Tuesday 31 July 2012

Raining in Perth.

Hi everybody! Greetings from a rainy Perth, Western Australia. I think it has been 16 degrees in Perth and Scotland today. I am pleased that it has rained as we can get a bit short of water here. My mum is relieved as we have just planted some new fruit trees in our garden. Hopefully next year we can eat home-grown passion fruit, apples, mandarins and oranges.

You were right- I called myself Pavlova after the Australian dessert, though the name doesn't sound very Aussie to me! I had a look at Anna Pavlova, the ballerina, on You tube dancing Swan Lake. She was very graceful.


Today I had leak and potato soup for lunch. I helped my Mum make it at the weekend. I had a tiger bread roll with it-our bakers call it a tiger cub! I also had strawberries, a yogurt and the rest of the cookies. It was delicious.

Food-o-meter- 10/10
Health rating- 8/10pretty healthy though we stirred some cream through the soup.
Mouthfuls- 40 and 20 slurps of soup
Courses– main/dessert and my recess snack
Price- $3.50
Pieces of hair– 0
Amount of his packed lunch my brother brought home uneaten- even more than yesterday!
Number of Olympic medals won by Australia- 4- one more swimming silver today.

My Mum thought that my brother would eat more of his lunch if we put it in the blog. It doesn't seem to be working so far!

Our school is a “crunch and sip” school. We are allowed a small tub of pieces of vegetable or fruit on our desks to crunch on through the day and a bottle of water. It is supposed to help us concentrate and encourage everyone to eat a portion of veg or fruit everyday. Today I had grape tomatoes for my crunch and sip. I think it is a great idea and stops me getting hungry in class.

Some people asked for the traffic light food lists to help us choose healthy options. Here is a link to the website.

Max sent in a picture of his lunch. He comes from Warton, Lancashire. I need practise – it took me over a minute to find it on the map! I like the sound of Freckleton nearby. Does everyone have freckles there? I've never had stripy cheese before Max.

'My name's Max and I'm in Year 3 (I’m nearly 8) at St Paul's School Warton near Lytham St Annes in Lancashire (How many seconds)?

I always take a packed lunch to school every day and here is a picture of today's.
Tuna sandwiches, peppers, tomatoes, cucumber and a chunk of Stripey Jack cheese.
For afters there's a KitKat (somewhere in there) and pineapple.
Washed down with Ribena.


Food-o-meter- 10/10! (I love my Mum’s packed lunches)!
Mouthfuls- about 47.
Courses- main/dessert
Health Rating- 9/10
Price- not worked it out
Pieces of hair - 0
Pieces of eight - 0

My mum always makes sure I've got a healthy lunch and unusually for an 8 year old I love my salad and veg!
I usually eat them first and then have my sandwiches.

In summer my veg is from our garden. We grow peas, beans, carrots, onions, potatoes, rhubarb and pumpkins.

Our school meals seem to be pretty good and they have a special lunch every term that you can have. They are usually themed as to what we are learning/doing.

Keep up the good work!

Max'

I will write more tomorrow. Until then a question…Which capital city is closest to Perth, Western Australia?
Until tomorrow,
Pavlova

19 comments:

  1. I love that "crunch and sip" policy! I remember one year in elementary school, my grade had the last lunch on schedule (past noon), and by then we were all starving! It's also not so great if your grade has the first lunch (around 10 am) - you're starving when it's time to go home. I think the crunch and sip policy would alleviate the stomach pangs altogether at my old school. More schools should definitely adopt it! :)

    Thanks for sharing the traffic light list. Max and Pav - you both had great lunches today! :)

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  2. Funnily, I saw something about tiger bread a while back and was completely confused about what it was. Seeing a picture, I've realized that what you call tiger bread is what we call Dutch crunch bread in the U.S. Mystery solved!

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  3. Some stores here in the UK call it Giraffe Bread now.. A great story behind it.
    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-16812545

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  4. I am loving your packed lunches, they look so yum!! Many of my family live in Australia and my Grandmother was keen on having me know my geography - Jakarta, Indonesia is your nearest capital city :)

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    1. I just eye-balled the map but I would say it is a close call with Canberra and Jakarta, But I think Pavlova is trying to trick us. I am going to say Canberra. Love the lunch on the veranda and the 'crunch and sip'. You have a very relaxed and practical school environment. Certainly would inspire me to learn.

