iRamble.co.uk

photo credit: Jacob Bøtter

Okay so I changed the words but it does make me think of the chirpy cheep cheep song.

I now have ‘Twitter’ on my system - another learning curve for my addled brain to deal with.

So far its all going well although it reminds me of some of the chat rooms watching people chat - sorry ‘Tweet’ to each other - some of the conversations look very disjointed like you are only seeing half of it (which you probably are) but when my name is at the beginning I know its for me and try to jump in quick so that my answer is not too far from the question - so to speak…

Confused yet? You will be -  I was challenged by my lovely son to find some people to follow - fortunately I saw some names I recognised and I’m happy to report that there are nice people twittering - including Grannymar - good to see that at least.

But I have already been the victim of a twitter maniac - wherever I go they find me - he must have been lurking around looking for newbie tweeters as victims - politely asking them to follow him then bombarding them with strange tweets. I HAVE BLOCKED HIM!!! He will not tweet at me again!

So in the last week I have found people, tweeted at them and had conversations with them on Twitter, blocked one and perused the bio’s of many.

I’m not sure where this is going but I will keep you posted!!

Tweet for now!!!

I read a post by Grandad yesterday which was about the lack of interesting blogs out there. I think its quite a shame that we all put our thoughts out onto the internet only to read that it is not interesting to some - even though it may be to others - confidence knocking stuff maybe? Who knows?

I started writing on a review website many years ago and was paid for my thoughts on films, books, shampoos, shower gel, electrical items etc. There was also a place on this site for free writing - obviously unpaid but it was possible to build up a network of ‘virtual friends’ by reading and commenting on each others free writing. I enjoyed this for a while but became aware that some of the members would join together to get people to leave, not for any reason other than they thought it was fun. I left - although all my reviews still sit there and I still get comments and payments from them.

My first blogsite was much the same - a mixture of reviews, poems, life, and the universe but I really could see that it didn’t work (for me) like that and began to change.

I still have that site and will use it for reviews because I feel they have no place here unless its because they have historical interest

The two sites that I show my real face on are the ones you already know, this one and the one for our girl. The dog one is about Hippie and little else, it has its own little following of other greyhound owners and I find their interest very comforting when there is a problem with the dog, as much as I find their giggles wonderful when I blog about the silly things she does.

This site is for my rants and rambles about the world in all its glory plus little snippets of fun and the occasional meme (I’m still trying to get my head around those).

My review site remains the same but needs modernising a little - a project for the future, and the last one is purely for my diary on a medical condition I have with my hands and arms - it gets a lot of ‘hits’ - a lot of people suffer from this.

I think to some extent I have separated the sites on purpose to avoid boring some and entertaining others all on one site, but also because I know when I go through my reader there are always posts there that I cannot relate to in any way, they are techie and over my head, or political and I’m not one for politics. I may read them but they leave me cold and I have nothing to say.

So, to finish, I agree with my bewhiskered friend that there maybe no good blogs out there but maybe that is because the community put them off, or they ran out of things to say, or they tried to mix their content unsuccessfully.

Whatever the reason I believe that we are still in the early days (realistically) of weblogs and like all things they will grow, outlive their usefulness and die - to be replaced by a newer shinier model.

Its just another whirl on life’s carousel!

photo credit: shareski

This was an email sent to my new boss this afternoon. He is away at a conference all week and I thought I would clean up a bit today…. big mistake…. HUGE!!!

The email went like this…

I only switched it on to vacuum up the floor.

It really smelled quite hot so I opened up the door.

It made a funny noise, a kind of growling sound.

Picked up some bits then spluttered and threw them on the ground.

Suddenly there was silence, no growling not a yell….

The dyson it had snuffed it and left this awful smell!!!

So far I still have a job - I’ll let you know!!!

It all started as a way to use up leftovers from Sunday dinner roast in a way that my family would be happy to eat.

I just layered all the leftovers in a pie dish - poured the gravy over and then put a shortcust top on it.

The trouble is - its too nice and nobody wants the roast dinner now they want to go straight to the pie! And the word is getting out - I am getting requests for pies.

So today I have made three the small one has already been baked and delivered to an elderly neighbour whose name begins with M of course and was last seen thoroughly enjoying every morsel.

One is for dinner for my daughter and I tonight…

with yorkshire puds of course..

And one for tomorrow because my partner does not like missing out on these!!!

We bought the jars last year ready to do some preserving in bottles but the tomatoes didn’t grow and the jars stayed in the cupboard.

This year, however we had loads and decided to ‘go for it’

First we dipped them into boiling water to loosen the skins.

Then we boiled them with tomato juice and garlic and herbs..

Then we packed them into very clean jars with lemon juice..

Ready to put into the canner. Of course its really a huge pressure cooker but it can hold so many jars in one go that its preferable to using a small one and taking all day. Easily prepared by smearing a little petroleum jelly around the seals.

Then we loaded the jars in

First  layer..

then another one on top…

Until it was full!

