History Tuesday/Ovens & Stoves

Well today is Tuesday and that means it is history Tuesday and what to write about today, I have been thinking about it all morning and have decided to write about something pretty much all of us use, the humble kitchen stove/oven.

We take it pretty much for granted we turn a knob and we have heat for cooking in some cases we may have to light the gas but it is still a simple thing to do. However, that of course wasn’t always the case. The modern electric stove/oven has only been around since the 1920’s the gas stove has been around since about 1820’s.

That said there was still many homes that didn’t have such stoves still well into the 1950’s many still made do with the old log burning stoves or coal burning stoves can you imagine having to get up and light the stove first thing in the morning and to have it going all day because of how long it took to get up and running good enough for cooking, I can’t.

It was a British inventor, James Sharp that patented a gas oven in 1826, the first semi-successful gas oven to appear on the market, by the 1920’s gas stoves were found in most households with top burners as well as ovens. Of course not all households had gas running into them thus why not all homes could have gas ovens.

Around the late 1800’s with the invention of electricity that the electric stove came into use, with an early model being made by a Thomas Ahearn a Canadian who demonstration how a meal could be prepared with electricity at Ottawa’s Windsor Hotel in 1892.

My mum who grew up in a small country town had a wood burning stove that she had to light of a morning from about the age of 7, she said it was a big stove about 2’4” and during the winter months they left it burning all night as it would also heat the house.

It is people like mum who love electricity and being able to flick a switch and have light and to just turn a knob and have heat for cooking as she didn’t have that for so long when she was a child. They didn’t have electricity at all when she was a girl, it was only the year her nan died that they got a kerosene fridge, before hand they had just an ice chest to keep the milk and cream and butter cold.

It was in 1946 that an engineer for the Raytheon Corporation, Percy LeBaron Spence discovered while doing research that the chocolate bar in his pocket melted while he was working on microwave-producing magnetrons. This got him thinking and he did further experiments and realised that microwave radiation could cook food more quickly than by normal heat. Only 8 years later the company produced its first commercial microwave oven, the first domestic version was released in 1967 although because of the high price and the fear about radiation meant it took another decade for microwaves to become popular. Today they are common place and found pretty much in every home.

My grandmother would not own a microwave as she was afraid the radiation would give her Alzheimer’s although many years later while suffering from Alzheimer’s my pop bought a microwave so he could reheat the meals his daughter in-law made for them by this time nan was unaware that they had one.

So that is all I have for today’s post.

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Just another Monday

Hello Monday, it has been a busy morning, I had to take Leo to school and of course I get nearly to Natasha’s to pick him up and realised I had forgotten to bring Leo’s school clothes with me so I had to get Leo and come home so he can change his clothes and I then took him back to school. I also had to drop of his new Webster pack of medication at the school and the fool chemist mucked it up he only take 1 table at midday and the chemist had added his morning medication as well which is one and half tablets. I was worried that they would make me take it back and get it redone, thankfully the woman who signed in the pack said it would be ok and I didn’t need to have it redone.

I had to take a form into the Department of Housing for Jessica and what happens when I get there she hadn’t signed the form so I said she might be out in the car the bloody woman being helpful she went out the back to try and find her and came back and told me she wasn’t in the car. Since I knew she was at home that was not a surprise I said I would go out and ring here and find where she was, I go out and walk around the corner and signed the form for her and went back and handed the form in for her.

I also had to pick up forms to fill in about Natasha moving back home with us, Tim was annoyed he said why do we have to fill these forms in why bother, but I want everything up front if we don’t tell them they will find out and we could end up with more trouble then we need.

Kelli asked if I would be able to record how Blain is when I get him this afternoon, so I dug out my digital recorder, I could use my phone but if I did that he would know what I am doing and I would rather him not know so I found the recorder and have put it in the car ready for when I get him this afternoon. I am expecting to not be in his good books since his father went mad at him about his swearing and being rude and disrespectful of me and others.

