I made some prawn balls last night and they were . . . not good. I think my mistake was to use some cod as an additional binder. When I try them again I wont bother with fish at all – as they are simmered in broth the fish gains a rather unappealing fibrous texture and a very dominant taste and smell. Still – live and learn I guess. Plus should really have chopped the garlic and ginger a bit more finely – was a bit chunky. Still have tons of the bloody stuff left over as well – perhaps frying would be better. But then you don’t get the benefit of the lovely broth with noodles & pak choy.

The question would be – how to get it all to stick together without the ground fish – maybe use pork instead . . . now we’re talking, or somehow mince up some of the prawns . . . I don’t know. They did hold together pretty well thanks to the gloopiness of the ingredients plus the addition of egg and breadcrumbs, notwithstanding the addition of distinctly unbinding coriander.

I’m feeling rather random today – saw the funniest episode of vintage Frasier last night, now that the cable is fixed – Eddie was depressed and everyone else got depressed as well – Daphne opining that ‘human’ Eddie would cook poached salmon if he was giving a dinner party made me laugh and laugh. I don’t know why . . .

The reason for all this noodling is that I’m trying to avoid thinking about either a) work or b) Christmas. And in particular Christmas shopping. Thankfully I’m *nearly* done, just a few more to get, but it’s draining. And then there’s the wrapping, and the travelling and the enforced jollity . . . ugh.

Most bloggers seem to really look forward to Christmas – it seems to be something they are actually going to enjoy. What’s wrong with you all?? Locked in the bosom of the family without enough booze and fags, forced to regress to being a sulky 14 year old, everyone trying not to notice the fact that each respective member of the family is another year closer to the grave and more than another year closer to becoming a full blown freak / loner / nutjob / crashing bore / common or garden pervert.

Still, at least you get some decent fud. This year I fully intend to eat sufficiently grossly on Christmas day so that I can pass out for most of the afternoon while my body desperately attempts to avoid some sort of gastrointestinal meltdown by diverting all the blood from my brain to my stomach. I don’t even like turkey that much but that’s OK, because we’re probably not going to have it. Hurrah. On the other hand it does tend to increase feelings of sleepiness due to all the Trytophan, but I’m sure that as a factor compared to the general killer blows of carbohydrate and lunchtime alcohol the effect is pretty minor.

Having said all of that if I need to fall asleep all I have to do is think about my work for 5 minutes. I’ve got this monster XML script to write . . . it’s driving me insane . . . it’s so repetitive. And no matter which way you look at it falling asleep with your head in your keyboard doesn’t make a good impression.