Jon and Mandy's blog

Albums of the year 2011

2011-12-31T17:47:00.000Z

Time to compile my top albums of the year. As I've been looking through the list of new albums that we got in 2011, I realise how few I've given proper time to (I think I feel a resolution for 2012 coming on). For that reason I can't help but think that I'm missing some crackers in this list, however here are my most memorable, most played new albums of 2011 (as usual in no particular order):

III by Gui Boratto - Old-school laid-back electronica with some excellent bass. Needs to be played loud.
Dig On by She Keeps Bees - One of the highlights of The Green Man festival. Three-piece band with lo-fi grungy guitars and a female vocalist with a bit of a P.J. Harvey feel.
No More Idols by Chase and Status - Brilliant mix of drum and bass, rap and dubstep with some interesting collaborations
Mylo Xyloto by Coldplay - It's Coldplay, so it's pop-rock with ridiculous lyrics, but highly enjoyable.
Angels by The Strokes - A real return to form from The Strokes - it's the best thing they've done since their first album by a long way.
What did you expect from The Vaccines? by The Vaccines - sounding like a UK version of The Drums, but with punchier songs and a great lyrical flair.
Tru by Instrumenti - I think it's fair to say that I've enjoyed this album a lot more since seeing the band play in Latvia. An eclectic mix of electronic dance, euro-pop and ballad, it's an interesting listen...
Velociraptor by Kasabian - A bit of a change in style by Kasabian but that's no bad thing. There are some brilliant anthemic tracks and some more chilled-out ones too. An instant fave.
Hotel Shampoo by Gruff Rhys - Another "Green Man" star, but this album is what you'd expect from Gruff Rhys and brilliant as a result: laid-back guitars, his soft vocals over the top and some cracking tunes.
Bestival Live by The Cure - Two CD's of the Cure playing live at Bestival festival this year. It's a brilliant introduction The Cure if you don't know them, and if you do it plays like a greatest hits album with some of their lesser known stuff (lesser known by me at least) thrown in for good measure.
Funny Looking Angels by Smith and Burrows - It's a Christmas album, but it's a great one. A bit down-beat in places, but there's plenty of other up-beat Christmas music out there. They both sing and make good use of their different styles and voices. I'm looking forward to see what the singer from Editors and the ex-Razorlight drummer do next...

A real favourite this year is actually an album from 2010 - Side Show by Burns Unit, a folk super-group with some really great tunes and a brilliant show at the Green Man festival.

Other albums of note that I wish I'd spent more time listening to include: A Creature I don't know by Laura Marling; Ceremonials by Florence and the Machine; England keep my Bones by Frank Turner; Biophilia by Bjork; I'm with you by The Red Hot Chili Peppers; Hearts by I Break Horses; Killer Sounds by Hard-Fi; Slave Ambient by The War on Drugs; Philharmonics by Agnes Obel; ISAM by Amon Tobin.

Finally, the album I'm most disappointed with is one which I couldn't even get through the preview of the first track on Amazon without having to turn it off: Lulu by Lou Reed and Metallica is truly a dirge and the only good thing about it that I can see is that it's been released as a Lou Reed record which means I have no OCD need to purchase it to keep up the Metallica side of my collection! Yup, that's right, I've just judged a whole album after listening only to the first 20 seconds of the first track. That was enough.

Roll on 2012 and all it may bring musically!

Recipe #52 : Cambodian Wedding Day Dip

2011-12-31T16:18:00.003Z

Right, I know this looks like porridge but it's not. It's a spicy mushroom, chilli, garlic, coconut and lime dip and it's delish. I got the recipe from River Cottage Veg Every Day which I treated myself to this week. I love the look of all the recipes in the book and will definitely be trying a few more out soon. Right now though I'm just happy that I finished in the nick of time. I finished! I'll be taking this along tonight with the disappointing brownies to prove I can cook something tasty!

Recipe #51 : Surprise Brownies

2011-12-31T16:12:00.003Z

We're going round to see some friends for New Year's Eve this evening and still having 2 recipes to get done by the end of the year I thought I'd better make something to take along. I found this recipe for brownies that are suitable for vegans (a good thing since our friend Dan is one) and apparently the 'surprise' is that they're also really healthy as there's no refined sugar in, just pureed dates to add sweetness. I have to say that when I tried one earlier I wasn't impressed. They're not really sweet and bad-tasting enough for cake. Obviously I'm still taking them round as 1) I'll get bonus points for trying and 2) Dan has got the biggest appetite of anyone I've ever met and will hoover up all vegan food in his vicinity so he'll probably be quite happy.

Recipe #50 : Nelson's Blood

2011-12-31T16:04:00.002Z

Christmas is not really a very good time to be trying out new recipes as you're either going out for food or getting fed by other people a lot. Trying out a new recipe for Xmas dinner is never a good plan either. With that in mind I decided the only way forward was a new cocktail recipe and so I tried this one which is a mixture of tawny port and champagne (mainly because Jonny got given a bottle of tawny port as a present). It was quite nice but a little heavy to be honest so we only had the one. Apparently it's the done thing to drink it on the anniversary of the battle of Trafalgar.

Recipe #49 : Giant Chocolate Buttons

2011-12-31T15:55:00.002Z

I have to admit that the recipe I found for these lovely-looking choccies may have been aimed at a slightly younger audience as it did have instructions such as 'get an adult to heat the chocolate for you' but quite frankly I don't much care. My reasoning was that if I'm going to get this challenge done by the end of the year I can't be too picky about my recipes. I made a few bags of these for friends and family that I'd be seeing over the Xmas period (they're not really postable!) and I think they turned out very well. Jonny got to eat the rejects so he was also happy.

Recipe #48 (again!): Chilli & Tangerine Braised Lentils

2011-12-18T14:25:00.003Z

Yes I know there seems to be 2 recipes numbered 48. That's because I've just noticed that I made the Chilli Lime Tofu recipe earlier in the year. Dammit! I thought I was nearly there with this recipe malarkey and I need to think of another one now. This is another recipe from the BBC Good Food website. I did have to amend one ingredient in this recipe as the stock it said to use was the cooking liquor from a lump of gammon which it was intended as a side dish to. I used vegetable stock with added smoked paprika instead and it turned out to be delicious. It's puy lentils cooked with tangerine juice and zest, garlic and a little chilli and finished with creme fraiche and parsley. I served it with a few veggie sausages for a hearty dinner but it's equally lovely on its own (I took some leftovers in for my lunch the next day). I'll definitely make this one again.

Recipe #48: Chill-Lime-Rubbed Tofu

2011-12-15T17:47:00.002Z

Another recipe from Appetite for Reduction. It was very zingy and spicy and went well with the stir-fried greens and mushrooms I served it with. Mmmmm....healthy!

Recipe #47: Roasted Butternut Squash Salad with Soy Balsamic Dressing

2011-12-14T18:55:00.004Z

I can see the finishing line now.... Only 5 more to go after this. So, I found this recipe on the BBC Good Food site and it was pretty straightforward to prepare, aside from all the chopping of butternut squash of course but that was made easier by the fact that Jonny had just sharpened the knives for me. Unfortunately it also made it easier for me to cut my finger so now I'm sporting a huge plaster and my 'I'm being ever so brave' look.

