suing God

Associated Press reported on 16 October about Nebraska state Senator Ernie Chambers' lawsuit against God being dismissed on grounds of no home address was listed to serve the lawsuit.

The story was widely reported in media outlets.

Strangely, not one of them mentioned the 2001 Australian film The Man Who Sued God. In the film, churches and synagogues as God's representatives were liable to the lawsuit against God. The only way out of it was if they proved that God did not exist.

************
Despite staying home today, I still have a mess to sort out following yesterday's burglary.

the banana diet

A story that seems to have picked up in the international media is Japan's latest diet trend. From Japan Times

Yes, we have no bananas, as dieters peel away stocks

By NATSUKO FUKUE

Staff writer

Dieting appears to be a nationwide trend. Spurred on by TV shows, people have taken various approaches, including upping their intake of "natto" fermented soybeans, which later proved fruitless, to adding agar to food.

Peel this: Only Ecuadorean bananas costing 8 remain available at the Granpark Tamachi branch of Daimaru Peacock in Minato Ward, Tokyo, on Sept. 30. The sign says bananas have become scarce due to a TV show boasting the dieting merits of the fruit. NATSUKO FUKUE PHOTO

Now it's bananas.

Bananas have been long known as a diet food. But when Tokyo Broadcasting System's TV show "Dream Press-sha" explained on Sept. 19 how former opera singer Kumiko Mori — who weighs in at more than 100 kg — lost 7 kg through the banana diet, there has been a run on the fruit.

According to Seven & I Holdings Co., which runs the supermarket chain Ito-Yokado, banana sales have been increasing since spring. But twice as many as usual were sold in late September.

Takashi Kobayashi, chief manager of the Granpark Tamachi branch of supermarket chain Daimaru Peacock, said his store is also seeing a run on bananas.

"Bananas have been selling really well, especially since the TV show on the banana diet aired on Sept. 19. These days, bananas are all gone by evening," Kobayashi said.

Hiromi Otaki, spokeswoman for Dole Japan Co., Japan's largest banana importer, said there was a 25 percent to 27 percent jump in banana shipments between June and August compared with the same period last year.

"Bananas are usually not consumed much in summer because juicy fruits, such as watermelon, are more popular. But this summer, bananas sold well," Otaki said.

"Unfortunately, even if there is more demand, we cannot supply more bananas immediately because it takes 10 to 15 months to grow them," she said.

According to Otaki, 90 percent of bananas in Japan come from the Philippines.

The craze traces its roots to the Morning banana diet introduced on mixi, a popular social networking Web site, in 2006 by Hitoshi Watanabe, who studied preventive medicine in Tokyo, and by his pharmacist wife, Sumiko.

According to their official Web site, the trick is to eat bananas along with room-temperature water for breakfast.

Anything can be eaten at lunch and dinner, and afternoon snacks are OK. Just avoid ice cream, dairy products and dessert after dinner, and dine before 8 p.m.

The Web site says bananas are good for losing weight because they help digestion and improve metabolism.

In January, Makino Publishing Ltd. featured the banana diet in its monthly magazine Sokai.

"We received good feedback from our readers, so we continued to run feature articles (on the diet) in April, August, September and October," chief editor Kazuhiko Murohashi said.

The company also published the book "Asa (morning) Banana Diet" by the Watanabes in May. It proved to be a huge hit, selling 230,000 copies.

"While Sokai is read mainly by people in their 40s and 50s, the book has wider readership, from teenagers to the elderly," Murohashi said. "I think that Japanese, including the elderly, care not only about their health but also about beauty."

TV celebrity Monta Mino, who is widely popular with housewives, dwelt on the diet three times in his popular TV show "Omoikkiri Terebi," adding further to the boom.

Yuko Takahashi in Kodaira, Tokyo, said her husband, Toshiaki, has been on a banana diet since summer, after they saw an ad for the diet book. He has since lost 3 kg.

"My husband didn't have breakfast before, but now he eats a banana every morning. It's quick and easy," she said.

A 40-year-old Japanese language instructor who only gave her last name, Yanagihara, also tried the banana diet for a month and lost 2 kg, but she thinks it is not effective.

"I tried many kinds of diet methods, like eating soybean cookies and drinking slimming tea. None worked really well. I usually lost 2 kg (with these diet methods), but I could easily gain the weight back.

"It sounds amazing that Kumiko Mori lost 7 kg, but it's easier to lose weight for her because she's big," she said.

