Halloween, eh?

Pursuant to the Geneva Convention -
     This year the small ragged children coming to beg for comestibles are not to be hurled into the lower dungeons of BOOJUM! mansion to keep company with the walsprots, plappergeists and snarks amid the bones of last years beggars. 

The airy upper dungeons, with occasional sunlight, some rainwater and plenty of moss

Q.  What do you call His Highness of Halloween?
A.  Pumpking.

More of Pumpkins
     May I present to you the carving skills of Wonder Wife:

Wide angle shot


A rather better contrast shot
 

There you go, what a bit of ingenuity and a sharp knife can do.  Don't go away now, there is more.  What did Conrad do with the extracted* flesh?  Why I put it in a pie.  A cheesecake, actually.

Still cooling so still in tin

Since I have now completed my jury service, I'll be taking this into work tomorrow for the charity scoff, much to Darling Daughter's displeasure as she fondly if a little naievely expected just stick her face into it, solo**.

 Q. What does a camel eat at Halloween?
A. Humpkin

Battleships again
     This is the USS Zumwalt, actually a destroyer and thus much smaller than a battleship, but I have to keep the strained analogy going:

At the helm, Captain Kirk.  Yes, really!

The prow struck me as curious, since battleships of a century ago had a similar convex hull shape.  In their case it was a "Torpedo bulge" intended to prevent those sinister submarine weapons from breaching the hull.  The hull above - well, who knows ...

Q. How do aristocrats celebrate Halloween?
A. With a Pompkin

Back to Battleships
     Only the paper version:

Before

This is the first puzzle I got utterly lost on.  Having gotten rid of the pencil scrawl, I am going to have another go.  Look for results tomorrow.

*Pumpkin flesh.  Pumpkin!  and definitely not human.
** If this was a banoffee pie she would indeed scarf the whole thing, solo.

Pub Quiz beckons - I now have to go trawl tabloid tat newsites, for vapid celebrity gossip about people I don't know doing things I don't care about for reasons I don't like.  O the hardship!

BOOJUM! - Bustling and Baking

 - and Biscuit-Basing
     In anticipation of returning to work as per usual Friday, I have been busy this evening, for is not Conrad a creature of his word?
     Yes he is.  So, since Manisha had selected Pumpkin Cheesecake weeks ago when there were no pumpkins, I had to saw the top of our giant vegetable purchase, then use an ice-cream scoop to remove the pith and seeds, then scrape the flesh out with a metal spoon.
     I shall have to puree some 150g of the flesh tomorrow, since I haven't got enough cream cheese to make the cheesecake part.  I did make the biscuit base, however, whilst watching "Masterclass" - an offspring of the Great British Bake-Off where the judges show you how to make the recipes they chose.
     So!  Tomorrow I do the cheesecake.
     Meanwhile tonight I've got a load of bread dough proving.  No, I shall not abandon the bread to cook unloved and unwatched in the oven!

Burnt bread or meteorite?  Only you can decide!

Yes, Free-Form Rock
     Not long ago, Darling Daughter came into the kitchen, where I was playing "Close To The Edge" by Yes.
     "Why are you listening to free-form rock?" she asked.  Conrad blustered a bit about how it's a classic album from the Seventies.
     She did strike a chord*, though.  I've always felt Yes were closer to jazz than that hideous label bandied about back in the day "ethereal quasi-classical".
     Conrad.  Who's been about a bit.  And who still can't make sense of Jon Anderson's lyrics.

It looks great.  What is it?

You May Be Wondering ...
     How come BOOJUM! is still here, after the imminent assault by the Cuddly Piranhas two nights ago.
     The remains of the Cuddly Piranhas:

Filleted fish

 Help arrived at the last minute - the defecting messenger-mice decided that life at the  BOOJUM! mansion was infinitely preferable to life in the wild - smelly, dirty and no Wi-Fi - and returned just in time to annihilate the feral fish.

Mess not with mutant monster messenger-mice.

 Right, off to babysit bread!

Tomorrow - Audubon's Guide to the Vampire Fowl of North America

* Sorry, couldn't resist the pun.

