The Rugby World Cup

Today we attended a sporting event that we had to buy tickets for about a year ago. Some of my foreign readers may have missed it but the Rugby World Cup was being held in England. This once every four-year event brings the top Rugby Union playing countries in the world to a tournament to decide who is world champion. Now although I am interested in rugby I would not call myself an ardent follower, however it is always good to attend an event of international significance. I have been to a Cricket World Cup final, the Olympics, and the Soccer World Cup so it is great to complete the quartet.

The game was being held at Elland Road in Leeds, which is a soccer ground the home of Leeds United.

I have been there for a soccer game and the atmosphere could not have been more different. The game was between Scotland and the USA. Given Leeds proximity to Scotland it was obvious that there would be a considerable invasion of Scots supporters. However there was a larger US contingent than we might have expected. Around us were visitors from New York and Atlanta. So the tournament was certainly bringing tourists to the UK. There was good repartee in the crowd and it was all far more genteel than soccer. A great atmosphere, if lacking a little edge.

In the first half Scotland were on top, but kept making mistakes at critical junctures. So there was a surprising score line at halftime with the USA being in front. This had the makings of a huge shock. However the Scots coach must have given his team an almighty rollicking at half time because their second half performance was much better and they ran out easy winners. Overall the game was entertaining and Marion also thoroughly enjoyed it. The main problem with rugby is the technical nature of some of the rules, so it was sometimes impossible to gauge why an infringement had been given. There does I think need to be more effort given to explain to the public the nuances of the game.

So an enjoyable afternoon was made better by joining our friends for dinner and drinks in the evening. They had been at the match coincidentally.

A Depressed Feeling

I don’t know if it is what I have been exposed to this week, but I have become depressed at the way many commercial concerns are simply about exploiting their customers. Obviously the headline case is Volkswagen; again I find it beyond comprehension that anybody at Volkswagen would think it a good idea to cheat emission testing. On such a scale as well, millions of cars had the rogue software fitted to them.

Coincidentally I was listening to the radio concerning the case of a 98 year old man who had been successively sold multiple useless insurances, and donations to the same charity multiple times. May different companies had exploited his age to sell products that he did not need or could afford. Again what moral compass were these companies using.

Lastly offshore people claiming to be able to resolve my Microsoft Windows issues with my computer have called me several times this week. Now I know that this is a scam and is designed either to take money from me for a product that I did not need or to infect my computer with a bug. Again it is designed to take advantage of people without the requisite knowledge or skills. It is criminal.

All of this makes me thoroughly depressed concerning the state of our society. It make cynics of us all, I really no longer believe any commercial proposition, I even feel that visits to the supermarket are opportunities for exploitation. I have no answers for this, I feel it is a huge issue for society but see no politician speaking about it let alone have any answers.  

PS If you want a fourth example my daughter will rant about Kwik Fit.

The Judging

This is follow-on from last night’s blog, the judgement. It was with trepidation that I sliced through the malt loaf. The crust was good, the texture had about the right element of stickiness. The fruit was maybe not evenly distributed, as there was a bias towards the bottom of the fruit. Then a small smear of butter and the tasting takes place. Both Marion and I thought that the texture and taste were very good. So my first baking challenge enables me to move on to next week.

As an aside however we are still clearing up the semi-hardened pieces of dough from the sink, worktops, spoons, and tea towels.

For my readership I include a photo of the recipe and the loaf!!!  

A Sticky Business

While on holiday I promised Marion that I would make more contribution to the weeks cooking. Marion attends an evening class on a Monday so I thought that this would be an excellent opportunity to break my duck. Particularly after having watched two episodes of the Great British Bake-off, I fancied myself as a baker.

So in the parlance of GBB mine was the technical challenge, Marion selected the recipe. I was challenged to make malt bread using a recipe by none other than Paul Hollywood himself. Now I think that Marion chose this recipe deliberately. It contained some difficult challenges, firstly Marion know where all the ingredients are stored. I had to search around for the ingredients; indeed I did not even know what malt looks like. I do now.

This recipe had some of the stickiest ingredients known to man, and worse when combined the stickiness increases exponentially. It gets on your hands, all the utensils, the worktops, and other places that I have yet to discover. As it dries the mixture also hardens like pliable cement. The recipe asked me to roll the dough into two separate sausage shapes. Impossible, the only option that I had was to pour the mixture into the loaf tins.

At the same time I was multi-tasking talking to my son, impressive eh. So the next problem then arose, you have to prove the dough, placing the tins into plastic bags, why don’t I have a proving drawer. Now I know that Marion uses cheap shower caps, but where does she keep them, an absolute mystery. So I resorted to Waitrose shopping bags, probably not ideal.

Still some two hours later some sort of rising had taken place, so it was into a pre-heated oven for 30 minutes. Now the presentation of the loaf was very unimpressive, as I was not allowed to slice it. So I will have to wait for tomorrow to see the success or otherwise. Some portents are good; it does not have a soggy bottom and has a nice crust. However it does seem a little soft, undercooked? So watch this space and I will let you know whether I am the star baker or I have been kicked out of the kitchen.

Returning from Shelter Island

I am writing this is the lounge at JFK as we return home from Shelter Island. It was with a heavy heart that we left the island this morning, for our tenth trip on the ferry to the mainland. The ferry symbolised to us much that made the holiday unique. The routine of making this beautiful ten-minute journey somehow made the stay on the island a special quality and certainly bookended our days.

Last night we went to our favourite restaurant in Greenport, Noah’s, we have consistently eaten fabulous seafood there. I often think that a New England restaurant should be judged on the quality of its clam chowder, Noah’s certainly passed muster. Returning in the dark was a surreal experience; we appeared to be gliding on nothing.

The packing was not too arduous and our suitcases not too heavy. We caught the ferry to Greenport and hade a good breakfast at a local café. Then it was the slow drive back to the airport, luckily we had left plenty time as the traffic was heavy and we had to purchase petrol at the airport. A comment one of the things that are difficult in the US is filling your car with gas, particularly if you want to pay cash. You have to go to the cash desk, give them money, fill the car and then return for change.  As if to see us off the car registered 81 degrees of heat as we left it at Avis.

So back home to a busy autumn and a true new chapter in our lives. This is now retirement central, there are no distractions and we both need to give it all that we have. It is daunting in a way that last year was not. Then I was worried about how I would fill my time, now we are fully organised the challenge may well be being organised and fitting everything in. Well it starts on Monday and I will report back.

It is also a poignant return as it is almost a year since my mother passed away. October will bring several reminders of this.