We've been away at a church camp for the last few days - went there on Friday afternoon and came back this afternoon, so almost three whole days. My wife and I were assisting the chief cook to prepare the meals, afternoon and morning teas and suppers for up to 140 people, and keep the kitchen from getting in a total state of chaos. So it was up early (started around 7 am on average) and finishing well after the evening meal - by which time supper would also have been prepared and laid out. We did this regime last year too, though that was over a shorter period of time. We'd learned one or two tricks as a result. For instance, just because the chief cook is apparently capable to going from 7 am until whenever at night, doesn't mean we have to do the same. I remember last year sitting down at one point from utter exhaustion - after having stood for several hours (it seemed) - and feeling guilty. This year I just went off and had a quick kip, or sat and read for a while in the motel unit we were occupying. It didn't hold anyone up and I was all the better for it (my wife did this too). In spite of that, both my wife and I have come home very weary, with sore feet and legs, and feel like having the rest of the week off. The indefatigable chief cook goes back to work tomorrow, and not in a job that's in any way lightweight. Some people just have inexhaustible reserves.
She's also wonderful to work with. You can ask as many questions as you like and she's always patient - so you kind of receive on the job training. Next year - if there is a next year - I might even be able to make the 'home-made' ice cream from memory without having to ask her yet again what to do. (The home-made ice cream actually has cream in it, and condensed milk, and crushed up Crunchie Bars. It's unbelievably rich, and not a good thing to make if you don't have any discipline about licking up the leftover condensed milk...)
Showing posts with label ice cream. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ice cream. Show all posts
Monday, October 28, 2013
Monday, May 21, 2012
Grandparents
I once got into a little bit of trouble for writing a poem about grandparents - you can see the poem here and see why it might be misinterpreted.
On the other hand, one of the most popular articles I've ever published online was also about grandparents. For a brief spell, it received dozens of comments (some entirely missing the point that it was tongue-in-cheek, as was the poem mentioned above) and earned me a bit of cash via Google Adsense.
I was reminded about these two pieces when I came across the phrase personalized grandparent gifts just now. Hmm...personalized grandparent gifts; so like our dear friends in the US of A to find yet another marketing ploy. Next we'll be celebrating Grandparents Day (or maybe it'll be split into Grandfather Day and Grandmother Day) - in fact, if it wasn't for the fact that the Internet is having one of its occasional down moments I could tell you whether any of these days already exist. And I suspect they do!
Okay, an hour later...and the Internet is back again (in the meantime we've been out to see one of my aunts - for the first time in some years) and yes, there is a National Grandparents' Day, and it's been going since 1978, and, as I suspected, some places even separate out a Grandfather and Grandmother day. Good grief. Next it'll be National Auntie Day or Uncle Day...wait. No need to wait - here's the gen on the Aunt and Uncle's Day. Supposedly it's celebrated on July 26th. I suspect it might be a bit of a have, along with Creative Ice Cream Day or Compliment Your Mirror Day or Amelia Earhart Day, and a bunch of others.
Oh, dear.
Wednesday, April 25, 2012
Things that bug me
Why don't supermarkets put ice cream cones next to the ice cream tubs? I remember to buy the ice cream, but forget the cones because each supermarket stores in them in a different place, like amongst the cereals, for instance (at Countdown) or in some quite obscure place which I can never remember (New World) .
Something that bugs me more, however, is why people in obituaries or reports about someone who died doing something that involved extreme sport - or even mountain climbing - insist on writing: He (it's nearly always a He) died doing what he loved. Is that the best way to die? I think dying in your bed overnight of really old age would be a much better way to go.
Do I really want to die typing a blog, or in the middle of composing a song, or playing the piano, or watching a great movie? Nope. Give me the quiet death in a bed in the middle of the night when I'm in my old age any time, when I've seen my grandchildren, when I've learned to live with someone for forty or fifty or sixty years.
The papers recently reported the death from cardiac arrest of a 30-year-old Southland woman (Natasha Harris) who'd been drinking at least eight litres of Coca Cola a day for several years without any other kind of liquid to counterbalance it - and often without any proper food. The family, reportedly, said Coca Cola should be blamed. (We like to have someone else to blame, these days.)
