Priceless Paintings from W7

No posts this week.

We’ll be at work during the day for regular work and in the theatre at night, assisting with Ealing Shakespeare Players‘ production of Henry IV Part 1 (details here).

If you read this, chances are that you know all about ESP’s H4P1 and that we’ll meet tonight anyhow, but if you are not part of this and in the area, come and see this play. It’s a good play, and a good crowd of people.

I am sure it’ll be a wonderful week for us and a wonderful evening for you, even if you may have to ignore the occasional "Oops" on sounds and lights, which will be driven by the wife and myself. Plus, it all happens at the Questors Theatre, which hosts the cheapest pub in Ealing – if that’s not an incentive, then I don’t know. 

Current Affairs Henry IV

I assume you turned your lights off last night and read by candlelight for at least one hour last night? (some photos are here)

I did, and I think it’s a good idea: We will save some energy (always a plus), but most of all, will all be reminded that power doesn’t simply come out of a socket in the wall.  Always better than just a plus.

So. Don’t wait for your major’s next publicity stunt. Just turn all your lights off for one hour, one day in each week. Every week.

Come on!

Thoughts energy

It’s almost harvest season in W7!

We reported failure in previous years: our young tree had only yielded a handful of cherries, then they harvest had fallen victim to the birds, then we tried to outsmart the birds with netting but fell victim to a late cold spell.

Meanwhile, the tree continues to grow. It is now so big that we thought it too much effort to enclose it with netting.

Looks like we should have put in a little effort after all. This years harvest yields no cherry whatsoever, instead of the 30 or so that once were. The evil pigeons have gotten them all, just as they started to blush.

The cherries, that is, not the pigeons.

Thoughts

This is another fall-out from my ice cream and custard making. Starting at some point in the 1950s, Dr Oetker introduced instant pudding. You’d buy a little paper sachet containing (typically) vanilla or chocolate-flavored mysterious powder.

Even small children can prepare such an instant pudding: bring 450ml of milk almost to the boil while dissolving the powder in 50ml of cold milk. Add sugar per instructions, stir the mix into the milk, bring to the boil very briefly and while stirring vigorously, then let cool down, turn over, and enjoy.

This is what I know as pudding. Regular readers of this site know that I am familiar with other forms of pudding (like Puddim Flan or Christmas Pudding), but I wasn’t totally sure just what this post-war instant pudding powder came to replace. So, I made a self-sacrificing experiment. Here’s how:

Extract the seeds from one vanilla pod and heat together with one pint of milk in a metal bowl over steam (a bain-marie). For extra kicks, add four or five crushed cardamom pods. Whisk frequently and never allow to reach the boiling point. In a separate bowl, whisk four large fresh free-range eggs, 2 extra yolks, a tablespoon of arrow root (or other starch flour) and 50g sugar until foamy and thick. When the milk is near the boiling point, remove the cardamom and vanilla pods and whisk the eggs into the hot milk.

Never let boil, and do not stop whisking for approximately ten minutes. You want the consistency of pretty thick custard. Once there, remove the bowl from the steamer, and put in a sink or larger bowl with cold water. You’d want to cool the custard down as quick as possible, still whisking, to suspend it in this state, and to avoid the building up of a skin on the surface.

Rinse a small bowl with cold water, drain (but don’t dry), and pour the pudding into the bowl. Keep your greedy fingers off until it’s nice and cool!

Food and Drink

Some while ago, I had something to say about the local Labour Party’s Pamphlet. Sadly, no second edition of their newsletter has graced my letter box since November. Maybe they were slain by disgruntled locals.

I am overjoyed to report that the local Conservative Party comes to the rescue and distributes their Summer 2007 newsletter (front page shown here).

Don’t you just love how they generously offer help to the people of their constituency: "When all else fails, we will do our best to sort it out." 

Too bad they only offer themselves as the last resort, even though they clearly have the best ideas to fix difficult problems:

"You told us that you wanted the Council to provide more value for money, so:
The Conservative council has just set the lowest Council tax rise in 13 years."

