scorpion1116’s Neighborhood

The best one yet.

There are few tricks to a good tofu scramble-

Drain, drain, drain the tofu. The drier the tofu, the better it browns. Same with the veggies.
Use a cast iron skillet if you have one. If not, be generous with the oil. It helps crisping the outside of the tofu while keeping the inside juicy and soft.

Mushroom chard tofu scramble

Remember my Diet Aids ....   Remember December ?    Well here I am just over a week away from December so I thought it was time to check in.   

I have lost 16 lbs (about 7.3 kg)  since I posted those signs all around the kitchen.   With one week to go I might squeeze out another couple.  That result is not too bad - it's the equivalent of 1.5 dress sizes.   I did not increase my exercise;  actually I don't do any exercise other than the walking required to get places and our weekend strolls which are usually 3-5 miles each Saturday and Sunday.

I just stopped eating all the nice things in the cupboard and freezer and as silly as it might sound those signs really made me stop and think about whether I really wanted to eat something.  It didn't always work because the impulse part of my brain would over-ride everything and say "of course you want that lovely cream puff or ice-cream, or that entire packet of Tim Tams!" .

I continued to have a glass of wine when I got home from work; sometimes two if I'd had to be particularly nice to people at work that day.   On the weekends I was easier on myself when it came to eating the "good" stuff and I definitely had more than a couple of wines!

Now I have to come up with more rhymes to get me through 2010!   But, until then, what's for dinner tonight?  PIZZA!  

On Sunday I watched this shapely lady wobble along on stiletto heels - unfortunately they do not show up well in the photo,  nor does the wobble.

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Bus shelter ad

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My second hand copy of Marjorie Lawrence's autobiography Interrupted Melody arrived! It was sitting on my doorstep when I walked down stairs and I was so worried as I ripped open the packaging. I so did not want it to be dirty, or grotty or realy damaged. It wasn't! It was in even better condition than the bookseller had described. I felt like I was handling the past.

signed by Marjorie Lawrence!

and as I browsed the pages - and on page 180...

there was a gift folded within the pages

I felt like I was stepping back in time.

long ago someone had pressed flowers

Who had placed the flowers within the book's pages? What did the flowers mean to them? Had they been in vase in the bookshop the day Marjorie signed the book and the book's owner kept them as a memento? Were they flowers given with love? Picked from a garden on a spring evening? Flowers worn as a corsage to a night of opera?

Suddenly, the past came into the present. I felt as though I had embarked on a romantic mystery and that I must go out into the night, mist swirling about me, to discover the story behind the flowers in my book. Was it romance? Regret? Hope? Joy? Sorrow? I can only imagine...I'd like to think that whatever the reason for the flowers being placed within the pages, that it was connected to happiness,,,

The book was superb reading - I read it in one night. I could not put it down. She told of her childhood: the loss of her mother when she was 2, the years spent with her Grandmother, her musical education, running away from home to pursue her dreams, journey to Paris and then to Neg w York, the finding of a love that lasted a life time, her battle with polio and struggling to regain her operatic career. Sometimes she was humble and grateful, at other times she was the great artist, confident and sure of her talent, craving the adulation of her public. I do not follow opera in any way - I do not understand opera at all, but I found this biography of Marjorie Lawrence, to be enthralling. Marjorie reached across the years and made me another one of her devoted fans.

I only wish there had been another chapter... 

I was watching Sarah Palin being interviewed - I have forgotten by whom now, there has been so many this week, probably Barbara Walters - and she was asked if she agreed to Israel expanding their settlements and Sarah said yes, as "in the days, and weeks and years ahead" that people would be "flocking" to these areas and so they needed to expand. When she was asked about the Palestinians she just repeated that Israel needed more room. Is her foreign policy to sterilise everyone in Palestine so that their populations don't grow? What is her foreign policy?

I saw the long lines of Sarah supporters lining up outside bookstores waiting for 32 seconds with her and it made me wonder if the cult of personality that the American media has honed to perfection is actually going to overtake the culture and place someone at the head of the country who has no real intelligence, or substance, but is street smart and sexy.

I know that we are all tired of old style politicians, but to replace them with plastic Barbie wearing glassess and sitting in a bus, is not doing the world a favour. I don't know - is she popular because she is viewed as the underdog? The pretty girl is being picked on, let's go save her! Has the ability to think critically been gentically removed from the human race?

I saw a woman on a bookline saying "they just don't know her" as if she did. Are people constructing the media Sarah as one of their friends? Do they think they know her because Rupert Murdoch's media has packaged her for them? Has society isolated individuals so much that we think people we never met are people we know?

