Forum Thermomix
Welcoming Center, Management and General Chat => Chit Chat => Topic started by: leesmac78 on October 24, 2011, 05:58:52 pm
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Picture this. Exhausted after a heavy Saturday of Thermomixing in German. I sit down, turn on the television and watch Strictly Come Dancing, or Dancing with the Stars for my Australian readers. I have Teeny and Josie in the sofa and we are getting right into it, as you do. All of a sudden I see blue and red flashing lights through my window. I peek outside and one, then two, then three, then four fire engines arrive out the front of my house and down the street. And then 3 ambulances and two police cars. All sirens and bells and lights.
I blinked twice, as I had just finished off the bottle of white that Ed had started the night before he left for Washington. Of a sudden, the ladder was extending to the roof of my house and men climbed up, carrying large hoses.
I throw the dogs into the bathroom and in my Big W pajamas, I dash downstairs to see what all the fuss is about outside. Turns out the our neighbour's bathroom heating is on fire and from what I understood, no one was sure whether it was gas or electric and an explosion was imminent.
I dash back up the stairs and grab the dogs and a coat and a pair of slippers (Thermie had to stay behind, talk about Sophie's Choice) and dash back down the stairs to wait in 2° temperatures and wait.
Two or so hours passed, the fire was out, I was frozen from the cold and I walked back into my house which survived completely unscathed, unlike my neighbour's bathroom.
I collapsed onto the sofa, cuddled the dogs, waved at Thermie and had a nice cup of tea to recover from the shock.
All of that PLUS a few hours demonstrating Thermimix to the good people of Germany in German. Boy was I glad to go back to work today!
Xxx
;D
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OMG Lee what an end to your day :o :o :o Glad to hear no one was hurt.
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What a day .... and night! All of those sirens must have given you a terrible scare, but glad everyone come out unscathed - bathrooms can be replaced.
Yes, back to work to recover and rest! I'm sure Ed will be wondering if he can leave you 'Home Alone' again!
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You have such an exciting life over there Lee - never a dull moment :D :D :D Poor Ed, misses out on all the fun being away on business. With all that commotion downstairs and then a ladder leading to my roof, I would have been out of there like a shot, no dogs to consider but Thermie on DH's lap and me pushing the wheelchair as fast as I could. Did they get to the bottom of the cause of the fire?
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OMG Lee, life's not like that at our house. Ditto to Ed being worried to leave you home alone!
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Oh Lee, you had a big day.
What will happen next. Glad you are ok though.
Robyn
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Ed doesn't get back until Friday. Anyone want to come and baby sit me??
xxx
;D
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Now, wouldn't that be fun ;D
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I think there is far too much excitement to come and babysit you Lee. I like a quiet life. ;)
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......another quiet day in Lee-land then? LOL
I think we'll be reading many more chapters in your story Lee :-*
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........ as your loyal fans wait with bated breath for the next instalment of ............'A day in the life of an Aussie expat.thermoholic xx
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Like your stories Lee :D
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Like your stories Lee
Me too. Particularly the Sophie's Choice analogy. A classroom full of children sounds like a piece of cake, compared to the excitement you've had on your days off!
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Poor Lee, fires are always scary. Glad you're OK.
We had a grass fire at the back of our place last Wednesday and were very close to call the bush fire brigade. We had slaughtered a steer on the Sunday, asked for a fire permit (spring, here in OZ) to get rid of the guts & bits, lit the fire on Monday. No issues, every thing burnt well, clear perimeter. I check on the area on Wednesday morning: all good. Head to town at 1pm, comes back at 5 to see a wall of smoke. BAD!
Put on long pants, shirt and cap and go firefighting after instructing my son to ring DH (who was in town at the time). When hubby came home i had most of the fire contained, but some spots were reigniting. We spent the next few hours making sure nothing was going to burn again. Luckily our fire tanker decided to leak in the process - Bugger! We got there eventually. And gosh that shower was good that night!
We're still not sure how the fire started (a kangaroo or a wallaby dashing down the hill and carrying some embers with them ???).
