RELIEF IS NOT EASILY FOUND at Paris Nord -Gare du Nord in old money. The Loos are disguised as Mr Clean(what does the Academie Francaise make of that) and when you enter, legs crossed, unmentionables clenched you are confronted with a unisex queue-quite long at 1155 am today. Then Messieurs a gauche, Mesdames a droit and One Euro for the his and hers turnstiles. One Euro or 81p (no pun intended) -almost three times Kings Cross. In this case the queue was so slow moving (Try moving fast with lc and uc as well)so I took my custom elsewhere. The Eurostar lounge, a poor relation of St Pancras, but a pee is free and only the ladies have to queue.And then the contrast between Eurostar Leisure Select and National Express East Coast First class.For onceWords fail...
Stars continues to kick me in the junk on a nightly basis.I've only played 100 sngs there this month and just can't seem to get going at all.( down $120 ) It seems every single time I sit down at Stars I'm destined to get screwed over.I don't like complaining after one bad night or a few bad sessions as that's just the way turbos roll, but this is just relentless.If you play a couple of games per evening, imagine running like this over the next 50 nights... Aq losing to QJ started Monday night off.Of course I folded 108 on the very next hand and watched nearly the whole table ( maybe just felt that way!) going all in on an A 8 8 flop.Next up was AK losing to A9 ( 9 on river ) and late on in my next game I had 44 beaten by AQ rivering an Ace.I made it as far as the bubble in my last game...
I just realised that I've been posting nothing but dessert recipes in November. That's no good, is it? Hence this creamy-cheesy fish soup recipe today. A similar recipe has appeared in several Finnish food magazines and at least one local magazine. With a few tweaks here and there, I ended up with this lovely, creamy fish soup. Feel free to experiment with differently seasoned cream cheese. I used trout, as it's lighter, but salmon would work well, too..A lovely weeknight dinner, and it should appeal to small picky eaters, too.Creamy Fish Soup(Juustune forellisupp)Serves 41.5 litres fish stock5 potatoes, peeled and cubed200 g tub cheese spread (something like this), I imagine)170 g tub flavoured cream cheese (I used tomato & pesto)300 g fish filet, cubed (salmon, trout)To serve:fresh...
In retrospect after reading this post it would be better to say that these posts are more of a collection of thoughts from the book ‘My Traitor’s Heart’ as I don’t make comments systematic enough to warrant the title of review. This post has 3 parts, comments will be closed until the 3rd post. As most of you know I recently went to South Africa with my new Wife Rachel for our honeymoon. We had a lovely time and found South Africans to be unbelievably hospitable, open and full of joy. One interesting thing I observed about South Africans both white and black is how they were generous with their time, maybe it is the influence of a continent that is famous for its non-western approach to time keeping but I was amazed at the way in which people were relaxed with...
I'm lucky enough to have a bike path* that runs almost from my house to my workplace. I don't mind cycling on the road, but it's more restful not to have to deal with the traffic at 8.30 in the morning, and the journey is definitely quicker if you don't have to wait at traffic lights.It's almost a year since I started this job, and while I didn't tumble to the advantages of the bike path straight away, I've now cycled on it in every season. And I do appreciate it.The lack of traffic (apart from a few other bikes, and occasionally someone walking a dog) gives me a quiet space to think. I may be pistoning along, but I don't have to worry about shooting under the wheels of a lorry. Often I've set out feeling stressed (either about J or about work, especially at the end of the day) and when I...
This is likely to be of limited interest to most readers, but the denim heads1 will drool. Iron Heart have just released a new pair of jeans in a limited edition of one hundred: the Triple Works Hidden Rivet TWHR01.
A belt-loop stitched to a waistband, for extra strength.
Like the mighty Iron Heart IH-634S, they’re based on the 1955 Levi’s cut, though probably not too closely, as Levi’s sued Iron Heart and other Japanese repro brands last year for trademark infringement. Unlike the IH-634S, which is made of incredibly hefty 21oz selvedge denim, the TWHR01 comes in a relatively lightweight 13oz selvedge, though it’s woven on the same 30”...
