Experimental Cookery 2015 #31: Sizzling Beef Steak with Hoi Sin Prawn and Noodle Bowls

I am never making this one again!

This was another entry from "Jamie's Fifteen Minute Meals", which I'm generally enjoying. However, unlike previous entries in the series, I'm pretty sure I could never get this one down to less than half an hour, even if you don't count the preparation work (which is considerable). The issue is that at one point the method calls for leaving a screaming hot wok unattended while getting something else ready, which I wasn't happy doing tonight and won't be happy doing in future. Plue there were at least two occasions I thought I was about to set myself on fire. It just wasn't a pleasant cooking experience at all.

That said, having survived the ordeal the resulting meal was very nice indeed. I thoroughly enjoyed it. Just not enough to do it again.

#42: "D&D: Princes of the Apocalypse", by Wizards of the Coast

Experimental Cookery 2015 #30: Lamb Meatballs with Chop Salad and Harissa Yoghurt

The third meal taken from the fifteen minute meals was also the quickest so far, clocking in at just under 20 minutes from start to finish. But it meant working very quickly, which wasn't the nicest of experiences.

The meal basically had four parts: the lamb meatballs, which were very nice; a tomato and chickpea sauce, which was also very nice but could have done with a little more chilli; a chopped salad that was okay; and harissa swirled with yoghurt. These items were then combined in a tortilla wrap and eaten like particularly messy fajitas.

It was all very nice, so no complaints there. And I certainly expect to try these again, though perhaps in a slightly more relaxed manner next time!

I'm hoping to fit a second "Experimental Cookery" in this week, though whether that actually happens or not remains to be seen.

#41: "A Slip of the Keyboard", by Terry Pratchett

Competition Season 2015 Wash-up

Oddly, I found that I actually enjoyed most of the competition season this year. It was a lot of hard work, but it was fairly enjoyable. Part of this was simply due to the weather being rather better than we really deserved - despite this summer being rubbish I still made it through without ever getting soaked too badly.

Sadly, the results really didn't go our way. We played eleven events - three Majors and eight Minors. Ignoring the Grade 3 contests we played (where we never had any real chance), we gave fifteen performances (six in Grade 4 and nine in Grade 4A). Out of these, we were in the top half of the contest three times, we were dead centre twice, and we were last four times. In the three Majors we were last once, and third-from-last the other twice. At the Worlds, which was the only competition where we had to qualify, we failed to qualify. And, indeed we weren't even close.

All that said, it's worth noting that this year we had to put together an essentially all-new drum corps - only two of our snare drummers and one tenor drummer were with us last year (and the tenor drummer was out sick pretty much all of last year - good to see her back). We've also had a few changes to the pipe corps, though not as many.

I fully expect us to be downgraded for next year, which probably isn't the worst thing in the world. The timing is somewhat unfortunate, though, as we have a number of learners who are right on the cusp of joining the competing band, and so we're moving down just as they're moving up to join us. Oh well - can't be helped.

So, all in all I'm reasonably happy with our season. But by the same token, I'm glad it's over and I can get my weekends back!

The Edinburgh Pipe Band Championships 2015

For the second year in a row, our final competition of the season was the Edinburgh Pipe Band Championships. This remains a small competition, which is a shame - I still think the venue is ideal for a large event, but it's not good for a small one.

Due to G's birthday, I had to take the car to this event, which had the nice side-effect that I didn't need to get up until 8:15am, which is positively luxurious. It makes such a difference actually getting enough sleep for a change! I did find the final step of the journey quite annoying, though - the signage to the parking was really very poor.

The morning was fairly relaxed, as we're now past the point where the results or even performances actually mattered. This was probably just as well, as neither of our performances were particularly good - as with the World Championships, there was one chanter that was dropping in and out of the performance.

