dirty diesel

As any fool on the west coast knows, this picturesque part of the world runs on rosy-tinted hydrocarbons.  Since C is a key part of the picturesqueness (renowned from Corpach to Ullapool as a character) he goes through red diesel with gay abandon.  The bits and pieces associated with his wind turbine (tv monitors, sound systems, compressed air controls, starter motor ...) use stacks of electricity and the turbine doesn't produce anything useful so when he's up here showing off his turbine to impressionable yachties, the diesel generator comes on most days ... often twice.

So Wednesday was a day for picking up the trailer with the bowser filled with diesel and hauling it across six miles of track.  That went reasonably well but then it all got complicated: C took two pumps to bits in an attempt to get them working and finally succumbed to my suggestions that we just siphon the diesel out.  While I was having a coffee he decided that this process was much too slow and that he hadn't broken anything for a while so he reversed the car and trailer away from the tank.  The bowser was still a third full of diesel and he burnt the clutch on his car out doing it.

Twelve plastic jerry cans of diesel later and the bowser's still not empty but the trailer has now been moved, again, so that it's blocking the track.  Every stitch that I'm wearing stinks of the foul stuff and first thing tomorrow I'm going to have to spend hauling the trailer sideways to get it clear of the posts C erected to prevent unspecified 'people' from driving over the non-functioning internet connection he's rigged up for the wind turbine.  Oh, and I don't think he's going to make it over the track, let alone back to Glasgow with that clutch.

I don't think I'm being that patient, I think I'm just too tired to get angry.  I do, however, go to bed every night hoping that I will wake up to discover that C has decided to take up watercolour painting.

After a ridiculous amount of aerobic exercise, dinner was a very well-deserved roast chicken with chilli-fried cabbage and mashed potato followed by creme caramel.  I made the cremes yesterday but the only disadvantage to that was that I'd already eaten two to keep my strength up through the day.  I tried flavouring the milk with meadowsweet but, apart from making me feel all bucolic, I didn't notice any extra flavour.

Creme Caramel

7oz sugar
400ml cream and milk
4 eggs
3 oz sugar
vanilla

* caramelise the 7oz sugar and pour into six wee dishes
* beat the eggs and 3oz sugar together
* heat the cream and milk mixture to boiling point then pour into the eggs and sugar and mix well
* divide the custard betwenn the six wee (caramelised) dishes
* place in a large dish in the oven then fill (the large dish) with boiling (or as hot as you can) water
* set the oven to gas mk 3 and start testing the custards after 30 minutes - they're ready when set but wobbly