Mental Trackmarks

A few days ago I made a delicious roast chicken which every one in my family liked I did most of it on my own but I got help from my mom she handled the chicken but I did the rest.
recipe for the roast chicken:
Ingredients
1.5 kg chicken
1 tbsp of olive oil
1 tsp salt
1 tsp pepper

1. preheat oven to 200′C ( 400′F
2. smear chicken all over with olive oil +rub with salt and pepper
3. place chicken in roasting pan
4. roast for 1 1/2 hours baste every 20 minutes until golden brown
5. to test if the chicken is cooked: stick a fork into the wing if the juices run clear,NOT PINK, it is all cooked.

if you like this way of cooking chicken leave me a comment and tell me

I got a new iPod yesterday. It is pink and I like it a lot! We needed a new way for me to listen to music because I was using Mom’s iPhone and this was not working well because Mom needed her phone and also the ear phones were broken, well at least one was and the other was getting fainter and fainter.

Today I am going to try to get The Sound of Music soundtrack put on my iPod. Daddy put Lou Bega, and lots of other albums on it already. I can use the iPod now. Last night I was having a hard time with the volume, but I have it working now.

That was fast. Three out of the four of us have come down with a rather nasty cold. Everybody is barking like herd of lovelorn elephant seals in the December. We did manage to get into Ballina to do some shopping. I got new underwear. Something a person may not consider on a trip is the wear and tear on the few pairs of underwear that one takes. Today, to me, getting new underwear is a big deal.

We also lost an iPhone recently. The biggest effect that this has had on us is that one of the girls was having a more difficult time listening to music when everybody went to sleep. We also bought a new older model iPod at a small store in Ballina and both girls are resting happily with their own music.

Because of the aches and sneezes we did very little other than read and eat. Not the worst thing that can happen. It is an incredible luxury to have the option. As a “present” to the girls for coming out to Ballina we found a four-euro movie by Walt Disney that featured The Rock and was every bit as bad as it sounds. Both girls enjoyed watching it and this gave Jan and I some time to go to bed and nap. Apparently we are not above plugging our kids into a television to allow us to get some sleep. I am not proud of this; I am just better rested.

On the other hand, we are reading Wintersmith by Terry Pratchett at the moment and Janet and Robin are taking turns reading aloud for each other and anybody else who wants to listen. Anne Frank’s diary is also on the reading list. It is quite long but the girls are about halfway through it. Unless there is a major change in the “not feeling well” crowd I am anticipating a very similar day for tomorrow.

In Ireland there are many folk tales see Not Inspired By Walt Disney by Gordie Noye

I am writing about The dullahan which is a fairy that rides a horse and holds his head with his hand. He is headless, but he carries his head with him. He whips his horse with a human spine and calls out the name of someone who is about to die.

The dullahan comes out near Irish feasts days especially the end of August and the first of September. He only comes out at midnight. If you don’t want the dullahan to get you, an artifact of gold may frighten him away. Even so much as a gold coat pin falling on the ground is enough to frighten him away.

The most common feast for the dullahan to come out is the Crom Dubh. There is a story of a man who saw the dullahan himself calling out the name of a man about to die. Here is some more information about the dullahan.

When we go to Waterpoint we have to wear a bathing cap. I did not like this idea in the beginning but Mom said “If you want to go swimming, you have to wear a bathing cap!”. So I wear a bathing cap. I like the huge water slide that goes outside the building and back inside to end. It starts inside too.

To get into Waterpoint you have to write your name and membership number and if you are going to the pool, the gym, or both. I can’t go into the gym yet because I am not 16. You also have to be 16 to go into the hot tub or the sauna.

I am swimming at the pool as well as playing. I like the pool and especially the water slide.

I had known that, in Ireland, fairies are common. Let me rephrase that; people take fairies (at least somewhat) seriously. I would never have believed this except for a conversation we had this morning with the lady that manages and is the caretaker of the house in which we are staying. She dropped over this morning to tell us that today is garbage day and explain how garbage pickup works in this neck of the woods. The short form is that you must pay to have garbage picked up because you must pay for the bags and the waste-disposal services will only collect the special bags.

