Challenging TIme ― 2023/08/08
I have a proud thirty years of career as a housewife. Recently, however, I began to think that my housekeeping skills are no longer up-to-date and reliable after I experienced the following pride-shaking incidents.
主婦歴30年を誇る私ですが、ここにきて私の主婦力はもはや陳腐化していて、役に立たなくなってきたのではないかと思わせる案件が相次ぎました。例えば...。
- A series of failures at perishable shopping. I have bought half-rotten (maybe edible but something was apparently funny) seafood twice in last month only: one is locally caught prawns at a local grocery store I used to trust, and the other is farmed tuna that with unpleasant smell that I bought at a department store. Maybe it was my mistake to have bought the trimming in the hottest season. They were packed so skillfully that the bad parts were out of sight and the cringe film confined the smell. Even if I use all my sense, it was difficult to see the quality. I also got a small, overripen watermelon with somewhat fermented feeling at 800 yen. Well, it might be small expense compared to splashing out on books and non-essential clothing, or having a new menu item at Strubucks, but considering the labor involving in shopping them, bringing them back in an insulated bag (which also involves preparing ice packs and disinfecting the bag after use), disinfecting them by spraying them with alcohol before putting them in the fridge, cutting and preparing them to keep them fresh and edible, and cost of cooking, the loss feels tremendous.
生鮮食品の買い物で失敗続き。先月だけでも半分腐った（食べられるのかもしれないけど何かが明らかにおかしい）魚介類を2回も買ってしまいました。1つはこの辺でとれたエビで、ここは、と思っていた魚屋で買ったのにだめでした。もう1つは変なにおいのする養殖マグロ。これもデパートで買ったのに…。この暑い時期に切り落としを買う方が間違っているのかしら。2つともうまいことパック詰めされていて、変なところは見えないようになっていました。それに、ラップできっちり包まれていて、匂いも分かりませんでした。これでは、五感を駆使しても品質を見極めることは困難です。これだけではなく、小さいスイカ（800円）を買ったら、熟れすぎいて発酵したような味でした。まあ、本や要りもしない服やスタバの新作に散財するのに比べたら出費額は小さいのですが、買い物に行って、買ったものを保冷バッグに入れて持ち帰り（事前に保冷剤を用意して事後にはバッグを消毒して）、冷蔵庫に入れる前にはアルコールで消毒して、食べられるように下ごしらえする労力と、調理にかかる費用を考えたら、ものすごーく損したような気がしてしまいます。
- Grocery stores, as long as I have observed, seem to have become craftier and craftier, using "SDGs-friendly" as an excuse. They look trying to outsmart their customers who have already suffered high prices and additional and mysterious taxes. For example, some stores sell things with very short shelf lives remaining, say, one or two days, at full prices, without feeling ashamed. They used to be supposed to be sold at much reduced prices until a year ago, I believe. To make the matter worse, these items are usually put at the front of the shelves. This means, I have to do the most embarrassing, disgraceful and unsightly thing; digging my hand deep into the shelves to get items with longer life, feeling a bit of guilt.
私が見たところ、「SDGｓ」を言い訳に、食品スーパーはどんどんずる賢くなっているようです。値上がりと訳の分からない税金でいい加減弱っているところに、こんな仕打ちを受けるとは…。スーパーの中には、賞味期限が明日や明後日の商品を平気で普通の価格で売っているところがあります。1年前までは大幅に値引きして売られていたのに...。しかも、賞味期限切れ間近の商品ほど棚の手前に置かれているのがまたむかつく。おかげで、棚の奥に手をつっこんで消費期限の長いものを探す、という大変恥ずかしい、カッコ悪いことをしなくてはならなくなりました。恥ずかしいだけではなくて、こういうことは気が咎めるんですよね。
I tend to grab anything at the front of the shelves when I shop perishables, believing that as long as the price was same, the quality and best-before or use-before date should also be same. It definitely is the time for me reconsider my idea of shopping along with cursing the stores. Is this a kind of "re-skilling" to adapt to the new era?
