Global Express - First Issue for May, 2012

Hi!  Welcome back to our Global Village and this first issue of Global Express for the month of  Mayl, 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.  It really would be lovely to get stories and pictures from each of you to share in our issues.

Messages from our members

Isn't it marvelous to read about other people places in this lovely world. I specially enjoyed Graeme's stories and photos this week.  People's recipes looked delicious too, I'll have to grab those and add them to the cookbook with photos!  Daphne in Argentina


I would like to begin this issue with a short discussion on happiness as that is my wish for you today is for you to be happy.  There is always something to be happy about.  Look about you with a positive mindset and find one thing that makes you happy and tell us about it.  What is happiness? This question has no straightforward answer, because the meaning of the question itself is unclear.  I found the following quote explains it as well, if not better, than any dictionary definition:

Happiness is like time and space; we make and measure it ourselves —George Du Maurier

 





And of course a picture says a thousand words

Here is happiness at its finest through the face of my granddaughter Rebekah as she rides her big girl bicycle on the road for the very first time!!!!







 Speaking of bicycles (and happiness) ................... our friend Jan from the land down under is a very happy
cyclist now with her brand new bicycle -- do ask her all about it.

Hometown Pictures

Here is a new section in the newsletter that I would encourage all of you to participate in.  Please send in a picture of something in your town to publish.

This segment starts off this week with a picture from Jan.
  

Hometown pic, our local church with hall in right foreground.



Another new segment to the newsletter is ........

Local Events

Is there (or was there recently) an event in your corner of the globe that you would like to share with us.  Send it in to Global Express and I will be so happy to publish it.

Restoration of the most valuable painting in Australia

 

 Jan reports that this past week the National Gallery of Victoria unveiled Nicolas Poussin’s The Crossing of the Red Sea’ after an intensive, twelve-month conservation project. The painting is one of the NGV’s, and arguably Australia’s, finest European masterpieces. It was painted by Poussin in 1633-34 along with its companion piece The Adoration of the Golden Calf, which is housed in the National Gallery in London. (size155.6 x 215.3 cm)

Jan adds that she loves the huge paintings at the galleries that depict scenes or landscapes, rather than the abstracts and I so agree!  Do you?  Or do you prefer the abstracts?

Our Library

 

 

 

Australian Pat Farmer's 21,000-kilometre Pole to Pole Run, dedicated to raising funds for the Red Cross, began at the North Pole in April 2011 and took him through Canada, the United States, Central America and South America to his ultimate destination in the Antarctic, the South Pole.  His book is now being released..

 

 

 

 

OUR FUR CHILDREN & GRANDCHILDREN

 

Daisy

 

 May Day the weather was lovely, mild and sunny so we took Daisy down to the coast to play on the beach, let her loose to run between us several hundred meters apart! Not too many people around, at least the part we went to, they were busy taking down the  rows of summer shelters.
  

 

 

Graeme from the land down under shares this picture of his nephew's husky pups and their bed which did not last too long but the puppies most certainly had fun he say, lol.   Graeme hopes that we have better luck with our pups and so far so good at this end!

 

Recipes, Recipes, Recipes

Jan's Impossible Pie

Jan says that recently her church bible study had lunch together at a member's home and she made her impossible pie.

4 eggs

2 tablespoons melted butter

1 and 1/2 cups milk

1/2 cup self raising flour

1 chopped onion

grated cheese

sliced tomato

salt and pepper

Bacon etc to taste. I used 4 slices short cut bacon (pictured below), 

6 small mushrooms sliced, 

1/2 head broccoli, 

1 stalk celery

(other options include asparagus, leftover chicken, grated zucchini, capsicum,  etc).

If adding moist ingredients, reduce the milk a little.

 

Preheat oven to 180C, prepare dish with baking paper or grease with butter.

 

Mix lightly beaten eggs, butter, milk, flour onion salt and pepper, selection -bacon etc.

Top with sliced tomato and grated cheese.

Bake for approx 45 mins.   May be served hot or cold.

 

 

(This recipe is a must try for me .... I will make it for dinner this month for sure, thank you Jan.  Does anyone else make something similar to this?  As for the short cut bacon, we have something very similar here in Canada commonly referred to here as Back Bacon and in other parts of the world, Canadian bacon.  It is closer to ham than it is to bacon. The meat is lean, slightly sweet, and juicy. Unlike regular "streaky" bacon, Canadian bacon does not crisp up in its own fat while it is being cooked. The meat is meant to be served in a soft, juicy stage of cooking, and it will be dry and tasteless if it is allowed to crisp up. It is also usually served in thicker wedges than those used for conventional bacon.  Are you familiar with the terms short cut bacon or back, aka Canadian, bacon?  Or what about the term rashers?)

 

Continuing on the topic of bacon.  Yvonne, my eldest daughter, sent this to me saying that this sounds good, hint, hint.

