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2009年11月の記事
全30件 (30件中 1-30件目)
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Carpets
Originally carpets were hung on walls, and to my mind this is really the best place for them, if you have to have them at all. Following on from yesterday’s dust diary, I have to say that I am uncomfortable with carpets. They are so difficult to clean well, even if you have one of Mr Dyson’s wonderful vacuums. The dust always seems to linger. I don’t really like walking on them with bare feet either; it’s something to do with the materials they are made from. I don’t really like touching them with my hand either. It’s bad enough living in a house with them, but the worst thing of all is when you have to change them. Pulling them up and throwing them away is one of the most distasteful things imaginable. But I suppose carpets are good in a way, they are warm and soft underfoot. But, uggh, I don’t really like them at all. Cool tiles or wooden floors is the way to go for me.I have just sneezed six times in a row! It must be the association with dust. Amazing.Australia has produced almost two hundred and fifty tonnes of gold in the past year. It is now the second biggest producer of gold in the world, behind China. I would have thought that South Africa was the biggest producer, but there you go. There are a lot of ounces in two hundred and fifty tonnes, and with gold at $1150 plus per ounce, that is a lot of money! Lucky them.A hat which might be useful in the rainy season in Australia. Failing that, it’s good in the English summer.A great album, well one of my very favourites. Joan Armatrading: “The Shouting Stage” 1988.“Money is the root of all evil.”
2009年11月30日
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Dust collectors
It’s a problem. What do you do with all those little nick-knacks that seem to collect on shelves and at the back of cupboards? Given by folk who think, at the time, that they are doing something nice for you. Sadly they take up space and collect the aforementioned dust on shelves. My friend Nagi regards them as an intrusion into her life and actually considers the givers rather thoughtless. She keeps none of them for more than a few days. I am not so harsh as this, but I do wish that I could find an answer to this ever increasing problem. What do we do with that little bronze platypus sitting on a streamside rock? We’ve had it for years and it’s nice but ….Good presents can be eaten, drunk or used up in the bathroom. Homes in the United Kingdom are the smallest in Europe, coming in at 76 square metres. Australian homes, on the other hand, are the largest in the world, at 150 square metres they are almost double the size.This is an aluminium sandwich box. I am not quite sure how old it is, but a schoolchild or a factory worker fifty years ago might have used it. It might even be from the 1930’s. I find it quite nice that it has ‘sandwich box’ embossed on the lid.“Diamonds are a girl’s best friend.”
2009年11月29日
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More about salt
Currently the average person in the UK consumes 8.6 grams of salt per day. This is unhealthy, apparently. In its current thinking, the UK government recommends that we consume only 6 grams of salt per day. But this is soon to be reduced to 4 grams per day. This is good for me as I find almost everything too salty at the moment. Junko will like it too. Apparently, if we manage to reduce the levels to 6 grams per day there will be a saving in hospital bills of £4 billion per year, and the lives of 17,500 people will be saved. I wonder how much sugar we are supposed to have?By the way, I am too fat.Oh I do miss the bean tunnel. This is the garden without it, a month or so ago. I still haven’t got used to how empty the garden seems.“Live and let live.”
2009年11月28日
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Cans
I recently read this, and I quote: “The US has a push on to increase recycling, so its Environmental Protection Agency has estimated that the energy savings of recycling rather than dumping a single aluminium can. This simple act is energy-equivalent to using a laptop for five hours, a 60 watt incandescent light bulb for four hours or an equivalent compact fluorescent light bulb for twenty hours.” Quite amazing. I wonder if it is true. Of course the real answer is not to put the drink in the can in the first place. Difficult, I know, but think how we used to sell beer in the UK, it came in wooden barrels and was then hand pumped into the glass. No energy used there at all, and no waste. In fact true beer drinkers still go a long way to have their beer like this, Real Ale. Atsuko is a fan of this kind of beer. It’s quite interesting that many of the things of past times that we hanker for now are extremely environmentally friendly. What about paper bags? Whatever happened to them?Generally, though, the answer with packaging is to not use it in the first place.The hot water cylinder has been fixed. Quite a performance and everything seems to be going all right now. A stressful experience, though.Some autumn fruits, I wonder what they are!“It never rains but it pours.” Very true, and literally so in Britain at the moment. Global warming is striking with a vengeance. There has never been so much rain! But of course this little saying is not meant to be taken literally.
