Experimental Cookery 2015 #26: Spaghetti Tetrazzini

Taking this series to the halfway point for the year, we have one more entry from "Jamie's Italy". I said before that I thought I'd mined that one out, but there was one recipe that I had been interested to try but that LC rejected - even after I suggested cunningly switching the mushrooms for bacon. So, since I had mushrooms in stock, and since LC is currently away, I thought this was the time to give it a try.

This proved to be another quick and easy meal to make, not surprising for a pasta-based dish. By the time the spaghetti was cooked the chicken and mushrooms had cooked in their sauce. At which point it was a case of tossing everything together, seasoning with salt, pepper, and cheese, and then baking in the over for a good long while.

The result was very tasty, probably better than last week's farfalle, which was a surprise. The only slight criticism I might offer is that the quantities are way off - the recipe claimed to be for four, I made a third of it, and ended up with two large helpings. Which conventiently gives me lunch for tomorrow.

This is another one that I would happily have again, but that LC wouldn't even touch. A shame, but never mind - I'm sure I'll find occasion at some point.

And that really is "Jamie's Italy" done, I think.

Helensburgh Highland Games 2015

Yesterday the band took part in the competition at the Helensburgh Highland Games. This was, again, one of the smaller events, but quite a nice one for all that. This was also one of the few competitions with no Grade 4A contest, meaning we played at Grade 4(B) and again at Grade 3. This gave us a rare opportunity to play our "four marches".

It was quite a nice day, with only a few light showers to mar the weather. And, unusually, it was a somewhat civilised start time - the bus picked us up at 9:45. Nice to actually get some sleep! (This was also the second of two "double headers" the band has this year - weekends when we've been playing on both the Saturday and the Sunday. I really don't like those.)

So, we went, we made ready, and we played. And when we came off I was convinced that the Pipe Major was about to say something - he had the same vibe as at Bathgate. And yet, there was no such reaction. Odd. (It did turn out that there was an explanation for that - nothing to do with our performance.)

Then there was a wait of two hours, and we played again. And another good performance, building on last week's successes. So, that's good.

In the end, we came third out of three in grade 4 (3rd for piping and 2nd for drumming), and third out of four in grade 3 (3rd and 4th). So, another two prizes, although one was courtesy of the two sweetest words in the English language.

Next week we don't have a competition. It was going to be Forres (site of the dread bus breakdown), but we elected not to go as we didn't think we'd have a drum corps. Then it was a fundraising event at the Kelpies in Falkirk, but in the meantime LC and I had made other plans.

And the weekend after is The Riding of the Marches in Annan, a competition that has generally been good to us.

This week's mug: The penultimate mug anecdote truly is a mug bearing an anecdote. Specifically, the mug bears the image of the Rooster of Barcelos, and the text of the story of how a dead rooster provided a miraculous sign of the innocence of a man condemned to hang for a crime he didn't commit. I got this one, not surprisingly, when I visited Lisbon some years ago, and I don't think I've ever actually used it!

Next week will be the final mug anecdote, and I have consequently saved my very favourite mug to feature in the last entry in the series. I'm sure you're all looking forward to it as much as I am... or at least looking forward to the end of it as much as I am!

Strathmore Highland Games 2015

This one's somewhat delayed, but included for completeness.

Last Sunday the band attended the Strathmore Highland Games. I'm not sure why I missed this one last year, but I do know I'd intended to go but in the event didn't. It's a fairly small event that takes place in the grounds of Glamis Castle.

The day didn't seem promising when it started - as I left the flat I discovered it was raining quite heavily, and so I returned to get an umbrella. However, as we headed further from Falkirk the weather improved, until it turned into quite a nice day.

We were playing twice, once in grade 4A and again in grade 3. Unfortunately, during the preparations for playing the first time, something went wrong with my drones, which just would not strike up. So I had to drop out at the last minute. The band went on, and played pretty well.

We then got the drones sorted between the two performances, by the expedient of replacing the reeds with an old set I had. This meant I was able to play in the second contest. We played well. Alas, this was the grade 3 competition, where we really didn't have any chance. Still, nice to get a good performance under our belts.

Then there was the usual waiting and the march-past. In the end we came third out of six in grade 4A (3rd for piping; 4th for drumming), and sixth out of six in grade 3 (6th and 6th). So, out first prize of the season, and quite a successful day all told.

Experimental Cookery 2015 #25: Mushroom Farfalle

Once again, I'm on my own. LC has gone out for the evening. Which has the advantage that while she's away I can cook whatever I want! Which, once again, means mushrooms. This one comes from "Jamie's Fifteen Minute Meals", which is a book we actually don't have, but having seen him do it on TV a couple of times I felt I could give it a go. (I'm going to have to pick that book up, actually - the series has been very impressive.)

The pasta for this dish is farfalle, which is the bow-tie style pasta, therefore being the coolest of all pastas. Huzzah! The other component of the meal is a mushroom sauce, which came together very quickly and easily. The whole meal did indeed take me about fifteen minutes to make. (In fairness, I didn't do the salad that goes with it in the show, but I doubt that would have added much - I can multitask!)

This was definitely a success, and one I suspect would be ideal for the vegetarian in your life. I would certainly have it again. Indeed, as soon as I finished I thought I'd quite like to have it again! LC, of course, wouldn't even touch this.

I have a couple of nights alone as well next week, as LC is away again. So they may be another Experimental Cookery featuring mushrooms coming up...

A Really Good Idea... or a Really Bad One

In order to win back Scotland, Labour will need to have a compelling message to deliver, and also someone capable of delivering it. That's one of the reasons Jim Murphy had to go - the evidence was that the electorate had stopped listening, and it doesn't matter what you say if nobody listens.

Unfortunately, though, Scottish Labour find themselves in a difficult position when it comes to selecting their new leader. The pool of candidates is small and, frankly, unimpressive. Worse, the job is something of a poisoned chalice, as they're likely heading for another battering in 2016 and depending on the scale of the defeat they may well expect the leader to resign. (They're busily saying otherwise, but what politicians say before an election and what they say after aren't always the same.)

However, before leaving Jim Murphy has presented Labour with a recovery plan, including the advice (which has been accepted) to reopen selection for the regional lists.

The reason this is important is as follows: in the worst-case scenario, Labour could find themselves losing every single Constituency MSP, and reduced to a core of about 16-18 regional List MSPs. (It's worth noting, of course, that this is a worst-case scenario; it's not a prediction!) In addition to being an absolutely devastating result for 2016, what it would also mean is that they have only a few voices in parliament speaking for Labour - and only a few voices therefore who are able to deliver the messages they need for 2020.

It is vitally important that Labour get the very best people possible into the top positions on the regional lists. Because those are the only people they can be sure of getting into the parliament, and thus the ones who will have to lead any possible recovery. Mess that up, and they'll find themselves in a worse state than the Tories (but not the Lib Dems - things aren't quite that bad).

As I've said, the current batch of Labour MSPs are, mostly, a fairly uninspiring bunch. It's probably fair to say that they're not the people to handle the fight back from that worst-case scenario. And so, reopening the regional lists is a very good idea.

In theory.

But an awful lot now depends on who gets onto those lists. And this is where a large part of me expects to start seeing a lot of the "big beasts" make a reappearance - those former Labour MPs who have just lost their seats and who might now think they want to transfer to Holyrood and want a list position to ensure that it happens.

The reason that would be a problem is quite simple: the people of Scotland have just rejected that group of candidates, and done so emphatically. And if the electorate aren't listening to Jim Murphy, why would we listen to Douglas Alexander, or Anas Sarwar, or anyone else we've just voted out?

So if I were in charge over at Scottish Labour, right now I'd be laying down a strict policy that any former MP who has just lost his seat cannot be placed on the regional lists. Further, any former leader of the Scottish party, and indeed the two failed candidates who stood against Jim Murphy in September, cannot be placed on the regional lists. And, yes, that includes Iain Grey, despite his current role as interim leader. Fair or not, the truth is that none of those people represents the future of the party, and with so much at stake, the party cannot afford to mess this up.

(For what it's worth, I would also be ditching the idiotic Bain principle. The moment you stop defining yourself by what you're for, but rather by who you're against, you've lost - your opponent can then force you into all sorts of contortions, including pushing you to vote against your own policies.)

You might well ask why I care. After all, I haven't voted Labour since 1997, and won't be voting for the next year either, regardless of who they put in place. So, why do I care what they do?

The answer to that is two-fold. Firstly, there are an awful lot of people who do vote Labour, and those people are absolutely entitled to proper representation. Secondly, though, in a democracy it's not healthy for one party to have overwhelming dominance - it's far better if the opposition parties have strong voices of their own, and can present a potential alternative government. And the reality is that in Scotland Labour are that alternative government, and indeed are the only possible alternative government. So I would much rather see them recovering, and thus providing a strong opposition, than continuing on their current path.

(You'll also notice that I haven't said anything about the policies I think they should adopt. That's not my business.)

This Week's Mug: I briefly, and incorrectly, described last week's mug anecdote as the antepenultimate entry in the series, but I then realised that it is this week's mug that bears that honour. This week's mug is a speckled grey mug with a frog on it, as is appropriate for this blog. I forget when and how I received this mug, but it was almost certainly a Christmas present from my parents. This is usually my mug for measuring rice and pasta, but for this week has been brought into service for coffee. Of course, I washed it thoroughly first!

Jurassic World

A short review for this one, I think. And no spoilers.

LC and I went to see "Jurassic World" last night. She had been anticipating it for some time. Our cinema trip was somewhat marred by a spilled Coke, but that's not really the film's fault.

For about three quarters of the film, this is pretty great. It's not as good as the first one, of course, but it's the best of the sequels by quite some distance.

And then... something happens. I don't want to say what, but you'll probably know it when (if) you see it. And for the last quarter of the film, it just sucks. And then it sucks some more... and some more... and yet more.

And then it ends, and that's okay.

Such a shame - it could have been a great film, too.

Anyway, next week is "Mr Holmes", which looks rather good.

#28: "D&D: Dungeon Master's Guide", by Wizards of the Coast

Experimental Cookery 2015 #23: Transylvanian Meatballs with Garlic Sauce, and #24: Fattoush

A double-header this week, as I did two recipes from the third Hairy Dieters book, "Good Eating" (the green one). This is the least successful of the three books, IMO, but it does have a few things worth trying.

