Madonna

I'm watching Madonna on TV, it's her performance from the BBC's Big Weekend and my feelings are mixed. I have been a Madonna fan since I was 10 and spent many, many hours dancing to La Isla Bonita when I was a teenager.

The show was going really well; then she decides to play the guitar. It's obvious that she's not a natural musician. She has to concentrate so hard that she is practically standing still throughout the whole song. Her singing which is dodgy at the best of times goes completely tuneless ...

Madonna, please - leave the guitars to guitarists. Stick to the jaw-dropping dance routines, the edgy clothes, the fantastic staging...that's why we love you.

Digital TV

Well, we finally got ourselves a set-top box so we are a digital household at last. Mr K-E finally cracked after years of dodgy reception and went down to Maplin on Saturday to get a digital receiver.

Now Mr K-E can drive me even more crazy.....flicking through dozens of channels before he decides that there is nothing on TV and wanders off.

Me (sitting with laptop in front of the TV): Stop that! It's making me nuts. Just watch one thing.
Mr K-E: Why do you care? You're blogging anyway.
Me: Just stop it OK. It's really distracting.
Mr K-E: Jeez, you sound just like my mother.

Gggrrrrr.

Why can't I be.....

I wish I could wake up tomorrow as Elektra. The movie with Jennifer Garner as Elektra was on TV last night.

Why can't I be a super-fit, stunning martial arts expert with superpowers? Why? Why?

Mr K-E's Curry (Version 1.0)

Mr K-E saw an Australian TV chef making a curry on TV and thought it looked delicious, but more important - easy. He can't remember the name of the chef, who is apparently Australia's number one celebrity chef.

For Fragrant Chicken and Spinach Curry, the recipe is:

(I won't bother with quantities, you'll see why later)

1. Fry onion, garlic, ginger, cumin, ground coriander seeds, turmeric and a pinch of cayenne pepper.
2. Then add chicken.
3. Then add a tin of tomatoes and salt.
4. Simmer for 15 minutes.
5. Add soft brown sugar, lime juice and spinach.
6. Once the spinach has wilted, serve on top of rice garnished with some fresh coriander.

It tasted OK, but it is a "European" curry as far as I am concerned. Tinned tomatoes in a curry? Hmmm. Very dubious.

We followed the recipe exactly, but I thought it was bit bland. Mr K-E agrees. I was suspicious when I saw the recipe - 2 cloves of garlic /pinch of cayenne pepper? We are going to try again with double the amount of spices. And fry it in half butter/half oil.

(And add Thai fish sauce, but don't tell Mr K-E)

Cake

I've been baking again today. How can heat applied to a combination of flour, sugar, eggs and butter produce something so delicious?

Mr K-E is watching 28 Days Later on TV. We've watched it before but I still have to hide behind the laptop. I'm the biggest scaredy-cat in the world.

Bake a Car

When I was a kid, some of my favourite stories were the Enid Blyton's Wishing Chair or Magic Faraway Tree stories. They are about a group of children who find a way to enter other lands i.e. by climbing the Magic Faraway Tree or sitting in the Wishing Chair.

They would then have all sorts of "exciting" adventures and meet witches/goblins/elves etc etc. All very wholesome.

But the places that I loved the most, were the "magic food worlds" - where the rocks were made of chocolate, sweets grew on trees and the streams were full of lemonade. (Yes, I was a greedy child who grew up to become a greedy adult hahaha)

So imagine my excitement when I saw an advert on TV about making a car out of cake! Yes, everything in this car is made out of cake and other edible materials!


And it's not just the body; all the parts eg windscreen wipers, engine block etc have all been lovingly made out of yummy stuff. The panels are made of a baked rice crispy mix and the rear lights are made of jelly. Ingenious! Even the cake is not just boring old pound cake, but fruit cake, chocolate cake, battenburg cake....


The engine block above is full of golden syrup as "engine oil".....

