JELLIED

In our weekly Skype call to Alastair I was telling him how I have recently made a wonderful discovery in our local supermarket (Tesco's). 

Jello ... something I have not seen for over 40 years.  Now Jello is as common in USA and Canada as Heinz ketchup is here.

Yes, there has always been a coloured gelatin sold in the UK but it was sold in a gelatinous block divided  little cubes that you broke apart before adding it to the boiling water.

Food in the UK has to be labelled with all the ingredients and additives so here is the sticky label put on the box imported from Canada.  It shows that this cherry Jello contains allura red, among other things, which gives it that chemical red colour (and "May have an adverse effect on activity and attention in children".)

I love the stuff and, apart from reminding me of birthday parties and Tupperware desserts with mini-marshmallows, I make a bowl of this to which I add a bag of (frozen) summer fruits (e.g. blackberries, black currents, cherries and strawberries).

However Alastair made me laugh when he asked me if remembered the time when we sailing one summer holiday when he was about 10 years old.  We were coming into the anchorage, Port Ramsay, on the north end of the island of Lismore which lies off the coast of Scotland. Iain knew there was a rock in the fairway so had the main sail down and was ghosting in slowly.  He stood on the bow looking for the rock which he knew did not show but definitely had to be avoided.  I was on the helm.  Mairi was down below in the cabin playing on the floor and Alastair was sitting at the table in the cabin gently stirring a bowl of jelly that he'd just made.

Bang!  

We hit the rock ...

Iain was bounced up (and down again) where he stood, I was thrown forward a bit in the cockpit where I was standing, Mairi was jolted from her position on the cabin floor where she was crouched on all fours and Alastair had the whole bowl of jelly thrown up into his face ... into his ears ... and what didn't land there flew on to the bulkhead partition behiind where he was sitting!

He got up and his wee face peered out of the companionway up shouting up to Iain "Dad!  I've been jellied!"

The reply came back:  "I'll deal with you in a minute, son ... we've got problems of our own!"

And to this day, at the end of every winter when the boat is closed up for the season, there is apt to be mould growing on one particular sugary patch on that bulkhead partition! 

BLUE MONDAY

I have not had a good day.

I was at the garage mid-morning to see about a small prang on the wing mirror of my car, a Volkswagan.  I clipped it on the garage door at the weekend.  Alan fixed it by popping the cover back on again and as I was driving off, Mairi drove in to leave her car with Alan.

I magnanimously offered to drove her back home after she collected Harriet from the Nursery.

Well, as I pulled into the car park at the Nursery I drove over the edge of the parking area and on to loose stones laid of soft earth.  I got well and truly stuck.  (Note to myself: add this to my Book of Bad Design, i.e. no raised edge, barrier or traffic cones at edge of parking area.)

Nothing for it but phone Iain to come and pull me out.  I even had a robust tow-rope in the boot (trunk).  He phoned to say he couldn't get his car to start - clutch trouble.

So I called the AA and, eventually, the nice man arrived and pulled me back on to the tarmac. So it was a bit of a wasted day for both Mairi and I except that while we waited Mairi sorted out a problem I had with not getting a ring tone or vibration on my iPhone.  I guess when the software was updated recently the default position was OFF and I never thought to check it out in Settings to take it off that position.

We headed home to Mairi's house where John was just in having collected the children from school.  He had a pot of tea and hot, buttered toast waiting.  Heaven!

Meanwhile here is a nice photo of the two of them as we sat in the foyer waiting for the AA man to arrive.


PS.  All's well that end's well: no damage done and no cost incurred.

BOOK BAGGERS

As we are now in a new year it is time to take stock, i.e. what are some trends I have noticed on this blog?  One is that while I get a relatively small number of hits each day - family and friends, I assume - occasionally there is a massive surge!

One example of this is a book review I did of The Pillow Book by Sei Shōnagon here.   It received a 100 times more hits than any other post!  Why is that?  Dunno... except that probably people thought is was something related to Playboy magazine.  (It's not.)

What I notice today is that some book bloggers are talking about their New Year's Resolution to read a book for every year from 1900 to 1999.  See the blog references at the end.

I live with people who like to climb all the mountains in Scotland over 3000 feet (as listed originally by Sir Hugh Munro (1856–1919) and thus labelled "Munros").  These folk, of whom Iain is one, are called "Munro Baggers".   It's a great idea and folk have many happy years getting to know the country and the mountains as they tick them off the list.

Therefore I propose that the folk who wish to set themselves a challenge to, say, read x number of books (not necessarily in a given length of time) as above, be called "Book Baggers".

Before I leave this subject, that is our book "The Munros" (above) by our good friend Donald Bennet (died one year ago) on our book shelf. 

I am not a Munro Bagger; therefore to be a Book Bagger is just not my thing. However, here are some glimpses of what's on our shelves at the moment.

Given that we downsized 4 years ago we have somehow gathered an accumulation of books over the intervening period of time.  

I note that the book bloggers talk about sources for their books, e.g. e-books and something called p-books.  (I had to look that up; it means printed books.)

Anyhow, as Miss Jean Brodie said, "If you like that sort of thing, that is the sort of thing you like."  In order to have a source of the places to get ideas for books, say, in the example above for each year 1900 - 1999,  I have made a list below.  

The blog person who came up with the idea is:
[1] http://www.stuck-in-a-book.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/it-all-starts-again.html

and is taken up by:
[2] http://booklad.blogspot.co.uk/2014/01/a-century-of-books-challenge.html

Sources for e-books:
[1]  http://www.gutenberg.org/wiki/Main_Page
[2] https://openlibrary.org

NEW YEAR'S DAY 2014

We enjoyed having the neighbours in last night.  Iain played the pipes as they arrived - no show without punch!

Our hall table

Billy and his wife across the road brought some Christmas cake that he had made.

Today the weather is wet so it calls for cups of tea in front of the fire.   The garden is soaking but the bulbs inside are giving the very first glimmer of growth and even a bit of colour with this hyacinth.  The cyclamen plant is on its last legs but brighens up the sideboard. It matches the colour of the funky masquerade mask stuck above it on the wall.  The red funky bottle stopper came from Maggie; it's a cork with dancer's legs jiggling in the air.

I really enjoyed listening to the BBC radio coverage of the 2014 New Year's Day Concert from Vienna this morning.  I know it is on TV (Vienna Philharmonic with Daniel Barenboim conducting) and I will catch it later.  

Meanwhile I was reading that the "Vienna State Ballet dancers will be decked out in tartan kilts and plaid leg warmers for January's New Year's performance, thanks to custom costumes from Vivienne Westwood, best known for her punk-inspired designs." * That's the colours in the swatch inserted above.  To my eyes, this is a good example of how to use food colouring (e.g. tartrazine and allura red) in fashion!

* New York Daily News.com