Vegemite Delight

I received a nice Christmas gift from my friend, Cathy, in Australia who visisted her family in December and January - a nice jar of Vegemite. Vegemite is a yeast extract product that was originally made from the residue left at the bottom of a cask of beer. It is a salty, brown spread that looks like Nutella, but with a radically different taste. I believe most people think they will be tasting the chocolatey hazelnut taste of Nutella when they first take a whiff of Vegemite and their olfactory senses don't jive with their visual images. Instead of something sweet, the taste is savory and salty. It is a great spread on morning toast. I like to make a sandwich of it with some alfalfa sprouts and a sharp cheddar cheese. Yum.

Anyways, I enjoyed Cathy's gift this morning. I had a little more time to enjoy breakfast because the 8-day retreat was ending, though the 30-day retreat continued.

I had anothe Down-Under treat when a priest from New Zealand at the end of his 8-day retreat at Gloucester left behind some taffy-like white mints made in New Zealand. It was another delight. I had it as an after tea delight. My tea was Vanilla Caramel. I'm glad these herbal teas are zero calories - basically hot flavored water.

It reminded me of the New Zealand Ice Cream called Hokey Pokey, which is vanilla peppered with crunchy bits of honeycomb. I also enjoyed Pavlova. The Kiwis and Ozzies fight over which nation actually made the meringue-like dessert first. Who cares? It is just good to eat.

You can see that retreat ministry makes a person hungry. For some reason we are voraciously eating at lunch and attempting some restraint at dinner. Active listening expends a great amount of energy and it needs to be replenished. I'm just regretful that because of the retreat and storms I have not been able to get to my 5 miles walks each day.

Gloucester did not get too much snow. We had about 5 inches while a mile inland the land received 14 inches. I enjoyed getting glimpses of the retreatants enjoying the snow. I'm sure it factored well into their retreats. It looked like they were having fun and having some interior laughter - a necessity for a good retreat.

I appreciate President Obama's words to the nation last night about the tragic shooting and killings in Arizona. I'm proud of his vision for our country.

It has almost been a year that I landed in Australia. In some ways, the place seems so alive to me today.