I don't know how to stick on a YouTube clip, but fellow cake-lovers please click here and select the "baking of documentary" link. You can also view the actual advert there which is v. good.

Also look here which has more pictures.

The car is a Skoda, but hey nothing's perfect.

Eurovision 2007

I've always loved the Eurovision song contest - ever since Bucks Fizz won for the UK way back when. By coincidence, my family was on holiday in London that summer, so I watched in wide-eyed wonder as the the girls' skirts were whipped off mid-performance to reveal supershort miniskirts.

These days Eurovision song contest is more like the "Former Russian States song contest". There has always been tactical voting i.e. Cyprus and Greece giving other 12 points; but now it's just ridiculous. All the Eastern European countries just vote for each other, so there's no hope for the UK. Not that we ever have a winning song anyway.

Anyway, it's all about the bizarre costumes and sets - who cares about the song? Mr K-E's favourite act was from Russia - kinky schoolgirls dressed in tight black dresses and long knee socks. Men are such dogs.

Greece and Turkey both had Ricky Martin wannabes. Except that Ricky Martin is sexy, while these guys were just greasy.

Serbia won, by the way.

I like Saturdays

We like Saturdays.

We had a late lunch at Black Cherry. I had the chicken and chorizo pie. Mr K-E had wild mushroom rissotto. The nice food was necessary to cancel the trauma of my horrible Mexican food last night.




Then we had a wander around our neighbourhood. I was surprised to find a scrapping supply shop, just opened recently. Scrapbooking, card-making etc doesn't interest me at all, but it seems to be really popular in Brunei. I thought it was bit American, and wouldn't really take off in the UK - so I was surprised to find the shop. Hmmm, well, people have all sorts of crazy hobbies I guess. Like blogging, says Mr K-E. Hey!


Coffee and cake at Cafe Nero is becoming a Saturday habit.


Lots of mundane errands to run, but we are home now. Harry Potter is on TV and the new series of Dr Who is on at 7. We have pringles, toffee popcorn and coca-cola. Happy, happy me.

Life in a Big City

It's been windy today and all the trains are messed up because of trees being uprooted etc etc. Poor Mr K-E had a meeting in Tywford today. I don't know where it is either, but it's far away from London. This morning, Mr K-E had to take a taxi from Newport to Twyford, it cost him £65!!
Anyway, he's home now...hooray.

And the news is full of Shilpa Shetty, Jade Goody, Celebrity Big Brother and racist/non-racist bullying. Everything in the world must be familiar with the Big Brother format now - this year, there is a Bollywood actress Shilpa Shetty in the Big Brother house. I think she's quite a big star in India, but of course unknown in the UK. Also in the house this year are three stupid young women - Jade Goody, Danielle Lloyd and Jo (failed S Club singer).

Jade Goody - ex Big Brother contestent. Has been the most successful Big Brother survivor, despite being famous for being stupid.
Danielle Lloyd - Won Miss England contest but lost her title when it came out that she was sleeping with one of the judges, Terry Sheringham. A B-list WAG.
Jo from S Club - failed solo career. Now breeds dogs.

The three meanies have been nasty to Shilpa, who could be slightly annoying I guess. But I must admire her dignity and self control - she doesn't respond to Jade's awful comments eg "your head is far up your own fucking arse you can smell your own shit". Hmmm what a nice woman.

Danielle called Shilpa "a dog" and also said " I wish she would just fuck off home..."

I don't know if the racist element has been blown all out of proportion. I think it's more that they are just from such different backgrounds. Jade and Co obviously feel threatened by Shilpa, I believe part of the problem is that she doesn't fit in with their idea of what an Indian person should be like.

