Experimental Coolery 2013: Strawberry Ice Cream

Yes, I'm back. I know things have been a bit quiet on the blog front, with rumours of a fruit-related demise being circulated in some quarters. Fortunately, though, I've learned to communicate from the other side, and have finally managed to train our hamster to type. So, we're back in business!

Having finally managed to source some decent strawberries from Tesco, I was able to attempt a second recipe from those that came with our ice cream maker. And, as with the previous effort it was almost ridiculously simple - simply puree the strawberries, mix with the other ingredients, and then pour into the ice cream maker.

The resulting ice cream was excellent. However, my previous caveats apply - the ingredients are more expensive than even the 'good' ice creams on sale from the supermarket, and the quality is comparable. So, this is another thing we probably won't make again unless we happen to come by some strawberries and/or cream that we need to use up. Which isn't terribly likely.

Anyway, must dash - I have a kitchen to haunt.

#11: "Song of the Serpent", by Hugh Matthews (sadly, the weakest book of the year to date)
#12: "The Bromeliad", by Terry Pratchett
#13: "Pathfinder: the Shackled Hut", by Jim Groves

(Regarding my 'books' goal: it's already looking unlikely that I'll get through 60 books this year. Additionally, the '5 series' part of the goal has pretty much fallen by the wayside. But we'll see.)

The Orange Peel Incident

In a bid to hasten the return of The Doctor, and also due to general boredom, I elected to avoid my traditional and daily apple for this week. Instead, since Tesco had some nice-looking oranges, I elected to buy some of those instead. Today was the second day in which an orange made its presence felt in my lunch.

Now, for anyone whose only exposure to oranges has been in chocolate form, one of the key features of the fruit is the presence of a peel, which has a distinctive orange colour and which must be removed before consumption of the delicious fruit within can be contemplated.

It was this that highlighted the ultimate folly of my choice, for it transpired that my usual technique for removing the peel was just rubbish, both yesterday and today. It seems that some wag, probably part of a conspiracy by apple-growers, had taken to supergluing the peel to the oranges in Tesco. And so, the pierce-and-rip technique turned into an ordeal of picking, and stretching, and getting covered in orange juice. (And yes, I used the same technique twice. I assumed that yesterday was just a glitch in the Matrix, but it turned out not to be the case.)

Anyway, luckily, Google is your friend, and so a quick search for "how to peel an orange" later, and I am now armed with a new technique, one that I shall try tomorrow.

And that's all I have to say about that.

Wolves Forecast

It's been a strange winter, weather-wise. See, it hasn't actually been at all bad, and yet we've been constantly bombarded with warnings. Particularly annoying are those roadside signs, declaring "Snow Forecast" - if they have a genuine concern for the environment then unless they have something worthwhile to communicate now they should be switching those off.

But it's not just those signs. We've been bombarded with weather warnings at the first hint of a breeze, and the forecasts have been positively apocalyptic. And all for... pretty much nothing.

Until last weekend, that is, when it actually snowed, and the snow actually lay where it fell. And, somehow, amazingly, the powers-that-be were somehow taken entirely by surprise, and so weren't ready to clear and then grit the roads. And so, despite the snow falling on and off on Sunday, traffic chaos ensued on Monday.

I was rather glad I had the day off. I picked that one well.

Anyway, the motorway signs are back to it - "Snow Forecast" once again wasted energy across the land. Huzzah!

I can't think why, but when I put together the near-apocalyptic forecasts, the general lack of bad weather, and the failed response when we actually had snow, somehow I'm reminded of the tale of the boy who cried "Wolf!" Maybe, just maybe, our councils recognised that the forecasters were routinely exaggerating, so that when there actually was a chance of snow, they just didn't believe them.

Maybe our weather forecasters could tone down their fervour for the end of the world just a tad, and just give us their best appraisal of what they expect to actually happen? And while they're at it, it would be quite good if our TV stations could perhaps stop treating the News and the Weather as entertainment, and instead go back to actually informing us? Or is that just a crazy thought?

Experimental Cookery 2013: Singapore-style Noodles

It's been a while since I did one of these on a Tuesday. However, I've been feeling rather uninspired of late, and so felt that it would be good to make the effort to cook something new, and so here is the result.

This one came from Ching-he Huang's "Chinese Food Made Easy", which is a book I rather enjoy, but one that I make relatively little use of. I find it quite hard to work from, as the food cooks so very fast that it's necessary to have everything ready before the first ingredient hits the wok. This also means that these meals have quite a long prep time that I never seem to account for properly.

The Singapore-style noodles are something that has been enticing me to try them for some time, but because of the prawns I have held off thus far. Still, the time had come, and so...

As with other receipes in this book, this one does indeed require quite a lot of preparation, and that must be done before starting on the cooking - once you start it's basically a race to the end. In particular, it is crucial that the chicken be cooked before you start, because there is no chance of doing so in the midst of the rest of it.

However, that warning aside, this was all quite easy to get through. Basically, once all the (easy) prep stages are done, it was just a matter of queuing up all the ingredients and then throwing them in, leaving about a minute between each stage. A few minutes later, and it's done.

