One appliance is set up, one fails

There’s something about the radio alarm switching off that sends me back to sleep, and so it was that I didn’t get up until well after 9 o’clock, which was not planned at all.  One’s always most efficient when there’s a lot to do though, so lunch was on the table on the dot of 1 o’clock.

It went down very well in fact and, as much by luck as by judgement, the lamb was perfectly cooked.  Russell wasn’t home yet, but we decided to start – he’d gone over to an antiques fair and if he was chatting, he might be ages.  “May I have the chicken leg please?” asked Zerlina.  It was explained that it was lamb, but she still wanted the bone – that is, the equivalent of the forearm – so I spent several minutes removing it for her and had to go and wash my hands afterwards, I wasn’t very tidy about it.  She ate a remarkable amount, as did her brother, who started with carrots and broccoli before moving on to the meat.

I’d done a dish of fruit – strawberries, grapes, bananas and pineapple – and made a cake, which I’d done in a ring mould and iced it to look like a bird’s nest.  Well, it didn’t look very like a bird’s nest, but the thought was there.  My electric mixer packed in just as I was whipping cream – luckily it didn’t stop sooner.  The motor works but the paddles don’t go around, so I suppose it’s the gear that’s worn.

It was just as well that we hadn’t waited for Russell, who arrived home at 1.40.  He’d been chatting, he said – just as we expected.

I was reading in the paper today that a lot of people don’t teach their children to cook because they don’t want the kitchen made untidy.  It has to be admitted that my kitchen gets pretty messy every day.  I’m far too keen on food to mind that and my children were always welcome to help.  They’re all good and enthusiastic cooks, which makes me very happy.

The lead arrived the other day for the DVD player and I tried and failed to set it up.  I was disgusted with myself.  I had been determined not to have to ask for help, but I’m afraid it needed a man.  Phil did it for me.  He kindly said that he already dreads the day when he has to ask his children for help with techy things.  Quite.

7 comments on “One appliance is set up, one fails

  1. Blue Witch

    The lead arrived the other day for the DVD player and I tried and failed to set it up.

    Yes, technology is now too complicated for many people. Most people, even. Just because they *can* make it do everything, doesn’t mean they should, or that the majority of customers want it like that. And how one sets up a new computer without need of the internet, I have no idea.

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  2. Blue Witch

    Parents who don’t teach their kids to cook, or about finance, are failing in their parental duties.

    I’m amazed at how many people I know take their kids to cookery classes, presumably to absolve themselves of the responsibility/mess.

    Reply
  3. Z Post author

    It was fine, Mike, we know what he’s like. Also, how completely uncommunicative he is – he hadn’t said that he met you! He just bought one little mother of pearl-handled knife, but he enjoyed the visit.

    Well, I was completely confused by not understanding the manual, BW, either of the DVD player or the TV. But the instructions were there, apparently. Phil says he’s not looking forward to getting a new computer and having to get to grips with whatever the latest version of Windows will be.

    When my children were young, I was a full-time housewife and mother and I was already an enthusiastic cook. Lots of parents don’t have much spare time nor knowledge, unfortunately. As for finance, I had no spare money when they were young (being a full-time housewife and mum had a lot to do with that) so keeping an eye on the budget was taught by example as much as instruction. They’re all three of them pretty canny with money.

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  4. Blue Witch

    People also largely paid with coins and notes and not plastic in those days, and children were often encouraged to hand over the money to the shopkeeper and count the change. Without visible physical representations of currency, children can easily think that money is limitless.

    And how many parents give their children pocket money, to count and put in money boxes, and save up towards things they want? Very few, amongst those I know.

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  5. Z Post author

    Indeed, but that’s true of all of us when we shop with a card. I count what I’m spending in my head (approximately) as I go round the supermarket, but only so that I spend the right amount for a money-off petrol voucher! I use a shopping list, when I make one, to remind me of things I must buy rather than to limit myself. I don’t know if my grandchildren receive pocket money, I’ve never asked, but I know that Dilly discusses saving up and choosing what to spend birthday money on, because I’ve been with them when that’s happened. Learning how to manage credit is even more important than managing cash, but it’s horribly easy to go awry.

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