, however, are fantastic.