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![[info]](http://l-stat.livejournal.com/img/userinfo.gif) eleri is in hospital with a megastress meltdown. She's doing OK. If you know her and want to send love, support, or anything, you can contact her via Blade (vaxjedi) but please don't call him, as he's got plenty to be handling right now.
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Remember that I posted on Tuesday afternoon that I'd sent in a chili order to theSpiceSpecialist.com? See here if you don't remember.
My chilis arrived this afternoon. How's that for prompt? Given that they don't charge for postage within the UK, that makes it all the better. Full marks there.
The order was packed in a well-sealed padded envelope with a printed address label, and it had a clear, comprehensible and accurate invoice inside. Again, full marks!
Each spice came in its own semi-rigid resealable clear plastic pouch (much better than the flimsy, hard to reseal jiffybags in which I've had orders from other places arrive - no immediate need to find storage jars or bottles); again, clearly labelled with full details including "best by" date. Almost full marks. I say "almost", because scrupulous care hadn't been taken to ensure that none of the contents, in the case of fine powders, had lingered on the outer part of the sealed plastic opening. I'll expand later...
Now, the stuff that really matters: the contents!
Armed with oatcakes and milk, which I've found to be the best tools when chili tasting - the oatcakes are splendid palate cleansers, and the milk is good at dampening the burn from a too-enthusiastic chili - I started sampling; the mildest / least intensely flavoured first, of course.
1) Hungarian sweet paprika. A fine, deep red powder. A taste (enough to balance on the tip of a sharp kitchen knife is enough) immediately reveals the sweetness, with the bitter and earthy peppery tones following quickly enough to prevent any sense of over-sweetness. One of the best-rounded sweet paprikas I've ever tasted. At least an 8/10 - I can't improve that until I've cooked with it.
2) Hungarian smoked paprika. Again, a fine, deep red powder. A taste of this is really mouth-filling in the way that a good dark chocolate or a red wine can be. First the smoke, which I couldn't identify, but which is definitely not some cheap "smoke flavouring"; it's far too rich and subtle for that. Then, in sequence, a slightly less intense sweetness than from the sweet paprika, followed by the earthy/peppery tones from the previous tasting. That's going to be at least a 9/10, given that I use smoked paprika much more often as an uncooked garnish than as a cooking material.
3) Kashmiri chilis. Whole chilis as advertised, 8-10 cm long and about 1 cm wide, with a dark red colouring and a medium-fine wrinkling. And seeds! plenty of seeds! As hoped, there's more than enough here for me to do some germination and growing-on tests. I cut a roughly 3mm piece from the sharp end of one, removing all seeds and membrane, and chewed. Of course, it not being powder, the flavour was slower to come, but come it did. It's sweetish and relatively mild, but releases a rich bouquet after a minute or so's chewing. It's harder to judge right now, given that I haven't cooked with it, but unless I'm greatly mistaken, it's going to be at least a 7/10.
4) Powdered Naga Jolokia chilis. A fine, medium-brown/red powder. This is where the lack of attention to making sure that there was no residual powder on the filled packaging gave me a problem. I noticed, on examining the pack, that there was a slight dusting of powder on the inner side of the top of the package sealing. Given what I knew about the advertised hotness of this stuff, I should have put on disposable gloves before touching the package. Silly me. Anyway, on with the testing. For this, I sensibly used much less material than for the other chilis: as much powder as would adhere to the first couple of mm of a *dry* sharp knife blade, dipped into the powder and then tapped off to remove everything but the finest adhering film. I tasted it. Ow! Ye gods, this stuff is hot. Minute as the sample was, it filled the whole of my mouth and tongue with as sharp and clean a chili-burn as I've ever encountered, which lasted a good minute and survived a mouthful of milk and an oatcake. At that point, the knife and anything else that had been used got the hot soapy water treatment. Unfortunately, some of the powder on the packaging must have got onto my hand, and then onto my face - thank the gods, not into my eyes. Even after carefully washing my face, I can still feel the tingling 45 minutes later. This stuff is almost impossible to rate, since I can't imagine ever cooking with it. I'd be more inclined to classify it as a chemical warfare material than as a cooking ingredient. It was too hot even to detect any flavour through the fire. However, as it was sold as dramatically hot chili, I have to admit that it does what it was advertised to, and give it a (painful) 10/10.
