Here, I guess …
There’s a trick to the ‘graceful exit’. It begins with the vision to recognize when a job, a life stage, or a relationship is over and let it go. It means leaving what’s over without denying its validity or its past importance to our lives. It involves a sense of future, a belief that every exit line is an entry, that we are moving up, rather than out.
[Ellen Goodman]
Just for all you wage-slaves out there!
Now tell me why I retired, please …
Jilly over at jillysheep has prompted me to think about what I might want to achieve in 2010. This is not something I normally do, as I have always been content to drift with the tide and see what washes up.
But in 2010 I would like to:
That list was a joke! Yes, I would like to do all those things but the chances of achieving them are at best 1 in 14 million (ie. the chance of winning the lottery at any one attempt. If I win the lottery (odds over the year probably 300 in 14 million) all except #2, #3 and #10 become relatively easy.
OK, so let’s be realistic. What do I stand some chance of achieving?
And if I actually manage to achieve half of that lot I should be satisfied.
I don’t make New Year’s Resolutions – that’s just setting oneself up to fail, because they are always so unrealistic – so I’m not going to start this year and I’m not even going to commit to trying to achieve any of the above. They are what I would like to achieve. It’s a “wants list”, not a “must achieve or else list”. One reason I took early retirement was to get away from the incessant round of unachievable “must achieve or else” objectives. That way come madness and depression. 2010 is about relaxing and finding a life again.
Happy New Year to everyone!
Please don’t go out celebrating and get frostbite. 🙂
This is a mosaic of shots I took when Noreen and I were in Lowestoft for the day in September 2008. Round the edge is a selection of tiles used as part of the paving in London Road, Lowestoft. There is a line of tiles each side of the street (which is pedestrianised) some 10 feet from the shop fronts and spaced a few yards apart. Some were extremely dull; these caught my eye. The local planners, despite all the other dire things they’ve done to an interesting Edwardian seaside resort and port, should have credit for these tiles as they certainly are an unusual and interesting touch to an otherwise boring shopping street. All the tiles appear to have local themes: Lowestoft pottery, fishing industry, holiday resort, marshland, boating, etc. These are just round the corner from the decaying railway station (shown centre). It’s original buildings are approximating to semi-derelict (although still in use) but they retain some of the old decorative arcading and the original 1950s(?) BR station sign overlooking the “town square”.
You’ll get a better idea of the tiles if you follow the links to the individual images:
1. Tile 1, 2. Tile 4, 3. Tile 7, 4. Tile 6, 5. Lowestoft Central Station, 6. Tile 8, 7. Tile 2, 8. Tile 5, 9. Tile 3
Created with fd’s Flickr Toys
When something can be read without effort, great effort has gone into its writing.
[Enrique Jardiel Poncela, Spanish playwright and novelist, 1901-1952]
By courtesy of quoteland.com.
This week’s Flickr meme is: For this coming New Year how about 12 pictures, one for each month of the old year (ie. 2009) to represent something about what happened to you that month. Here is my year in 12 pictures.
January: A new project boss; there were no prisoners taken
February: Snow
March: Daffodils; there’s hope at last
April: Spring blossom
May: Anthony Powell Society Collage Event
June: Attended the Garter Service at Windsor, thanks to our friend Richmond Herald
July: The company pension crisis broke, which has led me to early retirement from 5 January 2010
August: Was taken up with preparations for the conference and writing my conference paper
September: While in Washington DC for the Anthony Powell Conference we celebrated our 30th wedding anniversary — eeekkkkk!
October: Anthony Powell Society AGM at which Patric Dickinson (3rd from left in this old photo) spoke interestingly about Dorothy Varda
November: Beaujolais Nouveau est arrivée; an antidepressant is definitely required
December: More snow coincides with my last real working day
All in all an interesting year but a demanding and, at times, a stressful one.
As always the photographs are not mine (except for 3, 5, 10, 11 which are mine) so please click on individual links below to see each artist/photostream. This mosaic is for a group called My Meme, where each week there is a different theme and normally 12 questions to send you out on a hunt to discover photos to fit your meme. It gives you a chance to see and admire other great photographers’ work out there on Flickr.
