Flight 61, Crystal Skulls, Tornadoes,

How nice, nothing special to do today, I can relax. Bit of a shocker on the news last night, a plane lost its pilot during the flight. He had a heart attack and died. Of course the co-pilot took over and none of the passengers, apart from a doctor, knew anything about it, but its not something you think of happening on your flight. Apparently most flights over 8 hours carry a third pilot, although Air Canada does not, so they said. Still, presumably the co-pilot is there because he is quite capable of handling the emergency. Hard on the family too. We watched an interesting programme last night about crystal skulls. I am sure you are aware of the Indiana Jones movie on this subject, well this was almost like the movie. The Mayas have a prophesy which says that if all thirteen of these crystal skulls are not available in 2012, there will be a cataclysmic catastrophe causing the end of the world. Nasty thought. They have found something like 8 of the 13 skulls and they think they know where at least a couple more are. There is a lot of controversy about the time these were made, was it by the Atlanteans, ancient Mayans, an extra terrestrial race or were they all made in fairly modern times. You can read more about it here. People attribute all kinds of magical properties to these skulls and it was a very interesting programme last night following the adventures of a man (don't remember his name) who was married to the daughter of Mitchell-Hedges (Anna) who was something of an Indiana Jones and who's family appears to have perpetrated a hoax on the world, although the explanation of the Sotheby's story was that Mitchell-Hedges had left his crystal skull with a friend who put it up for auction. The only way for Mitchell-Hedges to get it back was to buy it!!! I'm not quite sure why the friend would do that? Extensive testing was done on the M-H skull and they ended up with the answer that "The damned thing simply shouldn't be" which rather adds to the theory of extra terrestrials. Its a very interesting story altogether. The skull on the left is made of amethyst crystal. I hope they find them all, I don't want to take chances in 2012. There have been lots of tornados in the central States, something like 28 on Wednesday night. How terrifying. I am not sure I would live in that 'corridor' as, IMHOP, they are getting more and more storms. There were pictures on TV from a storm chaser heading towards one which was half a mile wide. To me such people are mentally deficient. The rest of us run the other way. As you will see, I have posted pictures from YouTube in a separate blog. We got a new Food and Drink from the Liquor Store this week and right on the cover were these savoury bites which look absolutely fantastic. I love smoked salmon. Smoked Salmon Kettle Chip Bites The lemon kick in each bite works well to balance the salt in the chips and smoked salmon. No time to prepare the chips? Simply chop the smoked salmon, stir it into the cream cheese mixture and serve as a dip for the chips. 1/2 cup light cream cheese, softened 1 Tbs horseradish 1 Tbs minced shallot 2 tsp minced capers 1 small clove garlic, minced 1 tsp grated lemon rind 1 Tbs lemon juice 1 bag kettle cooked potato chips 1 pkg (85 g) sliced smoked salmon 2 Tbs chopped fresh chives Using an electric hand mixer, beat cream cheese until fluffy. Beat in horseradish, shallot, capers, garlic, lemon rind and juice until smooth. Empty chips onto a large plate and select flat, similar-sized chips. Dollop a small amount of the mixture onto chips and set on a serving platter. Cut smoked salmon into thin strips and place decoratively on top of cream cheese mixture. Sprinkle with chives before serving. Serves 6 to 8. Have a great day.