Category Archives: rants

wardrobe switch-over

17 Friday Nov 2006

Posted by in clothing, life stuff, rants

≈ 7 Comments

coathanger.jpg Gaaaaaaaaaaaaa!

Need I say more? Never enough hangers, never enough space. Drives me mental.

Anyhow, last weekend took the first steps towards wardrobe switch-over for winter. Sweaters out again, summer dresses packed into boxes. Drawers of socks and tights and long-sleeved t-shirts seeing the light of day for the first time since last March.

Before Nog moved in – and before we started our clothing biz – I had closet and drawer space galore. Never even had to do the switch-over, just used a different closet. But now the closets in our spare room are full of ‘product’ and the second closet in the bedroom is now Nog’s … well okay, mostly his 😉 .

So any day now I’m going to do my annual purge … do you do this too? Any general rules? Like, if you haven’t worn it in two years then out it goes? Or what?

All I know is I need more space and I don’t want to look at another hanger!

a matter of timing

17 Tuesday Oct 2006

Posted by in food & drink, life stuff, rants

≈ 33 Comments

timer.jpg

I sooooooooooooo need one of these!

And I can’t find one anywhere. Well, I can find either a 3€ or 25€ version, but nothing in between. Nothing just like that basic good ol’ kitchen timer like I used to have.

I bought the 3€ version out of desperation awhile ago – it was in the shape of a lemon. I bought it because the only other options were a tomato or a green pepper. And of course it stopped working after about two weeks.

Meanwhile, it’s all your fault I need this timer! 😉 I can’t recall the amount of meals that have been burnt and totally ruined as a result of me ‘putting something on the stove’ and then sitting down in front of the computer ‘for just a minute’ and then forgetting all about it until I could either see or smell smoke!

I used to have a timer exactly like the one in the pic and it lasted for years and years and years and maybe cost $5. But it was one of the many things that got left behind when I moved to England from Toronto. Like my egg piercer – think I could find one in Spain? A friend visiting from TO finally brought one over for me. And I would have asked for a timer too, but I didn’t have a computer then.

Anyhow, not a very focussed rant here. Can’t tell if it’s really about not being able to find a basic kitchen timer in Sevilla or the fact that I need one because I keep burning meals from losing track of time on the computer. Probably a bit of both.

And so Nog didn’t end up getting pasta with lunch today – had to improvise with some quick-to-make garlic toast thingys. And now there is a lovely stainless steel pot in the sink with burnt pasta welded to it. Ah well, never mind. Apparently worse things happen at sea . . .

fashion police

14 Saturday Oct 2006

Posted by in life stuff, media, rants

≈ 19 Comments

fashionpolice.jpg Don’t you sometimes wish they existed? 😉

Nog and I were out shopping earlier today and, being a Saturday morning, there were lots of weddings going on. This caused a few comments from my own inner fashion policewoman upon seeing what many of these people were wearing – especially as a lot of time, money and effort had obviously been spent on some of these ghastly ensembles. Later on we stopped for a cold beer outside on a terrace near a small church where we were treated to a fashion victim show as wedding guests paraded past us.

I honestly did not see one woman who looked genuinely stylish and attractive in her outfit. Mostly it was a sad array of unfortunate hats (prompting Nog to wonder aloud if there was actually a silly hat contest going on), unflattering dresses with mis-matched shoes and gawd-awful accessories, all of which raised the obvious question . . . why???

The general public fared slightly better, though one man wearing raspberry coloured trousers really should not have been allowed out of the house, likewise another guy we saw in a mauve shirt and pale pink trousers … gaaa! Nog commented that at least I was luckier than him as I was wearing sunglasses and said being colour blind (as he is) was sometimes a blessing. But even Mr Pink & Mauve made him wince.

So . . . why??? Why do so many people dress so badly?

easy open?

28 Thursday Sep 2006

Posted by in food & drink, life stuff, rants

≈ 21 Comments

easy-open.jpg Yeah sure . . .

Why is it that so many of these new ‘easy open’ products end up being anything but?

To be fair, the round flip top tins do tend to open quite easily, but rectangular tins usually get stuck at about the 2/3 open point so you end up having to dig out the sardines (or whatever) with a fork while you risk having your thumb sliced open by the sharp edge of the partially opened lid.

But the worst offenders have to be the tear-off tetrabrick packages which usually end up with a small fountain of juice, etc landing all of the kitchen work surface (and often on oneself). And that is only if it can be torn open – usually scissors are required.

Then there are the ‘easy open and re-sealable’ cellophane packets of pasta. Ha! These seem to have been sealed with superglue so that when you gently pull the top open the cellophane rips half-way down the packet and meanwhile the ‘re-seal’ sticky tabs immediately lose all stickyness and so even if you managed to get the thing open without destroying the packet a clothespeg is required to seal it up again.

I know it’s a silly rant, but it’s the blatant ‘false promise’ by these marketing guys that mostly annoys me. Like, who are they trying to kid? f_cross.gif

spam, spam, spam, spam…

29 Tuesday Aug 2006

Posted by in media, miscellany, rants

≈ 10 Comments

golden_honey_spam.jpg What the hell’s going on here?

I’ve recently been finding comments in my Akismet Spam file from people who have been posting here regularly.

Not only that, but most of the comments I’ve been posting lately have ended up in the Spam file … including comments I’ve posted on my own blogs! WTF?

And well, when they happen on my own blogs I can easily remedy the situation by going to Akismet and de-spamming comments. But I just posted a comment on Ivan’s blog and it didn’t show up so I’ve had to email him and ask him to de-spam me. Most inconvenient, not to mention annoying and confusing.

I’ve sent an email to WordPress Support and hope to hear from them soon. Just wondering if anyone else has been noticing this happening on their WordPress blogs?