We forgot to tell you...

When we tried the French Onion Soup and it didn't come out quite right, we made some more scones to make up for it.  And we put Cherries in them!!!  These were YUMMY!!!

I also just changed the visitors map thing as there seemed to be a problem with it.  So, that starts again!!

Movie Review - "The China Syndrome"

Movie review number 12!

PLOT

This movie stars Jack Lemmon, Jane Fonda and an extremely young Michael Douglas.  Jane Fonda is a TV newsreader (news anchor) that reads silly stories about funny things that happen but wants to read "serious" news stories about politics and stuff.  Michael Douglas is an independant camera man that occasionally goes out to record news stories with Jane F doing the reporting.  Jack Lemmon is a techie type chap that works at a nuclear power plant in California, USA.  Jane and Michael get sent over to the nuclear power plant one day to record a piece about how "safe" nuclear power plants are and how they work.  While at the plant, an "incident" happens (minor earthquake) which triggers a series of problems at the power plant due to faulty machinery.  Michael records what happens on his camera without anyone noticing - then back at the TV studio, edits it all into a really good news story about how unsafe nuclear power plants are!!  HOWEVER, when the chief of the TV station sees the footage, he locks it away in his office safe saying it was recorded without permission and no-one's allowed to use it!!
Meanwhile the nuclear power people are having a Big Public Forum nearby because they want to open another power plant, the power plant have an internal enquiry about what happened and Jack Lemmon discovers the machinery was faulty....!!  Jane and Michael persuade Jack to help blow the whistle on the power plant at the Big Public Forum..... but someone's out to stop him!!!!  GASP!  Jack evades them by going to the nuclear power plant (the other guys can't get in there) and then gets Jane and Michael to come and interview him there.  The power plant owners are trying to stop that happening....... will the story come out before Jack Lemmon gets shot???
Movie Trivia - 12 days after this movie was released, the Three Mile Island nuclear accident happened, almost identical to the incident shown in the movie!

RECOMMENDED
Yeah, this is a brilliant movie!!!

SCORE

Beanie gives this 9.5 squeaks out of 10!!

RECOMMENDED SCOOBY SNACKS

Wobbly jelly with lemon sorbet on top!

Beanie tried cooking French Onion soup in England.

 A few weeks ago, we had a go at making another soup - French Onion soup!!  The recipe we got said to get one kilo of onions, 50g of slightly salted butter, Gruyere Cheese, 2 teaspoons of plain flour and a thing called Ba-Get.  Apparently that's french for "French Bread".  See?  You learn stuff here!

Oh, and you also need Vegetable stock - we used another veggie Oxo cube in 1.2 litres of water.

 First of all, we have to peel all the onions and chop off the end bits.

 Then we had to chop up the onions into little bits.  I'm good at doing that, you know!!

 Then you take 50g of the butter and heat it up in a big saucepan.

 then you put in all the onions - you need to cook them until they do something called "Reduce down" to something like 20% of the size of when they're raw.  They need to go brown and go caramelised.

 Then we got another pan for the water and dissolved the oxo cube in it.

 We kept stirring the onions....

and stirred them some more.  They're going down a bit - that must be the reducing!  Not brown yet though.

 Whilst Andrea was stirring, I sliced up the Ba-get.  I'm good at speaking French you know.  I can ask for French Bread now!!  "Ooon Ba-Get See Voo Play" - see!!!

 Then I grated up some of the Gruyere cheese to melt on the Ba-Get later on.

 Still stirring and reducing.... this bit takes ages and we were getting hungry now.

 Oh!  That's sort of brown ish...!

 This is taking MONTHS!!!!

 At this point, we were so hungry we were practically eating the wooden stirring spoon - so we gave up caramellising the onions, and poured in the veggie stock!!  We added 2 teaspoons of flour and stirred that in and then added some salt and pepper.

 Then, we grilled two slices of the Ba-Get under the grill, turned them over and put some of the grated Gruyere Cheese on top and then melted it.

Then, we ladelled out some of the hot soup into one of our new soup bowls, and dunked in the two slices of toasted cheesey slices and ate it.  I think I like the Borscht soup we made - French Onion Soup takes forever to make.  Best off having it in a restaurant!!!

Random photos....

 This was seen at a bus stop in town....

 These next ones are of the back garden taken from my living room window.  I don't have access to the back garden but I get to see all the triffids sprouting flowers!!!

 Cornflowers....

 Brian bugging me for food!!!

And this was seen in a garden up the road!!

Another postcard book!!

