Brown noser!

My sister-in-law reeeeeeally wants a Labrador puppy. Specifically, she's after a female pup with blonde fur, a black nose and brown eyes.

Until last night, when I was chatting to her about it, I had no idea that labrador's noses came in any colour other than black.

It seems that, while black noses are the most common colour, brown is the other option. Kinda like mascara.

Oh and as they get older, their noses may actually start to turn pink!

"Oxi" means "No" in Greek

I learnt this from today's Sydney Morning Herald, reporting on the situation in Greece. It was the overwhelming response to a referendum deciding whether or not to accept a financial bailout package.

My (very) high-level understanding is that the majority of Greeks (like, 61 per cent of them) reject the package that could save them because of the strongs attached to the bailout, which I assume would be in the order of spending cuts, tax increases and lay-offs.

It's being referred to as austerity. Second lesson for today:

1. In economics, austerity is a set of policies with the aim of reducing government budget deficits. Austerity policies may include spending cuts, tax increases, or a mixture of both.

Nobody likes Spearmint Leaves

I read today that Allens has stopped making their Spearmint Leaves and green Frogs Alive. Good riddance, I say!

I've never liked either of them. Spearmint leaves tasted too much like toothpaste and the red frogs are much tastier.

Now if I only I could campaign to be rid of those horrible gummy teeth and the unnaturally yellow Bananas (incredibly, two of my husband's favourites). Bluk! I've never gone much on Minties either.

Looking through the list of Allens treats, there are a few in there I'd be sad to see go: Snakes Alive!, Killer Python, Pineapples, Strawberries and Cream, Redskins, Fantales and Freckles. 

On writing this, I was struck by the name Redskins... I thought the wrapper also used to feature the stereotypical native American Indian in full feathery headress. 

The wrapper doesn't include any pictures anymore but I wonder how the name has stuck, and not been replaced with something a little more PC. 

I have Irish ancestry, so I'm not personally affronted by it but I'm kinda surprised others haven't raised it. 

Especially given the history of Arnotts' Scallywag biscuits, which were originally named Golliwogs in the 19602 until claims of racism prompted the company to change the name in the 1990s. 

A quick Google search reveals a couple of articles about the potential racism of Redskins and Chicos (which I hadn't thought of but has been suggested as offensive to people of Latin-American descent).

I also came across an article from 2009 about another chocloate flavoured biscuit, this time Coles brand, that was called Creole Cremes and was considered offensive to Aboriginal and Torres Straight Islander people. The argument was that the word "Creole" was often used to describe a person of mixed European and African ancestry (the implication, I suppose, being it was a reference to the white and brown/chocolate parts of the biscuit).

And of course there were the old musk falvoured cigarettes originally named Fags in the 1940s but renamed to Fads in 1990s, when the term had become used as a homosexual slur and research showed the damaging effects smoking had on health. The name change served the dual purpose of avoiding offence and steering the product away from being seen as cigarette lollies for kids. To distance the association with smoking even further, the name was changed again in the 2000s to Fads Candy Sticks. 

Orangic Surge - a product I'll proudly support!

I'm always trying to find products that aren't tested on animals and it can be tough sometimes. I've got a couple of tried and tested favourites outlined below but today's learning is a new product I've just discovered, which has moisturisers, facial cleansers and hand wash:

Organic Surge! Not only are they cruelty free but they give a bunch of their profits to charities. As a new Mum, I'm particularly won over to learn that they've sponsored the Baby Care Unit in Kenya Children's Home, Nairobi since 2009. The Baby Care Unit cares for 48 sick or abandoned children, from newborns to 2 year olds and Organic Surge funded all costs for nursing care, food and staff for the full year.

Read about them here: Organic Surge against animal testing.

Yes, they're a UK brand (I prefer to support Australian products where I can) but they ship internationally and I found them on the Brandsexclusive website.

My other fave cruelty free products:

Palmer's: I have the Olive Oil pump body for legs and arms, a small tube in my handbag for dry hands and nails, and who can go past the delicious smell of their Shea Body Butter? Read about them here: Palmer's products are cruelty free.

Fudge hair products: I haven't found many shampoos and conditioners that are cruelty free, are easy to find in mainstream stores and still leave your hair feeling lovely. Fudge does it! 