Aha! Today's Theme - Doctor Who

Way back in time -
     Not long arrived on the planet, Conrad grew up with children's television programmes like "The Woodentops", "Supercar" and "Pinky and Perky".
     Then along came Doctor Who.  The theme music was a terrifying electronic score, the background to a bleak and un-nerving title sequence, there were Daleks, and lots of people got killed.  It terrified me; I would flee to the top of the stairs when it came on, arriving slightly earlier each week until able to sit through a whole episode.  The Cybermen still creep me out.

The Doctor is In.

Let's Time Travel
     Because we can.  I mentioned "Empire", the film magazine, yesterday.  This is a potentially dangerous artefact that needs to be treated with care, as you can carelessly pick it up, browse for a few minutes and then discover an hour and a half have gone by.  What did I see in it?  This photo:

No it's not a robot - vintage 1960 television camera

That's David Bradley, not William Hartnell, and I had to look closely to realise who it was and who it wasn't.  Someone, somewhere, in Casting, made a good choice.  Have a BOOJUM!-powered pat on the back!

Why So Popular? - or - The Doctor Is In
     In ages past, Doctor Who was seen by the powers-that-be at the BBC as something rather distasteful, vulgar and silly and "Wouldn't you rather buy our Bristol wildlife series or a funny game-show with Bruce Forsyth?"
     The view became less set over time, with the video releases earning the BBC about £10 million.  By 2005, people in the corridors of power were those who had grown up with the programme and they didn't see it as trivial or worthless.
     Hey pesto!  The Doctor reappears after a sixteen year hiatus, to universal acclaim.  I still have to pinch myself to see if this is real.
     It is real, isn't it? 

A question I ask myself every single day!

 A Confession
     The zombie novel didn't get any input last night because <ahem> I was reading an old fan-fiction novel I'd written years ago.  "City In The Sky", probably still available on the Fanfiction website. Yes, Doctor Who.  No, this one is Seventh Doctor and Ace.

[A moment's ferreting-about on the internet occurs]

Herein the link:

http://www.fanfiction.net/s/6385277/1/CITY-IN-THE-SKY

Warning: it is quite long.

So - Tanks?
     NO!

A Note To Our Readers
     Due to customer feedback, please replace all prior mentions of "Wifey" with "Wonder Wife", and amend all references to darling daughter with the following capitalisation:  "Darling Daughter".  Thankyew.

Crikey Dick Van Dykey*!

Or, Serendipity
     Last night Conrad was musing in the kitchen, thinking deep dark thoughts.  "What was that BBC ghost story about a painter I saw decades ago?" inspired by nothing in particular.
     Like many a thought, this one passed without being recorded for posterity, until a couple of hours ago.  Conrad was perusing in the kitchen, specifically reading the latest edition of  "Empire", unseen till that very moment, and which publication you ought to be familiar with.  What did I come across on a page-sized advert listing BBC ghost stories?  Quite.  "Schalken The Painter", from 1979.

Mine was Serendipity.  Hers will be Traumadipity.

Perhaps I should have saved that one until Halloween.

More of Bread
     Last night's loaf, once the burnt crust had been scraped off, was perfectly edible.  To prove it wasn't just Conrad-made-it-he'll-damn-well-eat-it bloody-mindedness, Wifey had a couple of slices, toasted.
     Then today I pondered about making a French loaf.  Forget the baguettes in shops, the oven simply isn't big enough for those.  It did fit two foot-long baguettes - that is, two baguettes each a foot long as shown below:

Before Conrad sliced one open and scoffed some, just to test it.

These will now have to age a few days before I can comfortably dip them in a cup of hot Marmite.

Winter Plumage
     Darling daughter is currently cleaning, tidying and hoovering her room.  She discarded a fine furry hat that Conrad can now wear for the winter, with the addition of a layer of tinfoil on the inside, of course.  Can't be too careful.

Conrad, rendered speechless by darling daughter

"Speechless" because the untidiness of that room is legendary.  Our towels formed a liberation movement to free their comrades trapped in there, and textile scientists are asking curious questions about the layers of fossilized clothing found at the bottom of several piles in a corner.  Rumours about Japanese soldiers still hiding in cupboards are untrue, however (they were chased away by the Russian ones).

So - Tanks?
     No!  Battleships, instead.  Not the big steel things stuffed with guns and missiles, but the logic puzzle version thereof.  I had been miserably unsuccessful with two previous attempts, but this morning I nailed a third attempt, then went back and re-did the second.
     "We don't believe you!  Show us the evidence!" I hear you cry.  Well, okay:

The triple Logic tick of triumph

Well, that's all for to - what's that noise?

