Boadicea's Chariot

Some pics for J

Ross lake hydro power dam, this is where we get our power.

It has felt like September for a couple of weeks now and the garden has taken on a distinctively ‘early Autumn’ look, with leaves turning and spiders’ gossamer glinting in sunlight, or glistening with dew or raindrops in the early morning.

The hedgerows are full of berries: rose-hips, haws, blackberries, sloes and many others. Just off to pick a few more sloes. Anyone have a good recipe for sloe gin?

Underrated: Eamonn Holmes

Carol Vorderman effortlessly crunches the numbers, Noel Edmonds flawlessly points out the probabilities and Lucy Verasamy is the fount (font?) of knowledge about clouds. These three individuals are masters of their art. Which brings us to the consummate professional- Eamonn Holmes. Never in the field of TV presenting has a man been so natural on the screen. A veteran of many shows he currently presents Sky News Sunrise.

Eamonn has had his share of criticism but I come here to praise him, not to bury him. For starters he has an uncanny ability to memorise his lines. The headlines are all written on paper at his desk yet he looks at the screen and word for word reads the written page without once glancing down at the A4. Continue reading “Underrated: Eamonn Holmes”

To the Edge of Europe

The flight to Lisbon left me somewhat irked. It seemed as if Luxembourg Airlines hosted a screaming baby convention that lasted from Luxembourg City to Lisbon punctuated only by the occasional fight between children. While a short flight by my standards, only about 3.5 hours, it felt nearly as long as a decent trans-Pacific journey. Other than that, there is little disparaging I can say about Portugal.

The Lisbon Metro Red Line starts at airport so travelling virtually anywhere in the city is simple. As a card with full-day validity costs €6.00 there are more expensive ways to travel. Compared to most other major world cities, it was almost a present. Simply to, say, travel into Tokyo from Narita Airport costs £20.00. Osaka is not much cheaper. Even Seoul, far more affordable than any major Japanese city, costs £5.00 for a one-way ticket. The limited impact was blunted even more by a good-natured backpacker who, heading out of Portugal, kindly gave me his pass. Continue reading “To the Edge of Europe”

Pets have their uses

My older sister had a dog when I was young. Me myself I’ve never had a pet apart from a few goldfish that kept dying, To avoid personal grief for the children I replaced the fish until they were old enough to understand that their old man was pulling the wool over their eyes. I mean, it’s a given, isn’t it? Fish are like flowers- they all look the same.

Anyway, there’s been a few close family additions on the pet front. My sister has a cat and my son’s girlfriend has a rabbit. The cat is a nightmare. Scratches, bites and runs about like mad. Cute little kitty, my left paw. The rabbit on the other hand. A gift from the gods.

He’s very sociable and I’ve rabbitsat him a few times. He likes football and I can practise some of my soccer skills with him. His slowness on the turn makes my flip-flap manoeuvre on a level with Roberto Rivelino though it is difficult to nutmeg him.

Beetroot and courgette soup

We have a surfeit of vegetables which my off-spring won’t eat, so I have made this morning a soup to take into work – just tasted it and it is delicious, though I say so myself.

Beetroot and courgette soup

Three medium beetroot, boiled until cooked, the skins slipped off and the beet chopped up

One courgette not too large, sliced (mine are the yellow skinned variety)

One onion, peeled and sliced

one clove garlic, peeled and sliced

salt and pepper

a little lemon juice

Soften onions in oil over a gentle heat, add garlic and sliced courgette, and soften a little longer without colouring.
Add the beetroot, and stock to cover. Cook 5 mins.
Blend, season and sup.
Looks very pretty with a swirl of cream stirred in.

Does anyone else have an unusual mix of ingredients to make a summer soup?

Dishwashers

Two weeks ago our dishwasher gave up the ghost.

As most of you know, I will be moving to Spain in two months, so I decided that it wasn’t worth buying another one here in Toulouse, just to have an extra large item to move.

Therefore we have spent the last couple of weeks washing up by hand.

We have found so many advantages of not using the dishwasher that we are now considering not having one in future.

These advantages are:-

1) Enjoying a chat about our day while washing up after the evening meal

2) Always have clean crockery and pans ready for the next meal. Previously we needed many more as some were ‘waiting’ in the dishwasher until it was full.

3) Never leaving the kitchen a mess after a meal as the pots needed to be cleaned straightaway.

4) Clearly the cost is lower when doing it by hand

5) We have found that it doesn’t really take so much longer to wash up than previously to load and unload the dishwasher.

It would be interesting to hear your views on this.

Did you know?

Political Diva

I don’t know who you are,
But you must be some kind of superstar,
Cause you got all eyes on you no matter where you are,

(Superstar- song by Jamelia)

Hillary Clinton is on top of the world. $300,000 a speech and a multitude of extras. Jet plane. Cheque. Five star presidential suite. Cheque. Five other rooms reserved for lackeys. Cheque. And Clinton will only stay at the venue for 90 minutes tops. No video or audio recording is allowed. It would be good if someone bootlegged one of these “concerts” and put them online as no doubt she sings the same songs every night. That would kill the golden goose.