We now have a 3 to 4 hectares burnt (no major damage to big gums luckily). Not a bad thing before summer sets in I guess, BUT quite scary considering how fast it all went :-\
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Well done Carine, is that your first fire-fighting experience? As you said, at least some of the land is cleared now for the coming bush-fire season and you now know you have to get that tanker leak fixed too.
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No, I had to stop fires from spreading before, but it was the first time it was unplanned :-\
We usually tidy up some areas in winter by stacking up wood not suitable for firewood- we have bonfires in the paddocks.
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:) We light our fire in the paddock too, just branches off tress.
Our rural fire brigade is less than 1 klm form home.
Glad everything was alright.
Robyn
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Well that is the last time I am leaving Lee home and alone.....back from Washington on Friday so hopefully no more disasters until then... ;)
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Carine, Wow well done. I guess it was a good time for it to happen. Fire is scary, so powerful and unpredictable with any breeze.
Ed, does it always happen to Lee? He is a fantastic story teller, keeps us all giggling or ooing or aahring. Love it.
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Ha ha - Oh yes it does happen often to Lee.... Lol :D
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Oh, poor Lee! Well, that's a story to tell in the pub!
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oh my....lee glad your ok and it all turned out ok :)
carine glad you got everything under control...got stuck in a bushfire not far from where we used to live ..we used to go walking in the hills up behind ur place that was owned by an old man we used to know and my darling brother at the time thought it would be amusing to light up a black boy....well in a matter of seconds it took off and started a huge fire and luckily all the farmers in the area came up with a whole lot of water and wet bags and got it all out just before the firebrigade arrived...scary stuff fire...so good to hear everyone is ok and it all ended well on both counts :)
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And here is part three.
Picture this, me, asleep with two Pomeranians snoring alongside me, keeping me company on a cold, october night. The phone rings at 130am. I wake in a panic and scramble across the fur to answer the telephone.
It's Ed, at the airport in Washington DC. Evidently the electronic paper ticket was incorrect as he tried to check in on Lufthansa. His ticket was printed for him to fly home on Thursday night. The airline, however, said that they had him booked on Saturday night to fly back to Frankfurt. My poor Ed, alone, hotel less, with armfulls of gifts for me stranded at the airport with no where to go for 48 hours.
I told him to find a hotel, or at least get a cab back to the hotel he came from and beg for a room. He was absolutely furious, which was completely understandable. Naturally, I want him home as soon as possible too.
After saying goodbye, I lay awake, hoping that there is room somewhere. Surely President Obama has a spare room at that enormous White House for him?
I wake up and go off to work, still not knowing if my darling husband was sleeping in a dumpster somewhere or had joined a downtown gang of young youths.
I get an email later on this morning telling me that he was back at the original hotel, in a huff, planning more sightseeing for the next two days,
Ten minutes ago, I get an SMS saying that he was at the Smithsonian Institution and was standing gazing at Julia Child's kitchen that she had donated just before she died. I am sure that you have all seen the movie Julie and Julia and if you have not, I would be most disappointed!
Now if there is one thing I want to do in my life, it is to see that display. I am such a big fan of this amazing woman and her cookbooks, not only are they inspiring but they really teach you how to cook, as the titles suggest. I bet she would have totally embraced Thermomix if she were still with us today,
I think Ed is bringing me back lots of souvenirs and photos of her kitchen. I don't think Ed will be in a hurry to take me to Washington so that I could see her kitchen in the flesh. Google it, it is quite a lovely story! I am seething with jealousy that Ed is there but after his trials and tribulations, I am pleased that he found something worthwhile to do whilst killing time and waiting to return home.
And the really bad bit! We were meant to be attending a dear friends baby shower tomorrow. Not only will I be going alone, but I will going without a gift, as it is in Ed's suitcase!
Xxx
;D
PS i know this forum is really dedicated to the wonderful world of Thermomix but if you close your eyes and imagine really hard, I guess I did talk about cooking a little bit in this post!
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Poor Ed and poor you. However, there is now one more adventure for you both to remember (and laugh about - but perhaps just not yet, some time in the future when it doesn't seem so bad).
E tickets seem to cause more problems than they are worth, I think. DH and I have had a few problems with them in the past, but we had a particularly bad experience a couple of years ago at Bangkok and had to pay USD100 each to sort out an E ticket foul up - it took so long to clear up that we were actually escorted to the plane by ground staff as it was about to take off without us.
