Buddy Big-Balls

The new cat went to vet yesterday morning and was neutered. When I got home about 10pm last night, it was like nothing had happened except he was a bit sooky. This morning, it was as if nothing had happened. He was running and bouncing and jumping.

Anne was concerned at his activity. He’s supposed to resting and recovering. Anne phoned the vet and asked if he needed more sedation. No, was the answer, if he’s acting as if nothing happened, then that’s good. The vet mentioned that in all her years of neutering cats, she had never seen a cat with balls this big. He had balls the size of a dog. She was impressed.

His name has been expanded to Buddy Big-Balls. It’s an in memoriam thing.

Angry cat

There’s an angry cat in the house tonight. At midnight, we took away all water and food. We wiped down the sinks, we closed the toilets. No food or drink after midnight for this black cat. At 7am, he goes to the vet for a little operation. That will slow him down a little. But right now, he’s angry because he wants some water. It’s going to be a rough night for us, and a really rough day for him tomorrow.

Knife in foot

A small parcel arrived for me today. It’s a cd from swapacd.com. It’s badly wrapped with way too much tape. I’m cutting it open with a large steak knife. Yes, this is a foolish thing to do, but I’ve been doing it for years with no mishaps. I get angry at the excessive tape, I take a big slice at it, the blade catches in the tape, and the knife flies out of my hand, flips up and lands handle first on the table leaving a big ding in the table, and then lands point first in the top of my foot. It stands up in my foot, wobbles, then falls over. I’m standing in shock, and when the pain hits and the blood flows, bad words issue from me.

It punctured me to about three quarters of an inch. No tendons were cut, no real damage, just a big hole in my foot and a lot of blood. Next time, I’ll use something smaller to open the mail, and I’ll be more careful.

Hamlet

Another of the Metropolitan Opera’s HD Simulcasts. I haven’t seen this one before, haven’t even heard of it before. It’s from 1868, by Ambroise Thomas. A French opera. I was not expecting much. I was very surprised.

It started slow and deliberate. Simon Keenlyside played Hamlet, and he’s got an amazing baritone voice, but even more, he acted as he sung. Physically he looks like Daniel Craig. Most of the males in the opera were baritones or basses. Hamlet’s father had an incredible voice. Hamlet’s uncle Claudius (James Morris), who we saw several weeks in Simon Boccanegra, also has a great bass voice.

So it started slow, and slowly built up steam. Hamlet hired the mummers to stage the play within a play, and then the opera took off. The mummers acting out the death of Hamlet’s father was gripping enough, but when Hamlet leapt on the banquet table and started pouring blood-wine on himself and draping himself in the bloody tablecloth, it was riveting. I was breathless with shock for most of that scene. It’s the most intense scene of any opera I have ever seen.

After intermission, the opera continued without losing steam. Hamlet rejects Ophelia and then fights with his mother. Hamlet’s fight with his mother Gertrude (Jennifer Larmore) was gripping. The acting between the two principals was extraordinary. I’ve never seen anything like it before.

Ophelia gets upset, goes mad and lengthily kills herself. I don’t like the mad scene in Lucia di Lammermoor, and I was expecting to dislike this one too. Unfortunately, it was realistic and very disturbing. When Ophelia (Marlis Peterson) started cutting herself and the blood starting flowing, I was jolted. Harrowing is a good word for the mad scene in this production of Hamlet.

This scene was followed by an attempt to lighten the mood with the gravediggers, and I think the mood did not need lightening. It started grim, it got grimmer and it got really grim at the end. It did not need any attempts at lightening.

The crowd scenes going to the feast, and the gravediggers, showed the librettist had a fixation on wine. Wine is the answer to everything. Life is short and brutal, so drink wine and have some fun before you die. Bit of a fixation there, although I do think wine is the answer to a lot of problems.

