DNR

Remember GI's Union Jack singlet?  The one I wrote about a couple of years back.

Well, earlier this month, GI finally came to the conclusion that it was time to give up the ghost.  He was willing to let this singlet go.

I think it has served him well.  (In fact it seems like it has already served several life sentences.)

I had him wear it one last time.

** DNR - Do Not Resuscitate 

Mary Had a Little Lamb

I didn't find this McDonald's advertisement funny.

 I wonder what their ad agency was thinking, if at all.

Cut to the Cheese

Back in the home country, cheese came in blocks.  They didn't sell individually wrapped cheese slices.  There we no packs of shredded cheese.  You grated your own cheese at home with your own grater or you cut your own slices with a table knife or possibly one of those gadgets with a thin wire.  If the cheese in question was quezo de bola, then you just had to bring out the big guns -- the trusty  cleaver.

The cheese I grew up with came in blocks of 250 g (small), 500 g (medium) and 1 kg (large). These were what they called processed cheese (or sometimes pasteurized processed cheese food).  Think Che-Vital, Cheezee, Ques-O, and the like.  All of  those were easy to slice using a table knife even straight out of the ref.   So imagine my shock when we bought a block of tasty cheese here and tried to cut it with a table knife.  I didn't get very far and I had to bring out the cleaver to get a slice.  

We soon learned that it was more cost effective to buy the pre-packaged slices since it was so difficult to get thin slices out of the solid block of cheese.  And admittedly it is more convenient to open a bag and grab shredded cheese than peeling the plastic off a block of cheese and grating your own cheese. Therefore, more often than not, the cheese we have stocked are cheese slices for lunch sandwiches and shredded cheese for omelettes and general cooking.

Aside from all these various "forms" of cheese, the variety of cheese here is amazing.  (What do you expect from a country that is sometimes called the land of milk and honey?)   

I can imagine all these types of cheese were also available in the Philippines.  It's just that aside from the processed cheese food, kesong puti, quezo de bola, bottled parmesan cheese and the occasional mozarella, we didn't really get brie, camembert, romano, blue cheese, etc. on a normal basis.

Here, when friends invite us over, it is not uncommon for them to serve cheese and crackers.  Then they would bring out their cheese board and knife sets as if these items were as basic as spoons and forks.

So when I saw this Cut to the Cheese  Knife Set for AUD 14.95, I was sorely tempted to get it because it told me what the various knives were for.   

I resisted the urge to buy the set but I still thought it was cool.

From left to right -- (a) Medium Soft Cheese knife for bries and camemberts, (b) Crumbly Cheese knife for shaving both hard and crumbly cheeses, (c) Cheese Fork for securely holding the cheese in place while cutting and for serving, (d) Spreader [self-explanatory], and (e) Hard Cheese knife for cutting cheeses such as parmesan and romano)  

Spell Check Needed

RD spotted this at the Lincraft store.  

Accidental or intentional dyslexia?

Call It How You See It

On my walks to the mall, I pass by this bush which has bright red flowers.  I didn't know what they were called.   I took these picture last month.  I figured I would be able to find someone who could identify these flowers for me.

When I asked the kids to ask their classmates, they replied that their classmates "don't care for those things" and "they wouldn't know."  In other words, "please spare us the embarrassment, Mom, and don't have us ask such lame questions."  

With that, I figured I would have to find the answer on my own.  

Not a problem, I thought, I can ask the people I meet as I walk.  Sadly, between then and now, every time I crossed paths with someone on the sidewalk, we were not beside the flower I needed identified.

Look at the flowers closely.  What do these flowers look like? 

Go ahead, take a guess because after this morning, I can now tell you what they are called.   (Hint : Call them as you see them.)

This morning, I saw a couple of elderly ladies walking ahead of me.  All of a sudden, one of them dashed across and made her way to the other side of the road about 150 metres from the corner where the pedestrian lane was.  The other lady paused, and watched as her companion stopped in the middle of the road then waited for the cars to pass so she could get to the other side.  When the elderly jaywalker got safely across, the law abiding lady resumed her walk.  As such, I was able catch up with her.

"I hope you're not trying to catch the bus,"  I said because I saw her daring companion (across the street) nearing the bus stop where the bus to the city was in the process of loading the passengers that were queued at the stop.  

"Oh, no.  That's my sister and we're just going to Castle Mall.  I don't know why she is in such a rush but I'm not going to risk my life just to cross the street." she replied as we continued our walk towards the corner.

I smiled and agreed that it was quite difficult to cross the road.  She said she'd been living in our area for 25 years and the road didn't used to be as busy. I relayed the news I had heard about a new pedestrian crosswalk being planned.  She said she'd heard that, too.   By this time, we were approaching my mystery flower.  

"Maybe you can help me."  I said pointing to the red flower on the side of the road, "would you know what this flower is called?"

She gave it some thought then remembered what the flowers were called before we reached the corner.

