Not only did I get to bed early last evening (possibly just after 10:00 p.m.), but it was the fourth evening in which I did not drink one of the cans of strong (8% alcohol) beer that I keep in stock.
My younger brother had arrived home that evening by around 7:30 p.m. from wherever he had been drinking. I used our T9 Android 8.1 TV Box to access the first of two episodes of one of the series we follow, and he sat through it without any of his annoying drunken commentary.
We were about halfway through the second episode when I noticed that he had passed out.
So that was it for the evening ─ I refuse to tolerate his company when he proves himself this inebriated.
I cancelled the episode and switched the T.V. over to the only news channel that we receive on our basic cable package, and I left that programme as his company for him to revive to. Since he does not know how to operate the Android TV Box, he would have little choice but to settle for what he would be able to find on the limited options provided by basic cable.
I came upstairs here to my computer to while away some time, for it was not yet 9:00 p.m.
I was okay about the early evening, for I had plans for my coming morning ─ I wanted to get sufficient sleep that I would be up to getting out and making the two-mile hike to the nearest Service Canada offices (Google map) here in Surrey.
As I have discussed in my previous two posts, I intended to go there to have my Thai marriage certificate photocopied and certified, and simultaneously apply for the Guaranteed Income Supplement (GIS) that I had been sent an invitation and application for last week.
I had heard of the GIS, but I just felt that I likely would not qualify and thus I never bothered about it. Since I am married, the determination would be for the combined income of my wife and I to fall below a ceiling threshold.
It seemed too complicated.
But having that invitation and somewhat pre-filled application from the federal government show up last week generated both interest and hope ─ after all, they even quoted my official income totals for 2016 and 2017 as had been determined by Canada Revenue Agency.
To my mind, this implied that they suspected that I did qualify. And since I had never applied before, they probably felt it incumbent to give me a prod. Perhaps, there are many Old Age Pensioners who never understood the rules and have not applied, so someone at the government has decided that we need some guidance.
Anyway, I went to bed last evening with more peace in my heart and mind than I have felt for a long while.
Nevertheless, that did not prevent me from waking up very early in the a.m. It is a pattern with me to rise overnight to start work on the day's content assignment at whatever new post I may have under construction at one of my six hosted websites.
I probably rose shortly after 2:00 a.m. And soon afterward, my youngest stepson arrived home from somewhere.
Anyway, there was scant chance that I would be going anywhere if I did not get more sleep, so I only finished half the day's assignment of content, and then I returned to bed ─ it may have been as late as 4:30 a.m.
Following some further sleep, I think that it was nigh 7:00 a.m. when I next roused. The Service Canada website said that its offices opened at 8:30 a.m., so I did not wish to leave home until at least shortly after 7:30 a.m.
And so I had myself a hot caffeinated beverage before I began readying for my two-mile hike.
By the time I was standing outside the locked front door and was about to set off, it was 8:08 a.m.
Quite peculiarly, I expected to be encountering students everywhere during my hike, but I never saw any at all.
And now I have just checked a .pdf document titled Revised 2018-2019 District Calendar - Surrey Schools ─ today (April 8) is listed as a "Non-Instructional Day."
Teachers love having extra days off. But I sure don't remember any such days when I went to school.
At least I could not have picked a better day to be making the four-mile round trip hike.
When I arrived at my destination, there were other people being attended for one reason or another, but there was only one other person waiting for service.
Thus, my wait was very short.
The gal who called me out was very obliging, and did the required photocopying and certification. Had I been forced to find someone elsewhere with that authority, I would have had to pay for it.
She even offered to check the online posted 'waiting times' for my application to finally be processed ─ supposedly, it could take three months.
But she assured that if necessary, they would automatically look at my retroactive situation up to 11 months in the past and pay it out accordingly, if I did qualify.
I could sure use such a lump sum payment!
I stopped in afterward at Save-On-Foods (Google map) in Whalley on my return hike and bought some groceries and such. And once I was home and back into the house, it was 10:02 a.m.
My younger brother was of course up by then and had the T.V. on.
