Fontenelle Restaurant

We've been at the Font for the last few weeks so nothing new to report.... maybe soon......there is a new restaurant in town that we plan to visit for brunch very soon; Town here we come!

England vs Germany

I had to express my thoughts regarding today's match.......

Whilst I yearn for an England win, I yearn more so for England to thrash them by a bunch of goals so that we may get some confidence to play football like I know we are capable of.

Stop the dithering, stop the sloppy passing, keep possession, create space, run like the wind, commit, don't lose hope and win!

I'm offto the Font at half time; don't let me down!

Why I hate new year celebrations and other grumpiness.

Happy New Year! Do I mean it? Well, I certainly don't wish you any malice or harm, dear reader but do I mean every "happy new year" wish I have uttered thus far? Not really. I am guilty. Guilty of simply repeating the wish in such a pavlovic way that it is meaningless. I buy groceries from an adolescent at the supermarket who has been ordered to wish every customer a HNY, and I fucking well respond to this "do you want fries with that?" type of nonsense.

I hate the new year season more than Christmas, which is tedious and expensive and wholly anti-climactic as well as far too commercial; but you've heard these ramblings from many I would assume. New Year is worse though, forced to party by the masses, forced to kiss strangers and if not already drunk, make it appear so. If not forced to party then forced to watch some Times Square extravaganza on TV. Of course I don't mean forced in the strongest sense, more obligated by the rest of society. Any excuse for a good party eh?

I know it's an ancient ritual but I am just as happy asleep by midnight on the 31st than linking arms and forgetting about the hangover I'm about to get in the morning. This year I was indeed in bed and asleep by the time Dick Clark was wheeled out, I didn't miss anything.

My other 'grinds my gears' things about new year and certainly new decades is this journalistic tendency to 'top 10' everything under the sun. I'm as guilty as the next for this as a year or so ago I did a top 10 movies, but it's subjective and I know that. My top ten will not be your top ten and it'd be a boring old world if it were. The top ten of anything from the last decade is also so stupid; everything changes and in ten years it changes completely. No comparison can or should be made.

I liked Bono's idea of top ten things he would like to see in '10 although I didn't agree with it all, at least it wasn't negatively retrospective.

Which brings me to the subject of new year's resolutions which is a bit of a contradiction as in 95% of the time they are not resolute and often get broken after the first few weeks if that.

Gym's make their money by selling memberships in January a fraction of who will certainly no where to be seen by the following December. Gym's make money off attrition; if every member were to suddenly reignite their fitness regime the lineup for the steppers and bikes would be all the way out the door. It's a bit like AirMiles or any other loyalty scheme; the billions of points that lie never to be claimed is where the 'jam' is. I digress though.

I seldom make a new years resolution as I think it almost jinxes any longevity of commitment but I can't help thinking about things I've always wanted to do. Saw "One Week" a couple nights ago with Joshua Jackson playing a guy who found out he had terminal cancer and then decided to ride a motorcycle west through Canada. Great film and great message. How simple would it be to do all the things you would want to do before you die if you knew you were going to die soon. Don't answer that it's rhetorical!

No planning for the future, no worrying about finances, just do it. When you aren't on deaths door it becomes a little more complex though and people generally tend to 'spread' things they want to do through their life until something happens to put a halt to all that. Health, no money, responsibilities or even death!

The trick, therefore is to 'hedge' a little. Try to do as much as possible as soon as possible. Rather than a new years resolution to do something or stop doing something why not think bigger and create your own 'bucket list' before it's too late and act on it as best you can?

So that is my new years resolution. To put together my bucket list and start ticking them off. I also need to get over my love hate relationship with procrastination, but that's for another day, maybe next month even.

HNY
Drude

Chris's Five Star Meatloaf recipe.

I used to hate meatloaf until i decided to try a recipe I found in the recipe booklet that came with a juicer. I tinkered with it a bit and made a great meatloaf that even meatloaf haters (apart from veggies) will love. Serve with mash and a veg and Robert is your brothers brother.


This recipe fits a metal meatloaf tin approx 10" long so adjust the ingredients accordingly to fit your tin - you want to leave 1 cm gap between the meatloaf and the top of the tin for bubbling and glaze.








For the meatloaf:
half kilo of beef mince
half kilo pork mince (very important to have at least 2 meats)
2 large onions, chopped and pulsed a couple times in the food processor
pulse with a handful of fresh flat-leaf parsley
carrot pulp from juicing a few carrots OR a couple carrots chopped and pulsed to a pulp in the FP.
A cup or so of frozen or tinned sweetcorn
A cup or so of beef stock, I add a swig or two of Lea and Perrins too (be careful not to add too much liquid if you've reduced the meat to fit a smaller pan)
1 egg
about a cup of some thick cream, sour cream or condensed milk (I use sour cream)
2 tsp curry powder
1 tsp ground cumin
salt to taste
ground pepper to taste


Add all these ingredients to a big metal bowl and mix thoroughly.


