Wednesday, March 19, 2008

Dinner at home


I love Donna Hay, this lovely dinner was veal with Soy sauce, brown sugar and black pepper. Nice to sit home, drink a glass of wine and relax.

Thanks Donna for making a nice meal at home ;-)

Friday, March 14, 2008

Locavores

I have just started to read Animal, Vegetable, Miracle, by Barbara Kingsolver about her year of eating locally. This again brings to mind the ability of someone living in certain places to eat 100% locally. She mentions in her book that is is not possible if you live in Arizona for example to eat locally, so she had the luxary of moving to Virgina in order to live her experiment. While I still think it is almost possible in Singapore a number of inital concessions would need to be made.

First, is 100 miles far enough for an island country with virtually no agriculture. I could get local goat milk...check.
local vegetable...check
local fruit? Some... ok we will assume this is possible.

Local meat? Chickens maybe...pork..probably not, beef..again maybe..

What about other goods? Cooking oil? Nope, that would not be possible (how do other locavores do this, or is it under the exceptions?)

So, the deeper question in my mind is locavore the way to go? Do you need to be hard core? Does it have to be an all or nothing deal? Locavores and Vegans both tend to be pretty hardline, but I am weak... I have a certain affinity for items that will never be produced in my area... wine is just one.

Ah, enough rambling... I need to get on a plane and get back to my home in Singapore. Kiss my kids and fall into my own bed for a good night sleep. It is about time.

Tuesday, March 11, 2008

Nights at Home

So in the last 6 weeks I have had a grand total of 15 nights (out of 39) at home. At the end of this week, that number shifts again as it is 16 out of 44. I am home next week, I leave for KL in about 1 hour. I get back Friday night and we leave on Wednesday for Kuching. At least the family will travel with me on this trip...as I intend to do a lot of serious beach/pool time with the kids. It is really hard traveling this much as when I am home my mood is all out of whack and I am super grumpy with the kids... which is the last thing I want to be as I really want to spend time with them...

OK enough whinging and time to hit the road. Posts from KL a comin'

Wednesday, March 05, 2008

New Stuff at my house

I am on the road again, traveling for business (which frankly I really need to think long and hard about how I can reconcile my travel with my simple/ecological ideals)but I guess my Salvation Army purchases arrived while I was gone. But here is the ethical issue. I paid twice for shipping, but the invoice I got from the shop did not clearly show I paid for the transport. Would you just right it off as a "donation" to a good cause of go back and ask for the 70 dollars? It is not a big amount, but it is the thought of it...

Anyway, I guess we have a new outdoor table with 4 more outdoor chairs. They are teak (but someone stained them). A note on teak. I have no problems with teak that has been recyled. Teak that was cut years ago from the forests, what I do have problems with this teak being harvested at alarming rates in Indonesia and other parts of SE Asia causing mass deforestation for "cool" and ethnic looking furnishings being sold at cut rates in Walmart/target and the like in the US... Oh and i know my love of target is incongrous with my environmental ideals..

I also have a storage unit armoire for my guest room that will allow me to put away some of the stuff stored in there and have a place for guests to put there stuff when they stay with us. I can't wait to get home, clean up these items and get stuff put away!
 
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