The process for both these meals was fairly straightforward, but also quite time-consuming and messy. All in all, the meal took about an hour to make, start to finish. I could probably cut this down a bit if doing it in future - as it is, we have a pack of 10 meatballs in the freezer now for next time.

The results were... okay. LC liked the meal; I was less keen. The Fattoush was rather nice, and quite spicy, but I was a little disappointed in the meatballs, which tasted of mince more than anything else - I'd expected rather more of a garlic hit. Still, there wasn't anything wrong with the meal. I just wouldn't necessarily have it again - and both Jamie's meatballs and the lamb meatballs from the Hairy Biker's curry book are better.

This Week's Mug: The mug anecdote for this week is brought to you by Yorkie. I received this mug as the companion piece to an Easter Egg (I think) some years ago - usually, the egg is accompanied by one or two bars of chocolate, but this time it was a mug (and a smaller egg!) for reasons unknown. As with some of the other recent mugs, I've never actually used this one before.

#27: "Forge of Ashes", by Josh Vogt

Experimental Cookery 2015 #22: Chicken Fajita Burgers

This week's effort is truly experimental - I've taken some inspiration from Lorraine's fajitas and some from those Hairy Dieter chicken meals, and some also from the burger that LC had at The Filling Station recently, but this was mostly just me.

So, I made up my fajita spice mix in a jar. I actually made up a full batch, even though this meal uses a tiny amount - we'll use the rest next time we have fajitas. I use a mix of oregano, cumin, smoked paprika, salt, pepper, a little hot chilli powder, garam masala, and a little cayenne pepper. The chicken was bashed flat and then seasoned with half a teaspoon of spice mix per breast per side.

The chicken was then cooked on a screaming hot griddle - 2 mins on one side, 2 mins on the other, 90 seconds on the first, 90 seconds on the second... and then a further 90 seconds on each side as it wasn't fully cooked. Then set aside to rest.

I then griddled a red pepper, a green pepper, and an onion in the same griddle (with some lime juice) for about a minute, and then toasted the buger buns in the same griddle.

Then assemble: cover a third of the lower bun with soured cream, a third with mild salsa, and a third with guacamole. Add a slice of green pepper and two of red, and then a little of the onion. Add the chicken, then the second slice of green pepper, and then the top bun.

And serve with half a dozen rather disappointing micro-chips. Those could be better.

The result was extremely tasty... and even more messy. Stuff fell out all over the place! It was great though.

Huzzah!

This Week's Mug: I'm using a mug marked with six flags: Bretagne, the Isle of Man, Cornwall, Wales, the Republic of Ireland, and Scotland. I bought this mug while on a band trip to the Festival de Saint Loup a few years ago - the flags show some of the countries or regions involved in the festival. That was a good trip. Incidentally, I've done an inventory, and it looks like I only have four more mug anecdotes to share.

Charles Kennedy

I was rather shocked and quite saddened this morning to turn on my TV only to be confronted by the news that Charles Kennedy had died. I always liked him - he was manifestly a decent and principled guy, and both intelligent and a good communicator.

Indeed, he was probably the single mainstream politician who most closely matched my own political position. He was right about Iraq. He was right that Federalism is probably the only way forward for the UK. And he was clearly concerned with working for a better, fairer country. And indeed it was after the Lib Dems forced him out that they lost my vote (though in fairness, he probably did have to go - tricky beast, politics). And he was also one of very few Lib Dems I was sorry to see lose last month (though, again...).

So thank you, Charles Kennedy. You never knew me, but you certainly made an impact. Rest in Peace.

The British Pipe Band Championships 2015

Well, it was a good ride while it lasted. Our season is now effectively over.

Yesterday was the British Pipe Band Championships, which once again were held in Bathgate. This year they had moved to a new venue, but that made little real difference - I got on the bus and didn't worry about it. And it was a great day - bright and sunny throughout... though it did get a bit cold later.

We went, we got tuned up, and then we played. Everything to that point was fine, and when we came off I was reasonably happy - I actually thought it was our best performance of the year. But the pipe major was NOT happy. He pulled the pipers aside and basically went straight through us. He'd obviously heard something I had not, though I'm at a loss as to what it is.

The rest of the day was the usual waiting, which was eased by a halfway-decent book and also by listening to the Scottish Cup Final (Falkirk lost - boo). And then, after far too much waiting, we went for the march past.

We came last. Out of fourteen bands we came 12th and 14th for piping, 13th for drumming, and 14th for ensemble. So, a pretty dire performance on all counts. As I said, the pipe major must have heard something I did not.

But it was on the journey home that things went most wrong. The pipe major and one of the parents had a big shouting match in the bus, and then there were extensive rumblings of discontent. It doesn't look good.

Alas, this result basically means the end of the season. We were already near-certain to be dropped back to Grade 4A, between not doing at all well last year and only attending three of the five Majors. With this result, I don't see how we can avoid the drop. Which, truth be told, may be no bad thing, though coming back up will be exceptionally difficult.

(Though right now I'm not convinced we'll even make it to the end of the season...)

Anyway, that's that.

#26: "Pathfinder: Forge of the Giant God", by Tim Hitchcock

Update on Goals

The end of May brings us the 150th day of the year, so it's time for another update on goals. We're now nearly halfway through the year, so this update should give some idea on how things should end up.

• Weight: Gah! This has been a total disaster, still. No progress.
• Books: By day 150, I should be 24.6 books through my reading for the year. I'm therefore now very slightly ahead of schedule, having completed book 25. I'm also up-to-date on all the sublists, with the caveat that this month's Pathfinder didn't arrive until Thursday. Still, I'm expecting to finish that before the end of the month, remaining on target. So that's going well.
• Games: Still right on target: five sessions done after five months. However, I'm planning to miss a couple in June and July, but hope to catch up in the last third of the year.
• Work: Still on target.
• Band: This goal is actually done - one of my students played his first competition at Dunbar. Huzzah!
• Super Secret Goal #4: I'm reliably informed that the roof has been fixed, though I remain concerned every time it rains. There are a few small bits of DIY that need to be done, and a redecoration, but things are going well.

Everything seems to be going pretty well, with the notable exception of the weight goal. I have to make sure I have some real progress to report for the next update in July.

Experimental Cookery 2015 #21: Creamy Pancetta Pasta with Mushrooms & Parmesan

As I mentioned the other day, LC is currently cat-sitting for her parents. I've therefore been left alone, and one of my responses to this was to take the opportunity to have a meal with mushrooms in. LC does not like mushrooms, and as a consequence I seldom get to have them, and so now was my chance.

This meal turned out to be more of an adventure than I'd expected. On Sunday, after arriving home, I headed out almost right away to Tesco, where I bought all the things for this meal. Including cream. This evening, while gathering those ingredients together, but thankfully before actually starting the cooking, I looked in the fridge and... no cream! Where could it be?

Well, I searched high and I searched low. It wasn't in the main fridge, nor in the backup fridge. It hadn't accidentally been left in the shopping bag. Somehow, it had disappeared.

So, I had to go out and get some. And, heading out to the car I realised where the cream was: it had fallen out of the bag into the car, and had been stewing there ever since. It was not a pleasant thing.

I got new cream and returned to the cooking. Ten minutes later, I had a meal to eat. It was quick, and easy... and I'd done all the prep work before heading out.

The meal itself was nice enough, but not exactly the best thing ever. It was basically another take on Carbonara, only with mushrooms and bacon instead of chorizo and egg yolks. Oh, and fancy pasta, though I'll probably just use the rest of that up when next I have Carbonara. So, anyway, it was a winner, but not one that would trouble the Nominated Nine. And not something I'll be agitating for LC to try - I suspect she'll be quite glad of that last!

I have no idea what's on the slate for next week. Something not involving mushrooms, no doubt!

(Oh, yes: this one came from Lorraine Pascale's second book, "Home Cooking Made Easy". A good book, though not one I use too often.)

This Week's Mug: This week I'm using the second "Big Bang Theory" mug. It's very similar to the previous mug in construction, but with a different design - this mug has the "atom symbol" that they use in scene breaks in the show repeated twice in green, plus a "comic strip" style set of quotes from the characters in the middle. Alas, the mug is printed very slightly out of focus, so it's actually not very legible.

#23: "Vanity Fair", by William Makepeace Thackeray (a book from The List)
#24: "The Bell Jar", by Sylvia Plath (a book from The List)
#25: "Doctor Who: How to be a Time Lord", by BBC Books

Complete and Unabridged

I've been reading "Vanity Fair" for several weeks now, on and off, and am getting towards the end. Indeed, I hit the three-quarters mark at the weekend, and was looking forward to powering through the last 170 or so pages over the first few days of this week.

Yesterday, I had particularly set myself the target of reaching page 572, thus leaving exactly 100 pages to go. So, I looked forward to around that point to determine where exactly the chapter break fell so that I knew where I was going to...

Imagine my horror, then, when I discovered that my copy jumped from page 531 to page 582! It then had a block of 50ish pages and then jumped back to page 582!

Luckily, it being an old book the text is available online, and so I was able to track down and read the missing chapters that way, and as a consequence I read right across the 'gap' and so am that bit closer to the end. Still, it was a traumatic ordeal.

(I'm not absolutely convinced that the text I found online was itself complete and unabridged, as the hardcopy does at least claim. But at this point I'm not too bothered - even if incomplete it was enough for me to feel no need to go back and check.)

A Mister E

Can anyone explain to me why we persist in using honorifics? That is, why do we still address correspondence to "Mr Vader" rather than just to "Steph/ven D. Vader"?

Apparently, the use of an honorific is a mark of respect, as indeed the term 'honorific' would imply. However, anyone who has been either a teacher or a school pupil must surely know that one can quite easily imbue mister with tones of the utmost contempt.

And, yes, there are a few cases where something might be lost in specific cases - namely where someone has a 'special' honorific, such as "Lord Vader". But that's easily solved - just use a special honorific if indeed the person has indeed earned that honorific.

But for the rest of us, all they add is hassle. Especially when addressing women: is it Mrs, Miss, Ms, or indeed Mx? (And how does one even pronounce Ms? And while the use of the wild-card in Mx is quite clever, shouldn't it really be M*?)

