Whim Wanders

It's a funny old feeling when one of my whims takes me.

These strange ideas come to me and, all of a sudden, I have lots of energy, and all that energy goes into following it up. Sometimes I get bored or frustrated part way through (as is so often the case with any of my writing projects), and it just peters out. Other times, I actually complete whatever outlandish tasks I set myself and, for a while, I'm on a bit of a high. I'm not known for completing things, particularly tasks I set myself outside of the context of 'work', so there is a genuine sense of elation when I do... even more so when the thing I finish is something more substantial than a videogame...

And so, today, I went on a hunt for ingredients... These missions are normally doomed to failure because some important component if the list of things I'm looking for is never available either in my local shops or the larger supermarkets I can access by train or bus or, if I'm feeling up to a longer walk, by putting my legs and feet to good use for a bloody change.

Today was one of those days, so I pegged it over to the South Harrow branch of Waitrose (far easier now I'm more familiar with the most convenient route), with a list of ingredients I'd need for my own attempt at a Key Lime Pie. Now, obviously, I'm not going to find proper Key Limes in Waitrose, but the more common kind are acceptable and, let's face it, Waitrose sell a lime cheesecake and call it Key Lime Pie, so I can pretty much do as I please, within certain boundaries.

Just for a change, I actually found everything I was looking for.

OK, I did fudge it a little and, rather than buying some fresh limes, I ended up deciding to get lime juice in a little plastic squeezy bottle. It was either that, or buy four limes (at least) and a juicer, and then put in a whole lot of effort for very little citrus-flavoured reward.

But, let's face it, unless you start by cutting corners, you'll never know how much better it is to work with completely fresh ingredients.

There is one small drawback to this, though, and I may end up popping out tomorrow to see if I can find a lime, because the traditional recipe calls for lime zest to be grated into the pie mixture and on top when it's done. I have a grater, after all.

So, by the time I left Waitrose, I was feeling so good about my plan to hand-make a Key Lime Pie that I decided - what the hell - I'd walk home.

And I mananged to retrace my steps far more accurately than ever before.

So now I'm really feeling good about myself.

Just for a change.

20-ish minute walk over there, 20-ish minute walk back, laden with shopping (because, inevitably, I didn't stop with just getting the required ingredients), so I've had a far healthier day than my usual and succeeded in getting all (OK, most) of the stuff I need to execute my latest curious desire.

I'm probably going to wait till the weekend before actually attempting to make the pie, so it's not sitting in my fridge, with only me to eat it... Assuming my folks get back by then, I could pay them a visit and take the pie along.

I never cease to be surprised by how good it feels just to go out and take a walk... just a short break from being an internet zombie... Fresh(ish) air, birds twittering away (future generations may wonder how this is accomplished without internet access), people buzzing about. Being out in the cold isn't great (my skin absolutely hates the cold - my hands dry out and crack - so I wonder, vaguely, why I didn't go out much during the summer), but I've got my winter coat, so it's not too bad... and as long as we don't get hit by snow, it's a quick, healthy and cheap way to stock up in a supermarket that's rather better stocked than anything closer to home.

On the subject of cold, I made a rather silly discovery yesterday. I'd been wondering how my flat could be so cold if I've got the heating on as high as it was last year... but when I actually spent a bit of time paying attention to the dubious dials on the control panel, I realised that I'd got the central heating set somewhere just above 'tepid' so, while the radiators themselves felt quite warm, it shouldn't have been surprising that they barely heated the rooms. This error has since been rectified and, yes, I'm feeling much warmer now.

(So, why the post title referencing a German film director? Why not? Call it another whim. I'm allowed.)