Saturday, February 23, 2008

Weekend Off - bit of cooking - still in my parjies

A lot of lying-down today in an attempt to get my ankles in trim for Tuesday and The Terracotta Warriors. I used google's 'blog search' to see what other bloggers have thought about the Exhibition. The only negative comment I read was from someone who had had to queue on the day for a ticket. Our timed tickets should solve that problem. (but note Jill's warning). I hadn't realised the Exhibition is in the original 'reading room' where Marx researched for Das Kapital.

No dramatic effect from the new tablets, yet, but the doctor said it could be a few days. And at least they are not more swollen.

Y went down Nottingham to meet Sylvia for lunch and insisted on 'bussing' it in both directions, bless her. I decided, with frequent sitting on my high kitchen stool, to cook cauliflower soup from my National Trust Soup book. It was a lovely cauli from Lidl. As my dad used to say "As white as snow and as tight as wax" - so descriptive I've never forgotten it.

I also researched Mrs. Beeton 'Household Management' (see Picture 2) a beautiful early edition which David had professionally restored for me as a present. It is a charming book and once dibbed into, difficult to dib out of. On the open page for instance in the entry for 'carrot soup' she speaks of 'the wild carrot' which is news to me. However, there wasn't a recipe for cauliflower soup. And I think I know why. The b*****y stuff is virtually tasteless. Just suit Bungus at the moment. His unfortunate 'supertaster' phase might at least introduce some slight piquancy denied to us mere mortals.


Comments..... Poor you Jill with all that noise. Now that would upset me. Couldn't you go out for the day or something? But I suppose they need power points and things and generally 'keeping an eye on'.

I really hope that with our 'timed tickets' we shall avoid the queue-ing bit. Perhaps it's best if we ring on Monday and point out my disabilities and things, and take some written evidence with us. Thanks for the warning !

Bungus..... How can one get 'tamper' embarrassingly wrong.... clamper? hamper? damper?. And no offence taken re photographs. At normal sizes there is little to choose between the Casio and The Nikon. Often the Casio pictures are the more pleasant due to an attractive softness. But if you enlarge to A3 for instance there is a noticeable difference and the Nikon is better. Also projected onto a large screen you can sometimes see a difference. And the Nikon gives me more scope in all sorts of ways which I won't list for fear of boring folks.

My question about football in Italy was rhetorical and intended to amuse. Even your blogmeister has heard of Roberto Di Matteo.

Quotation for the day.......

"Eagles may soar, but weasels don't get sucked into jet engines"

John Benfield

Another shadowy figure about whom little is know. But he makes a good point.

> Tired out now. Hope to catch you tomorrow. Sleep tight everyone.....


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2 comments:

Anonymous said...

As I have told RG, his trip to London sounds horrendous to me (apart from the 1st class rail travel). I hate the place anyway.
When Sandra went down for her investiture, she, daughter and 2 granddaughters went to ride The Eye. I thought about visiting the Brtish Museum (just across the road from our hotel) but decided it was too much trouble.
I’ll stick to Mansfield Museum and its scary insect collection.
But I thought Jill was referring to queues at the King Tut exhibition.
I trust this exhibition will get full Marx.

We also bought an excellent large cauli from Lidl for 59p I think.
Sorry the soup was tasteless. I must try it but I think I have had it and enjoyed it (not recently) made to the Ceserani & Kinton recipe.

WE have a Mrs Beeton's Famil;y Cookery book too, no date anywherer obvious but Bumstead's Pure Royal British Table Salt had been established over a century. I don’t think I have ever found a usable recipe therein! But some of the b&w illustrations of trifles and things are amusing.

I am not going to embarrass myself further by explaining ‘tamper’. It has 2 meanings of course, whatever that’s called; ‘to compress’ (or is that just tamp) and ‘to interfere’.

I appreciate that the Nikon is much more sophisticated and capable of performing wondrous things and better for large scale prints. But I remember having a slide show, on a screen, after a Spanish holiday in the 60s and my Instamatics were not appreciably inferior to the ones taken with the expensive cameras of my wealthy friends.

Sorry I did not appreciate your Italian irony (‘ironia’). At least you gave me opportunity for minor pontification (we had an Arab, Mukhtar, who ran our print room at Giado and who became a good friend. He heard my name ‘Bob’, as ‘Pope’ which caused him considerable amusement).

I must remember to come back as a weasel.

I very much enjoyed the Saturday’s culture Show, especially Duffy, who has such a distinctive voice (as does Amy Winehouse). It is amazing how many good singers and instrumentalists come out of the one school of music in London (but not Duffy, I believe).

Anonymous said...

Bungus was right, I was referring to queues at the King Tut Exhib, not the Brit. Museum.

I don't know if you have factored lunch into your Grand Day Out - I went to the restaurant proper in the summer on the top floor, it was a hot sticky London day, and the restaurant was airy and cool, all white and green, and we were happy with our food. But it might not be so appealing on a cold day....

I liked the quote, it sounds a bit Paul Merton-ish to me....

It was a great spring day here. we walked up the road to son's and had coffee outside in the sunshine, looking at all their scaffolding, they are having a loft extension done! They have had no roof for 5 days, are keeping their fingers crossed it remains dry for two more days.

Drive continues - the machinery is quiet today thank goodness. The noise has been by far the worst bit. It is looking good - but I wish the workmen would not throw their cigrette ends down everywhere, plus their empty plastic bottles/cans/KFC boxes (provided by the boss for their lunch). I have been out there with a plastic sack and pointed to all their detritus and put it in the sack and left it there, but they still chuck the stuff everywhere.