GAIA: I use the baby wash when bathing my son and have baby moisturiser for him too. I hadn't seen their adult products on the shelves so didn't realise until now they did stuff I can use too! (another learning). Read up here: GAIA for the whole family.

I've downloaded the Choose Cruelty Free app on my smartphone, which provides a list of companies/products that do not test on animals.

Where there's a will, there's a way

What's wrong with this picture?




Since we rescued our rabbit almost one year ago, our dog has been desperate to get close enough to sniff and chase him. I don't want to think about what else she might do to him if she got close enough so we've been careful to exercise them separately in the yard, and covered the lower level of the rabbit hutch in chicken wire.

After a few months, we discovered the dog had managed to get the bottom level door open and climb in but thankfully she was too big to squeeze up the ramp to the top level, where the rabbit was safely sitting.

But today, when I let the dog out of the house and she went racing around the side of the house to the hutch, she wouldn't come back to me when I called her. When I went to investigate, I found her in the top level of the hutch along with the rabbit. I raced over to yank her out, for fear she'd attack the rabbit either deliberately or accidentally through rough play. But the rabbit and the dog seemed ok together. No fear from the rabbit or aggression from the dog.

Over the past few weeks, the dog hasn't been eating all of her food. Could she be smart enough to fast her way thin enough to squeeze up that ramp?

Tomorrow we'll investigate to see how she could have breached the small fence we've also erected around the hutch. She's either managed to jump over it (which would have taken lots of practise) or there's a hidden burrow beneath the hutch that she's infiltrated. Stay tuned...

Cortisone injections really freaking hurt!

Now, I don't consider myself a wuss when it comes to needles. At least not a very big wuss. I don't like getting them (who does, right?) and I look away when the sharps start getting unwrapped from their hygienically sealed wrappings but I'm not one of these people who has to lie down in the doctor's rooms when getting vaccinations or having a blood test. I don't faint or require a cold (or warm) compress for my clammy forehead. Nor do I need a brown paper bag to breathe in and out of, or a vomit bucket.

I've had all the jabs for travelling around the Mekong and through south east Asia; heaps of blood tests throughout pregnancy; novocaine pricks in my gums for root canal therapy and to have wisdom teeth pulled; and I'm a blood donor, which involves a much larger needle than the toothprick needle used for a cortisone injection.

So I wasn't expecting it to hurt so bloody much!

After nearly eight months of carrying and handling a growing baby, the tendons in my right wrist had finally given up and blanketed themselves in a warm cocoon of inflammation that required immediate relief.

The cortisone injection took only a few minutes but after only a few seconds I was gritted my teeth, breaking the second commandment and feeling nauseous.

Suddenly I became that person. A bin was slid across the floor to sit beside my foot "just in case". I looked into it to see a couple of used tissues, a discarded yoghurt tub (strawberry) and an apple core. I felt even more depressed.

But it got worse. Before I knew it, I was flat on my back on the carpet, with my feet raised onto a chair. The only explanation I can come to is that cortisone is some seriously potent stuff, made worse when injected directly into a swollen and extremely painful area. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

Cortisone is a potent anti-inflammatory (that works a treat!) and is localised rather than absorbed into the bloodstream so it's ok for nursing mothers (that's a question I have to ask about every medication at the moment).

Remission: the sweetest word in the English language?

Today I learnt my husband is officially in remission for Lymphoma.

And remission truly is the sweetest word in the English language.

Before his diagnosis, I hadn't heard of Lymphoma. Except for the vague recollection of the word "Hodgkins" when Delta Goodrem was diagnosed with cancer more than 10 years ago. Now I know that is the more serious of two broad types of Lymphoma: Hodgkins and Non-Hodgkins.

When I read up on how common Lymphoma actually is, I'm surprised (and a little disappointed) I hadn't heard of it before it struck my own family.

• Lymphoma is a cancer of the immune system with a new diagnosis in Australia every 2 hours. It's the most common blood cancer - the fifth most common type of cancer in Australia.
• It causes 11 per cent of childhood cancers and has been increasing at a rate of four per cent each year.
• Over the past 20 years the number of cases in Australia has doubled.

Tic Tac cocktails?