The opera ended with death all round. Hamlet kills Ophelia’s brother and gets mortally wounded. Hamlet tosses Ophelia around before she can be buried. Hamlet’s father arrives again and reminds Hamlet that there’s more killing to do. Hamlet kills his uncle Claudius and then dies himself. Wow. The singing was powerful, the acting was superb, the opera was so intense. If this comes out on DVD, I will buy it. I want to see some scenes again. I might have to go to the encore performance at Lynnhaven.

The Met announced the operas in the next season. Eleven operas, and we have seen none of them. I am so happy the Met is doing this. If they are of the same quality as Hamlet, I will be very happy. And we get to see the first two operas in the Ring Cycle – Rheingold and Valkyrie.

Presenting… Basement Cat aka Buddy

This is Buddy. He’s so black he is very hard to photograph. And he is so active he will not hold still for photos. Well that’s usually, but for the two days after his shots, he didn’t move much, he was quiet, he was still, he was suffering. I took advantage of it.

He’s very long and very lean. When he stretches out on a couch, he will monopolise it.

This is about the best face you will see:

I can’t get the glowing eyes of Basement Cat, but I will keep trying.

And so it begins

I’ve watched Craigslist. I’ve looked for signs. I’ve asked around. No-one knows this cat. No-one wants this cat.

Anne went away for a few days and left me with him. He attached himself to me.

Anne came back and no decision has been made about the cat, but it’s pretty clear he lives here now. Anne took him to the vet today. He’s in perfect health. He is about 12 pounds, and between 1 and 2 years old. He’s entire, all there, un-nutted. He got bloodworks, he got his shots, he got checked. It will cost $100 to nut him.

The money flows out. And so it begins again…

Bardo Bizarre Foods Dinner #2

Bardo announced their second Bizarre Foods Dinner, and I booked. Anne was out of town, so I went on my own. It was not as challenging as the first one. Most of the food tonight was not that bizarre. Just a little bit.

We started with reindeer pate with toast points, house-made pickles, marbled egg and sweet red onion. I couldn’t work out if it was a really a terrine made from reindeer meat, or if it was pate made from reindeer liver. It had that funky liver taste, so more than likely it was liver. It was beautifully presented and looks great. Tasted great too.

Second course was octopus and scorpion soup. The broth was sharp, even fiery. The octopus came in large tender chunks. There were even some shrimp. And sitting on top was a moderately sized scorpion. I ate scorpion at the last Bizarre Foods dinner but this one was larger and much better prepared. Scorpion is crunchy and has a nice insect flavour. I ate the scorpion by itself, enjoyed it, and then ate the rest of the soup and that was delicious.

Third on the menu was Jellyfish over mixed greens topped with toasted leaf cutter ants and a sesame sherry vinaigrette. The jellyfish came in long thin strips, looking and tasting like a long wet strand of pasta. The mixed green salad was great, and the ants on top were as good as ever. I had them at the last one and they are a good sized ant, crunchy with a sweet nutty flavour. Very good.

Then we got to a more interesting item that was a little taxing for some of the other diners. Flatbread pizza with meal worms, crickets, roasted red pepper, feta cheese and red onion. One of the diners said “You could put feta on anything and roast it and it would taste good.” The big globule in the photo is roasted garlic. I tried the mealworms and they were tasteless. I tried the crickets and they were crunchy (obviously) and tasted good, just like grasshoppers and locusts. Once you put them on the pizza and added garlic and feta, you couldn’t taste them. I had a few more from the diner on the right who was reluctant to finish all hers, so I got a good tasting.

With each course, we got a cocktail and each cocktail was as special as the course. This one was a very tabasco Bloody Mary, with a slab of cucumber on top covered with marinated octopus chunks. You could eat it separately or drop it in the drink and get to it eventually. The octopus was so good I ate it all. I didn’t want to dilute the flavour by dropping it in the drink.

Then the palate cleanser – absinthe sorbet. Just like ouzo. Real absinthe, but made with weaker wormwood to avoid the hallucinations. There’s a restaurant in Portsmouth that serves absinthe, so I may have to go and try some. And one day, visit Spain or Portugal and try some made the old way with the hallucinogenic properties.

