mundane

5kg for £5.50 Added 11.12.11 one year later i can buy the same rice for £5.

london

Life is just ordinary these days. I mean in the day to day living. But i should not say that today really because i had a fantastic sex session with my shag this afternoon. But somehow i still think my life is quite ordinary.

It just goes to show we pick some aspects of our life and concentrate on that and consider that is the evidence and we judge the life.

we forget all the other things that makes it exciting.

So maybe i shall correct myself and say my life is quite ordinary, punctuated with exciting sex and thrilling unexpected finds in the recycling bins and huge reductions in the supermarket reduced section . haha.

I went to the tesco today on the way back from the shag, because i thought i read an advert in the daily mail, on friday, or thursday saying tesco is selling fresh chicken for £2.50. i was very sure of that , because it is so rare now to find that price on special offer and from a tesco too, which has branches everywhere.

but none of the tescos sell them, and i ask the assistant and he did not know of this promotion either.

Has anyone seen that advert, or is it just me slip into another universe without realising.haha.

But fortunately, i was wandering around the final tesco store i stop at, the branch in vauxhall, and saw basmati rice 5kg for £5.50. it is a good price. last time i bought a bargain basmati rice was also tesco, the pimlico branch, and that was 4kg for £5. so this one is very good price. there was none of this bargain price basmati rice in the pimlico branch when i went there yesterday.

i bought one bag but i think if i am in that area again, i shall buy another one. or my pimlico tesco branch may stock it.

Though the tesco pimlico branch do not stock the free galaxy bar that can be got by a voucher in the i paper put out by the independent newspaper. it costs 20p, but i got it free 2 days ago in victoria street, and yesterday at pimlico tube stations.

I confess i dont really know what is the idea of starting the i paper. unless it wants to provide competition for the evening standard which is free and distributed at the same time everyday. (both papers are owned by the same russian guy).

When u consider prices are going up all the time, like recently the news says one of the gas companies have increased the gas price by 10% , anything that brings down price is a good thing and should be grabbed quick. I am glad to say i wont be affected by the increased gas price.

People always express their surprise and anger at the increase around this time, but really, winter is coming so of course they will increase the price. it is only a question of how much the increase.

When they first started these big increase in gas rates, i started off by resolving to reduce my usage of gas, now i have stopped using it entirely. haha.

And long distance travel will be affected by the increase in passenger airport tax starting 1nov. 2010. it will be harder to get bargains now for travel to the far east. Not that i want to go so maybe just as well. haha. Funny how so many of these things i have stopped doing long ago.

i think local travel to europe wont be affected much as it has only gone up to £12 but london may lose its attraction and reputation as a long distance hub because cheap tickets wont be so readily available. i think it will shift to europe now, for anyone looking for cheap tickets for long haul flights.

Though i think the dropping £ will make this increase not so bad for visitors as their currency strength will negate the effect. so we might still find them coming to london, but less of them flying out via london, and less of uk residents going out. and remember , it is only for the flights out of london, incoming flights wont be affected.

Malaysian ringgit is now Rm4.8 to the £. such a large drop from the last time i visited when it was close to 7Rm to £1.

Will it encourage more malaysians to visit uk?

2 friends of mine are coming to london in june 2011 (actually i have not met them, just got to know them online in a naturist website and when i heard they were visitng europe, i invited them to stay at my place. we gay guys make friends easily and at least for me, dont mind inviting total strangers to our home. haha. They are malaysians, two gay guys who tookup civil partnership and migrated to new zealand), their outward singapore airlines (SIA) flight is to london, but they fly back by SIA via barcelona. which may well be the normal practise from now on, to avoid the passenger airport tax.

