What was the last thing you searched for online? Why were you looking for it?
There are four main reasons I look for things online using a search engine. First, I saw someone on a film or TV programme and wanted to find out more about them. Second, I want to find a resource for my teaching. Third, I am looking for a recipe. Fourth I am on Duolingo and need some help with German.
The last film/TV star I looked for was Sofia Carson who stars in two films I have watched and thoroughly enjoyed recently, My Oxford Year and The Life List. The last teaching resource I looked for was an article about branding that was relevant to my art and design students. It was about the return of 90s branding and the reasons behind it. The last recipe I looked for was how to make Harissa Paste at home because I figured it can’t be too complicated. Turns out it isn’t so I look forward to adding it to my home made repertoire. The last piece of German I looked up was the German word for street. This was not because I didn’t know it, but because my phone keyboard doesn’t have any special characters that I can find and if I spell the word phonetically it is marked wrong. So, I went to Bing and asked What is Street in German. It is Straße by the way, and I don’t know how to get the fifth letter on the keyboard. Maybe that should be my next search as there must be a shortcut I can use!
What TV shows did you watch as a kid?
As a child I was something of a telly addict. I lived in a household where both parents went out to work, relatively unusual in the 1970s, and where, as long as I remembered my key, I was generally left in total charge of the TV after school and during the day when it was holiday time. To be honest I could be here all day reminiscing but I will focus on one of my main reasons for watching a programme, the theme tune.
If a programme had a really good theme tune I would instantly be interested, and even if the show itself was bad, I would often switch on for the theme and then turn over once it had finished! So, what were my favourite themes when I was growing up?
I suppose I should start with the Sunday afternoon line up on ITV. My favourite lunchtime show was The Persuaders starring Roger Moore and Tony Curtis. What a great theme tune, which is still instantly recognisable 50 years later. Following that, the next show was almost always a Gerry Anderson production. Whatever show was on, you were guaranteed a brilliant Barry Grey theme tune. The standout for me was the psychedelic masterpiece Joe 90. It was a favourite at Northern Soul nightclubs because it was so good to dance to. Then it was Sunday afternoon football with Brian Moore in the Southern TV region and the Big Match. The excitement of the theme tune often outdid the matches themselves! Finally, perhaps the king of theme tunes at the time, the incredible Black Beauty theme tune, Galloping Home. Even now, it’s a piece of music to send shivers down your spine.
The children’s programmes from Monday to Friday had a great range of theme tunes. My favourite tunes were from a pair of ITV Sci fi series. Timeslip had an unsettling theme tune that reflected the very challenging nature of the material, but it was the Tomorrow People that was the stuff of nightmares! If you have never watched it, take a look at the link below.
What’s your favorite time of day?
I don’t think my teenage or twenty something self would believe this, but I really love the early mornings! I’m almost always the first person up and about, usually around 5.30 to 6, and I have grown to love the unhurried quietness of the hour or two before my wife and daughter have to get up.
The first thing I will do, particularly in the summer is to look for Albus in the conservatory or the garden. If he isn’t there, he is usually somewhere nearby and it won’t be long before he comes in purring. There is no better sound than the full throated purr of a contented cat. Sometimes he will want food, sometimes he will want to sit on my lap and snooze for a while and sometimes, like this morning, he will go straight in to my daughter’s room to sleep next to her.
Once I have sorted him out, I will get myself a cup of tea and open up Jetpack to see what today’s prompt is. If it flows like today then I will probably spend 30 to 40 minutes crafting my daily entry (although to be entirely honest that has only been part of my routine for the past 41 days and counting!) for my blog. Once I have done that, or once I have decided that I need to have more time to think of something, I will go to Twitter (it’s always that name, never the new one, like Marathon chocolate bars as any 70s or 80s kid will know) and complete any music challenge that I may have.
By this point I will be thinking about my wife’s packed lunch if she is going to work. Pretty much since we moved in together we have made packed lunches if our partner is going to work in the office. I always enjoy making her lunch and eating the lunch she made for me if I was off to work. These lunches just taste better. When I was in Japan, I took my packed lunch out of my bag and a trio of girls saw it and asked if I prepared it. I said that it was my wife who had prepared it and, in unison, they said ‘Love Lunch’! It has been a love lunch from that day forward. I just adore that phrase as it is so true and so simple.
So, there you have it. My early morning is one of quiet preparations and it is a time I really value. As I head to a new way of life that is one thing from my old way of life that definitely won’t change.
What’s your favorite recipe?
My favourite recipe is Cucumber Relish. Not for how it tastes, although it tastes amazing. Not for how easy it is to prepare and cook, although that gets easier every year. It’s my favourite because of what it represents.
A few years ago at work I was trying to decide what to get my colleagues for Christmas and, to be honest, I was drawing a blank. Everyone seemed to get something sweet for each other, and I have something of a lower threshold for sweet things than most. (Not to say I don’t enjoy sweet things, but I have to be in exactly the right mood to eat them.) I was looking up pickling recipes when I came across cucumber relish for the first time. I looked at the contents and the instructions and thought, ‘I can do that!’ so I asked who was interested in trying some. I think I got about a dozen testers and they really enjoyed it. So, a tradition was born! Every Christmas I asked for interested recipients and every October you would find me in the kitchen for four or five hours preparing my Christmas gift. As I tend to do, I played around with the recipe. The main change I made which lifted it to another level was the substitution of paprika with cayenne pepper. This gave it more of a kick and blended in beautifully with the rest of the ingredients.
Once the cooking was done I would put the mixture into jars and write labels for each one to give it that personal touch. I loved the reaction every time I did this, because I could tell that they really appreciated the gift. When I announced that I was leaving the job I had a number of my colleagues saying how much they would miss my cucumber relish. So, I made a special batch in June and the label this time proclaimed that I was ‘Resigning with Relish’!! 🤣🤣
I think I will miss the tradition of making jars of relish for my colleagues as much as they will miss the taste, but I will continue to make relish on a smaller scale as I can’t imagine Christmas without it.
I know that at least one of my former colleagues reads this blog, so if he or anyone else wants to try their hand at this recipe, here it is!
David Pearce - Popular Culture and Personal Passions 