just sunday outing

london 11.22pm 19.2C dry sunday 2016

i read somewhere that they have found that people who do things they like get to treat their depression as much as those who undergo cognitive behaviour therapy. one method is external, using the outside world to make a person less depressed, whilst the other method is internal changing the way the mind thinks and working from the inside out. i think i use both methods. i find things to enjoy even  though they might appear to be quite trivial;  whilst also controlling my mind to look at things in a positive way. 

i had an enjoyable time today going to the aldi in the old kent road to buy vegetables when i saw online that they are selling veg for 39p. it was quite a nice exercise to figure out the best way to get there. i finally decided to go for the number 36, to peckham, and from there the p12 to the aldi store. i got celery, nectarines,carrots,2cauliflowers, and courgettes all for 39p each. i wish i got the tomatoes too… even though they are rather small ones on the vine. anyway coming back it was a toss up which bus came first, if it is the p12, then i shall go back the way i came, but the 453 bus came first, so i took that to elephant and castle , got off there hoping to catch the c10, but from the timetable there was nothing arriving in less than 10mins, so i took the next bus which came along, the bus 12 as it happens, to westminster and then from there the bus 87 to the tate britain. i know it is rather a convoluted route, but it went quite smoothly because the connections came without much waiting time. i know all this is very trivial but it did give me rather a lot of pleasure. maybe the secret is to find pleasure in small things like this. i enjoy watching the world go by on top of the bus, and seeing people about me doing their thing. the day was rather cloudy and cool with a light breeze which added to the enjoyment as it was so pleasant and comfortable. 

on the old kent road i see lots of people wearing very colourful sunday best clothes. the costumes looks like what i see nigerians (in a documentary) wearing, very colourful matching dresses with headdresses, for the women, with some men wearing long gowns of plain white or light colours. i missed the chance of taking pictures of them, esp the women, because their costumes were so colourful and striking. 

Digital StillCamera

peaches

london 7.10am wednesday 2015 17.1C sunny

i have eaten ripe peaches last week, bought from aldi, 50p pack (of 5) and they were so delicious that i went back yesterday to buy some more . this time they were larger and so 4 to a pack. i have forgotten how delicious peaches can be. though u have to wait till they ripen. when the flesh falls off the stone seed that is the time to eat them. peaches have such a strange looking skin. the label says they are ‘sweet love’ from spain, white flesh.

here is a link to 10 strange and rare peaches.

Digital StillCamera

free lunch , another one!

london

now and then i like to eat beefburgers. i can of course make it myself from minced beef , it is v easy to do, but when i can get it free i much rather.

i just had a lunch of beefburger given free by this new burger place being opened in percy st, w1. it continues for the next two days, 100 burgers given away free each day. and they include chips too. but u have to wear a moustache or a striped t shirt. i wore the latter as i think it silly to be wearing a false moustache haha . the place is french and so they want people to look french. like those onion sellers with their beret, moustache and striped t shirts, the british idea of a french onion seller. haha.

this new eating place has a strange name, i have forgotten what it is called now. somethng like ‘be freund’ it is not english that is why it does not stick in my mind. sometimes i dont know how they come up with names for their business.  i would be shy to pronounce it far less suggest it as a meeting place for friends to eat there. 

the usual price for these burgers are £12. which seems to be the common pricing for these posh burger places.

i just read today that macdonalds is losing sales, they have reported less sales over the years, and i wonder why is that because they cannot be these posh burger places stealing macdonald’s business surely… they cater to two different target customers i am sure.

now so many of these posh burger places are opening, i cannot think how they can survive.

but i am not a good business person, and so it is all a mystery to me why some businesses thrive and others fail.

but whatever, i am enjoying their free beef burgers to advertise their opening. haha.

now i am on the 53 bus to peckham, to go to the aldi there as i want to buy their iceberg lettuces and beetroot. it is ending soon that offer at 39p each. i have this craving for cold salads of lettuce and beetroot with mayonnaise. i read in an article that beetroot, spinach and carrots are good for the heart. but nevermind if it does or not, i just like eating beetroot in a salad now.

 i went on sunday and returned empty handed because the beetroot was sold out. and this is at about 4pm on sunday, close to their closing time as shops are not allowed to open for more than a certain number of hours on sunday.

i am amazed there are so many shoppers. usually sunday is quiet, but not in the old kent road. half the shelves are empty. i must remember not to bother going there on sundays. i am hoping they have stocked up the shelves today. 

added. yup, they got all the veg i want in stock so i bought two of a kind. 