Chuala mi aithris o chionn dà latha gun do rug ceatharnaich somaileanaich greim air taingear far costa sear Afraga. An toiseach, shaoil mi gur e seann aithris a bh' ann a bhuineadh do thachairteas eile nuair a chaidh bàta eile a thoirt an greim 's mòran armachd air bòrd. Ach 's e tachairteas ùr a tha seo. A rèir coltas, 's ann a tha na ceatharnaich air am bàta a thoirt air ais dhan phort aca ann an Somailea 's an sgioba am brùid feuch am faigh iad airgead airson na sgioba air neo cuiridh iad as dhaibh 's ma dh' fheuchas duine dad airson an sàbhalachadh, leigidh iad a-mach a chuid ola as an taingear. Tha an suidheachadh duileach seo a' toirt do mo chuimhne prògram a chunnaic mi air an teleibheisean air ceatharnais aig mhuir a th' air fàs ro chumanta an latha an diugh. Dh'...
Rubaidh Ltd has recently moved in to new offices in Musselburgh, and this morning I came in to discover that the folks who run the building have put up a sign for our office. Shiny, eh?
While I’m posting, I’d like to welcome Mark Connell, the newest member of Rubaidh’s team. He is a [...]...
Missed the last Bus. Lets have LunchScanning last week's Berwickshire-as one does on wet days the Isle de France-Huttonian cama across this letter=SIR, - I want to bring readers up to date on the problems arising from our third world public transport service in Berwickshire.For some years I have been passing on complaints about the inadequacy of the bus service connecting Berwickshire with Edinburgh and Berwick, and three issues have repeatedly been drawn to my attention by dissatisfied residents.Firstly, there is no evening service to bring people home from the capital any later than 7.10pm.If you are not car-mobile, theatres, concerts, late working, late shopping are all out of the question unless you impose on the kindness of friends and neighbours.Secondly, suppose you are offered a...
I wrote this post because I think it is useful to give some feedback now and again. I read plenty of blogs through Google reader, ( more info here on how to set that up) and although I don’t claim to have an authoritative knowledge on what makes a blog enjoyable to read, I think I have a good understanding of what makes a blog readable and conversely the things that make me click that unsubscribe button. I have been guilty and will probably continue to be guilty of some of these, so don’t feel too bad this is just some constructive criticism. I think my first point doesn’t really require any explanation so I am going to jump right onto point 2. There are 2 main formats that RSS feeds publish, either as summary or as full feed. Unless you are the best and most...
Because we haven't had one for a long time, lol. This blog has really mutated from a writing blog with some history and photos to an illustrated history blog with the occasional writing post. I considered separating the two, but since one can't simply transfer posts and comments to another blog but has to copy/paste the code, losing the comments in the process, I decided to keep the mix. After all, some of my writing is Historical Fiction, and that fits with the overall orientation of the blog. Though this time it's about my Alternate Historical Fantasy or Whatever You'd Call That Plotbunny going by the title Kings and Rebels, and the fact that sometimes the first idea is the best one. Those of you who've read the snippets may remember that I started with a scene where Berenger confronts...
There's a Trebuchet Club thread on the Nano forums, open for all writers who have a trebuchet in their novel, in whatever form (real, model, discussion topic ...). It reminded me that I have some pics of trebuchets I took at Caerphilly Castle. Traction trebuchet in the foreground, a counterweight one in the backThey're replica, on display on the south dam platform, part of the outer ring of fortifications. The big brother of the Roman ballista, trebuchets are basically giant slings that could cast rocks or later, iron balls, into the walls and roofs of a castle or town. Traction trebuchets work by human power, with several men pulling the casting bar down for one fellow to load the sling which was then released and would catapult the stone into a target - hopefully.To the left: A fine...
Of course it is the camera, not the SD card, which is a Fuji Finepix S5800. Oops. This is the inevitable result of dashing off entries in ten minutes or so. Still, better to have posted with mistakes than never to have posted at all, or words to that effect. Thank you all for not posting comments saying we should have got a Nikon or a Pentax or something.Today has been a day... not terribly packed with incident. It rained. J went off to work. I did some work and played with the pigs and later made a cake. Then J came home and we had tea and watched QI. (By the way, I got a message a few days ago saying that Stephen Fry is following my Twitter updates. I wonder if he does his own Twitter-maintaining, or if he has an underling who automatically adds everyone who's following him?)I am...