B O T T L E    B R U S H

(Now that's one plant that is aptly named.)

Cut-Price Book Sale in Sydney

Look familiar?  

No, Z.  This is not National Bookstore.  

It's just a small stall at the nearby mall.

Guess Where?

Where else ... the eye doctor's office!

The Amsler Grid

Do you know how sometimes your day just goes from worse to worst?   Mine did the other day.  

OK, maybe I exaggerate but for someone who  doesn't normally take sick days off, doesn't usually take medicine, and doesn't like using creams and lotions, it certainly feels that way.

It started some time in winter, all these 'my face is drying up' issues of mine.   It started out with chapped lips, then the area below the nose got dried too when I got a cold, but things really got bad when even my the areas around the eyes were drying up, too.    

You know it was bad because I actually lined up to see a doctor back then.  He prescribed some hydrocortisone for the eye area.   It improved slightly but after a while the eye areas started getting red.  I just stopped putting the hydrocortisone but didn't go back to see a doctor.

I had hoped it would fix itself.  I'm really not the type to see doctors. (Yes, yes, I know all about the ounce of prevention thing and I believe all that, but the Taurean bullheadedness in me is kind of strong.)   I had gone to the chemist and picked up some lotion which the lady had recommended was safe(r) for the eye area.   It seemed to help somewhat but I knew it wasn't REALLY improving.

Last week,  I found myself in the start of my two-week mandatory leave from work.  The kids were also on school holidays  so we had scheduled a dental appointment for them and planned to make an eye appointment.  MacGyver encouraged  me to make the call for the appointment and go for an eye check-up as well.  (Read between the lines and see the word STRONGLY in there.)  

So off to the eye doctor I went last Thursday.  He was happy to report that the eye area was only inflamed (and not infected).   He recommended using cleanser and moisturiser for sensitive skin.  He didn't mention anything about the grade of my  glasses so I suppose I should be happy although I have to admit that I was giving my best guess for some of the letters on the chart.   (Was that an O or a D?  I can't be sure if that is a C or a G.)

After that, we moved on to another room where he had his new high tech OCT scanner.  He asked me to look at the red cross in the middle of the screen.  "Close your eyes, then when you open them don't blink for a while,"  my doctor instructed.   We did that for both eyes.  

When we were done with both eyes, he called me over.  "The right eye is fine," he said. Then he showed me the picture of the left eye and dropped the bomb.   "But you see that there?  (showing me a small circle on the screen somewhere in between what I assume to be the inner layers of my left eye)  That shouldn't be there.  We don't know what it is.  It could be some fluid or some fatty deposits.  It is quite small but it is its proximity to the macula which is of concern.  There is no need to remove it or anything, we just have to monitor its size.  Nothing to worry about."

Yeah, nothing to worry about.  That's easy for him to say.  He's not the one whose excess fat shows up in his eye.

Kidding aside, he referred me to another specialist.  Unfortunately, when I called for an appointment, I was told that the soonest available slots were for the last weeks of October (way after my scheduled leave); and by the way, "Specialists don't hold clinic on weekends."   So I have yet to find out what else might be wrong with me.

Of course I had to relay the news to my resident ophthalmologist, Eldest Sis.  She seemed fairly calm about the whole thing (which was comforting) and she introduced me to the Amsler Grid.  

We were at the tail end of our Skype call, so I had to go to Wikipedia for an explanation (below) for what looked like nothing but graphing paper to my untrained eyes. 

If it is any consolation to me, all the Amsler grid lines look straight to me and none of them seem to be missing.

The Amsler grid, used since 1945, is a grid of horizontal and vertical lines used to monitor a person's central visual field. The grid was developed by Marc Amsler, a Swiss ophthalmologist. It is a diagnostic tool that aids in the detection of visual disturbances caused by changes in the retina, particularly themacula (e.g. macular degeneration, Epiretinal membrane), as well as the optic nerve and the visual pathway to the brain.

 In the test, the person looks with each eye separately at the small dot in the center of the grid. Patients with macular disease may see wavy lines or some lines may be missing.

Amsler grids are supplied by ophthalmologists, optometrists or from web sites, and may be used to test one's vision at home.

Word Dyslexia

We saw a big advertisement of these Oreo WaferSticks on the road yesterday and upon seeing the bigger than life chocolate oozing down on the wafer stick, RD went, "Is that REALLY chocolate milk?"  

"Milk chocolate, RD.  Not chocolate milk,"  I pointed out.

Springtime Tote in Style

Can you read what it says on the store window?

OUR FAMOUS LOGO TOTE 
FROM $59.95

Yes, if you want to sport one of these Spring-inspired tote bags from Country Road, you have to cough up almost AUD60.   Note how the display has the word "from" in front of the price.  

I remember seeing the regular coloured ones during winter at almost AUD50 and thinking "Boy, those bags are pretty expensive."   Apparently, I was wrong.   (Although I must admit, the spring collection does come in pretty colours.)