It's not like "Mr Vader" really identifies me all that clearly: I have three brothers all of whom are equally Mr Vader, and I have three nephews who in time will likewise be Mr Vader. (Dad Vader being one of those people with a 'special' honorific.) So, really, you still need at least my first initial, at which point you might as well just use my full name.

(And "John Smith" is hardly going to be better identified as "Mr John Smith"!)

In theory, I suppose, there's marginal value where a couple share the same initial, in which case you could have "Mr S Vader" and "Mrs S Vader", where simply addressing to "S Vader" is unclear. Alternately, though, you could solve the problem using "Steph/ven Vader" and "Someone/else Vader"... or is that a crazy thought?

Of course, mostly this is motivated by sheer laziness - typing LC each time is just far too much effort, where using just C would be much more convenient...

(Incidentally, in case you weren't sure, my surname isn't really Vader. But when choosing a stand-in surname I only had two candidates. The other being Prime. And 'D' is a more believable middle initial than 'O'.)

Experimental Cookery 2015 #20: Harissa Chicken with Bulgur Wheat Salad

This week's "Experimental Cookery" comes once again from the Hairy Dieter's "How to Love Food and Lose Weight" (the white cover). As I've mentioned before, it's a great book. (And one of the best things about it is that the meals neither taste nor feel like diet food - I don't recall having ever had a bad one, and I've always felt pleasantly full afterwards.)

This meal was much like #18, in that the chicken was first smashed flat and then cooked quickly in a pan. The key difference was that it was brushed with harissa paste before the second and third flips to get the desired coating.

The salad was an interesting one, in that we hadn't had bulgur wheat before (and this meant that I was using two new ingredients for the first time). This turned out to be much like couscous, in that it basically just needed to absorb lots of water. It was then tossed with lots of salad ingredients.

Alas, I should have added plenty of pepper to the salad but forgot. Oops!

The meal took considerably longer to prepare than I had expected, but wasn't at all difficult. The result was rather pleasant, although much less hot than I had expected. I also think it would have benefitted from more time for the wheat to dry out before serving - I might be tempted to cook that up earlier and use later.

It was another winner, but again doesn't trouble my top nine. I'll definitely do it again, if only to use up the rest of the bulgur wheat!

I'm not sure what's going to be next. The book had a mini-series of three chicken dishes in a row, hence the past few entries, but that's now ended. Though... LC is cat-sitting for a few days next week and so I'll be alone. Perhaps I'll take the opportunity to do something with mushrooms...

Dunbar Highland Games 2015

As I'm sure I've mentioned before, the Dunbar Highland Games are considered the 'real' start of the season by many bands. Anything prior to this competition is, effectively, a pre-season friendly, but this is the one where people want to put down a marker for the season to come - this is when things get real.

I had been rather apprehensive about this competition all week, as the weather forecast looked pretty horrible. Fortunately, as the week ended the weather shifted, and it turned out that the day was mostly sunny with a few showers (that didn't hit us). But it was very windy indeed.

We performed twice, once in the Grade 4 (four marches) and once in Grade 4A (march/strathspey/reel, or MSR). The latter is our actual grade, so that's the one we really care about. Just as well, really.

We got ourselves set up and ready to play, and all was looking fine. We marched to the start line, and started our first performance... and it was pretty terrible. It started far too fast, and got faster from there. Plus, there was a lot of bad blowing, which meant the drone frequency wasn't constant and some of the high notes weren't right. All in all, a bad performance.

There was one redeeming feature: one of our young pipers got his first outing at a competition, which was good. And, incidentally, completes that part of my goal. Huzzah!

The second performance was rather better, in that we didn't play so fast, it was much more together, and the blowing was rather better. Unfortunately, this one was hit by three specific, and really quite bad, mistakes - the sort of mistakes that happen, and there's nothing you can do about them, and they're unlikely to happen again in the same way. So, a much better performance, but...

Then there was the traditional wait for the march past. At one point there was a suggestion it might be rained off, but that didn't happen. Instead we waited, then we went, and we didn't win anything. A big shock, obviously.

In the Grade 4 contest we were 8th overall, out of 15: 5th and 7th for piping, 12th for drumming, and 5th for ensemble. So, a solid mid-table result, and probably better than we deserved. But good enough to suggest the season might not suck.

In the Grade 4A contest we were 4th overall, out of 5: 2nd and 4th for piping, 4th for drumming, and 4th for ensemble. That was a somewhat disappointing result, but also a fair one. And given the specific issues, hopefully suggests we'll do better other times.

All in all, it wasn't a bad day, though it could have been better. The big test comes a week on Saturday at our first Major of the year, at Bathgate. We'll only play once at that one, in the Grade 4A contest, and we're hoping to be up close to the prize list. Which, sad to say, is a big ask.

This week's mug: I'm running short of mug anecdotes now, so there will only be a few more entries in this series. This week's chosen mug is a white "Big Bang Theory" mug, one of two, which has the guys on one side and Penny on the other. This was a Christmas present a year or two ago. It's fine, but not exactly my favourite!

24 Revisited

I watched the very first episode of "24" last night, having finally started on a re-watch of the whole series (that may well take me four years to complete). To be honest, it was a bit of a shock - it's amazing just how far TV has come in 14 years! But it was also quite amazing how different the show was - Jack started off being fairly happy, the ticking clock wasn't quite so in-your-face, and the show was actually fairly slow to get started. It just wasn't the same frantic race that later series became.

Plus, of course, everyone involved looked really young!

Anyway, it will be interesting watching the whole thing gradually unfolding again, all the twists and turns, and especially the evolution of the format.

Experimental Cookery 2015 #19: Easy Crispy Chicken

Finishing out week 19 of the year, I have another Experimental Cookery. Once again, this comes from "The Hairy Dieters: How to Love Food and Lose Weight" (the white cover).

This was an easy meal to make - toast some bread, grind to crumbs, mix with some herbs and parmesan, then coat the chicken in flour, yoghurt, and the crumbs, and then bake. I served it with some of the same potato wedges that went with the previous meals.

It was a successful meal, and very filling despite being billed as diet food. I do think there was perhaps too much cheese in the mix, and it could do with some more herbs, but that's just a matter of fine tuning. I expect we'll definitely have this again. It's still not in to top nine though!

Oops

One of my students is competing in the Stirling Mod on Friday, and I had intended to go support him in this. However, last night LC and I were discussing the possibility of going to the theatre this week, and eventually settled on seeing Dara O'Briain at the Edinburgh Playhouse, also this Friday. It wasn't until just after she'd confirmed the booking that I realised I'd been planning to be elsewhere.

Oops.

What was worse, though, was that it then turned out that I had neglected to mention my intention to go to the Mod to LC. I genuinely thought I had done so, but it turns out not.

Oops again. Also, sorry LC!

Anyway, the end result is that we're going to see Dara on Friday. My student will just have to manage without - in truth, our other tutor is going to be setting him up to play anyway, so my role would have been purely ornamental anyway.

Besides, it's worth considering that the band is currently taking too much of my time and concentration. I'm going to need to keep an eye on that for the next few months, given how busy the competition season is likely to get.

I'll let you know how the show is.

Experimental Cookery 2015 #18: Cajun Spiced Chicken with Potato Wedges and Chive Dip

I managed to sneak in an extra Experimental Cookery last night, thus bring me back on target for the year. Though I've also come to the realisation that I'm running out of material for the series - it looks like I've pretty much exhausted both "Jamie's Italy" and "Chinese Food Made Easy", and several of the other books I have provide only fairly slim pickings. So we'll see; I may retire this series early.

Last night's dinner came from "The Hairy Dieters: How to Love Food and Lose Weight" (the white cover), which is a great book. The meal took a little over half an hour to prepare from finish to end, and really wasn't difficult - the wedges cooked in the oven, the dip was a matter of stirring some ingredients together, and the actual cooking of the chicken involved putting it in a pan and turning it three times. Done.

The result was excellent - very tasty and quite filling. So, no complaints there, and I'll certainly make it again. (It didn't crack my top nine, though!) Following the disappointment of the duck, it was good to get back on track here.

This Week's Mug: Speaking of series coming to an end, I'm getting towards the end of my mug rotation - I think I have three or four left to use so might not make it into next month! This week's mug is a Transformers one - it is a sturdy white mug with Optimus on one side and Bumblebee on the other. Alas, these are the 'movie' versions of the characters, not the 'real' ones, but it will do. However, this mug was previously assigned to hot chocolate duties, so I'm betraying my own system by using it for coffee this week! I received this mug as a Christmas present several years ago, when it came packaged with a sachet of hot chocolate mix and mini marshmallows, hence it's role assignment.

What Next For Labour?

Last one about politics for a good long time, I promise!

Probably the big issue for UK politics for the next five years, more important than the EU referendum, is the question of how the Labour party are going to respond to this defeat, how they're going to rebuild, and what they can do to stop the Tories in 2020. Because otherwise, we're going to be looking at Tory rule for a very long time.

But before they can go too far, Labour have to work out just why they lost. Because if the answer is one thing, the response goes one way; if it is another, then the response is quite different.

I think, but am not certain, that the problems are threefold:

#1: Jim Murphy is almost right

In his speech after the defeat, JM commented that the SNP had cost Labour votes outwith Scotland. This is wrong, but it's almost right. In truth, the SNP couldn't take any votes from Labour down South, for the simple reason that they weren't standing. But the threat of the SNP almost certainly did cause some people to vote Tory.

(But the nuance is important - it doesn't actually matter how Scots voted; even if every single Scot had voted Labour instead of SNP, it would still have looked like we were going to send 50 SNP MPs down to Westminster, so the threat would still have worked. And it will work next time, too.)

#2: I was wrong

My big objection to Labour, the reason I'll probably never vote for them again, and indeed the reason I dislike them even more than the Tories, is their move to the Right under Tony Blair. And, in particular, their rejection of a principled position in favour of triangulating to capture votes in middle England.

The problem is that Tony Blair and his team are right - there's no point in taking a principled position if you don't have power. In order to do anything useful, Labour must first win an election, and in order to win that election, Labour must win in England. Scotland might add a few MPs here and there (but don't count on it), but if middle England demands a right-of-centre government, then that's what they'll have - be it the Tories or a Blairite Labour.

