Too Young To Be Grumpy

I've just managed to get my computer keyboard working again. It stopped working because I put the lid back on my KVM (Keyboard,Video,Mouse) switch. When I started up my computer it said this to me:

NO KEYBOARD DETECTED!
Press F1 to Resume

hrm..

This afternoon I got my music setup working again, and thank God for that. I hadn't realised but I was getting withdrawl symptoms from doing a bit of music recording. I am now using my Spirit Folio Notepad mixer as a preamp after my guitar pedals, as I think my old Zoom 504II pedal that I was using for my preamp is busted. Can't wait to try it out, but tonight is teaching night and I have a tutorial with my tutor tonight and she's going to tell me how crap my micro-teaching practice session was, I'm sure.

For my birthday I received a cookbook called "Favourite Welsh Recipes". Some are a bit strange, but we decided to be a bit brave and make some faggots from scratch. Welsh Faggots (which is Ffagodau Cymreig in Welsh). The only meat in them is Pig's Liver which would turn most people's noses into a scrunch, including mine! It stinks, but it actually ends up making some yummy faggots. So, if you're interested, here's the recipe.

Ingredients for 12 faggots (Serves 6)

• 450g (1 pound) pig's liver
• 2 medium onions
• 75g (3oz) shredded suet
• 100g (4oz) fresh breadcrumbs
• 1 teaspoon of sage (3 teaspoons sage, 2 teaspoons of thyme)
• Salt and pepper
• 230ml (1/2 pint) beef stock

Suet, breadcrumbs and sage ready to mix in

Set oven to 350^oF (180^oC, Gas Mark 4). Put the liver and onions into a food processor and process until it's been well mashed but not too smooth. In a bowl, stir together the liver mix, the suet, breadcrumbs and herbs. Form the mixture into 12 balls either using floured hands or using two spoons. Place in a well greased shallow ovenproof dish and pour over the stock. Cover and bake for 30 minutes. Then uncover and cook for a further 10 minutes which will help to brown the faggots. Remove the faggots and thicken the gravy using a cornflour mixture and/or bisto granules.


Faggots ready for stock, then baking

We served the faggots with roast potatoes and brussel sprouts and they were very yummy. Daisy said they were a bit too greasy, and they were pretty slippery. I think next time we will use less suet (and more breadcrumbs) and I don't think there really is any need to heavily grease the baking dish.


Ready to eat, with roasters and sprouts

What a shame it is to find out about the death of Richard Burns today (via Random Acts of Reality). Richard was World Rally Champion in 2001 and in 2003 was diagnosed with a brain tumour, for which he was undergoing treatment during the last 2 years. Although he seemed to get better during 2004, he declined again and passed away yesterday at the age of 34.

It really brings life into perspective when a young, fit and healthy, top sportsman is suddenly diagnosed with something uncurable and dies. I also think it's a shame that Richard's death will surely go unnoticed by those not following Rallying, because of George Best's death, who quite frankly brought it on himself.

I always supported Colin McRae during Colin and Richard's frequent battles on the rally stages. Colin is flamboyant and daring, Richard was thoughtful and decisive. However, I'm convinced that has Richard still been driving he and Sebastian Loeb would be fighting it out between them; Richard was clearly going places, despite his unhappy time at Peugeot, and I would have loved to see him race again. I was certainly hoping for his return to the rallying arena, and alas I will miss that possibility.

Oh, I forgot to even post about the Salsa lesson I taught. What a nightmare that turned out!!

I was in work that day for a meeting (sometimes I work from home), so I knew I had to leave early as I had to do the hour drive, get some stuff ready, then the 20 minute drive to the class, and be there by 6 to start the lesson at 6:15. So, I ended up rushing out of a meeting at about 4:30 - I was leaving it fine, I knew that, but all was going to be ok. Except, my boss asked me to take him to a hire-car place in Eastleigh, not far from the University and even closer to the motorway, so it shouldn't be a problem. But as I was driving past the miles of queuing traffic I knew there was going to be a problem.

I called Daisy to get my stuff ready while I was sitting stuck in this queue. Ugh. 5 o'clock came and went, 5:20 arrived and I was nearing the motorway. It was still an hour home from here... unless I drove fast. And that's what I tried, but the traffic was heaving.

I managed to get home about 6, and I pulled apart my computer to take the speakers in so I could play music. We then hurtled off towards Poole. It was 5 minutes down the road we realised we'd forgotten something. We turned back, got the plug then headed back into Poole, although this time somewhat slower as I realised there was no point in rushing as our teacher was bound to start the next person on first.

