Simple Pleasures

My simple pleasure for this week is reading.  I come from a family of voracious readers and my parents  always encouraged us and, to the best of my recollection, never censored our choices.  One of my earliest memories is going to the library around the corner from where we live now once a week because there wasn't a branch in our suburb.  I loved going up and down the stairs between the fiction and non fiction sections, poking around, and picking up my allocation of books for the week with the librarian stamping the due date slip in the back on the way out.

Today, one of my favourite ways to finish the day is to walk home from the train station via that same library to see what is available or pick up a book on reservation.  In addition to getting maximum use out of the library,  I borrow from family and friends and also buy far too many books from various sources, including op shops.  While I prefer quality literature, I am happy to admit that I love a good trashy read, particularly when on holidays.  While we were building the new STLT HQ, I acquired 5 boxes of books from the Landlady with the result that even with new bookshelves in the house, I still did not have enough room to accommodate them all (the photo below makes my books look far more ordered than the reality).  Even so, I cannot contemplate buying an e-reader - part of the pleasure of reading a book is the feel of it and having that sense of ownership.

Simple Pleasures

Looking for unconditional love and affection?  Someone who listens but doesn't answer back? Doesn't care what you look like?  Get a dog or, better still, get two.

Sure, there is a bit of work involved in feeding, walking and cleaning up after them, but the joy they bring to our house is immeasurable.  We love our girls to bits and cannot imagine life without a dog being part of it.

Simple Pleasures

This week my simple pleasure is culinary.  Stos and I like to cook and eat and we are fortunate enough to be able to dine at some terrific restaurants, but one thing that we cannot resist is a barbecued sausage.  However, the perfect snag has a few criteria to meet:

- The sausage must be nondescript.  No gourmet morsels here.
- This is one of the few occasions when it is acceptable to serve something in white bread.
- It must be served with bottled tomato sauce (my preference is for White Crow brand).
- Inclusion of barbecued onions is acceptable but adding grated cheese is over the top.

My favourite place to get this delicacy from is from a hardware store or shopping centre where usually a local charity is on duty out front selling snags in bread for around $2.  I have been known to dash across a four lane highway after identifying a barbecue in progress at a Bunnings store.

An example of this treat, cooked at home last Sunday is below but it is not really the perfect version in that it is with wholemeal bread (didn't have any white to hand) and we only had Masterfoods tomato sauce in the cupboard.  But did this stop me tucking in?  No way!

Simple Pleasures

There is a lot to think about at the day job - deadline, workloads and restructuring.  I know that I have a lot to be thankful for and there are people with much more serious concerns, but these things do wear you down over time.  To try and stay positive,  at least once a week  I am going to make a conscious effort to think about the small or simple things in life that make me happy.

Today's simple pleasure is doing the word puzzle in the newspaper (yes, the print version).  This is my routine on the way home on the train.  Very simple premise - you are presented with 9 letters and need to make as many words as possible (min. 4 letters each) from these, but all must include the letter in the centre square.  One of these words must contain all nine letters.  For each days puzzle there are three levels - good, very good and excellent and the number of words you need to achieve these differs, depending on the degree of difficulty.  A great end to my day is achieving a word count over the "good" level and nutting out the nine letter word.  Today was one of those days and it put a spring in my step all the way home from the train station.