Minimalist running shoes and better running technique
Minimalist running shoes and better running technique.
I've been running a bit lately. And sometimes it's without shoes. I might have to think about my technique. If there is one, that is...
Gingerbread Pirates
Preparation time: 15 to 30 minutes
Ingredients
Method
- Arrange boys on chairs near kitchen bench. Continually bat their hands away from the eggs.
- Beat butter, sugar and golden syrup until light and creamy. Add egg, beat well.
- Combine flour, spices, bicarbonate of soda and salt into creamed mixture and mix until just combined.
- Think to yourself, "That looks too dry." Realise that you forgot to add the egg, so add it now. And mix it up again.
- Turn out onto floured surface, knead for 1 minute, adding extra flour if dough is sticky.
- Wrap in cling wrap and refrigerate for 30 minutes or until firm. Preheat oven to 150°C.
- Look at the clock; it's a quarter to eight. Maybe fifteen minutes in the freezer will do the trick, since the boys should already be in bed. And the monsters come out at eight o'clock.
- OK, it looks good enough.
- Roll out dough on floured surface to 4 mm thick. Using cutters, cut shapes from dough.
- Rescue each newly cut pirate from the nearly two year old. A few will lose arms, but maybe that's why pirates have hooks.
- Try to find a small play dough cutter to make something out of the leftover dough. Ah, this will do nicely (I think it's a lizard); if you turn it on its side it almost looks like a parrot!
- Place on lined tray, allowing room for biscuits to spread.
- We need more trays. Do them in batches; it's only 5 minutes after all.
- Bake for 5-10 minutes then allow to cool on cooling rack.
- Quick, get some piratey-looking chocolate icing on a couple of them and let the boys have at 'em.
- Put the boys to bed.
- Take a poorly-lit, blurry photo with your phone for posterity.
- No study tonight. But something to eat with morning tea tomorrow.
Death of Osama Bin Laden ‘pretty irrelevant’: Robert Fisk – ABC Melbourne – Australian Broadcasting Corporation
Veteran journalist Robert Fisk, who interviewed Osama Bin Laden on three occasions, says news of Bin Laden's death is much less important than the popular uprisings happening in the Arab world.
"I've been saying for some time that I think whether he's dead or not is pretty irrelevent," says the Middle East correspondent for British newspaper The Independent.
"As far as he's concerned he founded Al Qaeda and that was in his eyes his achievement."
The award winning journalist says Osama Bin Laden was not in a position to actually direct Al Qaeda's operations.
"He didn't sit in a cave with computer knobs saying press button b, it's operation 52," says Robert Fisk.
Fisk, who most recently has been reporting on events in Syria, says the world has changed in more ways than one since 9-11.
"Over the last few months you've seen an Arab awakening in which millions of Arab muslims have overthown their own leaderships," he says.
"Bin Laden always wanted to get rid of Mubarek and Ben Ali and Gaddafi and so on claiming that they were all infidels working for America and in fact it was millions of ordinary people who peacefully, more or less - certainly in the case of Tunisia and Egypt - got rid of them."
"Bin Laden didn't, he failed to do that."
"You've got to remember these regimes have always been telling the Americans 'keep on supporting us because if you don't Al Qaeda will take over' - and in fact Al Qaeda did not take over."
It was interesting that after the Egyptian overthrow of Mubarek the first thing we heard from Al Qaeda a week later was a call for the overthrow of Mubarek, one week after he'd gone, it was pathetic."
He says the celebrations in the United States over Bin Laden's death are meaningless.
"I think [Osama Bin Laden] lost his relevancy a long time ago actually,"
"If they'd have killed Bin Laden a year or two after 9/11 some of the breast beating that's going on in the United States... might have been relevant.
"All this fists in the air of victory by the United States - it's good pictures but I don't think it means anything," he says.
"The fact of the matter is that what we have in the moment in the world, what is important is a mass uprising and awakening by millions of muslim Arabs to get rid of dictators."
Robert Fisk says these uprisings are 'much, much more important than a middle aged man being killed in Pakistan'.
Robert Fisk spoke to Richard Stubbs on 774 ABC Melbourne Afternoons.
Truly-ruly. As if it's going to make any difference... Funny how how breast-beaters outside the White House look so much like the ululating fanatics in the Middle East following the September 11 attacks. 'Course, they couldn't see the similarity.
The Pointy End
Two assignments due soon. I was thinking this was the pointy end of uni session, but I guess the exam period could be considered to be the real pointy end. Maybe there are two points. Maybe it's pointless.
Hmmm...
It seemed so peaceful…
I'm trying to keep my head in place by going for a run every day while I'm at Residential School. We're literally a couple of minutes' walk to the mighty Mt Panorama race track - many memories from childhood, sitting glued to the TV once a year, watching Brocky, Bondy, and that (Canadian!) Allan Moffat race around and around and around and around...
Madeleine’s goal: black belt!
Second lesson at Zen Dan Kwan and I think she's hooked. I like this place too.
