Six pies, and more lessons learned

It’s been a while since I did some experimental baking. This evening, the mood took me, and I made six small pies which made just about enough food for the four of us to have a light meal. Here’s the process.

First, I did a dumb. I started with a pack of ready-rolled puff pastry, which was completely the wrong pastry for these pies. I should have just made up some shortcrust. We’ll see the consequences of this in later photos.

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My MP wrote to me about Brexit: here’s my reply

As noted in the previous post, my MP, Mark Harper, responded to my three recent letters about Brexit. Here is the letter I have sent in reply.

Dear Mark Harper,

I’m writing to thank you for your careful and detailed letter of 3rd December, in response to mine regarding Brexit. I appreciate your having taken time to address my specific points rather than simply sending a form-letter restating Government policy.

A response from my MP on Brexit

It took a long time coming, but now that I have written three times to my MP about Brexit [first one, second one, third one], I have a reply — and I’m pleased to say it’s pretty good, and suggests that he actually read my letter. Enjoy.

Third try: writing to my MP about Brexit

Sigh … Third try …

Dear Mark Harper,

This is the third time in three weeks that I have written to you about Brexit, and I have yet to receive a reply to my first message of three weeks ago or my second of one week ago.

This morning the Advocate General of the Court of Justice of the European Union ruled that the United Kingdom can decide to remain in the EU. And that we don’t need the consent of the other member states. That puts the decision about our future back into the hands of MPs.

The deal on the table falls far short on what was promised, and leaves us without a proper mandate for Brexit. I urge you to vote against Theresa May’s deal, and to vote to prevent a no-deal Brexit in whatever subsequent votes may occur. We are stronger, more prosperous and more influential inside the EU than outside it.

Yours sincerely,
Dr. Mike Taylor
Oakleigh Farm House, Crooked End, Ruardean, GL17 9XF

If you have a position on Brexit, I urge you also to write to your own MP. The easiest way is using WriteToThem.

The Witchfinders: a collision of irrelevances

If I’ve given the impression of not having enjoyed this series of Doctor Who very much, that’s not too far wrong. Here we are now, after eight of the ten episodes, and time is fast running out for it to pull a rabbit out of the hat. There may yet be a rabbit. But if there is, The Witchfinders is not it.

And the most frustrating thing is that it fails in exactly the same ways as all the other episodes this year.

Follow-up letter to my MP repeating my request that he back a #PeoplesVote

I just sent this to my MP, Mark Harper, via the WriteToThem web-site. It is a follow-up to my letter of two weeks ago, which has not received a reply.

Dear Mark Harper,

Two weeks ago, I wrote to you about withdrawal agreement negotiated by Theresa May and her team, asking you to vote against the deal. As I have not received a reply, I am writing again.

Kerblam!: yes, but what does it all mean?

Another nearly-but-not-quite episode this week. I feel like we’re edging closer to a really good story without quite having got there yet. A novel setting, an interesting mystery, and some fine moments. But nagging concerns about the resolution of the mystery, about the supporting cast, about the Doctor herself, and about what the whole episode was actually telling us.