Battlestar Galactica

We don’t have cable or satellite, so we have to watch the really big series on DVD, specially as Mr. Murdoch has a habit of buying anything remotely successful on terrestrial. So we’ve been a little bit behind on Battlestar Galactica. We got the final series DVD a few days ago and have spent the last three nights gorging on it, we finished watching it tonight and is there really anything better on TV? Anything quite so epic? Anything that has actually improved as it’s progressed? I think a lot of people who haven’t watched it would think of it as ‘just’ sci-fi or worse, the original incarnation. I loved how it tackled so much, even if I found the heavy dose of spirituality slightly uncomfortable. I loved how the characters went on such journeys and how that was demonstrated by the flash backs to their life pre-Galactica and how for the majority, they were a lot (obviously) happier, a useful lesson for a writer who constantly reads how your characters need to undergo a ‘progression’ through your story.

Finally, I caught the trailer for the Battlestar prequel, Caprica, at the end. Now that looks good to! Potentially just as epic and I loved how it looks as if it’s styled, sort of 1930s slash futuristic. Can’t wait!

‘Tumble down’ chicken

I’ve been watching Economy Gastronomy and as much as I may moan whilst watching it that it’s not exactly a show case of normal people cutting down their food bills (last week’s family were spending £400 a week, although in their defence there were about 5 kids), I guess it’s rubbing off on me, when I received this month’s issue of Delicious magazine, suddenly their monthly feature of cooking ahead to make several dishes was very attractive (I should say recipes in Delicious aren’t actually Economy Gastronomy recipes, Delicious have actually been doing it longer, not that it’s a new thing anyway). Anyway Economy Gastronomy call it Tumble Down cooking, as you cook a dish and then it ‘tumbles down’ to dishes for the rest of the week, so that’s how I’ve been thinking of it.

So, the ‘tumble down’ recipe in this month’s (October ’09) Delicious is roast chicken, you basically roast two chickens and then strip their meat to freeze, alongside a homemade gravy, for a further three dishes; chicken and leek pie, chicken pancakes and a couscous dish. I didn’t fancy the couscous dish but I’ve, over the last three nights, roasted the chickens, made the chicken and leek pie and then tonight made the pancakes. I’ve just checked online on Delicious’ website and they (unsurprisingly) don’t have the recipes up yet, but I would, if you’re interested and in the UK, recommend buying this month’s issue, as it’s got a lot of really good looking recipes in this month, more than just the chicken dishes.

So for those who do have the recipes at hand, first up, make sure your oven is up to roasting two chickens at once, my oven is a ‘standard’ size oven but getting a bit elderly and I discovered it really wasn’t up to it, in the end I had to take one chicken out, finish roasting the other and then swap it round. So if I were to do this again I would have to find time to roast the chickens one after the other. When it came to getting the meat off the birds, sigh I’m not very good at it, I’m not a great cook of meat and although I tried my best I’m squeamish and I didn’t get as much off as I possibly could have, plus my chickens were smaller than recommended anyway. However I still managed to get off just about enough meat to make three of the dishes for just me and Mr. Lacer (I knew not to even bother with the kids). I finally froze the shredded meat in the homemade gravy, which apparently helps prevent freezer burn. I did really like the idea of freezing the meat already cooked, as I worry about not defrosting raw meat properly.

So I made the chicken and leek pie yesterday and it was delicious, chicken, leek and ham in a cream sauce topped with an interesting pie topping of scrunched up strips of filo pastry. I really liked it, it was like an upside down tart. I made the pancakes tonight, I altered the recipe slightly, using the remainder of the cream and ham that I used to make the pie yesterday, instead of having to add creme fraiche and pancetta to my shopping list as well, there was also spinach in the sauce to. It was nice but not as lovely as the pie.

