Why You'll Never Win The Lottery

The Padrón Pepper Hypothesis

Ah Waitrose!  You browse round tasty (and ocassionally prohibitively expensive) produce, get to try exciting new things, and learn a bit about the world for free.

Last Sunday I bought padrón peppers - never heard of them.  This Thursday I walked past Fernandez & Wells, a bar that had blackboarded them as an available snack; the new BIG THING I thought.  And falling asleep last night I generated my theory.

These speciality peppers originate in North-West Spain, where they have been known as the "teeny weeny thug" owing to the occasional HOT one you might unknowingly pick from the bowl.

Yes, between 1 in 30 (Waitrose packet) and 1 in 50 (website below) are piquant, whereas the remainder have a gently green pepper flavour - not bitter like the usual greens are or sweet like a red pepper, but fresh and tangy in taste.  Fried for 90 seconds in olive oil and sprinkled with salt they proved an excellent accompaniment to cheesy steak baguettes.

http://www.padronpeppers.com/

The Theory

As delicious as the peppers were with steak, there wasn't a hot one in the pack (c. 40 peppers).  So on the basis I can't beat odds of 1 in 30, I'm going to have to rethink my retirement plan.

Sure, sooner or later I'll get to the crunch of a Russian Roulette moment a la Padrón. But whether shopping in Waitrose or shifting to Aldi, I'm pretty sure I can't afford the tickets to scale up for lotto.

Silly Story - The Cock & The Lioness

Here is a very silly story I wrote on the train, because my brain is in pain and nothing more sensible (like the novel and the screenplay/s) appears able to flow.

On a sunny but wintry mid-afternoon, you may happen to meet on a stroll round Bond Street, The Cock and The Lioness of London town, on their way to Selfridges from Marylebone.

'Ahhhhhh' sighed The Cock, ruffled by the cool breeze, and fluffing out all of his feathers to be, and stretching his neck as he strutted along and looked all around for the strains of his song.  'What an interesting building,' he waved with his wing, 
'Like peepholes with steeples', Lioness bared her grin,
'Or modernist pods,' he pondered aloud; 
'A cube with a view for the well thought of few'
'What you say is true - I call it a scoop!  A battery hen  could not complain at that coop.'

Looking closely at Cock, The Lioness purred, 'darling, your poetic meter is caught in a loop; and I'm still full from lunch and my alphabet soup!'

So close to The Cock she was an underground train; rumbling and rattling from low in the drain, so despite being companions he jumped in EXCLAIM!

Landing with feathers all flippety flap, he flew in her face and gave her a brap. 'You silly mad cat, won't you tire of that? You're no more a train than The Cock is a trumpet,'
'Little Cock, if you jump at the train then run fast, for my horn will out-trumpet your trumpety blast!'

Her tail was wiggling (really, don't ask) so The Lioness pounced with a flex of her hips; dribbled towards Cock - teeth, tongue and lips.  But his name was his character thus no need to stop, his initimate knowledge said she'd soon roll and flop.  So used to such silliness he ran down the road, evading her lavish attentions with show; a headless chicken he lead them their dance and squawked with laughter as she chewed at his pants.

Hiatus Suspended, November House Arrest Pending

Yep, I have signed up to NaNoWriMo.  And if that's not good enough reason for a post after 4 months, I don't know what is.

So my tardiness has been down to a hectic rehearsal schedule and job in part, and forging ahead in a new life in part; and for the next month - starting Sunday at midnight (obviously!) - that all has to shuffle along a bit for my first attempt at a novel.

Ha!  The girl who can't propogate a blog competently!  Well we shall see, I won't be holding my breath, because a month is a long time.  But the working title is Lighthouse and I have a loose plan.  Roll on Sunday.

Missed Opportunity

Hotel vending machines. Brilliant. The life blood of many a drunk or hungry overnight guest. Sometimes the contents are inspired in their simplicity, like the toothbrush / paste set for £2 at Travelodge Maidstone.  Others hit a spot, but perhaps not quite the one intended.

Take Revels for instance. The Broken Biscuit Selection of confectionary. Choices. They could be so good, so delicious; a selection of chocolate surprises in nibble sized form. But with 30 ingredients listed, its hardly suprising that taste, texture, and testimony are all somewhat muted.

I'm going to do a Heston style recreation of the Revel. It deserves a renaissance.

Where Giants Live Not Die

Yorkshire Sculpture Park.

It's coming to that time where almost every weekend gets filled with social activities (who am I kidding, I've been there 6 weeks already...), and there's so many other things happening it's hard to choose what to do. Well here's one for the ring of consideration - the only sculpture park in Europe.

In contrast to the equally magnificent airplane graveyards in the U.S., this location gives me the sense of fresh, green life. For the landscape, and walking, and having the opportunity to view pieces that capture your interest from first glimpse until you can touch and be dwarfed by them. And the many many photographs I'm certain will await. It strikes as a flare and depth of field paradise!

Watch a short (7min) film about the park and it's ambitions, contains a small selection of works on display. This is also available from the Park homepage.

Image (c) Adam Foster | Codefor 

via Flickr

Happiness = Having Something To Look Forward To

I'm enjoying having a lot of new favourite things.  There's room for one of every type I'm sure.  This animation is one; just because it makes me a little bit happy every time I watch it!

Lovely little cinema

Went to see I Am Love [Io Sono l'Amore] today, at the Curzon Wimbledon, on the green screen.  Forgot to take a picture, but it's fab in there and will go back.  Can get one next time.

Until 2pm every day, tickets are £5.  At peak times they are £10, and in between they range.  I love the concept of a sliding price scale, and it's simple democracy.  A similar system, albeit operated along different lines, is in place for Burning Man festival tickets.

The Curzon program has a range of films, some of which you could see at the Odeon 100 yards down the road and some you would never hear about unless you picked up the flyer from the bar -- I'm looking forward to Triomf sometime in mid-May -- or saw the crazy-ass trailer (Dog Tooth, I'm talking about you).  Oh, and there was a gorgeous boy working in the cafe, who sold me a tea made with one of the trendy new tea bags of loose tea they make up in front of you.

Anyway, I Am Love.  It was shot beautifully, and seeing it on a rainy Bank Holiday made me long for summer with all it's resplendant colours on people and in nature.  Although there were moments when focus was a bit too soft, the visuals easily ranged from engaging to breathtaking, with little outside those boundaries.  Lots of people smarter and more experienced than me can talk about Tilda Swinton's performances in great detail, suffice to say she pulled off a blinder.

The story of the difficulties of adjusting to change (and also how capable of acceptance and progression some people can be), we see how everyday things have the power to destabilise everything.  In this film, love is energy; it creates and destroys, but itself is only changes state or transfers.  And so I went away mulling this over: as love is energy, love is life. 

Being on top of the HMV building, I was also able to buy a John Adams CD, who did a large part of the tantalising soundtrack.  Maybe it's a retailers dream, but I had really rather a good time - I would have watched a 3pm film as well, but the tickets were a tenner...