I've just done a pumpkin headcount and (depending on how many are properly fertilised and continue to grow) it looks like I could end up with a dozen pumpkins this year. That's a lot of pumpkin for a single person. Hopefully they don't get too big.
There are also a lot of fruit on the tomato plants, but I still don't have any ripening.
Always fresh vegetables. The sauce I usually do is a base of stock powder and tapioca flour (which could be substituted with cornflour) mixed with water. I'll pretty much always add a little bit of soy, sesame oil and fresh ginger. Then a selection of oyster sauce, sweet chilli sauce or cooking wine depending on what I feel like, plus extra ingredients to give specific flavours - like the black pepper and honey tonight.
The power failure was a good chance for me to test the UPS I just bought. I identified two problems. The first was that I'd plugged the NBN box into it, but not the actual modem. So that was at least an easy fix.
The second problem was that the UPS is set to have a really loud intermittent beep when it runs on battery backup. Mr Woof evacuated to the backyard to avoid it and it was slowly driving me batty too. I did some research and found that it could be turned off, but you have to download software and connect it to the computer. So I downloaded the software, installed and connected everything, and it wouldn't open the interface. I could get to the menu options but the one I needed was greyed out. Eventually I decided it might be because I'm using Windows 11 and it only listed up to 10 in its compatibility list. Running in compatibility mode didn't work, so I dug out my old laptop, downloaded the program onto that and it worked perfectly. So the infernal beeps have now been silenced and I have uninterupted internet available.
Oh dear, the power has gone out. It looks to be a big area.
And now it's back on. Everything seems so bright now!
Stir-fry was my staple meal when I moved out of home, I'd have it probably 4-5 times a week. Very affordable on student benefits - lots of rice and veg, a little bit of meat.
Stir-fry is ready
When I used to commute it was all books or the free newspaper (or the not free papers in the morning). Of course at that time I had the trendy little flip phone whose main selling point was polyphonic ring tones, so the entertainment value of that was pretty limited.
Look at that, it missed Ballarat again. The rain doesn't seem to like us much at the moment, the storms are all going around.
Rightyho, I have now ordered 2 oil bottles for the kitchen, a couple of tops, a couple of flat sheets and the frost protection covers that were already in my cart. $56 total. Hopefully the sheets are at least halfway decent. I could do with some more, but don't want to spend too much because Mr Woof keeps tearing them.
Pakige arrived. Mostly ok, but a couple of returns have been organised. Now I also have a $28 voucher that needs to be spent in 3 days, and only $8 worth sitting in my cart. Time to do some quality impulse buying - and worst case scenario I buy something to get to the $40 minimum spend and then return it. Ah, Temu. How you make any money is beyond me.
I have now been to the doctor for a checkup, been poked, prodded and bled, plus I have 2 more appointments to make for more specialised prodding. My special 'welcome to 50 years' celebration ๐คฃ.
The doctor seemed nice, and much more interested than the previous one I went to. Plus it was fully bulk billed, and I have some insurance that will give me a discount for having regular checkups so it's worth it from a financial perspective alone.
Mine went in very late, then they grew really slowly but are now covered with fruit. I'm just not sure I'll get much in the way of ripe tomatoes or if I should just plan for a ton of green tomato pickles.