Because of MLP's line of work, he is often away from home for periods of time and this is when my Virgo-perfectionist-obsessive nature reveals its true self. I try to keep myself busy so the time alone passes more quickly.  Well, those are my excuses for what you will read in this post.

When you're trying to find Number 3 and you stumble across Number 12, then you know you are totally lost!  Seriously lost.  But, in finding Number 12, we found our mojo and completed the entire track ... backwards.

After some, in hindsight, meaningful instructions from the organising orienteering guru, we set off. Neal on his own: Linda and I together. We had a map, a pretty and colourful map, with a legend on the side which we were meant to be able to comprehend AND use ... apparently.

Don't you hate it when the recipe you're making only requires half the bunch of coriander you bought from, in my case, Woolieworths?  I diligently wrap the remainder and place it carefully in the crisper drawer of the fridge.  Don't we all?

Then, in a few weeks' time, I find a green slimy mass pretending to have once been coriander lurking at the bottom of said crisper drawer.  Shame and guilt reign supreme.  How could I have let this happen?  How could I be so wasteful?  How could my fridge conceal such an atrocity!

Well, it happened again and I got to pondering ...

Friends had chopped the tops off slimy spring onions, planted the slimy roots and, within a short period of time, new, fresh, un-slimy growth had appeared!  They now have an on-going supply of non-slimy spring onions.  Chop off the tops, leave the roots in the soil and a never ending, garden-fresh supply of spring onions sprouts forth.  Think of the millions to be saved!  Think of the overseas holidays to be had on the savings!  Well ... maybe not.

So, I thought, why could I not try this with my slimy coriander?  Might I never have to buy coriander again?

And I did.  I chopped off the unidentifiable green slimy mass above what I hoped were coriander roots, planted them in a not-very-attractive pot, gave them a little drink and a little fertiliser, placed it in a semi-shaded spot and waited ...

Week 1.

One of the memories I have of my childhood is going window shopping; something I'm sure no one does these days.  My family would go to town, at night, usually a Friday night from what I remember, and walk the town looking at the displays in the shop windows.  At the end of the day's trading in preparation for viewing by window shoppers that night, shop assistants would have artistically placed the latest trending items across the floor space in front of the shop doors.  No huge display windows then.   Ah, what a nostalgia trip!

But what is the pertinence of this to today's blog you may ask.  Well, I consider these window shopping outings to be the cause of my browsing disease.  These days I window shop inside the store and in broad daylight, but the outcome is the same: no money spent but ideas gained.

So, this week, when I was on a mission to find a car wash, (I'm new to this town and not yet familiar with the lie of the land.) I found myself in Freedom ... might just have a look through here since I don't have the correct change for the car wash, I thought.  And I soon realised I was in Linda heaven.  You're familiar with my friend Linda's obsession with pineapples.  Well, it seems pineapples are IT at the moment.  Certainly, that's the case in Freedom.  I was surrounded by all things pineapple.

Beautiful pink pineapple cushions