What Every Woman Wants To Know: Every-Woman’s Encylopedia

A friend of mine who used to have an antique store gave us boxes of old magazines for the Op Shop. He says they are not worth the bother of selling online as they have loose and missing pages and other faults but that we might still get something for them.

As Naomi and I love old stuff and I knew that we were running short of storage space at the shop I volunteered to have them at home and sort them out. Several boxes went back to the shop last weekend but there are odds and ends that got missed and I thought I’d share a couple of them today.

Two magazines circa 1911

These are two old copies of Every-Woman’s Encyclopedia which were on sale in installments. I could not find a date on them but it seems that King George V was on the British throne and there is no mention of WWI. I found a reference to 1911 in one of them so I’m going to say I think they are from that year or maybe early 1912. I found no reference to the Titanic in either and that was big news that year.

The magazines cover all sorts of subjects, there are recipes, tips on home nursing, childcare, fashion, and sewing as well as articles about prominent women.

Some helpful advice from a nurse.
Recipe pages.

Here are some interesting bits.

The Women’s Law Book

This chapter covers juvenile law and talks about such things as Parental Discipline, Juvenile Smoking, Intoxicating Liquor to mention a few. There is also a couple of pages about the law as it is applied to servants covering such things as Employer Liability, Workers Compensation, Burglary and “When the Master is Liable”.

An article about marriage

“Marriage”  by “Madge” (Mrs. Humphrey) includes helpful advice for husbands and wives about gift giving;

To bring home to an already overcrowded household a pair of vases which are “two things more to dust” is not the way to arouse rapturous sentiment in the bosom of one’s wife.

To buy cigars, socks, waistcoats or even ties for one’s husband puts him under a feeling of obligation, while, very often he execrates  the”vile taste”, of the wife as he considers it, with the best intentions , trodden on his tenderest sartorial feelings.

The article tells us that “it is very bad for any husband for his wife to fetch and carry for him in a servile way.” and that “Men are very careless, as a rule, about their own clothes.”

There is even a handy pull out first aid guide for the reader to hang on the wall.

A handy pull out chart.

It’s a fascinating glimpse into the world that our grandmother’s and great grandmother’s lived in.  My maternal grandmother was a young wife just before WWI so I can easily imagine her reading this perhaps with her older sisters in 1911.

RDP: Sport

Confessions of a Lazy Person

My initial response to this post was a polite “no thank you”. I don’t do sport. I have never enjoyed it even as a child. I remember a school sports day when I was five or six. I was in a running race where I came last or maybe second last. I didn’t care about that. What I did care about was that some teachers laughed at the way I was pumping my arms, something I had probably seen athletes do on television. Perhaps mum should not have told me that but anyway I had no further interest in running. When our class was taken to the pool to learn to swim I disliked that they made us put our heads under water.  My school years were a blur of being afraid balls would hit me, being afraid of falling off balance beams and constantly trying to get on the back of the line to do anything physical if I could not avoid going altogether. The only school sports activity I truly enjoyed was once whacking a ball with a hockey stick. Unfortunately, that was the only part of the game that I did like.

I am not a well-coordinated person. I can’t hit tennis balls, I can’t bowl although I do actually enjoy tenpin bowling. I can’t play table tennis although I will give it a go. I still can’t swim. Mini golf is fine, I can hold my own in that although I am not sure if you can call it a sport.

The only sports I’ve ever watched are yacht racing, Motorsports, and cricket. I sat up all night to see Australia win the “America’s Cup” for the first time and I love to see the start of the Sydney Hobart race on TV although that is just as much about the spectacle really.

image yachts
Sydney Hobart Race yachts at Constitution Dock.

I started to watch Motorsports with David. He enjoyed watching it and I became interested myself. We went to a lot of Formula 1 Grand Prix in Adelaide and every other sort of event we could get to for several years. Naomi and I often went to the Speedway too where we enjoyed cheering for our favourite cars and drivers.

Formula one car chassis’ circa 1988-89
Peter Brock at an F1 support race in Adelaide.

I didn’t seriously take an interest in cricket until we moved to Tasmania although I’d sometimes watch it on TV with David. I first went to a cricket match in Hobart to see if I’d enjoy it. I did and went to many more over the next few years.

I especially enjoyed going to live sports events because it’s fun to cheer for your team, it adds to the excitement when you are barracking for a particular racing driver, or a particular team especially if it is someone from your home that you can identify with.

The crowd on the hill at Blundstone Arena

I also really enjoy the photography aspect. I’ve taken a lot of pictures at motor racing events and cricket matches.

One of the few occasions I’ve captured the ball leaving the bat.

