Thursday, 9 April 2020

Joy Division Oven Gloves...

The situation has now got more desperate as the food is running low. It wasn’t good to start with as all the shelves are still empty in the coop but I did manage to come away with a some spuds, a packet of fish fingers and a bag of frozen peas but now Iv got home I haven’t a bloody clue what to make with them?

Not to be beaten I looked on’t’internet to see if there was some way that I could knock up a tasty meal using only the three ingredients and hey pesto...incredibly, there was!

There were loads actually but Iv narrowed it down to just 3 of my favourites.

Ingredients:
2kg Potatoes
1pkt Fish Fingers
1 bag of frozen peas

Recipe number 1 - EASY — Jamie Oliver

Method:
First you need to build a smoker in the back yard, put the fish fingers on a rack and leave for 3 days. While the fish is smoking, light your outside pizza 🍙oven and get the temperature to 207C before you throw in the spuds, unpeeled and whole. Next, defrost the peas over a pan of boiling water and then pulse gently in a liquidiser until rusticly sloppy. Here’s a great tip...if you don’t have a liquidiser then spread the peas on an olive wood board and ‘smash’ them with the palm of your hand or an old rolling pin and then sweep up from the floor.
Serving Suggestion:
skewer the spuds with a pitchfork and then finely 🔪slice then stand the fishfingers up on end on a wooden serving platter at jaunty angles and then drizzle the pea juice over  the top from a height....Bingo....Pucker!!


Recipe number 2 - QUITE TRICKY - Hugh Fernally Whittingdale 

Method:
First, check the packaging. 
It’s important to ensure that the potatoes have been grown in organic soil approved by the soil association and they are the correct size, shape and weight and have been harvested by hand by workers on no less than the minimum wage.
Next, smell the fish, it needs to have been ethically hand caught that morning by hook and line in British waters and comply with EU standards for sustainability and not be endangered to the point of extinction...🎣
The peas, or petit-poi’s, as I like to call them should have been picked, packed ,blast frozen and hermetically sealed within 26seconds or the whole lot needs to go in the bin...🍽

....Now return to the Coop!

Recipe number 3 - REALLY SEXY - Nigella Lawson

This romantic recipe is just oozing with plumpious excitement as we add a little Italian twist to produce this joy of joys, deep, penetrating pleasure...
Method:
First, take a deep breath and run your finger delicately down the side of the fish finger and then push slowly, but firmly, into the moist, white, flesh leaving a small but welcoming hole in which to insert your tiny frozen pea...repeat until all the succulent peas are nestled exquisitely in place. 
Then gently whisk the potatoes until they form stiff, creamy but elegant peaks and drizzle slowly with an expensive olive oil from the hillsides around Toscana. Bend seductively over and insert your creation into the bottom oven of your Aga for 30minutes until hard and firm to touch...

Serving Suggestion:
Lay the exquisite fish-pea fusion onto the cosy bed of creamy goodness and serve sensually with a soft, satisfying, salty tart...
...Hmmm...this isn’t Aldi food, this is top notch sexy Co-op fare..💋🤥



TOP TIP : For a tasty Tomato salsa you could look in the cupboard and see if there is a squeezy bottle of HP as an accompaniment and butter a couple of slices of bread.

Bon Appetito  🇮🇹 

Description

Half Man Half Biscuit are an English rock band, formed in 1984 in Birkenhead, Merseyside. Known for their satirical, sardonic, and sometimes surreal songs

Wednesday, 8 April 2020

A Time for Heroes...


Fantasy government 2020

At the moment they seem to be dropping like flies so it crossed my mind that if the situation gets much worse then we need to be prepared and have a contingency plan if all the current government goes down. I’m of the thinking that we should do it like I did my 6 Nations fantasy team and pick within a budget of only 100 million quid due to the state of the nations economy. It needs to reflect and support the diversity of the country and provide powerful leadership of the whole nation moving forward after Brexit. 
In my fantasy team Iv picked mainly strong English forwards with a token Scot, Welsh, LGBGT etc to avoid criticism to make up the front bench. Every 3 months you can transfer a maximum of 3 members in or out on form or for injury.
Extra Points will be accumulated for each member of the new cabinet that uses the words ‘unprecedented’, ‘self-isolation’ and ‘confident’ on the BBC.

