Last: November 2004
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December 30, 2004
slow days
Managing to relax far too well.
Most of my family came over for Christmas (only missed my brother, his wife, and my aunt and uncle in Hawaii). I hope I managed to show that Helsinki is, well, just a really nice place to live. We also got a true white Christmas, which was a first in my memory. Thanks to all for presents, including my Secret Santa.
I can now direct music to play on either my computer, in my living room, or in the kitchen, thanks to another Airport Express and an iPal. Truly we are living in the future.
Cooked Christmasish dinner (on Boxing Day), which seemed to go down well. Blumenthal's carrots worked out very well, but the mash was a let down, for me anyway. I have had Robuchon's pommes pureé at his restaurant in Paris, and these weren't quite up to that. I put in less butter (Robuchon allegedly uses a ratio of 2:1 potato to butter), and I'm also a bit hampered in butter and potato choice here.
Thanks to a couple of presents, and a Christmas hoarding of alcohols, from strong to frou-frou, I'm back experimenting with cocktails. The Craft of the Cocktail, by Dale DeGroff is really a fantastic book, with sound recipes, cocktail history and intrigue, and some view on the running of a real cocktail bar. DeGroff is one of my cocktail icons, along with Dick Bradsell. Current favourites are a Blood & Sand, and the Monkey Gland (English style). It's a pity that Class magazine changed hands - it really was groundbreaking in the UK. Some of the original team now publish the Sauce guides... however, I miss Dick's monthly column (some insights here).
Really, however, all I should be saying is give give give.
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December 19, 2004
one of those weekends
A fast-acting cold descended on Friday; much sleeping and cotton wool thinking.
Laptop has a hard disk failure, I think.
Dark days for Bittorrent.
Slightly homesick.
last.fm thinks I like Electric Light Orchestra.
On the other hand:
Watch arrives.
Jimi Tenor rocked.
Snowing again.
Reece's Peanut Butter Cups.
Brusque post office woman finally wishes me a good weekend and offers me a sweet.
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December 08, 2004
resident
After 6 months of waiting (including a month of my own slackness), 6 hours of queueing, 4 forms, and 72 euros, I am now a permanent resident of Finland.
