I’m still a helpful blogger

Everyone figures out ways to make everyday life easier for ourselves, and some folks share what they do so others can learn from their experiences. I often do that, too, but it’s been nearly three years since I last published a post specifically about shortcuts (so-called “life hacks”) to make life easier. It’s time to add another hint.

Just like my 2021 post, my first stand-alone helpful hints post was limited to one topic back in 2019, and dealt specifically with something to help dog owners. Today’s post is about a cleaning “hack”. First, though, some background is needed.

As I’ve documented here on this blog, New Zealand has been banning more and more consumer plastics, the most noticeable beginning of which was banning single-use plastic shopping bags in 2019. Since then, the New Zealand government has banned more plastics, and industry has joined the efforts, both of which I mentioned in a post last year. All of this has been awesome to see, and yet, some personal changes have proven harder than others, like doing without plastic bread bag tags.

I finally came up with a workable solution.

Of all the things I re-used those plastic tags for, the most common (and useful) was as small scrapers. In particular, I used them when scrubbing cooking pots, roasting trays, etc. (or cleaning up after painting), any time I wanted to scrape off something that had become stuck on something else. By using the tags, I could avoid using, and possibly damaging, my fingernails or scratching whatever I was trying to clean.

In 2022/3, those plastic tags started disappearing. At first, and sometimes still, they were replaced with brown cardboard, which are not only paper and too flimsy to use as scrapers, they’re also too small to recycle, so I cut them into small pieces and put them in my compost bin. Other companies have used other cardboard or hardened paper, which also don’t work as scrapers.

My solution was to use a cheap plastic paint scraper (example on the photo). Ordinarily such scrapers are used when using chemical strippers to remove paint or some other finish from wood (personally, I prefer metal ones for that work because they last far longer and removed the gunk better). What I use plastic scrapers for are using plaster filler to fill holes in the wall (life nail holes or whatever) because the plastic won’t scratch the paint. The one in the photo is part of a small bag of such scrapers that Nigel bought to use with his 3D printer, so I have plenty.

I only thought to use the scraper recently, and I’ve only had a couple chances to use it a couple times, but both times it worked really well. The fact I can grip it with my whole hand gives me more control and power than I ever had using one of those little bread tags. I highly recommend this method.

And there you have it: Another short, very specific tip to get small household jobs done better. What can I say? I’m still a helpful blogger.

Ordinary life continues

Ordinary life always carries on, for good or bad, and which it is probably depends mostly on our life situation. For most of us who are safe from war and natural disasters, there’s a kind of banal ordinariness to our daily lives, but that doesn’t mean ordinary events aren’t worth noting, at least sometimes (and for a personal journal blogger, that’s “most times”). Also, many of the big and significant events in our life depend on the small, ordinary, possibly even totally unrelated events in our lives, that came before. And sometimes, especially online, it’s just documentary evidence that we were here, and that’s enough.

I’ve had a lot of ordinary stuff going on lately, things that, as is often the case these days, I haven’t shared here. This is the first in a series of “catch-ip” posts, kind of like a chat with a friend, maybe—or maybe just if I want to flatter myself.

The photo montage up top is from Friday of last week, and when I posted the photos on my personal Facebook, I said:

I picked my first usable lemon (I got one last year, but the birds had pecked at it). The plant is still pretty young, and I did very little to/for it apart from giving it some citrus fertiliser. I didn’t spray, so the lemon isn’t perfect looking, and I’m fine with that because neither am I! 🤣 Also, Leo wanted to show you his toy bone. It’s a lovely, sunny Friday afternoon in Kirikiriroa-Hamilton, and we hope you’re having a great day wherever you are!

The only unusual thing about this is that I made the montage up top because that’s how the two photos appeared on my Facebook post. That’s hard to do on Blogger, so, I turned as I so often do to Photoshop. There’s a side note to this, though: I noticed recently that when I post photos of me and/or Leo on Facebook, I get more “reactions” than I get for a post where I share a link to something, or just write some words. The posts with photos of Leo usually get the most reactions. Consider that market research, I suppose.

I was supposed to see the dental hygienist on Monday of that week, but she called in sick. On Friday the office rang me to reschedule, and that was for this past Monday at 10am—what was I thinking?! I saw a new hygienist, who I have an appointment to see again in six months, along with a check-up with the dentist, who will also be new: My current dentist is leaving the practice to go to one closer to where he lives. Everything was fine with the hygienist.

After that, I went to the chemist next door for my influenza vaccination and Covid booster. As it happens, I went to the hygienist and then got the same jabs at the same place one year ago today, something that Facebook “Memories” reminded me of this morning.

After my health stuff, I went first to get some breakfast at the Columbus Coffee cafe in the Mitre 10 Mega (I’m not paid to promote either, by they way—it’s just where I went; obligatory food porn of my eggs benny, as seen on my Facebook, is at right). I wanted to check out something that the Mitre 10 website said was in stock at that location—it wasn’t. I also went to look at a new cover for my outdoor table and chairs, as I was talking about last week, but they didn’t have the size for my table, though they did have the twice-the-price one (I didn’t buy it).

My final stop was the supermarket, and that was nearly two weeks since my previous visit. This makes me think I may have successfully reduced my buying, and increased my planning, so that I can go every other week. Maybe. If so, it’d mean I’ll spend less, too. Still, early days.

By the time I was maybe halfway through the shop, I started to feel kind of unwell—the post-jab blech was settling in. I didn’t muck around after that, and so, forgot a couple things. Still, I was able to leave soon after and I went home.

That afternoon, I tried having a bit of a nap, but barely dozed. I moved to my chair and just sat and relaxed teh rest of the afternoon. At one point I looked up and toward the front window, and the photo at the bottom of this post is what I saw. Instantly made me feel better—though I still needed some paracetamol by evening.

The post-jab blech continued to some extent both Tuesday and Wednesday, especially in the evening, and on Tuesday I was particularly tired. Even so, this week has had other adventures, mostly on Wednesday, but that’s a tale on its own.

These ordinary days can have a lot going on even when they’re ordinary. Or, maybe I just notice more on those ordinary days. In any case, sometimes it’s nice to be busy just doing ordinary things.

A bun-tastic day

Today I scored an important victory: I finally found some hot cross buns (photo above). It’s an annual tradition this time of year, and a welcome move toward poor dietary choices. And yet, it, too, is a symbol of change.

Last week, I published a contemplative post ”Four years ago today”, which I ended with:

“This evening I went up to Woolworths (née Countdown) Te Rapa, after I gave Leo his dinner. Day to day life still happens, after all. One does what one must.”

I never mentioned the details of my trip to Woolworths, but I mentioned in a bit more detail in a post on my personal Facebook sharing a “Memory” from 2022 that had a photo of me with some newly-acquired hot cross buns (with a somewhat more serious expression…). I said when I shared the “Memory”:

I haven’t had a single one this year! When I went to the supermarket last week, they appeared to be sold out, although, the Te Rapa Woolworths had LOTS of empty shelves, which they usually do, but it was FAR more extensive than usual. It actually reminded me of what the store looked like just before the first Covid lockdown. Weird!

I actually wrote a lot more about that trip, but I deleted it before I posted it. It was, in fact, too negative, and that was something I didn’t want to project. Nevertheless, I decided that when I went to the supermarket this week, it’d be to New World instead, and, in the deleted text I said I thought I’d made my last trip to the Te Rapa Woolworths. Today was the day I planned to go to the other supermarket.

However, I forgot and remembered several times that we’ve got Easter Weekend starting tomorrow, and then forgot again, which means I didn’t plan around it and go to the supermarket earlier this week. The predictable result was that the shop was packed today. The reason for that is that (nearly) all shops are required to be closed on Good Friday and Easter Sunday (also Christmas Day and Anzac Day morning), though there are weird exceptions and some geographic exceptions that hardly anyone can remember, all of which I’ve talked about several times here on this blog. Anyway, since supermarkets are closed tomorrow and Sunday, it was go today and brave the crowds or wait. Of course, I’d already planned to go today (after I forgot about the holiday weekend), so I went anyway. While it was busy, I’m sure it’ll get worse as this afternoon goes on, possibly into the evening.

