Global Express - Last Issue for April 2012

Hi!  Welcome back to our Global Village and this last issue of Global Express for the month of  April, 2012! Our newsletter is published by the members of the World Wide Web Circle of Friends for the members of the World Wide Web Circle of Friends about the members of the World Wide Web Circle of Friends. We are everyday people doing extraordinary things on the web!  Thank you for your contributions to this week's issue.

 

Attention All Members -- 

 

Very Important Announcement/Reminder 

 Please tell  us something your hometown, your family and/or special events in your life -- pictures or stories -- anything you care to share we would love to read about!

 

Here is a picture of the town which is home to Jan & Barry ..........

Casino, NSW, Australia

More on Jan's report later in the newsletter ....... remember we

would love to feature your corner of the Globe in upcoming issues.

Our World News this week starts off with these words of wisdom from our friend Bea in the Catskills.

It's Not What You Gather, But What You Scatter That Tells What Kind Of Life You Have Lived !

Bea's home is for sale and I thought you might enjoy a look at the real estate listing.

Moving all the way to the United Kingdom ......

Where has Chrissie from London been this past while you may be wondering.  Well check out her blog, Chrissie's Garden Diary, and you will see that she has been ever so busy beautifying her corner of the globe and what a great job she has been doing.

 

G'day

Traveling now down to the Land Down Under where your friend and mine, the loveable and positive Prospector Graeme shares his Gold Mining Adventure with us. Here is Graeme's story .......

Thought I would try my hand at Gold prospecting .As you can see i was very successful in finding an old bit of rusty steel and a small piece of alloy .I have to use an old metal detector as the beautiful new ones are getting to much interference from Sun flares at the moment.Any way I will push on; that bit of gold is out there waiting for me

Graeme is also sharing these lovely photos of Anzac Day in his corner of the globe -- Ararat

A lovely floral tribute done by children of one the Primary Schools in Ararat.

(This is absolutely splendid Graeme -- did you happen to notice the types of flowers used in the tribute?)

While in the Land Down Under I am so honoured to share Jan's Five Thoughts Friday.  I have to say that we have the very best members in the whole world here at the World Wide Web Circle of Friends.  Good time to remind you to pop by and visit our message boards where you will enjoy a  variety of posts from our membership with the hopes that you visit and post often.  Here are Jan"s

Jan's Five Thoughts Friday

1) Thinking of you, Sharon and looking forward to hearing how your week has been.

2) This week has gone so quickly for us with ANZAC Day on Wednesday.  It has been a good week with the garden now full of seedlings and thriving.

3) It has been a good week for seeing friends too.  We've caught up with several people as we didn't have any concerts scheduled for this week being the last week of the month.

3) The cooler weather is coming, I'm here late on Friday afternoon, with my dressing gown over my clothes, looks like I will soon be getting the heavier bedclothes out of storage. It is also drizzling again.

4) Tomorrow we go to a 100 year Reunion at Nimbin about 50km from here.  I have only been going there this year to accompany my friend leading the worship, but she encouraged us to attend tomorrow, Barry also, as her hubby is also going.  Here is a postcard they made of the Church. Bit of artistic licence as the Nimbin Rocks are a few kms away from the church.

5) Barry made some great Organic Fruit Balls, in our slow juicer with the homogenizing nozzle, as sweets yesterday.  We are being very disciplined and having two each a day.

 

2 cups organic almonds soaked for 8 hours then rinsed and drained well.

1 cup mixture of unsulphered dried fruit - mix of dates, figs, sultanas, apricots, raisins to taste

1/2 cup organic dessicated coconut (grocery store has sulphites and possibly preservatives)

Put almonds and fruit through machine alternatively.

Mix if necessary and form into balls and roll in the coconut. Keep in refrigerator.

Pic similar from internet. I just saw another recipe with 1 cup almonds and 2 of fruit made in a food processor, so daresay any combination would work.

Have a great week everyone, look forward to reading your news and comments.

Blessings, Jan

(I wish I could be as disciplined and have only two of these scrumptious looking treats a day especially seeing that they are coated with my favourite food in the entire world -- coconut! -- Good job Barry; they look and sound fabulous.)

So continuing along with this wonderful topic of food (which happens to be one of my favourite topics, lol) 

  

 Our journey this week now takes us to Canada where Brit Pat now calls home and where she has been busy (despite recovering from a medical procedure) baking a delightful toadstool cake











that she made for her sister and brother in law
who are movingi their new house this weekend.

