China Diner

I was surprised to read in The Mercury that the restaurateur of the China Diner was fined $1000 for threatening to kill a health inspector.

Who would have thought that the China Diner would have anything to hide from a health inspector?

Free coffee

Unfortunately I live too far away to take advantage of the owners of a Seattle cafe who serve coffee for free and have an honesty box for payment. It has been reported by The Seattle Times.

So if there are any Seattle readers out there, or if you are planning to visit, go for it!

Fluorescent light globes

Good to see everyone's friend, Malcolm Turnbull, back in the news again.

This time he wants to ban incandescent light globes to force people to but the more expensive but longer lasting fluorescent globes.

The terrible thing is that the new globes are more expensive.

And they are not available from my office supplies cabinet.

Les Lees socks

My new, and free, socks from Les Lees!

Very comfortable, and yes, very polyester.

Grapes

I can't believe the money that my wife wastes sometimes.

Yesterday she went to the supermarket (this always makes me nervous) and bought some grapes, but she forgot to pick each grape individually and put them in the plastic bag. Instead she just purchased a complete bunch.

When I found out I removed all the grapes and weighed the remaining stalks. There was 37 grams of stalks and at $3.99 per kilogram that means the wife wasted 14.7c!!!

What a disaster.

As good as it gets

What a great day. Just how good is this? I was just out on my daily lunchtime walk looking for coins dropped on the ground when I was given this wonderful voucher.

Free sock from Les Lees. And it is sponsored by Ultra 106.5 - my new favourite radio station.

Simply wonderful!

Don't miss out.

Dry cleaning

Unfortunately the wife has a bit of a fondness for getting clothes dry cleaned. I can't see the value in it myself. Way too expensive and isn't that much better that wetting a paper towel and rubbing it in, then drying the clothes under the hand dryer in the toilets at work. My work suit is still looking great after this treatment for the past 10 years.

A sad waste of money that could be better put in my superannuation.

Ron Walker

Here you go Ron, a special treat for you!

More on The Mercury food blogs

There was yet another chance for Elaine Reeves from The Mercury to include me in her Hobart food blog list in yesterday's paper.

Instead she only mentioned that Garrulous Gourmet was no longer blogging. Everyone new that anyway. Not that he covered much on price anyway.

Maybe I will have to start a new blog on my quest to eat every item from the bain marie at China Diner.

Self sufficiency

So far, so good in the garden. I have only planted corn and tomatoes so it may be a bit difficult to live entirely off these. I will have to search for some frugal recipes that use these ingredients.

Everything is growing well and the corn ears are getting bigger and the tomatoes aren't far off ripening. As I don't bother with water restrictions, they are all doing well. Let's hope the council never introduces water meters.

Happy birthday to the wife

Mrs Whitey,

Happy birthday today to my dear wife.

I am sure you will understand that we need to save money so I haven't wasted any getting you an expensive card or present. It will just stay in my superannuation.

As a special treat tonight we can turn on the electricity, fire up the cassette player and listen to John Farnham - Farewell from Belgrade. Very romantic, but still frugal. After that, we can walk hand in hand around the block and check out what people have put out in their recycle bins.

Your loving husband.

Whitey

The Mercury and Hobart food blogs

I have been treated badly by The Mercury yet again.

After the fiasco of leaving me out of the Tasmania Top 100 Movers and Shakers, they have now left me out of their article on Hobart food bloggers. Food Kitty, Garrulous Gourmet and a few others all get a mention - albeit on page 123 or so - but there is no write up about The Whitey Stuff!

While the others may rattle on about the quality of the food and service, I get straight to what people want to know. How must does it cost? Can you get seconds? Is the cutlery worth stealing?

I don't see any of the other Hobart bloggers covering this vital information. Yet another example of The Mercury's blinkered and biased approach to food reporting.

And don't get me started on Graham Phillips!