Fun fun fun! I needed some way to keep track of my ramblings around the internet in relation to veggie cooking. I’m leaning heavily towards going the whole hog, well, forgoing the whole hog really, and I remembered seeing a site or app. on Catana’s Stumble page that allowed you to sort of scrapbook the things you find. This little site works quite well for what I want it for: www.tumblr.com.

So, most of what I’ve looked at today is trying to understand the meat substitutes that people use, both in America and in Buddist culture (not to the exclusion of any other, that’s just what I happened to be drawn towards today, the Indian stuff I know a tiny bit more about). We don’t really do veggie over here, so finding things in the supermarket is not that simple, no ‘Morning Star‘ stuff for me unfortunatly. A major issue I would have in giving up meat would be how to have a fry up, I grew up on them and I’m so emotionally attached to them as much as anything else – so I need to find substitutes, either bought, or made by myself. At least I do actually enjoy making my own things from scratch, because certainly, if I go down this route, that’s what I’ll end up having to do.

Now, I’m only just exploring this whole veggie thing, I’m not saying I’ve made my mind up. I don’t make snap decisions about these kinds of things and I like to know when I’ve made my mind up about something that I’m sure, really sure. There’s a lot to consider, including the actual moral rights or wrongs of it, the practicalities, the whole omnivor thing and what’s healthy and so on and on and on. I welcome any feedback any of you can give me and invite you to poke around in my days surfing over at my tumblr page: http://louphoria.tumblr.com/

Crappity bumballs. I burnt my fingers really badly while making sausage-alternatives from Bulgar wheat this evening. I forgot how deep the oil was in the pan – I usually never shallow fry – and put my hand in as I normally would to turn one of the sausages, thus boiling the tips of my fingers, in particular the soft flesh under my thumbnail. Down went two ibuprofen, a John’s Wort capsule and my aloe-vera plant is currently growing itself a few new tips, here’s hopin’ my fingers do too!

Okay, this typing with my left hand only business is far too slow – that’s me for today.

OUCH!

The tree is going down a storm, we’ve been playing with them and it all evening since we got back from seeing my parents while they were in the wee house in Cavan. I can barely keep my eyes open so more kitty pics and tales of mischief tomorrow at the other spot. Take care all, x

I love this: http://scienceblogs.com/clock/2008/08/looking_for_the_mouse.php

It’s about 16 minutes long, but will surely tickle your brainbuds. Discussion is likely to follow at Catana’s place:

http://highcognitive.squarespace.com/giftedmindblog/

I can safely say that was a complete waste of a day. Apart from a quick stroll on Rosses Point. That was refreshing, and blew some of the cobwebs I gathered last night in the local out. Only some. It’s ten at night and I’m seriously contemplating going to bed after this. I’ve been itching to read some of my Yeats book all day but haven’t been able to tear myself off the couch, so I might prop myself up in bed with it for a while. I left the window wide open all day and the bedroom feels and smells rather fresh and well aired.

Yeah. Empty brain. Take care all, x

*that’s how sick of trying to think of a title I got.

(it was a close second to Set Me Free)

I must mention, quite apart froma reaction to John’s songs, this last song is one of my all time favourite songs. I listened to it over and over as a teenager, desperatly in love with someone who didn’t love me, watching rain running down a window that’s still as dear to me. The idea that my thoughts could lie with someone while they lay asleep and kiss them when they awoke. I wrote a lot of songs I couldn’t believe with words that tore and strained to rhyme. I still love this song and hold it close to my heart as something of myself written by another.

I’m not a huge Jamiroquai fan, but this track always did it for me and suddenly popped back into my head this morning. I used to have really, really big fat wooden-box speakers from an old hifi my friend’s parents were throwing out. They were dark and warm and cracked a bit but my fuck the sound, the volume! They handled this intro in such a unique way, I’ll never hear it again, but at least I remember it. If this doesn’t make you jiggle your bum…

P.S. I didn’t realise it was ten minutes long, I don’t think you really need all ten unless you really get into it, which I am, as I type, I’m an expert at rocking out on my computer chair, lol…

Quiet and calm has descended on my Sligo house by the river. The kittens are sleeping, I have a coffee beside me and a book at my feet, ready to read when I finish this. I just washed my hair and it’s still piled up on my head in my super soft microfibre towel. My scalp has that delicious menthol-tingly warm feeling it gets after a good scrub.

