Tuesday 16 December 2008

Running around

I spent the entire day running around. It started with an interesting morning meeting in town with a bike boutique owner who is planning to set up containerised storage sheds so that people can bike into the city, store their bikes, shower and head to work. It's a great concept but we're only at the planning stage.

After the meeting, I got very excited while walking to a nearby shop that sells vegetable seeds. I have a new project in mind - growing vegetables in my patio. When I stepped into the old shophouse with jars of vegetable seeds lining the shelves, I was like a kid in a candy shop, I wanted to buy everything!

It's a good thing the shop owners are very friendly people who gave lots of good advice. I ended up choosing 9 types of seeds including carrot (yes carrot!), coriander, egg plant, tomato, lettuce and some green vegetables. I hope my little growing experiment will pan out well. I've even started a compost bin over the weekend and can't wait to start gardening right away but I'll need to get soil and pots first.
Various kinds of vegetable seeds.

Then I walked to the Korean supermarket nearby to have a quick look. Operated by a Korean man, it sells nothing but food and products imported from Korea. There were a couple of Korean housewives picking up groceries. It's so authentic, there were no English translation. I searched in vain for the spicy paste for kimchi soup until the shopkeeper came along to help me.

I walked out of the store with a small pack of freshly made kimchi, seasoned anchovies and 2 packs of soup paste. When I got home, I realised that I paid for 1kg of kimchi instead of the 500g pack I bought. I should make it a habit to check the receipt in future. I was overcharged by $7! These things are not cheap.


I rushed off for a business lunch followed by couple of company errands. I promised to bring the kids to the marine fish store today to check out their new arrivals. So I went home early to pick them up. Of course Rusty came along too.

While the boys were checking out the fishes, I sat at the coffee shop next door sipping coffee with Rusty by my side. In case you're wondering, it's not as glamourous as the chic Parisian ladies with their poodle in an alfresco cafe but still, it was a nice way to wind down after running around all day.

Now, we're back home and the boys are admiring their latest acquisition - a bumblebee snail, a mandarin fish and a cluster of mushroom coral.

It's almost time to prepare dinner. I think I'll cook fish and mushrooms. Ah, I wish we had some snails (escargots) in the freezer too.

8 comments:

Anonymous said...

Wow! $7 for 500g of kimchee - that's quite expensive (even by auzzie standard) , why not make your own?

Blur Ting said...

Hi John
Thanks for visiting and your compliments. I will check out your blog after this.

Blur Ting said...

CKL - Indeed. It's $14.40 for 1kg but this contains no MSG. I really should find the recipe to make some of my own too. The thing is, only I like kimchi at home, so I can't make too much or they'll go to waste.

The World According To Me said...

I love the idea of growing your own vegetables. If I had a patio/garden of my own I would definitely look into that.
Sorry to hear you were over charged though.

Blur Ting said...

Hi World - Guess what? I read about growing vegetables while I was in UK and it got me really interested!

Anonymous said...

I first got into eating kimchi in a big way while studying in Canada. I'll be happy to come help you eat yours :-)

Maybe you can merge vegetable growing AND kimchi making into one venture...

Blur Ting said...

Oh, in that case, I shall start experimenting on kimchi and you'll be the taster!

The Real Mother Hen said...

Ohhh note to self, don't forget to get some kimchi when I do grocery run.

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