The one where I pretend to be a Chef

I like food.

A lot.

I like a lot of food.

I like to try new things when I eat out, having the belief that there wouldn't be anything on a menu that would kill you. There might be a bit that is repulsive, but nothing that should kill you.

Yesterday I added to the collection of gadgets and things with a Paella pan from the nice people at the Paella pan place in Mt.Eden.

I didn't opt for the Stainless Steel one, the one with the red handles on the advice of the Paella man.

He told me, and I have no reason to doubt him, or I am an easy sell, that there are a couple of things with the steel pans that I need to know.

1) They don't cook evenly, being steel they don't have an even heat, and the edges can be cooler than the center.

2) They are higher maintenance, being steel they can show rust, and need to be kept dry and oiled when not in use.

[caption id="attachment_3238" align="alignleft" width="147"] A enamelled Paella Pan[/caption]

So I went for the Enamelled version, which he assures me has a more even heat and although is less aesthetically pleasing was the superior pan, in his opinion. I picked up some rice, and some instant paella mix that he also recommended and I toddled off. All that I need now is the stock, the seafood and an hour to prepare and eat.And after cooking it will end up in the gadget cupboard.

The Gadget cupboard that contains, amongst other things,

• Ice-Cream Maker


• Tortilla Press


• Pasta Machine


• Bread Tins


• mandolin


• Mortal and Pestle


• Pizza Stones

There is still  room however for

• A Tagine


• Deep Fat Fryer

Oh and if you're wondering the slow-cooker lives in another cupboard, but not all by itself, it's with the sandwich press.

The Drama of Home Theatre....

 

I also learnt today that Home Theatre is something I no longer grasp. Although I've yet to be convinced that a $20 HDMI cable is worse than a $90 cable I've learnt that the number of cable variants and where they go present a challenge to my old man mind.  The emphasis should be on Theatre, or perhaps they could rename it Minor Drama.

 

[caption id="" align="alignleft" width="75"] LaserDisk Recorder (Photo credit: Joachim S. Müller)[/caption]

 

I miss the ikea style of how to do things, and to be presented not only an A, B or C choice but also an a,b or c choice did nothing but confuse me.

 

That and the unhelpful owners manual, which appeared to be thrown together in the style of one of those chose you own adventure books, if you chose option A got to page 48, if you chose option B got to page 63, where it tells you to refer to page 38.

 

It's not hard, mostly it's just pass-though wiring, plug in an input get an output, but 3 hours and I gave up on the accessory that was just designed to torment.

 

However the old Betamax collection gets a new lease of life, and I might crack out the Philips Videodisc player , as reward for my endeavours.

 

Foursquare, now there's a thing, I became the Mayor!

I was Foursquare Mayor of my house, the street I live in, the street I drive down to get into my street, the bit of the motorway I get stuck on in the morning, a few local businesses and one or two places I shopped at, and quite a few that I didn't. I was mayor of a couple of shopping malls.

I was at one point Mayor of the place I worked and of three of our competitor companies. I became mayor of a car park, and a playground. I was mayor of the 3 different versions of the hockey stadium.

I think I had 17 mayoralties all going for me at one point. Clearly I'd missed the point.

And you know what the useless thing about foursquare was? That someone could take my mayoralty from me, and being ever so slightly OCD that's not going to work out for me. Or them, because then it became a staking game where all I would do it redouble my efforts to become mayor again, and rob them of "Mayor of playground" title that I so covet!

Never mind that it has a business application, I'm sure that some companies have fantastic offers and incentives to check-in to their establishment, a loyalty card scheme, I was mayor of 17 places, all for my own ego.

And you can only be mayor or wannabe mayor. You can't be a councillor or assistant to the mayor, it's all or nothing. You can earn "badges" for various things, these are but trivia compared to be being Mayor.

They had a mayor only party at skycity one time. You could only get in if you were mayor of somewhere, how whacked is that? Do they still have that every month? Don't know never went, never was going to, and couldn't understand why I would.

So I stopped using it, since it appears to be a solution that has no problem, a pissing competition for the OCD, and a terribly gauche way of showing off your coffee habit.

The simple life.

We have a simple house. We don't have clutter, we have few trinkets and nick nacks. What we tend to have is less things that are slightly more expensive. Which sounds a bit pretentions, we have things that we can afford at the time, and we shop diligently in sales and looks for opportunities. We don't buy on whim, we find our need and then investigate the options and buy according to our wallet.

We don't carry any credit card or HP debt.

We had a bit of an open home thing, well it was a pre-ball gathering for daughter and her friends and parents, nothing at all flash, just a couple of hours of get together before the party bus arrived.

Many of the fathers of daughters found it pleasing that I had "all the gadgets "and daughter has had her friends tell her she is rich! as if.

The 'gadgets' then are; A 50" panel TV, a Cannon EOS SLR, and an iPad. There is a Tivoli Radio in the kitchen and an iPod Dock.

Like i said simple things and not exactly gadget land.

It's nice to have a simple household, it does not mean it does not get messy, I'm sure you'd be horrified if you visited at the clutter, but I like it like that.

Getting Carried Away aways

But only with my idea that I'd write an entry a day, perhaps that can wait for the new year when I may just give it a crack.

The end of the year always brings some new hopes and some dashed ones. I'm really not looking forward to having to be nice for so long with people I'd rather not be with, but you can't pick family can you ?

I worked out how much I might get paid, and then I realised that I don't understand that either anymore. The carrot does not look so big in nibble sized bits.

So next year then, or more this year when I indulge my good intentions.

Perhaps as well as something daily or an honest attempt at I should go for

1. An audience, be proud of this, we can all be popular if the daily newspapers indulge people


2. Content, we can all be popular if we bag stuff right?


3. Get a high horse subject- become a radical!

Or just write it as I see it, the Interweb is full of memes