Sayoko Ikeda, associate professor of the faculty of nutrition at Kobe Gakuin University, said eating bananas does not directly trigger weight loss.

"Eating only one kind of food in the long term is not healthy because you cannot get the necessary nutrition," she said, noting bananas may work for people who tend to overeat because the fruit is quite filling.

The Japan Times: Tuesday, Oct. 7, 2008

There is more...

Morning Banana Diet website

YouTube


If you ask me, the idea is bent.

***********
The house was burgled today while I was at work. My room was ransacked for small valuables. Kane was unharmed, but proven he has retired from guard duties.

wealth at whose price?

In South Africa, 300 people are killed each year for their body parts, which are used in traditional 'muti' medicine, including to attract wealth (Daily Telegraph). In Tanzania, albino baby body parts are used in potions to attract wealth (BBC News).

Greed knows no bounds. Such greedy people have no conscience and place no value in the life of others.

Just like bankers on Wall Street.

**************
The days are getting longer. Spring is in the air. No wonder I have a strange compulsion to tidy up.

She without arm, he without leg

is a ballet duet performed by Ma Li (馬麗) and Zhai Xiaowei (翟孝偉).



(thanks to Boing Boing)

Classical dance is usually premised on perfect bodies. An amputee piece certainly challenges the presumptions about body types and shapes in ballet.

Good stuff.

************
Today was a busy chore-filled day.

dragon toes

Chinese Dragons have five toes, Korean dragons four toes and Japanese dragons three toes.

According to Wikipedia

To explain this phenomenon, Chinese legend states that all Imperial dragons originated in China, and the further away from China a dragon went the fewer toes it had.

However, historical records show that ordinary Chinese dragons had four toes (this dragon was known as Mang), but the Imperial dragon had five (as in the Five elements of Chinese philosophy) (this dragon was known as Long). The four-clawed dragon was typically for nobility and certain high ranking officials. The three clawed dragon was used by the general public (widely seen on various Chinese goods in Ming dynasty). The Long, however, was only for select royalty closely associated with the Imperial family, usually in various symbolic colors, while it was a capital offense for anyone - other than the emperor himself - to ever use the completely gold-colored, five-clawed Long dragon motif. Improper use of claw number and/or colors was considered treason, punishable by execution of the offender's entire clan. Since most east Asian nations at one point or another were considered Chinese tributaries, they were only allowed four-clawed dragons. The five toes rule was enforced since 1336 AD (Yuan the second year). "(For commoners) It is forbidden to wear any cloth with patterns of Qilin, Male Fenghuang (Chinese phoenix), White rabbit, Lingzhi, Five-Toe Two-Horn Loong, Eight Loongs, Nine Loongs, Long-live, Fortune-longevity character and Golden Yellow etc." ("禁服麒麟、鸾凤、白兔、灵芝、双角五爪龙、八龙、九龙、万寿、福寿字、赭黄等服")^[10]

Another explanation is

The Chinese tradition states that dragons originated in China with five toes. As they travelled abroad they lost more toes the further they went from home. This is why Oriental dragons never reached the West - they would have run out of toes.

The Japanese tradition has a similar story that differs in one important respect: dragons originated in Japan. In this version of the legend, dragons grew more toes as they travelled further from home. Once they reached five toes they found it difficult to walk which is why they never reached the West.

Although this is the generally accepted toe count, some sources claim that in China only the Imperial Dragon actually had the full five toes and other Chinese dragons had just four.

I thought they had claws. Do other reptiles have toes?

*********
Today was busy. Still, I had time in the morning to watch Dragon Wars (D-War), hence today's topic.


Magnificent depiction. Fascinating mythology.

the other person

The BBC finally wrote about Peter Norman.



Peter Norman died in October 2006. The BBC should have written about him then.

Old web references, following his death.

- Sydney Morning Herald 10 October 2006
- Sydney Morning Herald 4 October 2006
- Black Athlete 5 October 2006
- Athletics Australia 4 October 2006
- San Jose State University Spartan Daily of 5 October 2006 (both Smith and Carlos were students here)

**************
Today has been full of farewells and birthdays. Farewells for a colleague (lunch) and Stella (after work drinks) and birthdays for Martin (formerly back neighbour) and Jim (Emily's new man) with after work drinks (thankfully and coincidentally, at the same place).