Hope your man (with all his special presents intact) arrives home on time this time around.
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Well, I am back in my hotel room (did get a lovely upgrade with stunning views of Washington). The Julia Child exhibit was just fantastic - she had donated her original kitchen and quite a lot of her cooking "tools" just before she died. The closest thing that she got to a TMX was an extremely large marble mortel and pessel that she used to grind things into a very fine paste. Certainly worth seeing....
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How disappointing for you both, good to see you are making the most of it Ed.
I think we all know each other well enough Lee to stray occasionally from TMX stories. I personally look forward to your sagas and can certainly see why your grandmother loves her daily phone calls.
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I also love your stories Lee - when our friends have problems we love to know about it. You will get all the sympathy in the world here. I loved the movie, must watch it again one day so if there is an upside to Ed's problems, it is that he got to see a bit more in Washington and Julia's kitchen would have been a real buzz. You go off and enjoy your baby shower - they will completely understand why you are arriving giftless at this stage. You never know Lee, you might just score a few more gifts - Ed has to do something for the next couple of days. ;)
Ed, enjoy the extra couple of days over there. I can imagine how frustrated you would have been but you sound as if you are resigned to the fact that you are a tourist for another couple of days so make the most of it.
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Lee loved the move, we have it on blu ray here.
Ed - i know how you feel, all acked up ready to come home and no plane, at least we were on holidays. Woud love to see some photos posted of kitchen etc.
Lee, enjoy the baby shower, the expectant mother will just be happy with your comoany, i know all my fiends would :)
H :)
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never a dull moment around you Lee, I should imagine Ed would be very bored without you. Looking forward to the next chapter :D
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yes never a dull moment...at least everything worked out and ed got a hotel and a room upgrade...cant complain about that...
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Here are some pictures from Julia Childs kitchen.....
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and some more.....
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Thanks for posting the pictures Ed - she sure liked her copper pots :D :D
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Lovely photos Ed.Something I would really love to see one day.Thanks for sharing with us :-*
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my pleasure. It was by accident that I stumbled across her kitchen in the Museum of American History on Friday - had no more room in my suitcase for any more shopping so went to the museum instead. Arrived back into Frankfurt this morning.... :)
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Good thing you weren't travelling with Qantas Ed ;) Hope Lee was pleased with all his presents.
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WoW Ed!......I can't count how many times I've watched Julie & Julia.......and seeing her kitchen would be such a buzz!
Did you see any blocks of butter left there, just like the movie? LOL.
I believe the first ever kitchen aid mixer is at the Smithsonian......now that's a museum I would be interested to go to......not to mention Carrie Bradshaw's apartment is there too ;D
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Love her kitchen, I could see a TM fitting on that bench very nicely.
Wow Lee and Ed life is far from boring in your neck of the woods.
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Ed's back - yippee! Amongst a myriad of gifts, I did receive many Julia Child cooking DVDs. It is truly delightful to watch these classic pieces of television. Of course she was trained at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris so she really knows how to cook. She was also a big fan of Magimix and Kitchen Aid as time saving devices.
So many of her quite challenging recipes could so easily be converted for Thermomix. A project I would dearly love to do when I have more time again. Making sauces in particular with Thermomix would be so simple, instead of the labour intensive way she does them.
Even though I have not made a traditional brown sauce or risotto the old fashioned way since Thermie arrived, I do find enormous pleasure in creating a dish with a knife and several pots of the the stove at once...
His next conference is Chicago and it falls within my school holidays so I can't wait to be a doctors wife and attend next time.
Xxx
;D
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Lucky you, Lee. Have fun with your DVDs, gifts and looking forward to the trip to Chicago - hope that goes smoothly - don't forget to double check your E-tickets!!!
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Thanks for posting the photos Ed, glad you are safely home. Try and keep lee out of trouble! lol. Changed my mind, we need Lee's adventures.
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Ed, great photos, thank you so much for posting.
Her mortar and pestle is huge!!!!!!!
Lee chicago sounds like a good trip.
Hally :)