And it was very nice indeed. Pretty much thermonuclear in taste, but very nice. I'm sure we'll be having that again.

#10: "The Snows of Summer", by Neil Spicer

Mysteries of the Ages

Throughout history, there have always been great mysteries, puzzles to vex the greatest of minds. For centuries, mathematicians would attempt to prove Fermat's Last Theorem. Even today, now it has been proven, they search still, this time for an 'elegant' solution - Fermat could not possibly have come to the proof that was finally used, so does there exist an easier way, or was he just lucky?

There are other mysteries as well. Why is it that, no matter how carefully you check, there is always one item you forget to buy in the weekly shop? Why does Michael Bay get to keep on making movies? Why does "Question of Sport" go on forever, while "Firefly" didn't even get a full season? Was Morris truly so bad at dancing that the mockery is yet to desist?

But these all pale into insignificance next to the most important of all questions: why is it that the three flavours of Mars Planets are caramel, nougat, and crisp? Especially since the one that is by far the weakest is also the flavour not associated with the Mars bar?

Any ideas? The best suggestion will have the honour of being the best.

#9: "The Fortune of War" by Patrick O'Brian

A Bad Film Called Die Hard

Yesterday over dinner, LC noted that she had a lot of work to do. Consequently, I found myself at a loose end. That being the case, given that cinema tickets are cheap on a Tuesday, and also given that I rather wanted to see the film but LC did not, I decided to go see "A Good Day to Die Hard".

My short-version review: this is a terrible, terrible film. It is the worst of the "Die Hard" films by a long way, is worse than at least four of the "Fast & Furious" films (I've never seen "2 Fast 2 Furious"), it's worse than all three "Transformers" films, and is even worse than virtually everything starring Jason Statham. Indeed, it's offensively bad, in the same manner as "Transformers: Dark of the Moon" or "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull". In fact, the only good thing about this film is that the running time is 98 minutes, which is blessedly short.

I'm about to delve into spoilers, so if you're still inclined to go see the film and want to avoid them, you should skip the rest of this post.

The plot of the film is at once quite simple and yet unnecessarily complex. John McClane's son has been arrested in Moscow, and will be lucky to get a life sentence. John therefore travels out there to go see his son, only to get caught up in another really bad day. Meanwhile, there's some business about a file of damning evidence, that ultimately turns out to be a front for yet another simple heist, this time of weapons-grade uranium. And there are the usual inevitable betrayals, the quips, and the catchphrases.

Unfortunately, the big problem with the film is that while the characters have understandable goals, the means they use to achieve those goals are utterly nonsensical - either they take actions that by rights should be of no help at all or, worse, those actions only make sense provided the character magically knows that some other character is going to take action first.

But, fair enough. Let's simply accept that the plot is nonsensical, treat it as a big, dumb action movie, and go from there. Switch off the brane, and we should be able to have fun with it, no?

Well, no, actually.

The problem is that the film has two great big action set-pieces, one a chase scene and the other the climactic confrontation at the end. I don't have any great criticism of the second of these, though largely because I'd long since given up on the film - and that was because of the utter failure of the first.

See, there's this chase scene. Jack McClane and an escaped prisoner are in a van, being chased by the bad guy's minions in an armoured truck, and they in turn are being chased by John McClane in a variety of weapons. So far, so good.

The problem is that, like "Bad Boys 2" and the first "Transformers" film, the quick cuts in the film, coupled with the badly-used shakycam, coupled with the director's penchant for moving quickly across the scene with the camera out of focus meant that it wasn't actually possible to make out what was actually happening - it really wasn't clear where the three vehicles were in relation to one another. In fact, there was one bit where I found myself surprised to find they had turned into oncoming traffic!

Now, while bad, even that's not unrecoverable. A chase is a very dynamic scene, with all sorts of potential for injury and death occurring. There's lots of tension in there, which is why films use them: they're an easy way to build excitement.

Unfortunately, by this point the film has already long-since established that the characters are made of rubber. Jack McClane has already survived a huge explosion, protected only by his equivalent of the nuclear fridge, while John has survived a bone-pulping car crash and then been hit by a Chelsea tractor.

The combination of these two things mean that that chase scene is just ten minutes of bright lights and loud noises, and nothing more.

So, even as a big, dumb action film, this one fails.

But actually, I don't think that just being a "big, dumb action film" is acceptable for this film, anyway. See, this isn't "Crank 2", where we know going in that it's going to be utterly stupid. This is a "Die Hard" film. The reason people bother going to see it is because "Die Hard" was good. By trading on the name, they've given rise to reasonable expectations about the film.

And there's the rub. Despite the then-cutting-edge action, the original "Die Hard" wasn't just a big, dumb action movie. It, like the first "Lethal Weapon" film, "The Terminator", "Predator", the first "Rambo" and the first "Rocky" had rather more to them than that. Sure, the action was solid... but so too were other aspects of the film. That's why those films are still amongst the best in their field, and that's why people will go to the sequels - in the hope that a new film featuring the same characters may capture some of the same magic.

