31.12.12 This Is The End My Friend

Time was running down on the final blog of this seemingly remarkably long year of learnings. I had probably learnt a million and one things on New Years Eve 2012, but as if in a daze I had remembered none of them. Now, like a cliffhanger episode of 24, I was in danger of missing my first (and last) learning of the year.

Fortunately that’s when I first heard someone remark about how excited they were to sing Auld Lang Syne (and yes, I only just learnt how to spell the title). Unfortunately they, like everyone else, only actually knows the first line -‘Should old acquaintance be forgot….’ – and that was my eureka moment. What on earth are the words to the song? So link arms with a friend and join me:

Auld Lang Syne

Auld Lang Syne

Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And never brought to mind?
Should auld acquaintance be forgot,
And days o’ lang syne!

Chorus:
For auld lang syne, my dear
For auld lang syne,
We’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet
For auld lang syne!

We twa hae run about the braes,
And pu’d the gowans fine,
But we’ve wander’d mony a weary foot
Sin’ auld lang syne.

We twa hae paidl’t in the burn
Frae morning sun till dine,
But seas between us braid hae roar’d
Sin’ auld lang syne.

And there’s a hand, my trusty fiere,
And gie’s a hand o’ thine,
And we’ll tak a right guid willie-waught
For auld lang syne!

And surely ye’ll be your pint’ stoup,
And surely I’ll be mine!
And we’ll tak a cup o’ kindness yet
For auld lang syne!

I’ll probably reflect a little more on my years learnings after this, but for now it seems fitting for me to take a cup of kindness and reflect on the year that’s been.

Happy New Year.

DC

30.12.12 Diving into a Lake

I have been hankering to watch the film Black Swan for a while. No, not necessarily because it stars Mila Kunis, but because it received great reviews from everyone I know that has seen it. Christmas is that time of year where you actually get a chance to sit down and catch up on things like the years films etc that you missed so what better time to put two and two together.

Interestingly, the plot focuses around Natalie Portman’s character getting the lead role of the Swan Queen in Swan Lake and how it affects her. I never thought this blog would feature two learnings about ballet but here we are, I never knew the plot of Swan Lake, despite its fame and prominenece in pop culture, but the film laid it out pretty well for me. Below is taken from a particularly snappy summary at this link.

While hunting, Prince Siegfried sees an amazing swan. As he takes aim to shoot, the swan turns into a beautiful woman. The woman, Odette, tells the prince that she is a princess who has come under the spell of an evil sorcerer. During the day she must be a swan and swim in a lake of tears. At night she is allowed to be a human again. The spell can only be broken if a a virgin prince swears eternal fidelity to her. She tells Prince Siegfried, who happens to be a virgin prince, that if he refuses her she must remain a swan forever.
Prince Siegfried falls madly in love with Odette. However, through a spell by the evil sorcerer, he accidentally proposes to another woman at a party, believing that the woman is really Odette. Princess Odette feels doomed. She threatens to kill herself and throws herself into the lake. The Prince feels terribly sorry and throws himself into the lake with her. In an incredibly touching moment, the two are transformed into lovers in the afterlife.

If I could offer one piece of advice now that I’ve seen the film and know the plot of the ballet – don’t piss off the Black Swan.

DC

29.12.12 Palm Trees Make a Wondfull Canapé

At this time of year it you are inundated with one thing that eludes you the rest of the year it is canapés. Those delicious morsels that are so exciting are without fail a highlight of christmas. From vol-au-vents to tartlets they are, almost exclusively delicious. Today I learnt an interesting recipe for a palmier canapé, and an even more interesting fact about the name palmier.

The recipe for James Martin’s anchovy palmiers can be found here and below:

Anchovy Paste Palmiers

Ingredients
2tbsp Gentlemen’s Relish
2tbsp Double Cream
275g all butter puff pastry
1 beaten free-range egg

Method
1. Preheat the oven to 200C
2. Mix the relish with the cream in a bowl.
3. Spread the mixture over the rolled out pastry leaving a 2cm border.
4. Starting at one end, roll the pastry up towards the middle.
5. Turn the pastry around and roll the other end up to the middle so that they meet.
6. Cut into 1cm thick slices and place on lined baking tray. Brush with egg.
7. Bake for 12-15 minutes.

The learning, however, wasn’t the recipe. It was that the French word palmier means ‘palm tree’ when translated into English and means that the pastry was named to reflect the fact that it looks a little bit like the leafy top of a palm tree!

DC

28.12.12 A Sex Doll, But Not How You Think

As we wind our way to the unfortunate end of this lengthy blog, where would we be without learning another bizarre word. Today whilst reading an end of year sports blog, I encountered the ‘tweet of the year award’ which featured an athlete admitting to having agalmatophilia.

agalmatophilia noun

A paraphilia characterised by the sexual attraction to a statue, doll, mannequin, or other similar figurative object.

A sexual attraction to a doll? Well I guess I can now explain my interests in Barbie………. Who knew I would find something that would raise more eyebrows that a grown muscle bound man running away from a horse, or koalas private parts.

DC

27.12.12 Charity Begins at Home Pt.12

Just before we go, there’s time for one last charity learning and at Christmas what better place to look than the big piece of nature that is sat in the corner that you now have no idea what to do with. I’m talking about that festive essential, the Christmas Tree.

All across the country, different councils and organisations are organising charity fundraising for people donating or recycling their used Christmas trees. In Nottingham, Veolia Environmental Services will donate £100 for every 50 tonnes of trees and green waste donated in January towards the local hospital. In Henley, you can have your tree disposed of for a £2 donation to Henley in Bloom. There are literally a ton of these all over the UK and it’s a great way of dealing with a hard household waste disposal whilst also donating to charity.

