FYI, it's Ascension Day.

The Mass chants for Eastertide (but not Easter day itself) are 'De Angelis'.

We switched over from using 'Orbis Factor' once Lent was over.

Today, as you might presume, we were to do 'De Angelis'.

I sang the Kyrie for 'De Angelis'.

The organist played 'Orbis Factor'.

There was a bit of confusion and extemporanising, but we got there in the end.

I guess that's what happens when you get two Protestants together doing the music for Mass...accidents happen. :)

Otherwise, the organist and I rocked the chapel. \m/

Supervision went well!

I am 'massively improved' which pleases me pink.




Now, off to errands after a lunch with clairdeluney.

I'm exhaustified.

Today is Mothering Sunday in the UK. It is also the 4th Sunday of Lent.

For the ecumenical service in the AM:
Introit - Attende, Domine (plainchant, 1st cent)
Anthem - Lord, Hear My Prayer (Mendelssohn-Bartholdy)
neepheid's lovely fiancé sang the solo
Hymns - Forgettable, except that we got to sing 'Nun Danket'

For the Catholic service in the PM:
the usual, though a new intonation on the Psalm since we did the 23rd tonight
Hymns - very odd words to the tune 'Personent Hodie', the rest ordinary

I have a weird throat thing where it doesn't hurt but feels like it needs cleared constantly. Hmm.

Today for lunch, we met A&C with children, neepheid + fiancé, Scumbag, and a few others at John Lewis. We picked a good day to be a party of 13, as usually that would be impossible to seat on a Sunday.

It was lovely to see my darling goddaughter on Mothering Sunday. However, I made her cry when I wouldn't let her pick her nose. Ah, well.

Mother of a migraine today. But, productivity continues.

Yesterday was clairdeluney's birthday!

We had a birthday dinner over at her student flat. I offered to make the cake.

My favorite birthday cake is angel food, especially with a raspberry sauce.

She suggested a new one on me: chocolate-banana cake.

Here's what it turned out to look like-



( and naked cake under the cut )

It's super easy, though, I'm sure it could be made more exciting. I was on a schedule. :)

Chocolate-Banana Cake

1. Bake a cake from a mix. As you can see above, I made two loaves. Make the cake however you like, but you need to have layers, the more the better.

2. Slice the cake into whatever layers you're going to have.

3. Place a layer of sliced bananas onto the bottom layer then squirt/spoon cream all over the layer of banana.

4. Slap the next layer on top.

5. Repeat 3.

It would probably be just as good without the outer layer of icing, but it kept the moisture of the banana and cream in.

I ran out of time, but I'm guessing this would be lovely covered in nuts. :)

What's your favorite birthday cake?

One of the highlights of our trip to the US was a stop in the area where I grew up.

I grew up in Eastern North Carolina in a very poor, rural area. It hasn't changed much since I was little. In fact, with the closing of the textile mill in town, I'm not sure how they're still making it.

We rang my godparents to tell them we'd be in town for supper and wanted to take them out.

My godfather out did himself: not only did he call ahead for reservations for us, but he also convinced the head chef to come back into town to cook for us personally.

The head cook, Peter, is someone I've known since I was about 6 or 7 years old. Unfortunately, I'd not been back to Eastern NC for 15 years and I was afraid he wouldn't remember me.

He did, and it was good to catch up.

Our association with Peter and his family goes back to a chance encounter in Chapel Hill.

My grandmother was in the area and wanted Chinese. She picked a place, seemingly at random, called Hunam Chinese. Whenever we were in 'the big city' we always had some sort of ethnic food.
The reason for this custom was that Roanoke Rapids, the nearest town to us, was not known for its cuisine choices in the 80s. The best one could hope for was a salad at a steakhouse, if one were vegetarian.

My grandmother raved about Hunam and we made it one of our regular spots on trips.

We were absolutely ecstatic when we discovered that the owner of Hunam was sending his son-in-law, Peter, to open a restaurant in Roanoke Rapids.

Even though it was a ~30 minute drive from our house (yes, we lived in the country!) into town, we made a point of eating at the new restaurant as often as possible.

In a town where so many were satisfied simply to continue going to the steakhouse and only wanted sweet and sour pork when at a Chinese place, we were a big exception.

