Imagine my surprise today when I log on to do a new post (yep, feeling guilty as it has been a while!!) and I see a massive spike in the amount of page views from the U.S.
I can only put this down to a few things...
- They are bored. Incredibly bored.
- It's a Trump thing. The response to Trump being chosen as the next President has resulted in multitudes of Americans seeking greener pastures and they have stumbled upon my blog. Will they consider this a true representation of the life of an Average Joe in Australia? Even though my name is Bernard?? Who can tell, I just tell it as it is.
- They have been hacked, and every time they look for something really interesting, they are diverted to me!!
- They are just pulling my chain, making me think they are really reading it.
- It's just some sicko, bored at work who just keeps logging on and adding to the total.
Whatever the reasons may be, I hope it entertains you, but please, could at least one of you say which part of the States you are from, or leave a comment? I'd love to drum up some banter with my readers!!
So what has been going on lately in the intriguing World of Bernard???
He's 50!!
Recently one of my brothers, Damian, turned 50. How old do I feel now when I say my youngest brother is now 50 years old!!
So, to celebrate the occasion we went out to dinner at a local pub with the staff from his school.
It was a great night and a fitting way to celebrate the milestone.
However, before I headed off, one of my sons threw out a challenge to me.
"Dad, don't order the Half Parma, go the full Parma. You won't be able to finish it, and you won't eat for a week"
Well, that was like a red rag to a bull! For the overseas readers, a 'Parma' is a Chicken Parmagiana, or 'Parma' for short. It's a piece of chicken, crumbed and covered in all sorts of sauces, usually bacon, cheese and tomato in the traditional form. Usually served with chips and salad, or chips and veges.
The jury is still out about the presentation. My belief, and that of my three sons is that the parma DOES NOT sit on the chips. Nothing goes under the parma!! Our view is that means they are trying to hide things under it. When this occurs it is referred to as 'a sin of the parma'.
The pub I went to is owned by a family friend, and the full parma did not disappoint. It was sensational. But my son's words were ringing in my ears, so even though I was well and truly full with a few mouthfuls to go, I persisted and downed the whole thing, save for a few rings of red onion (Why does everyone insist on this rubbish??!!)
Hardly what any health professional would advocate, especially with our obesity rates continuing to escalate. At Least I do get a decent amount of exercise every day to compensate for it.
Anyway, back to the man of the moment.
After a really good meal (Parma Heaven would be an apt description) instead of a cake, a selection of sample desserts was presented to Damian with a candle. He smartly chose to share these out as eating them would be nearly as gluttonous as eating a full parma!!!
Damian, yours truly and Dirty.
As an added treat, another brother, Peter ( who we know as 'Dirty') came down from Brisbane for the weekend as he was attending a wedding here in Bendigo.
Damian came around to my place on the Saturday afternoon, ready to meet Dirty who was due later that day.
We eventually all caught up and I suggested we pop around to our local pub for 1-2 beers as it had been months since we were last together.
Those 1-2 beers at the pub at 4.00 pm turned into a few more back at home. It was 2.00 am when I pulled up stumps, and Dirty and Damian kept going until 4.00 in the morning!!
It is fair to say that all three of us were a tad shabby the next morning, but it was worth every minute.
Dirty is also involved in an annual event here in Australia called 'Movember', where men (and possibly some women!) grow a moustache in November to raise money and awareness of mens health, in particular prostate cancer. A great cause to support.
One of our boys, Will also got involved. We couldn't help but notice Will's resemblance to some other well known moustaches, but good on him for doing it, as he did more than I did which was nothing.
Look out next year!!
Some Maths at school...
At school we have various fundraisers. A recent one was a mango drive, and let me tell you I worked up a decent sweat helping to unload the delivery to our school.
As many kids at school were watching and asking, I then came up with a very simple maths problem for them to solve.
I gave them my ipad and said they could take just three photos and then try and solve the problem "How many mangoes are there?"
I still haven't heard back from the kids, but I'd be very interested in hearing how they went about solving the task. It is not so much the answer that I'm interested in, but the strategies and processes that they used, because there are so many ways to get to an answer, and my focus is on helping the children to discover them.
My hobby...
For more than 25 years I have been an avid home brewer, but on this day I was ready to chuck it all out, all because of a stupid can opener!!!
A very simple task is to open the cans of syrup that go into the barrel with a mix of boiling and cold water. Sounds simple, but when I tried our can opener it just gave up and broke. Must have been the hot weather.
So into the car I get and fly down to the local supermarket, but all they had were these crappy $3.00 models, which I later discovered were overpriced by about $3.00 !!!!
The $3.00 model did about three revolutions then disintegrated, much to my anger!
My overseas readers could have heard me swearing when that crappy opener broke, as I was really under the pump time wise on this day to get the beer made.
My solution?
Get out the hammer, screwdriver and pliers and break into each tin. It was a hack job, but I got what I needed.
Finally have the syrup mixed with the hot water, all Going well. Adding the yeast to the barrel, now topped up with cold water so as to not kill the yeast.
Two barrels happily bubbling away, this takes about a week and then they are ready for bottling.
A week or so later and I have about 120 stubbies (375ml) to store away. Should be ready to drink in about 6 weeks.
I usually spend the warmer months making lots of beer which then lasts me a whole year. I still have quite a bit of beer that I made last December in my shed that is still great to drink.
So why do it?
Firstly, I like beer!! Other than that it is very economical, plus I just like the science of it all.
Well readers, that's about it for tonight, but I continue to be intrigued about the sudden rise in the readership from the U.S.
A similar thing happened a few months ago with readers in France, so once again, I'm just putting it out there, give me some ideas!!
This is just the stats from the past month.
Hopefully readers I'll have something a bit more exciting to report on in the upcoming weeks as we start our school holidays in a fortnight.
Until my next post...
Cheers!!
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