On the Saturday I ventured into uncharted barbie territory and cooked a whole joint of beef.  The plan was to push the lit coals to the edge of the barbie, plonk the beef into the middle then put the lid back on and leave it for a couple of hours.  My attention to detail was highlighted as the barbie lid was about 1/2" away from making contact with the base; the beef was too big.  So I flattened the joint and all was good.

One thing though; seeing as every time you lift the lid you have to add to the cooking time, it was frustrating checking to see if the coals were still lit or not.  And as I am a compulsive fiddler, simply leaving it be was not an option.  I gave it about 90 minutes total, by which time the meat was cooked about half an inch in.  I finished it in the oven.  The fat was really nice; it had crisped on the barbie and was almost like crackling.  Meat flavour was delicious.  I did some lamb shish kebabs, mediteranean stylee with olive oil, lemon juice, fresh oregano and rosemary.  Damned fine.  And about 1Kg of speciality sausages I bought at Borough market.  I shall experiment with further joints of beef to get my chops down and then try some poussins and lamb joints.

Any of you Husi's out there (points vaguely at Texas) have any tips for the sucessful barbie'ing of whole joints of meat?

Well, despite TPD generously granting me widdling rights over the MFC, on the Bank Holiday Monday I duly plugged in the mess of hardware into my PC and got everything up and running.  The strings on the guitar were sounding a bit flat, so I changed them, mentally noting must get some more strings soon, this is my last packet.  Obviously, it only took ~5 mins into warming up before the E string busted.  The old string I'd already cut up ready to go into the bin. 

Bugger.

If this was the dotcom era I'd suggest a website doing emergency guitar and bass string delivery.

Anyway, my apologies for the non-show.

Attn: Windows using MFC infidels, this looks worth a pop.  Not too sure about this however.

And the FA merrygoround still churns; after the British tabloid press hounded Scolari away from the Engerlandland job it now seems likely that McLaren's in the picture.  Top work, UKian press, hound the present manager who has done a pretty good job in terms of results out, then sabotage the recruitment process for his replacement.  If I was in government I'd be calling all the newspaper editors into my office and having a little chat about the responsibilities of the media in World Cup year.  Then again if I was in this present government I'd be petrified of having that many hacks in the office at one time; someone's bound to be fucking a secretary in one of the rooms somewhere.

Still undecided if Roedererer is the man for the toon job.  His results so far have been pretty good considering.  But I look at his history; he's great at taking someone else's team and getting them to play well, it's when he's given the budget to spend is when relegation looms.  I don't think the FA is going to grant him special dispensation next year, and without having the coaching badges he can't do the job.  Then again, the FA's flip flopping over who'll be the next Engerlandland manager is probably helping toon's cause.

Shrek apparently "might be fit for the World Cup Final".  So, there's the small matter of getting through to that stage first.  Stevie G and Fat Frank had better start ignoring Svensvensven's words of advice and work out some sort of game plan to make the best of their talents.  In the absence of a hold up striker, I'd even consider putting one of them alongside Owen.  Certainly, the Crouchosaurus should be in the team for that twenty minute supershocksub position but he should not be starting regularly.  Ah well, less than a month to go which will finish all this idle speculation.

Poll day today, I posted mine t'other day.  I voted Liberal.  Attn: UKian voting populace; the current government is busted.  Bliar's getting shriller by the day, corruption scandals are still ongoing, ministers are fucking up their jobs and their assitants.  And no one in the cabinet with the decency to resign.  I am actually now looking forward to a Tory government; there's no future in a Labour govenrment at present.  I'd prefer a Liberal government but you can't have everything.  And then in 2012 I shall take the mantle of glorious leader of the Breaker Truth and Honesty Party Party, sweep the elections and bring the good people of UKia a democracy to be proud of.