Val’s Comments (group member since Aug 28, 2019)

Val’s comments from the Beyond Zon group.

Pork sausages, fried onions on hot dog rolls with cheese and mustard.

Saturday night we participated in an online trivia game. Five households - four here in Melbourne and one in Spain - all connected via Facebook Messenger. It was great fun but B in Majorca had to leave early because one of his workmates had tested positive and now he was going to be tested. 24 hours later and his test came back positive. Haven't yet heard yet whether his wife has been tested and/or what the result was. Fortunately he (and she) are both young, extremely fit and healthy and as yet, asymptomatic. They will self-isolate for the required period. Luckily their flat has a balcony so at least they can get some fresh air.

Very sorry to hear about your son P. You might have looked forward to a worry-free night at home knowing he was in the best place, but your doggies had other ideas!

All well here. We are child-minding Mondays but luckily L (21 months) is a delight to look after (I'm sure it won't last) but we get through it with toys, books, an hour's walk in the stroller, and some TV in the last hour. Today was beautiful so we had good fun outside with lots of water play. Can't believe we've gone from heating on and hot water bottle last night to an overnight low of 18 degrees C and a top of 21 tomorrow. We're watching the footy (Aussie Rules) from Cairns in Queensland where it's bucketing down - mind you, it's probably pretty tropical with it.

Fingers crossed for poor Raffe. I hope the vet can get to the bottom of it (literally!) and that the remedy is quick, easy and not too expensive. Pets can be a real worry!

Sorry to hear how many of you are in the wars/down in the dumps. Sometimes things just seem to build up to a head and the current pandemic isn't helping at all. We here are technically in lockdown until Sept 13 but our State Premier will be providing us with a "roadmap" out in tomorrow's press conference (known here as the daily presser). However, nobody's expecting any major lifting of restrictions so I think it will be mainly business as usual (i.e. no business).

I get regular emails from the major supermarket chains and yesterday's one from Coles said:
In all our stores, our focus is ensuring you can be COVIDSafe when shopping with us. Sanitisation Stations are now in all our supermarkets stocked with wipes and hand sanitiser, plus all baskets, trolleys, PIN pads, and self checkout screens are wiped after each shop. We have checkout sneeze screens, tap & go payments, and don't forget our quick Coles Speedy Shoppers guide (you can check online to see which times of the day are quietest) for safer shopping.

The email went on to say:
Veggie sales, ice cream and home cooking ingredients like flour are up 20%, and coffee capsules and cleaning products are up 30%, as we all focus more on hygiene. On the fall are beauty products as we spend more time at home, and facial tissues as there is less cold and flu about. If we are seeing more home cooks, with pubs still restricted, we are also seeing the rise of the home "happy hour" with Gin sales up 80%, and Rose wine and craft beer up 30%. No alcohol drinks are also proving a very popular alternative - up 170%!

In some good news, our eldest grandchild (aged 3), got to the top of the elective surgery wait list and was operated on on Wednesday for the removal of tonsils and adenoids and the insertion of grommets. He was admitted at 8.30am, operated on at 11 (my daughter was told the op will take 64 mins - pretty precise!) and spent the night in a room with Mum before being discharged on Thursday at mid-day. C found the administration of the anaesthetic pretty confronting (well, we rarely see it happening to someone else) but the surgeon talked her through it and explained that his body would start twitching and his eyes rolling back. And the recovery room was also a bit traumatic for her because children don't understand pain and it took almost an hour to get him calmed down. But he is a little trooper, charmed all the nurses, slept right through the night despite having to be woken twice for obs and pain medication. He wasn't keen on eating once he got home (necessary to prevent scabbing) but pizza and icy-poles (ice lollies) seem to be doing the trick.

Spring is well and truly here with sunny days, high winds, and gardens looking bright. Our jasmine is looking and smelling wonderful.

Tonight, my son is organising an online trivia game for us using Kahoot(?). At 8.00pm here and 12 noon in Spain, ten of us will be pitting our wits. I still have to understand how to connect via the tablet and answer with the mobile phone, but I'm sure I'll get there.

I do hope things get better for all of you (humans and animals) and that some semblance of normality is restored in your homes.

Qashqai 68 wrote: "Good morning folks, getting fed up of my printer inks drying up, even when not being used. Also Kodak have stopped producing printers also ink. I looked at different types of printers and decided l..."

Great work Q! Shame you had to rely on luck to find the promotion, it should have come with the printer when you bought it. You'd have been spitting chips if you'd come across it a day later! And good on you for figuring out how to upload the receipt. You deserve that 100 quid!

How to pan fry scallops.

I'm assuming that they are all trimmed when bought. Wash in cold water, drain well, leave to dry in the fridge overnight (on a tray, cloth beneath and over them). Put a non-stick frying pan over medium heat, splash in enough olive oil to cover the bottom thinly and heat until very hot. If they're very plump, cut them in half horizontally. Put one (or half) a scallop on each of your finger tips and one on the ball of your thumb. Starting with the one on the ball of your thumb thumb, put them down in the pan one at a time in a semi-circle. Wait 10 seconds after the last one, then go back to the first one and turn it over. By the time you get to the 6th one, the first one will be ready to be removed from the pan.