2009年11月27日
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The power of packaging
Loose sweet corn cobs with their leaves etc are about twenty five pence each. Cut corn cobs cut into quarters, wrapped in plastic and put on a Styrofoam try are one pound fifty pence! Why would you want to pay £1.25 for the right to throw some rubbish into the ground? It’s quite amazing. Yet people obviously buy them packed this way as you can be sure that the supermarket would not put them on its shelves unless it was sure to sell them.And more on supermarkets. We have been collecting milk bottle tops, the plastic sort. We have collected about a hundred and given them to mother. She’s collecting them for a friend who is giving them to a friend of hers who is saving to get a disability scooter for her son. She has to get an equal weight of them to the scooter and then her local Sainsbury’s (the third largest supermarket chain in the UK) will give her the scooter. Actually she has got enough now, so we don’t need to save them any more. In fact she’s got more than enough, enough to get two scooters! So she has given one away. Good on Sainsbury’s for doubling their offer, well, pretty good for them to give even one away, don’t you think?The UK is the third largest car market in the EU with 2.1mn new cars registered in 2008.Junko has just got these toys for Wataru’s boy. I wonder if he will like them?“It’s an ill wind that blows nobody any good.”
2009年11月26日
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Biodegradable plastic bags
It’s time to put the Christmas tree and its lights up. We keep the tree and all the decorations etc up in the loft, and they aren’t touched from one year to the next. I got the lights out of their box. We have got three or four sets, I am not quite sure why, but anyway I always put each separate set into its own plastic bag as the flexes get terribly tangled if you don’t. This year it looked as if a mouse had been at them, there were shreds of plastic bag everywhere, what a mess. But no mouse droppings (they are small, black and torpedo shaped). Why all the mess? It finally dawned on me that I had packed the lights up in biodegradable plastic bags from the supermarket last January when I put them away. That’s a stinger, isn’t it? How do we know which bags are which and which ones we can keep?Do they still make the Boeing 747, the Jumbo jet? I read today that they have made 1416 of these huge aeroplanes.We collected some damsons from a tree in my sister’s garden some time ago, in the autumn, and Junko boiled and stoned them. We now have them with yoghurt and muesli for lunch. Very nice. Even with sugar added they have a sharp taste.“It’s no use crying over spilt milk.”
2009年11月25日
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Sharp selling practices
We have all been subject to the trickery of retail outlets at some time in our lives. How often do we not get what we thought we should have? Anyway, these ‘sharp selling practices’ are being investigated by some government body in the UK. So we can be sure that they will be continuing for some considerable time! Drip pricing - where cumulative charges and supplements are added throughout the buying process Baiting sales - where a company advertises discounts to attract visitors whilst having few items actually on sale Reference prices - artificially inflating the pre-sale price of an item in order to make the discount look more attractive. Remember I told you about my inability to open a cardboard milk carton? Well, I have risen to the challenge and finally cracked how it should be done. There is a knack, and now I know it. You have to pull the spout forward at the same time as you squeeze the sides. Easy. Having mastered this technique, what I would really like to learn how to do is to is to cut vegetables amazingly quickly and silently like the professional chefs do. “Practice makes perfect.”
2009年11月24日
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The wonders of technology
I was walking into town the other day, in rare sunshine, when I passed a young mother and her child out on a shopping trip. As I walked towards them I had been amazed to see the mother deep in conversation on her phone while her child was happily being entertained in its stroller, dummy in mouth and earbuds in ears doubtless listening to the latest number one in the tiny tots downloadable top ten. Amazing. I sometimes wonder why we bother to be people.The country to the north and west of Stratford has had an immense amount of rain during the last week or so. Here we have had various lashings which might have been considered severe in other times, but compared with what others have endured we have got off lightly.Stop your doors banging on a windy day with the ‘wind wedge’. “Hope springs eternal.”
