01 Jan 09 Happy New Year? It’s Just Another Day
The last few weeks of the year are normally quite mad for many.
In the United States it starts with Thanksgiving when a large percentage of the population eat themselves silly on Turkey and trimmings for the day.
The following day many of those take their overstuffed bodies to the local stores and cram their karts full of Black Friday ‘bargains’. Some stand and freeze overnight to participate in this activity.
Then there is the frantic flurry of updating lists. No, not the endless round of ‘Best of’ lists that come at the end of the year, but the Christmas Gift list, and the Christmas Card list.
Everyone has their own method here of course. I wonder how many tons of cards end up not getting delivered though, because Mr Smith hasn’t lived at 2030 Jones Drive for at least the last ten years, and you don’t know that, because he lost your address and can’t write and tell you. Mr Smith has email now, but he’s not sure how to find you online either, and you don’t know hes online in any case.
Then comes Christmas itself. Are you going to them this year, or are they coming to you? Everyone in the family really wants to stay at home and escape the travel nightmare, but no-one wants to admit it, so one or the other of you go through the adventure.
After all that, Christmas itself comes and goes in a flash. Jsut as you draw breath though, it’s New Year, and a round of parties etc. Again, you might feel like a quiet night in, watching your favorite host see the New Year in, but you can’t say that! “What do you mean, you’re staying IN New Years Eve?”
So for many, New Years Day, is not an auspicious start to the New Year. It’s that ‘I’m not going do that again THIS year’ feeling.
Christmas might be a religious festival for many, but on New Year’s Eve, the end of night prayers are often to the porcelain God.
So. here we are. It’s New Years Day. Perhaps it’s sometime in the afternoon when you’re reading this. The Hangover you had is beginning to fade, and you think you might feel like eating a little something soon.
You didn’t drink much? Or at all? You can feel a bit pleased with yourself as you hear from those silly fools that did then!
Now, those New Year Resolutions. You know, the crazy things you said last night? You can’t remember even to the next day?
They are a mixed thing really. If we’re running our lives efficiently, we should be making and aiming for new goals all the time. Isn’t that what resolutions are? Quitting smoking? That’s a goal to aim for. Making a million bucks? That’s another. You don’t need to wait until it’s a new year to do put those goal in place though, do you?
Let’s be honest here too. A new year is an arbitary date, on which much of the world have agreed to standardize. The year number is, of course, the number of years since the birth of Christ, but even the great theologians of the world can’t agree exactly when that was? Anyway, if Christ was born on Christmas Day, how come the New Year starts a week later? I know, Christmas Day was an old Pagan festival and the date got ‘borrowed’.
Still, if making a resolution now, helps you reach goals in your life, then go right ahead and do it. But really, at the end of the year, it’s just another day, isn’t it?
Happy New Year!
Tags: black friday, christmas, christmas card, christmas gift list, hangover, hasn, last ten years, local stores, mr smith, new year, new years day, new years eve, night prayers, population, porcelain god, quiet night, religious festival, thanksgiving, travel nightmare, trimmings
08 May 08 Rice Cooker
It’s a fairly common small kitchen appliance. I guess quite a number of you have them. To be honest I resisted for ages. Why? I cannot see the point of buying yet another space-robbing gadget when I can make perfectly good rice in a regular saucepan or even in the microwave.
So why did we get one?
It was my mother actually. She wanted to buy us a steamer. We had one in the UK a few years ago, and bought her one, and she got so hooked on it that she espouses their virtues everywhere (and quite rightly so).
We’ve never gotten around to getting one here, and she wanted to put that right.
Only thing is, we couldn’t find one.
Not like the one she has in England anyway. It has a base, that you put water in, and and a heater to make the steam, and then 2 or 3 stacking plastic containers that fit on top into which you put the food you wish to steam.
Couldn’t find one in the local stores here at all. Only rice cookers, with a small steaming basket, kind of an afterthought.
Anyway, Kathy wanted a rice cooker all along, so Mother bought it.
Kathy and I have always had this cultural food difference you see. I was raised on potatoes as my staple starch food item; she was raised on rice. We compromise, but generally, as I do the cooking (at least during the week), I tend to make potato based dishes more often than rice ones.
Perhaps that will change a bit now, as I have to admit that the rice cooker is SO easy. Let me explain that.
I tend to put food on to cook, and get back to work while it’s doing so. I have to keep interrupting my work of course, to be sure nothing overcooks or burns. That’s what’s easy about the rice cooker of course. I can put in the rice, add the water, flick the lever, and go work, and practically forget about the rice. I tend to use a slow cooker a fair bit for the same reason, and more often than not, if I’m roasting or baking, I do it on a low heat, so I’m not going to get engrossed in my work, and burn stuff.
So, ok, I’ll concede, that sometimes, some gadgets can and do make life a little easier. Now, where can I find an automatic beer maker?
Tags: afterthought, burns, compromise, dishes, England, flick, gadget, local stores, microwave, plastic containers, potatoes, rice cooker, rice cookers, saucepan, slow cooker, small kitchen appliance, starch, steam, steamer, virtues
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