Insane crazy heatwave weather!

Every day I check the temperature on various weather websites. It's become my obsession. It's just crazy. I guess I've been too spoilt for too long living in Sydney, where the climate is so moderate. Where people think it's hot if it's over 28º or cold if it's under 15º (myself included). Well It's been in the mid-30s here for almost a month now. Which may seem OK but it actually feels more like 40+ and I'm not making this stuff up either! Even Yahoo Weather agrees. To me, going outside is like standing in front of one of those hot air handryers in public bathrooms - a huge one, for hours on end.

The poor workers who have to work outdoors...(like construction builders). I really feel for them. Standing or walking outside for just 5 or 10 minutes is hell on earth. How do they manage to work outside in the blistering heat (where the sun is also very strong and shining brightly every day) for hours and hours on end? I heard that if the temp. is over 35º they get paid a little more than usual and if it's 40 or over, they don't have to work.

Thank God the humidity is not that high. It is only about 50% and not more than 60%. However, the sweat factor is definitely there. You just sweat. And sweat. And sweat. And sweat... I have seen people walking or riding a bike with a wet face towel over their head - good idea! The weirdest feeling I get is when I walk into a freezing cold air-conditioned building after being outside and my arms become as cold as ice yet my chest, back and head are still sweating like mad. Such a lovely feeling - not!

Bruschetta

In an effort to be a good (50's style) wife I have tried to do more and better cooking lately. For anyone that knows me I detest cooking! Ugh. And I am weird in that I have not much interest in food nor eating. I hate grocery shopping.

So anyway, here is the bruschetta I made last Thursday, a week ago. What do you think? We have no oven nor toaster but a flat cafe-style toaster doobiewacker. I used 2 cloves of garlic, some spring onion, quarter of a red onion, one whole tomato, and some "olive" bread I bought from Carrefour (already sliced because I'm lazy). I finely diced/chopped all the ingredients. Then I added a dash of olive oil to the bread, spooned the mixture on and sprinkled on the Italian herbs (Masterfood brand - from Australia!)

You can add shredded cheese on top too. :)

It was so delicious, even if I do say so myself. The bread was perfectly cooked and crunchy and the toppings were tasty. The red onion was the magic ingredient, I think.

Now... what the diddly am I going to make tonight?

(PS this stupid layout on Blogger when uploading pictures sux!)

Clustrmaps

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Breadtalk AnpanMan

I was going to write about this before but I'm glad I've left it till now because I just discovered something new.

It all started when we had been in Shanghai for a few days and were still staying in our hotel (JinJiang on Maoming S. Road). My mother came and met us and the three of us walked to Huaihai Road. We went to the underground supermarket at the basement of Parkson's department store. At the front of the supermarket there was a Breadtalk store (A Singaporean bakery chain I believe).. Mike got an Anpan Man red bean bun because he was attracted to the smiley face.

Many days passed and Mike was on a quest to find every Breadtalk in Shanghai. I found the list of stores but then he made a discovery. If you don't get there before 3 or 4pm, then all the Anpanman buns are gone! And they don't make anymore after that.

So we are always on a quest for the Anpanman.

Just then I found out that it is actually based on a Japanese cartoon character.

According to wikipedia, Anpanman (アンパンマン) has a head of a bun made by Jam Ojisan. His name comes from the fact that he is a man with a head made of bread (Japanese: pan, a loanword from the Portuguese word meaning "bread") that is filled with bean jam (Japanese: an) called an anpan. His weakness is water or anything that makes his head dirty. He regains his health and strength when Jam Ojisan bakes him a new head and is placed on his shoulders. Anpanman's damaged head, with Xs in his eyes, flies off his shoulders once a new baked head lands. He was created when a shooting star landed in Jam Ojisan's oven while he was baking. He has two special attacks called: An-punch and An-kick. When Anpanman comes across a starving creature or person, he lets the unfortunate creature or person eat part of his head.

Here is more about how Anpanman was born:
http://mboogiedown-japan.blogspot.com

Here is someone else who likes to eat him:
http://www.joelwesleyrose.com/2006_07_01_archive.html

And there is even a flickr group dedicated to him!
http://www.flickr.com/groups/anpanmanland/