The range of Tic Tac flavours now available is baffling. I was never a fan of the original mint flavours but always thought the Orange flavour was pretty tasty (thought I never ate as many as Paulie Bleeker in Juno, which according to tictac.com is just one movie that featured the product).

Now I see there are loads of flavours including Cinnamon, Cherry, Banana, Passionfruit and even Mojito! I won't be surprised to see Tequila Sunrise or G&T flavours. Presumably there's no white rum in the Mojito tic tacs so if they simply eliminate the booze portion, does that make the Orange tic tacs Screwdriver flavour?

A quick visit to their website and I learn they were developed by Ferrero in Italy in 1969. They were originally called Refreshing Mint (boooooring!) and was renamed Tic Tac in 1970 in reference to the distinctive clicking sound the pack makes as it’s opened and closed.

You can also play games, although I don't know who the hell would want to be a Tic Tac Ninja...

I'm not buying it

I had no idea this existed. Perhaps it's the ideal marriage of sugar and salt, and I love both chocolate and Vegemite but I'm still not racing to the shops to buy a block.

Croup is scary sh!t

If the sweetest sound in the world is the sound of your baby giggling, the absolute scariest sound is them struggling to draw breath. When my husband and I heard our eight month old son dragging in air like a pack-a-day-smoker with a ring in his voice box, we were in the car and on the way to the emergency room.

We were among a dozen or so parents fronting up to the large public hospital with kids wrapped in dressing gowns, wheezing and barking like bulldogs.

Turns out Winter isn't just the season for long boots, it's also the season for croup. Terrifying croup. At least, it is for first-time parents with no idea how to treat it or how serious it can be.

The photocopied handout the nurse gave us explained that croup is a narrowing of the larynx and trachea, often caused by a virus. So the fact that our little one had a cold was no surprise to the no-muss nurses on duty.

A dose of a clear liquid (a steroid to help relax the narrowing throat) worked wonders in helping him and the other kids breathe easier (not to mention all the parents!)

Just how smart is a baby sheep anyway?

Following on from yesterday's post, 101 (commercial) uses for placenta, it seems the market no longer relies on women consenting to have their placenta mushed up into face cream for anyone to smear into their pores.

Sheep are being used to fill the gap.

Baby Sheep Essence is made from sheep placenta. I'm not sure which makes me feel ickiest... health products made from a random person's placenta or a random sheep's.

Even more curious: the cost for a 100ml tube of people placenta cream is $3.99 whereas 200 capsules of baby sheep placenta costs $66.95!?

What's in sheep placenta that's so much more valuable that human placenta? Surely it can't be rarer to access so the price isn't pushed up by the free market laws of supply and demand so is it a question of quality?

101 (commercial) uses for placenta

Everyone's heard about people who eat the placenta after giving birth. Some have it made into capsules for easy, tasteless swallowing while others blend it into some kind of bloody smoothie (I've seen that on tv - I didn't just make it up).

I suppose others set it in ice cubes to cool a Bloody Mary, stirfry it with veggies or perhaps crumb it for a placenta schnitzel.

Gross.

When I was pregnant, I came across a website that offered the capsule making service, along with a gallery of other even more disturbing placenta-related products.

I'm not sure how many people pay for placenta finger paintings and decorative umbilical cord souvenirs. I can just imagine, Christmas time, placing a dried out umbilical cord in the shape of a star atop the tree. Ew.

Suddenly this Placenta Cream I spied on the shelf of a mainstream chemist seems far less radical.

 

What happened to Pluto?

For 76 years, Pluto was the smallest, cutie-pie planet at the end of the solar system until all of a sudden, it wasn't considered a planet anymore. I never knew the hows and whys of this, so I looked it up for today's learning...

On 24 August 2006, the International Astronomical Union, passed a resolution that revoked Pluto's planetary status.

It provided this definition of "planet" (which hadn't been clearly defined up to this point - isn't that incredible?):

A planet is a celestial body that (a) is in orbit around the Sun, (b) has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) shape, and (c) has cleared the neighbourhood [sic] around its orbit.


Pluto is relatively round and orbits the Sun but it does not meet the criteria because its orbit crosses Neptune's orbit.