So, in summary: this is a good company to buy from. The stuff they sell is of top quality; they pack it well (except for my owowow caveat) and they deliver promptly. I recommend them to you!
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If you care about science, freedom of speech, journalistic integrity and honest reporting, reform of the UK's libel laws, and those kinds of good things, I think you should (if you didn't already) know about this.
I've signed the statement, and I'd like to encourage you to do so too if, like me, you think this isn't just a little local difficulty that doesn't matter very much. I happen to think that censorship matters a great deal.
Please let other people know about this, and reuse the clickable.
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| 2009-06-08 15:41 |
| Hot stuff! |
| Public |
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| Pierre de la Rue: O salutaris hostia |
| food |
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Stuff about food, really.
A few weeks ago I decided that it was really quite silly and profligate of me to be buying Well-known Supermarket's hummus given that I'm perfectly capable of making it myself and that the recipe is almost embarrassingly easy.
Chickpeas, lemon juice, garlic and oil are perfectly easy to come by in Coventry, but it has proven harder to find tahini. Neither Sainsburys nor the Co-op in town stock it ("There's no demand for it, dear..."), Julian Graves used to, but no longer... I haven't investigated Holland & Barrett, because I don't like them, and Drop in the Ocean are just yuppie supplement-pushers nowadays - oh for the good days when you used to be able to scoop your own peanut butter out of a huge tub there! Fortunately, Well-known Supermarket does sell tahini - hurrah!
Which led me to look for smoked paprika. W-k S sells it, but their version is much too hot for what I wanted, alas. Don't get me wrong: it has a lovely taste and colour, but I wanted to have more of the smoke and colour and a lot less of the fire, mostly because Jus is very chili-sensitive and I'd like him to be able to eat the hummus too.
So I did some general hunting around the web for chili-related information particularly for chilis with relatively low heat but excellent colour, and I read very good things about the Kashmiri chilis. The idea of growing some, given my perennial success with the Apache variety, is tempting, too.
I don't know if any of you have experience of theSpiceSpecialist.com. They sell all kinds of good ingredienty things that aren't always easy to find, such as lemon myrtle, wattleseed, mahlab, sumac powder and gum mastic. And, hurrah, they sell whole Kashmiri chilis (in which I hope there'll be at least some seeds so that I can try growing them). And mattp may like to know that they also sell the Naga Jolokia variety, which is measured at around a million Scovilles :)
My order has just been sent to them: 25g of sweet smoked paprika @ £1.50; 25g of sweet Hungarian paprika @ £1.90; 10g of whole Kashmiri chilis @ £1.50; and 10g of Naga Jolokia powder @ £2.50 (I have to try it, even though I know that it'll be far too fierce for me and I'll probably end up donating it to Matt :>).
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How very little I relish the prospect of my having to expend, at the very least, the time and energy of three half-days, and perhaps of more, in attempting to extricate myself and others from a pitfall which some of those others had themselves prepared and heedlessly left unsignalled in our path.
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No, don't worry, I'm not in trouble! :)
We had a caller at Coventry and Warwickshire Friend this evening (I'm here on my first listening-in training session right now) who wanted to, and had been unable to, contact GLAD, the LGBTO* legal advice line, which (from the web listings and our records is:
GLAD: Gay and Lesbian Legal Advice Mon – Thu 7pm – 9pm tel: 020 7837 5212
On calling it, that number proved to be inaccessible. We tried asking London Gay Switchboard for up to date info & contact details, but they (oddly, since GLAD has been around for years) apparently didn't have a listing for them.
Does anyone actually know if GLAD is still extant, and, if so, what their actual 'phone number is?