One thing I noticed with both recipes however, even after reducing the amounts to feed two instead of four, they were using way too much meat and I did end up reducing even more and it didn’t seem like I was skimping. I’ve always been almost militant about excessive meat use (another reason why I’m not a great fan of Economy Gastronomy, they’d save even more money with a little less meat), I’m not a vegetarian but I believe strongly that for the sake of the planet that we need to all eat less meat, with increasing world population putting strain on our resources, we’ll feed more people with vegetarian sources of protein rather than animal protein, animal farming also increases to global warming, anyone interested in the topic should watch the very informative Future of Food on iPlayer.

So, in summary, I doubt until I get, by some miracle, a vastly improved kitchen, I’ll be roasting two chickens at once again and I can’t foresee any time when I’d be able to do one after the other. However the freezing method was useful to learn and I may do that again if I have any excess chicken. I certainly think I’ll be making the pie again, it was delicious, I think I could make the pancakes without even adding any chicken, I doubt I’d miss it in the sauce and therefore it’d be cheaper to.

So, it been an interesting three days in the kitchen, three days where I’ve felt sympathy for the poor people on Economy Gastronomy going, as they have done in each episode so far, something along the lines of “I’ve spent so much time in the kitchen, I’ve got to do something else to”, I think you can eat more cheaply and not so elaborately (and therefore more speedily) most of the time.

Battle of the mints

It’s amazing how waking up a little earlier than normal for the holidays makes me feel a little more efficient, as I managed to get some gardening done this morning. I cleared away the herbs I’ve *ahem* managed to kill and planted up the herbs I brought yesterday in Kew.

I had come out of Kew, with amongst other things, two different varieties of mint; pineapple and apple, which I am sooo curious to see how they turn out in mint tea. I planted one at each end of a trough, but there was a gap in the middle and I was kind of missing my plain old mint mint, so I went out today and brought a mint plant from the supermarket and plonked it in the middle. I think the biologist in me is rearing her head here, now I know how invasive mint is, so three mint varieties in one pot? Could get interesting. So I’m going to watch my mints battle it out for dominance.

Kew (again)

First up, I know that me going to Kew isn’t exactly news any more, I go at a bare minimum about three times a year, often more, but it’s always nice to show some photos.

This was my first trip to Kew in a while though, as I first mislaid my season ticket and then it ran out and I wasn’t going to renew as I knew we’d get our carers card soon and that meant free entry to Kew (amongst other things) for carers. So we finally got the card (about a week too late for our days out on during our staycation), so off we went.

It was also my first visit with my beloved iPhone, now I always like taking a camera around with me, but not so much so as to take my rather expensive 8MP camera, I’m happier using the camera on whatever phone I have (plus I’ve lost the memory card for the 8MP camera), but I think after switching from a camera, which ok was on a network with appalling customer service and didn’t actually do much (other than, um, make phone calls), the camera on it was really good, the iPhone camera on the other hand, not so good, so although I did take quite a few pictures today, most of them are either too dark or overexposed, they’re still serviceable, as in you can recognise what’s in them, they’re a record etc. etc. but not for this blog. So like I say, much as I’m virtually married to my iPhone, think I’m going to have to find that memory card so I can use my proper camera again!

Still, as you can see we got to see the Waterlily House, which thankfully is back to being the Waterlily House (last time we were there it was boarded over as an exhibition of orchids, I can take or leave orchids, but I do like my waterlilies. We also saw the Glass Houses which are the kids favourites and we went up the Treetop Walkway, where once again the lift was broken, so Boy Lacer had to walk all the way up to the top and then all the way down again, but it’s always lovely when you do get to the top, the horse chestnuts (I think?) were out in force this time. Then after a picnic lunch it was a trip to the soft play area, never my most favourite place, interestingly this time (for those that know Kew) the outside play area is now just a collection of muddy holes in the ground, there were signs out saying they were seeking funding for a new play area (which from the diagram looked quite good) and they said they’d hoped to have it built by late summer /Autumn, ummm no sign of building work, so I guess they haven’t got the money, which is a shame because at least the outside play area wasn’t as hot and stuffy as the indoor play area. However the indoor play area did have a bee hive this time, in a rather clever display where you could see the bees at work, for someone who has vague beekeeping fantasises, I quite liked that bit!

