Category Archives: General
Easy peasy, lemon squeezy!
Just had to share with you my recipe for Thai Red Curry – it is so simple to make, takes no time at all, and is better than I can get from my local takeaway – give it a go!
Don’t be put off by the long ingredients list: everything is readily available from the supermarket and it is very quick to make. There’s enough here for 4 people but you can double up the quantities as it will keep in the fridge for up to a week and it’s fine to freeze too!
Ingredients:
- vegetable oil or sunflower oil
- 400g tin coconut milk
- either chicken, prawn, beef, fish and vegetables of choice (I use aubergines, red peppers, mushrooms and beans); cut into bite-sized pieces so it all cooks quickly)
Curry Paste
- 3 Shallots, roughly chopped
- 3 garlic cloves
- 3 long red chillies, de-seeded (but leave some in if you like it hot!)
- walnut-sized piece of ginger, peeled and chopped
- 1 lime, zested and juiced
- 1tbsp fish sauce (can be replaced with light soy sauce for vegetarians)
- 1tsp ground cumin
- 1tsp ground coriander
- 1tsp freshly ground black pepper
- lemongrass stalk, roughly chopped
To make the paste, put all the ingredients into a food processor and blitz really well until you have a smooth paste. Heat 1tbsp of oil in a large wok or frying pan, fry the paste for a few minutes until it becomes fragrant then add the coconut milk. Bring to the boil, then add the meat and vegetables of your choice and simmer; chicken, beef or pork will take 5-8 minutes; prawns and fish about 2-3 minutes; vegetables such as courgettes, peppers, baby corn, green beans, aubergines or carrot will take about 5 minutes; and spring onions, mange tout or spinach will only need a minute.
Serve with either rice or noodles and a few prawn crackers – if you have time, a few sweetcorn fritters are also rather scrummy!!!
I will survive!
This one is for the girlies – you know who you are:
I woke up last night to find the ghost of Gloria Gaynor standing at the foot of my bed. At first I was afraid ………. then I was petrified!
BOOM!!!
Got to Dance
This is Street Dance Crew Diversity’s tribute to Michael Jackson which they performed live last night at the Got to Dance finals on Sky1 … it is quite simply incredible!
Fancy a pint?
As a lager drinker for many years (a favourite uncle used to refer to me as “Lager Lil” from a very young age and I have been known to tell people that I was “weaned on lager”), I was intrigued by a headline on the BBC website today which reads:
Has Britain fallen out with lager?
Apparently, while it remains by far the most widely drunk variety of beer, sales of lager fell from £12.7bn in 2006 to £11.4bn in 2011, according to market researchers Mintel.
Despised by real ale lovers yet consumed in vast quantities by pubgoers, for decades, lager has long rivalled tea as the beverage that best defines modern Britain. And yet the nation’s attachment to the supposedly refreshing qualities of pilsner and export appear to be on the wane.
It could be the economic climate – we blame everything else on the economic climate – but with more people buying their drinks from the supermarket rather than the pub, couples in particular are more likely to choose drinks they can enjoy in the home together. At home it’s about sharing, opening a bottle together, and lager has never been marketed in that way.
For me however, there is nothing more enjoyable than a long, cold drink of lager at the end of the day – at home or in the pub, I really don’t mind! So athough depleted, for now lager looks capable of lasting another round.
Ladies, it’s a Leap Year!
Today, 29th February, is the day when in Britain it is a tradition that women may propose marriage. It is said that this tradition goes way back to the 5th century although there is little evidence to support this. What is definite however is that while in an ordinary year, girls might be happy to wait for the man to do the asking, almost half of unmarried women polled in a recent survey would take advantage of a leap year to propose to their partner on February 29 – though two thirds would still expect their partner to buy them a ring! It also revealed that three quarters of men nationwide would have ‘no problem’ with being proposed to.
So come on Ladies, this opportunity will not come your way again for another 4 years – and don’t forget to talk to Party Lights about the lighting hire for your reception!
Precise Mathematics
This comes from 2 maths teachers with a combined total of 70 years experience. It has an indisputable mathematical logic.
This is a strictly mathematical viewpoint .. it goes like this:
What Makes 100%?
What does it mean to give MORE than 100%? Ever wonder about those people who say they are giving more than 100%? We have all been to those meetings where someone wants you to give over 100%. What makes up 103%? What makes up 100% in life?
Here’s a little mathematical formula that might help you answer these questions:
If:
A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z
is represented as:
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26.
Then:
H-A-R-D-W-O-R-K
8+1+18+4+23+15+18+11 = 98%
and
K-N-O-W-L-E-D-G-E
11+14+15+23+12+5+4+7+5 = 96%
But ,
A-T-T-I-T-U-D-E
1+20+20+9+20+21+4+5 = 100%
And,
B-U-L-L-S-H-I-T
2+21+12+12+19+8+9+20 = 103%
AND, look how far ass kissing will take you.