Also, since this was a planned trip to New World this week, I was hoping they’d have hot cross buns, and they did, and they had three varieties: Traditional (pictured with me up top), no spice (looked like what I grew up with), and chocolate (shudder). I also took advantage of the trip to buy one of my pantry staples that Woolworths was sold out of last week, and I also picked up some Pams products (their own brand label) to try so I can compare them to Woolworths’ own brands. Very productive, in other words.

However, a dollar for each bun is clearly absurd, especially because to me they seem smaller this year. A magazine format NZ light infotainment TV programme I watch had a segment (not on YouTube at the moment) about how expensive hot cross buns are this year, and a dollar each is actually on the lower end. It almost makes me wish I could be bothered to make some myself, but, yeah, nah. Too much trouble.

So, I couldn’t find hot cross buns last week, saw that my nearest Woolworths was, shall we say, “not meeting my needs as a customer,” so I decided to go to a competitor. Despite me accidentally going to the supermarket today, the busy day before a four-day holiday weekend, I found the supermarket well-stocked and, while busy, it wasn’t as horrible as other last-minute trips (like one memorable Christmas Eve in 2012, when we lived on Auckland’s North Shore). However, the buns I bought seemed like kind of a rip-off, if I’m truly honest. So, all of those things represent changes of one sort or another.

Even before the debacle at Woolworths last week, I’d decided to stop going there—last week’s trip merely triple underscored my decision. There are a few things only Woolworths sells, chiefly the chain’s own brands, which is why I wanted to try some from New World. I had the idea that I might drive to the other side of the city to have lunch with family on that side of town, and pick up a click and collect order from a Woolworths there. That may yet happen.

I cancelled my delivery subscription with Woolworths back in January, mostly so I could make changes to the way I shop. The delivery service has made many mistakes, though most (but not all) have been insignificant. The bigger issue was that without a subscription, delivery charges could add up quickly, and that a subscription encouraged repeat orders, and so, more spending with the one chain. Click and collect has all the strong advantages of online shopping—being able to compare products with each other, read nutrition labels, compare the unit prices, checking if staple items are on special—and all while avoiding flashy in-store displays. Best of all, there’s no fee, unlike when ordering for delivery. So, if I was driving across the city to have lunch with family, I could also pick up my order. These would definitely be positive changes.

And that’s why those hot cross buns are part of a whirlpool of changes. Not all change is necessarily bad, after all.

Two busy days

I had a lot of plans for the past two days. That’s certainly not the first time that’s happened, and it won’t be the last, but it is the first time in an astounding two weeks since the last time it happened. Kidding aside, it IS still unusual.

On Friday, I had dinner with some of the whānau, which is always a winner with me, then today I had plans with my my cousin-in-law to go to the Waikato Home & Garden Show—our third time (I think?). I always look forward to our outing, and this year I hoped to see about getting a patio roof of some sort, though I knew that last year they didn’t have many exhibitors that were companies that do that.

This morning, I drove to my cousin-in-law’s house (we left from there because she lives closer to the venue), and it took me 10 minutes door to door using the new road near my house—the trip was at least 10 minutes faster than it used to be. I continue to be amazed at what a HUGE improvement in my daily life that road has made—even though I thought that would be the case.

There were a few patio roofing options on show, but most of them were louvred, which is usually much more expensive, and not my first choice for a variety of reasons. I think that for this summer I may just use a shade sail.

What I realised today, though, is that I shouldn’t spend thousands and thousands on a patio roof when I don’t know what my long term plan is—and that’s a big topic for another day. Right now, though, a shade cloth could make my patio useable this summer. Stay tuned.

The Show itself was very crowded. That made some areas quite hot, and in other areas it was hard to get through because people were standing in groups of 3 or 4 chatting away. I couldn’t believe how spatially unaware so many people were.

Yesterday, when I was thinking about what today might be like, I jokingly thought to myself that it would be “Covid soup”, but I was imagining the less-attended previous years. I noticed a small but significant number of people were wearing masks today (the proper N95 ones, so they were serious about it). I mention this only in case my joking thought turns out to be a prediction, in which case I’ll want the credit for prophecy, dammit!

Seriously, I think we were both well and truly over the people/crowds by the time we made moves to leave (though anyone who knows me in real life knows I tire of crowds very quickly, and always have). We then had a coffee at my cousin-in-law’s house and visited (and I petted her dogs—a win all its own!).

When I left, I was planning on stopping at the supermarket on the way home. However, the rain got heavier as I drove, and I decided to just go home. Leo was very glad I did that, though I may have received a bit of dog side-eye when Leo smelled other dogs on me. He forgave me, fortunately.

The only thing I planned for this evening was a bit of TV. I had a great day, but I’m pooped! And now the countdown begins: How soon will this happen again?

This is based on two different posts I made on my personal Facebook, revised and edited for extended goodness.

A road to happiness

Something amazing has happened, something that will quite literally change EVERYTHING for me and that will reconcile my strained relationship with Hamilton: A new road opened. That may seem like an odd thing to say, but, in reality, I’m probably understating its importance.

I can’t remember if I’ve talked about it here (though if I have, it wouldn’t have been much), but when I bought my house I was told about a road that was going to be built connecting our housing development (“subdivision”, in Americanese) directly to the rest of Hamilton. Specifically, it would connect us to one of the most important intersections in this part of the city, one that, in turn, connects we with pretty much everywhere I’d want to go in the city.

At the time, with the development was only partly finished (though all the streets were completed(, and the long alternative route to get to the same place didn’t bother me. After all, I’d come from the last house that Nigel and I shared, and to get anywhere from their required a 20 minute (or more) drive.

Over time, more houses were built, including in new developments nearby, and still there was no action on the new road. It became a labyrinthine tale of many, many missed deadlines, of political intrigue, including the city council trying to change the deal after the fact, and also lots on unexpected things—like Covid lockdowns, the resulting global supply chain disruptions, and geotechnical issues on site that turned out to be complicated. In addtion, the developer and city council kept arguing over who was responsible for paying for changes the geotechnical issues required. In other words, a more or less normal developer vs. city council relationship pushed completion out to more than six years after the development itself was begun.

I actually began this post a couple weeks ago when we got word that the project was finished, the city council had signed-off on all the approvals, and the developer had filed the paperwork to transfer ownership of the new road to Hamilton City Council, a process that “should”, the developer told us, take 10-12 business days (weekends don’t count), and that the road “should” open the week of June 26. I hesitated finishing this post because after all the delays and frustrations, I was sceptical. It turned out, that scepticism was well-placed.

It turned out that the government body responsible to registering property titles was taking longer than it should have, so the developer followed up—twice—and the agency then told them they needed two more bits of information to complete the transfer. That was done the same day—June 29— and it was where things stalled again.

Finally, on July 5—the day before yesterday—the developer confirmed that title had been transferred and their contractors would start removing the barriers, construction fencing, etc. Them without fanfare, the road opened yesterday evening.

I don’t like driving in the dark, if I can avoid it, so I drove on for the first time today, and took Leo with me. I was surprised at how short the road is—a couple hundred metres or so—and I couldn’t help but think, “all that hassle and frustration for THIS?!!”

Of course, there’s more to it that just the distance of a football pitch: There will be a commercial area, including some shops, going in the area around that road, a school is going to be nearby, and two other roads connecting to even more development areas will connect one day.

Today I noticed that what will be the intersection with those new roads is all set up for traffic lights when the roads are built, and the fact they’re ready to go suggests that it may not be too long before those roads are begun—at least, maybe not as long as it took for our new road to be built.

For me, this new road is all about connection: I’ll be able to take the shortest route to the intersection with Te Rapa Road, the main North/South route in this part of the city. I need to get to that intersection in order to get to nearly everywhere I go in the city, including The Base shopping centre (where the mall Te Awa is located, along with one of the home centres I go to, among other shops). It’s also the road with the other home centre, both supermarkets, my dentist, and Leo’s vet. Going through that intersection is the way to my doctor, the family who live on the eastern side of the city, and even to the other mall I’ve been to, Chartwell. In fact, there’s pretty much no place in the city that I drive to that I couldn’t get to by going over the new road.

