Phew - Yesterday Was Baking!

 Well It Was!
Though possibly not in the way you interpreted.  For on Thursday I had my day off, since I'd be working Saturday - which is my birthday, and you're welcome - so I decided to put a bit of an effort in and bake stuff, which I've not done for a while.
     Thus - hang on, you didn't think this had anything to do with ambient temperature, did you?* As in "Wow this day was exceptionally hot and sunny", did you?*
     Please.
     Here an aside.  Rosie and Phil, whom you will know as my Pub Quiz partners, are due to attend the Cotton Clouds Festival as of Friday and Saturday.  Art?

Thus

     I've actually seen She Drew The Gun at Sounds From The Other City last year.  Boasting over, Rosie and Phil informed me that they have to erect an enormous tent for the festival, which generally takes about an hour to do as they only use it once per year and consequently forget exactly how to put it up thanks to an interval of 365 days.  Plus, the weather forecast consists of gale-force winds and torrential rain.
     Less cotton and more storm, I would venture.

The bucolic venue, in kinder climes

     We have our fingers crossed for them, and hope they brought a life-raft and emergency flares.
     Anyway, back to the subject of heat, or baking.  First off was a Spiced Date And Fig Loaf, because I didn't have enough dates.  Art?

     It wasn't that popular, so next time I'd better add whisky or brandy or both.  Since there is some left, and it is my birthday on Saturday - did I mention that? - I may push the boat out and have a slice or <blows vuvuzela> two!
     Next came Ginger Biscuits, where Conrad had to improvise as there was no muscovado or soft light brown or soft dark brown sugar, only <winces> Demerara.  Which is merely white caster coloured brown.  Still, the plate was emptied in about nothing flat.  Art?

     Then there were the gluten-free Brownies, which went off the plate at speeds approaching that of light, so quickly did the gannets gather.  Art?

     These ones are cooling upside down, as otherwise they sink into the rack.
     So, as you can see, the day was indeed baking.
     Ah, motley, glad you could make it here.  No crocodiles or hippos obstructing your paddle en route?  Good, good.  Let us now proceed -

And Today's Word Salad Award Goes To -
Some news items are rendered bizarre by virtue of their subject matter, and others because of the way they are presented.

     Lest you think this is something to do with the purchase of tanks or warships, let me clarify: the Turkish army's pension fund - a rather surreal concept in itself - is going to buy up the company British Steel.  Which can then call itself Turkish Steel?  There has to be a pun in there somewhere, if I dig hard enough.  I shall ponder on it whilst travelling to work, on my birthday.  Oh - have I mentioned that yet?


Portrait Of The Artist As A Sloth
This is going back a while, to when Your Humble Scribe attended Manchester Comic Con and encountered the graphic artist and illustrator Sajan Rai, who drew me as a sloth.  Art?

Lost, like that speech in Blade Runner

     As the caption has it, sadly lost forever when I shifted floors.  Enough cringing sentimentality!  For Lo! these many months Ol' Saj has been doing illustrated haikus on his Twitter feed, and I may even have put up a couple on the blog.  Conrad not sure if the haikus are real, genuine Japanese formal verses or, as seems more likely, random word salad (that concept again!) that Ol' Saj has either generated via computer or cobbled together via his imagination.  Either way they are - er - unusual.      Inspired by either Twitter feedback or a thirst for world domination, our talented artist crowdfunded a book of his haikus, and since your humble scribe was one of the crowd doing the funding, Hay Pesto! look what arrived in the post yesterday, as a slightly early birthday present.  Did I mention my birthday yet, at all?

Both barmy and brilliant

"The Town That Went South" By Clive King
There are a number of books that are narrated by cats, "The Hunting Of Skafell Pike" being one and "Jenny" being another, and now you can add the above to your list of same.  For the title above is one that Your Humble Scribe first encountered a frighteningly long time ago, when it was being read on "Jackanory", where all I caught - sorry, what's that?  What is or was "Jackanory"?

     "I'll tell you a story about Jackanory

     And now my story's done."

     There's more to it than that, but I can't be bothered.  Art?

Some of the stars

     The idea behind the show was staggeringly simple: an actor sat in a chair and read from a book.  That's it.  There would be a few specially commissioned pictures in there at five minute intervals, just to wildly diverge from the narrative theme.  They had something there, as it ran for 30 years.
     Anyway, TTTWS.  It's narrated from the point of view of Gargoyle, the church cat, who goes out on his usual hunting haunts and discovers that the town of Ramsly has become detached from England and is floating away at sea.  Art?

The tome in question

     It floats away and across the Atlantic and the Mediterranean, and down the coast of Africa (I think, it's been a while) where you have the amusing contrast of a small English town and the mores and habits of the lands they visit.


Gargoyle discovers Ramsly is now an island

     The ending is quite poignant; having travelled across the globe, all the residents have gradually abandoned their floating domicile, especially when it abutted Australia since it's then used as a hide-out by criminals, who have sub-machine gun battles with the Ocker police - .  A little local colour.  Ramsly finally ends up parked at the South Pole, it's sole occupant Gargoyle, who creates quite the stir, since as the author points out, humans there are frequent enough and dogs are two-a-penny, but - a cat?





*  <laughs>