Papa’s got a brand new bag

Well, actually, it’s a brand new toy for Christmas. A Chromebook.

For those who do not know, a Chromebook is a simple netbook type computer based on the Google Chrome browser, where all the apps are on the network. This means they are all up to date all the tine and as the system does not need so much power it is quite cheap. It also means that the system is ready for use about 5 seconds after switching on, but unlike a tablet, it has a proper keyboard.

It promises to be fun. We shall see.

Acer C7

Boxing Day

No boxing today but plenty of CRICKET.

I’ll be spending the afternoon (14:30 start) in The Long Room at historic St. Georges Park with a view not too dissimilar to the one on the left.

It’s The Black Caps in the third and final T20i, with the teams currently tied at one match apiece we should be in for an entertaining game.

One advantage of The Long Room is that it is far from that infernal brass band who’s badly played 10 song repertoire (which gets played over and over) drives most of us to distraction. The band were actually glorified by Australia’s Ch9 commentary team this morning, they have obviously never spent an hour never mind a full day’s play within earshot of them!

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Done Brown

My Redneck Christmas tree, an annual fixture on the Creek for a few years has been challenged by a monstrous interloper.  Under cover of darkness, my neighbor, all six feet two of her, has erected a twelve feet tall ILLUMINATED inflatable Santa on the end of her dock.  Here they are mocking  my delicate and tasteful annual Christmas exhibit.

What is Christmas coming to.

Icing on the cake

Before I marzipanned the first cake I trimmed it as the edges looked a little over done and gave them to Cyclo who pronounced them dry and over cooked. Since then I have been worried that the cake will be awful. Pretty on the outside, in a rough sort of way, but not so good on the inside….

I decided to have a back-up cake. Both Delia Smith and Mary Berry have a cake recipe made using mincemeat – I didn’t find my versions on-line, but in my old recipe books. I decided to go for Mary Berry and added luxury mixed dried fruit instead of the dried fruit she lists. I made it in my newly purchased round tin, on Friday.

The cake was easy and cooked well, and I had been storing it in a tin until yesterday, when I applied the marzipan. Now, you’re supposed to wait a few days for the marzipan to dry out, but when I considered this option I knew this was really my last chance, and less than an hour after adding the marzipan I had applied the icing. The risk of this is the leaching of oil from the marzipan, which may stain the pure white of the icing. I applied my icing thickly, however and that should stop that problem, at least in the time frame that the cake is likely to last! The icing is less crumbly this time, Christina….

Reindeer kiss

(Since I made the new cake, BTW, we have started the other one and it tastes pretty good…. though I say it myself, but is a touch drier than I’d like, in an ideal world, but still better than a bought one. I shall have to wait to see if this one was more successful)

The weather outside is frightful. Lets stay indoors?

Christmas Day

Well it is either a few days early or four hundred years too late, anyway here is my old friend Nicholas Breton on Christmas.

Christmas Day
by Nicholas Breton
(c1554-1626)

It is now Christmas and not a Cup of drinke must passe without a carol, the Beastes, Fowle and Fish, come to a general execution, and the Corne is ground to dust for the Bakehouse, and the Pastry:  Cards and Dice purge many a purse, and the youth shew their agility in shooing of the wild Mare: now good cheere and welcome, and God be with you, and I thanke you and against the new yeare, provide for the presents: the Lord of Mis-rule is no meane man for his time, and the ghests of the high Table must lack no wine: the lusty bloods must look about them like men, and piping and dancing puts away much melancholy: stolne Venison is sweet, and a fat Coney is worth money: Pit-falles are now set for small Birdes, and a Woodcocke hangs himself in a gynne: a good fire heats all the house, and a full Almes-basket makes the beggars Prayers:  the Maskers and the Mummers make the merry sport: but if they lose their money, their Drumme goes dead: Swearers and Swaggerers are sent away to the Ale-house, and vnruly wenches goe in danger of judgement: Musicians now make their instruments speake out, and a good song is worth the hearing.  In summe,  it is a holy  time a duty in Christians, for the remembrance of Christ, and custome among friends, for the maintenance of good fellowship:  In briefe, I thus conclude of it.  I hold it a memory of the Heavens love, and the worlds peace, the myrth of the honest, and the meeting of the friendly.

Farewell.

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Humour will be forbiden in 2013

I see in today’s Telegraph they are thinking of prosecuting the 2 DJ’s who made the hoax call to the hospital Kate was staying in. Come on it was a prank, they phoned up with Australian accents and got through to the ward, so far no problem.

Yes a nurse topped herself, but we don’t know why, and even if she did so because of the telephone call then she must have been mentally unstable.

If they prosecute them then that opens the door to anyone being prosecuted for a harmelss joke or prank, no more candida camera type shows, commedians no longer allowed to take the rise out of someone, no spitting image or Beadles about (okay for this I would be thankful, I hated that bloke), no more Basil saying “He is from Barcelona” or Baldrick’s cunning plan..

We have already forgotten how to laugh, now it will be forbidden to laugh.

For goodness sake get over it, it was a joke and no harm was meant.

Little Yuletide Eve

That’s today oop ‘ere: 23.12. Not sure how it started but when you think about it, it’s a smart idea. The big family event in these parts is tomorrow evening, but elsewhere that means quite often that half of the in-laws would have to wait until next year. But starting today means everybody can be fitted in every year! (I’ll leave cherished charioteers to decide if that’s necessarily a good thing!) SKÅL!