Experimental Coolery 2024: Fruit Tacos

As the father of two young children, it is of course my duty to wind them up with all sorts of nonsense and japes. So it was with huge amusement that I was able to launch a successful double bluff: I spent the day telling them we were having tacos for dessert, secure in the knowledge that they'd think I was joking, only to roll these out at the key time. Huzzah!

The basic idea for these came from the Tesco magazine, but they're really simple enough that they barely warrant a recipe - take some warmed taco shells, add some chocolate spread, ice cream, fruit, and various toppings. Then eat them.

These were a triumph. Not only will we definitely have them again, Funsize has already insisted on having them again. So that's a win.

#15: "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang and the Race Against Time", by Frank Cottrell-Boyce (a book for Funsize)

#16: "Surrounded by Idiots", by Thomas Erikson

Experimental Cookery 2024: Smoky Sausage Skewers with Tomato Rice

Another belated experimental cookery, this one was actually cooked in the over but would have been ideal for the BQ. This one came from the Tesco magazine, but is almost certainly available in the online archive.

This one was a much more successful effort than the previous - it involved in cutting things into big chunks, placing in a bowl with a spice mix, threading on skewers (which Funsize and Surprise! enjoyed helping with), and then baking. Messy, but all rather easy.

And the results were very nice. There's no surprises here - if you like the things that go on the skewers, you'll probably like the result; if not, you won't.

We'll no doubt have these again, though possibly without the rice and probably cooked by BBQ.

Experimental Cookery 2024: Courgette and Halloumi Skewers

This is a much-belated "experimental cookery" - we had these some months ago. The method comes from Tom Kerridge's "Outdoor Cooking".

I'm always on the lookout for good things with which to expand my BBQ repertoire, and also for good vegetarian options. So the possibility of a vegetarian BBQ option was rather enticing.

Unfortunately, this one just didn't work for us at all. I think I probably did something wrong, but the bottom line is that after a big fight trying to get chunks of vegetable and cheese onto parallel skewers (which wasn't fun), and after what seemed an age on the grill, they came off and just weren't nice at all. The tastes were basically okay, but the texture was just... no.

I really can't imagine having these again, and I'm not at all inclined to try inflicting them on any guests. Very disappointing.

Day 200: Update on Goals

Oh dear. I haven't managed to update the blog since the last of these. Well, here goes...

• Books: By this point I should have read 16.4 books. I've read 14 and a bit, so I'm about two books behind target again.
• Blogging: By this point I should have posted 66 times here. I've long since admitted defeat on this one.
• Redecoration: There has been no real movement on this one, but since it was in a good place I'm not too unhappy about that.
• Complete my Campaign: The writing for the campaign is now done. Additionally, the group have defeated the pirate queen and are therefore one session away from the end. This should be done by the time of the next update.
• Update the Church Website: No update since last time.

One goal has slipped back from last time, and one has taken a big step forward. That's not terrible, though the blog in particular is disappointing.

#13: "Empire", by Conn Iggulden
#14: "A Thousand Splendid Suns", by Khaled Hosseini

Day 150: Update on Goals

It seems like no time since the last update, but here we are:

• Books: By this point I should have read 12.3 books. I'm right on target, which is nice.
• Blogging: By this point I should have posted 49 times here. It's fair to say that that hasn't happened. There is now essentially no chance of this goal being achieved this year. The other thing of note, however, is that I've taken the decision to put The Imaginarium on hiatus in the near future. My current intention is to take it to 1,000 posts, which should take it to the end of my current campaign, then add one last "placeholder" post (since Blogger seems to eat the newest post on discontinued blogs), and stop indefinitely.
• Redecoration: Shortly after the last update we completed the outstanding work on Surprise!'s bedroom. The only thing remaining for the stated goal is to look at the insulation in Funsize's room. There has been no movement on that, nor any on reredecorating the study, but maybe for next time...
• Complete my Campaign: The characters are now right at the edge of the unwritten segment of the campaign. Meanwhile the writing has advanced, leaving around 4,500 words and 15 areas left to be written. I hope to have completed both for the next update.
• Update the Church Website: No update since last time.

Other than the blogging goal, things are looking pretty positive for the year as a whole, so I'm pretty happy with things. It's a shame about the blogging, but I just don't see that recovering for the rest of this year.

#9: "Promise of Blood", by Brian McClennan

#10: "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang", by Ian Fleming (a book for Funsize)

#11: "Making It So", by Sir Patrick Stewart

#12: "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang Flies Again", by Frank Cottrell-Boyce (a book for Funsize)

Here We Go Again

A year ago I posted about the treatment being meted out to Kate Forbes in the SNP leadership contest because she is a Christian who actually dares to believe things. A year on and Humza Yousaf has proven to be a disaster and has lost his job as a consequence. The SNP need to find another new leader.

