Month: October 2020

It’s Halloween…time for spooks, ghosts, and ghouls to come out!!

Let’s see if I have any paranormal stories for ya.

About 15 years ago, my wonderful dog (Jack) back in my hometown was getting old. I think he was about 15 years old when he passed, going blind, deaf, and getting wobbly on his legs. One evening when mom let him out to go potty, and found him five minutes later outside laying down unable to get up. She scooped him up and brought him inside. Much comfort and hugs were given, but it was his time to go. Through heartache and tears, Jack was brought to the vets and euthanatized with mom and sister cuddling him as he departed the world. Even though I was 4000 miles away, I too was heartbroken and I called in sick to work blaming a stomach bug on my absence. I spent the day crying while looking at photos of Jack (he was a mutt that looked like a fox), and smiling to his mischievous ways, keeping forever the fond memories. By evening, I was a little better. Not much, but I managed to eat something.

Around 8pm, my apartment landline phone rings.

“Hello?”, I answer. 

“Is Jack there?”, a male voice asks.

“Jack? No. No one is called Jack here”, I reply, not recognizing the voice.

Click.

The phone call ends, and I think nothing of it.

I head to bed around 10pm knowing tomorrow I really had to go into work and not use a second days’ excuse of having a stomach bug. I smiled, knowing it was worth taking the day off of work to honor Jack. At around 3am I wake up. There’s something on my bed moving around. To my delight and bewilderment, its Jack. I wasn’t dreaming. I wasn’t hallucinating. Right there on my bed was my boy. He was real. I didn’t switch on any lights as I could somehow ‘see’ him. He was younger and vibrant. His face had no grey fur and his ginger coat shimmered brightly. I immediately hugged him, feeling his soft fur coat and body warmth against my skin. We started playing on the bed. I remember him distinctly playfully biting my hand, as I hugged and squeezed with joy that I had him back. There were no barks, yelps, sighs, or sounds. I couldn’t say any words, and I wasn’t afraid. All I could think of was how healthy and young he looked (about when he was four or five years old). Then I knew he had to go. I didn’t say goodbye. I just knew he came to me to say his goodbyes to me. Then, he was gone. I don’t remember falling back to sleep content that I had a visit from my deceased dog, I just remember waking up the next morning for work and instinctively smelling my hand. It smelt of puppy breath. It honestly did. I smiled. I knew I hadn’t dreamt it. It was all real. I knew I had Jack come visit me to say goodbye. It was awesome.

It was only days later I realized the phone call I received where someone was asking for “Jack”. My God, how did I miss that? But I did.

And the story continues…

Mom calls me a few days after Jack had passed and tells me an incredible story. She starts by explaining that my niece Kayleigh (about 12 years old), and nephew Paul (about 5 years old), (her grandkids) are over her house playing when Paul stops and starts telling mom that he can see Jack in her bedroom mirror. Mom playfully plays along, but Paul’s demeanor changes and he gets serious.

     “You have to listen to me, Gran”, Paul starts, demanding my mother’s attention.

     “What is it, sweetheart?”.

     “I can see Jack in the mirror, and he’s all better”.

     “Really?”.

     “Yes, and you’re not to joke around as he wants me to give you a message”.

     “You can talk to dogs?”, Kayleigh laughs.

     “Yes I can”, Paul confirms, deadly seriously. “In my head I can hear what Jack is saying”.

     Mom tells me Paul starts to shake at this time and gets even more serious.

     “He wants me to tell you you’re not to worry about him. He’s all better and happy”.

     “Can you see him?”, Mom gently asks.

     “Yes. I can see him in the mirror”, Paul urges (mom has a full length 5’ mirror in her bedroom and he’s staring intensely at it). “He’s all better and keeps telling me to tell you not to worry about him. He’s telling me. I can hear him”.

     “You have the gift!”, Kayleigh suddenly announces.

     Then it was over. Paul came back to his playful self. Mom tried to ask him more questions, but he was rather nonchalant about the whole thing, and the subject was never brought up again.

You can’t beat a good spicy curry, can you? All those Indian spices and aromas taking you to some esoteric place just outside of Delhi, conjuring up mysticism, crowded marketplaces, and olde world charm. Or they just bring you smackdown to earth to the local Raj Indian takeaway on High Street where you pay in pounds or dollars, not rupees.

