Friday, April 28, 2006
Cheese on Toast
I've just discovered from Diamond Geezer that Thursday was National Cheese on Toast Day. I think it was real based on the fact that some other people wrote about it and that it has its own website. Anyway I had no idea but I do make rather good cheese on toast (so I've been told, honestly its true) and thought I'd share how I do it, so we can avoid those feeble attempts that I have sometimes been served (the worst example being a piece of toast with grated cheese on top - I presume they hoped that the heat of the toast would melt the cheese).
So, on to the method.- Bread - I prefer bread that requires slicing, something with grain and seeds in, sliced medium to thick.
- Toast one side under the grill
- Turn it over, spread with mayonnaise (or butter if you can't stand mayo) and some whole grain mustard. Lay slices of cheese across the whole bread surface - not too thick. Sprinkle thyme over it and black pepper to taste.
- Stick it back under the grill and leave it until the cheese bubbles and goes slightly browned on the edges.
- Meanwhile slice cherry tomatoes in half, ready for when the toast comes off the grill, put them on in roughly the right number to get one tomato with every bite.
- Polish it off and go for another round.
One day I might tell you the recipe for the best scrambled eggs (from a New Yorker friend of Pops).
3:47 PM
Tuesday, April 25, 2006
Date Bails...We have a winner
 The winner is this cool cat, Johnny. He likes swimming underwater, cooking, eating and drinking heavily, making maps, collecting plastic animals. Eats anything (except cats, obviously not a cannibal, which is good). Describes himself as a tall greedy boozehound (slightly odd for a cat). Likes being right all the time.
Black cowboy hat (preferably on a cowboy).
Favourite mode of transport: medium sized boat.
Best joke: A woman gets on a bus with her baby. The bus driver instinctively recoils in horror and says, "thats the ugliest baby I've ever seen". The woman goes and sits down, fuming. She says to the man next to her, "the bus driver just insulted me!" The man says, "you go back and tell 'im what you think of 'im, go ahead, I'll hold your monkey for you..."
 And actually, just incase you get concerned that I'm sending Bails out with a cartoon character he really looks like this. She's very excited. I'm hoping they'll let us know how it went after the weekend.
If anyone else would like me to fix them up you know where to email!
7:01 PM
Monday, April 24, 2006
3 years ago today...
I first clicked publish and sent words into the ether. Petrifying. However I have since got used to it. Also discovered a previously unknown massive virtual community. Still not quite used to the constantly changing, developing nature of this community - globular, expanding but with imploding parts. As some blogs puff out their chests and become massive, others trundle along slowly picking up steam (like this blog), others remain virtually undiscovered, and some just stop - for a variety of reasons - their footprint left or deleted entirely only to live on in the memories of those who read them. I still miss those who I once read regularly who have now stopped. Especially those who I met in the real world. I've found it harder to form bonds with those who have come after because I fear they will pull the rug out from under me and vanish as well. But perhaps thats because of the expanding nature of the blogosphere - its become easier to be anonymous because we're dealing with a global city rather than village pockets. I have a sense that there are more readers who are not bloggers than there used to be. No longer an underground activity, much more in the public conscious.
So anyway, happy blogday to me. I'm not bored yet - even if you are!
8:37 PM
Saturday, April 22, 2006
Births
Spring is sprung. The coots who've been nesting on the canal for some time now have hatched their chicks (cootlings?) today.
 
 
11:57 PM
Thursday, April 20, 2006
Soap
A sarf london man gets onto the train at South Bermondsey (home of Millwall Football Club). He's chatting to his mate's mrs. She's telling him his mate in in bed. They talk about the soaps she's watching - Emerdog and Constipation Street, is how they're referred to. They still call EastEnders EastEnders, perhaps its a mark of respect for fellow Londoners. GS used to call them BeastieBenders - I debate whether to tell him but decide he'd only think I was eavesdropping.
6:45 PM
Tuesday, April 18, 2006
Message from the Bonsai Master
(White Belt, i.e. started learning but only just)
- Little roots drink the most water (accelerate growth). Big roots with no small roots get trimmed.
- Find the flow of the tree. Look at the tree to see where the flow is - right to left, or left to right. It will become apparent over time. Tree grows to sun.
- Balance of the rootage. Gives the tree strength.
Need to talk about taper, but not ready yet. Until next time. Haaaa Bonsaiiiii. (Wax on, wax off...)
6:39 PM
Monday, April 17, 2006
Painted Eggs
When we were little, my parents used to paint easter eggs - they would be displayed around the house at easter time. I remember spending lots of time with creating designs using a variety of techniques, many of them labour intensive. When I got home from Prague Pops had some out - probably for the first time in 10 years. Mostly my mother's ones. Often with the insides turned into hard balls inside the shell. Many of them not doing too badly considering some of them date back about 35 years.
  
