Quiet Tuesday

To force me to stay home I gave the car to Dennis for the day! Slept in and felt much better when I woke up. Then found out that 2 ebayers had already paid for their items. To make sure that I get a good ebay reputation I quickly packed the books and walked over to the Mall to post them. So I can also claim 30 minutes exercise in walking to the mall, around it and back! Updated ebay with the payment received and posted statuses. Then to make it really friendly I also sent a personal email to each of the two that had paid so promptly and left them some good feedback. Hope that will induce them to leave me some good feedback so that other people will feel comfortable buying from me! What a rigmarole!
Had a phonecall from Dad's doctor (the one I met at the repat the day before) and he confirmed again that all the comments he had heard re autopsy point to MSA. He told me he will never forget Dad as he learned a lot from him. Both medically and also from a personal perspective. Was very impressed with Dad's courage and his willingness to remain positive when all seemed hopeless. Also said again what a gentleman Dad was. We will hear more once the written report is available.
At some stage I began to panick and realised that if I was going to teach a bunch of young men how to cook Potatoe pancakes I better get moving. So started with producing a recipe to hand out. Then peeled an enormous number of potatoes. Decided to make the mixture myself so that we could cook enough pancakes to feed them all and give them a taste. So had to put together the raw ingredients for the demonstration and also all the utensils and frying pans for the fryup. Decided to make enough mixture to also feed Dennis and Peter before leaving.
Dennis arrived shortly after 5....Takes only 15 minutes by car. Then we went and picked up Gerd's car (Dennis had a meeting to go to so we needed 2 cars) and Mum. Then fed everyone pancakes at home. Then grabbed all the prepacked bags and Mum and I headed to the church.
I had asked them to have someone there at 6.30 so that I could set up. We arrived shortly after 6.30 and all was pitchblack. There were a small group of young people in the foyer sitting in the dark. Mum and I went through the dark hall and found the kitchen which was also dark. We found an area in the hall that was lit up so found Mum a chair to sit on whilst I investigated further. None of the lightswitches I tried seemed to work and it took quite a while until one of the men turned up and got us some light. So ...we were late getting started. However all was set up fairly quickly. There were 2 other ladies, one demonstrating a South American dish ...Sort of like samosas (curry puffs) and one showing how to make your very own marshmallow (an American).
I plugged in my frying pans ready to get started and oh no!!!! No OIL. Now anyone who has tried to make potatoe pancakes will know that OIL is the most important ingredient...After the potatoes. You have to literally pour the stuff into the pan. They are probably more deepfried than fried. By now the young men had all turned up so I quickly negotiated myself to be 2nd on the list of demonstrators and raced out by car to find somewhere to buy oil. Lucky for me there was a petrol station around the corner and amongst all their caltex (oils aint oils) specials they also had 2 bottles of olive oil which I grabbed. Headed back and was still plenty of time to get started.
Was great to have Mum there who promptly took over the cooking of dozens of pancakes whilst I tried to demonstrate in between the curry puffs and the marshmallows. In the end we all got through and most of the pancakes were devoured. And the homemade marshmallow tasted yummy but by watching the complicated cooking method I have decided not to try making it myself!
For those who are interested I will post the recipe for Potatoe Pancakes but remember it is to feed 1 person so will need to increase the ingredients if you are very hungry. And this is a very simple recipe designed for our young men when they hit the mission field and are destitute! Mum has a much better recipe for the more adventurous!
Love, Inge.