Weekend report

27th May 2008 – 7.50 am

I popped in to my local town over the weekend, trying to avoid crowds by turning up when I thought most people would be going home. It didn't work out that way, and my arrival may have coincided with some early cinema traffic, but that was okay. I hadn't planned to do much, I was just there to pick up some comics and a book or two. The bookshop didn't have either of the books that I was after, which was disappointing considering the books I wanted weren't exactly obscure. I ended up ordering them on-line later.

Whilst in the town I took the opportunity to pick up some more picks from the music shop. I had bought a small selection of different picks after I bought my new guitar to see which one suited me best, and I decided that the Fender Medium felt the best. I bought half-a-dozen, and found out that the music shop is closing down. The owners are retiring and can find no one to take over the business. That's a shame, but such is progress.

I took the opportunity of the lazy weekend to watch a film or two, looking over the DVDs I have yet to watch. For some reason I still couldn't bring myself to watch The Lives of Others or Kagemusha, both of which I must have had for months now, and I'm not entirely sure why. I think I worry that I don't have enough time to enjoy them, or that my concentration to read subtitles won't last the length of the film, both baseless objections but it has kept me from watching them so far. I ended up re-watching Munich and enjoying it for a second time.

After watching The Departed the other week and now Munich, both of which being around two-and-a-half hours long, I realised that I was being a little foolish in delaying watching the two hour The Lives of Othes, so I finally got around to watching it the next day. I had a little trouble with the subtitles to start with, but only because they were not displayed by default and I had to head back to the menu to turn them on. The film was, of course, marvellous, and I'll have to watch it again at some point to try to understand more fully the motivations of the protagonist. I think it was the disparity between loving one's country and despising the corrupt people abusing the power given to them, but I'm probably wrong.

To end my weekend I did a bit of cooking. I'd been hankering for a jambalaya for a couple of weeks, not finding a ready-meal type in my feeble glances around a small supermarket, and so I asked a friend who is a good cook if she had a recipe. She found one and it looked easy enough, so I picked up the ingredients and got myself ready to cook. It was pretty simple, with just some chopping involved and then throwing everything in to a big pot to cook. I wasn't entirely confident that it would come out resembling anything like food, but after the required cooking time it looked and smelt pretty good! I dished some out and settled down for dinner and it was really tasty, a good result. It's a good job too, because I ended up making enough to last perhaps until the end of the week, so I hope it reheats well.

Edit: I should probably try to remember the recipe. Chicken, bell pepper, onion, all chopped up. A tin of tomatoes, some cloves of garlic, chicken stock, hot sauce or similar, and some rice. Heat a couple of tablespoons of oil in a bit pot, add the chicken to allow it to cook first, then add the pepper and onion, stirring occasionally. Add the rice and stir to ensure it is all coated in oil, then throw in everything else. Simmer for 20-25 minutes until the liquid is gone, and serve.

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