Peter created dishes especially for us and would often send out his most recent idea as a complimentary addition to our meals.

During the summers, his kids came out and swam with us at the lake. I remember that his oldest son was scared of the fish that we used to feed in the lake. I also remember that Peter wanted to cook our prize pet carp. :)

I was definitely not disappointed with the food that Peter cooked for us that night in January. There was Singapore Noodles, Crispy Tofu with Red Garlic Sauce, Vegetable Delight, Velvet Tofu, Garlic Green Beans, and a dish I'd not had before, Ginger Broccoli.

I ate until I simply couldn't put another bite in my mouth. I'd remembered the food nostalgically, but it was as good, if not better, than I remember. I wish I could apprentice to that man.

Any restaurants that you remember nostalgically?

( Some photos from the evening )

(From the Book of Ruth, in Lallans)



Congratulations to winterbadger and soccer_fox

ybunny and I are off to Edinburgh after church today.

While I did slack off on Food Friday on the first Friday of the year, I intentionally put off this one in order to give you a restaurant review of The Witchery. That's where the wedding meal will be.

*zooms*

I'm a day early. Well, it all comes out in the end since I've been late before.

drjoan arrives tomorrow morning, so I fully intend to have as many things done before she gets here as possible.

I spent a good bit of time yesterday thinking about messes in the kitchen.

This train of thought was brought on by New Kitty, aka Sean Seamus, that made a big mess in the kitchen yesterday.

I've written previously about the crazy things Caoimhe will eat.

Apparently, while I've been out at university this week, they've had a kitty conference and decided to try to out do each other on eating people food.

While Caoimhe is very brazen in her stealing of raw okra, she's not really interested in what's on my plate/in my bowl. Well, unless I happen to sit the dregs of my cereal milk down somewhere.

Sean Seamus has no such qualms about my eating dish. He moves around like a boxer waiting for an opening. He's on my lap, on the arm of the couch, on the back of the couch looking over my shoulder, anywhere that gets him closer to my food.

Yesterday morning, I sat on our couch with a bowl of grits. They were beautiful grits, if I do say so myself. I set the bowl down in my lap for a second to turn the page of the book I was perusing over breakfast.¹ When I looked back to get another bite, Sean Seamus was just getting a bite for himself.

And, he had the nerve to growl at me when I tried to take it off him.

He wolfed down that bite and started to dive in for another. I made that noise...the one you make at cats when they're being bad...and he ran for the kitchen.

That'll show him, I thought and went back to my reading.

Many are the plans of man, but cats know better. Not 5 minutes later there was a disturbance in the kitchen.

I went in to find Sean Seamus on the counter trying to gnaw into the loaf of homemade bread on the counter. When he saw me, he did the flailing paws manuever, knocking over just about everything on the counters at the time.

As I cleaned up the broken glass, bread crumbs, and dried rice littering the kitchen floor, I realized this isn't even close to the worst mess we've made in the kitchen.

Here are a few doozies:

1. Both Tom and I have at various times made smoothies forgetting to tighten the bottom of the mixing jug. When we pick up the jug to serve out the fruity goodness, the mix goes all over, though mostly in a southerly direction from the open bottom.²

2. While making a sachertorte we tried beating cocoa powder into butter that was a bit colder than we thought. There are still bits of chocolate on our wall to this day. The cats have probably licked off any butter that was left after the clean.

3. My mother put some dough in a plastic dish to rise and set it in a very low temp oven. I came along to bake a cake and preset the oven temp to 375F. Needless to say, scraping the melted plastic bowl off the oven was punishment enough. ³

4. Had a compatibility problem between my brain and my feet. Ended up all but throwing a fresh apple pie up into the air as I fell taking it out of the oven. ⁴

I don't think it's just clumsiness...though, I have that in buckets. I think kitchens just beg for messes.

Any messy kitchen stories?

---

¹ Shudder with fear, librarians...I eat over library books. I'm such a bad, bad girl. Okay, so it actually was in no danger. I like to think I'm living on the edge. *sighs*
² percible and neepheid may remember one of these occasions.
³ Admittedly, I was 11 and prone to this sort of bobbleheadedness.
⁴ golfbisquit and shineyquarter couldn't decide whether to cry with laughter or pick the apple out of my hair.