The trees are now definitely changing colour. Very pretty and with the sunshine like today, it feels good to be outside riding through Clapham common.

added Just heard in the news , clocks go back tonight.

thoughts about life

london
read in the daily mail an article written by Michael winner, saying go out and spend and referring to his taking out a loan of £9million to support his luxury lifestyle.
I wondered why he took a loan rather than sell some of his assets. And then i realised that michael winner is expecting the £ to drop, and inflation to rise so that cash is not worth keeping. His cash will fall in value and the interest he pays will look small when compared to rising inflation eroding the value of his borrowed money. he is paying with money that is constantly falling in value. That would surely please him. Assets are better to have, as they will hold their value or even increase. and i daresay if he sells his assets he will have to pay the capital gains tax on them. or if he brings in money stashed away in tax free havens, he will be taxed on them.
Michael was exhorting people to go out and spend but he is looking at it from a rich man's point of view. His strategy is a good one but only for him and for any rich person.

i think different people like different things. some like to experience events and adventures , so their lives are full of doing and trying and seeing new things.
Michael is like that i think. he thinks he is happy by eating fine foods, and being extravagant.
Others will prefer to keep things, money or objects or art, or jewellery, houses etc. They call themselves collectors.
Of course all of them dont realise that happiness has nothing to do with objects or always looking to try new things , or doing.
happiness is a state of mind.

And all the other things is just to while away the time.

but it seems for most of us, life is doing something. if we dont do something, people get bored. There is very little ability to go inwards and meditate or contemplate, to go into our own thoughts. there is no body teaching this at all, certainly not schools.

there is so much teaching on making goals, and working towards achieving it.
A fallacy in my opinion.
Making goals will always make a person disastisfied. first he gets to feel he is a failure if he does not achieve the goal.
And if he achieve it, he then makes more goals, higher goals, keep pushing out the boat on his goals, until eventually he will fail, and then he will feel a failure. it seems he is setting himself up for disappointment.
it is a fact that if u set ur mind to achieving something, when u dont get it, u can be doubly sad then if u dont set those goals and let whatever things happen, happen.


I have just been told by the workmen who is doing the outside of the window that he wont be doing the inside of the window. Now, i know that is the case because i was involved in the tendering process and was told of it. but i was still disappointed to hear it. because paying £7000 for all this work, and the inside of the windows is not even included.
When i said it to him, he told me i am not the only one. A lot of people have been complaining about that too.
yet, i have been involved in selecting the tenders, and of the 4 choices none of them were less than £1million . so we dont really have much of a choice ... these kinds of works on housing blocks dont come cheap.
if i had not known of it, i too would be most put off by the cost. as it is , i just make sure i got the money and pay it.

and find any way i can to make this flat work for its money. haha.

link to article about michael winner and his debt.

I wrote the above, and then read someone state this very same reason in a comment made on the article.
it encapsulates the reasoning for his taking out a loan instead of selling assets.

foraging booty fr supermarket

added 23.10.10 spicy hot and sour sauce green and red peppers. (there are 3 peppers in this dish). lovely to be able to use lots of peppers instead of skimping on it.

london

tonight i got 4packs (containing 4 -6) sweet green and red peppers for 20p each. 2.5kg of baking potatoes for 30p, 2x2litres of milk (.75% fat) 8p each, a pack of brussels sprouts 8p, 2x400mg warburton white bread 6p each. total £1.46

these are the kind of prices i like. haha.

I came back very warm, because these things weigh a bit and carrying them back makes for a lot of exercise. I am still warm even now. (it is 9.7C now.)
i have not got the heating on, and dont intend to have it on all winter if i can help it.
in fact, i dont feel the cold, last night i thought it was fairly warm,lowest about 5.1C, and i did not feel the cold even though i let the windows remain slightly open when the workmen left it open to allow the paint to dry.

