Be gentle with me, this is my first attempt at blogging and it is, hopefully, going to be my way to get a few things off my chest that are bothering me or that I see and maybe want to comment on or things that I, but maybe not you, find funny or humorous, so, here goes ...
Is it me? The sun is shining its a glorious day.. Young women are wearing short skirts and keep tugging them down to preserve their modesty and young men who look like complete TITS with the gusset of their jeans down to their knees keep pulling them up as they fall to their ankles...... is it me ?
Port De Soller Mallorca
Sunset
Sunday, 16 October 2011
Is it me? Part III
The sun is shining its a glorious day.. Young women are wearing short skirts and keep tugging them down to preserve their modesty and young men who look like complete TITS with the gusset of their jeans down to their knees keep pulling them up as they fall to their ankles...... is it me ?
I mean what is the point of wearing a skirt so short that you feel so uncomfortable that you have to keep tugging it down, I have two daughters and a son and two nieces. Of the daughters one does wear short skirts and the other is a jeans 'mom'. My two nieces are, well my two nieces, and they will hit me if I say anything about them or worse still berate me publicly on 'facebook' and talking off... if 'facebook' for my youngest and my two little darlings from the frozen north, was a skirt, it should be getting tugged down with regular frequency!
If you are old enough to remember the parody of the way some cowboys used to walk in films and on TV, with the exaggerated bent leg walk you will know what I am talking about when it comes to the boys. Why do they do that, surely even young women walking behind them and seeing that awful picture of bow legs and the bum of the jeans looking as if they had just done a dump in them must surely be off putting, and they keep tugging them up like the skirts, but not far enough....
I mean what is the point of wearing a skirt so short that you feel so uncomfortable that you have to keep tugging it down, I have two daughters and a son and two nieces. Of the daughters one does wear short skirts and the other is a jeans 'mom'. My two nieces are, well my two nieces, and they will hit me if I say anything about them or worse still berate me publicly on 'facebook' and talking off... if 'facebook' for my youngest and my two little darlings from the frozen north, was a skirt, it should be getting tugged down with regular frequency!
If you are old enough to remember the parody of the way some cowboys used to walk in films and on TV, with the exaggerated bent leg walk you will know what I am talking about when it comes to the boys. Why do they do that, surely even young women walking behind them and seeing that awful picture of bow legs and the bum of the jeans looking as if they had just done a dump in them must surely be off putting, and they keep tugging them up like the skirts, but not far enough....
Saturday, 15 October 2011
Perfect Beef Casserole with Mushrooms
decided to make a Beef casserole today with Mushrooms.
Took One punnet of large chestnut mushrooms cut into quarters and added to hot pan with large dollop of butter.
Added: finely chopped red peppers, chilli, Garlic, Mint, Coriander and some dried tomatoes.
Crushed some Cumin and Carraway seeds cracked black pepper, sea salt Paprika and some Brown sugar and finished off with some dried rose petals
Sweated it all down in the butter and added a few dried rose petals
Set aside once cooked and mushrooms tender.
Beef: Has been marinading in Worcester sauce red wine, cornflour and Paprika with salt and pepper and any dried herbs that take your fancy.
Nice hot pan and some oil: Brown of the meat in batches, not to much in the pan at one time and don't worry about the pan sticking, it tends to do this when you are browning off meat with cornflour, reduce the heat if need be.
Remove each batch of meat once browned.
Once all the meat is browned , pour in half a bottle of nice red wine and begin to de-glaze the bottom of the pan and get all those bits of it but leave them in. Add the meat and the mushrooms back to the pan and bring to a quick boil on the hob to burn of the alcohol. Turn off the heat Boil the kettle and top up the casserole with boiling water. Add a couple of bay leaves.
Place in oven at 50 to 100 degrees and slow cook for a couple of hours and I guarantee you will have the tenderest casserole EVER
Sorry that there are no measurements, never use them I just add what I think will go well together and taste as I go along, usually works for me......
The whole thing took about 35 mins to prepare, cook on the hob until ready to go into the oven
Took One punnet of large chestnut mushrooms cut into quarters and added to hot pan with large dollop of butter.
Added: finely chopped red peppers, chilli, Garlic, Mint, Coriander and some dried tomatoes.
Crushed some Cumin and Carraway seeds cracked black pepper, sea salt Paprika and some Brown sugar and finished off with some dried rose petals
Sweated it all down in the butter and added a few dried rose petals
Set aside once cooked and mushrooms tender.
Beef: Has been marinading in Worcester sauce red wine, cornflour and Paprika with salt and pepper and any dried herbs that take your fancy.
Nice hot pan and some oil: Brown of the meat in batches, not to much in the pan at one time and don't worry about the pan sticking, it tends to do this when you are browning off meat with cornflour, reduce the heat if need be.
Remove each batch of meat once browned.
Once all the meat is browned , pour in half a bottle of nice red wine and begin to de-glaze the bottom of the pan and get all those bits of it but leave them in. Add the meat and the mushrooms back to the pan and bring to a quick boil on the hob to burn of the alcohol. Turn off the heat Boil the kettle and top up the casserole with boiling water. Add a couple of bay leaves.
Place in oven at 50 to 100 degrees and slow cook for a couple of hours and I guarantee you will have the tenderest casserole EVER
Sorry that there are no measurements, never use them I just add what I think will go well together and taste as I go along, usually works for me......