 

It also established two new categories of objects in orbit around the Sun: dwarf planets and small solar-system bodies. According to the resolution, a dwarf planet is:

A celestial body that (a) is in orbit around the Sun, (b) has sufficient mass for its self-gravity to overcome rigid body forces so that it assumes a hydrostatic equilibrium (nearly round) shape, (c) has not cleared the neighbourhood [sic] around its orbit, and (d) is not a satellite.

Hello Pluto! You may not be a full-fledged planet, but you're still a cutie-pie dwarf-planet.

I knew I recognised that face from somewhere

Remember the ball-busting surfer girl in Point Break?

Or the young, pig-tailed chickie starring alongside Geena Davis in A League of their Own?

I spotted the same face (Lori Petty) in Season 2 of Orange is the New Black but this time it bore lines and wrinkles, and a grey buzz cut. Only the distinct high-pitched, somewhat squeaky voice remained the same. You can see the reaction from her costar.

Page turners

About 5-6 years ago I came across a series of books written by Alexander McCall Smith: The No. 1 Ladies Detective Agency. It was pretty popular at the time and the books were easy to read. There were half a dozen or so books published and I avidly read through all of them, one after the other, until I'd finished the series.

Today I discovered that in those 5-6 years since I read them, he wrote another six novels in the series. Boo-ya! Discovering more volumes in a series of novels you enjoy is right up there with finding a scrunched up $20 in the pocket of your jacket.

It's set in Botswana and the central character is an obese woman who enjoys sticking her nose into everyone's business, usually over a fat piece of cake, to solve little mysteries.

I've also just discovered the BBC has developed a TV series based on the novels but I doubt I'd watch it... it's like my own mental image of Agatha Christie's Poirot is much better than the actor's portrayal.

Although having said that, in my mind Miss Marple is  Angela Lansbury. I guess that's what happens when you see the television version before reading the books

The greatest thing since sliced bread

Sliced bread was first introduced to America by Wonder Bread, after the whiz-band bread slicing machine was developed by a guy named Otto Rohwedder.

Apparently, an article printed about the newfangled machine at the time claimed the typical housewife could expect “a thrill of pleasure when she first sees a loaf of this bread with each slice the exact counterpart of its fellows. So neat and precise are the slices, and so definitely better than anyone could possibly slice by hand with a bread knife that one realizes instantly that here is a refinement that will receive a hearty and permanent welcome.”

The phrase "the greatest/best thing since sliced bread" is attributed to Wonder Bread promotion: "the greatest step... since bread was wrapped.

These days of course, we have sandwich and toast sliced thicknesses - I doubt Otto's machine was sophisticated enough to be adapted to different slicing widths but I could be wrong!

When I was at high school, I worked in a local bakery and sliced many a loaf of bread (both sandwich and toast) using the slicers. I got it down to a fine art but never really stopped to wonder who invented the thing.

A quick Google search shows me secondhand commercial slicers can be purchased on ebay for around $800-900.

A latte is better value for money

The difference between a latte, cappuccino and a flat white? I always knew it came down to the quantities of milk, coffee and froth/foam but I've never been clear on the details. So now I know...

While all three start with a single shot of espresso, only lattes and cappuccinos have milk froth on the top. A flat white (as the name suggests) is filled with steamed milk and no froth. They're mostly enjoyed in Australia and New Zealand.

Order a flat white in a café anywhere in Europe, and the barista will most likely cock their head to one side and shoot you a quizzical "huh?" look that transcends language.

Some of the Brits are catching on simply because of the number of Aussies and Kiwis floating about over there.

But if you want the foam top, you then have the choice between a cappuccino and a latte. The difference between them is the cappuccino has more froth - about twice the volume of milk in the mug. A latte has a much smaller head of froth.

So if you're one of those people who likes to taste milk in their first sip (rather than a mouthful of foam) you'd best steer clear of cappuccinos and order a latte.

Now that's a cool flag

The flag of Estonia looks like this:

Chocolate eclairs are both easy and not-so-easy to make

It turns out the recipe for choux pastry is pretty straightforward (only four ingredients) but baking them (at two different temperatures), piping in the whipped cream and melting the chocolate is pretty fiddly. Oh and even five minutes longer in the oven can totally destroy them.