Added 28.10.10 I was browsing the weather website, and saw in the monthly summary for oct that the lowest temp was 0.5c and it was on oct 21st. but looking at my post on 22oct, i even mentioned it was warm.

why is that? so i looked at oct 21st on the weather website and found out that 0.5C was at 7am and it was the early hours of 21st oct that was cold, but i certainly did not notice it enough to post a comment about it. Funny isn't it? the actual temperature does not seem to make any impression on me. Maybe when it is that cold, the downstairs neighbour's central heating comes on , and the extra heat comes up into my flat.

u all might bear in mind that the insulation of your flat depands on your upstairs neighbour... whether they have good carpets laid down. it might pay for u to offer to contribute to putting in new carpets for the neighbour above u.

the carpets i have now are still the original from the previous owner. i like the colour, it is a deep green and have never found anything like that colour in the new carpets sold nowadays. but it is a thin carpet, and that is why so much heat comes up fr downstairs. i get their cooking smells too, they like to cook cabbage, but luckily i like the smell of cabbage.haha.

reminds me of my mother's cooking.

my TB screening

london
went to the westminster and chelsea hospital on fulham Road, to get my test this morning.
very efficient, was interviewed by a senior nurse straightaway, no waiting, and then sent to get my xray and blood taken. Hardly any waiting. asked to put on a gown, for the xray, not sure if i have to take everything off, so decided to just keep my underwear on.
the gown was supposed to be worn back to front, but i could not tie the back so wore it front to back. and was called just as i got out of the changing cubicle.
it did not matter which way i wore the gown.
added. 22.10/10 I realised that gown is really for women to use to cover their breasts. men dont really need it, but obviously they cannot discriminate and so let us use it. i am glad i did not go naked and wear it back to front, exposing my backside.haha. i m not bothered but it might be rather awkward for the other patients.haha.

I stood in front of the screen, with my hands grabbing two handles on each side of it, and asked to bring my shoulders forward and breathe deep, and that was it.

the blood test was just as quick, took a number 36, called very soon, and they now have automatic tubes which draw the blood . the nurse took 3 tubes full of my blood, but they were small tubes. no need to draw the syringe handle back anymore. they really make things so easy these days.

Was asked to go outside with two plastic containers to cough up sputum, but could not manage it. i have never got the knack of spitting phlegmn, swallowing it instead, so i could not spit it out.
also the phlegmn seems to come fr the back of my throat, not fr the lungs. so maybe i dont have tb after all.
anyway, i returned to say i could not do it, so they said bring it back home and try at home .

I hope the xray and blood tests will be enough.I dont think i can get any sputum samples even if i try it at home.
so that was my morning of screening.
the hospital is very efficient and modern and the whole experience was very pleasant.
thank goodness for the national health.

added.3.11.10 was called by the nurse to say it is clear, but they want me to see them again in 6wks for further routine tests. i got the letter today for an appt on 1dec and again on 3rd dec. they mentioned a skin test and that it is all routine. such a lot of routine tests.
i read this in the daily mail. about shyama perera, saying she was diagnosed as having tb after suffering 5yrs from what she thought was menopausal pains and lethargy. bruising on her shin, turned out to be erythema nodosum.

thoughts about being a tourist city and others

london
It's not much fun for the inhabitants of a city that has become overloaded with tourists.
this thought came to me when i read this about venice. online.

its about the city covered in billboards, with advertising, to make some money to pay for the major renovation needed on their old buildings. the city is losing its inhabitants and taken over by tourists who object to the advertising on the billboards.

that is the trouble when u have lost ordinary people living there. it becomes like a disney world. No substance and all show.

Lucky it is not the case in london. we get tourists but they are not the mainstay of the city.

Lots of people live around london and come in to work, and London is a working city catering mainly to its people, and not depandant on tourists for its profits.

Granted some areas of london are mainly tourists, and survive because of them, i am thinking of the south bank, the stretch from westminster bridge,near the london eye to the tate modern. Here u get people dressed up as statues and moving when someone throws them a coin.
Barcelona is going to remove the living statues from the Ramblas, it seems according to this report. it seems the ramblas has become so crowded that the locals are deserting it, and it is taken over by tourists, and the city wants to make it like before, as a place to stroll in the evenings. They are asking tourists not to walk in their swim wear there. i was thinking nudity is legal there, so what is to stop people walking naked there. haha.


