Russell Kane — Very Funny!

I’m so addicted to I’m a Celebrity that I had to watch the ITV2 follow-up last night, because the main thing had been ousted by the football. Grrrrr….

Anyway, there’s a bloke called Russell Kane doing witty little commentaries on the action, and he’s the funniest thing I’ve seen in years! I don’t really watch comedy on TV, so I prolly miss a lot of funny stuff, but I reckon Russell’s worth seeking out. I’ve not laughed so hard in years as I did just now watching his review of y/day’s show *g* Tragically, I can’t find it on YouTube. It’s still available on the ITV net-viewer thingy, though. Heh…

Quick update — cars, cooks, celebrities and rain

I’m still mired in car-related chaos, here, but I hope to be finally getting it sorted out either today or tomorrow. I’ve settled on a Skoda Fabia Estate, subject only to the fates performing a further backflip and turning my plans around once again. Now, I hope, it’s simply a matter of choosing the actual car. Fingers crossed y’all, please, and a special mention for Mango Terrier, who knows far more about cars, and buying them, than I’d have believed possible until a week ago.

What is it with the contestants on Come Dine With Me, I wonder? I can’t understand why so many people who choose to enter a dinner party hosting competition appear to be averse to eating/trying such a wide range of foods!

Catching up with a few episodes via the wonderful TV on Demand yesterday, I saw great swathes of people who didn’t like/wouldn’t eat/had never heard of/were unwilling to taste bog-standard varieties of fish, cheese, chocolate and meat. One bloke made what looked like an absolutely scrumptious fish stew, only to find that one of his 3 guests simply didn’t eat fish whilst another one couldn’t face fish that came in shells and “…looks like this!” she said, dragging a snarl onto her face and arranging her arms into a pointy, aggressive-looking attitude in front of her eyes. It turned out that she was referring to the langoustines. After that she folded her arms and went to sleep on the table, though she was eventually able to rouse herself for a bit of chocolate pudding. In another episode, a woman was so appalled by cheese, and everthing that it involves, that she had to leave the room and watch a bit of television next door while the others tucked into a bit of cheddar. Profoundly weird, ISTM…

I dunno about you, but I’m already addicted to this year’s round of I’m a Celebrity: Get Me Out of Here! It’s the only one of the ‘reality’ TV things I watch, and it’s always a lot of fun (unless you happen to be a creepy crawlie living in the Australian rain forest, of course, in which case I’m sure it’s all a bit depressing).

The celebs that make up this year’s bunch are less immediately entertaining than the last lot, but it appears that things are finally hotting up. Last night’s drama between Kim Woodburn (a bit of a bully) and Joe Bugner (a bit of a bully, but larger) made such uncomfortable viewing that I had to watch through squinted eyes, and Piglet became upset and had to be comforted by the cat. I reckon Jimmy White’s going to come through strongly as things progress, and that American bloke, George Hamilton, seems to have a sneakily wicked sense of humour.

Speaking of food, I’d like to have said something about Raymond Blanc’s The Restaurant, but it’s so extremely odd that it seems to have left me entirely unable to comment. Well, other than to say that I was very sorry to see the two army blokes go out, and that my money’s been on the two cheery peeps from The Front Room (or The Living Room, or whatever it’s called) from the outset. There! That’s prolly the kiss of death for them, then! *g* More next week, perhaps.

Last, but certainly not least, looking at the pictures that John Hee linked to on his blog yesterday I’m relieved beyond description that Piglet and I are no longer in The Licks…

Ooooh! Brilliant!!

Ye Olde Slowman mentioned to me a brillzville TV programme that I somehow overlooked last year. That’ll be because it wasn’t shown on the Cookery Channel.

However, I’m just settling into Episode 1 of Maestro, the story of 6 peeps competing to learn how to conduct an orchestra. I bet quite a lot of y’all saw it when it was first on. Doh…

Meanwhile, my wholemeal bread rolls are proving (ha! I hope…) downstairs in a bin liner. I made some mixed seed ones yesterday, and I think I can accurately state, without fear of contradiction, that they were just about the most noxious and lead-ridden lumps of dough ever to emerge from a mixing bowl. I ate a bit of one this morning, and I don’t want to go into too much detail at what’s still vaguely lunchtime, but if I explain that it involved an immediate dash to a small room upstairs and an extremely uncomfortable 10 minute hiatus then I’m sure you’ll get the picture.

Weevils in the flour, perhaps? Hmmm… or maybe Piglet and Piss-Piss had some sort of secret input?? I dunno, but I hope the new batch bears absolutely no relation to last night’s revolting bleuch.

I hate to sound trite, but…

…if anybody feeling overwhelmed by life’s challenges didn’t watch Alex: A Passion for Life then you should go and watch it now.

I can’t think how I came to miss it. I found it this evening when checking up on Cutting Edge, one of my favourite documentary series, and discovered that it had been on before I went to the Lakes. It’s the follow-up to the documentary made a couple of years ago about Alex Stobbs, a schoolboy music scholar (at the time) suffering from cystic fibrosis, but with an ambition to conduct Bach’s Magnificat. Now he’s at Cambridge, and this second documentary is about his attempt to conduct the St. Matthew Passion.

I knew it was coming up, but somehow I didn’t see any adverts for it before I went away. Fortunately it’s still available on Channel 4 on Demand, and if anything was going to put a few drizzly days on some slippery hills into context for me then this was definitely it.

It’s utterly inspiring stuff, whether you love the St. Matthew Passion or not, but if you *do* love the music (as I do) then it’s simply transporting.

I think I’ll put the chicken in the oven and go and watch it again.