1. Us: ybunny leaves for Brazil today. After almost 6 months not going, I suppose it's due. Doesn't mean I have to be happy about it. We had a smallish celebration for his 30th birthday last night since he will undoubtedly be out of the country on the 11th of December. We'll try to get something together when he comes back. Probably won't be until after Christmas at this point.

2. Uni: I'm frustrated with my topic. I don't believe it. Not that I don't believe in it (I don't...), that doesn't matter. I don't need to have faith in it, I just need to think it works. And, I don't. So, it's making me a bit crazy to have to write about it when everything I write leads to a session of 'this is BS, this is BS, this is BS' chanted like a litany. I meet with Dr. S on the 6th of December, I waffle between fear that he's going to throw his hands up in frustration that I still haven't finished this chapter or hope that it will be okay to try to steer the direction a bit differently.

3. Church: Christmas comes soon. I'm working with the kids on a Christingle song and the Children's Ministries people are putting together a nativity play. It seems like the 15th of December is coming up unreasonably quickly. I also have to preach again that day. Fortunately, productive procrastination means that I've already written my sermon. Of course.
Also, I was ordained as an elder last Sabbath. At my age, it seems a little oxymoronic, but I'm happy to help, so fair enough.

4. Cats: Sean Seamus growls when fed. He's afraid of us stealing his food, or something. The problem is that he picks up a chunk of his wet food in his mouth and carries it to where he thinks we won't take it from him and proceeds to leave little crumbs of meat mush on the kitchen floor, the hall carpet, the mat by the kitchen sink, the bathmat, etc. It's disgusting. I was trying to mop up some of this disgustingness and he gave me a good swipe on the finger. So, now I have a plaster that makes my finger stiff, and by association, typing difficult. Sounds like crayolaab and I are in the same boat.

5. Chapel Choir: We're in the midst of lots of appointments. We have practice this Tuesday, then carols at the uni tree lighting on Thursday, a prison concert the same day, then church Sunday in the morning and evening, practice the next Tuesday, church the following Sunday, then practice on Monday for the carol service on Wednesday the 12th. Not as rushed as the undergrad choir I was in, but I was getting remunerated with a scholarship when I was an undergrad.

6. Socialising: I haven't seen the Ms as much as I do usually, and I don't see that improving over the next month. I really miss my family and ybunny leaving isn't a cakewalk. Luckily, my mum comes in 3 days, so I'll get some family. I feel like an enormous homebody, but I feel guilty going out if I haven't written tons. Luckily, clairdeluney coaxes me into outings, so I'm not as bad as I have been in times past. I should socialise more within my own department, but I feel like the odd one out most times and I had enough of that in grade school, thanks.

It's pretty sad that I can sum up everything going on it six points, but there you are. Wow, I'm pretty emo today.

I'm thankful that I have ybunny home for a while.

I'm thankful that my mum come back to Scotland in a week.

I'm thankful that I have friends to celebrate the day with.

I'm thankful for all of you.

*offs to eat yummy holiday delicacies*

Before percible moved to Edinburgh, he kept saying, 'we should go try out that Hungarian restaurant'.
We'd plan on going the next time there was a night out, but somehow it never came to pass.

He was up last weekend and after more than a year of hype, we finally went.


Goulash Restaurant
17 Adelphi
Aberdeen, AB11 5BL
01224 210530

I really know next to nothing about Hungary, or Hungarian food.

There's a bit of interest, though, because of Ralph Fiennes' character in The English Patient. Part of the plot was that people assumed he was many nationalities while he actually was from Budapest.

Ahem.

We scanned the menu and discovered that there was only one vegetarian dish, but I was not going to give up after the wait, so we pressed onwards.

The menu is not long, but even the meat dishes were appealingly described.

percible went for the signature dish, beef goulash, while I had the vegetarian platter.

I may be wrong, but I believe this is the first place that brings bread to the table in Aberdeen. What's more, they kept it coming. Good bread as well.

( The food. )

The veggie platter consisted of fried mushrooms, a fried jalapeno, fried onion rings, a bit of seasoned and formed Quorn, rice, and sauteed mushrooms. It was garnished with raw leek, onion, and carrot.

