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Hi all, welcome to another episode of Stuff We Like. Toni is back again, forgive me as this will be short as I'm writing it from my phone as I've been dragged out for drinks as I'm now child free. Today I want to tell you about the Greek Glenti. Here in Darwin we have a very large Greek population, and every year we gather in the thousands to help them celebrate their heritage. Set over two days on the second weekend on June the glenti has everything you could possibly want. Delicious Greek food, desserts to die for, dancing, music, traditional clothing, entertainment for the kids, and once the sun goes down the party really starts. Every year the organizers of the glenti chose a charity and run a massive raffle and drive to raise funds. So far I believe they've raised over $2 million for the various charities over the years.
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 Scott's turn again at the Stuff We Like thing! Our friends are here from Italy for three weeks, so we've been wracking our brains for things to do with them. We have the good fortune to live fairly close to the original Jelly belly factory, which gives free tours, so this was a natural. I first encountered Jelly Bellies the week princes Di got married - I remember this because my Dad had done this time share thing in San Diego, and we spent a day in front of the TV watching the royal wedding. Anyhow, we went to La Jolla, where we found this wonderful store called Uncle Mary's, that served peanut butter, banana and honey sandwiches, and that had two rows of these wonderful new things called Jelly Bellies. For those of you who have never had them, they are basically little jelly beans. But the innovation the Herman Goelitz Candy Company had was to add flavor not just to the outer candy shell, but to the inner jelly part too. They are AMAZING little taste explosions. The factory is really cool too. There's a ton of automation, but there are still many people on the floor to keep things running smoothly.  After they make the jelly centers, they use these rotating "cement mixers" to add the candy coating. They have to monitor them by hand, adding sugar and syrup in the right quantities and at the right time until they are coated and polished perfectly.  This woman is in charge of removing the mis-shappen ones and the Jelly Bellies that are clumped together. I think she's working on Buttered Popcorn Belly Bellies, one of my favorite flavors.  All the flavors for a given blend are added to a conveyor belt in the proper quantities, and then are mixed together perfectly.  Did you know there's also Jelly Belly art? This one was my favorite. Ronald Reagan? Not so much.  One word of warning - watch out for the Bamboozled flavors. They look just like the normal ones. But they have terrible flavors! They are fun party gags, though!  Here's the saddest thing we saw all day. Someone killed Mister Jelly Belly.
But seriously, the factory tour is well worth your time if you are in the area. It's free, and you can make your own mix of your favorite flavors in the Jelly Belly story afterwards. My recipe? Buttered Popcorn Chocolate Pudding Cotton Candy Green Apple Juicy Pear Peach Top Banana Very Cherry Watermelon But maybe you'll prefer Rotten Egg and Stinky Socks? ;) Angel's here this week trying to put some things in one space...  In the tsunami wake of the Pulse shooting, the queer community has been both drawn together and had holes torn in it. There's anger, terrible grief and fear, and sometimes being confronted with these things causes people to react in ways that are hurtful and harmful. "Love wins" and rainbow lights are great, but not if the horrible emotions that members of the queer community are feeling right now get minimized or trivialized, not if people say #nofear and #lovewins and do nothing.
What can we and our straight allies do in the wake of tragedy and horror? We can pull together, recognize each other, and do some or all of the following:
Welcome to another week of Stuff We Like. Today's edition is brought to you by the letter F (for Freddy -- and Frank) and the number 14 (just because). It's going to be short and sweet because I'd rather let the subject speak (or rather you listen) for itself. I have a weakness for singer-songwriters, probably a result of how I grew up. Though by that reasoning I should love classic country music (I really, really don't.) Anyway... The allure of singer-songwriters has always been there for me. Acoustic? Even better. Piano? Oh yeah, love you hard. Combo punch? I'm done for. One of my favs happens to be Frank Turner. He's been around about the past ten years as a solo act. He's been compared to Bob Dylan (as in the younger version of him) *shrugs* I can see why people would say it. I thoroughly enjoy Turner's lyrics and melodies. He has fun, he mourns, he thinks. I find it attractive. Below is a video from his latest album - Positive Songs for Negative People - called The Next Storm.
Thousands, and I do mean thousands, of tourists and locals flock down to Mindil every week to enjoy the food & craft stalls and just the all round atmosphere. Fireworks are always a part of the fun on the first and last market for the year.
 Blankets and camp chairs are brought down and set up on the lawns or beach. Hell, I've even seen people with camp tables, tablecloths, glasses and vases with flowers in them. Darwin's equivalent to roughing it I'm sure. LOL There are roughly 60 food stalls covering just about every cuisine possible. It wouldn't be the Territory without a Roadkill cafe, then on the other side there's a stall called the lucky cow, a vegetarian stall that does an amazing deep fried camembert. Fresh fruit and smoothies are also in abundance. There are 130 craft stalls, from soap and moisturizers, to clothes and local artists drawings.
 Not only are there stalls and food galore to keep you entertained there's also live music, kids playing instruments or singing busking for money and then performers and artists putting on shows. They officially open at 5pm and run through to 10pm at night but if you head down there earlier most stalls will start trading well before 5pm My daughter counts down the weeks every year until the first market, she can't wait to head down and get her banana and honey smoothie.  |
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