ramtops

We have some friends coming over for supper tonight – we only met them quite recently, and we’ve never eaten together before.  I asked Linda if there was anything she didn’t like, and she said “I don’t like spicy food – I just like things plain and bland”.

Aargh – I don’t do plain and bland, as a rule.  I tend to tip the contents of the spice shelves and other larder ingredients into whatever I’m cooking, and absolutely none of my stock supper dishes could count as plain and bland.

I asked my friend Moyra, and she suggested a roast chickie! – perfect.  So there’s a 5lb free range chicken in the oven, with half a lemon inside it, the other half squeezed over it, liberally sprinkled with sea salt, ground black pepper and good olive oil.  I put three bay leaves in the roasting dish from my beloved bay tree, which accompanied me from Somerset, and now lives outside the back door.

And [whispers] just a bit of garlic into the tray.  Not much, honest.  And there are mince pies and cream for pudding; shop bought, but at least from the local bakery, not a supermarket.

Food price note: free range chicken from the butcher at the top of the road is £1 per lb – amazing.

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ramtops

Iggy in the study

Originally uploaded by ramtops

He seems to be settling in reasonably well now :)

Mirrored from the Tribe.

reddragdiva

• I told you, and now they're travelling by Tube!

• I urge everyone to get a fourth Twilight movie made. Yes, really.

• So near, and yet so far.

• I want Sarcastic Robot for my terminals.

• This is why Americans can't have nice things.

I am going to Bisexual Underground this evening. Anyone else?

I bought an electric tweezer — basically a one-disc epilator. Buoyed by its effectiveness and my ability to put up with it, I have splashed out for this torture device. It hurts like hell, and it bloody works. Channel my inner Henry Rollins, do a slow swipe over the area counting down from five, exhale. I am most pleased.

I have done very little else in the last week. No NotN, little Twitter. I've been trying to get more sleep, ever since going on a date with nyecamden and falling asleep at nine! I'm still getting used to working for a living. Freda is occasionally getting to sleep at a better time, which helps a lot. Whenever I go out she says "Daddy going to work." Yeah, work those stockings, boots and corset!

The camera is teh win! I haven't done last week's Vagabonds shots yet.

reddragdiva

A post for the geeks.

The following is for the benefit of Google. If you're using mod_macro and you see this horrible, horrible error:

# /etc/init.d/apache configtest
[Fri Dec 04 17:02:45 2009] [crit] [Fri Dec 04 17:02:45 2009] file mod_macro.c, line 156, assertion "macros" failed
Abort - core dumped

— it doesn't mean your mod_macro.c failed to link properly — it means you tried to use a couple of macros without defining them. Go fix your conf files.

I contemplate an esoteric scripting language called faffsh, where scripts have extension .palaver . The interpreter will, of course, be an unmodified copy of bash.

ramtops

On 21st November, we moved house from North Somerset to Kingston-upon-Hull, in East Yorkshire. This involved someone – me, in fact – drawing the short straw and driving the five cats 230 miles.

We put the older two in a cattery – I felt that if they were around while the removal was going on, they’d leg it.  I bought a big dog cage for the younger three, but in the event, they were quite happy, and had to be fished out of the lorry on a regular basis.  So when we were packed up, I looked for Henry, Ron and Lilith to enbox.

No Lilith.  She was, inevitably, in her second home, a house which backed on to ours.  I went round with a basket and knocked on the door, and the mother opened it.  ”Can I have my cat back, please?” I said.  ”We’re moving to Yorkshire and I need to take her with me”.

She was aghast – “my daughter loves that cat”.  I knew that, but Lilith is actually *our* cat.  ”Why not get her one of her own?”, I asked and was told that she worked irregular hours.  No idea what that has to do with it.

Then she asked me not to tell the daughter that we were taking Lilith away for good.  In my haste, and against my better judgement, I went along with it, but oh – how I wish I hadn’t.  When she asked why Lily was going in  a basket, I said we were going away for a few days, to friends, and that they wanted Lily to come with us.  I can’t begin to imagine how that girl must feel now, and I feel I betrayed her.

Anyway, EnRon went in a box together and were as good as gold.  Lilith went in the small box, and I went off to the cattery (which was in the wrong direction)  to collect the spotty boys. I couldn’t get anybody to answer the phone, or the doorbell, and stood in the rain for 25 minutes in an increasing panic until the woman who was looking after the place for her son finally realised there was someone there when she looked through the window …

She yattered and yattered, gave me a bill for the wrong amount, and I just wanted to get the boys, and get going, as I had a 4.5 hour journey ahead of me.  Eventually I got them in their separate boxes, and into the car, with Lily between them, and off I went.

It was a *vile* day – sideways rain, and really dark, and Iggy and Mustrum shouted – screamed, at times – the entire way.  I’m sorry to say that Iggy was so distressed that he disgraced himself in his basket, and so I had a Smell to content with too. We let them have the run of the house and yard as soon as we arrived, and while they weren’t happy, they seemed to be settling.

And then, the next evening Sunday), Iggy disappeared.  We tried not to worry, but we did worry.  And as the days went by, we worried more.  I went out often calling him, but we now live in a part of the city which is a grid of Victorian terraced streets, and they all look the same.  I didn’t see how he could find his way home.  I phoned the Identichip people, and reported him as missing.

Since I arrived here, it’s been my habit to come downstairs early – about 6 a.m. – make a cup of tea, feed the cats, and catch up with some stuff on my laptop.  And on the Thursday morning, as I was making the early tea, there was a rowl from the living room, and Iggy strolled into the kitchen.  He wasn’t thin, he wasn’t hungry, he wasn’t stressed, but he was home.  I can only assume that he’d gone to check out the neighbourhood.