The salad was tasty enough but I have to admit I wasn't actually that fond of it. I like butternut squash in soups and stews and curries but I just wasn't that enamoured of it in salad. Somehow the texture seemed wrong, a bit too soft. I think I would prefer it with sweet potato. Still, it all counts towards my new recipe total and that's all that matters right now.

Recipes #45 & #46 : Mac & Trees and Buffalo Tempeh

2011-12-12T19:34:00.002Z

I chose 2 recipes from the vegan cookbook Appetite for Reduction that the book suggested serving together. The first is a vegan version of macaroni cheese with broccoli, and the sauce did actually taste quite cheesy. Not like a real lardy cheese sauce of course but probably a darned sight healthier. Served with it was tempeh marinated in a spicy sauce and fried. They did indeed go brilliantly together and this got a resounding thumbs up from Mr H.

Recipe #44: Creamy Butterbeans with Breadcrumbs

2011-12-11T08:55:00.003Z

Well, we're into the endgame now. 8 more recipes to get through after this one and 3 weeks left in the year. It's going to be tough with Xmas and all the related partying and eating out going on.

This recipe was another one from the BBC Good Food website and was extremely simple. It's basically butterbeans in garlic & herb Philly baked with breadbrumbs on top which was quite nice but nowt special. I served it with some stir-fried mushrooms and kale.

Recipe #43 : (Not so) Scarlet Barley

2011-12-10T14:39:00.004Z

So this recipe is supposed to come out a lovely shade of pink as it's barley cooked with grated beetroot, garlic, stock and lemon but I got swanky chioggia beetroot in my veg box this week which, although very pretty, is mostly white with pink rings and when grated and cooked turns out to be pretty colourless. My barley tasted very nice though despite its dull appearance. I served it with fried slices of tofu rosso, which is tofu flavoured with tomato and herbs. The recipe comes from a vegan cookbook, Appetite for Reduction.

A weekend in Latvia...

2011-12-10T11:00:00.000Z

Last weekend we went to Latvia. I find myself adding, "as you do..." whenever I tell people because it was a crazy quick trip, but I have to thank my brother for the suggestion. I don't think we'd have prioritised it as a place to go of our own accord, but we had a wonderful time.

So the call went something like:

"Hi Jon, it's Adam"

"Hello - how's it going?"

"Good! - This might sound like a strange question, but could you and Mand take a day off work on the 2nd December?"

"Errr... yeah, probably... why?"

"Instrumenti are playing in Liepāja and we have two spare tickets"

"Hell yeah... Where's Liepāja. And who are Instrumenti?"

...

As it turns out, Liepāja is where Adam's girlfriend, Ieva, grew up. Instrumenti (meaning "instruments") are a Latvian band that, according to Wikipidia, "...is a music project founded by two musicians – Shipsi (Jānis Šipkēvics) and Reynsi (Reinis Sējāns)".

It sounded like fun when we signed-up, and in retrospect I can't say anything else - we had a great time.

We flew into Riga on Friday morning (after a very early start from Manchester) and were treated to a guided tour of the old town by Ieva's cousin. She showed us the sights and dispite the rain, we really liked the place. Once we'd looked around Riga (and enjoyed the hostelry of a candle-lit underground 'medieval' bar), we headed off to Liepāja - a town on the coast of Latvia, 3.5 hours bus ride away.

Nowhere that we went in Latvia was packed with people - I think I counted about 10 others in the Christmas Markets in the Old Town in Riga, and Liepāja was no different - on a Friday night we were hardly stuck for somewhere to sit and have a drink, but to be honest in my old age I liked that! The town felt more modern than Riga (although we had been taken around the Old Town in Riga...), and a lot more industrial.

Ieva told us that, "the wind was born in Liepāja" - it's easy to understand why this is a saying in the town. I think Mandy and I could have been forgiven in thinking that our plane had done a couple of laps of England and dropped us back in Manchester given the weather, but equally it left us un-phased as we mooched about the place.

On Saturday, Ieva took us to Karosta which I found to be a fascinating place: one of the biggest barracks in Europe abandoned at the end of Soviet occupation and then inhabited by the locals and yet certain buildings left to rot and decay in the middle of such life. It would have been slightly depressing and even scary if it weren't for the enthusiasm and energy of Ieva who, having grown up in the area showed us around and revelled in the place. I loved our stroll around the area and the highlight had to be the contrast of the shiny Russian Orthodox church that sat in the middle of the decaying tower-blocks as we got away from the coast and into the middle of the town.

On Saturday evening, we hit the Olympic Centre in Liepāja to see Instrumenti (I didn't take any pictures, but there are loads on the link to the Centre). We'd downloaded their album from iTunes before we went, but I don't think either of us expected the gig that we saw. The band were very good and put on a great stage-show. The highlight (for me) was when one of their songs was sung by a woman in a giant snail costume - it's hard to describe, but the effect was surreal and brilliant. Each song brought its own madness and the music was a mix of Sparks meets Euro-pop with a few ballads and instrumentals thrown in for good luck, and I loved every minute. I've listened to their album many times since the show and can recommend it for something different!

So what to do after a gig? If you're young (like Ieva and Adam), then you head to a club, so off we went and spent a wonderful evening drinking, partying, listening to more live music (Aparāts), celebrating Adam's 33rd birthday and dancing in "Fontaine's" until 4:30am... The people there were so friendly and we really enjoyed the atmosphere.

The next day was spent recuperating and then travelling back to Riga to catch our plane home.

We had such a lovely weekend, we can't wait to head back there...

If This Then That (ifttt)

2011-12-08T18:30:00.000Z

It's rare these days that I bother posting about geeky web-sites, however I've found a service that I like so much I just have to share (mum, you can switch-off now).
ifttt.com (If this then that) allows you to programme links between all your social (and non-social) networks meaning that you don't have to re-post, monitor or schedule updates using any more than this tool.
The brilliant thing about it is that the interface is so damn simple. You click on a Channel (the "this" of the title), select the type of trigger, then click on a second Channel (the "that") and supply parameters to it.
There are a lot of Channels at the moment (some of which are shown in the graphic on this post) and once you've enabled them by logging in, they're available for use.
There's an amazing amount that can be done with this tool. For example, by tagging this post with "iftttShare", it will automatically post a link to my Facebook wall. I have also set up tasks to post to my "Jon Hill Photographer" page on Facebook when I upload to Flickr.
I realise that some of these tools already have interconnectivity, but the attractiveness for me is the fact that it can all be set up and managed centrally. The main thing that I can see that's missing at the moment is Google+, but I've asked them if it's on the horizon.
Have a look - I think it's great :-)

Recipe #42 : Spicy Root & Lentil Casserole

2011-12-06T20:31:00.003Z

After a wonderful weekend away in Latvia eating lots of lovely cheesy pancakes and garlic bread I thought I needed something low-fat and full of veg. I found this recipe on the BBC Good Food website and was delighted to find I had all the ingredients in this week's veg box. It was really tasty and filling and just the ticket to make me feel like I'm recovering from my weekend of indulgence!

