Alas, alack, all that is dandy has to end, and today I flew back in to UKland after an extended weekend at home (there was a proper large-scale family celebration I had to attend). After saying my goodbyes, and making it through the security check unscathed (hope you loved your rock-solid-yet-still-somehow-liquid-according-to-you curry paste that used to be mine, UKland control officer), I seated myself in the optimal position on the aircraft - just behind the magical reserved seats, aka I'd be the first zooming out of there once the plane hit the ground. Just as I made myself comfy, they made their appearance.
The Magical Alliance caught my ear first, then my eye when I turned around to see what was making the racket. The racket was being made by three very fine young gentlemen in Adidas track suits. The leader looked like a carbon copy of one of the dunderheads who used to pick on me in middle school. His right-hand crony seemed to be so stupid that blinking and walking at once must have been too hard for him... I guess he did the leader dude some wrong, as he was seated next to the window. With all the mental capacity the window-sitter could muster, admiring the views outside could literally take his breath away. The third member of the group, and the hero of the story up ahead, sported a ridiculous mohawk-mullet hybrid that would have looked dreadful in the early nineties, let alone now. I just scoffed at their barbed language, writing it off as the lads being excited before embarking on a trip to the depths of the job ladder.
Spurting idiocy apparently wasn't enough. At some point mid flight, the hero of the tale produced a bottle of alcohol. I'm not sure exactly how they distributed the grapefruit vodka or whatever the hell it was, but said hero held the empty bottle when I noticed them taking their party to the next level. Also, somehow, it was him swaying in the general direction of the toilet moments later as his comrades remained seated. As such, I guess that his brain cell didn't think it was a bad idea to down the whole thing. Soon enough, the flight attendants got the guy in check, and he was placed in the magical fenced off reserved seats. Right in front of me.
Lovely.
As The Great And Powerful Rumpy is a walking example of mild-to-average emetophobia, I spent the rest of the flight bunged up in an embryo position with my bag and coat (fuck regulations, no way is it under the seat where there's a fraction of a chance he'll barf on it somehow). Ugh. Not fun at all.
My mood was slightly improved when the boss of the pack went to speak with the fallen. At first they were exchanging bro-hugs, but soon enough it degenerated into a shouting match with the drunken dude doing his best to hit the sober one. Once again, flight attendants had to step in. The Magic Alliance, shattered before the plane even touched down at their final destination. I can't help but have my spirits a little raised.
Now, I'm back in the place where I lived, and one lamb jhallosa later I'm pretty settled in. Conclusions from the journey - take the seat one row behind the reserved seats.
19.2.13
10.2.13
The Update Show!
Piano!
*piano smash*
*muttered* whose idea was this?
Now, with the lamzor asdfmovie reference out of the way, I can move on to an update proper! So, how have I been? Pretty darn good, actually. I'm getting used to UKland, and working at my own pace. There are no jet skis, I'm not stuck in mud - turns out that the work I put into the method is pretty good progress. I'm not lagging behind. Currently relaxing and rebuilding energy after an intense period where I tuned up the method to perfection and made some user-friendly things for it. Working on the paper, but not overexerting myself. My supervisor, who's supposed to be very demanding, is happy. So I'm happy too.
The vagueness of my future direction got spotted when I had my progress review meeting. Thought this was a huge obstacle, and I was crushed for a few days. Then I realised that it isn't actually a problem, and I'll be okay. My supervisors have tons of stuff in need of attention, and I'm more than happy to pull up my sleeves and do the computer work... and then try to parry the biology :P eventually I'll have to delve into that too. Thing is, I don't feel competent in that department, and whatever conclusions I may draw should be taken with a huge, huge dose of reserve.
Insanity fighting - music! Found the second guitar guys for both Nakpat and Green Parrot. Smashing success! Also, bought the Fnord, it's underway now. Pedalboard should be complete soon enough!
More insanity fighting - cooking! Indians and Pakistanis are two of the three top minorities in the UK (the third nation being Poles), so I started experimenting with their spices and whipping up some curries. The butter chicken may have been beginner's luck, but it got the halal roommate seal of approval for the tastiest stuff he ever had. And it rolled from there, usually successes instead of failures. The cookbook mah amazing sis got me for Christmas is a fantastic resource of great recipes, and even the seemingly harder ones are described in great detail and are easy enough to pull off if one just follows the protocol. It's like lab work.
