I've started so I'll finish...
Oct. 14th, 2007 09:25 pmI got a bit distracted whilst I was writing yesterdays post and managed to forget to explain the title. I'm back today to remedy my error.
The last few weeks have involved quite a few Press Gang cast spottings on TV. Charlie Creed-Miles turned up as a random hippy gatecrasher in Skins, a sketch in which Julia Sawalha guest starred was shown as part of A Bucket O' French and Sauders and Dexter Fletcher was featured in Movie Connections talking about Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. Additionally, photos of Julia as Saffy were used in an 'In Style' feature about worst ever makeovers.
However, the title of my last post referred to Dexter Fletcher's guest appearance in the latest adaption of Robin Hood. I watched about 10 minutes of one episode of the first series and decided that I hated it. I'm not keen on things which are set in the distant past but which try to be a bit modern. I understand that the inclusion of Friar Tuck might upset certain sections of society but to me it's not really Robin Hood without him. Anyway, I digress. I'd read that Dexter was guesting in last night's episode so I planned to force myself to watch. Unfortunately, I missed the beginning (see below description of lasagne related woe for the reason) but I managed to catch the last few minutes. It was good to see Dexter playing a likeable rougue. I think he plays those roles well and he got to use him twinkly smile a lot. However, his accent really was all over the place. In certain scenes it was much stronger than others and he sounded suspiciously like a cockney trying to pretend to be German. In my opinion it made the German accents demonstrated in 'Allo 'Allo look positively accurate! I'm a great defender of Dexter's much criticized 'Spike' accent but I can't defent this attempt I'm afraid. Interesting seeing him work with alleged 'love rival' Keith Allen again. The more I read about Keith Allen, the less I like him (and I didn't like him much in the first place). Julia Sawalha does have 'interesting' taste in men at times.
Last night I decided to make a vegetable lasagne. This was part of my attempt to be more adventurous with my cooking. There is only so much stir fried food a person can eat before boredom sets in. I'd never made a lasagne on my own before, I'd only ever helped a friend make one whilst at uni, but I had an easy to follow recipie so I thought I'd be fine. I started by chopping all the vegetables and putting them into a large saucepan to fry gently. Unfortunately, my 'large' saucepan was not large enough and everything kept flying out of the top when I stirred it. As a result my cooker was covered in crispy bits of veg this morning. Whilst the veg was simmering I started making the cheese sauce which ended up very lumpy. I'm terrible at making sauces, they always end up lumpy. I considered getting the electric mixer out but it seemed to be thickening OK so I left it be. It all looked very good once I'd layered it in the dish but I forgot to put it on a baking tray in the oven so my oven ended up covered in crispy cheese. I spent most of this afternoon trying to scrape my kitchen clean! At least it tasted good. There are three more pieces in the freezer so that's three future meals sorted out. I find cooking very stressful but I'm going to persevere. You never know, one day I might be brave enough to invite people round and eat something I actually cooked rather!
The first series of Skins has now finished. I stayed up until 12.20am on Wednesday morning to watch the Skins Secret Party and was 20 minutes late for work because I overslept. Ooops. Anyway, I enjoyed the series and will tune in to series two. I no longer wish I'd written it as I don't think I'm twisted enough to come up with the events of the last two episodes. I always think it's quite a feat when writers manage to make an audience like characters with few redeaming features. I was a bit disappointed that all the parents were portrayed as being awful though. Isn't anyone under the age of 18 allowed to have a happy home life these days?
The last few weeks have involved quite a few Press Gang cast spottings on TV. Charlie Creed-Miles turned up as a random hippy gatecrasher in Skins, a sketch in which Julia Sawalha guest starred was shown as part of A Bucket O' French and Sauders and Dexter Fletcher was featured in Movie Connections talking about Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels. Additionally, photos of Julia as Saffy were used in an 'In Style' feature about worst ever makeovers.
However, the title of my last post referred to Dexter Fletcher's guest appearance in the latest adaption of Robin Hood. I watched about 10 minutes of one episode of the first series and decided that I hated it. I'm not keen on things which are set in the distant past but which try to be a bit modern. I understand that the inclusion of Friar Tuck might upset certain sections of society but to me it's not really Robin Hood without him. Anyway, I digress. I'd read that Dexter was guesting in last night's episode so I planned to force myself to watch. Unfortunately, I missed the beginning (see below description of lasagne related woe for the reason) but I managed to catch the last few minutes. It was good to see Dexter playing a likeable rougue. I think he plays those roles well and he got to use him twinkly smile a lot. However, his accent really was all over the place. In certain scenes it was much stronger than others and he sounded suspiciously like a cockney trying to pretend to be German. In my opinion it made the German accents demonstrated in 'Allo 'Allo look positively accurate! I'm a great defender of Dexter's much criticized 'Spike' accent but I can't defent this attempt I'm afraid. Interesting seeing him work with alleged 'love rival' Keith Allen again. The more I read about Keith Allen, the less I like him (and I didn't like him much in the first place). Julia Sawalha does have 'interesting' taste in men at times.
Last night I decided to make a vegetable lasagne. This was part of my attempt to be more adventurous with my cooking. There is only so much stir fried food a person can eat before boredom sets in. I'd never made a lasagne on my own before, I'd only ever helped a friend make one whilst at uni, but I had an easy to follow recipie so I thought I'd be fine. I started by chopping all the vegetables and putting them into a large saucepan to fry gently. Unfortunately, my 'large' saucepan was not large enough and everything kept flying out of the top when I stirred it. As a result my cooker was covered in crispy bits of veg this morning. Whilst the veg was simmering I started making the cheese sauce which ended up very lumpy. I'm terrible at making sauces, they always end up lumpy. I considered getting the electric mixer out but it seemed to be thickening OK so I left it be. It all looked very good once I'd layered it in the dish but I forgot to put it on a baking tray in the oven so my oven ended up covered in crispy cheese. I spent most of this afternoon trying to scrape my kitchen clean! At least it tasted good. There are three more pieces in the freezer so that's three future meals sorted out. I find cooking very stressful but I'm going to persevere. You never know, one day I might be brave enough to invite people round and eat something I actually cooked rather!
The first series of Skins has now finished. I stayed up until 12.20am on Wednesday morning to watch the Skins Secret Party and was 20 minutes late for work because I overslept. Ooops. Anyway, I enjoyed the series and will tune in to series two. I no longer wish I'd written it as I don't think I'm twisted enough to come up with the events of the last two episodes. I always think it's quite a feat when writers manage to make an audience like characters with few redeaming features. I was a bit disappointed that all the parents were portrayed as being awful though. Isn't anyone under the age of 18 allowed to have a happy home life these days?