I hadn't realised how long it's been since I posted here. My ribs are healing pretty well. Most of the pain from bruising is completely gone. The ribs themselves still hurt if I bend or twist my torso quickly or carelessly. The real problem is they still hurt when I lay down. This makes sense of course since that's when there is direct pressure on them. Makes it a bit difficult to get a good night's sleep. But since I'm healing much more rapidly than is usual I shouldn't complain.
There was a terrorist attack on London today. Bombs on the tube and buses. Asti was at Liverpool St station when the first bomb exploded there. Luckily she wasn't actually down on the platform. She's fine. She just had to delay her flight home till tomorrow.
Tomorrow Andrew goes into hospital for foot surgery. I'm keeping fingers crossed all goes well for him.
It's going to be a long night.
Thursday, July 07, 2005
Friday, June 24, 2005
I don't remember if I mentioned that I didn't just bruise myself really, really badly in that fall. I actually fractured a couple of ribs. The pain has made the past 9 days a genuine living hell that is impossible to convey to anyone who hasn't experienced it. I'm told that in the US, Vicodin is the standard prescription for cracked rib pain; that should give you a guage of the level of pain. Of course, I'm not in the US and I've been stuck taking ibuprofin which is basically useless crap. Wednesday night I finally got some aspirin & codiene tablets which were able to reduce the pain enough to allow me to sleep for more than 1 hour at a time. Not remove the pain, mind you, but reduce it enough that I didn't feel like I was trapped in an endless hell. Pain is so destructive to your life. It's not just a matter of enfuring it physically, it destroys you mentally. You can't think, can't sleep, can't do anything but exist in a strange horrible fog.
I'm toled fractured ribs take weeks and weeks to heal, sometimes months. I can't allow myself to believe this because I can't face the possiblity of such prolonged pain.
I'm toled fractured ribs take weeks and weeks to heal, sometimes months. I can't allow myself to believe this because I can't face the possiblity of such prolonged pain.
Saturday, June 18, 2005
It's Saturday evening and I'm still in pain from Wednesday morning's fall. It actually hurts worse at times than when it happened. I can't lay down to sleep or the pain increases monumentally and I'm unable to breathe except very shallowly with great and concious effort. Not a good thing. So I stay up till I'm exhausted and then fall asleep sitting on the sofa with my legs propped up on the hassock. I'm taking a combination of super strength ibuprofin and a muscle relaxant every 6 hours. That basically takes the edge off the pain. You'd think after 4 days the pain would be easing. I'm hoping tomorrow is better.
On the other hand the weather is warm and sunny and beautiful. The herbs are growing well. I've had several really great phone calls with my friend Bo; always so enjoyable and gets me right out of the dumps and smiling again.
I made fricadeller with sauteed onions for lunch today. Haven't made that in years.Last night we were so hot and tired Asti suggested we have a breakfast food supper. So we made french toast topped with sliced bananas in butter, brown sugar, and rum sauce and a sprinkling of cinnamon. Divine!
Today is house cleaning - Asti has been scrubbing down the kitchen and running the washer/dryer. Later when it cooks off a bit, I'll vaccuum all the floors and then wash them. The parquet floors really need a thorough cleaning especially with the cats.
I miss being able to casually call Andrew and Adam on my cell phone whenever I liked. I'm going to have to find one of those cheap pre-paid phone cards like I used to use for the UK. I love you guys and miss you tremendously.
On the other hand the weather is warm and sunny and beautiful. The herbs are growing well. I've had several really great phone calls with my friend Bo; always so enjoyable and gets me right out of the dumps and smiling again.
I made fricadeller with sauteed onions for lunch today. Haven't made that in years.Last night we were so hot and tired Asti suggested we have a breakfast food supper. So we made french toast topped with sliced bananas in butter, brown sugar, and rum sauce and a sprinkling of cinnamon. Divine!
Today is house cleaning - Asti has been scrubbing down the kitchen and running the washer/dryer. Later when it cooks off a bit, I'll vaccuum all the floors and then wash them. The parquet floors really need a thorough cleaning especially with the cats.
I miss being able to casually call Andrew and Adam on my cell phone whenever I liked. I'm going to have to find one of those cheap pre-paid phone cards like I used to use for the UK. I love you guys and miss you tremendously.
