Honestly, if a village doesn't have any electricity, charging batteries is a great deal.

ita, a really belated reply: for this level of usage PV is lower cost than putting up a grid - cause a grid is really expensive per kWh of you don't put many kWh through it. But for normal usage a grid is cheaper. One bitter joke I've heard about this is that PV is to expensive for rich people; only people living on a few dollars a day can afford it.

You would never use PV to heat water though: a conventional solar water heater would work better for that if someone provided the money. The lower end solar water heaters can't keep heat all night, so you'd have to time your hot water use from between mid-morning to say a few hours after sunset - still a lot better than no hot water.

I suspect Top chef is a no go for me tonight though.

Don't wanna tempt fate.

Hmm. Seems this Sunday should be okay, but Kat's sleeping now, I reckon.

I had ONE PIECE (small piece) of chewing gum in my mouth for not even ten minutes, and it triggered a migraine. That is how sensitive I now seem to be to artificial sweeteners.

And gum is the only place I get them now. I switched out my toothpaste and mouthwash to avoid them.

It's just...my mouth tasted funky. Five minutes!

We had to eat whatever my mother cooked, no discussion no arguments no leaving the table. I don't think we did the limited palate thing, although every now and again my dad got weird about what we had to eat. The switching of primary complex carbs (J'can meals seem to have two or three sources) to foo foo didn't go well, for instance.

In terms of weird eating habits, I was a notoriously slow eater, except for bread and butter with Milo to drink. That I snarfed at a tremendous rate, and then threw up before showering. Not a bulimic thing--I just really liked them and didn't want to eat them slowly.

My mother has no idea I barfed up my breakfast for months as a pre-teen.

Of course, lunches came back home with me from school to get stashed under the bed (nasty, but even nastier in the tropics) and dinner was slipped to the dogs whenever possible.

Somehow with all that and no candy to boot, I was still a kinda chubby kid. Goes to show.

ita, any word on our mutual school friend? She hasn't responded to my email yet.

I almost forgot! She came up to me this evening all pleased as punch because you passed a compliment on to her. My rep is totally ruined. I'll need to make her cry for days to right things.

It's a shame you don't teach her, because she has one of the funniest mothers around, and her baby brother is pretty freaking hysterical himself--ma trained in krav until about her 7th month of pregnancy with him, and it kinda shows.

No, not like that. He's just basically grown up at the centre and he's a weird little thing.

I almost forgot! She came up to me this evening all pleased as punch because you passed a compliment on to her. My rep is totally ruined. I'll need to make her cry for days to right things.

Hee! Also oops! I'll send her another email that says I was just kidding. I'll tell her you really said that she's annoying and kicks like a sissy.

Of course, lunches came back home with me from school to get stashed under the bed (nasty, but even nastier in the tropics) and dinner was slipped to the dogs whenever possible.

Did you not like your food options? That's a lot of subterfuge going on there. I don't recall mealtime issues with eating in our house. There were some things I didn't like and didn't eat, but if we were having them for dinner, I just ate more of the other stuff, I think. My issue was a sweet tooth that would not be satisfied, so I was constantly wanting snacks of that ilk and being refused them. "Have an apple." Yeah. Not the same!

Lee, I hope you feel better soon.

Connie, insent.

Did you not like your food options?

I just didn't like eating, period. Waned for a while and then came back full force at puberty.

And it took twenty years for me to start inching up to feeling full (not good-time-to-stop-eating-before-it's-too-late full, but actual pushing on the stomach walls full). And that took peer pressure.

I may be sliding away from that again, since it seriously feels like my abs are doing battle with my stomach, and the abs are kinda winning.

My mother was an amazing cook, and I enjoyed the taste of almost everything she made. I just didn't like too much of it in my tummy.

I just didn't like eating, period.

I see. I liked eating more than was healthy, unfortunately. Balance, you elusive (to me, anyway) bastard.

Wow, it's late. I wish I were more tired, but I think I will try for bed anyway. With some reading first.

If they could make flavour pellets that just sat on your tongue...but no, I enjoyed and still enjoy chewing too, and the mix of textures and flavours flowing into each other and even temperatures combining.

The swallowing bit is where it starts to get icky. And as my stomach likes to remind me every now and again, the œsophagus is on its side, not my tongue's. So when it doesn't want food, it doesn't matter how good it tastes--there will be no swallowing.