Posts by Kerry Weston

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  • Island Life: No soup for you,

    Mrs W.F. Kent-Johnston's "Everyday Recipes" *Tried and Tested* has some Very Worthwhile Recipes I feel obliged to share:

    Giblet Soup: scald giblets, cut them into small pieces. Cook in about 1 quart of stock or vegetable water. Add 1 tbspn savoury herbs, 2 onions, 1 carrot. Simmer 40 minutes.Strain, thicken with 1 tbspn sago or flour. Season with salt and pepper, lastly add a tbspn of sherry, if you're a lush, or 2 tbspns lemon juice, if you're a sour old trout.

    Boiled Pig's Head One pig's head, 2 turnips, 2 onions, pepper and salt. Wash head and soak in salted water for 2 hours, (the pig's head not yours), then put in saucepan with water to cover. Simmer gently for 2 hours, add vegetables and cook for 1 hour. Garnish with slices of tongue and serve with parsley sauce.
    NB: In Depression times, a good wife will ensure the breadwinner gets the meat and everyone else the soup.*

    * Sincere apologies to Mrs WFKJ for any alterations to this text she may find offensive.

    Manawatu • Since Jan 2008 • 494 posts Report

  • Up Front: First Footing,

    i was brought up never to wear high heels, as at 5'10 they might make me taller than blokes - and that was just not on!

    I like shoes, hate wearing them - and discovered one can get too many beestings and develop allergy symptoms - racing heart, sweats, nausea etc. Just too much bee venom in the system apparently, but it does wear off or whatever eventually.

    Manawatu • Since Jan 2008 • 494 posts Report

  • Hard News: "Rubbish" is putting it politely,

    Okay, so there's a copyright law - how many artists sue for copyright infringement in NZ? I'm thinking small time stuff here - as an example, I saw fake paintings being sold at a market for about $50 each. These were photos of real paintings done by real artists, put onto sheet canvas, with a textured surface to make them look hand painted. I thought I recognised a couple as works by lesser known painters, but the signatures were other names entirely. And the canvases were all the same size... so I did some research when I got home & found what i thought was one of these paintings. I went back to the market but the sellers had gone. No identification or bizzo cards of course.

    Now, the real artist would have to be extremely vigilant & waste lots of time checking that fakes weren't circulating. It wouldn't be worth the effort, nor would taking a case against cheapo ripoffs because lawyers cost & the rippers probably wouldn't have any $$ to pay up with anyway.

    And does the public care, as long as they can buy cheap fakes, like the Chinese fakes industry that churns out masses of van gogh, monet etc etc replicas for lounge room walls?

    Manawatu • Since Jan 2008 • 494 posts Report

  • Southerly: Life at Paremoremo Boys' High,

    i got "the Tongue" in about standard one. If you chattered too much, you had to stand on a chair in the corner, with this huge cardboard tongue painted garish pink & red, hung around yer neck, till you expired from dizziness.

    Manawatu • Since Jan 2008 • 494 posts Report

  • Southerly: Life at Paremoremo Boys' High,

    My 18 yr old, 7th form son has just been stood down from Feilding High School for defiance for not getting his hair cut. It's naturally corkscrew-curly, but doesn't touch his eyebrows or his collar - hardly Robert Plant. He's never had so much as a detention before, but the injustice & petty tyranny of it is tragic in this day and age.

    Apart from the strapping, it sounds just like David's old school. Lots of fighting, a bully in a suit for a Principal, the lauding of rugby above all else - I can't think of a single occasion when the Principal has ever encouraged or affirmed my son in 5 years. The waste of it - and for all the other students whose chance for a decent education about things that matter, has been robbed. This is why I don't have any time for the BOT system. They get sucked into backing hard-line Principals and cannot see past them.

    Great writing again, David and very topical.

    Manawatu • Since Jan 2008 • 494 posts Report

  • Busytown: Sorry About That, Chief,

    Hooray! So pleased Mr Haywood is publishing a book, I'm very taken with his style. It shall be requested for my xmas stocking.

    Manawatu • Since Jan 2008 • 494 posts Report

  • Hard News: "Rubbish" is putting it politely,

    Not dissing you, just curious as to why creative people feel that society owes them a life-long income that is denied to all others unless they've got some financial nous.

    I think it's more about creatives figuring out how they can have a place in society that enables them to do the regular things like have a family, buy a house or even rent one, afford healthcare etc and live a creative life as well. The days when an artist, writer, songwriter could live cheaply in a bach with a decent fruit & vege garden a la Frank Sargeson, or find a cheap old house to live in with space to do your thing, are long gone. In that scenario, it was workable to have a part time or seasonal job so you had the TIME to create.

    We used to have more potters per capita here than in Japan, a traditional stronghold of pottery. That all went with cheap imports. The potter who, 25 years ago, could make an income from selling coffee mugs and still have time for original "art" work, simply can't do that now.

    The painting or book you see is the final 10% of the work the artist has put in. It doesn't come out of the ether and appear by magic. There's alot of looking - *seeing* - listening, reading, plus whatever else stokes your fire, maybe walking, fishing, photography, that is all part of your process. And all those things are time-hungry.

    Our cheapo-consumerism means folks want to purchase at the cheapest price, they don't give a rat's about whether the artist will live another day. i pay my mechanic $45 an hour for his labour to fix my car. If artists charged out at that rate, there'd be bugger all left.

    Manawatu • Since Jan 2008 • 494 posts Report

  • Hard News: There's a lot of it about,

    Helen Clark as a vacuous bimbo on the basis of the rather disturbing number of cover shoot/fluff pieces she's done for functionally retarded women's mags.

    Read the Lovely Helen, Minister Maid piece in the latest Women's Weekly in the supermarket today - sexy shot of Helen in white trou and a red netty top thing AND tips on diet and exercise to look fabulous at 58 too. And you know what? She IS allowed to nag Peter.

    Manawatu • Since Jan 2008 • 494 posts Report

  • Up Front: What Sixteen Is,

    Quite so. A few years ago, I was with a group of women, about 20 of us, and in that strange way that a few wines and no kids makes for a major talkfest, we began sharing those stories. The uncle or grandfather who couldn't keep his hands to himself, the blokes we "knew" to avoid and never be caught alone with. There were a couple of serious revelations of major abuse, too. All up, more than half of us, from memory I think it was 12 out of 20, had experienced some form of molestation. That was pretty jaw-dropping. So was the cone of silence observed in most cases.

    I've made far-reaching decisions to avoid one or two people I'd never trust around kids. And it's still hard to do, without feeling like maybe you're paranoid.

    Manawatu • Since Jan 2008 • 494 posts Report

  • Hard News: There's a lot of it about,

    I just feel like they've all been filling in time, our time, with a dreadful soap opera that's a cross between Dallas and Lost - where we all end up completely confused about what's really going on.

    The plot's got so many holes, it's lace.

    Manawatu • Since Jan 2008 • 494 posts Report

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