Then on the way home I made the ‘mistake’ of walking through their tiny garden shop and ended up coming out with six small herb pots and a rather large chilli plant for the, I think, quite the bargain price of £16 (the herbs together were £10 and the chilli plant loaded with chillies an even bigger bargain of £5.99). Some of my current herbs haven’t survived the season, the majoram (the one herb I never used) completely overwhelmed my herb planter, swamping and killing my thyme and then promptly died itself and my basil is determined to do nothing but flower, despite me keeping on pinching off the flower heads, so I have some more thyme, more basil, some parsley (which I had attempted, pretty unsuccessfully to grow from seed), apple mint, pineapple mint (I’m looking forward to some mint teas made with those) and umm something else I can’t remember right now, hopefully not more majoram! I haven’t brought any plants in a good while, so I don’t feel too bad, specially as all the profits from the Kew shops go towards conservation projects.

Well that’s an end to the ‘over excitement’ for now

Mr. Lacer has gone back to work today, so the end of our staycation, I can now get on with some more efficient housework (as the number of bodies in the flat increases the efficiency of housework decreases).

It was a good staycation though in that I think we managed it quite well to stick to tourist attractions we didn’t have to pay for (although the Transport Museum was £8 per kid, it was free for adults), travel costs really mounted up a bit. Plus I noticed a disturbing trend, pretty much every free place we went to had an extra exhibit you had to pay for (if you wanted to see it), the Science Museum had a Wallace and Gromit thing for £30 for a family ticket, the Natural History Museum had a butterfly thing, which I think would have cost us a total of £15 to get into, luckily knowing they were there and knowing how much they cost made it easier to steer the kids past them, but I can imagine for the unaware, suddenly a recession busting day out to the museums suddenly gets £45 dearer. Even the Transport Museum, which we’d already paid £16 to get into, had an additional exhibition which would have cost us £10 per child. On the flip side, yes I know these museums need to raise money but the amount of extras seem, well, extra this year.

So, anyway, a bit more back to normal now, which is not only good for the state of this flat but also good for Boy Lacer, he needs his routine, a pattern to his day and apart from still obviously having bedtime, we’ve been pretty routineless and that’s been beginning to tell on him these last few days with the quality of his behaviour.

So, apart from housework, I’m going to take the kids to the extremely exciting supermarket and maybe get a chance to continue on with the skirt I foolishly started just before the staycation (I should have known I wouldn’t have been able to continue). I’m in a baking mood to, that staycation has made us broke and I therefore need my chocolate fixes a little cheaper. Tomorrow we’re seeing friends too, which’ll be nice.

Will also try and fit in Kew, now that Boy Lacer has finally got his carer’s card it means I’ll get in free, we live so close to Kew it feels almost like our back garden and I normally have a season ticket, so it feels like I’m getting in free (normally by the end of the season it is ‘free’ as the price of what I would have paid in entrance is way more than the price of the season ticket). However when the season ticket expired in June, I knew we’d be getting the carers card at some point, so I didn’t renew and consequently no Kew, I’ve missed the place.

And then of course there’s getting ready for camping . . .

Moon Embroidery

This is meant to be the moon, please tell me it looks like the moon! I had an idea about doing a moon embroidery in sepia colours, showing where the moon craters are, sort of like an old map of the moon. When it came to doing some picture research though, I could not find any crater maps that I thought could translate well, so I decided to concentrate on the plains on the moon instead. My second problem was translating the design onto the fabric, I really need a light box. Anyway, this is the result . . . I think I like it, it’s ‘cuter’ than I intended, but cute can be good. This was meant to be a design for the shop and I am undecided whether to try the design again (once I’ve got my hands on a light box) or to sell it as it is, at a cheaper prototype price. It’s (as you can see) on my bookshelf at the moment (along with my doodle embroidery that I made the other day, which I like looking at when I’m in bed) and it’s growing on me, ahhh I can’t keep all my designs!