I was a bit wary of all the fried, but it had a light, non-greasy taste. I especially liked whatever they'd done with the Quorn. It had a nice herby taste that I couldn't quite place.

percible pronounced the goulash good as well.

For pudding, we tried two of their crepes. I asked for the chocolate orange one, but it proved too much chocolate for me, so I swapped for the cream one.

I spoke with the server for just a bit after and found out that it is his parents that own the place. They started out north of Aberdeen in a much larger place, but found that they didn't get as much business as they'd like and had complaints that people couldn't have wine with their meal since they had to drive back to Aberdeen. Apparently, they've been around about 15 years.

I really liked what I had, but since they have only the one veggie dish, as I mentioned, it won't be a regular option. Especially not with the mushroom detesting ybunny. :)

It is worth a go, however. It's a good choice if you find yourself down at the Castlegate end of Union Street in the evening.

I've been thinking more about politics more recently than I do on a usual basis.
I avoid it, not because I don't find it interesting, but because of the devisiveness that I see whenever politics is brought up. The ad hominem attacks by either side, in US politics, or from the various sides, in UK politics, are ridiculous and are fit more for 3 year old temper tantrums than for people trying to persuade.

This was probably due to the talk of politics over dinner on Friday night at which we were joined by a 20-year-old gay candidate for the Scottish National Parliament. He is running as a Tory. Which strikes me as almost as odd as a gay man running as a Republican. Good luck to him, I'm not eligible to vote for him even if I was already a British citizen since he's running for Aberdeen North, apparently.
Wish I could remember his name. He was charming.

I looked at the profile for the US presidential candidates last night as I was going to bed.
Honestly, as grass roots as people say that the various candidates are, they really don't know what's going on every where. Or they do, but they don't understand it.
(For example, I'm a Southerner, I'm Christian, and I'm more conservative than liberal on many things, but I'm vehemently pro gay civil rights. Didn't expect that, did you, Southern profilers?)

I came across a poem today by G.K. Chesterton. It's probably familiar to Brits, especially the line 'For we are the people of England, that never has spoken yet', but as I said, I'm the last one to the party.
I liked these lines:
We hear men speaking for us of new laws strong and sweet,
Yet is there no man speaketh as we speak in the street.

I firmly believe that America has become too diverse in its goals, backgrounds, religious beliefs, and political views for any one person to make the majority happy.
(Though, I wish that religous beliefs didn't have to be included in that list, I'm such a separationist.)

The candidates this time around will have a tough time of it. I'm glad I'm not one of them.

If I had one word of advice to give to any of them, it would be this: don't use scare tactics to win the election. Don't try to make one portion of the population despise another.

I wrote this last Wednesday, but forgot to post it on Friday. Well done, me. Hungarian restaurant review next Friday.

I'm disappointed to see that this year's round of holiday drinks at Starbucks doesn't include the Peppermint Mocha that it has in year's past.

I spent from August 2003 to May 2004 at the University of Chicago in an aborted foray at the Oriental Institute.

While there, I spent several weekends and rushed afternoons with confutatis. She was working as a barista at Starbucks at the time and the discounted coffee that we scored together was just what a grad student needed.

I have always been a caffe latte girl, I order it with unsurprising regularity and rarely branch out. confutatis convinced me to try a peppermint mocha when the signature red cups arrived around Thanksgiving time and I subsequently changed my mind about my favorite drink.

Chicago is known for pizza. Sloppy, gooey pizza. I'm not a fan. Though, I'm not really a fan of anything that makes me feel like I need a bib to eat.

For me, Chicago is a peppermint mocha. Especially if the drink is bought just off Michigan Avenue and imbibed to ward off the incessant winds that freeze you to the bone if you're wearing less than 6 layers.

I won't be indulging in too many peppermint mochas this year. Mostly because I have to explain it as an off menu item, but also because it's £3.05 for a medium sized cup.

I'd never go back to Chicago to study, but if I want to be nostalgic, I know what to order.

Peppermint Mocha anyone?

Today, ybunny and I are supposed to be relaxing. We did have a lie-in of sorts...though, we didn't go to bed last night until 2am, so a 10am lie-in isn't very impressive. We also took out the recycling (a much bigger deal than it sounds), so we're not completely relaxed.

