The Sturdy Soapbox

The Guv will return

The time travelling cop series Ashes to Ashes came to a climax last night.  DCI Alex Drake (white jacket), did not return to her own time of 2008 from 1981 and so the hard drinking, hard punching boorish DCI Gene Hunt is stuck with Miss Bollinger knickers.

This has been a cracking series to liven up Thursday night viewing and all credit to the writers, to pull off transporting the main characters moving them from Manchester to London and forward in time by 10 years (from Life on Mars), whilst introducing a female "time traveller" in the shape of Alex Drake, a feisty oppo for the oh so politically incorrect Hunt.

The supporting characters were also nicely developed during the series, Gene Hunt describing Ray Carling (left) as having a face like a builder's arse with a moustache on it.

If you are in the UK and missed this series, I don't think you'll have to wait long for a rerun, though you'll have to wait til next year for the next series.  If you're in the US, keep an eye open for the UK version of Life on Mars and then Ashes, before it's remade for their home market and the US Gene Hunt starts holding team building meetings and arranging group hugs.

And all before breakfast

If you'd have told me three years ago, that by the time I reached 51, I would be studying bus timetables, I'd have given you a clip round the lug hole, but that's what I have been doing this week.

I've got two hospital appointments next week, so needed to establish which buses go near the hospital. 

Also, I decided to plan today's meat sortie with military precision.  There was a bus due past here at 7:01 and 7:11 this morning.  As I was up a bit earlier than planned, I left home at 6:55 only to see what should be the 7:01 leaving the stop.

So much for timetables.  I walked down into town and another bus didn't pass me. The Darlo leg of my trip was a bit smoother.  Bob was in a grumpy mood, but his displays were quite magnificent.  It's a way to tell if he was late getting up, because there we were, 7:25 and all the display counters were magnificently merchandised.  Trays of smoked, dry cure and streaky bacon, punctuated with lines of sausages which I remarked made a change from plastic parsley.

Took him some curry and some more flyers for the counter that herald barbecue packs are now available to order.

Fortunately, the buses were a bit more frequent due to the time of day, so I was back into Walsall for 8 o clock.  Nipped into Tesco Metro for  some bread, butter and a bottle of pop and with my bag of meat, I am settled til mid next week, with a bit of pork for Sunday, a couple of big pork sausages to make toad in the hole and some of their home made burgers (including 2 lamb and mint).

And as part of my mission, I established where stand T is, which is where I go off to the hospital from.

Egg McMuffin inventor dies

Via J-Walk

Egg McMuffin Inventor Dead

Food news: Inventor of Egg McMuffin has died.

Herb Peterson, who invented the ubiquitous Egg McMuffin as a way to introduce breakfast to McDonald's restaurants, has died, a Southern California McDonald's official said Wednesday. He was 89...

Peterson came up with idea for the signature McDonald's breakfast item in 1972. He "was very partial to eggs Benedict," Fraker said, and worked on creating something similar.

The egg sandwich consisted of an egg that had been formed in a Teflon circle with the yolk broken, topped with a slice of cheese and grilled Canadian bacon. It was served open-faced on a toasted and buttered English muffin.

I very rarely go to any of the burger chains, but I have to confess, the McMuffin has to be about the best thing on  Micky D's menu.  I prefer the double sausage and egg (the sausage patties are exceptional).

He's changed his display

Remember last week, when I commented on "gadget boy" Wally the Welder and how he was linked by bluetooth to his car.

I got this over the weekend and didn't twig for a while, he's changed it to read Wally the Welder.

Last week, whilst we were having a pint, I was talking to Charlie Chalk on the phone,  who is aware of the enigma that is Wally the Welder, but they've never met and not spoken either.

I put him on the phone to Wally and at one point I heard him saying "I'm not really a welder you know".

Well, I suppose a nickname like Wally the sheet metal fabricator and sometimes welder doesn't really roll off the tongue quite as easily does it ?

I've had a pretty lousy few days.  When I saw Wally the sheet metal fabricator... last Wednesday, I'd been to see Dr. K about these nasty attacks I get from time to time.  It looks like they aren't migraines after all, following her prescribing some Imigran generics.  At the first sign of an attack I suffered about three weeks ago, I took one and it made me worse.

I've spoken about the attacks and the nasty symptoms a few times with McBark.  He made the suggestion that it could be the onset of arthritis in the neck, because there are a lot of blood vessels that can become trapped and cause all sorts of problems.

I discussed this with Dr. K and now await an appointment at the hospital for a neck X ray.  If it is arthritis, there's no suitable treatment and I can't see a way out of these attacks which last between three and six hours.

On the good side, my long term diabetes control has never been better or my blood pressure.

I suffered two subsequent spells in three days.  One on Thursday last and another yesterday.  I knew it was coming on as I was talking to Val, the first signs were just beginning to show.  Fifteen minutes later I was out of the game, screwed up vision, nausea and dizzines that confined me to my chair til ten to eight last night.  Not only are they scary, they are pissing me off, because as dull as it is, they are screwing up my everyday life.

Today, I am taking it easy, because the attacks always leave you with a feeling of trepidation that you are going to suffer one  again, with no warning.  They often occur around three in the afternoon and as it is ten past now, I am at my most twitchy.

I'm not planning anything more active than making a cup of coffee and maybe beans on toast a little later.  If I feel better tomorrow, I'm making chicken curry.

Eek !