Of course, almost all the time, that hope is going to be dashed. And if it were inevitable that that were the case, the rational response would be simple - don't go to see them. But it's not inevitable that new sequels will suck. We know this, because there is one (and thus far, only one) example of a good modern sequel - in "Rocky Balboa", once you get past the absurdity of the premise, you actually have a film that deals rather more with character, and actually addresses its themes, than you might expect. (Actually, "Rocky Balboa" is the film that "Rocky 5" tried very hard, and unfortunately failed, to be. If you haven't seen it, it's recommended - as is the first, and only the first, "Rocky".) That film proves that a good modern sequel actually is possible for one of these films, which just makes it worse when all the others fail.

'Course, the down-side of that is that when "Die Hard 6" inevitably comes to the cinema, it's pretty certain that I'll make sure to go see it. And then write a blog post complaining about it.

Nothing To Say

Just thought I'd post a quick update. Truth is, there's not much to report - I go to work, I come home from work, I sit around for much of the time... I do have a game on tomorrow, which should be good. This is the "Christmas Game" that got cancelled due to poor scheduling, and which is now happening. I'm looking forward to it.

Other than that, there's not really anything to report. My goals are just sitting there, not really progressing but not really suffering any impossible setbacks either. All in all, things are pretty good, if a little dull. But given some of the alternatives, I'll accept dull!

#8: "Death's Heretic", by James L. Sutter (another surprisingly good book in the "Pathfinder Tales" line. It's not going to be book of the year, but I enjoyed it rather more than I expected.)

If You Have Nothing to Say... Say It With Big Words!

I finished "Tess of the d'Urbervilles" last night. I'm afraid to say that I really didn't enjoy it too much - my big issue with it being that while I don't doubt it was an accurate depiction of society at that time, I didn't much like the depiction of society's reaction to Tess. Which I suppose is a good thing, as I rather suspect that was Hardy's point, exactly.

Anyway...

After having finished the novel, I then skimmed through the "bonus features" in the novel, which in this case included some deleted scenes, some discussion of the landscapes in the novel... and an introduction. And, as with "Jane Eyre", I found myself less than pleased with the introduction, although for rather different reasons.

For the most part, my issue with the introduction was that it didn't add anything to the text. The thing is, a good introduction really should be teasing out things that are probably not immediately obvious from a read-through, but which on being pointed out highlight deeper meanings to the text. And, actually, there is one good example of this in the introduction: it points out some elements that were analogous to the fairy tales of the time, which Hardy then subverted. And that's good.

But the introduction spent a very significant amount of text in a discussion of ambiguity in the text, when actually what it actually says about ambiguity could be covered in a single paragraph. Essentially, the introduction is stalling for word-count.

What I found particularly amusing (and also irritating) about the introduction, though, was the use of language. Because where the writer was on strong ground and making solid points, the introduction was quite clear, and written in nice easy language. It had a point, it made it, job done. But where the introduction was struggling for a point, the language used changed quite significantly - suddenly, it was peppered with "hundred-dollar words", words that most people don't know, and so would either look up or, more likely, would simply nod along with and accept the writer's erudition.

Now, I have absolutely no problem with the use of "hundred-dollar words". Sometimes, an obscure word is absolutely the right word for the job, and should be used. And anyway, one of the best features of the English language is precisely the range of words available, giving rise to all sorts of shades of meaning, and allowing great expressiveness to those who can use those words.

However, what we have here is the difference between "Star Trek: the Next Generation" and "Star Trek: Voyager" - in both cases, there are spells in which the characters (usually the chief engineer or resident Vulcan/Android) is busy explaining what he's doing, and resorts to technobabble. In TNG, though, the show made sure to employ science/technology advisors, and so the technobabble more or less makes sense, especially in relation to the science of the day. And so, when the transporters go wrong, it's an issue with the "pattern buffers" or the "Heisenberg Compensator". In Voyager, by contrast, they've decided they don't care any more, and so they just "reverse the polarity" of the "wibbly-doodad" to generate a "bibblytron" pulse. Or something. It's not real science in either case... but one shows an attention to detail that the other lacks.

The introduction to "Tess...", then, makes uses of literary-technobabble. When struggling for a point, it throws together a whole slew of fancy words which sound really good... but don't actually mean anything. (I don't have the novel to hand, but there's one particular sentence that was particularly egregious - it was assembled of nothing but those "hundred dollar words", but didn't actually say anything at all.)

Anyway, that was that. My next book is a Pathfinder Tale, which I suspect is unlikely to make use of many big words... and which almost certainly not bear anything like the same analysis as "Tess...". But that's good, too.

#6: "Strata", by Terry Pratchett
#7: "Tess of the d'Urbervilles", by Thomas Hardy (a book from The List)

Experimental Cookery 2013: Valentine's Day

Once again, this Valentine's Day was marked by my constructing an elaborate three-course meal, as is my wont. This year, all three courses were experimental, and all three came from Lorraine Pascale's "Fast, Fresh and Easy Food". Rather than blog about each course individually, I have decided to deal with all three together.

Starter: Red Pepper, Tomato & Basil Gazpacho with Salt & Pepper Croutons

Ah, Gazpacho soup...

Memories of Red Dwarf aside, this was a very quick and easy soup to prepare. It consisted of roughly cutting up all the ingredients, stuffing them into a food processor, blitzing until fairly smooth, then transferring them to the liquidiser and finishing off. From there, it was a simple matter of chilling in the fridge overnight, and then making the croutons before serving.

Note: I originally tried to liquidise the soup using the liquidiser from the start, thinking that was an obvious step. However, it turned out that the blades hacked through the low-level ingredients, and then couldn't get any traction on the higher ones - the additional step of using the food processor was required.

Eating this was a bit of an odd experience, what with it being a soup, but served cold. But it was nice - lots of flavour, a nice texture, and the croutons were great. Huzzah!

Main: Five-spice Roasted Duck Breasts with Cherry & Shiraz Sauce & Sesame Noodles

I'm a little confused by this one: if the duck is cooked entirely in the frying pan, in what sense is it 'roasted'?

In the event, I found this course to be rather difficult to handle. There was a lot going on all at once, and everything seemed to take longer than it should. In particular, I found I just didn't trust the duck when it first came from the pan - I felt it needed chopped up and then given several more minutes. And even so, I wasn't 100% convinced (although we seem to be okay...).

All in all, I wasn't terribly happy with this course, although LC really liked it. Every time I've had duck, I've found it to be quite fatty, and that really put me off of the crunchy skins, and thus I lost a lot of the flavour.

On the other hand, the sauce was absolutely brilliant, and the noodles were quite nice too.

Dessert: Chocolate Mousse with Raspberries

Like the Gazpacho, these were put together on Wednesday and chilled overnight. And they were pretty spectacular. Huzzah!

I did have a couple of issues putting these together. Firstly, my mixer singularly failed to properly beat the eggs - I had to complete this task by hand (which wasn't entirely easy!). Then, I misread one of the instructions, and so added the chocolate and cream to the egg white, and then added the egg yolks to the egg whites, and only then realised that I should instead have added the yolks to the cream... the next step was to gradually add these mixed ingredients to the whites.

Doh!

Still, it all came together well, and everything was fine. So that's good.

Overall...

Two successes out of three is pretty good.

I've had a lot of success with Lorraine's various books, and they're quickly coming to rival Hugh's "River Cottage Every Day" as my go-to cookbooks. Though quite often I do find that they don't come out looking much like they do in the book - sometimes, more pictures of the dish as it is prepared would be very useful.

#5 "Pathfinder: The Dead Heart of Xin", by Brandon Hodge

Wreck-It Ralph

After several failed attempts (no, really), LC and I made it out to see Disney's latest on Monday.

Basically, if you take the concept of "Toy Story", but with video games instead of toys, and cross it with the "bad guy tries to reform" plotline from "Megamind", you get this film.

I thoroughly enjoyed it.

The thing is, originality is wildly overrated. After all, there are only a handful of plots in literature, and the film industry tends to stick with only a subset of those anyway. So, chances are that everything is reminiscent of something else.

But what we have here is a fairly simple story told well. Plus, the characters are likeable, they have actual motivations for what they're doing, and even for the means they use to do it.

And then there are the references, and this was where the fun really came. Because while on the surface the story is enjoyable, if you know your video games it's even more enjoyable. And if you really know your video games, then there's a whole new level of fun to be had. So, yeah, although Ralph and Felix are entirely new characters, the game portrayed feels exactly like games that I played way back when. And when Ralph goes to Bad-anon (the support group shown in the trailers), a great many of the characters present were immediately recognisable.

So, yeah, a good stroy well told, just enough nostalgia to hit me just right, and a lot of good fun. As I said, I thoroughly enjoyed it.

One more thing to note: a few years ago, it wasn't worth bothering with Disney movies unless they were, in fact, Pixar movies. Apparently, Disney recognised this also, because they proceeded to buy Pixar and then, in a stunningly wise move, they basically put the Pixar guys in charge of their animation studios.

We're now starting to see the benefits of this. As we know, Pixar films are usually preceded by a short film, which while entertaining in their own right, are also used by Pixar to develop the technology for their new films, to let staff learn new techniques, and to tell stories just for the joy of it. "Wreck-It Ralph" was preceded by "Paperman", a short film that does exactly the same thing. Likewise, it definitely looks like WiR started with a good story and then built from there, rather than the recent Disney approach of developing toys to sell and then trying to craft a film.

All of which can only bode well for the future. Because Pixar make good films, and if this now means that we're going to get more good films (even if they're supposedly "kid's films"), then I'm all in favour. I wonder what they'll come up with next?

The "Pancake Day" Double Rant

Yesterday, I noted that Tesco's "seasonal goods" aisle included pancake mix, on account of it being Pancake Day today. Which is not only wrong, but is in fact doubly wrong:

1. Firstly, pancake mix has no business being a thing. Get a bowl, and a coffee mug (clean). Fill the mug with flour, and tip it into the bowl. Refill the mug with milk, and tip it into the bowl. Crack an egg into the mug, make sure there's no bits of shell, and then tip it into the bowl. Add a pinch of salt if you're feeling adventurous. Mix all these things together. And that's it - there aren't even any special techniques for the mixing, or rules for making sure you've got enough air in there, or anything of the sort. If you can't manage that, then step away from the frying pan - you don't deserve pancakes!
   