Now, we're sitting on the couch, contemplating the mess over in Matt's room as well as the other little things that must get done today. So much for a day of relaxation.

While I'm vegging out for my allotted 15 minutes, I'll answer this meme. EDIT:In the middle of this, we had to go out for an emergency sixpence. *sigh*

firinel asked me about some of my interests.

Here's the story behind the ones she picked.

aereogramme
A band. Unfortunately, they just broke up. :(
Their sound was sad, but in a contemplative way. Their song, 'A Simple Process of Elimination' was my favorite.

church of paul
Started as a joke with peagles, who has since deleted his LJ. He was on Rep as well. Honestly, I can't remember the very beginning of it, but I know that redthought, shineyquarter, and I got a lot of laughs out of it.
There's still a website for it. :)

controlled library squee
Because you can't be loud and obnoxious with squee in libraries. :)
I really love libraries, the potential in the almost overwhelms me.
One of the saddest travel moments for me was not being able to do more than look at the Trinity College library in Dublin. golfbisquit and redthought had to pull me away.

everyone is 18
A reaction to LJ's nannyism. I see where they're coming from on some of it, but it was handled incredibly badly.

exacting mise en place
A reaction to my youthful cooking that usually required a stop in the middle to go buy eggs, flour, beans, cheese, vinegar, sugar, or anything else that a clever person would have checked to see that they had before starting on a recipe.
Nowadays, I not only check the recipe, but pre-measure all the ingredients and have bowls/utensils/baking pans/saucepans ready to go before I start. Makes cooking a happier experience for me.

failing toward success
I've found that learning to fail graciously and gracefully is the key to my success. It's similar to being able to admit ignorance on a subject in order to truly learn about it.

illicit still
Where ybunny and I got engaged. :)
Unfortunately, they no longer serve their brilliant vegetarian breakfast.

imaginatory reality
So much better than real life at times, no?
I tend to day dream a different version of events, as they're happening, if I'm bored.

metonymy
Literally, in Greek, 'change of name'. It's the idea of using a word, usually a simplification, to replace an idea or representative thing/person.
'The pen is mightier than the sword' is an example. 'Pen' refers collectively to media/authors and 'sword' to military/any sort of physical force.
My favorite writers and poets use this quite a bit.

quodlibets
From Latin, 'as you like', it's the idea of having an argument for its own sake, or just to practice making a logical argument. In this case, a debate that has no anticipated outcome from either side.

sticky strawberry surprise
A reference to the messes ybunny and I have made making smoothies in the flat. In particular, an afternoon when ybunny yanked the jug part of the blender up after making a yogurt, honey, and strawberry smoothie and the bottom of the jug didn't come along. Voilá, sticky strawberry surprise.

susurrousness under the covers
I love being in bed. I love being in bed with someone more. Not just ybunny, I love being in bed with my sister and such also. The conversations you have, half whispered, in bed are the best. Susurrous is one of those brilliant word that sounds like what it is describing.

χξς
The number 666 in Greek.
There's a lot of blah-de-blah in evangelical circles about the number 666. I reject pretty much all of the numeromancy that goes on with all that. (Funny that people who are so against witchcraft are happy enough to fiddle about with Bible codes and the aforementioned numeromancy.)
I like the Eastern Orthodox idea of this that Christ (the χ) is separated from man (the ς, for six, symbolizing man, created on the 6th day) by the serpent (the ξ).
It's a bit nebulous in authenticity, but I like the idea.

Right. Back to cleaning.

If anyone wants to continue this meme, tell me about your 1st, 4th, 13th, 27th, 42nd, 100th, and 123rd interest. :)

I'm accused of being a mother quite often these days. I say accused, because I don't have any children of my own.

Most times when I'm mistaken for a mother it's because I'm taking advantage of the opportunity to carry my snugly goddaughter around.

Over the weekend, I got temporarily assigned as mother to the new bairn.

clanmorrissey, otherwise known as A&C, met up with me at the Bon Accord centre for a cup of coffee in the early afternoon of Sunday. We dropped off the two girls at the creche (nothing like a ball pool to get toddlers excited!) and went down to Costa.

After a much needed infusion of caffiene, C went to look at prices for a new raincoat and A and I went into John Lewis. I needed one last bit of tartan ribbon to finish off the girls' flowergirl dresses.

