General Chat

Good morning CC, I have been sleeping of course.

Berona, I am so sorry that I missed you, I would have stayed and chatted to you if I had realised that you were there. I do miss you and hope that you will be back to normal soon. Have you noticed how Allan is trying to usurp my position as cook? You really do need to chase him back into line.

it is a glorious morning here and for once I have a day without any commitments. I suppose that I will have to do some housework (I know, I know, - wash my mouth out with soap and water) but it needs to be done. Tec remind me to make some bread as well.

Good Afternoon Joan

Good morning CC and Linda.

linda I would not wish to usurp your position as cook at Chez Tec.

I am content with my position as the upside-downside sorry, upstairs-downstairs maid.

CC, I can't leave the oven on, it would cost a fortune in gas, and you know how mean I am.

Joan, a nice long soak in a hot bath may help the back.

I love curries but must admit that I have never had curried sausages.

Allan

Hello all,

Allan, thank you very much for that recipe. Gosh, it certainly has a host of ingredients. On my pension I might have to save up for it (lol) but for only 2 of us I"m sure I will be able to freeze some for future use. Thanks again. Sounds delicious.

Snakes here in Australia are really just part of life. I remember several years ago when living in a townhouse in Sydney quite close to Macquarie University (a very built up area) we got a red bellied black snake in our front courtyard. That was a lot of excitement. It took itself into the man next doors garage and we had to let him know. He was quite elderly and I'd have hated to have him go to get into his car to be greeted by the snake. Eventually we located it and disposed of it.

Well, here we are only a few days from the shortest day of the year (june 22??) and it's 4.30am. Temperature is very mild, about 22c/66f in the house and 12c/60f outside the kitchen window. Had some rain last night which is nice. Top up the drinking water tank and wash the dust off the leaves on the trees.

We have a magnificent drive from here to Cairns down the Kuranda Range. All rainforest but it's been looking a bit down lately due to the amount of dust on the leaves of the trees. On the road between my place and Kuranda Village (the village in the rainforest, look it up on the internet) they've been laying sewerage pipes and it's a mess. Lots and lots of dust being thrown up all over the place. Council has put a new bridge in over a creek that sometimes floods during the wet season and people can't get through but they're not in the process of building the road to go across it. More dust. And this is just across the river from us. Hence, much dust in the air and settling on the leaves of the trees.

CC How come you disliked Buddy Holly??

Pam.

Hello CC and Pam

Pam I googled that recipe, there are many on the web, I haven't actually tried it yet :0((

I do have a simpler recipe in a book published by the WA Health Dept called 'Healthy Food Fast". But cannot put the recipe on the web as it is subject to copyright. It does appear on Google, though.

I was given a copy a few years ago when I was the 'Golden Boy' for the local Diabetes group. I even made it onto the local tv station.

Alas, those day's of glory are long gone!

Thank Goodness!!

CC, a cold meal in April is most welcome. I'm sure that this one would crawl of the plate to greet you personally.

I like my meals to have a bit of personality :0))

Allan

Hello folks. Just a quick pop in as I have some interviews to do today. One of those interviews is to discuss with a volunteer if she would like to try another group as she is driving other volunteers and hospital staff crazy. She is new and she has decided that her job is to change procedures that have worked well over the years. She is suggesting ways that the ward and treatment centre can run more smoothly. She is also writing to me to tell me that she feels there is more we can offer as volunteers. I can't seem to make her understand that we have restrictions and guidelines. Tough one eh?

Sue xx

CC I am like most technical people ie painters whose own houses are in dire need of painting, or plumbers whose own fittings (house!!) are dripping, as an Environmental Health officer my kitchen techniques would have even Gordon Ramsey lost for words :0))

However I am aware of temperature control in a theoretical sense!

Allan

Yes, I also like my steak very rare: and I can only eat liver very lightly fried so that it is all but rare in the centre!

Good morning Sue

You sure know how to pick them!! :0))

Allan

Good morning/evening all.
Allan, I gave that recipe to my daughter. She can try it out and if she likes it, I'll make some for myself - in my usual way - eat one fresh and freeze the rest!

Talking of recipes brought back memory of something I read a few years ago - about a woman and her daughter in the US who had coffee and crackers in a restaurant.
The crackers were labelled "specialty of the house" and were scrumptious, so the woman asked the waitress if she could get a copy of the recipe, and offered to pay him for it. The waitress said "He does sell them Ma'am - two fifty per copy" so the woman said she would just have one copy. She was busy remarking how nice they were as she passed over her credit card to pay the bill.

A few weeks later, the credit card bill arrived and the rcipe was charged as $250.00. She rang the credit card co. and rang the restaurant but was told that the charge was correct. She thought it would be $2.50.

She then went onto the Internet and looked for every site she could find where she could write something - and put the recipe on there in full - and free and said "pass this on to as many people as you like".

Good morning Berona.

I've also come across that particular story. Serves the person right. If I have a recipe, people are quite welcome to it.

I do have several in various recipe books, but these are subject to copyright.

I do have one for a cold dish using pork hocks, which is based loosely on an old Ukranian Recipe. It's nice in summer with a green salad

Allan

Hello all,

Hi CC. Yes, I’ve been to Barron Falls. They are just down the river from me a short ways. When the wet season is on which is normally around January to March each year, we can hear them from our upstairs balcony. They aren’t always flowing spectacularly. At the moment they probably are just a trickle but that’s because it’s the dry season (winter) and the river level is low.

Have you tried to google Kuranda Village? That might be interesting. Many people come to Kuranda Village from all over the world because it’s in the World Heritage Wet Tropics Rainforest, (formerly known as jungle) and many of the people who come here have never seen so many trees before.

