Wednesday, April 02, 2008
Onions away
Now got four short rows of onions in, which near exhausts my two packs. I think I usually get three and only plant two - so Mr Sod rules that when you only get two you run out. Next move the spinach beet, then the potatoes.
Had the first rhubarb of the year. Slightly over cooked and over watered but not bad all the same. A reminder that food needs to be watched to be any good. Shoving it on the stove and wandering off not a good move.
Had the second New York Review of Books of the year, courtesy of Smiths at Waterloo station. Who, sadly, have put away their honesty dustbin so one has to queue up with the rest of the world. Presumably they decided that too many of us were dishonest. But not a bad mag at all: a sort of heavy weight cross between the TLS and the LRB. Maybe they have a bigger circulation and can afford better writers. So this week I learn that Condi having been pushed into piano lessons for most of her childhood, went to a summer school where she found out she was well short of the best and more or less stopped lessons on the spot and went in for politics. That Pakistan is not the basket case I had come to think of it as. OK, so it has its problems, largely rooted in the failure of the middle classes to take power from the landlords, but in recent years growth in Pakistan has matched that of their much more popular neighbour and it is possible that the middle classes are now flexing their muscles. That one of the origins of the present use of the word libel, was libelle in pre-revolutionary France where censorship forced a lot of writing underground where the dominant form became short stories about the scandalous private lives of those in power (who gave by their examples ample material for amplification), or short books or libelles or libels. On the other hand, a long article about the Iranian quest for nuclear capability in the previous issue seemed not to understand that people from countries outside the magic circle might resent the continuing drive of the countries inside the magic circle to maintain their monopoly. The only good reason being that the countries outside were too naff to be allowed such things - a reason unlikely to endear us to the naffs. Another good reason for countries like the UK to set a good example and to renounce their nuclear armed pretensions to great power.
Had our first doner kebab the other day, sold to us by someone who left Turkey four years ago for doner flipping in Kingsway (where the trees lining the street are a good deal bigger than when I was a student there). Not bad but not as good as the product sold in Tottenham. Pitta bread small, soggy around the edges and not filled with salad involving white cabbage - rather a sprinking of lettuce and whathaveyou round the edges. Doner rather crusty as we must have been the first customers for a bit and he was clearly anxious to scrape all the crust off. This did mean generous portions.
We also learnt from an Italian staffed cafe further down the road that cafe life was not that hot. The cafe was open at least six days a week from maybe 0800 to 1800 - and the same three people worked it the whole time. Presumably they lived in one of the wilder parts of London - maybe Camberwell or Finsbury Park - which would add another couple of hours to their day. So about the hours I used to do when I used to commute but, I imagine, for rather less reward. But they all seemed cheerful enough and quite happy to serve two teas while they were in the middle of washing up prior to closure. Good luck to them!
Had the first rhubarb of the year. Slightly over cooked and over watered but not bad all the same. A reminder that food needs to be watched to be any good. Shoving it on the stove and wandering off not a good move.
Had the second New York Review of Books of the year, courtesy of Smiths at Waterloo station. Who, sadly, have put away their honesty dustbin so one has to queue up with the rest of the world. Presumably they decided that too many of us were dishonest. But not a bad mag at all: a sort of heavy weight cross between the TLS and the LRB. Maybe they have a bigger circulation and can afford better writers. So this week I learn that Condi having been pushed into piano lessons for most of her childhood, went to a summer school where she found out she was well short of the best and more or less stopped lessons on the spot and went in for politics. That Pakistan is not the basket case I had come to think of it as. OK, so it has its problems, largely rooted in the failure of the middle classes to take power from the landlords, but in recent years growth in Pakistan has matched that of their much more popular neighbour and it is possible that the middle classes are now flexing their muscles. That one of the origins of the present use of the word libel, was libelle in pre-revolutionary France where censorship forced a lot of writing underground where the dominant form became short stories about the scandalous private lives of those in power (who gave by their examples ample material for amplification), or short books or libelles or libels. On the other hand, a long article about the Iranian quest for nuclear capability in the previous issue seemed not to understand that people from countries outside the magic circle might resent the continuing drive of the countries inside the magic circle to maintain their monopoly. The only good reason being that the countries outside were too naff to be allowed such things - a reason unlikely to endear us to the naffs. Another good reason for countries like the UK to set a good example and to renounce their nuclear armed pretensions to great power.
Had our first doner kebab the other day, sold to us by someone who left Turkey four years ago for doner flipping in Kingsway (where the trees lining the street are a good deal bigger than when I was a student there). Not bad but not as good as the product sold in Tottenham. Pitta bread small, soggy around the edges and not filled with salad involving white cabbage - rather a sprinking of lettuce and whathaveyou round the edges. Doner rather crusty as we must have been the first customers for a bit and he was clearly anxious to scrape all the crust off. This did mean generous portions.
We also learnt from an Italian staffed cafe further down the road that cafe life was not that hot. The cafe was open at least six days a week from maybe 0800 to 1800 - and the same three people worked it the whole time. Presumably they lived in one of the wilder parts of London - maybe Camberwell or Finsbury Park - which would add another couple of hours to their day. So about the hours I used to do when I used to commute but, I imagine, for rather less reward. But they all seemed cheerful enough and quite happy to serve two teas while they were in the middle of washing up prior to closure. Good luck to them!
# posted by Jim @ 5:35 AM 
