Green living, Worm Farming #3

Or, how anal and tight-arsed I can be.

Everyone knows about my Divacup. If you use tampons and have a strong stomach, make tampon tea and pour it on the garden. At least it’s some form of recycling! BTW, when I tried to find a link to tampon tea (I found the tip in one of my gardening books), the Google results were downright odd: from drinking the tea, to how to improve your plant’s aura, to odd sex-sounding topics (I wasn’t curious enough to check).

We also have a worm farm. No more guilt trip from throwing away fruit & veg that we forget to eat! If you have a smaller home, try a Bokashi bucket.

More about worm farming, Part 3:

1. A useful collection of articles.
2. Appropedia summary of typical designs and common problems.
3. (read part one & two)

Guerilla recycling – I reuse my envelopes by:

1. Using them as notepaper. Their thickness makes them the ideal shopping list. Write on them and throw them in your bag, it won’t get lost.
2. After they are all scribbled on, I cut the corners and use them as bookmarks. Especially handy in cookbooks or reference books when you can scribble little notes in the corner. Doesn’t hurt the book and makes recipes very easy to find. Especially if you colour code them with a highlighter.
3. THEN (and only then) they are dumped in our recycling bin. By this point, they’ve been used 3 times.

Other great ideas:

1. Turning off the lights and assorted power points (obsessively). If you think it’s a waste of time, read this mental_floss article on power vampires.
2. Using grey water on our garden. I try to time my laundry and showers for the hot days so that I can water the same evening. We rarely end up using mains water for our plants.
3. Op shop shopping. Buying used rescues products from becoming landfill and spreads the environmental cost of manufacture and freight. Almost all of my clothing is from op shops. Once I’m done with my clothes I pass them on to a friend or sell it on eBay, recycling them once again.

Links and thinks:

1. Being Skeptical of Green – New York Times
2. With big biz jumping on the green bandwagon, should activists cheer or jeer?
3. Living beyond our means | Guardian Unlimited
4. Going green means forever | Herald Sun– interesting, read comments.
5. Lifehacker green links

RIP: Arthur C Clarke

I just found on ABC Classic FM (where else but on the radio?) that well-loved and brilliant Arthur C Clarke has died in Sri Lanka.

Arthur C. Clarke, a visionary science fiction writer who won worldwide acclaim with more than 100 books on space, science and the future, died Wednesday in his adopted home of Sri Lanka, an aide said. He was 90.

Clarke, who had battled debilitating post-polio syndrome since the 1960s and sometimes used a wheelchair, died at 1:30 a.m. after suffering breathing problems, aide Rohan De Silva said.

The Associated Press: Writer Arthur C. Clarke Dies at 90

The shock is compounded by the realisation that Terry Pratchett has Alzheimer’s.

Terry Pratchett OBE, the most shoplifted author in Britain, a man who has sold at least 55m books in 35 languages, and who was the UK’s bestselling author until JK Rowling muscled in on his fantasy fiction turf, is standing in a hotel conference room, prodding at a plate of watermelon with a little fork. His trademark broad-brimmed black hat and cane are lying on a nearby window ledge. He cuts quite a figure: with his white beard, black shirt, white skin and black Hugo Boss jeans, he looks like an unwitting homage to Ian Dury’s song Sweet Gene Vincent.

Just before Christmas, I say to Pratchett, the Guardian asked if he would give us an interview about his illness, and he said he was too busy finishing a book – “Why don’t you say Alzheimer’s?” Pratchett interrupts. I was going to, I reply weakly – though I’m not sure in retrospect that I was, for reasons, no doubt, of misplaced sensitivity.

‘There’s humour in the darkest places’ | News | guardian.co.uk Books

It’s a sad day.

Fulfilling a lifelong dream

This is a continuation of our NZ trip in December 2007. For previous posts about the trip check out the December archive.

I swam with dolphins in New Zealand!! Yayyy.

I had booked a dolphin swim with Dolphin Encounter. It cost $150NZ BUT if you are lazy or disorganised like me and book LESS than a week ahead, you will have to swim at the ungodly hour of 5.30 am!! Thankfully, it’s also the best time for dolphin spotting: there’s less wind + the water is calmer = less seasickness & more dolphins. And believe me, you wake up very fast when you hit the cold water!

