Bum in the Butter

It's a real bummer when a pound of rancid butter costs K1800 (US$12 or 7 pounds 50 pence).

I can understand why it is so expensive. It is because duty on Dairy products is so high to discourage people from buying it so that they will buy domestic produce instead. Why buy Clover, Kerrigold or Lurpak when you can buy the home-made variety? Trouble is, there isn't an alternative. Dairibord doesn't produce butter, neither does Suncrest Creameries. I cant find any Farm butter. The Dairy industry were whingeing that it was cheaper to buy imported milk, making their production costs high. So now, we can buy Dairibord milk cheaper but has this improved their product? It is still sour and watery, sometimes lumpy and reconstituted. The yoghurt is too tart, the cheese rubbery and tasteless. With all these market advantages, surely Dairibord can now be competitive and produce reasonably priced butter that isn't rancid and other dairy products that are edible?

Maybe the demand isn't there. Maybe its only those with their bum in the butter who are getting cheesed off. I shall just have to make my own........

Mona on getting older

It crossed my mind earlier that there would be nothing better than to sit in my new wing back chair and put my feet up on a foot stool and just enjoy the moment, the solitude, the serenity, the pictures on the wall and read a book in the comfort of my surroundings, with no guilt, in the knowledge that the clock is ticking anyway whether I do something about it or not. I then imagined an elderly person in a care home who was doing just that. A theory came into my head that perhaps elderly people don't mind sitting in a wing back chair with their feet up, just thinking, in solitude, watching time pass in the comfort of their familiar things. The clock ticking, the moment continuing on and on with no interruptions, nothing to take you away from your train of thought, staring and smiling knowingly when someone asks you a question. "You what dear?", "isn't she lovely?", "what have you been doing since I last saw you Agnes?" "Now't fresh" will be your reply. How irritating the interruption when you had just got thinking about something. "Time for your bath Agnes!", "What's for dinner Mum?". "It's tea time pet, up we come", "where's my sports kit Mum?". You deserve to sit and think and stare and not recognise anyone, you've earned it, you've been on your feet and worked your fingers to the bone for a long time.