A couple of years ago, when my folks were away, she cooked me a salmon teriyaki dish, with spring onions, ginger, garlic and mushrooms added to the stir-fry, and served on a bed of rice. I quite liked it, so I asked her to instruct me on that.
As a bonus, I got to do a baked pineapple dessert - pineapple chunks, butter and brown sugar, baked for 20 minutes, then served with either cream, clotted cream ice cream or good quality vanilla.
It didn't go perfectly. Believe it or not, I messed up the rice (didn't read the instructions properly and so opened the microwave sachets completely, so 2 minutes didn't cook them enough) which lead to the stir-fry getting a little burnt in the delay. The salmon was fine, though, so it was a learning experience. Dessert turned out fine, though.
On Saturday, I woke up late, had breakfast and considered making a start on getting the last bits of painting done in the kitchen, but then remembered my sister was planning to visit, so I made haste for home.
It turned out that, since I'd last spoken to her, the plans had changed.
Rather than arriving at the house for lunch, they were attending an afternoon football match in Fulham (God only knows why... neither are big on football), then coming over for dinner, staying the night, and going back after lunch today, with the option of paying a visit on the flat.
It wasn't a particularly eventful visit - no more bad news on the baby front, at least - but we did all sit down to watch Demons on Saturday night... And what a disappointing episode it was. A harpy that wasn't so much part woman, part monster as much as it was a woman who turned into a dragon at night. Confused? Wait till you consider the 'revenge' plot, where she's out to kill the last of the Van Helsings because one of the previous ones killed her two sisters... a plot which seemed to become confused when the last of the Van Helsings endeared himself to the 'harpy'. I don't know whether it was intentional, or if the actress portraying the 'harpy' accidentally stumbled on something approaching emotional depth, but I got the impression that she was genuinely falling for her prey, and reconsidering revenge.
And so when Luke refused to kill her before she transformed, and blocked Galvin from doing it for him, I thought the writers had come up with a good - if predictable - story.
But the rooftop climax just left me all the more confused: Teary-eyed 'harpy' tells Luke to kill her and, again, he refuses to do so while she's 'human'... So she transforms and attacks him, and he shoots her with his magical 'turns everything into burning paper' gun.
I honestly expected something different, based entirely on the performance of the actress playing the 'harpy', but I think she must have been imagining emotional depth in the story, and so played it too well... The script demanded she be a single-minded monster... and she played it as a conflicted girl who realised she didn't want to take revenge on someone she actually liked.
Shame, really.
After lunch today, my sister and her husband drove me over to the flat - my sister has been there already - before the new kitchen was fitted - but her husband has only heard about it. Both liked the kitchen, even in its still-unfinished state, and seemed quite impressed by what little plans I have for the place. Apparently my bathroom is slightly larger than theirs...
We wandered down the road to a shop that sells a little of everything, because I need a concertina washing rack, a draining rack for the kitchen and a small kitchen knife. Being one of those wondrous shops that really does sell just about everything, I found it all. My sister grabbed herself a draining rack as well, so impressed was she by what they had on offer.
I'd also lugged over the rest of my UK Saturn games (the ones I want to keep for the time being, anyway) and a pair of speakers that were going spare at home, for my CD player/radio.
Slowly but surely, it's all coming together and, assuming everything happens in good time, I may still be able to make use of the van my sister's husband has access to, for moving over some of the larger items.
Watched episode two of Being Human tonight, and it continues to impress. The ongoing vampire uprising story arc is continuing in the background, while this week George met another werewolf. While it's far better written than Demons in terms of character and script, I do sometimes feel it's suffered from editing to keep it to its allotted hour of running time. Much of what happened seemed somehow crammed in... but it made for a very good episode. Some of it goes a little over the top (the 'vampire porn' DVD at the end was less than subtle) but it's generally likable.
Not a bad day, considering I woke up late, have had a headache all day, and slept through a good chunk of the afternoon in an unsuccessful attempt to get rid of it.
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