Kitchen Eggspertise

I would like to announce that at the age of 28 I have finally poached an egg. Two, actually. After deciding that I rather fancied some, and realising that I was a bit hazy on the specifics (ie not wanting to end up with something I could bounce across the kitchen) I looked in the Good Housekeeping cookery book, which is usually rather good for the old-fashioned basics. It had a recipe for asparagus with poached eggs which basically included the step "now poach your eggs". Mmmn, thanks.

Anyway, thank you Mr Ramsay, who includes a whole page in Kitchen Heaven titled "How to poach an egg" (they were perfect, incidentally, and any visitors now risk being force-fed poached egggs on toast. You have been warned).

Cheque please

Don't seem to be doing very well in terms of cash lately- just had my first monthly payslip through, where the initial 'hey, the system works!' was swiftly followed by the realisation that they'd only paid me for a week instead of a month. Er. Hello?

The initial campaigning on my behalf by the office manager was met with 'well, we do make mistakes you know'. Yes, we're actually more interested in how you rectify them dearie. Anyhoo, several phonecalls later over the course of the day led to me being driven across town to pick up and bank my cheque, so thank you everyone involved!

They're messing with my mind...

I recently got given a new CD/cassette player for my birthday and I've just noticed that the fast forward and rewind buttons for the tape are the wrong way round - the ones pointing to the left, which should, logically, rewind (and the corresponding button for the CD player does indeed go back) - actually forwards the tape. Bizarre.

For a few dollars more

Feel that I've been diddled (and not in a fun way) twice in two months by Alibris books. Now this is usually a very handy site for getting hold of otherwise unattainable volumes (and even when including postage from America it often works out cheaper then buying from somewhere like Amazon for those that are).

However, they debit your account as soon as the order is placed. Normally this isn't a problem, but the last two items I've ordered they've then come back and told me are no longer available and that my account will be re-credited. Now, I'm assuming that this is an exchange rate thing, as the sale amount is actually in dollars, but both times I've been credited back less - making me now out of pocket to the tune of a whole £1.32

Grrr. And, indeed, argh.

Snow, snow, quick-quick, snow

Yes, this week it actually snowed. For a full five minutes. Everyone in the office rushed to the windows to watch the novel event, and went away satisfied and in full agreement that that's probably all we'll get all year.

The hidden dangers of boredom

In an idle moment over the weekend, I appear to have ordered the dvd sets of series one and two of the X Files. This, having only just taken delivery of Michael Wood's new book, and a new set of Tarot cards. The Internet is truely a weevil danger to my bank balance.

(Interesting - well sort of - aside, played a game of cards last night and a normal sized deck feels really weirdly small after handling the tarot cards a lot over the last few months)

That's a wrap

Just cut up last year's Christmas cards to make labels for this year, to the helpful comment from the corner - "can you review that receipe and shout 'get down Shep!' at the same time?"

Of course, the real skill will be being able to find them when it's actually wrapping time...

Daft but funny

California vintners in the Napa Valley area, which primarily produce Pinot Blanc, Pinot Noir and Pinot Grigio wines have developed a new hybrid grape that acts as an anti-diuretic.

It is expected to reduce the number of trips older people have to make to the bathroom during the night.

The new wine will be marketed as: Pinot More.

That probably explains it then

Heard on Radio Cornwall at lunchtime in a piece about a rise in sexually transmitted diseases in the county, someone was trying to muddy the figures by saying "well this is Cornwall, there are a lot of people going in and out"....

A spoonful of sugar...

Helps the cat pill go down. Well, a spoonful of clotted cream actually. Good tip that. No more claws and fangs and cat-spit - crush 'n up and mix with clotted cream and the little darling will literally lap it up. She'll probably even be quite miffed when she's sniffle-less again and the double daily dairy dosage stops.

PS/ when attempting to crush said cat pill, do not attempt to first cut it in half, despite the encouraging 'split here' line down the centre. All this will result in is managing to hit opposite walls of the living room simultaneously and having to spend the next five minutes looking for the pieces...

Go Ellen!

Ellen
Originally uploaded by CornishRambler.

Or, stay Ellen , I suppose, since it would be rather churlish to make her leave again after coming all that way...

Yes, Ellen MacArthur has beaten the world record set this very month last year by Francis Joyon - who'd shaved loads off the previous record, and everyone said it'd be another decade before anyone beat his time in turn. Hah. Hurrah for plucky British girls...

The lady I work with took the morning off to watch Ellen come in - unfortunatly due to misinformation being spread by Radio Cornwall, she arrived at half past six this morning and Ellen rocked up at a quarter past midday. Still, she'd bagged a good spot. In fact they'd been there so long that they made friends with a waitress from the cafe, who took them round the back into Port Pendennis so they got a fabulous and unjostled view of the arrival (and turned out to be standing with the boat's designer!).

The cafe didn't fare so well. They were apparently running out of bacon by seven and heard to be running out of coffee soon after. Did *no-one* think there might just possibly be a bit of a rush on today?

Link Updates

Added Neil Gaiman's blog to the links at the side - then realised that I'd spelt his name wrong (Gaimen) in my original profile links, which produced the interesting side-effect of grouping me in the subsequent list with people who share both the interest and the inability to get the spelling right.

Also added Charlaine Harris to the authors list - discovered her at Christmas and now on the third one of the Sookie Stackhouse mysteries (kinda vampires in red-neck country). They're like what the Anita Blake books should have been if Laurell K Hamilton hadn't plumped for endless pages of kinky sex over any actual plot.

Finally, added 2 Days In The Valley to the film list (although initially typed it as 2 Days In The Valet, which sounds like it could be a rather disturbing Jeeves and Wooster spin-off...). I keep watching this film because James Spader fits pretty much 'xactly my idea of Edward in the Anita Blake books. Gotta love those sociopaths...

Overheard Quote Of The Week

- wailed despairing down the phone by someone in the office: "but all I want is a screw and a wingnut!"

Technology As Time Saving Concept

Overheard someone trying to explain how to find a particular webpage to a friend on the phone - they began with detailing which search engine they'd used, and what they'd typed in, and how far down the link was. This went on for some time, as the person on the other end tried to follow the same steps, and was obviously failing miserably to find it, or, indeed, replicate any experience whatsoever. As a final resort, they said - "ok, type this in instead then" - and read out the URL of the page which had been on the screen in front of them the whole time...(this being the same person that received an email relevent to me, and instead of forwarding it, printed it out and handed it across).