And of course they are doubly suspicious of her because she doesn't drink alcohol. I've worked in the UK for nearly ten years now and I can honestly say that people in England have a strange and complicated relationship with alcohol. It's their main way of socialising, relaxing and establishing social bonds. It's not just about getting roaring drunk and being sick in gutters, it's also about dinner parties, office get togethers and boozy lunchtimes in the pub. If someone asks you if you fancy a drink, he's not just asking you out for an alcoholic beverage - what he's really saying is - I want to be your friend. Not drinking means that you can't be trusted because obviously you are a "control freak", you can't be trusted etc etc.

Whether you agree with drinking alcohol or not, this is a fact of life here. I guess you could compare it to the status of food and eating in Brunei. In Brunei, if you love someone you feed them. You show your love by saving them best morsels from your plate and buying the most expensive food for them to eat. When you ask someone to join you for lunch, it's not just about the eating, is it? It's about the bonding over eating together. And would you ever invite someone round to your house and NOT feed them?

A few years ago I was invited to a party given by one of my (English) friend's parents. I didn't feel like drinking that day, so I stuck to the soft drinks. My hosts obviously didn't feel comfortable with this. I gently explained that it wasn't against my religion and I wasn't pregnant (!!!) but they must have felt that it was a failure for them as hosts. They kept offering me different drinks (wine? beer? port? sherry?) until it got really embarassing. Even my friend stepped in said - look. she's fine. she doesn't want a drink. Finally I had Amaretto (a kind of almond liqueur) just to escape.

But you can imagine something like that happening in Brunei, but with food not drink. You don't like chicken. Okay eat the lamb? How about the beef? Whats wrong, diet ka? You so thin, why don't you eat? Eat. Eat. Do you eat eggs? I can fry some eggs for you if you want eggs......etc etc....

When I first started working in the UK, if I was invited round to colleagues' houses for "drinks", I used to turn up hungry - thinking that I would be fed when I got there. Instead I used to get drunk because there would be lots of alcohol and a bag of Kettle chips. I remember one time, Mr K-E and I were invited by his colleague to visit his flat after work. We went there straight from work and I was starving....he produced two big bags of crisps (there were about ten of us) and some beer. I remember thinking OMG. How could you invite people round and not provide food...especially after work??

Now I know better. Eat first. Then drink orange juice mixed with lemonade. (It's more grown up then Diet Coke)

Home Again

It's nice to be home again.

We got home around 4 o'clock, unpacked, had something to eat and fell asleep on the sofa together in a heap. Now we are up and watching Ruby in the Smoke on TV, starring Billie Piper. It is based on the Philip Pullman book. Mr K-E bought me the book a few years ago but I still haven't gotten round to reading it. The TV adaptation is quite good, maybe I should look for the book and read it.

Mr K-E is rooting around in our cupboards looking for "proper" food. The flat is full of Pringles, luxuy chocolates, cake and other assorted Christmas treats. But we have no bread, milk, fruit, vegetables or anything that could make a decent dinner. It looks like a trip to Sainsburys is required. We can't survive on party nibbles until the New Year.

Lazy Sunday

Today Mr K-E and I spent the afternoon on the sofa watching Sunday afternoon TV. We didn't get to watch X-Factor last night so we cheered when The Macdonald Brothers were booted out. Those guys were rubbish. They were like a joke that Scotland was inflicting on the rest of the country. This week they were finally voted out despite tartan-waving antics and Louis Walsh desperately decribing them as the "nicest guys ever".

We want Leona to win because she's fab.

I also looked through all the stuff on my laptop and found some photos that Mr K-E had taken during our holiday in Rome a few weeks ago. Despite my whinging during the holiday ( ...how many photos do you need anyway? can we go now?....) , I must admit that he's taken some cracking shots.

Il Vittoriano

A random street in Rome

One of the statues on Ponte Sant Angelo

If you have never been to Rome, go. It's really lovely and there is so much to see. I'm not an "arty" person, but it's impossible not to be amazed by the beautiful works of art and architecture in the Eternal City. And it's not just in museums or art galleries, but in all the little corners and back streets. The food is delicious and for an ice-cream lover like Mr K-E, the hardest thing was choosing which flavours to have.