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February 12, 2015 by Vicky Leave a Comment

I’ve been nominated for a Liebster Award by Erica of Coming Up Roses and Marissa of My Old Heart and only just managed to get round to answering the questions! I’ve been nominated once before so here is a little bit more about me.

How it works (or the version of the rules I have chosen to follow as there are quite a few different rules):
1) Receive a nomination.
2) Write 11 facts about yourself.
3) Answer the 11 questions sent your way.
4) Tag 5 bloggers who have less than 200 followers as your own nominees.
5) Read their responses and send a comment or to their way.

My 11 Random Facts About Me:
1, My favourite movie is Field of Dreams.
2, It took me 8 attempts to pass my driving test! I’m a great driver honestly 🙂
3, I can’t sleep in a room with a clock that ticks.
4, I really dislike (hate?) the taste and smell of cinnamon.
5, I’ve had a grey streak in my hair since I was about 17 that is rapidly becoming just grey hair.
6, Every time me and my family have visited Tenerife we have visted Loro Parque (sometimes more than once on a holiday). I can’t resist visiting those penguins.
7, I’m allergic to prawns and horse hair! I have discovered though it’s handy to let airlines know that you are allergic to something when they give you food on the flight as they then feed you first so you can sleep sooner and you usually get something pretty decent!
8, I am not very good with blood and genuinely don’t know if I could help someone who had cut themselves and was bleeding as it just gives me a mini freak out.
9, I cannot stand the chef Jamie Oliver. He just drives me nuts although I have tried a couple of his recipes which I liked!
10, I’d like to get a tattoo (I even listed it on my 101 Goals in 1001 Days) but am afraid to have one done. One day…
11, I hate Mary Poppins, Bedknobs and Broomsticks and The Wizard of Oz!

My Answer to the 11 questions posed by Erica:

1, If you could up and go to anywhere in the world for the rest of the day, where would you go, who would be your travel buddy, and what would you see/do there?

2, You’ve just had an insanely ridiculously tiring and stressful day at school/work/blogging in your pajamas with hot tea and macarons all day. Top 3 ways to de-stress?
Reading a good book, have a bath and watching the sunset.

3, Who do you think are the two most influential (guy and girl!) people in the world today?
My Mum and Dad are. They have supported me through out my studies to qualify as a lawyer and to move to Australia which has not been the easiest thing for them but they are always there supporting me and just being wonderful.

4, What song best fits your personality?
This is so difficult. I don’t think I can choose just one song so here is my favourite song instead!

5, If you could re-name yourself today, what would it be?
I quite like my name it suits me (I think) plus there is an awesome song by the Kinks called Victoria! I call myself Vicky now but always insisted on Victoria until I was about 12 and gave up as everyone called me Vicky anyway. It does drive me slightly crazy though that Vicky gets spelled so many different ways!

6, Best blogging tip you’ve ever received?
Just do what you enjoy and don’t worry if you can’t post every day, just be consistent with your posts that you do make.

7, The most popular 3 websites in your computer history?
Facebook, Hotmail and probably Twitter.

8, Go-to piece(s) in your wardrobe right now?
Shorts and singlets (vest tops) it’s too hot to wear anything else right now.

9, What are you most excited for right now?
Visiting my family in the UK for Christmas.

10, What’s the best piece of advice you’ve ever gotten?
You have to give things a go or you will never know if it is the right thing for you or not.

11, Do you watch Scandal? (If not, get on that).
No not yet but will check it out!

My answer to Marissa’s questions are here:

1. How did you decide on the title of your blog?
I was living in the rural area which I called the Outback when I started the blog so as an expat in the Outback I thought it was a good title.

2. What one word sums up the heart of your blog and why?
Expat Life (sorry had to use two!)

3. What’s your favorite pastime other than blogging?
I love photography, I pick up a camera and can just get absorbed in the image I want to create. I have to do it more, I don’t do it nearly enough.

4. What is your favorite aspect of blogging?
Getting to share my life in Australia. It’s been a big change in my world and I get to do some cool things.

5. Which recipe, project, or idea on my blog would you most like to try yourself?
The Almost Elvis Smoothie looks delicious!

6. Where does your blog inspiration come from?
My every day adventures really, if I do or see something fun I like to share it.

7. What is one country in the world you would like to visit? Why?
A tough choice when I am a wannabe traveller but I think Bali is top of my list at the moment. I have flights booked for a trip with my camera club next month but really don’t think I can afford it so might have to cancel.

8. If you have children, what are their names? If not, what are your favorite boy & girl names?
No children but I do like the names Dominic and Isabelle I think they are cute.

9. A long lost relative leaves you a large sum of money. What do you do with it?
Travel the world taking photographs and blogging of course.

10. In your opinion, what is the best blog post you’ve written so far? (Include the link!)
In The Public Eye

11. What is your favorite food?
I have to cheat and say Asian because whilst that encompasses such a variety of foods I can’t choose just one. I love it all, the flavours are amazing.

