Thorn Wilde

Magpie's got a case of the Man Flu, which means that he's mostly lying on the couch whimpering and watching QI. When I asked him what he wanted for dinner today, he said, 'Lots and lots of food,' with roughly the coherence of your average hungry baby bird. I figured I'd better fix him a calorie bomb to give him some energy. So I went to the shop, had a look around and came up with a cunning plan. I'm very fond of Shepherd's Pie and its cousin, Cottage Pie (which is made with beef instead of lamb or mutton). I took my inspiration in part from these, and in part from a Scandinavian dish that my mum used to make when I was a kid. It turned out very tasty, so I thought I'd share with you this recipe for an as of yet unnamed pie. Ingredients: 400g minced pork 300g smoked bacon 1 yellow onion 2 cloves of garlic 1/2 cauliflower 300ml cream black pepper rosemary thyme 500g mashed potato 1. Turn your oven to 200C (390F). 2. Chop your onion and garlic as finely as you can be bothered. Divide the cauliflower into smaller trees. Chop your bacon into bits. 3. Heat a frying pan to high medium. If your bacon is nice and streaky and you have a non-stick pan you don't need any extra fat to fry in. Start with the bacon. When the fat is starting to melt and sizzle, add the onion and garlic. Add the minced pork when the onion starts to look shiny. When all the meat is brown, add the cauliflower and let it all cook together for a couple of minutes. 4. Add the cream. I used double cream because it thickens more easily, but if you want slightly less fat (not that it matters at this point) single cream will do just as well. Let it cook until the gravy is nice and thick. Season with black pepper, rosemary and thyme to taste. 5. Pour everything into a deep oven pan and cover in mash potato (just like you'd do with shepherd's pie or cottage pie). I was lazy and used instant mash today, but I'll post a recipe for mashed potato later. Bake in the oven for 10-15 minutes, or until the mash is starting to look nice and golden. Serve with pickled beets, gherkins, or do what we did and add lingonberry jam (available for purchase at an IKEA near you if you happen to live in a country that's never seen a lingonberry). This is about as healthy as your average carbonara, but it's very tasty! Serves 3 or 4 if you're normal people, or just two if you're me and Magpie.

Thank you! Glad you enjoyed it.

Instruments and music equipment tend to be pretty expensive, yes. The fuzz pedal was second hand, so it probably wasn't that expensive, though. Nothing Dave and his allowance can't handle. And things like electric guitars don't even scratch the surface. I have a cousin who plays the cello. My aunt is selling her old one, and she wants, like 30,000SEK for it, which is, what, $5000 or there abouts? For a second hand cello. I think Stuart mostly danced with Matt because he was drunk. As for his sexual orientation, I think that one might still be up for debate... Thanks for reviewing! Glad you enjoyed the chapter. More in a few days, probably. The next chapter has a couple of missing scenes and a lot of editing to get through...

Welcome, Chris! A wise choice when dealing with dumb people like us who can neither spell nor pronounce your name properly. I have a Polish friend named Tadeusz. We call him Ted. Looking forward to seeing what you've got! Have a look around, talk to people and you're guaranteed to find all the help you're looking for.

Thank you! Glad you enjoyed the chapter, and that I could give you a good laugh. Thanks for reviewing!

Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed the chapter. Your reviews always make me happy.

CHAPTER ELEVEN The Cold Light of Morning Jason raised his glass and smiled. ‘To family, and Christmas and all that,’ he said. ‘Cheers!’ ‘Cheers!’ the others all echoed, and everyone drank. Then they went to sit down at the table. Dave looked around at his family. It was good to have them all gathered like this. Jason, Aunt Camilla and Uncle Jeremy, and Mellie, Uncle Clive and Alice. It made Christmas so much nicer for him to have them all here. Uncle Jeremy and Aunt Camilla lived in

I had a dream that all the snow we've finally had melted away in a night and it was raining again. I was so sad when I woke up.

Sunday, 3:56pm. I only got up about an hour ago because I'm a huge slob.

I would usually agree with you, but this time I'm actually considering boycotting them... Would have liked to see the ice hockey, but this particular issue just means too much to me.