Wednesday, June 15, 2005
This morning it was finally warm and sunny. I decided it was time to move the herb seedlings out to the terrace. So with 3 planter of herbs in my arms, I went out to the terrace. Unfortunately, when I opened the door to slip out, the damn white cat slipped between my feet and escaped. I dumped the pots on the terrace wall and ran after the cat to recapture it. That wasn't too bad, but he was displeased and showing claws. So I wrapped him in my arms, pushed open the door to the living room and stepped down ( it's a 9" drop from the terrace to the parquet floor of the livingroom). The problem was, I was barefoot and the terrace was a bit wet and had some leaf bits left from the storm. So I stepped down and my wet heel hit the polished parquet floor and I slid, and slid and SMACK! I cracked my side onto the floor - which is really wicked because the parquet is laid on a cement foundation. I also sliced open the front of my leg on the metal sill of the terrace door.
Anyway, the wind was knocked out of me, I may have blacked out from the inmpact for a couple of seconds. I just lay there, waves of pain rushing over me. Not able to break, almost paralysed from the shock. After a few minutes I was able to breathe a bit better but couldn't control my body enough to get up. I wriggled to the sofa and pulled myself up.
The rest of the day has been one of intense pain. Even a strong dose of painkillers only takes of f the edge. Luckily no ribs broken but lots of deep tissue bruising along the whole side esp in the chest. My leg's pretty painful also. I just took a very hot shower and that helped ease the muscles a lot. But the pain is returning now so I'm off to bed for a while.
Anyway, the wind was knocked out of me, I may have blacked out from the inmpact for a couple of seconds. I just lay there, waves of pain rushing over me. Not able to break, almost paralysed from the shock. After a few minutes I was able to breathe a bit better but couldn't control my body enough to get up. I wriggled to the sofa and pulled myself up.
The rest of the day has been one of intense pain. Even a strong dose of painkillers only takes of f the edge. Luckily no ribs broken but lots of deep tissue bruising along the whole side esp in the chest. My leg's pretty painful also. I just took a very hot shower and that helped ease the muscles a lot. But the pain is returning now so I'm off to bed for a while.
Sunday, June 12, 2005
Herb planting update
I'm delighted to report that the basil and dill seeds have indeed sprouted. The 4 pots where they are planted are filled with tiny bright green seedlings. Yay! Now, fingers crossed, the peppermint will soon sprout.
Printers and Drivers and updates, oh my!
First let me say how very much I hate Installshield. I don't need this piece of crap bloatware bullshit for dummies application. I can install my drivers or whatever else needs installing all by myself, thank you very much!
I especially do not need that damned brain-dead Installshield to install a complete 130 MEG! set of drivers because you see, Installshield is a STUPID application and functions on the LOWEST level possible. The manufacturer of a piece of hardware supplies a vast array of drivers and other files so that EVERYTHING is available to find just the FEW files -YOUR- computer needs to run that device. But because Installshield is stupid, all it does is install ALL the drivers regardsless if your machine needs them. Lets talk about massive wasted hard drive space, shall we? And that isn't even getting into how picky Installshield is, so if everything about your computer's setup isn't precisely the way Installshield wants it, you are FUCKED. That's right boys and girls. Installshield demands you install every update to your system IT wants to see there regardless whether YOU need it! Regardless whether you have chosen NOT to install whatever it is it wants. And it wants whatever it wants for ITSELF, not for your device to work.
So to skip to the chase, Astrid bought a new Canon MP130 photo quality bubble jet printer/scanner/copier and asked me to install it while she was on holiday in Greece. So today I got this lovely item out of its box and prepared to install it. And btw THANK YOU CANON! This is a really gorgeous little printer. I truly like it and it truly produces the quality output you promised.
So I set up the printer, install the print head and the ink tanks, and then we are ready for installing the printer drivers. So I slip the supplied CD into my machine and click on install and voila, Installshield starts up, tells me it doesn't like something in how I have MS Office 2000 set up and shuts down. Now, you may ask yourself, like I did, what the hell does installshield have to do with MS Office 2000 and where does it come off demanding I update it? As it happens I can't update MS Office 2000 because it means I insert the original CDs. Yeah sure right, I'm going to have the original CDs 5 years down the road? No way, Jose. God alone knows where they are now, and even he probably hasn't a clue. Do they offer an alternative to Installshield? No.
