The World Spins Madly On

Uh hi. So, life, eh? Gets away from one. I have pretty much had my head down since September or so. Possibly earlier, I don't even remember September at this point. I've been temping at one place since the beginning of October, which on one hand is nice, plus steady income. But on the other hand, I have all the time constraints of working a full time job, PLUS rubbish pay and no sickness allowance. Plus, I'm still doing all the things I was doing when I was unemployed, as well as working a 35 hour week. It wasn't just you flist, I didn't really see anyone for months.

However, I have managed to do a social thing every weekend of this year so far. I know there haven't been very many of them, but it's still a huge improvement.

Tonight I had a couple of friends round for dinner. (The wine is affecting my typing something terrible. The backspace key is getting a workout.) It was nice and I busted out, and finally pretty much perfected the pomegranate pork recipe. Final (probably) version posted below for posterity and my future reference.

( Pomegranate pork )

And I'll tell you what. I have Thoughts about that whole pomegranate/female sexuality metaphor thing that people have. It's all very poetic and romantic until you have actually tried to get the seeds out of a pomegranate, and then you realise that what the metaphor actually means is that it's messy and fiddly, and a pain in the arse, the pith is quite nasty, and it's not necessarily worth all the effort, especially if you can buy it already done for you. You have a lot of time to think about these things when you're wrestling with actual pomegranates.

And now I should probably go to bed, and sleep off the wine and the port.

How are you all? Anyone still reading this? If so, happy birthday for Monday been, aunty_marion.

I wish DW would adopt LJ's Tag tickybox menu. It's one of the few things LJ has got actually right, as opposed to bollocksing up. I can barely remember what my tags are these days.

Right. Cold and a bit drunk. Bedtime! (I'm such a tragic lightweight these days.)

Climbing went pretty well last night. I stuck to the 5As (the easy ones), but the last climb of the night was a lead climb, which is when you take the rope up with you clip in to the wall as you go. It was still a 5A climb, so the handholds were easy, but it's a much longer climb (12m) than the top-rope routes (where there is already a rope hanging from the top), and it was on a slight backwards incline. But I did it! \o/

There's a new sushi place opened in town. It's part of a chain, and although the presentation is very snappy, it's more expensive and just not quite as good as Yen. Yen > Yo. Which is good, because Yen is independent, and I like supporting independent places when I can.

I also scoped out a relatively new cafe, JikaJika. It's big and airy, and feels a bit funky. The food looks great (I only had a bit of flapjack, which was delicious) and, wait for it, they do Flat Whites. More to the point, they do good Flat Whites. HALLELUJAH. Because it turns out that it's not just nostalgia talking, New Zealand coffee really is that much better. But these guys meet my Standards For Coffee.

One of the ladies at work (OK, I don't work there anymore, but you know what I mean) is having a leaving lunch tomorrow, and wants me to go. I'm a little dubious. I kind of don't want to go back, but I like her and she was really supportive when I needed support. Ah, well. I shall just put my Big Girl Panties on and deal with it. It's not as though I don't like any of the people there. Just some of them. >_>

The garden is starting to look like less of a wilderness. It's amazing how overgrown it can get in just a few weeks!

In other news, the Conservative Culture Secretary is talking about reducing funding for the BBC. It used to be that we needed commercial media to protect us from the Government. These days we need Government funded media to protect us from gross commercialism. I hardly ever watch live TV, but I am happy to pay my TV licence fee (£11-12 per month) to have a station that a) doesn't have ads and b) will stand up for its right to screen things like Jerry Springer: The Musical. I don't care about the show itself, I care that the BBC used its funding to push some boundaries.

The thing that is particularly concerning is the inference that he is nosing around reducing the TV Licence, but finding ways to charge for watching things online. DO NOT WANT.

From the Guardian:
Hunt stressed his commitment to the licence fee. But he warned: "The way we collect it may have to be rethought, because technology is changing, a lot of people are watching TV on their PCs.

