Super Heroes, Sporting Heroes and ME!

Just received a face time call from my eldest daughter Marie mother to Charlie and Holly the 6 year old terror twins.

At school today, they were given three questions to answer and give reasons why...

The questions were;

Who is your Sporting Hero;  Who is your Super Hero and finally; Who is your Family Hero;

Apparently Holly is being more than a little reticent in telling Mom and Dad who her choices were, at 6 years of age, reticence is something she is not usually so familiar with, as she normally never shuts up, but we love her to bits all the same and sometimes just that little bit more when she finally gets put to bed, but even then she normally battles with and wins against Mr Sandman for an hour or so....

Charlie's heroes, he told his Mom were and in no particular order that I know of, were:

Sporting Hero;  Mr Wayne Rooney, of Manchester United.  I've no idea when it comes to footballers, as you know I am not a big football fan, so I bow to Charlie's superior knowledge in this!












Super Hero;   Captain America, It was always going to be this with Charlie.  Even if he had been given a list with no Captain America on it it would still be Captain America, he just loves that guy... He like other Super Heroes too BUT Captain America is the dude as far as Charlie Kennedy is concerned and so that's fine with me.






Family Hero; Couldn't believe this when Marie told me as one would have expected a six year old to say his dad, sorry Peter, but I am sure that you are just as much his hero as I apparently am.  Yes folks, my 6 year old grandson, Master Charlie Kennedy, told his teacher and his classmates that his Family Hero was his GRANDDAD..... Now how cool is that

But before I get to carried away, apparently the reason I am his hero, at the moment is because:

a) I was a soldier - yes I was, and

b) (as he told his teachers and classmates) he lost a finger (long story)

So, I won out over dad because I was a soldier and because I have a digit less than his dad and probably because, when I go, which he tells me he hopes, will be a long time away, I have promised him that he can have the very cheap, but very reliable Timex watch that I am always wearing and that when you press the winder, the face lights up, and he, Charlie, just loves that watch. So, for my Hero Charlie it shall be his, but hopefully not for a very long time, and I hope he will still want it to remember his old nine fingered granddad by.....

CHARLIE KENNEDY - YOU ARE MY HERO TOO

Book Review: The Eldridge Conspiracy by Stephen Ames Berry

Look Inside US
Look Inside UK

Ames Berry clearly wanted to catch his reader by the throat and shake them about a bit from the outset in this novel, as the villain of the piece looked at

" a freckled teenage girl in soft repose, was now a wailing, writhing horror of ochre scales and suppurating sores, it's tentacles battering the lid." 

It worked, the opening sequence introduced us to Doctor Schmidla another 'recovered' Nazi from the 2nd World War by the American government.  Unlike other Nazi's though, where they were, it seems, integrated into a life for good and betterment, Schmidla's purpose, on behalf of the United States Government was to actively seek out (with the aid of the CIA and FBI), experiment on and ultimately murder a select group of US Citizens!

It is difficult to review this book to much without giving away the plot line but if you are old enough, and if you're not check out the Wikipedia page here , you will remember the movie The Philadelphia Experiment, where the US Government attempted to make a US Battleship invisible, during WW2.  The attempt failed!

This book takes us to the present (or at least to the 80's when this book is set and doesn't suffer any for that) and to the fact that while the attempt to make the ship invisible failed, it did do something to the crew.  Whatever it did wasn't manifest in the survivors but in their children and even more so in their grandchildren.... Think X Men II


There are twists and turns everywhere in this book with a plausibility borne from the recent hash of super hero movies, but the real hero is a father who lost a baby daughter only to find that the mad Doctor arranged for her kidnapping (presumed death) over twenty years before..... and he finds a friend in the closing paragraphs wasn't the friend you'd want to have

There are some graphic horror scenes described, particularly when one bad-ass gets his comeuppance at the hands, or rather the mind, of one of the pursued 'Potentials' and I liked what she did with him, even if she herself didn't.

The book is well written and the characters feel real.  All of us by now, have seen far too many shows telling us that Governments are not always the protectors that we would want or believe them to be and  Ames Berry plays on this and turns it into a horrific story suggesting that the people in power for years have been killing citizens for a perceived threat, whether it was real or not and as with his futuristic space borne books he has left the door open in another reality for a come back and I for one , hope there is a sequel....

Editing for Kindle /iPad: 4 out of 5
Reading Enjoyment: 4 out of 5 based on a couple of formatting errors and no page numbers
Page length on kindle /iPad: 279 estimated although the page numbers are not shown on either iPad or Kindle - Come on Mr Ames Berry show the Bl**dy numbers
Plot: 5 out of 5
Overall Rating: 5 out of 5

Atlantic Cod in Butter and Lemon

A quick fish recipe for you, for two:

1 Large Cod Fillet

2 tablespoons of olive oil

1/2  a Red Chilli de-seeded and thinly sliced

1/2 a Yellow Pepper, thinly sliced

50 grams unsalted butter

Juice of half a lemon

Salt and Pepper

Add the butter, lemon juice, chilli and pepper to a good sized pan.  Soften the chilli and pepper.

Cut the lemon after squeezing, into quarters or slices and add to the pan

Cut the cod fillet in two and add to the pan and spoon some of the liquor over the fish cover and steam for 10 minutes occasionally spooning the liquor over the fish. Season with salt and ground white pepper.

Serve with vegetables of choice and for us it was Asparagus, green beans and crushed new potatoes with spring onion.

Enjoy

Fish and Prawn Curry

Couldn't decide what to do for dinner today.  Looked in the Fridge, nothing there that I fancied.  looked in the freezer found a bag of fish bits for a fish pie.  Decided on a quick curry;

Half of one yellow pepper finely chopped

Thumb sized piece of fresh ginger finely sliced and chopped

One red chilli

Handful of baby plumb tomatoes chopped

Handful of Fresh coriander (cilantro) chopped

One stalk of lemon grass finely chopped and grated

Four spring onions, roughly chopped

Tablespoon of coriander seed, crushed

Tablespoon of cumin powder

Tablespoon of chopped Basil

One clove garlic, grated

Tablespoon of fish sauce

If you have it One Lime leaf

Alternatively, you can use a good quality curry paste that can be found in most supermarkets

Add all of the above to a hot pan with two tablespoons of good vegetable oil and stir to mix and until pepper and ginger are softened.

Add one 400 Ml can of good quality coconut milk  and heat through  .

Once the curry sauce begins to gently simmer, add the defrosted fish and prawns stir once, cover and leave to simmer for 20 minutes.  (if you stir too much or leave to long the fish will break up and all you will get is a mushy curry sauce and not a nice chunky fish curry).

Serve and enjoy