So I propose...
Prime Minister Jim Bell


PM - Jim Bell (alias Mark Heap)
Foreign secretary - Sir Ranulph Fiennes OBE 
Defence - Thomas Shelby (alias Cillian Murphy)
Defence
Chancellor of the Exchequer - Martin Lewis
Secretary of State for Business - Baron Alan Sugar 
Climate change- David Attenborough
Sport Minister - Eddie Jones 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁥󠁮󠁧󠁿 
International Trade - Paul O Grady
Work & Pensions

Work & Pensions - Brian Potter (alias Peter Kay)
Education- Joanna Lumley
Culture - Romesh Ranganathan
Environment & Food - Jamie Oliver
Billy Connolly - Minister for 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁳󠁣󠁴󠁿 
Alun Wyn Jones - Minister for 🏴󠁧󠁢󠁷󠁬󠁳󠁿 
Boy George LGBGT 🌈 
Add caption


It’s a ‘Time for Heroes’...by the Libertines.

Tuesday, 7 April 2020

Some Better Day...

Some Better Day...
Can you be bored to death?

bored to death

(also bored to tears/bored stiff)


Bored v Boring?

As my brain degenerates I’m starting to wonder whether I’m getting bored or getting boring?
So I turn to the psychology books to find out that “people will sometimes do reckless, stupid things when they suffer from chronic boredom”.

According to ‘Psychology Today’People who are easily bored are more likely to engage in dangerous sports, be sexually promiscuous and engage in drug and alcohol abuse. All of these things will reduce average life expectancy, but is that dying of boredom or dying of excitement?


The punditsat the big University College London go on to say that people who complain of “high levels” of boredom in their lives are at double the risk of dying from from heart disease or a stroke than those who find life entertaining...so that’s summatelse to look forward to!

Futher research shows that the boredom-death connection might have formed because bored people were more likely to feel unfulfilled, unmotivated, and unhappy, which could lead to unhealthy behaviors like excessive drinking and smoking, overeating, and drug use.....

Clearly, it is not actual boredom that is causing people to die...


If boredom kills, then perhaps cultivating curiosity heals.?



But if You are just plain boring then what are the signs? 
Maybe the problem is You?

Do your  friends, and co-workers seem not to want to be around you?
Do you suffer from Banality?
Do you have a slow thyroid? =feeling tired all the time, gaining weight and being sensitive to cold?
Then it’s probably You and should be automatically classed as a major bore and a drain on society so should stay inside to protect everyone.


Like me, if you find it very painful to be in the presence of people who are dull and lack energy and enthusiasm then there is hope as it’s been proven that Interesting people disclose more of their thoughts and feelings than boring people do.

Right, that’s that cleared up, I’m off to have a chat with the toaster!

I am Kloot


Sunday, 5 April 2020

Money for Nothing...

Im having trouble understanding all the confusion that people are having while sat at home, malingering in their houses and avoiding doing a stroke of work. Some are bored now and sat on the settee thinking that they are in Dire Straits going to get money for nothing and chips for free....

But ...That ain't workin' that's the way you do it!

The U.K. Covid-19 Furlough Scheme explained for the hard of hearing...
Its perfectly simple, you just need to know the difference so I’d thought I would do my Civic duty and leave you an explanation, so here goes....


A furlough (/ˈfɜːrloʊ/; from Dutch: verlof, "leave of absence") is a temporary leave of employees due to special needs of a company or employer, which may be due to economic conditions at the specific employer or in the economy as a whole.

This is the one that you want and not to be confused with the following:-

A Ferlo, a relict river valley and region of interior northern Senegal. It lies south of the fertile valley of the Sénégal River and the Fouta region and east of the peanut (groundnut) basin of the western plains...completely broke...

The Furlo Pass is a gorge on the ancient Roman road Via Flaminia in the Marche region of central Italy, again no money at the bottom of the gorge...

Ferlo may well be luxurious and stylish and add a touch of class to any bathroom but at the end of the day it’s just a curvy towel rail...

Ferlow is a Botanicals firm making natural skincare products from Chickweed that 
have anti-inflammatory properties and are excellent to help soothe itchy skin if your sat on your arse all day with no work...

Description

Furla is an Italian luxury goods company that was created by the Furlanetto family in 1927, ok for handbags but no suitcases full of 💴 money....

Furrow is a long, narrow trench made in the ground by a plough, especially for planting seeds or irrigation...you would have to be daft if you got mixed up with this one!

Pherlure  is a spray for blokes that is supposed to attract the ‘ladies’. There are literally dozens of these types of overhyped, junky pheromone products that exist online...but they don’t work...much like your good self!



Furlong - Is a Distance of 201.16800 metres. Used mainly in horse racing but the bookies are shut just now so you wouldn’t be able to get a bet on to win any money...

The Furbo is a Treat-Tossing Dog Camera...

For just $139 you can keep tabs on your dog and send them treats wherever you are...

Furball is a small collection of hair or fur formed in the stomach of animals, and uncommonly in humans, that is occasionally vomited up when it becomes too big...

