Finishing things ... and starting things

The weather today was quite astonishing. Yesterday I had to hold on to my hat as I climbed the hill to stop the wind blowing it clean away. The skies were grey and it felt cold and damp. Today is the complete opposite; the skies are blue and I wish I had left my fleece at home as the temperature climbed in to the high teens.

There are no work tales today as my plan is to now have a very gentle second half to the week. There is still a final, tedious task to be done but it is a one man job and I, fortunately, am not that man. All being well Friday will be a very early finish.

I finally got around to finishing off the bacon that I started curing a few weeks back.  It had spent the past two weeks wrapped in muslin and hanging from the rafters in the garage. There was no specific reason for this. It was just that I needed somewhere cool to keep it while I was occupied by work and our holiday in Wales. The belly joint has now been sliced and I have just over two pounds of Streaky Bacon to freeze. The cured cheeks have been cubed and these produced nearly three pounds of lardons. Most of these have been batched, packed and frozen but I held back half a pound and made Spaghetti Carbonara for Supper this evening. This culinary effort was judged a success by TP and 30%* and I must admit I was quite pleased with it myself.

I also need to give warning of a possible rant about Canon in the near future. After a week away in Wales with the EOS Rebel T2i that I bought in the States last year I can confirm that it is most definitely not right.  On occasions the mirror will lock up when taking a shot and this can only be rectified by turning it off, removing the battery and then replacing and turning it back on. It also doesn't seem to like being used in a "portrait" mode and has a tendency to do nothing but tell me to replace the battery pack. I rang the Canon Customer Service Desk to lodge a warranty claim and they advised that I need to send it back to the US as that is where I bought the camera. I pointed out that they were a global company and that was not acceptable adding that the only reason I bought the camera out there was because my EOS 350D's shutter failed on the first day of my holiday. They chap on the Service Desk took pity and raised a ticket and I now need to wait to see if Canon UK will take pity on me and repair the faulty camera...

... I found it quite ironic that I was being told that I needed to progress this with Canon in the US rather than the UK when Canon UK uses a Dutch Service Desk. It seems to support my view that they are a Global Organisation and should operate as one. Rant not yet started.

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* 30% did have an ulterior motive in getting me to cook supper as she knew it would prompt me to replace the blown light bulb over the cooker.