My brain has melted...

[desperance]

... it must have done. I have finished my ghost story for this year's Phantoms event, and it is heartwarming and sentimental. Oh noes!

That is, of course, 'finished' for values that include "omigod, it's twice as long as it ought to be and twice as crap to boot." I shall cut it, somewhat, and try to make it better between now and Monday next. But it will still be heartwarming and sentimental. You have been warned.

In other news - oh, I don't know. I have received a little money, and spent a lot. Nothing new there, then. Result: misery. Nothing new there, either. But it's a bit burdensome just now. I would like not to be depressed. I will either be better after I have read through the big fantasy novel (to see how much work I really have to do to it), or I will be worse (if it's really as much as I fear, or more). I should start that tomorrow, but I have to stay in for a delivery (document boxes! many many document boxes! it's okay, I have many many documents...), so it might get put off another day. Any excuse, really. It scares me.

Am I weird, for liking greens (cabbage, today) with my chilli? I just think those dark green vegetative flavours go really well with the meat and the heat and the redness of it all...

It seems to be impossible to make a chilli too hot for my taste. This one has so far had indeterminate fresh green & red chillies, a chipotle, a couple of dried habanero, and a handful of fresh birds'-eyes both red and green, and I struggle to call it medium in heat. I would add chilli-oil until scorchio, but I had to throw away my chilli-oil on account of it melted its rubber seal with its scorchio, so I'm a bit stuck really. Sigh.

That's all, I think. I shall see if the TV can entertain me, as I'm doing a damn poor job of entertaining myself. The cats might help, but they have the gift of vanishment, and are never around when wanted.

(Oh, but yesterday, the Evil Stepchild tried to use my desk as a stepping-leap on his way to the shelftops beyond. Alas, he forgot to take into account that physics thing about equal-and-opposite reactions: he bounded up onto the desk fine, but landed on loose papers. Which all slid away under his magnificent feets as he tried to bound further upwards, and so he crashed ignominiously into the shelves rather than landing neatly atop them, and fell back onto the desk again, and had to go and wash himself with vigour. While I picked up all my papers, giggling the while...)

Also, I have a bizarre need in me to watch "Shadowlands" again. I don't know why this should be, Lewis being one of the Inklings I never met nor never much liked his work (except for "Out of the Silent Planet"), but there it is. If TV lets me down, I have a video...

Comments

[athenais.livejournal.com]

Which Inklings did you meet?

You and alces2 would get along famously in a hot-chili-eating contest. I never met anyone who could tolerate the heat of a chili the way he does. I'm flapping my hands trying to fan some coolness into my mouth while he's adding more peppers!

[stevegreen.livejournal.com]

It seems to be impossible to make a chilli too hot for my taste.

In which case you might enjoy this cocktail (http://stevegreen.livejournal.com/70937.html).

[mevennen.livejournal.com]

I really like stir-fried greens - cabbage, Chinese leaf, pak choi - with chili, so it's not just you.

[pennski.livejournal.com]

Cats can be surprisingly rubbish at physics sometimes. Even though they have/ perform magnificent feets.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Which Inklings did you meet?

Tolkien, chiefly. I was introduced to Christopher T and to Roger Lancelyn Green on different occasions, but that was just a 'hullo' and move on. Tolkien Sr was introduced to me, and sat down and talked to me! For five full minutes! Eek! (And I've been dining out on it ever since, for I am a dreadful name-dropper, and I don't have that many to drop, but when I do, ooh...!)

[desperance.livejournal.com]

Yay. We are creatures of taste, you and I. It makes perfect sense to my palate; it's good to learn that I'm not alone in this.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

I'm pretty sure that Mac performs his feets. They are absurdly out of scale with the rest of him, and he makes such a fuss of and with them, they are a truly operatic production.

[athenais.livejournal.com]

You may dine out on it on my dime if ever I am in your town, for I would love to hear more. I don't imagine I could resist dropping that name at all, at all.

[pogodragon.livejournal.com]

And now I want to try your chilli (yes, with nice dark green veggies too, works wonderfully well to my palate).

And of *course* Mac meant to do that, a cat can never be clumsy, occasionally they are 'differently elegant' but that is all.

[desperance.livejournal.com]

And now I want to try your chilli (yes, with nice dark green veggies too, works wonderfully well to my palate).

Next time you're in N'cle, then. Or next time I'm in Henley, I might invite a few interesting people to come eat at Helen's house (I don't believe they'll mind; I always used to have my parties at her house, when she lived in N'cle). But for that I probably wouldn't cook chilli: what is too hot for other people is not hot enough for me, so it tends to be a disappointment all around. I do a damn' fine selection of curries for all palates, but I'm not travelling with my spice-box, so probably not that either...

And different elegance, yes. [One time I was doing a gig with Ian Rankin and Val McDermid, and drinking with the audience afterwards one of them said "You know, you three are such elegant drunks..." We sort of adopted that; a couple of weeks later, we got the Elegant Drunks Tour t-shirts in the post. From Val, I think...

[desperance.livejournal.com]

]