I changed clothes and soon joined him, putting our Android TV Box into operation to fetch up (via the YouTube 'app' I have downloaded into the Box) the second installment of an old BBC series on American country music called Lost Highway: The Story of Country Music.
And darn! I just now discovered that I had actually tuned in the third episode titled "Beyond Nashville" (that's the 2014 YouTube link I used).
I recall from research I did last week that the second episode seems to be unavailable.
Oh, sure ─ "The Road to Nashville" is there on both YouTube and Dailmotion. It was posted to those two sites long ago by someone named Raymond Crayton ─ but the witless knob never bothered including the soundtrack for the feature.
Yet knowing that, he also never took the trouble to remove the useless video ─ or post a version with sound.
I'll say no more about that.
I also tuned in that episode that I had cancelled out of last evening after my younger brother had passed out. And I opted to play it from the beginning, too ─ not from where we had left off (the option was there to do just that).
My brother watched it all in silence, so whether or not he remembered anything of the first half was kept to himself.
We finished our viewing with another episode of a BBC comedy that we've been following from the start since I discovered it a month or so ago: Witless.
I think we've both grown rather fond of the two "witless" lasses.
We've now caught up to the second episode of the second season ─ it's going to be with some regret that we ultimately watch the series finale whenever we get around to doing so.
The comedy finished around 12:20 p.m., so my brother went on back upstairs to his bedroom to rest up before taking off for the afternoon to end up drinking somewhere again.
I made myself my day's first meal, and then just after 1:30 p.m. I was also back in my bed, and I remained there till near 3:00 p.m.
My hike had been done under a sky that was a mix of cloud and Sun. However, by the early afternoon, some fairly light rain has predominated.
That walk was my exercise for the day.
Now to make a total switch of topic, my Thai wife regularly shops at Asian markets, so I am sometimes exposed to vegetables and fruits that she is familiar with, but which I may never before have even seen ─ let alone tried.
One such was a small fruit called longan.
I had been aware of lychee since as far back as the 1980s or even the 1970s, but this somewhat similar fruit never crossed my path until my wife brought it home a few years ago.
The next time we have some, I think that I will try to remember to retain the big pit or seed from some of them, for according to the following article that touts longan's many ascribed health benefits, "Dried seeds have also exhibited the STRONGEST free radical scavenging activity, as compared to fresh seeds or the dried fruit pulp."
HSIonline.com
The claim is also made that the "longan berry contain 80% of your daily C requirement."
Does that mean that just one of these small oval fruits ─ that are mostly a big pit surrounded by very little flesh ─ contain all of that vitamin C? That's rather hard to believe.
But returning to the cancer-fighting potential of the dried seed or pit, I haven't noticed it said anywhere just how much is actually safe to eat, or even if there is any risk at all from eating too many at once?
Perhaps I scanned the following other articles on longan too carelessly, for I never noticed that to be explained in any of them either:
- EthnicSeattle.com: Top 10 Amazing Health Benefits Of Longan
- StyleCraze.com: Longan Fruit And Its Long List Of Benefits
- Superfoodly.com: 5 Longan Fruit Health Benefits and 2 Big Drawbacks
- Mercola.com: What Is Longan Good For?
- OrganicFacts.net: 15 Wonderful Benefits of Longan Fruit
My suspicion is that the seed is only used to obtain an extract which is then used in various fashion ─ folks likely don't just chow 'em down.
I performed an Amazon search at the top of this post using the term "longan extract" just to see what would show up. There are extracts of both the fruit and the seed, but I am not feeling any particular need to pursue the stuff.
The next time I have access to any fresh longan, I may keep some seeds and dry them out, and then maybe try eating one every once in a while ─ for example, surely one a day oughtn't to be a problem?
In recent posts I have been concluding with some photos that were taken ─ probably in the city of Udon Thani ─ the day one of my wife's nieces got married back on February 25 of last year (2018), so I will add a few more of the photos here.
The first photo features the bride and groom in the centre, but I do not know who the other people are:
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