Don't Listen to the Nay Sayers





Wednesday 6/7/2005

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Diary and Notes

"Hurraaaah!" and everybody threw their hats into the air and danced around, hugging each other and whistling God Save the Queen.

That's what happened when the train conductor announced that London was getting the Olympic games in 2012.

OK, so it didn't, nobody made a noise and I got the impression nobody gave a hoot, except me of course, I'm made up.

I may live in Manchester which failed in its bid to host the 2000 Olympics but I'm not bitter. I was a bit surprised, but then I think everybody was.

But now it will all begin. Now the gripers and snipers from every newspaper across the country will start to hack away at the people who are putting on the games. Slowly and surely you'll see them saying that things are behind schedule, that there's corruption and incompetence, that London should never have been granted the games and it should have gone to Paris (where loads of journalists have their second homes of course). It wont be long but soon they'll have the whole country convinced it's a bad thing and will never work and nobody in this country can organise a piss up in a brewery.

When this happens, don't listen to these vultures and their jaded old hack views. They would complain if God suddenly granted every person in the country the ability to teleport.

And don't underestimate how nasty they'll get either. Everything that was ever built in Britain has been derided by the press as a white elephant, a folly or just a complete waste of taxpayers' money. They don't really care about these things, it's just that they think being negative sells more papers than telling the truth.

Plus most of them are shrivelled inside and don't want us enjoying ourselves.

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By the time I got back to Manchester it was too late to be going to the shops for ingredients or cooking anything complicated. I had planned for such eventualities (aren't I just dandy) by having a can of smoked oysters in the cupboard which I bought in Sainsbury's. I whipped up a quick pasta dish and it wasn't bad at all. You may also notice I'm using some smoked hot Spanish paprika again. This is truly one of my favourite finds this year.


Cake Blog

Wholemeal Lemon Tart: From Juice Moose in Exeter. The pastry was a bit soggy and the filling far too sharp. Why can't 'healthy organic' places make a decent cake? There was obviously a lot of love that had gone into it, just not a lot of talent.


Menu

  • Smoked Oyster Vermicelli


    Ingredients*

    Smoked Oyster Vermicelli
    1 Can (85g) Smoked Oysters
    100g Vermicelli
    1 Rasher Bacon
    1/2 Onion
    1 Clove Garlic
    1 Tbsp Olive Oil
    1 tsp Anchovy Paste
    1/2 tsp Smoked Spanish Paprika
    1 Tbsp Pickled Capers
    6 Black Olives
    50ml Passata
    Black Pepper



    Preparation

  • Finely chop the onion and bacon. Mince the garlic. Sweat gently until soft in some olive oil. Add the paprika, a squirt of anchovy paste, the oysters, capers, olives and passata simmer for 10 mins.
  • Stir in some cooked vermicelli and grind on loads of black pepper.

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    *All quantities are very approximate and for a single person






    Jon.Borresen@GMail.com