Halloween Efforts

Halloween marks a major step forward in Operation 'Bottomless Pit' - two and a half years and 50 squared meters of solid oak later, we finally have a floor in the lounge!  I can't deny that it has been a bit ridiculous -  people build grand designs, complete major listed conversions in shorter time than this.  I can only take comfort in the statistics that over 70% of renovations that span beyond one year never gets finished, we're beating the odds here.

Incidentally, our first Halloween here at the flat was 1995, when we just bought the place.  We still hadn't moved in at the time, but decided to have a Halloween party here nonetheless.  I remember saying to everyone not to worry about the carpet as we had plan to replace them before we move in properly.  Well here we are in 2010, many Halloweens later, they finally got replaced.

It would be apt to have another Halloween party to mark the occasion, but we just haven't been organised enough and settled for a civilised Sunday lunch out with the usual suspects.  Although no fancy dress required, Golf Boy did attend with a comedy finger, unfortunately for him, it was not for the Halloween effect.

Having had a mini operation to extract a piece of embedded glass from inside his finger, following by an unplanned A&E post-op visit the next day, a simple comedy bandage somehow doesn't seem entirely reflective of the scale of the drama...

Clockwork Orange

What do youths read these days?  Do they read the same kind of stuff as we did when we were teenagers?  Well, I don't know many teenagers, but the few parents of teenagers I asked seem to think that is the case.  If this is true, do generations just go through the same literature cycle, and has there not been any movement on cult literature in the past 20 years?

This has been bugging me since Golf Boy and I went to see A Clockwork Orange at the Citz last week.  During the interval, he quite observantly pointed out that we were in the minority - the older audience in the crowed.  While I was busy protesting being described as "old(er)", I did come to realise that we were among a room full of young people.

It did surprise me a little.  When we go and see bands from our uni days, the crowds are generally similar in age - ageing rockers wearing the band T-shirt from 20 years ago that they clearly have grown out of long ago.  I wasn't quite expecting the retrofest, but Clockwork Orange was a book of my youth, where are all my fellow ex-cult fiction readers?

I guess cult classics are just that, it ought to appeal to generations of readers.  Although I remember having come across a definition of cult fiction as "books that you take very seriously when you're 17...  books our children just won't get".  Well, I don't know if I did take it so seriously when I was 17, but the latter clearly can't be true.

I'm reading Julian Barnes's History of the World in 10&1/2 chapters at the moment, perhaps it's time for another cult novel.  I'll need to investigate our modern day cult novels, praying it's more than just Twilights the series...

Whereas for the production at the Citz, it was very good.  Love the way they have updated it with references to recent world events.  The fight scenes were creative and well choreographed, although I think they went a bit mad with the flashing lights at times.  Golf Boy and I agreed on 4 stars!

Cauliflower Cake

Spotted this recipe on the Guardian website the other day:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2010/oct/02/cauliflower-cake-recipe-yotam-ottolenghi

I was very curious, had to give it a go.  Simple yet satisfying.

Teletubbies or Telegenies?

Extended television viewing seems to be one of the latest evils to threaten our nation's public health.  Many boffins out there have been trying to prove that kids watching extended hours of TV are more likely to be obese and generally unhealthy.  There may be basis for the theory, but solely blaming all this on TV viewing is over-simplistic.

On reviewing one of these research proposals, my colleague told me of his personal experience with his young boy.  Like most parents, he was trying to discourage his son from spending too much time in front of the TV, and decided to allocate some regular time to a more healthy activity of digging in the garden.  This seems to have worked well, as his son went on to join a school club for gardening activities.  Even more impressive, was when this group of school kids managed to dig up some unidentified truffles in the school garden that is believed to be of some value.  However, when interviewed by the BBC about how they plan to spend their fortune, the consensus was mountains of sugary sweets.

On the other hand, my gran had always appreciated the value of TV viewing.  When my sister started living on a canal boat, what she was most dismayed at wasn't the practical difficulties with boat living but that my sister has chosen not to have a TV on board - "how would she know what's going on with the world?!".

Well, my gran would have been proud of Golf Boy and me.  For a while, we have been shopping for a new couch; while we couldn't agree on a couch, we did find an armchair that we both liked.  It's on sale for 20% less, but that's because there's damage on the leg.  Realising that the chair has been in the shop for a while, in the words of 'Kirsty and Phil', we sensed "a deal can be done".  Immediately, we tune ourselves into 'apprentice mode' and started negotiations:

..."that's a small discount for a damaged chair"...
..."probably, but we are only authorised to further reduce to £xxx"...
..."hmm...  that's quite a serious damage, it will cost us £xx to get it repaired"...
..."how much are you willing to pay?"...
..."we think you should take another 30% off (i.e. lesson from 'Dragon's Den', offer below what we really would accept)"...
..."we need to ask head office"...

Then, we left the offer on the table with our telephone number and walked away...

The next day, we got a call.  They were willing to go £20 above our price - Result!

Guinness and cucumber sandwiches

Like any other professions, there are certain unwritten codes of conduct to being an academic.  One that I've been taught never to deviate from, is that any civilised meetings to be held after 4.30 pm should only take place in a licensed establishment on Byres Road.  Our best work are probably the ones that had stemmed from the scribbles on the back of a beer mat during one of these sessions, while contributing significantly to the beer economy (or that's the line we're sticking to anyway).

However, last week, in a moment of weakness, we opted for a three-tier cake and cucumber sandwich experience instead of a good honest pint of Guinness at Tennents - three tiers of salmon, cucumber and egg sandwiches, raisins and apple and cinnamon scones, fruit cake and mini cupcakes, absolute sugar heaven!

Sadly, the sugar rush was a bit short-lived when I got the 'Save Tennents' email from the usual suspects.  The word on the street is that one of the remaining spots in the West End where you could always get a decent pint and arguably the best lunch-time steak pie or fish and chips is to undergo major refurbishment - it's going to be murdered and resuscitated as a bar-bistro!  Another bar-bistro is absolutely pointless!  On the other hand bar-cake shop, to bring us Guinness and cucumber sandwiches, might just be the winning recipe...  Crazy thoughts aside, we need to save Tennents!