I call Bullshit!

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Last night, I, like 3 million other losers, stayed up late to watch the broadcast of Derren Brown’s latest stunt of “guessing” the lottery numbers before they were drawn by the National Lottery. We’d been talking about it all week – as expected from the massive hype generated by the publicity campaign. I was, in a word, unimpressed. I can think of three ways right off the bat how the stunt could have been pulled off.

If he’d said, plainly and without any jibba-jabba, I predict numbers X-Y-Z-A-B-C and that’s what came up from the draw, *then* I’d have been impressed. This BS of “we can’t legally show the numbers because BBC1 has the legal right to announce the numbers first” is just a flimsy excuse to buy time to make a grand revelation after the event. So yeah. I call bullshit and won’t watch the rest of the events.

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The end of an era

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Hail to the chief! It was Lennart’s last day at the office yesterday. Even though he’s only leaving next week for Belgium, he’s on holiday from today to use up the last of his leave time. It’s going to be weird without him at the office. I’m happy for him though – a full tenured professorship and senior lecturer and he’s only 33. That’s impressive, and it’s also an offer he couldn’t refuse. As a gag-ish gift, we bought him a tweed jacket and had leather patches sewn on the elbows, as now befitting to his stature ;) Getting people to sign the card was a nightmare though. Between holidays, sickness, conferences and general not-being-at-the-officeness, it was a cast iron PITA to get hold of people.

On a professional note, the office is going to be rudderless for the next 6 months – at least – until we can hire his replacement and that person comes in and gets a feel for things. I can only hope that it’s somebody with a decent head on their shoulders and that will fight for us, not against us. Said person will have mighty big shoes to fill. I have to say that we’re all a bit anxious about the state of things to come.

On a personal note, I’m saddened that a friend is leaving. I don’t have many of those in the UK and I’m going to miss him and his various zen koans and happy demeanour.

I shall take inspiration from his greatness :)

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[Recipe] Fish cakes

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We had leftover veg from making food for the beastie so I decided to get creative.

I mixed the mashed root veg (potatoes, carrots, swede) with a tin of flaked tuna, some grated mature cheddar, a bit of tabasco, some parsley, onion salt, pepper, and some breadcrumbs to thicken the mix. After forming into patties, dredging in egg wash and coating with breadcrumbs seasoned with paprika, I pan fried on both sides to color the cakes then finished them in the oven for 15 minutes at 220. Very nummy indeed!

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Anna, Good. Florian, Bad.

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We had a BBQ this weekend – one last shindig before Lennart and Leen leave for Belgium. Joe and Matthieu weren’t able to make it, but Juan Antonio, Florian & Anna and Phil and the kiddies were able to come (jeez, his kids have grown!). As usual in these matters, I made waaaay too much food. I had three packs of sausages, burgers and I’d marinated some homemade tandoori chicken. That was accompanied by corn on the cob, a cheese plate and crudites. Katy went mad in her own inimitable way with the puddings.

It all went down smashingly. I’m really happy with how the chicken turned out, and I do have to say that a small-ish BBQ (by North American standards) filled with 18 sausages, 8 burgers and 10 chicken breasts was an impressive sight to behold. Smelled bloody good too :) I think I’m finally hitting the bottom of my gas cylinder. Not bad considering that I’ve had it for 4 years now… The weather gods were clement and we had nice breaks of sunshine and the wind kept it to just a nice temperature. It got a bit chilly near the end but people were stuffed with enough calories so that it didn’t matter. Juanan kept mentioning how unfair it was that he’s the one with the reputation as a big eater when compared to the bottomless pit that is Flo’s gullet :) Lennart says that it’s because Florian has a better PR machine :D

Pictures are online here: http://www.flubu.com/various_pics/BBQ_sept_2009/

I’ve come to the conclusion that BenBen finds us boring. He’s been uber-grumpy in the last week or so. I took him into Saffron Walden on Saturday while Katy was having a jaunt with Donna and I didn’t hear a peep from him while I was at Waitrose, or the butchers or the market. And, of course, he was flirting with all the preeeety laaadiiiies he could charm (he’s going to be a heart-breaker, that one). As soon as I got him home though, where it was just me, he was less than thrilled. Same thing for the BBQ. He loves being passed around and was all giggles and charm. When people left, grumpy baby. QED, we’re boring. Katy says that it’s impressive just how much he doesn’t mind being passed around, even when we’re not in sight. I was in the kitchen getting food ready and Katy was in the dining room setting things up and the beastie was quite happy with Leen or Anna. It’s what he’s been used to, I guess. He’s been going to nursery since he was 3 months, so for him, it’s just another preeeeety laaaady to charm :)

Once the beastie was asleep for the night, Beckie came over to keep an eye on him and we went to see Moon. It’s a good movie, if slightly creepy in the beginning. I don’t think I’d buy it, but I was happy to see it and I’d recommend it for a good sci-fi movie with an old-school feel to it.

Moon (2009)

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I need a vacation from my vacation

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I’ve been on leave since last Wednesday and I can’t really say that I’m rested and relaxed. I spent Wednesday cooking tons of food. We went to the seaside on Thursday with Katy’s parents. That was a nice day, but ended in a less than pleasing note when the beastie – exhausted and probably having had a bit too much sun – melted down after being put to bed. It’s always a bone-searingly scary experience when he wakes up wailing after being fast asleep. He just never does it and I always worry about the worst happening… Friday was my birthday and I spent a large part of it in my kimono. That was good, and Katy went nuts with prezzies and wrapping paper.

Katy’s parents left on Saturday and we had a quiet day. We went to the market to pick up some veg and do a quick shop at Waitrose for some food for a fondue we planned for dinner. The evening was nice, but the night was very short because the beastie had another episode of at 4:30 am. He’s been really grumpy since Thursday, and has been drooling a lot and running a bit warmer than usual. We thought it was just teething pains. This morning though, he was roasting! We called the docs and they said to keep an eye on him and call back if we’re still worried. The rational part of me things it’s probably just a cold. He’s been snuffly and snotty in the past 2 days. The irrational part of me just wants to go to the corner shop and buy a pack of fags and chain smoke and worry. The problem is that the irrational part of me has a louder voice these days.

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