New Year's freeze

The weather forecast predicted that 2 to 4 inches of snow might fall today. But we've ended up with more like ten. And the temperature an hour and a quarter before our New Year begins is 8F (about -13C), and falling as fast as the stock exchange.

We've just returned from a New Year's/Rock Band/Wallace and Gromit party with the Exiles and friends. The Boy is set on staying up until midnight, but he might be doing it alone.

We wish you health, happiness and all good things for 2009. Happy New Year!

Play it again, Man

This is the 500th installment of the Albaniana blog. What you make of it all I don't really know, though I hope you generally enjoy being along for the ride. For myself I'm happy rambling away, and like having the opportunity to get things off my chest from time to time. There have been tears and laughter. Some of your entries in the caption competitions have been quite inspired. But feedback suggests that the most popular episode to date has been one involving few words...

I(heart)NY bureaucracy

Good old New York State! Thanks to your bureaucratic incompetence I'm set to make a killing on WALL-E toys!

D'you remember way back when I tried to apply for my state driving licence? I'd been wrongly informed - by the Social Security Office, no less - that I wasn't eligible for a Social Security Number, so I was one point short of the six points of ID needed for the licence application. I was advised to sign up with discount supermarket BJs - the last line of defence in the war on terror, apparently - to obtain definitive photo-evidence of my identity. I wondered at the time if I'd ever recoup the $45+tax sign-up fee.

Well, I could be quids (or is that greenbacks?) in now! Sometime in October I was in BJs failing to shop (I feel obliged occasionally to exercise my membership rights by just going there) and found a boxed set of four small WALL-E action figures. At $17.50 they didn't seem to be giving them away, but I reckoned the Boy would appreciate them for Christmas, so I bought them.

Would you adam-and-eve it - the exact same boxed set is now retailing on Amazon for $130!

So, all I have to do now is prise the little figures back out of my son's loving grasp and e-bay here I come...

Rawsome recipes

My parents-in-law kindly sent us some money for Christmas, and the Man chose a gift to buy with it so that at least one of us would be surprised. He chose a recipe book: The Complete Book of Raw Food, which boasts over 400 recipes from the world's top raw food chefs.

I hadn't realised there were specialist raw food chefs. Anyway, what a great idea! Healthy food, and bound to be quick to prepare since you don't have to cook anything...

Oh, no no no no no no.

Granted, there are plenty of recipes for smoothies and the like that just require you to chuck a load of fruit and/or veg (and garlic!) into a (very expensive) blender. But there are also pages of recipes that start like this:

Advanced prep: 2 to 3 days for sprouting and soaking, + 24 to 36 hours for dehydrating.

That's for 'Grawnola', a version of breakfast cereal. Now, I don't know about you, but I don't think I'm prepared to wait four and half days for breakfast. Not to mention the bizarreness of having to spend 3 days hydrating the ingredients and another day and a half drying them out again.

Then there's 'Thai Wild Rice with Spring Vegetables', which starts with you having to soak half a pound of rice for 4 days. For crying out loud! Cook the damn rice - it'll only take 20 minutes!

However, I think once we've got our heads round this different approach to food preparation we're sure to find some real delights in the book. What our absurdly fussy children will make of raw cauliflower soup and sun-dried tomato pesto nut loaf remains to be seen (though I'll take a wild stabbing guess...).

Z-factor

Ever wondered what happens to the contestants who don't win X-Factor or Pop Idol? Today we found out what three also-rans from American Idol 2007 find themselves doing: Albany, on an outdoor stage in late December. And though Albany has its charms, well, it's still... Albany.

We were downtown with some friends for the annual Winterfest on a dampish afternoon. Performances and activities (such as fun-runs and llama-petting) were taking place at various locations, but we concentrated on City Hall where we ended up watching quite a good reptile show. Reptile shows are emerging as a major feature of most public events, parties and museums we attend. We've come to regard them as top entertainment: you see what I mean about Albany?

After the reptiles we wandered outside for the closing ceremony, featuring the aforementioned Z-listers (they weren't bad, actually, though a couple of them did fancy themselves enormously considering), and a firework display. Funny how firework displays always go on about ten minutes longer than strictly necessary when you are standing outside in the cold.

Tonight we have just been watching Alvin and the Chipmunks on DVD, with lots of 'This is a good bit! Oh, this bit is REALLY funny!' from the kids, who had seen it before on an aeroplane. An official notice at the start of the film warned that we might be offended by instances of 'mildly rude humor' - and indeed, there were several 'hilarious' butt jokes.

Walking on the white

The Man writes...today we had our first go at snow-shoeing. The adult snow shoes really do look like large tennis rackets and take a bit of getting used to, but the childrens' versions are pretty nifty and our kids soon got the hang of them...and then wanted to go home.

The Girl then went out for a playdate while the rest of us enjoyed our new toys and books.

On Christmas Eve I listened on CBC (Canadian Broadcasting Corporation) to "The Shepherd", a short story by Frederick Forsyth. Apparently, it was the thirtieth consecutive year that CBC has broadcast this story on Christmas Eve. Certainly The Shepherd is a good story, but I find it curious how some programs become adopted as firm Christmas fixtures, and how appealing tradition is at this time of year.

Christmas post

I hope you all had a merry Christmas, however you celebrated it. Did Santa bring you good things? We've just got home from a secular Jewish Christmas party. It was fun, and the food was fabulous, just too much of it. I need a long sleep now.

Was anyone given anything particularly notable that they would like to tell us about?