Vegan or Omnivore?

I do fall into the second category and am unlikely to every be totally vegan. As I've got older I seem to be going off meat more. A full English breakfast used to be a must for me , bow I can't remember the last time I had one and certainly don't miss it.

I've never been a fan of steak and I find red meat so heavy on the stomach. Meatless Farm mince is a perfect example , if you use it in Shepherd's Pie or say Keema , and you save some for tomorrow you can feel how much lighter it is than lamb or beef mince. That fact alone should spell out that it's better for you.

I sort of abhor Tofu but both Snackwallah and Vegano have served it up in very tasty meals that I have cleaned the plate with.

Our local Indian , the excellent Rajnagar and about ten vegetarian / vegan main courses and if I eat from there , that's my eating list.

I still drink milk and have it for my porridge and coffee and eggs and fish are always on my menu. Chicken is ok every now and then especially in a curry and am ok with decent sausages ,  although there is part of me that says I shouldn't.

So I don't see myself being vegan , although lots of work colleagues think I am,  but the thing is , barring Tofu , I think most vegan food is excellent and if I am eating out the vegan option is the one that grabs my attention.

So really can we have anything but "Call Any Vegetable" by Frank Zappa and The Mothers (the record company added "of Invention" so as not to be offensive) to play out with? I thought of "Meat Is Murder" by The Smiths but that is a bit too hard hitting , though it's right to be.

Disturbing

Today in bed I felt there was someone there with me, I don't know who, but I know someone was looking out for me.

Later I saw a dark sheet hanging over me with hands and a head full of teeth, looking fairly frightening, but I have confidence in my own abilities to fight off flimsy night demons and that is doubled because I know so many people want me back to 100% for both personal and professional reasons, all of them good. The demon stayed where it was and finally melted away but was fairly impressive.

During this influenza some of the side effects have been night blindness, dizziness almost to the point of collapse and a lot of this possibly caused by anaemia, which is not being helped by me not wanting to eat. Today I decided on a fried egg sandwich for breakfast but that just didn't happen, and a trip to the chemist for a folic acid prescription didn't really do me any good either, apart from getting more tablets that I need, thanks to my wonderful doctor at Thornfield Medical Group. I love our NHS.

My mind is tired but by body is awake, I had the heated up remains of a Mirch Aloo Begun from the amazing Rajnagar and managed to eat that without too much of a problem. I am now drinking Hot Chocolate as I write this in the hope I can kick start my body to properly repair itself. I am a bit like my dad in assuming my own indestructibility although I think I look after myself a bit more carefully.

After the dream I think an appropriate sequence would be "Night on Bare Mountain" by Mussorgsky from Disney's "Fantasia" one of my mum's favourite films and a wonderful introduction to classical music for young people, if only they had shown that in music lessons at school I'm sure a lot more of us would have taken notice. The piece also found it's way on to the "Saturday Night Fever" soundtrack as "Night on Disco Mountain".

Too Lazy To Learn

I think we are all guilty of this to varying degrees. Often it's because the learning process is time consuming , expensive and even difficult. Sometimes it's because it's time consuming. While I can doodle about on most musical instruments I can't actually play apart from basic rhythm accompaniments and maybe the odd simple solo. However something like Trace Bundy's take on Pachelbel's "Canon" just leaves me awestruck. Learning takes practice, time and dedication.

There are other instances where people cannot master computer basics, yet can drive a car. I point out that , generally , learning to drive a car is a lot more complex, difficult and dangerous than using a computer, but lots of drivers eschew computers as the black arts.

Sometimes it's the fact that people refuse to use short cuts and simple methods because the have used a particulal method of doing things and would rather take fifteen minutes doing it their tried and trused way rather than the two minute simple method that has exactly the same  result. It's like they would rather gather woould and make a torch that they burn to provide illumination but you would rather switch on the electric light.

The same could be said of cooking, although millions watch cooking programs for many of those cookery consists of sticking a ready meal in a microwave or ordering a takeaway. I sometimes have a mental battle over this, I can cook an Aloo Chole in about two hours and it costs me about a pound plus heating (it does for two servings)  or I can can order a portion from Rajnagar (my local Indian Restaurant) for six pounds. I value my time at a lot more than six pounds an hour so I ofetn go for the takeaway option , although that is a decision arrived at by weighing up all th eoptions and making the best decision rather than laziness.

One of things I have noticed is that cooking vegan / vegetarian is usually much simpler than cooking with meat or fish, so my next experiment is a chickpea and apricot curry. I think that should be quite good.