(What a delightful cake and I can not help but be somewhat envious -- okay a whole lot envious ..... I WANT THIS CAKE!

Congratulations Pat to your brother and sister-in-law and may they always be happy in their new home.)




Pat would also like to introduce us to Herman The German Friendship Cake.

While we are in the Great White North my much older brother, Wayne, and his lovely wife, Jenny, have a question for us.

Here’s a question for you.  When a couple has been married for 43 years +  the husband has a birthday in January, the wifes’ is in March + their anniversary is in April what do they do for gifts????????????   The answer is simple – they combine the events and book a trip to Las Vegas to celebrate!!!!!!!  That’s exactly what Wayne & I did.  We just got back from a 4 day trip to Sin City.

Was it expensive?  Not at all.  Over the years we’ve become expert budget travellers.  The key is to know your budget; know what activities you want to do & see.  By booking the flight using Air Miles and calling the hotel direct on their 1-800 line we celebrated both our birthdays & our anniversary for under $500 cdn.  We even had travellers cheques left over from last years trip.

Our weather averaged +25 to 30C each day with clear blue skies.  Even at 11:00 pm it was still +23C!!

It must’ve been spring break down there because there were plenty of fellow tourists.

It’s pretty hard to stay at a hotel/casino and NOT gamble so we gave some slot machines a work-out.  We won some and lost some.  Come to think of it, we must’ve won more than we lost because we came home with some travellers cheques. 

All in all we had a great trip and are already planning our next get-a-way. 

Time to sign off for now and tackle the laundry. 

Love & miss you lots,

Jenny & Wayne 

(I am so very happy that you two got to go away and enjoy yourselves .... my only regret is that you forgot

 to bring me along with you -- I could of been a chaperone or something, ha ha ha)

Lena's Sammy continues to entertain.  Look here --she is watching an owl on Lena's computer. Look at her stare.  Apparently  she watches a lot of the animal  videos.

 

I think this is a pretty good news letter this week, actually I have to say it is awesome and I thank each of you who have contributed.  I hope to be publishing more of your stories next week and I hope a lot more of our members start submitting pictures and stories from their corners of the globe to add in as well.

I hope you think it is good too and we would really love to hear your comments on it.  There is a place at the bottom of the newsletter to leave a comment or if  you prefer you can always comment by way of email.

Do you  remember our young dad (GeekDad) who used to send in the most special "a day in the life" type of stories (which naturally come with their to be expected or should I say perhaps not expected humourous situations)  .....  well I was just thrilled this past week to have heard from Dave so hopefully we will have his stories to enjoy soon; whenever he has the time!  Watch for these -- they are fabulous (laughter is after all the best medicine) and welcome back Dave.

April is quickly drawing to a close.  I hope your April was wonderful and as we look forward to May here are a few reminders of upcoming events.   

The most important event by far is that May starts off with not one, not two but THREE of our members' birthdays.  There is Ruth and Wanda and Malcolm's birthdays all on May 1st.  Happy Birthday to each of you -- I hope you have the very best day and do let us know all about it!

 

Canada is still a member of the Commonwealth of Nations, of which the Queen is head  and we look forward to and celebrate The Victoria Day Weekend.  It  is the first popular weekend for spring / summer travel. Lots of people open up their cottages, plant gardens, or just get away.

Victoria Day (also known as Victoria Day Weekend, the May Long Weekend, or the May Long) celebrates Queen Victoria's birthday (May 24th); although it does not necessarily fall on May 24th.  The Victoria Day Weekend always falls on the weekend before Memorial Day in the U.S.; therefore this year it falls on Monday, May 21st.  

Cinco de Mayo is a date of great importance for the Mexican and Chicano communities. It marks the victory of the Mexican Army over the French at the Battle of Puebla.

This began as a provincial Mexican holiday but it is now a festive fiesta celebrated throughout the world; or should be! At the very least it is a very very very good excuse to make some Mexican inspired food and here is a recipe to get you started with your Cinco de Mayo celebrations.