#3: The Wrong Man for the Job

But it's also the case that Ed Miliband simply couldn't beat David Cameron. In fact, he was defeated by a bacon sandwich.

No, seriously - that one image was the end of his hopes of being Prime Minister. Because, stupid as it is, what we want from our leaders is that they're tall with good hair. Ed Miliband may be a perfectly nice guy, he might be a complete genius, but in the court of public opinion he's not the man for the job. Sorry Ed.

So...

I don't like to say it, but the future's Blairite. In order to come back with a winning proposition, Labour need to do a few things:

Firstly, they need a new leader. Someone tall and polished, with clear speech and refined manners, and someone who absolutely won't scare middle England. Chuka Umunna seems to be the media's preferred candidate, and also seems to be Tony Blair's choice. And he's probably as close to being the right man (person) for the job as anyone.

Secondly, they do indeed need to move back to the right. Not, as Tony Blair inaccurately says, the "centre ground", because even under Ed Labour were already on the right. They need to move further that way, and towards the Tories. And they absolutely must find someone, somewhere, with a rock-solid understanding of economics as Shadow Chancellor. (And if they don't have someone, then they need to make an interim appointment and send someone off to become an expert for a couple of years. Make no mistake, though - by the time of the next election they need someone with impeccable credentials in that role in order to win.)

Thirdly, UK Labour need to quietly but firmly push Scotland out of the door. There are, again, two reasons for this. Firstly, Scotland has rejected the Blairite approach, so the strategy Labour would need to win back Scotland is very different from the one in the rest of the UK, and that won't work. Secondly, as long as Scotland looks like sending a bunch of SNP MPs, the Tories have a great big stick to batter Labour with. (And unless the SNP implode spectacularly or Scottish Labour produces a Messiah, Scotland will look like sending a whole bunch of SNP MPs.)

Incidentally, it's worth noting that the Tories are just better at this politics lark than the rest of us. They know that a strong SNP operating in the UK is a potent weapon for them to use to hold power. So expect to see David Cameron picking lots of high-profile but symbolic fights with Alex Salmond over the next five years, and indeed publicly losing a few. Further, expect to see Scotland being devolved greater and greater responsibility for itself within the UK, but stopping short of Devo-Max/Full Fiscal Autonomy. (Frankly, I think the Tories would be quite happy for Scotland to leave - provided it doesn't actually happen while they're in power. David Cameron won't want to go down in history as "the Prime Minister who lost Scotland"... but if it can be arranged such that that blow hits just after Labour's next PM takes office, so much the better.)

Problem is, I'm not sure even that would be enough - I suspect the next Tory leader will be the inexplicably popular Boris Johnson, and I'm not sure any Labour leader could beat him.

Dear Media: About Voting Reform

One of the big talking points since the General Election has been about voting reform. Surely, when UKIP can get so many votes and one seat, and the Greens can get so many votes and one seat, and the SNP can get 50% of Scotland's vote and all but three seats, the system is clearly, manifestly unfair and must be changed?

Dear Media: please stop. Just stop it.

Yes, the voting system is rotten. Yes, it's manifestly unfair. But it won't be changed.

And the reason it won't be changed is quite simple: the Tories have a majority and they're in favour of First Past the Post. And for obvious reason - it very much favours them!

We have a government, therefore, that really doesn't want to change the voting system. Plus, they have a cast-iron excuse for not doing so: we had a referendum and they say that closed the issue for a generation. (That the referendum was on AV specifically isn't going to budge them.)

For a minimum of five years, there is no chance whatsoever that the voting system will be changed. So why are we even talking about it?

Competition Season Starts: Kinross Highland Games 2015

Yesterday was the start of our competition season. It was an event I'd been looking forward to a little, and dreading in equal measure - last year's season was really quite brutal, but the progress we've made over the winter has been good, so...

Anyway, Kinross is a good warm-up event. For many bands, the 'real' start of the season is Dunbar (next week), so this was almost a pre-season friendly, a chance to go and play when things were a bit less busy. Plus, it's a good location and not too early a start.

The weather has been miserable for much of this past week, but yesterday was definitely an exception. There were a couple of showers, but at all the important times it was hot and sunny. That definitely helps.

We were entered in two competitions: the Grade 4A contest and then "playing up" in the Grade 3 contest. The organisers this year had chosen to make the normal Grade 4 contest a strict Grade 4B one, which meant we weren't eligible. (This was probably a wise decision - if the grades are set correctly, the other approach means that a Grade 4B band shouldn't have much of a chance in their own contest, which doesn't seem right.)

So we went, we played, and it actually went well! This was of course rather disturbing, but there it was. Then we had a short break, then went and played again. And that went well too, although we didn't actually have a chance in that one.

Then there were a couple of hours of not much happening, during which I had a rather nice burger, I finished my book, and I finally got back to reading some (a little) of "Vanity Fair". And then it was time for the March Past.

We came fourth out of seven in Grade 4A - third in piping and fifth in drumming - which meant that we very narrowly missed out on one of the three prizes. And we came eighth out of nine (eighth and eighth) in Grade 3. But since we never had a chance in that one, we didn't really mind.

So, all in all a good day. Hopefully, the rest of the season will progress in much the same vein!

#21: "Firesoul", by Gary Kloster
#22: "D&D: Monster Manual", by Wizards of the Coast

Done and Done

As is my wont, I went and cast my vote just before leaving for work. Ever since moving to Falkirk, in either my previous flat or the current one, I've never been more than a street away from the polling place, so it has always been easy. So for me it's all over now until the results come in.

My plan for tonight is to get a fairly early night and then to get up a little early. There's no point in watching the election night coverage until the results start coming in in numbers, as until then the talking heads actually have very little to talk about. And while I have some interest in potential "Portillo moments", not enough to warrant staying up. There will no doubt be a compilation video on YouTube at some point. (And if I didn't stay up for Avengers, I'm certainly not going to for Mr D. Alexander...)

If things are indeed as close as the media and the polls think, even those last few seats may be key in seeing the shape of things. So, I'll get up for those, rather than staying up for the early ones.

My one big hope, as with the referendum, is that the process is completely fair and is seen to be completely fair. The second last thing we need is serious allegations of fraud... the last being actual fraud. But as long as it is indeed fair, I suspect we'll be able to muddle along somehow, whatever the result may be.

Do please vote today, regardless of which way you lean. The higher the turnout, the better the result reflects the actual will of the people, which can only be a good thing.

Experimental Cookery 2015 #17: Crispy Duck

This week's meal comes, once again, from "Chinese Food Made Easy", by Ching He-Huang. It was a meal that I was somewhat looking forward to, but also somewhat apprehensive about - Duck has proved to be one of the meats I just don't seem to be able to get right.

The meal seemed easy enough - the meat needed scored and then marinaded, then fried on one side and then baked for a few minutes while the sauce was made. What could go wrong?

Alas, it turned out the answer was, "plenty". Instead of being nicely browned, the skin turned out to be burned to a cinder by the time it went into the over. The sauce refused to thicken properly. And then when she tried it, LC's immediate reaction was, "are you sure this is cooked?"

Well, it was cooked. But that's about the best that can be said of it. Neither LC nor I really enjoyed the meal, and so once again duck turned out to be a crushing disappointment. A shame, really.

(I think I'm going to have to make sure to try duck next time I get a chance in a restaurant, to see how it comes out. That way, at least I know what I'm aiming for!)

This Week's Mug: I'm currently using a mug marked "Holland". I have in fact been to Holland, on a BB trip many years ago, but this mug was actually purchased in Schiphol airport on my way back from Germany (and yet I don't have a mug from Germany itself - didn't really think that through). Anyway, it's a rather nice mug, but deceptively small, which means my coffee inevitably has too much milk relative to the hot water. Which is certainly interesting.

Tell Me The Odds!

I wonder what odds you would get for a bet that neither Ed nor Dave will end up as Prime Minister as a result of this election?

Scenario: On Friday we have the result the polls have predicted: a hung parliament, Tories as the largest party (just), Labour second, SNP third, others much smaller. A Labour/SNP deal could form a minority government, but no other sensible arrangement will give anything stable.

At this point, Ed Miliband comes out and makes a statement: He concedes that the Tories are the largest party, he notes that only a deal with the SNP can stop them, but he's sworn not to make such a deal. Therefore, he's going to phone David Cameron to discuss with him how they can make a Tory minority government work, for the good of the country. It's a shame, but he sees no alternative.

At which point someone steps forward, apologises to Ed, but says that the country just can't survive another Tory government. Therefore, for a good of the country, Ed will have to go. And so Ed is removed, someone else becomes Labour leader, that person makes the deal with the SNP (since it wasn't them who ruled it out), and we go forward.

(I won't speculate on who that 'someone' might be. It really wouldn't be fair.)

If not, my money's still on a Tory minority government or even, just perhaps, a Tory/Lib Dem minority coalition (but that's unlikely - if they're already in a minority, why not go it alone?).

#20: "William Shakespeare's Star Wars: The Phantom of Menace", by Ian Doescher (better than the film, though that's not saying a lot...)

The End?

As I've mentioned a few times, we've had an issue with our roof, which sprung a leak on the 8th of August. Since then, I've been fighting against the council bureaucracy to try to get it fixed.

The major issue is that while almost everyone I've spoken to has tried to be helpful, I've never actually been speaking to the person who is actually responsible, but always through gatekeepers who have had to pass on messages. That, and the fact that I've seldom spoken to the same person twice has made it an exercise in frustration. (Ideally, in a case like this you'd be given a single point of contact who would follow the issue through from start to finish. That way, they would know the state of play, and you wouldn't need to recap the whole damn story every time you called!)

Anyway, over the past few days I've been speaking to someone new, and usefully the same "someone new" each time. A period that has been marked with two changes: not only did she actually call back when she said she'd call back, and indeed make sure that was done (which, sadly, has not been the norm), but she also seemed to take responsibility for pushing this issue forward. (And, indeed, in our penultimate call she listened to the concern I raised that perhaps what I was being told wasn't entirely correct, and agreed to recheck it with next guy along the chain.)