2009年11月23日
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On the dot (Andy and the nine o’clock rubbish man)
Here we have a small story about a friend of mine and a bag of rubbish. Tuesday was rubbish day, but this friend forgot to put his small bag of rubbish out on Monday evening. When he got up on Tuesday morning he took the bag of rubbish to the rubbish collection area in his street. The rubbish cart was already there, so he asked the refuse engineer jokingly whether he should throw his bag into the cart or put it on the floor next to all the others. Much to his surprise the gentleman operating the cart refused to accept the his small bag. He said it was useless and completely not allowed because the collection time was nine o’clock and it was now five past. My friend would have to take the rubbish back home and keep it until next week. Andy was completely astounded at this, but thinking quickly he walked up to the next collection point on his way to work and dropped the rubbish there. This is not the end of the story, however. The rubbish engineer must have been watching my friend as he noticed on the way home that all the rubbish from the next collection point had been removed, but HIS bag was STILL THERE, all the other rubbish had been removed. Incredible. Talk about inflexibility and stupidity: that really takes the biscuit.This teapot, which cost me twenty pence, is one of the most useful and nice things that we have got in the kitchen. It’s a nice design, a good size, has got a filter, makes nice tea and pours well. And all for a good price. What more could you ask for twenty pence?And talking of pouring tea. How many times have you used a teapot which drips from the spout after you pour your cuppa? The other day I learned how to stop this dripping. Apparently you just rub a bit of butter (I suppose any fat or oil would do) under the front end of the spout, and Hey Presto when you pour your next cup the drip is gone! I have seen this demonstrated but haven’t actually tried it myself. I wonder if it works for milk jugs? “When the going gets tough, the tough get going.”
2009年11月22日
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Salt questions
These little jiggers are shelf supports. I found them in a skip while out walking with Bill two or three years ago. I knew that one day I would have a use for them, and today I found that use. We’ve got an old bookcase, nothing much to speak of, which has been down in the cellar for quite some time. The other day I brought it upstairs and put it in the office. I had forgotten that it was minus one shelf, but that was soon remedied with a piece of wood from the shed, a saw, a bit of wood stain and four of these little ones. Not a classy job, but functional.I am unclear as to the difference between salt and sodium. Salt is bad for us, but sodium is even worse. The recommended daily intake of salt for an adult in the UK is 6 grams. I believe that most people exceed this limit. I don’t think that Junko and I eat more than the recommended dose however, as Junko uses almost no salt in her cooking. Another thing that makes me think that we use less salt than most people (aside from the salt pot remaining on the shelf) is that whenever we go out, or eat ready cooked meals, we both find them extremely salty, in some cases, almost too salty to eat. But as for what salt is, I am not certain. I know that sea salt has no sodium in it, and so is better for us. And I also know that in ordinary table salt, sodium is added to prevent the salt from just forming into one large block. But when you look at the list of ingredients on a packet of, for example, cereal or biscuits, there doesn’t seem to be a clear difference between what the salt level is and what sodium level is. Some things don’t appear to have any salt in them, only sodium. It’s all very confusing.From time to time Junko and I go to a Chinese restaurant in Birmingham. We always take a bottle of water with us to drink afterwards because in the hour or two after our meal we become incredibly thirsty. Is it just salt that causes this, or is it something else?“Do unto others as you would be done to yourself.”
2009年11月21日
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Non-slip socks
In soccer, goalkeepers wear large woolly gloves with a pattern of rubber knobbles on the inner side, to help them hold a slippery ball when they catch it. In winter Junko wears thick woolly socks with a pattern of rubber knobbles on the bottom. Why? To stop her slipping on the ice? I have no idea why.I found Junko playing with this tractor the other day. She was adjusting the position of the driver. Where did this ‘lego’ tractor come from?Now, disposable razors, are they a good idea? What a lot of waste there is with them. I remember my grandfather used to use a ‘cut throat’ razor. On his wooden dressing table in his bedroom there was a hook, to which was attached a leather belt, called a ‘strop’. Every morning he would sharpen his razor on this strop, occasionally adding some ‘stropping paste’ (which was red) to the belt so that the razor sharpened better. Then, with his razor sharpened, he would mix up some soap suds in his special shaving mug and spread them on his face with a short bristly shaving brush. Then he’d get the old cut throat out and scrape away until his face with shiny smooth. The whole process used to frighten me, but thinking back at it now it was extremely environmentally friendly. He didn’t even need to go into the bathroom. He used just one bowl of hot water. No waste water, no need for a bathroom per person, no packaging and no waste at all, just a bit of soapy water. Now the mug he used, and the razor are collectors’ items. How the world has changed.“All my eye and Betty Martin.”