Rumpy presents: The potato-lentil-pea curry extravaganza lab work sheet
(I lernd hoa2bold todai. uproud)
Serves: whoa this is a lot
Reagents vel ingredients:
1. canola oil
2. 2 small onions
3. 1 tsp ginger powder
4. 1 tsp garlic powder
5. 2 tsp ground coriander
6. 1 tsp ground cumin
7. 1 tsp turmeric
8. 0.5 tsp ground cinnamon
9. 1 tsp chilli powder
10. 750 g young potatoes
11. 250 g red lentils
12. 700 g tomato passata rustica
13. 400 ml can of coconut milk
14. half a cube of chicken stock
15. 1 tsp garam masala
16. 0.5 tsp salt
17. 0.5 tsp brown cane sugar
18. 150 g green shelled peas
19. 1 tbsp coriander-in-a-tube
20. 3 tbsp lemon juice
Note:
tsp - overflowing teaspoon
tbsp - overflowing tablespoon
Procedure:
1. Hack up potatoes into small, bite-size chunks.
2. Put a bit of canola oil into a big pot and set it on medium flame so it heats up.
3. Hack up onions.
4. Dump onions into pot, stir occasionally.
5. Mix ginger powder, garlic powder, ground coriander, ground cumin, turmeric, ground cinnamon and chilli powder on a small plate to add them effortlessly later.
6. Once the onions are reasonably cooked (should take about 5 minutes) dump in the spices. Cough, sputter, wonder why there are so many spices and so few onions, stir, cough, sputter, think that you should have put in more oil, keep the uneasy mix on the hob for about a minute.
7. Dump in the hacked potatoes and lentils. Cough and sputter even more as the drastic scent of fried spices gets shifted up by the sudden air movement. Bot starts suffocating next door and accusing of mustard gas creation. Open front door, back door, window, air the thing. Stir the thing in the pot to spread the onions and spices evenly across the taters and lentils.
8. Pour in the tomato passata and coconut milk. The coconut milk is a solid coconut cream layer on top and water on the bottom. Frantically sniff can to see if the thing wasn't spoiled, read label, find a hint to shake before use as separation usually occurs. Ah, ok. Stir the mix, bring it to the boil.
9. Whip up a cup of chicken stock from the half-cube and a cup of boiling water from the kettle. Add that. Add garam masala, salt and the sugar. Throughout stir.
10. Reduce the flame. Watch Slurgi taking a teleporter disguised as an enemy pyro, using the revolver when claiming to be using the enforcer, and missing 8 shots in a row on a rather predictable demoman. Overall, just chillax, relax, max for 20 minutes. Stir occasionally.
11. Add peas, stir, simmer for another 5 minutes
12. Take off flame, add coriander-in-a-tube and lemon juice. Stir thing. Taste thing. Barely restrain self from instantly eating whole pot of thing. Fry up parathas and eat the thick, delightfully tasty goop with them.
So yeah, tune in next time for more cooking with Rumpy! Maybe, if I feel like it, that is.
Also, another thing that really, really did my mental sanity well - I weeded Fox out of my life once and for all. True, when times were good, she was a great friend. But when times were rough, she was nigh impossible to deal with (as reflected in numerous butthurt posts on this blog), and I just couldn't tune out what she was saying. As it just wasn't working, I terminated it. And all's dandy. She's too busy being adored by her "new friends" to come after me, and I'm okay with this.
Welp, that will be all for now. I need to buy me a performance hat ;) Stay tuned for more ramblings from everybody's favourite curry-devouring, fuzz-loving dissonance overlord in the future!
*piano smash*
*muttered* whose idea was this?
Now, with the lamzor asdfmovie reference out of the way, I can move on to an update proper! So, how have I been? Pretty darn good, actually. I'm getting used to UKland, and working at my own pace. There are no jet skis, I'm not stuck in mud - turns out that the work I put into the method is pretty good progress. I'm not lagging behind. Currently relaxing and rebuilding energy after an intense period where I tuned up the method to perfection and made some user-friendly things for it. Working on the paper, but not overexerting myself. My supervisor, who's supposed to be very demanding, is happy. So I'm happy too.
The vagueness of my future direction got spotted when I had my progress review meeting. Thought this was a huge obstacle, and I was crushed for a few days. Then I realised that it isn't actually a problem, and I'll be okay. My supervisors have tons of stuff in need of attention, and I'm more than happy to pull up my sleeves and do the computer work... and then try to parry the biology :P eventually I'll have to delve into that too. Thing is, I don't feel competent in that department, and whatever conclusions I may draw should be taken with a huge, huge dose of reserve.