After our second performance I stuck around for a few hours, in order to support our Drum Major in training, who was competing in the afternoon. Though that perhaps was rather pointless - there were only two people in her competition, and the other not only had eight years or experience to her four months, but he was also declared world champion last week. So she came second.

As soon as she was done, I left. I therefore got home just before 4pm, which was rather nice. And the season is over.

In the Grade 4 competition we came 4th overall (out of 9), being 3rd in Piping and 8th in Drumming. In the Grade 4A competition we also came fourth overall (out of 5), being 4th in Piping and 3rd in Drumming. I think we're happy enough with that.

#40: "The Empty Throne", by Bernard Cornwell

Experimental Cookery 2015 #29: Pork Steaks, Hungarian Pepper Sauce, and Rice

The second meal taken from "Jamie's 15 Minute Meals" was again a success, but again took considerably longer than 15 minutes (more like 30), and again left me wanting to vent my frustrations.

The meal was easy enough, and had the excitement that I finally got to use the slicer attachment on my food processor for the first time ever. Unfortunately, it turned out that this slicer was extremely sharp, and so in the process of getting it out of the cupboard I sliced my finger. Which did very little for my mood.

The second annoyance came with Jamie's "foolproof" method for the rice, featuring a one-part rice to two-parts water ratio which was then cooked gently to absorption. Or to being welded to the pan, actually. AND it resulted in less good rice. Grr.

Finally, I found myself a little concerned about the pork. I'm really not convinced it was cooked enough, and I cooked it for well over the time indicated. Still, neither LC nor I have become sick as a result, so I guess it was okay.

All that said, the meal was still quick and easy to put together. Sure, it took closer to half an hour than the 15 minutes, but part of that was because our kitchen had become horribly cluttered. Anyway, thirty minutes is hardly excessive.

And it tasted very nice, all told. The sauce, in particular, was very nice. So I expect to be making this again.

(Oh, an additional excitement: another new ingredient! This was the first time I've had occasion to add fennel to a meal. It was nice.)

So that's that. I am, of course, now well behind on the Experimental Cookery for the year - by this point I should have done 33. I guess I'll have to try to catch up over the next few weeks.

The World Pipe Band Championships 2015

The penultimate competition of the season was also our biggest challenge: could we do well enough to qualify for the final? It was a big ask, but we'd made significant improvements over the past month so perhaps there was hope...

Annoyingly, the organisers of the Worlds have a policy that all bands have to arrive in the car park by 7:30, regardless of when the band is playing. And so I had to get up at 4:45am in order to get ready on time. Not pleasant. Still, it was immediately obvious that it was a better day than last year.

We got to the park, went to get some coffee, wandered around for a while and then, when the time was right, we got ready to play. Our performance was at 9:50 (ish), so there wasn't actually too long to wait.

The performance itself went very well. Indeed, when we came off we were actually confident - we'd had our best performance of the season, and surely had to be there or thereabouts?

And then I went for lunch, which I had at McDonalds at about 11am. That's the worst part of getting up so early - it totally messes up your mealtimes.

We didn't find out the result until 2:50, shortly before the final was due to start. We hadn't qualified... but that could have meant 7th or 15th. So some of us went to the pub while waiting for the march-past.

The march-past was fine, if a bit tedious. It takes about 2 hours to get all the bands onto the field, during the course of which it became apparent that the decision not to wear jackets was a mistake - it was nice and warm at 6pm; not so warm at 8, and that was only the start of the results.

At the start of the ceremony we were asked not to leave after our grade was announced but instead to wait until the end. This was fair enough, we thought. Until, that is, they later announced that there would be an interview with the pipe major of the winning band. At which point there was a mass rebellion and quitting of the field. It would appear that that was one thing too much to ask.

It was only then that we learned the result: we were 13th overall, out of 15. (13th and 11th for piping, 15th for drumming, 6th for ensemble.) So we weren't even close to qualifying. Indeed, that result, coupled with that performance, begs the question, "why are we even bothering?"

