The beaver is a proud and noble animal
Notes from a bemused canuck
I’ve finally pulled the finger out and gotten some pictures online. You can go browse the galleries on the website and see:
Pictures of the EMBL Staff Association Retreat to Edinburgh: http://www.flubu.com/various_pics/edinburgh_may_2009/
A really cool collection of night-time areal pictures of London: http://www.flubu.com/various_pics/london_from_above/
Some recently added pictures of Mr BenBen: http://www.flubu.com/various_pics/ben/
Of the last gallery, let me give you some teasers :)
Salad
* 450g baby new potatoes
* 300g fine French beans
* pitted green olives, sliced in half
* cucumber, cut in slices
* red onion, sliced into rings
* radishes, sliced thinly
* Sea salt and freshly ground black pepper
* Classic vinaigrette
* 2 baby gem lettuce, separated into leaves
* 2 tbsp olive oil, plus extra for frying
* tuna loin steaks, about 100g each
* 2 large eggs
vinaigrette
* 125ml extra virgin olive oil
* Juice of ½ a lemon
* chopped chives
method
1. Boil the potatoes for 10-12 minutes until tender. Drain well then halve. Splash with olive oil and sprinkle with chives and sea salt. Leave to cool. Trim the beans then cook in boiling salted water for 2 minutes. Drain and refresh in iced water. Drain well once more and pat dry.
2. Mix the potatoes and beans with the lettuce, radishes, olives, cucumber and onions. Whisk the ingredients for the vinaigrette and season with salt and pepper. Toss the vegetables in some of the vinaigrette.
3. Heat a large non-stick frying pan until you can feel a good heat rising. Add 1 tbsp of the oil then lay in the tuna steaks. Season with sea salt and pepper. Cook for 2 minutes on each side until they feel slightly springy when pressed. The tuna should still be pink in the middle. Cut each steak in half and place on top of the salad.
4. Place the eggs in to a pan of boiling water and cook for 6 minutes (for a well set white and runny yolk). Plunge the eggs into iced cold water to prevent them from cooking further. Once cooled, roll the egg on the work surface, gently applying pressure so the shell begins to crack, then peel off the shell.
5. Place the eggs on top of the tuna and cut in half, to reveal the soft runny yolk.
We ordered a beautiful, stained timber four-poster bed from Kubek, a furniture store in Leicester. We’d been lusting after that bed for years and we’ve always said that when we buy a house, we’ll get The Bed. We bought a house. We bought The Bed. It was supposed to be delivered yesterday. The thing is fricken’ huge and weighs a ton. It was assembled without hitch (the guy even commented on how smoothly it was going). It is beautiful.
It is the wrong size.
We ordered a king sized bed. They delivered a double. It is not a simple problem of having another bed delivered. They’re made to order from Malta. Apparently the guy in Malta (a gentleman called Tony who will shortly receive a bollocking) shipped the wrong bed. When Kubek received their shipment, they checked that all the pieces were there and that it all fit, but they didn’t realize that it was the wrong size. It’s only when the assembly man tried to fit the mattress slats and they wouldn’t fit that something clicked. The bad news is that the next shipment isn’t due until July. They’ll see if they can get cross-members of the right size shipped sooner, but no promises there. They were falling over themselves to apologize and, in essence, we’re still fine to sleep in our old bed in what will be the guest bedroom.
So close, and yet so far.