Thinking 'bout your holidays

Travelling south to Montana a few weeks ago, I heard a report on the radio that said research showed people get more enjoyment from planning their holiday than they do actually having it. I can quite believe that. “Thinking ‘bout your holidays” was one of the aspects of working class life that Paul Weller sang about on The Jam track That’s Entertainment, reminding us that booking up a holiday months in advance gives us something to think about when the weather’s rubbish and we’re feeling crap.

I’ve always thought people looked happier when talking about what they were going to do on holiday than they did actually doing it. But then that’s probably because I used to spend my holidays in Greece and there is little that can be done comfortably – let alone with a smile on your face – in 35 degrees C.

But is that still the case now that we don’t plan our holidays in quite the same way we did thirty years ago. Back then we’d pick up a brochure from the travel agents at the beginning of the year, get seduced by photos of sparkling pools and romantic beach coves, and then rush to book up a holiday while the rain lashed against the travel agent’s windows. Most of the time back then, we booked early not to secure our place at a top resort, but to help us get through the remains of the dreary winter. At least that was how I used to plan my holiday.

But now, however, we’re much more likely to just pick somewhere on the planet and then work out how to get there and where to stay – either once we’re there or a few weeks before we get on the plane. That’s how I plan my holidays now. And maybe that’s why I don’t spend hours thinking about it before actually having it. The days spent shopping for “holiday clothes” are also long gone (as has the money with which to buy them!). And so I’ve come to the conclusion that it’s this way of planning a holiday – a bit last-minute – that ensures I always have a brilliant time. Either that or it’s the cynic in me that doesn’t expect too much from a holiday anyway!

One aspect of holidays that I do tend to get bored with after a while is eating out. It’s great at first: being on holiday you’re excused counting calories, even more so if you’ve spent the day hiking or walking around sight-seeing. But after a while I miss handling food, preparing it, and cooking it. And as much as I like fries and pizza, sometimes you can have too much of a good thing. That’s why on the last few evenings of my trip to Montana, I went to the local supermarket and bought provisions to enable me to “make” dinner in my motel room. When I say make, I don’t mean cook, I mean put together. Simple stuff such as bread rolls, cheese, potato chips, yogurt, and fruit makes for a great supper (I was also able to have a bottle of beer as there was a fridge in the motel room). This is something I regularly do when I go on holiday. Not necessarily to save money, but to break the tedium that can sometimes come with eating out every night. Maybe it’s a reflection of the places I holiday at but I don’t think so, as I’ve adopted this approach when in the south of France and Spain, and not just when in Western Canada and the States!

So maybe, as with the holiday itself, in order to enjoy eating out I need to forget the planning and thinking about it all and just do it. But then again, I really enjoy eating cheese rolls and chips in motel rooms!

Heavenly hummus

As well as excess body hair and zero resistance to gravity, old age also brings a certain OCD approach to some commercially produced foods. At least for me it does. Like a lot of people, I don’t like seeing too many ingredients I don’t recognise the names of in lists attached to the products I buy. And in something as simple as hummus, which is really just mashed chick peas, there shouldn’t be too much else involved (even I know that). But it’s perhaps not only a question of ingredients control, making your own means you get to make it just the way you like it. And while I haven’t done the math (as they say), I’m sure it works out less expensive than buying the commercially produced stuff in the supermarket.

While I had been meaning to make my own hummus for a while, I wasn’t too sure how easy it would be to get tahini paste (even when the idea had occurred to me back home in Blighty). But apparently it’s very easy – even in the outback here. So I got out the blender and found a Jamie Oliver recipe online. All very straightforward: 4 oz of chick peas, 2 tbs of tahini paste, a couple of crushed garlic cloves, and some lemon juice. The first batch I made was good: the right consistently, and a good garlicky taste. However, I then decided to up the quantity and it seemed the blender couldn’t quite cope and I was left with a slightly course hummus with the old half or quarter of chick pea hidden in the mix. Admittedly the blender isn’t that great but if it can crush ice then surely it can squash up a few chick peas.

And then I stumbled upon an article on the Guardian website where the issue of the perfect hummus was discussed and I picked up a few good tips.

1. If you’re boiling dried chick peas, you need to boil them so that they are mushy.
2. You need to add a little liquid to the ingredients in order to get a creamy consistency to your hummus (if boiling dried chick peas, save a little of the cooking liquid; if using tinned, use water – not that horrible gloopy stuff that’s preserving them!).
3. If using tinned chick peas, it’s best to take the skins off. This may sound a bit tricky but all you need to do is to rinse them and then place them in a bowl of water and gently rub the chick peas between your fingers and the skins will come off. They will float to the top of the water and then you can just skim them off.

Three great little tips that mean now my blender is able to cope with blending my hummus and I get a nice consistency to it. Technology – great, eh?!

Hung out to dry

The winters here in Alberta can be brutal. The average temperature is around -20 degrees Celsius and there's snow on the ground for about six months. Everyone finds it hard going. A guy I was working with a year or so ago, during the winter time, started talking about taking a vacation to the UK to escape not only the cold and snow, but the monotony that can accompany the winter weather: Every day you wake up and look out of your window and everything looks exactly the same as it did the day before, and the day before that. One question he wanted answered was: how do the English do their laundry? I imagine that he had been carrying out a bit of research on properties in the UK and not many mentioned "utility room." I told him that while most homes would have a washing machine, not everyone used a tumble dryer (or indeed had one) to dry their clothes. It's not necessary when living in the UK. Although I had a tumble dryer when I lived in England, I very rarely used it. I, like most other people, dried my clothes outdoors.

