less cars : roll on $2 per litre

Stuart Lamble Wrote:
On 2006-08-15, SteveA
wrote:
Many people have lost the ability to turn ingredients into food.

Word. I *love* baking ... so you can imagine just how annoyed I was
when
I realised that the damn shops were selling "bread mix" instead of
"bread flour". *BIG* difference.


You can find bread flour (not mix) in our local Coles supermarket, in
5kg bags even, which surprised me.

I'm another who likes to bake .... bread, cakes, biscuits (haven't
bought commercially prepared biscuits for over 2 years now).

The funniest experience I ever had with the turning ingredients into
food concept was when we had another light added to our pantry. The
electrician, whom we new quite well, looked in the pantry and said "how
come you haven't got any food in here?" I looked at the groaning
shelves in complete puzzlement until I worked out he meant there was no
processed food in the pantry, which indeed there never is. (with the
exception of baked beans and tomato soup)


--
matagi

gplama wrote:
Bleve Wrote:

When it hits $10 a litre, what will you do?

Seriously, this problem is not going to go away. The world *will*
change.

The worrying part is, even if we only ride bikes, we are not immune
from this in any way. Imagine postage/freight costs, air fairs, FOOD.
Damn it, I like my food!

It's the last mile that hurts, or, for those of us not chained to cars,
that doesn't hurt. Transport, large-scale, is pretty efficient, it's
every moron *driving* to the stupormarket 10 times a week that adds up.

alison_b wrote:
I don't know why people think kids *don't* do these things... one of
my youngsters crosses the city umpteen times a week getting to and fro
to a variety of sporting activities - sometimes by PT, sometimes on her
bike, sometimes walking. But sometimes this is impossible - like a
hockey match at 8pm on a Friday night in Geelong or Ballarat, and I'll
borrow or hire a car. Sure, she could just not play, but only playing
games that are convenient isn't much of a way for a team to be, well, a
team. And there aren't alternatives at present for both her age,
gender, and level. There is car pooling, but again that may not cut
down much on distances travelled unless a team all live close by and
near PT.

good on you alison, and good on your kid. She must be special. It's not
as easy as some people think.

Donga

Stuart Lamble wrote:

Word. I *love* baking ... so you can imagine just how annoyed I was when
I realised that the damn shops were selling "bread mix" instead of
"bread flour". *BIG* difference.

There's a food cooperative called "Alfalfa" in Enmore Rd Newtown (Syd),
that sells Good Stuff (real flour, whole grains, organic fruit & veg, etc).
I would be very surprised if there are not a few of these places in
Melbourne, or any large city. But, you do have to hunt for them.

--
beerwolf (remove numbers from email address)

Not having kids of that age, I'm only responsible for myself. I choose
to ride to work, and I choose to ride to the gym. In fact I choose to
ride, full stop.

Like the great man said "cycling is life, everything else is just the
bits inbetween".


deejbah wrote:
I find it amazing that parents today are willing to drive their kids
around almost to the detriment of their own lives, even when their kids
are able to either walk or cycle to where they are going. The same goes
for people flogging themselves to death at work so they can pay
exhorbitant private school fees and clothes. I can't see how that is
healthy for either parents or the children. I remember when I was a kid
that whenever we played away games, there was usually car pooling or a
roster system between the parents. At home games, we would often walk
or ride to games.


--
deejbah

On Tue, 15 Aug 2006 06:48:12 +0000, Zebee Johnstone wrote:

I grew vegies for a while, but various things led to the silverbeet being
neglected. I didn't realise they could grow 8 foot tall!

I'd offer to help, but the chainsaw's too expensive to run at $1.50/l

--
Dave Hughes |
"Until we understand quantum gravity, we're not going to be
running Linux on a black hole" - Seth Lloyd

On Mon, 14 Aug 2006 22:05:30 -0700, Donga wrote:

I could use the local high and primary schools, for demonstrably worse
educational outcomes.

To which level? Cherry picking the elite of society, who have better
reading skills due to Mum & Dad having time and education, then relying on
Mum & Dad to provide tutoring and various other expensive bits, then
saying "we've got 25% of our students getting in the top 10%) isn't that
impressive.

There's also good evidence that public school students do better at Uni
than private school students.

Damn, I must be paying attention in lectures.

--
Dave Hughes |
Like most computer techie people, I'll happily spend 6 hours trying to
figure out how to do a 3 hour job in 10 minutes. --Rev. James Cort

On Tue, 15 Aug 2006 06:34:15 +0000, Stuart Lamble wrote:

You're assuming that money will resolve the problem. It will in the long
term, but only if the good teachers can be attracted to the public system.
In the short term, it'll make diddly squat difference, especially if only
one person does it.

The "independent" schools are doing their best to drive good teachers back
to the public system. Sure you get paid more, but when you've got
seniority and experience and get paid $5000/yr more than the
just-out-of-uni punter why would you stay.

What we *need* is for the government to retract the funding from private
schools (especially Catholic schools), and put it into public education.

The Catholic system attracts stuff all compared to the private schools,
and has a long tradition of being the halfway between public and private
schooling (like 100+ yrs). Why do schools charging $10k/yr for education
get a handout?

--
Dave Hughes |
Frankly, your argument wouldn't float were the sea composed of mercury.
- Biff

Random Data Wrote:
On Tue, 15 Aug 2006 06:48:12 +0000, Zebee Johnstone wrote:

I grew vegies for a while, but various things led to the silverbeet
being
neglected. I didn't realise they could grow 8 foot tall!

I'd offer to help, but the chainsaw's too expensive to run at $1.50/l
[/color]

Our broadbeans are heading towards that height, but are very much
encouraged!


--
cfsmtb

"cfsmtb" wrote in message
...

Wrote:
cfsmtb wrote:
Freight? Logistics? Unless there is a immediate shift to returning
Australia's freight requirements back to rolling stock, we could be
potentially in for a very rude shock regarding food prices. So why
don't food producers grow stuff closer to the population centers??

How about your back yard? Or your front yard for that matter.

Been doing that, here's last summer effort:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/5103553...ardenpixjan06/

This early spring, the front yard looks like a broadbean & rocket
factory. Other stuff: shallots, lime & apricot trees, lettuce, endives,
peas, broccoli, spinach, chard, early potatoes. Up the back: carrots,
bok choy, garlic, parsley, chicory, more spinach, peas & various
herbs.

More stuff to be planted soon for spring/summer.


--
cfsmtb


Damn it I *want* a place of my own. It'll happen soonish, but I want a
kitchen and garden to play with.