I doubt tate modern would be as popular as it is without the tourists who go to visit st pauls cathedral, and find there are no places to go afterwards except to cross the millenium bridge to tate modern where they can sit in the cafe inside and enjoy the view.
The city eating places have enough office workers to cater to so dont rely on the tourists, so tate modern takes up the slack and cater to them.

I think it rather sad that there are not many locals living in venice. the place is too expensive for local people, ( who are right glad to sell up, knowing that the renovation costs will be crippling) what with rich people buying properties there and not living there except for a few weeks. that is the trouble with rich people they have the money to buy but they have so many houses all over the world, they cannot be in all of them. That is also the paradox of being rich. u can only enjoy one thing at a time. haha. in that they are the same as a poor person and their riches wont prevent them from getting sick either. haha.

recently, i got together with a shag who lives in kensington. the road where he lives ( he is a sort of caretaker/friend living there from the good graces of the elderly owners) are full of 20's houses, many of them with building works, having their basements renovated. the houses look old but are built in the 20s, and so do not have grade 2 listed status , and so the rich can gut the insides with impunity, and they do. these rich people dont live there all the time either. they have country houses which they disappear to over the weekends.

So u get this situation where these houses are empty and under lived in, whilst poor people are crowded in rooms. ah well, i suppose that is the way of the world.

And i read of old mansions having millions spent on renovating them and converting them to museums with no one living in it; by organisations or charities and tax breaks allowing it , rather than the money spent on improving the lot of ordinary people. Or large sums spent on buying artworks, and putting them in museums. No one wants to spend it on people because there is nothing to show for it. That is why i admire peabody, the philantropist whose Peabody trust legacy can be seen in and around london with the housing he built for the poor.

London is still vibrant, with its mix of tourists and people who live here. that is why i like living here.
Locals can make use of the high prices of hotels to let out their rooms, or gardens for car parking, or open eating places to cater to the tourists. That way they can partake of the general money -making and welcome tourists, rather than think of them as a nuisance for blocking the pavements and making everything costs more. haha

and i suppose the tourists and working population make a big city like london have lots of jobs for people.

I met this woman walking the dog, as she came out of one of those houses in kensington on my way back from visiting my friend. I thought she was the owner, but how wrong i was. haha.
she is from finland, she said she actually had a house long ago in uk, sold that for double and bought in finland. though she said the property in finland has not gone up at all.
she bought a small place in streatham, in south london, which she is letting out whilst she works as a live in person in that house in kensington. she gets free lodging and food which makes up for the small salary.

I am sure there must be plenty of people like her working in kensington, the rich would want servants, and be prepared to pay for them.

everywhere i see the mark of a busy city, with commerce everywhere. Money is being spent and being made at all levels.

One thing that may trouble people.
It seems tuberculosis is on the rise. It used to be associated with the poor, and with crowded conditions so that its reappearance is a surprise now. But it seems it is getting more prevalent, and it is very contagious.

so far there is no official warning, unlike the bird flu. Maybe the bird flu false alarm may be the reason why the authorities have kept quiet, but i think it is the fear of causing a loss of business to all the entertainment industry and catering businesses in london or any big city.
Part of the reason is that TB does not affect everyone who comes in contact with it. it depands on a person's immune system, and even then, it is v slow growing and symptomless. it makes the disease much more dangerous because a person can be a carrier without knowing it.

The reason why TB has come to my attention is because simon has been scanned with this sensitive machine, which spotted it , even though it was not spotted on the xrays, the scanning machine picked up lesions in his lungs. they investigated it and said he has been in contact with TB but it is not contagious. So the hospital has phoned me to ask me to get screened seeing i have been in contact with him.
His mum is also contacted.
so i shall have to get in touch on monday to arrange for the screening.