The net result of all of this is that as of today, the 30th of April, a mere eight months and twenty-two days after the roof sprang a leak, I am assured that the work to replace it has indeed been completed. Including, in particular, not just the work above our neighbour's appartment, but also over our own.

Huzzah!

Although when I said to LC that this was the case, she did say she was going to remain pessimistic. That may well be wise. (Then again, it only ever came through when the rain was really bad, the sheeting is still up there to prevent it happening again anyway, and they say they've fixed it properly. So, how many sets of belt'n'braces do you really need?)

All in all, I think I'll count that as a win.

Avengers: Age of Ultron (no spoilers, surprisingly!)

LC and I went to see the new Avengers film on Saturday, and it's great. In my opinion, it's better than both Thor 2 and Captain America 2, but not quite as good as the first Avengers film. In particular, it's much darker and more serious in tone and much less amusing. That's a deliberate choice, and one it carries off well, but it does mean I find the former film more enjoyable.

One thing I did find very interesting about the film, and actually one of the film's strengths, is that despite this being a big action film there's a surprising amount of character development stuff in there. And, actually, it seemed to be those characters who don't have their own films (yet) who get the most spotlight time here - Hawkeye, Black Widow, and Bruce Banner.

Overall, I was extremely satisifed with the film. I doubt I'll go see it again in the cinema, but I will be picking up the blu-ray when it comes out. Also, now I really want to see a Hulk/Black Widow film (either one, the other, or both together, with that last being my preference). Which is somewhat surprising - I really didn't expect to want another Hulk film after the failures of the first two.

Experimental Cookery 2015 #16: Crispy Chicken

I'm still, just barely, one entry behind on the "Experimental Cookery" series - yesterday was the last day in the 17th full week of 2015. Anyway, this week's entry comes from "Chinese Food Made Easy", by Ching He-Huang.

This was a nice, easy meal to cook, and actually not as time-consuming as I'd thought. However, it's also fair to say that it's not even remotely healthy. Basically, the chicken was marinaded overnight, then battered in cornflour, and then deep fried. Yeah, it was lovely. Yeah, it wasn't one to have very often!

Would I have this again? Well, maybe. I think in future I'd go for chicken breast instead of thigh, I'd probably cook it for less time, and I think I'd use our deep fryer rather than the wok (as this gives better control of the temperature). But since using the fryer means the cleaning process is vastly more annoying, that further limits my willingness to bother.

Still, I'm calling it a success, even if it was a one-off.

This Week's Mug: I'm using the TARDIS mug that I used most of last year. This is a white mug with a wraparound design - one side shows the TARDIS doors while the other spells out the acronym. LC and I received two of these mugs for Christmas in 2013 from LC's parents. I picked this mug for this week because I've started to lose track of which ones I've now used and which I haven't, but I knew this wasn't one of the ones I've used this year. Next week, things should get back to normal. Or 'normal', I guess.

#19: "Pathfinder: The Hill Giant's Pledge", by Larry Wilhelm

Torture

The new Avengers movie comes out tomorrow. The cinema near us has a showing at five past midnight tonight, and I really want to see it. Especially since my next earliest opportunity isn't until Saturday, which might as well be an eternity.

On the other hand, not getting to bed until 3am and then getting up for work at 6:45 would probably kill me. Some might say that's a small price to pay.

Gah!

Against England's Wishes

A quick thing about the election: there are 650 MPs elected in the UK. Of these, 533 are elected by England, 18 by Northern Ireland, 59 by Scotland, and 40 by Wales. What that means is that in a General Election, it is generally England that decides what government we have: in fact, if the people of England give 325 seats to a single party, that party will have a majority regardless of the vote in NI, S, or W.

In the upcoming election, it looks very much like the people of England won't do this - that the seats in England will be divided such that neither big party (nor indeed a combination of either Tories or Labour plus the Lib Dems) will get to that 'magic' number. Indeed, it looks like the Tories will get slightly more than Labour, but will be short of the needed 325. At which point, so the theory goes, the 50 SNP MPs that Scotland might elect (emphasis on the 'might') could then push the Labour 'block' over the line.

This is, of course, being widely reported in the media as being a matter of Scotland's votes imposing a Labour government "against the wishes of the English electorate".

This is abject nonsense, of course, for two reasons. Firstly, it's worth noting that if those 50 MPs were instead from the Labour party, the issue would magically not exist - somehow, it's acceptable for Scotland to affect the result if we happen to vote for one of the approved options, but not if we instead choose 'wrong'.

But, secondly, the entire premise is flawed. As I noted above, the English electorate have the power to determine the government for the UK as a whole by themselves, by voting for 325 members from a single party. If they don't do so, or, more specifically, if they don't give the Tories those 325 members, then it is not "against their wishes" to see the Tories defeated - after all, they've just shown that they didn't wish to give them enough votes to win!

And all of that is simply a feature of living in the Union - five years ago, Scotland (and Wales) voted strongly for a Labour government and got a Tory-led one instead because of English votes; this time, it looks like England will be split pretty evenly and so Scotland will cast the deciding vote. Both times, that's the way the system works.

Unless, of course, we want the system to be changed. But we had a chance to do that in September, and that same media that is now up in arms then fought tooth-and-nail to keep things as-is.

(For the rest of it: yeah, I'm still pretty bored by this election. My vote was determined ages ago, so there's little interest there; the media coverage of it remains incredibly awful, as the UK media seem to have no ability to understand what's going on in Scotland; and it's really hard to see how things will fall out, and limited value in speculation. I still find it hard to believe that the SNP might really win 50+ seats, despite the polls suggesting that, and yet with the Lib Dem vote collapsing, with Scottish Labour being a disaster area, and with "the 45" still being a thing, it might yet happen. Or not. Guess we'll see in 17 days.)

How To Get Things Done

Last week (actually, Tuesday), I started with a list of some 18 things that I wanted to get done. I then proceeded to gradually complete these things, and thus to cross them off the list, until yesterday I crossed off the last two. Which was rather efficient, really. (It's worth noting that four of those 'things' were episodes of "24: Live Another Day" that I wanted to watch, so they weren't exactly ordeals!)

Given that I follow a distinct pattern in allocating my time, I figured it would be worth laying out just how I go about getting things done. It's worth noting, of course, that this is what works for me, and may well not work for anyone else.

Step One: Compose the List

I started the week by assembling the list of things I wanted to get done:

• The aforementioned 4 episodes of "24: Live Another Day"
• 2 books to finish off
• 5 rooms to dust and hoover
• 4 bits of cooking (2 freezer meals to restock and 2 experimental cookeries)
• Season my bagpipes ready for competition
• Re-hang the living room door
• One other thing that I've now forgotten

There are three important considerations here:

Firstly, although it may seem odd to include 'reading' and 'watching 24' on the list given that these are leisure activities and therefore enjoyable, the reality is that by setting the list I'm blocking off time, and if I don't block off time for something it therefore means it won't get done. I wanted to get those done, so I made sure to include them.

Next up, it's important to keep the list fairly varied. If it's a never-ending stream of awful things, or even worse the same awful things, it will quickly fall by the wayside.

Finally, it's important to be realistic about how much can be achieved in the available time, and also how much effort you're actually willing to put into in a block. If you schedule too much in too little time, you'll just get overwhelmed and not achieve anything. And if you have a week and are willing to invest 20 minutes a day in studying, there's no point in blocking off 3 hours of study-time - you'll just waste much of it in goofing around. (This was important with the 'reading' entries actually, since most of the reading in one of the books was pretty tedious, such that I could only face 20 pages per day. Since I had 110 pages in that book to read, it was doable, but only just.)

Step Two: Divide Up the Tasks

Having established a list of 18 items for 6 days, I then divided up the tasks so that I was set to complete 3 a day.

Again, there are some rules to apply:

If there's a big task that must be completed in stages (such as fixing the door or reading those books), it is the completion that should be scheduled. Be sure to set that far enough away that all the sub-steps can be done in the interim!

The tasks for each day need to themselves be varied. It would have been really easy to watch three episodes of "24" on the first day, tick that off the list, and just mess around for the rest of that day, but it would have made the other days that much harder. Better to allocate these to one a day.

Perhaps most difficult of all, though: assign the "big rocks" first. This can either mean allocating the most difficult or time-consuming tasks to their days before anything else, or it could mean allocating those things that must be done before anything else. (That doesn't mean that they need to be done before anything else, just that they need to be placed before anything else.)

Step Three: Assign Sub-tasks

Three of my entries had distinct sub-tasks that needed to be done before the task as a whole could be completed. Specifically, one of the books was divided into 20-page segments for reading, the other was divided into 106-page segments; and the door hanging task required first that the door be removed, then the wood around the hinge repaired and holes re-drilled, and then the door needed to be put back.

(You could argue that "clean 5 rooms" is a single task with 5 sub-tasks, rather than 5 individual tasks. It doesn't actually matter all that much.)

Once any big tasks are sub-divided, the sub-tasks should also be allocated to the days as required. Obviously, sub-tasks need to be completed before the overall tasks can be considered 'done', and there may of course be some constraints on when things can be tackled.

Step Four: Actually Do It

Once the plan is assembled (or even when it's partially assembled), the key step is to actually carry it through. What I did here was to ensure that I did all the required sub-tasks on the days allocated, and then ensured that I completed at least the three tasks allocated for that day. As it happened, on both Thursday and Friday I completed four tasks, thus significantly freeing up time for the weekend.

If You Fall Behind

There are two important things to do if and when you should fall behind on the schedule you've set yourself:

Firstly, don't beat yourself up about it. There's no value in that. Besides, falling behind probably means that you were either over-ambitious in setting a schedule or you hit on something that was more important or more enjoyable. Either way, it happens - the key is to adapt accordingly.

That said, as soon as you fall behind, it's important to accept that you're unlikely to catch up again. After all, there's a reason you're behind, and that reason probably hasn't changed.

So, at this point you should immediately drop some things from the goal list. In particular, anything that doesn't have to be done should be dropped in favour of those tasks, and especially sub-tasks, that must be done. (Of course, if any tasks have now become outright impossible then those should be easy sacrifices. If you have one day and need to wait two days before applying a second coat of paint, then you can't apply that second coat in time.)