good morning from london

london

such a beautiful morning outside.

i am looking out of my bedroom window, whilst sitting up in bed.

the window is large and lies low to the floor. and i can see the blue sky with some clouds on it.

it is not sunny, usually the rising sun is reflected off the windows of the luxury flats across from me. it has white walls, and the penthouse is a  huge block of windows. i can see 6 rows of windows covering all the sides of it.

it is quite far away from my window, i have to use max zoom to get those pics.

oh, just realised it is still early. it is 7.25am and the fact it is not sunny is because the sun has not risen much yet. now i can see the rosy tint that the rising sun is making on the white walls.

it’s lovely to live in london and to be able to see the sky from my bed. don’t laugh, u must be thinking how mad is that, to be glad to see the sky. but if u live in large cities, u will know not everyone can see the sky from their bed. haha.

in new york for eg, u have to be very rich to be able to see the sky with all those high rise buildings blocking it. so u have to be rich and can afford a apartment high up to get that glimpse of the sky from your bed.

here in london, thank goodness things are not that dire as we dont have many high rise… though that might change in the future.

i have been eating a lot of salads recently. i dont know why, but i got a craving for it. and since aldi are selling salad veg , lettuce, beetroot very cheap at 39p each, i can indulge in it.

i use a hellman mayonnaise jar in the fridge. simon must have bought it, because usually if i get any at all i will buy the basic brand mayonaise. the hellman one is easier to spread, as for difference in taste, i have to admit it is nicer than the basic mayonnaise i would normally buy.

added 18.6.15 thursday, 6.02pm i have been using the tesco basic mayonnaise ever since writing the above, and i must say it is very nice indeed. it is more vinegarish than the hellman’s, which is sweeter. i like the vinegar as i like my mayonnaise more acidic. i think traditionally mayonnaise is vinegarish, but whatever it is, i like it vinegarish. the hellman’s is too sweet for me.

i think beetroot is just so delicious. and aldi is selling 500mg packs for 39p as part of their week’s 6 veg a day promotion.

wow, the sun is getting stronger and it is really bright reflected off those walls. 

added 4.3.15 wed. just read in the standard online about this hail storm at lunch time yesterday. funny really, because i live just by the tate britain, and never saw any of it.

quite possibly it did hail outside my flat, but often i dont know about it once i am in my flat. i dont often look out much when i am in my flat.

people moan about it but i find it really lovely, to get this kind of variety in the weather just 1 mile or so apart. 

sunday stroll

london

it is a bright sunny day outside my window, the sun streaming in and casting a bright spot on my carpet formed by my window.

  

i am pleased that the sun is out, because we have been getting dire warnings of rain and gloom over this bank holiday. however, from the weather forecast online i see we are going to get 100% rain on monday. first time i see the graph going up to 100% .haha. it will be about 3pm tomorrow, with a solid block of over 50% chance of rain from 5am to 11pm on monday. 

so it looks like the bank holiday monday is very wet and that is not favourable  for the nottinghill carnival. but i think people will overcome that and enjoy the rain as well and dance all the faster and harder.

we londoners are used to bad weather and know not to let it dampen our spirits. today is going to be sunny and dry though so the children’s parade which is on today would be very much fun i think. i think all this just makes me very appreciative of the sun, but because it does not stay long to make itself unwelcome, as it would be if it were to go up to 30C or more, i welcome the rain too. 

today i am minded to go to aldi and buy vegetables. they got a good bargain with 39p each. 

later 1.51pm. i just got back from aldi (where i got 1kg carrots and broccoli for 39p each, cabbage 45p) and lidl (where i got 39p onions). aldi was very busy with long queues and people buying cartloads of things.

one guy even wanted to buy a cartload of salt, but the cashier refused him and he left empty handed. I only noticed it because i see her wheeling his trolley full of big packs of salt back to the back of the line.

i wonder what is that about? are people buying from aldi and reselling it overseas? or is salt a secret ingredient in some drug or what? you can tell there are a lot of unknown unknowns in this world. 

well as usual, google it so i did. and from the question ‘is salt used in making drugs’, i got this. it is used in making methamphetamine. 

its interesting that lidl was quite empty with only two tills open and very short queues. 

parliament square was full of tourists. i have never seen so many. what is going on there i wonder. the whole of whitehall was closed to traffic earlier on in the morning (at about 11am) with my bus diverted. but traffic was flowing and it had all got to normal on my  return (about 12.40pm).

