... but I stopped. Now I'm a dad, and may blog again...

Thursday, January 13, 2011

175: Happy as a shark

Duuuh...  I’ve been staring at this blank page for ages now, unable to start typing.  Eventually I concluded an empty-headed duuuh was as good a way as any.  It seems to express how I am feeling right now.  Do-be-do-be-doooo.  Frank Sinatra Strangers in the Night came on the radio in the car.  This provoked secretive glances between me and my fiancée, and much hilarity ensued.  It’s a fun game. Try it; sneak a glimpse at someone and when they glimpse back, immediately look away.  Repeat ad infinitumStrangers in the night, exchanging glances...  Thanks to Robbie for introducing us to the fun of Strangers in the Night.


What did you do today?  I did very little; treated today as a Sunday: got up late, did some washing up, had some lunch, went to the shops, wrote some emails, a bit of this and a bit of that, and now time comes to file my daily report and I’m left with next to nothing to write about.  Hmm, let me see ...  Perhaps another glass of wine will help.  There’s only so much wine you can drink in one lifetime, but it will never be enough to save you from the bottom of your glass...






Then what happened?  I bought some oysters, massive ones, I love oysters.  I needed to get some to keep my oyster knife from getting lonely.  I’m going to eat one now; mmm living goo.  Great with a vicious slug of Tabasco.  Any food you have to battle with to prize it out of it hardened armour must me worth a go.  I’d like to try monkey brains fresh from the skull of a living knife-wielding Howler, fighting for its life and slashing blindly at my face in a fit of panic.  Sounds delicious.

I've been watching Hugh's Fish Fight on Channel 4.  He is protesting against laws meaning that commercial fishing vessels have to discard vast amounts of perfectly good fish, for example if they are fishing for bass and pull in some cod, they must throw the cod back dead, and cannot legally land or sell it.  Apart from a few silly anti-science statements (mainly from one fisherman saying "the scientists won't come out to the North Sea to see what it's like, cos they don't want to know the truth") the programme is pretty good and the campaign makes sense.  I've signed up; you might like to too at http://www.fishfight.net/



Although he keeps saying that "EU fishing law is a complete mess, there must be a better way," he doesn't seem to be offering much in the way of solutions.  There is the occasional mumbling about being able to land as much as you can in a set time limit.  More importantly there is a lot of delicious looking first, many of which I have never heard of.  I wish I could eat the TV.  Looking forward to Heston Blumenthal's Fishy Feast programme tomorrow.  Pass me a hot mackerel bap and a cup of sea cucumber tea and I'll be as happy as a shark in brine.

The main point of these programmes seem to be that there is more to fish than cod, tuna, salmon and the occasional haddock.  I hope the chippies, cafes, restaurants and supermarkets take heed of this because I want to eat more new, weird, delicious and random things.  I want to buy big whole fish from the monger but I'm scared; what do I do with them, how do I prepare, cook and eat them?  Help me Jamie, help me!

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