Just in time for the weekend.

The news seems to have jumped on board the feel good train with a few stories that have really made me smile this week. The first has made a global sensation out of 109 year old Alfie Date, our oldest Australian. He’s been knitting vests for penguins to wear as protection from oil spills near Phillip Island. Alfie learned to knit from his sister-in-law way back in the 1930’s and his work has helped save 96% of penguins who came into contact with an oil spill in 2001.

I don’t have a visual for this next story so you’re stuck with one of my recycled gym selfies. Usually the late news on ABC’s News Radio is wall to wall grimness. The consequences of war, the deprivation of liberty and the failings of our world leaders. But last night, I did hear a story that was war related but also one filled with hope and determination. It was about a community gym in the Ukraine and what it meant to both the owner of the gym and his clients.

The owner offers a number of gym and boxing classes to the children of his local community. Through the bombing and chaos of the current war, he has refused to shut his gym or stop teaching. For him, it is a matter of national pride that future generations be trained to represent their country, to not be defeated by the destruction around them. For the children, training is a positive outlet to help deal with the death of parents through the bombing and also, poignantly, as a way to drown out the sounds of sirens, fighter planes and bombs that have become more familiar to them than the sound of cars or trucks. For parents, sending their children to the gym with its rigorous training programme helps ensure that their young ones would sleep so soundly each night that they wouldn’t be woken up by the sound of the bombs and explosions thundering overhead.

And to think that we complain about the noise of trucks and our neighbours’ airconditioning at night.

I have a quick update on the apricot chicken controversy from the other day. It’s team curry powder all the way for me, from now on. The Moroccan spice makes for too salty a sauce.

It came with a USB attachment that you use to plug your charger into your laptop with, which is how it charges. The white end flashes as it juices up and then again as it charges a device. The cable that came with the charger fitted my Kindle just fine.

As with anything Apple, don’t forget that you need to buy a separate USB adaptor to connect to the charger and then to your Apple device. This one was $7.50 from Coles.

Back to the book I was desperately trying to read on my Kindle.

www.amazon.co.uk

This is it. I’m a bit obsessed with the work of British food writers at the moment. ‘Table Talk: Sweet and Sour, Salt and Bitter’ is an edited collection of Gill’s ‘Table Talk’ restaurant reviews for the Sunday Times. Scathing, considered, intelligent and laced with wit so sharp you could shave with it, ‘Table Talk’ is perfect bed time reading. Each short chapter is like a square of dark chocolate before bed. Intense and thought provoking and guaranteed to help you take your mind off the day and onto the pursuit of a solid sleep.

Where do you stand on the work of A.A. Gill? Do you have a favourite food writer?