Suddenly busy

Ageing Yuppie called me yesterday, to ask whether I could work for a fortnight in his office (not the college, he has established a practice in Liverpool South); I'll be in New York for the second week but we agreed that I would go there on Sunday and stay until Thursday evening, giving me Friday morning in Stuttgart to prepare and pack. Cutting it that fine was probably a bad idea, but the money's good and it should be OK. I usually pack in under three hours anyway.

The joke is that he won't be there: his birthday is in the middle of that week so he will be in Italy with the Dentist, Giselle and various others. So I shall be working in an office I've never seen, on a project that I don't know, with people I've never met, and living in AY's room in a shared house with other people I've never met. Should be fun.

The database customers are all packing up for their summer holidays, and as usual have all decided at the very last second that they have urgent top-priority needs. One in particular has been dithering for months about whether to commission a data import from us; having decided, it must now be finished before the ninth of July. It is to laugh.

I have discovered how to make perfect sushi rice: sticky and clumpy without being soggy. (I use Himalaya Basmati, but any long-grain white rice would probably work as well.) Boil three parts (by volume) of salted water for each one part of rice, and throw the rice into the boiling water. Take the pot off the burner and forget all about it for a quarter-hour (do turn off the burner!). Return to the kitchen, bring the water back to just-barely-boiling, then turn it down to simmer until all the water has been absorbed (about 12 minutes, but I've found that rice absorbs less water on damp and rainy days, so you may need to remove the lid during the final minutes to allow the excess to steam off).

Since you asked: 55 grams of rice (the volume of an espresso cup) is the right measure for one person if you're eating the Chinese way, or for two people if you think of rice as decoration.

The weather continues cold, wet and very windy with no prospect of change. The folk wisdom about the Siebenschläfer is holding true this year. I am so looking forward to New York.

Today's Friday Favourite is a slow, sad wordless tango from the soundtrack to this film. (Mind you, "a sad tango" is something of a tautology.) Gozar del fin de semana, estimados amigos.