Edited to add:
Listening to this wee bit of the St. Matthew Passion on the way to and from court each day helped me to win the biggest case I ever did as a lawyer, quite a long time ago now. The whole drama of the thing–all the ups and downs and nuances of cross-examination–was there in the music. Nothing beats music.

Tragedy!!! *sniffle*

Oh noes!

Much as it pains me to say it, I did think Steve deserved to win. He had a creative edge that M didn’t quite match.

*sob*

I thought the sob story to gain audierce sympathy part was unnecessary and a bit tacky but I suppose it’s compulsory in TV these days.

Good luck to all 3 of them (but particularly to M heh… )

MTP — Exciting!

Go Marianne!

P is so excited that she`s lying on floor with paws over face!

Gosh! That Eric chap’s nice *g* Oddly enough, my dinner looked nothing like that.

“The size of your choux is much too big.” LOL! Shades of the “baking shit” I remember from when I watched the Roux Bros on television as a child

Michel Roux Sr. said
M was “Perfect” heh… Smug? Me?? Nooooo…..

I have to say, though, that I thought Steve’s puds were sensationally imaginative. Wow…

Masterchef: The Professionals – OMG OMG OMG!!!

Wow, that was Exciting Stuff! And what an unexpected treat to have the second episode as well!

*takes a couple of deep, cleansing breaths*

I was *amazed* by Steve and the other bloke in the first eppy. I had no recollection of either of them from the earlier rounds, but I thought they both played an absolute blinder tonight!

The knock-out round, though, was really heart-stopping stuff. WHAT A RELIEF THAT MARIANNE WENT THROUGH! ZOMG, my heart was in my mouth when it came to the end. When they called her name out second I thought they were about to say she had to go home! Other than Steve, who I thought was fantastic, none of them seemed to do as well as they’ve done in earlier rounds.

I almost cried when I saw Marianne’s first course, because it looked so dire and pedestrian. I thought the veggies looked as though they’d come out of a can! Thank goodness it tasted as good as her stuff always does, and that this time the meat was cooked. Phew… When her ice cream failed to set I had to pour myself a stiff drink…

Poor Ryan–I didn’t think he did himself justice tonight. Problems with his ice cream too? Sounds to me as though the ice cream machine may have been on the blink.

That starter that Steve produced for the knock-out round was just fantastic! I wanted to reach into the television and grab one *g*

At the end of the day, I don’t actually think they ended up with the four cooks who performed best throughout the whole competition. I think Ludovic and Ryan both did better overall than tonight’s third finalist (WHY CAN’T I REMEMBER HIS NAME? AAAGH…). And even though he cocked up the timings on two of his courses in the Quarter Finals, I *still* think wee David produced some of the most amazing food in the competition. I cringed all over again when I saw the look on his face when they showed the moment that he was knocked out by Ryan. That’s what happens with these knockout things, though; unless they break all the rules, of course, as they did earlier this evening, and fail to eliminate one of the contestants.

I’m supposed to be setting off for the Lakes on Monday, but if I do that then I’m going to miss the finals The series doesn’t seem to finish until Thursday night. It occurs to me all of a sudden, though, that I won’t have to miss the finals if I do B&B for the first 4 nights! Hmmm…. *g*

Masterchef: The Professionals — MORE tears before bedtime!

Oh NOES! Lovely Ludo Loses Out!! I can hardly believe it!!!

What a pity! Somehow Ludo’s spark of genius appeared to desert him this evening, and now he’s gone Good luck to the other chap, but on all previous showings Ludo was by far the better cook.

I can’t currently remember anything about the two remaining semi-finalists: they didn’t make any sort of impression on me. So now, I reckon, it’s all between the arrogant young bloke and the lovely Marianne.

MARIANNE! MARIANNE!! RAH! RAH!! RAH!!!

Fence? What fence?? *g*

Masterchef: The Professionals — Tears Before Bedtime…

Sexy and Loud

So my wee Gavroche is out!

It was a great eppy, and one of the closest I’ve seen. Finely balanced though it was, though, I suppose it was fair enough. Still… I was very sorry indeed to see David go out.

Good luck to Ryan. Seeing more of him, perhaps I misread what I thought was arrogance. To me he looks like somebody who thinks he has something to prove to somebody else. The very best of luck to him. I’m sure I’d have loved to eat those scallops, and I’m pretty sure I’d have loved the pea and beet shoots that went with them.

So! It looks as though they’re keeping those who competed together in the Quarters together in the Semis, so hopefully Marianne and Ludo won’t find themselves competing together. I’m just sorry that it had to be David v. Ryan tonight, because had it not been then I’m quite sure they’d both have made it through to the Finals.

Masterchef: The Professionals–exciting stuff!

I really love this, and I’ve been following it avidly thus far.

For me, 4 of them have stood out so far. Marianne, who seemed to me to be on a completely different planet in terms of cooking skillz from all the other contestants, until last week; the French chap, whose name I can’t remember; the (IMO) rather arrogant young bloke who won a major competition last year, and wee Gavroche

I was relieved, but not surprised, to see Marianne go through to the Finals this evening. It’ll be interesting to see how they pair the others up for the remaining knock-out rounds. I’m hoping that none of the peeps I’ve mentioned above will be battling against each other, but I suppose it would be surprising if none of them were.

Who would I like to win? Well, I suppose it depends on how things go. At the moment, though, my heart’s equally divided between Marianne and Gavroche.

Who would my money be on for the title? As things stand ATM, the rather arrogant young bloke looks to me like the front runner. I’m putting my money on Gavroche, though: I reckon there’s a hint of real inspiration to him. I only hope he doesn’t come up against the young bloke in a semi-final, and get knocked out.

*goes off to bite crubeens anxiously*