So, What the Week Looked Like

By way of an example, here's how I split up the eighteen tasks for last week. The asterisks indicate the completion of one of the tasks rather than a sub-task.

• Tuesday: "24" episode 1*, Cook lamb rogan josh*, the "forgotten" task*, Read 106 pages of book 1, Read 20 pages of book 2, Remove living room door
• Wednesday: "24" episode 2*, Cook bolognese sauce*, Season bagpipes*, Dust first room*, Read 106 pages of book 1, Read 20 pages of book 2
• Thursday: "24" episode 3*, Cook duck with pancakes*, Dust second* and third* rooms, Read 106 pages of book 1, Read 20 pages of book 2
• Friday: "24" episode 4*, Re-hang living room door*, Dust fourth* and fifth* rooms, Read 106 pages of book 1, Read 20 pages of book 2
• Saturday:Cook mojito genoese*, Read 106 pages of book 1, Read 20 pages of book 2
• Sunday: Finish books 1* and 2*

So, a rather long and tedious post, but hopefully it might prove useful!

This Week's Mug: This week's mug is a simply white one, marked with a quote from Shakespeare: "Better a witty fool than a foolish wit" (Twelth Night). It's a rather nice mug that LC got for me on one of her trips Down South. I like it!

#17: "D&D: Player's Handbook", by Wizards of the Coast
#18: "Magician's End", by Raymond E. Feist

Experimental Cookery 2015 #15: Mojito Genoise

It's Lady Chocolat's birthday tomorrow, and as a consequence I have baked her a cake!

The recipe for this one comes from Lorraine Pascale's "Baking Made Easy". It turns out, in the case of this cake anyway, the name is a bit of a lie!

The cake started well enough - I made up the Mojito syrup quickly and easily, and then started on the cake sponge. This required lots of whisking, first over a pan of hot water and then not, and went fine.

Then I had to fold in the melted butter and flour, and this was where it all went wrong. The problem I had was that the egg mixture filled my mixing bowl to the very brim, so folding anything in was very difficult - the whole thing went over the sides. Still, I did my best... sadly, this turned out not to be terribly good.

The cake then went into the tin, and at this point I discovered the poor mixing. I did my best to recombine it, but that knocked some air out of the mix, which wasn't ideal. Still, into the oven...

When it came out, I strongly considered binning it. It really didn't look good, and the thought of spending another hour on it was not appealing. It was a dark time.

But it turned out that although it didn't look too appealing, it actually did taste rather nice. So I did a bit of a trim, cooled it off, and decorated it. It wouldn't get anywhere on the Bake-off (other than a laugh or two), but it's a cake. And it's the thought that counts, right?

Anyway, here's the cake:

We'll try it tomorrow, but I'm hopeful that it tastes better than it looks. At least, I hope it does!

And, no, I'm not planning on doing this one again!

Experimental Cookery 2015 #14: Shredded Duck Wraps with Hoisin Sauce and Chinese Pancakes

Today's entry is a two-for-one: the Shredded Duck comes from "The Hairy Dieters: Eat For Life", while the Chinese Pancakes came from this recipe (largely because I wasn't able to buy the pancakes and so had to make them). Lady Chocolat didn't let me count those as a separate "Experimental Cookery", so I'm still one behind.

The process for the shredded duck could have been easier, but not by much. It was mostly just a matter of poaching the duck for a full hour in a broth made with soy sauce, garlic, ginger, and a new ingredient - star anise! Obviously, the use of the new ingredient was very exciting, especially since I've had it sitting in the cupboard forever, just waiting for this day.

Beyond that, it was a matter of slicing some spring onions and some cucumber, and spooning some hoisin sauce into a serving bowl. Nothing to it, really.

The pancakes were a little more fiddly, especially as they kept sticking to the board when I tried to roll them out. Plus, we don't have a proper steamer, so I had to make do with a collander and a tea-towel. Which was mostly fine.

The end result was very good - much like the store-bought kits we've had in the past, but rather better by virtue of being home cooked rather than reheated (the latter draining moisture from it). So, a success.

In future, though, I think I'm going to try (again) to source some Asian pancakes from somewhere, as making these was a bit more hassle than it was really worth.

This Week's Mug: Still on holiday, so once again no mug anecdote. Normal service will resume on Monday.

#16: "A Prayer for Owen Meany", by John Irving (a book from The List)

Update on Goals

Today is the 100th day of the year, and so time for another almost-accurate update on goals. I say "almost accurate" because I'm actually writing this in advance to be posted on the 10th as Friday is a busy day for me and so I won't have opportunity to do it live. And so there may be a few small inaccuracies.

Anyway, the update:

• Weight: Surprisingly minimal progress here in the last 50 days, which is disapponting, not least since I've again made it to the gym on every Friday bar two (now three) since the last update: the Friday when we were travelling down to the wedding was missed, I went last Thursday instead of last Friday, and I'll be missing this week.
• Books: Apparently, I should be 16.5 books into my target by this point in the year. I have, in fact, completed 15 books, and am halfway through two others. So, I'm a little behind but not much. I expect to get caught up on "The List" sometime this month, but at the same time I'll probably fall behind in both the Pathfinder and Pathfinder Tales sub-goals. The reason for this is simple, and not really my fault: the shipment for March was delayed due to a shutdown in the ports in the US, which means the books for this month will probably not arrive until May.
• Games: I'm still right on target here: three sessions done, with the next scheduled for later this month.
• Work: This has been good for the last couple of months, with me more or less finishing one piece of work, doing some work on another, and getting a good annual review. All in all, so far so good.
• Band: Our plans for the year are firming up, and it now looks like we will be competing, though not terribly often. So this one is still on track.
• Super Secret Goal #4: Some more work done, but yet more hassle on getting the roof fixed. You'd think it would be easy enough, but apparently not.

I remain reasonably happy with the progress on most fronts. Clearly, there's a need to do some more towards the weight goal, and I'll be looking to get caught up on books in the next little while. But otherwise, it's looking good, and it remains possible that I might manage a clean sweep, which is nice.

The Nominated Nine

So a couple of weeks ago I learned that, apparently, most people, and even most people who cook and who like to cook, have a repertoire of nine meals that they then do on rotation. (I think that's actually seven 'mains' plus a further two 'lunches' for the weekend.) Which came as something of a shock, actually - while I'm aware of the notion of Sunday being roast beef, Monday roast chicken, Tuesday pizza or salad, and so on, I hadn't grasped that it was the usual state of affairs.

Anyway, as a result of this, I found myself wondering: if I had to choose nine meals, and only nine meals, to be the only foods for the rest of time, what would those nine be? It's certainly a toughie!

(Technically, I suppose you can have other foods when eating out/getting takeaway. Equally, technically, it should probably be the seven/two split I mentioned above. But I'm ignoring that!)

Anyway, in no particular order, here's my nine. For this afternoon, at least!

Lasagne

Okay, I said "in no particular order", but the truth is that this is #1 on the list. This was actually one of the first things I learned to cook, and is actually also one of the few things I couldn't put together while living in Yeovil, which merely added to the allure.

My original recipe was based around Dolmio's red and white lasagne sauces, and added onion, tomato and mushroom to the filling. I rather enjoyed it, but due to Lady Chocolat's anti-mushroom agenda it was first modified and then abandoned. I've since tried Jamie's version from his "Ministry of Food", which was good but wasn't better enough to justify the effort. My current version is Lorraine Pascale's from her "Home Cooking Made Easy". And, coincidentally, that's tonight's dinner.

Pizza

To be honest, I could probably eat pizza every day, as it's almost a genre to itself rather than just a single meal. However, the version I cook has the dough courtesy of Paul Hollywood's "Bread", the sauce from the "Great British Bake-off Winter Collection", and a topping of pepperoni (the knig of pizza toppings), onion, green pepper, goat's cheese, and mozzerella. Which is probably slightly excessive, but I like it.

Chorizo Carbonara

Scots are, of course, well known for our fusion food (chips and curry sauce being one of the earliest examples of the field), and so this combination of an Italian pasta dish with a Spanish spicy sausage is perfect for us.

Or something. It actually comes from "River Cottage Every Day", and has the two great advantages of being both dead quick and easy, and also very tasty. Which is a good combination to have!

Lamb Rogan Josh

Moving away from Italy entirely, we have my favourite curry. At present, I'm still using the curry paste from Pataks, though this may change at some point. Anyway, it's an easy meal to make, if not a quick one, and doesn't seem ever to go wrong, though it would, of course, depend on the quality of the meat.

One of the advantages of being on holiday is that I get to restock the freezer, and yesterday I started by cooking this for dinner. Yum!

Roast Chicken

No list of favourites would be complete without a roast, and if I've only got room for one then this is the one I choose. I typically roast the chicken with thyme and a lemon inserted into the cavity, and serve it with roast potatoes and roast carrots (though sometimes I do the carrots with orange juice, baked in a bag). It always makes those Sundays when I make it feel that bit better, though I then feel sorry for the rest of the days which don't get to have food of the same calibre.

Beef Burgers

Likewise, I couldn't not have a burger on the list, and while I've had some very nice lamb burgers and even some venison burgers, my favourite is the classic beef burger. I make these with ground Jacob's Cream Crackers (odd, I know, but it works), onion, parsley, garlic, and Worcestershire Sauce, bound together with egg. That said, I think I'm about to experiment with these, probably dropping the egg and crackers and trying a more classic "all beef" burger - apparently, burger technology has advanced in the past few years, and so one must keep up with the times!

Steak and Chips

Another classic, I usually do a sirloin (though ribeyes are also nice) seasoned with salt, pepper, and paprika, cooked to a medium level, and then serve with red pepper, red chilli, and creme fraiche. Oh, and a slice of lemon for squeezing - Jamie does like his lemon!

The chips are done in my deep fryer, cooked skins-on, and parboiled first. After a dozen attempts, I'm finally more or less happy I've cracked it!

Chicken Fajitas

Another quick and easy meal, but one that never fails to satisfy, the recipe for these was originally from Lorraine Pascale's "Fast, Fresh, and Easy Food", but has gradually migrated. I actually still use her condiments unchanged: soured cream with chives, cherry tomato salsa, and guacamole. But the spice mix varies each time, based on what I think of adding at the time.