I no longer fear smashing the microwave plate

Or need worry about cleaning hardened cheese that has melted onto it as a result of a re-heating explosion. Why? Because our kitchen now proudly displays a flatbed (or plate-less) microwave.

According to the guy in the store, they are the next big thing in microwave technology. 

Soon the machines with the turntable plate will be to the flatbeds as the discman is to the MP3 player.

The muscular tongue

The tongue is made up of eight muscles (I won't bother listing here what each of them are called because they're long, complicated words that won't stick in my memory so therefore can't be counted as something I've learnt).

But something else I found out is that the average length of a person's tongue is 10cm when measured from oropharynx - the place in the back of the throat where the tongue begins - to the tip.

That seems pretty darn long to me but I reckon Gene Simmons' tongue is even longer!

The current world record holder for the longest tongue is a guy in California, whose tongue measures 10.1cm from its tip to the middle of his top lip (so, not including all the tongue inside his mouth back to the oropharynx. Crazy.

That's him on the right.

Better than the shoe-phone

If I was a secret agent (a la Maxwell Smart) and had electronic documents I didn't want anyone to find, I'd hide them on this handy USB.

Seriously? Who the hell thought up USB that looks like a tampon? And thought people would want to pay money for it? I can only imagine the reception this entrepreneur would have received on The Shark Tank.

It's not a funny shaped, bald bee after all

I've been watching The Hive on ABC Kids with my young son. It's kind of cute, in a everybody-does-the-right-thing-all-the-time way.

But I'd noticed one of the little bees looked different to the others. He didn't look fuzzy and rather than being nicely spherical he looked kid of pushed out of shape. That's him, second from the right.

His name's Jasper.

I figured it must be the producers attempt at showing physical variety. You know, we all look different, not everyone is the same, and all that.

But today I learned he looks different because he isn't meant to be a bee. He's a wasp!

What are those glasses in my kitchen?

I've got a bunch of random wine glasses in my cupboard. Some look really small and some look really large. I don't seem to have any "normal"sized wine glasses. To tell the truth, I'm not even sure what type of glasses I've got; for all I know, I've been serving white wine in a red wine glass.

So I decided to educate myself. I'm not much a drinker but there's no need to advertise it through this ignorance at dinner parties. Judging from the table below, I reckon I've got some Large Bordeaux and some Standard Sweet glasses. Hmmm...not too impressive.

What's IT called?

The fear of clowns is called coulrophobia. Apparently people find clowns scary because they wear masks and don't show any real emotion (smiles painted on and whatnot).

 

 

Superheroes wear masks and don't tend to show emotion (take Batman's monotone voice as testament) but people don't seem to be afraid of them.

 

Of course not! I hear you say. Superheroes help people. Aren't clowns supposed to entertain people, make them laugh? How is it one good intention can be accepted while another cannot?

Another Google search reveals maskophobia is the fear of masks while metamfiezomaiophobia is the name given to the broader fear of mimes, clowns and people in disguise. I supposed that would include superheroes?
 



James and the Giant Perve?

I was reading the Roald Dahl classic aloud to my little one today when I heard myself describing the scene where James meets the mysterious little man who gives him what turns out to be the seed that grows the giant peach.

As I was reading it, it dawned on me how creepy the scenario sounded: James, a sad little 10 year old boy is sitting in alone in some bushes when a weird looking old man appears from nowhere.

In the bushes, remember.

As if that wasn't enough, he then invites James to "Come closer to me, little boy... come right up close to me and I will show you something wonderful."

Is it just me or is every parent in the world screaming inside their head at James to run! Run away!

Don't go anywhere near this disgusting weirdo in the bushes who's wanting you to get close to him so he can show you something you've never seen before?

That my first thought when reading this was the man was a weirdo pervert rather than a good natured old fellow with harmless magical fruit may be a disturbing indictment of society but I wonder, if submitted for publication today, would editors re-write this part of the story? I mean, doesn't it teach kids that yes, it's ok to approach a strange weirdo and accept whatever surprises they have hiding in their coat?

Something's actually gotten less expensive

A couple of my friends are planning a family. They've found a family planning centre and a doctor they like. Over a cup of coffee with the girls I learned that intrauterine insemination and IVF are much more affordable these days than I thought.