It's almost time to hide behind the sofa again (unless your name is Charlie Chalk that is). http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/check/doctorwho/ram/dalek?size=16x9&bgc=CC0000&nbram=1&bbram=1&nbwm=1&bbwm=1

http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/check/doctorwho/ram/ood?size=16x9&bgc=CC0000&nbram=1&bbram=1&nbwm=1&bbwm=1

http://www.bbc.co.uk/mediaselector/check/doctorwho/ram/sontaran?size=16x9&bgc=CC0000&nbram=1&bbram=1&nbwm=1&bbwm=1

Snow for Easter

I put off going up to see Bob the Butcher til today, because I've been a little under the weather most of the week.  By this morning, there wasn't a bit of meat left in the house.  I've had no sleep and feel worse than I've felt most of the week, but I had to go out like it or not.

Wind is bitter and despite studying timetables online, the buses (especially the Darlo bus) are as rare as hens teeth.  The one back from Darlaston was the worst, I was waiting out in the cold for 25 minutes.

That's it now, I'm not going anywhere else.  The weather people are forecasting snow for tomorrow.  It was the first day of spring yesterday.

Bob cheated.  He'd got a pal with him who's a butcher who did his spatchcock for him.  He's planning to take the credit with the customer when he hands it over prepared and dressed.

There again, what can you expect from a butcher who thinks that Frenching is something to do with the Emanuelle films !

Wally's little Tom Tom

I arranged to meet Wally the Welder on Wednesday, but I had a doctor's appointment just before he was due, so I asked if he would meet me at Sick House rather than home.  I then went on to explain where it is, but he cut me short, saying "Just give me the post code, I'll find it with me Tom Tom".

I might have known, gadget boy would have sat nav, but it's worse than that.

Not only has he got the Tom Tom sat nav, but he's linked to his car by bluetooth (see picture). 

Posing little git, with his talking Tom Tom (back seat driver edition).  If you take you own route, it nags you  "I told you not to turn left at the lights, now you'll be stuck in the roadworks up by Woolworths".

We ended up at a pub local to him, The Spring Hill www.thespringhill.co.uk which is one of the better "gastro pubs" that have become the rage.

That's a pub that's shunned the "from deep freeze to deep fryer" culture, in favour of making real food.  Although I didn't eat there, just reading the menu, you could tell it was good, because there was too much to choose from and it wasn't overpriced.

I spoke briefly with my brother on the phone and as he was in the area, he came and joined us for a short time.  He's also used this pub to eat with the family and rates it too.

I popped into town this morning because like an idiot, I had forgotten butter and without butter, there's no mash.  Can't have toast, or even crumpets.  As I suspected for Good Friday, the buses are on a reduced service, so I have postponed seeing Bob the Butcher until tomorrow.

I called him yesterday to tell him this was my plan and then he asked me if I knew what a spatchcock chicken was, because some woman had ordered one for Easter and he didn't know what one was, yet had agreed she could have one.

I explained that is is a chicken (usually a small one or a poussin), cut down the backbone, but not into two pieces.  Opened out and held in that position with wooden skewers.  I't usually roasted with a mixture of herbs.  Using a poussin ensures the meat is  sweet and tender.  I tried to find a decent picture on Google for both here and to show Bob, but they all look terrible, very unappetising.

If I were cooking one today, I would rub the carcass inside and out with lemon juice, black pepper and garlic.  For the herb garnish, you could use some freeze dried herbs de provence.  I know Bob won't have any herbs, so I'll take him some of my Tuscan herb mix (which came from Birgit's Spice Shop in London).

Hmm, just thinking about it, he may be "spatchcocking" two chickens tomorrow.

Bit of a shock

I get an e mail with the weekly stats for my sandals and socks website www.sandalandsoxer.co.uk/home.htm  On average, the site gets about 1500 hits a week.  Not a record breaker, but it's been covered by most media that's going to pay it attention, so imagine my surprise when I saw last week's figures 15,530 hits !

Must have been featured on a radio station somewhere or something.

Not that I'm a stat whore or anything, but I noticed the daily hits on the Soapbox have increased a bit too.  A week or so abou it his 160.  Lucky me.

Your weekend Crossroads quiz

This will only appeal to Brits of a certain age, as I don't think Crossroads was shown elsewhere.

Name the characters from the 1960's (onwards) TV soap set in the fictional village of Kings Oak.

I can name all but two on here, that's a bit sad isn't it ?

I read it in the Sun so it must be true

The Sun reports today that the Daleks are to return in the new series due to air this spring.

Well, that's what Daleks do, they always come back.  That's the fun of setting a television series that deals with time travel, which is obviously what they have done to bring back the character of Rose Tyler, who was exiled to a parallel dimension with a parallel dad and her mum from this universe.  It will be interesting to see how they explain her return, because the Doctor said it would be impossible for them to meet again.  So, I guess he's going to zip back in time in the Tardis to a time before he met the non parallel Rose, meet her again and have an adventure with Daleks at a point in time before they were down to the last one in existence, who dematerialised in a puff of emergency temperal shift in 1930's New York.  Boy, this is getting complicated isn't it ?

Personally, I think we will have a case of too many assistants, with the return of Martha Jones, Donna and the dreary Sara Jane Smith making four.  I'm sure there are those who would argue, but the chemistry which existed between Rose and the Doctor put the other characters in the shade.  I do think series four could be where Dr. Who jumps the shark, with talk of David Tennant leaving to go back to the theatre and no Who series for 2009.

Talking to Charlie Chalk the other day, he told me that as a kid, he never watched Dr. Who and didn't have the opportunity to hide behind the sofa like other kids, because they didn't have one.  If that's not an example of inverted snobbery, tell me what is.