Moving time

For no reason whatsoever, (mostly cos I like their templates and my friend has a really great blog with them) I've moved to here.

I think I've managed to import everything from this site to the new one too. Tech savvy...

I'll likely take this down at the end of the year.

end of an era

Today was my last day of work for the library. I'm kinda sad, I admit - I really did love working here. I don't think I've ever been in one job so consistently for so long.

And it feels like the end of an era in my life - and I hope it is. I'm trading the permanence and stability of my part-time library job for the (right now) only-promising world of academe. I guess the next year is up to me.

I wanted to write more about this, but I'm kinda down - watching the clock tick down my last 20 minutes...I must be getting soft in my old age.

The beetroot diaries

In an effort to actually do something with the 4-5 kilos of beets we harvested from the allotment on the weekend, I've decided to keep a record. Also, this should remind me next year of any failures - I really should have done the same thing with our courgettes, but we kinda fell into a habit of eating them grilled on whatever we were having. Tasty, if uninspiring - oh, except for the masses of zucchini bread we've made! So good... and it freezes. I'm not one for chutneys, otherwise I'd have it made as I understand you can 'chutney' pretty much all things.

Round 1:

Beetroot gnocchi (I didn't make the sauce that Gennaro Contaldo recommends - out of oranges)

I adore gnocchi. Between dying my kitchen counter pink and realising that I, with hands coated in mashed potato, pureed beetroot, and egg, needed more flour, I had a powerful sense of deja vu: I had reached this critical moment of frustration in pursuit of gnocchi before...possibly with pumpkin. And I was already disappointed that 'beetroot' gnocchi uses only 400g of beetroot to 1kg of potato...so in essence, we're talking about regular gnocchi with a lurid pinkish hue.

I also had a culinary epiphany: gnocchi are essentially my gran's potato noodles. Funnily enough, I would never think of asking gran to put beetroot or pumpkin in her dish, but 'beetroot gnocchi' had me hooked before I read the recipe.

Last night, in an effort to quickly use up yet more courgette and because we were out of pasta noodles (shockhorror), I made polenta. Generally, it's great comfort food: properly stodgy, warm, and requiring little by way of masticatory effort. I seem to be upping the stakes in the department of stodgy food - unintentionally. But I also always forget how dense and filling gnocchi are - definitely more appropriate for a starter than a main.

It was however, the most colourful thing I've ever put on the table in some ways: with grilled yellow courgette, it looked like the product of the play-doh kitchen set.

My friend G had an amazing beetroot curry at a lovely vegetarian Keralan place in Stoke Newington - and I hear tell of beetroot chocolate cake...

Beets remaining: 6lbs, 4oz

open day

Open Day on campus today - these happen every year at the same time and every year I forget about them until I get to campus where the quiet serenity of the summer is shattered prematurely by A-level students and their parents strolling confusedly around, clutching maps and the university prospectus. Luckily, I snagged a table outside in the blazing sunshine at my coffee spot and so wasn't embittered by having to sit on the steps.

I had a novel experience this morning: turning down teaching. It's a funny position to be in: I have a great schedule this year, loads of teaching and enough time to get research done, but I hate to turn anything down because I'm only secure until next July... So I end up sending very strange notes turning down teaching but asking to be kept in mind.

The weather has turned absolutely beautiful - from what I can see through the windows *sigh* Two more weeks of the library before turning directly into the teaching term: which I'm really looking foward to, in spite of the fact that due to scheduling, I will effectively be living alone for a semester - at least during the week. I've got everything from Renaissance lit to the Victorian 'sensation novel' - which is really revenge tragedy straight through to revenge tragedy... lovely! And no Hamlet! Joy of joys! Plus a conference on The Wire at the end of November. Good times ahead.

eating success

I am a mostly employed academic.

How lovely! Of course, 'mostly employed' is crucial here - but one of my two teaching posts does have prep and marking time built in, which is a nice evolution. Combined, they will leave precious little time for research. The painful fact in my postdoctoral life is that teaching pays the bills - but research is what employers want to see. I'm hoping that my schedule will leave one day free for research and hoping too that I won't be so shattered on that one day that I'll spend it in bed.

And I've quit my solid, rent-paying, dependable library job to venture forth on this academic gig. Which is scary. I'm only sure of employment until next July. Then - into the deep: summer: the long dull winter of the part-time lecturer's soul in which paycheques dry up and stress levels skyrocket.

But why anticipate such times? The recession is over apparently and I'm sure the demand for critical thinking skills is as high as ever and likely to rise, given the current trendy status of a satirical Weltanschung. So I'm having a celebratory dinner tonight, which I'm cooking - along with Allegra McEvedy. I went purposely (and purposefully) into town this morning, clutching my list of ingredients, and blew £20 on fresh fish.

It's possible I've bitten off more than I can chew... (oooh bad pun).

Results will follow.

new beds for old heads

Two posts in one week! I'm spoiling my readers...

After a strenuous evening of wrestling with Ikea furniture (seriously, it was almost a cliché), we have a new bed, courtesy of a friend who moved to France. It is so big that we've had to move into the larger room, temporarily displacing our office. We seem to have this urge at least once a year: the desire to turn our living space upside-down and reorganize. At least we're not moving house this year - the rent didn't change so neither did we.

Our friend Susan took this photo of Nas in Dublin - I'd forgotten in my last post about Guinness and oysters: a combination Nas assured us was not to be missed (we just watched in any case). Yes, August doesn't have an 'R' in it so we squashed that handy aide memoire but no harm seemed to come of it (at least not to Nas - the oysters likely felt differently...).

We've been watching The Shield to quell our ongoing sorrow that The Wire only went five seasons. It's interesting - no comparison with The Wire - but it's kept us watching nonetheless. I can't tell if it is being 'edgy' just for the hell of it, or if it is aware of its problematic representations of race and gender. And some of the writing is just so...so...Fox. Michael Chiklis turns out to be far more watchable than The Fantastic Four would suggest at any rate. In lieu of a The Wire Christmas special (which I don't really want to see...), I'll likely see it out.

This week we've eaten fewer courgettes than we should have, given the rate at which we're producing them at the allotment. Nas made some truly divine zucchini bread the other day. I wonder if I shredded courgette, would it freeze well enough to make such delicacies in the dead of winter? Worth a try? And I'm making 'fritto misto de mari' tomorrow night as a celebration dinner: I am a mostly employed academic. Nothing says woohoo like fried fish.