A-S-S-K-I-S-S-I-N-G
1+19+19+11+9+19+19+9+14+7 = 118%
So, one can conclude with mathematical certainty, that while Hard work and Knowledge will get you close, and Attitude will get you there, it’s the Bullshit and Ass Kissing that will put you over the top.
Now you know why some people are where they are!
Toilet humour
As I am currently undertaking lots of competency based interviews on graduate recruitment campaigns, I knew it was only going to be a matter of time before a gift like this fell into my lap for the blog – and it’s a cracker!!!
Posters have gone up around Swansea University campus instructing students on how to use the toilet properly. They say it has produced them to help address cultural differences. The posters include images showing students what they should and should not do. Some students have called them ridiculous but others say they are a good idea to help keep the toilets clean and hygienic.
A university spokeswoman said: “Swansea University is a multi-cultural campus community and the informational posters were produced, for use in both male and female facilities, to help address cultural differences that were unfortunately causing damage and hygiene issues.
Oh well, guess it gives a new meaning to the phrase “shit happens!”
Funniest joke of the year 2012
A one-liner by comedian Tim Vine has been named the funniest joke of the year at the Loaded Laftas comedy awards. Vine’s joke, “Conjunctivitis.com – that’s a site for sore eyes”, beat competition from Jimmy Carr, Sarah Millican and Paul Daniels.
Tim the brother of Radio 2 presenter Jeremy, can now stake a claim to being the king of the one-liners. In 2010, he won the award for the funniest joke at the Edinburgh Fringe with the line: “I’ve just been on a once-in-a-lifetime holiday. I’ll tell you what, never again.” And last year, his joke, “Crime in multi-storey car parks. That is wrong on so many different levels”, was named second funniest at the Fringe.
Whether Tim had much competition at this year’s Laftas is open to debate. I think his jokes are “laugh out loud” hysterical but when you see the ones he beat, he is quite clearly a comic genious!
Jimmy Carr: “I know a couple who get on like a house on fire. They both feel trapped and are slowly suffocating to death.”
Sarah Millican: “My mother told me, you don’t have to put anything in your mouth you don’t want to. Then she made me eat broccoli, which felt like double standards.”
Matt Kirshen: “I was playing chess with my friend and he said, ‘Let’s make this interesting’. So we stopped playing chess.”
Paul Daniels: “I said to a fella ‘Is there a B&Q in Henley?’ He said ‘No, there’s an H, an E, an N an L and a Y’.”
Laugh? I nearly fell of my chair while splitting my sides … not!!!
My personal favourite joke of the moment however, is the one that asks “How much of his finger did Paul Daniels recently cut off in an accident? Answers on a postcard please!!!
Give that man a Knighthood!
Well now that the Queen has finally bowed to public pressure and stripped “Fred the Shred” of his Knighthood, does that mean there is one going spare? If so, who is more worthy than one Mr Chris King (aged 27 & 1/3)?
For those that have missed this story, Chris King is the writer of the letter from Sainsbury’s that has made such a stir on Social Networks over the past couple of weeks.
In May 2011, Lily Robinson (aged 3 & 1/2) wrote to the supermarket, suggesting that the bread should be called giraffe bread.
She received a letter back saying that renaming it was “a brilliant idea”.
Lily’s letter said: “Why is tiger bread called tiger bread? It should be called giraffe bread. Love from Lily Robinson age 3 and 1/2”.
Chris King from the Sainsbury’s customer services team wrote back: “I think renaming tiger bread giraffe bread is a brilliant idea – it looks much more like the blotches on a giraffe than the stripes on a tiger, doesn’t it?”
But he went on to explain how it had got its name: “It is called tiger bread because the first baker who made it a looong time ago thought it looked stripey like a tiger. Maybe they were a bit silly.”
He included a £3 gift card, and signed the letter “Chris King (age 27 & 1/3)”.
For once, on receiving such positive publicity, there has been a statement today from the supermarket saying:
“In response to overwhelming customer feedback that our tiger bread has more resemblance to a giraffe, from today we will be changing our tiger bread to giraffe bread and seeing how that goes.”
Apparently Mr King no longer works for Sainsbury’s but is studying to be a primary school teacher – he sounds as though he’ll make a terrific teacher and will surely cost the UK a lot less than those scurrilous bankers … Arise Sir Chris!
It’s OK to ask
Keep meaning to post this video. It’s called “It’s OK to ask” and I was pleased to be involved with the young people in the early stages of the project. The message is a good one to get across so please share. Thank you.
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