 

 

 

 

 

Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: Places People Visit

Let’s Go Singapore

Here are a few pictures taken in various places in Singapore earlier this year. Sentosa Island, Gardens By The Bay, Little India and Chinatown are all popular tourist destinations and great places to take colourful photos.

Sentosa Island, Singapore
Sentosa Island Singapore
Supertrees at night, Gardens By The Bay, Singapore
The Light Show at Gardens By The Bay Singapore.
These elephant statues are near the MRT station you use to get to the Little India neighbourhood.
Shops in Chinatown , Singapore.
Clarke Quay on the Singapore River.

 

 

 

Share Your World 2018: 15 October

Sharing My World This Week

What’s the biggest screw up in the kitchen that you were responsible for?

Well, occasionally I forget to turn things off and once I burned our dessert to a crisp because I forgot to turn the oven off when we sat down to dinner.

The other night I did the same thing with a leftover pork chop under the grill but at least it was only me that suffered for that mistake.

What, in your opinion, makes people believe absurd conspiracy theories?

Ignorance and not bothering to check the facts.

In 40 years what will people be nostalgic for?

I was interrupted while copy pasting this question and did not realise I had not answered it until now.

Nothing. I don’t believe that Millenials will be nostalgic for anything because they have such short attention spans that they always go on to the next fad and don’t value anything from the past. People of my generation will all be dead.

Is a hot dog a sandwich? 

I guess that as it is meat between two pieces of bread it is technically part of the sandwich family but I had never thought to consider a hot dog as a sandwich. A hot dog is a hot dog.

What wonderful thing happened to you this week that you’d like to share?  It can be a gratitude moment or something that just made you feel very happy at the time or made you laugh.

Saturday afternoon, it was sunny and warm outside and for once the neighbours were not making a racket so I was able to enjoy an hour or so sitting in the garden. I saw a Superb Fairy Wren hopping about. Not a rare occurrence in spring. I saw one out the window this morning but always a pleasure to see such a pretty little bird.

nature bird australia wren
Photo by mark broadhurst on Pexels.com

 

Vegetable Vengeance

onion and garlic on white surface
Photo by Pixabay on Pexels.com

In my last food-related post I mentioned I wrote about how cabbage smells bad when boiled for too long. I was doing a bit of reading about it before writing that post and found an article that said that cabbage is one of a family of plants that defends itself. Cabbage contains sulfur compounds that are released in the cooking process. The longer you cook it the worse the smell. Another member of this family is the onion. Onions are mean, they make me cry.

This is a description of what happens when you peel onions.

Amino acid sulfoxides form sulfenic acids as you slice into an onion. These enzymes which were isolated are now free to mix with the sulfenic acids to produce ​propanethial S-oxide, a volatile sulfur compound gas which wafts upward and into your eyes. This gas reacts with the water in your tears to form sulfuric acid. The sulfuric acid burns, stimulating your eyes to release more tears to wash the irritant away.

https://www.thoughtco.com/why-do-onions-make-you-cry-604309

All I know is that I find it extremely difficult to peel onions as my eyes get sore and watery. It was a kitchen chore I would always pass off to David who didn’t seem to be affected by it.

There are supposedly a few cures for it. Someone told me that eating dry bread would help. Well, I enjoyed the bread but I still cried.

Wearing safety goggles over my glasses had not occurred to me. I am not sure I’d do that if I had them I’d probably just forget until it was too late. I’ve also read that rubbing your hands on a stainless steel odour absorber can help.

Somehow I feel passing the onion chopping job to someone else is still a better idea. Or possibly just buying frozen onions. As it is I keep a box of tissues handy when I have to do this job.

 

 

Snapshot Sunday: Fire Engines

Hobart Fire Station
Two old fire engines.
A vintage fire engine at Hobart Fire Station.
Vintage fire engine in Hobart.

On Friday I had to go to Hobart to pick up a parcel from a shop just outside the CBD. As I walked back down Campbell Street I noticed that there was some activity around the open roller doors at the fire station. When I saw vintage fire engines, of course, I had to grab my phone and take a few photos.
We do have more modern fire engines for actual firefighting though 🙂

Cee’s Black & White Photo Challenge: Things Made of Plastic

Plastic

Barbie is known as the plastic princess so we’ll start with her. Some new ones on sale in Target. I sometimes photograph them for the doll blog. Their clothing is often molded plastic now which makes no sense for a fashion doll. The second photo is a bunch of dolls, Barbie and some Bratz at my house after getting washed and having their hair untangled.

Barbie dolls on sale in Target.
Barbie and Bratz dolls being cleaned up.

These Triang Hornby railway station buildings are similar the one I had as a child. They are made of a hard plastic.

Triang Hornby station buildings.

A much older type of plastic these Nally canisters are made of bakelite.

Nally Harlequin canisters
This old pen has a hard plastic or bakelite case.