John's Quavering Pencil

My friend Tom and I decided to take an early lunch today, instead of the full English breakfast that we would normally have on a Friday. We met at Sunderland University metro station and headed off to South Shields, changing at Pelaw. From South Shields metro station it is possible to look down the length of Ocean Road, towards the sea.

Looking down Ocean Road from South Shields metro station

We left the platform and walked the length of Ocean Road. On the right-hand side we went past the most amazing collection of Asian Indian restaurants; on the left there were numerous guest houses. When we got to within spitting distance of the beach we doubled back, mainly because the dark rain clouds had started to spit a bit.

We found Colman’s famous fish and chip restaurant and took a table for two at the back of the room. Service was prompt and pleasant. We both ordered cod and chips with a pot of tea on the side. I was tempted to order some rounds of white bread and butter but I refrained from doing so. Another day the temptation to ask for an extra portion of chips in order to make a chip butty might be too strong for me to resist, but I did not succumb this morning. Within a couple of minutes we had our pot of tea on the table and shortly afterwards our fish and chips came, too. There were no fancy frills; we asked for fish and chips and that is what we got.

Without doubt this was the best plate of fish and chips I have tasted within decades. I have eaten fish and chips at the Magpie Cafe in Whitby and also at Eastbeach Cafe in Littlehampton. Excellent as these acclaimed establishments undoubtedly are,  Colman’s of South Shields gets my vote. The fish was fresh, tender, and cooked to perfection. The batter was light and crisp. I would not have minded if my chips had been browned a litte more but Tom liked them just the way they were. I took mine with malt vinegar and salt, as befits this superb dish.

Fish n chips ~ photo by Tom Young

The grey rain clouds burst as I was walking home from the metro and I got a good soaking. At first I screwed up my face, as though I were sucking a particularly tart wedge of lemon, but then I remembered a girlfriend from the past who loved to walk in the rain. She adored the smell and she was invigorated by the feel of the raindrops upon her face.   I decided that I should adopt her as my role model; I tried to relax and enjoy the sensation for what it was. After all, I don’t make a big fuss when I have taken a shower; I just get a towel and dry off. I don’t burst into tears when I pull my wet clothes out of the washing machine; I just put them in the dryer. Sometimes, an experience needs to be reconstrued in a more creative way before it can be fully savoured. Speak to you later, my dear blogophiles.

Today I travelled to Hexham to meet with my friend Patrick. The sky was half-covered with dark puffy clouds. Were I to be in a glass-half-full mood I would focus on the blue sky and the sunny breaks, We met in the market square. I was tempted to buy some farm eggs but we pressed on to what has become our usual café. Once settled we placed our orders with the young waitress, and passed the time of day with her. Then we launched into one of the better specimens of our circuitously rambling conversations. A couple of hours and two cafeteriéres later, we emerged back into the square. We got no further than a couple of hundred yards before we felt the need to sit down on a bench, take the sun, and finish our natter. This was easier said than done, since our chats are characteristically open-ended.

Hexham car park

Eventually I returned to my car and started the journey home, There was a huge plume of smoke arising from the Newcastle skyline. I tuned into the local radio and learned that a scrap yard had caught fire.

When I got home I mowed the lawn. Indeed, I am now sitting in a sun lounger on it, listening to the sweet song of a blackbird. I am writing on a paper note pad with my digital pen. My plan is to convert it to text once I have uploaded to computer. In the past, I frequently wanted to write my blog while sitting in the garden (at least, in the summer months). However, it never worked for me owing to the difficulty of reading a computer screen outside in daylight. If this approach to digital handwriting and subsequent conversion to text works, it could change my modus operandi for both blogging and the writing of fiction. For the time being, it is rather buggy but I have not finished setting up the recognition program; it needs to be trained to recognise my quirky penmanship.

Had I not travelled to Hexham, I would have made Julia’s pâte brisée (short crust pastry). As it is, I think I shall do that tomorrow, let it rest in the fridge overnight, and then make a quiche on Saturday. Good plan, if I do say so myself. Speak to you later, my dear blogophiles.

