Adventures in retail

[desperance]

It's the sort of thing that might happen to anyone. I actually went into town just to check that the Laptop of Heavenly Perfection wasn't on sale in John Lewis (it's not). I saw my first Asus Eee, though. It's black! No one told me it was black! I thought they were white! And it's a quarter the price of the LHP, and it runs Linux, and and and. And I didn't buy one, though I might have done. Despite its charms, alas, my heart is given to another... (Tho' it'd make a good back-up. If I needed a back-up ultraportable machine. Which I don't. I don't really even need one. Really...)

So I bought a new sink-drainer instead, in my ongoing pursuit of the perfect thing; and then - well, if the Lit & Phil had been open I would have gone there and done some work. I speak jocularly about the catastrophe of their closing for a fortnight, but in reality it's not a joke at all. Genuinely, it stymies me. I am a creature of habit, and it is my habit to read drafts at the L&P. Without it - well, I could go to the pub, but if I start drinking at eleven in the morning I'll do no work later. I'll have to try to read the thing at home, but that's haaaaard...

So then I was just coming home, only my way home leads me past a Chinese cash & carry wholesale warehouse. Which I'd never been in before. So in I went.

And came out with industrial quantities of soy sauce and vinegar, a packet of tea and some dried brake.

Dried what, you say?

Dried brake.

Honestly.

I was going to copy what it says on the packet, but I found this on the first website I asked about it:

"And fist vegetable is the most famous vegetable. Fist vegetable is also called, brake, chicken toe vegetable, long-lived vegetable, etc. It belongs to fern, perennial herb, root stock, rampancy under ground with brown fuzz. The stem contents amylum and it’s esculent. It’s far away from pollution and more clean and healthy. It can be picked up in the last ten-day of a May. The leaf is single and curling like a fist. So it was given the name of fist vegetable. Both fresh and dried brake is esculent and cooked by hot water, then being fished out and dehydrated, and boiled with pork, chicken. The dish with brake is not only fragrant, fresh, smooth, and delicious with high nutrition, but also is good for alleviating diuresis and allaying a fever. Eating brake constantly can refresh one’s eyes and spirit, beauty faces, drive away disease and prolong lives. So it is called longlived vegetable. It is really a precious grew in hill and the dried brake is savable."

So there you have it. Or rather, here I have it. I'll let you know.

Comments

[spaceoperadiva.livejournal.com]

Sounds kind of like Fiddlehead Fern, which I've never eaten but have heard are way skewed on the trouble to prepare/enjoyment in eating scale.

[papersky.livejournal.com]

Fiddlehead fern are no trouble to prepare -- well, about the same as asparagus -- and are absolutely delicious. They're available for about three weeks only, and we tend to eat them every day of that time.

However, this is a drief root, not a leaf, so probably really different.

Let us know how esculent it actually is, Chaz!

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

I'd strongly considered the Asus to replace my obsolete travel IBM 240x --but the guy in the store was so unhelpful he turned me off it --asked if it would be a problem moving my word files back and forth and he said yes (I was later informed by my computer expert friend that this is NOT true). However, I was concerned the screen and keyboard would be too small. The screen was not, the keyboard was. I could not type on it quickly without making lots of errors so decided against it.

Instead I bought a Lenovo 60s (I think that's the number) which is basically a new version of the wonderful IBM I had used for five years. I will never ever buy a travel laptop that weighs more than 3 pounds. I had one in the mid to late 90s and it almost killed me lugging it around.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

I still have a Packard Bell Easymate 770, which I suspect of being about ten years old by now. It weighs nothing and works perfectly. Just, it has no wi-fi capability, which is my excuse for wanting the Laptop of Heavenly Perfection.

I think you're right about the Eee's keyboard; I too found myself fumbling a little more than I like. I think I'd get used to it, but it would always be a squeeze. The LHP, on the other hand, is perfectly usable, tho' smaller than standard. And being carbon fibre, it too weighs nothing at all. And I am in lust, I am jonesing for it. Which is the first time I've ever used that word, which probably says something about how very much I want it...

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

Which is you LHP????

[desperance.livejournal.com]

This particular Sony Vaio - carbon fibre, feather-light and ultimately gorgeous (http://www.amazon.co.uk/Sony-VAIO-G11XN-Bluetooth-fingerprint/dp/B000OM78CC/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&s=electronics&qid=1198775588&sr=1-1).

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

Ah...I coveted one that cost even more--about $2200 --weighs under 3 lbs. But couldn't afford it. Or it might be the same one-It was in the TX series.

Instead I had decided to get the Fujitsu Lifebook 7230 ...but luckily, the Lenovo is even less than the Fujitsu I wanted.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

This one is much reduced pricewise; its original selling price was £1795. Vaios are extraordinarily expensive over here. Which is why I can delude myself that hey, £865? That's a bargain...

But yup, this one weighs 1.12kg - which is, um, two and a half pounds, give or take? It fits my criterion for portable typability, which is that I won't notice it. If I ever have to stop and think "is it worth the weight, will I actually use it...?" then I'm doomed, I'll just leave it and take a book instead. Of course, I always take a book as well - but if I've got the machine I usually will use it.

[ellen-datlow.livejournal.com]

It's probably a similar one--since I do take my laptop with me when I travel, the lighter the better.

[mevennen.livejournal.com]

Extraordinary!

[desperance.livejournal.com]

I think I want it on a T-shirt: "Fist vegetable is the most famous vegetable!"

[pennski.livejournal.com]

That could get you into trouble...

[athenais.livejournal.com]

I hope you many beauty faces.