I was determined to get this printer working tho, so I used Explorer to look at the CD itself and locate the drivers. Now, remember, Installshield told me that package was 130 megs! Well yes, indeed it is, because that includes ALL the drivers (remember I mentioned this previously), All the drivers for Windows XP, Windows 2000, and Windows 98. Well, SURPRISE! I don't run ALL those operating systems on my tired old laptop. I only run Windows 98. So I don't need all those drivers. Quel Surprise. So, I manually copied over the WIN98 driver folder to my PC. Then I plugged in the printer's USB connection cable. Yes, this is a USB printer, no more serial cables. My laptop's plug and play window came up and asked me if I'd like it to look for files to install the printer. I clicked ok, my laptop looked in the WIN98 drivers filder I copied over and picked out the 5 drivers it thought I needed and installed them. Ah ha! So Install shield doesn't even actually install the drivers. All it does is copy over the files from the CD to your hard drive, the rest is up to your machine's plug and play setup. How STUPID is that? Anyway, once the appropriate set of drivers was installed, I printed a test page, and voila, gorgeous! Then I deleted the WIN98 driver folder with all the excess drivers to clean things up. And I was finished and had a perfectly functional new printer.
So, you may be wondering how much of those 130 MEGS of drivers did my computer actually NEED? How does 24 Megs sound to you? Much better, eh?
I HATE INSTALLSHIELD.
Thus endeth the lesson. Go in peace.
I especially do not need that damned brain-dead Installshield to install a complete 130 MEG! set of drivers because you see, Installshield is a STUPID application and functions on the LOWEST level possible. The manufacturer of a piece of hardware supplies a vast array of drivers and other files so that EVERYTHING is available to find just the FEW files -YOUR- computer needs to run that device. But because Installshield is stupid, all it does is install ALL the drivers regardsless if your machine needs them. Lets talk about massive wasted hard drive space, shall we? And that isn't even getting into how picky Installshield is, so if everything about your computer's setup isn't precisely the way Installshield wants it, you are FUCKED. That's right boys and girls. Installshield demands you install every update to your system IT wants to see there regardless whether YOU need it! Regardless whether you have chosen NOT to install whatever it is it wants. And it wants whatever it wants for ITSELF, not for your device to work.
So to skip to the chase, Astrid bought a new Canon MP130 photo quality bubble jet printer/scanner/copier and asked me to install it while she was on holiday in Greece. So today I got this lovely item out of its box and prepared to install it. And btw THANK YOU CANON! This is a really gorgeous little printer. I truly like it and it truly produces the quality output you promised.
So I set up the printer, install the print head and the ink tanks, and then we are ready for installing the printer drivers. So I slip the supplied CD into my machine and click on install and voila, Installshield starts up, tells me it doesn't like something in how I have MS Office 2000 set up and shuts down. Now, you may ask yourself, like I did, what the hell does installshield have to do with MS Office 2000 and where does it come off demanding I update it? As it happens I can't update MS Office 2000 because it means I insert the original CDs. Yeah sure right, I'm going to have the original CDs 5 years down the road? No way, Jose. God alone knows where they are now, and even he probably hasn't a clue. Do they offer an alternative to Installshield? No.
I was determined to get this printer working tho, so I used Explorer to look at the CD itself and locate the drivers. Now, remember, Installshield told me that package was 130 megs! Well yes, indeed it is, because that includes ALL the drivers (remember I mentioned this previously), All the drivers for Windows XP, Windows 2000, and Windows 98. Well, SURPRISE! I don't run ALL those operating systems on my tired old laptop. I only run Windows 98. So I don't need all those drivers. Quel Surprise. So, I manually copied over the WIN98 driver folder to my PC. Then I plugged in the printer's USB connection cable. Yes, this is a USB printer, no more serial cables. My laptop's plug and play window came up and asked me if I'd like it to look for files to install the printer. I clicked ok, my laptop looked in the WIN98 drivers filder I copied over and picked out the 5 drivers it thought I needed and installed them. Ah ha! So Install shield doesn't even actually install the drivers. All it does is copy over the files from the CD to your hard drive, the rest is up to your machine's plug and play setup. How STUPID is that? Anyway, once the appropriate set of drivers was installed, I printed a test page, and voila, gorgeous! Then I deleted the WIN98 driver folder with all the excess drivers to clean things up. And I was finished and had a perfectly functional new printer.
