We had our downstairs ceilings replaced this week. We were supposed to be decorating Di’s office over this bank holiday weekend, but due to a unique blend of laziness, drying plaster, and the need for a  little more work from the plasterer (happening this coming week) we didn’t start that. I can say that I’m really pleased with the new, smooth ceilings. They definitely help me envisage how the house will look when everything is finished, and will certainly play a big part in making our living space more modern.

Here’s the kitchen/diner:

Urgh, those doors! The living room (urgh, that carpet!)

And Di’s office:

A bit dull – hopefully I’ll be able to offer some photos of that office with some colour involved sometime soon! On other matters, you may recall that I cleared out the garage back in June. From that article, note the poor lighting – one strip lamp and a single bulb  at the other end.

This weekend I improved the lighting at the ‘car’ end (and, perhaps more importantly, sorted everything out so that there is now room for either car in there!

Looks pretty minging, but it’s now nice and bright. I’ll upgrade the other end from 1 to 3 strip lamps when I’ve got more cable, a distro box, two more lamp units, and more time. For now, the other end looks like this:

Busy, but navigable. Another improvement I’m really happy with is that I’ve mounted my old Pioneer speakers in the corners.

And rigged together a little hi-fi.

Tunes and bright lighting means a happy and productive Neil in the garage.

Oh and finally (for what I realize is quite a dull post, sorry about that), I’ve replaced the rusty 1978 light switches.

Both Diane and I have kerbed our cars. Needless to say, Diane managed this in a rather mundane way, where I suffered a racing incident at full left lock. In both cases, remedial action was necessary. Tractor’s front left:

And the SS’s rear left – properly kerbed!

I started with the tractor wheel – gave it a good wash and a sanding.

At this point I realised that I needed to go the whole hog and remove the wheel to paint it.

Prepared and ready to go:

Two coats of Titan Silver and a coat of lacquer later, and things were looking much better. Big thanks to Tom Titler for supplying these paints (back in 2006!). While I’m mentioning people, I should also express my apologies to Julian Lockyear, who sold me these wheels in immaculate condition and good faith (that this would never happen to them).

While this was drying, it was time to turn my attention to the M5′s wheel.

I think these wheels are actually made black, and a silver finish is applied to the front. In the above picture, at about 11 o’clock the blackness appeared after I used a bit too much Autosol metal polish. The spray cans soon sorted that!

Both wheels drying on the garage floor:

Ready to put the tractor back together:

And there we go:

Finally, a close up of the M5′s wheel:

Not perfect by any means, but a substantial improvement. Clearly a better option would be to have them professionally refurbished, but that would be more expensive and then I’d be really afraid of further damage. I think the best solution would be not to kerb the wheels in the first place, but sadly this requires more co-ordination than in readily available in our household.

I’ve been asked to document a curry recipe. The thing is, my curries are a bit like snowflakes: each is unique. So I’ve decided to document my curry of the ‘moment’ – I may well revise this to be month/week/day as appropriate later. This then is a recipe for a chicken and vegetable madras or jalfrezi, depending on your view. If it were up to me I’d cook it with prawns, but Diane doesn’t like them so I’ve made it with chicken. Again, normally if forced away from prawns I’d have chicken on the bone, but chose to chop chicken breast to make this recipe more obviously interchangeable with prawns.

So here’s a recipe for a curry for two – fairly hot. It is designed to be relatively healthy – I’m not aiming for the greasy thick curry house sauce tonight.

To start, chop some garlic. I chose three cloves; if you’re a pasty-often-unwell sort I’d advise eating more. If you’ve got a date, probably use less.

Then, peel and chop an onion.

Gently fry this lot up in vegetable/sunflower oil on a low temperature – cooking without colour at this stage.

Get two large spoonfuls of Patak’s madras paste in the mix. Make absolutely sure you buy paste not pre-mixed sauce – the paste is excellent; the sauce atrocious.

Chop 4 small cup mushrooms.

Add mushrooms and chopped cauliflower to the mix.

Now turn the heat right up to fry that veg. In the meantime, chop the chicken (or open the prawns!). Then once the pan is nice and hot, add the meat.

While you’re getting the meat cooked, get a nice big pan of water heating for the rice. Important to have plenty of water to prevent the rice sticking together. Sprinkle some salt in the curry dish, dump an extremely unhealthy portion of salt into the rice water. Also, add a splash of vegetable oil to the rice water. Only use Basmati rice; it’s expensive and absolutely worth it. No other rice will do! Half a pint of rice is about right for two people:

Once the water is boiling, add the rice. Once the meat is cooked, add the can of chopped tomatoes. Don’t let the chicken cook too much if it’s not on the bone – it’ll go all dry and chammy. Stir all this in.

Next, if like me you like it hot, add some chilis. I’ve chosen to top and tail them, and then slice them along their length. This gets all the seeds into the mix, but allows girls to easily remove the greenery.

Next, open the coconut milk and empty almost half the can into the now empty chopped tomato can. Swill that around to mix it all up. Then, slowly (important to prevent separation), add this to the sauce. If you like it hot, add less; if not, add more.

Keep an eye on the rice during all this. If a scum builds up as in the picture below, scoop it off with a spoon. Rice should be gently twirling in the water – not boiling too furiously (too hot), nor stuck at the bottom (too cold).  Rice needs constant attention to get it right.

Repeatedly check the rice – as soon as the grains aren’t hard in the middle, it is ready. Sieve the rice, then roughly chop coriander.

Sprinkle this on the curry.

Then serve and enjoy with a nice bottle of red. Chin chin!

Finally, avoid burning yourself on a pan while adjusting the gas – the injury rather slows down the eating, and then the “writing up”.

So, the day we moved in, Di’s new office looked like this:

Very green and gold! We’ve finally moved all her clutter in, and more importantly, backed the walls off to bare plaster, and changed the light fittings.

On Friday night, the other end of that room looked like this:

It’s been a busy weekend!

We’re waiting on a quote to get the ceilings skimmed, and we’ll get my 30th birthday ‘do’ out of the way before we consider starting the painting process.

Also, Diane has finished varnishing the spice rack Robin has made us, so we’re chuffed to see that in place:

It’s been a while, and I’m sorry car fans but next to naff all has occurred with the vehicles. They’ve both been regularly driven, in the usual style, but nothing to report. Well, I had a good trip in the M5 last Saturday: to Brighton to drop off Di, then to Heathrow to collect Robin – all very civilised.

At home we’ve had a bit of progress. We’ve now got 3 of 5 bedrooms usable which is nice. We’re cracking on nicely with Diane’s office. Preparing the walls for decoration takes ages but we’re getting there. This is the final end that needs doing:

Note the lovely green walls and splendid gold light fittings. The other end of the room, bare, looks rather better!

Decorating is of course rather an undignified process!

Outside matters are a bit more pleasant. We had a breakfast of fresh English garden apples (from our tree), and fresh Californian oranges (from Robin’s garden). How often do you manage that! Completely organic, not a pesticide in sight. Here’s Diane munching some cereal under our apple tree:

Note the minging old BBQ in the background. That’s not a BBQ – THIS is a BBQ!

I’ll be off out to get some gas for that later. On other matters, Robin has constructed this rather fine spice rack for our kitchen. The final job is to varnish it, but exquisite work from the Willis as usual, finely crafting this Californian Red Oak for our English kitchen.

Finally, I got Diane a new lens for her camera for her birthday that makes her look like rather a pro!