I found a single foldable bed

very easy to pull out to form a bed. and just as easy to pull the slats up to bring it back to a chair. the wheels rise up on the slots and roll back and forth smoothly.

london

I have been thinking a single bed would be nice to have in my spare bedroom for guests and I found one yesterday.

I had intended to go foraging in the supermarket last night, but on the way found this in the recycling bins.

it was the right size to bring back, as it has wheels too. so i could manage it on my own.

quite a nice quality too. cant see the brand.

drying clothes

london
I used to have a dryer.
But long ago, i stopped buying washingmachines with dryers. My first washingmachine has a dryer but the dryer function got damaged, and i found i could get along very well without it.
this present washing machine I got is the 2nd one and it is without a dryer function.
I dry my clothes indoors, because i live in a flat and it is not done to hang clothes out of the window. Partly because there is nothing to hang it onto, but also nobody likes to see washing flapping about high in the sky from flats.
(added.this housing estate of mine is still old fashioned enough to have a small area kept aside for residents to hang clothes to dry. Not many of us use it. I think the block that fronts it uses it most. the rest of us are too lazy to go there with our washing. not to mention it is not convenient to dash out to bring it in if it rains. the air is dry, not much humidity in uk , so things can get dry just hanging in the flat).
Unlike in malaysia or singapore, where people hang out their washing on the poles sticking out of their flats high in the sky. Not sure if modern times have stopped that practise in singapore or malaysia now.
it seems in some american housing associations, it is an offense to dry clothes on a line even in your own garden. they say it brings down property prices. reading further, i found out these are gated communities and have rules. I remember there was a nudist in one of them who was forbidden to practise it in the gated community even though the law in that state do not forbid nudity.some states are now considering bringing in legislation to forbid gated communities from having rules that contradict the state laws. link

last week, I met my American friend who is an airline steward, walking with a basket of laundry to the laundrette to dry it. he wants it dried after washing, rather than hang it up to air dry. it costs 20p for 3mins of drying. I think he used about £1.60. he comes from new york and he said everyone there go to the laundrette for their washing and drying. Flats there are too small to have washingmachines it seems.
(Added. that was what i thought. But my friend told me it was because there are so many laundrettes in new york and they were cheap. and many of them used the laundrettes as an excuse to socialise.It just goes to show all these souls wanting these desires. here in uk, souls dont want it, because laundrettes are getting scarcer and more are closing down. When i first arrive in uk, so many years ago, we all stayed in bedsits, a room with a small stove for cooking, sharing shower and wc. so we have to bring our washing to a laundrette. now there are more flatshares and almost all have washing machines).
considering that heating in new york is communal, and flats are overheated, it should be easy to dry the clothes in the flat, but no, americans dont do it.

I think it is a waste of electricity to use a dryer. its also a waste of money, and a waste of time hanging around a laundrette waiting for the clothes to dry. but i guess his soul wants it.
Clothes are more creased if dried using a dryer.

I noticed that most people dont care about saving electricity. Look at all those recipes that ask u to cook something in the oven for 5hrs. It was a cooking program on channel 4 tv, called 'food - what goes in your basket', trying to encourage people to use off cuts like shin beef. It will put me off buying shin, but i know i can cook shin using my slo cooker and it is cheaper so i do like shin beef. though in this country shin beef is not all that cheap, even if u can get them. maybe they are exported because no one in uk wants it.

And i borrowed a book in the library about making curries, and saw a silly recipe about cooking rice, that involves boiling it, draining it, and then cooking it some more in the oven. what a lot of rubbish!!!

Makes me suspect their other recipes if they can make a hash out of cooking rice. What makes them think i can trust them with their other recipes?? I am regretting borrowing it now.

In the past, i used to follow recipes religiously, now i m more critical and discerning in who i follow.

link to picture showing hanging clothes on poles in hdb flats in singapore.