Furby was an American electronic robotic toy that was originally released in 1998 by Tiger Electronicsv. It resembles a hamster or owllike creature and went through a period of being a "must-have" toy following its holiday season launch, with continual sales until 2000...


And finally, 

Fairclough(Rita) Was an old character in Corrie when 1992, she becomes Rita Sullivan when she married Ted Sullivan (William Russell). The marriage only lasts three months, as he dies from a brain tumour. When Rita collapses in her flat in July 1998 from carbon monoxide poisoning, she is saved by Alec.

So now you are all up to date.

Hope this helped with the confusion.
Happy to Help.

Dire Straits link here https://youtu.be/wTP2RUD_cL0














1927. 










Saturday, 4 April 2020

Isolation...

Solitary confinement is a form of imprisonment distinguished by living in single cells with little or no meaningful contact to other inmates....

You can have too much of a good thing so it’s nice to have the opportunity to get away from the rat race from time to time and put your feet up for a while...
there’s more to life than running around working for the Yankee dollar and putting up with a unhinged , recalcitrant society....
So Now, finally, a peaceful, monastic life beckons with the opportunity for hours of self-reflection, meditation and splendid isolation in your very own temple, far away from the maddening crowd in perfect seclusion.

 "The monotony and solitude of a quiet life stimulates the creative mind," 

A quote by old Albert Einsteinium, the crazy-haired hippy that developed a few of his theories without the help of his annoying friends and neighbours and lived alone only in a world of his own ideas as a cloistered genius inventing mad stuff and texting crap like E=M C 🔨 from a little shed at the bottom of his garden...

Or What about
Robert John Maudsley (born 26 June 1953) a hapless loner and a British serial killer responsible for the murders of four people. Most of the time he stayed in a cell alone which was fine for him for ages but then when they told him he could come out he started carving up and chewing off bits of his fellow inmates making him unpopular and getting the the stigma name of ‘Hannibal the cannibal’...
Or maybe

Terence Hardy Waite CBE (born 31 May 1939) who is an English humanitarian and author that proved that a bit of isolation didn’t hurt anyone and even gave him chance to eat spiders and write a few books in peace and quiet while not having to worry about setting the alarm to get up in the morning to catch the bus to work...

Then there was Pablo Picasso, the lazy-arse Spanish slacker that reckoned that 
“Without great solitude no serious work is possible”  but he probably never had a days work in him according to his absinthe supping mate and poet, Jimmy Sabartés...

Meanwhile...
At the other side of the world a local Japanese Buddhist philosopher, educator, author, peace advocate and seaweed farmer was heard to say “No one can live entirely on their own, nor can any country or society exist in isolation”  that was after a few too many rice wines in the local pub by Daisaku Ikeda as a word of warning to the West!

...but we all seem to be managing......

and we are all stuck inside now but some more of our fellow humans chose this solitary life style. 
Take for instance:-
The peculiar Dorothy Paget(1906-1960) who inherited most things from birth except her looks. She was a horse breeder, gambler and chain smoking millionaire who on the other hand enjoyed very much being a shapeless, bad tempered lump of a 
woman who regularly relieved herself in a horse box and was perfectly happy with being virtual recluse.


Roger Keith "SydBarrett (6 January 1946 – 7 July 2006) was an English singer, songwriter, and musician with a little known rock band Pink Floyd who buggered off after taking LSD on the bus and spent then rest of his life without speaking to a sole...(just to clarify here, not the flat, bottom feeding sea fish...but then again he was a bit loopy so may well have had a deep, meaningful chat to a fish....)...I know I would!
I digress....

So what about Blanche Monnier?
...often known in France as la Séquestrée de Poitiers (roughly, "The Confined Woman of Poitiers.”) She didn’t see any daylight for 25years! 
Admittedly that wasn’t her own choice as she had been kept prisoner by her disapproving mother but that’s bye-la-bye....


Or
Christopher Knight, the US North Pond Hermit and burglar who lived without human contact for 27 years deep in the woods and was as happy as Larry until he got captured by a nosey game warden and got shoved in the clink allowing time for him to focus on his mental health issues...
Or

Greta Garbo born Greta Lovisa Gustafsson;[18 September 1905 – 15 April 1990) was a Swedish-American film actress liked a bit of detachment as did Jerome David Salinger (/ˈsælɪnər/; January 1, 1919 – January 27, 2010) who was an American writer best known for his novel The Catcher in the Rye which was a popular story with kids about a confused and disillusioned teenage rebel who was searching for the truth and rails against the “phoniness” of the adult world....kids, eh???? 
What do they know?



iSolation...A condition of detachment or separation caused by using an iPod with headphones?
Try it here to listen to my blog track ‘Isolation’ by Therapy? From 1994.



