Wacky word problems

The hilarious Jenners was inspired to create a game after seeing this math problem:

Each basket held 16 watermelons. Dan collected 1/2 of a basket. Kim collected 2/3 of a basket. Who collected more apples? Show how you know.

It is kind of wacky, right?

Her challenge was for us to come up with more impossible problems. And as maths was one of my weaker subjects at school, not dissimilar to my ankles, I thought I’d give it a go!

1. Too many cooks

If the anklebiters are inventing their own recipes at home and use 3 dl of strong white flour, and then Sir Pe comes in and adds another 2 dl of wholemeal flour, and then the dog runs off with 3/4 of this amount, how long will it take for Lady Fi to start burning the food?

2. The Road Trip problem

If you are going on a road trip in a small, overheated car with lots of overexcited kids and drive the first 100 km at 100 km per hour and the next 700 km at 50 km per hour due to constant toilet stops, who will start screaming ‘Are we there yet’ first?

3. Fruit Salad

If you start chopping up two melons, and Trevor slices three bananas while Maggie dices the pineapple, how long will it take for you to digest the fruit salad?

4. Boredom

If you have to sit through two double Latin lessons every week for five years, how long before you lose faith in humanity?

And, of course, no math challenge would be complete without these two classic problems circulating on the Internet:

5. Where is Wally?

6. Will someone please move that elephant out of the way!

And finally…

If you don’t like the smell of burning, then stay out of the kitchen…

Kelli is planning the menu for when her daughter comes over to visit her at the end of the week. So, naturally, being the cook I am …

Pause here while you all roll around guffawing and pooh-poohing…

… I decided to help her by dedicating this recipe to her!

OK – you can stop laughing now.

Fluffy Banana Pancakes

First off, it’s important to know that you are aiming to make something that vaguely resembles this:

Ready? (I can still hear some giggling there in the back row!)

Sift 100 g of white flour and 40 g of whole wheat flour, together with 1.5 teaspoons of baking powder, into a big bowl.

Add about 1 tablespoon of brown sugar. (The recipe calls for 2 tbs. but I don’t like my pancakes to be too sweet!) Dig Make a hole in the flour mixture.

Put 175 ml (that’s 1.75 dl) milk into another container and then stir an egg into the milk. Now pour this egg-milk mixture into that hole in the flour mixture. Admire the swirls.

Then use a wooden spoon to mix the mixture until it is smooth and not too lumpy.

At this point, the whole mixture looks something like this:

Wet mixture

Don’t despair if it looks like a lifeless lumpy mixture of sawdust or something the cat dragged in. Remember – it’s the taste that counts!

Cover the offending mixture and let it rest for half an hour. That’s 30 minutes.

Whip off the cloth – does it look any better? No, not really! Never mind…

Now mash two ripe bananas (you’ll need to peel them first as the skin is a bit crunchy and sticks in your teeth), and then mix them into that wet sawdust mixture of yours.

In the meantime, your frying/pancake pan should be nice and warm. I use a non-stick as I don’t like to add butter/oil for every pancake. I just put a bit of butter in the pan for the first one, and then I find I don’t need it anymore.

OK – so now I use a ladle or small cup or something and put two ladlefuls into the pan (to make two pancakes). Remember you are making largish fat pancakes, not small, skinny French ones with a penchant for Prada handbags.

It’s quite important not to start surfing on your phone, chat on Facebook or wander off in search of something more interesting to do. Because unwatched pancakes burn. So do watched ones as a matter of fact!

Anyway, keep peeking until you see that the underside is brown. Flip the pancake and brown the other side. You know the drill! When they are golden brown, or deeply tanned, they are ready to eat!

Toppings – whatever takes your fancy! Anklebiter #1 takes frozen berries – or fresh ones – and mashes them into a lovely fruit sauce. Anklebiter #2 likes cinnamon mixed with sugar, and I like the fruit sauce with some Turkish yoghurt. Sir Pe is lucky to get the leftovers… He likes lemon juice and sugar.

We made these pancakes a few days ago in order to get some photos for Kelli. When Anklebiter #1 saw them, she burst out, “Quick! Take some photos to put on your blog and show everyone that they are not burnt!”

How sweet! (You can see that our definition of ‘not burnt’ is probably quite different to your own…)

Not quite burnt - delicious - banana pancakes!

Hope you and Jess enjoy them!

By the way, we always make DOUBLE quantities of this recipe as they are just so more-ish!

Scott, Webs and Banknotes

Oh what a tangled web we weave,
When first we practise to deceive!

Sir Walter Scott, Marmion, Canto vi. Stanza 17.
Scottish author & novelist (1771 – 1832)

As I walked out one misty morning, I saw a whole field of cobwebs glittering in the sun – caught there on the wire netting of the football field!

