September 6, 2011 · 1:23 pm

Tortoise tart anyone?

The Daily Mail, not my usual read, has the occasional blinder… this week’s has been the auction of a collection of antique cookery books and lifestyle guides that go on sale at Bloomsbury Auctions in London on September 22. Follow this link if you are really bored.

One of the collection boldly titled ‘A Perfect School of Instructions for the Officers of the Mouth‘, was published in 1682 and includes this bizarre recipe for a tart containing the entire body of a tortoise. Perfect for those late summer dinner parties you were all planning. Now, where did I put my tortoise net…

PS. 20/Sept. I have been re-reading Robert Byron’s Road to Oxiana. If you have never read it, go and buy a copy now. Its brilliant. No really, it is… anyway, more on that later, but when discussing the Turcomans and anti-Bolsheviks fleeing Russia (the book was published in 1937) he mentions that of the 25,000 a year crossing the boarder into Persia most were not fleeing political repression, but were simply fleeing from starvation: “If their accounts are true of the heaps of empty tortoise shells that surround the workmen’s houses in some places, tortoises being their staple food, it is no wonder what foreigners are discourages from visiting Russian Central Asia!”

 

 

 

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September 6, 2011 · 12:55 pm

Cracking Cans

I don’t normally crave material things. I accumulate objects, and a lot of junk, but I don’t really value stuff too much. With the possible exception of books.

However I have fallen in love with these. They are well beyond my price range, and totally superfluous to the needs of my catholic, but much played, collection of early 80’s rock music, but I love their style and design. Its a bit steampunk, a touch of metal head, and apparently have all the clever jiggery pokery electronic gizmos that make them sound great. They even come with the celebrity endorsement of Jay-Z and Rocnatio. Whoever they might be. They even have a cool name: SkullCandy Aviators!

 

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September 1, 2011 · 11:48 am

Piano Wisdom

I have been helping a friend with her new Blog… It’s a bit like the blind leading the blind while we navigate the high seas of the web, but the project is going well, and I think we are both pleased with the results.

You can find her Blog at: http://pianowisdom.wordpress.com/ or follow this link.

Her approach is all about Piano Wisdom… Piano Wisdom is dedicated to committed pianists who have developed injuries through playing and who are looking for a long term solution towards their own pianistic health.  If you want to avoid operations and injections and sort out the root of your playing related problems, then this is for you! I have recommended her to a few of my ivory fingered friends, but if you have any questions, or indeed comments on her Blog, do get in touch.

The Blog currently features some snazzy new videos of her techniques for teaching, and thoughts on students learning the piano. The plan is to update it regularly, and incorporate new interview style videos and tips for gaining the best possible sound whilst tinkling the old Joanna!

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September 1, 2011 · 10:20 am

Fantastic to Faceless: Lamenting the Loss of Sausage and Mash

This from Pennyforathink’sBlog… (which is excellent) about the demise of the Big Bang (which is sadly no longer.)

Max Mason in his coffin. RIP.

A really good appraisal of the sorry state of affairs in Jericho and the slow and grinding loss of “side street quirks, itty bitty little pubs and restaurants, higgeldy piggeldy shops, unusual and hearty local food and interesting people are what makes a town more than a grid system of streets.”

I could not have put it better myself… follow this link. I loved the line about “White bread consumerism for the 21st century; menus online, credit cards accepted.”

I have little doubt that Max will reincarnate somewhere, in some form, but for now, we have all lost something more than bangers and mash.

The Last Night of the Big Bang. Just before the coppers arrived. (again.)

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August 25, 2011 · 5:49 pm

China’s ‘Liberation’ of Tibet: Rules of the Game

This is a really good article in the New York Review of Books on the recent ‘celebration’ of the 60th Anniversary of the Liberation of Tibet by the People’s Republic of China.

Its written by Robbie Barnett, a friend of mine who is a lecturer in Tibetan from the States.

His political stance is well know, but few will not be shocked by what he recalls from the same ceremony in 2005: “what had not been visible on the television screen: hundreds of armed troops followed by armored personnel carriers, riot control vehicles, water-cannon trucks, barbed-wire laying machines, vehicles with gun turrets and other forms of military hardware.”

The footage of the ceremony is also well worth watching, but probably not the full 149 minutes of it! He draws attention to the selective nature of the ‘crowds’ of Tibetans that were there to take part in the event; broadcast live on Chinese TV.

http://www.nybooks.com/blogs/nyrblog/2011/aug/22/chinas-liberation-tibet-rules-game/ 

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August 25, 2011 · 5:35 pm

Team Otter 2011

I am super proud of my chum Zem and her friends at Team Otter 2011 who have just swum all the way to France!

Together they swan 30miles in 15hrs 6mins.  Each ‘Otter’ swimming 3hrs each in one hour bursts. I struggle to swim in a warm pool for more than 20 mins, so what three hours much be like in freezing water, full of old tin cans and jelly fish can only be imagined.

This is the route they swam: 

The best bit about it all is that they were doing this madness for a couple of really good charities, WaterAid and Allsorts. So dig deep into those purses and wallets, and give them all a wet fish style slap on the back.

WaterAid is a long standing international charity that helps the world’s poorest people have safe water and sanitation. Once they’ve achieved this basic human right, their health, education and livelihoods all improve.

Allsorts is an innovative Gloucestershire charity that works with disabled children and their families to provide often disregarded young people, their parents, carers and siblings with support.  This includes toys and equipment, plus a wide range of exciting and unusual activities, serving Gloucestershire’s unique Of Course We Can programme.