2. The reason we have "Pancake Day" is that tomorrow is the first day in Lent, and the tradition was for people not to consume various things (notably fat) during the run-up to Easter. And so, on the last day before this fast started, they would have a massive blow-out, getting rid of all the things they had left over from the winter. Which, since that generally included some fat and some eggs (plus milk and flour, of course), meant that they'd make batter - and from batter they would make pancakes. So, really, Pancake Day should actually be "whatever's in your fridge" day. My point, such as it is, is this: going out and buying pancake mix, or even the ingredients for pancakes, rather defeats the notion of using up the leftover luxuries.

Incidentally, in case you're wondering, I'm not doing the whole "Extreme Lent" thing I talked about last year. The reason for this is pretty simple - it is my wont to cook a special dinner for V-Day, which this year is going to include a chocolate mousse for dessert. Kinda tricky to do that while also observing the fast. So, maybe next year. (I will, however, be giving up Irn Bru, and indeed other drinks in the "sugar water" genre for the duration. Which could prove difficult in itself, since Tesco forced me to buy four bottles yesterday.)

Experimental Coolery 2013: Bananananana Ice Cream

For Christmas, my parents-in-law bought us an ice cream maker. Which is itself a somewhat interesting story - when I opened it, I had the box held so I couldn't actually tell what it was, and so looked somewhat uncertain, in turn prompting them to be concerned that I didn't like it. Of course, when I used the secret Jedi technique of "turn it round so you can see", all became clear.

Anyway, we made our first use of the new toy on Sunday, making one of the suggested recipes. (Originally, we were going to make strawberry ice cream, but of course strawberries are way out of season. The only ones Tesco had were both very expensive and also rather manky-looking - they'd been 'ripened' under a sun lounger, and so were red in the middle but green at both ends. So we passed.)

Making the ice cream is a really easy process, with one caveat: you need to freeze the bowl first, requiring 24 hours of notice. The instructions recommend keeping it permanently in the freezer, but that's really not an option - our freezer is usually heaving with good food.

And the result? Well, it tasted bananananana-y, and it felt ice-cream-y, so that's pretty much ideal.

The only real issue I have is that it's not much cheaper than just buying ice cream (even good ice cream), and it's not as good as those good ice creams (but it is at least as good as the cheaper ones). The consequence of this is that it's like making bread - it's not going to be worth the effort to use it to make 'standard' ice creams (or to bake 'standard' breads), but what it does allow, and should be ideal for, is the option of making custom ice creams - flavours that you don't get.

Basically, it's an excuse to make lots and lots of ice cream, for "experimental purposes". In particular, I'm intrigued by the notion of an orange choc chip* ice cream (because mint choc chip is good, and because although mint chocolate is good, orange chocolate is better). Oh, and I can't help but think that the bananananas may be improved by the addition of their partner-in-crime, the walnut.

* Of course, this might prove to be awful. After all, if it was actually good, you'd think you'd be able to buy it. But, hey, that's why it's called an experiment.

The Worst Idea Ever

For Christmas, I got the boxed set of the first four seasons of "Clone Wars". I had already seen the first three of these on Sky, but never saw the fourth do to a change of channel (coupled with a failure in advertising the same). So, over the past several weeks, I have been gradually watching my way through the series, and reached the end this weekend.

For the most part, "Clone Wars" is an excellent show. Indeed, for the most part it is vastly superior to the prequel trilogy, with the caveat that if the episode synopsis mentions Jar Jar or C-3P0 (or mentions Padme but not one of the Jedi as well), you can be pretty sure that the episode is going to suck. But even that's not too bad, since it's only 22 minutes until the next one.

However, right at the end of season three, and then at the end of season four, they made a massive, massive mis-step: they decided to bring back Darth Maul.

This was probably inevitable. In fact, I've been hearing reports of him coming back (as a cyborg, as a clone, or something else) almost since "Phantom Menace" was released. And, superficially at least, it seems like a good idea - he's an incredibly popular character, and probably the most compelling new character introduced in TPM.

Alas, while it might sound like a good idea, it's really not. Like Boba Fett, Darth Maul's legend has always been inflated way beyond the reality. He looks cool, and he was a very good lieutenant for the Big Bad, but he actually does very little, he has almost no character to speak of, and in fact he doesn't even actually do anything evil in the film - just lots of standing around beside the actual bad guys.

And, of course, his death was pretty unambiguous. Cut in half and thrown down a bottomless shaft? Yeah, that's dead.

But no. More than ten years later, up he pops in the "Clone Wars" as some sort of mad hate-fuelled Drider Maul. Sigh.

And the funny thing is, it's entirely unnecessary. The same arc that has led to the resurrection of Darth Maul has also gone to all the trouble of introducing a 'brother' for the character - another Zabrak force-user, trained by Count Dooku, using a double-bladed lightsaber - Savage Opress. (And, what's more, he's voiced by Clancy Brown, and therefore inherently a better character!) With him in the show, there's absolutely no need for Darth Maul; conversely, if you've got Darth Maul, Savage Opress is redundant. Basically, there can be only one.