My 11 Questions for Fiona of Green Loving Girl, Andi from Misadventures with Andi, Jess and Shawn from North and South Nomads, Natalie and Landon from Cosmos Mariners: Destination Unknown and Van from Snow in Tromso to answer:

1, If you could take a flight anywhere in the world right now where would you go and why?
2, What is your first memory?
3, What is your life’s ambition that you haven’t achieved yet?
4, What is your favourite dish to cook?
5, Who do you admire most?
6, If you could live anywhere in the world where would it be?
7, What three books would you recommend that I read?
8, Do you hit the snooze button when your alarm goes off or do you get straight up?
9, If you could only watch sunsets or sunrises for the rest of your life what would you choose?
10, Top 3 places on your travel wish list?
11, What is your favourite post from my blog?

LiebsterAward

Currently One…

January 24, 2015 by Vicky 2 Comments

I’ve seen lots of currently posts in blogs and so thought I would share where I’m at currently. I would love to hear your “currently” too.

Outback Expat Currently ...

Having: A lazy day – Starting with coffee, well I “tried” to make a cappuccino, strawberry pop tarts and reading in bed. We have recently started having our food shopping delivered to us from one of the local supermarkets which makes food shopping so much easier but also means we save money as we don’t pick up the random things anymore just because they are cheap. The goods were delivered this morning so I sorted that, put on the washing and resumed my lazy day.

Reading: I finished We Are All Completely Beside Ourselves by Karen Joy Fowler last night before we went out for dinner which was a very different book to those I’ve read before and I will do a review of it shortly. Today is a reading at home kind of day so I started reading Sleep Tight by Rachel Abbott and I’m already quarter of a way through the book so its a good one!

Watching: Breaking Bad. I didn’t really start watching this show until I moved to Darwin and was filling my time in between job hunting with catching up with tv shows. I then found my job and so it was put on the back burner a bit but recently I’ve had time to watch it some more and am just about at the end of series 3 which is a pain as we don’t have series 4 and 5 yet! This program is a bit wacky at times but I’m enjoying watching it as a bit of a break from my usual shows. The question is what should I watch next when series 3 ends?

Working on: Blog stuff as usual and trying to plan out some posts for the week including a guest post for next month. I’ve also been searching for flights to the UK for Christmas as it’s just about the right time for those flights to go on sale and I want to keep track of the prices. Finally I am working on getting all the forms and documents together that I need for university so I can get myself enrolled this week ready to start at the beginning of March.

Loving: That my friend passed on some of her cookbooks to me yesterday when we met for lunch (that were under her desk at work no less!). I’m really starting to love cooking and learning new recipes where I cook them from scratch. I’ve always been able to cook as my Mum taught me a lot of recipes growing up but as I used to spend several hours a day commuting to work in the UK, I hadn’t really cooked properly for several years as I was living with my parents and my Mum would always make dinner for me (best food ever). I’m finding that cooking is a lot of fun and I love it when a recipe I am trying tastes good and I can add it to my recipe repertoire. I also have a pretty great store cupboard full of ingredients now so when I look for a new recipe I can usually cook it up. I’m looking forward to finding new recipes in my new books and giving them a try.

What are you doing currently? If you haven’t done so already you should currently make sure you enter the New Year, New You Giveaway that is running until 26 January 2015!

a Rafflecopter giveaway

Quick and Easy Banana Loaf

January 19, 2015 by Vicky 2 Comments

Quick and Easy Banana Loaf

We had some local bananas in the fridge that the Aussie was given by a colleague at work who grows them about 2 weeks ago that, on the outside were ready for the bin but when I unpeeled them they were perfect for a banana cake. These bananas are small but really sweet and tasty so I didn’t want them to go to waste.

I used a really simple and easy banana recipe that I found here. I adapted it slightly because last time I made it, it tasted a bit dry and was thrown away after a few days. I don’t think this one will be finding its way to the bin!

I also had “fun” because I was also cooking a fish pie for us and couldn’t fit both in the oven! In the end the cake stayed in the oven and the fish pie went in the BBQ and both tasted great!

Ingredients
4 small bananas (these were the local ones) and 1 regular size banana mashed
1/2 cup apple sauce
3/4 cup granulated sugar (I’ve just discovered the Aussie has stored the granulated sugar in the caster sugar pot so used this instead of caster sugar!)
2 large eggs whisked
1 1/2 cups of self raising flour.

Method
1) Heat the oven to 170°C.

2) I mashed the bananas up and whisked the eggs in a separate bowl before mixing them both in the same bowl with the apple sauce and sugar.

3) Then I added in the flour and used the electric hand whisk to mix everything together.

4) I moved on to preparing the cake tin with a touch of butter and added the mixture. I could have used a loaf tin but thought that a regular round cake tin would work and it did pretty nicely.

5) Finally I put the cake into the oven on the top tray and cooked it for an hour. When it was ready I justed removed it from the oven and left it too cool before removing it from the cake tin.

I’m storing it in the fridge because of the heat here and hoping that will mean it doesn’t loose any moisture. I did wonder whether to make a lemon flavoured glaze for the cake but it was not necessary as it was just sweet enough.

This was the easiest recipe I’ve ever used to make a cake and will definitely try it again.

About Me!

My name is Vicky and I am a Lawyer from the UK who upped sticks and moved to the Northern Territory in Australia in August 2013!

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