Hitting the High Notes

Today's High Notes are only high compared to how rubbish I felt for most of last week - I guess they are more like the high notes in a good karaoke song than something an opera singer would be proud of, but they are my high notes, so there! Anyone who wants to complain can (to quote from Futurama) kiss my shiny metal ass!

My cold/flu thingy has more or less gone!  Yay!!!!!  No more feeling that my brain has turned to ooze and is trying to escape down my nose!

To make sure I got better, Mrs RC made me the best banoffee pie ever.  It was so good, in fact, that the kids decided that it was not just for me and managed to eat most of it for me.

I had a check at the dentists this morning and got the all clear.  This always gives a good feeling, does it not?

Starting the new week with a clear head - plenty to do but I can handle it - BRING IT ON!

Perseverance rewarded at last!

I like bookshops.

I like to browse, flicking through books, checking the offers, the new releases.

I like the SMELL of bookshops.  They are second only to libraries.

I don't like buying books online.  In fact I only buy ANYTHING online if desperate.

I like to support my local bookshop against the onslaught of online book shops.

And they do need support.  A nearby one shutdown recently - the owner had got to the stage where he felt that the shop was nothing more than a showroom were people would look at the stock and then stand there and order the thing online using their iPhone!

Anyway, to the point of this post.

Back in June I ordered a book at my local bookshop.  The publishers had intended that anyone who wanted it would buy it online, but my reasoning was that if it had an ISBN number then my local shop SHOULD be able to get it. 

And I was right. 

Eventually.

It arrived today!

I make that just over 4  months.

OK, so I did almost give up a couple of times, but after a while I just wanted to see it through to the end.

The guy in the shop was SOOOooo pleased to give it to me - and he almost believed me when I said that I didn't want it any more...

Have a great weekend!

Me and cooking...

TechnoBabe wanted to know if I have ever worked as a Chef.

I guess the answer to this is "almost".

In the summer when I turned 15, I worked in a restaurant that was owned by a friend of the family.  Due to the nature of our town, it only opened in the summer when there were tourists around.  I was the kitchen dogs-body, washing up, using the potato peeling machine, mopping the floors each morning, that sort of thing.  It was hard work but I threw myself into it.  The owner said that he wanted to take me on as an apprentice in the following summer and train me up.  Unfortunately, things didn't work out that way and the restaurant did not re-open the next summer and I ended up going to college instead.

But I was ALMOST a chef.  I guess that would be another Alternative Me!

But I love cooking and eating - we always try to make mealtimes a family affair, getting the kids together and talking about "stuff" - what has happened to us during the day, what is happening in the world at large, the latest thing we have seen on a blog or YouTube.  I just love it.

My mom never really excelled as a cook - she did good, basic stuff but we never really had the money to go beyond that.  It was only after I started to get some money of my own that I started experimenting with cooking - Ken Hom's first book became my bible and at one point we were eating so much Chinese food that Mrs RC and I forgot how to use a knife and fork!  We went to dinner at a friend's house and spent several minutes fumbling with them until we got the hang of it again.

I only became Rock Chef when I had my mid-life crisis.  Some get a sports car, some get a young girl friend, but I got a new electric guitar.  Until then I had only owned bass guitars.  I was so eager to get as much playing time in as possible that I played while cooking, having a small battery powered amp clipped to my belt.  It was great fun.

OK, that is enough for now!  I think I am emerging from the depths of my cold.  Time to get lunch.

Feeling rubbish

Got a bit of cold/flu going on, so I will leave you with this for today:

This is Frou Frou trying to convince us that she does not need to go outside into the cold and rain.

Hitting the High Notes

Last Friday, Terri revived her "Life is Good" posts, and encouraged others to join her in posting about the good things in life.  This is intended to be the first of a  regular feature here where I share some of those small things that make life good.

One constant High Note is my younger son's sense of humour.  We were watching a TV show last night where a guy was in Soweto at a Bungee Jump site.



They have a platform between 2 disused cooling towers and jump from it.  As they bounce around the jumpers go incredibly close to the towers.  My son watched this and suggested that the paintings on the towers were to cover up the splat marks... 

Another High Note is food.  I love food - both cooking and eating.  On Sunday evening I had the urge to make a nice dessert, so I set about the bowl of apples that had come from a friend's garden/orchard.  Peeled and chopped I got them cooking slowly, adding a good dose of cinnamon as it went.  Once these had cooked to a wonderful combination of firm pieces and sauce, I left it to cool and smashed up some biscuits to make a base, which I dolloped the apple onto.

