Heaven and hell

This made me smile, Michael!  Must say I wish I had at least a drop of mechanical and organisational ability myself.  I seem to have more and more difficulty lately getting things done.  It takes me all day just to keep the place tidy and do the cooking.  The saying, 'If you want something done, ask a busy person', is so true.  I used to do a thousand things in a day when I was younger and working full-time.

Frank, your latest comment is quite brutal!  Politicians the world over are pretty much the same...

Oh no!!!!

There are some things it's really better for us not to know!  Yesterday I bought a new hose for my very old Volta vacuum cleaner and a turbo dust filter to attach to it.  If you folk already have one of those whiz-bang Dyson vacuums you'll have been looking at your own dirt for a while, so will not be surprised, but for me, actually seeing what I sucked up was truly amazing.  The dust from the bed alone was nothing short of incredible.  And I thought I was the cleanest person in the world.

Out of curiosity I googled some pics of dust mites for your delectation...I'm sure you'll thank me.

Storm

I was sitting in a metal bus shelter on Thursday afternoon when this storm blew up.  A streak of lightning lit up the sky and hit the wall just inches behind my head!  I heard the

crackle and saw flashing lines of electricity, just like you see in cartoons.  Talk about a fright - what a close shave!

Meanwhile, in Scotland and England...

Just look at the contrast between these pictures and the ones in my last blog!  Thanks for your email this morning, Winifred, with your news of a bad weather spell.

Now, to answer your question, Olga:

There's not a big difference between sardines and herring. In fact, "sardine" means "small fish." (The fish in question were named after Sardinia, the second largest island in the Mediterranean, because they used to be plentiful in this region.) When they're young and small, these fish are called sardines. When they get older and bigger, they're called herring. For centuries, herring have been a dietary staple of northern Europeans - Scandinavians, Russians, Dutch, British and Germans.


I never knew this!  In fact, the saying, 'You learn something new every day' is very true.  Thank heavens for Google, which provides the answer to everything you ever wanted to know!

Out and about again

On Wednesday I went to Bondi with some friends to look at Sculptures by the Sea.  Here's one of them:

I know I'm just another Grumpy Old Woman, but it was such a lot of bother!  Public transport is a nightmare.  It must have been 34 degrees and there were thousands of people lined up for one lonely bus at the end of the walk, so we all piled on like sardines.  Is it too much for whoever organises these things to put on some more buses??????  It's not rocket science...

Great to have you back, Winifred.  I don't know what makes it so tricky to get into these blogs...so frustrating.

Back to the doctor

I'm now on my third lot of antibiotics and tire very easily.  It probably wasn't a great idea yesterday to go for a walk down a slope so steep it was surely only for mountain goats. The road was deceptive at first, seeming to be a gentle slope, but then it dropped sharply.  I don't know how anybody could possibly manage to survive in such an area - many of the houses had inclinators from the road down the sheer drop. Without one, lugging groceries down and children up would be next to impossible.

This shows a house perched on the edge of a precipice:

A lost soul...

Still feeling sick, I took myself into the city on Thursday to take my mind off myself.  I wandered round Circular Quay (between the Harbour Bridge and the Opera House), and visited the Museum of Contemporary Art:

where I looked in astonishment at exhibits like this:

I found a nice place to have lunch at The Rocks.  The highlight of my day was when one of the waitresses came over to talk to me - she'd arrived from The Netherlands three weeks ago, found a flat in Bondi and a job!

I then went to Woody Allen's film about Rome, which I thought was terribly clever - a real sendup of our stupidity.  I loved the music, which reminded me of the 60s when I was learning Italian in Newcastle.  I completely disapprove of Woody's morals and stopped seeing his movies when he ran off with Mia's adopted daughter, but went in spite of this...shows how desperate I was to fill in the day.

Baby, it's cold outside!

The other day it was 29 degrees and I thought of having my first swim of the season, but decided it mightn't be a good idea with bronchitis.  Yesterday it was between 15 and 19 and Muffy and I nearly froze to death.  I opted for a woolly jumper and scarf while she headed for the bedroom and snuggled under the doona!  Sorry, but I do think she is so very cute!!!!

Later in the afternoon, this was her chosen spot on the sofa:

Sick of being sick

The doctor tells me I'm no longer contagious, so Emma came downstairs to see me yesterday, the first time for a week.  I'm sure she's grown 6" in that time!  She practised the piano, had a chat, then suggested we do some cooking.  From one of her recipe books she chose these desserts, and we had a lovely time preparing them.  They're full of sugar and butter, so I wasn't a bit surprised when her father told me she didn't actually want to eat them!  The fun was in the making.

I'm on a health kick again, so did not allow myself the usual huge packet of chips when I shopped just now at Aldi.  I stuck to salad vegetables, fruit, grain bread, tins of fish.

It's really only a week I've been out of action, though it feels much longer than that.  Tomorrow I'll try to get back into normal routine, starting with the English lesson for my three Japanese students.  Theoretically I'm supposed to have a Japanese lesson after the English one, but I haven't looked at anything for weeks, though I did go through all my notes and sort them out. (My sickness followed the school holidays, when we all had a break.)

I had my first piano practice yesterday and didn't do too badly.

Oh dear - sick.

I've been coughing and spluttering for more than a week now, and am on my second dose of antibiotics after having caught a bug that went through everybody upstairs.  The doctor thought it might turn into pneumonia, so I had an X-ray, but it seems to be only bronchitis, which is unpleasant enough.

BTW, Frank, since I got your email about freezing lemons, I've been doing just that.  Once you take them out of the freezer they soften, making squeezing the juice so easy.  I used to be always throwing lemons away, so this is a very useful tip for me.

Michael, I agree with Infogenium - that is brilliant!!!!!  I will send it to any of my friends who speaks German.  I'd never seen HAND, but now that I have, will start using it.

This morning I went to the library with a list I'd got from the pc of Man Booker prizewinners.  Sitting in the sun with my hot lemon, honey and ginger drink, I've started Anita Brookner's 'Making Things Better', which she wrote after her award.  Must say I'm struggling to work out who's who in the first chapter.  I don't think this is the sign of a brilliant writer...

HAND (Have a nice day) everybody!