2 gay malaysian chinese got asylum in uk

london
I read this in fridae.com but the fuller picture can be obtained from freemalaysia.com It was dated 28th sept. I have read nothing of this in the british papers. i wonder why? i would have thought the daily mail would have jumped at this.

their headline did not mention they were two chinese guys, so i assumed it must be malays or malay-chinese, or malay-indian. I was very surprised that the couple were both chinese.

I wonder how they did it? haha. I am sure a lot of gays similarly inclined, living in malaysia may be wanting to know how it was done, and to hire the same lawyer to represent them.
If u present it properly, the human rights laws here in uk will make it impossible for a judge to refuse. the law specifically allows asylum on grounds of sexuality. especially since there was a test case where the law lords overturned a home office ruling against two gays fr Cameroon and Iran.
Just showing that they will be prosecuted if he lives openly in their own countries is enough it seems.
They came to uk on a commonwealth two year working visa for the under 30.

will it lead to an exodus of gays from malaysia to uk? Not really. Because it will mean you can never go back to malaysia, ever. Not even to visit.

I wonder if those two have considered carefully what it means. One of them overstayed whilst his boyfriend was legal. When the one who overstayed was to be deported he than asked for asylum, with the boyfriend declaring the same.
So now they got their wish to live in the uk.
will they miss malaysia, i wonder?? and never seeing their families again, unless they come to visit uk?
though knowing the way of the world, they will be given british passports and can visit malaysia as british subjects.


Malaysia is not that awful that gays would want to leave it permanently, never to return.
Malaysia does not prosecute gay chinese guys for their sexuality, but for public sex or in conjunction with drugs. there are laws against sodomy, and that is not specifically anti gay, as it applies to straights as well.
but the law is seldom applied to the chinese and indians.

The malays actually have a better case for asylum. they do get prosecuted under separate khalwat laws, and not only the gays amongst them but the straights too.

I myself dont like living a lie, which u have to do when u are in malaysia because of those anti-sodomy laws. that is why when i left and came here to uk to work, and found out i am gay, i decided to stay on, whilst all my friends went back.
Some of those friends were gay too, but they still went back, for the job prospects and for the malaysian life.

I think malaysia is nice to visit, and you can still have a gay life , in both meanings of the term. With the internet, it is so much easier to find other guys now. so perhaps now it is not that bad for gays to live there. In fact, knowing how diverse people's likings are, there may be a significant number of gays who like living in a society where being gay is not legal.

As is common in all these repressive societies, malaysia is no different. You can do whatever u like as long as u keep it quiet, and dont get caught. this is all well and good, but the downside is that u can get a high proportion of gay guys who are really fucked up people, with lots of psychological issues. Because of their secret they live a lie all their lives, they forget who they are, or never found out. That is the one thing i did not like. Granted u can get fucked up people in uk too, but those gays who have come out in the uk, are on the whole rather sane about their sexuality and have no guilt with it. they are easier to deal with.
the above is purely subjective of course, just reflecting my own experience of gay guys here in uk, and in malaysia. There are some very together malaysian gay guys of course, but i think i too would be affected by the secrecy if i were to live there long enough. Your friends will hush u up, or criticise u for being too open, or u might inadvertently by your remarks expose them, and all this having to be careful will wear u down and make u paranoid. or u find people dont want to associate with you if u r openly gay, for fear of being tainted or suspect by association.

For some of us, who dont like to handle the dual conflicts of personality engendered when a guy cannot accept his being gay, or is afraid of being found out, we leave and just visit Malaysia now and then. Gradually, we realise there are plenty of other places in the world where we can be free to be gay, and so , as i have found out, I visit malaysia less and less.

though if i have to return to live in malaysia permanently, i dont think i will mind that much.

I just realise this is only one point of view, my own. I know that john who is english, likes to visit malaysia, he had gone there every year usually in feb, march. and will be there for two months next year. so for white visitors malaysia is still very nice to visit. and for the vast majority of local gays in malaysia, it is a very nice place to live and work.

