美国 的 政治 活动

我 讨厌 美国 的 政治 活动。
我 反对 美国 的 选举 结果。
我 怀疑 这 政治 活动 没有 真实。
我 认为 大多人 跟 我 同意！

: 02 Dec 2004 08:11 |  Comments (4) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

你好！

欢迎 我 的 网站。

我 当 大学 老师， 但是 我 学习 汉语。

I‘ve just been shown the coolest method for chinese input into gtk applications under GNU/Linux! It's called scim-chinese, with smart pinyin input.

Another triumph for free (as in libre) software!

我 男朋友 这 个 软件 找到 了。 我男朋友 最好的!

could anyone please tell me what the pinyin for linux is?

: 27 Sep 2004 21:14 |  Comments (3) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Does Warwick want to help people to make healthy meal choices?

I have a serious problem with most of the food outlets on campus. There just aren't enough healthy choices! Seriously!..Let's start with things to drink. Why is it that it's becoming more and more difficult to buy pure fruit juice on campus? As opposed to fruit drinks that are mostly sugar water? On the occassions I have been to EAT in the past 6 months, it's completely random whether or not real orange juice is on offer. I can't remember the last time I saw fruit juice in the drinks cabinet at the Arts centre cafe. With Kalaidescope out of action (until Monday? hmmm, I guess so if they work all weekend!), the only place to get real juice is in Raffles, or Costcutter! And why only orange juice?

I'm not interested in excuses like "we just cater to what the majority want…". Surely this university has a responsibility to the staff and students to make healthy choices available. And as for those insipid, over-sauced, highly salted salad selections….don't even get me started!

: 24 Sep 2004 20:58 |  Tags: Warwick Food Outlets Rant |  Comments (3) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

copy editing no longer exists?

Is it just me, or do books these days have far more typos in them than used to be the case? I even found typos in my penguin copy of The Republic – and how long have they had to sort that out!

Has the production of books become that much cheaper that no one cares about typos anymore? They are often the sort a standard spell checker would detect. Perhaps it's some Microsoft problem…I like the idea of blaming Microsoft. And, I bet these publishing firms don't use open-source software.

: 24 Sep 2004 07:13 |  Comments (2) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Gallery Restaurant, Earlsdon, Sunday 19/09/04, lunch

First Impressions
Boyfriend and I arrived 1pm, to find we were the only people there! Imagine tumbleweeds blowing by. A little disconcerting…. Besides, they've changed the interior of the Gallery since I was last there. Now it's decked out in burgundy and cream(?) colours, and there is a mirror running the length of one wall in the dining area, where paintings used to hang (I think!). They've re-configured the dining area as well. I was a little underwhelmed by the menu. In fact, there was nothing I was interested in eating from the starters section. Didn't look at the meat, but the fish offerings from the mains section looked OK. The vegetarian option just sounded plain weird – pasta sauced with aubergine and water chestnuts? OK, maybe I could be a bit more broadminded. There was a small offering of snacks to bolster us through looking at the menu – wedges of cheese-topped foccaccia, a sun-dried tomato tapenade, and some mixed olives.

The Meal
Service on this visit was a little amateurish. We weren't drinking – just ordered some sparkling water. The waitress hilariously just plonked the unopened bottle down on the table quite hard and wandered off! Eventually someone sauntered by to take our orders – grilled salmon on haddock and prawn mash for me, grilled swordfish on roasted vegetable couscous for the B. By this time, a few more people had arrived for lunch, so it didn't seem quite so strange. Then the tucker arrived, and I remembered why I like this place. The food is unpretentious, reasonably well-cooked, unfussily presented…and OK, it does come in abundance! The salmon was, on the whole, quite good, although the skin was curiously crispy and yet tough at the same time, and I didn't eat it. I don't know about putting prawns and haddock in potato mash, but the whole thing worked together with the very rich, creamy, buttery sauce that came with the dish. The swordfish was reportedly well-cooked. Additional roasted potatoes (to go with my mash!?) and steamed vegetables also came with our mains. Perhaps too much food (but is that ever a bad thing?) and a total carb-a-thon for me.

Then came choices for desert. I opted for vanilla panna cotta with roasted mini-pears, while the B. asked for the blueberry cheesecake with mango coulis. The same waitress who wouldn't open a bottle of water for us also stuffed up the B.'s order – he almost ended up with the cheese board! (again, is that ever such a bad thing?) The panna cotta was creamy, flavoured with real vanilla, and partnered nicely with the roasted baby pears. The blueberry cheesecake was a little too dense for my liking, and I think the chocolate crumb crust didn't really make a good partner for the blueberries. Mango coulis tasted fine – I just think the separate elements of the dish didn't come together coherently.

Coffee and petit-four came afterwards, and a very reasonable bill. In summary, I reckon the cooking here is better than most other places you will find in Coventry. The food is unpretentious and the prices relatively fair for the standard of cooking. Too bad about the fact that they can't pack the place out for Sunday lunch (on other Sunday lunchtimes I've been here, it's been heaving!), and, they need to give their wating staff a kick up the backside.

: 23 Sep 2004 22:17 |  Tags: Restuarant Reviews |  Comments (2) |  Close comments |  Report a problem