Pack into the buttered meatloaf tin.


The Glaze/Sauce


1 cup of ketchup
1 cup of bbq sauce
2 tblsp red wine vinegar
couple swigs of Lea and Perrins
half a cup of brown sugar


Add to a saucepan and bring to boil, immediately turn down the heat and simmer for a minute or so. Pour enough of the glaze over the meatloaf saving some (maybe a third or half) and shove the meatloaf in an oven at about 425f for an hour.


I put mine on a baking tray as you get some bubbling and spitting.


When it's ready lift out the meatloaf onto a serving plate. You should have a greasy gravy left in the pan - this is optional but I add this to the remaining glaze and reduce it down to make a sauce/gravy that I pour over the plated meatloaf and mash.


Meatloaf will often fall apart - to get a good slicing loaf you need to ensure you pack it in well when filling the pan. If you are worried about this too much - add another egg and some bread crumbs to the mix.

A film review of: Eagle Eye.......

I wasn't really in the mood for a film yesterday but I changed my mind at the very last minute, took the 1.15pm showing of Eagle Eye and was glad I did. Last week I saw Righteous Kill, a movie that would have been OK with any other two leading men but when you have Pacino and De Niro together (in the same scenes and shots for a change) you expect something more, and RK didn't deliver that; twists have to be cleverer than that! The reason I sidetrack to RK was that it was then I saw the list of films available and other than the Cohen movie which I have slated for next week when audiences have dwindled a bit (I hate packed movie theaters, I prefer them all to myself) there was little to tickle my fancy. Then I remembered that EE was out so I swung by and invested 2 hours. This Shia LaBeouf dude is, in my opinion, 'the' up coming lead actor in action/adventure movies. I didn't see him in Indiana Jones, I missed it. I saw him in Transformers and he was good; in this film he is very good.

He has this ability to be unwitting, vulnerable, slackerish, scruffy, smouldering, heroic, scared, determined and aggressive whenever needed; but he doesn't come across as superhuman which, maybe is the appeal and why so many movie goers are paying to see him.

Eagle Eye is a more a commentary on the 'big brother' State, that being Government and/or military, having the control over satelites that can delivery high def sound and vision from your cell phone and the CCTV camera that is following you down the street and at the subway station to track you. In this plot, track you and make you do stuff you don't want to do whilst taking control of automated stuff to stop others from catching you do the stuff you don't want to do......phew! Got that?

Throw in a 'super computer' hidden under the Pentagon, a 'we couldn't get Liv Tyler' actress as the female lead and a bit of badass anti-terrorist agent in the form of Billy Bob Thornton and you have yourselves an action 'romp' that makes 2 hours whizz by easily.

It's not the best plot to a film I've ever seen but it was pretty good.

6/10

It certainly beats watching the hours and hours of CNN talking about the vote that failed.......how long can people talk about one subject for?

....and I'm not belittling the subject matter, just the reporting thereof!! :-)

Until next time.

Drude

Enough is enough.....!

OK, I know that I've been a lazy bastard on this so called blog of mine, that I thought I'd use to review movies I've seen. Frankly it got a bit boring for me as the films up for viewing were getting worse, then Batman came out and it was like, "why would i blog about this along with the other billion people?", so I didn't!

Films have had a tough job living up to that film since I saw him (of course I mean the Ledger Dude); the rest of the film sort of tried to catch up to him and just about hung on even if it was 30 mins too long. Anyway, nothing since has really made me want to review or write here so It's been rather barren, dear reader. Sorry.

So what made me want to write today?

I think I'm turning into a 'grumpy old man' but at only 45 - how can that be?

Now I'm not sure whether it's the culture here in Canada or I'm becoming less and less tolerant of things when they are not as they should be.

Here's the story:

I have a great 'spousal' medical coverage through my wife's job and so I get to get new glasses with a free eye test for pretty much nada from my piggy bank.

So i trundle off to a local 'glasses shop' (name withheld) and get my eyes tested - they are actually about the same and all is well.

I pick out a new pair of clear and a second pair of sunglasses. "Clear ones in a couple days and the sunglasses in a week", she says. Great, see you in a week I think.

A week goes by and I pop in to pick up my glasses - clear ones are 'in' but no sunglasses. "probably in tomorrow", she says.

I leave it 2 days and go in (you are probably wondering why I didn't call ahead, but my wife wanted to glasses shop too so I was already there.

The sunglasses are still not in. "Monday or Tuesday", she says.

Canadian summer has and is no way to be compared with anything summery this year so I say, "OK".