again, what is going on? today is a bank holiday sunday but i dont recall anything going on in trafalgar square to warrant the closure of whitehall to traffic. ah well, london is like that, i think us bus users are used to buses being diverted on the routes. we just sit it out or jump out and walk. 

its quite a nice day, very sunny earlier on, but now cloudy but still dry. 

i am going to have a bit of lunch, not sure what i shall have, perhaps a stir fry fried rice with all the veg i bought. then off to the library, and then to the tesco and sainsburys near closing time to see if there is any bargains reduced foods. 

added 4.15pm. bought two loaves of bread from sainsburys, one a warburton white bread (£1.45 normal reduced 34p) , and a half and half warburton 50%wheatflour, 50%wholewheat flour. usual price £1.35, reduced to 34p. i have noticed this kind of half-half bread being produced now. is it a cost reduction exercise do you think? or is it to satisfy people who like the taste of white bread but feel they should be healthier and eat wholewheat bread. 

 

aldi

london

I did not intend this post to be about praise for aldi.

I was about to talk of the hot weather we were having, and why i find myself being very sleepy at the middle of the day because of it and wanting to take a nap. it does make me miss out on a lot of things, because unlike europe where everything close down for their afternoon siesta, here in uk, and london everything stays open. it is one of the nicests things about uk that i like over and above europe.

I was on the bus to the supermarket earlier today and the hot weather seems to be affecting the kids a lot more than the adults. certainly the kids on the bus were all dozing off.

though reading a blog , i see europe is having a glut of summer vegetables and big bulgy tomatoes that we dont get here.

I have noticed they do have these big tumourous tomatoes, but they taste like tomatoes and are no different in taste from smaller tomatoes, so their size is the only difference.

they go well with buffalo mozzarela in a tomato salad, in that they look very nice, but of course u can have it with small tomatoes and they taste just as good. but i know some europeans like the look of things.

perhaps the beefy tomatoes also taste different. but i think they only look as if they taste different. certainly i have not noticed any difference in taste, partly because the olive oil dressing and basil herb masks any taste they might have. maybe that is why they are not so popular here in uk, certainly i dont see many of them on sale in the supermarkets.

i remember the european summer fruits, like the peaches that i bought in capdagde are just delicious, they are always just ripe and bursting with juice and comes off the core very easily. unlike peaches here in the supermarkets , where it is either not ripe yet, or too ripe. And no matter what state they are in they are never juicy or sweet. and they are not cheap either. That is something that europe has better than uk. but it seems the downside is that come winter, in europe, the range of vegetables on sale is severely restricted… at least if i read that blog entry correctly.

whilst here in uk, we get veg all year round, no exciting summer vegetables, but the staples like brocolli, lettuce,plain tomatoes, cauliflower, cucumber, celery are always available. not very exciting perhaps but people know they are there. And human beings being creatures of habit, we like eating what we are familiar with. maybe that is why in summer the supermarkets just dont bother to bring in other types of vegetables. people just dont buy them. if they are not familiar with it, they dont buy. that is my impression anyway, maybe it is a false impression.

but just using myself as an example, i too dont buy fancy vegetables that i dont quite know how to use. also some of the ones, like rocket , i find bitter and not very nice. as for kale, forget it, it is really a difficult veg to cook, and tastes of nothing and looks worse. haha. 

in fact they found out that people who plan their meals, stick to the same dish for each day of the week and repeat that for years. so if it is monday it must be lasagna. or if it is lasagna today, it must be monday. haha. 

this morning, i was browsing the daily mirror and saw a advert by lidl, where they featured celery for 50p, so i decided to go there, but since it was in peckham, i decided to go first to the aldi , and there i find celery was 45p. as well as lots of other veg for 45p instead of the usual 50p in the other supermarkets… except sainsburys strangely. for some reason, sainsburys are not caught up in reducing their price. i wonder why? their customers dont seem to be bothered that their stuff is higher priced. what makes the sainsbury customer so price insensitive i wonder, when we hear so much  of tesco losing business to the likes of aldi, and having to reduce their prices. i was browsing in sainsburys recently and went away without buying anything as their prices were so much more. it is why i have not bought anything from sainsburys for ages. i have a feeling i will not bother to go there anymore. do others also feel the same way about sainsburys as i do? 

in fact i ended up buying all my veg at aldi, and dont bother to stop over at asda or lidl, and caught the bus straight back. aldi never advertise these prices, so i was not aware of it. instead they advertised fruits at 69p, which i was not interested in, as i know those fruits are not as juicy as in europe. i am glad i decided to go to aldi first in spite of not finding anything in their reduced priced adverts. 