There's one other thing that really bothers me about all this: one of the key, signature things about Darth Maul is that he has all of three lines in "The Phantom Menace". And, in fact, that's really three too many - the nature of that character is that the less he says, the more effective he is. (It's just a shame that his very best line was cut from the film, and only appears in the trailers.)

So I was a little dismayed when he proceeded to start monologuing at the first available opportunity, and basically didn't stop.

(Plus, I was rather dismayed in the Mon Calamari episodes when Captain Ackbar never once referred to traps...)

On the other hand, I'm very much looking forward to the fifth season boxed set, so I can see what happens next. Could be cool.

#4: "Desolation Island", by Patrick O'Brian (yes, I'm already quite far behind on the reading...)

Experimental Cookery 2013: Onion Soup with(out) Lincolnshire Poacher

The first recipe I've done from my latest book, "My Kitchen" by James Martin, this was a nice, easy winter soup. It was quick and easy to prepare, with the only tedious bit being slicing up the onions. In future, I won't bother being quite so careful about it (since they get pureed at the end anyway), so that should help.

The resulting soup was fine, but... it seemed a little bland. I think perhaps the "optional" cheese may well actually be a very key part of the whole. When I take it to work on Monday, I'll be sure to take along some for sprinkling, and then will update with my findings.

Still, not a bad way to get set up for the afternoon.

Experimental Cookery 2013: "Dad's" Penne All'Arrabbiata with Crispy Pancetta & (no) Basil

This recipe came from Lorraine Pascale's "Fast, Fresh and Easy Food". The "Dad" referred to in the title is, I presume, her dad. Not mine - he doesn't do pasta. Also of note, Lady Chocolat threw out our basil a scarce few hours before I needed it for this recipe, and I couldn't be bothered going to Tesco for some more. So I made it without.

The stated purpose of Lorraine's book is that the meals within are supposed to be quick and easy to put together - it's almost a riposte to Jamie's "X minute meals" books. Well, as far as this meal is concerned, she succeeded - the recipe indicates that it should take 25 minutes start to finish, which is about right. There are also no particularly difficult techniques involved; it's just a case of adding things to the pan in the right order and at the right times.

The resulting meal was very nice, full of heat and flavour. It's a fair bet that we'll be having this again. Success!

#2: "Master of Devils", by Dave Gross
#3: "Pathfinder: Into the Nightmare Rift", by Richard Pett

Two Things: a Micro-rant

1. If you buy a beef product, you can reasonably expect that it does, indeed, contain beef. And, more importantly, not pig, horse, rabbit, or other meat (unless it specifically says so). It is, therefore, entirely reasonable to be angry about this. And that applies even if it's right at the bottom of the budget range.
2. That said, horse is good eating. Our aversion to it is entirely cultural. I ate it in France, and very nice it was too. In fact, had I not been told, I would never have distinguished it from beef. So there's no need to worry about these particular products.

Experimental Cooking 2013: Really Simple Sri Lankan Chicken Curry with Coconut Milk & Cashew Nut Rice

The second meal cooked from Lorraine Pascale's "Fast, Fresh and Easy Food", this proved to be an interesting experience. The meal looked interesting, and we had almost all of the ingredients in the house, so I figured "why not?" But...

I have two big observations about this meal. Firslty, it took considerably longer to cook than the 20 minutes listed in the book. To a very large extent, this was because I was uncertain that the chicken was cooked through, so gave it a good while longer, but it was also partly because the recipe assumed I was doing prep for later stages while earlier ones were cooking, where in fact those earlier stages were cooking too fast for that - if left alone, they would rapidly be burning.

The second observation was that the resulting meal really looked very little like the picture in the book, although it tasted fine.

I'm pretty sure I know how to sort both of these issues out, and the key is in preparation. As I noted, the book assumes you will be preparing later stages while the earlier ones are cooking, but the heat involved makes this an impossibility. The solution, is simple:

Before you start cooking anything...

1. Put all the spices into a single bowl - the curry powder, garam masala, cinnamon, ginger, and chilli powder. These are all going in together, so get them measured out and gathered together so you're ready to go.
2. Cut the chicken into small pieces, and season with salt and pepper. Again, put these on a plate ready to go.
3. Make sure you open the tin of coconut milk ahead of time.
4. Trim and chop the spring onions, and finely chop the garlic.

Having done that, you'll now be in a position to work very quickly as you go - when the instruction is to add a whole bunch of ingredients, you can get the last one into the pan before the first one is burnt!

On balance, this meal was actually suitably easy to prepare, and tasted quite nice. And given that the issues I had with it are easily fixed, we'll almost certainly be adding this to our repertoire of curries going forward.

#1: "A Blink of the Screen", by Terry Pratchett (which has already laid down a very strong marker for book of the year!)

Oh Coaster, Why Do You Mock Me?

As we know, the main purpose of a coaster on the desk is to display a nice picture (well, until someone's wife should accidentally spill nail polish remover on it...). And, of course, in the late 90's, they had a secondary purpose, which was to provide a use for all those millions of 'free' AOL discs that were being sent out everywhere.

But the other use of a coaster, one that is seldom worthy of mention, is to prevent coffee rings from appearing on furniture. See, the coffee ring forms on the coaster instead, thus sparing the shame of having beringed furniture. It's an important, if seldom-acknowledged, job.