Recipe #41 : Parmesan, Pear & Rocket Risotto

2011-11-30T19:25:00.002Z

Eek! I'm running out of year and I've still got 11 more recipes to go! Anyhow, this is one I found in Vegetarian Living magazine. It might sound a bit of a weird combo but I thought I'd try it out as I'd had a delicious smoked cheese and pear risotto in Florence when we went there a few years ago so I knew it could work. It was extremely tasty and creamy without being too rich. I'm not a big fan of risottos which have been drenched in butter, cream and cheese.

Recipe #40 : Quinoa with Pomegranate & Nuts

2011-11-27T13:03:00.002Z

Powering ahead with the new recipes this weekend, I made this for lunch today. It was a very messy business getting the seeds out of the pomegranates and now my T-shirt is covered with splashes of pomegranate juice, as is most of the kitchen. It's another recipe from the Cook Vegetarian magazine, from the same page as last night's dinner in fact, aren't I adventurous?

Although it's very tasty with lots of interesting flavours : ras al hanout spice blend, fresh coriander, pomegranate, dates, almonds, garlic, it's a bit sweet overall for my palate. I think it would be a nice side dish served with a spicy tagine but it's a bit overpowering on its own.

Recipe #39 : Chickpea Dumplings in Tomato Sauce

2011-11-27T07:26:00.002Z

I decided to use this recipe which I'd kept from Cook Vegetarian magazine as it was a nice easy 'store-cupboard' recipe. I already had all the ingredients except some fresh coriander. It's basically chickpea balls spiced with cumin and coriander in a tomatoey sauce. It was tasty and simple and Mr H asked for seconds so that's a winner in my book.

Recipe #38 : Gigantes Plaki

2011-11-27T07:16:00.002Z

I think this is another one where the picture isn't really doing it justice but it's a lovely Greek butterbean recipe that I found on the ever-brilliant BBC Good Food website. It's butterbeans baked in a tomato and herb sauce and it's simple, filling and tasty. Oh, uber-healthy too for those of us trying to kid ourselves that our bodies are temples before the orgy of gluttony that is the festive season really kicks in.

Recipe #37 : Mushroom, Shallot and Squash Pie

2011-11-20T19:20:00.002Z

We've got Mary with us this weekend so it seemed like a good day to try out a new recipe since she always reads my recipe blogs. I don't make pies very often for just Jonny and me so having my Mum-in-law here seemed a suitably festive occasion. The pie was very tasty (we've eaten it all between the three of us which is proof enough!) but the shallots were a reet pain to peel so if I ever made it again then I would just use normal onions, I'm sure it wouldn't make that much difference.

Mmmmm....pie....

Recipe #36: Barley, Tomato & Garlic Risotto

2011-11-18T09:12:00.003Z

Another Yotam Ottolenghi recipe from the Guardian's New Vegetarian column. I have to admit I was a bit concerned about the 2 heads of garlic that went into this recipe but surprisingly it didn't really taste overwhelmingly of garlic. It tasted heartily tomatoey with delicious melty chunks of salty feta mixed in and using barley instead of risotto rice was a nice change as it's got a lovely slightly chewy texture. I might do all my risottos with barley in future as it's half the price of rice. Mr H gave this recipe a big thumbs up so it's a good thing that he was the one who remembered to put the leftovers in the fridge last night.

Recipe #35 : Sweet Potato & Rosemary Soup

2011-11-17T13:02:00.003Z

We're both at home today and so it seemed like a good idea to try out another recipe for lunch. I had to look around a bit online to find one that I had all the ingredients for already but we're lucky enough to have an enormous and ever-growing rosemary bush in the garden (must do some gardening at some point!) and I already had some sweet potatoes that needed using up. The soup is really tasty, sweet and velvety with a nice savoury edge added by the rosemary. I served it it with cheese on toast to make it proper Winter comfort food.

Recipe #34 : Carrot Felafels

2011-11-17T11:29:00.002Z

I know, it doesn't look like felafels, does it? they totally fell to bits when I tried to fry them and it came out as some kind of felafel rosti thing. It did taste amazing though and I think I might try it again with an added egg to try and keep it together.

The Cure: Reflections

2011-11-16T15:10:00.001Z

As the lights went down the crowd, who had been relatively calm to that point, went crazy as Robert Smith and the other two members of the three-piece configured Cure came on stage.

"It's 1979. I'll talk to you later" he said as they launched into 10:15 Saturday Night. He didn't really talk to us much at all in the end, instead they set to the task of working through their first album, "Three Imaginary Boys". As someone who came to The Cure pretty late on, their first album is hardly representative of the sound they came to be known for. It is grounded in the punk sounds of the seventies with more than a couple of nods to the Clash and very much a three-piece effort. When performed live, it certainly made me realise what a great album it is. They managed to retain the punky edge but the Royal Albert Hall filled-out the sound to bring a real sense of excitement to the whole thing.

In what seemed like no time at all, they'd polished-off the first album and they left the stage for 10 minutes while they changed the configuration ready for the four-piece version of the band to arrive and start working through 1980's effort, "Seventeen Seconds". It struck me that it didn't take Smith long to arrive at the definitive Cure sound, as the second album is much more of the style that you might expect from the band. The intros start to get longer, the addition of keyboards add another layer of sound, and his voice loses its punk edge. Arguably the highlight of the concert was during this second set, as their rendition of a Forest sent shivers down my spine.

After another 10 minute break, the third album we were treated to was "Faith", The Cure's 1981 outing and, as far as I'm concerned, the weakest of the three when compared on CD, however there was something about the frenzy that the crowd were now whipped-up into combined with the atmosphere of the Albert Hall and the sound that the (now five-piece) band were making which meant that it didn't disappoint at all. The lighting was impressive all evening - never dominating and hardly cutting edge, but starting small and getting ever bigger towards the end of the concert. We weren't anywhere close to the end of the concert even after they'd finished playing through Faith - another 10 minutes and they were back with a number of B-sides and the tracks which were added to the Imaginary Boys album to create "Boys Don't Cry". There were some really great songs in this set, and as they worked through the fourth part of the show, it was hard to believe we were listening to songs that weren't major players on any album.

After another 5 minute interval they were back and playing more B-sides and non-album tracks. I kind of wished I was a Cure nerd so I could appreciate the depth of the back-catalogue they were working through, however I could still appreciate the performance which continued to be captivating.

3 hours in, and just as we thought it was all over, there was a final set with a couple of classics from 'future' albums, finishing with Love Cats. We left at 11, and the show had started at 7:30, it felt like we'd been there for no time at all - it had flown by. "See you for the next three!" were Smith's departing words. Oh yes we will Robert, we wouldn't miss it for the world!

