Tuesday 6th December, 2016                       1845

I think I was bitten by a tsetse fly last night! I went to bed not long after midnight, set my alarm for 1100 just as a failsafe because I never sleep that late (except in spring festival when I am up until almost dawn) and aside from a trip to the loo in the small hours, promptly slept until the alarm went off! I think I must have been tired……

I spend  a fair bit of time as you know pondering on what to cook not only for myself but also my dinner parties, in particular in respect of the latter, coming up with things I either have never cooked or perhaps, never here.

This Thursday I shall make carrot and lentil soup (always a favourite) and then it was to be spaghetti with Bolognese sauce (not me always putting capital B - for some reason the computer does it) but that idea was thwarted due to BHG not having any spaghetti - farfalle and penne yes, spaghetti? Don’t be daft.

One of the joys of being “fearless” in culinary matters (Anyone can cook but only the fearless can be great - Auguste Gusteau, “Ratatouille”) is that as long as you have at least one dish people will eat, even if the other is a disaster, so long as you have explained it is your first time they will understand. Another benefit is of course that you learn from the Kitchen Katastrophes and can try other things.

Whilst musing on what next to try (and concentrating on things that shouldn’t take all day to do seeing as I will have 4 hours tops to prepare and cook) I suddenly had a brainstorm. I would try and replicate something we were served probably once a month aboard HMS Conway during my two years there. I will try (drum roll please!) Chicken a la King!!

It looks easy enough and I never had it before or since Conway so who knows? I recall liking it but the recipe says serve over noodles or rice. Now unless memory fails, we were always given it with mashed potatoes but in deference to my three beautiful students who will make up a guinea pig quartet, I will be using noodles. I am very much looking forward to the result.

I am getting inured to being scared witless when the madman is driving me to and from school. If I am to be fair to him, apparently he has been a licensed bus driver for twenty years now so presumably he has yet to kill anyone. It should be said that I have never encountered anyone before who can slot a minibus into fluid spaces in traffic that I wouldn’t even try to squeeze a Smart Car in and his reflexes are as good as mine - or at least were.

On both outward and return journeys today it was just as well. This morning a pedestrian with a death wish darted out a few yards ahead of us and God knows how we weren’t scraping her off the front and then on the way home an e-pickup decided to meander across three lanes just ahead of us. It wouldn’t be so bad if seatbelts were available for me to use!

Sheila went to China Tobacco to get me a month’s supply but returned with just a fortnight. I have cleaned them out and their next delivery is not until January. Great. She and Suzy are keeping their eyes peeled for other CT outlets to see if they can source the deficit. Just when I thought everything was sorted in that department.

This blog is posted privately to certain addresses and then to three private group sites and one public one. The public site shows me how many page views it has had and also where the people viewing are from. I don’t advertise the blog so presumably people view the public one by being told about it or by chancing upon it. However this past week the figures have been high. I seem to have picked up an awful lot of readers in Russia! There have always been some, but to suddenly mushroom?

I thank my Russian audience indeed for proving that yes, sometimes the nonsense I write is actually read! Tell your friends!

No idea when I shall get to post this though, about twenty minutes ago I lost the internet and I am sure it is not just me. I do have plenty stored in iPlayer………..