london 10.01am sunny 10C sunday 2017

paddington library 11.47am 12.1C coldest today was 4.1C around6.50am

Digital StillCamera

i was early to the library, which does not open until 11am, so i went into the waitrose nearby, which allows shoppers to go in 10mins or so before it opens to browse around. i saw  reduced price veg, beansprouts 35p, brocolli 39p, and even lots of reduced pack of 8pork sausages 454mg 59p.(usually £1.20) and i got a free coffee as well. so that was a nice shopping trip. seems like it might be good to go early. but these reductions are hit or miss really, depanding on what they got expiring today. added. the sausages are actually very good. there was no oil coming out of them when i cook them, so they did not have that oily look about them, and they were delicious. 

life is quite pleasant for these unexpected reductions. otherwise the general world and local news is rather depressing. it doesnot affect me personally, but the doom and gloom rather can get to you, if u let it. that is why i skip the news a lot when i am reading the papers. i guess by their very nature, news will be gloomy and bad… otherwise it wont be reported. good news are not really worth printing out.

sometimes if they were to adopt a policy of only writing about good news, i have a feeling it will still be depressing… because it will make those who read it look at their lives and compare with all the good news around and feel they are failures. whereas all this bad news can make some people feel happier, in that they are not affected and so be happy that they are not experienceing all that bad times that other people are going through.

i think most people feel happy or sad in relation to others around them. and the skill lies in keeping a sense of perspective, and not allow sad people or sad events to influence you too much.

added.when i got back i started cooking the sausages, the other 3 packs i frozed. (yes, i went back to the waitrose after the library and bought another 2 packs. ) and simon came back, so he was able to eat that with the stir fried ho fun noodles and beansprouts (char kuey teoh, we chinese call it) that i cooked. and we were both seeing a tv program while we ate, and it was a very funny one. an episode of ‘would i lie to you’. one of them says he can split an apple in half with just his hands. the others have to guess if he is telling the truth or not. they said he is telling a lie. but he was in fact telling the truth… and demonstrated it. simon says his mum would do it and split the apple with her bare hands … so that we two say it was true. but if simon had not told me his mum does it, i too would say it is a lie. i have never seen anyone do it in my life till now. amazing isn’t it that it can be done. the whole program was very funny and we laughed out  loud. it feels so good to have a good laugh, makes life more happy. 

 

food and stuff

london 11.24am 16.9C sunny wednesday 2017

2.35pm cloudy;

i got chinese chives today. because they were reduced from £1.60 for 150mg to 50p each. i so happen to be lucky to get there (it was a chinese supermarket in chinatown. ) when they reduced it. there were plenty of these packs.  and this is because the chives are beginning to go past their best. still very good actually, but you can see some of the leaves are decaying. i bought 6 packs total £3. i love chinese chives they go so well with stir fry noodles and impart that distinctive flavour to it and they can keep for a long time if frozen. they are all in the freezer now, so no pictures to show you as i forgot to take a picture of them. haha. well they are just chives really and most of us know what they look like. they dont look like much, like grass actually. 

i decided to go to chinatown this morning, just at the spur of the moment, after i finished reading the papers  at the pimlico library…

earlier on, i went to the tesco store near the library, and saw they have lots of strawberries that will expire today… so i shall go back there later today and see if the reductions are big enough for me to buy them. i saw a newspaper report saying tesco is selling 1kg strawberries for £3, but this is false, because they never did sell them at that price. these ones are 400mg for £2. no wonder they did not sell and there are lots of them still. i am looking at 40/50p each for any reductions they are going to make later today… then i might buy them.) 

added. 8.08am 30.6.17 friday sunny 18.2C. when i went back later, there were few of them left, but those that remain still are not showing any reductions. makes me suspect they throw them away… to replace with new ones that are poorer in value, 300mg instead of 400mg and for the same price £2. i think these small branches ,they are very similar to  convenience stores, dont really reduce much. i wonder if there are anyone still raiding the waste bins near these stores. i am sure they will find lots of nice stuff in there. 

 the bus 24 runs by the library and it goes right near chinatown ; i thought i shall go there to buy some more of the instant noodles. i am rather addicted to it.