Recipe #33 : Veggie 'Bacon Cheesebuger'

2011-11-12T13:11:00.003Z

I made a batch of these burgers for our 10th anniversary BBQ back in August and completely forgot to blog the recipe so it feels like a 'free' one. I'm determined to make it 52 by the end of the year so I'm really having to pull out all the stops as there are only 7 weeks left now and I'm at 33. Yikes!

The recipe came from The Best Veggie Burgers on the Planet recipe book. It's an American book so I've had to seek out a few unusual ingredients online but it was nice to try out something completely different. The burgers were pretty solid and good to cook on the BBQ (or in the oven like today) and didn't fall to bits which is a common failing for home-made veggie burgers. They're also extremely filling and pretty darned garlicky which I have no problem with at all but Jonny may have since we only had one left so he had to have a meaty burger instead. I can't say that the burger actually tastes cheesy or bacony to me but it certainly tastes good so who am I to complain?

Recipe #32 : Aubergine & Green Bean Curry

2011-11-04T18:16:00.002Z

This recipe comes courtesy of Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall's conversion from lardy meat-scoffer to veggie-promoter. I've watched a little bit of his new series where he goes vegetarian for 3 months and he really has come up with some great-looking recipes. It's nice to see conventional chefs taking veggie food seriously, take note Mr Ramsey! Hugh hasn't gone full-time veggie but he has come to the conclusion that eating veggie more of the time is a good idea for his health and the planet and I'm all in favour, especially if it means more veggie recipes for me to try.

The curry was pretty easy to make although it did take some time as the slices of aubergine had to be fried in batches before assembling the curry. The curry was flavoured with lemongrass, ginger, chilli, cumin and coriander and the sauce was tomato and coconut milk-based so it was a melange of Thai and Indian curry flavours which worked really well. Even better, it made a pretty hefty amount so there's plenty left for dinner tonight too. Yum!

Recipe #31 : Black Pepper Tofu

2011-11-01T21:50:00.003Z

Another recipe from what is fast becoming my all-time fave recipe book, Plenty. This is fried cubes of tofu in a salty/sweet/spicy/garlicky/zesty sauce spiked with cracked black peppercorns. Utterly, utterly delicious. I could happily eat this every day for a week.

Recipe #30 : Stuffed Squash with a Zingy Tahini Dressing

2011-11-01T21:39:00.003Z

I found this recipe on the Abel and Cole website and it seemed like a more interesting way of using some of the lovely seasonal squashes than making yet another pot of soup. Not that there's anything wrong with soup you understand but I am attempting to keep out of the recipe rut. These roasted gem squashes are stuffed with garlic, herb and orange flavoured quinoa and drizzled with a tahini and orange dressing. There was actually loads of extra filling left over after stuffing the little squashes so I just served that with them. It was very tasty indeed and I'd happily use that recipe again.

Recipe #29: Scrambled Smoky Duck Eggs on Sourdough

2011-10-17T19:46:00.003Z

I chose this recipe from the wonderful book Plenty because our veggie box provider Abel & Cole will deliver duck eggs so it seemed both do-able from an ingredients point of view and easy to cook. It's also quite stupendously delicious. The recipe says that it serves 4 for breakfast but I ignored that and served it between 2 of us for dinner. I feel fat and happy now.

Recipe #28 : Raspberry Gin

2011-10-16T17:06:00.002Z

Is it a sundae? Oh no, it's the makings of some lovely liqueur 3 months down the line. After passing a sloe tree laden with fruit a few weeks ago when out on a walk with no ability to collect the darned things as I had nothing to put them in I felt cheated out of the chance to try out making sloe gin. Luckily I looked at recipes online and found that you can make flavoured gin with pretty much any fruit. Raspberries got good reviews so I thought I'd give it a try. I just need to remember to shake the bottle every day and not drink it....

New Recipe #27 : Sweetcorn Fritters

2011-10-15T10:46:00.003Z

Mmmmmm...fritters..... I found this easy-peasy recipe online when I was searching for something to help me use up a couple of corn cobs. It's very adaptable -I added fresh chilli and smoked paprika to mine and then served them with sweet chilli sauce. I've also re-used the recipe this morning without the sweetcorn to make breakfast pancakes.

New Recipe #26 : Roast Cauliflower with Honey Buttery Spice

2011-10-12T18:30:00.003Z

This recipe came from the Abel and Cole website as they handily give lots of suggestions for what to do with the lovely veg they deliver to us. This week we got beautiful romanesco cauliflower which is so gorgeous with its fractal-like florets it almost seems a shame to cook and eat it. Mind you, when it tastes as good as this did you stop caring what it looks like.

New Recipe #25 : African Sweet Potato Stew

2011-10-12T18:13:00.002Z

Oops - forgot to blog this one from about 2 weeks ago! This is a simple and delicious peanuty stew that Mr H gave the thumbs up to.

Ingredients

1 onion, chopped + 1 tbsp grated ginger

2 cloves garlic, crushed + 1 tsp harissa

700g sweet potatoes, peeled and cubed

250g mushrooms, quartered

300ml passata

300ml vegetable stock

250g spinach, roughly shredded

2 tbsp fresh coriander, chopped

90g peanut butter

To make

Fry the onion, ginger, garlic and harissa in a little oil for 5 mins until soft. Add the sweet potatoes and mushrooms and cook for a further 1-2 mins. Add the passata and stock and simmer for 15-20 mins until the veg are tender. Add the spinach and cook until wilted. Mix a little liquid from the pan with peanut butter to loosen it and add it to the pan with the coriander. Stir well. Serve and enjoy! This serves 4. Or 2 for dinner with enough leftover for 1 of them to have lunch the next day if those 2 happen to be Jonny and me.

New Recipe #24 : Hearty Mushroom Soup

2011-09-25T14:21:00.002Z

I just whipped up a batch of this lovely mushroom and barley soup that will be my lunch at work for the next few days. It doesn't look that special from my picture but I've just tried a spoonful and it's scrumptious! The recipe's on the BBC Good Food website for all you mushroom lovers who might fancy making it.

New Recipe #23 : BBQ Beans and Sausages

2011-09-25T12:52:00.003Z

Right! I need to catch up with my recipe-making now as the year's running out and I'm not even half-way through the 52 new recipes I need to do this year to complete my challenge. I've started with a recipe I found on a veggie message board and which I cooked for dinner last week. I'll post it in the veggie version but of course any omnivores could use piggy sausages instead. It's really filling so if you have it with anything like crusty bread or mash the recipe would serve more than 4.

BBQ Sausages & Beans (serves 4)

2 onions, chopped

2 cloves of garlic, crushed

2 red peppers, chopped

6 veggie sausages, halved

3 tbsp molasses or black treacle

3 tbsp wholegrain mustard

1 tbsp paprika

2 tbsp veggie worcester sauce

500ml passata

2 x 400g tins of borlotti beans

Fry the onion and garlic in a little oil until soft.

Put them with everything else into a casserole dish and cook for 1 1/4 hours at 180C.

The First Rule of Book Club...

2011-08-06T17:03:00.006Z

Do not talk about..no... that's something else. Here's a rundown of the books we've read so far (and where I can remember it who chose them).

