Fun and Games

Last week I was very busy with appointments and preparing for Hubby's 50th party last Saturday but this week things are settling. After Matt had finished a mammoth French session with Anika this afternoon I played some games with Mike and Matt joined in.



We were playing the "Hide the Puppy" game where we take turns to hide Mike's puppy and then the others have to find it. As each finder looks the hider has to say "cold, warm, getting hot" etc depending on how close they are to the hiding place. Mike gets really excited when I say "freezing cold" or "boiling hot". He got so worked up when it was his turn that he said "freezing hot" when I was almost on top of Puppy's hiding place.



Matt had the next turn at hiding Puppy and he must have been thinking about what "freezing hot" would be because guess where Puppy was hidden?







And yes, we do drink a lot of milk. Puppy has a sore paw according to Mike, hence the band-aid.

Food, Glorious Food

I seem to spend a lot of time in the shops staring at food ingredient labels. Matt and I are the gluten-intolerant type, Anika is allergic to nuts, especially peanuts, in a big way and my Mum is allergic to fish so when she visits I need to keep that in mind too. It can get rather time consuming but if I'm not vigilant Matt and I could be holding our stomachs in pain, Mum's face could swell up like a balloon and Anika could stop breathing.

Our family's intolerances and allergies are a source of interest for our budgie. Before I realised that Matt had inherited my gluten problem our budgie learned to imitate Matt's, "I've got a tummy ache!" The poor budgie confused this saying with, "Hello Rachel" (Anika's friend) and turned it into, "I've got a tummy, Rachel." I'm sure Rachel was delighted to know that.

So it was with great pleasure that I went to the "Irresistable Gluten-Free Show" on Saturday morning. It was so nice to go in and sample all different varieties of plain bread, fruit bread, chocolate cakes, plain cakes, chocolate, muffins, pies, gingerbread biscuits, custard cream biscuits....need I go on. I'm just glad I didn't feel like eating breakfast before I went. And I didn't have to check any labels before I ate anything!! I came away with free sample bags and products that I bought at a good price. I can't wait to use the mix for white chocolate cream biscuits.

While there one company gave away free samples of 'Free Nut Smooth' which is a gluten-free, nut-free alternative to peanut paste. It is made from sunflower seeds and looks, smells and even tastes like peanut paste. The representative assured me that every batch is tested for peanut protein. Anika was interested and asked to have some on bread for lunch. It didn't work for her. Because it smelled, looked and tasted like the real peanut deal she felt funny about eating it. There was no reaction but I guess it's just the psychological element of it. Hubby and I liked it though so Hubby's cravings for peanut paste can perhaps be satisfied without risking Anika reacting to the smell of a sandwich.

Hubby and Lloyd have cast iron stomachs. I often tell them how thankful they should be.

I'm off to have some yummy tea biscuits made by the company who make the pretend peanut paste.

Interesting thoughts

This week Matt was attaching a story he'd written and printed out to some paper that he'd decorated. As he was cutting the double-sided sticky tape he asked me, "How much double-sided sticky tape would it take to cover an elephant?" I have to say that this question has never occupied my mind. My response was, "Why would you want to cover an elephant in double-sided sticky tape?" Back to Matt who said, "Because if it fell over it would stick to the ground." I could not help the further question, "Why would you want to stick an elephant to the ground?" Matt suggested, "So that you could go into a Ripley's Believe it or Not book."

At dinner tonight Mike was telling us all about the scary book that Matt was reading today. Anika disappeared for a while and returned with the French-English dictionary. She then told us that there is no French word equivalent to the word 'spooky' but that the phrase used is, "that which gives you the skin of a chicken." It makes sense. At least it makes more sense than wondering how many metres of sticky tape it would take to cover an elephant.

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And in case you're wondering, the larger font is for a certain person in our family who's about to have a huge birthday next week!

Trifling things

Anika was just chatting with one of her North American internet friends today over Skype and I jokingly offered her some trifle over the video call. Anika's friend had no idea what trifle was and, to our surprise, neither did any of her friends nearby. It's a great dessert for those of us needing gluten-free food. So, in case anyone is interested, here is a basic recipe:

First you need to make up about 500 ml of jelly. By jelly I don't mean jam, I think Americans call it jello. We like raspberry jelly. When it's set you can make the trifle.

1. You need a largish bowl. At the bottom put some cut up sponge cake (a jam roll works well - perhaps it's called a jelly roll there). Due to Matt and I needing gluten-free we substitute some sweet, no-wheat biscuits called "rice cookies" for the cake if we don't have gluten-free cake. We'd put around 10 biscuits on the bottom.

2. Soak the cake/biscuits in about 1/2 a cup of whatever you like. We use either port or rum but if we have visitors who don't like alcohol we substitute the juice from a can of sliced peaches.

3. Put whatever fruit you have on top of this. Today I used canned, sliced peaches but you can use fresh fruit if you have some available.

4. Cut up the jelly (jello) and place on top of the fruit.

5. On top of this put about 500 ml of custard. I sometimes make my own custard, but just lately I've been buying it ready made as there are a few gluten-free brands available.

6. Top everything with whipped cream (about 400 ml).

7. Grate some chocolate on top. Fresh strawberries go nice on top, but they're not in season here at the moment.

8. It's ready to serve. When we have visitors I use two large bowls and double up the amount of everything.

I should have taken a picture to post here, but the bowl was scraped clean before I had a chance.

Journey to Planet Z

Today Anika and I went on a journey to Planet Z. Anika's journey was pre-booked but mine was a last minute booking. I departed around 7:45 am and Anika at about 8:45 am.

Planet Z is a very peaceful place. Anika doesn't play the piano there when she visits. I generally don't do much when I'm there either. Today though Mike seemed to be transported temporarily to my bed on Planet Z so I could listen to his reading. He does quite well on Planet Z, at least I thought so today.

The most important thing about Planet Z, which is the reason why I go there, is that there is no pain. There's also a rather dizzy feeling from the change of planet.

The method of transport is simple - just take two hefty pain killers and let the 45-50 minute journey happen. Anika's journey was due to having two teeth removed for an upcoming braces fitting (thankfully Hubby drove her there). My journey was due to a stomach pain, which never seems to be predictable.

One rule about Planet Z is that you can only stay for around 4 hours until you are gradually transported back to Planet Earth. You can decide to return, but I don't advise this if there's the usual work to be done. Thankfully on return to Planet Earth there was no pain.

Uncovering the real meaning of the words

Mike sometimes has us wondering what he's trying to say. Sometimes it's the complete opposite of what we originally think he's saying. Here's an example:

Mike (when eating dinner): I want to have enough.

Most would think this means that he's hungry and wants more dinner but...

Translation: I want it to be thought that I've had enough to eat so I can ask to get down from the table.

He also uses some unusual verbs:

Mike (after a trip to the park): I need a drink because I'm thirsting to death.

We say that we're starving to death but I don't really know how else to put "thirsting to death". I guess we could say, "I'm dehydrating to death?"

In spite of continual correction by me, Lloyd and Matt still talk about "talking with each another" rather than "talking with each other". At least they don't use the word "brang". I remember one of Anika's friends using "brang" and I kept correcting her but Hubby used to chime in and say, "bring, brang, brung" - it makes sense in a way.

The different meanings our English words have sometimes thrown my understanding out too. I was 30 before I really understood why the second hand on the clock was called a second hand and not the 'third' hand. After all, there's a big hand and a little hand so it should be called a 'third hand'. One day I was pondering this anomaly and suddenly my brain stopped thinking about ordinal numbers and started thinking about a second in time.

Where was my brain for 30 years?