I finally started my book on Yeats by R. F. Foster. I’ve been threatening to read it since college, that’s a lot of threatening. It’s lovely to read about his childhood in Sligo, to hear the landscape I am falling more and more for described through the eyes of his family, and him, all the way back then, which doesn’t seem so long ago when mountains and lakes are the context.

I always related to Yeats in school and in college, something of the sparkle in his mind and his obsession and dedication always stirred feelings of, ‘oh, I know that feeling’. It’s interesting to read about him with my vaguely informed notions of giftedness and autism etc. floating around my head like tiny sparks, ready to light on a word or a phrase that makes me think, ‘yes, there it is, there is the creativity, the quirks, the signifiers of a creative mind that I’ve wondered about in myself’.

That probably sounds big headed. It’s not intended that way, I’ve always felt drawn to, and related to artists and writers more than anyone else. I often read things looking for shades of myself in the personality of the writer, trying to filter it through their words. I learn more about them and myself in the process.

***

I’ve had a few nice treats over the last few days. I swore that in the weeks after I left you-know-where that I would make sure and spend a little on some luxuries. I didn’t have time while I was there, for shopping, or even thinking much about shopping, and generally, or at least for the last few years, I’m a saver. I like to save all the time, it means when I do spend a little I can do it with no guilt or worry, and as a side effect, I tend to spend my money on things that really matter. I wasn’t always like that. There’s an electric juicer lying in a press downstairs that testifies to that. And a zappy-muscle-exercise-pad jobbie, Christ knows where that’s gone. I could go on.

My treats in the last few days include, a fry up in Clancy’s of Glenfarne en route to Enniskillen (deeply, deeply fattening and orgasmically satisfying), a packet of real coffee for my cafetiere, the latest issue of GoodFood (how I love that magazine, and they’re so spot on at the moment with their focus on cheap meals and vegetarian options, given the current climate), all the toys for the mogs that I ordered yesterday, a nice big thickbottomed frying pan with a huge pyrex lid (which to be fair was a bargain in Lidl), and there was something else, but I’ve forgotten it now, oh wait, yes, two ready meals from Asda and two Bowyers pork pies. Divine. The ready meal thing is considered a treat because I just don’t do them, the expense has not been in budget for a long time and I genuinely prefer the taste of fresh food, and my and Benny’s style of cooking it. I will make an exception for the Asda Italian bolognaise pasta bake and tortellinis I brought back from Enniskillen. They are superbly tasty and quite cheap for ready-made, by Irish standards. I took an exorbitant amount of pleasure in opening the packet and throwing it at the oven yesterday. The sum total of my cooking was to toast some pitas and slather some minced garlic and butter on them. Later on this evening I intend to take some more pleasure in the process when I go to do the minuscule amount of washing up this all left behind.

It’s the small things.

I have kitty pictures but the littlest morsel is occupying the computer seat with a sleepy vengence. Perhaps later.

Not feeling very well today, it’s just a cold, I’ll get over it and I imagine today was the worst bit. I didn’t have much to write when I sat down but dropped by John’s first to see if he’d posted. I learned the sad news that Denver Doug has passed away. I dropped in and out of his journal more so back when I first started reading oldgreypoet and he commented regularly enough for me to smile when I saw his name. He was one of the gang over at Johns and one of the people who’s name was very familiar for his witty and thoughtful comments when I was only learning what the whole journaling/blog business was all about. He struck me as somebody extremely special and my heart goes out to all those who will miss him. I can only imagine, when I think of how close I feel to my friends on the internet, what some of you may be feeling tonight.

Night all, x