Wide Sargasso Sea - Jean Rhys (Mandy)

City of the Beasts-Isabelle Allende

Gould's Book of Fish -Richard Flannigan

The Dumas Club - Arturo Perez-Reverte

Death and the Penguin - Andre Kurkov (Mandy)

Cloud Atlas - David Mitchell

Our Mutual Friend - Charles Dickens (Dan)

The Kite Runner -Khalid Hosseimi

The Good Soldier Svejk - Jaroslav Hasek (Mandy)

Beyond Black - Hilary Mantel (Kate)

In Cold Blood - Truman Capote (Dan)

The Sea - John Banville

Just Like Tomorrow - Faiza Guene (Mandy)

Kim - Rudyard Kipling

Restless -William Boyd (Dan)

The Girl in the Picture - Denise Chong (Heidi)

Neverwhere -Neil Gaiman

Darkmans - Nicola Barker 3 (Mandy)

Kafka on the Shore -Hanuki Murikami

The Kreutzer Sonata -Leo Tolstoy (Dan)

The Outcast - Sadie Jones

Possession - AS Byatt (Simon)

Harbor - Lorraine Adams (Mandy)

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance - Robert Pirsig (Ruth)

The Ragged-Trousered Philanthropists - Robert Tressell (Dan)

The Glass Palace - Amitav Ghosh (Heidi)

Under The Frog - Tibor Fischer (Simon)

Devil May Care - Sebastian Faulks (Mandy)

The Rehearsal - Eleanor Catton (Ruth)

The Killer Inside Me - Jim Thompson (Dan)

The Inheritance of Loss - Kiran Desai (Heidi)

Parrot and Olivier in America - Peter Carey (Ruth)

Started Early, Took My Dog - Kate Atkinson (Mandy)

There have been differing opinions in the group for pretty much every single book so far with two notable exceptions. Firstly, read Cloud Atlas, it's great. We all agreed on that one. More importantly though, don't ever, ever, even if you're desperately bored and it's the only book in sight, read The Girl in the Picture. We really couldn't find one redeeming feature in that one.

New Recipe #22: Crunchy Mushroom Pilaff

2011-08-06T11:57:00.002Z

Now I know that this is not the prettiest-looking food you'll have ever seen but that is partly my fault for adding too much water to the rice and, ahem, chargrilling the mixed nuts. I found the recipe online when searching for something to do with a whole load of mushrooms we had in the fridge. I found a whole website dedicated to mushroom recipes and this one looked very good. A few things went a little awry while I was cooking it, firstly the recipe called for dried apricots and it turned out I had pretty much every other dried fruit but apricots, bananas, figs, mango, raisins, pears - yes pears! Anyhow, I decided that figs would do fine and they really did. The next annoyance was that the amount of water specified in the recipe didn't seem to be enough and the rice wasn't cooked when it should have been so I had to keep adding a bit more and then inevitably added a bit too much so it ended up with a bit of a risotto consistency rather than being a dry pilaff. Finally, I left the mixed nuts toasting in the pan a bit too long and they were a tad burnt. Despite all this it tasted fabulous! It was subtly spiced with cumin and paprika and had sweetness from the figs and raisins, offset by the pepperiness of watercress and the savoury, umami taste that the mushrooms gave. Even better, there was enough for me to have some for my lunch the next day. I'll certainly be making it again.

New Recipes #20 & #21 : Baked Couscous Aubergine & Chickpea and Beetroot Salad

2011-08-06T11:44:00.002Z

Is making 2 recipes for one meal cheating? I don't think so but then I am still struggling to catch up from my slacking earlier on in the year. Both recipes came from The Gate Easy Vegetarian Cookbook, which is from an apparently famous veggie restaurant in London. I've never heard of it but I do like the recipes from their book and they are all pretty easy so it's really not lying in the title. The aubergine recipe was really tasty and a bit different. The aubergine slices were filled with chermoula, a garlicky, lemony, nutty, herby mixture and then covered in turmeric-flavoured couscous and baked. The only argument I would have with the recipe is that it left me with loads of leftover couscous but I just added some tomatoes to it to make another side dish so it wasn't a problem. The beetroot and chickpea salad was simple and tasty and went well with the aubergines. A good dinner all round.

New Recipe #19 : Baileys and Chocolate Cheescake

2011-07-23T12:19:00.004Z

On Monday I had my running pals Emma, Emma and Alison round for dinner and decided to try a new recipe for pudding. As you can see from the photo, I forgot to take a picture before we actually ate it so these are the leftovers. I got the recipe from the BBC website and chose it on the grounds that it was very simple to make. I have to say that it was bit too rich for my liking and Jonny agreed with me so I wouldn't make it again. At least it didn't take much effort!

New Recipe #18 : Hottie Black Eye Beans and Greens

2011-07-23T12:11:00.002Z

Another recipe from Appetite for Reduction which was very tasty (and uber-healthy). As the recipe book's American I had to source an ingredient online that's clearly not too weird in the US, liquid smoke. It basically adds a smokey, BBQ kind of taste to things, a bit like smoked paprika.