And Finally... Chilli Con Carne

Shockingly, this almost didn't make it into the list: my first draft of this post had a different last entry. It wasn't until I realised I didn't have anything from the Hairy Bikers that I remembered that this should definitely be here. (I guess that's the problem with a list of just nine entries: there's always that horrible risk of forgetting something vital - you lose the path not taken.)

The recipe I use for this these days comes from the "Hairy Dieters: How to Love Food and Lose Weight", though I replace the kidney beans with cannellini beans. This means that, in addition to being the best recipe I've found for chilli, it's also the healthiest. Another win-win!

And that's the list.

Well, for this afternoon, at least. Though it does mean missing out on prawns with spaghetti, on chicken fried rice, on meatballs, meatloaf, on Christmas dinner, haggis, all the wonders of Belgian cuisine...

No, it's too painful. I'll need to start over.

Anyway, that's my list. Anyone care to offer yours?

Since TARDIS Tuesday is apparently a thing...

Here's my contribution:

This is, indeed, one of the TARDIS socks I was lamenting just last week - it seems that the Sock Conspiracy has relented and returned their hostages. Huzzah!

Anyway, I hope you like it.

Experimental Coolery 2015 #13 (ish): Chocolate Velvet Ice Cream

On Sunday, I had a marvellous idea. And so I said, "I've had a marvellous idea!" This prompted a great deal of excitement, which was in no way diminished when I explained my idea: to make ice cream. Indeed, there was then some discussion of which type of ice cream I should make. My eldest neice asked if I was going to make mint ice cream. Alas, while I did not know exactly what type of ice cream I was going to make, I knew it would not be mint, despite this being LC's favourite.

When I got home that night, I looked out the recipes that came with the ice cream maker, only to discover I've already done the three good ones (the remaining ones are low-calorie (please), frozen yoghurt (yeah, right), and lemon sorbet (which is fine, but isn't really ice cream)).

Still, undaunted I checked the internet and discovered that it does indeed have one or two recipes there, including some for ice cream. Huzzah! And so, this week's experimental cookery, or rather coolery, comes from here.

It was very simple to make, as is generally the case with ice cream - mix some ingredients, then churn in the ice cream maker for longer than you really think is needed, then transfer to a likely tub, and place in the freezer to set. Which it is doing now.

But I did take a sneaky preview of the ice cream before it went in, and it's excellent. So, huzzah!

(And, as an added bonus, this recipe has left me with some unused egg whites, so for my next trick I'll be doing meringues. It's a sacrifice, but one I suppose will have to be made.)

This Week's Mug: I'm on holiday this week (and indeed next week), so there is no mug anecdote. Sorry - I know you're alway eager for the weekly tales of high adventure!

#15: "The Pagan Lord", by Bernard Cornwell (the new candidate for book of the year)

Experimental Cookery 2015 #12: Glam Mac & Cheese

As you may have noticed, I'm once again behind on the Experimental Cookeries for 2015. Oh well - hopefully I'll find time to catch up sometime over the Easter break.

This one comes from Lorraine Pascale's first book, "Baking Made Easy". It was a nice easy meal that took about an hour from start to finish, largely due to my unfamiliarity with the method. But there wasn't anything difficult about it at any stage - just time.

The result was very impressive, actually - between the addition of pancetta and spring onions to the macaroni, and also the breadcrumbs on the top, it was extremely tasty and satisfying. It was therefore the best mac & cheese I've ever had (sorry LC, but it's true!).

All in all, a triumph!

Cinderella

LC and I went to see this on Friday.

It's a good enough film, I suppose, though it's very much a "girl's film", so not surprising that I wasn't the biggest fan. Though I was amused that the royal palace in the film was also the palace on Naboo - I guess "a long time ago..." does indeed mean "once upon a time..." Anyway, if you take the previous animated version, remove the songs, and instead film the thing in live-action, this film is pretty much what you get. Which is, as I said, good enough - though the cartoon version did at least have the benefit of cutting egde (for the time) animation to marvel at.

That said, I'm not entirely happy with a film where the protagonist basically does nothing to help her circumstances, but rather endures all the awfulness that people foist on her, until such time as first a fairy godmother appears to whisk her off to the ball and then a handsome prince arrives to rescue her. Never mind arguments about blue dresses and unattainable waistlines (that, apparently, the lead actress did actually attain, but I digress)... what kind of a message is that for a film to send?

Still, the "Frozen Fever" short was amusing.

The Latest Atrocity

As you know, my life is a constant battle against the forces of evil. My main enemy is the Sock Conspiracy. And the Greeting Card Industry. Okay, my two main enemies are the Sock Conspiracy and the Greeting Card Industry. And pasnips. Three! My three main enemies are the Sock Conspiracy, the Greeting Card Industry, and parsnips. And spider-thieves.

Plus, there's the ever-present threat of falling into a Monty Python sketch, and nobody wants that, especially unexpectedly...

Anyway, this morning the Sock Conspiracy struck again!

For Christmas, I received seven pairs of Doctor Who socks. Naturally, these were not all identical socks, but instead had a variety of designs - some featured the Doctor Who logo, some K-9, some the Fourth Doctor, and so on. This means that most days this year I have been wearing some sort of Doctor Who socks. And this morning was no different.

So, I took today's pair from the sock drawer and placed the first sock on my right foot, as is my wont. (I've experimented with wearing socks on my elbows, but it didn't end well. In the end, I concluded the feet were probably best.)

I then reached for the second sock, intent on putting it on my left foot, only to discover, to my horror, that it didn't match - although my right foot bore the be-scarfed visage of Tom Baker, the second sock was clearly marked with the TARDIS!

The horror of this revelation is hard to put into words. So shocked was I that I was forced to return to the sock drawer in a futile bid to find the other mis-paired socks. But, alas, they are gone.

And that's the story of how I came to be wearing Davros socks this morning.

A Worrying Few Minutes

It's fair to say I had some concerns about the match against Gibraltar that took place yesterday. It should always have been an easy win, but... Scotland have such a nasty habit of doing poorly against the supposed smaller teams. And with all the commentators casually wondering not about whether we would win but rather by how much, there was a little peice of me that was just desperately hoping we wouldn't come unstuck.

And then Gibraltar went and scored their first ever competitive goal, a scant minute after we had ourselves scored. It was a horrible time.

In the event, we then proceeded to score a further five goals without reply, thus recording a final score of 6-1, so I needn't have worried. But, still, the thought of another disaster was strong for some time.

We're now halfway through the qualification sequence, and also halfway through the "six wins" I figured we'd probably need to qualify - indeed, we're actually one point ahead of where I thought we'd need to be.

Still, it's a horribly tight group, especially with Germany dropping some points. So there's a lot still to be done. But, for the moment, so far so good.

Musings on the Cross of St George

One of the things I noticed when we were down South at cousin Rob's wedding was the English flag flying. Now, this may not be entirely surprising, especially to readers in America (if there are any!) - the English flag flying in England? Who would have thought!

But, actually, my experience has been that it's actually not all that common - it's not terribly common to see any flags flying in most of England, and when you do see one it tends to be the Union Flag. In my experience, the Cross of St George seldom makes much of an appearance.

Of course, there's a very easy explanation for the likely cause: it was the last weekend of the Six Nations tournament, and England were in with a good chance of winning. So, not terribly surprising that the pubs would be flying the flag.

Anyway, I was a little surprised to see the flag so prominently. But my reaction to it: good.

The unfortunate thing is, the English flag seems to have been appropriated by some rather unpleasant sorts: the BNP, the EDL, and the like. To the extent, in fact, that the Labour party managed to get themselves in a mess recently by tweeting about "white van man" in Rochester.

And there does often seem to be a reluctance amongst many English folk to engage in any public display of patriotism. Perhaps it is that association with the less-savoury sorts. Or perhaps Oscar Wilde's, "patriotism is the virtue of the vicious", or Samuel Johnson's "patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel" have sunk in. Or perhaps it's just my impression as an outsider, which is of course limited. But where most Scots are quite comfortable with the Saltire, and the USA is positively festooned with the Stars and Stripes, it does seem that poor St George gets an airing only on sporting occasions.

But, during the Independence debate, Alistair Darling rightly pointed out that the Saltire didn't belong just to the "Yes" camp but to all Scots. And, similarly, the English flag doesn't belong to the BNP and the EDL, and those who would use it for their agendas. It belongs to all Englishmen (and women, of course).

So, frankly, the more reasonable, patriotic English folk fly the flag, the better. Don't let them have it.

(Or do. It's not really my business, either way.)

This Week's Mug: This week, I am using another of the mugs I picked up in France, this time bearing the pictures of those valiant Gauls, Asterix and Obelix. Oh, and their pet Dogmatix. It's a yellow-ish mug that also bears an image of a pyramid and some heiroglyphics, that probably spell out something hugely witty, like "I can't believe you Googled the meaning of this", or something. I picked up this mug while on a trip to the Asterix Park which is... okay, I guess. My strong advice with this park is to make sure you visit it before going to Disneyland - it's good enough in itself, but it pales somewhat by comparison, so if you do this one second it will seem a let-down. Anyway, a nice fun mug for the last week before my holiday.

#14: "Gone With the Wind", by Margaret Mitchell (a Book from The List, and the first candidate for book of the year for 2015)

Breakthrough!

It has been a tough week. I was going to do a write-up of the wedding from last week and also some other stuff, but never quite found time, largely because I've spent the week battering my head against a rather knotty problem. Fortunately, I have had a breakthrough which means that I should be able to have a rather more relaxed weekend than I was expecting. Huzzah!

Hopefully, normal service on the blog will resume next week.

This Week's Mug: The mug for this week has been a "Boys' Brigade" mug. This is actually the replacement for a mug I received as a gift for helping run a BB camp in France, way back in 1998, which was itself a replacement for a BB mug I had had for many years previously. The mug is cream-coloured, banded with "The Boys' Brigade" written in blue and red.

Public Transport and the Daily Commute

For the past week, LC's car has been off the road, and as a consequence I've had to make other arrangements for getting to work. This has involved borrowing a car for a few days, getting a lift one day, and finally getting the train and bus to work today.