2009年11月20日
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A shoe story
I remember many years ago, when I bought my first pair of shoes. Until this time my parents had always bought them for me, for school. But on this occasion I was given the money to get some shoes for myself. For some reason I bought a suede pair, I suppose they were all the rage then (funny how times change, isn’t it?). I brought them home and wore them inside proudly for a few days. And then disaster struck. I was so pleased with these shoes that I wore them all the time and had gone into the garage to do something in father’s small workshop there (I was always repairing and fiddling with things). Somehow a drop of oil got onto one of the shoes. I was absolutely distraught as it spread amazing quickly and formed a big black stain on the toe of the shoe. In tears and now in the kitchen I tried dabbing the stain with a towel, putting powder on it and all manner of other treatments, but nothing would lessen its impact. I was unbelievably upset. I hid those shoes in the back of my wardrobe for ages, dodging questions from my parents about why I wasn’t wearing them any more. In truth I think my parents knew what had happened, but let me work out the problem myself. I am wearing a new pair of shoes now, I’ve grown up a bit since. But I’m still not going to go outside in them for a few days!A bottle of ale. Real ale? I am not sure. I shall have to ask Atsuko, she is the expert in these matters, being a member of CAMRA.“Two wrongs don’t make a right.”
2009年11月19日
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Crumbs!
How do they make Japanese breadcrumbs? They are quite amazing. Not at all like English breadcrumbs. Japanese ones are so light and delicate. Fantastic.Atsuko told me something strange about Friesian cows the other day. You know Friesians; they are the black and white ones, the most common kind in the UK. Anyway, the black and white pattern is random, isn’t it? Well, not quite so random as you might think. Apparently you will never see a Friesian cow with a white base to its tail. This part of the beast is always black. Odd?The first recorded landfill site for rubbish disposal was dug at the Minoan palace of Knossos in Crete in 3000BC. Since then, burial has been the primary method of waste disposal. Five thousand years later we haven’t moved on at all. No progress in this area. It’s pathetic.Aspi tells me that there are a lot of stoushes and rorts in Australia. What are they, animals?Today is “World Toilet Day”. 2.6 billion people don’t have regular access to a toilet. After hearing of Bill’s toilet traumas I should think he is one person who wishes he didn’t have access to a toilet! But it is a serious problem.Here are the broccoli plants. They should produce a decent crop in March. Let’s hope so anyway.“One man’s trash is another man’s treasure.”
2009年11月18日
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Henry VIII
I like this milk jug, it always reminds me of King Henry VIII. Large bellied, with a bit of gold just round the rim (which you probably can’t see). I wonder when the jug was made? Henry VIII lived in the mid 16th century; he was the one who had six wives. Apart from getting married rather frequently, he also ate a lot.And here is a portrait of Henry VIII himself. Can you see the similarities?And talking of big eaters, James came the other day, for a night. In the evening he consumed four sachets of cup soup, a pair of sandwiches, a banana, a full sized bowl of salad, a full sized bowl of fruit salad, a cup of pot noodles and a can of Red Bull. No wonder he didn’t have much appetite at breakfast time!“It’s no use crying over spilt milk.”
2009年11月17日
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Vacuum cleaner bags
You know how it is. Your mother asks you to change the bag on her vacuum cleaner. A simple two second job. haha. The first effort is generally thwarted by the wrong type of bag having been bought. Once that issue is sorted out, we then usually find that, on opening the bag compartment, that the old bag has burst and a horrid collection of hair, dust and chewed up rubber bands pours onto the floor. Having tidied that lot up the next obstacle in removing the old burst bag. More rubbish on the floor.Stage three generally begins with unblocking the airways with a collection of implements ranging from chopsticks to forks and then finally to a straightened wire coat hanger. This stage is completed by the removal of the base plate and the untangling of wool, string and cotton from the roller, and unblocking the lower airways.Stage four begins with the repair of the new bag, which is usually so poorly made that the cardboard retainer clips breaks instead of bends when inserted into the bag compartment. With the bag successfully repaired, stage five starts with the switching on of the machine, closely followed by clouds of dust filling the room. Once the dust has satisfactorily settled, stage six, the cleaning up of all the mess can begin. So there we have it, a simple two second job. Amazing.A while ago we had lunch on Atsuko and Andy’s narrowboat. Here is the scene from the dinner table.“What’s done is done.”