O Noes!  The cuddly piranhas are back, with jungle reinforcements!

Man the barricades!  Deploy the felt cannon and Velcro shotguns!  BOOJUM! prepares to go down fighting!


* Nothing in this post, or the entire blog for that matter, has anything to do with Mr Van Dyke, it's just that his name rhymes.

I Bake - But Not Of Cake

The Staff Of Life
     Bread, in other words.  For the first time in years, probably 4, I'm baking a loaf of bread.  This follows on from the Chelsea Buns, Muffins, Poppy Seed Roll and Monkey Bread.  Why the sudden concern with leavened goods?  Because I used to make them and re-discovered it's not that difficult.
     Having said that, I have managed to over-brown the bread by forgetting to turn it in the oven. Oh well, I'll know better next time.

Ten minutes later - make that "burnt" not the delicate euphemism "over-browned".  I should have been in the kitchen turning the tin every ten minutes and covering the whole with tinfoil well before 45 minutes were up.  After scraping the black away, it is still edible - I've just had two slices.
     Just hang on - I wouldn't do this for everyone -

A piebald loaf

 About that pumpkin -
     It was there on the windowledge, so -

Blender is there to give scale

 

Meanwhile, In A Nearby Glass ...
     Sat some of this:

Add caption

Wifey bought this for me as she was taken to the extremes of hilarity at the name.  For those of you who are not fluent in Yorkshire, this is dialect for "Shut your mouth".  And no, I don't know why there are monkeys on the label.

So - Tanks?
     Nope, not today.  Today we have - a Giant Whelk!

Trust me, it's huge.

Right! That zombie novel still needs working on.  Off I go

One Weekend At the Palace of BOOJUM!

It Began - Slowly
     Conrad didn't roll out of bed until late, because I can.  After donning my human disguise, it's then time to see what the world is up to via the BBC website, then to check my e-mails and then to see if my legion of loyal readers have been reading, loyally.
     Tut, readers, tut!  Not enough reading!  5 out of 10.  Must do better.

That Hex-and-Counter Wargame
     I realise this may send some of you to sleep, so I'll be brief.  I'm still making amendments to the current rule-set - which isn't complete - whilst watching "World War Z" and drinking beer*.  Here is half the sheet, which is still about six times bigger than your average game sheet.  About 56,000 hand-drawn hexagons, which took some four months to do; it would have been quicker were Conrad not continually watching films to kill the boredom.

Can't see the hexes?  They're there, believe me.

Facebook Sidebar Irony
     There's an advert for men's leather shoes there.  Sadly I had to put down a pair of mine today, the stitching had come apart where my feet were too wide.  I did resist for several weeks, mostly by wearing dark socks so the rips didn't show, but eventually I had to do the right thing.
     A moment's silence for Conrad's shoes, please.

In Memoriam. 

You may now proceed to the rest of today's blog.

"Get Your Ass To Mars"**
     That touchstone of accurate and timely information, the BBC website, has a feature on how India is looking to get it's Martian probe to the red planet before China:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/science-environment-24550971

In competition with Japan, too, in addition to Russia, the USA and ESA.  To quote Gene Roddenberry (I may have done in the past, but it bears repetition):"Did aliens build the pyramids?  No.  Human beings did, because they're clever and they work hard."
     We're sending the robotic probes to Mars now - I predict a manned - sorry, personned - mission there within my lifetime***.

Established by scientists, not Big Brother rejects!

Pumpkin
     We here in the UK only ever get these vegetables on sale at this time of year.  I use a saw to get the top off, and a melon-baller to scoop out the flesh, and a bribe to darling daughter to carve the shell.  The flesh is pretty bland, to be honest, and it needs plenty of flavouring if you're going to make soup or pie out of it.
     IIRC, Manisha - hello Manisha! - asked for Pumpkin Cheesecake from the Hummingbird Bakery Cookbook, and since I now have a Giant Pumpkin Conrad supposes he'll have to honour the request.
     The giant vegetable currently reposes on the kitchen windowsill because it's too big to fit anywhere else.

A generic pumpkin picture, because mine is downstairs and I'm not going to trot off to photograph it for you.

