I don't generally recommend things I haven't seen myself but, on the strength of the 5 minutes or so that I have seen, you may well find Griff Rhys Jones in "Losing it" worth watching. This is a a two part series on anger - something every counsellor needs to know about and feel comfortable with. The second part will be shown on BBC2 on Tuesday evening at 9pm. The first part, which I've just stumbled across - and hence this hasty recommendation - will be available for replay for a week or so on the BBC iPlayer.
If you have trouble with that link it'll be because I'm a mac user - a quick search on google should find it for you.
BUT, and thank you to Dave (Rutlidgge?) for letting me know, if you're reading this on Monday 29th September you can also catch the programme again tonight on BBC2 at 11.50pm.
I'm not sure whether you're being short changed here, or getting two for the price of one, because though I'm describing two very different tasting dishes, the key difference is achieved simply by deciding whether to use red pesto or green. On top of that, this isn't so much a recipe as a set of assembly instructions with interchangeable components. You may not have all the ingredients ready to hand either - I can only say that it's worth the effort!
2 or 3 medium courgettes
250 grammes fresh pasta (or equivalent dried)
handful of fresh basil or fresh coriander (chopped)
tub of red pesto or green
parmesan cheese (a small lump of it, not the powder) sliced
A few (a tablespoon or so) pinenuts (optional, but toast them if you use them)
A couple of sun dried tomatoes (chopped)
Two cloves garlic (chopped)
tsp dried mint
All you do is slice the courgettes longways - as thin as you can - and griddle them. Once they've browned put them to one side. Cook the pasta and, when it's almost cooked, throw the courgettes back into the griddling pan along with the garlic and sundried tomatoes. After a couple of minutes drain the pasta, sprinkle the mint over the courgettes and then mix all the ingredients together and serve immediately. (Serves Two)
The pasta I generally use with this is Penne, and my preference is for the red pesto with the fresh basil. If I use the red pesto I use a whole tub, if it's the green I use less - probably half. This recipe is clearly still a work in progress!
The start of the academic year is probably not the most sensible time to be recommending novels, but it's unlikely that you'll be wanting to read text books all the time!
"Other Women" by Lisa Alther is a piece of fiction about therapy. You won't learn very much about the
practice of therapy - particularly because the story is set in the States, but there's a lot here about the process. The insights of the therapist, the confusions of her client. The doubts they both have, about the process, about what they do, about what they think, about getting it right. It looks to me as if the book may well be out of print, but a quick search of the internet shows at least
one copy available for 1p - it's well worth getting hold of anyway, but at that price how could you go wrong?
Congratulations to everybody who graduated yesterday - you'll find some pictures over on the
School Blog
This could be an interesting workshop to attend. It takes place on December 20th (so could make a nice break from Christmas shopping) and you'll find further details attached to this posting.
Apologies for the shortage of postings over the last few weeks, too many other things seemed to get in the way - back to business as usual next week!