Looks like the old Klink Family comment system died a few days ago. Just testing the enetation system. Does this work? Third time lucky? Well, fourth time then.

Fruit Loop

Summer fruit is pretty good stuff. Some of it rivals the attraction of those other food groups such as chocolate, cakes, ice-cream etc (though a lot of it is even better with ice-cream). I particularly enjoy the summer fruit season when the stone fruits, mangoes, lychees and grapes turn up in the shops - so much more enjoyable than the lean autumn months when all you have are apples, mandarins and pears (I head mostly for bananas during those times). However. However, I have noticed over the last few years a disturbing trend. It appears that those who bring us the fruit have noticed that fruit such as nectarines, peaches and plums are quite popular, and endeavor to get the product to us as soon as possible. So eager are they to supply us with the product that they often appear to forget to let it ripen first. I don’t know how many times I have been attracted to a display of colourful nectarines or peaches, only to pick one up and discover that underneath its colourful exterior, it is without that rich ripe perfume and rather hard and dry. Sure you can take it home and hope that it ripens, but I have found that many of them don’t – they just sit there and finally go a bit wrinkly.

We discovered another fun aspect of fruit shopping while in France and Italy. Many of the fruit shops there have a clear policy that when shopping for their produce, you can look but not touch. While not really happy about this, we complied (after the first reprimand), assuming that the idea was to prevent the fruit from becoming bruised. We were therefore bemused to observe staff at two fruit shops take out bananas, practically throw them into the weighing scales and then throw them into plastic bags, which they proceeded to whirl around. After this observation, we weren’t surprised to find that our bananas were covered in fresh bruises. It seemed that bruising was just part of the service.

Here’s one I prepared earlier. Now this is a bit of a rant, but its something that I have had cause to think about over the last ten months or so, having done two return trips Canberra to Brisbane, two Canberra to Sydney, coast trips and a little bit of o/s driving as well. I generally like to travel at the designated speed limit. In doing so you naturally encounter quite a lot of vehicles being driven under the speed limit. I have no problem with that – the speed limit is a maximum, not a minimum limit. What I have a problem with are those slow drivers who seem to dislike people overtaking them. I have repeatedly come across the following two scenarios: (a) Driving along at the speed limit, I encounter a car traveling at least 10km below the speed limit. I wait behind the car until I can overtake safely. Soon after the driver behind increases their speed to something above the speed limit, and proceeds to overtake me and disappears into the distance. About ten minutes later I come up behind the same car traveling under the speed limit and proceed to travel behind them until I can once again overtake safely. (b) Traveling along on a highway with one lane each way and limited opportunities to overtake. I encounter a car being driven significantly below the speed limit, often with quite a number of other vehicles stuck behind them. We then come to an overtaking lane. Just before the overtaking lane the slow vehicle accelerates either to the speed limit or actually begins speeding. This reduces the number of vehicles that can pass the “slow” vehicle while the overtaking lane is present. After the overtaking lane ends, the “slow” vehicle slows back down to their previous speed – below the speed limit.

I can’t work out why these people behave this way – are they almost asleep at the wheel? Off daydreaming, and wake up when being overtaken and decide to speed up? Or are they just kings/queens of the road who prefer everyone else to stay behind them?

It has been a long time between posts. This may change in the next couple of months, but not much can be expected for now. Apart from lack of access (the bit that might change), I've also been rather busy with a bit of travel.