Back in the temporary groove
Mar. 17th, 2008 09:43 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
peterbirksBack to the gym today after a very dilatory week the previous seven days. Forced myself to do 20 mins on cross trainer and 5K on the rowing machine.
The new headphones are not good for the old sweat -- you can get hot fairly quickly. But they are brilliant for filtering out the mindless gumph that is pumped out on Fitness First speakers. It's normally impossible to have a classical piec of music on your headphones because the intrusive bass from whatever track is playing on Fitness First - Music for Dicks, will drown it out. But the new Sennheisers make it possible. So I can heartily recommend Beethoven's Fifth as an excellent piece of music for the rowing machine. Including, surprisingly, the slow movement. The Sixth, by comparison, would be unlikely to check in as a rowing machine piece. I may try the Eroica tomorrow.
Inspired by my new-found dedication, I bought spinach, eggs, a leek, mushrooms, and all the normal salad stuff on a trip to Tesco after work. When I got home I got out the steamer and did orange peppers, leeks, spinach, 2 boiled eggs and a small portion of fresh tagliatelle in the water at the bottom. Added some chopped cooked ham. Total cooking time, no more than 10 minutes for completely fresh ingredients and absolutely yummy. Why don't I do that more often?
__________________
The new headphones are not good for the old sweat -- you can get hot fairly quickly. But they are brilliant for filtering out the mindless gumph that is pumped out on Fitness First speakers. It's normally impossible to have a classical piec of music on your headphones because the intrusive bass from whatever track is playing on Fitness First - Music for Dicks, will drown it out. But the new Sennheisers make it possible. So I can heartily recommend Beethoven's Fifth as an excellent piece of music for the rowing machine. Including, surprisingly, the slow movement. The Sixth, by comparison, would be unlikely to check in as a rowing machine piece. I may try the Eroica tomorrow.
Inspired by my new-found dedication, I bought spinach, eggs, a leek, mushrooms, and all the normal salad stuff on a trip to Tesco after work. When I got home I got out the steamer and did orange peppers, leeks, spinach, 2 boiled eggs and a small portion of fresh tagliatelle in the water at the bottom. Added some chopped cooked ham. Total cooking time, no more than 10 minutes for completely fresh ingredients and absolutely yummy. Why don't I do that more often?
__________________
![[identity profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/openid.png){kind=small}
Alternatives
Date: 2008-03-18 11:31 am (UTC)Re: Alternatives
Date: 2008-03-18 01:17 pm (UTC)So I was quite surprised when the second movement of the Fifth, the "slow" movement, worked so well for the rowing machine. It's all to do with tempo and emphasis, I guess. Tchaikovsky's Violin Concerto works for me as well, and I suspect Beethoven's Seventh would work, but the low volume in the "quiet" parts had previously made that impractical.
PJ
Re: Alternatives
Date: 2008-03-18 02:20 pm (UTC)I'd swear most kid drivers learnt to drive on a Nintendo and are now unable to drive a car without a soundtrack.
On buying a new car they are flummoxed as to what's wrong with it until it finally dawns on them, in their pidgin English, "Oh man! Like it aint got like no backing track innit dude."
As soon as they put their noise on they are convinced that other traffic consists only of harmless pixels and in any case they have two more lives on this current level.
I did have an expensive pair of noise cancelling headphones but they fell apart after three weeks. I bought a £15 pair of Maplin noise cancelling headphones. They work just as well and are far more robust.
Re: Alternatives
Date: 2008-03-18 02:52 pm (UTC)PJ
FOOTBALL! This week, on SKY!!!! The Titans of Prtsmouth take on the titans of Tottenham in a vital mid-table clash in which, because they are both titans, they will appear normal size. In a match that will decide who can covet that all important ninth place, for this week at least. Yes, football, football, live on and only and, football, on Sky, on Sky. Football (repeat ad infinitum. Thanks, Mitchell & Webb. That's just how I feel.)
PJ
Re: Alternatives
Date: 2008-03-18 04:22 pm (UTC)Re: Alternatives
Date: 2008-03-18 04:38 pm (UTC)Some sort of a malformed navel?
Re: Alternatives
Date: 2008-03-18 09:46 pm (UTC)PJ
Re: Alternatives
Date: 2008-03-18 04:30 pm (UTC)I tried to watch an interview on Inside Sport last night. Bad enough having a blonde female (Logan) asking the questions but the soft piano music in the background made me throw so I switched off.
A few years ago an oik decided that it would be a good idea to use Youff Techniques to record the Sky at Night. The soft focuses, fast pulls and zooms, and drifting pans almost gave me a fit. A curt e-mail to the BBC was replied to with an apology came and such drug induced techniques were dropped.
I wonder if the inability to live in silence is now a clinical illness. "I need time off from work to go to silence treatment clinic." People who have to have a TV or radio on as "background" annoy me. Kids who simultaneously watch TV, surf the net and have their MP3 earphones on whilst talking on their mobiles are a ticking time bomb of something or other.
I shall be steeped in silence next week. Off to the middle of nowhere in Extremadura. Any noise and hominids will die!
I guess I'm just an old fuddy duddy Hector.
Pass the pipe and slippers!
Re: Alternatives
Date: 2008-03-19 02:01 am (UTC)Titmus
10 min dish
Date: 2008-03-19 08:15 am (UTC)Keith S
Re: 10 min dish
Date: 2008-03-19 08:48 am (UTC)It seems to me that Delia has got it spot on. People are scared of kitchens and are tempted by the takeaway food/ eat-out proponents (I recall some shit at Whitbread saying that he would not be happy until 50% of food expenditure was spent on eating out). If you can tempt people back into the kitchen, then progress will follow.
Sure, she's gone to extremes. Pre-chopped carrots and swede, for example. But I think that this is deliberate. There's nothing to stop you taking the recipes and substituting "genuine" food. All that she has done is that, instead of making the hard part the default with a caveat of "but if you are in a rush you can do this...." , she has made the quick-n-dirty method the default.
But, since you ask, no, I wasn't influenced by Delia. You will never see me buying those ready-prepared salad things and the like, mainly because I am too mean....
PJ
Re: 10 min dish
Date: 2008-03-19 01:22 pm (UTC)Keith S
Spot on, indeed
Date: 2008-03-20 12:47 am (UTC)I actually watched the other day's program with (a) approval -- mind you, I'm not sure where to source the pre-prepared sauce de poisson -- and (b) interest. For some reason, I've never actually been told how to sweat garlic into butter, or it may be oil, or it may be vodka (not sure, really, because I'd just downed a quart of fermented yak ghee at the time).
The details make sense, and with a bit of luck will get through.
She still has a way to go with the food processor thing, though: yeah, right. I'm going to stick a bunch of fresh ingredients into the moulinex, mash them together for some pathetic salsa dressing, then wash the whole thing out and try again for the sauce base?
Well, I would, but then again I wouldn't touch shop-prepared mash. I suspect, good though it looked, that shop-prepared mayonnaise has an, ahem, limited shelf-life.
Like I say, a few details to tidy up. If she has any sense, she'll deliver a killer recipe for Jalfrezi. However, an undoubtedly brilliant idea.