Workout Specific Updos, Home Laminating and Meat Lover’s Bolognese. The Excitement Of All of the Above.


With my basil is looking this good, how could I possibly not make up a big pot of bolognese?
I keep claiming to have found my forever bolognese recipe but that doesn’t stop me from suffering the occasional bout of spag bol wanderlust.  And when I found Adrian Richardson’s recipe for bolognese here and noticed that it required a cup of fresh basil, I knew that his was the recipe I had to try today.
Conveniently, the recipe also required a cup of red wine.  As well as two things I’ve never used in a bolognese recipe before – salami and bacon.  
With all that meat in the recipe and the 150g of butter needed to brown the vegetables at the beginning, it’s just as well I intend to eat this zuchetti style.  I think pasta would make things far too heavy.  I’m halfway through the simmering stage at the moment so I think the official verdict on taste might have to wait for a future post.
Being gym Tuesday for me and all, I thought you might like to hear the latest about my fitness journey.  Wasn’t that a clever reference to the new season of Masterchef right there?  I think it debuted over the weekend along with The Voice.    Just quietly,  from the look of the ratings, I think a fair proportion of Australia seems to be over reality television contests at the moment. I think we’re journey jaded.
But back to gym Tuesday.  I trialled a workout updo this morning.  Mainly to see if a side French braid would keep the layers out of my face better than my usual head band.  Bits of layered hair seem to flop around under the head band and I end up looking like a hectic birds nest by the time I gracefully jump off the treadmill.  Not that it should matter what my hair looks like at the gym but hey, this is the SSG blog and in keeping with the SSG brand core values in general – it’s the little things….
Anyway.  My hair did good through cardio this morning.  It all stayed in its braid through the run (hills, readers, I did inclines), a bit of a cycle and then jump rope.  
If you want a do that looks profesh, may I recommend Abby Smith’s YouTube tute featuring five quick dos?
Abby also writes a blog here that I’ve just started reading on Feedly because I love her cheerful style on Youtube.
#armparty #inmyactivewear
Out of the gym, the headband got twisted around my wrist arm party style and I went forth to Officeworks.

Where I saw first hand how expensive it is to replace bits of broken work ID appendages.  The plastic card covers start at around $1.50 per piece,

and don’t get me started on how much it costs to replace the plastic alligator clips…

I might just have to save my conference tags from now on.  For their spare part value alone.

I was hoping to find a new Moleskine for New Orleans but just wasn’t feeling what remained on the notebook shelves in store.  Might have to go online for one.  Ah, Book Depositary.  Almost forgot about them.

It’s always an eclectic selection of things that make it with me to the cash registers at Officeworks.  Today’s haul featured my laminator and a set of play money in Australian currency for Preschooler SSG.

I think I’ve found a new hobby, readers.  It’s almost as fun as raking autumn leaves.  How rewarding is home laminating?  Often referred to pieces of paper converted to virtually indestructible and more importantly, water resistant pieces of plastic at the flick of a switch?  As promised, Preschooler SSG’s reading signs got laminated (brownie points please, early years educators – for printing in lower case!!).  And of course, my ACORNA skin care regime got plasticised (because apparently plasticated isn’t a word though it is closer to the truth) too.

And when I was done, I had to run my laminator cleaning sheet through the unit three times before turning it off.  The sheet is just a piece of cardboard but with laminating being such a precise and orderly procedure, it had to have an official title.
The model I bought was the GBC Fusion A4 sized laminator.  It cost around $360 which was mid range from memory.  Officeworks had A4 laminators ranging from $20 up to around $1400.  I went for this particular model because the warm up time was relatively quick as was the time taken to laminate a page.  It’s also quite a sturdy.  Wonder if it would be considered a tax deduction?  Better start laminating something work related next.  
Oh hello, this is my bolognese.  Just added the chopped basil to it.  I think it’s safe to say that this one is for the meat lover’s pizza lovers amongst you.  It’s surprisingly sweet, possibly because I used a milder Hungarian salami.  It’s also hearty and a different bolognese all together from the versions I usually make sans salami and bacon.  Looking forward to having a serve with some zuchakini as Preschooler SSG is wont to call zucchini.  He loves making zoodles but hates eating them.
What do you laminate around the house?  
Are you on the journey with Masterchef or The Voice this year already?  Or are you going to be a bit like me and wait until it gets to the business end of the competition but sort of keep up via Twitter?  Or are you completely oblivious?


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