Things I have been doing

Sock Monkey and Sock Monkey's Bird, P (or if you prefer: 'bit of skirt') had a very nice weekend which seeped over to Tuesday.

On Friday we went to see Coraline in 3D no less. I was particularly interested in seeing it after I read a review which said its "About as suitable for children as Pan's Labyrinth'. Well naturally I had to see it after that! I really liked it and if you like The Nightmare Before Christmas you'll probably like it too. And we got to keep the 3D glasses which look like nerd glasses. I shall put them in my dressing up box for later. The funny thing though, was that because it is a kid's film all the trailers were for other kids' films. We sat here going "Oooh I fancy seeing that. Oooh and that one!"

We went to Sir John Soane's House on Saturday. I've planned to go there for years but hadn't got round to it. Sir John Soan was a architect who collected stuff. Lots of stuff. Like bits of old buildings, paintings, statues, a sarcophagus and lots of other crap. He kept it all in his house which is now open to the public. All this stuff is crammed into this house which is about to burst and you can visit it. I was pleasantly surprised and pleased to find that he has the original 8 paintings of A Rake's Progress by Hogarth. Its an interesting place to visit but it does give you a dose of visual overload.

Afterwards we wandered over to Neale's Yard where P discovered the best ever ice cream shop. Its called 'Scoop' and they do the most fantastic flavours. Its not that the flavours are unusual or anything its that they actually taste like what they are supposed to be. So my banana ice cream tasted exactly like a banana and P's mandarin flavour was just like opening a tin of mandarins and eating some. Only colder. And as we stood eating the massive cones (which were the smallest size they do), laughing because our mouths had frozen we suddenly noticed a guy photographing us. He laughed, looked sheepish and sidled off. Who knows where this may be reproduced!

Then we did some shopping. Well I did. I got some trousers and a factor 30 protection t-shirt which will be suitable for my imminent trip into the Sahara desert.

That evening I cooked risotto for the first time. Asparagus risotto. Lots of people told me that its hard to cook but it is not! Its a piece of piss. You just have to stir it non-stop. Somehow my television turned itself over to the Eurovision Song Contest. I was certain that I had convinced P that due to technical problems my tv won't receive programmes like that but she obviously didn't believe me. So we watched 500 hours of crap songs. We didn't watch it all though because halfway through she got out her guitar and did a lot better than the performers thank-you-very-much.

On Sunday I made an effort to start tidying the Sugar Candy Mountain of stuff in my bedroom and now have a pile of 'Chuck', 'Charity Shop' and 'Put Away' clothes. We treated ourselves to a Sunday afternoon drink in the local (which we hardly ever do) then I cooked up a big ol' roast lamb for us after which we settled down to watch 'Withnail and I'. I can't believe P has never seen it! And she didn't like it! I shall have to make a greater effort to educate her in her taste in film. I have already succeeded in proving to her that Margaret Rutherford was the best Miss Marple and that 'The Ghost Train' is a British Classic and 'The Day The Earth Stood Still' and 'The Forbidden Planet' are B-Movie genius.

Last night we went out for dinner to a fantastic French-Vietmanese restaurant. After researching Far East food emporiums in Soho I tracked down Bam Bou. Its a lovely place in a Georgian Town house with paintings on the walls and all wooden interiors.

I have never tasted such fantastic spare ribs, which I chose as my starter. Their Hanoi-style short ribs with chili, garlic and red wine vinegar are absolutely amazing. P had Chao Tom grilled chopped prawns on sugar cane with peanut hoisin sauce which is a sort of make-your-own prawn, lettuce and chili dip sandwich to start with. I felt it was mean to taste hers as she appears to be allergic to pork so couldn't taste my starter but she reported that it was delicious.

Then we both had fish. I had Bam-Bou Cha Ca which isn't a dance but Vietnamese Mekong fish (with dill, turmeric and wild garlic leaves), which was served as a curry, P had a crispy fried whole bream complete with head and tail. Both tasted lovely and we were stuffed silly by the time we were finished. Lovely food, lovely wine, lovely interior design, lovely staff. We will definitely return. I need more of those ribs and they do a Suckling Pig Fest!

We are now planning our next culinary expedition: lunch at Gordon Ramsay's place York and Albany. The table's booked for 2.15.

Tatie Pot

My Mum was a fantastic cook.

I remember her teaching me how to cook loads of things but Tatie Pot is my favourite.

When you have roast lamb for your Sunday lunch and you have some left over you can have the best dinner on Monday. My Dad always used to say "I love it when we have Lamb on Sunday and we have Tatie Pot on Monday."

This is how you cook it:

• Slice the remnants of the lamb and layer it in a dish.
  
• Slice an onion and layer that on top of the lamb.
  
• Peel and slice a potato. Layer that on top of the onions.
  
• Pour some gravy over the layers.
  
• Stick it in the oven and leave it there until the potatoes are cooked.
  

Serve with no vegetables and some tomato or brown sauce if you like. Its bloody lovely.

I remember telling my Mum the first ever time I cooked it. I was so pleased with myself.

Both of my parents have gone now but Tatie Pot always reminds me of Mum & Dad. And I have a nice dinner.

