Horton Pedal

Running a bit late yesterday so decided to crack out the trusty trek for once in a while and do the errands by bicycle. So an extended Horton Clockwise and once again surprised at how long it takes to pedal what I usually walk. I think the brain must overcompensate for the change in method of movement and think that the quick method of transport is going to be a lot quicker than the slow method than it really is. But it was nice to be out on the bike on a bright sunny morning.

One of the errands was a bit of smoked haddock from Waitrose, the purpose of which was to gee up the left over chicken breast stew from the day before. This was a stew of BH confection, essentially chicken breast lumps in a thick yellow sauce crafted from the chicken stock, lemon (which I don't usually approve of for main course purposes, even as a garnish, never mind full-on inclusion) and other matters. Add Waitrose's red lentils, bring to the boil, remove from heat and stand for 3 hours. Meanwhile simmer the haddock in a little water until soft. Discard the salty water, the skin & bones and flake the remainder. Add some quartered button mushrooms with the fish to the stew. Simmer for 10 minutes. Serve with white cabbage and red potatoes, these last peeled & boiled but not mashed. Very good - and another left-over ecologically disposed of.

While all this was going on I also pondered on the question of nationalities, and how one often seems to get clusters of small countries around the rims of large ones. Small countries - in power if not in geography or population - which often wound up being absorbed by the large countries which then called themselves empires. So we had the British Isles then the British Empire. The Turks had theirs, the Austrians & the Russians had theirs. But as the empires recede, the small countries reappear, now with an awkwardly mixed population, usually taking in a contingent from the possibly now hated empire. So we gets Prots from Scotland in Northern Ireland, Russians in the Ukraine and elsewhere, Germans in what used to be the Kingdom of Bohemia, Turks in Cyprus and Greeks in Turkey. With the Germans and the Greeks now having been expelled, but with the others still causing trouble. And then, as a variation on the theme, we have both Sunni vs. Shia and Jesus vs. Muhhamad in what was the Turkish Empire, aka the Ottoman Empire or The Porte.

All this prompted by reading in a book about 'The Ambassadors', being read by way of preparation for the next jigsaw, that around 1530 Charles V of Spain etc wanted to do a deal with Francis I of France whereby Francis abandoned Milan and the Milanese to Charles and Charles abandoned Burgundy and the Netherlands to Francis. All very tidy, and a good deal for Francis, but it seems that he was a bit dim and declined to do it, which was a pity because a lot of subsequent bother on the northern and eastern edges of the hexagon of Metropolitan France might otherwise have been avoided. See Marlborough for more details.