wrm

Broke

But not in the financial sense.

Tanya’s folks are staying with us. This started a complicated game of chess where they sleep in the main bedroom and Tanya and I end up in the Rand-Lover.

In theory.

In practice, when Tanya tried to get into the Rand-Lover, she slipped, fell, broke her arm.

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So there I was, driving over Boyes Drive going bee-baa bee-baa to get to Constantia Mediclinic. Which is a private hospital where, in theory, things should go quickly.

We were there for almost three hours.

After sorting out the more important people in the queue (and let’s face it, kids with asthma are more important than adults with b0rken wrists), the doctor confirmed that it looked broken, had X-Rays taken, and eventually bandaged the whole mess up, sent us home, scheduled an appointment for this morning.

So now we find out whether they need to open this mess up, stick pins in, whatever.

And they refused to give her Pethadine. Tanya was so looking forward to the Pethadine… :-)

Update: so Tanya now has a bionic wrist. They operated, aligned everything, put a titanium plate in there to hold everything together.

Well, actually, they eventually operated. We were supposed to check in at 8. Ten past seven the nurse calls, tells me that the doctor will be there 9:30. Cool. We pitch at 9:30, nobody knows nothing. Nurse tells me that the doctor will be available Monday. Monday? With a broken wrist? Like hell. I make a bit of a fuss and they scramble the doctor. Doctor decides that this is serious enough to do something about, even though he’s not actually on duty. Schedules Tanya for surgery.

So later I phoned and spoke to the nurse, who told me Tanya’s staying overnight. Ten minutes later the doctor phoned, we sort of concluded that I could pick her up at 3. Went there at three, nurse says no, five. Make that five thirty.

Meanwhile we have a bunch of Tamsyn’s friends coming for a sleep-over. I’ve been relegated to the Rand-Lover, on my own this time. But first I have to fetch Tanya, take the kids to the Spur, and so forth, and so on.

Fun and games.

Update: This is what a bionic wrist looks like. The X-Ray on the right, that is (took me a while to realise that the view on the left is “before”).

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2009-09-19 by wrm Farting around 3

Gorgeous movie

“Up”

Go see it.

In a theatre. In 3D.

I’d wager it’s not what you expect, but it’s gorgeous.

2009-09-15 by wrm Farting around 0

On the changing of seasons

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Our lime tree reminds me that we’ve been in the house for almost a year.

Meanwhile, it’s still cold and wet enough for Coq au Vin. My recipe is loosely based on Nigel Slater… loosely. But read what he has to say, it’s gospel.

I use drumsticks and thighs. A big pack, four drumsticks, four thighs, for four people.

For starters, peel about two dozen little onions (pickle onions, or whatever they’re sold as). Stick them on end in a black pot, with a bit of oil, and slowly caramelise. Turn them around, do the other side, etc. Remove to a plate.

Then the mushrooms — fry a punnet of white button or portbellinis in a bit of butter, remove to a plate.

Then fry bacon of some type. I use the thick rashers, cut into thin strips. Remove to a plate.

Now fry the chicken, in batches. I normally pull the skin off the thighs once it’s fried up enough to come loose easily. Remove to a plate.

Meanwhile you had a chance to chop upÂ a large onion, three or four carrots, and a stick of celery. And don’t forget the garlic. Stick that all in the pot for a while.

By now you’ll have a lot of gunk on the bottom of the pot, so open that bottle of red and deglaze. I like to use a cheap fruity red from the Worcester area — something that would never win awards but goes down well.

Put the chicken back in the pot, pour the rest of the wine in, add whatever herbs you fancy (a bouquet garni is a good idea). I generally find there’s no room for stock in the pot, but I guess you can toss in a stock cube if you want to (this is how I do it, please don’t blame Nigel Slater). Also add the onions and bacon back in at this stage.

When it starts looking almost done, put the mushrooms in.

Serve with mash. Lots of mash.

2009-09-09 by wrm Foooooood 0

Controlled burn, my hairy… donkey

On the way home yesterday, people were calling in to the local radio station, asking about all the smoke in the air. Initial reports were that it was a controlled burn, but later on people reported fire engines and water-carrying helicopters.

This was the view from our porch last night.

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The fire came over the mountain and down to the firebreak, probably no more than 50m from the top row of houses. Fortunately there was absolutely no wind (well, just a breeze, carrying the smoke to the right as you can see).

Here’s a Google Earth image of the area. We live over there, on the right, between the red roofs at the top and the circle on the right edge. The camera’s pointing just a touch south of west.

Click to embiggen.

The white line is where I guess the fireline was.

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Gratuitous moon shot.

2009-08-25 by wrm House 0

Note to self

If your wife says “I have the hiccups,Â quick, someone, give me a fright”… DON’T.

Because she will spill red wine all over the couch, the cats, you, and herself, thereby upsetting the cats and ruining the couch and her clothes, and it will all be your fault.

At least it cured the hiccups.

2009-08-23 by wrm Farting around 2

You know it’s cold…

… in the De Waal / Hubbard / Blake household when you walk in the door and this is what you see.

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2009-08-13 by wrm Farting around 2

Gnocchi

This is a recipe from Jamie, which I scribbled down from a book my mom had. Simple, but great, especially if you have a vegetarian daughter who lurves mushrooms.

Thinly slice a punnet of brown mushrooms, fry in oil, add salt, pepper, maybe a bit of marjoram or rosemary, maybe a bit of chilli powder. Add one cup vegetable stock, bring to boil.

Meanwhile, boil a pot of water with a lot of salt, then slowly (as to not douse the boil) add gnocchi. When they float, remove with slotty spoon, add to mushroom sauce.

And that’s it. OK, you can add a couple of tablespoons of Creme Fraiche if you’re feeling decadent.

2009-08-13 by wrm Foooooood 1

Amazon-mass

Father Amazon dropped by.

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Looks like I have something to read this weekend.

2009-08-07 by wrm Geek 1

Time sink

LabRat pointed me at fukung.net. This is a horrible waste of time. And not safe for work, which means it’s your own time you’re wasting.

But this one made me laugh:

GunControl0504

2009-08-07 by wrm Farting around 0

My scale is trying to kill me.

If you have a Boardman’s BF103 Digital Scale, take note.

yin This symbol denotes female,

yang and this one denotes male.

If you get it wrong, the POS will look things up in the wrong table, and pronounce you, the guy, underweight, and her, SWMBO, the love of your life, the one you promised to love and cherish,Â and the person most likely to kill you if you Don’t Watch Your Step, as obese.

You Have Been Warned.

2009-07-28 by wrm Farting around Geek 0