When we laid out the kitchen, we wanted lots of counter-top workspace. That turned out well.

 As time passed, we bought more and more sauces, vinegars, cooking oils, etc. Before we knew it, a large section of the counter-top was taken up with storing this stuff. With everything crowded together, finding what I wanted was a real nuisance.

So we decided to get things organised. Wall mounted racks were an obvious choice, as they would free up counter space below. We ended up getting 3 racks as well as 3 wooden trays to hold stuff like cooking oils, salt, bottles of dried chillies and the like.

 As you can see, with everything lined up it is much easier to locate whatever I need. The smaller rack in the upper right hand corner of the photo is used for holding commonly used spices. The ones that I use less often are in a pull-out cabinet.

We did not go for the brand name racks; 1 rack cost twice as much as the total we paid for our 3 racks. Quality is good, and we figure even if the racks need replacement at some point, we are still way ahead by not paying so much.

Have you ever found that for whatever reason, you are way behind with your cooking and dinner (or lunch) is served late as a result? Not really talking about entertaining, but regular days.

We tend to have dinner rather late by local standards, 9.00 p.m. - 9.30 p.m. is fairly usual for us. That is a time when the neighbours are either already in bed or getting ready to go to bed, but for many reasons, it has become a part of our lifestyle.

The other day I was downloading files from my website as a backup, and the task took longer than I expected. Quite common for me when it comes to computers and internet stuff. A connection that seemed to drop periodically did not help, so I was sitting and ‘watching the grass grow’ as it were.

You know the feeling? It’s gone on so long you don’t want to cancel, but you are getting increasingly desperate because you need to be elsewhere. Well, that was me.

Despite my plans to start cooking at a certain time, I was late. Rush, rush, rush, mutter, grumble - dinner was served at 10.00 p.m.

As consolation, I told my wife about restaurants in Spain that open for dinner service at 11.00 p.m. She was a good sport about it all, which made up for my frustration.

And why did I think of this all of  sudden today? Well, my ISP had a nationwide service outage today, and I only managed to get online again (with the help of their tech support) at 5.00 p.m.

No, dinner will not be late, I’m off to start cooking now!

I recently popped in to the Central Chidlom Department store to have a look at the household department.

 I was pleasantly surprised to see a decent selection of good quality (read heavy-duty) bakeware. So, if you are on the lookout for this, you do have an option besides the Emporium Department store.

Both places have easy BTS skytrain access.