Improvised solutions

I bought a new frying pan to try making Jamaican 'Johnny Cakes' last week. None of the ones I already had were anything like flat, which makes shallow-frying anything a bit of a challenge. The new one isn't perfectly flat either (or else my stove isn't on the level), but I can just about get by with it. I have just discovered that this pan is flat enough (and, for the time being, clean enough, and heat-conductive enough) to dry-grill slices of bread on to make toast. My old electric toaster self-combusted over a year ago, and I've been missing it sorely (a slice of toast is one of the few 'Western' home comforts I really get cravings for). Now, however, I'm starting to wonder if I really need to replace it. Electric toasters are hard to come by here. I wouldn't trust the efficacy or safety of local brands. Foreign brands are quite expensive. And money is very tight for me right now. Maybe I'll just keep right on using the frying pan.

Last week, in preparation for my dratted housewarming party, I also went out shopping for a new hi-fi system (my old one died last summer, the controlling microchip going completely haywire). I wasted a whole afternoon on the quest, but came back empty-handed. Most hi-fi systems today seem to cost at least three or four times as much as the one I'm looking to replace (purchased six years ago). Most of them seem to have a DVD player (which I don't need). None of them seem to have a cassette tape player (which I do want). I fear I may have to enlist the help of a Chinese friend to help me navigate the bewildering, unsatisfying array of options. Or maybe I'll just continue to do without. For the last year, I have been getting by with playing ripped music on my computer, or with playing CDs on my television via a DVD player. The sound quality is pretty poor, but I suppose I've got used to poor sound quality (in this age of listening to so much music on computers and i-Pods, we get used to lousy sound quality as an 'acceptable' norm); the hi-fi that died last year wasn't anything very wonderful, and I'm sure almost anything I buy out here is going to sound fairly dismal in comparison to the proper hi-fi system I had to leave behind in the UK (and that system wasn't as good as the one I had in my undergraduate days: CD just never sounds as good as vinyl!).

Ah, once upon a time I was such an audiophile. I hate these compromises that age and poverty bring to us.