Hints of Spring, Ice Cream Toppings, and Potato Faff...

Look at all that lovely hay fever.

Back to the weekly update after last week's longer ramble. I say, longer ramble, it was a few YouTube clips strung together to aid our collective mental health. I know, I know, it was a cop out, yet I still found myself  rewatching them. Repeatedly. It's that sort of time. So other than the obvious awfulness, what's happening these days? I've noticed the people that care about such things are talking about daffodils. We're heading towards the official start of Spring, even though it's pissing down most days. And for Eurovision fans, national finals are in full swing. I'm keeping an eye on the selections as they come in, although I'm yet to hear a song I love. Maybe Måneskin broke the system and everything pales in comparison. We shall see. Onwards, upwards, etc, etc...

It is, Selina, it really is.

Writing News

The phrase, 'pulling teeth' sums up the past writing week. No biggy, it's just the way it goes some days. The good news is, I've done two chapters (a sixth of the book!) and am happily banging out any old rubbish for the first draft. The problem comes when I go back a few pages to get into the zone of what comes next, only to get bogged down editing previous words to perfection. There's no point. Making it good comes later. I'll remember that soon.

Culture

The Godfather is fifty years old. This particular landmark makes little difference to me. It's just a film from before I was born - like Gone With the Wind or stuff by Charlie Chaplin. Before this week, I'd seen it once in the nineties and - I'm sure Francis Ford Coppola will be pleased to know - I thought it was 'quite good'. But to celebrate its birthday, it's all over cinemas again. I booked a ticket because I thought I should. But you know what? Yeah, it was brilliant. Properly tense, beautifully shot, with all the action. I've subsequently upgraded my review - please alert FFC - to 'really good'. I've got parts two and three booked over the next couple of weeks and I'm mightily looking forward to both.

Don't be fooled. It's not
FRESH PICKLES
RED ONION.

Food and Drink

What's that? You're still searching for the best fruit-based recipe for ice cream sauce? Well stand down, folks, I've cracked it. Put some frozen cherries in a mixer, add a couple of slugs of amaretto, and whizz. Ta daaaaa! It. Is. Fit. I'm not usually bothered about puddingy sweet things, but this was the nicest thing I've ever eaten. I mean, you really need to like cherries and amaretto, but if you do, cha-ching. Other than that, last summer's potatoes have finally run out. It was well handy having a constant supply in the freezer. But no longer - well, until this year's get harvested in a few months. The upshot? Oven chips and Smash for all! Everything else is a faff.

Out and About

My brother moved house, so my other brother invited himself over to check out the local pubs. I tagged along and that's why I was doing a Friday night pub crawl last week. I say pub crawl, it lacks a bit of edge when I was drinking non-boozy beer and driving. But a social life is a social life. Soon it'll be two years since we'd have given our right arm to sit in a pub with a bottle of Heineken Blue. Let's not forget that.

I suppose whether it's memories of lockdown, or the daily news being a stark reminder of our luck, we must crack on and make the most of our lot. That's enough to work on right now. 

Have a lovely week, folks.