Month: February 2008

After a long lie-in, I cooked pancakes and bacon for the Clare. Then, after washing up and tidying the kitchen, I spent the morning catching up on correspondence, writing letters to the local council and my MP. As it’s a sunny day, we drove out to a couple of garden centres, where I bought bread flour, making sure it was milled with wheat from local farms. On the way home, we bought seed potatoes, which I chitted. I put some dubbin on my spring boots, and then settled down to write this blog post, with a cup of tea and a Tunnock’s teacake by my side.

Oh, good grief. If anyone can tell me at which point I turned into Richard Briers, and supply me with a time machine so I can go back to just before that point, give my past self a slap and take him out for strippers and beer, I’d be eternally grateful. Thank you so much.

There is movement on the many-headed front that is Rob’s 2008 creative push.

Following a highly successful meeting yesterday that saw the first professional reunion of the 3 Sick Puppies in 18 months, our Straight 8 project, Grey For Danger, is now officially GO. We now have a treatment, a DOP, a sound designer and composer, potentially a kick-ass location, and someone to build us a bomb. A prop bomb. Let me make that clear. A bomb with a heart of Fimo. A fake bomb. OK?
Shoot dates are still up in the air, but at the moment pencilled for the beginning of next month. Next week will see me and Clive nail down a script before we begin work on the voiceover that will form the narrative heart of the piece. That will take place next Saturday, the 16th.

Meanwhile, Decks, Dance and Videotape has developed an almost scary momentum. Dom interviewed Peter Hook last month, a high point for the project so far that I had to miss out on due to the explosive nature of my bottom at the time. However, we now have another shoot lined up with DJ Wayne Anthony. We’ve set up a location in Battersea, and a seriously cool prop – a yellow Lambourghini. Lord, we are so fly. This shoot will take place next Saturday, the 16th.

Have you noticed my minor scheduling snafu? Busiest Saturday EVAR.

In the meantime, work on The Prisoner Of Soho has slowed right down. There just isn’t the room at the moment. I think I’m just going to have to gird my loins and take the slow train into work, and use that dead hour. It’s the only way any writing will get done. I’m waaaay too distractified currently.

Oh, and I’m playing lots of guitar. And looking at buying a vintage amp. Because there’s no harm in looking, is there?

I’m taking the tube from Paddington into work less often these days. I kid myself that it’s a financial and fitness driven decision. You know, walk into work, save on the tube fare. But the Ugly Truth is that I can’t bear to look at the advert that’s currently placed opposite my usual spot on the Bakerloo Line platform.

Damn, I’m good. Don’t take my word for it. Clare was full of praise for the repast I put in front of her tonight, which has been simmering in the lizard part of my brain for the last few days. It’s poshed up fish and rice, basically, making the most of cheap ingredients. And the spec is so loose that you could take this meal up or down town depending on the mood.

We’re talking fishcakes, essentially. Not the bready British version, but something closer to the Thai take on the dish.

A staple of the Casa De LA Verdad Fea freezer is a bag of frozen salmon fillets. They’re fine for curries, fish stews and the like, but you wouldn’t want them as a star of the dish. So tonight I blitzed three of them in the Magimax, with a spring onion and a dollop of pesto, shaped the resultant fragrant glop into little patties, firmed them in the fridge for half an hour, and griddled them. Served with Rob’s Patented Rice Thing (briefly, onion, garlic, peppers and mushrooms cooked in a little olive oil, then a cup of paella rice (long grain will do) a splash of wine and a pint of stock, simmered till thick and yumshious) and a dollop of yoghurt. Aces. You could add chili to the salmon, leave out the rice and serve them with flatbreads and salad, or just dip them in yoghurt as a snack. Or try them with tuna instaed of the salmon. Then you could make bigger patties, and have them as burgers (although frankly you’d be better off wrapping them in a flatbread with a spoonful of salsa). Or maybe even mackeral or a smoked white fish.

Take the basic idea and run with it. Free cooking.