pumpkinstrokemarrow

On the other hand, PC not so well this morning, having been thrashing around now for getting on for quarter of an hour and only just starting to calm down. I wonder if it would work better if it denied access until it had finished thrashing, rather than providing very low grade access at the same time as thrashing.

On 1st April I reported thoughts on lamb cookery. I can now report the outcome. Chose a recipe from a womens' magazine involving a sauce involving jam and having onions and water in the bottom of the baking tray, baking without trivet. All turned out very nicely although, to my mind a touch overcooked. With two legs of lamb weighing in at 5.5 lbs each (close enough for me to suspect that the two legs came from the same lamb), opted for 30 minutes to the pounds with a bit over: three hours cooking plus half an hour standing. 180C for the first half; 160C for the second half; 80C for the standing. No foil. The various cookbooks we consulted had varied their advice between 20 and 45 minutes to the pound, with this particular recipe being at the upper end of that range. We will have another go with the same recipe, maybe doing one leg for 2 hours at 180C plus half an hour stand. The important thing is to arrange things so as to have a little flexibility as to time; a failure in this case as the oven needed to be kept at heat longer than I wanted in order to accommodate some sausages. But, all in all, a success. Two legs down to four bones for two dogs in 57 minutes.

Recovering the following day, interested to read about the new management arrangements in schools. That is to say, the children in schools get to have a childrens' panel which interviews prospective teachers and advises the governing body about same. It seems that this is quite common practise these days, with some of the children involved being as young as 11. At least according to the DT. It seems quite bonkers to me; in the words of the bard of the blen (aka TB), the lunatics are taking over the asylum. I presume the idea is to make the children feel more involved and grown up by involving them in the management of the school but I believe the result will be to further weaken the authority of teachers in the classroom. Children should understand, for as long as it can be managed, that the grown-ups know best. Let them get some secondary education first and start playing at being grown-up after that. If they want to flex their muscles a bit before that, let them be prefects. Be head of a table in the dining hall. Be on the committee of the history society. Be on the committee of the anti-litter-league. Be the star of the football team. But leave running the school to the grown-ups. The professional ones that is. Not too keen on giving too much power to parents either.

So either this is all for real, in which case it is wrong. Or it is for show, in which case it is patronising. Not sure which would be worse.

Yesterday evening saw a film called Moon, four star rating by both the 'Sun' and the 'News of the World'. For most of the time we had just one actor plus the voice of Kevin Spacey as the computer. Good special effects: lunar mine quite credible. Considering the very modest number of ingredients, a very good film altogether. Held together by the interesting conceit of wondering what it would be like to discover that one was a clone of somebody else, complete with his memory. And orientated towards the US market by the whole thing being a massive evil deed perpetrated on the qt. by Big Corpa in the pursuit of Mammon. Still find it odd that the US film going public is so turned on by this sort of thing. Perhaps the same love-hate relationship with Big Corpa as that with children we noted on March 15.