 Breakfast Bacon Cups

Ingredients:
White or Wheat Bread
Bacon
Shredded Cheddar Cheese
Eggs
Butter
Maple Syrup
Salt & Pepper
(Note quantities not added. This will vary depending on how many you plan to make. It’s safe to estimate about 2-3 per person. )

Pre-heat oven to 400 degrees. While the oven is pre-heating partially cook the bacon for about 3-5 minutes in a large skillet set to medium-high. You want the bacon to be a little cooked but still pliable. Mix maple syrup and butter in a small sauce pan and heat over medium low so butter melts (you can’t mess this up so don’t worry about amounts too much., use ½ a stick of butter and a cup or so of syrup).

Using a cookie cutter, ravioli cutter, or whatever else you may have that can cut a 3 inch diameter circle—cut circles out of the bread slices.
Here comes the good part! Grease/non-stick spray muffin pan and line with bacon so that is circles each mold. Now, brush each side of the bread with the syrup/butter mixture and place in cup so that it rests evenly at the bottom of the mold. You may have to do a little trimming of the bread but it’s ok if it doesn’t fit perfectly either. Crack an egg into each mold, season with salt and pepper and give each cup a sprinkle of cheese (you can also add the cheese on top of bread, beneath the egg).
Place in oven for 7-8 mins. This is for a slightly runny egg. If you’re looking for a solid yoke cook for about 10 mins.

 Planet Kryzys

Canada - the Great Battery Roundup

Kudos to BCAA who is helping our planet and our communities!  BCAA is going to be helping us to rid our basements, garages and yards of old—and potentially hazardous—vehicle and marine batteries, and invites you—Member or not—to properly dispose of and recycle your old batteries during their 3rd annual Great Battery Roundup and for each battery collected, $5 will go towards the BCAA Road Safety Foundation to support Alexa's Bus; a mobile blood-alcohol testing unit designed and built to help law enforcement take impaired drivers off our roads.

 

(If you click on the Alex's Bus link you will be directed to a tragic story about Alexa Middelaer and I strongly recommend you have tissues handy.)

 Leaving used automotive or marine batteries in your yard or garage poses health and safety risks to you—and damages the environment.  Batteries contain toxic materials including lead and sulfuric acid. If old vehicle and marine batteries are not recycled properly, they could leak and contaminate the soil and groundwater, explode and cause a fire, or become a source of lead poisoning to humans and animals.

 

From June 6-19, bring your used vehicle and marine batteries to any participating BCAA approved Fountain Tire locations throughout the province to be properly disposed of and recycled—at no cost to you.  Once the batteries are collected, they will  get them delivered to an Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) regulated recycling facility where they'll be recycled into new batteries. Eligible batteries are typically those that power cars, light trucks, campers, motorcycles and small boats.

Is an similar battery disposal programme operating in your corner of the globe?  If not contact your local automobile association and provide them with details of this programme and ask WHY NOT!

A DAY OR TWO IN MY LIFE

ARGENTINA (Daphne) --  Well down here, the other weekend we had a Salta residents  supper BBQ and pasties, that coincided with daughter in law's birthday get together, so after helping Leo and niece make up some 234 pasties, of which 2 dozen were reserved for the birthday, I went there and Leo to the BBQ ( round the corner from each other anyway) The first photo shows about 130 of the uncooked pasties.
2nd picture is Luz and her family present at the birthday Then this last weekend was a long weekend due to 1st May, with Monday being a "bridge" holiday to join May day to the weekend for tourist purposes - they calculated about 100,000 visitors this weekend.
Saturday it rained, Sunday we were the family at Romina's house, 7 people and six dogs- Romi's 2, her in-laws' 2, My Daisy and Ruben's Laguna all girls. No photos, forgot to take the camera, but in the absence of small children the dogs were the fun and diversion. Monday night we attended the Airforce band at the theatre. Again no photos, but it was a good show.   Next Saturday, I am going to a show of Celtic music with Romina, looking forward to that we don't get much of that type of music here  Daphne from Argentina.  (Be sure Daphne to bring the camera to the Celtic Music Show!)

Catskills - USA -- Bea wrote in to say that  they have sold their house, closing is June 25th and that they found a nice double wide mobile home in an adult park closer to her son, 3 bedroom, 2 bath, big kitchen with a pantry. large living room central air, so pretty, at a nice price.  (Great news Bea .... and we look forward to pictures.)  Also congratulations are in store for her son, Earl, who got a promotion at Walmart.  Earl is now the manager of a large Walmart store where he will work 3 days on then 3 days off.  Bea is rightfully so proud of him to work himself up to the top.  (Congratulations Earl)

My much older brother Wayne and his lovely wife Jenny have a question for you ..... 

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.  

Yes I know the newsletter was late again and I am so very sorry but here is the reason why?  A day at the fair with Rebekah and family!!!!!!!!!!  After the fair Paul & Kendra came over to help with the chores.  There was laundry being folded, the lawn was being mowed and the puppies whelping box was disassembled.  All the puppies, except for the two little girls that Yvonne decided to keep from the beginning have gone to live with their humans.  We miss them but we know they are going to be well cared for.

 In closing Lena would like you to enjoy these Aerial Panoramic Views 

...click on any one place and enjoy.. .... what a wonderful way to tour the world from your computer chair!  Each one takes a few minutes to load but well worth the wait.

 

THAT’S ALL FOLKS