Let me see: If ratio R is defined as R = Value (V) divided by Money (M), you can increase R by increasing V, or by reducing M. However, if M grows, R will only grow if V grows even more. So, the more value for money we get is based on a rise in value measured against the lowest rise in M in the last 13 years.

They don’t like putting the bar too high, do they? I’ll be running out of options at the next elections. I can’t wait for the pamphlet of the local Green Party, he he.

Current Affairs Conservative Party, Green Party, Labour Party

I like to think of myself as a reasonable man among the technology enthusiasts. Consider, for example, manned space exploration. I am not sure at all whether it makes sense to return to the moon, and have strong reservations regarding the flight to Mars.

This, I am sure, will convince you just what a reasonable down to earth kind of a person I am.

It will then surprise you to hear that I am space addict. I love space movies. Not Star Wars or Starship Whatnot, but the real stuff. I can probably follow the dialog of Apollo 13 by heart. I sometimes enjoy being rescued by a real macho in space (that’d be Bruce Willis as Harry S. Stamper in Armageddon of course), and even enjoyed watching Independence Day some times (but that would just be thanks to Will Smith to be sure).

The recent BBC broadcast of the Space Cowboys reminded me on this passion for trash of mine. What is yours?

Thoughts BBC, Bruce Willis, Harry S. Stamper, Independence Day, Will Smith;

Bird of Paradise, also known as Strelitzia (Strelitzia Reginae), have always been my favourite flower, even though the home-grown ones don’t do very well and refuse to flower.

So, I made my own. Not necessarily a biologically accurate image, more like how I would want my home-grown to be. Also not quite the masterpiece I had in mind, but I like it nevertheless, and I hope so do you.

Strelitzia. Oil on canvas, 16×20". Medium: turpentine and dammar.
June 2006.

Click here or on the little picture on the left to unveil the real thing.

Painting

Nature is fairly economical with energy. Large birds, for example, sail over long distances with minimal energy investment. Other animals shut down or throttle non-essential functions, or simply do nothing most of the time in order to minimising the amount of food and water needed to keep the system going.

Humans have evolved way beyond the point of reason, so much that we actually need to exercise to burn off the excess calories.

I don’t think excess calories are on a fly’s mind, though.

Why the heck can a normal fly not just sit still on the window and admire the sight? Why do they have to buzz around all the time like mad? Given that they don’t feed that way (I presume they mostly feed on horse manure and the content of my compost bowl), what’s the point of that constant buzzing around?

Thoughts energy, food

Following-up from the recent "best ever" Strawberry Ice Cream recipe, here’s a possible improvement: for the custard, reduce the fat content a little bit by using half double cream, half milk. In hindsight, I find the double cream feast too fat (albeit lovely).

More flavours:

Walnut: finely grind 150g walnuts, then cook with 100ml milk, 50g sugar and a scraped-out vanilla pod for a minute. Let cool down, and add to the basic custard recipe. (I was tempted to roast the nuts – not recommended).

Banana Choc Chip: take two or three ripe bananas, peel, add the seeds from one vanilla pod, a bit of lime juice, 40g sugar, and make a pulp in the blender. Add to the basic custard recipe, and also stir in two tablespoons of chocolate chips, which you’ve made from two bars of the finest dark chocolate you can find.

Vanilla: Cut open and scrape out two vanilla pods. Add the seeds and the pods to 100ml milk, bring to the boil, then let cool down again. When removing the pods, squeeze them to extract some more of the aromatic oils, then stir into the basic custard recipe.

Food and Drink

2012 Olympics, again – and most certainly not the last time. Apparently, this revised London 2012 Olympics logo has been going around on the Internet and you may have seen it already.

It is of course no better than the real thing, but the point is: it ain’t worse neither. Which makes both pretty bad, I think.

Collections of constructive counter-proposals are emerging like mushrooms. See, for example, the London Logo Blog, the BBC’s alternative logo photo collection (second page), or even the official site. Who says creativity is dead?