At time of writing, there are no declared candidates. There has been a lot of noise, but for the moment nobody has actually put their name forward.

And already the monstering of Kate Forbes has begun.

As with last time, the tone of that monstering is extremely important, and of extreme concern - because Kate Forbes is being decried as some horrific far-right bigot based on her having expressed what are, ultimately, some fairly mainstream Christian views.

I said before that if Kate Forbes was somehow barred from standing, or was ultimately pressurized into dropping out of the race, then I was done with both the SNP and indeed with independence - I have no interest in voting for a country where every minority is welcomed and respected except for mine.

Unfortunately, things have rather moved on since then; unless and until Yousaf's horrific Hate Crimes legislation is repealed I'm done with Scottish politics as a whole. (That's yet another example of well-meaning but atrociously-drafted legislation from Holyrood. It needs scrapped.)

But, again, if the monstering of Kate Forbes is such that she is somehow barred from standing, or she throws her hat into the ring and is then 'persuaded' to drop out, then there's no way back for the SNP. If she chooses not to run, fine; if she runs and is defeated, fine. But I'm watching them closely, and they are on their absolute last chance - get this wrong, and there's no way back for them.

Experimental Cookery 2024: Digger Cake

And so we come to the showpiece of the weekend...

Young Surprise! turned three last week, and we had his birthday party on Saturday. Being a typical boy, he is obsessed with dinosaurs, trains, and tractors. But his particular favourite is Diggers! And so the challenge for our hero was to craft a nice Digger Cake for this birthday...

I'm rather pleased with this one:

The cake itself was baked on Friday night, after I'd finally battled Funsize and Surprise! off to sleep (LC was out). Saturday morning then saw me mixing up a huge bowl of buttercream icing which was liberally applied to the sponges. Then the cake was ringed with Kitkat fingers, and decorated as can be seen.

The cake itself disappeared very quickly, which I'm taking as a good sign. Certainly, I enjoyed eating it!

Of course, I've now raised the bar as to what is possible, which may be something I come to regret...

Experimental Cookery 2024: Peach Melba Pavlova

I'm gradually catching up on a backlog of Experimental Cookeries...

A few weeks ago LC made an attempt at pavlova, which sadly did not go so well - not her fault; the instructions were missing a really key step. As a consequence of this, I found myself inspired, and as things would have it the Tesco magazine this month had a rather appealing recipe for this. So it became a centerpiece for LC's birthday celebrations.

The pavlova itself was easy enough to make - once you've made meringues a few times they become quite easy, and from there it's just a case of baking for a couple of hours and then leaving it in the oven while the whole thing cools down. Then whip some cream, add fruit, and the job is done.

The only slight oddity was the need for a raspberry sauce to go with the pavlova, but even that was more or less trivial and so was done quickly.

And it was pretty awesome:

Experimental Cookery 2024: Garlic Dough Balls and Baked Camembert

This one came from Tom Kerridge's "Real Life Recipes". It was one that I had wanted to try for some time, and so when lacking for inspiration for a meal, this one came to mind. We had it with Spaghetti Bolognese - it was only ever going to be a side dish.

The meal was quick and easy to put together, although like most breads there was a lengthy proving stage. But that was fine. The bake was then simple.

We'd certainly have this again, though I'm more inclined to do the dough balls than the camembert. Additionally, we had rather more dough balls than we could reasonably use, so I think we may make use of this if and when we have guests (as does happen occasionally!).

Anyway, a success. And here they are:

The Choice

The resignation of Humza Yousaf leaves the SNP with a choice to make. The problem is that for any new leader to become First Minister they will need to survive a vote of no confidence from the other parties, and the arithmetic in parliament means that that requires with support from the Greens or support from Alba and there being no SNP rebels. Given that support from Alba almost certainly means there will be at least some SNP rebels, this is a problem.

The SNP therefore faces a choice, and that choice is of profound importance:

On the one hand, they can "elect" a new leader who is palatable to the Greens, and spend the next two years beholden to those Greens in absolutely every way. In which case they continue with the madness of the last couple of years, and receive a massive kicking at the 2016 Scottish Elections.

Or they can elect someone who is not palatable to the Greens, and take their chances with an election - an election which may or may not rearrange parliament into a more workable arrangement (and is reasonably likely to result in a Labour-led government). In any event, it is only for two years, as the election in 2016 would take place anyway.

My suggestion to the SNP is to think about this one very carefully. Because I don't think the people of Scotland are in the mood for any more of the nonsense we've seen recently.

