Despite delaying getting up till 7:25, an ungodly hour, 5h was less sleep than I wanted, but I made the bus in time. The young child who travels on the same journey to St Ives is now into stickers in books. On arrival, I bumped into another regular traveler Pete returning from the market who'd got an earlier bus and exchanged a few friendly words before heading for breakfast at the Taproom. Brown bread toast with jam this time. Why was today a day for haircuts? Three came freshly trimmed, or in Victor's case, with practically a shave. Then after an hours waking up in conversation with the A14 Network regulars and newbies, left with Clelia, who had to dash off for a fringe trim.
I resisted the call of the coiffeur, having a more important appointment with author Gloria Loring. We had set aside a couple of hours to check out the Kindle version of her very first children's book 'Shiny Star Leonora', which we'd published in print 2015, create a Kindle Direct Publishing account and then upload the book and go live on Amazon. Hats off to Gloria who kept a lively interest in the process. We finished off also putting up a print version up for sale. You can access the Kindle version by clicking on the link 'Shiny Star Leonora'. I'm still waiting for Amazon to automatically link the Kindle and Print versions.
By then it was time for lunch, a delicious mixed salad prepared by our host Clelia and another couple of hours conversaiton on family histories, tribulations and achievements, Brexit, immigration, and cacao butter.
Encountered two incidents of sheer stupidity on the guided bus ride home. In both instances people were walking either very close to the track or even on it, deliberately causing the bus to have to brake sharply.
Gloria had previously mentioned in passing that she remembered having chocolate coated honeycomb in Australia and I had not quite got around to trying to make some. I'd made some honeycomb for the first time on Wednesday. It was a simple mixture of sugar and golden syrup, heated to 154 degC (sugar crack), turned into a foaming superhot mix by the addition of sodium bicarbonate and cast in a buttered square dish to set. It does need hammering to crack but small pieces are very light and do melt in the mouth. But it wasn't till today that I got to try making chocolate coated honeycomb. I think I over-crumbed the very brittle honeycomb - but the result was still very palatable.
There was a lacklustre reaction from the EU and EU citizens in the UK, to Prime Minister Theresa May's initial suggestion of guaranteeing EU citizen rights after Brexit if resident for linger than 5 years. For one, it was scant in detail. It also seemed that the benefits to EU citizens could be less than those currently experienced by us all whilst we are still in the EU.
The main UK news erupting this evening was the live evacuation of more than 800 homes in Camden tower blocks. They had been clad in the same way as the Grenfell Tower. Tests by the police had apparently demonstrated that the cladding was a real fire hazard and that a criminal investigation was underway. Some residents only heard of the evacuation on the TV news. They were now housed in community centres as the blocks were to be renovated.
More smoke and mirrors across the pond. President Trump hints at possible bias or lack of credibility of investigator Robert Mueller, who is heading the Russia enquiry. Apparently Mueller might have been friendly with ex FBI chief Comey. It led to speculation that the president might fire Mueller. This was then denied tonight by Trump. Typical undermining of a potential opponents position and a distraction from the actual investigation.
No comments:
Post a Comment