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Like many British people (and I suspect many other people around the world), it’s a real treat to crunch on a biscuit when enjoying a cup of tea or coffee.  So you can imagine my surprise, when having my early Sunday morning imperfectly made cuppa (see http://purpleslinky.com/offbeat/the-complicated-cuppa-cup-that-cheers-or-mug-of-misery/) that I discovered I was amongst those idiots who have managed to suffer a minor injury at the hands of the humble hobnob.

http://www.express.co.uk/posts/view/125767/Crumbs-half-of-us-have-been-injured-by-biscuits

I regret to admit that I’m one of the 29% of adult Brits who have managed to splash themselves with hot tea when dunking my digestive.  For those of you who’ve never dunked or heard of dunking let me enlighten you.  Once you’ve made your tea (or coffee) (beverage) and taken the biscuit of your choice from the biscuit tin (dunkee), you then proceed to dip a bite size piece of the dunkee into the beverage while holding onto the remainder to use as a ‘handle’ .  Once the dunkee has been dunked for a couple of seconds you bring it to the surface of the beverage and then manouevre the dunkee together with beverage as close to your chin as you can before biting (or sucking) the dunkee.  The skill is in getting dunkee to lips before it drops back into the beverage.  More often than not the dunkee drops its load back into the beverage thereby splashing the dunker with hot beverage!

If you’re lucky enough to dodge the hot beverage if the dunkee drops, don’t believe for one minute that the danger ends there.  You then have the job of taking a teaspoon, delving to the bottom of the beverage and trawling the cup to retrieve the errant dunkee to prevent choking.  This is no mean feat as, more often than not, the dunkee slips back into the beverage like an eel through a fishing net, which again can cause the dunker injury from splashback!

Having overcome the hazards of dunking, I have also regularly fallen into the 28% of Brits who have choked on biscuit crumbs and at times I’ve fallen into the 7% of Brits who have dropped a biscuit tin on their foot and the 7% who’ve been nibbled by a pet while feeding it with a biscuit (obviously I’m so sweet they can’t tell the difference between a biscuit and me), but thankfully none of my injuries have required the services of the A&E Department of the local hospital.

So there you have it – the Great British Biscuit Bite Back!!  I’m now going to get my mid morning coffee and I’m just pondering on whether to risk having a Bourbon (the UK version of the Oreo) biscuit – could be a nice treat or could end up as ‘death by chocolate’!!!  If it turns out to be the latter then at least I will have died happy!

Well, you can fess up any day about it but what’s the worry?! Everyone has done it! The top chunks of a hamburger fall off while you’re trying not to trip over, or a biscuit slips through your hands. We say that after three seconds on the ground food will really start to spoil. But is it really the case?

Most of us has heard of and aboded by this “three second rule”, but is it true that when you pick food up from the floor before three seconds no harmful bacteria can get a grip on your food yet? Well, “What’s Good For You” on Channel Nine has put this to the test…

Three cookies and three banana slices are put on three plates, one of each on each plate. This is to determine whether the texture of a food helps the bacteria stick on. Another cookie and banana is left alone because it is the control.

One plate of food is dropped on the ground, and is left there for three minutes. Two and a half minutes later the second plate is dropped, and with three seconds left the last plate is dropped.

The specimens were then wrapped up and sent to a lab. Over there the bacterial were smeared on agar plates and left to grow for a prolonged period of time.

The results:

Three minutes:

The cookie had 10 to 100 colonies of bacteria. So did the banana.

Thirty seconds:

They both had the same as the three minute sample.

Three seconds:

Cookie: 5-10

Banana: 5-10

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

The experiment proves that there is no such thing as the three second rule. Take in mind that bacteria are infinitesimally small and one colony contains over 1 million bacteria which is enough to make you terribly sick! This also demonstrated that bacteria even found a foothold on these dry biscuits! So next time if your food drops on the floor, don’t take chances with your health. Bin it.

I've become horribly addicted to these chocolate dipped peanut brittle snacks. Delicious. Had to give the last lot of them away to a friend before I turned into one!

Happy 2009 to everyone!

Peanut Brittle Card at Zazzle

So, poor Cookie received some disturbing news today at her annual vet appointment.

She's 10 pounds overweight.

I explained our lifestyle to the vet.  "Cookie gets lots of exercise in the winter. Off the leash she races with Ben .. .



and keeps me company while I snow shoe.  In May and June though, we're all getting the campground ready and we just don't have as much time for walks."

"Does she eat table scraps?" the vet asked.

"Oh, no." I reassured her.  "Just dog food, 2 cups at breakfast and 3 at supper.  And some occasional treats when Ben's training her."

"Hmmmm . .  try to cut back a cup or two on the dog food for now.  Until she's more active."

Cookies ears drooped and she looked at me with a "Wait?  What did she just say?" look. 

I know exactly what she means.  My physical's next week and I know I'm going to get the same report.

When we got home I reassured my baby.  "Let's do this weight loss thing together.  I'll take you to do more of this



and you can walk with me every day!  Isn't that a good plan?"

"Can I still have duck?" she asked with her eyes.

"Only this kind . . .

“We’re really super happy today ’cause we gots a big announcement. Acey-san and Z-bot helped us a lot when those mean Halloween monsters attacked, and so we decided that Gamepowa should be part of our site all official and stuff!”

“And so I said that Acey and Z-bot should have their own character pages like us so Talitha made one for them! It’s Acey and Z-bot of the Starship Hana!“

“Welcome to the Goofy Bird show, Space girl! Good to have you guys orbiting the planet checking out all the coolest game tech, even if I can’t understand what Z-bot is talking about half the time.”

“Heh.”

“We’re honored to be a part of the best site on the web, game fans! Z-bot and I will do our best to make the Gamepowa category rock! A big salute from the crew of the Hana!”

“Check out the Gamepowa Store too. That’s where Acey and Z-bot put all of the great games they review. They’ve got over 300 games in the store now.”

“That’s affirmative.”

“Sugoi sugoi sugoi!”

“Our store has all the best games too!”

“Yay for Gamepowa! Go read all their neat articles, minna-san! All of Acey-san and Z-bot’s articles are in the Gamepowa Category that Talitha-chan set up. Have fun!”

“Whoa, whoa, whoa, what about the most important thing?”

“Oh yeah! Girls play video games too!”

“Booya! OUT!”

“Z-bot to Hana. Standing by to transmit multi-part message. Come in.”

“Hana, Acey here. Go.”

“We have multiple contacts with five-star rated games. Single-transmission data bandwidth at capacity. First contact is designated Hannah Montana for the Nintendo DS

“That’s affirmative Z-bot. Hana onboard game coolness computer banks confirm your analysis. Standing by for metrics.”

“Gamezone has Official Game Release News, IGN has a preview, To The Game has screens and Game Facts, and we have detected some Hints, Questions and Answers on Cheatmasters.”

“Outstanding, Z-bot. Metrics recorded.”

“Alert. Large Hannah Montana concert audience approaching.”

“Take evasive action. I’m putting the Hana in a lower orbit. Will rendezvous at Point Zeta for secondary transmission. Gamepowa out.”

“Whoa, Z-bot! What’s up?”

“Yay! It’s Z-bot! It’s Z-bot!”

“I have instructions from Commander Acey to notify LadyStar personnel. We have a Gamepowa Video Alert. Data has already been transmitted to the Hana.”

“What is a Gamepowa video alert?”

“It has butterflies! Let’s go see!”