Hairdressing, ICT & Ice Cream

Like most people I have to get my hair cut once in a while and this week I paid one of my regular visits to see Naomi who cuts my hair for me. She's been cutting it for a couple of years now I suppose and she's very good. She's always friendly and we usually enjoy a good chat. The other day was no exception. She was explaining how the salon had just changed its range of hair colorants and how she is getting used to using them. Apparently, it's all done by numbers and she has to try and match a client's color from the previous range to the new one. We agreed it's a bit like a recipe, having to get the right balance of ingredients so that the end result is just right. That was it ... we only had to mention the word 'recipe' and I started talking about ice cream!

After that we indulged in discussing our favorite ice cream flavors. It was the end of Naomi's working day and I was the last client there so I felt at ease developing the conversation. Katie, who had just washed my hair, then joined in the discussion. We all agreed we love ice cream yet found out that it's for very different flavors.

• Naomi enjoys raspberry ripple ice cream.


• Katie prefers strawberry or mint choc chip ice cream.


• I of course like just about all of them but would have to admit to preferring good old fashioned vanilla ice cream.
  

Same thing happened when I was ordering a new handset for the office telephone system the next day. I rang Gary who had last helped me with our telephones 3 years ago. I half expected to hear that he had moved on as is so often the case with people these days. But no ... he was still there, much to my delight for Gary is a fantastic ICT (information and communications technology) field sales consultant, knowledgeable, efficient and courteous. In a matter of minutes he had sorted my problem and I said I would write about his efficiency on my ice cream blog, but only if he told me his favorite flavor. He had little hesitation in saying 'chocolate'.

Many people I've talked to over the years have told me they like chocolate ice cream. It's amazingly popular .... and it's not difficult to understand why. If you make it with a rich custard base and use real chocolate it's absolutely delicious!

So thank you Naomi, Katie and Gary for providing me with a greater insight into people's ice cream tastes. I find I can never guess what ice cream somebody is going to say they like so I enjoy finding out whenever the opportunity crops up. I wonder who's next ? :)

Ice Cream Jigsaws

Making ice cream at home can be fun, even for children (as long as they're supervised!) but once they've made and eaten the ice cream, how do you stop them wandering off to sit down and maybe watch tv or play the same old computer game over and over? Here's one answer - ice cream jigsaws.

Everyone loves jigsaws - I have many happy memories doing them with my son when he was younger - and because I know so many people love ice cream I decided to bring the two things together. Based on some of our own photographs on ice-cream-recipes.com there are now 4 free, downloadable jigsaws you can do on your computer. The jigsaws are of 2 ice cream sculptures that my friend Barbra helped to make (Granny's House and Ice Cream Pyramids) and 2 ice cream sundaes that I made and photographed at home (Mint Choc Chip wafer basket sundae and Lemon Sorbet).

I hope the actual photographs that the jigsaws are based on might even serve to inspire some of you to make more of your own ice cream presentations - it's great fun and when you see people's reactions to what you've made it feels really worthwhile.

Read more about making ice cream sculptures

Here's a great daily jigsaw puzzle you can do online.