StickyDango

I didn't realise I was good at ELEX (Electrical and Computer Engineering) until I had to take a course for my diploma 10+ years ago. I wasn't the best student, but what I thought was a super easy course, the top students (those A+ ones) were struggling. Looking back, maybe it's something I should have pursued.

Now I am good at spotting mosquitoes, flies, cockroaches, and liars. 😂

Just had some toast, cottage cheese, zaatar, egg. I've convinced the +1 to make us club sandwiches tonight with tater tots (both are easy to do, and delicious), so I get a night off and potatoes 🥳

Oh boy.. I've got a few. There is always one that comes to mind, but I've had somewhere I just get the creeps when I walk in, and it's confirmed crawling with cockroaches: In the walls, ceiling panels, floors, under benches, under the ticket machine (RIP), but surprisingly not actually IN food... That I could see. But I've always been during the day with people getting food all the time, so it was probably too risky for the cockroaches to get the food.

The one: I walked in, and things get worse and worse. First: Bag of chicken on the floor beside the oven with boiling stock to the left. To the right, someone cutting up cooked meat. Down the back: Back door is wide open. I also get the familiar cockroach feeling.

I turn back to the left and the chicken has gone in to the stock. The person uses a skimmer to skim off the herbs, spices, fats off the top of the stock, and the strainer goes in to the bin... And back in to the stock.

I look back to the right, someone is taking out the rubbish. Ties the dirty bag, drags it out the back door. Comes back, rinses hands for 2 seconds, goes back to cutting meat. No soap.

Cool room is filthy (walls, floors, containers), smells rotten, it's too warm. I find cockroach nests inside the cool room, and outside of it.

I walk outside the back door to take a breather, and I find rats in the overflowing rubbish bins. Walk back in to the front area (small display case) and it's warm.

I shut the place for almost 3 weeks. The owner had no idea, I'm sure he got his kids to do the training I ordered him to do because there was no way he could have gotten 98% when I asked him to demonstrated the skills. They tried to move to another Council area, but we gave the EHOs a heads up.

Worst ever.

There's a best before date, use by date, and, expiry date. Dry pasta will have a best before. Companies have this so that they can guarantee that if storage conditions are ideal, the pasta will look, taste, and cook the same as if it was fresh out of the packet. Past this date, it might get brittle, but it wouldn't affect the food safety of the product. edit: Past the best before means that it may not have the same qualities as when before it's best before date, but it's likely still edible, provided the food isn't stored in non ideal conditions (very wet or humid, stored in the heat/sun, etc.). After the date, you make the call. I probably wouldn't eat certain foods after a certain date, though.

Extra info for those who are interested:

Best before will be things like rehydrated pasta, your meats, dairy, perishables.. Though admittedly, I have eaten yogurt and hummus 4 months past the date. I lived by myself at the time and they lived in the back of the fridge.

Expiry would be things like baby formula, medication, anything that has a higher risk to health, whether it means it's for a high risk population, or if it's got an important role.

Edit: I'd like to add the bolded above, but also..... Well, I forgot after adding the bolded stuff, so I'll come back if I remember.

Especially when they tell me to smile... I wrap them around my own neck. 😘☠️

I'm going to share two really big ones for me that I'm still struggling with:

Saying no and saying it firmly.

Oversharing. No is no, and I don't owe anyone an explanation for anything. If an awkward silence follows, then it's them and not me.

I love this. I'm the same being in regulatory services. I get talked down to a lot by different sexes and cultures because I'm POC and female. They can try to take me down, but I dish it out just as hard if not harder, and with a smile.

Environmental health officer, aka health inspector.

Most people don't know who we are, but we play a huge role in the background on education and prevention for public health issues like food safety, communicable diseases (gastro, outbreaks, pandemic, tattooing, beauty parlours, mosquitoes, rodents, flu, covid, etc.), health of the environment (soil, air, water),... We are a jack of all trades kind of profession.

I gotcha. Thanks for the explanation, that makes sense now. I hope at least most of your home is as it was when you left it. Let us know how you go. Fingers crossed for you!

100% will! Or those who leave the kitchen sponge in the sink still full of yesterday's cold water.

I will, thanks! Or someone who leaves only one sheet of kitchen paper on the roll when they could have just changed the entire roll (new ones in the cupboard above) and left the single sheet on top of the new one.

Not a chance! 😂