And so it was a very depressing end to what had been a good day.

Anyway, there is now one more competition left, being in Edinburgh this weekend. That was a good day last year, and will hopefully be quite enjoyable this year, too - a nice relaxing day to end the season. At least, that's the hope.

#39: "Captain Corelli's Mandolin", by Louis de Bernières (a book from The List, and also this year's front-runner for Book of the Year)

Jeremy Corbyn

It has been interesting watching the Labour party and the media collectively losing their heads over this whole JC thing. The notion that we might actually get a political party that doesn't sign up to the Blairite consensus is interesting, to say the least.

On the one hand, of course, it doesn't matter to me in the slightest. Firstly, simply because I don't have a vote. But secondly because I live in Scotland, and Labour in Scotland are so horrifically awful that I couldn't consider voting for them even if the other JC was their leader. (And neither of the current leadership contenders are even of the calibre of Jim Murphy, so things won't be getting better any time soon.)

On the other hand, though, it really matters who is Labour leader - realistically, the Labour party are the only hope for getting rid of the Tories (on a UK level; Scotland could, in theory, become independent). The SNP (and other nationalists) can't get the numbers, the Greens are effectively nowhere, and the Lib Dems haven't yet realised that they're dead. A new party could, in theory, do the job, but they'd need the Labour party to be removed from the field to have any realistic prospect, or else they're just one more split in the opposition.

Now, there are two possible ways to win an election. One option (the Yvette/Liz/Andy approach) is to try to win back enough of the people who voted at the last election - if they can be persuaded to vote Labour instead of Tory, the government changes. Huzzah! The other option (the Jeremy approach) is to persuade enough people who didn't vote last time that they should, and that they should vote Labour.

Now, in all fairness to him, Jeremy Corbyn does seem to have done quite a good job of engaging a previously-apathetic electorate. And if he does win, that should further engage people - in the same way that the SNP managed to engage people with the independence debate and have grown in support since.

But... will it be enough? The thing is, the Blairite consensus has had politics largely sewn up since 1997, they have massive media support, and they're not going to let that go. (I should note: "Blairite" doesn't mean "Labour" or even "New Labour". It is David Cameron who is the heir to Blair, and both Gordon Brown and Ed Miliband were punished in the media for deviating from that consensus. Just as the Tories would be if they went mad and selected IDS as their next leader again.) If Jeremy Corbyn wins, he'll be subject to a media onslaught that will make Miliband's travails seem trivial by comparison.

If the public are being constantly told by the media, led by the Sun, Daily Mail, and BBC, that Jeremy Corbyn is unelectable and would be an utter disaster if he was, will they turn out in the numbers needed to do it? Or will they vote again for a Tory party that merely has to offer more of the same?

Then again, I can't imagine any of the other three contenders even remotely troubling the Tories either. I'm sure they'll put up a fight, but they'll be offering some reheated flavour of Blairism, up against Cameron's Tories doing the same better, then come to an election against (probably) the inexplicably-popular Boris Johnson, all against a hostile media backdrop. So they'll come a close second in a winner-takes-all two-horse race.

So is it better to go for a safe option that leads to another narrow, but inevitable, defeat? Or is it better to take the big risk and take the option that almost certainly leads to a crushing defeat but might, just possibly, lead to a victory? I genuinely don't know.

North Berwick Highland Games 2015

The antepenultimate competition of the season was the one that I missed last year due to the leaky roof. So, I went into it not knowing quite what to expect. In the event, it was a pretty good day, albeit a very long and tiring one. The bus pick-up was at 6:45am, which meant waking up at 5:15 to get ready. That tiredness would cause me to make a crucial mistake...

It was a bright and sunny day, in many ways ideal for a pipe band competition. We went, we tuned up, and we played. The first performance was good. Then, about an hour later, we tuned up again (being much more relaxed this week), and played again. Alas, the second performance was not good, but at least we were aware of that fact.

