Chip's Place

Brian Cant was born in 1933, and will be 72 in December.

Rebecca de Mornay jumped off a cliff in the film The Three Musketeers. She did not write the novel Rebecca, and nor did Emily Dickinson.

Tesco's Value mangoes are indistinguishable from non-Value ones.

If you're cooking a curry on the stove, don't go and have a nap just after leaving it to simmer without also setting the timer to remind you it's still cooking.

The Three-Legged Mare's conservatory roof leaks - typically on my head.

It's also wise not to sit at the table in front of the disabled toilet, as you're likely to get flung violently across the table whenever anyone drunk and/or forgetful comes out of there - fortunately, this is a lesson I learnt by watching it happen to someone else.

"Testiculos habet, et bene pendentes" is not a common-or-garden response to "Hello" but it can be elicited as one from time to time.

Random Recipe Week is now almost over, and has been declared a success, although not an unmitigated one. The feta tabouleh was probably the best one, and took about 5 minutes to make, so was doubly good in that respect. Tuna and basil salad also pretty tasty. The scallop ceviche wasn't quite so successful - next time, must remember to buy salmon fillet, not salmon steak. Just a Thai yellow curry left to round things off this evening, assuming it's not too overcooked...

posted by Chip : 16:55

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1. I was stopped yesterday by a taxi driver, who proceeded to ask me for directions to a street in north York. (1a - I knew where the street was!)

2. The Christmas decorations are currently being put up in York. It is 9 weeks till Christmas.

3. It is possible to buy Tesco's Value mangoes. I've bought 2, but I haven't eaten any yet. I will update the Internet on how they taste at a later date.

Other less funny things - I finally finished Jonathan Strange and Mr Norrell. It seems quite amazing to me that a book in which nothing at all happens for 750 pages can be nominated for one of sci-fi's highest honours. I don't expect I'll be reading Ms Page's next book, unless there's a guarantee of a minimum of one actual event per chapter.

Won the quiz last night, by some margin. Some of the answers I really shouldn't have known - why do I know (and why does Jimbobjo not?!) who married Mel B and fathered her child? I was a little scared that I got the right answer from "First it was BM" before Ian had gone on to the rest of the question. I seem to remember doing that before with a similar question.

The removal of the beard is starting to annoy me now. It's mainly having to shave at all (and get up early enough to do it), and secondarily having to shave at least every other day for work purposes. I can't see it lasting much past Christmas.

Finally, it's Random Recipe week this week, where I download a random selection of recipes from the Net, edit out any garlic from them and cook them. Last night was Japanese rice noodles with teriyaki sauce. Tonight was spicy lentil and turkey tortillas (mmmm, extra Tabasco). I'll see what I can be bothered to make tomorrow - likely to be one of feta tabouleh or scallop ceviche.
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Not sure how long I'll stick with this again, but I expect I'll be posting a little more frequently than once every 9.5 weeks. Since I don't particularly want to remember most of August or September, I'll jump straight in with what's been going on since last Saturday.

Yesterday I returned from a week's stay in Cornwall. And a very good week it was too, despite the intermittent rubbish weather. I've done about 25 miles of walking, spread over 4 days (and managed to avoid the rain every time!), and I also went to the Eden Project, which was opened after the last time I went to Cornwall - well worth a visit, but pick a nice sunny day (which, by a stroke of luck, I managed to do!) Plenty of photos now loaded up on Flickr, for anyone who cares - my favourite one follows this paragraph. I was a little disappointed that the Commando Death Bicycle ride was closed for the autumn.



It was good to visit some of the places where I spent my childhood summers. The little bookshop in Padstow (no weblink unfortunately) is still going strong - imagine a room about 20ft square stacked from floor to ceiling with books, some on shelves, some not, with barely enough space to squeeze sideways between the stacks. I used to save up my pocket money and not buy any books before going away in the summer just so I'd have an excuse to go and buy some there.

Petrol prices - grrr! I've kind of lost track of what petrol costs, as I've used my car very little this year - I'd only filled up 7 times since December before last week, and 4 of those were on my 2 trips to Scotland. Doing just over 1200 miles this week has now increased that to 11. One petrol station I saw in a rather remote part of Cornwall was £1.06 per litre! I managed to find a station near where I was staying charging "only" 90p per litre.

The walk I did on the Roseland, round St Anthony's Head, was one of the best walks I've done in England. I managed to have a beach totally to myself, where I had lunch in blazing sunshine - that set the tone for the rest of the walk! I also saw plenty of wild (some red!) squirrels, a little field mouse and a number of lizards. Artificial sights of interest included a lighthouse, gun batteries, Pendennis Castle at Falmouth and Goonhilly in the distance. Another photo ensues...



I only had 2 pasties the whole time I was there!
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