Manchester International Festival 2011

2011-07-14T23:51:00.000Z

We've been big fans of the Manchester International Festival (MIF) for several years. It's a bi-annual festival that hits Manchester for about 4 weeks and previously we've enjoyed things like "Monkey: Journey to the West", Elbow with the Halle Orchestra and Kraftwerk at the Manchester Velodrome (mentioned briefly here).
This year, Mandy surpassed herself with ticket buying, and we've had two full weeks of great events which I thought it would be rude not to mention, so here we go:
The festival started with a disappointment for me, as I arrived home from a work trip to Japan too late to go and see Alina Ibragimova playing Bach, Berio, Biber & Bartók, Béla in Chetham's School of music. Mandy headed out her friend Sarah however and reported back on a stunning show with some very interesting music and the ability to explore a little bit of the Chetham's buildings.
The next day, we went to see Bjork playing her new album, Biophilia in Campfield Market Hall. The venue was excellent (if hot) hosting 1,800 people per show, it felt very intimate and the music was brilliant. Each track from the new album was introduced by a pre-recorded David Attenborough and the new music was a Bjork-ish mixture of dance, chill and downright bizarre. She played a few of her hits as well, all of which were (typically) re-mixed for the occasion and as we left, gasping for fresh-air we felt like we'd seen something really original and exciting.
On Tuesday 5th July, we went to see "Dr Dee - An English Opera", penned by Damon Albarn, we expected great things, especially following his spectacular Monkey show in 2007. Unfortunately, this fell a bit flat for both of us. The production was impressive and in places spectacular, however the music never really lived up to it, and we left confused and non the wiser as to Dr John Dee's background or life. Disappointing given that (when informed later) he was such an interesting character and gave such a lot to our modern way of living.
I have to admit to being extremely sceptical about going to see "The Crash of the Elysium" which was billed as a show for children. It was so well received that people were complaining that you could only get in if you had children and so, for the childless, they put on some performances which allowed adults to participate (along with over 13's!). I have to admit to this being one of my highlights of the whole festival. From the minute the soldiers ran into our 'guided tour' of a museum exhibit to tell us that there had been a spaceship crash landing nearby and to follow them as they ran from the building; hearing a broadcast from Doctor Who asking us to help him; being chased down a corridor by a Weeping Angel and finally saving the planet by finding the Tardis and sending it to rescue the Doctor, we were completely engaged and loved the excitement, drama and spectacle of it. I think that if I had have seen something like this when I was a child I'd have thought it was the most amazing thing I'd ever seen. You only have to look at the reactions of the kids on the link above to see that!
Back to adult reality, the next thing we went to see was Paul Heaton, formerly of the Housemartins and The Beautiful South, and his new show-come-hour-long-pop-song, "The 8th". I was never a massive Heaton fan, however this show demonstrated his massive talent for song-writing and drama combined. It was expertly narrated by Reg E Cathey - telling the tale of a man hitting the depths and his resurgence against the odds, interspersed with 8 songs covering the seven deadly sins, and Heaton's 8th: gossip. Each sin was covered by a different vocalist, each of whom brought their own individual style to their songs. Highlights for me included Kenny Anderson (aka King Creosote) and Jacqui Abbot formerly of the Beautiful South. The whole thing was beautiful to watch and listen to, and in the second half we were treated to songs from Heaton's back catalogue sung by each of the vocalists. Paul Heaton himself was entertaining both as 'the 8th' and in his banter between songs and we left the show having loved every minute.
Next up was "The life and death of Marina Abramovic". Again, I was not convinced that this would be, having seen some of Marina Abramovic's previous works, however the show promised music from Anthony from Anthony and the Johnsons, so surely it can't have been that bad... Funnily enough, I think it's fair to say that I enjoyed 'The life and death...' more than I enjoyed Dr Dee. I can't say that it's drawn me to performance-art as a medium of choice (in fact, I think it's fair to say that it's confirmed my expectations that I'm not that keen), however it was an extremely entertaining show with some amazing, surreal visuals (yes naked-slowly-backward-tumbling-down-the-stairs-woman, I'm talking about you) and a staggering performance by Willem Defoe as the narrator. Seriously. I don't think I'd have ever thought that a narrator could steal the show but he did.
Finally, on the 13th July we went to see Jonny Vegas and a show that he'd written called "And Another Thing". It's typical Vegas - the story of someone crumbling under the pressure - but with a twist, in that he and the brilliant Emma Fryer are shopping channel sales-people whose life we get to glimpse for 50 minutes before they go live on-air with real-life shopping channel Ideal World. The result was a really interesting and funny journey through their lives and the ability to go home and watch 15 minutes of the show again on our recording on Sky+! I was expecting something a bit more edgy from Johnny Vegas, but in the end, the story was entertaining and touching enough to keep us very entertained.
So that's it. My Manchester International Festival 2011. Mandy is going to attend Die Walkure over this weekend and I'm sure that she'll blog about that, but I think it's fair to say that I've really enjoyed everything that we've seen and wouldn't have missed any of it. There are things I'd like to have seen - Victoria Wood's show and Snoop Dogg both looked great but I can't say I'd have given up anything we'd been to in their place.
Keep an eye on the website - it's a brilliant festival and we're looking forward to 2013 already...

New Films #14, #15, #16, #17 and #18!

2011-07-09T13:59:00.000Z

I had a chance to catch up on some new films during my recent trip to Japan - here are my short reviews:

#14 - The King's Speech is a film that I've wanted to see since it was released, and I wasn't disappointed. It's an interesting film because the 'story' as such is wafer thin, however the cinematography and the acting mean that it never felt slow and was an interesting and quite emotional story about a historical character that I personally knew very little about. Highly recommended - 5 out of 5.

#15 - The Adjustment Bureau is based on a short story by Philip K. Dick which is one of the reasons I decided to take a look at it. Staring Matt Damon and Emily Blunt, the story focuses on a politician who starts to stray from his predefined life path and the adjustment bureau try to put him back on track. This is a romantic film with a thin slither of science fiction and that's a shame, as I think it would have worked better and been more interesting as a sci-fi film with romantic interest. I would give this a not-convinced 3 out of 5.

#16 - Paul is the latest film to star Simon Pegg and Nick Frost. Two geeks travel to Comicon and then go on a road-trip to look at alien sighing sites around the US, and during their travels they bump into an alien, Paul. The humour in this film is very British, very "Pegg and Frost" really and there were a few laugh-out-loud moments (slightly embarrassing on a plane!). The voice of Paul is supplied in a very dry, funny way by Seth Rogen (who also stars in The Green Hornet) and the special effects were good enough for me to forget that there were any special effects - Paul was simply one of the cast. Good fun, but still no Shaun of the Dead: 4 out of 5.
#17 - The Green Hornet is the tale of a rich heir who, after stopping a robbery with his late father's chauffeur, decides to become the crime-busting Green Hornet. It's a comedy action movie which never really hooked me. It's funny in places but it's hard to like the main character, and it's a shame that Seth Rogen's on-screen acting isn't as good as his voice acting in Paul. Directed by Michel Gondry, I was expecting a lot more and was quite disappointed. 2 out of 5.
#18 - The Mechanic stars Jason Statham (does anyone else think 'Green Wing' when they hear his name?) as a hit man who takes on an apprentice shortly after his mentor and close friend is murdered. This is a pretty straight-up action film and I quite liked it. There's not much depth to it, and the acting is action-film standard (i.e. not brilliant), but it romps along and stays interesting all the way through. I give it a shallow but fun 3 our of 5.

Recipe #17: Chilli-Lime Rubbed Tofu

2011-07-09T12:34:00.003Z

This is a recipe from Appetite For Reduction, the latest book from the brilliant vegan chef Isa Chandra Moskowitz. She explains that after writing books on cupcakes and then cookies she'd porked out a bit with all the recipe testing (if vegans can be said to have porked out!) and felt that she ought to write a book on low fat vegan food to recover. As she's American the recipes are all in US measures and there are a few odd ingredients in some of them but if you have some measuring cups they're mostly pretty straightforward. This tofu dish was tangy and delicious (served with stir fried mushrooms, broccoli and soya beans here) and got a thumbs-up from Mr H. Another winner.

New Recipe #16: Harira

2011-07-09T12:21:00.002Z

Harira is the soup that Morrocans traditionally break their Ramadan fast with apparently. It's full of lentils, rice, chickpeas, herbs and spices which makes it a filling and delicious meal. It's even healthy - hooray! The recipe, which I found on the Good Food website, was supposed to feed 4 but we got 5 1/2 big bowls full out of it. I always like a recipe which leaves plenty for other meals so I'll definitely be making it again.

New Recipe #15 : Vegetable Samosas

2011-07-03T12:23:00.002Z

The sun is shining and I guess it should really be BBQ weather but my contrary nature decided what I needed was samosas. I found a really easy-sounding recipe in The Really Useful Vegetarian Student Cookbook and knocked up a batch for lunch today. They were a little fiddly to construct until I got the hang of it and I think that I'd ignore the instructions and make more, smaller, samosas next time as it would be easier. That said, they were delicious served with salad and mango chutney sitting in the garden on a sunny Sunday lunchtime. We managed to finish that big old plateful between us as well!

