lysine

People watching

2009-12-09T13:59:33Z

I went to London for the day at the weekend.

The train there was delayed by 2 hours, which for a 2 1/2 hour journey is ridiculously long. they claimed someone vandalised the signals (?!). and there were about 6 trainloads of people on one train. since i was on from the start i had a seat, so was quietly wedged in the corner eavesdropping and reading the 'review' part of the guardian weekend (i'd brought it only as an afterthought) cover to cover, which i never do. the table opposite had 4 lively ladies at it. two were friends and the other two were individuals travelling separately. the last one got on about halfway through the marathon and instantly enlivened the carriage by producing a pair of sparkly red vertiginous heels - the so-high-they're-s+m type. she told them all about how she'd stuck all the crystals on herself. and how they were her red shoes for being dorothy from the wizard of oz. and going to torture garden. with her boyfriend dressed as toto, on a lead, on all fours. at which point one of the other ladies said 'oooh that sounds a bit risque'.

Later I was wandering around in Shoreditch in the rain. Not heavy rain, but heavy enough to get wet, in spite of it having been a beautiful morning. I had an umbrella (another afterthought), so it was OK. A man walked past with a dustbin-sized plastic bin inverted on his head: an alternative approach to waterproofing.

Still later, near Liverpool Street, Martha and I were walking along when a man ran past. His backpack was open and he hadn't realised, and something fell out. We saw it, he didn't, and M rescued the escaped bag contents as I chased after the man. I caught up to him just as I realised that I'd only seen a plastic bag, maybe it was just rubbish. He was running for a train, he said, and he'd probably missed it, but he did say the plastic bag had important stuff in it.

Brezeln / Pretzels

2009-11-12T13:53:09Z

Seb missed real German pretzels so much he decided to make his own. He's gotten really good at it now - he rolls them out all identical like a pro. He made some for the gardeners yesterday and translated the recipe for them. I wondered if anyone else might be missing pretzels...

Dough
500 g White bread flour
2 TeasSpoon Salt
1 TeasSpoon sugar
250 ml lukewarm water
~ I use 2 TeasSpoons of dried yeast
20 g butter

Salt crystals + seeds (sunflower/sesame) to sprinkle on top

For the basic dipping-solution:
3% NaOH solution (in water)

What you need to do:

Mix dough ingredients together until it is a smooth dough, then cover and let stand at a moderately warm place for ~ 20 min or so. The dough amount should increase up to twofold.

Then use a bit of dough (this recipe can give up to 15 Brezeln - sometimes 10) roll it out to a string that is a bit thicker in the middle. Form it to a Brezel like shape. In fact any other shape also works of course.

Put the formed Brezeln in the fridge for at least 20 minutes.

Dip them into the 3% NaOH solution (or bicarbonate of soda solution), wear gloves for that or avoid touching the NaOH covered dough by using metal tools.

Transfer the dipped Brezels on a greased baking tray. Slice the thick brezel part open a little bit and widen it so that the underlying level gets exposed.

Sprinkle the Brezeln with salt, seed ...

Pre-heat oven to 200C and bake Brezeln for 15-25 minutes until nice and brown.

The NaOH solution can be re-used.

lysine @ 2009-11-11T17:00:00

2009-11-11T17:14:58Z

We were staying with my Grandma one summer when I was little, and they had a big concert in the park round the corner. It was near enough that we could hear the music if we went outside and it was quiet, though it was mostly past our bedtime. It was Michael Jackson. The next day we went out and walked in the park through the aftermath that was gradually getting cleared up. We picked up some of the dead ticket stubs, trying to find the least messed-up ones so I could stick them in my scrapbook. We also picked up lots of ring-pulls from drinks cans - remember the old version that detached from the can and was a ring with a flat bit sticking off it? My mum had an idea of linking them into chains to use as cool 80s belts or something.