Of course, it could just be a temporary line fault, but... still, it seems odd that a well-known helpline should have gone phut without any discernible (Googleable) evidence.
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I just made myself a cup of tea - and discovered that the previous time I'd left the milk on the counter and put the sugar away in the refrigerator.
At what age does one become eligible for senior moments?
"Dave, my mind is going. I can feel it. I can feel it. My mind is going."
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Ran my "listening to Music" group at WV in the morning. It went pretty well, apart from the CD of various things I'd burned the night before refusing to play :( but people had brought in some of their music (including "Gurrumul", an album by Geoffrey Gurrumul Yunupingu, which was excellent and which I'm going to have to get for myself!) so we didn't run short of music *phew*.
I spent the afternoon mostly doing admin stuff and talking with Sue, our volunteer, and Gary and Paul, two of the nurses.
Then off to the Britannia Hotel to meet the lovely xugglybug, whom I'd not seen in far too long, and who'd been in Coventry for the NUS Women's Conference. We went to Brown's and drank lots of coffee and talked for hours catching up with each other's lives. I walked to the train station with Katie, then caught the bus back into town and then home again.
On Saturday we're off down to London. First stop Kew Gardens, for the last weekend of the Tropical exhibition. Then to the Coliseum for Adams's Doctor Atomic in the evening. And on Sunday, we're off to Kent for Charles's 60th birthday do, so it's going to be quite a busy weekend as well!
ETA: Katie quote from yesterday: "Mooncups are a Marmite thing." It actually made perfect sense, after I'd finished boggling :)
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Tomorrow marks the 17th anniversary of my finding someone who seems to think that I'm worth everything that it takes.
You're worth it too, my wonderful stgpcm! Please may I have another 17 to be going on with? ;)
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Am currently in the middle of trying to put everything back into place after having added a 1Tb drive to my computer.
Windoze seems to go out of its way to make things less easy than they might be.
Ah well... per ardua ad astra, I suppose.
As you've probably worked out, I had a minor (hah!) trough of depression that kicked in just after Christmas. Fortunately, I'd taken on board all the things I'd learned at Willow View, so it's taken much less time than I feared to get back to something like normality.
Sorry for having had to duck and cover, but it was the best thing for me to do.
Apart from that, no major news, no big surprises. Life carries on.
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Stupid bloody depression.
Stupid bloody people.
Stupid bloody Universe.
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when I don't know where exactly I'll be, nor when :)
Nottingham, York, Cottingham, Worthing, Raynham... all possibilities. Who knows? It's that running-around time of the year.
Well, however you celebrate it - and if you don't - I hope you all have as excellent a time as possible. I know it's going to be a tough time for some of you, and I have you particularly in my heart.
I'll let you know how it all went when we get back again!
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I think that, as regards my health, I'm just about back to normal[1], thank goodness. I got called into hospital yesterday for an appointment at the Emergency department. The letter didn't say what this was about; it turned out merely to be an opportunity for them to take my pulse, BP and sats again - no bloods, thank goodness, given how laborious and uncomfortable the last time that they tried was - and for me to tell them that I'm doing fine: no more chest pain, the chest infection's cleared up and the thrombosis has sorted itself out with no evident lasting damage. The only unjoyous aspect was that the doctor with whom I spoke was concerned that my pneumonia may have been initiated by my possibly having had a seizure (which would explain what I was doing naked and wedged under my computer desk in a weird position), and he's going to write to my GP suggesting that I see a neurologist in case my epilepsy is getting worse. I do not want to go back on Epilim/valproate, or anything else that will turn me into a zombie. So: I shan't :)
Today was my last pre-Christmas day at Willow View. Sue, one of the volunteers and my co-editor of the Willow View Newsletter (which, when Ian manages to coördinate matters, will be available in PDF format from the Willow View website - I'll let people know when that's up and running), gave me a £10 HMV token, which was lovely of her. And - even though I wasn't officially 'on duty' - I had a chat with one of our newest service users which, I hope, may have helped him gain a useful insight into how some of his difficulties have arisen; he certainly seemed to be both excited and grateful for it. I love it when things work out well for people.
