Reversing the cycle

My ducted gas heating broke two days ago. I say broke; I got home from grocery shopping to find the house stinking of burned something or other. Plastic? Not sure. Anyway, sniffed around every room, the smell was everywhere. Didn't seem to come from the dishwasher (which sometimes smells nasty if a wood or plastic implement falls onto the heating element and burns) or the dryer - in fact the laundry (which does not have a heating vent) was the only room that didn't smell. I turned off the heat and aired out the house. It is nearly winter here in Canberra, and the temperature dropped to 14 degrees C pretty quickly. Just to make sure, I turned the ducted gas on again for a little while, the smell returned. So off it went again.

I work from home, and spent the afternoon huddled in blankets in front of my computer. At first I could only get a repair man out Wednesday week, 9 days of frozen toes!, but luckily they called back after they had a cancellation and can fit me in today - so only 48 hours. If they can fix it right away, of course.

So, we all had a pretty cold night, but then the next morning I was telling my friend Caroline about the broken ducted gas. 'But you have reverse cycle air conditioning as well don't you?'

'Um, yes, that cools us down in summer.'

Um, duh. Apparently, reverse cycle means it also heats. Mainly only warms the lounge, not the whole house, but at least it's not 14 degrees C in here any more.

Ta ta tum tum

I'm back! I still live.

So, today I learned that it was Queen Victoria who started the tradition of walking down the aisle in a fluffy white dress. My source was the book Committed by Elizabeth Gilbert. Some very interesting information about Western marriage traditions in there.

Published by crikey

I don't really count this as being published, as it is just by me with no one moderating. But I have started reviewing books for Awritergoesonajourney.com and my first review is now online! Yay! I almost feel like a published author.

So where are all the life lessons?

Ok, so clearly I am not learning something everyday and it is really cramping my blogging style. I am going to relax on the theme a bit and just write about anything I feel like. Some days I do 'learn something' and think 'oh I should blog about that' but I forget by the time I am near a computer.

So. Um. Well, I have been working at my new editing telecommute job for a month now. I'm enjoying it but struggle to find the time. The pay is really low but luckily it is ultra-flexible, I just pick up jobs when my kids are at school/childcare. And it's good experience for my CV for when I want to move on.

I had a really bad haircut last Friday. I felt that it made me look so ugly. I cried a few times about it. One thing that has allowed me to cope with gradually getting fatter is that I felt my face still looked ok. A normal mirror (not full-length) was not my enemy. With the new haircut I lost that, and just felt/feel fat and ugly all over. So, I guess I have to lose weight. And let my hair grow out of course.

Sirens

My daughter seems to have a phobia of sirens. She is 6, and as far as I know (and I should know) she has never had a negative experience with them, and yet ...

One day the four of us were in a fast-food restaurant waiting to order when a vehicle drove past outside, sirens blaring. Jasmine looked wildly from side to side then bolted for the back door, despite both parents standing right next to her. We had to grab her to stop her running out into the car park. We found it a bit worrying, that she was so scared of the siren she ran away from us and potentially towards danger.

Then this weekend we were in the change rooms at the indoor pool after her swimming lesson, and an alarm went off. Not many people paid it any attention, but I had a hard time stopping Jasmine sprinting for the door. I was dressed enough to be decent, so I grabbed my bag and shoes and we left - she powerwalked (she knows she is not allowed to run near the pool) all the way through the complex and didn't even want to stand near the front doors once we got outside. Poor thing was trembling with fear. A fire engine arrived almost immediately, and we heard the staff tell the fire fighters that there was no fire, but she wasn't much comforted. Has she been drilled about fire safety too much at school?

Today she was playing Sims 3 when her character's oven caught fire and the house fire alarm went off. I only let her play Sims because there is no violence - I didn't know something like that could happen. Not that it would worry most kids. She leapt off her chair and came running to me, almost in tears, shaking and stressed. I tried to reassure her that it was just a computer game, I couldn't work out how to do anything to stop it but a fireman arrived and put out the oven.

I really don't know why she has this extreme reaction. At least she came running to me this time and not straight out of the front door!

So is it the threat of fire, or the loud noise itself? I am thinking it is the siren, as she is also scared of the air hand dryers in public toilets, she says they are too loud. A loud noise phobia?

Preserved Lemon Pants

Yesterday I learned not to open a difficult jar of juicy preserved lemon while wearing freshly cleaned clothes. You know how it is ... you can't open it any other way so you brace the jar between your thighs and use all your arm-muscle strength (such as it is) to wrench it open. And then lots of juice goes down your pants. At least preserved lemon juice smells rather nice.

I also learned that prawns, sambal olek (chilli paste), tomato and preserved lemon are an interesting combination for a pasta sauce. Odd. I'm not sure how much I liked it, but my husband said he did. He suggested it as a casual yet impressive dinner party entree. I do enjoy trying new recipes, but many are outright flops or are similar to but not quite as good as something you already make. This one was at least very different.

I think a real gourmet chef would be both impressed and horrified by my fridge and pantry. I have lots of fancy things like those mentioned above, jars of anchovies and capers and sundried tomato pesto, tins of crabmeat, garlic and ginger and olives and camembert and parmasen and pinenuts and seasalt and all that stuff. But also ultra-processed cheese and 2 minute noodles. And I think the fluffy orange cupcakes would be popular anywhere.

Speaking of which, one on-line gaming guild I was in used to call me 'cupcake' because I always seemed to be baking when I was chatting to them. Ahh ... teasing people half a world away with tales of rasperry muffins warm and fragrant from the oven, choc chip cookies still gooey in the centre, tart passionfruit curd in light pastry.

I wonder why I am a bit overweight.

Weddings

The most expensive known wedding day, apparently, involving an Indian steel magnate (if it was in India I guess it was a wedding week) was $65 million dollars. That's right, $65 million. I hope the wedding lasted!