Hasn’t daylight saving ended in spectacular fashion today?  It’s been the kind of day that’s made for pottering around and completely forgetting the time or else finding yourself stuck in the rain somewhere running late or early for whatever it you were meant to be doing.

I was lucky this year in that all my electrical time keeping appliances automatically adjusted for the change but my brain decided it needed the whole day to adjust all the same.  What choice did I have but to embrace going with the post daylight saving flow?

I found myself in the city early this morning running some errands which took me through Central station.  There’s something about empty train stations early on Sunday mornings.  Without the anticipated crush of commuters, you can almost hear the trains breathe more deeply and the tracks beneath them unwind a little.

There is this sense of decompression but also an air of anticipation and adventure as the weekend patrons slowly amble in.  Tour groups dressed in theme, intrepid backpackers, slightly harried family groups silently praying that their pram will make it down the escalator.  People who still need to get to someplace else but with reasons more exciting than the usual nine to five.

Grey may have been the colour of choice for the sky and its clouds but there were punches of colour to be found at eye level.

A regal rhinoceros with lime green paws keeping a steady eye on the George Street buses.

And a Dr Seuss exhbition and art sale at a new gallery in the QVB.  I was a little sad that I couldn’t actually go in as the gallery hadn’t yet opened for the day but who would have thought that the Seuss aesthetic would look so at home against the ornate archways and stained glass of the grand dame of George Street?

The Cat in the Hat in the gallery at the QVB.

Still on the theme of Cat in the Hat red and white, I got home and made a batch of pizza base dough for the freezer (and by extension my go to dinner option when days at work have been too bad to end with hours of meal prep and washing up) using my KitchenAid and it trusty dough hook.

Just for something different, I parked the kneaded dough on the back seat of my car and left both to the elements as I had a swim.  Spotless car paintwork and perfectly risen dough – don’t you love it when the  heavens help you along with your chores?

We weren’t talking about hair treatments but let me change the subject anyway.  Pantene have done the unthinkable and stopped selling my favourite supermarket hair treatments.  Without prior consultation with me, I might add.  They were from the Clinicare range and came in very scientific looking single use ampuoles.  Anyway, they’ve been gone far too long from the shelves of both Coles and Priceline for there to be just a supply issue.  They’ve been capital D discontinued.

So while Pantene rethinks its hair treatments, I’ve jumped ship back to Garnier and their fruity fragranced hair masks. I like how their scent hasn’t changed much in all these years.  Do you remember those lime green spherical tubs when the brand first launched in Australia?  These days, they have a yellow packaging.  The Fructis 3 Minute Ultra Nourishing Mask costs $8.99 for 300ml and does a pretty decent job for the price.

Back in the kitchen at SSG Manor, it’s been curry central with both my mum and aunty being huge believers in the restorative powers of a chicken curry and rice for dinner after a long day at the coal face or with Toddler SSG (there’s never a dull moment with either and you need to think on your feet at all times with both).

Saturday was my turn to offer an interpretation of the theme.  And guess what?  A Coles rotisserie chicken was involved.  I was inspired by the leftovers 101 article in a recent issue of the SMH’s Good Food guide.  One of the ideas for leftover roast meat was to turn it into a Thai inspired red curry.

All you need to do is start making a red curry following the method for your curry paste of choice and then add your diced or shredded leftover roast in the final stage of cooking.  Mae Ploy is my favourite brand for red curry paste.  It doesn’t seem to be stocked at the supermarkets anymore these days but it’s easy enough to find at Asian grocers.

If you were a little trigger happy with the red curry paste – fresh lime juice, palm sugar and fish sauce are your saviours.  Just working with these ingredients injected the kitchen with a holiday atmosphere that took me miles away to tropical climates, lush greenery and island getaways.

But back to suburban Sydney and teased barbecued chickens.