2009年11月16日
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Free Range Eggs
It’s a common belief amongst the average person, that a hen which is scratching around and existing very nicely in a field or garden gets all the nourishment it requires to produce eggs from the grubs, grass etc that it picks up from the ground. I used to believe this. But it is in fact very far from the case. These hens run around happily all day, picking up little bits and pieces of food here and there and generally enjoying themselves, which probably does make their eggs better (happy hens means more and nicer eggs, don’t they say), but the truth of the matter is that come evening time they all rush back to the coop for a dinner of specially produced hen food, crammed with all the nutrients required to enable them to lay an egg a day for the eight months or so of their adult life! Ah well, they are just like us. Home for dinner.This very old iron plate is in the street just round the corner from our house, ‘Chestnut Walk’. I have no idea how old it is, but I believe that at the bottom of the V the height above sea level is 34 feet. Interesting. I hope it doesn’t get stolen soon; it is just bolted to the wall, and could be easily removed and sold on eBay.I mentioned, didn’t I, that all the badges have been stolen from our car? It’s only an old Ford Fiesta, why would anyone want those? Perhaps because the modern badges are just painted on. What is the world coming to?Weather still windy and rainy.“Houston we have a problem.”
2009年11月15日
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Rubbish bin dilemma
How can we solve the problem of vandalised public rubbish bins? How can we make bins look nice? If they are plastic, then they are set alight and end up just blobs of goo on the ground. If they are steel and painted they are again set alight which burns the paint off and they go horribly rusty immediately. If they are stainless steel they are again set alight and the steel goes brown from the heat. Steel and plastic bins look attractive, but they are just so vulnerable. What other less attractive but perhaps less vulnerable options are there? Well, there is the wire bin. But it is easy for the contents to be strewn everywhere from this bin and the plastic bags littler the pavement. On top of this, this particular kind of bin looks horribly ugly. If we choose concrete bins, we find that they are too heavy to install and generally look horribly ugly, as well as needing a deal of maintenance. But at least this last kind is pretty much vandal proof. But it is a real dilemma. Whatever we do seems unsatisfactory.Here is what is left of a plastic rubbish bin in the park opposite our house.“Every cloud has a silver lining.”
2009年11月14日
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Carpet protectors
You know when you have a nice deep carpet and then put an armchair on it, it makes rather nasty depressions in the carpet, and can even damage the woven backing. Well, these furniture rests are designed to stop that happening. I bought them the other day, at the same time as I bought the hacksaw. Actually, they are made of Bakelite and so must be forty or fifty years old, at least. They will do the job just the same as new ones, though. They have ‘Made in England’ proudly stamped on them. You don’t see that often these days!Whenever I get lost in the car I always seem to end up driving past ‘Blamey Street’. It must be because I always make the same mistakes!It has been very wet and wild the past couple of days. Luckily I put stakes into the ground next to the purple sprouting broccoli, and tied the plants up. This, hopefully, has saved them from the worst of the pounding that everything else has taken. If we had had these storms when the runner beans were up their sticks they would have had no chance, but, sadly, the beans are long since gone. It’s only been a month since it was summer and yet it seems forever.“Look after your pennies and the pounds will look after themselves.”
2009年11月13日
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Hacksaw
Do you remember that I lost my nice hacksaw some time ago? Well, if you don’t remember, then I did. I reckon that I have been without it for more than a year. I have looked for it everywhere over the past twelve months; it has been quite a search. I have come to the conclusion that it must have got thrown away accidentally. It had a partly yellow frame, and was a good strong one, so as well as being a good saw it was easy to see. I bought a replacement for fifty pence, which was all right, but it twisted a bit when in use, so it is no good really. A cheap tool, and not only in price. Anyway, today I bought another replacement. It doesn’t look much because it’s rather scruffy and needs a good clean, but it is a very strong saw, which will serve me well I am sure. Like the original replacement It cost fifty pence. Look at it closely and you will see that it is adjustable. It can take blades of different lengths, which might be useful, but on the other hand, I don’t believe that I have ever seen hacksaw blades of any other length than this standard one. A quality tool. How old would it be? Thirty or forty years, at least, I should think. They don’t make them like it any more.And I wasn’t sad to part with my fifty pence because within ten minutes, as I was walking through Tesco car park, I found a pound coin lying on the ground. So that was good.Shocking weather. High winds and rain. But, as Junko says, at least it isn’t cold.“In for a penny, in for a pound.”