So, you may be wondering how much of those 130 MEGS of drivers did my computer actually NEED? How does 24 Megs sound to you? Much better, eh?
I HATE INSTALLSHIELD.
Thus endeth the lesson. Go in peace.
Saturday, June 11, 2005
My herb seeds seem to be starting to sprout. It's the basil and the dill that are showing signs, the peppermint is unchanged. (But peppermint is very difficult to start from seed) Nothing dramatic yet, but I can see tiny bits of green just barely pusing at the soil. By monday I bet they are really visible.
Thursday, June 09, 2005
Today's recipe: Red Pepper, Onion, and Potato soup
It's still unseasonably cold here. I had decided the house needed a thorough cleaning today. A full hoovering, not just the floor but the furniture and woodwork. Then dust all the furniture and polish the wood with orange oil. Scrub the bathroom and kitchen including getting all the fingermarks and smudges off all the kitchen cabinets. I also did all the laundry and dishes. So a busy and tiring day. I needed something warm and comforting to eat for supper.
I thought potato soup would be a nice idea, but then I wanted a bit more flavour. So I dreamed up a new recipe.
I sauteed 4 chopped medium onions in a mix of butter and extra virgin olive oil. While the onions were gently cooking away in a soup pot, I diced up half a large ripe red pepper and tossed that in. Then I peeled a pile of new potatoes. They weren't the really tiny ones, sort of medium size new potatoes. I would guess I used about a pound or so. All amounts are very approximate here. Then I added salt and freshly ground black pepper and a load of dill, a good amount of basil, and a few shakes of cayenne pepper. I added water to cover all the vegetables- and enough to reach and inch or two over that. Then I covered the pot (the cover has a steam vent) and when it came to a boil, I lowered the heat and let it slowly simmer for a couple of hours.
After about two hours- I'm guessing here - I was still cleaning and let it simmer till I was done- I turned off the cooker and got out the blender. I blended the soup in 4 small batches; using the lowest speed I let it blend till it was smooth. The puree was dumped from the blender into a new smaller pot. (That's so you don't have to dump the puree back into the pot with the unprocessed soup)
Then I brought the puree up to a boil. It was perfectly (strongly) seasoned so I didn't have to add anything except a good swirl of full cream (that's heavy cream for you in the states). A reasonable amount of cream just smoothes the flavour and texture and makes the soup perfectly creamy. Voila. Soup.
Oh yes, it was delicious. I had a bowl of it with ruchbrot and butter. This soup can be frozen. I set aside the portion to freeze before I add the cream so it keeps longer. When I want to use the frozen soup, I reheat it and then swirl in fresh cream before serving.
I know this is more information than most people want, but I figure if Adam or Andrew wants to make this, I might as well give them the details now.
It's still unseasonably cold here. I had decided the house needed a thorough cleaning today. A full hoovering, not just the floor but the furniture and woodwork. Then dust all the furniture and polish the wood with orange oil. Scrub the bathroom and kitchen including getting all the fingermarks and smudges off all the kitchen cabinets. I also did all the laundry and dishes. So a busy and tiring day. I needed something warm and comforting to eat for supper.
I thought potato soup would be a nice idea, but then I wanted a bit more flavour. So I dreamed up a new recipe.
I sauteed 4 chopped medium onions in a mix of butter and extra virgin olive oil. While the onions were gently cooking away in a soup pot, I diced up half a large ripe red pepper and tossed that in. Then I peeled a pile of new potatoes. They weren't the really tiny ones, sort of medium size new potatoes. I would guess I used about a pound or so. All amounts are very approximate here. Then I added salt and freshly ground black pepper and a load of dill, a good amount of basil, and a few shakes of cayenne pepper. I added water to cover all the vegetables- and enough to reach and inch or two over that. Then I covered the pot (the cover has a steam vent) and when it came to a boil, I lowered the heat and let it slowly simmer for a couple of hours.