Really, everything is pretty good. Thanks for (virtually) listening to me babbling!
[1] fsvo normal, of course - in other words, I'm in no worse shape than I usually am :)
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It was the Willow View Christmas Do today - lots of people turned up for lunch, including former service users. It was excellent to see people who'd gone through the Willow View experience and were doing so much better. That alone was enough to set me grinning like a maniac for the rest of the day, but...
Scott, our head medic, gave a sweet speech about how much he valued all the work that the volunteers put in, and then -
All of the volunteers were given presents! From the way that a lot of people were grinning at us, it'd obviously been a well-planned and well-kept secret surprise.
I do love working at Willow View. I'm so grateful that I got the chance to go there, and to become a volunteer. It really is a Good Place!
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It was such beautiful weather this morning that I decided to come in to Willow View. No, I'm not back here as a volunteer yet (I'll probably leave that until after Christmas), but I really wanted to see everyone again.
So - here I am! I've had so many hugs that it feels like being at BiCon :) I'm probably only going to stay for the lunch hour (I don't know what it is that people are cooking for Community Lunch today, but it smells amazing) and then wander home again, but I'm sure that it's doing me good.
Love to you all!
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I'm sorry that it broke off in the middle - I have not the least idea what caused it to do so, but what I was going to say was "Thank you to all of you who've been so kind and thoughtful during my recent ill-health." Modern technology, bah!
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so that I don't wake Jus up with my insane laughter.
It's pipyn's fault, see? She made me do it!
In 2008,  mhw resolves to... Get back in contact with some old jardinieres.
Spend more time with my weelkes.
Give up quamoclits.
Go cockmongering three times a week.
Backup my astereopsia regularly.
Learn to play the ullage.
I know, I know, it's not that funny... except that it is. *muffled shrieks*
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Because they'd had to find a spare slot for me, I wasn't surprised that I had to wait a while for the actual scan, but I had some Dickens that I'd not read before with me, so I didn't grudge the time.
No DVT. No pulmonary embolism. The chest pain and breathlessness was almost certainly just due to the chest infection.
A thrombosed surface vein which will probably recover in a few weeks.
No more Clexane injections needed.
I'm to rub ibuprofen gel into the area if it gets too achey.
Frequent gentle exercise.
Hurrah, eh?
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The DVT Team have just got back to me, and I have a scan scheduled at 2:30 this afternoon. I'll let you all know how things are going when I get back.
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Nobody called me from UHC yesterday. Jus kindly chased bureaucracy for me last night - Ultrasound didn't have my notes, they said, and could therefore do nothing; A&E didn't have my notes, they said, but Ultrasound did, and therefore they could do nothing; I should call the DVT Team after 9am today.
This morning it proved impossible to get through to the DVT Team. Ultrasound still disclaimed any knowledge of me: "If you're not on our screen," they said, "you might as well not exist for all that we can do for you. Sorry."
So. About ten minutes ago I got through to the DVT Team. And then... "Who are you?" they asked, plaintively. "We don't have your notes!" So I gave them my name, my hospital number, and then I explained all that had happened. "I'm feeling fine, now," I said, trying to be placatory. "It's probably not terribly urgent..."
"Oh, but it is urgent!" exclaimed the person with whom I was speaking. "Possible DVTs are classified as an Emergency, you know! A&E have been very bad in not sending us your notes, because without your notes we wouldn't know that you needed an appointment!" (She really did exclaim all those sentences, and seemed almost to be vibrating with righteous frustration.)
The DVT Team now have my number, if not my notes. They are attempting to book me a scan for today. I await developments.
And it's quite true; I do feel fine. I'm hardly coughing at all, and, when I do, my chest scarcely hurts. My leg is still tender, a little, along the line of the vein, but feeling bruised rather than painful.
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pensive
hot
angry
embarrassed
loved
tired
crappy
giggly