Why We Are Short of Trains in East Anglia
Yet again, there has been a serious level crossing accident in East Anglia. At least the twat in a sewage tanker, who seems to have been the cause of the accident, has been held on suspicion of dangerous driving.
The knock-on of these accidents, is that yet another small diesel multiple unit, which are the backbone of rural services in Norfolk, Suffolk and Lincolnshire, is lost or at least out of service for several months. The line I use regularly between Ipswich and Cambridge, is in desperate need of a two-coach unit to replace one of the trains, which is only one coach an totally inadequate, but this accident probably means that replacement is far in the future. I hope we don’t lose one of our trains to replace the one lost in the accident.
Colcannon Chicken and Apple Pie
I was looking for something a bit different to add to the potato topped pies that I like and keep for suppers by myself in the freezer and I found this recipe on AllRecipes.com. Note that this website marks all recipes as to gluten-free, vegetarian etc.
The ingredients I used for the pie were.
- 1 tbsp sunflower oil
- 1 large onion, sliced
- 450 gram chicken breast fillets cut into chunks
- 2 carrots, thickly sliced
- 250 ml. pf chicken stock
- 250 ml. of dry cider – Aspalls of course!
- 1 tsp wholegrain mustard
- 1 tsp dried tarragon
- 2 Cox’s apples, thickly sliced
- 1 tbsp cornflour
- salt and pepper
And for the Colcannon topping I used.
- 700 grams of potatoes, peeled and cut into chunks
- 200 grams of Savoy cabbage, shredded
- 4 tbsp of semi-skimmed goats milk
- 25 gramsbutter
- 4 spring onions, finely chopped.
These quantities make enough for four, so I froze some of it for later.
The method was as follows.
- Heat the oil in a large, deep, non-stick frying pan. Add the onion and cook over a low heat for 5 minutes or until softened.
- Add the chicken to the pan and cook over a moderate heat, stirring occasionally, for 5 minutes or until it is no longer pink. Stir in the carrots.
- Combine the stock, cider, mustard and tarragon, and pour into the pan. Bring to the boil, then reduce the heat, cover and cook gently for 10 minutes. Stir in the apples and cook, covered, for a further 10 minutes or until the chicken and carrots are tender, and the apples have softened but are still holding their shape.
- Meanwhile, cook the potatoes in a saucepan of boiling water for about 15 minutes or until tender. Cook the cabbage in a separate pan of boiling water for 4–5 minutes or until just tender but not soft; drain well.
- Drain the potatoes and return them to the pan. Add the milk and butter, and mash until smooth. Stir in the cabbage and spring onions, and season with salt and pepper to taste. Cover to keep warm.
- Using a draining spoon, transfer the chicken, apples and vegetables to a 1.7 litre (3 pint) ovenproof dish. Set aside.
- Mix the cornflour with 1 tbsp cold water, stir into the cooking liquid in the frying pan and bring to the boil, stirring until thickened. Season with salt and pepper to taste, then pour over the chicken mixture.
- Pile the potato and cabbage topping over the chicken mixture, spreading it evenly to cover. Place in the top oven of the AGA and bake until golden brown.
I made a couple of mistakes in that I didn’t make enough topping and the sauce could have done with more thickening. But it was well worth the ewffort.
Does The Watch I Wear Affect My Hand?
Normaly, I wear a heavy stainless steel bracelet-type watch on my left hand. As that is my gammy one, recently I’ve taken to wearing it on the right, but I don’t like to do that as it is inconvenient. I should also say that it used to be the Rolex that C gave me as my last Christmas present and that I nearly lost in Naples, but that is just too heavy for either hand.
So today, I got an old watch out with a leather strap and my hand seems to be a little bit better now that it is released from its steel corset.
I should also say that for years I always wore my watch on my right hand, as I felt that it was more comfortable. This was because my arm wasn’t very good for many years, due to it being broken by a bully at school. It almost seems to be that since the stroke my arm has returned to the state it was until fixed by a fitness trainer a couple of years ago.
It’s all very puzzling. But do I care, as it’s certainly better this evening.
Your Wife Photos Attached
Over the last few weeks, I’ve been getting several e-mails every day with a title of “Your Wife Photos Attached” and just a zip file enclosed. My ISP marks them as spam and as I’m careful, I have never opened the zip, so they have been no threat to my computer until now.
As a widower though, who sorely misses his wife, I don’t like theses messages.
So finally curiosity got the better of me and I this morning I decided to find out what the zip files contain.
I don’t recommend doing this, but if you are careful it is a perfectly safe procedure. I copied the zip file on to an SD card and then transferred this to an old laptop, which is unconnected to the network and the Internet The laptop also has nothing of value on its hard drive, except gigabytes of nothing.
So what did the zip file contain?
Just an image containing a Russian web address, that if you typed it into your browser would give you access to cheap Viagra-type drugs. They would probably be cheap, but useless fakes.
So from a computing point of view they would appear to be safe at present!
But never take the chance of clicking on one of these zip files. Someone will start distributing ones, that are dangerous rather than just annoying!
Java Problems
I’m having a few problems on web sites that run a lot of Java. Nothing serious, but my computer tends to lock and I find that I have to reboot once a day or so. What worries me though, is that friends have also reported problems. There also seems to be threads in web site forums saying that some flavours of Windows, add-ons and Java have interaction problems.
I think that it is livable with, but I have stopped updating to the latest version of Java.
The Anonymous Widower 