After about two hours- I'm guessing here - I was still cleaning and let it simmer till I was done- I turned off the cooker and got out the blender. I blended the soup in 4 small batches; using the lowest speed I let it blend till it was smooth. The puree was dumped from the blender into a new smaller pot. (That's so you don't have to dump the puree back into the pot with the unprocessed soup)
Then I brought the puree up to a boil. It was perfectly (strongly) seasoned so I didn't have to add anything except a good swirl of full cream (that's heavy cream for you in the states). A reasonable amount of cream just smoothes the flavour and texture and makes the soup perfectly creamy. Voila. Soup.
Oh yes, it was delicious. I had a bowl of it with ruchbrot and butter. This soup can be frozen. I set aside the portion to freeze before I add the cream so it keeps longer. When I want to use the frozen soup, I reheat it and then swirl in fresh cream before serving.
I know this is more information than most people want, but I figure if Adam or Andrew wants to make this, I might as well give them the details now.
One major difference between the Swiss and the Germans is, while they both have the most incredible collection of rules for society that must always be obeyed precisely, the Swiss manage to make you feel that they are soooo sorry, that they would make an exception for you if they could, that they understand your frustration and pain and anger, and if only they could. The Swiss will also try to help you by thinking of alternatives to make the situation less miserable for you. That's what makes the insane mountain of rules here bearable, gracious caring. People really care, there's no sense of that pervasive German shadenfreude. And that makes all the difference.
Kill Bill
Have you seen Kill Bill? It's a Quentin Tarantino film. I just saw it yesterday and I was impressed. I don't usually watch kung fu films or very bloody films, this isn't the style film I would watch at all. But I did- bored to death and it was the only thing on cable in English.
So I fixed a nice drink and sat back on the sofa with drinkie and cigarette in hand, feet up all comfy on the hassock and watched.
Wow! Uma Therman is hot and the action is fast and tense. Ok yes, it's also rediculous and over the top. But QuentinTarintino does it so well.
Definitely worth watching.
So I fixed a nice drink and sat back on the sofa with drinkie and cigarette in hand, feet up all comfy on the hassock and watched.
Wow! Uma Therman is hot and the action is fast and tense. Ok yes, it's also rediculous and over the top. But QuentinTarintino does it so well.
Definitely worth watching.
Wednesday, June 08, 2005
I suppose sometimes it sounds like all I do is cook, watch films, and visit museums. I'm actually also working very hard on Fed2's game and business development. Sometimes it feels like an uphill battle. Hell, ot always feels like an uphill battle. But better to live in interesting times than boring ones, I suppose.
Monday, June 06, 2005
duxelles tarts
Puff pastry with a filling of duxelles, chopped tomato, whole fresh cream, topped with shredded ementhaller. Baked 20 min @220C
It was cold and overcast today and then it rained. Something warm and tasty was called for!
History Museum of Basel
This is the entry hall of the History Museum, a former medieval cathedral. The view is looking back towards the entry doors.
View from Museum in Basel
Last week I went to the History Museum in Basel. This is the view from the terrace in front of the museum.
I planted herbs today. Asti had some brightly coloured glazed ceramic pots sitting on a shelf on the terrace - doing nothing but holding some dead flowering plants. So today it was out with the old and in with the new. I tried to buy proper potting soil at the plant area of the supermarket/mall but when I opened the bag at home it was so sort of compost mix. Better than reusing soil from potted plants anyway. So I planted 2 pots each of peppermint, dill, and basil. Green thumbs crossed everyine - lets hope something grows. It's still so cold here I have to keep the pots indoors.
Tomorrow I have to go down to the post office and send out Adam's birthday present and an end of term present for Andrew. I hope they like them, the presents are small but I think they are rather nifty.
I'm tired of the cold. Where's the warm weather? We had about 3 days of heat a couple weeks ago and now it's gone back to winter.
Tomorrow I have to go down to the post office and send out Adam's birthday present and an end of term present for Andrew. I hope they like them, the presents are small but I think they are rather nifty.
I'm tired of the cold. Where's the warm weather? We had about 3 days of heat a couple weeks ago and now it's gone back to winter.
Sunday, June 05, 2005
Happy Birthday Adam!
Yesterday was my son Adam's birthday. I "talked" to him via IMs late the night before to wish him a happy birthday. Tried to phone but couldn't connect to his cell phone in the states and he said his father had "cleaned up" and misplaced the reciever. I won't comment on that. Anyway it was frustrating not being able to phone him.
