The Milk Has Gone Off
I don’t think it is the milk, as two cartons; one of goat and the other of cow have both turned in the night. Now I know that a carton of Waitrose goat’s milk usually lasts about two weeks, so being two days past its sell by date wouldn’t be the problem. But the date on the cow’s milk was the 25th December.
So it doesn’t to me seem to be the milk, but the fridge. As various shelves have been broken by the tenants and there are no instruction manuals, it seems this is another chapter in the cooker saga, but with a different piece of equipment.
But this is not so serious, as I have a reliable wine fridge, which is not full, so I can use that instead for the milk. That fridge is also by Baumatic, so it isn’t their products that are a problem.
Whilst I had my shower I got thinking about this. As an Innocent smoothie was also solid, it could be that the fridge was too cold and just froze it solid. But the fridge was on a low setting, so I suspect that it’s gone kaput! It’s a Siemens, but then so was the train home on Saturday.
Snuggling Down
Today, I’d intended to do a lot more, but the cold weather was against it.
So I met my new cleaner and got her instructions on to what I needed to buy to do the cleaning! I then went to Maplins to get a long HDMI cable, so that I could watch the football on a large screen. I’ve actually mounted the television on a swivel, so that I can watch it either from the living room or the kitchen off it.
I’ll watch the football, whilst having supper of a microwaved cod Mornay from Marks and then get over the electric blanket and under the duvet. I’d like to wake a bit later, but hopefully still early enough to see the eclipse of the moon.
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Cooking is Easy
I finally cooked something properly last night. It was one of my version of a Jamie Oliver fish pie.
It was actually easier than in my previous house, but mainly because the work surfaces were laid out better with respect to the sink and the cooker.
The only problem I had was getting the oven to work, as I have no instruction manual and I couldn’t find the type of Baumatic cooker, I have on their web site. There is no indication on the front of the cooker what model it is either. Incidentally, I have the same problem with an old television. It should be law that the model number is easily found and that manuals are on the Internet. It perhaps in one thing with a television, but cookers can be dangerous things, so perhaps they are a totally different matter.
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Carluccio’s Offer
Carluccio’s are now giving out vouchers for a two for one offer on main courses to customers. There are a few conditions, but none would seem to apply to the gluten-free menu. They must be used between the 4th January and the 13th of February next year. I suspect that won’t be a problem for me, as I’m now well known in the Upper Street branch and eat there at least twice a week with my son.
Rear Window
I took this picture, through the rear window of a 277 bus yesterday.
Through the Rear Window of a 277 Bus
I then walked round Highbury Corner and had lunch in Carluccio’s in Upper Street, before getting my provisions in Waitrose at the Angel.
Snow in Upper Street
Home was just a walk to Upper Street, with my backpack loaded with veetables and the other heavy stuff and one of Waitrose’s Quick Check carriers with all the other stuff. Once on Upper Street, a 38 bus took me to within a hundred metres of home.
It was all so easy. And yet there were people still driving around looking for parking spaces.
I’m Moving Today
Or should I say, that the removers are picking up everything today. Tonight, I’ll be in a sleeping bag in my new house, ready for them to turn up on Wednesday. This may seem a bit silly, but last time we moved here, we were in a hotel and it was a disaster. So perhaps to prove to myself, I’m not a wreck, I’ll sleep on the floor. But it is a heated floor!
The other point is that I’d sooner spent the £100 or so for the hotel room on something nice for the house or a good meal. At least breakfast tomorrow is sorted, as there’s a Carluccio’s in Upper Street.
Genius at the Angel, Islington
It has been increasingly difficult to buy Genius bread in Suffolk lately. But there was plenty in the small gluten-free section at Waitrose at the Angel. So I brought one back for my breakfast.
An Objective in Life!
Last night, I was writing to a friend about the pubs near to my new house. I said the following.
My local is just four doors away, but it needs educating. All it serves is crap upside-down lager and chemical cider. But there are a few Adnams pubs within a few minutes walk. And most Adnams pubs serve the best cider in the world, Aspall, which has been crafted in Suffolk since 1728.
Perhaps my first objective in life is to celebrate their tri-centenary. I’ll only be 81!
I used to worry that because my father and his father died so young, that I might suffer the same fate. But now I’m more optimistic, especially as I’e found out that most of my grandfather’s brothers and my mother and both grandmothers, lived either well into their eighth decade or even into their ninth.
So perhaps, it’s an objective I stand a chance of fulfilling. I’m certainly going to give it a good shot!
Is it Me or My Cooking Skills?
I sometimes blame the stroke for my clumsiness, but I’m not sure it’s always to blame.
Take lunch today, when I thought I’d have some smoked salmon with scrambled egg. You’d think that the most difficult job would be cracking the eggs without getting any shell into the basin to mix them all up with a bit of milk and some salt and pepper. But no, it was separating the smoked salmon from it’s packaging. I had to pull it to open the outside packaging, which actually wasn’t too difficult, but I couldn’t get the slices apart without ending up with effectively minced salmon on the plate.
Now my mother taught me how to crack eggs and always said you should crack them into a cup first. But remember in those far off days of the 1950s, you occasionally got an egg with a chick inside it. They smelt something rotten too! So I often still crack them into a cup first, so that if I make a hash of it and get half the shell in it, I can get another cup and start again. But of the perhaps several dozen eggs I’ve cracked since the stroke, I’ve only had to go fishing for bits of shell in perhaps one or two. That would have been about the same number as before.
On the other hand, no-one has ever taught me how to disentangle smoked salmon from its tight packaging. So I’ve just learned badly on the job.
Now when it comes to cooking one of my fish pies, they seem very little different than before, except that I do have problems mashing the potatoes, which might be understandable. Or it might be that I just have very bad basic cooking skills! On the other hand I don’t have any problems peeling potatoes, but I think it was something my mother taught me when I was quite young.
So could it be that things taught to you as a small child, stay with you no matter what happens?
All comments are welcome!
Recession! What Recession?
Or is it just that some people have more money than sense!
But why are people paying £129 for one of Heston Blumental’s christmas puddings, that he created for Waitrose? The story is here in the Daily Mail.
I don’t care and I suspect it’s not gluten free!
The Anonymous Widower 