Mini Pork Empanadas

 1/2 cup (1/2 of 8-oz. tub) Cream Cheese Spread

1/2 cup butter, softened

1-1/2 cups flour

3/4 lb. lean ground pork

1 small onion, finely chopped

1 chicken bouillon cube, dissolved in 1/4 cup boiling water

1 tsp. ground allspice

1/4 tsp. ground nutmeg

1/8 tsp. ground cloves

3/4 cup mashed unpeeled cooked potatoes

2 eggs, beaten


BEAT cream cheese spread and butter in large bowl with mixer (or use a food processor) until well blended. Gradually beat in flour. Shape into ball. Refrigerate 1 hour.
MEANWHILE, cook meat and onions in large saucepan on medium-high heat 7 to 8 min. or until meat is done, stirring frequently. Stir in bouillon and spices. Remove from heat. Add potatoes; mix well. Cool completely.
HEAT oven to 400ºF. Roll out cream cheese pastry on floured surface to 1/4-inch thickness. Cut into 40 rounds, using 3-inch cookie or biscuit cutter and re-rolling scraps until all pastry is used. Spoon 1-1/2 tsp. meat mixture onto center of each round; brush edges with egg. Fold each in half; press edges together with a fork to seal. Place on greased baking sheet. Cut small slits in tops to vent; brush with remaining egg.
BAKE 18 to 20 min. or until golden brown.

 This is a great make-ahead recipe. Assemble turnovers as directed; place on baking sheet and brush with egg as directed. Freeze until solid, then transfer to freezer-weight resealable plastic bag or freezer container. Freeze up to 3 months. When ready to serve, place desired number of turnovers on baking sheet. Let stand at room temperature 1 hour, then bake as directed. 

Mother's Day is fast approaching also (for those of us in North America -- different dates in other corners of the globe) and a great time to get your stories into our Motherhood Site where you will enjoy our member's stories about their mothers.

What else is happening in May .....

Solar eclipse - May 20, 2012

An annular solar eclipse will take place on May 20th, 2012 (May 21, 2012 for local time in Eastern Hemisphere), with a magnitude of 0.9439. A solar eclipse occurs when the Moon passes between Earth  and the Sun, thereby totally or partially obscuring the image of the Sun for a viewer on Earth. An annular solar eclipse occurs when the Moon's apparent diameter is smaller than the Sun, causing the Sun to look like an annulus (ring), blocking most of the Sun's light. An annular eclipse appears as a partial eclipse over a region thousands of kilometers wide.

The annular phase will be visible from the Chinese coast, the south of Japan, and the western part of the United States and Canada.  Guangzhou, Tokyo and Alburqueque  will be on the central path. Kanarraville, Utah will be a perfect place to view the annular phase.   Its maximum will occur in the North Pacific, south of the Aleutian Islands for 5 min and 46.3 s, and finish in the western United States.
It will be the first central eclipse of the 21st century in the continental USA, and also the first annular eclipse there since the solar eclipse of May 10th, 1994 which was also the previous eclipse of this series Solar Saros 128.

 

 Memorial Day is observed on the last Monday of May. 

It commemorates all men and women, 

who have died in military service for the United States. 

Many people visit cemeteries and memorials on Memorial Day

 and it is traditionally seen as the start of the summer season. 

 

In closing this week please take a moment to enjoy "A Place in the Choir" 

sent in from Joanne.

Don't forget to send in your stories and pictures for next week's issue and please leave us a comment to let us know what you think of this week's issue of Global Express!

My week has been extremely busy.  My training has been going well but it is quite intense and I am thinking I might be just a bit too old to take on such an undertaking as this.  Anyway 5 of the 22 days of training are now behind me.  I have met some interesting people and I pick up and take home one of my classmates as she lives very close by.  There have been three tests; two I got 92% in and one I got 100%.  I am okay with those scores ... be nice to be 100% all the time but realistically I do not think that is possible but I will keep trying.  Robert, a classmate, and I did a class review presentation that seemed very well received -- it was done to the music and along the lines of the television show Are You Smarter Than a Fifth Grader.  I played the role of the school principal (whom I do not ever remember seeing in the tv show but that does not matter) and my partner, who happened to be Chinese, was the host Jeff Foxworthy-Hong (the cheap Chinese Version of the real thing -- these were his words not mine).  He even penciled on a black moustache.  His introductions and the theme song music set the stage for a very successful and funny 30 minute review of the material presented in class the day prior.  Robert introduced each classmates one at a time and in between his jokes and/or funny stories I asked them each a question relating to material covered in the class the day before.  Following the rules of the real game somewhat; the player could be assisted by other classmates which ensured full class participation.   It was a lot of fun I must admit and I would do another presentation with him in a heartbeat.  I tend to be a very serious person, little on the reserved side so we complimented each other well for the purpose of our presentation!  He told me he was shy -- I think NOT.

Have a great week and hopefully we will get a chance to chat very very soon.