Learning curve

[Guest guest]

" Cheating " is a weird subject, but this has been a very enlightening

conversation (thread?) because we all need to have ways of filling in

the blanks or not, as appropriate. I was referring to one or two

conversations I have had when I assumed that the conversation was

ending, I was expecting to hear so long or see you later, it didn't

sound right so I said sorry I missed that and they repeated a big fat

compliment. On another occasion, the quick parting comment was the

meeting day was changed, etc. I didn't have much knowledge about how

to be deaf when I became deaf suddenly at 49, my daughter contacted

the office for the deaf and hoh in our state and received tons of info

about how to become culturally deaf. So I'm getting my rules of the

road from great folks like you, from SHHH, from Sam Trychin (he puts a

lot of responsibility on us) My admiration for everyone here is

genuine, communication loss is a lot to deal with. I'll keep my

postings to CI in the future.

shelley

[Guest guest]

Hi

can anyone help me please?

As I am eating a lot of coconut products, I decided to try and get

hold of a young green coconut [not easy here in Devon!] to see what

that was like. I asked at my local asian grocers and they said they

would get some for me. I picked them up today and asked how to

prepare them. The two people in the shop weren't sure, one said 'just

cut the top off and put a straw in and drink the liquid' and the

other said 'peel it and then crack it'.

I was a little confused, but thought 'how hard can it be, after all

I've mastered opening a mature coconut using the back of a meat

cleaver, I'm sure I can do this.' I opted for the 'cut the top off'

approach as I couldn't really work out how to peel it. 10 minutes

later, starting at the stalk end, I had cut bits of the end off with

a large knife three times and still had no opening. Feeling a little

frustrated and a bit tired [it was hard work trying to cut through

it], I took a small knife to try and 'dig' a hole through just to get

the water out, but despite repeated digging, nothing.

Rob [my partner] came into the kitchen to see what I was doing and

suggested that perhaps I needed to machete the end off. Now as I

don't have a machete, I thought I'd try the cleaver and after a

further five minutes of bashing the other end of the coconut with the

cleaver [i seemed incapable of hitting it in the exact same place

twice in a row, which didn't help my progress] I finally broke

through.

I leant across to get a glass but when I tipped the coconut there was

just a small trickle, even less than from a mature coconut, I was so,

so disappointed and couldn't work out why it was such a small amount.

A moment later I realised what had happened, the small hole I'd tried

to gouge at the other end had in fact broken through and all the

coconut water was running along the work surface and dripping down

the front of the cupboards underneath.

Dismayed but determined to at least retrieve the flesh, I got a spoon

[after I'd mopped up all the water] and started to scrape around the

inside. Despite being careful, each spoonful seemed to have both

flesh and little bits of the fibre which I then had to try and pick

out, again something that sounds a lot easier than it actually was. I

think it was at about this time I decided I really needed some help

and advice from someone who knew how to do this properly.

So, if there's anyone reading this, [and laughing at my ineptitude]

who can advise me on how to prepare a fresh green coconut properly

and what 'tools' I should use, I'd be very grateful as I bought two

and the other one is now sitting in the kitchen and I can't face

going through all that again!

Many thanks

Hazel