Paddy's Market to Close!

That national shopping emporium, Paddy's Market is due to close today.
For those of you who have never experienced Paddy's Market in the east End of Glasgow you've missed your chance. If you never heard of it just think of the crappy end of Brick Lane or the street market in Bethnal Green where people chuck a blanket on the ground, dump onto it what looks like a dead person's possessions, some old spark plugs and odd shoes from the 1880's and try to sell them. Then multiply the utter crapness of it by 100 and you get something approaching Paddy's Market. I mean its nowhere near as classy as that Glasgow institution: 'The Barras' market.


Paddy's Market was established in the ancient East End of Glasgow almost 200 years ago and got its got its name from the high number of Irish traders there. Most of them came to Scotland during the Potato Famine of the 1840s. Sprawling across several streets, the phrase 'Paddy's Market' became a byword for something truly untidy or disorganised ('Its like Paddy's Market in here' ) and at its height, there were more than 1500 street traders crammed into the area.


In recent years, though, the market has attracted criminals who deal in pirate DVDs and drugs, leading to its threatened (and subsequent) closure. But Paddy's Market has served an important purpose all these years. For decades the market was a lifeline to poverty-stricken Glasgow families, who could only afford to buy clothes and furniture from second-hand dealers. When it was first established you could literally sell the shirt off your back so you could feed your family.


The plan now is to turn it into a 'mini-Camden market' and also try to attract artists into the area. OK the place was a right dump and really needed tidied up a bit, or bulldozed or something but at least it had character.

I bet they do to Paddy's Market what they did to Spitalfields Market. They completely ruined that for me. Spitalfields was my favourite Sunday afternoon outing. I'd have a little wander around, look at all the stuff in the market, chat to my favourite photographer, wander up Brick Lane and go into the Indian Supermarket, walk further up the road and look at all the crap people were trying to flog then have a drink in the Ten Bells (frequented by one of Jack the Ripper's victims).

Then 'they' removed half of the stalls, tarted the old market building up with a 'tasteful' glass frontage and threw in chain restaurants like Giraffe, Strada, blah, blah, blah, blandified. They blandified it! They may as well just make the entire country one huge pedestrian precinct with a gigantic branch of WH Smith at Land's End and a huge branch of Superdrug at the John O'Groats and fill the rest with a big row of alternate Tesco-Sainsburys-Pizza Huts-Primarks.

I'll leave you with a memory I have of Paddy's Market from around 1990. I went there one day for the entertainment value and heard a trader shout the following, "Get yer hauwf deed plaants heeya". That sums the place right up!

Have Updated About Krakow

but if you want to read it you'll need to look in April because its taken me a month to write it. Just in time for me to start making a list of what to take on my next holiday which is imminent.

I am going to Tunisia and fully intend to visit here:


The Sahara Desert

Again! Again! Again!

Sock Monkey has been at it again. Last week we went to see Camera Obscura for the n'th time in as many months. I think I am turning into some sort of groupie.

This time they were performing at the Shepherd's Bush Empire. Not my favourite of venues but never mind. We managed to position ourselves right at the railing beside the bar so we weren't all squashed and had a great view. Result!

The support was from another Scottish band called Attic Lights. Never heard of them before but they were really good! They gave a great energetic performance. Will definitely need to check out some of their stuff.

Then My-Favourite-Band-in-the-World took to the stage hooray!
This was the 2nd time I've seen them perform songs from their new album 'My Maudlin Career' (charted at no 32 this week - I can't remember the last time I bought an album the day it was released - think I may have been about 18!) and, after listening to it several times in preparation for the gig, I can now confirm that my favourite song from it is 'Swans'. I know everyone has been raving abut their new single 'French Navy' but that one doesn't do it for me.

Guess what? Tracyanne smiled. She actually smiled several times!

I saw an interview with her this week where she said that she actually does feel quite maudlin a lot of the time. Well (and this is a bit bad) but I hope she never starts taking prozac or anything because I'm sure she wouldn't be able to write such beautiful lyrics if she did.

As usual they were bloody brilliant, I had a great time and they still didn't perform Suspended from Class - ha ha. One day I'll hear it live then be all disappointed lol.

Anyway here they are from that very evening performing Honey in the Sun Do enjoy.

Sony Ericsson Cybershot C902

Looks nice doesn't it? Very sexy. Well its not. Its the biggest pile of crap ever! Don't get one. Unless of course you want the following unexpected 'features':

• It freezes all the time. In the middle of a call, whilst writing a text. All the time!

• It turns itself off and the only way you can get the fucking thing to go back on again is to dismantle it, remove the battery, shove it back in again and hope for the best.

• You need to recharge the battery almost every day. It has so much stuff on it and whizzy lights that the battery has the life sucked out of it really quickly.

So far this morning I have sent 2 texts and received one call and the little bastard has switched itself off approximately 15 times in an hour. And I can't get it to come back to life. I get as far as keying in the pin number then it freezes and turns itself off again.

I hate this handset. But if you like style over substance then this is the one for you!

Just off to find a hammer to try to beat the life back into it.