Waah....

We were all set to watch the next instalment of The Beiderbecke Tapes as light entertainment last night. And the DVD player wouldn't work. Bit of thinking, and maybe my 30 day trial of the nVidia decoder for using with Windows Media Player had expired. So I tried loading my old DVD program - no joy. Ten o'clock last night, and I was still getting nowhere, even after paying to download a PowerDVD decoder. Frustration all round. Things are partially working today - but I want my money back if CyberLink's tech support can't deal with what seems to be a common fault. They suggest I update my graphics drivers - well, I had enough cop to do that before I contacted them.
Anway, today was spent mostly in the kitchen. We have a Tanzanian friend coming tomorrow before she heads back home for good. I was going to make a tagine, but there was no fresh coriander in the local greengrocers, and he wasn't going to be getting any in till after lunch. I hoped to be finished in the kitchen by then, so we're having a curry instead. It's called Beef with Cashew Nuts, but really I think it's a case of a Korma by any other name, with a bit more cardamom than normal. For dessert I'm trying a creme caramel with a difference: the milk and cream were infused for a while with coffee beans and a cinnamon stick. It smelled almost like toasted coconut, for some strange reason. I also made a batch of brownies, and right now it's time to go and cut them, ready for afternoon coffee.

Just two Greek photos today - a beer bottle on the old disused salt flats, and an old Venetian bridge. I think the name translates as five arches. Five something or other; I recognise the five, and am guessing the arches. These were both on the east coast. The salt flats were amazing, very photogenic in an abstract way. Swirls, and cracked ground, and red and white texture. I don't know if the red was just from the soil - not the colour of the rest of the earth in that particular area, or from iron salts somewhere reacting with all the salt.