New Recipe #14: Brown Rice & Puy Lentils with Pine Nuts & Spinach

2011-06-29T19:07:00.001Z

Obviously I didn't get round to testing out any new recipes over the last two weeks when we were on hols in Scotland. All the food we ate there was very much on the 'minimal effort required' scale, including some superb pies from the Lochinver Larder. Now I'm back and home alone for the week (Jonny's in Sweden) I'm trying some simple recipes that only cater for one or two so it's back to the student cookbooks for me! This evening's meal (and hence tomorrow's lunch) is from The Really Useful Ultimate Student Vegetarian Cookbook and although it doesn't look terribly exciting in the picture was in fact pretty darned tasty. The green bits that you can see include fresh baby spinach, coriander and mint. I resisted the urge to add chilli as I can be prone to adding that to absolutely everything I cook and I don't regret it at all. I'm quite looking forward to my lunch tomorrow.

New Recipe #13 : Sweet Potato and Coconut Dhal

2011-06-01T19:29:00.003Z

Look at me go this week! Obviously I'm still way behind schedule but at least I'm making some progress. Today's recipe is from Vegetarian Supercook by the godmother of veggie cooking Rose Elliot. It might not look particularly beautiful on this picture but the dhal was a quite pretty pale orange from the sweet potatoes and sweetly fragrant, being flavoured with cinnamon, ginger and of course a bit of chilli. Nowhere near as much chilli as yesterday's dinner, just a nice gentle warmth.

New Recipe #12 : Spanish style Sausage Casserole

2011-05-31T19:19:00.002Z

This spicy little number came from The Quorn Kitchen, which I got very nearly free with a couple of packs of Quorn a while back. I wasn't actually expecting that much from it as, like all the recipes in the book, it looked very simple and not particularly adventurous. It turned out to be absolutely delicious. It also turned out to be mouth-burningly hot as I substituted extra hot chilli powder for the mild chilli specified in the recipe and was quite generous with the amounts. Phew! I'll be making it again as it's a nice simple mid-week supper.

New films #12 and #13

2011-05-30T13:30:00.000Z

Like Mandy with her recipes, I've got some catching up to do on this new films challenge!

#12 - The Bad Lieutenant is a film about a corrupt New York cop and his downward spiral into a world of gambling, drink and drugs. It's not a pleasant film - it's graphic and there's little to like about the main character, brilliantly played by Harvey Keitel. It's a testament to the cinematography, acting and direction that despite a constant dislike of the cop and depravity of his situation, you still keep watching.
Recently, this film has been re-made starring Nicholas Cage - I've got it lined up on my Sky+ box so will do a comparison later, but I can't help but think that it won't be anywhere near as gritty or close to the bone.
I give this one 4 out of 5.

#13 - Toy Story 3. Talk about two completely opposite films! I've always had a soft-spot for the Toy Story films, and actually most of the output of Pixar. This one doesn't disappoint. As you'd expect it has a strong story and some of the best computer generated animation out there. The subtlety of some of the acting is incredible - I love the way that when the toys are being played with, they're made to 'act' in the way they do when they're alive - it's very clever. I was very pleased to see the introduction of a Fisher Price wobbly-eyed telephone as a character because I remember owning one of those as a child, and that's the brilliance of the whole thing - there's something here for everyone - every toy you can think of, each acting as it would were it to become alive. There's some great laugh-out-loud moments and I'm sure that kids would absolutely love it! 5 out of 5.

New recipe #11 : Spinach Soup with Lemongrass and Lime Leaves

2011-05-30T12:26:00.002Z

Yikes - we're nearly half way through the year and I've only done 11 new recipes. Even with my dodgy mathematics skills I'm sensing I need to do a bit of catching up! I'll be on a mission this week to get cooking and today's lunch is the start. The recipe came from the Spring section of my Green Seasons cookbook. Earlier in the year I dipped into the Winter section for the marvelous Borlotti Bean and Chestnut Stew (recipe no.7) so I might keep this trend up throughout the year.

The soup had a delicious zesty flavour but you could still taste the spinach so it was not overpoweringly citrussy. It also makes me feel quite virtuous for consuming all those healthy vitamins - it takes a huge amount of spinach leaves to wilt down into a pan of soup's worth.

New Recipe #10 : Garlic Mushroom Kebabs

2011-05-30T12:20:00.002Z

I've been a bit slack on the new recipe front recently (and the blogging front - this is one I cooked back in April when the sun was still shining and we could have BBQs - remember that?). This was another easy peasy recipe from my veggie BBQ recipe book and just as good as the lemon and asparagus kebabs. I'll be doing these again if the sun ever returns to Manchester.....

New Films #9, #10 and #11

2011-05-22T19:45:00.000Z

#9: Despicable Me is a fun animated film following the fall of a criminal mastermind (Gru) who is being overtaken as most evil criminal by a new-comer. There's a lot to like about this film - the characters are engaging, and the story is funny and touching as Gru comes to love the three orphans that he adopts to help with his scheme. The voice acting is very good and features Steve Carell, Russell Brand and Julie Andrews amongst others. It's not exactly subtle, but it's good fun, and the Minion characters add to it in the same way that the slugs do in Flushed Away! Overall, 3 out of 5.

#10: The Royal Tenenbaums is a film that I've wanted to watch for a long time as I'd heard great things about it. It's the tale of a dysfunctional family and their coming back together after years apart. The all-star cast are as good as their names would imply. The story is slow but engaging and the characters are explored in great depth. The most moving part has to be the shocking transformation of Richie Tenenbaum to the haunting sound of Elliott Smith - it's worth watching the film just for that moment. 4 out of 5.

#11: No Country for Old Men is a Coen brothers film about a man who finds the money from a failed drugs exchange and is subsequently chased by a psychotic killer. It's an incredibly atmospheric and tense thriller but much like Fargo before it, despite the violence, it's tinted with the Coen brothers' sense of humour and focus on the human side of the characters. The acting is brilliant without exception and Tommy Lee Jones in particular is stunning as Sherrif Ed Tom Bell. 5 out of 5.