I warmed up for last nights games by watching a BigJoe training vid on Sngicons.At 9pm it was time for the Brit Blogger game on Full Tilt and the RebelsofPoker forum game on Stars. Congrats to Lexluther on taking down the Blogger game and thanks to everyone who showed up to play.I went out 6th and I'm afraid my new herbage is so good I've no idea what my exit hand was! If it was a suckout I'm sure I'd remember, so I probably donked out! I'd joined the RebelsofPoker forum after seeing many of the best Stars Sng players using the forum avatar at the tables.Sixteen players entered the $10 game and there were a few bounties on the pro ginders too. I had notes ( extensive notes like "shark" or "solid winner") on a few of the players at my table and a "friend" ( ahem) kindly supplied me with...
French HottiesOriginally uploaded by old_greywolf2000This image has had a lot hits.I fear the title may have been somewhat...
Huttonian survived the onslaught by Aliens and with only one rocket going astray on to the roof of the fierce neighbours : "Je retournerai votre ballon si vous me donnez notre fusée" I said to the boy next door returning his ball.He was less obligung about the rocket which is still in his roof gutter. I have no images of the rockets being fired or stomped as my role was retrieving them well beyond the target at the furthest reaches of our asteroid. The most popular game was beating the Pinata bear to make it disgorge or more accurately anally evacuate its belly full of sweets. It proved too tough for the beating to have the desired effect and in the end the right straing in its nether parts had to be pulled to allow the candies to escape.The theme being Aliens, Katy had been forbidden by...
Gordons lane, originally uploaded by ccgd. Fishertoun Cromarty - TV aerials and overhead lines cloned out.Not a bad effect....
1. Your posts are too long, and require lots of prior knowledge to understand them. In short they are inaccessible. 2. You post your feed as a summary, so if I actually want to read your post I have to click through to your site, not cool. 3. You post too often. The fact you post 10 posts a day is hogging my time and ability to suppress my read count, have some self control by exercising both quality and quantity control. 4. Now and again a picture is nice, paragraphs of nothing but text tell me that I’m working, therefore I’m not enjoying your foray into amateur journalism. 5. Your blog changes subjects every few months, you don’t blog on the subjects that I subscribed in the first place. 6. You don’t introduce me to new things (subjects, accessibly...
This will have to be my quickest post ever, as it's 20 minutes to midnight (again). I haven't been able to get on the computer because...J and I have just ordered our new digital camera!This may not be the news of the century, but we have been saying we must get a new one for months. My old one, much loved, stopped working ages ago. However, we're not at all good at making our minds up, and J's obsessive tendencies mean that he needs to be sure he's buying exactly the right camera and getting exactly the right deal. So he needs to look at every model on the market, decide the time isn't right, look again, get stressed out by the necessity of making a decision, put it off, and look again before he finally buys anything.I, on the other hand, have an approach which goes more like: "Oh, that...
I've started making somewhat Christmassy desserts already - I know, I know - but we've got no Thanksgiving to look forward to, you see :)Layered crumbled cookies (I used oat cookies, but gingersnaps or gingerbread cookies would work, too), softly whipped cream (perhaps with some vanilla), lingonberry jam..That's all. And that's delicious...© 2007 Nami-nami foodblog, nami-nami.blogspot.com This RSS Feed is for personal non-commercial use only. If you are not reading this material in your news aggregator, or at the aforementioned url, the site you are looking at may be guilty of infringing upon terms of...
Do you ever feel as though you are waiting to start your real life? Waiting for a particular thing to happen, or to get finished with something you're doing, or for circumstances to change so that possibilities will open up?I feel like that quite a lot at the moment. Partly because I'm studying - I genuinely will have more free time once I finish. There are several activities which I haven't done at all in the past two years, some of which I thought were parts of my life I would never want to give up.Singing is one. I don't have a fabulous voice, but I've sung in choirs since I was seven, and I do miss it.The other main thing is that I don't get anything like as much exercise as I want to, and certainly not in a systematic enough way. I think I've proved to myself now that in order to be...