Except that what happened this morning was that the coffee ring formed on the coaster, the coaster then attached itself to the mug (damn you, surface tension!), and then when the mug was lifted the coaster leapt to freedom, presumably to start a new life as a paratrooper, fell to the desk, landed face-down, and transferred a wonderfully neat coffee ring to the very surface it was supposed to be protecting!

In other news - I'm now back at work for the year. It has been good so far.

My Year in 2012

2013 has sucked so far. Due to a bout of illness, we were unable to go out last night, something that LC took particularly hard - she had gone to some lengths to look nice, only for me to be unable to go.

2012, like 2011 before it, was a very mixed year. It had probably the single best day of my life, but it has also featured some really difficult times. My overall impression was that it was a good year, but that the next year really needs to be better in some key respects.

My Year in... Work

2012 was a bad year in work. I got a bad performance review, and deservedly so, in the first part of the year. This was due largely to extreme tiredness, coupled with the stress of preparing for the wedding.

The first several months after returning from honeymoon were considerably better, but again I went too long before taking a break. Then, when I did take that break, it was not at all restful. The last few weeks before Christmas were something of an ordeal. And, unfortunately, this break has again not been very restful.

My determination for the new year is to focus more on what needs to be done, but perhaps more importantly to insist on taking regular breaks, and getting enough rest. But, more important than that...

My Year in... Health

2012 was a pretty bad year here, too. I've been suffering some severe digestive problems for quite some time. In fact, in February we actually made a trip to the hospital for an out-of-hours appointment because I feared my heart might be in trouble. That turned out to be a false alarm, but shows the seriousness of the complaint.

It actually cleared up in the middle of the year, mostly, but has been back with a vengeance this winter. I visited the doctor two weeks ago, and he thought it was a consequence of the drugs I've been taking for my neck, but the proposed fix seems not to have had the desired effect.

As things stand, I don't know what is at the root of the problem. However, it's obviously the #1 priority for the next little while to get to the bottom of it, and to get it sorted. That's pretty much key to the entire year, because nothing else can really be done without.

My Year in... Gaming

2012 was a very good year for gaming, albeit not the blockbuster that was 2011. The RPG Meetup moved to a new site once again, and continues to go well. We seem to be at about the same numbers as last year, with the same range of games on the go.

This year saw me return to "The Eberron Code", which remains one of my "big four" of especially satisfying campaigns. It should come to a close around May this year.

I also ran two one-off games. The first was a "Str Wars Saga Edition" game entitled "Through a Glass Darkly", which stands as one of my best-ever games. The second was a "Black Crusade" one-shot that... didn't go so well. I've talked about that at some lengthon my other blog, so won't dwell on it here.

I played very little in 2012, managine (I think) a solitary session of "Dark Sun". It was a good game, but I do hope to play more in 2013.

One final note of sadness: 2012 saw the final end of my Saturday Game group. We never quite managed to get together before the wedding, and at that point I let them know that I was leaving - I just couldn't commit every Saturday to a game that never quite happened. A shame, but it really was time.

In 2012, in addition to finishing off "The Eberron Code", I hope to start a new campaign, "Imperial Fist" in SWSE, and to run a handful of one-shots. I also hope to play a little more than in 2012. Perhaps more importantly, I hope to cut down on cancellations - 2012 saw both a "Mutants & Masterminds" game and the Christmas Game being cancelled, which I hope not to repeat.

My Year in... Band

2012 was a bad year for the band. We had a series of bad results, and then the pipe major left in acrimonious circumstances. This led to the one highlight of my year in the band: I got to lead them out for a single, solitary competition in Ireland.

However, this was quickly followed by another blow. I had hoped to defer the appointment of a new permanent PM until the AGM, and to lead the band out myself to the Worlds' and at Cowal. However, this was not to be - our lead drummer insisted on an election, and I lost narrowly.

That was a bitter, bitter blow, although it is probably worth noting that the guy in charge would have been my choice for permanent PM. Additionally, by that point I had decided to leave - I merely wanted to see out the rest of the season and to take an opportunity that I wouldn't have again.

So, at the AGM I left the band... mostly. As it happened, I remain in charge of the website, and remain as the Chairperson of the Committee. I'll almost certainly see that out for the year now, since it's actually not too bad.

However... I am finding that I miss playing quite a lot. As feared, I have barely picked up my pipes since leaving the band, and don't really want to lose it. Given that this band remains the "best fit" band for me in the area, I may consider rejoining for the 2014 season. We'll see how I feel in a few months.

My Year in... Resultions

I didn't really set any goals at the start of 2012. However, I did meet the target I later set of reading 52 books, so that's something. I've set some more appropriate goals for 2012.

My Year in... Travel

2012 saw me taking three trips. The second of these was the band's annual trip to Ireland, which I thoroughly enjoyed.

The other major trip was the honeymoon, to Mexico in April. It was awesome, entirely great from start to finish. It was hot, but not too hot, we went swimming with dolphins, and exploring in Chichen Itza, and snorkelling in the most amazing biosphere, and clubbing in... okay, that wasn't so good. Plus, I was able to take LC for a romantic meal overlooking the sea, complete with a totally unexpected birthday cake. Basically, it was the best holiday ever.

