i am at home now and saw a newspaper article saying victoria station is closed today… in that no trains are running there due to a power cut in streatham. but i was there only this morning, at about 12pm. i did not notice anything was wrong, because there were people about, it was not deserted… and i did not bother to look at the destination board. otherwise i would be able to see whatever.

london 1.01pm 28C sunny thursday 2018

i can be very unobservant actually. i mean imagine going through there and not be aware of any disruption.  but there was no crowds, that is what i meant to say… usually when trains are cancelled or whatever, there will be masses of people hanging about. i guess by the time i went there, they will have told people no point hanging around here. no trains are running so u might as well go elsewhere.  added. this link shows that not all trains are cancelled or delayed. only the gatwick and southeastern line. southern line is as normal. so that explains why there were still quite a lot of people about. 

even so there were quite a lot of people about so much so that i thought everything was running.

i went to the eating food court, to see if kfc got their double down burger… i heard they have introduced it only for this month, till 22nd. it is a double chicken portion that acts like two buns. i saw they have only a combined meal on the menu board , you get it with fries, and a soft drink for £6.29p. i asked them if they will do one without the fries and drink, and they said it will be £5.49. though no mention of it on the notice board. so not much difference in price. in other words, anyone wanting one might as well go the whole hog and get the fries and drink. which must be the intention with the way it is priced. it looks rather good.

in this link they were charging £4.79p when they introduced it last year (though i did not notice it last year. again shows how unobservant i can be).

now it is £5.49… pity that. if it were the old price i might buy one. but unfortunately my innate sense of value for money makes me compare it with what i can get for £4. in sainsburys,a frozen pack of 2.5kg chicken pieces which i can cook any method.

in fact, i returned home and got cooking a curry with half of that bag of frozen chicken. and to make it even better value, i used a pack of creamed coconut which i got 50g for less than 5p…so i was not tempted to buy that double down burger. 

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Digital StillCamera

normal day in london on a sunday

london 1.22pm 5.8C sunny sunday 2017

the weather website i am using is all over the place in that the readings varies widely 13C to 3C range in a small area. i dont know why there should be so many different readings.

but just relying on my own personal experience right now, its sunny but the sun is so weak , it is too cold to be sitting out in it. usually i like to sit in the sun to make vit D, but it is too uncomfortable to do so now. my friend in bournemouth said he was able to sit out in the sun, and it was like sitting by a fire he said.  so it is warm for him. maybe he got a park bench that is sheltered from the wind. but it is not the case in london.

i read online that denia in spain is having snow recently. but it must be a one off, because my friend forwarded a email from our friend who lives in benidorm that it was snowing only in the hill towns, and he attached some pics of the snow there;  but not in benidorm itself. benidorm is near denia. he said they are getting 6c at night. i suppose it is cold for them, but normal for london. we have been getting -0.5C lowest temp. my indoor thermometer says 15C.

the online news is all about the donald, and worrying about what he will do, and most saying it wont be good. it’s all speculation of course as they have no way of knowing. so i just stop reading about it for now. there is no solid news that is why. in fact, not much to see in the internet. for me anyway, as i am not a big fan of the social network like twitter etc.

i go out earlier in the day, my excuse is to go to the library to read the news and see what books i might like to borrow. but it is really just to get out and take in some air and sunshine.

other people might go shopping, as an excuse to go out. so they go buying clothes, or grocery shop, or buying stuff, or go out to a coffee shop to have a coffee whether alone or to meet others. it can be amusing to see what other people do to amuse themselves.

i pass by speakers corner, at hyde park on the bus  and i can see people standing listening to some speakers on their soapbox. so that is another thing that some do on a sunday to while away the time.

i think it is fun to people watch. i could do it sitting in a coffee shop, but i think it is more fun to sit on top of the bus and look at people. 

