James RS

It’s breakfast with a side order of existential dread for me this morning 🙂

Rhubarb Gin A few weeks ago I became the proud owner of about 3 kilos of Rhubarb, cut fresh from the garden.  Usually this would all go into Jam (which most of it will) but this year I really wanted to give Rh…

Absolutely! This is the source recipe, slightly modified. Early forced rhubarb is best, & try to get some with the deepest colour. It’s quite different from anything you might buy. You can use it in cocktails, but also good neat 🙂
queenofeverything.co.uk/2015/06/13/r...

Approx 500g deep red forced rhubarb & the juice of half that lemon, a chunk of fresh ginger to be thinly sliced, 80g or so of caster sugar, & a bottle of Aldi gin

The ingredients of the previous photo left in a 1.5 litre kilner jar for two weeks turned over occasionally to make…

One bottle of delicious brightly coloured pinky orangey rhubarb gin!

Fish pie with a geological strata of cheese grated on the top with some broccoli followed by chocolate & a tot of homemade rhubarb gin as a digestif

I don’t like crowds at the best of times, so now I won’t go to any of these “blockbuster“ shows, until I’m famous enough to be given a private visit (i.e. never). They just make me frustrated, & angry. Ordinary museum or gallery visits are much more rewarding

So heartening to hear this. I made an absolute pig’s ear of a potentially delicious chicken recipe at the weekend. I feel less alone now 🙂

Fare dodgers targeted as train ticket refund rules are tightened In a bid to clamp down on ticket fraud that costs the railways millions each year, the government has quietly changed the rules on claiming refunds for unused train tickets.

DON'T BUY TRAIN TICKETS IN ADVANCE!
On 1 April, the government is quietly changing the rules.
Off-Peak & Anytime tickets become non-refundable after 23:59 the day BEFORE you travel.
If you wake up & find your event cancelled, NO REFUNDS, even on £100+ tickets.
www.ianvisits.co.uk/articles/far...

Bill's fundraiser for Grassroots Suicide Prevention Help Bill Rae Smith raise money to support Grassroots Suicide Prevention

It’s a grey dreary morning here, & it seems the world is going to hell in a handcart. But till then, my son is fundraising for Grassroots Suicide Prevention, a great cause, by running a 1/2 marathon right now! Here’s his JustGiving page, if you’d like to help 🙂
www.justgiving.com/page/bill-ra...

It was very good chocolate, not hugely expensive, & widely available. You’d have thought Nestlé would have wanted to keep it going, as a very significant part of their heritage, but sadly no. The assassination attempt on Winston Churchill is a good story too 🙂

Peter's Chocolate - Wikipedia

Their chocolate is pretty good too. I like the Swiss dark milk chocolate, partly because it reminds me of Peter’s chocolate from my childhood (which was the original Swiss milk chocolate). Also the marzipan balls covered in milk chocolate, which made a marzipan lover I know go all wobbly.

Here in Brighton, maybe elsewhere too, almost everyone thanks the driver when they get off the bus. It’s so deeply ingrained, that I believe that even if we had been driven at top speed & crashed, people would still thank the driver as they stumbled from the wreckage. I love it

A very very nice madman that I’m profoundly grateful to 🙂

That is actually my dream wine. I moved into a cheap basement flat near the Angel in the late 70s & the previous tenant left me half a case of Vosne Romanee. It was my first experience of really good wine, & frankly it has never been equalled since

ditto how a person treats shop staff, (or indeed anyone in a supposedly menial position)

Oooooooh! My word! That’s immense! It’s yuuuuge! I’m stoked! #seriouslyoverdosedonsnowboarding #crashcourseinyouthspeak

I adored it too. Mackenzie Crook is a genius. Who could imagine that there even could be a magical realist sitcom, let alone that it could be this good. Outstanding.

& I for one would love a book by you!

I used to use Notes for this too. Now I find the shopping list section in Reminders works better for me. Still get autocorrect nonsense though 🤷‍♂️

Homeland Security is targeting Americans with this secretive legal weapon Under Trump, the Department of Homeland Security has weaponized administrative subpoenas to attack free speech, according to privacy and civil rights groups.

Extraordinary US government surveillance of ordinary people is beginning
www.washingtonpost.com/investigatio...

Grateful I went to a a C of E boarding school with chapel services twice a day. It made me think seriously about religion, & why I am an unbeliever, & inured me to the charms of the hucksters for the various cults that were widespread in the 60’s & 70’s, who snared a fair no. of my contemporaries

She is one of my kitchen household gods, & this book is one of her best

It's easy to get inured to this. But it's genuinely shocking. These are just untrained, hyped up hooligans terrorizing people.

This has really moved me.

The Velvet Underground - After Hours YouTube video by TVUVEVO

On BBC R4 “Desert Island Discs” this am, the guest said this song was about romantic longing. I read it very differently, & much darker. The combination of the jaunty tune, Mo Tucker‘s little girl lost vocals, and the lyrics hinting at a death wish are genius, but v disturbing. Am I wrong?

Here’s the beginning of our film about Raeburn’s rediscovered portrait of Robert Burns. Watch the whole film at blackiehouse.org

This is AMAZING.

Names are class indicators, and I try, not completely successfully, to avoid snobbery whether straight or inverted. That said, there’s something about the name Gavin..🤷‍♂️

File under “inevitable” (see also slicing fingertips off with mandolin) 🙁

& to you too, with thanks for the joy you share here 🙂

Aldi is the best supermarket for affordable (ie cheapskate) wine, the only trouble being that the good stuff disappears fast

You clearly have the best company for NYE. Only dreary humans here 🤷‍♂️