I don’t know what it says about our neighbourhood, but the trick or treat kids definitely like the Maltesers more than either Milky Way or Twix. I guess Twix is more of an adult thing, but the aversion to Milky Way rocks my whole world view to its very core. But it’s the snack you can eat between meals without ruining your appetite! Do they know nothing these days?
I blame cheese strings and Dairylea dunkers. Possibly hoodies.
I reckon we’ll regret the extra dollop of curry paste I used in the green chicken curry and Kang Pa chicken I cooked for dinner tonight: the Kang Pa in particular was mentally hot.
Well, the lure of free pizza was too much and I went into the office. Normally these days I work from home. Sometimes I have to slum it with a mere 21″ CRT :-<. Given I haven’t played footy this week and I was going to pig out on 1000+ calories of meat feast loveliness, I thought I’d cycle. 10.4 miles later, and I was ready for that pizza.
I’m going to have to do that plenty more times before January, when I return with joy in my heart and a spring in my step, to Morzine. I have to lose *mutter* kilos to be the proper weight for my snowboard and to be fit enough to turn the bugger. If I get fit and light enough, I’m going to treat myself to a Never Summer Legacy 166. Couple that with my Flow bindings and you’ve a recipe for pleasant plank-balancing.
How to make me rub my hands with glee? Simple. Give me sparkling company and a plate (or three) of sushi on my birthday (22nd. August, thanks for asking)…
England have done us proud (except our captain and number three batsman failed to score yet again…) and, miracle of miracles, Forest won their opening game of the season in the Findus Crispy Pancake League.
Add to that a day at the seaside complete with fish and chips and champagne, and it’s officially a corker.
Now the gym we go to is a nice gym, and they do serve good coffee, but 2.90 for a double espresso? Blimey. Not only is that a lot more than the regular joe chain places like Nero and Starbucks, but it’s much more than the Best Coffee Place in Cambridge - namely Savino’s. I love Savino’s. It’s struggling a bit at the moment because of the upheaval during the building of Grand Arcade, but it deserves to survive because it’s so lovely. Do you get the picture? Jon and Savino’s sitting in a tree, K.I.S.S.I.N.G…
We couldn’t miss the chance to see Lisa Loeb, when she tours the UK so seldom. This was her only UK date this time around, and so tickets (plus hefty booking fee, grumble grumble - later found out the Bloomsbury also sells its tickets direct without the scam) were absolutely mandatory.
This is the first gig I’ve seen at the Bloomsbury and it’s a decent venue: a bit threadbare, but the usual friendly atmosphere of a college hall. After a swift noodle at Wagamama and a brisk walk, we got to our seats with minutes to spare. The stage was minimally adorned with just two mics, a bunch of pedals and a stool - no pretensions here.
On came Lisa and Dave Gibbs of Gigolo Aunts and away we went. Dave did a great job as an inconspicuous but very able backing artist - to the point where I thought to myself that I must dig out some more Gigolo Aunts stuff.
“Do You Sleep?” was a cracker, and it just kept getting better. The P.A. was impeccable and if anything there was more detail than on some of her records. Because it wasn’t too loud (God, I’m getting old) you could even hear her tapping her bebooted foot to emphasize the accents - and maybe to keep Dave in line.
I was hoping she wouldn’t do “Window Shopping” because that’s the one song of hers I really can’t stand. Really. To the extent that in the beginning it put me off the whole “The Way It Really Is” album. Of course, now I love it, I’m just in the habit of skipping track one. Just like when I listen to Husker Du I just skip all the Grant Hart songs. Well, she did sing it, and I didn’t like it, but a bit of contrast does no harm.
There was plenty of cute chit-chat between songs: Lisa went to Regents Park that lunchtime, had rather too much cheese, great baguette - crispy on the outside, doughy on the inside… ahem. Apparently they have some new ducks there that weren’t there before. Bless. “The Way It Really Is” was originally going to be called “Half and Half” but that looked stupid written above the picture with the deer.
It wouldn’t be fair to bring this whole review down by making a comment about how she looks: it’s all about the music! “Will You Wander?” was particularly delicate, “Stay” was, of course, magnificent, and “Butterfly” from “Catch the Moon” was simply wonderful: so frail and spare. Captivating. What is the main impression this evening has left on me?
Damn, she’s cute.
Cheese and Jam sandwiches are very nice!
Go to Pipasha. Order the KKK (no idea whether the connotations of the name are lost on them). Enjoy. I just did. Mmmmmmmmmmm.
BTW, help: I’m turning into my grandparents. We always used to take the micky out of them because whenever we’d see them, all they’d want to relate is “ooh, we had a lovely meal the other day”! Food = important, as you may have guessed either by reading this, looking at my belly or worse, my Dad’s belly.
Had another go at cooking sushi last night. Proper Japanese mayo (with soya, not egg) helps a lot with California rolls and spicy tuna temaki, as well as my half-arsed attempt at the beautiful Teri-Aki salad (number 118 on the menu, oh yes).
I reckon it tasted pretty good: salmon, tuna and eel nigiri, spicy scallop gunkanmaki, California roll and spicy tuna temaki. There were two problems: first, all the pieces of rice were too big; about twice as big as they should have been. The second was the presentation. Oh dear, the presentation. My book about sushi has little pictures to go with it explaining the various traditional shapes of rice for nigiri:
I’m going to submit a new one for the next edition:
