Miami in the 2nd Consecutive Battle

Miami is in the Finals again for the second consecutive year. They lost to Dallas last year and now are facing Oklahoma City. It was a great game yesterday in Thunder's home and the Heat tied the series 1-1. Chris Bosh's return was a great help. The Heat had a good lead during the game but the Thunder reduced it to 3. The final score was 100-96. One of the commentators sounded like he wanted the Thunder win and knowing how hard it is to win a game in the opponents field, he also sounded a bit surprised that the Heat had the lead for all of the game.

(Photo: Chris Bosh, left who used to play for Raptors two seasons back returned to game 1 after missing 9 game due to an injury. His efforts helped Heat to pass Thunders last night)

The Quarry

We wanted to go for a little walk with F. D. (He's here but no point to say how he arrived, long story) so I wondered where to go. I parked close to an overpass which goes over Memorial Dr. and lands on Bow River Trial, the north bank and we walked. Then we crossed the river and turned right. I remembered that years ago I had taken that path so we entered but then I realized a gravel path which goes up and decided to take that: The Quarry Road Trial. Apparently it had been a quarry long time ago, long enough that sandstone used to be extracted enough from there to build the government building in Regina in 1885. The little sign by the City of Calgary does not say if the building was made for the Federal Government or a local one but since it mentions the year and it is shortly after the Confederation, I assume it was for the Federal Government.

Another question is why out of everywhere on Earth this quarry should be used to carry sandstone all the way to Saskatchewan, some 760 Km?

Anyway we went up and it was a good walk. Path was not busy I guess only people who live at the other side of the path, the ones who do not want to take the back roads, take this path on foot or on a bike. On the way back, we took another trial and somehow ended up by the tracks. A commercial train approached and passed shortly after that.

We did not see the quarry but we realized that there was a kind of narrow bridge at the other side as well as a Golf Course and decided to discover the rest for the next time.

(Photo: Mertensia a wild flower common in the areas was spotted a few times. I could not get a better shot using my digital camera)

The Incredible Cow Tounge Meal

Tongue is a common meat in the old country but not here in the West although they love meat. But we were not surprised when we saw pork and cow tongue in T&T Supermarket yesterday because we that Chinese eat everything from tail to head and from any kind of mammal! Just kidding.

Anyway we got a small pack of cow tongue and with the help of Curtis Stone Pressure Cooker and The Lady recipe turned it to a wonderful and incredible Cow Tongue Meal.

Here is the ingredient in case you want to try:

1- Cow Tongue, cleaned and fat taken off, as much as you like but consider your pressure cookers capacity. You do not have to take the skin off.

2- Check Pea, as much as you like but again consider your pressure cookers capacity. No need to soak them in water.

3- Dried Lemon or its powder. The Lady used three and made holes on them using a fork. It all depends how sour you like your meal. Rather than that Dried Lemon gives incredible aroma to the whole meal.

4- Salt, Pepper and other types of desirable herbs and seasonings.

5- Tomato Paste.

6- Water, to cover everything in the pot.

Just combine everything together and let on max. temp. of your stove. You can add tomato paste later on when you check to see how your cheek peas are doing because you will have to do that at least once during the cooking. One the pressure safety valve is up is when you have the turn the heat down and put it on Min. Give it up to 20 min. depending the amount of cheek pea. As mentioned above open the lead once and check the cheek peas and based on that add water if needed and estimate the amount of time needed to finish that. Add tomato paste at the same time as indicated above.

This meal could be eaten with rice or simply make sandwich out of meat and have a soup separately. I can stress enough how tasty both the soup and meat is. Do not forget to peal the skin off the tongue after it is cooked.

(Photo: I did not take any photo of the dish but wanted to have something here so used the photo from the inside of pressure cooker. Those three spheres you see here are dried lemons and pieces of cow tongue are seen after being peeled off and cut)

Ray Left the World

I have vague memories of Fahrenheit 451when first it was shown on IRIB many years ago, perhaps more than 25 years! the movie which is based on Ray Bradbury's story with the same name was made in 1966 by the great French director, the late Francois Truffaut. Then once I rented it from a Rogers Video store, which has been turned to a restaurant called Cibo here in Canada in 2004 or 2005 back to the time I used to live with The Microbe. I did not get a good chance to watch the movie really well although I had it rented for a week.

Ray left this world two days ago after 91 years of living. His another story which the movie A Sound of Thunder is based on, is amazing as well although the movie did not attract many people's and cretics' attention.

I checked HMV and realized that Fahrenheit 451was available. I should add that to my collection and watch it again but I might check other sites as well to see if I can get a better deal on this movie.

(Photo: Bradbury in 1959)

The Dictator

I never liked this Sacha Baron Cohen, the British fellow. I had never seen any movies of him but the things that I had heard about him, about his movies, always prevented me from watching his movies. Eventually I said let's try this one, The Dictator, because I realized it was based on a fictitious character similar to Ghaddafi.

We caught it last night. It was OK and we got good laughs but that did not change my opinion about him. I had heard how disrespectful he was toward women. This movie actually approved that. It has bad jokes about women which not only they are not funny, but they are rude, tasteless and ridiculous. At the same time the movie makes fun of Arabs and their stupid cultures as well as democracy and its meaning in West. These are the good parts. The movie states that democracy in a way is giving power to multinational greedy companies enough power to go to a country like Kuwait, Iraq or Lydia and start taking their natural national resources.

It is not the movie that I would want to watch again but recommended to watch once. I guess if I wanted to rate it, I would give it 2.5 out of 5, at the most.

(Photo: Cohen as Admiral General Aladdin from a fictitious African nation with a language similar or identical to Arabic and his bodyguards. I guess this idea has been taken from one Ghadafi. The country they show on African map is where actually currently Somalia is located I think!)

Bow Path at Ingelwood

This east side of Bow Path or Bow River Path in Ingelwood is a nice and beautiful part. Although it has it's own customers but normally less crowded compare to Downtown. I had a run today over there and it was beautiful although after a few minutes you van hear Deerfoot!

(Photo: The bridge connects Ingelwood to first the Zoo and then Memorial Drive. Unfortunately I did not have my camera on me and used my mobile phone)