I also had to go to the building society to deposit some money in order to pay a bill, so by the time I got home and read some blogs post and started to write this up I was feeling somewhat tired, oh yeah I also went for a walk this morning which felt good and was tired at the same time. I would love to be able to have a nap during the day but usually don’t feel like I have the time to do so, since I have to leave at 2pm to head to the school to get Blain and then I go and get Leo and by the time I get back here it is between 3.30-4pm so to late in the day for a nap. Before hand I am not tired enough to have a nap I find it is after 1 that I start to get really tied so tired that a nap would be good.

Ok that is all for today why well because my brain doesn’t want to come up with anything else so I am just sharing me day so you all know I am still alive………………

Sunday at Jo-Anne’s Place

Hello all, it is Sunday at Jo-Anne’s house and this Sunday afternoon I am going to work on my blog posts and read some blog posts but it isn’t the afternoon yet is the morning 6.50am as I start this but I expect I will not finish it till later in the morning or even in the afternoon.

Lately I have felt a tad un-organised and have to say I don’t like it at all, I prefer to be organised in my belongings and my time and my thoughts, can’t say why exactly I feel un-organised I just have done. I have not felt like blogging on Fridays and Saturday and often on Sunday either and then I get annoyed with myself for not blogging and yes I know I shouldn’t feel like that but I do. I also have been slipping with my letter writing although yesterday I answered 5 letters so that was good, did that instead of blogging but to be honest I would prefer to do both.

Today Tim is going over to Jessica’s place to do some work around the house, repair some holes in the walls and fix a door and take Leo’s old bed apart and take it out near the kerb she has a kerbside collection coming up. He wanted me to go over and help but I said I was doing a baked lunch so while he and the girls are at Jessica’s I will be here cooking and around midday they can return here for a nice baked lunch. Have to say he was annoyed with me that I didn’t want to go and help but I said let’s be honest here how much of a help do you really think I will be, he snapped that he would need some help but didn’t comment on how much help he thought I would be, why, well I think he realised that I was right and I wouldn’t be much of a help so he snapped because he doesn’t like it when I am right, just my opinion.

I have been up since 6.30am had to get the roast on to cook in the slow cooker and have been writing this between peeling the veggies, I will start the cooking around 10.30-11am takes a while to cook everything.

It is now 9.25am and Tim has just got out of bed and Kathy just rang to say she would be heading over to Jessica’s place soon. Ok it is not a warm day here pretty cool in fact and I had the front door closed, so Tim gets up and opens the door to go out to have a smoke and comes in and leaves the door open what the hell Tim, it isn’t like he is even in the room he has gone down the hall somewhere. So I get up and shut the door watch him come back and open it again.

So all the girls turned up for lunch, Natasha was in a right mood, she stormed into the house and was slamming doors and such all because she was an hour late to get to Jessica’s place and everyone was leaving when she got there. Thankfully by the time we sat down to eat she was over it and laughing and joking with her sisters, this was a bit of a surprise as she often takes a while to get over stuff just like her dad.

It is now 1.50pm and I am at last getting around to finishing this and posting it, after lunch Natasha and I cleaned out the spare room and set it up for Blain to use and now the girls are leaving, won’t be long before Natasha will not be leaving of Sunday afternoon as she will be living here.

Speaking of Natasha her and I had a good talk, she was annoyed that I spoke to Kelli about Blain’s behaviour on Friday while she (Kelli) was her, Blain has become very cheeky and swearing for no good reason and outright lying about stuff to me, refusing to do his homework telling me he was going to throw it in the bin because he doesn’t want to do it. Well Kelli told Jonathon (Blain’s dad) and Jono rang Tasha and went off at her and somehow this all became my fault, but it is all good now we have talked and sorted things out.

A School Meeting

Hello bloggers, it is a nice cool somewhat wet Thursday here I didn’t do a post yesterday because I just didn’t feel like it, I went with mum to Dawson’s school for a meeting about what Dawson will be doing next year, mum and I planned to go to see nan after the appointment at the school but didn’t get to see nan as by the time we were finished at the school we just didn’t feel like we had the time to do so.

