niffy 6 August 2011
There are some smelly items to eat that are irresistible proving, I suppose, that you eat with smell as much as your tastebuds??. I am fond of runny cheese smelling of socks (several of the Irish Artisan ones are SO good) but if a cheesy smelly pair of socks was presented to me I very much doubt that I’d even bite into that once. I can’t do blue cheese at all, much as I approve of Stilton (for example) and that’s simply because my bod just does not want to eat mould, full stop. Today though, it took a vigary* for hard boiled egg, red onion and anchovies in oil – a lovely salad was constructed using these and all is well Chez McLynn as a result. Indeed, only yesterday, friend of mine yesterday opined that ‘salad is a dish best served cold’
*no idea how to spell this but it’s pronounced vigayree…
And, yes, I HONK now…tres niffy altogether…
gone over 30 July 2011
For those of you who fear that I have gone over to Twitter and am hence and therefore ignoring this blog, RELAX, I am my usual slovenly self and letting darn work get in the way of musings and, what we all know is, my Witter activity here. Indeed, I pride myself (probably wrongly) with being the dilettante that some follow on Twitter but who, herself, follows no one (every time I blog it comes up as an ‘alert’ on Twitter or a tweet or whatever it all is that goes on ‘over there’.
Right now, as a road test, I am running up a dog coat for a small terrier that does not exist…part of some teen activity to go with the new venture, a young adult novule for Puffin out in the New Year.
Filming for the sit-com THREESOME continues and is v v enjoyable. I’ll let you know when it’ll be on – Autumn, I think, and on a channel not yet known for homegrown comedy so it’s v v exciting too. I love to be in a groundbreaking show if at all poss.
In other news, it seems there is only 8% actual gold in an Olympic gold medal whereas the silver is 100% silver and therefore, moneywise, more valuable. Who knew? I’m guessing the bronze is pure bronze…is it used for anything else these days, I wonder? It seems so historic a metal having been invented in, well, the Bronze Age, and perhaps it has fallen out of favour?
found 22 July 2011
i start filming on a new series today, which simply means that today is the day i am finally found out – that’s the way every actor feels first day of work. i’m guessing the day you don’t feel that way is the day you actually deserve to be found out.
nice shop on the way out to the set which called itself a Mobility Warehouse and was indeed just that – it was a warehouse full of mobility scooters.
miss alice is improving and is now a more perky flaying machine – at least she’s stopped stabbing me with steak knives…
cat care 19 July 2011
Miss Alice has been poorly and lost a lot of weight recently, so she had the expensive visit to the vet yesterday (the sort of visit I don’t allow myself to the doctor unless my leg is hanging off and I also have raging bubonic plague). Her vitals are good but she now has eye and ear drops, an antibiotic and some sort of serum that needs to be administered 2 and 3 times a day on a full stomach (she still won’t eat so that’s a top trial). I need a suit of armour to deal with the flaying action of her 4 very sharply tuned up claws. Just now I got the eyes drops in but in that same successful process knocked a steak knife off the table which duly stabbed my foot and I am bleeding copiously …
In the meantime Brenda is an eating, leaping, fun fun FUN machine who has dealt with a naughty foil bottle top through the medium of killing it and she is well pleased with her lot – even if she’d prefer a better running buffet and has many vocal complaints about how poor her catty lot is…
At least they are ‘helping’ with the teen novel by lying on the laptop as I write…
telepathy? 15 July 2011
I’m not sure if I have a comrade feline interested in golf or whether Brenda is telepathic BUT I was stood wondering if I might tune on the British Open on tv early this afternoon and had spotted that the remote was on the kitchen table, faced away into the back garden rather than at the tv, and before I had time to talk myself out of it and go do some writing the set came on and there was the golf – Ms Brenda had stood on the exact button required on the remote (and it does have to be exact because the batteries need replacing and there’s no back on the battery pack so they usually have to be held in place and above all the direction of the remote v v exact – how she did it I do not know…spooky…and most enjoyable…