on the bus there was a indonesian malay tourist, with his wife and daughter. he came to the front to take pictures, that is how i got to talking to him. whilst his wife and daughter sat further back. they are here on a short visit. i thought it rather strange to come all this way, like 20hr flight just to stay a week or two. he is an IT consultant. so must be quite rich. though he said he was staying near victoria and when i ask him how much his room ,  for about £40 a night bed and breakfast, which i thought was reasonable… considering i have been looking at the hostels, and they charge that much for staying in a 12bed dorm having to share with so many others. though if u have 4 people u can get a room and share it just amongst yourselves for £55 a room. the rates seem to penalise the single traveller, which is a different proposition long ago, when these hostel type places catered to a single traveller and charged a low rate for having to share with strangers. now it is the reverse.

he said they got tickets to go inside westminster cathedral, hence the reason why they are on this 24 bus. he ask me where i am going, and i said to chinatown to buy the instant mee, and i ask him how much are they in indonesia, he said they cost about 5000 rupiahs(30p) and considered cheap by the locals.  he said it is 17000 rupiahs to a £, and so my 10p price is even cheaper than what he can buy in his own country. i wonder how much are they in malaysia, maybe Rm1.50. each. i googled it, and it seems it is from about 60cents. which is about 15p or so.

actually when i went to that supermarket, it is new loon moon, i see they got 20p sardines 120mg. that is quite a good price so i bought 3. but sometimes after a period, they can reduce it even further, like they did the coconut milk. i bought some at 20p each, and then found it being sold for 10p when i went back a few days later. but the coconut milk is not very concentrated so i did not buy anymore. 

i have eaten one of the tinned sardines , and it is quite nice. a bit salty though. i think sardines are much nicer cooked like this in tins. simon bought some fresh in the past, and they are not so nice to eat. they have a lot of bones. the cookng process to make them into tinned sardines make the bones very soft and edible.  i think sardines are one fish that benefit from being canned. haha. they taste better than fresh ones.

added. i have been thinking, all these bargain foods are quite fun to play with. i wonder if london or uk, are the only places in the world where we can play this. i dont remember malaysia or singapore ever have these reducing of prices when they come to their sell by date. in fact, i dont even know if products in those countries have these sell by dates.  what about europe and the usa, or canada, or australia, do they have these price reduction bargains due to the sell by date ? my suspicion is that the businesses would rather throw them away than reduce the price. when u think of it , it is logical to throw them away.  otherwise people will not buy at full price but wait till it reduces. 

 

 

veg for 2p

london

simon came back from his mum’s. he got loads of veg, broccoli, cabbage,

kale, mixed veg, all for 3p, 2p, 7p, 5p, 10p, 8p. the supermarkets there really are fierce in their reductions.

i have never seen so much veg reduced to so little.

So unlike the supermarkets here in pimlico. only just now i got back from the sainsbury near me and only bought 2 basic white bread at 14p each. it is the cheapest i have seen it reduced by since the heady days when good quality bread are 10p each. these are basic bread costing 55p normally. i was craving a bit of bread as simon had eaten all the frozen bread i bought last time when the same supermarket reduced to 34p each. i ate 2 slices when i got back as toast, and frankly i dont taste any difference from more expensive bread. i put jam and peanut butter on them so they taste of those things. i doubt anyone eats bread by itself and since that is the only way to tell what they taste of it seems to me not important what they taste of as whatever they are will be swamped by the taste of jam and peanut butter or whatever spread u put on it.

he also bought tuna for £1. reduced from about £5.

( the tesco i was in just now i saw had tuna reduced too, but only to £4 from £5).

I had allready eaten that tuna that simon bought so dont have any to take a picture. I ate that as sashimi, (raw)dipping it in wasabi (from a tube) and black soya sauce. delicious. its been an age since i ate sashimi, and i have forgotten how nice it tastes. i ate the whole lot at one sitting haha. mixing it with a bit of white rice and ginger. that was my lunch no cooking involved and right welcomed as i was so hungry. simon said i can have all of it as he is not keen on tuna. he likes them as tinned tuna.

its lovely to revisit a taste sensation that i have forgotten about. its like finding it out for the first time. i wonder whether that is why people fast.

in my case i forget to eat something for a long time, and then rediscover it. others might fast and rediscover how nice food tastes when you are really hungry.

so many people are quite able to afford food, or eat often and never revisit that sensation of being starved. so fasting is a way of getting that feeling again. 

life here for me in london now is very nice. but then i make it nice by not bothering with things that are a bother to me.

you might say lucky you, but i think it is something i consciously make happen. it is no accident that my life is so nice.

the only thing that i cannot control is health. i am in good health now; i know one day i will have something goes wrong with the body, it is inevitable as i grow old. but i hope to keep that time when it happens at bay for as long as possible. haha.