So - Tanks?
     This is not cruel and un-natural punishment -

A tank.  Not what you first think of when the word "swim" is mentioned.

It's a Panzer III (count the return rollers) that's been waterproofed and is going to be dropped to the seabed so it can drive to shore.  My bet is that the genius who invented this didn't have to test it.

Tot siens!

*Multi-tasking man!
** Yes, it's a film quote.  No, I'm not telling which one, until tomorrow.
*** Although, unlike puny humans, Conrad's lifetime is well into triple figures.

Spock's Beard! Porcupine Tree! Bosnian Rainbows!

Or, What Is This I Find In My Grooveshark Collection?
     The blog title might sound like Tom Clancy's collection of yet-to-be released Codenamed Novel Titles (all clocking in at eight kilos each).
     Well it's not.  These are legitimate indieprogmetal rock groups, whom I have added to my Grooveshark collection.  I am pleased to note that Spock's Beard correctly positioned the apostrophe, for Conrad is nothing if not a spelling and grammar Na - stickler.  Spelling and grammar stickler.  I find I add these groups and tracks and forget about them until days or weeks later - when they come as a pleasant surprise.
     What's that squawking?  It's those Damn Seagulls!

No!  I said Damn Seagulls, not a Flock!

Typical
     Whilst waiting for the jury bailiff to return, Conrad ventured to answer the call of nature.
     We had been waiting for a good fifteen minutes without any interruption, and what happens during my brief sojourn to the water closet?  Yes, the jury bailiff returns.  Additional embarrassment ensues as, quite by happenstance, Conrad has been nominated Fore-person.
     Colour me embarrassed.  Next!

A Rare Political Moment on BOOJUM!
     Jack Straw is to stand down as MP for Blackburn at the next election. For those not familiar with the UK political system, Mr Straw is currently the Member of Parliament for Blackburn, but he is not willing to be in this position any longer, so someone else can take up the cudgels on his behalf.
     Moyra, ex-work colleague, who lives in Mr Straw's constituency, used to regale us with tales of how he would set up shop outside a shop and take requests from members of the public.  Not a politician concerned about being precious, Mr Straw.

These may belong to him, but they aren't him.  Dumayu?

The Cruel Sea
     I have neither read the novel, nor seen the film, but a friend whose opinion I trust reckoned it to be a classic, so Conrad has another film (amongst the other 10) to view over the weekend. 
     A dirty job, watching films for posterity, but some of us have to do it.

Cruel?  Looks positively Eeeevil!

A List
     Fortunately for you, readers, Conrad is not a fan of Liszt, or the puns would multiply beyond reason here.  Apparently I have to watch a collection of films as follows:  The Returned; Cloud Atlas; Robot and Frank; The Wee Man; White Tiger; The Numbers Station; Say Anything; The Fall.  Why?  Because this list was written down upon a piece of paper.  Quite what it means is beyond me.  Perhaps astronauts from the future travelled back in time across Europe - <Mr Hand posits that absent-mindedness is the cause here>

So - Tanks?

Up the Skins!

This, ladies and gentlemen, is a Cromwell in action, supporting the Inniksilling Dragoon Guards, whom are notably gallant and rambunctious soldiers of the British Army in WW2.  Note the Bren Gunner in centre foreground and the Dingo scout car at mid right.

Wellllll, off to finish the Avocado and Coconut ice-cream ... 





    
    

No Cake For You!

Because You Were Bad!
     No, dear reader, I am not traducing you.  I mean my work colleagues, who will not be getting a cake tomorrow, as I will not be in work tomorrow.  Not with them, anyway.  They might not have been bad, either, but you know I have to practice at being horrid, it doesn't come naturally.
     What's that you say?  The Monkey Bread I baked last night? 

No Monkeys were harmed in the making of this cake.

Ah, but they don't know I baked it!  I only put a few photos on an obscure website called "Facbok", nobody'll ever catch on.

Pub Quiz Tonight
     I have been doing mostly logic puzzles in my spare time this week, instead of swotting up on tabloid tat or vapid celebrity pap.  Fortunately for us, my darling daughter will be on-strength tonight, so our score for the picture round may reach double figures*.  Must also remember - if taking food away from pub, sign disclaimer.  It's not really needed in my case, but human beings are known to have sensitive stomachs.