However, for the past three and half years the only way for me to get to that intersection with Te Rapa was to drive south, turn left from a stop sign onto a usually very busy road, get through a very heavily trafficked roundabout (fed by three busy roads), get through a traffic light to get to another traffic light that provides access to the road that was just connected to the new road. Depending on traffic, getting from my house to that last traffic light can take 10 to 15 minutes. With the new road, it’ll take, at most, 5 minutes to get to that same traffic light—well, until the new connecting roads open, but the new route will still be far more direct.

Shaving 10 minutes off a round trip may not sound like much, even if you take into account that the time saving can be more than that on some days or at some times, but it also means dramatically less hassle to get to the places I want to go. There have been many times when I wanted to pick something up, looked at the time, calculated how busy the roads were, and then decided not to go, putting it off until a better time the next day. I won’t have to do that anymore.

Also, the area I live has had very poor public transport. The new road will connect our area with the transport hub which is where the train to/from Auckland stops, and that also is a hub for several bus routes. When the new road opens, a new bus route will connect us not just to that transport hub, but also to the centre of the city—where car parking is notoriously bad, so much so that I avoid ever driving there (it then continues on to the university in the eastern part of the city, then back). That new bus may or may not be if any use to me, but it’ll make a huge difference to the quality of life for those of us living in the area now, and the several hundred more who’ll move here in the next couple years as the several housing developments currently under way are completed.

The development I live in is only about half done: A housing area hasn’t been started yet, and others in the area aren’t yet completed. That new small-scale business area around the area of the new road is likely to include a café, a superette of some sort, and some office space. When that stuff gets built, I’ll be able to walk up to buy a bottle of milk instead of having to drive somewhere. Maybe they’ll have a place I can grab a coffee, too.

Add all this together—faster and low-hassle access to the places I go to the most frequently, the improvement in public transport, the opening of some businesses, and, eventually, Council building the parks and recreation space they’ve also promised, and this will become a lively, desirable area to live. This area will finally become the sort of area I actually wanted to be in when I was looking for a house in Hamilton. Back then, there was no reason to think it’d take this long to get to this point, but I now know that sometimes it really is about the destination, not the journey.

And Leo? Well, he’s not actually very keen about going for a car ride, probably because I strap him in, and when we got back home after our short ride, he wasn’t ready to go back inside. So, we went for a walk around the block, the first time we’ve ever done that (we have, of course, done shorter walks). Best of all, Leo also peed on a walk for the first time ever.

Who could’ve ever guessed that a new road could cause so many good things?

This post has been updated. Follow the link to see the update.

Most important meal

They say that breakfast is the most important meal of the day. I’ve always been kind of indifferent to it (except when I’m particularly hungry), but today was a good day to get a good start. It was a very busy day, after a very busy weekend.

When I shared the photo up top on my personal Facebook, I said:

"Today’s breakfast: A couple scrambled eggs on a piece of toasted breadmaker bread I made yesterday, topped with some freshly ground S&P and a bit of dried dill. First load of washing in the machine, with a couple more to follow. And sometime this week I hope—fingers crossed!—to be able to share some great news that will “change everything”, as they say, about my daily life AND my complicated relationship with Hamilton!"

I was in a rush to get loads of washing washed and, hopefully, dried before the clouds rolled in. That actually happened around 3pm, and by that time the second load was in the dryer and the third was still washing. That was already cutting it close, but then the third load went into the dryer around 3:40, and the skies darkened by 4:30, then darkened some more until it became like nighttime at 4:40 (roughly 40 minutes before sunset, 40 minutes before the dryer would be done) and the clouds opened up. Yet again. The arrival of the clouds ensured that the last hour of drying time would use bought electricity. C’est la vie, and all that.

The thing is, it’s winter, and there are fewer daylight hours every day, and few days when the sun is shining all day long. So, even on a fully sunny winter day, it’s often a struggle to wash and dry three loads using solar power, and I knew that today was supposed to be sunny only until afternoon. That’s the reason I had an early start today.

Doing laundry also means folding it and putting it all away—which, come to think of it, is a good argument against ever attempting three loads in one day. Add to that the fact that today was sheet-changing day (a lot of work in itself), and I knew I’d be busy. So, I ordered a supermarket delivery to save me some time, which indireclty relates back to the original caption for the photo up top, as will be clear soon. Of course, that wasn’t the only food adventure today: Late this morning I also had the delivery of avocados and lemons I ordered direct from the grower.

As if all that weren’t enough, I tidied up my electronic files of receipts and statements, which was “a bit delayed”, as such things often are. The job’s done now, though. And, of course, this follows a similarly busy weekend. It’s almost as if I’m domesticated or something.

And it all began with that scrambled eggs on toast. It’s the most important meal of the day, you know. That’s what they say.

Crispy no more

Today was a momentous day for me, some might argue among it's my most important days yet. From today, my bath towels are no longer crispy. And behold, the household rejoiced.

There is, of course, a story behind this, one that’s not nearly as big a deal as my introduction pretended, but, then, maybe it is. Our story begins months ago, when my clothes dryer broke down.

For several months, I had to hang everything up to dry, and I used a folding clothesline that I originally bought around 20 years ago for our second house together (because it didn’t have an outside clothesline). This worked well, except for one thing: Towels. I absolutely hate, loathe, and despise crispy bath towels, and that’s all I’ve had for months because they were line-dried.

Although the dryer was repaired back in March, the crispy towels continued their reign due to timing: I’d just finished washing and line-drying towels when the repaired dryer returned home. Nigel and I had enough towels between us to last for many weeks—on purpose, so I didn’t have to rush to get them washed quickly (laundry was my job). After Nigel died, the number of towels was effectively doubled, since it’s just me. Today I reached the end of the final week with crispy towels.

This morning I changed my towels, as I do after my shower every Friday, and from this point on, it’s back to using towels dried in the dryer—nice, soft, smooth towels (the last of the crispy towel sets is in the washing machine at this very moment, and will go into the dryer later this afternoon). I know that other people may have simply re-washed all the already clean, but crispy, towels just to dry them in the dryer, but as I think I’ve made abundantly clear over the years, I’m more than a little unusual, and I just couldn’t bring myself to waste resources merely because I hate, loathe, and despise crispy towels. And so, I waited for time to run its course.

During that “long” wait, I thought about fabric softener.

I remembered how I used fabric softener when I lived in the USA, and I wondered what effect, if any, it’d have on towels that are line-dried—are they less crispy? And that right there led me to notice a cultural difference I’d forgotten: In the USA I used fabric softener, and I still know plenty of Americans who do. But I don’t know of a single Kiwi who uses fabric softener.

Fabric softener exists in New Zealand—I’ve seen it at the supermarket (two brands, both made in Australia), and there’s also a brand of dryer sheets. However, I never used fabric softener because Nigel didn’t; I eventually forgot all about it. It's been many, many years since I've seen any advertised on TV, too.

Of course, it’s entirely possible that I actually do know Kiwis who use fabric softener, but I just can’t recall anyone every talking about it. That could be because it’s just not something that ever came up in conversation (Kiwis don’t seem to chat about laundry procedures). Conversely, I clearly remember American friends talking about the brands they liked, etc. I realised that this not talking about some things is a cultural difference in itself, a notion that was reinforced for me by a completely unrelated topic.

I was recently talking with an American friend who said something about credit scores, mentioned that there are ads in the USA for companies that claim they can improve them, and also how if one does X or Y it could lower their score. In 27+ years in New Zealand, I’ve never once heard a Kiwi ever utter the phrase “credit score”, nor can I recall it ever being mentioned on the news, and it’s certainly never talked about in advertising. In a very real sense, the very concept of a “credit score” seems to be alien to most Kiwis. In fact, I have absolutely no idea whether they’re actually used in New Zealand and, if so, what mine would be—nor do I care. It’s just never been a “thing” in all these years.

