Eat Your Carrots

Ochis

We went to Ochis Caribbean & Mediterranean restaurant tonight. There's enough on the menu for vegetarians to make it interesting for us, though a fair few of the vegetarian options are Mediterranean rather than Caribbean (things like Garlic Mushrooms, Gnocchi Alla Genovese and Penne Pasta). We tried to go Caribbean wherever possible.

For starters we had Ackee, Callaloo & cho cho crepes. Those are three types of Caribbean vegetable, the Callaloo being like spinach and the others being like nothing else I've ever had. Delicious.
This is most definitely not vegetarian. It is the "Boonoonoos" Kebab, where boonoonoos apparently means "something special". It had a bit of everything; chicken, lamb, beef and king prawns along with some vegetables and a honey & tamarind sauce. I'm assured that it was delicious.
Caribbean Curry - a variety of vegetables cooked in a spicy curry sauce that had a definite "taste of the Caribbean". I had the Rasta Pasta, which was a fusion of Italian meets Caribbean, being Penne cooked with a colourful variety of vegetables in a spicy and somehow fruity sauce. It was quite unusual and very very tasty. I took side dishes of plantain and rice & peas too, despite there being enough here already. I can't resist making a pig of myself. But at least we didn't do deserts!
Service was a little on the slow side, but we didn't mind, we were in no hurry. Decor was subtle and contemporary and the music was a suitable mixture of "world music". The music was, however, repetitive. I think we heard everything about 3 time during our 2 hours in there.
Starter, Main course, side dish and 2 drinks came to £16 per head, so by no means expensive. I thoroughly enjoyed the meal, the ambiance and of course the company.

Ochis, 30-32 Bondgate, Darlington, Co Durham
01325 282675
8 out of 10

Cute Kitties

Here are some cats that we saw on our holiday in Rhodes & Symi. The cats there are by-and-large gorgeous, I could have brought any of them home with me if not for the 6 month quarantine period and the fact that Charley likes to have us to himself.
We never knew Charley as a kitten, but we imagine he looked something like this little guy, who was in the Rhodes Animal Welfare people. They do good work - if you see them, have a chat to them and leave them some money.
These cats weren't under the care of the animal welfare people, but were being fed daily by some kindly soul. There was quite a pride of cats here, on the harbour jetty by the windmills, and they had a very definite "pecking order".
Quite a few cats & kittens that we saw were a strange sort of "black & tan" mixture that I've never seen at home. Years and years of random cross breeding I guess. This fella's a typical example.
This was a very friendly cat who liked to roly-poly in the sunshine and looked very cute and appealing. I didn't stroke her tummy though (like Charley likes me to) as I feared I might lose my hand. You never know with these strays!
This one was in the same general area as the previous two, just off Dorieos Square. Another one with a very friendly and appealing face, and not looking particularly undernourished!
Sitting regally atop a flight of steps, basking in the last of the day's sunshine, this one was outside the museum of fine arts in the old town.
The resident stray at Oasis taverna in Dorieos square, our favourite square and our favourite taverna in the old town. We fed her on cubes of cheese that were supposed to be one of our mezze dishes. We didn't get much of it ourselves.
This stray we named "Queenie". She was always around the area of our apartment on Symi, along with her six (yes, six) kittens. She's done a good job of raising them and they were all strong and healthy, though Queenie herself was looking a bit old and tatty. Still very, very cute though, quite vocal and very friendly.
One of Queenie's kittens. They were all very friendly and because i fed them all every day I eventually had a pile of kittens all curled up around my feet whenever I went out to sit on the terrace. Bliss indeed.

Can We Play You Every Week?

Middlesbrough 0 Sunderland 2
Sunderland finally got a Premiership win that sees them move off the bottom of the table. Hopefully it will also instill confidence for future games and not serve to be simply a "flash in the pan".
It was especially sweet to beat local rivals, though no Sunderland supporter would call this a "derby match". For that we have to wait until October. Apparently we played well (according to sister, I didn't dare to watch), though that is probably comparative to how poorly Middlesbrough seem to have played.
Boro beat Arsenal last week, so by logical conclusion we too are better than Arsenal and will therefore finish in a Champions League position.
You may call me a dreamer...

The News As It Happens

There was an article on the news this morning about the JetBlue plane that had to make an emergency landing at LAX. One of the things that struck me was that the landing was shown live on American TV. To quote the TV news report "the nation held its breath as they watched the plane touch down on live TV".
Is it all OK with you that they show stuff like this live? It strikes me as being ever so slightly sick. I'm all for "the news as it happens", but that doesn't mean we have to have the pictures beamed into our living rooms, especially when it could mean witnessing the deaths of 100s of people. Even more bizarrely, because the plane had seat-back TVs, the passengers were able to watch their own plight on live TV. I guess it helped to fill the time (3 hours) while they circled LAX burning off fuel. How cruel is that, knowing that in 3 hours you may die of be seriously injured, and just having to pass the time waiting for it to happen.
To add to the sensationalism that infects most journalism these days, the news report that I watched said that "the plane was engulfed in flame and smoke as it touched down". That was rubbish. There were some smoke, sparks and a small plume of flame from the broken wheel. At no time did it "engulf the plane".
Whatever happened to just reporting the facts?

Glory, Glory Durham

Well, football's so bad at the moment I think I'll just blog about cricket instead.
Durham achieved their goal of promotion to the top rank of both cricket leagues this weekend, one quite comfortably and one thanks to the dependable North Eastern weather. As an added bonus their young bowling star Liam Plunkett has been added to the England one-day squad for the forthcoming tour of Pakistan. Together with Harmison & Collingwood that makes 3 Durham players in the squad.
Quite an achievement I'd say.

