Posts Tagged ‘books’

Sushi and cinema

Aug 9th, 08 / 0 Comments

Yesterday Lee and I made sushi. Below are the rolls uncut, and then a selection of cut pieces:

uncut rolls

selection of cut rolls

For fillings we used cucumber, red pepper, blanched asparagus, sesame seeds, seasoned omelette and wasabi in varying combinations. We also rolled some thin omelette up with nori, which was very popular with Lee. I forgot to take the rice moulds to Lees, so we were limited to rolls. Oh and I’d got an avocado too, but it was far from ripe.

Sushi takes hours to make. It’s not so much the fiddliness of rolling it or preparing the vegetables but the rice that takes time. It has to be washed and drained and allowed to stand and all sorts. It takes hours from start to finish, but it’s worth the effort because it’s so important to get it right. That also means getting a good sushi rice, you really can’t use just any old rice if you want it to hold together.

After our adventures in sushi making Lee and I went to the cinema to see the x files film. My conclusions are:

1. David Duchovny should not have a beard. It was a little too curly… pube-esque. Once he has shaved though, he has a certain je ne c’est phwoar.

2. X-files should really involve aliens. Or unexplained phenomenon. Psychic’s don’t count- too predictable.

3. Peadophile priests do not an original storyline make.

4. Should Mulder and Scully be a couple? Needs some thought. I think the writers agreed, because despite scenes of the two of them in bed together, and suggestions that they live together, they keep the situation mostly ambiguous. It’s almost like they kept on changing their minds whilst writing the script.

5. Just not as clever or as it good as it could, and should, have been.

So yeah I’m a bit disappointed. It was great to see Mulder and Scully back together again, but there should have been so much more to it. Still, it has made me want to watch the original ones again, they were so so good.

Today I left Lee’s, and the pigs behind, and went home via town. I picked up my sunglasses which had been in to be repaired, and went up to Mattas and got some olives for my mum (I’m hoping she will share!) and a Clives Pie for me! I love Clives Pies! Oh but I was starving so I got a subway and donuts! Woo!

I got a delivery of books whilst at Lees, all cookery this time:

Cooking around the world: Japanese, by Masaki Ko
Chinese food made easy, by Ching-He Huang
Japanese women wont get old or fat, by Naomi Moriyama

So when I got home I sat on the floor with my grub, macbook, books, and put on a DVD Lee leant me and had me some Rosie time
rosie time

I have sofas and comfy chairs, but sitting on the floor seems so much more comfortable?!

Second subway this week! I’m going to be massive soon! My subway preferences are italian herbs and cheese bread, all the salads, all the pickles and olives and chilli (OH YEAH!) and southwest sauce, please. Mmm. Perfect.

I was talking to Kenjuggle earlier. You probably know Ken, he is king of the internet. Everyone knows Ken, or knows someone that knows Ken. Anyway as usual our discussion turned to noodles, and Ken doubted I had any in, so I collected all the noodles from all corners of the kitchen and brought them all together for a photo

oodles of noodles

I think it’s safe to say I have noodles. Noodles pictured include:

Soba
Rice
Bean thread vermicelli
Ramen
amoy straight to wok
tesco value
lidl
egg

That’s some noodling.

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A new hope

Aug 6th, 08 / 0 Comments

So I thought that I’d start blogging here, and see if anyone notices. I have this corner of the internet and I’m not using it at the moment. It’s all cobwebs and musty smell. Perhaps if I get into blogging then it’ll help me write more?
I don’t write enough at the moment. There’s so much I want to do, and want to be, and the writing keeps on getting lost along the way. So hey, I’ve been using twitter pretty regularly, and sometimes I want to say more there. And there’s so many blog apps for my ipod, it should surely make this easy. Anyway to use this space I’ve decided I need to not be such a perfectionist, it can’t be all or nothing, this is a work in progress. I should let it develop. It will be what it becomes.

I’m on holiday this week and next, and have made a list of things to do. I’m doing pretty well at the moment at checking things off, and tomorrow I am doing the planters out the front, thursday I’m taking the pigs to their holiday home, friday we’re going to the cinema and monday I’m going to Dorset. I think that’s all the big things. I added things like “read books” and “play wii” because I know I’ll be able to do them, and so far I’ve excelled at “watch daytime TV”. Oh yes! I even bought a Gilmore Girls DVD, and watched I don’t know how many episodes this evening.

I went to Speke earlier. I got the train to Liverpool South Parkway, thinking it was close. The borders website says: ” only a short walk from the 81 and South Liverpool Parkway station”. I’d never been to Liverpool South Parkway before. It’s a pretty new station, and train fans can read up on it here: http://www.merseyrail.org/stations/?iStationId=28 and here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liverpool_South_Parkway_railway_station It’s shiny and new and lovely. The only problem is, it’s pretty underused. It’s actually quite far from the airport, and it’s more than a short walk away from the retail park. I realised it wouldn’t be as close as I thought when I looked at the map of surrounding area, and saw many schools, and other places of note, but not a sniff of retail park. So I walk out and look for signs. Did I mention the rain? Yeah the weather was terrible. And there was a bus at some lights for ages, and I was stood there trying to work out which way to go while this lady stared at me really intensely. If I walked forward her head followed me there. I walked behind her line or sight and she turned round in her chair. I like to people watch, but I think I’m a bit more subtle than that.

So I phoned google (Lee) and asked him to find out how far it was. Google said it was half an hour walk. I think I found my way there in maybe 20, but still, if I’d known it was that far I’d have got the bus.

I went to Borders and had a good long browse. I had a list on my ipod touch of books, lots of which were from the Believer Book Awards public survey (http://www.believermag.com/issues/200806/?read=believer_book_award), and I bought four:

Divisadero- Michael Ondaatje (because I’ve heard lots of good things about this one)
After Dark- Haruki Murakami (because he’s threatening to take over from Paul Auster as my favourite author)
On Chesil Beach- Ian McEwan (because I’ve heard lots of good things about it, and I’m a dorset lass afterall)
Cold Spring Harbo(u)r- Richard Yates (because I liked Revolutionary Road).

At the moment I’m reading the one with all the E’s, by Tao Lin. His blog is quite interesting too, the paranoia and obsessive googling of himself reminds me of someone.

Some photo’s from today:

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(photos taken on my phone)

I shall have to do a few things here: Add a box with my twitter, I think I can add my Zenbe lists too? and can I link to my books thing on facebook? I’ll see.
But not now- now is time for bed. I slept rubbish last night, fingers crossed tonight is better. Tomorrow is planting.

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