Day 100: Update on Goals

The second update on goals for the year:

• Books: By this point I should have read 8.2 books. I've completed 7 books, with three in (slow) progress, so I'm behind but not terribly so. I'll try to rectify that for next time.
• Blogging: Oh dear. This goal is going horribly wrong, and already looks to be impossible. We'll see - maybe there will be a flurry of posts for next time... but I'm not hopeful.
• Redecoration: As I anticipated in my previous update, we have now done the bulk of the redecoration of Surprise!'s bedroom - the walls have been repainted, the pictures changed over, the one key picture moved to Funsize's room, and new lightshades installed in both bedrooms. The new carpet is on order and due to arrive tomorrow, after which we will hang one final decoration and call it done. I would still like to look into improved insulation for Funsize's bedroom, and LC has expressed a desire to re-repaint the study and replace the carpet in that room, but those are tasks for later in the year (and the study isn't part of the stated goal anyway).
• Complete my Campaign: The campaign is still on the verge of completing Part Three and moving to Part Four. I have managed to get some writing done, such that I'm down to just over 5,000 words to go (from 6,000). It's now a race to try to write it up before the characters get to that point.
• Update the Church Website: The stability issues on the church website were tracked to one bad plugin, which has now been removed. This allowed me to restore the site security, which is a big relief. The only remaining part of this task is to refresh some of the content, but that's not entirely in my gift.

The conclusion is a lot more positive than it was last time - I'm a little behind on the reading and horribly behind on the blogging, but have made very significant progress on all three of the other goals. My challenge for next time is therefore to try to be rather less behind!

Close It Down

What a time to be alive.

Back in 2008, the Labour/Lib Dem coalition in Holyrood had clearly run out of steam and was in desperate need of being replaced. And so the people of Scotland voted them out and installed an SNP government.

In 2024 the SNP government have now reached the same point - they desperately need to be replaced.

Unfortunately, in the interim the Labour party in Scotland have learned precisely nothing. They are every bit as arrogant, stupid, and dogmatic as they were in 2008 - their grand strategy for renewal has consisted of waiting for their rivals to become equally rancid.

Meanwhile the Lib Dems have become an irrelevance, and the Greens have revealed themselves as a horror show.

And, needless to say, the Tories aren't even worth considering.

The bottom line is that we desperately need a new government and there is not a single party in Holyrood that are even worth considering for a vote. The whole thing has failed.

At this point, I would therefore suggest that Holyrood has failed and should be shut down, except that it wasn't so long ago when I said the same about Westminster - and that hasn't changed. Down there, the Tories have become the Monster Raving Loony Party, Labour have become Thatcherites, and the Lib Dems an irrelevance.

So, basically, we're at a point where I think we should simply shut it all down, and just try not having a government for five years, and see how that goes. It's hard to see how that can be any worse.

Experimental Cookery 2024: Sticky Hoisin Wings with Cucumber Salad

This one came from the most recent Tesco magazine. It was really quick and easy (as wings tend to be) - put the ingredients into a bowl and massage to coat, then move to a tray and bake until done. The result was also really enjoyable. Actually, if anything, the cucumber salad was the real surprise on that front.

All in all, a winner. Which is nice. We'll definitely have these again.

#4: "Why Should Anyone be Led by You?", by Rob Goffee and Gareth Jones
#5: "Atalanta", by Jennifer Saint
#6: "Be Useful: Seven Tools for Life", by Arnold Schwarzenegger
#7: "Terry Pratchett: A Life with Footnotes", by Rob Wilkins

Relieved

I am by no means a fan of Donald Trump - despite my deep misgivings about Biden's mental health I would still vote for him over the other candidate. However, I must admit I am extremely relieved at the Supreme Court overruling those states that had decided to exclude him from the ballot paper.

There are fundamentally two reasons for this:

1. In a two-party system, you really can't have a situation where one party is not allowed to stand their preferred candidate. That becomes a one-party system, and that's very much not democracy.
2. But more importantly, there was a distinct possibility that in a tight race Biden might 'win' solely on the basis of Electoral College votes garnered from those states where Trump was excluded. Which would have been an absolute disaster - the scenes from 6th Jan 2021 would have had nothing on what followed.

So I'm hugely relieved that Trump is allowed to stand. Now I only hope Americans collectively have the sense to reject him.

Disgrace

I knew the House of Commons was a cesspit, but I thought there were at least some limits - I would never have expected them to engage in base politics over as serious an issue as the situation in Gaza.

The whole edifice is a blight on our country. We need to shut it down, and start again.

Day 51: Update on Goals

Slightly late, here is my first update on goals for the year.

• Books: By this point I should have read 4.1 books. I'm actually very close to that - I expect to finish book 4 imminently, and have read the .1 already (book 4 took longer than expected and got bogged down somewhat, so I decided to read another book in parallel, allowing me to finish the stuck book at my leisure.)
• Blogging: As should be obvious from the fact that even this update is delayed, I've been finding it really hard both to find time to blog and find topics for blogging. So this goal already looks impossible.
• Redecoration: There has been no movement on this goal, but that's not a surprise - my expectation is that we'll aim to tackle the bulk of this task during the Easter break, in time for Surprise!'s birthday.
• Complete my Campaign: The campaign has resumed, and is about to start on part four (of four). However, I haven't managed to write any of it, which means they're about to hit the section I don't have planned out.
• Update the Church Website: There has been no movement on this one, which is becoming increasingly urgent.

The conclusion there isn't good - I'm behind on just about everything, with one goal already looking lost and two becoming increasingly urgent. I have some things to think about.

#3: "Smart Leadership", by Jo Owen

The Worst Combination

I've talked before about the tendency to avoid tasks - when there's something that needs done but that you don't want to do, suddenly it becomes vitally important to reorganise some documents, or sharpen every pencil to exectly the same length, or to alphebetise your DVDs, or whatever.

But there's one combination that's even more pernicious: having two tasks you want to avoid. Because that then opens up whole new levels of avoidance strategy: you get to spend a whole lot of time getting one ready for action, then switch to the other, then switch back long enough to decide it needs yet more preparation, then back again, and on and on it goes.

Ultimately, there comes a point where you do just have to knuckle down and address one of the tasks, get it done, and then face the other. But there's a whole load of sweet, sweet temptation to wade through before that point.

Please and Thank You

The story of how we came to have an Amazon Echo 5 in our living room is almost worthy of a saga itself - initially I bought it for the kitchen as a replacement for our CD-player/radio, only to discover I really didn't like it at which point I banished it to the garage, and then find that I really wanted to leave some ambient music on to keep the dog company during the day, leading to Alexa's triumphant restoration to the living room!

Anyway, this device is now the first part of the home automation setup I talked about some months ago, and plans are afoot to start expanding the ecosystem. Because while I initially resisted getting any of these voice-activated assistants, once we had one in place it gradually started to see more and more use. We've still barely scratched the surface, largely due to my lingering disdain, but it does seem to be a good place to start.

All of which is by the by. My main point for this blog post is that we now have an Alexa device in the living room, and of course there is therefore a need to address the device and ask it to do things.

I'm also in the process of raising two small children, and one of the important lessons to be taught is the importance of saying 'please' and 'thank you'. Always and every time, nay habitually.

The upshot of that combination is that I now make sure to say 'please' when asking Alexa to do things. Hopefully Skynet will take that into account when the time comes.

#2: "Promise of Blood", by Brian McClellan

Lather - Rinse - Repeat

I know the blog has been quiet for quite some time. Unfortunately, I'm finding it hard to find things to talk about, as right now life seems to mostly be stuck in a loop of trying to survive to the weekend, then not quite enough rest to recover, and then repeating. This seems to be pretty common in January, but does seem especially tough this year.

The good news is that today I noticed for the first time that the sky was distinctly lighter by the time I left the house, so we're gradually getting out of the dark. Hopefully things will pick up soon.

The Forgotten Daughter

Over the Christmas break we took a short trip to Disneyland Paris as an extended family. Unlike a trip we took a few years ago, this was a fun adventure and one that the children, in particular, very much enjoyed. Which is nice.

On the third day of the visit to Disneyland itself (that is, not counting the day spent travelling there), young Surprise! reached a point where he just couldn't take it any more. And so, the weather being pretty ropey at that point, LC took him back to the hotel for what turned out to be the rest of the day. This left Funsize and I to enjoy our final afternoon in Disneyland together.

And we had a great time, racing from one ride to another, cramming in every last bit of fun that we could in that afternoon and evening - some new rides, a lot of repeated rides from the previous days, and even the tail end of one of the shows that we managed to catch at just the right time. Good times.

And while at the time I was rather hesitant, in hindsight I'm rather glad that the day worked out that way. For entirely understandable reasons, Surprise! requires a significant amount of our time, energy, and attention, and as a consequence he largely sets the agenda for our days. Worse, because we've then expended so much time, energy, and attention, when we are then freed up there just isn't much left. And so I'm often somewhat concerned that Funsize is just not getting a fair shake. We do the best we can... but it's a concern.

So having an afternoon like that, where Funsize was able to get some undivided attention, and where she was able to set the agenda and have things her way was very much welcome. Even if it did mean that we returned to the hotel late, and she was absolutely shattered as a result - if nothing else, it meant we absolutely got our money's worth.

#1: "Ariadne", by Jennifer Saint (which I enjoyed, though I enjoyed "Elektra" more)