Saturday, 21 March 2020

Walking Dynamite...

Sonny tell me 
When you were young you had to fight 
Became the champion 
And you were walkin' dynamite

I’m of the thinking that everyone needs to pull together a bit and help out where they can so with this in mind I contacted the local resilience group to see if anyone needed a hand with owt. It wasn’t long before I got a urgent call to help out walking a dog for a local resident that had unfortunately to stay indoors. 

Great!...I thought, chance to do my civic duty and get out and about in the fresh air with a legitimate excuse.

I lost no time banging the mud off a sturdy pair of winter walking boots, stuffed my compass in a rucksack and quickly studied the topography of the local rural area on a 25000:1 hiking map. I then hurriedly left the house grabbing a sturdy stick and set off for the address with an idea that for this first hike I’d head off up towards the forest, crossing the river over the bridge and exercising the hound up the muddy track that leads on to the wild open fell where it could run free, chasing the local wildlife and retrieving thrown sticks....it was going to be an adventure for both of us and we’d probably bag a pheasant or two if we were lucky...





And then, as I got to the house I had to rethink the whole plan...


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Meet Cloe...

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‘Walking Dynamite’...By the punk band ‘Stiff Little Fingers’....I just had to zip up my coat, put in my headphones and play this track very, very loud...



Thursday, 19 March 2020

Won’t get fooled again...


Looking through the local jobs being advertised this week there seems to be a dramatic change in requests and offers of employment. Up until the last few weeks they seem to have generally only needing an odd tyre fitter, a joiners mate or a few part time gas readers on zero hours contracts.
Now, indeed, I’v noticed a massive upsurge in, shall we say, ‘alternative’ employment! 

It would appear that adverts are now crying out for staff to be urgently needed to cover shortages in medical 🧪 laboratories; permanent positions are available right now for needle wielding phlebotomists in many overworked health centres and a little more alarming and somewhat macabre were the desperately required ‘Casual funeral staff’ and ‘Crematorium Assistants’ on 12 week contracts!!....has someone seen the light?....maybe the future?....the vision?...the bit at the end of the film?

What next?, Morrison’s advertising for burly staff, male/gender fluid/female, that are familiar with the use of cattle-prods to control the wayward hordes of simpletons ‘Hamstering’ large tins of soup and family sized packets of penne? 
Will Tesco and Asda both offer casual full time contracts for freelance accountants to help to count all the ‘unprecedented’ profits? Will Ronald MacDonald start to offer a free breakfast happy ‘Crony-burger’ to all students in self isolation just by using the ‘Just Eat Shite’ app or will unscrupulous online retailers continue to say that they will do ‘Whatever it takes’ to empty your bank account for their promotions of needless emergency purchases?

The grave reality is that local Joiners cant now cope with the heavy demand on them to repair kitchen cupboards that have collapsed under the strain of tinned salmon, fray bentos pies and spaghetti hoops. Worse still, would-be ‘Theatre go-ers’ have now been diverted to help the council empty the bins while the minimum wage staff at Wetherspoons have been forced to take over from tired doctors in the local A&E.

All I can say is that it seemed a lot better before the Brexit...but don’t get me going...
The EU has quite rightly closed its borders on us and experts predict that they will keep them locked until we withdraw our entry from Eurovision and say sorry to the French for producing the (hilarious) 80’s sitcom, ‘Allo Allo’.

Spare a thought for our friends across the pond that not only have only chlorinated ‘hickory’ chicken to eat but now their leader had to be swabbed for the Crony+virus and made to wash his mouth out with fairy liquid....damn that test, why couldn’t the leader of the free world have been placed in isolation for a few weeks on death row on a positive charge+...?

Not trying to make light of this but only to make an observation of my fellow humans as I witness the selfishness and stupidity of some who fail to understand basic instruction and operate with an indiscriminate lack of acknowledgement of the extent of the problem it is with a heavy heart that I sit down and listen one final time to...”Hands...touching hands...reaching out....touching me....touching you....SWEET CAROLINE......”....Good Times never felt so bad....!

...I wash my hands of the whole lot of you...do it your way!



The top track comes from The World Health Organisation (WHO) who predicted this pandemic back in 1971 when they consulted a Pinball Wizzard that warned them to beware of a blonde haired, bumbling buffoon offering billions of booty...
Listen here:






Shaking body…

As part of the fiesta, I could only think that it was the turn of the Basque Separatists to start the day’s celebrations! As at 8 ‘o’ clock ...