melvania

So about a year ago I bought these gloves without fingertips to wear orienteering. I put them somewhere and forgot where I put them.

And then a few months ago when we put away the DVD player & VCR (because Caleb kept wanting to play with them) I put the remotes somewhere together so I'd know where they both were. And then I forgot where I put them.

And then about a month ago, one of the hinges on one of our kitchen cupboards broke. And I went to Big W and bought a new hinge.

And you know the rest.

{mosimage}So today I decided go take Caleb out in the pusher and go to Parabanks. I had some things on my list that I'd forgotten to get on Tuesday when I went to Hollywood. First stop was Big W, where we didn't buy anything. Just looked. Specifically I was looking for a cooking thermometer, like a candy thermometer, because I'm starting to like the idea of making my own cheese. But they didn't have any, so I'm thinking I'll have to get one online or from The General Trader or something.

Anyway. Next we went to the health food shop to get some xylitol (natural sugar substitute) because I'd run out and wanted to make ice cream tonight. Then we went off to Coles to get the cat food (which I actually forgot to get until I'd put everything else in the basket under the pusher). Also got a 3 litre jug of milk and 2 jugs of cream (ice cream, see - and the aforementioned cheese). Got a bunch of bananas, gave one to Caleb as we left the store. He broke off the top bit, ate it, and dropped the rest on the ground. I rescued it and put it in one of my bags.

Before I continue with this story, it's important to know a few things:

• Philadelphia cream cheese is currently $3.60 for a 250g (about 8 ounce) block.
  
• Philly is also the ONLY cream cheese block widely available, at least in South Australia.
  
• I've gotten a fresher cream cheese called Neufchatel at the Central Markets before, but I haven't wanted to go into the city just for that, especially when a) Caleb gets so bored & restless on the train trip back, and b) driving & parking in the city is annoying, so I tend not to do it if I don't have to.
  
• Yesterday I made a batch of this. It was VERY easy, turned out to be about 220g of cream cheese, tastes pretty good, and only cost me about $1.60 for the milk, vinegar, and salt. Um, yeah, cheesemaking is looking very interesting now.
  
• I've been driving over to Golden Grove Village every second Tuesday to do grocery shopping at Foodland because there's also a little sweet stand in the shopping centre that sells Dr Pepper.
  
• As of Sunday this week, Darrin and I have gone low carb again.
  
• Cheese is (usually) low carb. Dr Pepper is not. As if you needed to be told that.
  

So then I went back into the shopping centre to Woolworths, because I hadn't found the low carb chocolate I'd been hoping to find anywhere else. Luckily Woolies had it on sale.

Then I wandered past this continental deli on my way out to the carpark, and I noticed they had a lot of cheeses in the cooler. So I decided to drop in and have a look, see if they had any Neufchatel, and how much it costs. So I went around the side (it was one of those big 360-degree cooler/work area/till areas) to get a closer look at the rest of the cheeses, and there was something past the cooler that made my jaw drop. That's right. One big shelf devoted entirely to cans of Dr Pepper. And not only that, but a six-pack of Welch's Strawberry Soda, which was another vice of mine till four and a half years ago, when I moved here. I have NEVER seen this stuff ANYWHERE in Australia. Not even on the USA Foods website, which imports a little bit of everything. They always just had the grape. So here's me in the shop, alternately drooling over the strawberry soda, and saying to myself "if only I hadn't gone low carb five days ago!"

So of course you know what I did. I bought a can. And I'm saving it for a special treat sometime when I have other carby stuff, so that I can have one big carb hangover instead of two little ones.