Thursday 28 March 2013

Tasty Red Sausages

When the Jones family left NZ for England in 1957 we said goodbye to one of my favourite foods.  Tasty saveloys!  During the three years we lived in England mum never bought any claiming they were only available back in NZ.  These days I think she was fibbing!

Jan was able to buy six in Sainbury’s earlier this week and cooked them last night for my dinner.  The interesting thing about these English saveloys is; unlike the NZ version; the water in the pot wasn’t heavily stained red as a result of them being boiled.

You may wonder why we’ve mentioned such a boring subject? As I was devouring them last night I was reminded of an occasion some years ago when I was serving in the NZ Army.  My neighbour, the Brigade Major, had approached me about replacing him as the chairman of the local school committee to which I agreed.  Shortly thereafter the school principal approached me to inform me of some disturbing information he had received from one of the younger teachers.  The teacher had held a class ‘morning talk’ and asked one child what interesting thing had happened to them the previous day.  The child replied

“My sister and I had red soup for dinner last night”

The teacher corrected him stating “No….. you mean tomato soup!”

The child then said “No Miss… Mum and Dad had the red sausages and we had the red soup!”

We appeared to have a problem, which resulted in me having a quiet discussion with the soldier’s unit commander.  As any ex serviceperson will know; the armed services are a family.  We look after each other and dependants!  No more ‘red soup’!  Enjoy the red sausages!

Jan is getting tired of knitting her new scarf.  She has been using the last of the wool from her cardigan to knit it and the scarf appears to be taking ages to finish.

“Only another foot to go!”  That comment nearly got me a knitting needle buried in my throat!  However I do like the pattern.

It should be finished just in time for Spring! Smile

Waiting for the weather to improve has provided time to think about the most effective battery charging regime.  At the conclusion of the Bulk stage there is a surface charge on the plates which then takes the batteries some time to absorb.  I’m wondering whether it might be more effective to run the engine in the morning until the batteries are 80-90% charged and then leave them for the day to absorb the surface charge.  Then run the engine at the end of the day to being the batteries up to 100%.  Just a theory!

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