pumpkinstrokemarrow

A newish sort of fish soup a couple of days ago, that is to say a variant on one reported before. Take a pound of smoked haddock and simmer to loosen the skin. Remove from water, remove skin and flake. Add a couple of pounds of peeled potatoes to water and simmer. Add a few stalks of celery (the clean green stuff, not the full on organic gear covered in black earth). Meanwhile, fry up some bacon and onions in butter. When potatoes cooked, add bacon and onion. After a few minutes add the fish and serve. Not bad at all. The two of us managed about half a gallon of the stuff.

The bad news is that, confined to quarters yesterday, I learn that organic white bread from Waitrose is pretty dire. Despite paying nearly as much for it as for a loaf from Cheam, one gets a very dull and stodgy object. Not even much use for toast. Now while supermarket bread is not really bread (white caps alone do not a baker make), I had thought better of Waitrose.

Resumed reading the slightly seedy - if honest - memoires of Simenon. It seems that he really got the pop-star treatment in his hey-day back in the early fifties of the last century. Feted when he got off liners and feted big time by his home town in Belgium. Money coming out of his ears. One could do a sum about how much he made for each of his 400 or so books compared with how much Ms Rawling made for each of her 10 or so. And it would be interesting to know about volumes achieved, numbers of translations and films. All that sort of thing. Presumably she wins the dosh-per-book stakes, reflecting the longer reach of fashions, fads and the marketeers in these globalised days. I also learn that the term for US style doughnuts in the Belgium of his youth was Berlin balls. Splendid name.

And annoyed to read that yet another rich and greedy lady banker, having lost her grip on the greasy pole, has played the sex discrimination card. Have these people no pride? Why does she not just retire to the country with her loot and take up country pursuits? And if they are so keen on their work, why do they do it? Someone who has been a plaintiff in tribunals of this sort will never be employed by anyone serious again. Her card will be well and truly marked. Fortunately, it is still relatively easy not to employ someone - compared with getting rid of them once you have.