I still do dry my clothes outdoors when I can. Obviously it's not possible during the winter, but once the temperature warms up, I place my clothes airer outside. While I can't say that there are no downsides to line drying, it's still the best way to dry clothes, not only from an environmental perspective, but from a clothes perspective too. Line drying is kinder to your clothes as well as to the environment.

For instance, the average tumble dryer gets pretty hot. Hot temperatures aren't kind to clothes and can damage the fibers in some items such as panties and bras, causing them to lose their shape quicker than they would if they were dried naturally.

Not only is the sun kinder to clothes, but it also comes complete with a few add-ons: It's a natural bleaching agent helping light colored items to stay that way. The sun can also help to remove stains in clothes: Place a few drops of lemon juice on a stain you want to shift and then place the item outdoors in the sun to dry. Another good thing about the sun where laundry's concerned is that it's also a natural deodorizer, so if you've got some clothes that don't smell too good, drying them in the sun should help to get rid of their odor.

Even though it's referred to as line drying, you don't really need a line to do it. Go to Ikea and pick up one of their clothes airers (or two depending on how much laundry you need to do at one time). Actually, you don't even need good weather to dry clothes naturally: Fix up a clothes airer somewhere in your house and leave the clothes to dry there - no worry about having to rush out and bring your clothes indoors when it starts to rain then.

The one drawback to line drying, for me anyway, is that I sometimes find I need to iron clothes, whereas if I've tumble dried them, having given them enough space to move freely in the dryer, I usually don't need to. But then a lot of this is personal. One man's creased shirt is another man's shirt that "looks fine to me."

Lastly, yes, a little more effort is involved in line drying (you've got to transport your clothes from machine to line and back indoors again - and have to rush to do so if it starts to rain), but we're not talking triathlon training here. And what are we using our bodies for nowadays anyway...?

Baking soda plus elbow grease = clean dishes

Sodium bicarbonate, or baking soda as it's more commonly known, is a pretty versatile item. Not only it is useful in baking, but it can be used in so many places around the home. It’s inexpensive and non-toxic – it doesn’t contain any nasty, harsh chemicals, and won’t leave you gagging for air when you use it unlike many other commercially produced cleaning products. You do need to employ a little elbow grease when using baking soda to clean, though. But with an abrasive cloth, a bit of effort, and a little time, you can clean off baked-on food from cooking pots and pans without too much fuss.

When using baking soda to get rid of stubborn stains, sprinkle it on and then dampen it with a little water and just leave it for a few hours. You may need to repeat the process, but eventually you’ll get your pot or casserole dish clean.

The photos show the stages of cleaning a glass dish with baking soda. The top photo shows the original application of baking soda; the middle photo shows how the dish looked after the baking soda was rinsed off the first time; and the bottom photo shows how the dish looked after the second application of baking soda was washed off. Admittedly, the cleaning process may not have removed every single last stain, but you can look on those as reminders of great meals gone by!

Cans, buttons, and bottle tops

Going green is a little like dieting; in order for it to be effective, it has to be a lifestyle change rather than just a quick-fix action. And anyone who wants to fully embrace the concept of "living green" has to develop their imagination and start looking at everyday household objects from a slightly different perspective. It's an approach that can reap dividends though, and you can save money on your weekly spending as well as reduce the amount of space you would otherwise be taking up at your local landfill site.

Before you place any household item in the garbage or recycling bin, consider its potential uses. Below are a few examples of how you can turn ordinary household items into useful objects that come with absolutely no price tag.

Cans: Repurpose cans and tins as individual plant pots. Pierce the bottom of the can to allow water to drain and then fill with soil and seeds. The plants can be transplanted into bigger containers or directly into the soil in your back yard at the appropriate time. Similarly, plastic fruit containers (punnets) can be used as plant pots.

Cans can also be used as storage pots for pens and pencils.

Bottles: Attractive bottles can be repurposed as vases for flowers. These can look great when filled with one or two striking looking flowers. Dot these around your home when you're having friends to dinner and you're guaranteed a topic of conversation at the dinner table!

Newspaper: Keep pages from newspapers to clean windows and glass. Wipe the surface with a mixture of water, liquid soap or detergent, and a little vinegar and then dry with scrunched-up newspaper.

Buttons: Before throwing away an item of clothing, remove any attractive embellishments such as pretty buttons. Re-use them to add a unique and interesting look to an otherwise drab looking bag or jacket. Store your buttons in large plastic can lids.

CDs: Hang your old CDs over the areas in your garden that you want to protect from birds. Or use your old CDs as coasters.

Bottle Tops: Recycle colored bottle tops into an attractive "bead" curtain. Thread the bottle tops onto pieces of string and then hang these pieces of string across a cane: attach the cane to the horizontal top section of a door frame.

Shower Curtain: Clean an old shower curtain by leaving it to soak in water and vinegar for a couple of hours, and then re-use as a table cloth when having a picnic. You can also use it as a ground sheet under sleeping bags when camping, or to protect surfaces around the home when painting.

Magazines: Cut out colorful and attractive pictures from magazines and use them to decoupage an old table or piece of furniture. Or decoupage a wall of a room with photos cut from magazines.

The possibilities are endless! All it takes is a little imagination and then you'll be hooked on finding uses for your everyday household items.