Categories: family, linguistics, parish-life, food
Date: 29 August 2009 11:13:00
Had my first taste of Moghrabieh [Semolina Balls with Chicken] tonight, as part of our monthly parish cooking class. Mmmm. Similar to this recipe, but with hommus, caraway and pepper. Wondrous. Absolutely wondrous. I will need to head to an Arabic grocery soon and get some to cook up -- hopefully not ruining it. I'll probably go for a vegetarian option first. While eating the meal I was reminded of the Lebanese word for delicious, ﻃﻴﺐ [tae-yib], which is exceptionally apt. We then had Vespers and a quick Bible Study, going through an Orthodox Catechism I must write the name down of, which was wonderful too. I am so blessed with the people and spiritual life of the parish I am at.
Eden's first Birthday Party went well, while I was off teaching English. I confused them unfortunately at one point by not fully explaining something; thankfully someone spoke up later and I made amends. Though I think it went generally well. Prepositions gave way to occupations and the verb "to be" in the present tense with personal pronouns. Next week, on the students' request, we'll do simple past and perhaps past perfect as well as they are very interested in getting the various forms right -- and as was said, the past form is used a great deal in conversation where reminiscing is often present.
After the lesson I headed off to Parramatta, a suburb about 20/25 minutes drive from me, to the Temple of Mammon as a friend calls it, the very large shopping centre - it may be the largest in the Southern Hemisphere [it once was]. I headed to a fabric store to get some advice on hanging my carpet, grabbed a quick Thai lunch and then headed to the Lebanese Patisserie Sea Sweet where I had a most wonderful Lebanese Coffee and a Znoud El Sit. Mmmm.
I then grabbed a book for my dad as part of his Father's Day [first Sunday in September here] present, The Grey Nomad's Guidebook as my parents are thinking of buying a caravan and travelling around Australia, or at least the East Coast first to see how they like it. Such is the popularity of this that a name, "Grey Nomads", has been given to the [often retired] people who do this, hence the name. My eye was taken with a big new English dictionary for myself, but with it being $120+ I think it was best left unbought. I did buy a significantly cheaper Arabic Grammar and Vocabulary book to help me get a better grasp of more everyday Arabic words. And it was then to church and the wonderful moghrabieh.
A great day; thanks and praise be to God.