I'd heard from friends years ago that they'd pay around the $10,000 mark per IVF implantation. And I'd never really given any thought to the cost of insemination.

But it turns out the out of pocket expense for IVF is less than half that amount now and insemination is under $2000 a shot with BYO sperm.

This is one of my favourite Gary Larson cartoons :-)

There are actually six Mary Poppins books

The heading really says it all for this one. I've not read the books but enjoyed the movie as a little girl and the stage show more recently. I might have to read the books now too.

The six books are called:

1. Mary Poppins
2. Mary Poppins Comes Back
3. Mary Poppins Opens the Door (gee whiz, that sounds like a page turner!)
4. Mary Poppins in the Park
5. Mary Poppins in Cherry Tree Lane
6. Mary Poppins and the House Next Door

There's someone worse with numbers than I am

Numbers aren't my strong suit but the prices below don't seem to add up.



Seems smarter to pick up a 400ml bottle of lemon scented Palmolive dishwashing liquid from the left and save $1.75 rather than the same bottle from the right side to save only $1.

 

Perhaps Coles should reconsider stickering their specials during the wee hours of the morning when their staff are perhaps not wide awake?

 

Woof! Woof! AAAARGH.....!!!

The medical term given to the fear of dogs is Cynophobia.

Slugs and centipedes

David Attenborough told me today that slugs are hermaphrodites while centipedes have males and females. Useless information really, but it was something I didn't know before today.

Apparently most hermaphroditic animals are fish (not all of them but a far few species) or invertebrates including snails, worms and echinoderms (a marine invertebrate).

As a small aside, on 8 May this year David Attenborough will turn 89 years old! He was married at 24, and had two children, Robert and Susan. From this I'm assuming he wasn't a hermaphrodite.

Black tie tampons

The first time I needed to purchase sanitary products after giving birth to my son, I grabbed the usual coloured box from the shelf.

It wasn't until I got home that I realised a lot had changed in the 18-odd months since my last purchase. It seemed the tampons now wore dresses. Pretty little white wedding dresses.

I was a little unnerved. They'd been the same design forever, hadn't they? Now all of a sudden they were totally different. I wondered just how long I'd been out of it. Was this some kind of dream? Had I gotten a dodgy batch?

Maybe they were meant to be ghosts. Was it some kind of Halloween promotion? No, it wasn't October.

Lettuce inflation

Today was the first time I've seen the humble iceberg lettuce cost $3.48.

Right after my eyebrows had settled back down into their normal positions, I was filled with a vague sense that our farmers must be going through some tough times.

I guess I figure the price of lettuce is like an unofficial barometer of the farmers' situation.

In an effort to learn more, I found some interviews with growers on the Coles website.

Undoubtedly engineered to generate positive PR for the supermarket giant, I still found them interesting.

I learnt it takes 6-10 weeks for lettuces to be ready for harvesting from the commercial farm, and their ideal growing conditions are cool nights and sunny days.

 

What happened to the recorder?

Today I discovered that whoever lives in the house two doors down from me is not only learning the drums, they've taken up electric guitar. Either that or they're forming a band of beginners.

There's nothing quite like hearing the same rhythmical bang of a drum kit every day for hours at a time. Except perhaps what sounds like jerky chords being plucked repeatedly on an electric guitar.

What's the most annoying instrument your neighbour has been learning to play?

I imagine the bagpipes would make the ears bleed. Don't get me wrong, I actually enjoy the sound of a soulful lone piper or even a band of them.

I've been to the Edinburgh Military Tattoo (both the original in Scotland's capital and the travelling version in Sydney) and my nephew plays the pipes but I imagine the first time he or anyone else nestled it beneath their armpit it sounded pretty brutal.

I don't think I'd like a neighbour to play the harp. You might think it's sound calming but I reckon if it woke you up in the morning you might imagine you'd died in your sleep and start looking about for the pearly gates.

The tuba, trumpet, trombone or pretty much anything in the brass section might be a bit trying too. Remember, we're talking about learner musicians here, not skilled blues saxophonists.

The sax, clarinet and anything that uses a reed would also be risky. I learnt* to the play the clarinet for two years while I was in high school, so I know just how bad the instrument can sound with an old, chipped reed.