De Civilitate Morum Puerilium Libellus

Desiderius Erasmus Roterodamus, a Dutch Renaissance humanist, wrote De Civilitate Morum Puerilium Libellus in 1536.

It was a best seller and translated into English by Robert Whittington in 1560 as De ciuilitate morum puerilium per des. Erasmum Roterodamum, libellus nunc primum conditus & editus. Roberto VVhitintoi interprete. A lytle booke of good maners for chyldren, now lately compiled and put forth by Erasmus Roterodam in latin tongue, with interpretation of the same into the vulgare englyshe tongue, by Robert VVhittinton poet laureat.

A new translation by Eleanor Merchant has just been published (amazon.co.uk). From the publisher description

When did you last tell your children to put their hand over their mouth when they yawn? When did you last suggest that when they are introduced to someone they should look them in the eye? Do you remind them that they should wait until everyone is served before they start eating? And not hoover up the best bit? Do you think that the children of today have disgraceful manners? Unlike, of course, when you were young? Well, that's what Erasmus of Rotterdam thought in 1530 when he published 'de Civilitate Morum Puerilium Libellus: A Handbook on Good Manners for Children'. After all, as William of Wykeham memorably said in the 1350s, Manners Makyth Man'. A Handbook on Good Manners for Children is considered to be the first treatise in Western Europe on the moral and practical education of children. It was a massive bestseller - indeed the biggest selling book of the sixteenth century - going into 130 editions over 300 years and being translated into 22 languages. In it, Erasmus concerns himself with matters such as how to dress, how to behave at table, how to converse with one's elders and contemporaries, how to address the opposite sex and much else. For example:'It's just as rude to lick greasy fingers as it is to wipe them on your clothing; use a cloth or napkin instead'. 'Some people, no sooner than they've sat down, immediately stick their hands into the dishes of food. This is the manner of wolves'. 'Making a raucous noise or shrieking intentionally when you sneeze, or showing off by carrying on sneezing on purpose, is very ill-mannered'. 'To fidget around in your seat, and to settle first on one buttock and then the next, gives the impression that you are repeatedly farting, or trying to fart'. The advice is as relevant today as it was 500 years ago.

Indeed.

I wonder if Mr Thackery used the book (in To Sir With Love).

***************
I mowed the back lawn after work.

what a meow is worth

The Daily Telegraph (UK) reported about a woman who spent thousands to ensure her cat could meow again.

Jean Kelly said the £10,000 bill for Cadbury's throat-corrective surgery was worth it to hear him miaow again
Photo: STEVE NICHOLSON

Why did she need to hear him meow? If she was close to her kitty, Jean would have been able to read Cadbury's mind, obviating the need to communicate by meowing.

****************
Back to work today.

I had a good time in Brisbane. It was good to catch up with a number of friends and family.

full service

will resume tomorrow.

Right Whale of a time

Brian Skerry's photographs are featured in the October 2008 National Geographic.



His notes are fascinating

It must have been pretty nerve-racking having such a large animal swim up to you.

It was amazing. I mean, I have to tell you there were days when I was at the bottom at 70 feet, and here comes this bus swimming down. I’m standing on the bottom, and as it comes down, I get on my knees, lean over backwards—my scuba tank is now digging into the sand. And of course their eyes are on the side of their heads, so it had to turn and look at me. It came within inches. Here’s this softball-size whale eye looking at me. But then it stops—stops on a dime. It’s just hovering there, and literally one flick of its tail, and it would have crushed me like a bug. But it doesn’t. It was just highly curious.

Awesome!

*************
Almost ready to go to Brisbane tomorrow.

Doctor Who in the Guardian

The Guardian online has a huge Doctor Who section under its media heading.

www.guardian.co.uk/media/doctorwho

Awesome!

******************
Happy Thursday!

eating kangaroo to save the planet

Reported in The Australian, the Australian government's chief climate change adviser has suggested we eat kangaroo to fight climate chang

Eat kangaroo to help combat climate change: Ross Garnaut
Samantha Maiden and Christian Kerr | October 01, 2008

AUSTRALIANS should replace beef and lamb on the dinner table with kangaroo to fight climate change, Kevin Rudd's chief climate change adviser says.

Professor Ross Garnaut has suggested in his final report on climate change that the nation's farmers should switch to the low-emission meat.

He also suggests Australian families should give up beef and eat more kangaroo.

"Sheep and cattle production is highly vulnerable to the biophysical impacts of climate change, such as water scarcity," he says.

