Recipe for Pickled Gherkins/Cucumbers

Rob this one is for you.
Really easy recipe and one that you can enjoy within 3 days.


YOU WILL NEED:

2 cups white vinegar
3 cups water
4 Tbl sugar
8 cloves garlic
6 Bay leaves
2 tsp black peppercorns
1 Tbl salt
I like to add some dill if I have it.

- Sterilise some jars
- pack jars with cucumbers whole or cut into pieces - I only had normal cucumbers so cut    them into lengths and some small pieces.
_ combine ingredients in a pan and bring to the boil, then pour over cucumbers/gherkins       making sure they are covered.
- seal, refrigerate and ready to eat in 3 days.


ENJOY:)

Viarco Pencils in Portugal - brands with history

A brand that is manufactured in Portugal and that we saw in many shops in Lisbon is Viarco.  Their website http://www.viarco.pt is excellent and the range of products that they do are all on the website, There is an aquarelle pencil, A huge stick of graphite for huge drawings as well as coloured pencils and many others. An interesting video about the company is available here to watch, the commentary is in Korean, I think but there is a lot of Portuguese as well. IT IS EXTREMELY INTERESTING as the gentleman in the video says, the factory is not a static museum it is a working museum.

A tourist in the video says it is not very modern. I think that he is wrong  - it is great that it is not modern and that people have an opportunity to see how things are made on a small scale using old machines and that the people that have worked there for many years have an opportunity to still work and create a unique product for the market.

The machinery may be antique but the marketing , website, and product development are current.



Marcas com história por viarcoportugal

Full circle

An amazing thing happened here last week .

Friends of ours arrived at a braai (barbecue) with a sailor friend of theirs , and to our suprise it was the man we sold our boat to.

8 years ago

 Eight years later and with many miles under her keel she stopped in at Horta and we got to see her again.

A little travel weary, but under that, still the solid little boat we once owned.

I am happy that she is out there doing what she was made for, and as is the tradition here left a mark on the harbour wall.

A Vida Portuguesa, Samsung galaxy tab vs Apple iPad

On our recent visit to Lisbon we spent an amazing 5 days enjoying the city and what it has to offer. One of the highlights for me was a visit to a store that stocks all sorts of interesting Portuguese products.

As we have previously posted, we use a number of Portuguese manufactured products for example Couto toothpaste, 444 para depois de barbear, soaps etc. as we feel that if we don't support local manufacturing and companies they will eventually die out or be swallowed up by huge multinationals.

I suggest you visit http://www.avidaportuguesa.com and have a look at what they offer.

While we were looking around I found a product that I used when I was  young,
a Quadro Ardosia which is a wooden framed slate that you can draw on either with a slate pen or with chalk.
I said to T it looks like a prehistoric iPad, amazing!!

Well later that day we went to a large store called  http://www.elcorteingles.pt where I got to try the new Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0 tablet. WOW!!!

https://www.samsung.com/pt/consumer/mobile-phone/note/note/GT-N5110ZWATPH
What we miss on the island is a place where you get to see and touch all the latest NEW stuff (on the other hand then we would not have a trip to the mainland to look forward to). It was great and I want one.

Then today reading news on the web I found an article from May 2013   http://www.sammobile.com/2013/05/31/galaxy-tab-10-1-doesnt-infringe-ipad-design-rules-says-supreme-court-in-the-netherlands/

basically it says

"Apple has tried to ban the Tab 10.1 in the Netherlands because they said it infringed their design patents. They said it was a rectangular shape with rounded corners.
The Supreme Court said in the verdict: Apple’s design right is valid, but the protection it offers is very limited due to earlier similar designs, also known as prior art.

Because the shape and form are in many more products manufactured by many other companies this limits Apple’s design right.

“Apple was not the first to design a tablet with a rectangular shape and rounded corners,” “No company should have a monopoly on general designs,” Samsung stated."


Come on!! Apple -  the quadro ardosia looks like a iPad/Tablet even works like a tablet, you write on it, you take notes on it.
Instead of spending money suing, reduce the price of your products, do something good for the world, be NICE!!
Let innovation flourish, and creativity triumph.

So Samsung, visit http://www.avidaportuguesa.com and buy a quadro ardosia to take with you to court as evidence -
you can even take down notes with it while you are there.

 

OR the next time you get sued by apple for infringing the look of an Ipad -
 just send them a link to my website, and with the costs you save,
you can give me a Galaxy note 8.0.
BTW Samsung its my birthday in a few days (subtle Hint) you can contact me via my blog