It's now Wednesday so I call ahead to see if they are in, the conversation with the very nice, but inept, man went like this:

Man: hello
Me: My name is XXXXXXX I am enquiring as to my sunglasses. Are they ready to be picked up?
Man: (after checking) We have the lens' in, we just have to fit them, probably tomorrow or Friday.
Me: Why the huge delay - I was told a week it's now 2 weeks?
Man: We just got them in today.
Me: I realise that but i was told a week, then another 2 days then another 2 days - it's now 2 weeks. A week later than i was expecting, so I'd just like to understand why?
Man: well they are big lens'.
Me: I know, i picked them. What does that have to do with how long it takes?
Man: well I had to send them to a special lab to get them made.
Me: I see. Could you not have told me that at any stage of these 2 weeks?
Man: Eh?
Me: Well my expectation was to wait for these glasses a week. I'm getting slightly frustrated that it's now 2 weeks. BUT, if i'd been told that these glasses were special/large etc and had to be sent somewhere special and it might take longer - maybe 2 weeks, I would be happy to wait and let you call me when they were in.
Man: You see they are special lens'.
Me: Yes i understand that now. My point is that my expectations were different to what was going to happen - do you see that my frustration at waiting a week longer for these glasses would be non-existent if I'd been told about how very special my glasses were/are?
Man: We'll try to get your glasses ready today.

At this point I gave up. My ',managing expectations' sermon was landing on stoney ground here.

I come across this almost everyday, people generally saying what or when they will do something with data that makes me happy at the time but is in no way aligned with what they will 'actually' do or when they will do it - or complete it.

Has no one here ever been trained about 'managing expectations'?? It really does solve almost every complaint before the complaint is ever made.....and it can go further by turning a potential complaint into a happy customer who might even (gasp!) recomend said service/shop/garage/glasses shop to their friends.

The rule is simple = "be Scotty". Remember the original Star Trek?

Kirk: I need those engines Scotty!
Scotty: They're going to take at least 10 hours Cap't, the dilythiam crystals need realigning.
Kirk: You have 8 hours Scotty.
Scotty: I'll do my best Cap't. but I canna work miracles here.

Scotty fixes the crystals in 6 hours and is commended time and time again.

Lesson learned - this was the 60's - we are now in the 21st fucking century and people still want to please people at the point of purchase by setting expectations that do not live up to reality, in the wrong direction.

Another quick story - my A/C went on the 'blink' last week - I called my garage who had only just finished work on the A/C - they said bring it in at 2pm. I took it in at 2pm for them to check and they said come back in 30 mins - I said I would grab a burger around the corner and be back at 2.30.

At 2.30 i returned to find no one had looked at it. They know my numbers - could they not have called and said, "take your time over your burger, we haven't got to your car yet." OR just told me 60 mins in the first place! As it was I wolfed down a burger, fries and a shake and then spent 30 mins sitting in their sterile waiting area.

Should I just accept this or should I try to point out this whenever it happens - if I do the latter I am told that I'm being grumpy. Is this being grumpy, dear reader?

Maybe I should just accept this as 'the way'.

Maybe others should just expect more 'grumpiness'.

grumpily yours,
drude

Another movie review.....better late than never!

Ok, so these movie reviews are not exactly weekly as I had planned but living in Ottawa one has to deal with a few natural circumstances; mainly weather; mainly snow!

Some Tuesday's I don't feel like battling through the slush, snow and ice or the ploughs, salt and bad drivers. I also have that bad knee that is still causing some 'limpage'.

Anyway - it's Spring, right? Right! So I decided today was a good day to see a film and write about it.

I had a load to pick from as the last movie I saw was way back in February and was Jumper. (see last post). The films on offer were all new(ish) but I was in the mood for some cards, Vegas and a sprinkling of Spacey and Fishburne so '21' it was.

Now I'm aware of gambling films and the plots surrounding 'counting cards' and frankly this film offered nothing new really; it was the way in which the story was told that made this film a nice story with a happy ending.

So in a nutshell; Spacey brilliant MIT professor has a gang of genii students who, as a team, take Vegas for a few grand each weekend by counting cards. Now, any system needs to have rules and as we all know - when you start to win big you start to get emotional rather than follow the rules - this happens and the team breaks up and then a few losses and betrayals occur. I'll not go into too much detail as it would spoil the film for you.

Suffice to say that it was a good film that was 123 minutes of 'cruise control' for Spacey; one of my favorite actors, this was no stretch for his talent. It was nice to see Laurence Fishburne (larger than life!!) who had a decent role but I still always see him as Morpheus - not my fault.

The rest of the cast was ok - I fail to see the continuing attraction casting directors have with Jim Sturgess but as he is a Brit I'll not dwell too much. Kate Bosworth does a good job as the love interest but again - no stretch there. Still, we'll be seeing much more of her in movies to come, I'm sure.

I was going to see another movie and it probably would have been The Bank Job
but the seats at the cinema were so hard and uncomfortable I decided I couldn't do a 'TMT' (two movie tuesday). Why are cinema seats so uncomfortable? Beats me - one would have thought that they would want you to enjoy a movie instead of shifting around trying to beat the 'numb bum' or general 'arse ache'.

Until next week dear reader.........

Drude.