Thank you so much for this review. I really hope this story will make people think. You say that you feel Craig should have had a better sense of right and wrong. But where do we get our sense of right and wrong if not from our parents? It's interesting that you mention Tania's mum. There's a parallel there, between a parent who loves their child and also accepts them for who they are and a parent who loves their child just as much but doesn't trust their child to figure out who they are for themselves. It was so important to Paul that Craig didn't turn out gay (which he isn't) that he had to make it clear whenever he could how unacceptable that would be. Angela just wanted Tania to be happy. But they both loved their respective children very much, they both doted on them, looked after them to the best of their abilities and were very close with them. There's a very harmful myth that says that children who have been abused often become abusers when they grow up. This isn't true at all. In fact, children who have been abused are far less likely than others to become abusive, and are often kinder and more considerate of others than those who have had normal childhoods. Likewise, I theorise that a child who is taught negative values by parents who mistreat them are far less likely to adopt those values than someone who was treated well by their parents. I know I'd be more likely to adopt values taught to me by someone who loved me and cared for me. Not sure where I'm going with this response. Thank you so much for leaving such a long review. I'm glad you got so much out of this story!

See, I've never been one for clubbing, even when I was single. I have always been, and will remain, one for a quiet drink with friends in a pub. Magpie and I have been together for nearly 5 years already, and I doubt much will change on this front if we do get married. We like pubs, and we like drinks with friends at home. Last night we played cards and got pissed until 5 in the morning with a few close friends and it was a great night. That's always been my idea of a good time.

You're gonna love series 3. I certainly did. There was laughter, and there were tears, and occasionally I shouted at the telly. As soon as it's all had time to sink in I'll watch it again.

Thank you! I'm glad you enjoyed it. I'm thinking that being a fag hag is a slightly less in thing to be in more conservative environments... But that's just my assumption. Alan and Matt deserve a bit of happiness, I think. They're good boys. Thanks so much for reviewing!

Thank you for this review. It gave me a boost, it really did. I think one of the most dangerous things in the world for a child is a good parent with bad values. Paul was a great dad to Craig, and Craig loved him a lot, and that made it so much easier for Paul's homophobia to pass on to his son. I feel really bad about what I did to Tania. She deserved better, but the story had to be told. Thanks so much for your review!

The Internet is full of reliable sources provided one knows how to look for them and exercises a certain amount of source critique, something that sadly doesn't seem to be taught in schools anymore... If you read it on the website of a major news source, it's probably good fish, but maybe not so much if you got it off Billy-Bob's Blog. Wikipedia is often a good place to start, but make sure to always check the sources cited in the article, and click the links if you want more in depth info. It's ridiculous how many stories floating about the web can be disproven with a quick google search. Unfortunately, people will believe anything. It's sad, really.

His a romantic, bless him. Thanks for reviewing! Glad you're enjoying it.

Yeah, me too. I woke up, and I wondered if he was gonna come home from his lecture and it was all gonna be real.

Every story needs a bit of fluff now and again. Glad you're liking it. I feel like my boys deserve a bit of a break. Thanks for reviewing!

All in good time, Peter. All in good time. Thank you for reviewing!

This morning I dreamt that Magpie was ill and dying and only had days and he was angry with me because I'd gone to Sweden, but I didn't know he was ill. It was horrible.

A Stag do/Stag night and Hen party/Hen night are the same as bachelor/bachelorette parties.

CHAPTER TEN Soulmates Matt stretched with a groan and grinned at Nick as they exited W. H. Smith. ‘You know, so many girls have been propositioning me since the Christmas show. Some of them have been quite pretty, too. It’s a shame to have to turn them all down.’ ‘You’ve gone completely off the snatch, then?’ Nick asked casually, taking a sip of his cola. Matt shrugged. ‘I guess. They’ve sort of stopped being interesting.’ Nick glanced sideways at him. Perhaps this was the ti

Thank you for taking the time to review it. Like I said in my end note, there aren't a lot of evil people in the world. Mostly there's just people. I'm glad you liked the story.

I get this thing in dreams that if I'm running away from something it's like I'm running against the wind and I can't run properly. Do you get that too?