During the past weekend, after I had returned from church,on Sunday I perused the TV schedules and noted that there was to be. showing of the 1935 version of John Buchan’s ‘The 39 Steps’ At first, I did not think I was going to enjoy this version but it was the one directed by Alfred Hitchcock, was very fast paced ad regarded by knowledgeable film buffs as the finest of the several versions made and it kept me enthralled to the end. Then I became thoroughly confused as it did not end in the way that I remembered so I scurried to Google to check out on my ‘false memory’ It transpires that there are several versions of this epic and in each one the director has radically chosen how it ends. So we have versions in which the ’39 steps’ are revealed by Mr Memory Man in the London Palladium, one in which the 39 steps leads down to the sea, one in which the hero is seem clinging to the arms of Big ben and one in which a submarine arises from the depths of a Scottish loch. So I could be forgiven not knowing how the film ends as it depends on what each director’s whim. The actual ending is a little ‘tame’ compared with the adventures which precede it and this is the reason, I suppose, why each director has chosen a different and dramatic ending compared with the book. After I had lunched on some pork ribs and an onion-tomato-pepper mixture, I settled down to watch the Leicester Tigers vs. Saracens rugby union match, the first of the new season. This proved to be a pulsating affair with six tries scored on each side and the with the lead changing hands constantly. I wanted the ‘Tigers’ to win but they were overhauled at the very end by Saracens and the margin of victory was only two points but, in truth, the outcome of the match could have gone either way. Now it was time to turn my attention to soup making and I parboiled the celeriac, one leek and some celery before giving them a roast in the microwave onion. Then the soup maker did its work and I added some coconut milk, butter and grainy mustard at the ‘blend’ stage. The result was delicious and, naturally, a portion of it provided me with my tea for the evening. The remainder I stored in a specialist container made for the storage of soup in the freezer and in some specialised freezer bags I had purchased for the same reason. To give me some scope for the weeks ahead, I have located from the depths of our garage some of those wide-necked glass bottles which originally contained cooking sauces but which I now sterilised and have got ready for next week’s efforts which are going to be leek and potato. In a final indulgence for the weekend. I was watched the England team thrash Sri Lanka in the final and deciding match of the three match one-day cricket series which was shown in its entirety but very late at night. So this has rounded off the cricket for the summer but ITV seem to have taken on the mantle of broadcasting interesting rugby matches but some have to be paid for in a special subscription and only a selection are free-to-air so I may have to see what is offered week by week.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
The start of the week is nearly always a domestic day with things like washing to do and today was no exception. But often consulting some videos on the subject, have decided to try to make my own vegetable stock to use in my soups. There is a reasonable consensus on the root vegetables to go in (carrots, onions, celery and celeriac) as well as things to avoid such as the brassicas, particularly broccoli. Opinion is divided as to whether to use one small turnip or not. Once simmered, or actually saut\u00e9ed, I think it is quite a good idea to spread the vegetables out and roast them for a few minutes to enhance the flavours. The using a handheld blender, the whole mixture can be ‘blitzed’ adding a little water and some salt although it is best to limit the salt completely if you can. Then the resulting ‘gooey’ mixture can be spread put on some baking paper and frozen for a couple of hours, after which it can be tipped out, cut into cubes and then either stored in a bag or even little squares of tinfoil. Although all of this sounds fiddly, people swear by the flavour, you can reduce the salt content radically compared with bought alternatives and always add additional herb flavourings at the stage when the stock is reconstituted. If soup making is a weekend job from now on I may get into the habit of making some vegetable stock on dull Friday afternoons. We are now entering the political party conference season and this is the time of year when new policies can be formally announced or even formulated. At the same time the reputation of individual ministers can be made or broken at this time. Some MP’s actively dislike the party conferences because they often to defend their positions to delegates who are often to the extreme right (or left) of them. One interesting little question is starting to emerge is that the Burnham government is committed to doing something about social care and Andy Burnham’s father died in the last fortnight from dementia, not knowing that his own son was now the Prime Minister. But the big question is how to pay for all of this but abandoning the triple lock for pensioners after the next election and then asking for a modest increase in taxation from the rest of us is edging ahead as one solution to the dilemma. The argument is that Labour would not be breaking an election pledge to preserve the triple lock but would campaign for a National Social Care service, funded in part from savings of moderating the triple lock policy to be implemented in the next Parliament. This might ‘wrong foot’ the opposition parties to the right (the Conservatives and the Reform party) but Labour would be able to rely upon the enthusiastic support of the Liberal Democrats, the Greens and perhaps some of the nationalist parties in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland as well. The whole problem of social care has been kicked into touch by all political parties seemingly for decades now because there is a glaring anomaly that a sufferer from cancer will have their treatment on the NHS but a sufferer from dementia has to bear many of the costs alone, even to the point of having to sell the family home to pay for their eventual residential care.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
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