"We're not going to introduce a PC licence fee and that is something that I do need to have discussions with the BBC to see what their ideas are."

Other links:
From the Tory Blog website
From the BBC
From the Telegraph
It's under discussion here at ontd_political

Brits, there's a a prompt for contacting your MP here, should you wish to do so.

( No-Knead Bread - the Recipe )

( It's so easy. What could go wrong? (Cut for epic length and lots of pics) )

This is what it's supposed to look like. The recipe is American, and I know American cup measures are a little smaller, but since the flour:water ratio is the same that shouldn't affect it, should it? It should just make a litte more bread. Right? Right?

In other news, I have soaked the teatowel, and it looks like it might recover.

When C visited last weekend I made the Pomegranate Pork again. It's still not right - I was in a rush and forgot to put tinfoil on it, so the ends were dry again, but the salt and pepper rub did the trick for flavouring the meat. I did cut the fillet in half, but I don't know that it helped all that much. I think it might want a longer cooking time at a lower temperature. Putting the tinfoil on it would probably have really helped. *sigh*

Flatmate, who was with us all day, including while I was talking about cooking dinner and buying the ingredients, decided not to mention until we were half way through eating it that she doesn't like fruit with her savoury food. *facepalm*

Original post on the subject.

Also, a recent conversation on someone's LJ has inspired me with a craving for Perogies. There is a Polish deli in Bath, but they were sold out on Saturday. :o( Hopefully they're back in stock this weekend. Mmmmm, perogies. Nom nom nom.

...

That was a fairly epically pointless post, huh? Oh well. :o)

My new British passport came through in what may be a record 3 days. I feel this is an attempt (however feeble) at compensating for the appalling trauma of applying for the damn thing in the first place. There were various issues and incidents, but the one I am most aggrieved by is the picture. I had a nice picture ready to go, but if you squint at it you can see my teeth. No-one has explained the problem with this, so I can only assume that terrorists show their teeth in their passports, and therefore no-one showing their teeth in their passport picture is allowed to have a passport as they are clearly a terrorist. As a result I now own a ten-year zit. Oh usually they go away after a few days, but this one I get to cherish for the next decade. Thanks a bunch Passport Service.

Leaving such whinging behind, the delightful sokky graced me with her presence for a couple of days last week. We did the usual Bath-ly things of wandering about and admiring the Georgian architecture, and the Roman Baths and doing the Jane Austen thing and geeking out over Georgette Heyer. We had pie at the Raven (a must-do when in Bath) with smarla on Wednesday, and lunch at Jamie Oliver's Italian restaurant. Deep-fried polenta "chips" with rosemary, you guys, OMG yum!

Sometime in between my dashing out the door at 5pm on Wednesday and the end of Thursday (I took Thursday and Friday off for Sok's visit) my workmates apparently decided to dress up for Halloween on Friday. I have been promised pictures, and cannot wait. It's not terribly significant, but it hits pretty damn high on the random scale!

Yesterday I attended a friend's wedding, but that one probably deserves a post of its own.

P.S. LJ's spell check junction does not recogise (amongst other things) "LJ" or "OMG", probably two of the most high usage abbreviations on LJ. LJ Spell Check: Fail.

Walking home tonight I walked past a man talking loudly on his mobile. He had a very welsh accent and was gesticulating wildly. There was something about building the Titanic over the river and then blah blah blah, blah blah blah, blah blah blah, blahblahblah.

A double take later I was relieved to find that he really was saying, "Blah blah blah", and it wasn't just what I was hearing. I mean, my listening skills are not always great. I sometimes wander off mentally in meetings, but to actually just be hearing filler would be a bit alarming.

Weather is getting cold and wintery so I am making Apple Crumble. Pretty sure there is not enough butter in the crumble part, though. I will report back.

( Let's talk about food )
I must confess to having to ask Google about quite a lot of these. :o)

Most of the things on the list I would try, but I'm not real excited about.

