Update on soapy soap

Time for an officialish update regarding the sale of soap products via eBay.  Unfortunately I will be unable to sell my soap products via eBay for the moment as eBay, in their infinite wisdom, has suspended the sales feature of my account.  This is not the result of poor customer satisfaction but rather the result of me not selling enough products in a sales month.  Therefore, anyone wishing to purchase natural products from me is free to contact me with a customised order.  For the moment my soap operation has scaled back to a hobbyist state in the mean time. So I will likely post experiments in the future. :)

Rose cutting surprise!

Now, I've never been the best with plants.  I don't have a natural green thumb, so to speak.  Half my plants either die frm neglect or too much tlc. But this little rose clipping proved the benefits of leaving well enough alone.  I looked at it the other day and found these surprising new growths.  If I'm lucky, I will have a rose bush to plant soon.

Sweet meat treat - Bacon dipped in chocolate

Bacon dipped in dark chocolate

Okay, I know this one seems the slightest be peculiar.  However these treats do actually taste really good and are ideal as an alternative dessert or unique party snack.  If you choose your chocolate and bacon wisely it is even allergen free.  It is also a really simple to make - the most complex part is trying not to burn the chocolate while melting it as it goes very bitter.  You also only need to two ingredients Chocolate of your choice and bacon.

My one suggestion would be to choose a sweeter chocolate for this recipe as bitter chocolate overrides the bacon flavor.

Directions

Crisp up small pieces if bacon in a frying pan.  Boil water in a saucepan.  After the water has boiled take it off the heat and place to a side.  While the water is still hot break chocolate into small chunks and place in a small bowl or mug.  Sit the utensil containing the chocolate in the water, being careful not get the water in the chocolate in the process.  Stir the chocolate as it melts.  When melted simply dip the bacon pieces in the chocolate and put aside to cool.

This treat is enjoyable when hot or cold.

Scooter!

So, awhile back I bought a scooter as an alternative to bus travel.  It's sad to say I have't actually used it much since I got it.  This not because it's not useful but more because I have not had the opportunity to learn balance on it.  Between my brief spate of full-time work and my sporadic bad knee finding the opportunity to actually use it easily seems to escape me.  So I found novel uses for it.  The picture to the left shows the scooter again as a baggage carrier while the photo to the lower right shows me using the scooter to take my heavy basket around the supermarket.

Blasts from the past!!

Recently I have been reviving my interest in writing.  Wait, that sounds wrong. I never lost my interest; I simply got bogged down by daily life.  Unemployment certainly leaves you with plenty of time to spare.  As a result of this renewed fixation I was browsing through my old story notes - a archive of which goes all the way back to when I was 11/12.

While I was poking around I found this short story: Assassin in the night.  I originally wrote this piece for a school assignment.  It was part of a wider story board that I was writing at the time.  Although, reading back I realized how much I have changed from my original ideas - as this is a piece i still an interested in working on. 

Finding this piece gave me a slight shock and not just because I had forgotten I had written it.  It was just surprisingly nicely written for the work of a 11/12yr old.  It made me feel my skills had deteriorated through disuse.  But I guess that's why I started writing again - to improve my sills again.

Christmas Short story

So I'm still not dead.  Admittedly I have drifted away from blogger.  It hasn't been deliberate, it just seems energy consuming.  At the moment all my energy is being devoted to living, job hunting, and reviving my literary non-talent.  The result of this is several stories in the works and my first complete short story about a chance meeting: Cherished Smile.  Its nothing fabulous - it simply represents a practice at writing short works.  There will be sequel to it for those interest and actually romantically inclined - but I may leave that for next year!

I warn you though, it's dialogue heavy as my production stages actually involved the scripting of dialogue.  It would have been a nightmare if only one character was involved.