Present

Shrek has gifted me with a timely present of a brand new freezer.


In effect he rejuvenated our one year old baby (the freezer that is) with a fresh breath of new lease on life by defrosting it. It is now ready for yet many more years of servitude to come.

Petit homme

Petit Suisse is easily embarrassed. He blushes profusely everytime I tell him that he is handsome or he appears like a little man.


He is such a sensitive soul and an impossibly adorable cutie but is prone to sulking and turning into a deplorable cry baby.

Biological lesson

There are three factors that affect the degradability of food hence rendering it unfit for consumption.

These are temperature, time and humidity. It is said that at room temperature (it is aggravated in summer) natural humidity induced by the presence of moisture in food is an incubator for bacteria to develop.

At room temperature and with a normal ambient level of humidity (presence of water or other cooking liquid) the critical time is 12 hours. After said period has elapsed it is mandatory that one throw said food out.

I should have this lesson down pat by now but it seems that for some inexplicable reason (frugality perhaps) I still have not learnt my lesson.

It is a delicate subject matter.

Oh well as it is often said 'You are what you eat' I will proceed to improving this aspect.

I expect Shrek to improve certain aspects of his 'idiosyncracies' as well.

I want to pass on this important lesson to my children and hope that they will not have to endure the same predicament as me.

Rack of lamb

Date lunch chez Lost

Rack of lamb with mashed sweet potatoes and mâche salad.


Château Coudert Saint-Emilion Grand Cru
1998

As can be seen, we are quite enamoured with racks of lamb here chez nous. It is wonderfully fondant and tender that it proves to be too much competition for steak.

Murphy's laws bis

No matter the price paid for pairs of stockings I will always invariably end up with ladders in them.

Kids never waste your hard earned dough on buying expensive pairs of stockings that will end up ripping no matter how careful you are in handling them and caring for them. I have resolved to buy the cheapest brand and not regret the fact that it's only after the first use and I already have ladders.

Pipi

My whole house smells like an urinal and it can be traced back to one source : Baby Taz's toilet training is a work in progress. For every time he actually goes pipi in the potty there are two other accidents somewhere on the floor. He has not actually left a trail of caca on the floor as yet and that is the least of my worries.

Shall we say that Baby Taz is not mature yet and let's hope that this will change in due course or if I had my way it will speed up with my urgings and encouragements. He gets a big fanfare and Bravo and felicitations everytime he actually does the right thing by peeing in the right pot. He has a tendency to pee into our heater, on the floor and inside my thermos cooling bag...hmmm

I am fed up with touching caca, pipi and cleaning up after my kids. I must admit it does fray my nerves sometime especially when the whole orchestra starts screaming ensemble.

Favourite pastime

Shrek's absolute favourite pastime is sleeping. He can sleep for hours on ends and if it was not for his obligations that he must fulfil such as work he would sleep for the majority of his days punctuated only by his more primal needs of eating, drinking and filling his tummy in general, emptying his bowels and 'otherly pleasures'.

Shrek's second pastime (tie with eating) and favourite bonding activity with the kids is vegetating in front of the television. If Shrek had his way and did not have to answer to my insistences that they need more than just 'entertainment' and lobotomy he would allow them to sit and be couch potatoes all day long.

Breakage, clumsiness and general gaff !

Lil Miss N should have her name changed to Miss Clumsy. She inadvertently bumps into corners, tables, chairs, invisible obstacles and objects. She also has a tendency to drop and spill food, drinks and goods in general. She is after all a kid whose fine tuning is still in the process of perfecting.

I am manic about dropping things and breaking them especially when it comes to costly valuables. I accidentally dropped a watch with ceramic links and will have to replace that link and the damage has yet to be determined. I chastised myself and am prone to self-flagellation over minor breakages etc...which does not bode well for my mental health according to Shrek. I suspect he might be right because I am une gaffeuse, guess that is where Miss Clumsy got her clumsy genes from and if every time something had to be replace I get worked up then it would spell disaster for my sanity and in the long run cost me my well-being and equilibrium which no material object or amount of money is worth fretting over.

Rotten chestnuts

It might sound trite and conceited but I have not learnt my lesson and so committed the faux pas of buying marrons when it is not in season as yet. It was a horrendous batch with more than half rotten and inedible and the rest barely passable. Most of all the skin did not peel off easily eventhough it has been roasted in a skillet. It was a waste of time, money spent and waste of stomach space. Petit Suisse who is a keen roasted chestnut fiend (aka marrons chauds) and self proclaimed avid fan told me to finish consuming the chestnuts because he could not swallow the awful batch. He usually wolfs down faster than I can peel them so if he turns away in disgust it means that the marrons were beyond repair.
The end of the season of anything also spells disaster beyond reprimand.

It is one lesson to always buy seasonal produce : taste wise it is better and more cost effective.

This general rule of thumb applies to all fresh fruits, vegetables and produce in general.

No exceptions to this rule whatsoever.

TB The photo displays what successful marrons chauds should look like,

Cost of things

Murphy's law dictates that whatever I buy 'en action' or at reduced price will be cheaper the day after. It encompasses myriad genres including but not limited to fresh produce, foodstuff, baby items and household articles...etc.


No matter when so I think I have scored a bargain only to find out the day or two after that it's sold at an even cheaper price. It irks me to no end.

The only exceptions are when fresh produce and food are sold at half price, it cannot get any lower.

Murphy's laws are full of anger and stress inducing self-evidence and yet much of it is paradoxical truism.