Tea and cakes and things I like

I baked cookies last night, obviously essential pre-holiday preparation. A big pile of them. I took a photo but that’ll have to be posted later. They’re chocolate chip, with dark, milk and white chocolate chips. Crunchy on the outside but gooey in the middle. Warm, out of the oven, they were delicious, all hot and crumbly and melted chocolatey. Mmmmmmmm……..

Now, this is how a pot of tea for one should look.

This was a couple of weeks ago on my trip to Galway, I’ve got a bit behind on the tea reviews.

Setting: Cafe du Journal, Quay St, Galway. Lovely little cafe, a bit dark but ok, I wasn’t the only person alone and they didn’t seem to find it strange that I was. My panini was delicious - full of fresh roasted veggies and dripping with homemade rocket pesto.

Cup: My only complaint would have to be the cup here - it was a bit too thick for my tastes, and I don’t like the colour yellow. Not sure why, just don’t.

Pot: Now, the pot was excellent, just the right size for one person, it had a good couple of cups of tea in it, and poured without spilling.

Beverage: The tea was nice, could have had a touch more flavour to it, but was smooth and not bitter.

Overall a good experience. I did feel a bit strange taking the photo this time - I’m happy being alone in cafes, but alone and photographing your pot of tea does make you look, well, a little eccentric shall we say.

I didn’t have any cake, my panini was enough and I had to get back to work, but a few people around me were tucking in and it looked good - generous portion sizes, good amounts of cream, and cake and desserts that looked home made and messy.

I would have liked to have been able to sit around for an hour or so, reading my book and savouring the tea with something nice and sweet. One time I’ll go to Galway again for fun instead of work and get to do just that.

Playing scrabble online just now, and I got to thinking. I’m realising as I write this that perhaps what I should have been questioning was why was I playing scrabble over the internet with someone I’ve never met when I could have been doing something cool instead (why don’t you?) [sorry, british child of the 80’s reference - originally switching off the tv and less boring rather than less cool, but my point stands]

Anyway, I digress.
I was wondering about online-scrabble-with-strangers etiquette as far as rude words goes. Just the minor giggly ones, it’s a fairly safe bet that c**t should only be used in scrabble amongst good friends. (apologies for asterix use, those who know me know I have no problem with the word in question and quite enjoy people’s reactions when I say it, but I’m considering doubling my readership by telling my mum about the blog)

I digress again, I spent all day training people and kept getting off topic (we were discussing tea at one point, definitely not relevant to the topic of the day). Focus, dammit, focus.

Yes, online scrabble. My opponent opened with “pee”, which made me giggle, and later used “ride” which also made me giggle, but I think they were american so didn’t see it that way. I could have got a pretty good score at one point by using whore over a double word score box, but here’s the thing - I didn’t. I was winning anyway (admittedly against someone who opened with “pee”) so it didn’t really matter, but it got me thinking about why I didn’t want to do that - I’m never going to meet this person, it’s not like I plan on spending a huge amount of time playing scrabble online, so why do I care?

Scrabble becomes a lot more fun when you can use mildly rude words you see, so it would be nice. That’s if you have a peurile sense of humour and find rude words funny, which I do. Very funny. I snicker away to myself frequently when the 2fm news comes on. (presenter: Avril Hoare). I’m such a child.

Anyway, I need to somehow find out what’s considered acceptable to use in scrabble among strangers. Where is the line drawn?

So, I’m done, finally, and a bit late, but not so late I’ll be penalised.

Another essay that I think will pass but I am yet again unhappy with the quality of, not because I’m worried about it, but because I know I can do better, I just don’t seem to be able to apply myself to studying at the moment. I worry on occasion that maybe I can’t do better, maybe this is just how my work looks now, slapdash and shoddy. I mean, if someone was to collect together my assignments for this course, that’s what they’d think of my work. The fact that I know I can do much better, have done much better in the past, is really irrelevant. The fact of the matter is, my undergraduate essays were of a much higher quality that my postgraduate ones.

It’s possibly because for this course the opinions I express have to match those of the faculty - I don’t remember my undergraduate lecturers being so insecure - sure, they knew they were right, but we could come down either way in our work as long as we’d backed it up with enough evidence. For this course we’re provided with all the reading, and discouraged from looking elsewhere for research that might provide an interesting perspective. In fact, my tutor’s made it pretty clear that going outside of the readings is unnacceptable and we won’t be credited for it in our work. (Fair enough really, she has a full time busy job as well as doing this). The readings we’re given are so biased though, and for this assignment I needed to be able to criticise them. My preferred method of criticising things is to find alternative evidence or explanations, but as the course is so focussed on the faculty’s view being the only one, they don’t give any alternatives, except rubbish ones they’ve already surpassed. Criticism in academic essays needs to be backed up with evidence, but we’re not given any.