To you, lethal toxins.  To Conrad, milkshake flavourings!

Just FYI, Not FYR**
     It is possible to render yourself immune to poisons.  Not that you would ever do so, unless you have an especially dog-eat-dog work environment or your children think you are a practitioner of the black arts, but it is possible.
     How?  Well you start off with a very, very dilute solution of the poison or poisons you wish to be protected from.  You consume this until you stop frothing at the mouth and spasming uncontrollably, then increate the concentration.  Done gradually - the only way, because if you get it wrong - done gradually, you build up a toleration and can consequently quaff foaming tankards of deadly poison that would finish off whole busloads of people.  Mithridates VI of antiquity used this method to prevent assassination by poison.  Didn't stop him being skewered upon a sword, mind ...


So - Tanks?

This might be the front.  Or the back.

Yes, meet the Martel One-Man Tank.  Just as there are one-man women, so there are one-man tanks, and this is one.  Built in Mr Martel's garage, this pant-wetting terror on tracks was intended to be operated by one man, who also had to operate (the apparently virtual) weapon, and was intended to swamp enemy defences by sheer overwhelming force of numbers.  Since only 12 were built, the War Office's idea of "sheer overwhelming force of numbers" is obviously different from yours and mine.

* This would be impressive indeed, as there are only 10 questions
** For Your Replay

Bedraggled But Back

Forsooth! The Rain in Spain - has apparently followed football fans here
     Conrad had to brave the angled torrents of H2O that threw themselves from the skies this morning, on a twenty minute trek to his current assigned workplace. 
     I cannot trust my hood to keep water off - when I used to drape it over the banister our cats would perch on it, and to remain on the sharply-angled surface, they would dig their claws in.  My waterproof hood is waterproof no longer.
     Nor was my umbrella up to the job.  I bought it for £1.50 in September last year and have gotten more than my money's worth out of it, poor mutilated leaking thing.
     As I got closer to work, I encountered a group of young men in "Real Sociedad" tee-shirts and football strip, trying to shelter under a single umbrella, getting as wet as I was.
     Well, I hope they enjoy their trip to Manchester, whatever the result* - and take the rain home with you!

Rain where it should be.  We've got enough!

Woeful and Wet
     Thanks to the precipitation described above, I was wet on the outside.  Thanks to not tightening the cap on my water bottle, my rucksack was wet on the inside.  Reading book and logic puzzle book are now a bit damp and soggy.  My notebook is unscathed, as is my diary.  Small mercies.

Seek a Greek Clique
     I know, I know, stretching it a bit with the rhyming there.  What, I hear you wonder, is Conrad wittering on about now?  Cooking? Plate-smashing?  Holidays abroad?  The History of the Peloponnesian War**?
     Music!  Nor am I talking about domestic Vangelis or bouzouki-strumming minstrels.  No, I mean the music of two and a half thousand years ago.

The BBC - font of all knowledge - has more details:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-24611454

Now, Conrad has read a fair few Greek classics in his time (translated into English, I'm not that clever) and this seems like quite the revelation.  I look forward to seeing the results on Youtube.

Monkey See, Monkey Dough
     Excuse the horrid pun.  I came across a recipe for "Monkey Bread" recently, a bread made up of lots of dough balls, tossed in nuts, rum and cinnamon and baked in a springform ring tin.  I have the ingredients but not the tin -

The article in question.

I do have a springform tin.  The question is, can I find an item to substitute for the central flute?  And will it stay put under the impact of proving dough and then a very hot oven?
     Well, time permitting, I may find out tonight.

Probably a bit out of scale.  Just a smidgeon.

So - Tanks?
     I wanted to get a photo that gave an impression of size (or lack of it).


Behold the mighty Locust!  Appropriately enough, sitting in a barren field

This little chap is the M22 Locust, designed and intended to be used in airborne operations as it only weighed 7 tons and you could almost put it in your back pocket.

