Wednesday 25 March 2015

The War on Cling Wrap Just Got Personal

Over here at Team Turner, the battle over cling wrap just took an unexpected twist.

First, let's recap:

OCTOBER 2014 - I finished a 600m Goliath box of cling wrap, a gift from my dad that had lasted over 3 years. You can read about that here.

NOVEMBER 2014 - Knowing it would be weeks before my dad could get a replacement Goliath to me (which he'd already purchased), I bought a small box of Glad Wrap to see me through.

DECEMBER 2014 - Tortured, I wrote this post about the new design of the Glad Wrap box and how it was destroying my life.

JANUARY 2014 - I discovered that people all over the country were tearing their hair out over this same packaging nightmare. It seemed it was perhaps the most monumental marketing balls-up of this century as customers threw brand loyalty out the window, vowing to teach Glad a lesson.

Since then, lessons have indeed been learnt. Glad agreed to revert to their original packaging while testimonials for reusable containers popped up all over the interwebs. It's been a crazy few months in the world of food packaging. Big stuff.

"What's happened now?" I hear you ask, perched on the edge of your chair, popcorn in hand.

This:


It's with a heavy heart that I report that it was not the Glad Wrap design to blame here, but rather, my new and dear-to-me Goliath box. And my stupidity. But let's not focus on me.

You see, it all happened in the excitement of ditching the Glad box and opening the new Goliath in order to supply husband some cling wrap. I opened the box and extracted the plastic, but didn't bother to fit the cutter-blade-thingey on the top, meaning the blade was exposed.

When husband shoved the whole box (which is quite heavy being 3 years' worth of plastic!) into the cupboard and proceeded to run his finger along the entire blade, the Turner household came to a stop.

The sharp intake of breath, the bend and cringe and the stifled expletive stopped the rest of us in our tracks. Then there was the blood. Far out, can that much blood really pour out of a finger? Apparently so.

The photo really doesn't do justice to the injury. Husband is quite disgusted by this shot, in fact, feeling ripped off by the insignificance of the cut in the photo. I don't blame him. I was there,  I saw it in real life and it wasn't pretty; we even wondered if he'll lose the nail - it cut that deep.

The 600m Goliath remainss my friend and I'm still incredibly happy to be rid of the old "just rip up" Glad Wrap, but for husband, it's not that cut and dry. He sees the Goliath as the death trap that it is, clenching his jaw with every sandwich he wraps, cursing under his breath with every leftover dish he covers.

The cling wrap war is not just about Glad Wrap any more. Now it's so much more.

Have you ever been attacked by packaging?



Thursday 19 March 2015

This is What Happens When You Neglect Your Vegie Patch

Busy much? I don't know about you, but around my neck of the woods, it's been flat-chat lately. All the stuff that makes up life, both good and bad, piling up on top of us like a scene from The Cat in the Hat.

When life gets like that, something has to give. Apart from an unplanned delay in blog posts, it's been our yard and in particular our vegie patch, that's suffered the most.

In the middle of summer, we had the most amazing crop of tomatoes. It was so lovely being able to pick and eat our own, especially for Miss 5 and me as we're both lovers of the red fruit. We saved money (between $40 and $50 a month for  2 - 3 months) and got a taste for what tomatoes SHOULD taste like. It was gutting when I had to start buying them again, especially when they taste like furry cardboard.

This is the vegie patch in it's prime:


Now, between the dog and the grubs and the tenacity of self-sown tomatoes, the garden is a total mess. We have two carrots, a pea, 4 zucchinis that you can't get to and 3 kale leaves that look like they've been shot at with a semi-automatic rifle. (Is that the right gun reference? I'm not much of an arms expert, so maybe not....but I'm sure you get my drift.)

The dog has decided the broccoli makes a good bed. The citrus trees are diseased, the capsicum plant looks like it has radiation poisoning and there are unwanted tomato plants growing in every freaking direction. As much as I'd love to grow tomatoes, it's not the best season for them, they're devouring the seeds we did plant and they weren't invited.



We didn't plant a single tomato seed. Geoff Goldblum called it.

Digressing a little, I heard Gerry Harvey on TV last night talking about how he grows all his own fruit and veg. I both admired him and loathed him for his smug organic ways. I suspect his vegie patch is much like ours, except for COMPLETELY BLOODY DIFFERENT.

Anyway, husband and I have agreed it's time to prioritise and get this garden back to the productive, life sustaining, plate filling, health promoting plot that it used to be. Or at least get one of those cute little zucchinis out.....

So within the next week or so, I'll be back with an update on the garden and hopefully it will look noticeably different to it's current state. Commitment.

Do you grow stuff? What's your favourite?