Those two things are examples of things that no Kiwi talks about (as far as I know), and, apparently, neither is as big a deal as in the USA. The same would apply to food items, cosmetics, clothes—any number of things that people may encounter or use on a daily basis: They may be very different in the two countries, and so, too, the conversations about them (if any…) may be, too.

Sometimes it’s not just about the end of crispy towels, important though that is. Instead, such a thing can make me aware of other things, like (very) small (and unimportant) cultural differences between two countries. Anything that happens can be an opportunity for awareness and, maybe, even understanding.

Whatever, I’m just glad that I don’t have to endure crispy towels anymore. As a bonus, thinking about fabric softener and other cultural differences kept me from the possibility I might potentially beat myself up over having taken five months to get the dryer repaired.

What matters to me is the momentous event of the day: The reign of the crispy towels has ended. The kingdom of nice, soft, smooth towels has been restored. And behold, the household rejoiced.

A day in the life

Like most people, most of my days are mostly ordinary, most of the time, and generally not worth talking about, even if there might be a thing or two that I mention. Today, however, was unusually busy for me, and it gives me a chance to talk about what such a day is like for me. After all, I have a blog, and so, here we are.

I had a lot of errands today, mostly because a couple were delayed, I added another, and another, and I was uncertain how to do them. All of which is why today unusual in many ways.

The main thing I needed to do was to finally get a haircut, something I ran out of time to do a couple weeks in a row—and it was getting bad. I’ve mentioned this before, but over his final couple years, Nigel cut my hair for me. He said to me once, “you know, what makes you look old isn’t gray hair, it’s when your hair or beard get scraggly. Then you look like a homeless wino.” He was probably right about that, not just because he usually was, but also because I’ve always lacked perspective on how I’m looking.

The first time I got my hair cut after Nigel died was very weird for me. But I’ve gone back to the same place several times since, so I clearly got over it.

The complicating factor this time was payment: My bank card was replaced with a new one that I had to use to activate. I pondered this. If I got my hair cut first and the new card didn’t work, well, it’s not like they could glue the hair back on. Trips to the shops first made more sense (they could just cancel the purchase).

I had a few shops to go to, and the first one I picked was Briscoe’s, a NZ homeware chain. I decided to get some NZ-made kitchen storage canisters, and a few other bits. When I went to pay, the card worked, but I was asked if I wanted the receipt emailed to me. Among other things, that means my orders will be associated with my account (I’ve ordered online before). It’s part of their move toward moving more things online.

The next stop was NZ discount retail chain, The Warehouse. I wanted to get a new hat to wear when I mow the lawns (gotta be sun smart!), and also a treat for Leo that they usually carry, and at better prices than at the supermarket chains (though neither has stocked the one I wanted in months…) or pet shops.

Only then did I get my haircut, which went as quickly and easily as ever. The barber trimmed my old man eyebrows, and I mentioned how I hadn’t managed to learn how to do them myself, even though I have the special clippers for that (thanks, Nigel). She said to me, “just have me do it!” Hard to argue with that.

The photo up top is newly-shorn me after I got back to my car.

Next, it was a NZ discount/clearance chain called Cracker Jack, but they had nothing I was looking for. On to a location of an Australian pet store chain (both big chains in NZ are Australian) because I needed some more food for Leo, and because I wanted some dog conditioner for when I give him a bath.

At this point, not quite 1:30, I thought about just going home. But I wanted to pick up something that I could only get at the NZ supermarket chain New World, so I went. It turned out they had the 1.5 litre bottles of name-brand soft drink I buy at half price—I nearly gasped, and then put six in my trolley (the limit was 12, but I didn’t have enough room to store that many).

I went home after that, put the groceries away, made a coffee, and sat down to relax with Leo for awhile. My sister-in-law rang and asked if I’d go over to my mother-in-law’s place to verify there was a line fault with her phone. I still have the corded phone I bought nearly 20 years ago—no electronics or batteries involved.

I took the phone to my mother-in-law’s, and yes, the line was dead, as I expected. My sister-in-law arranged for the company to deal with it. We visited for awhile, and then I went back home again. Leo was very happy again.

Tomorrow? Maybe mowing the lawns? If so, I’ll get to try the new hat. Aside from that, maybe some other, small projects?

And that was my unusually busy day. Busy as it and I were, it’s nothing compared to what some other people experience in a typical day. Each thing I did today contributed to the busyness of my day, yes, but there’s one thing more: Within the stories of today’s events are more tales to be told.

Except for the haircut—definitely not that one. It may have been delayed, but it was just a haircut, and that makes it the only completely ordinary thing in my day. There had to be one.

No special reason

Sunday was Father's Day in New Zealand, and I could pretend that the Sunday brunch I made for myself (photo above) was because of that, but it wasn’t. Leo has no idea what that’s all about, oddly enough. The truth is, I was planning to make this for more than a week, and Sunday just happened to be the day. Sometimes “no special reason” times are the best for making something special.

My brunch was poached eggs and bacon on an English muffin, something I’ve made before. This time, though, I made a sauce out of mayo, a bit of American mustard (for colour), a tiny bit of turmeric (ditto), thinned with a bit of olive oil and white balsamic vinegar, and with dill and salt & pepper. I ended up adding just a tiny bit of sugar to cut to the acidity of the vinegar.

I came up with the sauce because I knew it’d be faster and far easier than making hollandaise (which I was too lazy to make). It was nice.

I’m pretty good at poached eggs now, actually, and these were no exception. Nowadays, I sometimes make poached eggs on toast for dinner instead of any that are fried in any way, and normally I don’t put any sauce or mayo or whatever on them. I also don’t have bacon.

Speaking of bacon, this time I used a different variety from the same brand we’d bought for years, but one I’ve never had: It was “NZ free-farmed”, which was the only bacon in the supermarket that didn’t use imported pork, something that surprised me. I’d never even looked at the label until last May, and it turns our that the same brand I was annoyed about back then (because of the “NZ Made” in big letters on the front despite the pork coming from Europe) was the only one available that was made with NZ pork. That’s the reason I bought it, despite saying I wouldn’t buy the brand again—maybe I should’ve said “variety”? At any rate, I try to support New Zealand farmers when possible, but this special bacon was, of course, quite expensive. I only cook bacon a couple times a year, usually, so I have plenty of time to find cheaper versions made from NZ pork, but at least this one is an option. And, it had eight slices in the 200g pack, which is probably better when I’m cooking for just me.

The meal turned out so well that I thought about licking the plate, so I did… (…not—I’m not a savage!). Seriously, very nice and much faster and less complicated than actual eggs benny. In the photo up top, it’s sprinkled with a bit of dried parsley just for pretty. I didn’t use S&P because I used that in the sauce, and because bacon is always salty.

That evening I decided to make devilled sausages for dinner (photo below). It was, I think, the second of Nigel’s favourite regular meals that he taught me to make, and I made it many times—but I can’t remember the last time I did. That’s probably because these days I mainly make meat-free meals or else something with chicken.

In any case, I used what my mother-in-law calls “magic potatoes” (frozen mashed potatoes), something Nigel and I introduced her to. They’re much easier than making from scratch, of course, especially because we seldom had actual potatoes on hand: We had fresh potatoes on hand so rarely that they would inevitably start to rot before we got through them all. That’s why we started buying the frozen product.

That night, I used up the last of my “magic potatoes”, so when I had the leftovers the following night, Monday, I used all my fresh potatoes to make mashed potatoes from scratch. I made too much, planning on using the leftovers from that for, well something (I wasn’t quite sure).

In the end, I decided to make a sort of potato pancake in panko breadcrumbs and put a couple poached eggs on top, similar to a dish I’d had (and enjoyed) at a cafe here in Hamilton. I added a little but of curry powder for flavour (not enough), and fried them.

When I turned them, I realised I probably should’ve read an actual recipe first: The first one kinda fell apart. Nevertheless, they were tasty with the poached eggs (have I ever mentioned I’m getting pretty good at making poached eggs?), though the potatoes needed more curry powder.