Last night I finally got down to some serious practice with my Boss Loop Station. It took a while to remember how to patch things between my guitar, my amp, and my mixer but in the end I got a reasonable sound from it all. I was very excited with the progress I seemed to make on several looper arrangements: ‘Always on my mind‘, ‘Girl of the North Country‘ and ‘Folsom prison blues‘. However, one really does have to be absolutely spot on time with a looper and I think I need to give myself more time to practice before I include these arrangements in my shows. I did wonder about playing them tonight at my Terra Fyrmusica gig but I think that is now unlikely.

As for sauces, I have notched up two more of Julia’s recipes. I am cheeting really because Béchamel sauce is the base or the first step in making Source Mornay (cheese sauce). I made it in a very small quantity using only a quarter pint of milk. It is sometimes a challenge to make recipes for a single serving and I am interested in attempting to do that where possible.

I got the sheet music for ‘She‘ today. This was originally a Charles Aznavour song but Elvis Costello did a great version (that was the one in the film ‘Notting Hill‘). I would like to try to learn this song on piano. That’s all for now. Talk to you later, my dear blogophiles.

I think it is now official; I have become obsessively hooked on the Julie-Julia project. Today sees two more recipes completed, bringing the total to 4 since Wednesday. They are…

• Potage velouté aux champignons (cream of mushroom soup)
• Croûtes (hard toasted French bread)

Sliced mushrooms for the soup

I shall keep this blog short today, since I have things to do. Bye for now, my dear blogophiles.

I have changed the homepage on my website slightly. I was going to try to put some counters on the side bar of this WordPress blog but I just could not work out how to do that. I am moderately computer literate and I write my my own HTML code for my website, but WordPress is a mystery to me. Anyway, I have put two rolling totals onto the homepage. One is Fyrm Fouroux’s cumulative number of gigs in SL, to date. The other is the cumulative number of recipes John has cooked in First Life from the Julia Child books Mastering the Art of French Cooking.  With regard to Julia’s books, I put some pics up about my first two recipes in yesterday’s blog. I have to tell you that I have, this evening, finished the bulk of my preparations for Potage Velouté aux Champignons (cream of mushroom soup). Does anyone know how to do French accents in WordPress? At present I am doing them in WORD for Windows, copying them, and then pasting them into my ‘newpost’ screen in WordPress. There must be an easier way. So, I got my Julia Child books on Wednesday or Tuesday and already I have almost done 3 recipes. Maybe I am getting hooked into the Julie idea. I don’t know. But I will tell you that my good friend Woody in SL said to me while we were chatting before my gig at Cascadia last night that he lived in the same town as Julia Child and sometimes would see her at the supermarket. How brilliant is that!!!

There was a big truck with a digger attachment in my street today scooping up some topsoil from my neighbour’s front garden. He wants to make a place to park his cars. I still take a childish delight in seeing big scoopy things grabbing up huge mouthfuls of dirt. Must be Freudian. Well, I will try to let you know how the Potage Velouté aux Champignons goes tomorrow. There is a technique involved that I have not tried before, so I am very excited about it. Oh, btw, I bought a few herbs and some lettuce at the garden centre this morning – me and my friend Tom (in First Life) go there for full English breakfast sometimes. I got a few lettuce plants too. I’m hoping to plant them out or put them in pots this weekend. And, before I go, I just want to tell you that the potatoes I planted a few weeks ago are starting to come up. Just a couple of rows, nothing too agribusiness. Ok. I picked up the DVD of The King’s Speech in the supermarket earlier today, so I think I will watch that. Just have to make sure I have my box of tissues to hand (well, I think it is ok for men to cry in films, even Englishmen – lol). Speak to you later, my dear blogophiles.

On Tuesday afternoon I received my boxed set of the two volumes by Julia Child et al Mastering the art of French cooking. I am pleased to say that I have now made two of her recipes. Strictly speaking I made Potage Parmentier (leek and potato soup) and then converted that into Potage au Cresson (which is a variation with watercress added). Here I am starting out from my basic ingredients.

Basic ingredients for my first recipe

I prepared the leeks and potatoes and put them on to simmer for about 40 minutes. Meanwhile, I assembled more stuff and chopped the watercress a bit. I then pottered out into the garden and picked some chives, together with some flowers for a spray on the table. Next I assembled an avocado salad and slipped in some blueberries and chopped strawberries, as infiltrators. I made a strong garlic, lemon and olive oil dressing for the salad; on reflection I may have put in a little too much of the hot English mustard powder. The salad would probably have tasted more delicate if it had been left undressed but I just was not in the mood for naked lettuce today.