The whole thing took about 35 mins to prepare, cook on the hob until ready to go into the oven
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| Beef and Mushroom Casserole |
Thursday, 13 October 2011
The Caspian Gates (Warrior of Rome 4) A (provisional) Book Review
I discovered Harry Sidebottom a couple of years ago after the first three Warrior of Rome novels had been published, so came to him late. But, as is usual with some books that you stumble upon unexpectedly I was impressed and quickly took to Ballista the central character and his familia.
I have to say, to begin with, The Caspian Gates was a bit of a disappointment. It wasn't just the irritating insertion of hyphens in names and words where previously there was none, e.g. Hippothous became Hipp-othous and then back to Hippothous. Vinegar became Vin-egar, these are just a couple of examples and I don't know if that was down to poor proof reading or in translation to Kindle format but irritating it was.
But it was the story telling itself that I found well below the standard of the first three novels. Dr Sidebottom, to give him his proper title, is a Fellow and Director of Studies in Ancient History at St Benets Hall, and Lecturer in Ancient History at Lincoln College, Oxford. And he clearly approached the first three novels with these lofty credentials using his immense knowledge to draw out the characters and the descriptions of the various parts of the Roman Empire where Ballista was fighting, but while drawing on his immense knowledge his lecturing and teaching credentials were tucked away and hidden from sight writing the novels as an author intent on bringing to the reader a collection of stories full of reality. The hierarchy and inner workings of the Senate and the Empire, Roman fighting tactics, humour (great humour), and loyalty. All of this interspersed with homilies and nods to the great writers and philosophers of the day a great combination, well written and gripping, keeping the pace at a level that made it difficult to put these books down.
So, Harry Sidebottom clearly set out, as an author who wanted to give his readers a gripping tale and he succeeded, but, in No 4 I think he forgot to take of the College Dons robe and began to write this one as a lecturer, as Dr Sidebottom, and therein lies the problem. If you read any great or even good novel the writer writes in a way that is engaging to the reader. The characters have a dialogue with each other and the central character has a dialogue with the reader, much the same way as Michael Caine has with the watcher in Alfie however in the first 6 chapters of The Caspian Gate the dialogue is as sparse as pimples on a new born baby's bum. A novel with characters telling a story should be dialogue heavy it should be like a teenagers acne riddled face, you can't see the features for the plooks and spots and we shouldn't be able to see the page for the interaction between the characters. In this book so far, I am really struggling not to just close it down on my Kindle and move on to something else.
I have just read Julian Stockwin's latest offering, Conquest, and Michael R Hicks's latest from the In Her Name series, Dead Soul. Both are writing about a central character and both have written a number of books in the series and as always the characters engaged the readers and their books were gripping and I resented having to go to work, or go to bed, in fact to do anything that we should be doing in our daily lives, that would take me away from these books, and that is how I felt about Harry Sidebottom and the first 3 books in the Warrior of Rome series.
I've never done this before, not that I have done many reviews, but, I just felt that I had to come and do an early review of this one as I do feel let down by it. I will not stop reading it and I will come back to this review after I am done, when hopefully I will be able to update it with a much more positive review.
I have to say, to begin with, The Caspian Gates was a bit of a disappointment. It wasn't just the irritating insertion of hyphens in names and words where previously there was none, e.g. Hippothous became Hipp-othous and then back to Hippothous. Vinegar became Vin-egar, these are just a couple of examples and I don't know if that was down to poor proof reading or in translation to Kindle format but irritating it was.
But it was the story telling itself that I found well below the standard of the first three novels. Dr Sidebottom, to give him his proper title, is a Fellow and Director of Studies in Ancient History at St Benets Hall, and Lecturer in Ancient History at Lincoln College, Oxford. And he clearly approached the first three novels with these lofty credentials using his immense knowledge to draw out the characters and the descriptions of the various parts of the Roman Empire where Ballista was fighting, but while drawing on his immense knowledge his lecturing and teaching credentials were tucked away and hidden from sight writing the novels as an author intent on bringing to the reader a collection of stories full of reality. The hierarchy and inner workings of the Senate and the Empire, Roman fighting tactics, humour (great humour), and loyalty. All of this interspersed with homilies and nods to the great writers and philosophers of the day a great combination, well written and gripping, keeping the pace at a level that made it difficult to put these books down.
So, Harry Sidebottom clearly set out, as an author who wanted to give his readers a gripping tale and he succeeded, but, in No 4 I think he forgot to take of the College Dons robe and began to write this one as a lecturer, as Dr Sidebottom, and therein lies the problem. If you read any great or even good novel the writer writes in a way that is engaging to the reader. The characters have a dialogue with each other and the central character has a dialogue with the reader, much the same way as Michael Caine has with the watcher in Alfie however in the first 6 chapters of The Caspian Gate the dialogue is as sparse as pimples on a new born baby's bum. A novel with characters telling a story should be dialogue heavy it should be like a teenagers acne riddled face, you can't see the features for the plooks and spots and we shouldn't be able to see the page for the interaction between the characters. In this book so far, I am really struggling not to just close it down on my Kindle and move on to something else.
I have just read Julian Stockwin's latest offering, Conquest, and Michael R Hicks's latest from the In Her Name series, Dead Soul. Both are writing about a central character and both have written a number of books in the series and as always the characters engaged the readers and their books were gripping and I resented having to go to work, or go to bed, in fact to do anything that we should be doing in our daily lives, that would take me away from these books, and that is how I felt about Harry Sidebottom and the first 3 books in the Warrior of Rome series.
I've never done this before, not that I have done many reviews, but, I just felt that I had to come and do an early review of this one as I do feel let down by it. I will not stop reading it and I will come back to this review after I am done, when hopefully I will be able to update it with a much more positive review.
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