"Australian marsupials emit negligible amounts of methane from enteric fermentation. This could be a source of international comparative advantage for Australia in livestock production.

"For most of Australia's human history of around 60,000 years, kangaroo was the main source of meat. It could again become important."

Professor Garnaut notes there are some barriers to this change, including livestock and farm-management issues, consumer resistance and the gradual nature of change in food tastes.

Michael Mulligan, president of the Kangaroo Industry Association, told the Taste of Kangaroo symposium at Sydney's Parliament House earlier this week that the national symbol had become a "more and more accepted everyday meat".

Professor Garnaut notes that researchers have modelled the potential for kangaroos to replace sheep and cattle for meat production in Australia's rangelands, where kangaroos are already harvested.

"They conclude that by 2020, beef cattle and sheep numbers in the rangelands could be reduced by seven million and 36 million respectively, and that this would create the opportunity for an increase in kangaroo numbers from 34 million today to 240million by 2020," he says.

But matters may be complicated by the treatment of agriculture under the proposed emissions trading scheme.

While Professor Garnaut has said agriculture should be included in an ETS as soon as possible, the Government's own Carbon Pollution Reduction Scheme green paper says it will not be covered until at least 2015.

And a recipe was also included in the article

SPICY THAI KANGAROO SALAD

INGREDIENTS
1 tablespoon oil
400g kangaroo fillet, sliced thinly
2 eschalots, chopped finely
1 green onion, chopped
2 tablespoons lime juice
2 tablespoons fish sauce
2-3 teaspoons ground red chilli
2 tablespoons Oz Lemon
2 teaspoons sugar, or to taste
1/3 cup mint leaves
1/3 cup Thai basil leaves
Lettuce cups
Steamed jasmine rice

Khao koor
3 tablespoons uncooked jasmine rice

METHOD
Heat oil in a wok; cook kangaroo so that it seals but is still medium. Remove from heat and place in a bowl with the onions, lime juice, fish sauce, chilli, Oz Lemon, sugar and herbs; toss to combine. Serve with lettuce cups or jasmine rice and sprinkle with khao koor (ground toasted rice). To make khao koor, heat a wok until fairly hot; add uncooked jasmine rice. Toss rice until it starts to turn golden brown. Remove from heat and allow to cool. Grind to a fairly coarse powder with a mortar and pestle or a blender.
Serves 2-4

MIX & MAX
For this thrillingly flavoured 'roo dish, you need a red with bold personality, heaps of spiciness, perfume and a rich, almost sweet fullness - a Barossa grenache or a shiraz viognier blend.

Kangaroo is a very tasty meat. During cooking, the smell is a bit strong though.

*********************
Midweek.

that drumming gorilla

A drumming gorilla has started appearing on Australian television.



He drums to Phil Collins' In the Air Tonight - still a fantastic song after all these years.

In fact, the advertisement took out the top award in the film category at the Cannes International Advertising Festival this year for Fallon.

I had no idea what the gorilla was selling until the very end.

The original advertisement aired in the UK last year. Their gorilla is now drumming to a different beat.



In fact, the gorilla drums to lots of different beats now (remixes).

Cool!

***************
I could do with a holiday.

food dares

Reported in the Daily Mail, Mr Andrew Lee died after eating a plateful of chilli sauce after a dare with his girlfriend's brother over who could make the hottest chilli sauce.

Occasionally, food dares can be fatal, especially where allergies are involved, such as peanuts.

A much better food dare would be balut.

as eaten by Anthony Bourdain


****************
First day in a brand new office (building) today. The kitchen and print room are further away. In fact most people have to walk more. What a shame we can't use the building stairs until the end of October.

talking shit

Literally. Rose George has written a book about shit. There was a great review in the Observer

Cut the crap - let's talk about excrement
A brave author boldly ventures into our waste lands

Robin McKie
The Observer, Sunday September 28 2008

Mention Agincourt and English hearts stir with pride. The victory on 25 October 1415, by a ragged army of around 10,000 soldiers over a French army vastly superior in numbers, still evokes profound nationalistic feelings.


The Big Necessity: Adventures in the World of Human Waste
by Rose George
pp326, Portobello, £12.99

What is not often recorded, however, is the fact that half of England's archers fought while naked below the waist. Henry V's army had been ravaged by dysentery. Thus Voltaire concluded England had 'taken victory with its pants down'. Shakespeare, of course, makes no reference to this ailment among the medical complications that were 'had on Crispin's day'. It is not the most delicate of subjects, after all.