I honestly didn’t know what to expect. I’d heard complaints of seasickness and very little time on the water, it wasn’t worth the price, etc. from other travellers, but for me, it was a dream come true and I just had to pray for a calm, beautiful day. I was so excited I only got about 2 hours sleep, and I kept waking up because I was so worried I would sleep through my alarm.

There was a large bus-load of people swimming, and we all had to queue up for our gear: they supply a thick full-length wetsuit, a head cover thing, fins, mask & snorkel. The company was very well-equipped and made sure everyone’s stuff fit well and was comfortable. Then it was off to a state-of the art auditorium for a safety video before we hopped onto a bus. It was a short drive to another part of the bay where 3 boats awaited to take us out. A smooth, half hour ride later, they spotted the dolphins!

We were in luck!

There was a large pod of about 300 dolphins frolicking, flipping and fornicating (YES!!) right in front of me. It was 50mins of pure mammal bliss! These gorgeous, graceful creatures were a joy to hang out with.

I drained both my rechargable batteries trying to capture their exuberance but I didn’t do it justice. Hey, at least I tried!

Kaikoura dolphins photo album

Singapore II

The rest of our trip went too fast, including a trip to KL, meeting more people and eating more food. I wish we’d had more time to meet more people (there are only 3 meals a day, and not enough time in between). If we’d made arrangements but never ended up meeting, I’m sorry, we’ll have to catch up on my next trip home (or you can fly here for a visit).

Here are some highlights.

More food (of course!) This time it’s P’s favourite food, murtabak.

This is what it looks like close up:

It’s a fried Indian pancake/bread filled with yummy marinated mutton or chicken, served with a small dish of spicy curry. Traditionally it’s breakfast food. This sounds awful to the uninitiated, but honestly, it tastes fabulous. Just don’t eat it every morning, you might get a heart attack. We reckon since we only get to eat it about once a year, we can overindulge.

We also had a very very cool time dragonboating with S (and a rowdy bunch of Aussie expats). I was dragged into it whining loudly, because S & P said “it would be FUN!!”, but ended up having a great time. I was sore for days, but I can’t wait to do it again. I’m still kicking myself because we have a waterproof camera I didn’t take a single photo. My excuse is that I was too busy paddling, and I had to pull my own weight on the boat or risk getting thrown overboard. Oh well, we’ll just have to do it again.

That same evening we had a huge meal at T’s with some of my friends from secondary /high school. Thank goodness because after the workout I was starving hungry. I stuffed my face (of course).

I’m proud to say I’ve been friends with these guys for more than 15 years!

Then we were taken by A. to Samy’s Curry Restaurant (review) where we had Fish Head Curry (recipe).

Trust me, it tastes so much better than it looks. Just be thankful I didn’t take a photo like this one.

Of course, I spent lots of time with my little niece. Mum looks after her on weekdays so I got to see her quite a bit. Here are some of her antics.

They’re all a bit blurry because babies don’t understand the idea of “keep still” and I didn’t want to startle her with the flash of the camera.

And of course, here’s a photo from her birthday.

We also met up with a colleague from Mexico, who absolutely loved the food (of course) at People’s Park, in Chinatown, which is getting more and more touristy by the minute. Fortunately it still has some of the best places to eat in Singapore.

If you’re visiting (or living in) Singapore, check out this fantastic article on local food.

I also spent a fun evening with my ex-boss eating yet more hawker food, and walking by the river.

We flew home from Changi Airport‘s new Terminal 3, after a yummy breakky at the staff canteen in T1. If you really want to go there, drag your luggage down the stairs behind the Burger King (map) and you should see it. Or ask anyone who works there.

The departure area of T3 has more shopping than I can handle (remarkable, really). And the women’s toilets are divine (and free)! It’s not one of the best airports in the world for nothing.

And here’s me in the powder room.

We were also lucky enough to fly back to Melbourne on a brand new plane. Look at the giant (for economy class) screen!

You can edit Word documents (very painfully) with the keyboard.

Goodbye Singapore, hello Melbourne!