General Chat

Good idea, being diabetic means eating carbs , hot or cold. hungry or not !
I generally make a hash of ring pulls and rarely manage corned beef without cutting myself., that spray-on Elastoplast is a godsend.

My grandson was peeved that there was only one slice of bread left so he couldn.t make toast .
This is male logic, he thought you could only put 2 slices into the toaster !

I have so many gadgets, plug in air fresheners, knife sharpener, bug zapper, rodent repeller, carving knife, the obligatory Kenwood, coffee machine, grill , slow cooker and many of the must haves that live in the back of the units the list goes on and in spite of having extra sockets there are never enough!

Then the other day after my umpteenth cup of cold coffee I thought what a good idea to have a hot plate to keep it warm, googled and found a coffee warmer that plugs into the computer, if only I could find a spare USB socket !

My mum thought it would be a good idea to buy me a battery operarated can opener for christmas ??? I do not do any cooking and most cans come with a ring pull these days anyway :-)


jax

Also she did'nt supply the batteries so it is still in the box

So many of us have electric can openers here, no use in a power outage !!!!

I shall indeed keep an eye out for that. Perhaps he could wear it around his neck.

A manual tin opener.

Even saying that sounds ridiculous to me. Like saying "manual pencil". (as in: not-electric pencil, I mean)

Unless one is severely disabled by arthritis or amputation, why in the name of heaven would one have a can opener that was not manual?!

The most astonishing things happen when one doesn't use electricity.

One's hair dries, one's clothes dry, and one's tins get opened! They do around my house, anyhow. ;-)

Keep an eye out for the wind-up radio.combined torch with flashing red/white alert lamp ,
ideal for diabetic emergencies , gives about 30 minutes power per wind.
I love inventions and good design !

Oh and a manual tin opener for emergencies !

The wind-up flashlight we have -- and I was wishing for a wind-up radio yesterday, but fortunately, No.1 keeps batteries around for a little one he has. Those wind-up ones were still a bit pricey last time I looked; should check again.

Yes, I know I rely on the freezer -- that's how I do my "preserving". Maybe it's time for No.1 to educate himself on the art of canning ...

It's definitely time we all started being just a wee bit more frugal all round -- frugal with our own resources and the planet's. Strawberries in January may just not be the best idea.

Oh the things we take for granted !
It's not until you go abroad you realise how well off we are, and how unprepared we are for any shortages.

My best buys recently have been a wind-up radio and wind-up tilly-type LED lamp'
Ever the pessimist, candles ,matches,camping gaz at the ready.

Now have we thought about the drought and how that will affect next years supplies and prices ? Bread ,rice , potatoes will all be in shorter supply.
We are so used to having fresh strawberries etc all year round.
I remember the store cupboard of my childhood , at least a months supply of preserved food, how many of us rely on a deep freezer [ until the power gets cut ]

My next project is to stock up on cans, dried, longlife produce,etc

As for the ironing and housework' that can wait !

We're silly creatures of habit, aren't we? Like cats -- once you learn something, that pathway in your brain is permanent and the little thought processes just follow their course to their logical conclusion!

Yes, of course the outside lights are on when the power fails, a power failure is a good time to get caught up on that ironing, cut the water line? let's make tea! Well, that one is an English pathway that I gather the end of the world wouldn't interrupt. :-D

Our power went out *before* the storm hit, C! (It might have had to do with a car accident at an intersection a mile or so away that was on the traffic report right after, I'm thinking.) It was certainly a doozy of a storm, though. Brought the temp down about 10 degrees ... but it seems to be on the way back up again.

Barry, that sounds like a very useful gadget, and I'll be looking into it.

We do have a gas barbecue ... but a couple of years ago the spiders took up residence in the gas lines and No.1 got tired of cleaning it out ... it would probably be a good idea just to have one of those dinky Coleman stoves around, true.

Lots of hydro today. No excuse for not working.

Thank goodness here in the great TO (Toronto to you none Canadians) we didn't lose power in my neck of the woods anyway. Just lots of black skies and VERY high winds !! I thought we would with that heat and all the AC'S going all day. It was like an oven whenever you ahd to walk outside

Oh Janey, poor you! :-D

Having fallen in to the same trap and deciding to do the put-off ironing....nope!.....I can sympathise!

And thank goodness for 2 sources of power - a gas hob and stand alone gas fire. At least we can cook and keep warm. Mind you, it can be a bit awkward crawling under the desk to plug in a line phone as the wireless one no longer works. (Not than any one would phone us, but you never know!)

If you can get them in Canada (silly, of course you outside living people could) get a one burner bottled (calor) gas stove. At least you could balance a saucepan on top to heat water, soup, or scramble eggs!

LOL JaneyC

This reminds me of the time we bought our first house.
My Dad found a piece of tubing in the garden and pulled it out. There was a trickle of water ("its just draining" said Dad). A swimming pool later and a neighbour popping his head over our fence and asking if we had problems with our water supply, prompted a check.
Yep. rusty pipe = vital equipment. No water.

It was a really hot day so whilst we waited for a plumber, hubby said he would make a cuppa........ well I watched him go into the house and wondered how long before he realised................................... no water.
I said I think we will need to get some orange juice or fizzy pop from the local shop............what did he come back with ...........................concentrated orange juice for diluting with .......water...............what a numpty.

Ria x

We get occasional power cuts where I live but have a gas cooker so at least I can light the burner using a match and not miss out on my coffee!

We keep candles in the house just in case.


I don't like it, but I can cope with the electricity going off more than I can with the water going off.....now THAT drives me do lally! :-(



Cx

What's worse than a power cut?

On Sunday, my handy OH managed to cut through our cable whilst putting in a fence post (he just had to pick those particular 2 square inches!). No phone, no TV, no internet for 2 days. Thank goodness for the radio!

Sorry Bobs -- in my browser at least, the huge url/line problem has been solved, it gets wrapped (unless there's nowhere to break it -- like when someone posts a line of 100 dots ...).


Mick, I must have told you the Australian diplomat in Canada beer joke.


New Australian High Commissioner arrives in Ottawa in mid-winter. He has arranged to have a number of cases of whatever that stuff is, Fosters? imported to his domicile. (For his housewarming party.)

He sensibly puts it out in the garage to stay cool.

Every bottle in every case freezes and breaks.

He remarks that Ottawa is the only place he's ever been where you put your beer in the fridge to keep it warm.

:-D

When the power goes off, I just fire up the generator to keep the beer cold and get the computer/internet working, and get out the gas camping gear to cook etc.

xxxx mick

Janey , Darlin' ,

I fink that the url u posted has broke the page, .......anyway you can shorten it?
put it on two lines? maybe.....

Bob

I am impressed with myself there JC knowing something you did'nt :-D

Or were you just pretending?

jax

Fine. I say hydro, you top me with punkawalla. Are you pretending to be Australian or something there?

Ah! Southeast Asian:

a person in a warm climate that pulls a rope or string that is connected to a fan on the ceiling or a person that fans another.

"Where do I find a good punkawalla?"

Yes. I'll tell No.1 that next time.

What you need is a gas cooker and a mobile phone (cell phone to you :-D) and a punkawalla to cool you down :-)

Sorted

jax

Florence, you have exactly the idea!

Boil that kettle. ;-)