Mum and Michelle had been told Dawson would have to go to a different school next year Jesmond High instead of Wakefield he can’t stay at Wakefield as that school isn’t able to have senior students as in years 11 and 12 so since Dawson will be in year 11 next year he has to go to a different school.

Mum thought that he would be going into mainstream schooling but that isn’t the case, he will be going into a class for students with emotional behavioural problems the class will only have 7 students in it and is in the seniors only part of the high school, so no younger children to annoy Dawson. Learning this made both mum and me as well as Michelle feel better about him going there.

Now mum and Michelle will have to sort out how Dawson will get there, hopefully he will still be able to get the “taxi” there and back, it is not really a taxi it is a school transport scheme, he gets picked up and dropped at the school and in the afternoon he get picked up and brought home this costs nothing and means that mum doesn’t have to drive him. The principal told mum that he may not be able to get it as they may say mum drives so she can drive him but this is not something mum wants to do, she does enough as it is and she will be 76 next year. Oh well we will see what happens.

Today we had wanted to go to the cemetery to visit pops grave as it is 5 years since he passed it was 5 years yesterday but it has been far too wet to go there and the ground would be so bloody wet and muddy so we gave it a miss.

Tasha had a phone call from the Department of Housing yesterday about the letter I wrote a week ago saying how she is fed up and leaving the house and moving back home with me and her dad. She told them that she is done she didn’t want to hear their lies any more she has heard it all before and she is just so fed up and will be out of the house as soon as she can arrange storage for her belongings and can sort out the spare room in this house. She said she wasn’t rude but was firm and yes she cut the woman off but she said she is so over it.

I really don’t know how it is going to work with her and Blain moving back here but we will see and there is no way we would tell her they couldn’t come home as that is not who we are we are always here for our daughters.

History Tuesday/The Melbourne Cup

Hello Tuesday, well it is the first Tuesday in November and that means it is Melbourne Cup day also know as the race that stops a nation. This is of course a horse race, it is a 3,200 metre race for three-year-olds and over, it is the richest “two-mile” handicap race in the world and considered one of the richest turf races.

It is held by the Victoria Racing Club at Flemington, in Melbourne of course which for those who do not know is in the state of Victoria, the race runs at 3pm in the afternoon of course this is daylight savings time.

The race was first held in 1861 and it is pretty much a given that the race club committee could envisage that the cup would still be around over a century and half later and growing to be such a big part of our social and sporting culture.

Back in 1861 the race was held in front of about 4,000 people but by 1880 around 100,000 people would be at Flemington to see the race, the population of Melbourne was only around 290,000 at the time. People also travelled to Melbourne from all over the country for the race.

The first race was won by Archer in 3.52 minutes, the recorded for the fastest win is held by Kingston Rule in 3.16 minutes who won the race in 1990. The first race was 3,219 metres but has since been shortened to 1,868 metres.

Of course it costs to enter the Melbourne Cup the initial entry fee is $600 per horse around 300-400 horses are nominated each year but there is only 24 horses in the race. Following the allocation of weights the owner of each horse must on four occasions before the race delcare the horse as an acceptor and pay a fee. First acceptance is $960, second acceptance is $1,450 and third acceptance is $2,420 the final acceptance fee on the Saturday prior to the race is $45,375, should a horse be balloted out of the final field the final declaration fee is refunded.

Horses come from all over the world to enter the race and for many years it has been won by foreign horses for many years, the first horse bred in neither Australia or New Zealand to win a Melbourne Cup was the British horse Backwood in 1924. This year 18 of the 24 are from overseas.

The first winner received a gold watch, the first Melbourne Cup trophy was awarded in 1865 and was an elaborate silver bowl on a stand that had been manufactured in England. The first existing and un-altered Melbourne Cup is from 1866 is in the National Museum of Australia. The silver trophy presented in 1867 also in the National Museum of Australia was made in England but Victorian jewellers complained to the Victorian Racing Club that the trophy should have been made locally. No trophy was awarded for the next eight years.