After watching Rangers beat St Mirren 2-1, I grabbed a quick sausage supper,took Nacho for a game of football and logged onto Stars in time for Dr Paulys Saturday PLO game.I'm still pretty clueless when it comes to PLO starting hands and I probably folded a few monsters and played a few fishy hands.I'm not sure if it's possible to get the hammer at PLO,but I did enjoy raising with 772K and showing the table! I took 5th again ( 5th last time I played)and more importantly, I really enjoyed the game.I'm still drooling at the thought of Kats cookies!After that shennanigans,I decided to calm things down a little and only play 2-3 tables of $16.I didn't want to be chasing Friday nights losses and pushing too hard.It seemed to work as I only played 10 games and won $218.Although I did write...
WE May have liftoffWhat is the most challenging thing Huttonian has ever been asked to face? Negotiating with terrorists who seized a British Airways plane full of school chidren in Jordan in 1970? A doddle. Being shot up in Radfan by revolting* tribesmen-piece of cake. Confronting the Soviet Ambassador at the UN? Enjoyable. Being towered over by the Laird discussing 140 new houses in Knowe's Close on the H and P community council. RoutineHelping to organise a birthday party for a gang of 8 year olds?Now that is challenging for youI think the Treasure hunt in the deep bush (Eldest daughter's garden)is under control but I am not quite sure where all the cryptic clues have been hidden and if they are in the right order. I am doubtful about the durability of the Stomp rocket firing...
It will be a long cold winter if I continue to run like I did last night!I played 20 games on Stars,bubbled 4 times and lost $240.When I have good nights I don't list all my winning hands and I'm not about to induce insomnia by going into the ton of suckouts I suffered last night.I think I managed one 3rd place and one 4th place finish from those 20 games, but in the cold light of day I just have to sook it up and move on.Here's one wee sample of last nights nonsense.Ok,I thought,I'm finally going to win a hand even if it is against a shortstack.Maybe I can build from here...I'd like to be winning around $1k per month and although sitting about $250 down half way through this month aint good,there's still plenty of time to get back into profit.For some reason the last few months have all...
Isn’t the internet great? Not only can you buy lots of cool stuff and keep in touch with all your “friends”, but you can also watch videos of monkeys sticking fingers up their bums, sniffing them and then keeling over. Hilarious!Talking of which, a mere 12 hours or so after The Signals walked (shuffled? moseyed? ran to the waiting limos?) off stage at last night’s charity gig, I now bring you a little taste of what you missed if you weren’t one of the many ‘young people’ who packed the hall, jaws agape at the sight of four old men in a band.As you’ll see from the no-expense-spared title sequence, this is a rockin’ cover version of Stereophonics ‘Local Boy In A Photograph’ but watch for the bit in the middle where we also perform our much-copied but never matched,...
Wrong sort of Prix?The notice in Prix Unique stated " Penzez aux Piles" The recently arrived Brit whispered to his wife " Just what I have been doing!( Scratch, stratch) They have a Pharmacy Section?"She looked blank for a moment."I don't think a couple of AAAs are going to...
Project planning, originally uploaded by ccgd. Restoration work is under way at the Cromarty East Kirk. The project team have asked if I can record some of the day to day activities of the work.So here we are.I'll post a lot more shots of the work over the next weeks and...
Tha mòran luchd-ionnsachd den bheachd nach eil goireasan gu leòr ann gus conaltraidh air loidhne a dhèanamh. Gus am bearn seo a lionadh tha Foram na Gàidhlig.net air ùr-nochdadh. 'S bochd nach eil a leithid ri fhaicinn air an làrach Clì mar eiseimpleir ach sin mar a tha e. Ma tha mionaid agad carson nach gabh sibh ann gus taic a thoirt don choimhearsnachd eadar-naiseanta luchd-ionnsachaidh na Gàidhlig....