2009年11月12日
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Nut ranking
almondscashewsbrazilspistachioswalnutspecanshazelnutspeanuts (are these nuts?)What is risky in our lives? Why do we still do some things that we know are dreadfully dangerous for our health? As I have ranked nuts in order of my preference, here is a list of dangerous activities. I wonder which is more dangerous? I have ranked them in the order that I might think that they are.drinking miso soupdrinking alcoholsmokingeating meatdrivingwalking home from schoolflyingbeing exposed to swine fluSomebody is getting ready for winter. This is a good store of logs for the fire.A good album (at least the second half of it), from 1970: Led Zeppelin III.“What’s sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander.”
2009年11月11日
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Anyone for tea?
How did we get all these tea strainers? And this is just some; we have got as many again. We never use them, though. Not any more. It’s a pity.It is difficult to know really which is the best Beatles album, there are just so many good ones. How is it that they were just SO good, and still are. They will never be topped. The second half of “Abbey Road” (1969) is stunning. The incidence of shoplifting has increased during the recession. Britain is third in the world in the volume of goods stolen, behind the USA and, very surprisingly, Japan. Mangoes, now they are a good fruit. Only problem with them is that they are so juicy that to enjoy one fully you have to eat it in the bath. Mrs Doi would enjoy this. She puts all kinds of fruit and vegetables in the bath when she has her daily dip. Carrots are her favourite. And lemons, those huge ones which are all rind and pith. It’s quite amazing to see her with a shopping basket and a towel, ready for her bath!My word, aren’t there some ugly cars about these days? Especially 4X4’s. As each year passes their looks seem to get more brutish and aggressive, don’t you think so?“People who play with fire likely get burned.”
2009年11月10日
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Very strange
The other day I went to put on my ‘gardening boots’. They have got steel toecaps and are rather heavy so I don’t wear them often. I don’t suppose I have worn them since last winter. Anyway, I dusted them off and was about to put my right foot into the right boot when I noticed there was something inside. This.How ever did that get there? I have never seen it before. It’s a spring balance for weighing things. I wonder what it would have weighed? Baby pigs? Small sacks of corn? Bags of flour? It would be rather a nice thing if it were cleaned up, wouldn’t it? I wonder if the faceplate is brass, or just brass plated?It’s very dark in the evenings these days. Not cold, just dark and miserable.“The proof of the pudding is in the eating.”
2009年11月09日
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Grey utility boxes
You know the kind of thing I mean, they are at street corners and are usually full of telephone wires or traffic light controls. Wouldn’t it be nice if they were some other colour than that horribly depressing battleship grey. I wonder why this colour was chosen in the first place? To try and disguise them? If so it doesn’t work. They are just ugly boxes in prime positions, with flaking paint and peeling posters. We should do something about them.Junko and I used to play golf. I have just remembered an incident that took place after we had finished a round. I have no memory of where this event happened, but there was water on the course, in the form of lakes. Anyway, Junko and I were sitting having a drink in the shade, overlooking the last green. A group came up the eighteenth fairway and finished the hole, one gentleman taking quite a number of putts. As this particular gentleman walked off the green and towards the clubhouse, he hurled his putter into a nearby lake. Not content with the loss of his putter, he calmly wheeled his trolley up to the edge of the lake and took his clubs out of their bag, one by one. He the raised his right knee and snapped each club in half! He then threw them one by one (or half by half) into the lake. The bag and the trolley soon followed! He then calmly walked into the bar where we were and ordered a beer as if nothing had happened, obviously completely oblivious of the many eyes that had been on him in his moment of madness!And here we have a rather nicely shaped milk jug. Made in Spain, that will please Ricardo and MariCruz. You don’t see many things which have ‘Made in Spain’ stamped on the bottom, do you?“There is more than one way to skin a cat.”