I have a couple sausages left to cook, plus the last of the leftover mashed potatoes, so that’ll be tonight’s dinner (with some frozen veggies). It’ll be the last in the linked meals that began on Sunday night.

In the end, my “no special reason” Sunday brunch was both pretty good, and it led to other meals, the leftovers leading on to the next meal, and then the next. Sometimes those end up being the best times, whether it was intended as something special or not. This was definitely one of those times.

A chicken soup surprise

Everything’s expensive these days, including things that are vital, like, food. Obviously, how expensive things are, and how much rising costs affect us will vary depending on our situation. Recently, I decided to look a little more deeply into my own food costs. It never hurts to be armed with knowledge.

On Monday of last week, made chicken soup again (photo at left), something I’m getting pretty good at. I talked about the soup I make back in October, and I really had no reason to talk about it again—apart from the whole “yes, but it’s content” thing. That changed when I decided to work out how much the meal costs me to make. I honestly don’t know why I don’t do that all the time, especially if I’m sharing a recipe.

In my post last year, I gave the bare-bones (so to speak…) recipe, although, in fact, it’s more a method than a specific recipe. So, I decided to quantify what I put into my latest effort (admittedly, some of it was merely a guess) so that I could price the ingredients on the supermarket website that I typically order groceries from. I was surprised.

Here’s what’s in the recipe, the unit cost, and the amount used, and actual cost:

Fresh chicken drumsticks: $6/kg, 1.2kg used: $7.20. Frozen Peas & Corn: $4.30/500g bag, 200g used: $0.86. Frozen Spinach: $2.30/500g bag, 50g used: $0.23. Fresh Carrots: $3/1.5kg bag, 200g used: $0.40. Egg Noodles: $3 per packet, half the packet used: $1.50.

That’s a total of $10.19 (today, around US$6.45), and would mean it’d be $3.40 per person if three people were fed, or $2.55 per person if four people were fed. I admit I ate quite a lot the first night, and still had quite a lot leftover for the next day’s lunch, so it could easily feed four people, especially if two of them were children (in which case there might even still be leftovers). I had no idea the meal was so inexpensive to make.

If I was going to make a larger batch—well, I’d need a bigger pot first, but if I got one, then I could feed a large number of people for not much more. For example, I could buy low-salt chicken stock from the supermarket (1 litre packs range from $3.50 for the store’s own brand up to $4 or $5.30 for name brands). Or, I could buy a few more chicken legs, or I could add more vegetables and noodles, since they’re cheaper than chicken.

The point is, there are are options I could use to stretch the meal inexpensively. In reality, if I had the family round, I wouldn’t be skimping, however, if I wanted to make my own food dollars go farther, it’s certainly something I could do.

And that was the lesson I took from this: Like most people, I need to be frugal with my spending, including on food, but to do that I first need to know how much things cost. That led me to a realisation: If I’m going to be talking on this blog about food recipes I’m trying out, why not include costs? That’s really for me, to be honest, because some dishes would probably be cheaper (and possibly better…) to buy ready-made from takeaway shops (like Indian food, for example) than to make it at home. I can’t know that, though, if I don’t work out the costs.

One drawback is that the prices will change over time, but that’ll at least give some idea of how cost-effective it is to make a particular recipe (and changing the unit price would make it easy enough to re-calculate). It never hurts to be armed with knowledge, especially these days.

That, and I enjoy a bit of chicken soup every now and then. Saving money is a nice bonus, though.

Maybe sometimes determination is enough

Sometimes, things are just different, for whatever reason, and sometimes determination is enough. Like today.

For the past several weeks, I’ve dealt with extreme fatigue, bad enough that I haven’t felt like doing much of anything—including blogging or podcasting, obviously. While I try to force myself to get things done, for the most part those efforts failed. But sometimes things go differently, and it began yesterday evening.

I went to my mother-in-law’s for dinner, yesterday evening and also fixed her Kindle (and, of course, Nigel would’ve been surprised (mostly joking). On the way home, I stopped at the New World supermarket to pick up a few bits and pieces. It was interesting.

There were a lot of prices throughout the store that were obviously higher (like a bottle of cooking oil that was on special at a higher price than it’s regular price only a few months ago). But a lot of store specials brought the prices much closer to what they had been—still higher, but not as bad as they’d be otherwise. On the other hand, all the most affordable items (including things on the chain’s “price freeze” list) were really low or sold out.

Today I was planning on going to The Base shopping centre to run errands, so I thought I’d go to the nearby Countdown supermarket on the way home so I could see for myself what their prices are like. It turned out that today’s errands were 2/3 successful. I’m absolutely fine with that.

First up was my much-delayed haircut: I’ve probably needed one for “some time now”, but lately people have been fleeing in terror at the sight of my unruly locks, and pitchforks and torches were being readied. The threat to the mob is now sorted. Bonus points, today I got the young guy, and he was really interesting to chat with. The older guys I’ve had usually talk about sport, work, very superficial stuff. But today we talked about, among other things, how making YouTube videos because it’s what you want to do is more important than monetising them, unless that’s a business you’re running (seriously!).

My next stop was a nearby shop to pick-up something I ordered through click ‘n collect. There’s a story there, but it’s involved and includes a cleaning project I’m doing on Saturday (more about that afterward). However, as I walked back to my car with my purchases, the skies opened up and I was completely drenched. I changed my plans and went directly home, much to Leo’s delight. I didn’t need to go to the supermarket, anyway, so it’s no loss, but today’s soaking made me think that maybe I should keep an old towel in the car. It rains a lot in winter, after all.

While all of that is perfectly ordinary stuff, for a guy who’s had a lot of trouble getting stuff done, it’s a lot of activity in a short period of time. I don’t know that it suggests any sort of change or improvement or anything, but a good patch is always welcome, whether it hangs around or not.

Maybe tomorrow will bring more extraordinary-yet-ordinary stuff. Maybe sometimes determination really is enough?

This is revised and expanded from two posts I made to my personal Facebook. Because sometimes ya gotta do what ya gotta do, especially, for me, these days.

A mini-adventure

I went on a mini-adventure yesterday: I went to a neighbourhood shopping area a relatively short drive from my house, closer than the big name places I normally go to, and with far less traffic and congestion on the roads—even at the end of the school day, it turned out. I didn’t know all that because I’d never spent any time in that area before. It proved educational in a lot of ways.

It all started because I wanted to pick up some chicken for tonight (I’m making my own-style chicken stir fry; “own-style” means not a recipe as such, just a bit of this, a bit of that, whatever I have that I feel like putting in it). I could’ve gone to a supermarket, but the Thursday before Easter is usually crazy busy (the shops are all closed on Good Friday and Easter Sunday, as they are every year, and yet somehow masses of people manage to forget that—every year—and mob supermarkets).

It made me wonder if there was butcher shop near me, since all I wanted was chicken, and it turned out there’s a fairly large one in an area of Hamilton called Nawton. I didn’t know there were many shops in that area (because I hadn’t been there), but I knew it wasn’t exactly an upmarket part of town. Still, I don’t let that stop me (not in daylight, anyway), so off I went.

It was really well-stocked with diverse cuts, including cheaper things like bacon bones, brisket, and large bags of frozen chicken drumsticks, for example. The prices seemed pretty good, but I wasn’t certain because prices for meat and vegetables have soared in recent weeks, and I no longer have any idea what supermarkets charge for the same things. However, I noticed that they seemed to pack most things into packages priced at $15, and some packs were marked as “bargain packs” at $13.99 (same use by date). Personally, I’d find that easy for budgeting. As A result, I bought a little more than I’d intended. [I later did a price comparison, which is at the bottom of this post]

The same little shopping area has some food places (like a sushi shop), a branch of a Waikato-based bottle shop (“liquor store” in Americanese), a pub/cafe-ish looking place (it had a “gaming lounge”, which might influence the clientele they get), and it also had the Nawton branch of Countdown (I forgot there was one), and a small independent food store (“supermarket” doesn’t seem like the best term for it).