I'm clearing out my stuff now ready for the big move and was on the point of throwing away the scrapbook when I flicked through it and found that page. I had a couple of tickets stuck in with old pritt stick that was coming off. 26th August 1988: I would have been six. It was his BAD tour, I guess he was at the peak of his game in those days. I wondered if they might be worth anything, and since I had two I thought I'd see what happened if I tried to sell one. Someone paid £23 for that little bit of twenty-year-old paper and dirt.

lysine @ 2009-10-30T15:05:00

2009-10-30T15:08:52Z

I got egged on Wednesday. Halloween devilment? I was coming down the hill on my bike on the way home from work early evening round 7, and it hit me in the inner thigh. I was kind of miles away and it took me a few seconds to figure out what happened. Not sure where it came from - a passing car? the graveyard? Strange thing is it didn't get any egg on me at all, though I think it might bruise a little.

Had my last swim today - the swimming pool closed for the winter at lunchtime.

lysine @ 2009-10-05T21:32:00

2009-10-05T20:38:33Z

cycling home tonight we almost ran over... a massive marrow! veggie roadkill, this must be a first! we've brought it home, marrow inventions for tea tomorrow?

lysine @ 2009-08-05T11:16:00

2009-08-05T10:25:41Z

a funny thing about this area is the number of small, strange, empty public spaces. For example, at the bottom of our garden is a concrete space surrounded by the bottoms of other peoples gardens. green stuff sprouts out of cracks; there is a slide which slides you down onto a concrete floor, and the frame from a forgotten swing. we use it to play 'cricket'. technically i think it is the grounds of the community centre, which is almost as forgotten. we discovered they have a bar on weekend evenings, though, when we went to play cricket on sunday. a man walked through and told us it was nice to see someone using the space, and that they wanted to get it redeveloped as a playpark but were told by the funding people that is was too enclosed, and therefore 'too high a risk of paedophiles'. meanwhile the kids hang out in the shop across the road and annoy the shopkeeper.

lysine @ 2009-08-05T11:07:00

2009-08-05T10:18:22Z

The cemetery opposite the top of our street is amazing. I have been spending a significant portion of my days there since coming back from the US and not working. It's huge, and the bit nearest our house is quite wild. Therefore full of little patches of brambles. So I am roaming around from patch to patch, collecting berries. They're really early this year! I love doing this. The ultimate recyling. i made bramble jelly with red wine and cinnamon. and muffins. and eat them for breakfast. yesterday there was a 'walk for health' going on - people in fluorescent vests shepherding folk in sensible trainers along a route. it made me smile to see them, I was glad to see the place in use, also found it slightly funny that people need a plan and a shepherd to go for a wander in the cemetery. My favourite graves remain 'Bygrave' and 'Churchyard'; although a recently-cleared patch of brambles reveals new contenders: an Amelia, and a Mr. Perfect.

lysine @ 2009-05-22T09:04:00

2009-05-22T08:09:02Z

i met a small toad in the swimming pool this morning. i helped him out onto the side. i thought i might move him to one of the ponds but he'd disappeared after i got changed. i hope he's ok.

growing stuff

2009-04-23T11:19:54Z

i wasn't going to do any growing stuff this year, as a) it's a bit late already, and b) we just don't have any space for planting stuff as it's all taken up by the 3 sheds one of which is such a pile of crap - it has a huge puddle in the middle and some impressive fungus...

But then it started to feel like Spring and next thing I know I've scrounged some strawberry plants off Freecycle and I'm cycling back from Aldi with a gigantic bag of compost on my back (that was a challenge)...

But I'm going to be a bit sensible and try and only grow stuff that might work in pots / is really 100% worth growing.

So I planted the strawberry plants and sowed some rocket / mizuna / lambs lettuce alongside them too. And then I begged spare tomato plants from Yanny (who is an absolute gardening genius these days), and he gave me some coriander and spinach seedlings too. I'm going to sow some more herbs for the kitchen windowsill, and try and keep the salad going. Got to try and figure out the sunniest bits of the garden too, as I think lack of sunshine is tending to hold my plantings back...