Then there was significant waiting - not only because we'd finished by 11 but also because this was a particularly long competition. With the World Championships being next weekend, many more bands are attending these smaller events and so they take more time.

At 2pm we did take a break from the exciting waiting to go support our drum major in her competition - this being a new development, as this was only her second time competing. She did well, but was hampered somewhat by being an 8-year-old with four months' experience competing against three 15/16-year-olds with 7-8 years of experience.

The march-past eventually arrived, and took a very long time. It really didn't help that the PA system wasn't working right, so we couldn't actually hear the results. In any event, we didn't win anything, though our DM did get a prize for coming fourth.

The final results were somewhat mixed - in the Grade 4 competition we came 8th out of 17 (7th and 11th for piping, 8th for drumming, and 6th for ensemble), while in the Grade 4MSR we came 12th and last (9th and 12th for piping, 10th for drumming, and 11th for ensemble). Which doesn't bode too well for our chances of qualifying at the Worlds next week, but doesn't make it impossible. (We're in a group of 15, out of which 6 go through.)

After the march-past we went back to the bus, then home... and then straight out again to play a charity gig for a group of bikers. That was a good event, and we got a really good reception, but it did make for a very long day. I eventually got home around 10pm.

Oh, yes, my key mistake: I forgot to put sunblock on. So, having made it thus far through the season without either getting sunburnt or rained on (much), I've managed to turn bright red. Not my best move, obviously. (Although, that said, it wouldn't actually have made much difference, as some of the worst of the sunburn is right on the top of my head, where there's just enough hair left to prevent me applying sunblock while simultaneously not being enough to afford any real protection from the sun. I'm going to have to invest in a hat.)

Anyway, two weeks to go and then the season will be over. And, much to my surprise, it has been a good one.

Ragnarok!

A few years ago, I posted a fairly negative review of the Mayan Apocalypse, noting my disappointment in their efforts in the field of world-ending. Basically, I felt they had too many traffic jams and not enough lava. I also suggested that the baton for world-ending had now passed to the Vikings and their great end-of-the-world blow-out, Ragnarok.

At the time, I was joking, but I was reading on the subject this morning and was reminded that one of the early warning signs was that three years would pass with no sign of summer.

So that's one down, two to go, then.

#38: "Pathfinder: Shadow of the Storm Tyrant" by Tito Leati

Bridge of Allan Highland Games 2015

This was a bit of an odd one. Once again, I had something on in the evening, so I had to go to the event, play, and then come home, which makes for a weird event - it seems that no sooner do I get there than I'm heading home again. Still, it's a bit closer to home than Dumbarton, so it seemed less wasteful than to drive for an hour each way for the sake of 5 minutes playing.

It was a decent day, and we had a good-sized band for the event: twelve pipers, several snare drummers (depending on the contest), two tenors, and a bass. We played twice, once in the Grade 4 contest, and then again in the Grade 4MSR (4A).

What was odd about this one, though, was that the organisers had elected to start the Grade 4 contest in Ring 2 at 10am (we were scheduled to play 6th) and the Grade 4MSR in Ring 1 at 10:30 (we were scheduled to play 7th). This meant that the timings were always going to be tight, since many of the same bands were playing the two contests and so there wasn't much time between them.

But odder still was to come while we were tuned up and ready to go on for our first performance. One of the organisers came up and asked if we were about ready to go on. We indicated that we were, at which point he indicated that there was a band currently on, the next band had dropped out, and so we would be next... except that he gestured towards Ring 1, the Grade 4MSR, rather than to the ring we were expecting to go on to.

(The reason for this was that the Grade 4 contest was running behind. They'd had some late entries, and the rule is that if you enter on the day then you have to play first. Conversely, the Grade 4MSR was running fast, because they'd had some bands drop out.)

