I love soup !!!!!!

I've been looking for decent dried red beans up here for ages. The packet ones can be soaked for a week and not soften up.

I went up to Doi MaeSalong, the old Koumintang hills town, yesterday and an Akha lady was selling them in the street market in bulk.

They're breaking up perfectly. I'll buy about ten kilos next time I'm up there.

Nice town, just wish they'd pick up the dead bodies up more often.

Made bean soup today.

Can you not get Jiff there? It scours without harsh scratching.

I've been looking for decent dried red beans up here for ages. The packet ones can be soaked for a week and not soften up.

I went up to Doi MaeSalong, the old Koumintang hills town, yesterday and an Akha lady was selling them in the street market in bulk.

They're breaking up perfectly. I'll buy about ten kilos next time I'm up there.

Nice town, just wish they'd pick up the dead bodies up more often.

Fair dinkum?????

Old Koumintang town mate, they ran the opium growing in the north for years.

Still a bit of wild west style law of the gun goes on.

Either that or he'd started on the lao khao early.

Edit: I passed the message about the Jiff on to the maid, she's filed it for future reference.

Made bean soup today.

If it's bean soup.

What is it now?

.....runs out da door.......

Made bean soup today.

If it's bean soup.

What is it now?

.....runs out da door.......

Woh...

Talking of Edinburgh. Please be aware peeps, that its pronounced Ed-in-bruh or even Ed-in-bur-uh...but not..Ed-in-burG.

Just trawling a few pages!! Agree with you Eek!!

Woh...

Talking of Edinburgh. Please be aware peeps, that its pronounced Ed-in-bruh or even Ed-in-bur-uh...but not..Ed-in-burG.

Just trawling a few pages!! Agree with you Eek!!

What about Hamburg?

I shall go to mcD's tomorrow and order a hambur-uh

So was the original spelling of Canberra "Canburgh"?

Made bean soup today.

Cook your beans in a pressure cooker, and they come out soft. There are a couple places in Mae Sai that sell pressure cookers.

Made bean soup today.

Cook your beans in a pressure cooker, and they come out soft. There are a couple places in Mae Sai that sell pressure cookers.

Pressure cooker....good advice. But just because you get a soft bean does not preclude the neccessity for soaking or pre-boiling....there are toxins that need to be removed in this initial stage.

I think the red beans you buy in Big C could be pressure cooked for a week and still be like marbles.

I bought these at Doi Maesalong from a bulk seller, I soaked them over night and they were already soft before I made the soup. They broke up beautifully.

I used to be a great fan of pressure cookers, the toughest piece of corned beef would lay down and beg for mercy in about 30 minutes but I'm happy to plod a long with traditional cooking methods now, I have all the time in the world these days.

I'm going to make chilli this week.

I think the red beans you buy in Big C could be pressure cooked for a week and still be like marbles.

I bought these at Doi Maesalong from a bulk seller, I soaked them over night and they were already soft before I made the soup. They broke up beautifully.

I used to be a great fan of pressure cookers, the toughest piece of corned beef would lay down and beg for mercy in about 30 minutes but I'm happy to plod a long with traditional cooking methods now, I have all the time in the world these days.

I'm going to make chilli this week.

You should turn this into a TV soap Scuds. The daft sods left in the UK pay a fortune for " Home and Away", "Neighbours " and the like, basically anything Australian. You and your beans could be on to a winner !!!!!!

I think the red beans you buy in Big C could be pressure cooked for a week and still be like marbles.

I bought these at Doi Maesalong from a bulk seller, I soaked them over night and they were already soft before I made the soup. They broke up beautifully.

I used to be a great fan of pressure cookers, the toughest piece of corned beef would lay down and beg for mercy in about 30 minutes but I'm happy to plod a long with traditional cooking methods now, I have all the time in the world these days.

I'm going to make chilli this week.

You should turn this into a TV soap Scuds. The daft sods left in the UK pay a fortune for " Home and Away", "Neighbours " and the like, basically anything Australian. You and your beans could be on to a winner !!!!!!

Not to be pedantic, but I think that should be "Shaygs"

Shags?

Shags?

I think it's a fish thing.............

Nothing fishy about me.

Nothing fishy about me.

Do you want me to hold your coat ?

Random Whinge

My notebook - you know, the one that I have had nothing but trouble with since new - has fried its graphics card for the THIRD time in six months. It is now officially a coracle anchor (too small for a boat). Am I angy? No. Fuming? only momentarily; it has been such a disaster that I had been resigned to something going awry again. Fortunately (or not), the same company (Asus) has just brought out a nifty new notebook with all the bells and whistles for around $2500, so I will cross my fingers in the hope that I don't end up with another lemon (which is slightly heavier and could probably anchor a tinny).