Tart

2009-04-16T09:12:58Z

I have decided to try and get good at pastry - I've never really bothered with it but realised that actually I do quite like a nice tart, how hard can it be?

To this end, I have invested in a large flan dish (£1.95 from a charity shop), and have been baking. I made a onion and pepper tart with cheesy pastry on tuesday, and today i am attempting a sweet tart for perhaps the first time ever. I am kind of making it up as I go along (perhaps unwise considering the early stage of my piemaking development), so am hereby recording the recipe.

Plum Custard Tart

For the pastry:

6oz plain flour
1 1/2 oz icing sugar
pinch salt
3oz butter
1 egg yolk (egg white kept for brushing)

sift icing sugar, flour and salt. make a well and mix the egg yolk, butter and 1 tbsp water in it, gradually incorporating the dry stuff until it makes a good dough. Wrap in a plastic bag and put in the fridge for 1/2 an hour.

Then take it out of the fridge, slit the plastic bag and roll out the pastry on it to the right size for the (well-buttered) flan dish. Put it in the dish. Brush the base with the (lightly beaten) egg white. Bake at ~190oC for ~15min.

Slice ~3-4 large plums and arrange across the pastry base. Put back in the oven and bake at ~180oC for ~15min.

Whisk 1 egg, ~half a cup of sugar, ~1tbsp flour and a few drops vanilla essence. Add ~half a cup of milk / yoghurt mix. Pour this over the plums, sprinkle with demerara sugar, and bake for ~another 15 min.

done:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ameliaann/3447366798/

lysine @ 2009-01-07T07:35:00

2009-01-07T15:37:42Z

I guess i'm halfway through. i think when i get back i'll try and write on here properly about the places i've been to and people i've met... but for now just a list...

bangalore
mysore
kanyakumari
varkala
alleppey
kochi
ooty

jaipur
jodhpur
jaisalmer

lysine @ 2008-11-18T11:25:00

2008-11-18T11:28:46Z

the bracelet i've been wearing constantly for ~8 years broke yesterday. i am completely naked under my clothes for the first time since... probably pre-puberty. could this be the beginning of a new phase in my life?

pumpkin

2008-11-02T20:33:16Z

carved one small pumpkin in honour of halloween. so far this has provided us with:

toasted pumpkin seeds
1x pumpkin bread
pumpkin soup
roasted pumpkin (with cumin seed, garlic, chickpeas and chestnuts)
another, slightly different pumpkin bread.

also we had pumpkin-filled pasta on friday night at rico's, although he bought that from waitrose.

perhaps enough pumpkin for a while.

also over this weekend i made apple crumble and parkin. the parkin is maturing - not allowed to eat it til bonfire night. it will be served during bonfire night themed sauna wednesday, while we set off rockets and light sparklers. i am liking the idea of cooking things in/on the sauna oven, but this is probably a dumb idea.

lysine @ 2008-08-20T10:43:00

2008-08-20T09:48:00Z

Last night was craft club, and I was finishing off making a t-shirt for seb with a dragonfly on it. when i got home seb showed me a big dragonfly that had been flying around the kitchen all evening. it had flown into the light, for a sleep he said.

lysine @ 2008-08-14T16:22:00

2008-08-14T15:24:05Z

i've been dissecting buds and putting them in acetic acid:ethanol solution. now my fingers smell like chips.

lysine @ 2008-08-12T08:30:00

2008-08-12T07:41:40Z

Last year, Tom and Seb played a lot of 'cricket' on the strange 'playground' attached to the community centre behind our house: a patch of concrete with a slide and the skeleton of what used to be a swing. Tom has a cricket bat, and S stocked up on tennis balls (less dangerous than the real thing), most of which have long since disappeared into various neighbours' gardens - T+S did go round asking for some back, but realised that a couple of 6 foot something blokes in their twenties with a cricket bat may not be able to get away with asking if they can 'come and get their balls back please' as well as when they were kids. This year the season started late, but they played last week.