In the event, this meant that we went and played out Grade 4 tunes, then we came off and retuned the drones, and then we immediately went on and played Grade 4MSR. Which had a good side, in that we didn't have any hanging about, but a bad side in that we got no chance to practice the MSR tunes before going on. But it did mean I got finished by 11:10, and got home before 12, which was nice.

I didn't find out the full results until this morning. In the Grade 4 contest we came 17th on a piping preference - if there's a tie between two bands, the one with the better piping score gets the nod. More specifically, we came 15th in piping and 20th in drumming, out of 22 bands. Which wasn't ideal, but wasn't too terrible. In the Grade 4MSR contest we came 4th out of 5 bands, scoring 4th in piping and 5th in drumming. An okay result, and another 'place', but not what might have been hoped.

We now have three competitions remaining in the season: North Berwick next week, the Worlds the week after, and Edinburgh on the 22nd. And then we're done. Huzzah!

Experimental Cookery 2015 #28: Chicken Pasta with a 6 Vegetable Herby Ragu

For my birthday I received a copy of "Jamie's Fifteen Minute Meals", and it's likely that there will be several experiments from this book over the next little while.

This was a quick meal to produce, if somewhat frustrating at times. It took me closer to 25 minutes to put together, even discounting the gathering, washing, and other preparation steps that Jamie doesn't include in his total. Still, that's pretty good going, really, especially if I'd been doing this on a week-night, and especially a band night.

Unfortunately, this didn't go terribly well - by the time the chicken was cooked and starting to burn, the pasta wasn't yet ready, and the nature of the beast was that it really wouldn't wait. In future, I'll need to get the pasta on the hob earlier than the book calls for.

The net result of that problem was that the meal was somewhat burnt when it hit the table. It actually tasted considerably better than I'd expected, and if it hadn't gone wrong I expect it would have tasted much better still. I'm pretty certain we'll be having this again, or at least the pasta sauce which I thought was particularly good.

So I'll give him the win, I think. Though I'm now going to find a video of him on YouTube so that I can vent my frustrations!

Thanks to the month of July, I'm now two entries behind in this series. Hopefully I'll get caught up reasonably soon - certainly I would like to be back on track by the end of this month.

#37: "Pathfinder: Anvil of Fire", by Sean K. Reynolds

A Coffee Rant

Kenco and Nescafe each produce a fairly wide range of different coffees, each with different characteristics. This is entirely sensible, since different people like different things - by providing a range, they enable people to find the one they enjoy and buy that, and then everyone's happy.

But there's a problem with one part of that process - the bit where people find the one that the enjoy.

The thing is, there's a wide range of different coffees, some of which I rather enjoy and some of which are truly manky. (And, indeed, some that are just plain wrong, but that's enough about decaf.) But the names on the jar don't really help me decide what I want - "Blend 37" is essentially meaningless, and "Rich" and "Smooth" aren't actually much better. "Columbian" is somewhat more meaningful, except that Kenco's Columbian coffee is actually very different from Nescafe's equivalent.

Which means that in order to find the coffee I most enjoy (or, better still, my favourite two so that I have a backup for when Tesco are out of stock and/or I fancy a change), I actually have to try the various types.

Of course, that's not a huge hardship - have a couple of mugs of each type of coffee, see how they go, and all's well. Or so you would think.

But that's not actually an option. Instead, you have to buy a full jar of their coffee, containing forty (ish) mugs' worth. And so you're forced into a crazy game of coffee roulette - buy the wrong one and you're stuck with two weeks of lousy coffee at work (as has happened again this week).

The thing is, it's actually not a hard problem to fix. They already produce individual sachets of at least some of their coffees for use in hotels and other venues. So surely it wouldn't be hard for them to produce a "sample box" containing two of each type of coffee in their range (including decaf, if they must). Sell such a box in Tesco, and people could then quickly sample all the options, pick their favourite (and backup), and stick with those thereafter.

So Kenco and Nescafe: make it so!

