The news is … good? That can’t be right. I’ve had a couple of face-to-face interviews and I have some more lined up. I’ve had my first official driving lesson and that went surprisingly well. We’re getting the upstairs floor fixed and re-carpeted soon. Things are going well. Why am I waiting for something bad to happen???
Send out the clowns
Katy and I (along with a bunch of office folk) went to see Kooza at the RAH this past Sunday. I have to say, it’s not the best Cirque du Soleil show I’ve seen. I agree with the Guardian review I’ve included below. The individual acts border on brilliance. The clowns though… are simply BLOODY IRRITATING!!! They’re not funny. They take center-stage for waaaay too long, and they’re bordering on inappropriate for the target market. I do not need to see a clown humping a man’s leg or being spanked in the balls. Masturbation-based slapstick belong in a frat house, not in a Cirque show. Still, as I said earlier, the individual acts are amazing, but the whole packaging lets it down. I’m happy to have seen it for £35. I would have been pissed off to see it for £100.
Another new year, another Cirque du Soleil juggernaut rolls into town. This one – which has toured worldwide (the £10 programme comes in three languages) – may be new to the UK, but the formula remains the same. There are lots of costumes in easy-on-the-eye autumn hues, which make the performers look like indistinguishable aliens on their way to a Venice carnival. There’s an abundance of shopping centre-style muzak. There’s a great deal of symmetrical choreography, which lends the whole thing the air of a May Day parade in a minor authoritarian state, and the show is padded out to last three hours with clowns so deeply irritating that they are no laughing matter.
Strip away all the bombast and soft-focus window dressing, though, and you’ll find some truly remarkable circus acts on display. The main thrill is the wheel of death, performed with a devilish nonchalance by two men who seem to be out-running the grim reaper in the way they hurl themselves around and over the fast rotating wheels. There’s an impressive handstand act performed on a tower of chairs that never wobble, and you can’t help but admire the bravery of the teeterboard segment on stilts. Definitely not the sort of thing you should try at home.
Add to that a double high-wire act on bicycles and a swinging trapeze with triple twists, and there’s no doubt you are watching some of the most skilled performers in the world. So it seems all the more of a pity that the presentation deliberately strips away all personality and robs the performers of their humanity (there’s not even a cast list in the programme).
It makes for an evening that is impressive, but almost entirely soulless.
Original link: The Guardian
tap! tap! tap!
Is this thing on?
Update: that’s better… stupid facebook API.
How true…
New bus manager
The Bean is becoming a chatterbox on the bus. His favourite spot now is in the first row just behind the door. That way, he can have a running conversation with the bus driver and say hello to everybody as they come on the bus.
Also, this morning, he basically ran after a random Sanger researcher (who was actively running away from him) and latched on to their arm until I had to rescue a them from a Bean in a silly mood. Oy.
Testing the waters, swiftly followed by drowning.
I already mentioned that my 9 years at the EBI are coming to a close this year. I’ve been updating my CV and thinking about what I want to do when i grow up. To test the waters last night, I posted my CV on Monster and pinged a few job offers. I did not expect what happened next.
My phone hasn’t stopped ringing. Between 7:15 and 12:30, I received calls from 16 recruiters.
O.o
Damn!
Just cause it’s too damn cute :)
Cat existentialism
Update: The post so nice I made it twice! Doh! I just couldn’t help myself, because it made me giggle and reminded me of the story of Frank
[recipe] Homemade sausages
2 kg pork shoulder
0.5 kg pork belly
250g rusk or breadcrumbs (10%)
250ml cold water (10%)
25g salt (1%)
12.5g seasonings (0.5%)
Clean all surfaces, knives, boards, etc. Sterilize all grinder parts in Milton for 30 minutes.
Rinse sausage casings to remove most of the salt and let them soak in cold water for 30 minutes.
Cube the meat into 1″ sided cubes and remove any large bits of gristle or connective tissue. Weigh the meat to adjust the amount of salt, breadcrumb, water and seasoning required. Put the meat in the freezer for 30 minutes to firm it up. This helps in the grinding.
Grind meat through a fine plate. Put the ground meat in the fridge to cool it down. While the meat is chilling, measure out all of the other ingredients.
Mix well. Cook a small sausage patty to verify the seasoning. Adjust if necessary.
Thread the sausage casing onto the filler tube. Make sure everything is wet. Leave 2 inches of untied sausage casings at the end. Fill the sausage casing. Knot the ends. To make links, make a dentin the sausage where you want to link it and twist in alternate directions for each link.
[recipe] Homemade chocolate truffles
Ingredients
200g dark chocolate
200g milk chocolate
150ml double cream
28g / 2tbsp butter
5-6 tbsp you favourite cream liqueur (baileys, tia Maria, etc)
Directions
In a heatproof bowl set over simmering water, heat the cream until hot to the touch and turn off the heat. Meanwhile, chop the chocolate into small pieces. Add the chocolate and butter to the hot cream, and stir until the chocolate melts. Let the mix cool down a bit and stir in booze. Line a square tin with parchment paper and spread chocolate mix. Leave to set in the fridge for a couple of hours.
When set, cut into 1 inch square cubes. Truffles can either be dusted with cocoa powder or dipped into tempered chocolate to make a hard chocolate shell.
To make the tempered chocolate, chop the 400 grams of milk chocolate and place 3/4 of it in a small glass bowl in the microwave for 20 seconds exactly. Stir the chocolate and continue to microwave for 20 seconds at a time, stirring in between, until the chocolate is smooth and shiny. Add the remaining 1/4 of the chocolate and stir until smooth.
With 2 small spoons, pick up each true and cover it with tempered chocolate. (You can also use your hands to coat them.) They can look a little messy and “truffle” like. Place the truffle back on the parchment paper. Continue to coat each of the truffles until they’re all coated with milk chocolate. Allow to sit for a few minutes until the chocolate hardens. Serve at room temperature.