what do i do to amuse myself when i am at home?  to amuse myself i watch tv and read as well as go into the internet. films seem to be the most prolific form of entertainment there is on tv. right now i am watching short circuit, made in 1986. about a robot who is struck by lightning and develop intelligence. and i alternate it with watching muppets take manhatten. made in 1984, when u come to think of it there are so many movies made, we wont run out of things to watch. that is why u have channels devoted solely to showing movies in the freeview channels that are free to watch. there is a skit showing now with  joan rivers and piggy. 

this is the curry simon made just now. it is no wonder indian takeaway curry houses are closing. when u can just buy these jars of indian style curry sauces which u can just dump into a saucepan with chicken breast or any other meat and just cook it. he uses sharwoods brand. i would use curry powder, so much cheaper. each jar 400mg costs about £1.75 (though u could get them for £1 when they are on offer), which i think is expensive but simon likes it. and of course u do get the various types of indian curry, like rogan josh, etc. though how different in taste they are in reality is moot.

my curry powder is malaysian, so there is that distinctly malaysian taste, (it costs £1.45 for 200mg so it lasts and lasts)but it is not like an indian curry. there is definitely a different   smell and taste with malaysian curry powder as opposed to indian curry powder.

sharwoods do a authentic egg noodle pack. it has that lovely smell that i remember from home. usually they are £1.75 for 375mg. though i see from the website that tesco is reducing them to 87p. i dont find them in the store though. so it must be only online. asda sell them for £1 and that is without any promotion. it seems to be their normal price.  simon likes them and i have to admit i like them too. i might buy them. that is another thing we do, we eat. i do all my eating at home, with dishes i cook myself or eat what simon cooks. but i daresay plenty of others will go and eat out, or takeaway, or buy ready made foods from Marks and Spencer or waitrose. or waitrose is selling heinz chicken soup with a taste of thai spice… for 59p. half price. i have not come across such items but it seems they are doing it now… adding spice and stuff to their basic chicken or tomato soups. i have a feeling people like the ordinary soups, and not really want these add ons. hence they are selling them cheap.

heinz soups are usually £1. but they all seem to be having a promotion now and selling them at half price, 50p . even so ,i dont seem to buy them. maybe because they only have 3% of chicken in them.

soups would be very useful to have to keep people warm. heinz soups can be very more-ish. i used to like and buy campbells concentrated chicken soup. they go very well with baguettes or any bread really. as kids, we get to have them while growing up and so i, for one, associate them with growing up and being a kid. i haven’t bought any for quite a long while nowadays, but this reduced offer by waitrose brings it to my mind now. 

fine egg noodles

 

easy sunday

london 4.38pm 10.4C misty earlier in the day, but now clear and blue skies. sunday 2016

the govt wanted to bring in all day trading for sunday but was defeated, by the SNP of all things. haha. you might wonder why the govt is so keen on bringing this , when most of us are ok with big shops having to close early and letting convenience stores do business later on the only day they dont have to compete with the big stores. it also means we can access the reduced prices earlier in the day, like 4pm today when i went to the tesco and got reduced minced beef 750mg for 60p , reduced from £3. 

its not often i can catch that, because the stores are now wising up to it and not having so much reductions on a sunday just so there wont be too much of a fight for it. so there were not many people hanging about the reduced shelves, and no one grabbed the minced beef before i could. haha. i am making a dry curry out of some of it, and a smaller portion i shall steam it when i cook my rice.

i myself have stopped going there for the reduced price on a sunday, simply because of their policy of not having a lot of stuff out to reduce. it so happened that i went there this time to stock up on oats, i buy the basic oats, there was only one bag left and just got lucky hitting it at the time when they were putting the final reductions on the stuff not sold.

i notice the supermarkets  now spread their reductions to the other weekdays and later in the day too, just to reduce the big scramble.

i am sure the workers themselves must be happy that the govt is defeated and they can close the store at 5pm and go home and still be able to enjoy  daylight when the leave the store . and for all us bargain hunters we are glad they are closing early just so we can get our bargains earlier too. 

but online shopping has made this ruling of early closing on sunday rather disadvantageous for the stores as opposed to the online shops…that is why the govt wants to allow all stores to open late on sundays. if they dont,  it will be giving the online stores an advantage over the physical stores. in some ways the online stores are really having an unfair advantage they dont have overheads like rent, etc.

and for us bargain hunters they never have any sell by date reductions either.that is why  i think it would be a bad day if shops and stores are no more and we all have to shop online.  

