According to CBC news on Oct 22, BC government has confirmed it spent almost $1 million taxpayers' money on Winter Olympic 2010 game tickets for "business leaders" and "investors" around the world. Having said that Mary McNeil, Minister of State for the Olympics, can't tell exactly where these tickets are going while the games is only 4 months away. Would these valuable tickets become freebies to Gordon Campbell's ministers, staff, and family members?!!
This is pretty sad to every British Columbian looking at how our money is spent when the provincial government is facing a $2.8 billion deficit. If you don't know, the BC Ambulance Service is on strike since April 2009 and is still working without a fair contract; Also, the government is also cutting back on mental health services.
To me, this is totally not acceptable and you guess whom I would vote for at the next election?!
Other Controversial Purchases
- Federal Canadian Heritage Department spent close to $450,000 to reserve 2000 tickets for MPs and Senators and government agency people
- BC Hydro, ICBC, and BC Lottery Corporate also bought $1.3 million worth of tickets to distribute to staff, contractors, business partners, and customer contest winners
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Thursday, October 15, 2009
How to descale / clean AVENT electric steam sterilizer
I never thought of buying an electric sterilizer because it is quite expensive and I thought it would be easy to simply boil the bottles. In fact, after 1 week of feeding my baby, I realized I was wrong. EVERY MINUTE COUNTS!
There are 2 types of steam sterilizer - microwave or electrice. The microwave ones are cheaper and straight-forward to use but personally I prefer the electric one. I am always concerned about microwaving plastic bottles on a long term basis. What do you see in the plastic containers after using them for few months? hum ...
Anyway, I finally bought the AVENT bottle electric sterilizer. On the surface of the sterilizer, the cleaning instructions suggest cleaning / descaling the device with citric acid every 4 weeks or so but it does not say 'HOW'.
What is the hack is citric acid? The answer is simple, lemon juice. Yes, it is that simple. Alternatively, you can use vinegar or fresh lemon but vinegar is likely to leave you some smell in the sterilizer for a while. Anyway, here is what I did on my sterilizer.
1) Dilute the lemon juice. I usually mix one oz of lemon juice with 2 cups of water. If you are using vinegar, then my suggestion would be a 1:1 ratio.
2) Pour the diluted lemon juice into the sterilizer and start boiling. Let the sterilizer cool down before emptying it. In the case of using vinegar, DO NOT start the boiling process. Leave the vinegar in the sterilizer for an hour and examine the result.
3) Unplug the sterilizer. Wipe down any lime-scale with a damp cloth. Rinse the sterilizer multiple times to get rid of any loose scale.
The suggestions above are simply my personal experience and I cannot gaurantee their correctness. Use your judgement if you disagree with me and I am happy to hear from you as well. Happy feeding.
There are 2 types of steam sterilizer - microwave or electrice. The microwave ones are cheaper and straight-forward to use but personally I prefer the electric one. I am always concerned about microwaving plastic bottles on a long term basis. What do you see in the plastic containers after using them for few months? hum ...
Anyway, I finally bought the AVENT bottle electric sterilizer. On the surface of the sterilizer, the cleaning instructions suggest cleaning / descaling the device with citric acid every 4 weeks or so but it does not say 'HOW'.
What is the hack is citric acid? The answer is simple, lemon juice. Yes, it is that simple. Alternatively, you can use vinegar or fresh lemon but vinegar is likely to leave you some smell in the sterilizer for a while. Anyway, here is what I did on my sterilizer.
1) Dilute the lemon juice. I usually mix one oz of lemon juice with 2 cups of water. If you are using vinegar, then my suggestion would be a 1:1 ratio.
2) Pour the diluted lemon juice into the sterilizer and start boiling. Let the sterilizer cool down before emptying it. In the case of using vinegar, DO NOT start the boiling process. Leave the vinegar in the sterilizer for an hour and examine the result.
3) Unplug the sterilizer. Wipe down any lime-scale with a damp cloth. Rinse the sterilizer multiple times to get rid of any loose scale.
The suggestions above are simply my personal experience and I cannot gaurantee their correctness. Use your judgement if you disagree with me and I am happy to hear from you as well. Happy feeding.
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