Songs from the end of October

Whero was not played as much as he should have been during October. Being busy with French paperwork, finding a flat and getting my head around a new job, city and lifestyle took up most of my time. But, I did manage to work on some new (and old) tunes towards the end of the month.

Prompted by my friend Cat, I attempted to start on this version of  "Lately" by Stevie Wonder. It is for guitar, but it gives you the notes to work with. Beautiful song, fairly tricky for me to play beautifully with a run of awkwardly fingered chords in the chorus which sound gorgeous but feel a bit like hand yoga. I have also opted out of the key change at the end (which is how the original goes) and like to stay with the easier option of repeating the chorus a few times in the previous key, like in this beautiful version by the Taotua brothers. May you rest in Peace,Vini, you were gone too soon.

Seems October has been a melancholic month, and most of the new songs I have learnt are a bit emo. Guess I am feeling a bit homesick, and being homesick always eventually leads me back to Dave Dobbyn .
Luckily for me, Dave is good at making simple catchy tunes which generally transcribe well to uke... had already practiced Loyal with Uke Can't touch this (miss you guys!) so have been polishing that up. This version is specifically for guitar, but it gives a good general idea.  Don't worry about Cadd9 and Dadd11- for the uke it's fine to play C and D instead. Nice, easy sing along which is instantly recognised by Kiwis, almost like our unofficial national anthem. Nothing like hearing Loyal when you are thousands of miles from home!

Had a craving for You oughta be in love, (yay! not so emo!) so after some you-tubing of the old video clip, I found some chords  which were good overall, but need tweaking. Namely, in the first verse I play F instead of -F,  The lyrics are all there though, so that's grand as I really don't know the words outside of the chorus!


Some one like you Adele

Pink Who knew

Scalloped Potatoes

While waiting for the Focaccia dough to rise, I have decided to make Scalloped potatoes. This is due to a potato craving and the fact that I have a lack of ingredients currently as I have not been paid and most of the shops are shut because it's Toussaint (All Saints holiday).

This dish forever reminds me of meals at Grans when I was little. It seems crazy that I have never actually cooked this seemingly simple recipe for myself before.

The recipe was simple and easy and quick to prepare. I cooked for less time as my oven seems to be ridiculously powerful and always needs a lot less time than suggested. Result was yum and nostalgic!!Still, nothing can compare to Gran's home cooking!

The First Experiment- Focaccia Bread

Being out of bread, and not so impressed with the selection here in Guadeloupe, I decided to make my own, starting with an easy Focaccia Recipe.

I figured the climate here is ideal for rising bread- warm and humid!

Indeed, the dough rose perfectly just being left in my room for 30 minutes, no need for any extra heat!

After kneading and shaping the bread, I added chopped olives, salt , olive oil and dried herbs to the top before popping it in the oven along with the scalloped potatoes. It was at a lower temperature than recommended by the recipe, but seemed to cook fine and turned out well (this may also be due to the fact that my oven's temperature is probably way higher than what the dial says).

Nothing like fresh bread, as exemplified by me eating almost half of the bread within 10 minutes of it coming out of the oven.  My landlady and her partner tried a piece and came back for more, so must have worked out ok!