Go on, have a little google of your local town and village and find a charity you can support.

DC

26.12.12 Before Doing Anything, Please Read Everything

For once, this year I have awoken on Boxing Day minus my usual thumping head thanks to the excesses of Christmas Eve rendering drinking out of the question. But when one challenge fades, another is certain to arise. This year I headed over to Lucy’s family house for a car rally.

Now the car rally is essentially a scavenger hunt in cars, but that’s not really the challenge, the challenge in this instance is Lucy and I surviving for over an hour in a car together whilst someone else deliberately tries to confuse us. One of us may not have survived!

Sufficed to say, it was a great way to spend a day and provided me with a fantastic learning. Lucy’s father, who had organised the event, handed us our instructions sheet and told us to read through the rules and instructions before heading off. Lucy and I skimmed through them and then set off. We got through half a page of winging it to destinations we knew before we realised we were headed down the wrong road. After another 10 minutes we realised our mistake.

Throughout the instructions, turns were referred to as L and R, the crafty curator had written at the top, however, that L meant a right turn and R meant a left turn – we had been well and truly duped!

Today’s learning then is very simple, when someone tells you explicitly to read all of the instructions carefully before doing anything, make sure that you do!

DC

25.12.12 Continental Christmas Cheer

Most families have crackers at Christmas, for many it wouldn’t be Christmas without them. As much a part of them as the papery, ridiculous hat and the plastic toy that no one wants, is an awful joke that barely causes a ripple of consolation laughter. Most families have that. Well this year, not mine!

Instead our rather grand crackers contained the compulsory shoddy gift offering, a paper hat that Lucy very quickly tried to hide, but no joke anywhere insight. Instead we were treated to rather random facts that were vaguely related to Christmas. So that I can let you down as much as I have been, the below was my offering:

In Spain, Greece and Italy, employees by law receive a compulsory Christmas bonus of a whole month’s salary – Feliz Navidad indeed. There economies may well be in the toilet but they can celebrate Christmas without worrying… AND they have good weather? I may need to move.

DC

24.12.12 It’s Christmas Eve and I’ve Only Wrapped 2 Presents

Now I’ve told you of my love for Christmas, I will let you in on a little secret, I love Christmas Eve nearly as much. It’s rare that I don’t have to shake out the cobwebs on Christmas Day after a late night drinking and dancing with friends – it has become as much a tradition as turkey with all of the trimmings.

But while I revel in catching up with friends and looking forward to nursing my hangover with roast potatoes, many nationalities actually have their main festivities on the 24th instead of the 25th! In Scandinavia, Christmas Eve is actually short hand for Christmas Evening and is reflected by them celebrating on the night of the 25th. This is also true in Germany, Poland and Austria. Some of Eastern Christianity celebrates as early as the 6th in correlation to Epiphany, with others such as Ethiopia and Georgia celebrating in mid-January in sync with the Gregorian calendar.

The basis for this change in celebration time is that the original Christian calendar called for days to begin at sunset. Ie. when the sun sets on the 24th it became the 25th. Overtime this has led to an increased importance for many on midnight mass!

So as I tuck into a few festive drinks, I’ll raise a glass to all those around the world who celebrate differently and are arm in arm with family members, over eating and exchanging gifts.

DC

23.12.12 Christmas Dinner Winner

This year’s Christmas meal was doomed from the outset. Seeing how much effort my mother puts in every year, I declared last year that I would take up the mantle this December 25th and would cook the traditional roast dinner. And now, quite frankly, I am bricking it!! That means that to be on top of things I have to get a head start, as a result I am going to prep a few things in advance. The first one up is the red cabbage that my family is partial to. The only problem is that I don’t actually have a recipe to stick to. I know the gist of what’s in it, but I will have to dig into the BBC Food directory to teach me how to get it done.

Ingredients

50g/2oz butter
1 medium onion, finely sliced
2 dessert apples, peeled, cored and sliced
1kg/2¼lb red cabbage, finely sliced
100g/4oz sultanas or raisins
200ml/7fl oz sherry vinegar
salt and freshly ground pepper

Preparation method

Melt the butter in a stainless steel or flameproof casserole over a medium heat (an aluminium pan will not work for this).
Fry the onion in the butter for three minutes, then add the apple and cabbage.
Cook for five minutes or so, until softened, then add the sultanas and the sherry vinegar.
Place a lid on the pan and cook for one hour, until all the vegetables are just tender.
Season to taste with salt and freshly ground black pepper and replace the lid. Continue to cook until the cabbage is tender and all the liquid has evaporated. This dish will keep for several days, covered, in the fridge. Simply heat it up again when ready to serve.

I’m off to heat my pan, cross my heart and hope that this meal all goes to plan. After all, there’s only Christmas riding on it.

DC

22.12.12 Shop until you Drop

Everyone rushes around at this time of year in a mad dash to get all of their shopping in time for the Christmas break. I’ve done all of mine, thanks for asking. In fact for the first year I’ve even wrapped all of my presents before Christmas evening. But many people haven’t, just ask my dad who every year falls into the trap of doing it all at the last minute in a mad rush.

If you ignore the 60m trees that are grown in Europe each year for Christmas, or that their needles are rich in vitamin C, I think the most amazing fact that I have heard about Christmas relates to our panic shopping. Today, in the UK, it is estimated that of the approximately 75million odd UK residents (a proportion of whom won’t celebrate Christmas or are young), 13 million people will grace the high street shopping.

I think you’ll agree, an incredible testament to our consumerism!!

DC