*A point of clarification, in this context when I say learnt, I mean I had a clarinet, turned up to lessons once a week and even ended up sitting in the school band for a while but I never practised and therefore never actually learnt to play anything more than Hot Cross Buns.

90 cent cocktail... without the hangover

I picked up a bottle of this Pineapple and Mango flavoured mineral water today. It's very tasty and today I realised... it tastes remarkably like the ol' Malibu and pineapple drink so popular at backyard parties in the 90s and early 00s.

Since it's actually not alcoholic, it comes without any hangover and is loads cheaper - just 90 cents for a 1.25L bottle of the stuff.

Next time I think I'll pour it into a tall glass over crushed ice and decorate with a wedge of fresh pineapple, a glace cherry and little pink parasol. How festive!

Banging my head against a brick wall (metaphorically, of course)

Today's lesson was more of a reminder: no matter how many times I ask/remind/nag, there are some things my husband will never do. At least, not consistently.

Somewhere at the top of the list is putting his dirty socks in a washing basket. In our house, the basket has always lived in our upstairs bedroom and hubby always discards his socks downstairs, in the living room or even the kitchen.

So I got a second clothes basket, which I put in the laundry downstairs in the hope that the closer proximity would encourage more basket deposits.

Irritatingly, I often now discover the dirty socks on the floor right beside the basket.

And I still find them huddled in their original hiding spots in the living room and kitchen.

Incidentally, the hiding place in the photo is between two decorative baskets on the shelf of our coffee table.

When pressed, he explains the reason for stuffing them in there is to avoid having dog hair from the floorboards stick to the soles after he's taken his shoes off.

My question: can he not see the hair that's also on the shelf there, between the baskets??

Savings rain check

 

How annoying is it when you go to the supermarket to nab a bargain you spotted in the junk mail only to find the sale sticker beneath an empty space on the shelf?

Today I found out that just because other shoppers got up earlier and cleared the shelf before you could get your half price toothpaste/nappies/washing detergent/that other expensive item you need in your home, doesn't mean you miss out on the savings.

In fact, it could mean you score even more savings. If the product advertised isn't available, you can get a rain check from the store that allows you to redeem the sale price on the item another day.

Apparently these rain check thingies are valid for 12 months so there's nothing to stop you from going to another store that day to get the bargain then squirrel the rain check away in a drawer somewhere to use later in the year when you've run out again.

So it seems the early bird gets only one worm while the bird that slept in or had something better to do that buy shampoo can actually get more than one worm :-)

A very thrifty stay-at-home-Mum also taught me today that when things are on sale you can take evidence of it to Big W for a price match, then lay buy a bunch of them for continued savings. Say nappies were on sale at Woolies for $25 rather than $33 a box. You could get Big W to price match their boxes for $25 and put 20 boxes on lay by at $25 each to save yourself $160.

As a new Mum, I've come to realise just how many nappies babies actually go through in a week and how much you can end up forking out for them over the months so this is definitely something worth considering. Assuming you can bring yourself to claim the price match from the pimply faced Big W customer service assistant before wheeling half a dozen trolleys full of nappies to the lay by counter.

Some lovely news

Today I found out one of my best friends is expecting her third baby. Happy days!

The best smoothie

I've just created the best mango smoothie recipe.

Simply toss the following in the Nutri Bullet:

• Flesh of one mango
• Few generous scroops of frozen passionfruit yoghurt
• Splash of orange juice
• Milk
• Squeeze of manuka honey

Whizz together and there you have it! The same recipe can be used with a banana instead of the mango for the world's best banana smoothie.

It seems fruit smoothies is the latest to be added to my list of foods I won't order when eating out because I can make it just as well at home. Yay me.

The raw prawn

There's a saying in Aussie slang: "Don't come the raw prawn", which refers to someone trying to deceive or pull one over on the person shouting about the prawn.

It's really anyone's guess where random sayings like this one come from but there's a theory that it comes down to a raw prawn being wet and slippery, like someone trying to get away with something dodgy. Seems a bit of a stretch, doesn't it?

Can you imagine being on the receiving end the very first time this saying/accusation was voiced? To be in the middle of some kind of confrontation and have someone scream at you about being a raw prawn? I imagine it'd be quite bewildering.