“Where’s the curry menu?”, you excitedly ask, while going through the kitchen draws, taste buds drooling to the array of curry dishes to choose from. You know that once you get your hands on that greasy-stained menu, the fun begins.

Found it!

You go straight to the rogan josh section, but no sooner than doing so, you’re jumping across the page to the tikka masalas: “tandoori oven-baked chicken” sounds delicious, but still your eyes dance all over and land on the kormas. Yes, this is the one. A creamy chicken korma that will…Nope, you’re off again. A kid in a candy store. This time it’s the appetizers. Now it’s getting serious if appetizers are involved. No more bullshit. You’re starting to build an intense Indian takeaway experience that’s just a quick ten-minute drive away. No time to lose.

What is curry anyway?

Hello Wikipedia: “Curry is a variety of dishes originating in the Indian subcontinent that use a complex combination of spices or herbs, usually including turmeric, cumin, coriander, ginger, and fresh or dried chilies”.

Add these aromatic gems with tomatoes, garlic, basmati rice, and chicken, beef, or pork, and you’ll be talking about a splendid curry for days, if not weeks. No more boring conversations with friends about how work is going, or what’s going on for the weekend. Mention you had an Indian curry for dinner last night and you’ll be the center of attention as a barrage of questions demand to be answered:

     “What did you order”?

     “Where did you order from”?   

     “Did you have nan bread with that”?

     “I could do with an onion bajji right now”.

     “You can’t beat a good chicken tikka masala”.

     “How is their vindaloo? Is it hot? As in screaming hot”? 

     “Do they give you a lot of rice”?

     “How much was it”?

     “I can’t do spicy”.

     “That’s why I’m smelling garlic this morning”.

     “How many onion bajji’s do you get”?

     “Your ass is going to be on fire later today when you take a dump”.

As said, the utmost respect.

The next best thing to having an authentic Indian takeaway is making your own curry at home, especially when it turns out so perfectly spiced and delicious that the family believes you could bravely shout “Bollocks!” to Gordon Ramsey and get away with it. So after much trial and error, below is what I consider to be my masterpiece of the perfect chicken curry. It’s hot. On scale of 1 to 10, I’d give it a 7 for spiciness. Every homemade curry will be different, so add/take away as you please based on what you believe will enhance your curry experience.

First things first: It has to be a weekend when making curry. Coming home from a long busy day at the office on a Tuesday evening and spontaneously deciding to make a curry right there and then is just asking for trouble. It’ll be rushed and won’t have time to ‘sit’. There may be an authentic ingredient you don’t have in your pantry. Saturdays or Sundays are the curry holidays (at a push, Friday evenings too). They’re lazy days for chores and errands, and perfect for taking your time making a good curry considering it may take a few hours starting the preparations to actually eating it, so take that Saturday late morning and get working on your amazing homemade masterpiece. If you’re missing a spice, you can always send one of the kids to the store to pick it up as you continue with the preparations.

Ingredients: 3-4 chicken breasts cut into strips

                    1 large onion

                    6 cloves of garlic

                    3-inch stick of fresh ginger root (peeled)

                    3-4 red chilies

                    6-8 fresh skinless/blanched tomatoes

                    2 (heaped) tablespoons of curry powder

                    1 tablespoon of cayenne pepper (reduce to 1 teaspoon if you

                    want it milder, but no wimping out on me!)

                    1 teaspoon of turmeric

                    1 teaspoon of cumin

                    1 teaspoon of coriander

                    1 teaspoon of garam masala

                    1 teaspoon of paprika

                    1 teaspoon of garlic powder

                    Squeeze of half a lemon

                    Coarse sea salt & ground pepper

                    Basmati rice

First, slice the onion in half and put one half to the side. The remaining half you’ll put into a blender along with the peeled ginger root, 6 cloves of garlic, the red chilies, and a splash of water. Blend to a paste, but not where it’s completely liquefied.

Next, take a large frying pan with a little oil (olive, vegetable, corn – your preference), and heat to medium. Slice and dice the remaining half onion and add to frying pan.

Next, add the cut-up chicken (or beef or pork) and fry with the onions until browned.

Next, add the blended mixture and stir it into the frying pan.

Reduce the heat to low for about 5 minutes allowing the meat to absorb all the deliciousness that’s going on in the frying pan.

Next, put the skinless/blanched tomatoes into the blender and blend until chunky (not liquefied – you want many solid chunks of tomatoes in the curry sauce). You could also use tinned stewed tomatoes if no fresh tomatoes are on hand.