The final trip, and one that is important to note, was down to England to enjoy the wedding of James and Zo, cousins of mine (well, a cousin and a cousin-in-law, if you want to be picky). This was, of course, another great family occasion, and a good opportunity to actually speak to people - something we ironically didn't get much chance to do at our own wedding!

My Year in... Faith

2012 was a somewhat boring year in terms of faith. We remained somewhat involved at the church, and even attended one of the "small groups"... but that's not really faith; that's just doing stuff.

LC and I also spent some weeks trying to find a local church in Falkirk to attend. However, this proved rather disheartening, as we didn't really feel at home in any of the churches we visited. I'm not sure whether we'll bother resuming the search in 2013 - it may or may not be worthwhile.

So, 2012 was a little boring. It remains to be seen what 2013 will bring.

My Year in... Love

Awesome. That is all.

Just kidding.

The wedding in April in many ways was the culmination of a long, long journey, and the start of another. It was the best day of the year, and simply could not have gone any better. There's a much longer post about this, so I won't say any more here.

Things since the wedding have had their inevitable ups and downs. There have been occasions when I have been less than tactful, and there have been times when we just hven't stopped laughing (usually at each other).

The first couple of months were almost certainly more difficult for LC than for me - I was extremely busy and she was not yet working or started her course. This meant that things had to proceed on my schedule, and it meant that she had lots of time to fill with not much to do.

Conversely, I've found the last few months to be something of a challenge. Teacher Training, it seems, is absurdly tough. Seriously - a few years ago I did an MSc in addition to working full-time, in addition to being heavily involved in a BB company and two bands, and in addition to running a weekly RPG campaign... and while I was doing all that, I was less busy than LC has been these last months. That shouldn't be read as a complaint against LC (though I fear she wmay do exactly that), merely a statement of fact.

For 2013, there are some things that we'll need to do a bit differently. In particular, it will be important to make more time for each other, and to stop living on my schedule or on her schedule, but rather blocking our time out together. I think we also need to make some time to get away for a while, alone, together - both Falkirk and the flat are very nice, and we enjoy spending time with both our families, and such... but it can get to be rather oppressive after some months of it. And the prospect of another 12 months like the one we've just had...

My Year... Overall

As I said, 2012 was a mixed year. The high points were very, very high. The low points, though not quite so correspondingly low, did seem to drag on for most of the year. On balance, it has been a good year... but we need the bulk of 2013 to be better than the bleaker parts of 2012.

And so, that's where we are, I think.

Goals for 2013

I didn't set any goals for 2012, because I knew that this year was going to be something of an oddity, what with the whole "getting married" thing. Now that things seem to have settled down into a new status quo, I think it's time to set some goals again. And so, without any further ado, here are my goals for 2013:

• Health: There have been various health issues that have dogged me this year, notably my neck. Enough is enough. The #1 priority for 2013 is to get that sorted out, properly.
• Weight: Related to the health goal, I want to lose some weight (again). Specifically, I'm setting a goal of losing a stone and a half over the course of this year - a pretty modest goal that should be readily accomplished. It's just annoying that it needs set.
• Work: Things haven't been right at work for some time. In the first part of 2012 I was distracted by other things, and throughout the year I have gone too long without a holiday (and when I did take a break in November, it wasn't the rest I really needed... and, sadly, neither has Christmas). Nonetheless, it's a problem - the quality and focus of my work has suffered. For 2013, I feel I need to refocus my efforts there, and get back to doing a better job.
• Books: As mentoned in my previous post, the goal for next year is to read some 60 books, including 12 from The List. The standard rules will apply: it's a book if the publishers say it's a book; one set of covers is one book; and when tackling an anthology of which I've already read part, I only need to read the 'new bits' to count the whole.
• Debt: Unlike a lot of people, we don't carry a lot of non-mortgage debt, and it's certainly a manageable amount. Nonetheless, I feel the weight of it disproportionately. So, there's a three-part goal to get rid of it, with the goal for this year to clear off the payments for our new bathroom - a task that should be done in June, all being well. It's a silly thing, but I'll sleep much easier once I know that's all done with.
• Games: Finally, there's the gaming. The primary goal for this year is to finish off the current campaign, "The Eberron Code", and to start up the next campaign, "Imperial Fist". In addition, there will be the usual handful of one-shots. However, perhaps the more challenging part will be to avoid cancelling the one-shot events - of late, the record in this regard has been quite poor, with my two most recent games being cancelled. This makes for a degree of uncertainty in scheduling, which actually makes people less likely to commit to games in future (knowing they may be cancelled). So, the goal will be to fix dates for the one-shots suitably well in advance, get the quorum together, and then hold the event whatever happens. (It probably won't be that easy, but that's the intention. We'll see.)

And that's it: six goals for the year. Lady Chocolat also wants me to set a goal of buying her a car this year, but since she has money and I don't, I'm inclined to think she may have to buy it herself!

I probably won't have time to do my big review of the year today, as I have quite a lot else to do. Therefore, I shall sign off for now, wishing you all a Happy New Year.