1. Umm, Jack Hanna sure tastes good !, 2. Snow in the Chilterns, 3. Daffs, 4. Spring in Pink, 5. Power Collage, 6. Img0051768, 7. House of Cards, 8. Balloons just waiting to be blown up, 9. Flower Candy, 10. AP Soc Members at Wysall, 11. Anti-Depressant, 12. gloom, with more sheep
Created with fd’s Flickr Toys
No, I don’t intend to write a recipe every day but I have long wanted to do recipes more regularly than I do – as I try things out and they work well. And now that I’ve retired hopefully I will have the time to return to cooking more frequently.
Original photo and recipe by madstfri
Biscotti (which is only Italian for biscuit) are the nice little almond morsels one sometimes get given with coffee or with a dessert, especially in continental cafés. They are dead easy to make and I suspect may become a Christmas tradition in our house.
For 25-30 biscotti you will need:
2 large eggs
175g sugar
50g butter (preferably melted)
200g blanched almonds (toasted if you can be bothered)
250g plain white flour
30g ground almonds
1 teasp baking powder
pinch of salt
2 teasp vanilla essence
1 teasp almond essence
Blend together the eggs and sugar.
Add all the other ingredients except the almonds and blend to make a sticky dough.
Now add the almonds and mix them in.
My recipe says to let the dough rest in the fridge for an hour; but I don’t bother.
Cover a couple of baking sheets with baking parchment.
Spread the mixture onto the baking sheets making a long shape about 6-8cm wide and 1cm thick. Don’t worry if it is uneven; no-one will even realise.
Bake in a pre-heated oven at 175°C for 25 minutes. (If you have a fan assisted oven, you’ll want to use the fan if you have used more than one baking sheet/shelf.)
Remove from the oven and allow to cool on the baking sheet for 10-15 minutes.
Carefully remove the baking parchment and cut with a sharp knife into approx. 1cm slices. Angle the cuts to get the authentic look.
Now return the slices to the baking sheet, with one cut side down, and re-bake at 175°C for for 10-15 minutes.
Cool and store in an airtight box.
Serve with coffee or ice-cream desserts; or use as presents.
Notes:
You can use a food processor for all the mixing, it’s much quicker.
If using a food processor go gently when mixing in the almonds as you don’t want them smashed up.
Do not be tempted to over cook or you will get a hard result.
The biscotti will be a bit soft after the first bake so you will need to cut them carefully.
How long you make the second bake depends on how crunchy you like the end result. I find 10 minutes is about right: crunchy when cold but not too tough on the teeth.
There are a number of variants on this: some add a small amount of instant coffee, or citrus rind. Or you can leave out the ground almonds (if so add just a small amount more flour), the vanilla essence or almond essence.
For a really rich result you can part dip the biscotti in melted dark chocolate. Personally I think they are scrummy and rich enough without.
The end slices, which may not be good as presents, could be used for that Christmas Day trifle.
Just a small pre-Christmas amusement today, or an idea for that very late pressie!
Ever wanted a moustache (or beard) but couldn’t grow one? Now help is at hand. At least two crafty people are knitting/crocheting facial hair as accessories and selling their wares on the intertubes …
In case I don’t post anything tomorrow, Happy Christmas and a Successful 2010 to all our readers.
For an excellent supper or lunch you will need:
Remains of Sunday’s pheasant casserole. (This will be largely vegetables in sauce, ‘cos you ate all the pheasant, right? It’ll still make good soup.)
Leftover potatoes, chopped into 5mm dice
2 small or 1 medium onion, chopped finely
Some vegetable or chicken stock or a couple of glasses of white wine
Small glass of port, brandy or similar (optional)
Cream (optional)
Chopped herbs (optional)
Grated Parmesan (optional)
Seasoning
Sweat the diced potatoes and onion in a drizzle of olive oil until the onion is somewhere between translucent and caramelised (according to your taste).
Meanwhile put the remains of the casserole in the blender and whizz until smooth.
Add the blended casserole to the frying onion & potato.
Bring gently to the boil and simmer for 10-15 minutes, adding wine or stock as required to keep it of a soupy consistency.
At this point you can turn out the heat and leave the soup until you’re almost ready to eat.
When ready return the soup to the simmer, add the port/brandy and the tomato paste.
Season to taste and return to the simmer.
Serve in a tureen or individual bowls with a swirl of cream, chopped herbs and grated Parmesan, and accompanied by good crusty bread and butter.