Add the tomatoes to the frying pan and stir.

Add salt & pepper to taste.

Have a taste test.

Now the fun starts by adding the spices! Add all of them: The curry powder, cumin, garam masala, etc. Put them all in the frying pan and stir, stir, stir.

Wonderful and amazing smells will begin to materialize before your very nose. At this stage, go ahead and add a few cups of water if the mixture seems too thick/heavy, and continue to stir.

Have a taste test.

Add the squeezed lemon juice.

Have a taste test.

Now let that cook at a nice low heat for about 20 minutes.

After 20 minutes, go ahead and have a taste test.

How is it? Needs a little more salt? Needs a little more water. Maybe another tablespoon of curry powder?

Once you’re happy with how it tastes, turn off the heat and let it sit (covered) on top of the stove for a good hour. Let the chicken absorb all those wonderful spices and tomato juices.

As the end of the hour approaches, start the basmati rice according to the package instructions.

Just as the rice is almost done, put the curry back on to medium-low heat until you see it slowly bubbling again. Stir a few times, then switch off.

Go on, have a quick taste test while you’re at it.

You have now become the curry king/queen of your household. Your amazing curry dish will be talked about for weeks to come. It may even be passed down from generation to generation.

As John Lennon once sang: “I am here, as you are here, as you are we, and we are all together”.

And here we are, all together.

It’s October 20th, 2020. What a great date (10/20/20) to start something new (despite the world being in a state of chaos at the moment).

Let’s get this engine running, shall we?

Here’s MY BLOG! johnnywales.net

What’s my blog going to be about? Well, I did quite a bit of research beforehand, and every blogger out there all had this one tip for starting a blog, and that was:

“YOU HAVE TO HAVE A NICHE”.

EVERY.

SINGLE.

ONE.

Here’s my thought about niches:

You’re going to run out of things to say about a single subject. I mean, there’s only so much one can talk about, right? And secondly, no randomness or spontaneous off the wall subjects/discussions.

Imagine you had a blog about coffee. Coffee was your only topic. Coffee this, and coffee that, but you just got back from an awesome trip to Iceland, or you had a great experience parachuting out of an airplane, or you made the best seafood dish, or your baby son/daughter said their first words, or you bitched about the poor service you received at the airport, or you had a great deal on buying a new camera, or you went camping and saw a family of bears, or you laid in bed the whole day with a bad bout of the flu, or you can’t see a way out of your dead-end job, or you tasted tequila for the first time. You can’t discuss any of these life issues because your blog is solely about coffee. Not Iceland. Not food. Not bears. Not the flu. Not tequila. That’s what I don’t understand about having “just one niche”: It’s too confined, and frankly, kinda boring after a while. 

If I’m going to start this blog, I want it to be about whatever life throws my way, including anything and everything that peaks my interested or what I love/hate:

The good, the bad, the interesting, the boring, the success, the failure, the colors, the darkness – It’s what one’s life is all about, right? A mosaic of events, lessons, experiences, and memories to treasure or to learn from. Trying to make it through the day to see the next, with all the magic and bullshit that goes along with those 24 hours. So heads up, my blog is going to be all over the place with an array of topics both entertaining and personal to me. I’m hoping you will enjoy reading about them and benefit from the ride too. And don’t you worry…we’ll definitely be talking about coffee at some point 😊

Who am I?

I’m originally from Cardiff, Wales, United Kingdom. Brought up during the seventies and eighties (what great decades they were growing up as a kid/teenager). Had a mum, dad, three sisters, and a few cats and dogs along the way. Was pretty poor growing up on a council estate (“the projects”, for you Americans reading this). Lived on food stamps and hand-me-downs for many years. Dad died when I was 12. I left school with a few ‘O’ levels and went to college for a year to study business. Took a summer job working as a tomato picker at a greenhouse nursery. Ended up staying and working there full time as a horticulturalist for 10 years. An opportunity presented itself to live and work in America for 9 months which I took. Well, 22 years later, and I’m still here (legally, that is!), and I’m now a writer. I had my first book published via Amazon earlier this year:

Just a ‘scratch the surface’ introduction. A lot more details to be revealed as the blog takes off.

I’m shooting for Tuesdays and Fridays for writing/posting blogs, so come back on October 23rd for the first official blog rant!! It’ll be fun!!