Note to self: diary up events of the week for CV purposes. AH HA use for blog.

confidentiality, schmonfidentiality (I don't mean that)

You kids and your weird phrasing. I would never guess I'm nearly a lawyer.

Note: I'm not actually a dog.

One mustn't ask apple trees for oranges,
France for sun, women for love,
life for happiness.
-- Gustave Flaubert --

Donc aujourd'hui, deux séries de photos, sur deux endroits totalement différents, mais toujours dans la lignée des endroits que l'on voit peu. La première série a été prise dans les catacombes de Paris, une visite que je conseille à tout Parisien. Comme la tour Eiffel ou les grands musées de Paris, c'est un endroit trop souvent ignoré, et c'est bien dommage.

Les deux photos représentes les deux aspects différents des catacombes, d'un côté l'ossuaire, de l'autre les galeries creusées à même la roche, qui font plus penser à des tunnels de carrière qu'à des catacombes.

La deuxième série de photos est toute simple dans son sujet, comme dans sa prise de vue, ce sont les rues de Paris, la nuit, tard, vide de monde et de lumière. Pour les deux photos les sujets sont de surprenantes compositions de lumière sur lesquelles je suis tombé lors de mes promenades nocturnes. J'espère que vous les apprécierez autant que moi!

NJRC = National Junior Robotics Competition. I was in it from 2003 to 2005, it is a Lego robotics competition held in Singapore, what you see here is a robot from the open category [non-lego]. more inform about it can be found on my blog.

Boarding the Staten Island Ferry, official cruise line of the Boat Leagues, in downtown Manhattan.

On the Staten Island side: the view from the promenade that leads to the ballpark. All game long, enormous freighters like this one pass through the waters just beyond the right-field fence.

Like so.

Richmond County Bank Ballpark holds more than 7,000 fans, but I guess people were having a hard time getting off work for this lazy early-September afternoon game. Attendance was officially tallied at 1,568, but that sounded like a stretch to me. Apparently the next night, the final regular-season game (in which the Yanks pounded Hudson Valley 17-5) was a 7,171-strong sell-out. (Pictured here: Yankee RHP Daniel Kapela, who would—SPOILER ALERT—earn the win today.)

But it was a good game, with the usual merriments to keep fans entertained between innings. Here, Scooter the Holy Cow is defeated by a little kid in the tug of war.

And here, better still, a man battled his son (not pictured) head-to-head to determine who could pull off a better dance to "The Dance of the Sugarplum Fairies." This guy won. Click on the image. It's worth it, I promise you.

But for me, the best part of this game was sitting with these guys behind home plate. Diehard SI fans, they were heckling for nine straight innings—loudly talking junk to each other, the players, and the umpires, whom they knew by name. (Apparently the home-plate ump is an NBA ref in the off-season.) To me, their closeness and love of the game was not only what Bus Leagues fandom is all about: It was what New York City baseball fandom should be, and once was, about. With the new $1.3 gazillion Yankee Stadium and its hundred-dollar tickets, there just aren't as many real fans on the major-league level anymore. They're here, in Staten Island.

And, perhaps tellingly, their team is doing better than the major-league Bombers. With this afternoon's 4-2 victory, the Staten Island Yankees clinched a playoff berth. Switch-throwing bullpen phenom Pat Venditte pitched a perfect ninth for his 23rd save of the year, quite a feat in a two-month-long season.

My scorebook.

Thanks, Scooter. See you next year.

But one thing that I know i'm not good at because I've never really tried to learn, is photography.   It's pretty ridiculous that I know literally nothing about photography, because I'm friends with alot of really great photographers.  Sean, John, Steph, and Andy to name a few of many.

So I guess what I'm saying is, Friends - I would like to be schooled.

Green Lentils and Rice.

I was looking through my cookery books this afternoon for a nice rice recipe, one that could incorporate green lentils and green chillies, I had some ready to be picked in the greenhouse.

Also known as continental lentils, green lentils retain their shape and colour when cooked.

INGREDIENTS:

Serves 4~6

• 350g / 12 oz patna rice (I used basmati)
• 175g / 6oz green split lentils
• 50g / 2oz ghee (I used ground nut oil)
• 1 Onion, finely chopped
• 2 garlic cloves, crushed
• 2.5cm / 1in piece ginger, shredded (I grated mine)
• 4 fresh green chillies, chopped (I only used one, 4 would blow our heads off :-)
• 4 cloves
• 2.5cm / 1in piece cinnamon stick
• 4 green cardamom pods
• 5ml / 1 tsp Turmeric
• salt to taste
• 600ml / 1 pint Water.

METHOD:

1. Wash the rice and lentils, then soak them in a bowl of cold water for 20 minutes.
2. Gently heat the ghee in a large heavy pan with a tight fitting lid and fry the onion, garlic, ginger, chillies, cloves, cinnamon, cardamoms, turmeric and salt until the onion is soft and translucent.
3. Drain the rice and lentils, add to the spices; saute for 2-3 minutes.   Add the water and bring to the boil.   Reduce the heat, cover and cook for about 20-25 minutes or until all the water has been absorbed.
4. Take the pan off the heat and leave to rest with the lid on for 5 minutes, Just before serving gently toss the mixture with a flat spatula.

Recipe courtesty of  the book "Complete Indian Cooking" ISBN0-7548-1490-4

Poncey-Highland