2009年11月08日
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Which is better
I get very frustrated when people compare things, usually on price. And why am I frustrated? Because folk always seem to compare different things to each other. One common comparison that is made is mass produced food being compared to what you make at home with top quality ingredients. Of course the better one is more expensive. And it’s the same with anything which is hand made. Tools are another area where comparisons are incorrectly made. Who can consider that an electric drill made in a country famous for producing cheap goods is remotely the same things as an electric drill made in Germany? And yet they constantly do. The German drill will cost twice as much as the Cheap one, but is capable of doing the job properly for years. The cheap one will not do the job well, and will probably last only a matter of weeks or months. You cannot compare the two, even though they are ostensibly the same thing.However, you can compare these two shears. One pair is just a few years old, nicely designed and made of low-maintenance green (and therefore (so we are led to believe, garden-like and environmentally friendly!) plastic. The other pair is possibly close to fifty years old, in need of a bit of a clean and polish and with nicely turned wooden handles. One does the job properly and one, for all its nice design, scarcely cuts a thing. Thinking that a pair of shears which is new and well designed is sure to be good, all of us would instinctively be attracted to the green pair, but how wrong we would be. The old pair is ten times better. Well, a million times better because it does the job it’s supposed to whereas the green pair doesn’t. Strange, isn’t it? How often have we discarded an old thing when we have bought a replacement, only to find that what we put into a large hole in the ground was infinitely better than its replacement! (this is why I secretly kept our old kettle when we got the new ‘Judge’, but I think in this particular case I needn’t have worried because the new kettle, priced at over forty pounds, is actually a top of the range model)Do you remember the nice toaster we bought two or three years ago? Looked good. Toasted bad. Broke after a year. Now we are back to using the old one!“Shift the future.”
2009年11月07日
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Manscaping
I recently came across the practice of ‘manscaping’. Not landscaping, manscaping. The two processes have a similarity, hence the coined name. Landscaping is taking an area of (perhaps) unattractive land and changing it, by way of mans’ hand, into something which is currently aesthetically pleasing. Well, manscaping is a similar process applied to a man’s body in an attempt to make it attractive, presumably to one’s special friend. And this is how it goes. Firstly, all body hair is removed, including in those delicate areas. The body is then toned with some kind of micro toning machines. Next an all over conditioning colour is applied. And finally areas of darker tone are applied to those more sensitive regions and to where shadows would appear if the man in question were rather more muscular. And there you have it, a sight for sore eyes? I should think it would make you wince, being waxed EVERYWHERE! Personally I think I’d rather have an all over body tattoo!I have got another box. This one is in a colour which I have never seen before! Very nice. “Every dog has his day.”
2009年11月06日
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Bonfire night
Well, it’s bonfire night tonight, but we aren’t going to have either a bonfire or fireworks. Not many people have bonfires these days, and fireworks, as well as being banned in some places, are very expensive. Public displays are fine, but the days when people have a bonfire and a few fireworks in their back gardens like we used to when I was young, have long gone. Sad, but probably for the best as there is no doubt that fireworks are very dangerous. And I don’t suppose that people have as much ‘money to burn’ what with the recession and all.I had a call from Chip today. That’s quite amazing. I call him once or twice a month just to have a bit of a chat, but he never calls me back. And then, suddenly, after years of inactivity, he has called me. I was out, of course! So Junko took the call and I had to ring back anyway, but it was a nice thought. Thanks Chip.England are playing Australia at Rugby Union this afternoon. I am looking forward to watching that on TV. England will lose I expect, they usually do. But let's hope for a good and exciting game, with no injuries. Injuries in sport are a big problem these days, everybody is just so much on the limit. It only takes one tiny little thing and the whole thing goes pearshaped. Unable to play for months.I bought this Old Hall toastrack the other day. Nice, isn’t it? The slots are a bit wobbly, though.“Two’s company, three’s a crowd.”