Jamie Oliver has a book called "Just Five Ingredients" so that gives people an option to get into cooking for theselves very easily, but again, for some people reading is too much of a chore,

There are probably a million other examples but I thingk that's enough to be going on with and I will leave you with Trace Bundy's TED Talk showing what you can achieve with practice.

Awake

It's eleven o'clock Saturday Night, although you could say it's really midnight as the clocks go forward for Daylight Saving rubbish, I've been out with Maureen and Scott and Fiona and eaten some of the best burgers in Newcastle at Meat Stack at The Dog and Parrot, then tonight eaten at Rajnagar for the first time (had lots of takeaways) but had one of my best Indian meals ever (and that was everyone's opinion) , although one has to wonder what happens when you get used to perfection.

The thing is I am now feeling wide awake. Obviously the sugar from that excellent food has obviously stimulated me to whatever. Everyone else was asleep two hours ago after watching an episode of Timewasters and Black Books, both class comedy, if you click on the links you should be able to watch for free.

So I thought I'd just do this post, which is really just a diary entry to remember what I have done today , I think I have managed to put all the analogue clocks and watched forward, and I suppose an appropriate record to share would be Bryan Ferry's "This is Tomorrow" because it sort of is, all my analogue timepieces say it's Sunday but all my digital timepieces say it's Saturday. So I will see you tomorrow, or is it today? Who know?

Waiting For Things To Happen

It's strange at times when you are trying to do a lot of things simultaneously, your focus obviously drifts and because you are waiting for something to complete before you can continue task ne you start on task two that engages you until you reach an impasse and you check task one and you are still waiting for something to complete so you start task three and then forget about task one that then sits waiting for you because you away with the faireies on task four by now.

Part of the reason for this post is to include "Rahaye,Rahaye" or "Rahe Rahe Jaan Waliye" or probably about ten other title variations by The Safri Boys , an absolutely joyous piece of Bhangra that I discovered on a Bhangra compilation many years back and then couldn't remember the title when I wanted to your use for a post in Settle about it's excellent pair of Indian Restaurants Ruchee and Royal Spice . I am lucky I also have Rajnagar round the corner from where I live, as well as Solomon's Dhaba fairly close, so I am well served with Indian restaurants both at home and on holiday. Also when I go to Oswaldkirk in a month or so I can sample the excellent Helmsley Spice.

So as the week draws to a break, I am thinking about Indian cuisine and Bhangra Music, which is not a bad thing in my opinion.

A Wordless Weekend and That Christopher Lee Video

I didn't post anything this weekend. No particular reason although I was in Edinburgh on Saturday, and Sunday was a just plain lazy day although I did get out and do a couple of things as well as cooking Aloo Chole for tea, so that means I have something good, vegan and tasty to eat over the next few days. I've loved it ever since I got it from the excellent Rajnagar as a takeaway, and I still get it, but I now also make it myself as it's a great one pot meal so you don't have much washing up.

The Edinburgh trains going and coming were rammed due to Cross-Country treating their customers like cash cows rather than customers but that is the nature of what happens with privatisation, the bottom line is all that matters is lining the pockets of owners and shareholders by whatever means possible,

On a more positive note That Christopher Lee Video is nudging towards 10K views with 200 likes adn a lot of positive comments. I first posted it in 2014 when I found out he was producing Heavy Metal music and on the first day it hit nearly 10K views before Youtube pulled it. Click on th elink to find out more. But I think it may actually surpass my Nick Cave / Dr Seuss "Red Right Hand" video which is standing around 16K although I have updated it and the upgrade has only 2K views so far, but you can see it here.

So although it's only Monday the week is off to a good start, so enjoy your Monday and Christopher Lee's take on Paul Anka / Frank Sinatra's "My Way" which in my opinion ourt muscles the Sid Vicious version by a long chalk,

Facebucked

It looks like Facebook is blocking by blog posts. There's only a handful of hits now, which I assume is from friends, and given that the blog has only three followers I'm hardly headline news.  Last month there were hundreds of visits via Facebook, but now you can count them on two hands. The thing is they've done the same to Spoongig which normally gets a decent amount of hits.

As I mainly write it as a diary it's not a problems, but if I was trying to monetise it or run a business then it could be quite annoying. You should never rely on just one source for anything you do, because if that source dries up then you are fairly screwed.