Then we had the main course – braised lambs head with roasted root vegetables and grasshopper cornbread. First, the cornbread was like most cornbread and dry and tasteless. I don’t like cornbread, with or without grasshoppers. The lamb came with the meat shredded from the skull. The skull was paraded later. Plain roasted lamb meat, with occasional funky flavours.

While we ate the lamb, our host was explaining the dish and the drink, and as a throwaway, he mentioned that the brains and eyeballs were back there if anyone wanted some. Hands went up at every table. I think he was a little surprised. But he graciously arranged for brains and eyeballs and everyone got a plate containing a slice of eyeball and a small chunk of lambs brains. Now when I was growing up, a regular breakfast was crumbed lambs brains with a sharp white sauce. Lambs brains are a childhood comfort food for me. I love them. I ate my plate with gusto. The diner on my right wasn’t willing to attempt it, so I got hers. Then her friend’s plate. And her companion’s plate. And then the kitchen brought me the last of the lambs brains. All in all, it wasn’t a lot of brains, but it was a goodly amount and I was very happy. It tasted great, but sadly, not as good as the crumbed lambs brains Mum used to make. So my memory tells me. The eyes were interesting, the flavour was more in the gravy than the flesh.

And then we come to our final course – dessert – the most challenging dish of the night. Chocolate covered Madagascar Hissing Cockroaches with raspberry creme brulee. It was very attractively presented. It also reminded me of the Monty Python sketch about the problem chocolates – frog crunch, spring surprise, etc.

Looks nice, doesn’t it? Raspberries in front, a lovely tasty creme brulee, and a large chocolate thing sticking up. You could cover anything in chocolate and some fool would eat it. Oh wait… that’s me. I turned my chocolate around and found that it hadn’t sealed. You can see the little fellow’s thorax and some leg in there.

I laughed, I bit down and it was like one of those chocolates with a liqueur centre. All you could taste was chocolate. Like I said, you could coat anything in chocolate and someone would eat it.

I had to laugh at one thing about the meal. For a very long time, I have been photographing memorable meals. This is the first meal where my food photography did not raise eyebrows. No-one noticed. Everyone else was too busy photographing their own meals. I blame the rise of small digital cameras and the recent popularity of food shows like Top Chef.

And that was the Bardo Bizarre Food Dinner #2. They will probably have one a year. Last year’s was quite challenging, including balut, hundred year egg, chicken and duck feet, testicles, bull’s pizzle, scorpions and ants. This one was tame by comparison. But one thing both of them had was food that was different but tasted great. We often go out to a meal and choose from a very limited set of options and because it’s familiar, we eat it without paying much attention to it. Eating bizarre foods forces you to focus on the taste and the texture and the nature of the food. You don’t take it for granted. And they challenge your prejudices. I prefer ants and crickets and scorpions to cockroaches, but if I was stuck, I know I could and would eat anything at all to survive. And how to prepare it nicely.

Rowing sacrifices

Early Saturday morning rowing. I get there early, and we have 10 people show. That’s a full coxed eight and one left over. Everyone is eager to row. I look around at all the bright happy faces, and I think about the admonition to stay off the water a bit longer and give the stitches a rest, and I make the sacrifice. I sit out and let them go out. I hung around and pottered at the boathouse till they came back, and they looked good. We had one of our most experienced rowers stroking and willing to coach, so it was great for everyone to get out and get a solid training session. I regret not doing it myself, but hey, they enjoyed it and my stitches get a break.

Alone again, naturally

Anne’s gone to South Carolina for a few days conference. I am alone again, and can party. But wait, I have a cat now. I have to make provision for the cat. I have to be responsible. Sigh.

Changes to eyes

I continued with the health checks. Yesterday a skin growth was removed. Today it’s an eye checkup. Some mornings I wake up and the whole world is blurry and I have trouble focusing. Maybe it’s a hangover? But it’s time for my regular eye checkup, and wonder of wonders, my eyes have not changed in the last two years. So little change that it’s not worth getting new glasses or new lenses. I’m happy with that. The deterioration is slow.