  
   
It was important to have white eggs, so there came a time (on the back of healthy eating consumer preferences when brown was better) that it was virtually impossible to get white eggs and that was when we stopped making them. Techniques used include:- drawing a design with ink pen and colouring it in with paint or felt tipped pen
- making designs from tissue paper stuck on, then varnishing over the top
- melting wax crayons and building up a picture using dripped coloured wax
- wax resist - we had a tool for melting wax that could be used to draw onto the shell - anywhere the wax was would not take up colour when the egg was subsequently left in a dye bath. So you could make a design that was white lines and a background colour, or do something all much more complicated - make initial lines, dye the egg, draw on more wax, dye it a darker colour, draw on more wax, dye it a darker colour etc. After you have finished and the dye is dry you gently heat the wax and rub it off as it goes liquid.
- straight forward painting
- dye the egg and gently scratch the pattern into the shell with a scapel
- painting with bleach onto a dyed or brown egg
- I can't quite remember how we did this one but you could get things (like fern leaves) and wrap the egg in onion skins or with rubber bands(?) and dye them - where the leaf touch the shell it would not get dyed (I'm not remembering this right at all!)
6:10 PM
Sunday, April 16, 2006
Easter
Eggs were a theme in Prague for easter, along with willow whipping sticks (men run around beating women with them, the women retaliate by throwing cold water over the men - sadly didn't see any of it going on).
   
  
5:45 PM
Portrait of a City: Prague
   
   
   
     
   
4:29 PM
Saturday, April 15, 2006
Dusk Til Dawn
Red, books, tealights, a lack of vampires. On the first day between us we had a martini, an old fashioned, daquiari floridita, salty margarita, and a brandy alexander. At 1.00am we ate strawberries with chocolate fondue. On the second day we had 2 margaritas, a dry martini, a martini expresso, midnight expresso martini, truffultini, mojito (best drink of them all), vodka coke, brandy alexander and a bloody mary.
Two of us embarrassed the other by singing along to Louis Prima, Bee Gees (Bails' mum has much to answer for - a back catalogue of many suprising records imprinted on Bails' mind), and other old time faves. A woman on the other side of the room smoked a big fat cigar, rolling it expertly in her hand, puffing on it intermittently as her partner watched. The barman stood outside and tried to entice customers in. Closer to midnight the bar filled up. It still wasn't living up to the Titty Twister image but it was nice all the same.
11:07 PM
Friday, April 14, 2006
Date Bails
Are you longing for a date? Single life getting you down? Desperate for a bit of fun? (I know I know - this is sounding more desperate by the minute). You still have time to apply for a date with Bails. See here. Really, she's keen.
7:44 PM
Of Suitcases and Airlines
So the day of reckoning was upon us, today was the day we find out what Czech Airlines made of Bail's case that came out of the hold with a wheel torn off and the body cracked. They said they would first attempt repair and only if unable to replace.
Al and I had a running commentary the last couple of days of possible repair scenarios - I thought duck tape round inside and out, Al thought an additional wheel, most likely mismatched, I thought perhaps they'd search around inside the plane for the missing wheel, Al thought perhaps they could seal the crack with some kind of car fixing kit. Bails kept saying they'd replace it like for like.
Today after walking about in the rain we came back in and lo! they had replaced it like for like. Personally I'm a little disappointed they hadn't tried to fix it, just for the possible look on Bails' face. Very good service I'd say!
7:38 PM
Thursday, April 13, 2006
Gargoyles, Drinking and Easter
To the castle and make it snappy. Black stone buildings. Long long queue to get in. Walked around the outside looking at the gargoyles who were sticking their tongues out and retching off the side of the building. Tourist throng.
   
  
The girls started the day with complimentary champagne for breakfast, were drinking amoretto coffee for 11ses, beer for lunch in the cafe with sheepskin chair covers. We sat outside at every meal which is pretty silly when one of our party hasn't brought a coat (Bails and I are getting in trouble for teasing Al, huddling into our winter coats whilst sitting under gas heaters).
Sat in the Old Town Square watching a strange disco dancing showcase and looking at an easter tree decorated with coloured eggs.
I didn't manage to drink any more absinth after yesterday but feel that I must have had some of the more disgusting stuff. Don't know whether I'll be brave enough to see if any other sort is more palatable.
11:30 PM
Wednesday, April 12, 2006
Prague
Today was the day, we met at Tottenham Hale station in time to catch a 5.45 train to Stansted Airport. Before the crack of dawn. Very unsociable hours. Flight with Czech Airlines, a basketball team flying in the rows behind us - big boys, long legs, fidgety, very keen on the blond air hostesses (who we didn't think were anything special but for adolescents they were obviously the height of class). Arrived in Prague to find Bails' suitcase damaged beyond repair - one wheel torn off causing the body to crack. Caught a 119 bus to the Metro and a tube to Museum. Found our hotel and decided we needed lunch and short stroll.
 Ate at the Cafe Tulip where a languine pale faced waiter with long ponytail hung behind the bar. Everyone in the joint was in possession of a Time Out Guide to Prague. We tried to hide ours. The girls both had beers with big heads on them. Big creamy heads (so Bails said).
 Our short stroll turned out to be rather long for people who had only had 4 hours sleep but we saw great buildings and fab river views. Passing over the Charles Bridge stopped briefly to watch a jazz band (Bails said she liked the one on the end playing the CD case).
One particular statue has a queue of people waiting to touch some gold paint - it was only on relaying this observation to the girls that I realised actually it wasn't gold paint at all but rather so many fingers had touched the statue that the patina had worn off.
I decided to end the day with a glass of Absinthe - always wanting to test local stuff and all. Frightful stuff I have discovered, quite nice the way it warms your oesophogus but tastes like medicine. I'm wondering whether the red one will taste any different. Hummm.
  
