Why This Is Hell

It seems to be an intensely choreographed set of maneuvres for an hour's meal. The smoked salmon has been forgotten in the freezer for a year or more, forgotten under a tray, and the bread was made Christmas Eve.

Wednesday I was to meet Tim for a coffee and post some mail, so I had a time to get to the farmer's market and buy cheese (I hadn't got round to an order) and Basque sliced ham and bacon (the pheasant was already in the freezer, to be taken out Christmas Eve). I also need to meet the deficiencies of the veg box - to wit, the lack of brussels, spuds and parsnips. The first two were acquired at the green grocer on Sr Dunstan's, whose exotic veg I should sample more of. The brussels took some hunting, as some of them were the size of small cabbages, and I prefer the button sized ones. That gave me enough time to meet Tim and his kids in Caffe Nerd, and to go to the Perst Orifice to get th last stuff off in the perst. I dropped into Aldi for dark chocolate, eggs, crackers, butter, lard - for a change - a bottle of beer, and some bread rolls. That should have been it but -

- well, cream, milk and toothpaste, and how about a new brush for Christmas? And obviously I needed to fill the prescription which I should have done on Tuesday. Plus two cheques needed depositing. I needed to go out, and awoke later than planned on Thursday, so it was 10.30 time I was in town. I called into Wilkos to price clippit tupperware boxes (cheapest thus far) and buy a cutlery box to go with the new draining board stacker, and hit Tescos. (I'd tried spending money in HMV, but decided that could wait). Tesco was clearly turning into panic buy central, although not with the two overloaded trolleys at once I recall from a Morrison's a decade ago. But I should have food to last me well into next week.

It took longer than planned to prep - zuzz and oven dry bread for bread sauce and stuffing (cloves were already soaking in milk for the former), chopping and parboiling spuds, chopping brussels, peeling parsnips (carrots were just chopped), and getting all ready.

It was thus gone noon when I went out for a walk, up Guildford Road and onto Lime Kiln Lane, then right onto the play area in search of evidence of old railways. I looked at a picnic table, and figured this might be a place to bring a lap top for quiet work. In summer. Then across down the side of the cultivated part of the field, and up to the hedge, where rows of apple trees start. Of course, the housing estate is still visible, but this feels countryside - although the A2 is noisier than I recall. As the path ascends, so does the cathedral: first Harry's tower, then the other spires and the main body of the building itself. It's moments like this that I get worship - but my admiration is reserved for those who spent centuries building such monuments to eternity.

The sun was already sinking, of course, and it was gne one before I trudged back home to cook.

It's just as well I didn't plan anything with anyone for today, as I turned into the snot monster. Yes, that cold/flu that hasn't really done anything for the last month aside from an annoying{koff} turned into the how many gallons of plegm can a human body hold? experiment.


For the first time since finding the Doves I didn't get ridiculously drunk on Christmas Eve (one year so much so that the landlady forced me to accept a lift home) and instead stayed in and peeled brussels sprouts and stuck cloves in half an onion. And watched episode of Seinfeld.

I slept fitfully, until 8.30 when I got up briefly and browsed Radio 4 until noon when I guess I properly listened. I set things going (pheasant, roast potatoes and parsnips, brussels, bread sauce, stuffing, gravy; poached pears) whilst I had a bath and perused the Radio Times. Time I finished (minus pears, so far) it was time for 84 Charing Cross Road on the radio and I snoozed in that, too. I got up to watch Shrek 2 and the Doctor Who special is on soon.

I is exhausted.

Meanwhile Flickr isn't responding to my attempts to buy a two year sub, and Sofa Cinema is similarly not working. I suspect the new modem has Secret Firewall - I've deleted all cookies, turned off the firewall, turned off the modem and it's still not getting through. Sigh.


Seasonal greetings to all - enjoy.

... when the Flickr account needs renewing. Yes, it's been telling me for a week or so, and I ignored it until last night,

Now it won't let me renew. It just sits there, pending. Grr. Onto the helpline I think. I guess it's groaning under the weight of Xmas. I've just pasted all the photos into Word files in case they disappear.