*  Conrad - not interested in football, won't bother looking up the result
** By Thucydides.  A very interesting book about the clash between Sparta and Athens, and their allies.  Required reading in the US Marine Corps because <Mr Hand intervenes to prevent death-by-boredom>














         

Stuffin' With Muffin

Yes, Baking as a Theme Again.  And no, I'm not sorry!
     Over the past week or so I've baked about 40 muffins - only one remains, from the last batch.  There's no worry about them going mouldy or stale since they get et within days.  I shall try to do another batch tonight, blog and The Great British Bake Off permitting.
     I also realise where I went wrong with the Poppy Seed Roll.  When I next bake it, Conrad will cunningly use the muffin bread recipe, scaled down to 3/4, since that recipe has the correct ratio of yeast to liquid.

No photo of mine yet, but it wasn't this bad.

It's Tuesday evening, so it must be -
     Celebrate 1,000th Extrasolar Planet Day!
     In fact the tally stands at over 1,000, with 12 of those candidates being in the "Goldilocks Zone" where they are neither too hot nor too cold.  A total of 1.2% of exoplanets being possibly able to sustain life is quite a show-stopper, since there are 300 billion stars in our galaxy alone.  Not all those stars will have planets, but from Hubble and Keppler and Wasp, we know that most of them will.
     Kind of puts humans in perspective, what?

Our Galaxy, from above.  Yes, it is an artistic impression.  No, you can't see your house from here.

If It's Tuesday Evening it must be -
     The end of The Great British Bake-Off.  Our 3 finalists had to really pull the stops out tonight: picnic pie ("pay attention Conrad I want one of those" = Family chorus), pretzels and a three-tier wedding cake.  I shan't tell you who won, but it wasn't someone BOOJUM! manor had selected from the raffle basket.  We had an update of last year's entrants, and a vignette for each of this year's contestants.
     Having watched and loved it, NO! there is no way I am ever approaching it.

- unless you have one of these, in which case "Hello Mel, Sue, Paul and Mary!"

So - Tanks?

Nope, not coming to do your drains

    Meet the Trojan.  This is an engineering vehicle without any big nasty guns poking out all over the place.  It does have the rather ferocious mine-blades at the front, so you wouldn't be wise to try and stop it.  That giant bundle of tubing is a "fascine" - if other tanks encounter a wide ditch they can't cross, they whistle up a few Trojans, the fascines get placed in the ditch, the tanks drive over.  Plus, that giant mechanical arm holding the fascine in place is also an excavator, and a grapple.  Since it's a British armoured vehicle, it will also come with a facility for making brews - possibly the most important equipment in any AFV.

Got to go recruit some more messenger-mice - the mansion's previous occupants of this role have gone rogue and reverted to the wild.  Beware of talking mice!

Out of the way!

Not that "Out of the way", this "Out of the way"
     In the sense of not getting underfoot.  The kitchen, normally Conrad's fiefdom, is now being used by other folk, so here I am out of the way in the Upstairs Lair.  Once the messenger-mice come back with news that the villains have left the piece, I shall return.
     Then, too, I am not in my usual workplace this week.  In fact I have effectively been paid to sit and do logic puzzles and read books, so I'm glad my work colleagues cannot see me, or they'd be jealous.  Today I managed five logic puzzles on the trot, and got them all right - so perhaps I am entitled to shout "Out of the way!  Logical dodgical!"

This came up when I Googled "Logic".  Puzzling.

Ack Phooey*!  My cup of tea is nearly empty!  I shall have to venture into the kitchen whilst those fiends are disporting there.  Hang on a mo -

- I shall have to execute the messenger-mice, they've let me down - that kitchen was empty.

Technical Issues
     Those of you not interested in wargaming design can skip this bit as it isn't easy to make such a subject either i) sexy or ii) amusing. 
     Although if Conrad was asked what one of his hobbies was and mumbled the reply "It'shexandcounterwargaming" a few eyebrows would rise! (say it aloud)
     There.  Sex, humour and wargaming in one sentence <snaps fingers boastfully, suffers painful joint twist, whimpers pitifully>
     Ah yes.  Being a creature of habit, Conrad has printed his rules out and gone over them to make notations in longhand. I finally realised that having only a single Machine Gun unit/counter per division wasn't realistic or workable in game terms.  I did have a fudge in the rules that allowed this unit to be split up between different regiments or brigades, but having more units removes this awkwardness.  So, British divisions now have 4 MG units, German divisions now have 3.  And yes this is a balance because at this date (mid-to late 1917) British divisions have a nominal strength of 12,000 men versus the German nominal total of 9,000.
  I have also <Mr Hand intervenes to point out that abstract wittering does not make for an interesting blog>

This man is a typical wargamer.  Really.  Yes, really**!