That has nothing to do with fairies. The topic of fairies came up in the subsequent conversation over a piece of Robin’s carrot cake (there was unanimous agreement on its deliciousness). We began talking about the beauty of the land in this area–it is among the most beautiful places in Ireland with its mountains, beaches, and rolling hills. It is also littered with falling down castles and archeological artifacts. There are formations nearby that are thousands of years old and predate Stonehenge.

In the course of our discussion, as casual as you please, our caretaker mentions that there were a couple of sites just beyond her backyard about five minutes away. Yeah, and every once in a while a bunch of them archeologists drop by and sometimes tourists to take look at them. Turns out they are large communal circles inside which groups of family would live. But, for years, people believed they were fairy mounds (fairy forts) and never touched them.

She was dead serious. These mounds existed because no farmer would farm the area and disturb the rocks. Nobody would build there. nobody would even go and play there. This was a place where the fairies lived and it was not to be disturbed. These mounds were left virtually untouched for all those years (from late Iron Age to early Christian times) until now because people were afraid of messing with fairies. This is no namby-pamby set of beliefs. And these are not your Disney fairies either.

Instead of doing a lot of my school work today I spent a couple of hours looking up Irish folklore and fairies. As one might imagine, the history of fairies begins early and changes with the introduction of Christianity, which was unable to remove the fairy folklore. There are lots of Irish fairies and Irish Fairy Tales. It is enjoyable to read about the superstitions around fairies and to realize that while people may not really believe in the tales, I suspect that more than a few choose not to anger the wee folk whenever possible. After all, the caretaker’s two fairy mounds remained untouched for hundreds of years.

In case you are wandering about, I will leave you with a field guide to Irish fairies to help you identify the common types and their behaviour.

Hello I’m sorry I’m late to tell you the answer the movie is Mr. Bean’s Holoday!!!!!

Sorry for the delay

The main reason we bought this movie was that Sarah was feeling sick at the time. Mommy and I thought that making her laugh with Mr. Bean would be a good idea. Another reason is, my family LOVES watching Mr. Bean. I love it too.

Tonight for supper we made a cross between curry and casserole which is my own creation. Here is the recipe.

Ingredients
Cooked Macaroni
Lightly cooked Cauliflower
Cheddar cheese (Irish red cheddar)
Double cream half fat
Left over cooked chicken
Sauce – you can buy one that you like or make ours

Sauce recipe
Fry two large, minced cloves of garlic and three chopped shallots in olive oil. When starting to turn golden, add a heaping tablespoon of curry paste. We used a mild paste so that I would like it. Fry for a minute or two until it smells really good. Add four chopped tomatoes and cook, stirring often until the tomatoes are all mushy. Add a can of coconut milk and stir. Let it simmer for 5-10 minutes.

Curry / casserole recipe

Put a little bits of macaroni into a casserole dish unlit the bottom is covered. Add the cauliflower on top of the macaroni and add a little bit of macaroni on top. Then add your chicken as the next layer, then add the rest of the macaroni. Dump your sauce on top of everything. Drizzle on 2 ounces of cream in a spiral. Put the grated cheddar cheese on top and cook.

We cooked for half and hour at 180 degrees celcius. That is 350 degrees F on our stove at home until the cheese was bubbly and starting to brown.

Today I am going to make lasagna  for supper for my mother. Robin and my mother are gone to a fair and I am back at the house because the fair would be too loud.  Robin brought me treat back from the fair. After awhile, Robin and my father went to the fair.  Mom and I stayed back and made supper for Robin and my father when they got back from the fair.  We made lasagna and Robin also had a cake already made.   I had a great evening and a great time at the house too.

The secret project is turning into the secret bane of my existence. I am starting week 4 again. I cannot break the barrier of this week’s schedule.

Today we planned to go for a morning swim but the pool has just changed to a different schedule now that school has begun. We missed the morning swim. Instead the girls and I went to the playground behind the pool where they played on the equipment and I sat in the sun. I am good at that. It was much warmer today than it was when the picture on the left-hand side was taken.

Eventually, because else was in the playground, I did my pushups in the playground. Once again I am ploughing through. This may be the longest six-week program in the world.