Thoughts BBC, london, Olympics;

Summer is approaching. Finally, we can sit outside in the evening, or maybe sit inside but have all windows and garden doors wide open, thus enjoying a balmy breeze to the 10 o’clock news.

However… As much as I love enjoying the balmy breeze, I hate the seasonal growth of domestic wildlife. All of the sudden, the house is full with moths and flies and what-nots.

Critters. Grrrrr.

Thoughts

I love those wacky London tube maps. For example, have a look at the geographical tube map, the Tate Modern Tube Map, or just browse the history over at the London Tube Map Archives. The Anagram Map is pretty nice, or the Sponsored Tube Map, and so is Time Travel. Mappers’ Delight seems to hold the largest collection of links to serious and silly maps, but geofftech.co.uk has by far the best comment on the copyright dispute with London Transport…

Myrtle‘s What if Germany Had Won The War map has recently been mentioned on Annie Mole’s site, so I took my red pen and had a look.

I’d be the last one to wish that Germany had indeed won the war, but if it had, Myrtle’s German would probably be better. Too bad this nice idea looks like an automated Google Translate job. Turns out that Horst Prillinger had the same clever idea, and made a much nicer job of it.

Which is your favourite?

Thoughts Germany, Google, london

Find a small but ripe water melon. Not an easy task in London! Cut in half, and eat one half immediately with some fresh mozzarella and Iberian ham.

Once you’ve eaten, had a coffee and are otherwise recovered, peel and seed the other half of the water melon, cut in cubes, add juice from a small lime and 40..60g sugar, depending on the desired sweetness and the fruit’s inherent sweetness.

Run through the blender and pour the resulting pulp into a suitable container with lid. Freeze at -20 Celsius or colder for 4..6 hours, turning over at least once every 90 minutes.

Move over to the fridge 20 minutes before serving, and stir vigorously before serving, then take two spoons to form small lumps from the somewhat flaky mix.

I served this just once and some members of the party were somewhat sceptical. The scepticism didn’t last long. Neither did the sorbet.

Food and Drink london

Time for a breaking-news post. OK, only 48 hours young: Did you see the new London 2012 Olympics logo, unveiled this Monday by Sebastian Coe? (Go and read the official statement).

Apparently, it is modern and includes the word London. It’s even available in four amazing colours.

Nobody explained why it’s so ugly, why it isn’t at least available in the five Olympic colours, why the only reference to London is the written word (rather than, maybe, the logo itself with its jagged line resembling the famous bird’s eye view of London with its curved river), why the reference to 2012 is barely recognizable, or why … oh my, I’m getting all worked up again!

For £400,000 you’d expect something real in return. This is a bad joke. (Sign petition here)

On the upside, according to the BBC, the logo will evolve over the next five years. Let’s hope so.

Current Affairs BBC, london, Olympics;, Sebastian Coe;

Clean 300g ripe Strawberries, add 60g sugar and juice from half a ripe lime. Run through the blender until smooth, then let sit.

Make a vanilla custard: Extract the seeds from one vanilla pod and heat together with 250ml double cream in a metal bowl over steam (a bain-marie). Whisk frequently and never allow to reach the boiling point. In a separate bowl, whisk four large fresh free range egg yolks with 50g sugar until foamy and thick. When the cream is near the boiling point, whisk the eggs into the cream.

Never let boil, and do not stop whisking for approximately ten minutes. You want the consistency of… well… custard, really. Once there, remove the bowl from the steamer, and put in a sink or larger bowl with cold water. You want to cool the custard down as quick as possible, still whisking, to suspend it in this state.

When you returned your custard to body temperature, mix in the strawberries, pour the mix into a suitable container with lid, and freeze. Return to the freezer and turn over once every 90 minutes, allowing for 4..6 hours for the whole process. I find -20 Celsius are required, my freezer’s default setting of -18 isn’t cold enough.

20 minutes before serving, move the ice cream into the fridge. Serve and enjoy.

Food and Drink Cook, Custard, Ice cream