My property is on the edge of this rainforest.


Pam xx

I hope that you manage to sort your volunteer out Sue. It is difficult when people are volunteering their time, but if you have to lose one volunteer, that would be worth it to keep the others happy.

We sometimes have problems in the tourist office with people who volunteer, but are not computer literate. Nowadays everything needs computer skills, such as booking beds, dealing with the emails, looking up timetables and maps and all the strange questions the tourists wish to know the answers to. We can't afford to carry people who can't do that,especially as we are constantly having mystery shoppers to assess our service.

I am not here CC, I am doing more housework, honestly I am. Currently I am cleaning the inside of the windows, well I will be once I have typed this and had a cup of coffee to fortify me for the task.

Yesterday despite the fact that it was a lovely afternoon, we went to the cinema. It was a one off showing called Housewives Choice. It was lots of small films from the National Archives from 1926 to the end of the second world war. Lots of public propaganda films aimed at the little lady of the house. Terribly un pc, some of them really made me cringe and I now see the error of my ways in not having my husbands pipe and slippers ready for him as he walks through the door. Still I picked up lots of useful hints and the next time my fur stole is making dirty marks around my neck, I now know how to clean it using bran.

Is that cleaning your neck with bran or your fur (outrageous) stole - Linda?

I am sorry to hear you are having problems again Sue and with a volunteer as well.
We have a saying here "You are not in Guatemala now Dr Ropata" which is from our soap called Shortland Street and when it first started this doctor arrived from Guatemala and was telling everyone what to do to which one nurse said the above and it has become household usage. Try that on her - might have her stumped.

We are all football mad here and of course one of the Sydney papers had to declare our point on the board as an Australasian win. Now the T shirt makers are kicking themselves having not made enough "All White" shirts for the fans.

I am not a lambs fry fan - but will cook it for others. I don't like tripe either.

Well it is just gone midnight here so before I turn into a pumpkin - I better go to bed.

Cheers Persephone.

Well I would come and do your housework CC, but really you must need the exercise, sitting at the computer all day is not good for you, you know

I must stress,I do not own a fur stole, it was merely on the film. It did look extremely drastic rubbing damp bran into it, but that is what they were doing.

I haven't seen any of your lost items, I will send them home if I do see them.

You can't get away from the football here Perse. I watch it with half an eye, only because OH has it on.

My other one and a half eyes are normally looking at my family tree. I like the idea of porridge for breakfast, but I can never be bothered to make it ( I hate that instant in a packet stuff),so I stick to my muesli.

Good morning/evening everyone. Hope you are all well.

Rogue volunteer dealt with very diplomatically. She has agreed to not be so "pushy" - her words. She said that she finds it difficult to fit in as she is nervous when she first meets a new group of people and that she realises her manner is annoying to others. I suspected this. So all's well at the moment:-))

The talk about recipes is very interesting. I use a site here in Aus. that gathers together a lot of recipes from different cooking magazines

www.taste.com.au

Have a look - the recipes can be printed too.

Sue xx

I have bookmarked that site Sue

I like

www.bbc.co.uk/food

because you can put a couple of ingredients which you happen to have into the recipe finder and it will tell you what you can make from them.

I am glad that you sorted your volunteer out, lets hope she changes.

I am off to bed now,I will try and catch up in the morning

Hi, Linda. Thanks for that site - I've bookmarked it.

Goodnight:-))

Sue xx

Good evening/morning everyone!
Haven't read the posts yet because when I do that, by the time I get to the last one, everyone has said goodnight!

I'll have a look at that site too, Linda. I recently bought some anchovies to use in a recipe - but by the time I bought them, I'd forgotten what the recipe was!
(now, that one HAS to be put down to old age!).

Nonsense Berona, that has to be put down to your mind being full of far more important things.

Well the two days of summer seem to be over, as it is overcast and windy this morning. No rain is forecast though which is not good as the allotment could do with some.

OH is still snoozing even though it is 9am,what a lazy man, still when you are retired, you can chose to do that.

Well we finally mowed the back and front lawns today. After the mower came back from the repair shop it had been too wet - we have had some real doozie down pours of late. The chap at the mower shop had asked if it was alright for him to have it an extra week whilst waiting for a part.... OH said yep that's okay the grass hasn't quite reached roof level yet. Was glad to get it mowed before it rained again (which it now has done) thought we might be lowering the tone of the street.

Our accounts are making progress - will be glad when they are finished and our taxes sorted - our return has to be in by 7th of July and then I plan to go and see a few festival films.

But this Sunday is our grandson's birthday and he will be nine - I asked if we could have him for the day (he will have his party on Saturday) and we are taking him to a live day at our Howick Historical Village - this is where an original 'Fencible' settlement was established in 1847 by soldiers from England who were brought out to protect nearby Auckland from possible native uprising. It runs from 10am - 4pm and includes - various reenactments from that period with the flag raising, Victorian classroom work, musket drill, coal miners stories and other goings on. My Grandfather's (on my mum's side) ancestors came there. This is my great great grandfather's brother and his wife. At her funeral held at the local church, the old bell was rung, 101 times because that was supposed to be her age - but they were actually a year out she was born June 1820 and died August 1922 - well that is according to the certificates. I will let you know how he liked his day - we try and take him somewhere different each year.

Glad you have your volunteer sorted Sue - strange way to go about things though (her I am talking about not you Sue).


Bran is very good for moving one along and cleansing one out so perhaps that is the same principle for fur - better than trying to put cod liver oil on it - though it would give it a shiny coat.

I wear my lovely big pashmina that I bought in Halls Gap Victoria and I have had lots of compliments on its appearance it is ever so warm and cosy.

Cheers

Persey