The defeat of limits...

I've had my limits challenged tonight, by a meal.

I don't like meat with bones.  Ask anyone that knows me, they'll say "Mike doesn't like meat with bones".

Actually, no, I imagine they'll say "Mike?  Yeah, I know Mike.  He's familiar with pies."

Which I am.  I love pies.

But I don't like meat with bones in.

To be precise, I don't like bones in my food full stop.  I don't particularly like having to muck about with food before I eat it, whether it's removing bones, cutting away fat, cooling it down because it's too hot to eat... if it's on my plate I want to eat it.  I am willing to compromise - I will use a fork to get the food from my plate to my mouth rather than just eating it straight off the plate using fingers (or inserting my face into the food - after all this would result in an extra chore of washing face afterwards) - but I do prefer the process of getting the tasty plate of food converted to empty plate to be a straightforward as possible.

Now, if you've been reading any of my recent posts, you'll know that we like polish food.  We generally get a polish takeaway at least once a week from the excellent Kuchnia.  Now, my partner always orders the same thing (devolay with extra mash and garlic sauce), but I like to try different things, and the problem is that because we're not familiar with polish food, I don't know what they make without a menu.  So, what I do is I ask them to give me "something with meat" and they do so.

This has always worked out excellently.

But then tonight happened.

My meal arrived - and it was pork ribs.

Ribs, for those that failed Biology, are bones.

It was therefore to my extreme annoyance that after a handful of seconds scraping the meat off the bones and disposing of the excess thoracic cartilaginous material, that the meal itself was delicious, and I have to admit that I wouldn't be entirely against trying it again.

I do hope no one reads this so I can continue to complain about how much I dislike food with bones in.

The Experience of the Surprise Polish

For the last few Monday nights, we've generally had a Polish takeaway from Kuchnia in Hull. Polish is ace because it tastes great and it's cheaper than some other takeaways, but we don't have a Polish menu which makes choosing meals tricky - my other half always has Devolay with extra garlic sauce and extra mash, but I like to try something different every time.  So this time, when my partner was ordering, and asked me what I wanted, I said "A surprise!  Something with meat in it."

I got this!

Wow.  It was amazing.  Meat wrapped in meat, with mash and tons of gravy.  And lots of tasty veg too.

Now, I have lots of guest posts of mine to talk about!

Firstly, I've got a post up at the great nobodysreadingme which I love very much (the blog, not my post - I'm not quite that egocentric... okay, well maybe I am) where I'm complaining about getting older.  My knee still aches from time to time after falling over a football about six years ago.  The chap who runs nobodysreadingme is a very good writer indeed and his blog is well worth checking out - he also writes at Ether Books and Wattpad (name of Duncan Swallow) and I'd encourage you to check those out.

And secondly, I'm very sorry not to have highlighted this when it went live (entirely my mistake) but I have a guest post up at A Daydreamer's Thoughts due to Faye there being lovely enough to let me talk about "The Man on Platform Five" by Robert Llewellyn.  A book review was a writing challenge that I hadn't attempted before and as it's my all time favourite book I had to do it!  Thanks to Faye for letting me have a go at reviewing, and if you'd like to see my review it's at http://daydreamersthoughts.co.uk/guest-review-the-man-on-platform-5-by-robert-llewellyn/.  I really enjoyed the opportunity to do a book review and I'm hoping to attempt another one in the not too distant future.

Oh - have you played http://winloseorbanana.com/ ?  Very bizarre.

Congratulations Andy Murray on Wimbledon!

Finally!

After so many years, Great Britain has once again won Wimbledon - roughly an hour ago, the World Number Two, Andy Murray, beat the Number One Novak Djokovic in straight sets.  I must admit that I'm not the biggest tennis fan but it's great to see a british winner of Wimbledon at last!  Well done Andy!

What news do I have?  Firstly, I have another guest post up, this time published by Mary Sentoza, a writer and blogger in Canada.  I've enjoyed her works for a while and she's very gratifyingly put up a little piece I've written on the mistakes I've made in my writing adventures!  Do check out her work at http://authorsmuse.weebly.com/ and http://www.marysentoza.com/

My parents have been fixing my grans "magic gate" as they call it.  It's magic because apparently, if you close this gate, it stops the cat from leaving the garden.  Yes, just closing this gate stops the cat climbing over fences, walking through hedges, or even just squeezing between the bars of the gate itself.  My mum writes the story far better than me at http://ravenmagical.blogspot.co.uk/2013/07/working-weekend.html

Obviously - it's really hot today.  REALLY HOT.  I don't really operate well in extremes of temperature, and would be quite happy to spend the rest of the day in a slightly chilly room, with no sunlight.  But hey, at least we had a barbecue and now have an excess of cooked meat.  And this is after my delicacy at breakfast, as you can see here...

Mmmm...  ??

It's chicken, vegetarian chilli, and some cheesy pasta thing, warmed up in the microwave and then cooked up with about a third of a pint of beef gravy.  I ate it.  That's pretty much all I can say about it.