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  5. Max,

    I think it might be Adelaide.

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  6. Some questions to Pavlova:
    Who's in charge at Your school to make sure that traffic light policy is followed? Are the teachers checking Your lunchboxes in the morning? What happens, if there's a difference in opinion about the rating for something? If You bring prepared food - like the potatoe-leek-soup - do You have to show the recipe or explain how it was made to prove, that it's within the policy?

    Don't take it wrong, 'cause I think it's a great step in the right direction to bring the disadvanteges of certain foods into the parents concsiousness, but isn't it a bit.. complicated?

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  7. Peach Melba (sliced fresh peaches,fresh raspberries and proper ice-cream) would probably be my choice of an Australian desert, even though it was apparently first concocted by Escoffier (the famous French chef) for Australian ballerina Dame Nellie Melba when she was performing with The Royal Opera in London towards the end of the 19th century and thus while he was chef at the Savoy Hotel.
    It is astonishingly simple and not at all expensive when the fruits are in season, which is round about now as it so happens. I think I might have to make it tomorrow...

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  8. I don't think I'd get much work done if I had food on my desk but I can see from an energy/vitamin-gaining point of view it might be good. Did you make the oatmeal cookies?

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  9. Well here I go again, the comments don't seem to be posting!

    Max,
    My guess is Adelaide?

    Pavlova,
    What are those strange little things on your lunch box that look like fake fingernails? I noticed them yesterday. Also do you put raisins in your oatmeal cookies?

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  10. Those lunches look delicious ! Home made leek and potato soup - yum ! And I love your Crunch and Sip policy. I wish they had that when I went to school. If we got caught eating in class we had to spit it out and then were in trouble.

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  11. It was raining here as well yesterday, overcast today.

    A great 2 posts/lunches today, and thoroughly enjoyed reading them.

    Perhaps VEG knows which Capital City is closest, Perth is the Capital and largest city of Western Australia - so that is the closest. The next closest is Adelaide (theoretical air distance).

    Excellent work Pavlova and Max

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    Replies
    1. I did forget to say:

      The closest National non-Australian capital city to Perth is Jakarta in Indonesia.

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  12. If it is a real trick question, then 'Perth' is the closest city starting with a capital (letter) - as all cities should be :-)

    The traffic light system is a bit subjective, what is 'moderate' for instance - it is 'OK in theory' but I suspect hard in practice to apply uniformly.

    Interestingly the specified 'Red' foods are ones I would avoid, but not necessarily directly for the reasons they state.

    The other two categories leave a lot to 'opinion'.

    Looking forward to more from the rest of the world.

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  13. Agghh! Pavlova is a Kiwi dessert, created by a hotel chef in Wellington for Anna Pavlova during one of her tours there in the 1920s (see also Wikipedia)
    Love your blog. Perhaps with the pen name of Pavlova you might like mine at All4ballet com.

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  14. Hello!

    I have a question for Max. Thank you for posting your blog. I'm just wondering whether you know how much sugar is in your Ribena?

    If your carton had 288ml of Ribena in it just over 10% of it was sugar - that's just over 30g.

    If you switch to Ribena Light and have the same sized carton it has only 1.44g of sugar in it.

    Beena

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    1. Hi Beena, Max's Mum here.

      I buy Ribena instead of Ribena light because of the Aspartamine in Ribena Light. I've always been told to go for natural ingredients eg sugar above chemical ingredients. Not sure if thats the right thing to do or not, maybe others could help me out on this. Kids dont always like just water and we avoid fizzy pop apart from special occasions so juice is the next best thing after milk and water. But thanks for your comments and I wonder of others have this dilema!

      Jools

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  15. Crunch & Sip.

    Now that it an idea that I really like!

    I can see no harm in allowing anyone to drink water while at their desk (work or school.)

    Allowing them to also crunch on bits of fruit or veg at the same time can't be a bad thing.
    There is nothing more distracting than being hungry, and if a carrot stick or two discreetly eaten during a lesson keeps a student focused I am all for it.

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  16. Freckleton is a very nice town Martha, but not everyne has freckles :P

    Lytham St Annes is also very beautiful

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