As I write this I'm attempting to make my own take on an Aloo Chole curry, which Rajanagar do so brilliantly. I was thinking that I'd go for a takeaway, but decided to try my hand at it myself with extra greens and a few olives.

After a busy couple of days, looking forward to a relaxing night maybe even watch some TV, but I will leave you with "Judy Get Down" by Anthony Moore for no other reason than it's an absolutely brilliant song.

Enjoy your Tuesday night.

Them Big Oak Trees

One of things I noticed on the walks in the Lake District was the number of big oak trees that we saw along the routes. It's not surprising that one of the pubs we frequent is The Royal Oak in Ambleside, which I discovered as it was featured on the cover of Half Man Half Biscuit's excellent "CSI Ambleside" album.

While there are lots of different tree species, Oaks are fairly distinctive and are striking and obvious in any landscape and there are a few examples on this slide show instagram link here.

I was wondering whether to combine this post with the last post, but it does give you the opportunity to just listen to one song to accompany my mindwanderings, but it's always good to see Oak Trees as I don't think there are too many round the Newcastle area.  I certainly haven't noticed on my walks to work, although tomorrow morning I will keep an eye out to see if I can see any.

So I going to include the excellent "Them Big Oak Trees" by The Wonderstuff from their album "Hup", and I only recently discovered that Miles Hunt of the band was married to Mary Ann Hobbs the 6Music DJ.

So I am just about to have tea, an Aloo Chol from Rajnagar after enjoying the first episode of Doctor Who with the wonderful Jodie Whittaker, looking forward to the rest of the series.

Dreams and Hidden Mirrors

Spmetimes what you east can cause you to dream. Cheese is a  good one if you want to dream. Last night I had Aloo Chole a chickpea and potato curry along with some Sag Aloo from Rajnagar. I finished about half of it so I will be warming up the remainder tonight for my tea tonight and looking forward to it. I don't think that's the normal food to stimulate dreams although it's very good.

Anyway last night was a night of mental fragmented dreams. To start with there was something to do with the music on Nick Lowe's "Bowi" EP then I was in a high rise office block in Liverpool (I used to work in JM Centre in the early eighties. Then there was some work going on at the entrance to an underground car park , there were two guys doing it and has a small two seater smart car.

One of the guys walked into the car park and suddenly a big chunk of the floor sank about a foot. The guy ran in to so solid concrete floor , lay down and faded as if teleported. The other guy's girlfriend turned up and told him to clean the concrete dust from the passenger seat. She went into the underground car park and sank calf deep into another hole.

I'm not sure what happened then, but I was thinking how the hell do you deal with a really big sink hole? What if one appears in the middle of the streat and it's miles deep? You cannot just fill it can you? I'm sure someone will have an answer.

Well today it's dark and rainy so my steps are going to take a big hit, but that's fine as I am far ahead of my target so all is fine.

Current listening is "Curse of The Hidden Mirror" by Blue Oyster Cult. I bought this for completion but it's actually a very good album. Closer to "Imaginos" than "Agents of Fortune" that further over the top and veering into mystical Lovecraft type horror, as illustrated by track 3 "Old Gods Return".

"Now is the time the moon is in alignment 

With the unknown zodiac, the untold sign 

Of the fiery maniac within each breast 

Awaits a stirring irridescent whirring 

Of a six eyed god whose wings beat In a time so odd, so very odd 

And we're all lost, all of us blessedly lost "

Classic over the top BOC lyric fest.

The opener "Dance on Stilts" is a brilliant song (though the title doen's lead you to expect it) and the coda is just gorgeously excellent. The album doesn't seem to be available digitally and it is very expensive on CD but is worth getting hold of.

A Little Blue Sky

Today has been grey and overcast with a foggy and misty start. This afternoon though there was a short period when blue sky came through and even a little sun. That soon went though and we were back to the grey cloud cover. The good thing though is that it is Friday and for many of us that means we have the weekend to relax and enjoy although I have to be up early tomorrow morning to pick up and undelivered item from the Post Office. It always amazes me that deliveries of larger than letterbox items are tried aroung lunchtime rather than early or late when there might me somebody in.

This in turn reminded me of that album "Goodbye Blue Sky" by Godley and Creme two very talented Mancunians who made up half of 10CC and from that I've chosen "A Little Piece Of Heaven" for you to enjoy. Enjoy your Friday evening, I may treat myself to a curry from Rajnagar after lunching on a Sweet Potato and Chickpea curry at Aurora Kitchen.