Did I overstep?

Maybe my reference to Bruckner and praise in my last post was hyperbole but check out this link to see what others say.

In fact I rarely listen to Bruckner, strange though that might seem when the very name of my blog venerates him. But then I rarely eat fish pie or golden syrup filled trifle sponges. For each one the reason is partly circumstantial (I will not listen to good music unless it is quiet and I have some chance of hearing the whole performance, and my lifestyle does not often grant me such conditions), and partly because a great experience repeated too often is in danger of becoming commonplace. Whilst the thought of golden syrup at every meal sends certain thrills, I rather think I might tire at last.

Talking about golden syrup, does anyone else out there venerate evaporated milk as I do? Another family here venerates condensed milk to a similar degree. Whilst both substances start with reduced milk, and the original purpose of each was to preserve milk, they are very different in taste. So I did a bit of research. Condensed milk has, of course, a lot of sugar added and this helps preserve it. Evaporated milk, on the other hand, has no added sugar and thus has a shorter shelf life even when tinned. To help combat this, the process of making evaporated milk raises it to a higher temperature, so high that it starts to caramelise and it is this which gives it its characteristic taste. I should have known, caramel lover than I am. There is no way to start the day quite so pleasing as breakfast cereal with a healthy slosh of evaporated milk added to the normal whole milk and sugar.

And, talking about a pleasing start to the day, I was concocting a new temperature scale (as one does) whilst taking a longer than usual, and rather chilly run this afternoon, barefoot with Meg around the lake shore around by Baltiboys bridge. It goes something like this:

> 25'C is far too hot for life as we know it here in Ireland
20-25'C very hot and rather exceptionable
15-20'C hot: this and above is good for swimming in lakes, rivers or sea
10-15'C warm, OK for Autumn swimming but a bit parky in Spring
5-10'C cool, and most common here in Ireland
0-5'C cold, chilly when wet under-barefoot
< 0'C freezing, barefoot running is OK only if it is dry

A bit of wind-chill factor can be added to this rough guide, but the weather forecasters overdo it. And there is a bit of seasonal hysteresis especially for swimming because of the thermal mass of water.

Running bare feet and tinned milk 2

Mcvities Golden Syrup cake (made with Tate and Lyle's Golden Syrup), topped with Tesco's Toffee Desert Sauce (ingredients major in condensed milk, golden syrup and cream), with the last of the tinned (evaporated) milk poured over.  Such synergy!

Another totally bare foot run along the "forest" route this morning, after a lot of rain during the night.  So the ground was very wet and slippery.  I missed my footing whilst investigating a stream and cut my hand on a rock when steadying myself.  Later I slipped on a down hill part and my other hand landed in a gorse bush to steady myself.  On the bright side I don't think I contracted any foot splinters though.

Running bare feet and tinned milk

I have a sore toe.  It is sore because it had a splinter which I hope I fully removed last night.  It had a splinter because I run bare foot.  It is a price to pay.

On the bright side I enjoyed "tinned milk" (evaporated milk) on my cereal this morning.  The art is to mix the right quantity of neat tinned milk with the normal (full fat) milk.  Talking of which, why do people pay as much for low fat milk as for normal (full fat) milk?  It ought to be cheaper.