#36: "The Vicompte de Bragelone", by Alexandre Dumas

The Scottish Pipe Band Championships 2015

This was a strange competition - due to the need to travel down to Grandad's birthday party on Sunday I had to go to the competition, play, and leave right away. This meant not taking the bus, and meant missing most of the day.

Once again, the Scottish Pipe Band Championships were held in Dumbarton, which seems to have become a near-permanent home for this event. This was the fourth of five majors for the year, but was only our second (we missed both the European and United Kindgom Championships).

The day started bright and sunny. It became considerably worse later, but I'd left by then. I got up, got ready, and got in the car. An hour later, I was there. Half an hour after that, so was the rest of the band.

We made ready, and then it was time for us to play. We were the first band on in our grade, which is a mixed blessing - it allowed us to lay down a marker for others to follow, but also meant that we had no idea of what we needed to beat.

The performance went well, mostly. We suffered a little because of a little drone noise at the start (before they should have come in), and some more right at the end. But the performance between those two was pretty good. And our drummers acquitted themselves well, too, given that our lead drummer was on holiday and so they had to manage without. All in all, though, we were quite happy - including, perhaps surprisingly, the pipe major.

At that point I left, so didn't hear the result at the time. But the eventual result was that we came 11th of 13 (11th and 7th for piping, 13th for drumming, and 12th for ensemble). So, not a great result, but a distinct improvement over the British Championships. And, crucially, without the same sort of meltdown that we experienced at that event. Still, we'll need to play much better if we hope to qualify for the final at the World Championships next month (which, frankly, is unlikely).

We're now nearing the end of the season, and I'm surprised to find that I've actually (mostly) enjoyed it. Things have just generally gone much better than last year, the events at Bathgate notwithstanding. It will be interesting to see how things play out over the winter.

That said, it's been a very long, and busy, season. So I'll be glad once that's done and I can get my weekends back.

Next week is the Bridge of Allan Highland Games, and then there are three more competitions. We finish on the 22nd of August, and then I can have some much-needed rest.

Indyref 2

Over the weekend, we've had another airing of argument over when, or if, there should be a second referendum on Scottish independence. Alex Salmond believes it is inevitable, a view shared by many if not most Scots (including those opposed). Yesterday, David Cameron popped up to rule it out. But in both cases it's largely irrelevant - it's not happening right now, so I'm curious exactly what story the media are trying to distract us from.

Anyway...

My view on this is actually that both AS and DC are right and both are wrong. That is, I'm reasonably sure that there will fairly soon be a referendum, but I'm equally sure that that referendum won't result in Scottish independence regardless of the result.

Here's how I see this playing out: Given the current state of the Labour party, I really can't see them winning any election in the foreseeable future (in Scotland or the UK as a whole). That means we'll have an SNP government in Scotland (and Tory in the UK) for quite some time to come. At some point, Nicola Sturgeon (or one of her successors) will decide the time has come, she'll put the commitment to a second referendum into the SNP manifesto, and they'll win (probably). So far, so good.

At this point, the Scottish government will ask the UK government for permission to hold the referendum, and the UK government will say "NO".

Now, this is the point where people assume things will get interesting - there will be a constitutional crisis, there will probably be a big legal challenge, and it will be determined whether under Scots law it really is the people who are sovereign or not.

Personally, I don't think it will come to that. Rather, I expect there to be a whole lot of bluster, followed by Westminster simply saying that Holyrood can indeed hold a consultative referendum that that they will have nothing to do with it. In particular, there will be no official No campaign, and they will simply refuse to consider the result binding. (At which point, taking their lead from Westminster, the mainstream media will proceed to ignore the referendum almost entirely.)

The referendum will therefore proceed, but it will lose an awful lot of significance. And, as a consequence, Yes will win a thumping majority... but on a very small turnout (say 70% for Yes, but 30% turnout).