I plan to go back again, on a less busy day, at least to go back to the butchers, but I’d also like to look around the Nawton Countdown, too (the one I usually go to sometimes tries my patience…). So, when I need my next supermarket trip (next week or the week after), I think I’ll go there, maybe have some sushi for lunch, too. I like supporting local businesses, especially independent ones, so I’m willing to give it a go.

I guess more mini-adventures await.

A footnote: Price comparisons

Today, I decided to compare the prices I paid at the butcher with what two supermarkets charge, so I went to the websites for both Countdown and New World and tried to match same to same. The short version is that in every case, I paid less at the butcher than the current non-discounted prices at the two supermarkets [Important note: Supermarket prices were accurate at the time I checked, but they may change quickly. Also, in the case of some prices for Countdown, I had to work out the unit price because the supermarket didn’t provide that information, displaying only the price for a small pack. I may have made errors in those calculations, but I doubt it]. One kilogram (kg) = 2.2 US pounds, and today 1 NZ dollar equals around 68 US cents. 

Chicken: I bought boneless/skinless chicken breasts and thighs, and both were free range. At the butcher, the breasts were $13.99 per kilogram, at Countdown it was $18/kg, and New World charged $24.99/kg. The thighs were $17.99/kg at the butcher, 25/kg at Countdown, and $22.48/kg at New World.

Premium Beef Mince: This is the top-of-the-line sort of beef mince (“ground beef” in Americanese), with the lowest percentage of fat. I paid $19.78/kg at the butcher. Countdown didn’t have premium beef mince available on its site, but New World charged $24.99/kg.

All three suppliers sold basic versions of the meats (in this case, meaning non-freerange), though I had to look at the butcher’s website to find out their price for ordinary versions. Chicken breast: $13.99/kg at the butcher, $12.90/kg at Countdown, and $11.99/kg at New World (the price listed at the butcher is the same as free range chicken breast—maybe that’s all they offered at the moment?). Chicken thigh: $16.99/kg at the butcher, $22/kg at Countdown, and $22.99/kg at New World. Beef mince: $13.99/kg at the butcher, $14.90/kg at Countdown, and $14.99/kg at New World.

All up, the directly comparable products were usually considerably less expensive at the butcher, and, with the possible exception of chicken breast, the prices for non-freerange products were also cheaper at the butcher. It’s important to note, however, that supermarket specials, promotions, and package deals (like Countdown’s “3 for $20” offerings) can make supermarket prices competitive with the butcher’s prices (putting aside issues of personal preference).

The lesson I take from this is that if I’m not making a special trip, it probably makes sense for me to buy meat from the butcher, but it would probably erase all or most of the savings if I wasn’t buying other things at that shopping centre, too, especially because I eat very little meat. If I was feeding a family—or even two people—it would make more sense to make a special trip. Still, other shops in that shopping area may provide the rest of what I need in a routine shopping trip, and, if so, it could be worth stopping at the butcher, maybe stocking up and freezing stuff.

As it happens, I’ve been researching budgeting for food as a single person, and that’ll be the subject of an upcoming blog post. This turned out to help with that research. Not bad for an unplanned mini-adventure.

This post began life as something I posted to my personal Facebook yesterday, but this blog post is greatly expanded from that, including the price comparisons.

Boosted and busy

I had my Covid booster shot this week, and while that went well on the day, it had been delayed by things I had to do, and then there were some issues afterward. In other words, it’s been pretty typical of how things have gone recently.

I seem to use up nearly all my available time lately, and considering that time in a day is one thing I ordinarily have plenty of, that’s a pretty big deal. As I said recently, most of my days lately left me feeling like I was spinning my wheels, and that certainly continued into this week.

The main frustration from the middle of last week on into this week was that I was waiting for a delivery. I’d ordered an iPhone 13 Pro from Apple on Sunday, January 2, and a couple days later I got an email telling me the order had shipped and would arrive on January 10. The thing is, my previous orders always arrived early, so I assumed this one would, too. What made it so difficult was that the tracking site for the courier, DHL, was pretty useless.

It started out well enough: I knew it had left Sydney late Tuesday evening, January 4, and had arrived in Auckland in the small hours of Wednesday morning. Thursday it said, “Arrived at delivery facility” at “NZ Regional Service Area – New Zealand”, which sounded like that was/could be Hamilton. Less than 15 minutes later, it said, “Forwarded for delivery”. I had absolutely no idea what that meant, but thought it could mean it was out for delivery. It wasn’t.

The next day, Friday, nothing changed until late morning when it again said, “Forwarded for delivery” and that it was at “NZ Regional Service Area – New Zealand”. Maybe there was more than one? At any rate, that was it for the day—and week.

DHL doesn’t deliver on weekends (or, at least, wasn’t paid to), so at 7:42am Monday morning, the status changed to “With delivery courier”. It arrived six hours later, at 1:41pm.

I ended up staying home on Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday because I wasn’t even remotely clear when the phone would be delivered. On Friday, I ordered groceries to be delivered so I could get that taken care of, and my prescriptions were also delivered, so staying home wasn’t a total loss. I’d have left the house if only their tracking system had been just slightly clearer—such as, saying merely what day it was due to be delivered, something that was nowhere on their page. That alone would’ve meant, I could’ve had my booster on Wednesday, Thursday, or Friday.

Even on Monday I still had no clear idea when it’d arrive, so I planned nothing at all, which was because they didn’t give any sort of delivery window (by comparison, the supermarket gives me a three hour window, then texts me on the day with a more precise hour-long window, then again a few minutes before the truck arrives). If DHL had given me even a four-hour window, I might’ve been able to go get my booster jab on Monday, too, though that turned out to be a good thing.

Once the phone arrived, I took my time getting it set up, and didn’t even put the SIM in until shortly before I went to bed. I’m giving my old phone to my mother-in-law to try, since it will enable her to scan the Covid QR code, rather than having to manually sign in (only smartphones have that capability). If she can’t stand it, it won’t matter, since I didn’t buy a new phone for her that I’d then have to try to sell or whatever.

I needed to get a case for the phone, and I planned to go to the mall, Te Awa, to get one on Tuesday, and also planned to see if the Vaccination Centre there was accepting walk-ins for boosters. However, I was invited to my mother-in-law’s place for dinner Tuesday night, and decided against getting jabbed in case I felt extremely tired like I did after the first jab.

Wednesday came, and off I went. The phone case was easy enough to find (and it’s a good one), and the Vaccination Centre was accepting walk-ins, so I was set. I was done with the whole process in only a few minutes—in fact, the 15-minute post-jab waiting time was the longest part (that's when I took the selfie up top). I felt fine all evening, and even went to bed a little early (for me).

The next morning, Thursday, I felt fine. I got up extra early (again, for me…), and was carrying on with my day—until I couldn’t. I explained it on my personal Facebook:

Let me say first, this is actually a GOOD thing, but: It turns out it took around 24 hours for reactions to set in. It started with me being VERY tired and sleepy, like I was after my first jab, but this time I didn’t feel better after sleeping (dozing, actually; I couldn’t settle for a good sleep). By late afternoon, a little while ago, I realised I was also feeling pretty crappy (kinda flu-like), so I took a couple paracetamol, which hasn’t taken effect yet. I definitely feel worse now than I did after either main dose—or both combined.

This is, of course, a very good thing because it means my immune system is responding and building its fortress to keep Rona Omicron OUT. But if I feel this yucky as my body builds its defences, I can only imagine how awful it could’ve been if I’d never been vaccinated!!!

So, I might be feeling yucky at the moment, but it makes me happy to know my body is working hard to build defences to protect me from the people who don’t care about keeping others or themselves safe.

As it happens, I did start to feel better when the paracetamol took effect, and I didn’t need another dose. My arm felt less sore, too. Once again, I went to bed early (for me…).

When I woke up yesterday morning, I again felt fine, and my arm was no longer sore. I was guarded, though, and went ahead and mowed the lawns. Aside from getting hot in the late morning heat, it went well. I said on Facebook:

For those following along at home, I feel fine today—and more than 48 hours after the booster, I now feel safe saying that. In fact, I mowed my "lawns" today, and that closed the Exercise Ring on my watch, so I'm clearly doing fine.