I know two malaysians who had lived in miri, sarawak, east malaysia and they have migrated to new zealand because they cannot live openly. one is a malay from west malaysia, and the other is chinese who is frm sarawak.

so i guess if your souls wants to leave malaysia and migrate, you will do so.

This got me curious to find out whether there are more cases of gays getting asylum in uk, so i googled it,
here is one about a transwoman getting asylum in july 28.2010
added. 11.4.11 update on this transwoman. She left him after getting her visa. he spent £12,000 applying for the visa. lost his job as caretaker in a school. i guess lack of money is a factor in their splitting up.

here is the case of the iranian and cameroon gay men.

more finds in the recycling bin

sony car cassette player . a toad whatsit, i have no idea what it is.



photocraft FMD system motor drive . i have no idea what it is. it is a camera, even got a kodak film cassette inside. On the box, it says suggested retail price $199.









a model landrover car and a mini



london





I have no idea what i shall do with these. Just thought i shall play with them for a bit, and then return them to the recycling bins.
I googled toad, and it seems it is a car alarm, but there was a warning here about using toad alarms when u dont know the pin number.
so many gadgets these days, and it seems people buy them and then throw them away.

I am glad i dont care for all these things. I shall just ask simon whether he wants the car cassette, and camera, otherwise i shall just get the pleasure of having them and then i shall return them to the recycling bins. or is there anyone reading this who would like them? come and collect if u want. i wonder whether the charity shops will like them, maybe not, otherwise why were they not given there instead of in the recycling bins. there were children's toys and dvds, and even a small child's car there last night when i saw it.
today, it was all gone.
taken by the council or by some budding entrepreneur who will sell them on ebay.
with the advent of digital cameras I dont think there are anyone left who still do films photography. if u still do, why? I would like to know just out of curiosity. or maybe u are a collector of these things ?

i found this

london

this is the framed stamps that i found on the pavement yesterday. the 20c stamps show the usa states bird and flower. there are 50 of them from A -Alabama to W- Wyoming

the glass is cracked . i found it face down on the pavement.

wonder how it got there.

The mockingbird, cardinal, meadowlark and goldfinch seem to be the most popular state birds.

I am constantly amazed at what i find lying on the street.

duck for £1

london

Bought this on saturday. It was a rainy evening maybe that was why even though i went very late, there were still two to buy. I saw a lady loading her cart with them, but she left 2 on the shelf.

I was talking to myself, is it a whole duck ? It is! when i opened the sleeve. Quite a good bargain, so i took one. A man standing by overheard me, and when i was going away i saw him take the other one.

Normally, i ignore these prepacked ready meals, but this one is unusual, because it is a whole uncooked duck. with hoisin sauce and 16chinese pancakes.

I bought a halfcucumber reduced to 9p in tesco as i went back, and used that to accompany the pancakes.

I cooked it on sunday and it was v nice. I used only 1.5kwh. to cook it. but even that was too much, because i forgot and cooked it breast side down, and have to turn it over and give it another blast in the oven. I was using the small oven and i think it would be done on 1kwh.

Added tues 5..10.10 Out of curiosity, i checked the shelves for this crispy chinese duck, and found they have discontinued it and replaced it with crispy peking duck 250mg for £2.50. and it consists of chinese pancakes some spring onions and a small amount of shredded duck meat.

I was chatting to the driver of the car when i was doing the food run for the charity on sunday, and he asked me what i spend each month on food, and i said about £10. he did not believe me.

Well, when u see this, can you believe it ?.

He does not know how to shop.

hit and run

london

Added.I was at the gym and i saw this guy who took the FT and was half way out, when he paused and turned back and took the daily mail. I asked him why he hesitated. he said he saw the topline, and hated jan moir so much that he felt he had to read her. I laughed out loud.
i think that may be the secret of the daily mail, it is the paper u love to hate. haha.

I saw this article there about people putting on their heaters today. It is an automatic reaction it seems and some even said they left it on all day for the pets.