We arrived at 6:30. As we peered into the classroom, it all seemed quiet. The other learners were there, but no-one at the front. "We waited for you" my tutor said. Turns out, someone who was also due to do their teaching practice that day hadn't turned up, so they had some time to spare.

Next problem - my tutor had lost my resources form, so the laptop wasn't ready. We rushed about setting that up, and I think I started my lesson about 6:45. Better late than never.

The actual lesson went very well, though. Everyone seemed to enjoy it, and most people actually got the hang of it. Daisy told me I was a bit quiet in places, but it felt to me like I was bellowing my chest out. Oh well.

If you're interested, you can get the handouts for my lesson as a Powerpoint file: Salsa Handouts.

This week in teaching someone said to Daisy that they watched Strictly Come Dancing at the weekend (where they did a Salsa routine) and they recognised the steps, so at least I taught them something!!

Wow, has it really been so long since I blogged.. Doesn't time fly!

After last post, it was decided that Daisy and I would leave going to ballroom classes until the new year - as we had too many things on. Since then, my framing class has finished, and there's only 2 weeks left of our teaching class. Time rushes on.

Last night I tried to make a Pwdin Reis Cymreig (and for those who don't read welsh - that's a Welsh Rice Pudding - see it now?). However, it all came to fruition while I was out of the room eating my tea (terrible timing) and boiled over everywhere. I still had to fold in some eggs and bake for 15 minutes, but I changed my mind and we had a simple rice pudding with nutmeg and bay. Very nice it was too. Not sure what to do with those separated eggs in the fridge now. I don't know if the saucepan has recovered yet :o(

Uh, I went on a photography trip last Saturday at Marwell Zoo, and that was very good indeed. Got lots of nice photos. Here's some for your perusal.





Anyway, I must try to do better at updating, or at least getting Daisy to update :o)

I've just got back.... from the kitchen. I feel very impressed with my productivity today, which is all the more suprising considering I'm going to have a relatively busy week too.

This morning, I got up late - not an auspicious start. But after having a shower and considering the day, I decided that now was a good time to make a start on a mount for a photo of mine I printed a couple of days ago. As it's my last session on my picture framing course this Tuesday, our tutor is letting us have a free-for-all and just practice what we have learnt. I haven't yet had a go at making a frame from moulding, so I figured if I could get my mount made, I could have a proper go at putting a frame together, although I am going to have to wait for the glue to dry afterwards, of course. So, this morning I completed my mount and I'm very pleased how it turned out.

While I was making my mount, Daisy was putting together a "zero point" soup. It's a recipe from Weightwatcher's old introductory material that, in the eyes of Weightwatchers, has no bad stuff in it so you can eat as much of it as you like. Although we're not really doing Weightwatchers anymore, we have started to try and eat a bit better again having put back on nearly all the weight we lost last year. Daisy made it to freeze.

We then went up to my parents' house and I subjected them to a test run of the micro-teaching session I have to give on Wednesday. It's going to be about Salsa dancing, and I'm going to have to teach 16 of my fellow learners how to dance. I think I've got the plan and timing of the lesson ok, although I'm not sure whether anyone will actually go away from the lesson remembering it! I think it might be a bit of an "information burst".

We left there about 2:15pm, as they were having some people round to look through the wedding stuff my sister does and possibly hire them for a wedding. As an aside, I have been officially hired as a photographer at my friend's sister's wedding. I'm already nervous about that!

I watched the end of the World Rally Championship season, of which I'm quite an avid fan. The skill and bravery the rally drivers show is just incredible. In a different life I would have been a rally driver!

At 3pm, it was time for some cooking. Yesterday we went into town and did some shopping. We have decided that from now on we will try to support our local businesses and shop for organic "happy" chickens, vegetables and stuff. We have decided that we will get as little as we need from the big supermarket in town. We cycled in, and came back with my little cycle-trailer full of vegetables and things. We have also decided to try and eat a bit healthier, and so bought a fair amount of fruit (at least - a fair amount from what we're used to). However, all this fresh vegetables means that if we don't eat it all fairly quickly, it'll go off.

