Pantries can be time machines. An expired tin of lychees moved house with us – twice

As a child, I didn’t understand the ancient food decaying in my grandmother’s cupboard. Now I’m beginning to

“This oregano is best before 1985!” my sister cries, adding it to the pile on the laminate bench. It’s Hervey Bay circa 1991. My family is staying in Gran’s retirement villa, my sisters and I on camp stretchers in the garage. A single pedestal fan brings short bursts of breeze, rotating relief from the December heat.

The town is not yet on the backpacker circuit. There aren’t any cafes, shops or streaming services, and there are only so many games of Scrabble we can take.

Sign up for a weekly email featuring our best reads

Continue reading...

from The Guardian https://ift.tt/DQlrVRk

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

The heartbreak of watching a parent fall for fraud: ‘Dad, this is a scam – have you given her money?’ | Naima Brown

The scammers my dad encountered were not sophisticated, my father suspended his own disbelief wilfully. But many scammers are sophisticated and they’re getting harder to detect Bomba wasn’t the first, but she exploded in our lives like a digital grenade. She’s not real, I told my dad – then in his early seventies. I was in Australia at this time, where I’ve lived for the last 13 years. Physically speaking, he was still in California – but within himself he was adrift in a rapidly sinking lifeboat, floating in a morass of debris primarily of his own doing. But it must be said before I go further: my dad isn’t the bad guy in this story. Not this time. At times, he was the bad guy in other people’s stories– but that is another story. If she’s not real, he countered, then how is it that we’ve spoken on the phone? That we video-chatted? I’ll admit that threw me. In most catfishing stories the catfish goes to great lengths to avoid video chatting. But my dad being the unreliable sourc...
Read more

At least six civilians killed in militant attack on courthouse in south-east Iran

Jihadist separatist group Jaish al-Adl says it launched mortar, shooting and grenade attack in Sistan-Baluchestan An attack by the jihadist separatist group Jaish al-Adl on a courthouse in Iran’s south-eastern province of Sistan-Baluchestan has killed at least six civilians, including a mother and child, and wounded 22, Iranian media reported on Saturday. Attackers stormed the building, shooting a number of people inside. They then launched a second attack with mortars and grenade launchers on the courthouse, where a clash began with security forces that lasted three hours, according to the Baluch human rights group Haalvsh. Continue reading... from The Guardian https://ift.tt/wleJfAd
Read more