Anyway, the essay is done, a huge weight is off my mind. I don’t seem to be able to focus on anything else when I need to get something done at the moment. I’m usually a master of avoiding working: tidying, cleaning, anything that can be justified. I’ve done some washing, the fridge is full, and the flat’s a good bit cleaner than it was on Friday, but, well, it’s not exactly great yet. No, I’ve just been useless the past couple of days. Last night I fell asleep on the sofa for 2 hours watching big brother. Woke up with lines imprinted on my face (cord sofa) - very attractive.

Anyway, now I’m just gibbering. 2 hours of very restricted writing and it all just comes out now: I need to learn to write essays like a stream of consciousness.

I always do my assignments at the last minute, I just can’t seem to focus until I really have to. Thing is, that worked fine when I was able to pull all nighters, work until 4 or 5am to get it finished, a quick proof read in the morning after a couple of hours sleep and I was done. Look at me now though, not even 1am and I’m giving in, too tired to think logically and criticise people (well, the ones I’m supposed to be criticising, I could rant all night about the course, and this is one I’m enjoying). It’s supposed to be posted tomorrow, but at the back of my mind I know I can get away with posting it on Tuesday, so that’s probably what’ll happen. Only 700 words to go anyway. If only I could include this post. Or write this easily in the essay. Sigh.

The first thing I realised this morning as I walked to the bus stop was that it is cold today. Cold, grey, windy and although it’s not raining right now, it has been. The only concession to summer was the slight scent of cut grass on the wind. That’s it. Pretty paltry in my opinion.
The second thing I observed this morning is that some people really annoy me. Now, that’s not exactly news, but the specific annoyance this morning was the man sat next to me on the bus. Although I’m partial to cake and chocolate, I’m not an especially large person, I think I take up a fair amount of the seat on a bus, certainly no more than my part of it. The man next to me seemed to want to take up the whole seat, and most of the space in between our seat and the next one. The thing was, he wasn’t a big guy, just someone who feels that they have the right to spread out, legs wide open, elbowing me and leaning against my right arm. I dealt with this like a true Englishwoman – I sighed loudly and made a big deal about moving further across the seat so I was pressed against the wall. Made no difference. Completely oblivious he was.
Anyway, the bus experience and the cold led me to feel that I deserved s a treat for breakfast, which is why I’ve just polished off a chocolate chip scone and I have a cappuccino next to me too.

What a joke of a result.
I feel for any child scared to tell about the abuse they’re going through, this can only reinforce that when it comes down to it, there’s a very strong change they won’t be believed.

Now, I don’t intend to post amusing things etc here, but this was in a magazine in my b&b in Galway (lovely b&b, by the way, Petra House).
It’s for feminine freshness products. I love the idea that you should be shiny fresh and clean and antiseptic there. Who buys this shit? And who designed the ad?

This was a birthday present from a friend and it was delicious. I’d been craving a good coffee and walnut cake and this was it. The cake was walnut cake, and the icing added the coffee flavouring. Not the traditional method but it worked. The walnut cake was light and fluffy and lovely.
It went especially well with tea after a walk and elephant watching.

Ahh, the crisp sandwich. Next to cake and cucumber sandwiches there is no finer snack.
This one is on wholegrain vienna loaf, with soya cream cheese, and cheese and onion hunky dorys (crinkle cut crisps for anyone not familiar with them).
Soft bread here, making for an interesting contrast in textures as you bite into it. Soft, so it’s gentle on your tongue and the roof of your mouth, then crispy in the middle for some bite.
The cream cheese helps keep the crisps in place where they belong.
Sometimes I add solid cheese, usually cheddar, but this time the crisps were the main event. Very satisfying it was too.

So, we’re out for a walk in Clondalkin - Corkagh Park. Walk out of the gate, look over to the caravans across the way. “Oh look”, I say, “an elephant”. “Yes yes”, my companians say. A few minutes later they look over themselves and believe me.
It was cool - not the elephants as such, more that fact that they were just wandering around a park in Dublin, eating the grass and the oak trees.
Driving past yesterday the circus had the tents up and all, so it wouldn’t have looked so suprising. I didn’t think circuses had animals any more, but sadly I was wrong. Poor things, they looked pretty wrecked.

This was taken in Clondalkin, Dublin this evening. Closer picture later.

For the lack of posts. I have plenty written, just haven’t had internet access to type stuff up.

There has been much tea. And much work unfortunately, which is why there has been little posting.