You can read all about their crazy project, endurance training, and see all kinds of aquatic athletics on their blog: http://teamotter2011.wordpress.com/

 

 

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August 23, 2011 · 3:27 pm

Tomorrow’s tangle to ye winds resign

I like reading all sorts of nonsense. This week I have been battling with Omar Khayyám’s Rubáiyát. 

If you have no idea what I am talking about, go now, take my car, and buy a copy. (But please bring the car back…) Its wonderful. (The poem, not the car.)

Omar Khayyám was born in 1048 in Born in Nishapur. He moved to Samarkand and then to Bukhara and became established as the leading light among mathematicians and astronomers of the Islamic medieval period. He did all sorts of clever things with circles and calendars, most of which I dont understand, but also wrote a small compendium of Persian poetry before he died in 1131. (By the way his tomb in Iran is horrible… dont even bother google searching it… its painful!) His poetry now is far more famous than this mathematical gymnastics owing not in a small part to an eccentric Englishman, Edward FitzGerald (1809–1883).

Illustration to FitzGerald's translation "Earth could not answer nor the Seas that mourn"

FitzGerald rather loosely translated the Rubáiyát for Victorian audiences. He was evidently a bit of a loony, albeit of the best possible variety… his Epitaph reads, “I am all for the short and merry life!” Anyhow, his translations formed a significant part of the Victorian obsession with all things Oriental and romantic (think Burton, Morris etc etc) and although not exactly accurate, they were hauntingly beautiful. The line in full reads,

Perplexed no more with human or divine,
Tomorrow’s tangle to ye winds resign,
And lose your fingers in the tresses of
The cypress-slender minister of wine.

So, what made me think of this… well, a few months ago I was visiting Bristol and came across a rusting iron arch, with an inscription over it. It captured my imagination, and I took a quick snap on my camera… It troubled me months trying to work out where the inscription was from… and at the weekend, it all clicked. Luckily I did not ‘resign my tangle to the winds,’ and so failed to follow the instructions on the arch, but may adopt Khayyám’s suggestion more closely tomorrow.

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August 22, 2011 · 4:30 pm

Hurry Burry Chicken Curry

OK, so I can’t cook. I know I can’t. But I try occasionally… (my Calvados belly pork was actually quite good… and I do a good line in things on toast.)

My approach has always been, well, slightly more agricultural and experimental than cookbook orientated, and recipes are for wimps. So I was well pleased to discover a fellow ginger who actually knows what she is doing, and speaks my language. She is called Esther Walker, lives in London, and is married to some chap called Giles Coren (OK, so I have heard of him… I am not that bad!) Her recipes are instinctive, dont require the entire contents of Waitrose to put together, and most importantly, taste great. Her blog also makes me giggle. So… all good things!

Road Sign in Darjeeling

I tried her Chicken Curry last week… I used a big tin of coconut milk (the only one in the shop…), about twice the spices, and too much salt… but it was good. Real good!

Get Involved: This from her blog…:

So here we go, the River Cottage Bites chicken curry, for about 4 people

8 chicken drumsticks (or thighs)
1 can chopped tomatoes
1 can coconut milk (I use those small turqouise ones from Waitrose)
1tsp coriander seeds
1tsp fennel seeds
1 tsp fenugreek seeds
1 tsp ground turmeric
2 tsp ground cumin
1 fresh chilli, seeds in or there’s no point
1 2cm square of fresh ginger
1 small onion
salt

1 Grind together the seeds, the turmeric and the cumin and toast gently in a dry pan until the kitchen smells like the set of Slumdog Millionaire. It seems like a shiteload, but just tip it all in.

2 In a food processor, whizz up the ginger, onion and chilli to make a paste. Add some oil to the pan that the spices are cooking in and then tip in this paste. While that’s cooking gently for about 10 mins, bloop into the processor the chopped tomatoes and coconut milk and whizz. Leave it there for a bit.

3 Skin the chicken and brown in a pan for about 4 minutes each side. Arrange in a baking dish

4 When the paste/spice mix has had about 10 mins, add in the tomato/coconut mixture and wibble this around until it’s all bubbling. Then taste – it will be bland as hell, but spicy, so add salt bit by bit until it starts to taste like something nice. In the end I added – no joke – about four big pinches of salt, but it’s best to start small.

5 Pour this mixture over the chicken and bake in a 180C oven, uncovered, for 1 hour.

Do also check out her blog, Recipe Rifle, there are lots of other tasty things on there…

Esther Walker ... A rare domesticated ginger

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August 18, 2011 · 5:54 pm

Anna Hazare arrest: A million mutinies erupt across India

Unbiased opinion and analysis of the developing situation in India right now is difficult to come by.

This article from the Times of India is the best that I have read, and captures the sense of affront to Democracy that is sweeping the world’s largest democracy.

Follow this link here for the full article. All excerpts below are copyright Times of India.

“NEW DELHI: No one really, certainly not the government, had anticipated the extent of countrywide support for Anna Hazare and his crusade against corruption. Within hours of the news of his arrest breaking on the networks, spontaneous protests broke out from Baroda to Bhubaneswar, Kanpur to Kochi, leaving the government gasping at the national demonstration of democratic dissent.” 

“Far away from the fast-moving developments in Delhi, people from all walks of life took to the streets spontaneously, in rain and shine, not just in the metros but even in smaller towns. Everywhere, the protesters denounced the government (no one was willing to accept that the police action was possible without the nod of government bigwigs) and chanted slogans demanding a stronger Lokpal Bill.”

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August 18, 2011 · 5:40 pm

Stillness

Stillness in Oxford Last Night. (apart from the bus in the bottom right corner....)

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