10:02 PM
Saturday, April 08, 2006
Date Bails
Are you longing for a good date? Single life getting you down? Desperate for a bit of fun? (I know I know - this is sounding more girly by the minute). You still have time to apply for a date with Bails. See here.
10:08 AM
Pigeon and the Skylight
Frequently I hear this strange scratching noise coming from the roof over my bedroom. I have imagined its a variety of things but the other day I discovered it was a pigeon walking on the skylight. Imagine that music from Benny Hill where he invariably chases a long line of nurses in miniskirts - the pigeon got on the skylight and walked around a bit, then got off, came back, then left again, then got back on and scratched around some more. Don't know what he finds so attractive on the glass but he certainly has a good time up there.
   
   
   
10:02 AM
Wednesday, April 05, 2006
Brain Overload
Its hard being a grown up. Even without dependents. I'm knackered from constantly having stuff on my mind. If its not work shit, its MA essays, if not that then its job applications, if not the applications then the prep for interviews. Persistently having stuff to do.
I'm sitting outside a cafe on a quiet side road, with a hot chocolate and an amaretto biscuit, the sun warming the side of my face. The sky blue. Blossom trees coming into bloom.
More of this is needed. I've ignored the urge to buy a paper that my eyes would devour with ferocity. I need to rest my brain. No input needed. It would be great to have one of those exceedingly dull 70s Sundays that dragged forever.
I'd like to take small steps. Not be in a rush. Sleep til I wake up naturally. Look at the scenery. Be free of deadlines and pressure. Read a novel whose words paint a picture in my head that needs no additional interpretation.
Needing a holiday perhaps. Lucky I'm going to Prague next week.
4:07 PM
Tuesday, April 04, 2006
Date Bails
Having declared that she was afraid she was going to have to be a bit lesss fussy on the men front I decided to help my friend-in-need and offer her up on the internet (for a date) to the good men of the blogosphere. So for all of you waiting with baited breath...
 
She's nice with a twist of nasty.
Interests include: growing cacti, zombie movies, thrashing guitar music, Shakespeare plays, collecting scarfs, cooking.
Latest hobby: Bonsai
Favourite film: So I Married an Axe Murderer
Favourite book: Love in the Time of Cholera (Gabriel Garcia Marquez)
Favourite album(s): Quadrophenia - The Who, Wiser Miser De Meltza - The Prisoners, Jimi Hendrix.
Listening now: Katie Tunstall, The Killers
Favourite beer: something called something like Leibsmanfs Kreik
Favourite dinner: Thai, oh but, well anything really
Favourite holiday destination: South America
Worst Date: dinner in pizza hut (dumpable), or home-cooked dinner made from pre-prepared packets (no marks for effort)
Eyesight: -7 (not blind though, can see clearly with corrective lenses).
You are:
30-45 (ish)
hair - unimportant (no comb-overs)
interesting, eclectic tastes
preferably with a job (although all circumstances considered)
single, male
To play please email to harrietsblogg at gmail dot com sending a picture (jpeg) of yourself that you are happy to have on the internet and the answers to the following questions:- Tell us your best joke
- Black or white cowboy hat?
- What do you like doing?
- Favourite dinner?
- Describe yourself in 20 words (full sentences not compulsory)
- Favourite mode of transport?
All interested parties make themselves known by 22 April 2006 and be available for a date in London on 26 April (subject to negotiation if absolutely necessary).
Successful candidate will be required to provide brief post-date feedback for publication (not Blind Date style - constructive rather destructive, we all want to remain friends here).
9:07 PM
Monday, April 03, 2006
Peckham Stroll
A striking woman wearing cream linen flares and a cropped cream leather jacket strolls along the street in the early evening spring sunshine with her husband. He puts a strong arm around her waist and lets it slide down where it lingers on her large bottom.
8:00 PM
Sunday, April 02, 2006
Favourite London Places
The Natural History Museum
 
   
  
  
I still get something of the childhood excitement about entering this great gothic building, purpose built with its creatures crawling up the brickwork and protruding like gargoyles from the guttertops. Going inside through its dark doorway to stand in front of the diplodocus, changed from the 70s when they thought it would hold its head upright and drag its tail on the ground, to an altogether more active seeming skeleton. Love the staircases that lead up and break into two, depositing you on the walkway-balconies, walk along past the skeletal monkeys swinging along the ceiling to a bridged stairway that joins back together to take you up to the slice of Sequioa with dated rings.
Remember school trips (clip boards and questionnaires to fill in) and silently walking through the gem galleries with mum. Visiting the back rooms with EP to take some donated skeletons from the Zoological Museum of the University of Wisconsin. Huge wooden drawers full of specimens. Watching a puppetshow with weird music in the less distant past (lucky enough to be in the museum after hours).
8:18 PM
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