Most of the other ingredients

I ran a clove of garlic over some slices of baguette and put them in a low oven to crisp up as pseudo croutons. Once the soup was cooked, I shredded the solid vegetables with my hand-held blender. This left more texture in the soup than would have been the case if I had tortured it in the processor. I served up and garnished the soup with chopped chives. We had a very pleasant and tasty lunch.

A lunch based on Potage au Cresson

I don’t think I am going to attempt to replicate what happened in the film Julie and Julia. I shall see how I get on. However, I am thinking about one motivational goal. Our oven is a load of crap and the door doesn’t shut properly. We have to lean our metal waste bin against it in order to wedge it shut. I am thinking that if I can cook 100 Julia Child recipes, then I will treat myself to a new oven!

In my previous blog I referred to the Zen Guitar book that I recently found. I have been re-reading it, since it is an old favourite and I had lost it for a couple of years. The strange thing is that much of what Philip Sudo says about playing guitar applies equally well to cooking. Of course, he does stress that his book should apply to all domains of the life space, so it is not as though I am making an original point here. However, it has been good to experience it. Interestingly, some of the avatars at my Second Life gig last night were talking about Persig’s Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance. That is also an old favourite of mine. Bye for now, my dear blogophiles.

A problem has developed with my internet connection that is affecting my ability to stream my live music shows on the internet. I have spoken to the helpline but it sounds as though this might not be a quick fix. This is unfortunate, given that I have four shows booked between now (Tuesday) and Thursday. Still, one has to take the long view in these situations. It is certainly not the first time I have had difficulties and I doubt very much if it will be the last. Despite all this, I have played 700 one hour shows since January 2008.

With regard to the music itself, I have to admit that things are going very slowly in terms of both guitar and piano. However, during a major clear-out at home I found one of my favourite books that had been hiding for a couple of years: Zen guitar by Philip Toshio Sudo. I have started re-reading it and I hope that the calmness will eventually swirl into all corners of my mundane reality. As for piano, I think I have just hit one of those plateaux.

Watching the Julie-Julia film last week inspired me to order Julia Child’s book(s) which have been published as a two volume boxed set in hardback. They arrived this morning. I shall do some browsing and reading around before sharpening my knife and getting out the chopping block. I do not think I shall attempt to replicated Julie’s achievement of cooking all the recipes in one year, but I would like to explore these books fully over the next few years. Today, however, I must address my internet problem. Talk to you later, my dear blogophiles.

I seem to have been doing a lot lately without seeming to be getting anywhere terribly interesting. My kitchen sink was in a very bad state of repair and the tap scarcely worked at all; it had to be replaced. That has now been done but clearing out the cupboards beneath and around it was an embarassingly disgusting thing to have to do. Anyway, on a more positive note kitchenwise, I have just baked a sponge cake and made some lemon butter icing for it, too.

Sponge cake with lemon butter icing

I recently watched the Julie and Julia film again. For better or for worse, I have ordered Julia Childs The Mastery of French Cooking. I saw a report on the web that the latest edition comes in two parts in a boxed set and that the measurements have been converted to Imperial. I just love ounces, pints, feet and inches.

My piano playing seems to be at a low ebb, although I am still playing my Second Life gigs. I had a lot of technical problems last night. That is always frustrating and I get worried in case the problems repeat frequently.

I was making progress with the digital drawings to illustrate Part One of my autiobiography but somehow that has stalled. Maybe I just have too many things I want to do.

I have to go pick somebody up from the airport in a few minutes, so I will have to say goodbye for now, my dear blogophiles. Talk to you later.

Today was the day of the Royal Wedding in England. Ok. Well I wish the couple lots of good luck and stuff. I have absolutely nothing against them. But I would rather have had a couple of paragraphs tucked away at the back of the paper, if you see what I mean.Hype and coverage was way over the top for my taste, although I readily admit I am in the minority here.

Anyway, I did look at the first 30 minutes of the coverage on BBC1 and then my partner had to get a taxi out to the airport. I promise you I did try to watch a bit more. But after a while… I just go so bored I had to switch off.

While the royals were getting married I played my gig in Second Life venue Terra Fyrmusica,  and I would like to thank my audience for their amazingly enthusiastic support. Perhaps I provided a haven for royal wedding deviants.

Talk to you later, my dearest blogophiles.