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it’s very easy to cook and very quick too. smells heavenly and i just cannot resist eating it straightaway. 

calling all curry chefs

london 1.45pm sunday 2015. raining 20C

seems there is a shortage of curry chefs, they tried to set up a college to train them but it seems the locals dont like the job. even polish migrants dont like it. it seems. which goes to show it cannot be a very easy job to do. long hours i think and pay is not that great. the only ones to do it are immigrants flown in from poor countries. it takes skills to do a poppadom.

he is asking for short term visas. 

miscellaneous

london monday 2015 1.52pm

dont know what plant this is. but it is the only one that is blooming like mad around here at this time.

a friend of mine who i told about the malaysian curry powder in chinatown, and who bought it that day, told me the chinese store in slough sells that curry powder for 75p, as opposed to £1.45 in chinatown.

well, i never knew it can be cheaper in a place outside chinatown. somehow i got the impression  to expect chinatown to be the cheapest for groceries. i think in the past, it was, but not anymore what with rents in central london so high.

anyway i told my friend to keep it in mind, for when i finish this new pack i bought. he suggest i go there and browse to see if other things are cheaper. i might go too, though slough is like 2hrs away. haha. 

it started me thinking whether southall may be cheaper for indian groceries… i have never been to southall, as it is a train ride away and outside the london zones.

added. i found out southall is in zone 4. taking the train from ealing broadway westward. hmm might be worthwhile to go there and see what it is like. 

i have been to brick lane for indian groceries.that was a long time ago,  i might go and see if the selection of stuff and prices there are as good a bargain.  i cannot recall another place which is full of indian businesses, can you? i am sure indians would know where to go. 

brick lane is our little india. though i think as in chinatown, the indian businesses are being driven out by rising rents. 

added. 16.4.15 3pm closer pic of that plant, maybe google will identify it better. garfieldhugs says it is yellow thistle.

Added.9.07pm. i was just trying to figure it out, saying to myself what is the simplest name i can give this flower, and the thought came to me…what about yellow carnation. i googled it and here is what it looks like. have a look at the link, it looks very much like what i saw. though this must be a wild variety, and not the cultivated one which grows on a long stem. what do u think? is it yellow carnation?

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just musing

london

its a lovely sunny day out there, and i am staying indoors. i suppose i should go out, and maybe i shall ,maybe bring a book out to the little community garden and just sit in the sun. I thought of going to the google store in tottenham court road. 

I wrote the above earlier today and cancelled it. or thought i did, but wordpress has saved it. i decided to leave it in to show that i thought of doing all those things, but did not do them in the end.

I stayed in instead. and had a nap. haha. Well, now it is 6pm, and i am awake and wondering if i should go to a gay walk in regents park organised at 6.30pm. it is rather late to start of course but i have allready decided not to go.

part of the reason is the hay fever. at the moment i dont have any but going outdoors late in the evening to a park full of grass will/might set it off and i dont fancy it.

I guess what it all boils down to is that  i dont feel that eager to go.

it is a chance to meet other gay guys but the days when i would go out of my way to meet other gay guys are long gone. in those days we think of making sexual contacts that is what drove us to go out … at least it was for me. but nowadays i am rather happy to potter around and just do things i like.

Most things i do is solitary as i dont really like company when i do them. for eg, i would go to swim at the local swimming centre on my own. many sociable people will try to go with someone else, but when you are swimming, you cannot really stick with someone, because either their swimming ability is different from yours so they move to a faster or slower lane, or they dont want to linger at the edge just to chat when they actually go there to swim and exercise.