Did she die doing what she loved? Seemingly...
And following from that, here's another thing that bugs me: Peter Dunne, the MP, was quoted today as saying: “Preventing suicide is everyone’s responsibility." But is it? People in high places always seem to be saying: stopping this or preventing that is the responsibility of everyone. It's a concise way of saying two things: people in the community don't care (in fact they do), and it's not really our responsibility as leaders to do everything (no, it's not, but have you realised that you're part of the community, and therefore preventing or stopping these things is part of your responsibility, if you're going to mean what you say).
I sometimes feel that when someone in authority adds this phrase to a report of someone's death or in relation to a serious accident, or whatever, that they really mean that you and I could have prevented this. Well, you and I might have been able to, but equally we might not.
The Southland woman was the mother of eight children - and she was only thirty. Blaming the community in her case is ridiculous - the children had a father, the woman had a mother. They knew how much she reacted to the Coca Cola - she was vomiting every day. But no one close to her seems to have taken responsibility. Surely preventing something begins at home, rather than in the wider community.
You could say that perhaps these people were too close to her and that she wouldn't listen. Well, there are plenty of health officials out there capable to dealing with something like this, and if she wouldn't listen to her family, surely they could have called in some professional help. Or am I being naive and judgemental?
I struggle with the limits of what I can be responsible for at the best of times, and always feel I don't live up to (my) expectations as to what I could do. But blanket statements about everyone being responsible are nothing more than blanket: they mostly seem to be ways of avoiding the actual issue of who is responsible, and whether they're doing anything about it.
Something that bugs me more, however, is why people in obituaries or reports about someone who died doing something that involved extreme sport - or even mountain climbing - insist on writing: He (it's nearly always a He) died doing what he loved. Is that the best way to die? I think dying in your bed overnight of really old age would be a much better way to go.
Do I really want to die typing a blog, or in the middle of composing a song, or playing the piano, or watching a great movie? Nope. Give me the quiet death in a bed in the middle of the night when I'm in my old age any time, when I've seen my grandchildren, when I've learned to live with someone for forty or fifty or sixty years.
The papers recently reported the death from cardiac arrest of a 30-year-old Southland woman (Natasha Harris) who'd been drinking at least eight litres of Coca Cola a day for several years without any other kind of liquid to counterbalance it - and often without any proper food. The family, reportedly, said Coca Cola should be blamed. (We like to have someone else to blame, these days.)
Did she die doing what she loved? Seemingly...
And following from that, here's another thing that bugs me: Peter Dunne, the MP, was quoted today as saying: “Preventing suicide is everyone’s responsibility." But is it? People in high places always seem to be saying: stopping this or preventing that is the responsibility of everyone. It's a concise way of saying two things: people in the community don't care (in fact they do), and it's not really our responsibility as leaders to do everything (no, it's not, but have you realised that you're part of the community, and therefore preventing or stopping these things is part of your responsibility, if you're going to mean what you say).
I sometimes feel that when someone in authority adds this phrase to a report of someone's death or in relation to a serious accident, or whatever, that they really mean that you and I could have prevented this. Well, you and I might have been able to, but equally we might not.
The Southland woman was the mother of eight children - and she was only thirty. Blaming the community in her case is ridiculous - the children had a father, the woman had a mother. They knew how much she reacted to the Coca Cola - she was vomiting every day. But no one close to her seems to have taken responsibility. Surely preventing something begins at home, rather than in the wider community.
You could say that perhaps these people were too close to her and that she wouldn't listen. Well, there are plenty of health officials out there capable to dealing with something like this, and if she wouldn't listen to her family, surely they could have called in some professional help. Or am I being naive and judgemental?
I struggle with the limits of what I can be responsible for at the best of times, and always feel I don't live up to (my) expectations as to what I could do. But blanket statements about everyone being responsible are nothing more than blanket: they mostly seem to be ways of avoiding the actual issue of who is responsible, and whether they're doing anything about it.
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