Next I set to on the cream - I love whipping cream by hand with a wire whisk. None of that electric mixer stuff - I like to feel the cream thicken, choosing the perfect moment to stop.  The cream was now spread onto the now cold apple and finished off with grated chocolate.  Oh yeah, that was a great treat on a Sunday evening!

My final High Note is that it is home time for me!  Sorry if you are only starting your working day...

Friday Roundup

Another busy week has flown past!

We are down to 3 rabbits.  Earlier in the week we realised that Buttercup (the big brown and white one in the title photo) was not right, having lost control of her bladder.  We took her to the vets who said they could run some tests but that it was probably just old age, so we had her put down.  So we now have Houdini, Panda and Bubbles, their mother.  Resisting the urge to get another friend for Bubbles as she is alone in her run now but can still talk to the babies who are right next door.  We will see how it works out.

Warning - going Political for a moment!

So, Gaddafi is dead now!  Can't be a bad thing, really.  I see that Amnesty International want an investigation into how he died.  Really?  Please, concentrate on the real issues, don't waste time and money arguing about the fate of a man who had so much blood on his hands.

One thing that I WOULD like to see debated more, though, is the way that the NATO air strikes (mainly by the British and French) seem to have totally exceeded the UN mandate to protect civilians.  With the current leaders of the British government having been so critical of the legality of operations in Iraq and Afghanistan, their conduct in Libya smacks of more than a little bit of double-standards.

Political moment over.

The weekend is looking good - cold but dry.  Plenty to do - shopping, stacking hay for Humphrey (my mom's pony), reading for my dissertation, cooking, etc.  Meanwhile I think Mrs RC will continue redecorating our hall, which is taking on an increasingly red theme...

Right, better get back to things - have a great weekend!

Custard and Frou Frou

The part of the blogosphere that I read has taken a decidedly doggy turn recently, so...

Meet Custard:

Custard is nearly 6 years old and is a bit of a softy.  We got him at the age of 10 weeks, buying him from a local pig farmer.

Meet Frou Frou:

Frou is now 1 year old, is super cute but is also a bit of a tough nut. We bought her from a nearby stables after an exhausting hunt for a puppy - let down by rescue centres and a succession of supposed breeders that we found on the Internet, we eventually tracked her down at a nearby stable.  Mostly but by no means all Yorkie, she is a great little character.

Custard and Frou Frou "play" together quite a lot, and this generally falls into 2 categories:

Play fighting.  Custard laying on the floor like a beached whale with Frou attacking him - nipping his feet, jumping on his head, using him as a bouncy castle.  When she was younger, Frou would put her entire head into Custard's mouth and lick his teeth clean.  This sounds like a bad deal for Custard, but he does seem to have fun - he certainly tells her if she goes too far.

Steal the toy/chew - often started by Custard waving something around in front of Frou to get her attention.  One of them has something that the other one desperately wants - never mind that there are a dozen or so other things littering the floor.  If you have children you will recognise this behaviour.  If Frou gets it she will run rings around Custard with it until he somehow corners her and takes it away, using his far superior strength.  Frou now turns to a couple of strategies.  If Custard remains standing, she alternately grabs at the toy and nips at his toes until either she gets it or he lays down with it and holds it between his paws.  Now she gets subtle and starts turning her back on him, distracting him with her feminine charms.  Once he has taken the bait she backs towards him until she is between his head and the toy, grabs it and is off.  From time to time he stands his ground, refusing to give in, so she goes and finds something else to play with, which usually results her letting him have the new toy while she grabs the original one.

When it comes to chewies, Frou Frou finds them a bit hard at first, so she likes it when Custard has had a go at them first, making them nice and soft for her.  Sometimes Custard will eat a whole chew while Frou waits for him to make it soft - this really annoys her, unless in his haste Custard has swallowed it too soon.  This tends to result in him vomiting the chew back up, ready to be grabbed by the waiting Frou Frou.  Yes, I know that is totally disgusting, but what can you do?  Not so cute now, eh!

At meal times, they have their own bowls but Frou prefers to share Custard's dinner, sneaking mouthfuls of food when his head isn't blocking her way.  She might eat her own food when Custard has finished, but often doesn't.

But they do love each other and are hard to seperate, often sleeping snuggled up together.  Frou also seems to see herself as Custard's bodyguard, standing up to dogs that like to threaten Custard.

So there you have it - our Dynamic Duo!