At which point... nothing happens. That turnout will be such as to render the result meaningless - it won't be possible to call it the settled will of the people in any sense. By rights, the next stage would be to have a proper, binding, referendum, but of course Westminster won't agree to that (for the same reason they ignored this one), and Holyrood won't be in a position to force the issue. "What are you going to do about it?" will be the key question, and as far as I can see the answer will be "nothing". (This, incidentally, seems to be exactly how things have played out in Catalunya in the last few months.)

There is one exception to this, which is if the result and the turnout come together such that Yes somehow achieve an absolute majority of the electorate (not just those who actually vote). But that's a sufficiently unlikely outcome that I feel safe not addressing it further.

The issue of Scottish independence remains a live one in Scottish politics, and probably will for the foreseeable future. But there's a difference between it being an issue and it actually happening, and I just can't see the latter. We're just too useful as a stick for the Tories to use to beat Labour with for them to consider letting us go.

Back to Work

Bleurgh. Not the best day, on any front. Did summer ever really get started in this country?

This Week's Mug: Okay, this really is the last mug anecdote. LC actually found another two mugs during the redecoration, but I'm not counting these as there's a reason they were hidden away - they're 'display' mugs rather than 'use' mugs.

So, the final mug is a red Starbucks mug that I was given as a Christmas present a couple of years ago by the A team. It was originally half of a set, but the white mug in the set developed a leak and so was thrown away. As a mug, this one is absolutely fine, if not my favourite. However, it does lose some points for being a representative of a company I now avoid where a reasonable alternative exists - something to do with taxes.

And that's the end of that series. Huzzah!

#30: "The Silkworm", by Robert Galbraith (J.K. Rowling)
#31: "Pathfinder: Ice Tomb of the Giant Queen", by Jim Groves
#32: "Through Every Human Heart", by Janice Brown
#33: "Lord of Runes", by Dave Gross
#34: "Love in the Time of Cholera", by Gabriel Garcia Marquez (a book from The List)
#35: "Firefly: Smuggler's Guide to the Rim", by Margaret Weis Productions

Update on Goals

Ah, the 200th day of the year, and so another update on goals. Once again, I'm actually away for the crucial day in question, so this is actually being written well in advance. If there's any significant change I'll update when I return.

• Weight: Not good. A month of being far too busy, getting far too little sleep, and eating far too much junk (and especially drinking too much Coke and Irn Bru) has done me no good at all.
• Books: By day 200, I should be 32.9 books through my reading for the year. This is the one that's hard to judge in advance - I'm well short of that point at the time of writing, but very likely to have read several books in the interim. My best guess is that I'm probably at or close to the target.
• Games: Having skipped June and July, I'm still at five sessions done here, two behind of where I 'should' be. My hope is that this will pick up again in August and thus end on target. So I'm not overly concerned here.
• Work: The last few weeks have been brutal. I can say no more than that, alas.
• Band: Done.
• Super Secret Goal #4: In the first two weeks of her holiday, LC has proceeded to redecorate the flat, which is excellent. Obviously, I'm not claiming any credit for that, but it does mean that this goal is right on target.

It's been a rough few weeks, such that at the time of writing I am suddenly behind on three goals, and struggling with a fourth. The likelihood is that most of these will come back together, especially once the competition season ends, but right now it makes for some disappointing reading. Still, I'm hopeful that the next update in September has some better results.

Minions

LC and I went to see this last night. I'm not going to bother with a full review: the trailers do a good job of letting you know the tone of the film, so if you enjoyed them you'll probably enjoy the film.

I enjoyed it. Though I suspect there will likely be a sequel, and that that will be a sequel too far. But maybe I'm wrong.

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

Experimental Cookery 2015 #27: Penne al Forno

On Sunday, while we were discussing dinner, LC said she fancied a pasta bake. We therefore chose this recipe, which comes from the Food Network site, and all seemed well. Then LC went out for a huge lunch and decided she didn't want dinner after all.