So most people would, if they want to socialise ,meet up at the coffee shop attached . but i am not really that keen on chatting after the swim as i want to go to the library or supermarket and get on with things.

I know all this make me sound like a loner. and i recognise that. i like my own company and dont really like to stick with other people for fear of being on my own.

it is one of the things i have noticed of social people, they seem they are afraid to be alone, always wanting to be with other people, even if they dont like those people. i am glad i dont have a fear of being on my own.

There is a gay meetup group that meets in soho every wednesday. I attend now and then, but not often. Even though sometimes the thought does occur to me to go there just to make some conversation with other gay guys.

They meet after 7pm which is another reason for me not going as i tend to like going in the daytime. But really it is just me not wanting to go as i realise the actual interactions are quite disastisfying. it is not the same as meeting up with close friends. People in the group come and go and as is usual when strangers meet for the first time or only occasionally there is a holding back and not wanting to confide or say too much about oneself.

Also,  i like to do it spontaneously, like just go to a coffee shop and see what turns up. in the past i did that, because there are the first gay coffeeshop (called firstout, rather appropriately) in soho and so we know we can meet other gay people there and they will be willing to chat.

now of course there are so many coffeeshops and they are all gay friendly, so there is no one place that concentrates all the gay people. haha. Also, many people who are in coffeeshops are busy looking down on their laptops and smartphones so you dont get anyone just looking around and catching other people’s eye and getting into conversation.

There was an article about london or uk being the loneliest place in that we have the lowest number of people saying they have someone they can rely on if they are in trouble. i think that is true because here in london even though we have neighbours all around us, we seldom meet them or even know them. some dont even know their neighbours enough to ask them to hold goods for them by the postman or courier. I think it is we want it that way.

I myself will take goods to keep for my neighbour across the landing in the flat opposite to mine;  and i did not wait to be asked, as i figured it is no trouble at all but i have to admit i dont know my neighbours at all. haha.

The wife once said to me oh u dont recognise me but u know my husband. haha. i cant help but think it is very true. i dont remember women, but also her husband is the one looking after their son and so i tend to see him more around the place.

even now i dont know his son’s name though i can see how much he has grown, and how fast it seems. from being a toddler in the pram, to a kid running around now. they do grow very fast, children I mean, and must make anyone observing them feel literally getting older. haha. 

my life is rather nice and worry free and since i am very contented with my present situation, i feel happy. There is not a lot of drama in my life. thank goodness.

I get my joy from eating my own cooking. there is a nice chicken curry cookng on the stove now made from malaysian curry powder and solid coconut cream which is real easy to make but taste just great. I dont know why people dont use curry powder instead of the bottled curry paste that is only enough for one dish. curry powder contains enough for maybe 6 or more meals. you only need 2 or 3 heaped spoonfuls. i use a bit, not a lot, of cardamon and aniseed to give it extra flavour. if u cook it yourself you can determine how much salt to add. i dont add any as i figure the curry powder allready will have some added.

simon knows that i dont have much salt in my dishes though this time he is not around to eat it as he is away in essex in his mother’s house for a few days off from his shift work. \

i am very glad i dont need to work. ONe of the greatest joys of life is not having to work.

I just read that bridesmaid pay for their outfit out of their own pocket. I have always thought the bride (or her parents)pays for it. what a strange  custom. so all those people with 6 or how ever many bridesmaid surrounding them got all of them for free. i thought u only need one bridesmaid, like pippa middleton acting as bridesmaid to her sister kate, during that royal wedding; and she is there to make sure the train is properly positioned and carried and to make sure her sister is looking fine. one bridesmaid is all that is needed so those with plenty i thought would pay for them. but it seems not so. That blog advised women to say no to being a bridesmaid if they cannot afford it. Well, if it were me, i would certainly say no to being a bridesmaid if i have to pay for the outfit myself. Not need to have someone give me that advise; but then i am a sensible gay man. 

 

 

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