Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Misplaced milk

Most of these things seem to be centred around shopping. Supermarkets are surprisingly interesting places.
The other day while gliding down the aisle, I stopped in front of the soft drinks. There on the shelf right in the front of the Coca Cola was a two litre bottle of trim milk.
What was going on here?
I'm sure we've all been guilty of putting back items, we were going to buy, in a different place in the supermarket. I was even caught once and told off by a not so friendly shelf stacking person.
But why was the milk left by the Coke? Did the person see Coke was on special and think let's buy that instead of milk?
Did they swap healthy trim milk for evil, junk, food Coca Cola?
Did they think two litres of soft drink was liquid so could fulfil the same role as milk but more cheaply? Will they have Coke on their cereal and in their coffee?
And how come they did not leave the milk on a refrigerated shelf?
Even i put like with like.

Tuesday, June 10, 2008

Oil rant

Well everyone else seems to be having a rant about oil price - I thought why miss a chance?
So here is my rant.
Even though the increasing price of petrol is obviously chewing up more of our money. I am finding myself feeling a little distant, a little looking down on the problem or to one side perhaps.
Maybe everyone is feeling like this. Do we really care about the increase in petrol price? Is it really affecting our quality of life? Or is it just something that we can all moan about communally and thus give us something to talk about with strangers?
Maybe I am not so bothered because it vindicates watching all those documentaries about peak oil and people laughing it off as not a big issue.
Maybe I just like that President Bush derided the last administration for the increase in oil price under their watch, but the increase while he has been in charge is so massive, it is not even worth working out the percentage increase. A huge amount, pretty much sums it up. For some reason I find it funny that he was so completely useless at keeping the price any better, especially when he is suppose to be an oil guy.
The petrol stations seem just as busy as I remember them from before the price hikes. The emails about how to solve the whole problem while still living our current lifestyle seem to be only slightly up.
It is hard to feel sorry for all those SUV city drivers who have been blocking my view when trying to turn for the past five or so years.
Of course there is an easy way to solve our petrol price problem - stop buying it.
Do all the things we know we should like use public transport, cycle, shop locally, walk, drive smaller cars.
It just doesn't sound so bad really. It takes a bit more time and you can still use the car sometimes.
The things you see when you are walking - a dead mouse lying beside the footpath, one black sock, a little cute kitten. It is quite an education on where you live.

5 Favourite Sights Seen

  • 1996 Watching tropical lightning turn night to day, outside a little wooden church in a small village in Sabah.
  • 2004 Flying down the Rainbow Valley at 8000ft in a cessna on a clear blue day.
  • 2003 Seeing and hearing Michael Schmacher rolling out of the pit garage in his Ferrari in Hungary.
  • 2009 Chancing upon 100 or more dolphins just off the Kaikoura Coast swimming around, jumping out of the water, doing somersaults and generally having fun.
  • 2006 Finding a pool at the bottom of a waterfall in the bush at Kaikoura that was full of playing baby seals.