Topping Up

Hi Readers,

This is a bit of a nothing post really, but my thoughts were jolted on Thursday when I was housebound and needed to do something to keep myself occupied.

Have you ever started something, then added a bit of your own flavour to the point where you just keep adding extra and then just lose control?

It has been a habit of mine for years, something that my wife and sons often said was a pretty bad habit due to the consequences that often eventuated.

Let me explain.

I'd often start a job, usually a small job, but eventually it would become a huge job. I'd keep "Topping Up" as I tend to describe it. I'd find more things to add to it, or make it bigger than it necessarily needed to be.

At one of the houses we owned a few years back, if i noticed that the small patch of grass around the clothesline needed a mow, I'd quickly get the mower out of the shed nearby and get the job done. Ten minutes at most. But as I'd be putting the mower away I'd notice the rest of the yard around the other side of the house (about the size of 3 tennis courts) and wouldn't be able to resist the temptation to mow that as well. And trim. And possibly rake and weed. Then create a bonfire. See how I just kept topping up and usually this would take 3-4 hours.

At our last house Jen started painting some trims and mentioned that we should perhaps paint the room, and could I help. No worries, but once I started I just couldn't stop. I spent the rest of that day painting that room, then giving it another coat, and as things turned out, spent the rest of the week from early morning until late at night painting every room in the house non-stop for days. Even when Jen would suggest taking a break I'd be so pig headed that I'd just barrel on because I "Just wanted to get it done and dusted"

That's where I first started to get problems with tendons in my hands and elbows, just by overdoing things. Too much topping up!! My own fault for sure.

Meanwhile, Jen and the boys would just be rolling their eyes at my stubbornness and refusal to just do things patiently rather than so impulsively!!

This also happens when I cook, as I have this amazing ability to not stick to a recipe! Jen would always put one in front of me if it involved anything new that I was thinking of cooking, and that would potentially be put in front of her. She was a master of wandering past and casting a quizzical eye over proceedings, and adding her own suggestions. My reply ? "I'm following your &^%$%^& recipe!!"

But when it came to 'scrap nights', where everyone basically made something for themselves, my go to was always "Pasta Surprise"

I just love pasta, and anything and everything would go into it. If it wasn't nailed down, wasn't toxic or rancid, it had potential. And, as always, there was the standard tin of baked beans, chickpeas, or both. The rest of the family were always offered some of what I created, but for some reason I never did get to share with them!! And the joys of grabbing everything from the spice rack!! I treated that baby like it was my own chemistry set. To this day I still create Pasta Surprise, and as recently as last weekend two of our sons were joking about it with me while I was visiting them in Qld.

Another example of my "Topping Up" has probably returned to bite me in the bum.

From the age of around 15 I always liked to go for a run. Even when I was playing footy I'd go for runs on non training days. I just loved it.

This continued well after I stopped playing footy, and I was fortunate enough to run a number of marathons. For those who know me, I do not have a runner's body, but that didn't stop me. It's only now that the effects of all those hours on the road have come to haunt me, to the point where I can no longer run, and at times just walking can be challenging. My fault, and I'm not complaining. I clearly remember some days when I might have only 30-40 mins to spare for a run and I wouldn't go, as it wouldn't give me a long enough run. Today I'd just kill to go for a 20 minute run!!! 

So what happened on Thursday that prompted this post?

After two days laying on a hospital bed last week with little food, then a day and a bit of fasting this week for a medical procedure I was going to have, my thoughts were continually turning to food, and what I was looking forward to most.

I started to think of the foods that we would regularly have but that I haven't cooked since ending up on my own again. Usually I just considered them too laborious to make as there would be too much effort required and they were too much for one person.

For example, roasts.

I know that sounds weird, but I hadn't cooked a roast since I lost Jen, even though I love them just as much as anyone else.

The closest I have got is buying the occasional "Batchelor's Handbag" from the supermarket which is fine, but they just don't cut it as a 'home cooked roast'

Well Readers, Thursday was going to be my big day. I'd pumped myself up to cook a lamb roast, dutifully headed down to my nearby supermarket only to find that they had not one lamb roast for sale. Only a sign saying "Temporarily Unavailable"

What? Had I missed something in the news? Were there no sheep left in Australia? Didn't they know I'd been willing myself for this very moment for nearly a week?

Not to be outdone, I perused other samples of what I could classify as a roast, and settled on a small pork roast.

My limited roasting skills meant that I had a vague idea that to get crackling, the outside needs a bit of oil and salt. No problem. That little sucker had more salt on the outside than what is in the Dead Sea!! And didn't that crackle taste so good!!!! And didn't I feel sick after polishing most of it off 🤢 🥴 Too much topping Up on my part!!

Anyway, the rest of the roast was a sizzling success, as were the spuds that I roasted in the air fryer. And this is where I "Topped Up" again, assaulting the spuds with just about every spice from the spice draw!! (I've moved on from a spice rack to a spice draw - more topping up !!)

Now the real point of this post.

I made a slice.

My first one I think. 

I knew I was going to have visitors later in the week, so I went ballistic and industrial!!

I like eating slices, so I guessed that qualified me to make one, but my problem was that I was putting together my favourite parts of all the slices that I liked. 

Some non-negotiables:

• chunks of teddy bear biscuits
• maltesers
• peppermint slice
• a biscuit base
• a chocolate top

So, after looking at a few recipes for the different parts of my "Slice Surprise" and assembling the 'ingredients', off I went.