Naturally, the quotation above came to mind as it if so familiar.

And true.

Do you know why Sir Walter Scott appears on Scottish banknotes?
Because back in 1826, the UK Parliament threatened to get rid of any notes under the value of £5, provoking an outrage in Scotland. Using the pseudonym Malachi Malagrowther (quite a mouthful!), Scott penned a series of letters explaining why Scottish banks should retain the right to issue their own banknotes. There was such a strong reaction to these letters that the government was forced to allow Scottish banks to print their own £1 notes.

So, in order to commemorate Scott’s efforts, he still appears on banknotes issued by the Bank of Scotland to this very day.

*****************************************

It might also be wise, however, to remember this:

“In the spiderweb of facts, many a truth is strangled.”

- Paul Edridge

Words on Wednesday (but probably a lot shorter than this one) – inspired by Muddy Boot Dreams

Nudity

Take four young men and some crispbread.

Put them on national TV in Sweden has got talent.

With no clothes on.

Result? Hilarity!

This video is making the rounds on the Internet at the moment, especially in the USA, where I gather such nudity wouldn’t be allowed. Here it was a brief moment of laughter for everyone watching – and that was mainly families with kids. As most Swedes are very open and at ease with their bodies, this was considered nothing unusual.

We did laugh, though, until we had tears rolling down our cheeks!

For more (clothed) insights into the different parts of the world, check out: That’s My World!

Love is a snake

When I was a kid, I lived in a suburb of Buenos Aires in Argentina. Round about the tender age of 8, I found my first crush in the form of Scott Fienup. An all-American freckled kid who introduced me to the delights of marshmallow fluff and peanut butter and jelly sandwiches.

And snakes.

Boa Constrictor

Love took the form of brightly-coloured Chopper bikes and cuddling Scott’s pet snake: a boa constrictor. (Snakes are dry and warm to the touch, contrary to the belief that they are cold.)

Isn’t puppy snake love just grand?

(And because I didn’t have a camera when I was 8, I took this image from Wikimedia Commons.)

Visit Bozo over at Pet Pride for snakes and other pets!

Is she trying to tell me something?

I had one of those annoying summer colds at the weekend.

It all started off with me sneezing. Big time. (The only time I really sneeze is in May during the birch pollen season.)

“Oh no, mama!” shrieked my son in horror. “I hope you’re not getting allergic to children!”

My daughter piped up joyfully:

“Maybe you’re getting allergic to your computer!”

Wednesday Words (OK – it’s Thursday, but who’s counting? Oh – you are!)

Sue and Liam came home one day after a party. They spread joy and smiles and the kids played with them for ages.

After a while, they started feeling deflated, as if the air was going out of them, so they rested gently on a chair. When you came into the room, you couldn’t help but smile when you saw them. Finally, they were nothing but empty plastic bags.

We bid them a fond farewell. RIP Sue and Liam!

“Three things in human life are important: the first is to be kind; the second is to be kind; and the third is to be kind.”

Henry James

Inspired by Muddy Boot Dreams

Do the cinnamon twirl

What has this….

Cinnamon Swirl

Got to do with this?

Janitor on the roof

Although you might think that this janitor was auditioning for a part in a new re-vamped musical called Janitor on the Roof or that he was trying to burn the excess calories caused by consuming too many of that most Swedish of buns – the Cinnamon Swirl – both guesses are wrong!

If you guessed that he was inventing a new dance called The Cinnamon Twirl, then you are getting hotter…

You see, back in May, the school decided to try to get into the Guinness Book of Records by ‘making’ the largest cinnamon bun in Sweden…

… Out of children!

Music blaring, people dancing and the kids doing their best to make a new record!

Making the 'bun'

First of all, they joined hands to make the bun part.

And then, they kicked up a lot of dust…

Creating the swirl of the cinnamon bun

And finally fell into formation to create the swirl bit of the bun!

Did they make a new record?

I don’t know. Everyone I interviewed had their mouths too full of cinnamon bun to answer!

For more glimpses into the lives of others around the world, visit That’s My World!

Patience

Magiceye has just kick started a new site for animal lovers called Pet Pride. (That’s the name of the site, not the animal lovers!) So if you like pets – be they cats, dogs, snakes or tarantulas – then pop over there and join in!

Patience is a dog

Children don’t have patience, but dogs do.

Sir Pe took this great photo of Oscar, our dog. Is there anything more touching than a dog waiting for his mistress to come home?

An apology?

Two kids and the dog

Azure blue skies, cotton wool clouds and a sun-dazzled lake.

These are the things that have been keeping me from you, dear readers!

It’s a tough life – but I’ll pull through.

Someone has got to go out there and make sure that nature is still there, and still beautiful.