The reason I learnt this today is because it's Australia Day and I spotted this sign outside a fire station.

The meaning of the sign is fairly easily inferred but I Googled it anyway to see what I could learn.

If we accept that being a raw prawn is being deceptive, I'm not immediately sure how it fits with keeping an eye on the barbeque and fire safety.

Unless there's meant to be a joke muddled in there about people cooking raw prawns on their barbies. But why call the chef the raw prawn?

I'm afraid it still doesn't quite connect for me.

Gnomes convene

Today the 11th Annual Gnome Convention was held in Glenrook, Blue Mountains.

Yes, that's right.  Not only is there such a thing as a Gnome Convention, it's been held 11 times over as many years. Hundreds of people attend the event apparently, speaking Gnomish (whatever that is) and competing for a bunch of awards including Bushfire Gnome Survivors, Sporting Gnomes and Rescued Gnomes.

Who knew there was such variety of gnomes? Seems like the little fellas you can buy at Bunnings to stick in the garden are the plebs of the gnome community.

I was also surprised to learn there are two definitions of gnome: 

1. shrivelled little old men that inhabit the interior of the earth and guard treasure (this one I knew).

2. an expert in monetary or financial affairs; international banker or financier (say what?)

 

I suppose that means a real gnome is a shrivelled little old bank teller.

Bambi's mother lives!

In this version of the story, Bambi's mother isn't shot.

Reading it to my son, I was waiting for it to happen, half thinking I'd skip over that scene while he's young enough not to notice the gap in the story.


But it never came.

I've always avoided watching the Disney cartoon simply because it's too sad to see the mother killed while protecting her baby. Yes, I know it's an animation and it's not real but it's still an upsetting concept.

I have the same problem watching Dumbo. The mother elephant isn't killed but she's chained and locked away in a cell for protecting her baby. And that scene where she caresses him with her trunk through the bars of her cage is heartbreaking.

There are a number of cartoons that sacrifice the mother character, either on-screen for all to see or in some unseen incident many years earlier.

I can only think of one where the daddy dies protecting his kid: who could forget the scene (and the tears) when Mufasa falls to his death by stampede in The Lion King?

There's an interesting article about it: http://www.theatlantic.com/magazine/archive/2014/07/why-are-all-the-cartoon-mothers-dead/372270/

That's a big ball

There are up to 80 calories in one milk Lindt Lindor ball. I say up to because a friend told me it was 70, one website I found says 73 while others say 78, 79 and 80 calories.

Imagine how many calories there are in those massive Lindt balls. A regular sized milk ball weighs 11g and the massive one weights 425g. So the massive one is roughly 38.6 times bigger than the bite-sized ball. Multiplied by 80 and you're looking at 3090 calories.

Whoa.

Jelly Belly beans

There are 50 different flavours of Jelly Belly jelly beans.

My husband got this mega jar of jelly beans for his birthday. It reminds me of those competitions where you guess how many jelly beans are in the jar to win it. Seriously, who would want to win a big jar of jelly beans, each of which has been man-handled by the person counting them into the jar, one by one?

The real guessing competition should be what bacteria can be found on the beans. My money is on E Coli. Ew.

Pretty much every fruit is accounted for as well as popular cocktails (including pina colada and strawberry daiquiri) and soft drinks such as Sunkist, root beer and Doctor Pepper!

There are also some pretty unusual flavours including buttery popcorn, toasted marshmallow and caramel corn.

I'm not sure how they come up with the flavours. Is it someone's job just to think up flavours?

If that was my job, I'd introduce international flavour jelly beans based on national dishes. I do admit some of the ideas below sound gross but I still reckon there'd be markets in the patriots, tourists and the curious.



Australia - Vegemite; lamington; meat pie and sauce; Twisties; Tim Tam.
Japan - wasabi; soy sauce; teriyaki.
USA - BBQ sauce; cheeseburger.
Germany - frankfurter; beer.
France - various cheeses; champagne; chocolate croissant; pate.
Dutch - marijuana (that'd be addictive!); waffles; that tasty mayo that goes on their hot chips.
Italian - pizza, Bolognese, espresso, garlic bread.
Scotland - haggis, fish supper.
India - butter chicken, korma, lentil.