The penne al forno was therefore delayed until last night. It proved to be an easy meal to make, but the recipe lies blatantly - the headline says 15 mins prep and 15 mins bake, but if you read the detail there's a 20 minute simmer stage and a 30 minute bake in there, and that's not the complete story.

So, the meal was prepared fairly quickly and easily, but I did then have to eat it very quickly in order to get to band in time. Which wasn't ideal. The meal also had too much sauce for not enough pasta, though this was my fault.

It tasted fine, but I doubt we'll have this again. The meal was pretty much just some bolognese sauce with penne pasta, baked in the oven. But we already have a better method for bolognese sauce, so I'm inclined just to do that. Still, not the worst meal in the world, and it certainly looked very nice.

The Riding of the Marches 2015

Tough day this one. For the past month I've been running flat out, with yesterday being my first day with nothing to do for four weeks. So going into Saturday I was already exhausted, and the timing for the competition was such that I had to get up at 4:45, which isn't even a real time.

The early morning was therefore fairly horrible, with my staggering around the place zombie-like. I finally got out, and made my way through the rain to the bus pick-up. Then a long journey south through heavy rain, thunder, lightning... and then finally some better weather.

We then got ourselves ready to play, and everything was sounding really good. Until we actually started, at which point things went horribly wrong - one slide on one piper's drone slipped at the key moment, which meant it was double-toning throughout the performance. And then, at the end, the pipe major simply forgot to stop. Both of which qualify as "just one of those things", but they did mean we might as well not have bothered.

Shortly thereafter we had the parade, as Annan have wisely combined their competition with their gala day (or "Riding of the Marches" as they call it). The parade was fine, especially as the weather had improved.

And then we rushed to play again, this time in the next grade up. The second performance was a vast improvement over the first, being our best of the season, or so we thought.

About five o'clock, an hour or so before the march past, we decided we couldn't wait. The bus driver was allowed only a 15-hour shift, and having started so early he needed to be back by 9pm, which was already tight. And so, we left.

I checked the results yesterday, and they were not good. Out of 7 bands in the Grade 4 contest, we came seventh. Out of 9 bands in the Grade 3 contest, we came ninth. And we were last in every category across the board.

As far as I can tell, there are two possible explanations: either we genuinely the worst of the worst, in which case we might as well just give up now; or we were disqualified because we left before the march past. Which would be better, except that it hardly seems reasonable - it's not as if we didn't have a really good reason for leaving when we did.

Anyway, never mind. It was a rather better day than some we've had, and we were somewhat happy with at least one performance. There are now five competitions to go, the next of which is the Scottish Championships in Dumbarton on the 25th. I guess we'll see how that goes.

This week's mug: This week I'm using the mug I received while in Ireland. It's a blue "hurling" mug, in that it's marked with the name of a county (Tipperary) and comes with a small ceramic replica of a hurling stick. Alas, while on the way to work today the mug rolled over and the stick broke, so I'll have to fix it with a dab of superglue. (But, fortunately, it was entirely symbolic, so no real harm done.)

It turns out that even this is not the last of the mugs, so there will be at least one more mug anecdote. Huzzah!

Mr Holmes

LC and I went to see this last night. It turned out to be very much not what I'd expected: I had expected this to be very much an "elderly Holmes takes on one last case", when in fact it turned out to be much more "old man deals with the problems of senility". In fact, it being Sherlock Holmes was largely incidental to the whole story

That said, it was a good film, albeit a fairly uncomfortable one to watch. Ian McKellan is great, which is hardly a surprise, and the cast around him do a very good job as well. And it was because the cast were so good that it was uncomfortable to watch - the whole thing just hit a little too close to home.

So, I'll recommend the film, but cautiously. And it may well be one to wait for on DVD/TV/whatever, as there isn't really anything to be gained from the big screen and high-end sound system of the cinema; it will work just as well from the comfort of the sofa.

Next: Minions!