It seems inconceivable that the Tories, with or without the LibDems, could even get elected dog-catcher in 2015, and yet look at the newspapers online and it’s all too clear that getting them back is perfectly possible, especially if Ed fails to unite the Left (I think he might have spent too long, now, playing the ToryLite game – I hope I’m wrong), and the vote is frittered away among the minor parties.
A left-wing vote for the Greens really is Continue reading
The question I’ve seen asked most is who pays for these daily trips to Job Centres which might be miles away from claimants’ homes? Fair enough, especially as they are no more than punishment for being unemployed long-term but there are, though, rather more serious questions that need to be addressed.
For example, Continue reading
As regular readers will be aware, I have bilateral lymphoedema which is also infected, and my legs and feet feel as if they’re swathed in red-hot barbed wire. They need swabbing yet again to find out with what, as the currently-prescribed Flucloxacillin is proving to be as effective as taking Smarties. But, then, it always does. I’ve lost count of the number of times I’ve told my GP this, but the scripts are still churned out with mind-numbing regularity.
Anyway, the observant will have spotted that I’m also in Continue reading
A Caveat – I don’t really expect you to read this. I’m writing it to get it out of my head, before it tips me into a breakdown. So why publish it, I hear you ask?
Good question, and I’m not sure. I do know it’s not an appeal for sympathy, though.
Having spent this morning having my legs debrided by the nurses, and much of the rest of the day sleeping through the resultant pain, I’m glad it’s over.
Sadly, it all starts again tomorrow, and the day after, and the… Well, you get the picture.
The situation has become intolerable – there has to be an end – and yet, there isn’t. That’s not Continue reading
This recipe has been substantially rewritten. Please go to https://ronsrants.wordpress.com/2013/10/17/a-vegetarian-substitute-for-bacon-revised-recipe/
for the new version.
One of the high-lights of my previous veggie incarnation (20-odd years from 1985 – I can’t be more exact because it fizzled out over a couple of years rather than stopping abruptly), was the creation of a bacon substitute.
Not like the meat analogues you get today, which blatantly try to emulate, visually and texturally (but with wildly varying degrees of success), the food they otherwise go to great lengths not to be – what on earth is the point? – but something that gives you the intense savoury, salty, crisp, hit of bacon while quite clearly NOT pretending to be bacon!
And it’s based on that most unpromising of raw materials that – justifiably in my view – in its natural state inspires widespread revulsion in the West – tofu!
The Tofu:- Continue reading
There are days – damned few, admittedly, of late – when I don’t feel too bad. Sod’s Law dictates that, on those days, no-one will ask how I am!
Conversely, on the days when I feel like hammered shit, everyone seems concerned!
Now, don’t run away with the idea that I’m moaning about solicitous friends – I’m not – but the way it works out a lot of the time, I might come across as someone who never stops moaning!
And then there’s a friend from whom I’d expected more understanding when I took a turn – several turns in fact – for the worse recently, but who went off on a major strop because she apparently can’t comprehend why, when she thinks I should be getting better, I’m actually not. Well, here’s the thing Continue reading
After much dithering and indecision I finally decided they were worth a try.
The indecision was mainly occasioned by the available storage space – i.e., sod all – so the machine had to be a compromise. No point in buying one so large I couldn’t put it away, or so small it was effectively useless.
Its main use is for making soup, particularly smooth soups and, after spending way too much time in the kitchen last week beating ingredients into submission with a blender, and pushing them through a sieve, the main results of which were Continue reading
Does Cleggy, the Plastic Bag Tsar-elect, ever think any policy, through to its conclusion? I’ve no objection to the proposed 5p per bag surcharge/tax on carrier-bags as, even when I was able to, I didn’t use them, but even for a coalition effort, staggeringly little thought seems to have gone into it.
These days, though, I shop exclusively online (I’m housebound), and my groceries are delivered in carrier bags, for which there are sound reasons, not least the speed with which the produce can be transferred from the delivery guy’s possession to mine, enabling him to be on his way again quickly. Thus deliveries further down the line from me aren’t delayed, and I get to re-use the plastic bags for refuse disposal.
Everybody Continue reading
For those missing out on the dubious joys of this informal series, it usually manifests itself as bottom-of-the-fridge soup. This is a tad different – a bottom-of-the-freezer recipe.
You’ll need:-
300g or so of Alaskan pollack, trimmed, pin-boned and Continue reading
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