Lesson #1 that I learnt - Hold the little tubey thing on the blender when mincing biscuits for the base. Biscuit crumbs do escape easily!!

The next hour was like a massive science experiment that would have resembled the building of the atom bomb.

I worked out the biscuit base just by adding melted butter and crumbs together just like one does when mixing concrete powder and water - just find the right consistency.

Base done. I think.

Now for the Rolls Royce of the slice, the actual guts of the whole thing.

I googled how to melt the chocolate, and that sort of worked - I did the pot over hot water thing on the stove. How the water ended up everywhere over the stove top still puzzles me. I had a bowl full of chopped up maltesers and peppermint crisp, and big chunks of teddy bear bickies.

Just throw it all together and add the chocolate and the job is done. Or so I thought.

It was still too dry, what was missing??

I did see condensed milk mentioned when I was browsing online, so I just kept adding it until I had the right consistency, just like Rapid Set concrete!! Was two tins too much??

Lesson #2  Never under estimate the power, relevance and importance of a measuring cup. And a recipe.

Anyway, after paving the bickie base with my chocolate asphalt it was into the fridge and now just to wait for it to set.

There was a fair bit of "Topping Up" throughout this and I was amazed with my restraint. Not one baked bean or chickpea to be seen!!

Later that afternoon I had to quickly visit two close friends, so I carved a slice out of the tray for each of them (I couldn't cut little pieces as it hadn't set yet) and delivered them a pizza slice sized piece each of my slice, with a warning that it was my first one and would probably make a better door stop.

Much to my surprise, I got messages before I got home that they had munched into it straight away and that they were still breathing and functioning normally.

Success!!

The next day, Jen's Dad, brother and nephew visited and they too wolfed it down, and took as much as they could back to Melbourne.

And when our son Lachie came to visit last night, he too devoured it and has so far lived to tell the tale.

There's my contribution towards cholesterol, tooth decay and diabetes for the next few years!!

Enough of the shenanigans Readers, what I'm trying to say is that we can sometimes risk everything by simply trying too hard. Topping up too much.

I could have killed my slice by simply overdoing what I was putting in to make it "better"

I know I've killed a few 'Pasta Surprises' in the same way, and also myself when trying to eat the blessed things out of just being stubborn and convincing myself that they WILL be good. Eventually.

Lesson #3 - Never under estimate the potential of baked beans or chick peas!!

I've just got off the phone with one of my closest friends who rang (as he regularly does) just to check in on me. We have been mates since we were about 10 and every time we talk he leaves me with someone to ponder, and today was no exception.

He ran into an old school mate recently who is from a well known Melbourne legal family known for their philanthropy.

My friend said that this family have a motto of "Give While You're Alive", and the two of us had a great chat about this as we believe in it so much too.

I was thinking how this could relate to this post, and I can see quite a number of ways that it is relevant.

I'd assume that most of you Readers would be regular contributors to various charities or causes. For me it is the Leukaemia Foundation, Peter Mac Hospital and the Royal Melbourne Hospital. Maybe one day I might just win the RMH Lottery and snag a new house!! Really, that's the last thing on my mind when I buy their tickets as I just know how much that money helps others, having experienced it first hand.🙏

I was also taught by Jen to always support the sellers of The Big Issue when we are in Melbourne as these are people who are really doing the best to help themselves.

Rather than just hand over some money for the magazine and walk away, she encouraged me to stop and chat with them for a while, something that I have always appreciated. This in a way "topped up" the donation and adds more to the interaction for both of us I hope.

I'm yet to find any of these people reluctant to engage in a chat, if anything, it is more the opposite. So many people just dismiss and ignore them, just as I had always done, and I am forever grateful for the great discussions I have had over the years with many of these sellers, and the way that they respond so happily when someone gives them some time.

Similar causes could also benefit from a 'top up' from time to time, and I'm embarrassed to say that often I need to slap myself for not doing it more regularly. For example, driving through town and the Salvo's or Fire Services, SES, Ambulances or whoever are collecting at the traffic lights. There's always a few coins in the console, so a token gesture is made. Probably not enough to make a difference, but also an amount that doesn't affect me at all. On these days, could I perhaps be better prepared and organise to have some cash in the car so that I can make a more respectful donation that I can easily afford? Or keep a better amount in the console just so that I'm prepared for these collectors at random. Time to top up the console!!

I hear you saying "We don't use cash anymore", and to a point I agree. I carry a few notes with me all the time and I think they'll still be in my wallet at the turn of this century, as I just don't use them. Is it time to give them to my next worthy cause? Perhaps.

Just one caveat here though Readers. Sometimes when stopped at the lights here in Bendigo on a weekend there are regularly collectors gathering money for a variety of causes, some well known, others so obscure. Most wear a vest advertising their cause, and on a number of occasions I've been left wondering "What on earth is that cause" or it might be an organisation or cause that I don't support. (eg On one occasion it was for a political party, a cause I don't donate to. Another time it was for an anti-Mosque group, another time for one of those redneck socialist groups)

Just because they are collecting does not necessarily mean we are obliged to donate, especially if there are conflicting issues that we may have with that cause.

Anyway Readers, a bit of a ramble as always, but a time for you to think about the times that you "Top up", either generously, or, like me, stupidly and recklessly!!

Would love to hear about some of your own examples, especially in the kitchen ! Just hit the comments tab below to become instantly famous anonymously .

Until my next post,

Cheers 😁