Change the World Wednesday – 26th Feb

Her avatar

A sad note to start of the day. Lois, of Living Simply Free and a regular contributor to CTWWs and other environmental matters has decided to step back from blogging. Lois has been an inspirational source of what can be done, and I personally will miss her well thought out and pertinent contributions. She explains all in a post New Adventures, then follows up with Paradise Lot – I Thank You

Lois, good luck for the future.

No wonder it died; half its guts are missing…

I had a drama on Monday, of course, it had to be a Monday; perpetuating the myth.

My PC died again. Third time in as many weeks. All this began to happen after Brazil suffered a pane (power cut) that affected half the country three weeks ago. I was forced to reinstall XP again, to compensate for the corrupt config.sys file. But it has led me to believe that my PC needs to be rePCed.

Now I am not going to rush off and buy a new one (ecologically unsound), I am opting for a reconditioned one for a quarter of the price. Also, the reconditioned one comes with XP, not the horrendous Windows 8 that would be forced on me if I bought new.

I wouldn’t touch Windows 8 with yours…

I see they have put the ‘Start’ button back on, but why on earth up top, why not where people were used to it?

One of the things I hate about Microsoft is they force things upon you.

Like last night with my laptop at work, it upgraded IE, to 8. I didn’t want it upgraded and I couldn’t stop it. The only useful function for IE is to download FireFox; the programme is useless, pathetic.

</rant over>

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Now we must truck along. This week’s CTWW.

Water!

To begin, test your water conservation knowledge by taking this QUIZ.

 

THEN …

Install at least one low-flow aerator on a faucet in your home. These are relatively inexpensive from hardware stores and are easily installed (just screw them on).

 

OR …

If you’ve already installed aerators on your faucets, choose one other way to conserve water this week. Need some ideas? Eat no meat, pork or poultry (they all require a lot of water to produce). Reduce or eliminate spending (except for true essentials). Keep a pitcher of drinking water in the refrigerator instead of running the tap. Review your water bill history to determine periods of high use and make plans to reduce during those times (it’s also a good tool for determining leaks). Fix leaky faucets or toilets. Consider removing some of the lawn (or all of it) and planting native shrubs, plants, trees, etc. When refreshing your pet’s water, or changing the water in a fish tank, use it to feed your plants. Get creative and find a way to reduce your water footprint.

First part. Well, that was a failure – 1/5.

Second part. I have only one tap in the house, the kitchen sink, and it has an aerator. The other tap in the bathroom leaks, so I disconnected it because I never use it. Done √

Third part. In the heat of our present season, I take many brief showers to cool off during the day and night. I bought a large bowl to put in the shower to catch the run off, and that goes on my houseplants and garden. I am already eating less beef, so that is also a saving. I keep iced water in the fridge, rotating two bottles from the tap to the freezer to the fridge. My water bill is static, I always get charged the minimum, so my water use is below that level. Done √

Now I’m off, going to hunt a new PC.

 

Change the World Wednesday – 5th Feb

Running late today.

Yesterday Brazil had a power cut affecting the south and west of the country, including here. Power was out for over an hour.

I hate disk drives

That’s not the tricky bit. When I got home and turned the PC on it didn’t want to connect with my backup drive and after repeated attempts, I gave up. Today I had another fiddle and after a couple of hours and lots of coffee managed to recover it. So all is well… until the next time. But I am creating another backup disk just in case.

Yesterday was also a stupendous 45ºC (112ºF), humidity was very low, so I was drinking lots of water, today is a cooler 41ºC. We are due for this heat wave until the 15th, so another ten days.

No more guava, plenty growing, but no ripe ones.

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Let’s get on with this week’s CTWW.

This week, monitor food portion sizes and cook accordingly. Even if you are cooking once for more than one meal, pay attention to portions and resist cooking more than necessary, which often leads to waste. Need help determining portion size? There’s more… Click on the banner for the full challenge.

Living alone this can be a tough one. I buy my meat in meal-sized portions, but when it comes to veges you can’t buy half a lettuce. I wish I had the ground available to grow more of my own. I buy a lettuce, and by the time I have used half, the rest is ready for the compost.

I rarely buy pre-prepared meals, so portions a not a great problem there. And the odd time I get a delivered pizza, I eat half one day, and the rest the next day.

As a chef, I have a pretty good idea, how much I need of something to make one meal. Sometimes I make several lots, for example when I make feijoada (Brazilian black bean dish) I make it the day, then pack six portions in old marg containers for the freezer; thaw and reheat later.

So I pretty much do this challenge as a matter of course.

I hate throwing food out. When I do, it makes me cringe.

 

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