Then on with the lid and get it up to 10lbs pressure

Note the easy to read dial!!!

After ten minutes at 10lbs they were ready and after the pressure had gone down it was time to get them out. Bit of  problem here - how do it without burning oneself?

Oh yes - get up higher - that helps..

And even then its all quite hazardous..

But it was all worth it and we have a stock of canned tomatoes - it probably cost much more than buying but at least there is the satisfaction of knowing they were our own home grown ones.

I am one of those annoying people that like to get things ready before writing a post. Not the words you understand, I like to write as I would speak and I don’t think it works writing it all down and then copying it across to my blog sites.

So, imagine my frustration last night when I wanted to write a post for my canine site and was trying to get the photos from my mobile to my computer and it just wasn’t listening!!

Normally I just attach the little dongle thingie to my usb lead and plug the mobile in,  then a window opens and I can choose which photos I would like to insert.

No window opened and further investigation showed that either my mobile didn’t want to talk to my computer or vice versa. I tried again - nothing…. nada!

A few days ago Firefox performed an update - I didn’t ask it to - it just did it anyway and it informed me afterwards that Real Player would not be working - it said nothing about my mobile.

Has anyone got any ideas?

Answers on a comment please…..

photo credit: JoeBehrPalmSprings

Action at last!

The European Commission is imposing bans on imported milk products and other foods will be tested for melamine.

Maybe we just don’t realise how lucky we are in this country, we might be in a recession but our food safety standards remain high.

Still don’t think I’ll be having a takeaway anytime soon - but then I’ve always been wary of them!!!!

Just here I found something that explained all the reasons for the work I am currently doing.

Babies in China being made ill or killed by the introduction of melamine to their baby milk formula. At best kidney stones or at worst, death. What kind of madness is that? According to form the company held back from recalling the product believing they could handle it, but the figures are huge: some 13,000 people affected and this could be the tip of the iceberg as other products are found to contain melamine.

Daily, in my job, I assist companies in the retail supply chain to fill in their supplier risk assessments for our clients, they log in and answer the food safety questions and submit the assessment onto our website. This provides traceability in the chain of food production and, should there be a problem our customers can see at a glance who supplies their ingredients and where  they come from. I imagine China does not work to the same standard

Does this mean that given time these potentially lethal products containing melamine are going to land on our supermarket shelves or maybe they are already here? What do you think?

 
photo credit: Cindy Funk

When I bought this bungalow six years ago I loved the fact that it had a carport which was joined both sides (mine and my next door neighbours) and ran the whole length of the house until it joined with the garage at the back, thus making it like an extra room. I housed the freezer out there and had some seating, decorated it with fairy lights and it made a lovely big area to sit in the evening.

Trouble was it had plastic corrugated roofing and this started to leak until it eventually cracked up and blew away in the wind this summer.

I had always had a dream that I would put the hot tub in there with some nice wooden garden furniture but that dream was fast becoming a nightmare.

My partner decided he would build me a new carport and attach it as before but with a proper felted roof and has spent many a weekend doing just that. But this weekend it was finished and I could start to dress it up a bit.

Yesterday, while he was coating the roof with aluminium paint I cleaned out the hot tub. Then we moved it in along with other items of furniture and many of my trinkets purchased in Gran Canaria.

We filled the tub and set it to heat - it takes a day and a half!

I moved a wardrobe that my daughter had discarded and put necessities like dog food and wellies in it, then took the shelving that the dog food had been on and stocked it with the hot tub paraphernalia.

So now I need to clear the garage which has the freezer, my daughter’s woodlathe and my gardening stuff in, not to mention the tumble dryer but that can wait!

Tonight I have an appointment with a large glass of cold rose wine and some hot fragranced bubbles. I am not going to look in the direct of the garage and more hard work - in fact I just might close my eyes!!!

Note to self - make sure Max is in the house before removing the lid of the tub!!!

You know what its like - it gets to that time of year when your freezer has more ice than contents. you know you have to eat those strange things you don’t know why you bought, or, throw them away but that’s such a waste.

I’m fortunate, my daughter and I went through this a few months ago and now after a severe defrosting we actually have things we like in there, except the runner beans in my daughter’s case.

My partner, however is going through the final stages of clearing the freezer prior to blasting it with the hairdryer and making room for more goodies.

Last night he cooked a beautiful steak and kidney pud for me - it was delicious! But this morning he said that we would have to have fish in a bag this week as it was one of things that had to go. He made it sound horrible and I suppose it isn’t very enthralling at the best of times. I said I’d take the offending packet of four cod portions in parsley sauce and try to make them interesting for supper on Monday evening.

I’m hoping its worked but the proof of the pudding etc…….

I put the frozen blocks of fish in sauce in a dish and put a layer of broad beans, peas and sweetcorn over them. Then I mashed some potato with butter and cheese and forked it over the top, covered it with grated cheese and italian herbs and decorated with home grown tomato. It looks good doesn’t it?…….

I’ll let you know what it tastes like!!! But at least its not fish in a bag!!!!