2009年11月05日
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Coffee mix up
You can see from the photo that we keep our coffee and leaf tea in two very similar containers, identical, in fact. And why not? Now, with these dark mornings, and with struggling not to have too many lights turned on a the same time in the kitchen and the breakfast room, I neglected to turn the main kitchen light on immediately I got up. The first job is to fill the coffee percolator with ground coffee and set it going. Then there’s the dishwasher to empty, the milk to warm up, the hummous to put in its bowl, the table to lay and the bread to slice and toast. All of this ready for Junko when she gets up. Well, yesterday was just a normal day, except that, as I am sure you have now guessed, I had filled the coffee percolator up with leaf tea rather than ground coffee. It was something of a shock when we took our first taste of the morning, and not all that pleasant as the tea had been really stewed. Oh well, these things happen!Apparently, if you are rather grumpy you are better at making considered decisions. Those irritatingly ever-cheerful folk who apparently sail through life without a care, do in fact merely adopt this carefree attitude in order to hide their ability to really deal with the things which matter. Heads in the sand like proverbial ostriches, the cheerful ones eventually get their come uppances, while the grumpy ones keep their heads above water at all times. I am a grumpy one. And I feel much better for learning that grumpiness isn’t all bad!“Idle hands make Lucifer’s work.”
2009年11月04日
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Does Adam still love Amber?
Almost every day I walk past a kind of permanent piece of graffiti. Scratched into a pavement near our house, when the cement was wet, for all time, is the simple statement: “Adam loves Amber 1998”. I often wonder if Amber ever knew of Adam’s love for her. Or did they ever love each other? Perhaps they still do. Do they ever walk past the same piece of pavement? Or maybe they still go to the same piece of pavement to remind themselves of when their love was still fresh more than ten years ago.The weather has turned a bit colder. Pam is on Skype now, she’s got a phone rather than a computer. She and Bill are going to South Africa shortly, to watch the cricket, so I expect that is what has prompted her to get connected.Well, here is my workbench all neat and tidy. Better, isn’t it? But it doesn’t make for such an interesting photo or discussion topic, does it? Except that you can now see my neat little storage system for nuts and bolts etc.“In the land of the blind, even the one-eyed man is king.”
2009年11月03日
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Something you haven’t got
Have you noticed when you are in a restaurant or similar, that some people will always ask for something that isn’t on the table or that they know the restaurant doesn’t serve? It’s a power thing, I am sure. Children do it at mealtimes, too. I once had a boss who would find fault with everything. I eventually used to put deliberate mistakes in my work to let him find as it made him feel good. It’s all a bit pathetic really. How we love to to love the beautiful, even though there is not a chance in a million of us ever approaching the beauty of the celebrity as portrayed on the covers of glossy magazines. And why do we have no chance of matching their perfection? It’s simply because none of the models or celebrities we see on the front of these magazines in reality look nothing like what we see them as. It seems that the photos have mostly been touched up with an airbrush. I don’t believe this should be allowed. And it’s not only wrinkles that are removed; these already horribly skinny beings are made to look even thinner by clever artists slimming down thighs, stomachs and buttocks. Crowsfeet and wrinkles just disappear in a puff of paint. Smiles are broadened and sparkles added to eyes. Teeth are whitened and eyes coloured. Ban airbrushes, I say.I need to tidy up my workbench in the cellar, don’t you agree?Why do people wear thongs, aren’t they horribly uncomfortable?“Honesty is the best policy.”
2009年11月02日
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Squeaky clean
I love the way the dishes sound when you take them out of the dishwasher. When they are still warm, and even when cold but especially when they are warm, they squeak. It must mean they are really clean! Or is it just an illusion created by the soap and advertising companies?Junko’s hanging begonia tubers have been nastily attacked by vine weevil grubs. They should look like smooth potatoes, but these ones look like sponges! I wonder if they will be all right next year? I doubt it somehow!Junko has been sweeping the wisteria leaves and other bits and pieces from the patio. Good job Junko. Wisteria are lovely things, but very high maintenance. In spring you have to sweep up all the fallen flowers, and there are usually a lot of them. But first you have had to clear away the little cases which contain the flowers. After the flowers fall, a few weeks later the stems on which they were also drop off. Another fine mess. Then throughout the summer you have to keep on cutting the new growth back. If this isn’t done the whole garden will get full of wisteria, I have never known such a vigorously growing plant. And then in the autum all the leaves fall off. More green rubbish. And then there are plenty of dead twigs which fall all year long. But for all the mess and trouble, it is worth it. I love this tree.My shoulder is still very stiff. But at least my sore throat is better. “When America sneezes, the world catches a cold.” Oh dear.
2009年11月01日
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