Day 44 - pancakes, obviously

Ever wanted to change your name? Fed up of living with a name chosen by someone else? Today was the chance to change all that as it was Get A New Name Day. Names are weird. People decide that certain names have certain connotations but those are usually due to the characteristics of certain people. For example, the Cat from Red Dwarf was cool but became Dwayne in his nightmares of being uncool. Dwayne is a name for uncool people, but try telling that to Dwayne "The Rock" Johnson. It won't be long before Dwaynes the world over are looked up to as being tough guys. What I'm saying I suppose is that Shakespeare nailed it, "a rose by any other name..." and all that. So I'm happy with my name, even my middle name. It's not what you have but what you do with it that counts. Having said that, I've been toying with writing stories and thought that maybe I should use today to choose a pen name. A nom de plume. There's a village not far from where I live called Preston Brockhurst. I've been trying to get the name into a story as a character but I might keep it for me. I just like the sound.

There were 3 foodie celebrations today so I've skipped Crab Rangoon Day. Partly as I had no idea what it is and partly because I knew that I would once again be celebrating alone. Google says that they are a bit like samosas (good start) but with a crab and cream cheese filling.

Instead I chose Tortellini Day. Much easier, or so I thought. I toyed with the idea of making some but the last time I tried to make some filled pasta it took all day and tasted awful. It was far too thick. So I bought some,  only to find that it was actually tortelloni.  The difference is size, tortellini are smaller. The thought was there although I expect that pasta purist would mock my efforts.

It was also International Pancake Day. This is actually listed as a different celebration from Shrove Tuesday. I suppose it's the same event but without the religious connotations. The kids had ready made scotch pancakes for breakfast, I had the standard thin ones with sugar and lemon as pudding. I used Simon Rimmer's recipe which he posted on Twitter. I didn't realise that pancakes could be so controversial, it started a long thread if anti-tv chef nonsense. The recipe worked fine but to be honest, so long as the consistency looks right, the flour/milk/egg ratio doesn't seem to matter that much. I wrote about crepe day not that long ago, I fail to see a difference but I expect that French people may have something to say about it. If you know a difference please feel free to add a comment.

Radio Day took place today which was a chance to listen to radio 2 whilst on the train. Sara Cox was my DJ of choice. I don't know if it's her voice or her style but she always sounds like one if your mates has taken over the radio and is just having a laugh before the real DJ turns up. That sounds like a negative but it's a complement.  The banter sounds natural rather than forced. Keep up the good work Sara!

Extra Terrestrial Culture Day is an odd one. Celebrating aliens is one thing but bro ging their culture into it is very specific. Some religions will tell us that humanity is alone in the universe,  and some scientists will tell us that the existence of aliens is a mathematical certainty. Presumably to celebrate ET
culture you have to firstly accept that aliens exist. I'm happy to accept that the probably of there being aliens out there somewhere is pretty high but I'm not sure how I then celebrate their culture. If there are aliens then I'm sure that they should have rights to enjoy their culture as much as the next race, so long as it doesn't include harvesting humans to use as wombs for their offspring in which case they can stick their culture where the sun, or whichever star they choose, doesn't shine.

Now Kiss Day is something I can understand much easier. From following tweets this week I've seen that in India, Valentine's Day is just one day at the end of a week long celebration. I mentioned teddy day before, there has also been a hug day. Today is Kiss Day. A day to kiss that special someone, so I'll do just that if our paths cross at some point today.  So far I've spent most of the day on a train.

Madly In Love With Myself Day is also today as is Natural Day. Both are about accepting who you are and allowing yourself to just be you. Drop your pretences, etc. As George Benson said, learning to love yourself is the greatest love of all, or something like that. In celebration I listened to the song and had a think about me. I like to think that I learnt a long time ago to accept who I am and not care what others thought,  it would be difficult to be a Morris dancer if I paid attention to 'the haters'. 

Finally, today has been Dream Your Sweet Dream Day. This is in preparation of tomorrow's love fest, having spent some time loving myself I need to dream about my beloved.  Such hardships I have to endure for this project! Good night!