Zorac's LiveJournal

As alluded to in my earlier post, I spent most of today watching The Lord of the Rings - all three extended editions back-to-back. Damn, but I'd forgotten just how good those films are. Admittedly, watching them all in one go (I've done it in three consecutive days before) is a bit of an endurance test - in the best possible way, of course.

Anyway, Happy New Year, everyone!

Seriously! Before Christmas I had a full wine rack with a dozen bottles on it (plus one chilling in the fridge). Despite acquiring more as presents, now that the family have departed, I'm down to three (and that's only because I picked up a couple more at Sainsbury's yesterday). Still, lots of really nice bottles, and we even tried to match wines to food, in a vague way - mostly going by what it said on the back of the bottles (although the cassoulet merited the nice Chianti, on account of being the closest thing we ate to liver with fava beans...)

I'm definitely feeling rather fatter than I did ten days ago, but all the left-overs are going to get somewhat in the way of starting any serious dieting for at least another week or so. On the plus side, most of my cooking in that time will involve pulling a tupper out of the freezer and reheating its contents - possibly in one of my shiny new saucepans, but most likely in the microwave. Lazy, moi?

Right. I'm off to Middle Earth for the rest of the day.

...for tomorrow we diet. And by "tomorrow", I mean in two or three weeks when the assorted left-overs, snacks and sweetmeats have finally met their demise. The past few days have, not unexpectedly, contained considerable amounts of both food and alcohol (although the former rather closer to excess than the latter). On the plus side, we have been out for a walk every day, and have spent little time in front of the goggle-box (although such sedentary pursuits as reading, playing board games, and wrestling with puzzles, quizzes, and crosswords are little better for the health).

First year with the new kitchen, and we actually managed to get the turkey spot on (after missing the mark in opposite directions the previous two years), so Christmas dinner itself was an almost¹ complete success. Alas, the traditional Christmas Eve ox-tounge was possibly even more over-salted than the previous year despite additional soaking, so it looks like that's off the menu next time. Today was the equally traditional turkey and left-over-vegetable curry - something that has very little danger of going wrong.

To add some educational merit to this post, here's a recipe for you. A rather fine pudding henceforth to be known as ( Collapse )

1) The "almost" part being due to the Mini Bagpuss Crackers (eight for a pound). These promised a hat, a motto and a sticker sheet in each one. After one cracker each, we had two hats, four mottos (one blank) and no sticker sheets. After the remaining four crackers, we just managed an additional two paper hats, a total of six mottoes³, and one solitary sticker sheet. Unimpressed.

2) I'm not aware of anyone suffering a coronary as a direct result of eating this cake, but proceed at your own risk.

3) On further examination, we discovered that all six were printed with the same joke, which I reproduce verbatim below for your amusement:

What's the difference between a railway shed and tree ?
One leaves.its shed and the other sheds its leaves.

Not quite right, methinks...

So, I just performed open heart surgery on a mouse. Thanks to the power of duct tape, a bad case of middlebuttonnoclickitis has been rectified, and my beloved MX1000 has made a full recovery. Yes I know it has seven other clickable buttons, but I need them all!

I succeeded in my primary objective of getting the tools needed to install the radiator tomorrow (including one I hadn't thought off until I got to the hardware store - something which can detect the wooden studs in an internal wall). Alas, I failed in my second objective - to see Pan's Labyrinth - although, to be fair, I wasn't really in the mood for a subtitled movie. Even worse, while stowing away my purchases after l leaving the ironmongers', I may have been heard to utter the words "You can never have too many tools!". Rapidly followed by a look of horror and disbelief, and a mutter "Somebody, please, shoot me now..."

Later on, I encountered a somewhat random parade going up Cornmarket - Chinese dragons, a pantomime camel (dressed in pink), a large selection of paper lanterns, some baton twirlers (just, without the twirling), and a smartly-uniformed marching band - fine, upstanding men and all that. The music they were playing did seem familiar, and it was only as they launched into the chorus that the incongruous choice clicked - It's Raining Men. Hallelujah! At this point, I promptly and completely cracked up (yes, I got some strange looks - why do you ask?) I did, somehow, manage to recover in time to procure some video evidence which, alas, I'm too lazy to post...

I was somewhat late watching this week's Battlestar Galactica - what with being forgetful, then out shopping, then getting rather engrossed in my latest Tamora Pierce novel (mmm, favourite author fix), it wasn't until the middle of the evening that I remembered to grab the torrent file and kick it off. Still, it was an episode which was very much worth the wait. Great chunks of plot, some seriously heavy-duty action sequences, and plenty of heavy-duty character development - and all that in 42 minutes.