Nor have our sensitivities changed much over the centuries. Faeces, excreta-related diseases, diarrhoea and sanitation still tend to be avoided as dinner-table talking points. Terms for excrement remain our conversational taboo, as Rose George notes in this important book. 'Sex can be talked about. Death has once again become conversational. Yet defecation remains closed behind the words, all chosen for their clean association, that we now use to keep the most animal aspect of our bodies in the backyards of our discourse.'

And that is a shame, the author argues. As she notes, Gandhi observed that sanitation was more important than independence. And certainly, for those who lack it, the consequences are usually terrible, as George makes very clear. A total of 2.6 billion people today have no access to clean food or water and lead lives surrounded by human excrement, either in the bushes outside their villages or in their city streets. 'It is tramped back in on their feet, carried on fingers on to clothes, food and drinking water,' says George.

As a result, more than two million people, most of them children, die every year of diarrhoea triggered by faecally contaminated food or water, the equivalent of a child losing his or her life every 15 seconds. Faeces-related diseases kill more people than Aids, TB or malaria.

Yet we appear to lack the language even to discuss this toll or its causes. Hence George's book, a bid to get us talking about the excrement that is killing a third of the planet, a task, we should note, that does have some notable antecedents. Rudyard Kipling thought sewers were fascinating. 'I study 'em and write about 'em when I can,' he announced in 1886. Chekhov described the dreadful sanitation of the Russian isle of Sakhalin, while Freud wrote that humanity would be best advised 'to admit shit's existence and dignify it as much as nature will allow'.

So how does George fare against such august competition in her self-appointed task of bring the topic of sewage out of the water closet? Fairly well, I would say. Given the unappetising nature of her subject, her narrative is surprisingly tasteful and she successfully straddles a fine line between being scatological and silly and being humourless and self-righteous. In the process, we are taken on a grand tour of the sewers of London, whose 37,000-mile network dwarfs all rivals including New York's puny 6,000-mile system and Paris's piddling (sorry) 1,500 miles; we meet the workers who make Japan's deluxe, rim-heated, anus-showering super-lavatories; and we visit the World Toilet Organisation and its international college in Singapore. We discover that James 1 of Scotland was murdered by noblemen while hiding in his privy; that the average human bowel movement weighs 250 grams (about half a pound); and that we each spend, on average, three years of our lives going to the lavatory.

Most important, however, we learn of the profound benefits to be had from properly dealing with our own excrement. Most estimates suggest modern drains, sewers and lavatories have added 20 years to the average lifespan in the West and have brought more benefits than antibiotics, anaesthetics or the Pill. Those who lack these basic necessities face the prospect of disease and death. Bad hygiene and unsafe water cause one in 10 of the world's illnesses. Without sanitation, civilisation is impossible. Hence George's desire that 'we talk frankly about shit'.

• Robin McKie is The Observer's science editor

Cool. I hope the book explains why American toilets are full of water, thus resulting in splash while German toilets don't have any water until the flush.

I must get this book.

***************
Today was a going out visiting day. I went to Devi's place and we waited a few hours for an electrician to finish installing her automatic carport door, then we went to the new DFO (Direct Factory Outlets) complex which had opened a week ago.

We returned to my place, walked Kane and then I cooked a mini lamb roast for dinner with roast potato, sweet potato and asparagus and unfortunately over cooked green beans.

Big Bird is not a name!

Many many years late, but here goes.... what sort of a name is 'Big Bird'?

Couldn't Jim Henson have given him a proper name?

After all, even Oscar the Grouch is called Oscar, and not Stinky Grouch.

I reckon Big Bird should be renamed Stuart.

*************
Today was a did nothing day. It was the footy grand final.

naked clowns are still evil

In January, I wrote about evil clowns and coulrophobia.

As if that wasn't scary enough, they have decided to put out a Naked Clown Calendar.



This guy could give someone nightmares with that evil smile

Name: Jonah Katz
Hometown: Sebastopol, CA
Year of Birth: 1988
Special Skills: Tap dance, eccentric dance (pop/lock, robot), acrobatics, juggling

Terrifying.

******************
We were allowed to sign out at 2pm from work. We had work drinks, then I went home. Despite returning home at 3pm, I fell asleep on the couch, and woke up in time to take Kane on a walk.

Tetsuya's confit of ocean trout

Tetsuya's is considered one of the world's best restaurants.