I’ve seen other people who had a reaction to the booster the day after they got it, so I wasn’t surprised or worried or whatever. Really, I was just a bit annoyed.

All that disruption caused by waiting for deliveries meant that other things got pushed out, too. Then Thursday, despite its early start, became a total write-off when the reaction set in. I’m now quite a bit behind on various projects, including several blog posts I’d planned to publish my now—they haven’t even been written yet, which is an indication of how behind schedule (so-called) I am right now. Not that it matters, really, but that, too, left me feeling a bit annoyed.

Still, the disruptions of the past week and a half are now over, so most things should get back to normal. However, I know that parts of this coming week will be very busy, so I’m assuming nothing. I do hope I’ll have the time and energy to blog about it, though.

I’m a helpful blogger

There’s no sense denying it: I’m a helpful blogger. Whether it’s my “AmeriNZ Test Kitchen” posts, in which I try all sorts of products and recipes, through to my “Projects” posts, where I talk in detail about things I’ve worked on, I talk about things I do so that others don’t have to. There’s another (sadly neglected) category of posts, “Household Hints”, in which I shared specific information to help with everyday challenges. Today I revive those posts.

Among the many things that I personally find the most annoying about chores associated with daily life is refilling the liquid soap dispensers next to all of my sinks. It’s something I have to do more often than ever, thanks to the frequent handwashing required by living with Covid, but even before that it was always annoying and even frustrating—until I thought of a workaround.

The photo up top illustrates the tip: How to refill a liquid soap dispenser quickly, easily, and with no waste or spills.

To to use this tip, you’ll need the empty soap dispenser, of course, a funnel that will fit inside the mouth of your soap dispenser, and a twist tie. That’s it! Well, a bottle of soap to pour into the bottle, too.

First, wrap the twist tie around the threads of the bottle, making sure it’s within the groove of a thread (so it doesn’t slip). You can twist two twist ties together if your soap bottle has an extra wide opening. Twist the ends of the twist tie together. That’s shown in the left photo in the bottom row.

Next, bend the twisted ends into the mouth of the bottle (middle photo), and insert the funnel (right photo). Don’t push it too hard—it’ll be askew and that’s what you want! Then, pour the new soap into the funnel and let it drain in.

The point of this is that it allows air to enter the bottle around the base of the funnel, and that speeds up the funnel emptying. Without the twist tie, the funnel will form a seal with the bottle opening and it’ll drain slower than maple syrup on a Vermont winter morning. This tip saves a lot of time.

There’s an important warning: You need to know what the capacity of your bottle is so that you don’t over-fill the funnel. In my case, I already knew what the capacity of my bottle was, and I’d measured how much the funnel holds, so I knew how far to fill the funnel so I don’t spill any soap. This can take some trial and error.

The point of this process is to speed up filling the bottle, of course, but there’s also another goal that others may or may not share: Until I came up with this, I always spilled some soap because pouring it into the bottle without a funnel meant I always misjudged the flow rate (or whatever it’s called) and the soap would gloop out and onto the bottle. When I started using a funnel, I had to leave it for ages as it slowly drained into the bottle. Now, it’s over in minutes, and with no spillage.

I’m being thoroughly tongue-in-cheek in this post, however, I really do use this method and highly recommend it. I’m absolutely certain I’m not the first person to come up with a way (in fact, this is my final, refined method) to make sure that the funnel doesn't form a seal, and so, make the bottle fill slower. However, so far this is the first place I’ve seen anyone spell it out.

This public service of mine is all the more remarkable given that I’ve never received a single cent in payment, nor any other form of compensation, in the entire 15 years I’d done this blog. What can I say? I’m a giver. And today is no different.

In all seriousness, though, I do swear by this method.

Waiting patiently

There’s been a lot in the news lately about the huge backlog NZ Post has in delivering packages due to a massive jump in online purchasing because of Covid lockdowns, and how that’s meant huge delays in deliveries. There really are big delays, like, for example, that vintage Mac keyboard I bought on Trade Me took nearly a week to get here from Auckland’s North Shore, somewhere I could drive to in a couple hours or so, depending on traffic (and without lockdowns, obviously).

But now it seems the very space/time continuum has been ruptured.

Last week I ordered something from a major retailer (because it wasn’t available at any of their stores within an 8 hour drive). It arrived at the NZ Post depot in Hamilton early Saturday morning, where it’s been ever since. When I got up yesterday, Tuesday, I thought it might be delivered that day (since it was already in Hamilton). That didn’t happen, but we did enter The Twilight Zone.

When I checked the tracking today (image at right), nothing about its status had changed, except it said, “Estimated delivery: Yesterday”. I’m expecting to suddenly remember it arriving yesterday as I look at the package on the table where I put it, yesterday, though it’s not there right now, of course. This led me to a question: What day will my reality be altered to accommodate a delivery of an item in the past? And will it hurt when the space/time continuum burps?

Those sarcastic questions popped into my head today, but the bigger thing is how noticeable it is that things have fallen apart for NZ Post, so much so that they’re not even trying to keep the estimated delivery date remotely accurate (assuming, of course, that they really can’t travel back in the past to deliver a package…). This same thing is happening to a lot of people I know.

There’s actually a part of me that wonders why NZ Post was caught so ill-prepared for the surge in online orders. They’ve talked repeatedly about how package delivery has become the biggest part of their business, and they even re-branded to promote their new reality. This doesn’t seem to bode well for the Christmas shopping season. Still, this is also a global problem, so I don’t want to be too hard on NZ Post (yet…).

Today I also checked on the delivery status of those Torx screwdrivers I ordered from Amazon for Ye Olde Macintosh Project. They were due to arrive “about October 6”, but today their website said, “Unfortunately, your delivery is running behind schedule,” and then added that the delivery company was “working to make sure the delay doesn’t affect your final delivery time. Your package can still arrive by October 11,” which is nice, but that’s actually five days later than they originally said, and while I’m sure their wording was meant to be positive, I couldn’t help noticing they’d moved the goalposts.

I don’t know what the specific problem was, though the details on the order said it was “Carrier Delay – Operational/Capacity Related”. I have no idea what that actually means, but in general terms it’s happening absolutely everywhere.

After all of New Zealand (apart from Auckland) moved to Alert Level 3 Lockdown, construction could resume, and within a week or two that led to warnings that builders would be running out of various materials because the factories in Auckland were closed due to their Level 4 Lockdown. The industry has had trouble getting foreign-made supplies for months, and, in fact, pretty much any person or business ordering stuff from overseas has probably seen delays, sometimes massive ones. As the world begins to accept that Covid has become endemic, shipping will begin to return to normal, but what about next time? There will be another pandemic and we should take the lessons from this one to better prepare us so that next time we don’t start seeing shortages of stuff and/or massive price hikes.

Before all this happened, I was looking at some specialist New Zealand food suppliers, small businesses supplying NZ-made products that aren’t sold in supermarkets. I seriously considered placing orders to try their products, but I’m now glad that I didn’t: Wouldn’t want food products sitting in a depot for several days.

I was just being silly when I talked about my package’s delay—my life will not be diminished by it taking a long time to get here, apart from the fact that I don’t want to leave the house in case the package is dispatched and their system doesn’t alert me like it usually does. Same with those screwdrivers: If I’ve gone this long without being able to tell if that Mac Classic is repairable or not, then an extra five days (or whatever it ends up being) won’t make any difference.

But it would do a world of good for people’s sense of well-being if deliveries could get back to being a little more, well, normal. We’re waiting patiently for that, too.

Update – September 30, 2021: The package was delivered around Noon today.

Update 2 – October 5, 2021: The Torx screwdrivers were delivered early this afternoon—and a day earlier than originally promised. Um, good?

This is based on something I posted on my personal Facebook earlier today, but that was just my starting point for this post.

