Tag Archives: keeping up

Fish & Chips and Forgotten Titles

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Haddock Special at the Dolphin Fish Bar, Sutton on Sea

It is the 10th today and I seem to have only written 8 posts, despite cutting and pasting a poem and an article of medallions. Despite this sharp practice I just can’t keep up. Today I am going to post two shorter posts and try to keep up that way.

Today I have top make tomato soup for lunch. That involves a reasonably quick recipe, but it is still time. I have read and commented today, had breakfast and skimmed a number of subjects on Wiki. (This may be leading us to the exact source of my time leakage. After reading Billy Mann I ended up looking at hammer types and after reading Derrick Knight I ended up looking a Esmond Romilly  and various other things. There are 32 types of hammer listed on the internet. I have three sorts that aren’t on the list and know of at least one other. However, I do believe that as long as it is big enough you can get by with just one.

Haddock Special at the Fishpan, Scarborough

That will leave me with the afternoon and evening to achieve something but Julia will almost certainly expect to see me at some point and an epic nap is probably on the cards. I’m thinking of doing fish fingers for tea, with potato wedges and mushy peas à la Nottingham.  They eat their peas with mint sauce in Nottingham. I’m not sure why but any excuse for vinegar-based condiments is always welcome. It’s a cheap nutritious meal and I get the ones that are supposedly full of extra omega 3. I just checked it up and find that there is limited evidence that this actually does any good, but I’m a sucker for implications that stuff does you good whilst you are eating it. If they could grow potatoes which included omega 3, I could eat chips and feel I was becoming healthier.

Looking at the featured image I feel vaguely ashamed of my lack of culinary expertise.

Undoubtedly the worst fish I’ve had for years – look at the scale of the fish compared to the size of the fish and the portion of chips. Even then, they had to add insult to injury by doing something unspeakable to the peas.

Monday, a Day of Promise

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I rose at a moderate time, washed up and made breakfast. I tried to make Julia a heart-shaped fried egg but the egg didn’t quite spread inside the frame and then it started to stick to the pan and in the end it looked like three-quarters of an egg, as long as you knew it was supposed to be an heart. If you didn’t know what it was meant to be you wouldn’t have known what it was. My own egg was much more successful as I set out to produce an odd-shaped free-form fried egg with crispy bits, and that was exactly what I ended up with.

Once they were shoved into a cob with bacon and mushrooms it didn’t matter what shape they were. All that matters to me is that my yolk is hard. I don’t really like runny yolks at the best of times but they are a hazard to shirt fronts when used in a sandwich. Julia likes her yolk soft, but as my wife of thirty years, she is accustomed to disappointment.

 

I have read the comments on my posts, added the word ‘cyanosis’ to one and added a couple of lines to another.

My first post of the day is now done, my new medication has been delivered by a hospital volunteer and Julia is clinking with menace as she sorts jam jars and emanates expectations. She wants me to start filling the skip with bits of shed. She has dragged it to the driveway and it is now time for me to do my bit. I will potter out to offer support and supervision in a moment, then come back to this.

By the magic of WordPress I am now back.

She had been struggling to dismantle a bookcase which had suffered from years of standing in a leaky shed and is therefore un-salvageable. This is the sad state of quite a lot of stuff, including things that had been safely stored in the dry garage last time I saw them. Married men will recognise the note of pain in my writing.

Anyway. the bookcase fell apart from a few taps with a rubber mallet. If I had been able to access a proper hammer it would have taken considerably fewer taps. With a proper Enoch I reckon one blow would have done it. That’s right, when I am in full swing, we are never far from a Luddite link.

Last night, whilst relaxing, I started to read WordPress. I haven’t really done that for years now. It was a very pleasant experience. I’m going to write another few posts to top my total up to two thousand then I’m going to cut back on posting and increase my reading.

Don’t get me wrong – I like all the blogs I read, but I’ve been limited in the last few years and have struggled even to keep up with sporadic reading of my regulars. Given a little more time I’m going to enjoy more reading, particularly as I was able to catch up with a few people I haven’t read for years.

Despite the weather, which features a cold breeze and a threatening low grey sky, I’m feeling quite sunny today, and am hoping that this frame of mind persists.

I’m going to throw in a few cheerful flower photographs from Harlow Carr Gardens and make beans on toast for lunch.

All photographs are irises in spring from our visits to Harlow Carr Garden, apart from the header which is Julia in the Mencap garden at Wilford.