When my youngest daughter Natalie was just a baby my mother would joke that she was a “demon seed” and that my level of favouritism (which I deny) was unhealthy.  Well now that my “demon seed” is seven her little character traits are starting to really shine… blackmail being one of them!  You see, after watching Alice in Wonderland in 3D Natalie was too scared to sleep in her own bed and her big sister wouldn’t allow her to squeeze up with her. So Natalie calmly informed Claire that if she didn’t let her sleep with her then the whereabouts of her hidden money would be known to the adults.  Of course Claire didn’t feel threatened because she knew Luke and I would never steal her money so the blackmail attempt failed… but it was still an attempt.  I’m going to have to watch that demon seed of mine!

I have had enough of renting! This is our fifteenth year of renting and we have never been late with the rent, we are good tenants.  Only two weeks ago Luke got up on the roof and cleaned out the blocked gutters even though it’s the owners responsibility.  A kitchen cupboard fell off in my hands… owners responsibility… but we fixed it.  I have spent hours in the yard cleaning out the badly neglected, weed infested yard but who cares? Certainly not the real estate agent… he tried to slog us with a $25 bill for having the light fixture reattached even though it fell out wires and all due to old age and neglect!  Now he (the agent) is complaining that we pay our rent too early!!! We are two and a half weeks ahead on our rent and I don’t see the problem.  However the agent it always right it seems and now we are not allowed to pay our rent early… WTF???  I’m sure the owners don’t mind their wallet being fattened up early, what is this agent’s problem?

When this website was brought to my attention I had a lot of fun.  In fact I let my household duties slip a little while I checked out the sale history of all the houses we have ever lived in.  It’s so easy to use and is such a useful tool when looking at real estate to buy.  It shows you dates of sale along with the price, rental estimator function etc…  just about every property has a recorded history and you can find it all here. I even accidentally discovered my Aunt’s investment property she was keeping secret (don’t ask me why) and didn’t she chuck a tizzy when I was able to tell her the exact price and date of sale! HA HA HA .  You would have thought I had uncovered an illicit affair or something… oh it was golden!  I have to admit that my personality does weigh heavily on the antagonistic side so upsetting the family applecart was just another day at the office… I wonder what other things the Internet is keeping secret?

The best recipe I ever got from a vegetarian cook book was this ginger beer one (the tofu shake next to it was less appealing).  It’s so easy to make and the novelty of making your own fizzy drink complete with home made labels was really enjoyable.  In my next batch I will be adding a bit more ground ginger to the mix but perhaps it’s best you try the base recipe first.

You will need 4 X 1.25 litre plastic bottles.

Ingredients

• 1 tsp dried yeast granules
• 2 tsp sugar
• 1/2 cup warm water

• 2 cups sugar
• 1 tbsp ground ginger
• 1 tsp lemon essence
• 1 tsp tartaric acid
• 2 litres hot water
• 2 litres cold water

Procedure

1. Stir the first three ingredients together in a glass and leave to stand in a warm place.
2. Measure the remaining sugar, ginger, lemon essence and tartaric acid into a clean bucket. Pour on the hot water and stir to dissolve the sugar. Add the cold water to cool the liquid down.
3. When the syrup is no hotter than lukewarm, add the bubbling yeast.  Cover with a tea towel and leave for 24- 36 hours.
4. Strain even amounts into the four plastic bottles then fill each bottle within 3 cm of the top with extra cold water.
5. Put 1 teaspoon of sugar in each bottle and screw the lid on tight, shake to dissolve sugar.
6. Leave to stand in a warm place* until the bottles feel absolutely rigid when you squeeze them. (2 – 5 days depending on temp & type of yeast etc )
7. Refrigerate and enjoy!

*I found our laundry cupboard (containing the hot water system) was the perfect warm spot to leave the bottles.

While  out shopping I took a moment to carefully select my tea bags, that’s when I noticed tea pot bags.  It got me wondering how many people out there still use teapots? Isn’t it easier to just pop a teabag in a cup rather than a teapot?  I own a teapot but as you can see by the photo above… it’s been awhile since it has seen any tea leaves.

The light in our fridge has been broken now for almost two years and as Luke got a drink the other night he really could have used it.  Instead of  finding his lips wrapped around his water bottle he found himself sucking on the knob of Strasbourg I had bought.  I’d love to change the light bulb… but I don’t know where it is!

While wasting time on youtube the other day I came across a video on how to pick a padlock with just two paperclips, my interest was piqued. I watched as some young kid opened a locked padlock in just a few seconds, I was impressed.  I armed myself with a pair of pliers and a stack of paperclips.  I followed online instruction and  hey presto… I had my own tool set.  The only problem was that I couldn’t actually pick the lock, I tried and I tried but I just couldn’t do it.  I got more and more frustrated as I watched clip after clip on youtube, these KIDS seem to be able to pick a lock in a few seconds flat!  I made four sets of picks and pressure wrenches ( I even sacrificed a fork) but I still couldn’t do it! Luke got home after work and seeing the fruits of my labour spread out on the computer desk he said “You need a job”. I explained that I was learning a new skill because you just never know when you could find yourself locked in a room with only paperclips to escape… what I need…  is to be able to pick a lock!

While taking the kids to school one morning we walked past what seemed to be the perfect lawn.  While all the other houses had high grass due to the recent rain this lawn was well trimmed with not a single weed in sight. Out of curiosity Luke bent down to touch it and then exclaimed “It’s AstroTurf!”  Upon closer inspection we could see that not only had the owners of the house AstroTurfed the council strip, they had also AstroTurfed their balcony and the front yard was nothing but pavers.  Now that’s what I call a low maintenance yard.

So I see Pauline Hanson is giving Australia the ditch, well quite frankly I’m with her!  No longer is Australia the “land of opportunity” it more like the “land of bullshit and overpriced houses”.  Luke and I were looking at house prices elsewhere in the world and on average we were looking at paying four and a half times the average annual income… that’s acceptable.  Here in Australia we are looking at paying nine… that’s bullshit!

It’s that time at school when your child comes home playing “hot cross buns” over and over and OVER again on the recorder. God help me I thought,  then I was stopped in my tracks as a strangely familiar tune floated into the kitchen. Upon inspection I found Luke trying to teach Claire the AC/DC song “Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap”.  The recorder isn’t the greatest instrument for an AC/DC song but it sure shows a hard core side to the recorder that beats the crap out of “hot cross buns”.