Spectacular FIsh Pie

The coffee machine in my office requires that people punch in a number to receive the beverage of their choice. It dispenses said beverage into a plastic cup and beeps when it's ready. Due possibly to some ridiculous Euro health and safety initiative designed to prevent scalded fingers, it beeps about 10 seconds after it has finished dispensing. The vast majority of people of course learn this relatively quickly and snatch away their cup before the beep rather than waste 10 seconds of their life staring at the picture of three cups of coffee on a bed of coffee beans, accompanied by the enigmatic phrase, "bean to cup", printed oddly sideways in bright yellow letters.

There is an irony here because the next person is unable to punch their number in until the previous person's beep has finally arrived and their number has cleared from the display. Thus one often wastes 10 seconds of valuable life waiting for the damn beep anyway. I have developed a strange habit as a result of this. Since my attention is no longer held by the picture of three cups of coffee and the yellow letters, I've taken to studying the numbers punched in by previous people, looking up what their beverage was, and making judgements on their general character and intelligence based on their choice. I mark people down for adding sugar or milk, and especially frothy cappuccino style milk. Something to note here is that management nearly all drink black coffee without sugar.

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We didn't do anything particularly special over Easter. We did go to butterfly world on Friday. I feel like I already wrote this. Maybe I dreamt it. It was in celebration of Dumpy's 2nd birthday anyway. He wasn't overly interested in the butterflies to be honest. He was far more interested in the small animal paddock. He particularly liked the turkeys, which had a habit of suddenly gobbling loudly, which made him jump and then laugh.

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I made a spectacular fish pie this weekend, from raw ingredients, no packets. I was most proud of myself. Look here it is...



Inside was creamy and beautiful.



I used coley and something smoked (can't remember what) but I didn't catch them myself. I know, I overcooked the broccoli, but look how nice the pie looks. I've never made one before.

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I've started reading "The Kite Runner". I have a huge backlog of stuff to read again. I did promise the dragon I'd give it a go though. It's not something I would have pulled off the shelf myself, but she read it months ago in Chinese and then bought me a copy in English. I suspect she wants to discuss it. I've read only a chapter or two so far, but it seems oddly compelling.

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I managed to get myself a parking ticket this weekend. I can only have left the car outside the house for an hour on the grass verge. It wasn't obstructing anyone. It was outside our gate. Nothing I can do about it anyhow. That's another £30 down the drain. Oh how I hate authority. I tried to settle the bill today, but their bleeding internet payment system doesn't work. I'll try and pay by phone in a minute. I bet that fails too.

I also got the tv licence bill reminder this weekend. I've paid that because it is a month overdue and the text had a distinct "pay up or die" tone about it. That was £135, just for the privilege of being able to receive the tripe currently dished up by the state owned tv network. I'm particularly aggrieved by the tv licensing authority because they fleeced me out of 6 months' licence fee when I was out of the country. I am pleased that they had to send me two letters before I paid up, and that I delayed payment for a month, thus they missed out on that interest and I gained it. That however is pennies in comparison to what they fleeced me for. In a few years time I think I am destined to become a grumpy old man.