Happy Groundhog Day.

^I've got you, babe.

Had to post these sumplace......

Jake used to work in tourism on Grand Cayman in the Caribbean and has been asked some very dumb questions -

What are those lumps on the water? (Um, waves).

How deep do you have to go to dive under the island? (Um, quite deep)

The most amusing was when he asked an elderly couple if they were enjoying their holiday.

"It's lovely," they said. "But we thought we had booked to go to the Grand Canyon."

Michael Collins was interested to note the animals used to represent three countries on an FX Converter shown in the Prouds Suva shop.

"For Fiji a clownfish, fair enough.

For New Zealand predictably enough a kiwi.

However, the choice for Australia was not a kangaroo or koala, but a blowfly. Lovely."

^Surprising. For New Zealend, I would have expected a sheep with a pair of gumboots on its rear hoofs. As to the fly, Australia doesn't have so many blowies these days, Pete - I think they migrated to Thailand, finding the drying fish to be too tasty to resist. And Thailand could be represented at the Prouds FX shop by a whole range of exotic bugs (with a side order of somtam).

Random Whinge

My notebook - you know, the one that I have had nothing but trouble with since new - has fried its graphics card for the THIRD time in six months. It is now officially a coracle anchor (too small for a boat). Am I angy? No. Fuming? only momentarily; it has been such a disaster that I had been resigned to something going awry again. Fortunately (or not), the same company (Asus) has just brought out a nifty new notebook with all the bells and whistles for around $2500, so I will cross my fingers in the hope that I don't end up with another lemon (which is slightly heavier and could probably anchor a tinny).

Random Whinge v2

Unbelievable! The notebook I was going to buy has been withdrawn from the market (as have all Sandy Bridge processor-based computers) due to an inherent manufacturing defect. They are expected to be off the market for several months until the defect is remedied. So, it looks like the coracle anchor is going to get a temporary reprieve with yet another replacement graphics card. The first replacement card lasted two weeks, the second, four months, so it's a big gamble and unfortunately, I'll be paying Australian repair prices this time (instead of B5,000 Thai repair prices). When the new notebook is re-released, unfortunately (even if you are able to find a top end notebook in Thailand), the price will be far higher than in Oz. I may have to take a quick run down to Singapore...

Yep, $275 to repair the notebook in Oz - or roughly B8250, as opposed to B5000 ($165) in LoS. Bar stewards...

I have just changed my signature.

No Problem.

You have all seen this below the compose window.

<H3>Signature Restrictions

Your signature may contain:

• Any number images
• Images of any size
• Any number of URLs
• Any number of lines

Anybody tried to do any of those actions.

No hope for me.</H3>

The ongoing notebook saga. It turn out that the only way to repair the thing properly - no more system failures, blown graphics cards, destroyed hard drives, etc - was to replace the entire mother board (and attached bits and pieces) at a cost of around $650 plus labour. It turns out that it was (probably) defective from day one. So, once again, it is relegated to being a coracle anchor. And since I couldn't get the replacement notebook I wanted due to it also having an inherent design defect, I ended up buying a nice new HP notebook and, I'm very pleased to report, it's excellent. So hopefully no more boring whinges from me on the subject of computer woes. Of course, it did take me three long days to set up the new notebook as I want it, but that's hardly a whinge, is it? (Don't think much of Media Player 11 though - v10 was far better.)

Dunno if many have seen this, but......

THIS IS TRULY THE BEST 5 MINS. YOU COULD SPEND.

http://johnjudyc.blogspot.com/2011/01/snuggling-on-beach.html

HISTORY OF THE VIDEO BELOW.

This unique video is of a tourist who sat on the beach to watch the

seals and penguins on Gold Harbor, South Georgia. Unexpectedly,

one of the seals is apparently attracted to her and, slowly works

his way over to her. He seems to 'falls in love' and snuggles and

flirts with her. It is quite an unusual and interesting scene.

The seals are huge (6,000 lbs), yet she never seemed afraid . . .

more amused . . .. while someone shot the video of this incident.

Gold Harbor, South Georgia, is located off the southern tip of

South America. (sub arctic) It is a small bay five miles SSW of

Cape Charlotte, with Bertrab Glacier at its head, along the east

end of Georgia. The west end of the beach where a glacial stream

flows is a breeding ground for various types of penguins and large

seals. It is not a frequent destination for tourists.

I have a secret.

Amazing photo taken from the Port Hills overlooking Christchurch when the quake hit.

My thoghts go out to the Japanese hit by the tsunami... baaaaaaaaad.