(picture from flickr - earlier posted picture removed due to copyright infringement)

His signature dish is confit of ocean trout (pictured above). In the (sydney) magazine, monthly supplement of the Sydney Morning Herald, Matthew Evans wrote about the journey of the fish and he gave away the secret (also multimedia).

In the beginning, Wakuda would often cure the fish a little, particularly if the texture was soft, by salting it briefly, and he has experimented with cooking oils, timing and temperature. "The recipe has changed - over four times," he says. "The fish is more consistent now. We don't cure it any more. No need."

The trout is simply cooked in a light olive oil mixed with grapeseed oil. The fish is immersed in the oil mixed with lightly crushed garlic and herbs, covered with plastic film and cooked for 25 minutes in an oven at about 50-55C, then left to cool. The ends of each fillet tend to become overcooked and are used at staff meals; the remainder provides five to six portions per side. The slices are dipped in konbu (dried kelp) and served on finely shredded fennel with daikon (long radish) and shiso cress. The white plate is dotted with ocean trout roe flavoured with sake and soy. The end result is a dish that mixes salty, silky, crisp and sweet elements.

So the trick of cooking oily fish like salmon or ocean trout is to use very low heat.

**************
We are moving offices tomorrow, to a new building across the road. There was a lot of packing today.

hog wash

A woman in rural New South Wales was terrorised by a pig. From ABC News

Hog hostage drama set to end

Posted Wed Sep 24, 2008 7:31am AEST
Updated Wed Sep 24, 2008 10:23am AEST


Bruce the pig will be taken to a piggery. (Emma Sykes)

* Video: Caroline Hayes describes the ordeal (ABC News)

An 80 kilogram pig that has outstayed its welcome on the New South Wales north coast is expected to be captured and sent to a piggery today.

The bald pig, nicknamed 'Bruce', has upset the neighbourhood with its incessant demands to be fed.

Caroline Hayes, 63, says she has been unable to leave her Uki house to use the farm's outdoor toilet at times because the pig is aggressive towards her.

Ms Hayes says the animal recently bit her on the leg when she tried to go to the toilet and pushed her into her bedroom, where she fell over.

"I picked up a broom and poked him out with it and he snapped it in half with his mouth," she said yesterday.

Rangers from Murwillumbah Council tried to catch the animal on Monday but had taken a cage that was too small.

Yesterday, a pest animal ranger from the Tweed Lismore Rural Lands Protection Board, Len Hing, visited the pig.

Mr Hing says while the creature is friendly, its large size makes it difficult to control when it is hungry.

"I wouldn't like to see the pig go as a pet anywhere because he could become a potentially dangerous animal," he said.

He says the pig will be removed this morning and relocated to a piggery.

"The pig isn't endangering anyone. He's nice and quiet," he said.

"I'd advise people not to go into the area where he is so that we can take the pig out of the area on a nice, quiet basis."

Ms Hayes had claimed the pig was as big as a shetland pony when she called the ABC yesterday morning.

She said the animal had come from a home two kilometres away but its owners could not handle it and let it loose in the rainforest.

The woman said she and her neighbours began feeding the pig when it showed up at their homes 11 days ago.

"When I found it, it had 15 ticks in its eyes which I actually took out," she said.

"One of its eyes it couldn't see out of, so I put cream in it and I fixed its back up, but apparently it's actually claimed my land and claimed my place."

Ms Hayes said the pig became aggressive when it wanted more food.

"It started getting very pushy, started pushing me around, so I started to get a bit frightened, until the stage that it started knocking on my door at 4 o'clock in the morning, actually head-butting my door," she said.

Ms Hayes, a self-described animal lover and vegetarian, said she had not stopped crying since the mayhem began.

The lesson of this story is never feed a pig that shows up at your place. If Ms Hayes wasn't a vegetarian, she could have threatened 'Bruce' to put him on a spit.

**********
I was making a curry for dinner and Emily was going to drop in after her Bahasa language class, so she stayed for dinner. It makes up for tomorrow as she is going out to a birthday dinner instead.

Hobbit feet

If we had Hobbit feet, the footware industry would not exist.



I've had to buy new shoes as Doc Martens are no longer what they used to be - now made in China. My last pair lasted under 12 months, with a hole in the leather upper.

My new shoes are Aquila and fashionable, but they hurt my feet.

Oh, to have Hobbit feet.

*********************
Happy Tuesday.