Cooking White Long-Grain Rice
I’ve always struggled with this until yesterday, when I tried this method from the BBC.
The method detailed on the page, which also links to some interesting recipes.
Many cooks favour the absorption method for cooking white long-grain rice. For this, measure the rice by volume in a measuring jug – not by weight – allowing about 65ml/2½fl oz per person if you’re cooking the rice as a side dish. Stir in about double the amount of liquid (such as water or stock) and simmer in a covered saucepan for about 15 minutes. Do not try to stir the rice while it is boiling. Remove the pan from the heat and place a clean tea towel under the lid – this will help absorb the steam and keep the grains separate. Set aside for five minutes. Fluff up the rice with a fork before serving.
My only problem was that I didn’t cook enough rice for four.
Arizona To Bring in a Fat Tax
This story caught my eye on the BBC’s web site.
I don’t care a fig, if Ariziona does bring in a Fat Tax, as I’m not fat and I don’t live anywhere near the State.
But I do think there are two main types of fat people; those who have a medical problem and those who are, as Hancock once remarked to Hattie Jaques, gannets. Gannets of course are on a seafood diet; they see food and eat it.
I would not be in favour of a direct fat tax or fine as Arizona propose for those who don’t stick to a dietary regime laid down by their doctor.
What is needed is indirect taxes, like :-
- Weight limits in airline seats. If you’re too heavy you have to buy two seats.
- Extra VAT on junk food.
- Extra taxes on alcohol.
In other words taxes that are avoidable by just saying no!
Annoyances In Sainsburys
This morning, I had to show friends, where to park their car, whilst they did a day’s business in London and then get them organised with a Travelcard at Dalston Junction.
So this meant, as I wasn’t near my usual paper shop, I had to go to Sainsbury’s to get one, as I have a pre-paid voucher and not all shops accept them.
I also needed some toilet rolls, but unlike Waitrose who do them with handles so they are easy to carry, Sainsburys don’t do this. The only one with a handle was a nine of Andrex.
And then to pay for my two items, I had to wait, as no tills were open and vouchers aren’t accepted in the self-service machines. Eventually, I used the tobacco kiosk, but had to use a card, which didn’t work too well, because of my gammy fingers. It’s funny but I never have trouble with cards except in Sainsburys.
So I doubt I’ll be visiting that Sainsburys early in the morning again.
A Pedestrian Collision Avoidance System
They are talking on BBC Breakfast about the sort of sound that electric cars should make.
As someone, who for a few months had very limited vision to the left, I can sympathise, but really do we want to negate one of the big advantages of electric cars; the fact that they are silent, which I think makes people drive them slower.
So could we do something better to stop collisions between vulnerable pedestrians and vehicles. And of course between cyclists and vehicles too.
With airliners they have a system called TCAS or Traffic Collision Avoidance System. It works well, as you don’t get too many collisions between airliners.
So could something simpler be used by pedestrians and vehicles that they might not see or hear.
In it’s simplest form a vehicle would emit a coded electronic signal with perhaps a range of say twenty to fifty metres. Pedestrians would perhaps have a wristwatch-sized device that made some sort of sound as the vehicle approached. I would suspect that smart phones could also be developed to be pedestrian devices.
Thinking about this idea, it would have other implications.
- You could just drive up to your garage door and a detector programmed with your vehicle’s code would open the door automatically.
- Systems could be used to make car parks more user-friendly. All you would have to do is drive in and out and the system would bill you automatically.
- Vulnerable pedestrians, such as the blind and deaf, could also carry an emitter, which could be received by vehicles to warn them that the person by the side of the road had limited vision or hearing.
- There could also be an emergency mode, so that say if a pedestrian was feeling unwell or had a probe, they could immediately call help from those near at hand. In fact borrowing from flying rules, you could have two levels of emergency; serious and I just need a little bit of help. The latter might be used by say someone who was blind or a bit confused, who perhaps was lost in a strange town.
- One of my biggest problems is those in scooters, who drive them fast in places like shopping malls and come up behind me. I was nearly run over in Canary Wharf yesterday, by someone going far too fast and only avoided trouble, because the lady driving it, hit a man, who called her a stupid idiot in a very loud voice. A device warning of fast traffic from behind would have avoided that problem.
The possibilities are endless.
I doubt it will happen though.
Who Dropped the Trophy?
The Ajax goalkeeper, no less!
Has he blown his chances of being signed by Alec Ferguson?
My Olympic Tickets
I’ve still not heard, if I’ve got any Olympic tickets.
Has anybody else been notified yet?
Bedbugs In New York
Two stories from New York catch the eye today; Bedbugs bite into the US economy and the arrest of Dominique Strauss-Kahn.
The latter of course would have like to be a bedbug, but didn’t go about it in the right way. As he was one of the most important of the wunch of the great and good trying to sort out Greece, we’re all going to pay for his indiscretions. I do hope the man gets a sentence in jail, even if it is less than what the prosecutors seem to be demanding, as he seems to be rather a serial whatsit and we don’t want people like him in public life, if all the stories are true. After all, how can he make a proper decious, if all he’s thinking about is the next legover.
But then the French see things differently and the Dominique Strauss-Kahn affair could all lead to some serious problems between the United States and France.
What is so stupid about all this, is that several times in my life, when I’ve stayed in top-class hotels alone, I’ve been offered serious ladies by the staff for my pleasure by the concierge or other staff. I’ve never taken them up on their offer, as I’m not that sort of person. I say person, as once in the Copley Plaza hotel in Boston, I was having a late night drink and talking to the barman, as one does, when he discretely fixed-up the lady at the other end of the bar, with someone twenty or so years her junior. All it took was one quick phone call on his part. And this was in a pre-mobile age. That lady incidentally was French and the barman said she was a regular customer.
So the French do do things differently.
The Anonymous Widower 