Month: December 2002

These Colombians, they are the craziest peoples!

grrr. fume. seethe. not even put in a ****ing queue!

UPDATE: still getting the brush-off message. It appears you can register at the gas website house.co.uk and request an engineer appointment there – assuming that you can actually get the registration procedure to function. grrr again.
All I want for Christmas is hot water. At this rate, I may be forced to decamp to another abode. At least the heating still works (famous last words).
Maybe I’d have more success in Colombia?

Brian worries that people might accuse him of being boring. Nick has lived with that for ages, and has it stopped him?
Keep at it, I say.

Not ordered your Lush products for Christmas yet? Today is your last chance to stock up on bath ballistics. [hint]

I spent a large chunk of yesterday evening babysitting. Well, when I say that, I mean that I was helping to babysit, which for me means sitting on the sofa offering advice on how to get the child to sleep, drinking beer and nipping out to the Chinese for supplies.
I wonder how many children in England today do not have any toys that use batteries? I’m sure I didn’t have anything that was battery-powered until I was at least ten (I’m sure my brother will leap in and correct me here, as he was surely much more hard-done-by than I was). I think that toys that spoon-feed a child’s imagination like that, with lights and noises, can not be as good as actually having to improvise and create using the things which were at hand – none of which were battery powered, had flashing lights or made noises more than the occasional parp or squeak (plus the odd snap and rattle when it broke). Having said that, I was undoubtedly extremely fortunate to be brought up in a comfortable house with a large garden situated next to open fields – heaps of opportunity for play, exploration and discovery, the building blocks of my current love of the countryside and nature.
This train of thought actually follows on from a conversation I had last night. The reason for the babysitting was that the parents of said child were going out to see the new Harry Potter film. Now I’ve not seen either of the films, so am not really qualified to comment, but the report we got at the end of the evening was that the film was really good, but don’t all the amazing CGI special effects, stunning sets and amazing costumes really detract from the power of imagination? In a way, I’m not sure I want to see the films, as I really enjoy the books, and I’ve built up my own picture of the way that Harry, Hagrid, Dumbledore et al look and behave, as well as a mental picture of Hogwarts, Diagon Alley and all the other scenes. And I’m pretty sure a lot of children who have read the books have too. Somehow, I’m sure that, in at least some ways, I’m going to be disappointed by their celluloid incarnations.

AFF: 5 points.

Christmas shopping – thank goodness for online ordering!

Not much to say today.
Minor irritation for the day is the number of items of junk mail that are addressed to work that do not carry the correct postage, meaning that we incur a charge to the Royal Mail for getting something that we didn’t want in the first place. How annoying is that? I’m almost tempted to send an invoice to the sender for the 99p that we have to pay for today’s item, plus a £20 handling charge.

Been slacking on the Colombian links for a few days. Following a conversation yesterday, I’ve found a site with some traditional Colombian recipes, including something called ajiaco, which apparently is the dish to have, if only you can get hold of the ingredients, particularly guascas.
Well, I’ve done a bit of research on this. Apparently the botanical name for this herb is Galinsoga parviflora, and it grows wild in England – although it is not very common according to my wild flower book. It is a daisy known as Gallant Soldier. The book suggests that it is locally common in some parts of the south-east of England, and I think I’ve seen something that looks like it when I’ve been out walking. The trouble, I guess, is spotting it and being able to collect enough of it – it’s only an annual, so no point in looking for it at this time of year. Maybe it would be best to find a plant in seed (too late for that now), harvest the seed and get a patch going in your own garden.
But ooo! I’ve found a commercial source of seeds here (a company we use for seeds at work) – pity they only offer 25 gram packs – I’ll ask them if they’ll offer smaller packs.
UPDATE: following an exchange of e-mails, Matt at B&T World Seeds has now put up a page about guascas which includes the ajiaco recipe and links to order the seeds (which, following my interest in it, he is now offering in smaller quantities from 1 gram).

Who knew that broad beans could be so tasty and addictive?