Dom Joly - Who Knew!
     Whilst lounging around today, doing my reading (I've just finished "Afgantsy") I had my back to the lounge's VCR and television.  What caught my ear?  "Novocaine for the Soul", the first Eels song I ever heard.  This was followed up by Grandaddy and a couple of other songs I liked.  Then came an instrumental, opening with treated electric piano - I like it, I don't recognise it - I'm going to be shuttling between Wiki and Grooveshark tonight until I find out what it was.
     Oh, and Dom? - good taste in music.

So - Tanks?
     Following on from our music theme ...

Doesn't really need a caption!

* I nicked this from a "Peanuts" comic book back in 1972
**  No, not really

Right!  Off to chase those messenger-mice with the cheese chainsaw!







    

Baking and BOOJUM!

Muffins
     English ones.  Yesterday I baked 10 and they were all gone by this afternoon.  So I've baked another batch of 10 and we'll see how long these last.  When darling daughter arrives home they may vanish even swifter.

Poppy Seed Roll
     Not tried this before.  An enhanced dough with a filling of poppy seeds, dried fruit, ground almond and cinnamon.  The poppy seeds and dried fruit are soaking as I type - once blog is posted Conrad will start the kneading.

Er that's all the baking today. 

Phew!
      The BBC website has a feature about how a Mary Poppins sequel was not made.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/entertainment-arts-24581937

A narrow escape ...

Daubed with the blood of "Mama Mia"'s cast

No tanks today.  But we do have this:

It leaves

 I'd be worried about this.  It's only a small step  to Triffids from here. 














Of Book and Cook

Book
     The book is "Afgantsy", written by Rodric Braithwaite.  Who he?  Ex-British Ambassador to the Soviet Union/Russia, is who.  It's a measured and analytical tome about the Russians in Afghanistan, primarily from the Russian point of view.  Since Conrad was around at the time the Russians were busy invading and attempting to sovietise the country, seeing facts and figures about what was only guessed at the time is illuminating.

Cook
     I have just made 10 English muffins with a 3 1/2" cookie cutter, and they look about right, not too small and not too big.  The real test, of course, is when they get cut open and then we'll see if they got proved for long enough.
     I have also been researching a dish I remember from childhood - fish doria.  There aren't any set recipes for it, bar the use of white sauce and rice, so I may have a go at it tomorrow.  And use rice flour instead of wheat for the sauce.
     A need has also arisen for comparing how much dry yeast to use as opposed to fresh yeast; that Poppy Seed Roll recipe uses fresh not dried.  Google be my friend!

Yeast being idle.

I Feel The Darkness Closing In!
     Oh.  Ah.  It's just that the sun is setting.  And it isn't even half-four yet.  When do the clocks go back? <checks diary> Next Sunday.  So I can get up at half ten and yet it will only be nine thirty.  A lie-in, however, does not compensate for months of getting up in the dark and arriving home in the dark.


Beer O'clock!
     Or is it?  When is it appropriate to start drinking at the weekend?

They lie in the fridge, taunting me.  Taunting, I tell you!

I'm not driving anywhere, I don't have to go to work tomorrow, yet is 16:30 late enough?  I shall go consult Plato, maybe Kant as well.  That modern American philosopher Philip K. Dick would doubtless have been on his second bottle of wine by now, so I'm not asking him.

Cherry Ghost
     No, Valentina, not a hip street name for drugs!  I mean the band.  Not exactly prolific, we've had an album once every three years, which means one is due NOW THANK YOU VERY MUCH!
     I shall be waiting, Mr Aldred*, I shall be waiting.

So - Tanks?
     Take a look at this chap:

0 - 35 in two and a half minutes

This bad boy is a Centurion BARV**.  No it's not Hebrew - it's the acronym for "Beach Armoured Recovery Vehicle", based on the chassis of a Centurion tank.  Whenever we Brits mount an amphibious operation, these peculiar beasts will be sitting on the shoreline, ready to tow or salvage any other vehicle that comes to grief before getting onto terra firma.

Right, time to go test-drive those muffins!

* Simon, the driving force behind the band
** As you already knew, this photo comes from the Modern annex at Bovvie.