T'eyla Minh

I did a quick google search this morning to see if the BBC site had a copy of Delia Smith's easy shepherd's pie recipe from her latest 'cheats' series. Not because I don't know how to make shepeherd's pie, but because I happened to catch that particular episode and decided to follow her suggestion of using frozen mash to put on top. Not because I can't make mash, but because it's bloody impossible to get it on top of the meat layer without it going horribly wrong.

(The reason for making shepherd's pie is because my grandmother and uncle are coming for dinner on Friday and it's quick, easy and traditional, and there's plenty of it. And I can make the basic bit before she arrives then shove it in the oven to finish it off, which makes things a lot easier, obviously.)

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Talking of scones, actually, I made some on Sunday for the first time since the above-mentioned incident at school, which was probably first or second year. (I forgot to add the sugar; the teaching assistant whipped out a mixer and helped me. :P) I think I'm getting better at dough-related cooking, but need to make them bigger as they're all about 1.5" across. :) Still, lovely with butter. I'll make some larger ones and get some cream to whip so we can have them with jam.

And whilst I'm here, I shall make a shopping list for Friday's meal.

• lamb mince
• frozen mash (Aunt Bessy's)
• carrots & swede
• broccoli & cauliflower
• peas?
• cheddar

That should do it. I'll probably chuck some garlic in because we bought four ENORMOUS bulbs from the local grocer so will be eating it for the next year... good job I like garlic, really.

Swimming last night actually wasn't too difficult, other than that one point halfway across the pool where the sun is blinding. Collisons ahoy. The only annoying thing is that Alison and I had to cubicle-share on arrival because, even though people aren't allowed in until 6.00pm, they're apparently starting to queue at 5.20. Grr. We had to wait until 6.30 to get in. I suspect this is because it's OMG summer so people are either (a) cooling down or (b) learning to swim in time for a holiday. Irritating. It's usually quite full just after Christmas when all the good intentioning people turn up, but they tend to disappear after a few weeks. I wish they'd refurb the other pool already. There is scaffolding up outside, which is promising...

So, we may be doing alternative activities for the summer if this keeps up. Which is kind of annoying, because swimming + summer = nice. Obviously, everyone else thinks so, too.

And another thing - why do people just STAND in the middle of the pool? They can stand by the edges, but nooo, they have to stand right where I'm trying to swim. I got completely trapped at one point by two slow-moving swimmers and a random standing person. Gah.

Anyway. Enough moaning. I will get a bike and cycle, ohyes. Unless, like all my other good intentions, it falls flat on its arse.

Oh yes, and we watched Sweeney Todd last night. :) That striped bathing suit still kills me...

I shall now sign this one off before it gets any rantier.

Apparently, they don't teach common sense in medical school.

I just typed a letter in response to correspondence from a doctor, from whom we had requested a Court report regarding a family. The letter we had originally sent was two pages long: the first page printed on our letter-headed paper, and the second page printed on ordinary, white, unheaded paper. This is because the headed paper is printed itself in such a way that every other page is just ordinary, cream-coloured paper, so that there is a copy for the file, and hence printing the second (and any other) page of the letter on normal paper saves wasting the headed stuff.

The doctor in question was technically writing back to moan about the fact that he couldn't get the statement done in time, which is fair enough. But the part which completely boggled my mind was the first paragraph, in which he says that the letter is "interesting" because the first page was on letter headed paper and the second page was not, and that the Solicitor's name was at the bottom of the second page but did not appear in the list of names on the headed paper (er, no, that would be because it's a list of the CLO, Asst Director and such, not every bloody solicitor in the building).

This simply-printed two-page letter was enough to send the doctor in a flurry of confusion over whether, in fact, both pages were part of the same letter. Despite the fact that the case name is mentioned on both pages, multiple times.

Just... WTF? Our letters also go out stapled together. Why on earth would you assume that just because the paper's different, it might be two separate documents?

The Stupid. It Hurts.

Just five new ones to share. I made the latter four a few months back and forgot about them...

... ... ... ...

The first is mostly to be used on my food diary posts (which are not visible to the general public / friends as they are mostly for my own benefit) because I needed an icon for them. I may periodically use it on other random food-related posts as I don't have a foody icon anyway.

The other four, obviously, are icons I made from the various programme scans from Derren Brown's show back in March. I was going to put text on the first one but couldn't decide what to go for. I was going to have "good witch" but I think any text would detract from the cat-got-the-cream expression and ruin it. Besides, the other two are still quite apt. The last one is basically just a scan of the programme cover, and will probably end up as a default if I ever get around to layouting the other, bigger scans...

So, there we go. A rather boring entry of no consequence.

Beethoven's Missa Solemnis is really frelling hard work, although there are some very pretty bits of harmony in there. Beginning to see why Adrian gave us an extra four weeks to rehearse it; the concert's not until November... It's also ridiculously high, an awful lot of the time, and really horrible for the men. I know you were deaf, Mr Beethoven, but that's no excuse to bully the tenors. :P

Paul is out at some gig or another and will probably wake me up later. I should probably try and get an early night, even though it'll doubtless get interrupted...