The new baby had slept through the coffee and most of the way through John Lewis. I bought the ribbon and then caught up to A. He'd gone to look at some new buggy that does everything but make tea and hoover the front room.

When I got there, a couple with a toddler were admiring the baby.
As I arrived, the women said something similar to 'oh, I can see the lack of sleep in your eyes'.

'Sorry, I'm not the mother', I said.

I suppose I could be offended (since I don't think I look that tired), but I can't be bothered.

As I said above, most times, I'm mistaken for being the mother of my goddaughter.
I can tell you right now why people think such. C is thin as a rail with a perfect figure.
It looks impossible that she could have given birth to three children.

Whereas, I look like I probably could have, apparently. :)

Today as one of our to-dos we'd decided to buy gifts for various events coming up in the year.

The first was easy: a stripy blue, red, green, and cream fleece jumper for the new baby Christian Alexander to go with the onesie I'd bought him while I was stateside last. (Onesie says 'Nothing's wrong. Just testing you.')

For the second, we went round to John Lewis to buy a wedding gift for T and L-A. We went up to the Gift List office on the 3rd floor. They printed us out the list and off we went.

We knew what we wanted, so we headed to a till point to pay. The closest was in electronics.
No, they can't help us.

Down we go to ground floor, to garden supplies. What we were buying would give away the surprise, but as you guessed...
No, they can't help us.

Back up to floor 2, to kitchenwares. Except they really weren't kitchenwares as that's separate from Cutlery and China. We stand in line for ages to find out...
No, they can't help us.

Where next? Back up to the Gift List Office. If we know what we want, we pay there.
*facepalm*

Ah, well. Got our exercise for the day. :)

Luckily, the gift list for miriammiriam and darkcryst was much easier to navigate.

I always feel bad asking 'dumb questions', but from now on in those circumstances, I'm going to ask, 'Can't we just take care of $ACTIVITY here?'

I've been up since 6 am. I am starting to carry my weekday schedule over into the weekends.

Tons of things are already done, so I'll take a few minutes out to respond to Jake's Blog

Provisos:
1. List eight random facts/habits about themselves.
2. People who are tagged [can] write their own blog about their eight things and post these rules.
3. At the end of your blog, you [can] choose eight a few people to get tagged and list their names. Any one who wants, go ahead. If you're not keen on posting memes, leave 8 things in comments. Or don't. Whatever. :)


1. To echo Jake's hair oriented points, I'll just mention that I'm quite frustrated that I'm going grey so quickly. It started with a few white hairs here and there when I was 22 and now, at 27, I actually have 'highlights' of white. I'm not going to bother dyeing my hair on a regular basis, but damned if I'll be grey at my wedding.

2. There is a wide difference between being enthused and preaching about something as far as I'm concerned. I'm unlikely to ever take a recommendation on books/films/music/brand of toilet cleaner if you tell me 'You have to try this!' I don't actually know why. I'm less bothered by this sort of thing in blogs or other print medium. If you preach the gospel of authentic hand pressed fly juice to me over dinner, I'll likely want to drown you in it.

3. The song that plays during the end credits of Red Dwarf reminds me of early days during my relationship with ybunny. I don't think that many people get sappy over Fun in the Sun. Yes, that's right...I'd never seen Red Dwarf before 2004.

4. If I had a nickel for every time someone said 'you're American but you understand sarcasm' with that shocked look on their face, I'd have enough to fill a sock and thump people.

5. I'm learning to embrace the idea that even though I had 13 years of voice lessons, I'll be more likely known to play the piano.

6. One day, oh yes, I will open a restaurant. It's a toss up between a joint venture with my mother-in-law here in Aberdeen (she likes the name 'Waffle Hoose') or something with my sister and mother (possibly called The Red Oven). Regardless, it will serve biscuits. Mmm...fluffy biscuits.

7. I really hate working in my office. I spend most of my time there daydreaming. I don't think that's the point of an office. I primarily work there on days that I have to go back and forth to the library often.

8. I used to dress with a very...well, odd sense of style. I'd still be dressing that way, but I feel like if you're going to be eccentric, you should probably be brilliant. I don't think I have the brains to pull of some of the outfit combinations I could put together.