It goes to show how ur beliefs influenced ur actions. They never realise that the pets with their fur may well be able to cope better with the cold and just perhaps they dont realise that heating the home makes the pets more uncomfortable and the pets are locked in and cannot escape the heat.

Instead of asking themselves why they keep a pet and confine it indoors, and spent money feeding it, as they will buy pet food instead of letting the pet eat leftovers, and concluding they should not have a pet, and save a lot of money and stop torturing the animal by confining it indoors; not to mention leaving the heating off... they complain they cannot make ends meet, complain about their high heating bills and ask what is the govt going to do about it.

The comment below is v telling. people whose beliefs can make them think u are a miser for not turning the heater on when it is not cold.

quote. 'My old mate won't. he boasts his quarterly gas bill is only £7. The miser will keep two jumpers on and risk hypothermia than spend some of his millions. His house is damp and the floor delaminating, but he still won't be drawn by temptation.

By contrast, my heating is giving background warmth as my medical condition needs it. but when he comes round to drink my coffee on saturdays, we turn it off and wear coats.'

Say so much about the writer. i think. but i guess it depands on your beliefs, whether u think he is a fool or not to keep the heater on just because he thinks his medical condition needs it.

I find another fallacy common amongst people is that babies, children and elderly cannot stand the cold. they can, but dont brain wash them into thinking they cannot, because suggestion is very powerful. if u say it often enough that old and v young cannot take the cold they will come to believe it and once they believe it , it is difficult to change that belief.

Another eg of how stupid people can be. Two adverts by sainsburys, the same advert in today's daily mail. £2 for 500mg chicken drumsticks, and £2 for 375mg chicken thighs. do they think they can fool people with that? I think they can , if they are willing to pay twice over for the same advert on the same paper on the same day.

Are there people stupid enough to buy it? When they can buy a whole chicken for £2 a kg. ?? For the same £4 they can not only get the 4thighs and 4drumsticks, but breast meat and other parts too. better still if they just buy £2 chicken, and save money and still have loads of chicken to eat.

I think there are stupid people who will buy it. So dont tell me how poor u are. If you are poor and you buy those u deserve to be. Of course, if u r rich and u buy those, go ahead, support sainsburys. I am sure u have shares in it.

Reading of this 2 hit and run cases one involving a child and the other a 20yr old Singaporean, made me remember that i nearly died like that too and it happened quite recently.

It was a rainy day and i was holding the umbrella in front of me and just walked out on the road, right in front of a taxi. And I did not even look to see if the walking man sign was green.

the taxi man blasted his horn at me, and i can hear him exclaim and curse. I dont blame him. I was shocked too and stood in front of his taxi and then hurried across the road. Lucky there wasn't another car overtaking.

I was lucky the taxi man was so alert. I wished i had apologised to him and let him know how grateful i was that he saved my life.

I am normally very careful about crossing the road, so am really more shocked at myself for not taking care.

Now you know why i believe that the soul wants it. My soul obviously do not want to leave my body just yet. Whilst those others who died , their souls want to leave.

So i can understand how those accidents happen. Pedestrians are very unpredictable, and i bet a lot of accidents with pedestrians are the pedestrians fault , and there are not more of these accidents simply because of drivers being more vigilent.

Most people would automatically assume it is the drivers' fault, but really what are pedestrians doing on the road to be hit by traffic? Their place is on the pavement, and the onus must be on the pedestrian to make sure there is no traffic if they wish to cross.
Cars dont jump the pavement and hit the pedestrian. so if ever a pedestrian is hit, he or she must be on the road.

it is rare for a motorist to jump a red light,(those times that they do you can see it coming at the end of a green and u as a pedestrian would not be crossing anyway.) but very common to see pedestrians running the pedestrian red light and being caught out. And i have seen many a close shave between car and pedestrian and an accident avoided only because of the motorist braking. And it is the pedestrian's fault more often than not.