Insanity fighting - music! Found the second guitar guys for both Nakpat and Green Parrot. Smashing success! Also, bought the Fnord, it's underway now. Pedalboard should be complete soon enough!
More insanity fighting - cooking! Indians and Pakistanis are two of the three top minorities in the UK (the third nation being Poles), so I started experimenting with their spices and whipping up some curries. The butter chicken may have been beginner's luck, but it got the halal roommate seal of approval for the tastiest stuff he ever had. And it rolled from there, usually successes instead of failures. The cookbook mah amazing sis got me for Christmas is a fantastic resource of great recipes, and even the seemingly harder ones are described in great detail and are easy enough to pull off if one just follows the protocol. It's like lab work.
Rumpy presents: The potato-lentil-pea curry extravaganza lab work sheet
(I lernd hoa2bold todai. uproud)
Serves: whoa this is a lot
Reagents vel ingredients:
1. canola oil
2. 2 small onions
3. 1 tsp ginger powder
4. 1 tsp garlic powder
5. 2 tsp ground coriander
6. 1 tsp ground cumin
7. 1 tsp turmeric
8. 0.5 tsp ground cinnamon
9. 1 tsp chilli powder
10. 750 g young potatoes
11. 250 g red lentils
12. 700 g tomato passata rustica
13. 400 ml can of coconut milk
14. half a cube of chicken stock
15. 1 tsp garam masala
16. 0.5 tsp salt
17. 0.5 tsp brown cane sugar
18. 150 g green shelled peas
19. 1 tbsp coriander-in-a-tube
20. 3 tbsp lemon juice
Note:
tsp - overflowing teaspoon
tbsp - overflowing tablespoon
Procedure:
1. Hack up potatoes into small, bite-size chunks.
2. Put a bit of canola oil into a big pot and set it on medium flame so it heats up.
3. Hack up onions.
4. Dump onions into pot, stir occasionally.
5. Mix ginger powder, garlic powder, ground coriander, ground cumin, turmeric, ground cinnamon and chilli powder on a small plate to add them effortlessly later.
6. Once the onions are reasonably cooked (should take about 5 minutes) dump in the spices. Cough, sputter, wonder why there are so many spices and so few onions, stir, cough, sputter, think that you should have put in more oil, keep the uneasy mix on the hob for about a minute.
7. Dump in the hacked potatoes and lentils. Cough and sputter even more as the drastic scent of fried spices gets shifted up by the sudden air movement. Bot starts suffocating next door and accusing of mustard gas creation. Open front door, back door, window, air the thing. Stir the thing in the pot to spread the onions and spices evenly across the taters and lentils.
8. Pour in the tomato passata and coconut milk. The coconut milk is a solid coconut cream layer on top and water on the bottom. Frantically sniff can to see if the thing wasn't spoiled, read label, find a hint to shake before use as separation usually occurs. Ah, ok. Stir the mix, bring it to the boil.
9. Whip up a cup of chicken stock from the half-cube and a cup of boiling water from the kettle. Add that. Add garam masala, salt and the sugar. Throughout stir.
10. Reduce the flame. Watch Slurgi taking a teleporter disguised as an enemy pyro, using the revolver when claiming to be using the enforcer, and missing 8 shots in a row on a rather predictable demoman. Overall, just chillax, relax, max for 20 minutes. Stir occasionally.
11. Add peas, stir, simmer for another 5 minutes
12. Take off flame, add coriander-in-a-tube and lemon juice. Stir thing. Taste thing. Barely restrain self from instantly eating whole pot of thing. Fry up parathas and eat the thick, delightfully tasty goop with them.
So yeah, tune in next time for more cooking with Rumpy! Maybe, if I feel like it, that is.
Also, another thing that really, really did my mental sanity well - I weeded Fox out of my life once and for all. True, when times were good, she was a great friend. But when times were rough, she was nigh impossible to deal with (as reflected in numerous butthurt posts on this blog), and I just couldn't tune out what she was saying. As it just wasn't working, I terminated it. And all's dandy. She's too busy being adored by her "new friends" to come after me, and I'm okay with this.
Welp, that will be all for now. I need to buy me a performance hat ;) Stay tuned for more ramblings from everybody's favourite curry-devouring, fuzz-loving dissonance overlord in the future!
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