Cats In High Places

Before we could move the furniture into the conservatory we had to stash it in the living room. Everything was piled up, as space was at a premium. We should have known that the highest point would be the most attractive place for Mr. C. Cat.
I had to include this picture of him asleep on our bedside table too. The cat's just too damned cute for his own good. It will get him into serious trouble with the cute police one day.

All Finished

The conservatory is finished at last. James the tiler worked like a trojan on Friday and we moved the furniture in on Saturday. It's lovely. It's an oasis of warmth, light and tranquility. A great place to sit and read, relax and drink wine. We have lived in there all weekend.
Money well spent, without a doubt.

We're So Bad It's Unbelievable

So Sunderland at last won a point in the Premier league, at the 6th attempt. One good thing is that it shuts up people who talk about our "20 match losing streak" (which includes the final part of our last stay in the Premier League). I guess now they'll just start talking about however many matches it is since we last won there.
We really need to get that win. With every game that goes on the pressure grows and grows, and it was the pressure that got to us yesterday. We took to desperately defending our lead with still a good portion of the game to go. That's always bad news, and it's even worse news when it's us, with our recent history of letting in last minute crucial goals. So it was almost inevitable when West Brom equalised in the 3rd minute of injury time.
It's hard to say if we deserved to win. It was a poor game, more like a Championship game than a Premier - hardly surprising given the two teams, probably the worst two in the league. Our only real chance was the goal, as was theirs. In between a lot of huffing and puffing, with just the odd bit of genuinely good football.
I think our side is one of the worst I've seen in Sunderland colours, potentially worse than the one that got relegated with a record low points haul 3 years ago. Far from strengthening last year's Championship winning side McCarthy has decimated it with a plethora of sub standard signings. This is nowhere more obvious than up front where his two summer signings, Gray and Stead, have never threatened the goal in 6 outings (barring Gray's tap in from a rebound in the first game). Why he didn't pool the cash he spent on these two wastes of space and buy an at least half decent striker to play along with last season's marksmen of Elliott & Brown is beyond me. Last year Elliott was an outstanding performer, and one to watch for the future. This year he's a shadow of himself, playing 3rd fiddle and out of position.
Midfield lacks creativity and penetration too - Tommy Miller... why is he here? Starting with Miller is like starting with 10 men. He's never involved in anything and one of his strengths is supposed to be "getting forward into the box". Never seen it happen. His old team mate from Ipswich, 'keeper Kelvin Davies, is useless too. He may be a good shot stopper (though judging by the Geremi effort he let under his body last week, even that is doubtful) but he's useless in the air and doesn't command his area. He can't even line up a wall at free kicks (beaten by two curlers so far this season, and now relying on Stubbs to line up the wall!). We had two excellent and experienced (international!) keepers already (Poom and Myrhe) but have let them both go. It's another example of weakening rather than strengthening the team.
Plus points? At the back Nosworthy, Stubbs and Hoyte look solid, in fact they look excellent, making Breen the weak point of the back four (and Breen is captain, despite not being a leader on the field. It's time the job went to Stubbs). But despite being quite good at the back, you can't expect to hold on forever under a constant onslaught (and especially in front of a dodgy keeper). And it's doubly difficult when you can's score at the other end. I expect a lot of narrow defeats and battling draws in the coming season. And very few victories.
I'm just waiting for it to be over. For May to arrive, so that we can start it all again back in the Championship. If McCarthy is still with us, maybe he's have learned from the experience of what will and won't work at Premier level. And maybe he'll have learned that strengthening a squad means bringing in better players, not just more players.

Charley @ Home

We've been home just over a week now. I've been quiet on the blog as I've

1. Been rather busy
2. Been rather ill (I even had a day off work and a visit to the doctor's). Nothing serious, just a cold and a bad arm - I think I strained something lifting all those cocktails on holiday.

Lots to say about Symi & Rhodes and a few pictures to show, all in good time. Also I have to blog about our family outing to Locomotion last weekend, again, all in good time. For the moment I just want to talk about Charley.
He seems none the worse for his stay in the cattery, except he seems to scratch himself a bit more than usual, so maybe he picked up a flea or two. I'll powder him tomorrow.
He's really happy to see us though. Since we got back he's become very vocal and very "rolly polly". Every time he sees us, even if it was only 10 minutes since the last time, he wowls happily and rolls around on his back for a tummy tickle. He's even slept in the bedroom for 3 or 4 nights, something he'd gotten out of the habit of before we went away. For some reason though he's scared of the bathroom. If I carry him in there he trots out again at a brisk pace (he doesn't run, just trots quickly out). I don't know what's brought that on, all I can think is that it's where the cases were kept before we went away, and it gives him bad memories.
Are cats that clever?

Durham's Ashes

So the dust has settled on a fine Ashes victory over Australia. From a local point of view it was very satisfying to see no fewer than three Durham lads dismissing Aussies in the course of the series. For one of the smaller counties, and the newcomer to "major league" cricket by a country mile, to achieve this is pretty good I think. To have even one player playing regularly for England would be good, but we have two now and hopefully more on the way.
One of the nice things about cricket that football used to have but lost years ago is that the players are predominantly from the local area. So Durham v Yorkshire is pretty much what it says on the tin, not  France v The Rest Of The World, like when Arsenal play virtually anyone else in the Premier league. It's great that now cricketers from this region can represent their country without first having to leave the area to gain recognition.
Durham have gained promotion this year from the second division of the one day league, and will hopefully match that with promotion from the four day league too - achievements built to a large extent without their two international regulars. Such is the nature of cricket - I can't see Alex Ferguson being keen on losing Wayne Rooney for 75% of the season because of international duties.
Congratulations to England and Durham.