Fair enough, we just need to cook during the week. However, on Friday we were at the pub with our fellow salsa dancers and we ended up agreeing to go ballroom dancing in Boscombe. I'm really looking forward to it, but it does mean that for this week we have only got Thursday night free:

• Monday: Ballroom
  
• Tuesday: Framing
  
• Wednesday: Teaching
  
• Thursday:
  
• Friday: Salsa
  
• Saturday: Photography Trip
  

I'm gonna be knackered next Sunday!!! Anyway, it means we also won't have time to cook, so I made a decision that we should make up lots of stuff that will give us time to eat healthy, home-made food in the week, but not take time. So, 10:30 and we've just about finished. It means we've also managed to get rid of a nice big pumpkin that had been hanging around on our kitchen top for a while. This is what we made:

• Zero Point Vegetable Soup - Courgettes, Carrots, Tomatoes, Onion
  
• Pumpkin Soup - Pumpkin, Onion, Red Pepper, Chilli
  
• 2 batches of Thai Pumpkin Curry - Pumpkin, Onion, Mange Tout, Green Curry Paste, Garlic, Tomato
  
• Cajun Sausagemeat Burgers - Sausagemeat, Sweet Potato, Cajun Spice, Chilli
  
• Coriander Rice Naan Breads
  
• Teacakes
  
• Pumpkin Paste (for making other stuff later)
  

Hrm, doesn't sound so much written down, but it took us all day. We had some of the thai pumpkin curry, which was absolutely yummy, which is why we ended up making another batch to freeze. It is originally from the weightwatchers "Time To Eat" book, although due to a lack of foresight, we had to alter it a bit, but it still worked fine :o)

So, in a mo, I'm going to have to go and make some space in the freezer for a whole bunch of tupperware pots!

Tomorrow I have a meeting at 10, Wednesday another meeting at 2. Wednesday evening, then, I perform my teaching duties and dance the salsa. I'm glad I got all my powerpoint slides ready last week!!

Anyway, this was a long one. I've been a bit busy recently to keep this up-to-date, and with my photoblog also taking up precious evening time I'm not sure where I am sometimes!

I'll let you know how my lesson goes.

Tomorrow night sees Daisy doing her 30 minute micro-teaching as part of our Wednesday evening class. She's got half an hour to teach the rest of the learners something interesting, and prove that the preceding 8 weeks have been worth something. She's just saving her Powerpoint slides out to a memory stick now, and it's all looking very nice. Her plan is to teach everyone the very basics of Español, like how to say "Hello", "Goodbye", "How are you", "My name is...", and a couple of more complicated ones like "I am married" and such. Should be interesting! :o) I think she's third on, so two other of our fellow learners will be buttering us up with how to line curtains and weird stuff like that. Then a week tomorrow I'm first on teaching the basics of the wonderful world of salsa dancing, and perhaps I'll say more about that as the time comes.

Remember Remember the 5th of November...

How could I forget? Every year the whole country lights up the sky with dazzling displays of pyromania simply to mark the day I was born, and this year they really did amazing. The banging, thumping, thudding and whistling went on solidly from 5pm to 9:30pm, when presumably everyone came in to see who was being knocked out of Strictly Come Dancing. Thank God it was Fiona, although you always feel a bit sorry for the professional dancer, even if they are Brendan.

I had a nice relaxing day, spent with my family, eating chocolate and curry and watching TV. I am very lucky and got some great pressies including a tripod for my camera, and a trip to Marwell Zoo to meet a giraffe and some lizards. It's part of the Wild Arena company, who run trips to places specifically aimed at photographers. I think it's a bit rich calling me a photographer, but I'm going to enjoy meeting all the wonderful animals.

So, it's just about over for another year, and I guess I need to make sure that in this next year I make sure that I get on and do something more interesting with my life than what I've managed so far.

Yesterday saw me rather busy. After a building burnt down at work, and my building was closed as a precaution, I am having a few compulsary days off. It was lucky really because it meant I could spend all yesterday morning baking for the charity dance party.

Every year our dance teacher organises a party where people come and dance and stuff. It raises money for the British Heart Foundation. As my part, I planned to take along some food. The Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies I make were so popular at the last party, that I decided to make a double batch for this bigger party. I also made some punjabi spiced coriander breadsticks with a tandoori dip.

At lunchtime I did a bit of photography. I took some photos of smoke from an incense stick. Sounds dull, doesn't it? In fact, you can produce some lovely abstracts:



I'll be posting more on my photoblog in due course, if you're interested.

Come the evening, I had to go off early to my evening class, where I'm learning picture framing. Today our tutor talked out the types of mouldings that make the frame. He showed us briefly how to make a frame, although I then left and headed to the salsa party, where my Mum, Sister and Daisy had already arrived.

It was a good night, although the we didn't do a whole lot of dancing. Our teacher had control of the music machine too, and did have it up rather loud. I'm surprised some of the old people who had turned up to watch didn't have a heart attack. Our teacher's daughter is also a dance teacher and she gave us a quick hot-and-funky routine, which is the kind of stuff you see the dancers on top of the pops doing. I think I'm surprised I didn't have a heart attack after that.

We won a big box of Maltesers on the raffle, and Mum won a bottle of wine. I believe they raised over £150 on the raffle, and near £1000 for the whole evening.