Chinese New Year!

Happy Year of the Fire Pig!

The year of the Pig is the final sign in the 12 year cycle of chinese astrology.

The year of the Fire Pig is particularly auspicious as it was in this zodiac year in 621 AD that the government of the Tang dynasty formalised the national currency known as the "Jin Zhu" (meaning Golden Pig), thus the year of the Fire Pig is associated with wealth and good fortune. Babies born in this year will of course be fire piglets, their parents can expect trouble if the chinese zodiac is anything to go by:

"The Fire Pig is vivacious, bold and relentless in achieving a goal they set for themselves. While some may call the Pig lazy, more accurately the pig is simply biding its time for the opportunity. Once in motion the Pig is unstoppable."

http://www.associatedcontent.com/article/94535/the_year_of_the_chinese_fire_pig_2007.html

Im a Metal Monkey!

"The youthful and clever Monkey is the eternal child of the Eastern zodiac. These highly diverse and bright souls are 'irrepressible.' Monkeys are quick, restless, enterprising, and sexual. Mischievous and high-spirited, Monkeys are social, active, convincing, and are gifted with a hilarious sense of humor. Imagination, ingenuity, and resourcefulness characterize those born into a year of the multifaceted Monkey. Versatile, curious and easily bored, impish Monkeys are witty companions, indulgent, intelligent, and always ready to play. This 9th sign of the zodiac is the most difficult to define due to their dual and sometimes contradictory nature. Monkey’s need mentally sharp partners who stimulate their cerebral resources. The best time of day for Monkeys are the hours they rule, between 3:00pm - 5:00pm."

So far this describes me pretty well.... even if I do say so myself ;p

"The Metal element symbolizes clarity, purity and precision. The power of Metal is to delineate and define. Metal element persons create structure, create the surface of matters, and interface with the outside world. This element adds rigidity to an individual sign. Those born into the Metal element are guided by powerful feelings and will seek their goals with unwavering allegiance, chaste & tendency to speak candidly/bluntly. Much strength of will, and fluency of speech characterize those born into the Metal element."

Hey - there might be something to this Chinese Astrology milarky after all...

"Metal is 'set' and determinedly fixed. Metal element persons must learn to compromise, not always insisting on their own way, as they will always have a strong effect on all whom they come into contact with."

On second thoughts...

"The Metal element shores-up an individual sign and is not deterred by calamity, hindrance or loss. Metal element souls prefer to sort out and solve their own problems and do not appreciate interference or unsolicited advice."

This much is true, you have been warned!

"The Metal element imparts strong monetary instincts to the individual sign, with extra ability to save for a rainy day. The Metal element possesses a fine-tuned intuition regarding finances and speculative investments of all kinds. This is the element of the solitary entrepreneur. The physical organs of Metal are the lungs and the large intestines; its flavor is pungent. Metal's color is White and corresponds to the season of Autumn and dry."

Well thats a laugh! I have the financial sense of Nick Leeson, and my guts and lungs are knackered...

Why not try out your own Chinese Zodiac casting? Ignore the crap jewlery adverts and get straight to the ego-massaging.

http://www.chineseastrology.com/

Friday's eatings

Today (and yesterday) I have been mostly eating....

A variation on Aloo-Sag (curried potatoes and spinach) recommended by my mother - I had a surplus of tinned tomatoes and frozen spinach and this has taken care of them nicely.

First I toasted some cumin seeds, then ground them up with some cayenne pepper and a good dose of smoked paprika.

I sweated two medium sized onions and three cloves of garlic (all finely chopped) in some butter and olive oil, with a pinch of salt to stop it all browning.

I had a couple of carrots left over in the fridge, so they too were finely chopped and sweated down in the oil and butter.

Once the carrots went in I added the spices, stirred vigourously and stuck the lid back on the pot while I messed about defrosting frozen lumps of spinach in the microwave.

In the mean time I started boiling 6 small spuds chopped in half.

The spinach went into the curried veg. mix, and I added half a pint of chicken stock. I let this simmer while I rinsed off a tin of butter beans (again, it was what was hanging around the kitchen without a dedicated purpose in life....).

In went the butter beans, along with two tins of chopped italian tomatoes.

A note on chopped tomatoes: Napolina for preference - I tend to buy loads of tins whenever I see them on offer - failing this Cirio are very good, also Italian, and are about half the price.

This simmered away a bit more while I drained the par-boiled spuds, they went in along with another half pint of chicken stock as I was concerned it was getting too thick.

Lid back on - leave it for about an hour.

It needed loads of salt - I always under season things. Plus, although it had a great background heat and depth of flavour from the spices - I felt it needed an extra kick, so I added loads of dried chili flakes - Yowzer! Now it tastes great!

Seeing as the six small spuds got eaten in the first two portions - since then I have been cooking spuds seperately and covering them in the vegtable curry mixture. Bloody marvelous.

Review of the Advanced Screening of Hot Fuzz

The following short review/comment on Hot Fuzz - the new film from Pegg, Frost, and Wright - was published on the Internet Movie Database. The original is availabe here:

http://imdb.com/title/tt0425112/usercomments-63

Awesome film. Loads of well worked homages to action classics.
Fantastic character work from a host of familiar faces; The actor Kevin
Eldon, Bill Bailey, Olivia Colman, Paddy Considine, and Rafe Spall were
particularly good. Some dodgy accents - Frost, you know who you are,
and you wore a Bristol Rovers shirt -how could you! ;), but some very
clever observations on the local mindset - Don't mess with a farmer's
mother, you've been warned!

