Saturday, 2 June 2012

50 runs and a nice cup of tea


Rooibos tea

FSL got some Redbush original and Redbush Citrus teabag samples through the post (thanks, kid). The citrus is very good. Recommended. With the sample teabags came a leaflet extolling the virtues of the teas, the soaps and other products (can't see PG Tips or Tetley expanding into cosmetics, although Tetley do beer, I think), and setting out why we should buy gallons of the stuff, and how fairtrade the treatment of the growers is.

I noticed how photogenic the teas are, in clear pots and glass teacups, not a cosy or a drop of milk in sight. They look as if they'd be at home alongside some posh and healthy nosh, while the good old English cuppa looks like a cup of dirty brown murk in comparison, more at home next to a plate of sausage sandwiches or a full English breakfast. Café tea was quite something, pots topped up at various times with leaves and hot water, big white mugs, full-fat milk, two sugars. Now even cafés have succumbed to the teabag, often with the added logistical problem of finding somewhere to dump the bag before the tea's stewed; and worse the nightmare of finding the unexpected bag at the bottom after wondering why the tea was growing slowly stronger and more bitter with each gulp.


Not pretty, but there's a 50 in the scorebook

Against Gills Green, too. Among our toughest opponents. It was ground out. It seemed to take an age, their bowling was very tight and, frankly, too good for the likes of us. I did a lot of that playing and missing stuff. I edged one straight between the keeper and the slips, and the keeper dropped another one. Generally I hit the ball along the ground, which was pleasing, and I had a bit of luck with the odd miss-hit not going to the fielders. There were some decent thumps of the ball along the way, though, and it's fantastic to have a 50 against your name (none for me last year, a couple in the 40's and a 48 was a close as I got) and one in the first tour game last year.

The thing with batting is that one slip in execution, judgement, or concentration is often enough to to end your innings. I find this very tiring, and after a while I know I'm at greater risk of just such errors through fatigue, physical and mental. I'm dead tired now.


Gherkins

Despite outward appearances, and a craving for gherkins, I'm sure I'm not pregnant. Just craving gherkins.


Tabasco chicken pies

Kiz got me the Tabasco cookbook (thanks, kid) and tonight I've had the chicken pies with sugarsnap peas. I added some mushrooms, because chicken proved a bit scarce in these here parts this evening. I used the smoky chipotle Tabasco Kiz brought last weekend (thanks, kid) instead of the original the recipe suggested, and replaced the tinned chicken soup with crème frache, but otherwise followed the guidelines to the letter, and I've just had a very tasty and unusually hot chicken pie, and I'm going to eat the second one before turning in, watching The Skin I Live In, a hugely atmospheric and mesmerising film.





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