Far-Flung

One of my favourite dishes is the humble tabouleh - a Middle-Eastern bulgur salad. Whenever I make it, I try to make enough for several days but I always end up (like tonight) scoffing down whatever is left over from dinner. This is a pretty good, basic recipe. When I chop the tomatoes I remove the seeds beforehand (this makes the salad less soggy) and I use a blender to chop the herbs because I'm too lazy to spend thirty minutes chopping parsley/mint. Whenever I make tabouleh, I think of my friend Liz. Liz grew up all over the world - a true corps diplomatique child. She spent a good part of her upbringing living in far-flung countries and she would hang around in the kitchens watching local chefs preparing food. Liz's arsenal of dishes is therefore very different to all my other friends. Not only did she introduce me to tabouleh, she also taught my taste-buds to appreciate fruits used in savoury dishes, made me fall in love with American pancakes, and made me dream of zabaglione everytime I see ripe raspberries.

And then there is Atole.

Liz would cook Atole for us on cold winter nights. We'd clutch our hot mugs whilst standing on her balcony overlooking Frederiksberg and the world would be reduced to hot milk with cinnamon and sugar - and so everything would be alright with the world.

I miss Liz a great deal. She's here in the dishes I cook and in the things I enjoy, but good cups of tea and hot mugs filled with Atole are scant replacements for her company. When I miss Denmark, I miss people rather than the country. I left Denmark four years ago. In so many ways it feels like it has been a lot longer.

Ah, homesick for Denmark. Let's put on some (Swedish) music and dance around for a bit..

Linkage & More

My commuting project is zipping along nicely. I'm currently knitting the Larisa scarf for myself in Kidsilk Haze, shade 582 (Trance). The beads are teardrop-shaped beads from The Bead Company. Recently Rhiannon finished knitting Larisa and seeing somebody else's version of your own design is the coolest thing imaginable (it felt even better than when I got published some years back and that felt pretty good). I have no deadline for this scarf - it is just a portable project and if I can sneak in one or two repeats of the lace pattern on the bus, I'm happy.

I'm currently waiting for the new Kim Hargreaves book, Touching Elegance. Clever people have tracked down some blurry photos from eBay and I've been trying to guess which yarns were used for the various designs. Straight off the bat, I'd say that Patsy is my favourite. Not that long to wait, though, as the book should be arriving in stores next week (should being the operative word). I was wearing my Icelandic jumper earlier today in anticipation of proper autumn knitting (the weather is still a bit too warm, though) and I cannot wait to get started on some lovely woollen cardigans.

Mmmm. Wool.

Some linkage:

• Frank Kermode has passed away at age 90. Absolutely devastating. In the words of one of the Guardian's commentators: "On behalf of English Literature graduates the world over, thank you Frank. R.I.P."
• Morrissey's 13 Favourite Albums are exactly as you'd imagine: glam rock, Iggy Pop/New York Dolls, Jeff Buckley and people who sound like Morrissey.
• Delivering Gatsby - "How effective is it to use literature to seduce men?" (Thank you, Emme).
• Sympathy for the Devil - Looking at the Facebook fan groups for British killer Raoul Moat, this article is as far removed from tabloid sensationalism as you can get whilst still not budging an inch. Highly recommended read.
• Bree Sharp: 'David Duchovny' (youtube). I showed this to D last night as a response to a certain pop song about Ray Bradbury (no link: very NSFW, very crass, very funny - go seek it out). I could not believe D had not heard of Bree Sharp's 'the man, the myth, the monotone' song. It was huge in my student hall circa 1999.

Turning Pages

James Robertson is a writer whose books I enjoy very much, but I do not see him mentioned much. I was surprised and delighted to see a two-page feature on Robertson in The Guardian this past Saturday; the feature coincides with a new novel, And the Land Lay Still. I could have done without the Guardian proclaiming that Robertson was aiming to write the Great Scottish Novel that this country 'so desperately needs', though, partly because I think the Great Scottish Novel has already been written and partly because I think Robertson is aiming for something else. I picked up Robertson's The Fanatic on a whim some years ago and thought it a great, complex read about Scottish identity, the Scottish psyche and Scottish history. A very clever and entertaining book. I was less enamoured by Joseph Knight which read more .. postcolonial, if you like, and I am mildly allergic to postcolonial novels after certain university courses (long, sad story). The Testament of Gideon Mack was Robertson's big breakthrough novel and I really enjoyed its sinister humour and subversive take on a psychological thriller. It felt more mainstream/accessible than The Fanatic and also reminded me a bit of Mikhail Bulgakov's marvellous The Master & Margarita.  I'm yet to read And the Land Lay Still (I'm still reading Ulysses and then David Mitchell's latest will be next) but, yes, I'm really looking forward to a new James Robertson book.

If you are in the UK, I warmly recommend watching Women's Institute: Girl Talk. A simple premise: visiting the educational HQ of Women's Institute and talking to some of the ladies participating in the courses. And then as you learn a bit about some of the nice ladies, your eyes might just get a bit misty. One of the best hours of television I have watched for quite some time. Yes, I feel profoundly middle class now, thank you.

(I have also just checked out some of the available WI courses and am drawn towards Victorian Corset Making and Copperplate Calligraphy which should surprise absolutely no one)

Finally, my parents recently went to the Czech Republic on holiday and as a souvenir they bought me a book on Czech cooking. I was very amused to find a recipe for "Home Pig Feast" which starts: 'put the pig's head, knee and tongue in a pan..' The entire thing is served with a sauerkraut salad which is basically some sauerkraut mixed with horseradish. I think I'll politely give that one a pass.