One of the things I love about sci-fi is the way it can throw you a curveball - because you don't know the "rules" of the universe in the same way you do those of our current reality, you can be caught off-guard by an unexpected "That is so cool - I had no idea they could do that!" moment, even (and perhaps especially) if in hindsight you can see the hints. My favourite instance of this is the resolution of one of the cliffhangers between The Neutronium Alchemist and The Naked God (those of you who've read those books will know what I mean, and those of you who haven't, and have any interest in space opera, should go out and read The Reality Dysfunction at once), but this week's BSG had a nifty little one too.

Going off in a completely different direction: many of you may recall the Sony advert with all the balls bouncing down a street. I remeber seeing it in the cinema and thinking "that's rather nifty. Obviously done with computer graphics, but still nifty." Fast forward to yesterday, when I came across an article about the follow-up advert (a rather sillier affair featuring exploding paint, but again extremely nifty) explaining how it was all done for real. And how contrary to what many people that, last year's ad was indeed done by sending a quarter of a million bouncy balls down a San Francisco street. Alas, none of this will make me buy a Sony TV if they cost rather more than a comparable competitor...

After nearly four months of waiting, the last appliance has finally made its appearance. After last week's fiasco, with the two deliver men deeming themselves insufficient, this week they sent ... two delivery men. Plus a risk assessor. After much umming, ah-ing and measuring, they decided that it just might be possible (but that the four man team wouldn't have helped because there's no way that more than two guys would be able to get at the thing whilst lifting it up the stairs). After removing the fridge doors and my front door handle, the proper application of brute force seemed to do the trick, and the last hole in my kitchen is finally filled. Final risk assessment - this shows what can be done - but also what really shouldn't be attempted...

Once again I ventured forth into Oxford in search of jeans. After a long and arduous quest upon which I tried on what seemed like every pair of appropriately sized jeans in the centre of town, I finally settled on something "good enough". That goal achieved, I did potter around the shops a little more, but in the end I decided that I really wasn't feeling up to anything more and beat a hasty retreat in the direction of home.

I am, you see, suffering from some sort of a lurgy- swollen glands and a sore throat, and generally not feeling on top form. Still, one has to soldier on, and it is more of a painful annoyance than a "can't face leaving bed" sort of a thing. I was dosing myself with a lemon and honey concoction suggested by sophie10, until I cleverly ran out of honey. More shopping tomorrow, methinks. Meanwhile, I really need to pop some more vicodin ibuprofen...

Ah, that's better. Anyway, on to the next, and something that probably won't mean anything to those of you who haven't watched Babylon 5. Earlier today, frayer sent me a picture message containing proof that the Psi Corps is, in fact, real. Yes, they're undergoing a re-branding exercise, but they can't hide the truth - I even managed to locate the web page for their assessment centre. Sinister stuff, indeed.

Anyway, back in TVland, I got a bit of a late start with Heroes - not X-Men, the TV show, honest - which definately shows promise, and I'll be eagerly awaiting the next episode (and if the cheerleader's mother turns out not to be Calista Flockhart, I'll be most disappointed). Next up was the season premiere of Lost, to which I say OMGWTFBBQFISHBISCUIT (oops, minor spoiler there) - stay tuned for my comment on next week's episode. After that, came my very late start on Rome - although, to be fair, I was waiting until I finished my way through Colleen McCullough's Roman novels - and I suspect that I'll be romping through the DVDs at high speed. Finally, there was the two-part opener for Battlestar Galactica - why is it that the second half always downloads faster? - which continues the high standard, and certainly gets the third season of to an interesting start.

Right, that's enough for one evening. I'm off to take a happy pill - or, at least, drop one into a nice, hot bath...

So, it looks like I may finally get my shiny new fridge-freezer soon. In fact, it's due to be delivered on Monday. Something of a wait, to be sure, but it will be nice to have the kitchen finally finished. In celebration, last weekend I picked up a few bits and pieces to help finish the job - a nice blind for the window, and a little stool so that I can sit at the table to eat breakfast (an exciting new experience). Of course, I fully expect it to now prove impossible to manoeuvre the darned thing into the flat, at which point I shall be forced to curl up in a corner and cry.

So, I mentioned a while back that I took a while bunch of pictures at the Ashmolean Museum, with the express purpose of making them into icons. Because, yes, I mock the art. I also got around to making a Data icon with a quote from an early TNG episode wich made me think "I have to make an icon of that!"

Anyway, here they are, for your amusement:

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