I have come to the conclusion that i shall go to aldi first thing, before i go to the other supermarkets, unless they have really good offers. 

Added 8.8.14 read today here that the russian embargo of fruit and veg imports from europe starts today for a year and the article says it means europe will have cheap fruits and veg as apples and pears from poland gets diverted.  coupled with the good weather making the harvest in uk for fruit and veg the best so far, let’s hope it will filter down to us and we get cheap fruits and veg, though the cost of transporting those goods may up the prices. it is not good news for the farmers. they might let the fruit rot. what else can one make out of apples and pears… cider?

blogging

London
Friday 1.2.13 5pm

Roast chicken is really easy to do. I got one today from aldi. It was a small chicken (1.25kg) and had today’s expiry date so it was reduced 30%.
That was rather lucky because I went there to buy their pork,sage stuffed chicken costing £4 as there was a promotion by them in the mirror paper with a voucher for 30% off . So I was prepared to pay £3 for it.

There were no such chicken on sale. Either they were sold out or what. But this chicken I got is even better, as though small, it is normally £3 rather than £4. So my 30% reduction means I got it for £2.

When chicken are prestuffed they tend to increase the price. You pay extra for that unnecessary stuffing.

I get a craving for chicken now and then, and so this one is very welcomed.

All british chicken are young, so are tender and don’t need a lot of high temperatures or time to cook in the oven. I bring it to 200C in the smaller top oven; and then reduced it to 150C for about 1hr. Then I switch off and let it stay in the oven to cook for a further 10mins.

In the meantime, u can do whatever u want while waiting for the chicken to cook.

You can think about life, and about the internet.

I see some blogs talking about search engine optimisation. Its for people who have things to sell, or services to flog. And so want to drive people to see their website.

And I got an email from zurker, which I joined some time ago, but they have lost momentum and are now kickstarting it again by introducing a zurker Friday whereby everyone try to post something on that day.

The problem there is that there are not enough people and it is not easy to see their post.

They should take a leaf from wordpress and make everyone see everyone else’s posts and allow people to comment or like it.
Actually they do , they call it zurked. By calling it , zurk, u can just let others know u find their post interesting, not necessarily liked or agree with what they say.
For eg, someone wrote a post about them losing their job, and have someone die, and it just sounds weird to ‘like’ it. Haha. Maybe in wordpress, we can ‘word’ it.

But I found u cannot find these posts in zurker unless u link with them. And often we don’t really want to link with someone that closely. But still want to read their posts now and then.

They are a young website, so it is early days. And u cannot just join, but must be invited. That is another reason why it is not moving fast.

Google+ really started going fast when they opened it out to everyone. But I find i cannot figure out what to use it for. It is good for marking other posts and re posting them, bringing it to the attention of others, but no one make comments or any original opinions of those things they repost.

Here in wordpress we have the reblog button, which I think is a great function, for those times when u want to say more, maybe disagree a bit about what is written but don’t want to do it in the comments as u don’t want to take over that person’s blog. So u repost it in your own blog with all the things u want to say about it in your blog.

I wonder whether the original poster may not like it , or would they? It means u are taking what they post and bringing the chat into your blog. Maybe not a good thing to do. Certainly if it were my post, I would like people to make comments on my blog even if they disagree and we can have a chat about it in my blog.
Though the danger in talking in the original blogger is that if they don’t like what u say, they can erase all you say and that is that. Haha whereas if u chat in your blog, u can control the discussion.

Of course, the original post person can simply refuse to allow u to reblog.
I wonder if u need to write in the comments in their blog to ask for permission to reblog. Is that expected or not?

I assume u don’t need to ask for permission, simply because if u click that reblog button, then wordpress ask the original post person to refuse to allow it. Or not. So they can have their say.

I read somewhere from another wordpress blogger that he do not like reblogs, as it does not bring any traffic back to his blog.

I am not too bothered about traffic, but what I think might be a factor against reblogging is that the chat can be taken away from your post and carried on somewhere else where u might not be able to monitor that well. The other person can control the discussion and may even if they don’t like your reasons, block you from it.

Or can they?
Or can u pull the plug from the whole reblogged post at your end.

Well, I would like to continue the chat on that person’s blog and post, but I feel that maybe I am usurping his blog with my views. That is why I hesitate often in commenting… after all, they can , and shall, say to you if u keep up comments in their blog, to go and blog on it in your own blog. Haha. And anyway, it is all a person’s opinion, and one opinion is really as good as another.