Last night I went out to check on the garden after I got home (around 7.30pm), and there was the usual bunch of neighbourhood lads (aged around 10, I'd say) hanging around looking bored. They asked me when Tom was next going to play cricket. I told Tom they were asking after him, and he and Lynsey went and started up a game. When Seb came back (after a quick trip to Lidl for supplies) he and I went and joined them. So there were the four of us plus three kids (Dan, Chandler and Brandon) playing 'cricket' (T+S devised their own rules last year re wickets etc). It was fun. I gave myself an awesome blood blister opening the gate on the way in too (don't think I've had a blood blister since I was playing with Gimbo in the garden a lot when I was a kid - I kind of like them), and we checked out the line dancers in the community centre. Now T+S have real kids to go and ask for balls for them - win all round.

lysine @ 2008-08-06T12:32:00

2008-08-06T11:37:30Z

The swimming pool has been closed due to algae for the last day or 2. So I've been having lie-ins. Last night I went to sleep about 2200 and didn't wake up til 0715. There must be something wrong with me.

lysine @ 2008-08-01T09:11:00

2008-08-01T08:17:36Z

Am excited about my garden - ate the first beans with Liz last night (only 4 - made them into a salad with sweetcorn, chickpeas and edamame - but still), and some lamb's lettuce too in another salad. And the courgettes are flowering and i'm hopeful some will set. And the first tomatoes are starting to show hints of orange/red...

Peacock butterfly caterpillar

2008-07-07T18:45:22Z

We saw some of these yesterday. They are amazing: not only do they look wild and wonderful; they also eventually become beautiful peacock butterflies AND they eat nettles. I do like caterpillars, and these are particularly good ones.

Other favourites include the cinnabar moth caterpillar

and the vapourer moth caterpillar

(not to be confused with the sycamore moth caterpillar)

lysine @ 2008-06-24T08:47:00

2008-06-24T07:59:13Z

We switched the light off to go to sleep last night and everything was good and dark (thanks to the new curtains)... I was just drifting off when I heard a quiet, scrabbling, rustling sound, like something nestling in paper. I switched the light on, then there was no sound, so we tried to sleep again. Then it re-started, and this time s heard it too. we lit up and searched around in the direction it was coming from - where our clothes shelves, 2 bags of knitting wool / patchwork material and several piles of books were - all good nesting material? we turned everything out but found nothing disturbed and everything clean and in order. i even moved the bags outside in case there was something in them. then we tried to sleep again. once more, the noise. another time we switched on the lights and started hunting around. I shift around a pile of books and suddenly spot something potentially unusual: a black shape about 2cm long. We shine the light quickly, and i pick it up - it's a big old beetle! We'd heard its beetly legs scratching against papers. I put him out the window and we fell asleep giggling at the silliness of two short-sighted people searching for a little black beetle in the dark.

lysine @ 2008-06-06T09:22:00

2008-06-06T08:24:16Z

so far this morning i have discovered what a 'truss' is with reference to tomatoes, swam outside in gentle rain, exchanged pre-wedding (not mine) emails and eaten a piece of bread.

lysine @ 2008-02-13T09:44:00

2008-02-13T09:49:11Z

when i'm working at home i sit in front of the window because it's the best light. we're opposite a shop and a side road so there's always lots of comings and goings. but the ones that distract me most are those to the house across the road. an old lady lives there, and she gets picked up by old people ambulances / has nurse or meals on wheels visits sometimes. i always wonder whether i should go over and befriend her. or would she just think me a robber and slam the door in my face?

lysine @ 2007-11-14T15:09:00

2007-11-14T15:11:56Z

1. I think I can now call myself 'Dr.'.

2. I might join Facebook later, if I can be bothered.

Nick found this for me

2007-10-10T16:16:26Z

lysine @ 2007-09-24T19:18:00

2007-09-24T18:20:28Z

yuk, yuk, yuk.

506 pages.

now i have to read one more time...