It’s bad
enough being at the gym without people bugging me the whole time. I appreciate
that my many issues with other gym users stem from my dislike of being there
but I don’t think that I am totally out of order on all of them. They are
mainly changing room based as I think people seem to forget that they are in a
public shared space. Overly aggressive moisturising of upper legs when naked is
on my list, especially when one leg is on a bench, and unnecessarily bending
while naked within main sight lines is another. I do get it; in a gym changing
room there is a need for being naked, and I have no issue if someone wants to
wander around naked, or dry their hair naked, it just feels like sometimes ladies
are pushing genitalia in my face. It bugs me.
Then there
is more passive aggressive behaviour. The leaving open of locker doors, leaving
stuff on a bench in front of a locker that isn’t associated with them and
moving the hair straighteners to ‘their’ part of the dressing table even though
they clearly aren’t going to use them for ten minutes or more. (I don’t use
hair straighteners but the pettiness of ‘claiming’ a shared facility, of which
there are a substantial number available, when you don’t need them makes me want
to). However my completely irrational one (and I admit this as it has no
bearing on my life whatsoever so I should get over it) is people who don’t
correctly row on the rowing machine. Why this bugs me I don’t know. It doesn’t
stop me rowing properly but the sight
of someone just using their legs, and then not completing the action by using
their arms to pull on the stupid handle, annoys the hell out of me. I try and
rationalise it; they could be injured, maybe they
have never seen someone row, maybe they are stupid and don’t want to get any
better …… I’ll stop there.
So this all
somehow brings me on to mincemeat – the kind in mince pies just to be clear. I
don’t mind mince pies but bought mincemeat can be a let-down. Sometimes the
fruit is too dry, even though the mixture is moist, or they pimp it with weird
things like glace cherries or they add rum to excessive quantities. I also find
the sight of shredded suet off putting as it can look like little maggots
sometimes. Many irrational personal issues. Therefore I decided to make my own and stop being annoyed by it. I
use the principles of the fruit in the Porter Cake I make and apply them to
this – so melting everything together, using Guinness and getting the fruit to absorb
the moisture. I was happy with the result but there is no reason why you couldn’t
pimp it yourself with glace cherries or rum. The whole point of making your own
is that it can be exactly how you want it and you can then inflict that on others.
Ingredients
280g sultanas and
raisins (aim for half and half but I only had 100g of raisins so used more
sultanas)
70g mixed peel
100g light brown
sugar
125g suet (I used
vegetarian as I think it’s weird having a dessert item that is non-vegetarian)
200ml Guinness
1 eating apple,
finely chopped
Zest of one lemon
Zest of one
orange
2 tsp ground
mixed spice
1/2 tsp cinnamon
Good grating of
nutmeg
1. Put the
sultanas, raisins, peel, sugar and suet into a saucepan. Heat until sort of
simmering mixing every now and again. The mixture is fairly thick so you want
to make sure it doesn't burn.
2. Turn off
the heat and add the rest of the ingredients. Mix well and leave to cool.
3. Once
cool give it a good stir and save until you need it. If you want to keep it for
a while then store in sterilised jars but if you're using within a couple of
weeks I think an air tight tub in the fridge will do.
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