krishna 13 July 2011
A group of Hari Krishnas went past the flat yesterday in great form, dancing and singing. They seem to me to have been missing for ages. Time was when they’d daily walk along banging hand drums and chiming chimes and chanting ‘Hari, Hari, Hari Krishna’ in their peach coloured robes. Yesterday the robes were the same and chimes were chimed and drums beaten BUT there was also accordion and whistles and it was very very tuneful, more so than the Old Style – in other words, bigger production values… I couldn’t help but wonder if this is as controversial as when Bob Dylan went ‘electric’…
polar 11 July 2011
Marvellous to hear that polar bears are half Irish on their brown bear Mammies side from aeons ago – I know we have colonised the world with humans but bears too? way to go…
Had a great day out in Berkshire on Saturday to celebrate the life and work of a marvellous film producer Eliott Kastner, who left us last year. We heard great stories about his life and work as we stood in a sunny English garden and laughed and sighed and raised many good glasses in his honour and were glad to have known him. Look him up, you’ll be amazed how many of his films you’ve seen. He had the true Art of the Possibility spirit and was interested in his work and the world till the day he left – unique and irreplaceable.
I am now ‘celebrating’ a birthday though I must admit that I look every day of my 38 years today…ah well…ahem….
yoofs 5 July 2011
I have been all around Ireland in these last few days. I did 2 events at the wonderful West Cork Literary Festival in Bantry and had a great time doing those (the first with actors Niamh Cusack, Tom Hickey, the multi-tasking Peter Sheridan and the fine Senator and Presidential hopeful David Norris, presided over by Sean Rocks of RTE, and then a solo talk I gave in the very fine town library) and meeting the good citizens of the town in general was a treaat. Then after a windy and bumpy car transfer to Cork I took a windy and bumpy bus journey to Kilkenny and spent a lovely night at Langtons Hotel before putting in a day of filming with the Young Irish Filmmakers group based there. The shoot was a delight and all involved just fab to work with from the youngest of the cast (7 or 8 years old) to the crew, who ranged from 14 to 17 years, as well as a few fossils like myself. A joy. There are times when work can be so enjoyable that it doesn’t feel like work at all.
ribbon 28 June 2011
And so, there is a reward for the new obsession Chez McLynn – Himself has ‘won’ a blue ribbon for posting travel related reviews on his favourite site. High excitement indeed! Now, of course, the wonder is are there other colours he could achieve. When will he get the Best in Show rosette? In other words, this has merely fuelled the obsession…no end or ‘cure’ in sight there.
For myself, I have been reminded over these last days of the truth (universally acknowledged) that cats and knitting are a perfect mix for mischief. I am road testing simple patterns for beginners to go in a buke and efforts are being hampered by the furries and their great delight at dancing bamboo needles and jumping yarn. and suer enough there are some stray black and grey hairs posing as mohair in a cotton beanie hat on the needles at the moment, a texture I had not been trying for or planning. I’m ‘embracing’ it, having little other option…it’s their house, their rules now…
trip 23 June 2011
Himself is addicted to posting on Trip Advisor. He’s reviewing restaurants and hotels and the like and even took some pictures of the meal we had last night (in the excellent WINDING STAIR, Dublin) to put up on the site. But he’s in danger of losing the run of himself and letting it rule his life because, apparently, yesterday there were 3 votes saying a particular review he’d posted was helpful but today it read only 2 ‘votes’ and he’s gone into a bit of a decline decline…
In other news, the teenage me is obviously troubled and I think it’s the impending deadline for the teenage novel that’s scrambling my brain. I’m having all sorts of heavy dreams about loss, including one that involved the theatre show I’ve just done in Sheffield being cancelled one night because I wasn’t ready on time (in the dream, i must stress – that never happened* during the run!) Classic anxiety, I guess?
*and would never happen!
Brenda and Alice are killing lots of flies.
The ants are back and some of them have wings!