The John Coltrane Version

Elvis Costello's music has always lurked in my life. Growing up I occasionally heard him on the radio and was told by my gruff uncle that "Don't bother: that Costello bloke is really hit-and-miss." Then some time in the early 1990s I borrowed the Girls! Girls! Girls! compilation from my local library and fell in love. So Like Candy from "A Mighty Rose" (1991) is one of my all-time favourite songs. True fact. By 1994 I had parted ways with my gruff uncle's authority on all things pop music, and "Brutal Youth" had been released to coincide with my perfect year: Music never sounds better than when you are 18. This Is Hell from that CD has one of my favourite lines: "'My Favorite Things are playing again and again/ But it’s by Julie Andrews and not by John Coltrane". So here are a few of my current favourite things (the John Coltrane version, hopefully): + Radiohead playing How To Disappear Completely live in a studio. + The Anti Room looking at Montgomery Clift: "the new manhood in classic cinema". Have you seen From Here To Eternity? Ooh. + "Reading Barnes, like reading so many other English writers of his generation – Martin Amis, McEwan – leaves me feeling that I and the world have been made smaller and meaner." Gabriel Josipovici on the 2010 Man Booker longlist which does not feature any of the authors above. In the related MeFi thread, someone points out that Ian McEwan is the literary equivalent of Coldplay. Oh, snap. + Bookshelves. + Alasdair Gray walking down Byres Road with all his pockets stuffed with his books. + Quince jelly on a good slice of cheese on fresh bread. Yes, that new cheesemonger's doing his job well. + Sitting inside while the rain falls and falls and falls. Sitting inside with hot tea, a blanket and all the time in the world while the rain falls and falls and falls. + "Being an introvert, I explained, is not about being shy, although I was painfully shy for the first 18 years of my life. Being an introvert is more about finding it difficult to engage in social interaction for extended periods of time, and about valuing your own company as much as (if not, in some circumstances, more) than the company of others." - she said. + "This is the coastal town they forgot to close down /Armageddon, come Armageddon, come!"

Points

Firstly, the response to my Larisa scarf has taken me completely aback. The pattern has been available from a shop here in Glasgow for about a week - and so far more than fifty people have "bought" a copy (pattern comes with the purchase of a ball of Kidsilk Haze). I have received so, so many lovely, thoughtful and sweet comments from complete strangers that I don't know what to say except thank you. It's really quite startling and I feel a bit overwhelmed. Secondly, I will be at the UK Knit Camp marketplace next Saturday (the 14th of August) in Stirling. Mostly I will be browsing and trying not to buy things, but I will also be helping out at the Old Maiden Aunt booth.  I know several bloggers will be attending and I'm really looking forward to meeting many of my online friends/reads. If you recognise me, do say hello! I have very mixed emotions about attending the UK Knit Camp - it seems to have descended into chaos - but as it is one of the very few Scotland-based knitting events, I have decided to tag along. I just hope that the UK Knit Camp shenanigans will not deter people from staging further events up here. It's not Scotland's fault, I swear..

Finally, I had the pleasure of meeting Ali from Jamie Possum today.  We had a great talk about sustainability, New Zealand and KnitNation. I am yet to try out her beautiful yarn, but I'm a) such a Kiwiphile and b) such a sucker for gorgeous yarn that it is just a matter of time before I succumb. I have long wanted to knit the Lorién beret and I'm quickly running out of excuses. Except that I also appear to have run out of knitting time and my stress levels are at a two-year high.

How to combat stress when my stress is knitting-related? Answers Suggestions, please.

In the Sea of Words

For some odd reason I appear to be catching up with myself at the moment. I am knitting things I queued years ago and I am reading a book I have been meaning to read for at least ten or twelve years: James Joyce's Ulysses. Once upon a time I sort-of specialised in Modernist literature - early 20th century experimental literature, if you like, which broke away from realist modes of expression. I mainly focused on Modernist poetry (I had major problems with prose at the time and abandoned fiction for several years - it's a long and dull story why) so I have big gaps where you might expect otherwise. Hardly any Virginia Woolf, very little James Joyce, just a smattering of DH Lawrence and no Djuna Barnes or Marcel Proust. I have been playing catch up ever since I rediscovered prose.

So far I am really enjoying Ulysses. I used to be slightly frightened of the novel - it is the big mythical beast of 20th century English-language literature after all - but I am relaxing into it in a most enjoyable way. A not-so-small part of me is itching to sit with a concordance and jot down marginalia as I slowly work my way through the book, but I am mostly just enjoying the reading experience. It is a more immediate way of reading the book and while I know I am missing layers of meaning, I like this informal way of reading. Because I was trained to read in a methodical, almost-clinical manner I am sometimes struggling to connect with some books, and I really enjoy when I can lose myself in a book.

(I did put an exclamation mark next to the bit which I'm convinced Ezra Pound "borrowed" for his Cantos. You know, just for old time's sake.)

Wholly unrelated, but then again: The Best & Worst Job Prospects in the Urban Fantasy Economy for 2011. Years ago I kept borrowing books from friends hoping that I could get into genre reading - specifically urban fantasy, supernatural romance and Celtic fantasy (the genres most popular with my friends) - but I struggled to get past the clunky writing. I still remember reading Laurell K. Hamilton's Guilty Pleasures (which came highly recommended to me) and being unable to get past the sentence: "He laughed bitterly, like shattered glass". When I learned that Guilty Pleasures were supposed to be the best book Hamilton has ever written, I twigged that I should probably just go about reading the kind of books I like and stop trying to emulate others' reading patterns.

I continue to be wary about reading recommendations, but Five Books looks useful: "Every day an eminent writer, thinker, commentator, politician, academic chooses five books on their specialist subject." I thought these looked intriguing: Sara Maitland on Silence, James Meek on The Death of Empires, Rebecca Goldstein on Reason and Its Limitations and Thomas Keneally on Russia.