Procrastination

Mr. Lacer’s sometimes slightly dubious taste in TV should, in theory, be doing wonders for my writing, because when it’s on, it sends me, with no alternative, running to my bedroom, which is where I am now and have been for nearly the past hour, have I worked on my work in progress? No, I haven’t worked on it for about three weeks now and consequently I’ve lost my flow, bah humbug holidays.

But back to tonight, when I could have been working, I had literally nothing else to do, I know that because I spent 27 minutes trawling the internet just to check, I didn’t work, in part because a three week break is not good for any work in progress, whatever stage, but also more specifically, I am about half to two thirds of the way through, I know exactly how the story is going to end, I know all the steps I have to go through to get there, it’s just a case of sitting there, writing the words down and right now that doesn’t feel exactly fun. Plus, because the end is so clearly in sight now, I find myself thinking more and more about what is going to happen next . . . editing and it fills me a mixture of about two parts dread to one part excitement, so the dread is overwhelming the excitement at the moment. The dread is because I know that the edit is going to be hard, I know that I have to look at every single word and judge whether it deserves to be there or not, whether every sentence works, whether each paragraph says what I want it to say, whether that scene should even be in there and I know it’s going to be hard work. I am already aware that there are some quite significant flaws in the work and although I call it editing, it really is a second draft I’m doing here, how I see it hopefully happening is that the majority of the correction (at least by me, if it ever does get published and goes into the hands of a proper editor I know that’ll be hard work to) will be done in the second draft alongside some possible additional scenes and some fleshing out of characters and plot lines. When I complete that and after I’ve given it a rest, I will then re read again, concentrating more on spotting any mistakes I might have missed in the second draft, making sure the new scenes work and most importantly making sure the story flows cohesively. Whilst I am doing that, in probably short half an hour bursts (because I know from experience when I try and edit something that half an hour is all I can take before I start missing things), I will start my next project, that’s where the excitement comes in, there are quite a few ideas for that jostling for my attention, with a couple of key contenders.

But like I say, nothing was happening tonight, I don’t know what I do, I know what I should do, stop procrastinating and force myself to open that Word .doc and get on with it, none of that editing stage I keep thinking about is going to happen if I don’t finish the first draft. So there’s my dilemma, force myself, whilst it’s only a three week gap, it’s not that bad, compared to my other alternative, wait until Boy Lacer starts nursery, 21 September, now that’s a lot of weeks gap and I might as well chuck my ‘script out the window.

I have made myself do some writing tonight though, I think part of my problem is that I’m itching to do something fresh, so I played with the writing prompt generator on Writer’s Cafe, being strict with myself I settled for the first prompt it gave me and came up with this in the designated 15 minutes it gave me. I should warn ahead of this, is that if I’m anything I’m a children’s writer but the prompt I was given was screaming adult fiction at me, so I went with it, probably not very well (and to cover my back even more, it’s not even in my normal ‘style’).

Character 1: Bruno Spangler

Character 2: Dion Rhone

Setting: Trapped in a locked room

Goal: To rescue a child

Obstacle: Sister

“She’s done it this time,” Dion kicked off her high heels, sending them thumping against the locked door.

“Dad will stop her.”

“Yeah like hell he will, darling Gloria can do no wrong. To steal a child, on today of all days.”

“You sound like you’re more fussed about the fact that she did it on your wedding day.”

Dion picked up her shoe and threw it against the door again for emphasis, “You know you could be a man Bruno and try and force the door down.”

“I’m sure it’s nothing personal against you Dion, this was the first chance Gloria had to see Leonor.”

“She’s unhinged, that’s what she is, I shouldn’t have invited her, but oh no Dad insisted, mustn’t hurt poor ickle wickle Gloria’s feelings should we? And now she’s run off with my bridesmaid. The door Bruno”

Bruno reluctantly got up from the bed and shambled to the back of the small hotel room, not much of a run up he thought, he was going to do his shoulder in again. One last look at Dion, no, she wasn’t going to sit there quietly, he had to do it, Bruno took a run for the door. Just as his shoulder, injured in a football accident five years previously, made its painful contact with the cheap wood, the door was pulled open, sending Bruno sprawling into the ornamental display of plastic flowers outside.