I mentioned before that I cleaned up our decks with bleach and scrubbing, and it worked quite well, although some areas will probably need re-treatment. However to spray such a large expanse uses about 20 litres of bleach, so I used a backpack sprayer. I must have twisted my back when I had the backpack on, because I can barely move now. If I remain in one posture for longer than 5 minutes, my back locks up. Typical, the one time I have a real excuse to get of work and I'm on holiday. The Universe is not fair sometimes.
The steamboat lunch went really well, large amounts of food and wine was consumed, and everyone had a good time. My beloved had spent a lot of time and effort in making the raw food portions to go into the boiling stock of the steamboat, pork and water chestnut stuffed mushrooms, stuffed capsicums and zucchini, fish balls, chicken strips, prawns and Bok Choy. She also made a variety of dipping sauces, chili, hot chili, garlic and ginger and the usual soy sauce. It was delicious, and everyone seemed to really enjoy it, but as I was helping our friends out to their cars, I heard one elderly lady say to her friend, "That was really nice, but I think I would have preferred sausage rolls" It wasn't said out of malice, and the lady concerned is a really nice person, but she's used to mostly European NZ food. Take people out of their comfort zone and mostly they want to get back inside it.
Ah well, we can but try.
Same sort of thing in teaching. We push the kids to try something new, sometimes it works, sometimes it doesn't.
Something Old and Something New |
We all want to see something new |
TSB (not the arena, the Scotsman) part of me sympathises with the old lady; it's the way we were brought up in NZ - us slightly older ones. If you went into town looking for a feed, in the 1960s, most places carried pies, bacon and eggs, fish and chps and ham sandwiches. My wife is very very adventurous with food and I try to follow suit. Sometimes, however, (when writing reports, only use 'however' at the start of a sentence) I slip back into my pre-Shelley ways. For me (don't tell Shelley) a suasage roll can still be hard to beat.
ReplyDeleteOn the other hand, you're very lucky to have such a talented wife. Chinese food is very nice.