…and you haven’t.

That is all.

Well, last year I predicted that Lauren would meet Vicky Pollard, and she didn’t. Oh well. In fact, neither Catherine Tate nor Lucas and Walliams made an appearance on Children in Need, as far as I can tell. It’s a good job I don’t make predictions for a living. They got my tenner, and more, so who’s counting?

With champagne and fish and chips at work this lunchtime to celebrate us moving into our new office, I’m feeling somewhat discumbobulated this evening. Eleven hours of Thanksgiving NFL games should sort that out :->

If you’re in the U.S., enjoy your turkey!

No, not like that. It concerns a matter of much greater import than mere sexuality.

What to Put on Your Chips

For years I’ve clung to the belief that vinegar is the lovejuice of Satan and that it wasn’t getting anywhere near my place on any account. Then N visited a couple of weeks ago, we shared some chips that had been liberally sprinkled and you know what? I liked it.

I liked it, yeah
I really liked it
I liked it
I really, really, really liked it
I really liked it
I can't believe it.

(For those who aren’t in the know that’s “Johnny Feelgood” by Liz Phair, of course. Um. Perhaps I shouldn’t be using the lyrics from a song about a woman liking it a bit rough when I’m talking about chips.)

In a hole. Stop digging.

Jamie’s School Dinners made me laugh. We didn’t see it when it was first on, but we’re watching the re-run episodes back to back. Just like the West Wing, only wiv a mockney.

Anyway, at the first school where he took all the junk off the menu, the numbers of kids using the canteen fell because they couldn’t have their chips and pizzas. Fair enough: the thinking was that if healthy food was the only option, hungry kids would eat it eventually. But the ones who were old enough to be allowed off site at dinner time went off to the local chippy instead. That was no surprise but what made me chortle was the black market economy that emerged: the big kids were making a tidy profit by charging the littlies for fetching them their junk food and handing it to them through the railings :->

Well, it was a lovely night last night. Just a quiet-ish night in with M and J, who have kids to consider these days. The mark of a good friendship is that you never run out of conversation, and that was certainly true. I feel a bit guilty because we kept them up pretty late, and they were starting to think that one of the little uns could wake them up before they even get to bed, if you see what I mean.

Great food, too. Two of us got Italian cookbooks for Chrimbo and so we ate loads. It’s traditional in Italy that lentils signify money, so you eat them on New Year’s Eve to ensure opulence in the New Year. I dunno about that, but it certainly ensured flatulence. Good grief: I went downstairs to let Desdog out at 6:30 this morning, and when I came back upstairs you could have cut the atmosphere with a knife! Sheesh.

Now, I like to think that I have quite broad tastes and that when it comes to food, I’ll at least try almost anything. There are things I don’t like much: custard, sprouts, rice pudding etc. etc., but they pale into insignificance compared to Pinoykebabs. Sheesh. Blimey.

Now I’m hopped up on 10mbps cable, the old US Robotics CMX cable modem finally reached the end of its useful life. Not least, the 10BaseT connection would saturate before t’internet gave up all its goodness. So, two days ago it was time to ask NTL for a new modem. Twenty minutes on hold and a transfer to the wrong department later, an appointment was arranged for today.

A shiny new modem arrived today, with a very cheery engineer who gave a few choice little bits of insider information that will no doubt turn out to be handy (nothing dodgy, just stuff you wouldn’t necessarily guess). One ten minute call to customer services and I had my PIN for registration. A slight snag where the registration CD software assumes that you are upgrading from dialup. Do you want to keep your old dialup ID? No? Then you must want an entirely new account.

One more call to customer services (10 mins) and it was established that I needed to talk to broadband tech support. Fair enough. They picked up almost immediately, and told me the best thing to do was to register a new, temporary ID, and then call them back after 2-3 hours when it was fully established in order to get my old mailbox etc. transferred over into my original ID. They gave me a ticket reference number to give when I called back. After 3 hours I called back (again, very little wait time), gave the ticket number, and after a little bit of re-explaining, the transfer was done. All is now peachy.

So, it was hardly painless, but I have to say that apart from one hiccough, it’s been handled pretty well. And now I have a speedy pipe! So to speak. Of course now I’m not bitching about my connection, but the failings of the servers, the network in general, latency, and the price of fish. Oh well. Speaking of fish, thank you Rick Stein for your Ragout of Turbot and Scallops with Vouvray and Basil. Omega 3licious!

What the heck? I like chocolate, I like sushi, but really… Kooki Sushi

… the proper mode for a Chinese take-away to package their sesame prawn toast. Just like the ones that we just had this evening. For the record, it should be one of those nice rectangular plastic containers (the ones that make a handy receptacle for your Nitro-Mors next time you’re stripping a wardrobe) but no lid. There is nothing worse than a sweaty, saggy portion of prawn toast. Well, OK, there is. Head in a vice, for instance. Um.

I can see I’m going to have to add a permanent Stuff-I’d-Like-Treasured-Friends-And-Family-To-Buy-Me page to the nascent About section of the site. Handy!

Anyway, it’s about food. Never miss, either giving me food or a means to make nice food. This time it’s some people’s idea of THE Italian cookbook, recently rejigged and translated into English. Who am I to argue? The guy who recommended it to me is a genuine Italian…

The Silver Spoon