 This is another one of those postcard books I've been making!!  I have five of these now!!

I really like getting postcards from people...!

Movie Review - "Godfather Part 1"

Movie number 11!!

PLOT

This movie stars Marlon Brando and an extremely young Al Pacino in it!!  Marlon plays the head of an Italian American family (the Godfather of the title) and the movie starts at his daughter's wedding.  Al Pacino brings his girlfriend to the wedding, and explains his family "business" to her but says he has no involvement with the business.  As the story progresses, various illegal activities are brought into the story, including "persuading" a movie director to give a good movie part to a not so good actor.  The director's favourite horse has its' head chopped off and put into his bed (while he's sleeping in the bed!) as a little push to make the "right decision".  Later in the movie, Marlon get shot down in the street in an assassination attempt and gets taken to hospital, supposedly with Police protection to stop another assassination attempt. Except the Police are corrupt and take bribes!!!!!  So, the rest of the family decide to put a hit on the chief of Police, and Al Pacino, who up till now has had nothing to do with "family business" agrees to shoot the Chief of Police!!  He has to then escape to Italy for A Long Time, to avoid going to prison!!!  While in Italy, he gets married to a local girl but she gets blown up in a car bomb intended for him!!!!!  OH NO!  Al Pacino then returns to America to rejoin his family, and hooks up with the girlfriend he left behind (the one he went to the opening wedding with).  Meanwhile, there's a few more family assassinations, and the girl that got married at the start of the movie, her new husband beats her up.  Marlon Brando, although surviving the assassination attempt, dies in old age of a heart attack amongst the tomato plants while playing with his grandson.

RECOMMENDED
Although gory in places, this is a really good movie!!!

SCORE

Beanie gives this 9 squeaks out of 10!!

RECOMMENDED SCOOBY SNACKS

Sausage rolls, hot!!

Updated cable boxes

This is my entry for Seth's "Buried Treasure 2013" blog hop.  It's a collection of grafitti painted telephone cable boxes in my home town in UK, added to over the last couple of years.  Enjoy....!

 Brighton Festival, May 2013

 These three found in Brighton during May 2013

Giraffe seen at Brighton Pier, May 2013

 We found this one on 11th May 2013!

 Seen on 5th May 2013 in Brighton!!

 These ones we found in Brighton town centre in April 2013!

OK, so this is the updated cable box grafitti art with all the boxes together, starting with the Piranha Fish!!!  RAAHHHRRR!

We found loads more graffitti'd cable boxes recently!!!  First of all, this new kitty one.....

Then a new Christmassy one....

And a new cassette one......

And a new blue Meanie one....!

But he might be a yeti, I'm not sure.....

We found some more grafitti'd cable boxes!! These three are the sides and front of a new alligator 

And these two are next to each other and "join up" to make "23"!! 

 Well, first post of 2013, and it's the updated grafitti'd cable box collection!  The first three were from my last walk around town in December....... and I've spotted some more new ones since!!

 This is the side shot of the Christmas tree below......

We found another three grafitti'd cable boxes recently - two more badgers (they used to be the Blue Meanies posted lower down) and another cassette lord!

We spotted five more grafitti'd cable boxes recently, so have now made a point of photographing them!!

We start with a Blue Meanie.

These are special buses called "The Big Lemon" that run out to the University.  They work on cooking oil instead of petrol!!!

Another Blue Meanie.... They painted this over the Dino Rox Box.  George is Very Upset.

This one's the newest, I think.  It's a Lemur!!

Here are some more cable box thingies that I found in the last couple of months that have been decorated!

at the time of posting (4th Sept 2012) I've spotted another three new ones that I need to go photograph!!

This badger and monkey are next to each other!!

That's the last of the current "new batch"!!

We found the above and the badger back in May 2012. 

The ones after the badger was the start of the collection!!!

 While we've been walking around over the last couple of weeks, we've spotted some decorated electric/telephone cable boxes!!!!!  So we've started a new photo collection!!

 This one has a portrait on it!!!

 And this one is a snowman!!!!!  And he doesn't melt in the sun either!!!

 The side had a happy christmas message on it!!

 Hmmmm....

 I think this one's my favourite!!!  We see this one from the bus when we go to work!!!

I think they made this one specially for George and Dilly!!!

 Numbers, as well....

And a scarey monster too!!

Found in Poole Valley, Brighton in February 2011

This lady was found in near Churchill Square on July 22nd 2012

 This is a new grafitti box that I walk past on the way to work!!!  Found in Brighton in April 2012

And this one, after the Dino Rox Box, is my favourite!!