Marcus Wareing treats his with a mild curry powder. He mixes 1 teaspoon mild curry powder with 1 teaspoon fine salt. He sprinkles it over a plate and leaves overnight to dry out (otherwise the salt might make the scallops damp). He sprinkles the mix on the first side of each scallop before cooking it. The cooking time is approx 20 seconds on each side. The drier the scallops are the better; ones that have been frozen then defrosted are very watery.

Good news from Premier Dan Andrews today - only 70 new cases in the last 24 hours and 5 deaths. I feel bad saying "only 5 deaths".

Melbourne's peregrine falcons have laid three eggs (so far) and there is a live stream (with sound) on Youtube. It's amazing how addictive it can be just watching a bird sitting in its nesting box.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WP53B...

We are still in total lockdown for another 2 weeks. Compulsory masks, all shops and businesses closed except for food outlets, 1 hour exercise per day, 1 person per household allowed to shop for food, everyone limited to a 5km radius of home, no visitors, curfew from 8.00pm each night, schools still closed. All Australian states have got hard border closures with police blockades. Today a bloke was given an ankle bracelet after leaving his home where he was supposed to be self-quarantining after arriving back from another state. Victoria has a population of just under 6.4 million and is about the same size as the United Kingdom. We switch on the telly every day at 11.00am to hear our State Premier relate the latest figures. We breath a sigh of relief if new cases are under 100 and despair if the number of deaths is in the 20s. When we see other countries on TV - the US protest marches, election rallies, Le Tour de France, Spanish beaches, etc - we find the mingling crowds hard to believe.

Rump steak - not my favourite cut, but marinaded in olive oil, balsamic vinegar and red wine vinegar & cooked in a hot grill pan, 2 mins each side it was tender as anything - plus baked potatoes, Brussels sprouts and a red wine jus. Delicious!

I think I may have heard "chow down" in old TV westerns like Bonanza or Rawhide?

I have never heard anyone say "Chow Miaow" but then, I've led a sheltered life.

suzysunshine7 wrote: "We don't ever say ... 'Chewin On Chow' ... around here so, out of curiosity, I decided to Google it - as I always think when I read Duke's Posts that he mostly comes from London via Scotland and no..."

Lovely photos Duke! Do congratulate your sister. I'm looking forward to the next lot - and especially seeing what you can do with your whizz bang new camera.

A nice basa fillet, lightly cooked in butter. Cauliflower cheese. Tomatoes.

Brilliant!

Since we went into Stage 4 restrictions on August 2, I've noticed the increased demand for supermarket deliveries has meant the choice of slots available has tightened up. I now go online at midnight Sunday and MAY get a slot on Wednesday and at least I get a good choice of slots on Thursday.

suzysunshine7 wrote: "The Minimum Spend here is £35 at Iceland, £40 with Morrisons, Tesco, and Sainsburys, and usually £60 at Waitrose and Ocado. Some of the Supermarkets though have chosen to be a bit more accessible and generous and have adapted to the Lockdown and the much greater demand on their Home Delivery Services in different parts of the Country by lowering their Minimum Spends slightly or by offering lower Delivery Costs...."

Sounds like you've got a decent choice there Suzy and a good range of delivery slots too. We only have the two chains that offer delivery - Coles and Woolworths. I don't think there's much difference between them (Woolies possibly have more products but are a bit pricier). We use the former because we've found their loyalty scheme can be tweaked to our advantage and even only spending the £25 minimum per week with £6 delivery, we can rack up a credit of £50 about every 3 weeks.

Like you, I've been very happy with the quality of fruit and veg supplied. We've had pears, tomatoes, apples, oranges, mandarins, blueberries, cauliflower, broccoli, beans, potatoes, etc and the only one we ever had a problem with was kiwi fruit. I ordered green (which I prefer) and they supplied the gold ones (more expensive, but we weren't charged any extra) but they were very soft and not what I would have chosen myself.

The only think we have a glut of in our garden is grapefruit. The tree is groaning, while its neighbours, a lemon and a lime, are steadfastly refusing to produce anything this winter despite being stars in the past. The grapefruit are very sweet but full of pips so are best used for juicing. I've been putting them out on our nature strip (UK = verge??) with a note to that effect and people are helping themselves. Much better than us having them rotting on the ground.

Now in Lockdown 2.0 we're back to eating more vegetarian meals. We've got plenty meat in the freezer but now we're back to getting supermarket deliveries, the vegetables on special always look tempting and a healthy way to bring up the minimum spend (£25). My daughter dropped off a whole smoked trout so we had that (carefully de-boned) in a pasta dish with broccoli. Tonight it's a slow-cooker dish of curried sweet potato, coconut and lentils.

My sweet peas are still looking a bit peely-wally. They're about 18" high but still look very weak. I don't think they're getting enough sunlight. My bulbs in pots aren't looking strong either but one of the miniature daffs is flowering. The bulbs in the garden beds are okay. The mass of freesias is just starting. Today I sprinkled some (tiny) peony poppy seeds. I think they're just about the only flower seeds you can plant in winter. We shall see ..... but I won't be holding my breath!