Extremely ginger biscuits
Sep. 17th, 2010 01:44 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
todayiamadaisyI saw a big pig yesterday. There was an Australian rock band in the 80s called Big Pig, and all the members wore nothing but matching black leather aprons. Back in the day I read an interview in Smash Hits magazine with them, in which they explained the aprons by saying they didn't want to look back and be horrified at the 80s clothes. They had a song called 'Hungry Town' and their album was called Bonk. I'd forgotten all about them until just now, but apparently I remember quite a lot.
But as I was saying, I saw a big pig yesterday. Well... I saw a big piggy-bank, is probably more accurate. And I mean big in the sense that it could fit a couple of people in it. It was on top of a car that was parked in the street. As you do. 'I'm just going shopping, darl.' 'Don't forget to take the piggy-bank, hahaha.'
Today my house smells of ginger and other spices. But mostly ginger. It is the birthday of John, my mother's partner. He is a difficult person to buy presents for, but happily, he likes extremely ginger biscuits. The gingerier the better. So birthday and Christmas, that's what I make him. My mother is making him a birthday cake decorated like an archery target (he was a nationally-ranked archer in his time and is still the coach for the local club). It will be a round cake, with the different colours filled in with M&Ms: white (that will be frosting), black, blue, red and yellow in the centre. (The centre of an archery target is called a gold. Not a bullseye. Never call it a bullseye. They get very upset by that.)
My mother retired six weeks ago. She is enjoying it. I didn't realise, though, how long it takes to organise superannuation (self-funded pensions). She couldn't access her super fund until it was notified by her employer that she had retired, and it is apparently her employer's policy not to do that until the end of the month. She retired on 9 August, so that was three weeks before the fund even knew about it. Then the fund sends a form and of course it was the wrong form so they had to send another one and so on and so on. In summary, it will be at least two months before she starts getting her super payment. She is all right; I mean, she's not rolling around in her giant vault full of ingots and throwing coins in the air like Scrooge McDuck, but she doesn't have a lot of expenses and she made sure she had plenty of cash money in her bank before she retired and she is my landlady so she has rent coming in. She won't starve. But I imagine it must be awfully difficult for some retirees to manage this changeover period.
But as I was saying, I saw a big pig yesterday. Well... I saw a big piggy-bank, is probably more accurate. And I mean big in the sense that it could fit a couple of people in it. It was on top of a car that was parked in the street. As you do. 'I'm just going shopping, darl.' 'Don't forget to take the piggy-bank, hahaha.'
Today my house smells of ginger and other spices. But mostly ginger. It is the birthday of John, my mother's partner. He is a difficult person to buy presents for, but happily, he likes extremely ginger biscuits. The gingerier the better. So birthday and Christmas, that's what I make him. My mother is making him a birthday cake decorated like an archery target (he was a nationally-ranked archer in his time and is still the coach for the local club). It will be a round cake, with the different colours filled in with M&Ms: white (that will be frosting), black, blue, red and yellow in the centre. (The centre of an archery target is called a gold. Not a bullseye. Never call it a bullseye. They get very upset by that.)
My mother retired six weeks ago. She is enjoying it. I didn't realise, though, how long it takes to organise superannuation (self-funded pensions). She couldn't access her super fund until it was notified by her employer that she had retired, and it is apparently her employer's policy not to do that until the end of the month. She retired on 9 August, so that was three weeks before the fund even knew about it. Then the fund sends a form and of course it was the wrong form so they had to send another one and so on and so on. In summary, it will be at least two months before she starts getting her super payment. She is all right; I mean, she's not rolling around in her giant vault full of ingots and throwing coins in the air like Scrooge McDuck, but she doesn't have a lot of expenses and she made sure she had plenty of cash money in her bank before she retired and she is my landlady so she has rent coming in. She won't starve. But I imagine it must be awfully difficult for some retirees to manage this changeover period.