Factual discrepencies in Sarah's book have been laid at the feet of the ghost writer. This person wants to rule American and yet she can't write her own autobiography? This was her chance to have a real dialogue with her country and someone else had to write it for her!

To me, it would be like putting Roseanne Barr and her TV family in the White House. I don't underestimate her for a second. As I said she is street smart and street smart is dangerous because they don't play by the rules, any rules. I just pray that Obama can lift America to the heights he promised, though everyone is so self interested, that I fear for his abilities - I do believe he is human after all. I think that it is only if American can claw back its prosperity and make peace with other nations and religions that there is any hope of keeping this woman out of the race. Or if someone can find some scandal in her life, though even if they found that she used to work as a topless dancer I think it would only enhance her reputation. Magnetism is a strong tool. 

I just wish that people would stop pointing and saying "look at the pretty lady" and actually ask her for policy and substance. Is that too much to ask from a politician? Or do they give Sarah Palin a "get into the White House free card"? Maybe the end of the world will come in 2012 - when Sarah goes to the White House.

MR FD's mobile office

Mr FD is making an early return from his Northern Queensland business trip. He apparently has to make an unexpected trip to China - as one does! I think he is coming home to change underwear.  Daughters1 and 2 have both sent texts to warn him not to steal state secrets or bribe anyone (in reference to recent arrests of Australian Rio Tinto exectutives in China). He does tend to find trouble wherever he goes - lost coat in Hong Kong, stolen luggage and passport in Holland, forgotten phone charges up and down the eastern Australian seaboard - that they have every reason to worry.

I will focus on the postives - what he can buy for me on the trip!

Lessons on how to pickpocket. Follow at your own risk!

 or the other option - hold on to what you already have!

Advertisement for anti- pickpocket purse, worn inside the waistband of trousers 1889

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I speak English and Americans speak English but  there were times when I first moved here when I was nearly in tears because I could not understand what someone was telling me. This was especially so when dealing with public transport employees when it was pretty important that I understand their direction.     

I can only imagine how hard it must be for someone when English is their second or even third language.  This  morning I saw a Latino woman at my metro station almost crying with frustration as she dealt with the station master.     

Our metro ticket machines are specifically designed to confound anyone trying to use them. In high season there are long lines of confused tourists standing in front of them while help in the form of station attendants stays well hidden.     

Now, I am no slouch with train ticket machines.  I have successfully operated them in China, Paris, Italy and Spain where there can be minimal help for those who don't speak the respective language.  But, the first time I stood infront of a metro machine with some English words thrown around it, I was confused. 

Each station has a little box where the station master sits.  They rarely deem it necessary to actually come out of their little box to demonstrate the workings of the machines.  They talk at you through glass using a funky tinny speaker which distorts their voice to that of a cartoon character and they don't seem to care how many times they repeat the same sentence even though before you will have figured out their instruction they could have come out and actually helped. 

Many times when I walk past I hear a frustrated passenger shouting from our side and the tinny response of the metro employee and I think "poor person, half a dozen trains will have gone past by the time they understand"

Back to this morning.  As I walked into the station I could hear the poor woman trying to tell the attendant that she did exactly as she was told and it hadn't worked. The attandant's cartoon voice came back saying well she didn't press the "minus sign".  The passenger asked "what's a minus sign?".  The attendant just kept repeating:  The minus sign; the minus sign. On the machine there is a minus sign; you have to press the minus sign."  

The woman said "I don't understand minus".  The attendant repeated the mantra that the minus sign must be pressed.  

Seriously how helpful can that be if you don't know what a "minus sign" is ?!?!?!?!    

Feeling terribly sorry for the woman I said "I'll show you"  and took her back to the evil machine and pointed out the + and -  symbols which allow you to get a farecard for more or less than the amount that comes up on a screen.    

This episode annoyed me for most of the day - so, a big minus to Metro for customer service this morning.   At 6.40am I'm sure they are not overworked with paperwork or whatever else it is they do in those little boxes. 

How apt is this photo which I took on our Sunday walk (mural in Columbia Heights) - it says "Immigrant Rights":

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I want this house and car: 

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I just pulled the sliding door to the patio closed and a gecko [lizard] fell down and hit me on the forehead, bounced onto my top lip and hit the floor before running away.

I did not scream. I did not go all girly. If I wake up in the morning with mutant powers I vow to take them in my stride and make the world a better place.

The damn gecko however, is an endangered species. No one touches the Flamingo Dancer unless I give them permission.