Regardless, I hope you had a great birthday. Love you lots.
Yesterday was my son Adam's birthday. I "talked" to him via IMs late the night before to wish him a happy birthday. Tried to phone but couldn't connect to his cell phone in the states and he said his father had "cleaned up" and misplaced the reciever. I won't comment on that. Anyway it was frustrating not being able to phone him.
Regardless, I hope you had a great birthday. Love you lots.
Friday, May 20, 2005
Oh my god it's SPRING here! Yes, the sun finally came out today and its 72 degrees already. Whew! At last.
I cheated the other night and instead of apple streudel I made apple/almond danish. It was great, too. Last night I made bananas in rum custard pastries. It's interesting trying out new flavour combinations in tiny batches. (Yes, that's right, I only make a very tiny batch of each, just enough for us for 1 dessert each)
Right now there's a pot of beouf bourginon simmering away in the kitchen - well, I had no choice really. There was half a bottle of excellent red wine left over from yesterday. I had no choice.
Anyway, the monstoon level downpours have done their damage here. A downspout, which wasn't routinely cleaned for the past few years by the realty company, overflowed into the roof/ceiling and ultimately the living room floor here. Since it happend while we were sleeping, not sure if it actually dripped out of the ceiling/wall above the window where we saw 12 feet of water stains or from the edge where wall meets floor. The water was flooded all over the top of the parquet flooring and after we'd mopped it all up, more water was seeping up from underneath the wood floor for several hours. Yes, of course it got worse, the parquet strips swelled and buckled. Then they started to dry and warped and buckled some more. The livingroom floor currently looks like the Alps - after an earthquake. Very ugly. The realty manager came by and then returned with some craftsman who discovered the stopped drainpipe. She returned today with another craftsman who inspected and tested the roof, the attic, etc. Waiting to hear when they will return to replace the fllor. The entire livingroom floor is ruined. A dangerous buckled and warped mess.
I'm going out to walk about in the sunshine. Perhaps take some photos.
I cheated the other night and instead of apple streudel I made apple/almond danish. It was great, too. Last night I made bananas in rum custard pastries. It's interesting trying out new flavour combinations in tiny batches. (Yes, that's right, I only make a very tiny batch of each, just enough for us for 1 dessert each)
Right now there's a pot of beouf bourginon simmering away in the kitchen - well, I had no choice really. There was half a bottle of excellent red wine left over from yesterday. I had no choice.
Anyway, the monstoon level downpours have done their damage here. A downspout, which wasn't routinely cleaned for the past few years by the realty company, overflowed into the roof/ceiling and ultimately the living room floor here. Since it happend while we were sleeping, not sure if it actually dripped out of the ceiling/wall above the window where we saw 12 feet of water stains or from the edge where wall meets floor. The water was flooded all over the top of the parquet flooring and after we'd mopped it all up, more water was seeping up from underneath the wood floor for several hours. Yes, of course it got worse, the parquet strips swelled and buckled. Then they started to dry and warped and buckled some more. The livingroom floor currently looks like the Alps - after an earthquake. Very ugly. The realty manager came by and then returned with some craftsman who discovered the stopped drainpipe. She returned today with another craftsman who inspected and tested the roof, the attic, etc. Waiting to hear when they will return to replace the fllor. The entire livingroom floor is ruined. A dangerous buckled and warped mess.
I'm going out to walk about in the sunshine. Perhaps take some photos.
Wednesday, May 18, 2005
Apple Strudel
It's been cold here. And wet. And windy. Ugh!!!! And I do mean cold as in 40's F during the day and pouring rain and wind so strong it drives the rain horizontally at times. This is Not a Good Thing.
So today Asti & I went grocery shopping in that brief period interval between cloud bursts. Not having had breakfast first you can imagine what that was like. And that's why we succumbed to the temptation of strudel dough ready made in the chiller case.
So, I'm about to make homemade apple strudel.
So today Asti & I went grocery shopping in that brief period interval between cloud bursts. Not having had breakfast first you can imagine what that was like. And that's why we succumbed to the temptation of strudel dough ready made in the chiller case.
So, I'm about to make homemade apple strudel.
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