Tuesday Tip

How the weeks do fly. It seems like about four months ago that Rowland drove friends to the airport for their Christmas holiday!!
I had such a good Sunday. We invited the grandchildren over to help decorate the Christmas tree. When Sara-Jane, Danielle and I went to see Harry Potter, (awesome movie) Danielle mentioned that it was a long time since we'd made "do-it-yourself pizzas" so I decided that would be lunch on Sunday for the tree dressing. The parents came too - most welcome, so we were 14 and Timothy did a really good job at the pizza oven as head chef. What fun.
It did however set me to thinking how fortunate we all are to be able to celebrate such things. What do you do if you're a dustbin person or a shack dweller? No job, but still, it would be nice to show some festive spirit.
This year, instead of putting out the old decorations after Christmas, along with the dead tree, how about sorting through what you have and leaving the rest out on bin collection day, before Christmas, perhaps someone will find cheer when they take them home? You might even be inclined to put a small gift or some fruit or biscuits along with your "stuff". What about the old tablecloth, you've been meaning to get rid of it anyway? Ooh and how about a few stuffed toys or books for the kids?
Let's just do it.

Tuesday Tip

Choose to be healthy. It's not as difficult as it may sound - to some.
I don't mean let's have a group hug and say "I'll never get cancer" that would be silly, some things just happen. What I mean is don't be one of those worry-warts who assume that every sneeze is "The Flu" or assume that because it's winter they will certainly get some awful cold weather ailment.
I meet a lot of people on a daily basis. The ones who are always full of cheer, no matter what, and have a healthy attitude to life. They are seldom ill and when they are they recover quickly.
Then we have the doleful Dans. "How are you?" and the answers vary from
"It's no use complaining, nobody listens" to the vocal equivalent of the sticker "When days are dark and friends are few". Sob.
They are the ones who are always ill, aches and pains like you wouldn't believe and they make sure the world hears about it. They've read up on all their symptoms on Wiki whatsit and cherish the notion of their illness.
Why?
So please, choose to be healthy and when perhaps you do fall victim to some dread disease, you'll be far better able to handle it than the downers and you'll surely recover quicker.
And on a brighter note, last evening I took the frozen cream out, it was easy to take out of the silicone tray, I popped all the strips into the pasta dish (actually I did taste one and it was like a yummy frozen sucker) and as soon as it was soft enough tossed it around and popped my dish into the oven. I have to say, if you'll pardon the pun, it was so cool. I'll be freezing cream whenever I have any left over.

Tuesday Tip - follow-up

Captains Log 2311/B. Sorry, I don't speak Kirk or Picaard (?) but it's Bruce's birthday and he does and probably Klingon as well. Happy Birthday bro-in-law.
However, further to the cream substitute, Timothy's clever twin sister (she never comments on my blog, she emails me) suggested using rubber ice trays, I think it's actually silicone but good idea.
Last evening I poured the left over cream into an ice tray. Quite a nifty one, my sister gave it to me, it's 8 tube shapes which I thought rather weird until I realized that the ice produced fits through the hole in a cola can to chill your fizzy drink. Cle...ver.
So, I shall report back after a week or so of freezing. Gosh, I do love an experiment.

Tata

Tuesday Tip

Yesterday I was cooking pasta for supper, with tiny button mushrooms and chunks of onion, capsicum and a tiny amount of fennel. I tossed all the ingredients together and thought some cream would just finish the dish.
Hmm, no cream. Well, I do like to be inventive so I took out some vanilla ice cream and tossed in a couple of dessert spoons of the stuff. Good ice cream you understand, none of that lardy nonsense.
It works! just stir it in gently and you have a fair substitute for the real thing.
I'm going to experiment with freezing (real) cream in ice trays, it may be problem getting it out but, we'll see. It's always good to have emergency supplies.

Evolution or Adapt or Die

When we moved in to Edgemead in '72 we were surrounded by nature. Tiny buck, tortoises, birds, crickets, all sorts. The ones I enjoyed most were the plovers, they are such brave birds. We had moved into their turf and they were valiantly trying to keep their homeland together. I believe the male bird stands some way away from the actual nest (on the ground) as a decoy for marauders. Many a time I saw one lonely bird standing his ground against the might of a bulldozer, not caring how insignificant he may be, just protecting his family.
Isn't that the way it should be?
Now, almost 40 years later we miraculously still have some wildlife left in Edgemead (no, not the neighbours) they learned to adapt. We have so many birds visiting our garden despite the threat from the giant crows and the gentle hadedahs (?) When I drive to work, through suburbs that once were green and now are walled homes, I marvel at the resilience of the Guinea Fowl. These gorgeous birds seemingly take the same route as always, despite having to cross roads and traverse wire fences.I believe they're God's feelgood creatures because when I look at them I have to smile.
They're not the only ones to evolve since 1972. How life has changed for us humans.
Our kids played outside all day, at first there was no TV so nothing to distract us from books and games. Slowly the electronic media moved in, first TV, then the video machine, the computer, the cellphone and so it goes. Now, we have kids filming what they shouldn't even know about with their 'phones. We've watched wars and natural disasters from the comfort of our homes and we can even visit terrorist headquarters courtesy of the evening news.
What a strange world!
Children are maturing physically at a younger age yet paradoxically they are choosing to wait 20 or so years to start a family, or not.
Yet, some seem to be going back to the old ways. We have a work associate who doesn't own a cellphone or a computer, no, he's not a hundred and ten, he just prefers to use his typewriter and sometimes a landline. More and more people are turning to organic foods and lifestyles and spirituality seems to be gaining a strong hold. Surely the fairies at the bottom of the garden are happy!
Will future generations (yes, there will be future generations) look back on this strange era, shake their heads and say
"Old folk! can't live with them, can't leave them at the side of the road".
I hope so.

What's in a name?

It seems we're to have a new cellphone service provider in SA. Well, good luck to them.
Why have they chosen a name that sounds like "Hater"? Surely we want something more positive in this world?

P.S.

Well, mighty is the internet. News just in, the miner finished the race, no details but
Yaay for him!!