Lie meme

unblinkered tagged me to tell you five statements about myself. However one is to be a lie and the game is to guess which one.

1. The last thing I did before travelling to Durham to start university was visit my mother who was critically ill in hospital.

2. I got lost in the Rockies and had to make an emergency bivouac.

3. I played MacHeath in a student production of The Threepenny Opera.

4. I have done sound for an open air concert in the piazza at Covent Garden.

5. I have had someone hand me his resignation written on a torn off corner of a paper sack. The guy cut his wrists later that day.

No tags. Play if you feel like it.

Thoughts on the first four days of the test match

It's good to see Collingwood, Bell and Cook in the runs even if the manner of getting them was somewhat unconvincing.

What has happened to England's seamers? They bowled some very good stuff but the line and length was all over the shop. Brian Statham would have been having kittens.

Jones failed again, click, Jones failed again, click ad infinitum.

Collingwood's catch. Wow, just wow!

Mohammed Youssof's innings. As good a piece of batting as I have ever seen.

When will the English teach their spinners how to spin? Every team we play against has one or two guys who make the ball turn at right angles. It looks like a different pitch when our guys get on. That said I think Monty will take more wickets than the wheelie bin ever did and Pietersen looks quite promising.

What were Strauss and Fletcher thinking this evening? 55 runs in 19.3 overs after Bell got out at a time when England should have been looking to push on and set the Pakistanis a target. There seems to be an avoid losing at all costs mentality with England. It was farcical in the 'A' game at Canterbury and it's looking pretty gutless in this match.

This weekend's culinary experiment

This weekend's experiment was pozole thus continuing the Mexican theme. It's a weird sort of dish. I boiled 500g of already peeled pozole/hominy until the kernels started to burst (almost four hours!). I simmered 1kg of hand of pork until it was ready to fall apart and then stripped the meat from the skin and bones. I seeded and deveined a couple of Chile Mulato and cooked them in some of the pork stock and mashed them to a paste. The cooked pozole was drained and mixed with the meat and chile paste and a bit of the pork stock. I simmered that for another hour or so and then salted it. It's served in bowls with tostadas and chopped white onion, chopped radish, salsa picante and lime wedges to be added to taste. It's actually pretty good.