もう、値段が同じなら賞味期限も品質も変わらない、という理屈は通用しないのかもしれません。お店のことを呪うのもいいけれど、とりあえず棚の手前のものを取る、という私自身の買い物の常識を考え直すときなのでしょう。これもいわゆる「リスキリング」の1つなのでしょうか？
At Tenjin ― 2023/08/09
The other day, I went to Tenjin to get my bankbook renewed (at the cost of 550 yen, but this is another story). While waiting my turn to come, I saw many slightly old-ish middle-aged, apparently retired men in the waiting space and found more than half of them were carrying Porter Yoshida bags.
It was a bit of surprise because I assumed Portor was a brand for much younger, say, our, generation. Then, the next moment I came to realize an inconvenient truth: I myself has become a person who should be categorized into the old-ish middle-aged! Absolutely no wonder that Porter is their favorite.
ちょっと前、新しい通帳をもらいに天神まで行きました（新しい通帳に550円かかりましたが、これはまた別な話）。待合スペースには明らかに定年後の、ちょっとお爺さん寄りのおじさんたちがいました。おじさんたちの半分以上がポーターのバッグを持っていました。
ポーターは私たち世代のバッグだと思っていたのでちょっとびっくりしましたが、次の瞬間、私自身もお婆さん寄りのおばさんになっちゃてるんだと気づきました。
Only Me? ― 2023/08/12
It only a couple of weeks ago I by chance noticed that my way of using cooking knives were not efficient. Incorrect, to be precise. According to the experts, I should "slide" or pull the knife toward me, not pressing the blade onto the subject (which is, exactly how I have been doing) when I want to cut something (see the website below for more details).
This means I have been wrong for more than a half century. The fortune I have spent for nice-looking knives with some stories (stupidly, I assumed it was "investing") and to get them sharpened by professionals, not even knowing how to use it in the first place, has turned to be a total waste of money.
I could have learnt the basic of cooking when I was young, not going for unrealistic gourmet comics such as Oishinbo or Hocho Mushuku. Well, coming to know it while I am still able to use knives should be a bit better that not knowing it at all.
最近になって初めて、自分の包丁の使い方が非効率的（ま、正確に言えば間違い）だったことに気がつきました。専門家によると、「押し切る」のではなく、「引いて切る」のが正解だそうです。私はこれまでずーっと「押し切る」派でした（詳しくは下記リンクをご覧ください）。
つまり、半世紀以上にわたって誤っていたというわけです。能書きのついたよさげな包丁を買ったり（それを「投資」だと思い込んでいた愚か者の私）、それをプロに研いでもらったりするのに使ったお金も、そもそも使い方を知らないのではまったくの無駄でした。
若い時に「美味しんぼ」とか「包丁無宿」とか読むのではなく、料理の基本を習っておけばよかったのに...。まあ、まだナイフが使えるうちに知ることができただけましなのかもしれません...。
Todaoy's Cat ― 2023/08/22
Her safe heaven
Dazzling Summer ― 2023/08/22
Recently I started thinking I should enjoy the oppressive heat while I am able to feel and relish it, which means I am strong enough to do so.
Bodies... ― 2023/08/27
Following last month, we have seen abnormal deaths happening strangely frequently in August.
As long as I can remember, there have been at least four cases within a period just one month and a space of 20-kilometer square.
（in no specific order)
1.In Minami ward, a skull was found in an apartment of a council flat where a middle-aged man was found dead in April. And his over 90-year-old mother has been missing.
2. In Higashi ward, a man found dead with his head covered in a bag and his wrist were tied with binding tape in a parking space of a shrine. His death was treated as a suicide. I personally wonder how the man could successfully commit suicide when he couldn't move his hands.
3. In Hakata ward, an old lady, whose name was unknown when this piece of news first appeared, was run over by a motorbike and died afterward.
4. In Nishi ward, a man in his seventies was run over by a car and died on an urban motorway. The victim had been witnessed entering the motorway, prohibited pedestrians to enter, walking.
These events were, as usual, not treated as seriously as a possible decline of food export from Fukuoka due to the discharge of (radiated, but according to our government, "properly treated") water from the crippled nuclear power plant in Fukushima, which we all have known for months.
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