Soap 'n' a Ringo

Tracy, a sometime visitor (not to be confused with Tracey) and commentator on m'blog mentioned in a comment how she would appreciate my invaluable insights into soap.

It's Strangly Quiet

And I am calm.

Zen and the Art of Garden Maintenance

Become one with the Universe

Life, The Universe and Sausage Rolls

Richard [of RBB] has been delving into the depths of philosophy and religion, using Buddhism as an example.  I applaud his mental stamina, because after about an hour of talking on such subjects with friends, my brain tends to freeze up.  Too many questions, not enough factual answers.

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