1001 ways with apples, No. 3

Spent the best part of the morning waiting in at the drop in surgery at the Medical Practice taking my turn in the crowd of people waiting to see the doctors. Always thought it is strange to crowd so many ill people together for an hour or two, exchanging germs and bugs while they wait.

The rest of the day was around 3 hours out after that, breakfast at 11.30, lunch at 3.30 and dinner around 8.30. We did have time to process a few pounds of the mountain of apples outside our back door. This is a well honed production line, bourne of many years experience and experimentation. Nowadays it is quite slick.

A bucket of apples produces around 4 litres of juice. First they're washed in 3 batches, cored and any unsavoury bruises of livestock removed. Then they're juiced, as you can see, into a jug. When full, the cappuccino froth on the top is skimmed off and the juice poured into the large container so that all the sediment collects at the bottom. The container goes into the fridge to cool and further settle before being poured into scrupiously clean two pint mink bottles ready for the freezer. I'll post a shot of the finished product later.

Dinner overlapped the start of the Rubgy World Cup, but the Opening Ceremony and the England v Fiji game had been recorded so we were able to watch the match about an hour or so later and not have to watch all the adverts or chat.

It was a disappointing game, as can often be the case at the start of a major tournament. After all the hype and the spectacle of the Opening Ceremony it was, in truth, a mediocre game. England making too many handling errors and being unable to retain control of the ball. But the worst of it for me was the incessent intervention of the Television Match Official (TMO) which halted the game on several occasions and interupted the momentum that either side may have had and also affected the crowd - who seemed pretty quiet for much of the game.

I understand the need for a TMO for crucial decisions on tries and foul play but I do feel that a referee has to play the game as he and his (or she or her) assistant referees see it, make a decision and get on with it rather than spend much of the evening craning his neck to the video screen as if awaiting a sign from God, which I suppose is what the TMO is. And if the referee can see the replay, then the whole crowd can too.

The powers that be must get a grip on the TMO situation or this tournament is going to be run by and spoilt by their intervention.