An ordinary Sunday all ironed out

Today was just an ordinary day. A bit hot outside, but otherwise just a quiet Sunday. Of course, every day is a quiet one for the dogs.

The photo above is of Leo and Jake lying in the sun. Leo (who’s not as pudgy as he looks in the photo) is lying on an inexpensive bathmat I put at the door to catch the grass clippings they track in (I mowed the lawns yesterday). Leo thought it made a perfect bed, I guess. He and Jake have “an understanding” and generally stay clear of each other, so they don’t normally sleep so close—and it didn’t last, because Jake moved twice in the few minutes after I took the photo Leo, meanwhile, moved to Jake’s spot and remained in the sunshine.

At the time, I was ironing some shirts, ones that had been waiting, er, awhile. I always used to iron on Sundays, usually in the evening after Nigel went to bed. I thought it was possible that I might have a hard time doing a bunch of ironing on a Sunday, because of the memories, so I haven’t until today. I still haven’t done it on a Sunday evening, but I don’t think that’ll be an issue, either. It turns out that not all memories are triggers—but, then, I already knew that.

So, this quite ordinary Sunday was a quite ordinary Sunday for us all. I got some things done today, and the dogs slept a lot. They also entertained me, which is even better.

This post is based on—and greatly expanded from—the caption I wrote when I shared this photo on Instagram.

Crop failure

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by arthur_amerinz (@arthur_amerinz)

When I shared the above images on my Instagram, I said, “This is the first time I’ve ever had a failure growing tomatoes,” and that was true: I’ve had some years that were more productive than others, but not complete wash-outs like this year. I may or may not try again next year.

The thing is, in summer tomatoes are cheap and plentiful in the shops, so is it really worth my time and effort to grow them? This year I had a lot of success with flowers and some other things, so I may concentrate on that next year. They also need a lot less watering than tomatoes do, so there’s that, too.

I didn’t plant tomatoes for last season, of course, because planting time was about a month after Nigel died and even by then I knew I’d be moving on, possibly before they’d be ready to harvest. Plus, for obvious reasons, I simply wasn’t interested.

This year, the plants were given to me, though I had to buy the pots and dirt, of course. Still, that wasn’t much of an outlay, really. It was just a lot of work watering them every day. I had to water the flowers, too, but that seemed less of a bother for some reason.

At any rate, it’s time to replant my VegePod, which has worked out well, and I’m planning on getting a “greenhouse” cover for it so I can grow stuff this winter, too (like lettuce and herbs). That’11 be a whole new adventure.

Live and learn, I suppose, but sometimes things just happen, and this was one of those years. Just as long as I learn for next year.

Photographic memory

Photos capture things for us in ways almost nothing else can. People and moments that we left behind long ago, and ones from the past we were never part of if the first place, can all be right in front of us. There’s a power in that. There’s also the power they give to us to remember and to learn—even from and about ourselves.

I’ve recently shared a few different photos, which isn’t anything new, but I’ve also been talking more about the photos themselves. As part of that, I told the story of what was behind this year’s birthday selfie. That, in turn, made me start looking at what I’d shared in previous years, and what they told me about, well, me. There were a lot of different things I noticed.

The first and most obvious thing is that I didn’t start taking those selfies until 2015 (see image at right), though there were photos of me in my 2009 birthday post. However, those photos were taken taken of me and not by me: They weren’t selfies. Once I had all the photos together, I looked at each one as a sort of yearly milepost, since, unlike any other photos of me, they were all taken at the same time of year.

I don’t know if I intended for the photos in 2015 and 2016 to have the same theme (I probably did), however, I do know that in both photos, as with so many others, I deliberately made sure that my left hand was visible because then my rings would be, too. I’ve always felt a responsibility to be a symbol of a happy, long-term gay relationship, and that’s the most consistently visible way I did that, even though I didn’t actually ever say that until now.

Until I did this project, I never noticed that I wore the same shirt in 2016 and 2017. I’m certain that wasn’t intentional. From now on, I’ll double check, so if I repeat a shirt, it’ll be deliberate.

There are much more important things, though.

2016 was the birthday before my stent (that was the following August), and I think I can see that. 2017 was the last birthday when we lived on Auckland’s North Shore—just about a month before we moved to Clarks Beach in South Auckland. I was concerned about that move, which I suppose is a subject in itself, and I think I can see that, too.

2018 was my first birthday in Clarks Beach (see my note about 2017, but I was also affected by the prescriptions I was on, as I've mentioned frequently, which was a much bigger thing). 2019 was the year of my 60th birthday, and there’s a hint of a smile. 2020 I was in the midst of moving out of Clarks Beach, and my smile is kinda real, but only because I was so very tired that day (plus my neighbour was standing nearby watching in case I wanted her to take it for me; I didn’t because it had to be a selfie—of course!). And this year’s photo has a partly faked smile, thought I’m not sure how big a part.

Those are things that may or may not be obvious to others, but there was one more thing I was curious about: Ageing.

A few weeks, a couple months at most, after Nigel died, I looked at myself in the mirror and was surprised at how much I’d visibly aged. I’d heard of that sort of thing happening, but I was surprised at the visual confirmation.

That was one of the things I was most interested in seeing: Was there photographic evidence of my seemingly rapid ageing? I think the answer is an obvious “yes”.

From 2015 to 2019, I look more or less the same—wrinkles and lines are pretty much the same. That changed pretty dramatically in 2020 when the wrinkles in the outside corners of my eyes appeared. Those were slightly better in 2021, suggesting that some of my appearance in 2020 was because of deep fatigue and the stress of shifting from the last house Nigel and I shared to one in a new city—and, obviously, without him.

For years I’ve been looking at the two vertical creases at the top of my nose, between my eyes. I watched them get worse over time, and told Nigel at some point I’d definitely consider botox for them. He just rolled his eyes. Those creases got worse after Nigel died.

There are two things about all this. First, the photos show me that I wasn’t imagining things, and it’s always nice to have that sort of confirmation of a feeling or hunch. However, the other thing about this is that I mostly don’t care about it: If we’re lucky, we get older, and changes are inevitable if we have the gift of longevity. On the third hand, I didn’t want to see it quite yet.

A month or so ago, on a whim, I bought a men’s moisturiser that, it says, is specifically designed for men and promises to fight visible signs of ageing. I’m a sceptic by nature, and this was no different. I’m well aware that in many cases this sort of stuff is at least substantially the same for men and women, the only differences being packaging, maybe fragrance, and often price, with men paying more for essentially the same thing women buy. Be that as it may, the product was for men, right? Worth a try, right?

I started using it a couple weeks before my birthday, maybe every second or third day, and I noticed over this past weekend that the vertical creases are softened compared to what they had been over the previous year. A fluke? My imagination? Quite possibly. But it was encouraging enough for me to begin using it twice every day, as the package recommends. I’m also now paying more attention to the corners of my yes (which I wasn’t really doing before). In another month or two I may take another photo just so I can compare more directly.

I’m doing all this for the same reason I still dye my beard (when I can be bothered…): It’s entirely for me, and no one else. When I look at myself in the mirror, I want to see the “me” I feel, which is usually somewhat younger than my chronological age. If using this stuff can make me see the same guy I feel I am, then that alone is justification. After all, it’s not for or about others, only me.

And, as my final defensive comment, I also knew the skin of my forehead was a bit dry, as are my hands a lot of the time (I wash my hands a lot nowadays, and my head is exposed to sun and wind). I could’ve used ordinary moisturiser (and I do on my hands), and not said a word about. Or I could have just said I was using moisturiser for dry skin which, while true, wasn’t the whole story. That’s not how I do things.

For years now, I’ve tried to be open, honest, and transparent about what I’m doing, thinking, and feeling mostly because I know that other people may be going through similar things as me and if they run across these posts, they’ll hopefully realise they’re not alone. Plus, these posts help me remember things, in much the same way photos do, but with the full context included.

Photos, you see, capture things for us in ways almost nothing else can, and they can also help us to understand more about ourselves when we put those photos into context. There’s power in that.

This post has been updated. Follow the link to see the update.