To give a picture of how this works out: we live 0.7 miles from a train station, and I work 2.1 miles from another on the same line. So you'd think it should be easy enough, right - a quick walk, a train, a shuttle bus, done.

Alas, it's not quite so simple, because that shuttle bus doesn't exist. Instead, there are two options: I can walk the 2.1 miles at the far end, or I can continue along one more stop and then get the bus back. Either way the time works out about the same - it's about 85 minutes for the journey end-to-end. (The bus is therefore preferable. Rather than walking, and having to cross some extremely busy roads, better just to let someone else take the strain and spend the time reading!)

There are two other factors to consider, however. The first of these is cost: today's journey cost me £12 for a return train ticket, plus £1.50 for the bus ticket one-way. That gives a total cost for the day at £15 (if I were to get the bus back, but I'm hoping someone will be kind enough to run me down to the station instead - something I can ask once but couldn't rely on every day). And that therefore puts the cost at £75 for the week, which is more than 1.5 times what I spend on petrol for the car. (That cost could, of course, be reduced somewhat by season tickets and the like, but I doubt it would ever get close to equal.)

And the second issue is of timing. The bus that I need is pretty regular and also appears to be pretty reliable, but the trains are only once per hour at 'off' times and once every half-hour at peak times. That meant that in order to get here before 8:30, I had to get the 6:55 train, and so had to get up at 5:45, which is an absurd hour. On the flip side, leaving work at 16:36 (which is what the inbound journey allows), the first train I can catch is the 17:38, which gets me home about 18:20. That was the time I got home last night, and while I did manage to get to band, it was only after a fairly stressful 45 minutes, and I was a few minutes late.

Sadly, it all just doesn't quite work. The journey is doable, and it's bearable for a few days, but it's not something that could be considered as a permanent arrangement. A shame.

Experimental Cookery 2015 #11: Kung Po Prawns

LC and I appear to have exhausted "Jamie's Italy" - unless we happen to get access to either calamari or lots of game (for a hunter's lasagne) I doubt we'll be doing anything more from that one. So, this week's Experimental Cookery came from Ching-He Huang's "Chinese Food Made Easy".

As with everything I've done from that book, this one required some prep ahead of time and then was very quick and easy to make. And it was very nice, too, although it didn't exactly go according to plan - the "crispy coating" on the prawns turned out to be a desultory covering, and mostly ended up stuck in the wok, and that meant that the sauce over thickened.

It was still a nice meal, just not quite what was intended. I therefore definitely plan to have this again, but am determined to do better next time!

This Week's Mug: This week's mug is a blue "Riviera Maya" mug with a scene showing tropical fish. I got this while on honeymoon in Mexico, and I don't think I've ever actually used it since. Anyway, it's lovely.

#13: "The Secret History", by Donna Tartt (the first book from The List of 2015)

Ook!

When LC sent me the news, I was just stunned. First Leonard Nimoy; now Terry Pratchett. It has been a bad few weeks. And, yes, one was rather old and the other visibly ailing, but still...

It's hard to think of an author who has had a greater impact on me. Certainly, I've read more of Terry Pratchett's books than any other author, largely due to the sheer volume - only Bernard Cornwell even comes close. And I don't think there's a bad one amongst the bunch - even the very early sci-fi books are merely unpolished. So the thought that, probably some time next year, I'll be picking up and reading the last Discworld novel is... difficult.

This is probably the most stunned I've been by any famous death since Gary Gygax, and for much the same reason. A legend has passed.

Rest in peace, Sir Terry. And thankyou.

Too Big an Ask?

So, four months after I said it should happen, Stuart McCall has been given the job of Rangers manager. Good. Unfortunately, he's been given it until the end of the season, and the feeling seems to be that if he wins them promotion then the job is his, but if not they'll find someone else.

Personally, I think they should give him until at least the end of next season. With ten games to go, it's too late for Rangers to have any realistic chance of winning the Championship (barring a complete meltdown at Hearts, and there's no evidence of that happening). Which means they'll have to win through the playoffs, which in turn means playing Hibs home and away (and then, quite possibly, Motherwell home and away). I still don't think Rangers have it in them.

And yet... I do think McCall is the right man for the job, or at least is as good a candidate as any. So give him time, give him the resources he needs, and let him do the job.

(Incidentally, I'm still hopeful that Falkirk might yet get into the playoffs, almost certainly in fourth place. That's also going to be tough, as Queen of the South are doing very well too. My suspicion is that that one will be largely decided when the two teams have their remaining match this year - if Falkirk win then they'll get through; if QoS win or it's a draw then QoS will get that fourth place.)

Experimental Cookery 2015 #10: Linguine alla Carbonara di Salsiccia

Another meal from "Jamie's Italy", this was one I was looking forward to and yet somewhat hesitant about - Hugh's Chorizo Carbonara is one of our favourites, so how would this match up?

This dish was nice and easy to make. It's slightly more involved than the other version, in that I had to spend a little time making sausage meatballs, grating cheese, and chopping parsley, but once the cooking started it was much the same - cook the pasta while frying the meat, whisk together the ingredients for the sauce, and then toss everything together in the right order.

This was a very nice meal... but we prefer the chorizo version - mostly because we prefer the chorizo to the sausage meatballs. Which is absolutely fine, but it does mean I'm highly unlikely to make this again. After all, why bother putting in the extra work for a result that's just not quite as good?

So, a satisfying meal, and yet a failure all the same. Sorry Jamie.

Shaken to the Core

I've been reading "Gone With the Wind", which turns out to be much more enjoyable than I'd expected. However, for the past few chapters I've been suffering a disturbing feeling of familiarity - there was something about Rhett Butler that I was sure I'd seen before, but just couldn't quite put my finger on.

Last night I came to Chapter 19, and the following exchange:

Rhett: “Scarlett, you do like me, don’t you?”
Scarlett: “Well, sometimes. When you aren’t acting like a varmint.”
Rhett: “I think you like me because I am a varmint. You’ve known so few dyed-inthe-wool varmints in your sheltered life that my very difference holds a quaint charm for you.”
Scarlett: “That’s not true! I like nice men.”

And now I'm expecting him to go and shoot poor Greedo under the table.

(Though this does neatly explain why the dialogue in the original trilogy is better than in the prequels - after all, if the good dialogue in the originals is nicked...)

This Week's Mug: On a less traumatic note, this week's mug comes from La Tranche Sur Mer, a small town in France where my parents spend several weeks on holiday each year. I forget exactly how I came by this mug, though my suspicion is that I probably bought it the year LC and I went with them for a week. It's a plain white mug with a design split into three parts, each showing a scene associated with the town.

Experimental Cookery 2015 #9: Wheatgerm Bread

It has been too long since I made bread. But this entry, from the "Women's Institute Big Book of Baking" represents a good chance to correct that oversight, and also to get caught up in my "Experimental Cookery" series for the year.

As with all my bread efforts thus far, this proved to be very simple but a little work - mix, knead, prove, bake... none of it difficult, but the kneading is always more tiring than one might expect.

And it's good. It's perhaps the best bread I've made to date, although the seeded loaf was good too. I'm going to enjoy some sandwiches made with this.

#12: "Pathfinder: Battle of Bloodmarch Hill", by Patrick Renie

Okay, that was weird...

I've just sat back down at my desk, and had a moment's panic that I might suddenly have gone deaf. Then I realised that I hadn't - the room's just really, really quiet.

Experimental Cookery 2015 #8: Pasta al Forno con Pomodori e Mozzarella

This week's experiment came from "Jamie's Italy", which is a book I've not really dug into until now but one which is growing on me. Though I'm not sure how well I'll be able to source some of the more unusual ingredients, nor indeed whether I can really be bothered spending hours making some of the more involved meals. But that's an issue for another day.

This was a simple pasta bake, but with a homemade sauce instead of something from a jar. And it certainly benefitted from this! The one concern I had was that the whole thing was very messy to transfer from the baking dish to the eating dishes, due to the cheese going all stringy - I had expected it to be much more, well, baked by the time it came out. Still, once that job was complete it tasted very nice.

Would I have this again? Yes indeed. But... I think I'd be inclined to cut down on both the amount of pasta and also of the sauce. The book suggested I should end up with enough for four people if I followed the measures there, and so I halved the quantities... only to end up with four portions. That's fine, except that I doubt it will freeze (or rather thaw) very well, which isn't ideal. Also, I might think of adding some breadcrumbs next time, to give it a nice crunchy topping.

All in all, though, not bad.

#10: "Firefly: Things Don't Go Smooth", by Margaret Weis Productions
#11: "William Shakespeare's Star Wars: The Jedi Doth Return", by Ian Doescher

State of the Band

For the moment, I'm actually reasonably happy with the way things are at band. I suspect that will change as the competition season gets going and things get a bit more fraught, but we'll see.

Of course, that's assuming that we actually will be competing this year at all, which is looking increasingly doubtful. The issue is that we may not have a drum corps with which to compete; or, rather, that while we will have a drum corps, we may not have a lead drummer for the band. The problem being that we have two people who can do the job, but one has work commitments and so cannot get to many of the competitions, while the other may or may not be about the leave the band. Realistically, if he goes then so too goes our season.

But then, given that I don't actually enjoy competing particularly, I can't say I'm too gutted about that prospect. Really, it's the uncertainty that's the worst of it.

On other fronts, the band is actually progressing extremely well. We've had an influx of learners both for the pipes and the drums, to the extent that all of our tutors are now maxed out and we'll have to turn away any further learners. That's a shame, but it's a nice problem to have.

We're also starting to see the benefits of all that hard work with our learners. Last night we had 18 pipers playing at one point... and that wasn't even all the pipers on our books! We also had a decent-sized drum corps, although there were more absences from there. If we ever have a practice attended by everyone, we're going to need a bigger hall!

Finally, I'm coming to the end of teaching one of my students. He now knows everything that the band plays, plus some tunes that the band doesn't play (yet?), and so to get the most benefit going forward he should really 'graduate' to the main practice hall to polish what he already knows. That said, he's entered into a solo piping competition in mid-May, so I'll work with him until then to make sure he's ready for that.

And that, as they say, is that.

This Week's Mug: This week's mug has a Gaudi-inspired design. I picked this one up on my first trip to Barcelona, and have barely used it since. It's very nice.