It was in 1876 that an immigrant for Austria produced the first Australian-made trophy it was an Etruscan shape with two handle, one side depicted a horse race with the grandstand and hill of Flemington in the background. The opposite side had the words “Melbourne Cup, 1876” and the name of the winning horse. A silver plated base sporting three horses was added in 1888 but in 1891 the prize changed again to a Victory figure offering a olive wreath to a jockey. In 1899 the trophy was in the form of a sliver galloping horse embossed on a 3ft long plaque, although some thought it looked more like a greyhound then a horse.

The last Melbourne Cup trophy made in England was made for the 1914 race, it was a chalice centred on a long bask which had a horse at each end, the trophy awarded in 1916 was the first gold trophy which was a three-legged, three-armed rose bowl. In 1919 the three-handled loving cup design was awarded.

It was also in 1919 that the Victorian Racing Club commissioned James Steeth to design a trophy that would be in keeping with the prestige of the race, little realising that it would become the iconic Melbourne Cup that is still presented today.

During the Second World War (1942, 43 & 44) the winning owner received war bonds to the value of 200 pounds.

A new trophy is stuck each year and becomes the property of the winning owner, in the event of a dead heat a second cup is on hand. The present trophy is made by Hardy Brothers from 34 pieces of gold metal hand beaten for over 200 hours, close inspection of the inside of the Cup will reveal small hammer imprints.

As of 2008, the trophy values were increased and the Cup now contains 1.65kg of 18 carat gold valuing the trophy at around $125,000. The winning trainer and jockey also receive a miniature replica of the cup and the strapper is awarded the Tommy Woodcock trophy named after the strapper of Phar Lap.

Now you may be wondering why it is called the race that stops a nation, well this is because on Melbourne Cup day many businesses will have a break between 2.45-3.15 while the race is run, often staff will meet in the meal room for a cuppa and cake and listen to the race. Many stores will broadcast the running of the race over the P A for customers and staff to listen too.

Melbourne Cup Day officially became a public holiday in 1877 for those living in Melbourne, however, while all of Melbourne’s 31 metropolitan councils celebrated the first Tuesday in November there was a gap where some regional councils did not so in 2008 the Victorian Parliament passed a new legislation that saw Melbourne Cup Day as a public holiday for all council areas in the state except those where other holidays had been designated. This means that Melbourne Cup Day is now officially a public holiday throughout the state.

I have never had a bet on the Melbourne Cup but I can remember my nan always having a flutter and listening to the race and yelling for her horse to win.

Nothing much on this Monday

Hello Monday and what a lovely Monday it is, at the moment it is not too hot nor too cold so just so nice the type of weather I like.

This morning I was going to go for a walk but it was a bit wet outside so I decided not to bother, this would make my mum and daughters happy as they don’t like me to go for a walk, as they worry about me after that day when I was losing my balance and had difficulties walking.

I drove Leo to school this morning but really didn’t feel like doing so but Natasha didn’t want to do it and I had to take Leo’s school clothes and school bag over to her place as of course they didn’t bother to take his school stuff home with them yesterday.

Natasha has started to move some of her stuff in, she has brought over all of Blain’s clothes and Xbox games and a few of his toys, we will be setting a bed up for him in the next day or so or so she has said.

I hope she is happy living here, I am not sure how she will be as it is not easy in my opinion when adult children move home with their parents but it is what she wants to do, I wrote a letter off to the Department of Housing telling them that she is done and wants out of the house she is in so much that she is prepared to move home and share a room with her soon to be 10yr old son. She said he will have the bed and she will sleep on the lounge.

On Saturday night we had one little boy come to the door trick-or-treating and I gave him something although I don’t do Halloween I thought it was only one boy so why not.

I have been watching the tv show Banished set in the early days of New South Wales, convict days how hard life must have been for those early settlers I can’t imagine but they some how managed and survived and built this great country.

That is all I have for now, my brain isn’t working much so I will just post this and maybe tomorrow I will be able to write more