Archives for November 2006

As we go through a bit of a cold snap here – it’s supposed to be warmer this time of year – I thought I’d post a photo I took when we went camping around New Year’s Eve last year.

It was stinking hot and this was the best time of night when the sun went down because the day heat disappeared along with the flies. I can’t believe how many flies there were. We needed an extra hand just to shoo flies away from our faces and food.

Despite the flies it was a great camping spot. We hardly saw anybody, the beach was beautiful and it was perfect for the younger kids because the water stayed shallow for a long way out from shore so it was safe for them to run around in.

Sleeping right by the sea was also very peaceful with the sound of the waves coming to shore. I can hear them now…..

The other night I cooked myself a chickpea curry with some veges. I chucked a few spices, a can of tomatoes, the chickpeas and some veges and let it simmer. I cooked up the rice and thought I’d enjoy it with some plain yoghurt and some mango chutney.

Try as hard as I could, I just could not open the lid to the new jar of mango chutney. The veins in my head nearly popped with the exertion. It was really frustrating. I ran the jar under hot water which usually loosens it a bit and still it would not budge.

I had to stop trying so started eating my dinner but not liking defeat I still had a couple of tries opening it and still it would not budge.

Last night when I was washing the dishes I had my rubber gloves on which have a grip on the fingers so wet dishes don’t slip out. I was wiping cupboards and there was the annoying jar of mango chutney. I picked it up while wearing my gloves and it occurred to me that they would make a good grip on the glass. Sure enough, I was able to open it.

There you have it – my tip for the week.

No time for a very meaningful post today. It’s 9pm and I’ve been trying to unsuccessfully configure my new broadband account and I’ve got work to do that I promised I would have done by tomorrow. So off to do my work..

UPDATE: Finally got my broadband working after having to call technical support today (14 Nov). What a treat to go from a very slow dialup at home to a faster connection. It’s not that great as I haven’t chosen the fastest plan, but it’s much better.

We went to visit family yesterday. It was a flying visit as we came back today. On the way over we travelled the last bit on dirt roads and stopped to take some photos.

I have to figure out why the scenery setting on my camera really washes out the photos. I’ve played with this photo a bit in Photoshop to add some colour back in.

If this photo had been taken about 8 hours later there would have been some excellent shots of lightning. We haven’t had a decent rain in months and last night it bucketed down, accompanied by a lightning and thunder storm. Of course, this has happened too late for the farmers as they’re trying to reap their crops and the rain at this late stage doesn’t help one bit.

Last night we stayed at my sister’s place and she’d organised to have some friends over for dinner. I took the makings of Cosmopolitans and had we had a couple of jugs between us. I only stopped making more jugs because I ran out of cranberry juice.

When I went to bed I left half a bottle of vodka on the table and all the others were well and truly hooking into the wine.

When I got up this morning and started doing a bit of a clean-up, I found that my bottle of vodka was gone. As there was no empty bottle lying around I assumed the adults didn’t drink it. I asked my 15 year old nephew, his mate, and my 14 year old niece if they drank it. They said they had some but wouldn’t own up to having the lot.

After talking to my sister she told me they’d gone for a walk down the street late last night so it sounds like my bottle of vodka went down there too. And this is by the boy that will be coming to live with me nexdt year.

Another rule to add to the list of house rules – Do not drink your auntie’s alcohol because she won’t be as nice about it next time.