He came in through a cat flap that wasn’t even fitted when he left – what a clever cat.

We now have five stay at homes, which suits me fine, but my word – what a lot they’re eating.  I knew they dined out and about, but we’re getting through more than twice the amount of food we used to!

Mirrored from the Tribe.

ramtops

Apologies for the lack of posts – we moved from North Somerset to Kingston-upon-Hull on 21st November, and life has been chaotic ever since!  I’ve had time to cook, but not time to write it up.

We brought some stuff with us from the freezer, and our coolbag was so effective I could actually put the huge lumps of beef back in.  I was left with:

• a piece of belly pork and eight chorizo sausages – I bought some chicken thighs from the local butcher, and made what we call, inaccurately, a gumbo – the pork, chicken and half the chorizo, with some cider (as that was all I could lay my hands on) – three tubs for the freezer
• to make a point, I bought a bunch of coriander from the Indian grocer 5 minutes up the road the day we moved in (he said that if you could buy coriander on a weekend without getting the car out, you were in a civilised area – we are).  So then I had to go out and get more chicken thighs, and made a batch of coriander chicken
• we brought four faggots with us – they were cooked with carrots, courgettes, mustard, onions,mushrooms and cider (again!) and put in the freezer.  We ate two of them for supper on Friday and very nice they were too
• I took a hunk of silverside out of the freezer yesterday, and it’s now in the slow cooker, in a stock made of a rogue bottle of ginger beer, teriyaki, grain mustard, crushed allspice and peppercorns and a splash of red wine vinegar.

Hopefully a more regular service will be restored soon – I’ll be writing a post shortly about food shopping here in East Yorkshire; excellent quality and prices at least 20% less than Bristol.

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ramtops

• The living room alcoves have been painted, as has under the window - just as well, as the plumber came to move the radiator yesterday, rather earlier than we expected! Will continue with painting tomorrow, as
• We have realised that the only sensible place for the TV is on the chimney breast above the (currently non-existent) fireplace*, occasioning me to ..
• Go off into Hull shopping this morning, all on my own. Managed to find the car park, navigate to the stores I wanted, and get home again without needing GPS - Pete was amazed. Bought a throw for the tatty armchair that Gavin left, as it is actually quite comfortable, just hideous to look at, two new cushions, and a wall mount for the television. Oh, and some cat fud, and two steak pasties and 4 mince pies, for the princely sum of £2.09 (not including the cat fud). It's astonishing how much cat fud we are getting through - I knew the Tribe ate out a lot, but this is ridiculous!
• Entertainment stack of TV, amp, tivo, dvd player, Neuros and Roku is all assembled, although the Neuros is currently sulking and refusing to speak to the network. It was doing this that made us realise the wallmount issue, as there is nowhere sensible to put the speakers except either side of the chimney breast
• Another bookcase is up,and the book heap is down to 14 large boxes [scream]. Coffee table, and red leather Poang chair and footstool are assembled. Some ornaments are even out! - it's starting to look like home. The triangular shelves are up in the kitchen, permitting the unpacking of Pete's tea collection,
• I've just started 5 gallons of wine; would have been six, but Pete snapped an airlock. Hock, apricot, Merlot, Barolo and Rioja (all from kits - I'll do some winter wines soon though; parsnip, beetroot, that sort of thing).
• The Polish builder who quoted £200 to fit the loft ladder is still here, after starting at 8 yesterday, although he did go home last night. Horrible job, and my dears - the *dust*. So soon we shall be able to insulate it, and be much warmer. I hope.
• Actually went *out* and met some people on Thursday, of which more later.
• *Scored a fireplace and gas fire on eBay today for £26, so off to sunny Scunthorpe tomorrow to collect it.
• Have taken a hunk of silverside out of the freezer to slow cook tomorrow
• And off to Scarborough tonight to see Rob Brydon. Looking forward to that.

ramtops

• Got the very last box unpacked, apart from the books! Oh - actually, there's one more box, which has teas and other mugs in it, but it's waiting for the triangular shelves to go up in the kitchen so it doesn't count
• Found the curtain for the study, and put it up
• Cleared the £1.40 from eBay dining table, added a cream chenille cover and a wooden plate of apples, stood back and admired it, and watched it instantly become a cat haunt
• Had conversation with Karoo support explaining there was no master socket in the house, so we cannot try plugging the router straight into it; they will come and fit one this afternoon FOC
• Got quote from joiner for cracked front double glazing unit and radiator moving from side wall to under window - better than anyone else, so booked him. Let us fervently hope we can put a log grate in the chimney
• Freegled brass door furniture from study door (which is going to the tip), more boxes, 200 DL envelopes
• Took car full of damp cardboard, carpet bits, ironing board (which collapsed in the move - how sad), etc to the tip - Hull tip is very civilised, a chap comes and *helps* you unload
• Went up to the bakery for some rolls for lunch, and felt proud of myself for referring to them as "breadcakes" - I'm becoming assimilated
• Filled the car with diesel for the first time since 13 November - averaged 49.something, which is pretty good, given I drove the 230 miles up here at 80+ most of the way, and the rest of the time we've been pottering around Hull
• Put our lovely living room rug down last night, and got some the last of the lamps out - it's really starting to feel like home now
• Pete soldiered on with the study, which is almost done, and although small is probably more workable than the old one
• I actually did some *work* - not much, but some
• Won a small but significant battle with Wickes, after pointing out Politely that if I pay £5.60 for next day delivery, and it doesn't arrive next day, then I should get a refund. It's not much, but that's not the point
• Got the landing pretty much cleared of rubbish - just the business paperwork files there now, and a couple of empty boxes which are a cat playground at the moment. Box files are going into plastic crates in the loft when it's done, so we can fit some bookshelves up there shortly.