Pegg, Frost, and Wright have continued in the same strong vein as Shaun of
the Dead. Even stronger in fact, my girlfriend hates Shaun of the Dead
but loved this. It was fast paced but still managed to establish good
story continuity and a great plot - in fact its 2hr duration is
balanced extremely well with gags and action a'plenty.

It was a real bonus to get to the advanced screening - free tickets,
free popcorn, thanks to SeeFilmFirst - it was damn annoying we were so
early in the queue but got funnelled into seats right at the front.
Yes, we were three rows back from Pegg and Frost during the Q/A which was
great, but we had cricks in our necks for the rest of the night.....
stupid Vue cinemas.... Anyway, the guys really took the time to indulge
the fans and it was much appreciated.

In many ways its a great shame that there will be no Spaced 3 but I for
one was glad to hear they are staying away from the This Life +10
format, great comedies finish in their prime leaving you wanting more.
What is a bigger shame is that "La Triviata" seems to have been shelved
due to creative differences between Pegg and Frost and C4, and their now
busy movie schedule - but if they keep turning out films of this
quality the fans should still be kept happy, even if we don't see them on the small screen quite as often.

Bristol humour

We all know Matt Lucas based Vicki Pollard on a girl from Fishponds. I think I might have found details of her escapades....

(these were sent to me by a colleague I worked with in Student Support - Im not saying they are actual cases, but we have heard some strange things in our time!)

A Bristol girl goes to the council to register for child benefit.
"How many children?" asks the council worker.
"10" replies the Bristol girl
"10?!" says the council worker. "What are their names?"
"Wayne, Wayne, Wayne, Wayne, Wayne, Wayne, Wayne, Wayne, Wayne and Wayne."
"Doesn't that get confusing?"
"Naah..." says the Bristol girl "its great because if they are out playing in the gurt street I just haves to shout "WAAYNE, YER DINNER'S READY!", or "WAAYNE GO TO BED NOW!, and they all do it..."
"What if you want to speak to one individually?" says the perturbed council worker.
"Oh, that's easy," says the Bristol girl... "I just uses their surnames."

A Bristol girl walks into the local dry cleaners. She places a garment on the counter.
"I'll be back tomorrow afternoon to pick up my dress," she says. "Come again?" says the clerk, cupping his ear.
"No," she replies, "this time it's gurt mayonnaise."

A Bristol Girl enters a s*x shop & asks for a v*brator.
The man says "Choose from our range on the wall."
She says "I'll takes the gurt red one."
The man replies "That's a fire extinguisher madam."

A Bristol girl is involved in a nasty car crash and is trapped and bleeding. The paramedics soon arrive on site.
Medic: "It's OK I'm a paramedic and I'm going to ask you some questions."
Girl: "OK"
Medic: "What's your name?"
Girl: "Sharon."
Medic: "OK Sharon, is this your car?"
Sharon: "Ye."
Medic: "Where are you bleeding from?"
Sharon: "Im from bleeding 'artcliffe, mate!"

A Bristol girl was driving down the M32 when her car phone rang. It was her boyfriend, urgently warning her, "Alright ar Sharon? I just heard on the gurt news that there's a car goings the wrong way on the gurt M32. Please be careful!"
"It's not just one car!" said the Bristol girl, "There's gurt hundreds of them!"

Another Bristol girl was involved in a serious crash; There's blood everywhere. The paramedics arrive and drag the girl out of the car till she's lying flat out on the floor.
Medic: "OK, I'm going to check if you're concussed."
Sharon: "Ok."
Medic: "How many fingers am I putting up?"
Sharon: "Oh my god I'm gurt paralysed from the waist down!"

A Bristol girl and an Irish guy are in a bar when the Bristol girl notices something strange about the wellies the Irish guy is wearing.
She says, "yer, scuse I mate, I aint being gurt funny or nuffink, but why dooz one of your wellies 'ave an L on it and the uva gurt one's got an R on it?"
So the Irish guy smiles, puts down his glass of Guinness and replies, "Well, oim a little bit tick you see. The one wit the R on it is for me roight foot and the one wit the L is for me Leftfoot" "Blimey", exclaims the Bristol girl,
"So THAT'S why my gurt knickers 'ave got C&A on them."

Starting Out.... & Valentines day eatings!

So here is my Blog. Thanks George for suggesting this - I think you may have created a monster...

In starting to put this together yesterday (Valentines Day of course) I managed to miss the highlights of the Boro v Bristol City 4th round FA cup replay, which I had been waiting all day to see - the tragi-comic adventure continues unabated. We gave them a hell of a game though - even if I didnt see it.

Today (yesterday) I have been mostly eating:

Sirloin Steak (from Don Hayes the Butchers in Staple Hill - quality Beef as always)
Loads of Onions fried in Olive oil and a bit of muscavdo sugar - then finished in a de-glaze of the steak juices, white wine and a dash or two of Worcestershire sauce.
Lightly toasted Ciabatta
Whole Grain Mustard-Mayonaise
Chips from Roy's Chip Shop in Staple Hill (a cut above the rest).

Crap Colombard-Chardonay from Morrisons

Pancakes in a Pecan and Caramel sauce

Decent Fresh(ish) Coffee

This had the desired Valentines day effect.