The Balance

Having ranted and railed for the last few posts, I feel it's time to restore balance by talking about some things that don't annoy me. It's not as short a list as you might imagine.

1)

I really don't think I need to elaborate - look at how cool he is.

2)Curry - I like hot currys, but that's not to say they shouldn't be tasty. It's gotten to the point where I rarely order take out Indian food now because I order hot food, and I am guessing that because they generally cater for the moron 'how hot can I go?' market, they don't waste their time balancing flavour. As such I prefer making curry, though which one depends on who I am eating with. Curry is the don, but moderately intensive in required ingrediants, preparation and sometimes cooking time. Which leads me neatly on to...

3) Chili - Now this isn't the traditional thing I don't think. We've discussed before the use of chuck meat and non-beef based chilis in Texas and the like. I am happy to concede that what they do is the 'proper' thing and what I do is unlikely to approach what a chili is supposed to look like. However. All I need is a large onion, some kind of chili content (jarred and mashed, dried, fresh - whatever is to hand), some chili powder (I am using crap at the moment but rajah is my preferred), some cumin, some kind of beef stock or even marmite will do a good job, some tomato puree and some tinned tomatoes. Oh, and the minced beef. And kidney beans.

Now everything on that list is pretty much a stock item in my kitchen, all that needs to happen is to chuck it all in a pan in a certain order, add some water then simmer for about 2 hours or so. This is why Chili rocks, you make a whole load of it and a blind monkey could make a passable one.

4)Computers - I love to hate you. As infuriating as they are, it's amazing the stuff that you can amuse yourself with on a computer. Some people get home and watch the TV. I am a proper geek and I'm into all this 'on demand' stuff. I don't want to schedule my life around the TV guide, I want to pick the shows I want to watch and download them after they've been aired. So I do. Games are also obviously played in various forms. The sad thing is the amount of processing power I have but I end up playing www.addictinggames.com. Who cares?

Also, I get to listen to radio 4 comedy shows without having to listen to anything else on Radio 4.

5) Pubs - I mean places you can go for drinks with a group of people and sit down and have the kind of conversations you can only have over a drink. I do not mean bars with 1 seat available or where they are so packed as to be utterly repugnant. Busy is fine, but I don't go out just to drink - though that's fun too!

6) Penguins - who doesn't like penguins?

The list does go on, these are just a few of my favourite things. People don't feature cos you know who you are and, besides, most of them can't be arsed to read my ramblings - they get enough of it in the pub ;)

Now then. I'm allowed another dozen or so whining posts right?