Sunday was a pretty cheery sort of a day. I had a nice sleep in, got up about 10.30 and, sat there in a patch of morning sunshine with my coffee, decided it was a good day for a barbeque.

There was the odd moment of chaos. When I moved house I dismantled my little bbq (charcoal), and I suddenly realised I had no idea where the bolts were. V and I both hunted all over the house, with V double checking where I'd looked in case I'd missed them, all to no avail. So I rang a neighbour and asked if I could borrow theirs, turned around and promptly saw the pile of nuts and bolts on the shelf over the computer. Go me. :o)

For vegetarian-friendly barbequeing I recommend stuffed mushrooms:

Large cup mushrooms
Blue cheese
Pine nuts

Pop the stalks out of the mushrooms, chop the stalks finely and put in a bowl.
Chop/crumble the cheese finely, add to bowl. Chop pine nuts and add to bowl.
Mix and spoon back into mushrooms.
Mushrooms then go straight on the barbie until kind of wrinkly.
Eat.

For a non-vege option, chuck in little bits of fried bacon.

In less cheery news, after everyone had gone home I got a call from my Mum. My grandfather has been pretty poorly with the flu for a few weeks now (having been in a residential hospital for 2-3 years). He developed pneumonia which has not responded to antibiotics, so he's now on morphine to see him through to the end. I'm finding it very weird. It's sad, but in a lot of ways I can't help but feel it's for the best.

( Cut for pointless maudlin reflection )

Up for the "Who thought that was a good idea" award today is Beetroot Tahina. Be afraid. I swear, anything that colour is supposed to be packed with sugar and artificial flavouring. I can only imagine how traumatic it would be to see it in a bowl somewhere and think you were getting fake cherry and sugar and instead get a mouthful of Beetroot Tahina. Just no, people.

On the other hand, stem ginger and dark chocolate ice cream. Om nom nom.

For those who were interested, MAC the Academy Cow was an idea that died quietly. No squeezy cows for us. I, for one, am deeply relieved. It was gonna be a tough job to make that work.

Work has been nuts for the last couple of weeks. Our big launch event kicked off on Tuesday. After working till 7.30 a couple of nights last week I gave it up and got in a temp. God, that was a good move. We have both been fully occupied for the last week, which means I was trying to do the workload of two people. Man, I am dumb sometimes. I get to go to the event on Monday, which will be awesome, except for the 3.5 hour train trip to get there on Sunday night. Boo.

For some reason this picture has, within two weeks of posting, become my third most viewed picture ever. I... don't get it. I mean, it's kind of neat, but it's also gumboots. Can anyone expain this?

There is finally a decent sushi restaurant in Bath. I have been twice in 2 weeks. I have never had salmon so tender and delicious. Om nom nom nom.

My new boss started this week, so the new job is really kicking off. It has been kind of crazy this week with wall to wall meetings, (some at the office, one in Dartford and one in Bedford) but things are looking really interesting. Particularly as the client looks like they will be giving us a fairly free rein. We pretty much plan to run with it.

I am off to Egypt with the lovely TP next weekend. She would probably really appreciate it if I got my shit together and sorted out some transport and accommodation issues... (I'm on it, I promise!)

I am a few weeks into my Iron Age archeology course, which is really interesting. Although the lecturer keeps trying to talk us out of preconceptions which I don't have, so that gets a little weird sometimes. Not savages constantly at war, complex trade and social set-up, I get it. Move on. Hillforts (frequently not on hills, and often not actually forts!) are particularly interesting. It's quite hard sometimes trying to pull it all together. Halfway through a discussion about single bank and ditch enclosures on a flat area with evidence of maybe one or two structures inside it I suddenly thought (and therefore said), "Hang on, weren't there wolves and bears around at this point? Mightn't it be to keep the wildlife off your livestock?" Apparently this was a brain wave. Go me.

Anyway, I should go answer some emails. Ciao, beautiful people!