A haul of CD's - it's that time of year

2011-05-14T14:28:00.000Z

Every year, we go into Manchester and blow some of my bonus on some lovely food, some drinks and a stack of CD's. It's become proper tradition now, having done it for at least 6 years (the earliest blog entry about it was back in 2005!). Over the Easter bank-holiday, we had 2011's outing starting with a walk into Manchester along the canal, lunch in Carluccio's and then trips to Fopp and Piccadilly Records. Later in the day, we met up with Sarah and Rich for a couple of pints and then finished the day with a curry in Lal Q'uila on Deansgate. A lovely day out and lots of new music to work our way through (the observant may notice a couple of albums that weren't actually released at the time we went out, but they're included here as drunken Amazon pre-orders on our return home!).
For those interested, the list is (in no particular order):

Diamond Mine - King Creosote & Jon Hopkins
The Long Lost/Of Silence - Glissando
Figure 8 - Elliott Smith
Tomorrow, In a Year - The Knife in collaboration with Mt. Sims and Planningtorock
Isolée - We are monster
Colour of the Trap - Miles Kane
Halfaxa - Grimes
C'mon - Low
Mazes - Moon Duo
Ten - Various Artists (Manchester Music for Kosovo)
James Blake - James Blake
Mind Bokeh - Bibio
Peanut butter blues and Melancholy Jam - Ghostpoet
2 - Grinderman
A Thousand Heys - Mazes
The King of Limbs - Radiohead
I done a album - Beardyman
Walk the River - Guillemots
Crack my Bones - The Shoes
No More Idols - Chase and Status
Different Gear, Still Speeding - Beady Eye
Helplessness Blues - Fleet Foxes
DJ Kicks - Wolf & Lamb vs Soul Clap
Gob - Dels
Valhalla Dancehall - British Sea Power
The Fall - Gorillaz
Ventriloquizzing - Fujiya & Miyagi
Cherish the Light Years - Cold Cave
Galeria De La Luz - Outshine Family
No Witch - The Cave Singers
Submarine - Alex Turner
Buffalo - The Phoenix Foundation
And The Double-O Groove of - Cornershop
Red - Datarock
To the Victor - The Spoils - Flashman
Becoming a Jackal - Villagers
Last - The Unthanks
Paul Hartnol - The Ideal Condition

New Recipe #9 Asparagus and Lemon Kebabs

2011-04-10T15:36:00.002Z

We had our first BBQ of the year yesterday and so I seized the opportunity to start catching up on my recipe challenge. Among my enormous collection of veggie cookbooks I of course have a BBQ-themed one, Simply The Best Vegetarian Barbeque Recipes. I found a very simple recipe for these kebabs which as you can see went down very well with Jonny. The lemon slices flavoured the asparagus and chicken-style pieces and got deliciously caramelised on the barbie and went particularly well with Co-Op's Bumble Bee Ale I found.

New Recipe #8 Roasted Vegetables with Mango and Tamarind

2011-04-10T15:19:00.002Z

This lovely recipe comes from one of my all-time fave cookbooks The Cranks Bible, which also contains the ever-delicious Mushroom Wellington, my standby centrepiece for a proper roast dinner which never fails to impress the carnivores and vegans alike. All except the mushroom haters of course (sorry Adam and Mel - you'll never know what you're missing!). The book also has the recipe for Jonny's traditional Xmas show-off meal, Mile High Vegetable Pie, which never fails to impress his mother-in-law. Alongside all the great special occasion recipes there are also plenty of normal weekday meals like this one. It was simple to put together and really tasty. I'd never have thought of putting mango in with roasted veg but the sweetness was offset by the sharpness of the tamarind and it really worked. I'll certainly be making it again. I did make this a few weeks ago and am catching up on my posts (and cooking!) so there will follow a few more recipes in quick succession.

Ashford skate park

2011-04-03T11:31:00.000Z

Mandy and I got down with the kids at the weekend when we went to Ashford skate park to watch Ben and Luke on their scooters.

Here's a quick video I knocked-up using Windows Movie Maker...

Kate Rusby at Buxton Opera House

2011-03-19T11:37:00.002Z

Earlier this week, we went to see Kate Rusby play at the Buxton Opera House. It's the second time in the space of five months that we've seen her. When I found out she was playing Buxton after seeing her in November at the Lowry, I couldn't turn down the opportunity.
The funny thing is, if you'd have told me even five years ago that the first person I'd watch twice on the same tour was a folk singer, I'd have pointed you at the door. Don't mention the reaction ten or fifteen years ago. But there's something about Kate Rusby that I find utterly captivating. It's probably the thing that made me order her current album before the end of the theme tune of the first episode of "Jam and Jerusalem" - that was the first time I'd heard her sing.
And then we saw her play live. She has a funny presence on-stage: slightly awkward, and yet totally in control. She chats away to the point where you wonder if it might be her understanding that she's there to talk to you and throw a couple of songs in rather than the other way around. The band are amazingly tight (seemingly) no matter the configuration - we've seen her play with a couple of bands now, and each time you could swear that they've been doing it for 20 years. But it's Kate's voice that's so distinct and purity in every performance that means I could go and watch her over and over again without getting bored.
Having said all of that, the show we saw in Buxton wasn't her best. She admitted that her poorly 18 month old daughter had been depriving her of sleep and it showed - she didn't hit the highest notes with the power that's been there in previous performances, and she lacked a little of the energy that we've seen previously, but that didn't matter - the venue, the songs, the band and that voice made for a beautiful evening of music in a lovely intimate setting and I walked from the concert feeling happy, content and wondering how soon we could arrange to see her again...

Private Lives at the Royal Exchange

2011-03-15T06:29:00.002Z

It's been a while since I blogged about a theatre visit, but last week we went to see a very good production of Noel Coward's "Private Lives". It was well acted and very funny and a bit of relief from the quite serious plays we've seen there recently. It is pretty early on in its run and highly recommended!

Films #5, #6, #7 and #8

2011-03-13T09:53:00.000Z

A bit of catching up! Here are the next four films I've watched:

#5: Four Lions is a black comedy about a group of Islamic Fundamentalists living in Leeds and wanting to become suicide bombers. Written and directed by Chris Morris, it has a familiar edgy feel in line with the style of 'The Day Today' and 'Brass Eye'.
It's very funny in places - real laugh-out-loud stuff, and whilst the ending is really quite touching, it remains darkly humorous throughout as we learn more about the characters and their views on the act they're about to perform. The training camp in Pakistan, building and testing the bombs, the planning and the final scenes are all, in their own way tinged with a fecklessness that makes the whole thing feel extremely British, whilst addressing a very serious subject. Highly recommended - 4/5

#6: Inception is set in the future where it's possible to infiltrate people's dreams. A master at this, Leonardo DiCaprio's character is asked to attempt Inception: placing an idea so far into someone's subconcious that not only do they think it's their idea, but it becomes part of their thinking outside of the dreams.
This is not a film to watch after a few bottles of wine! The plot is complex and twisting, however it's extremely engaging and the effects are well done and not as intrusive as the the trailers might lead you to believe. As the team descend lower and lower into the dream worlds, things can occasionally get tricky to follow, and I think it's definitely a film I'd like to watch again to pick up some of the bits I may have missed. Christopher Nolan has been one of my favourite film directors since he did Memento, and Inception has the typical polish and twisting story you'd expect. 4/5

#7: The Invention of Lying stars Ricky Gervais in a time where nobody knows how to lie. His character gets fired from his job and then suddenly, he realises that it's possible to say things that aren't the truth, and the world opens up in front of him. There are some very funny moments in the film, but at the heart of it, The Invention of Lying is a romcom and it rolls along nicely. There are some overly sentimental bits, and there are a couple of slow bits, but it's worth a watch on a wet Sunday afternoon. 3/5

#8: THX1138 is George Lucas's look into a grim future where people are kept sedated in order to operate machines. It's an exceptional looking film. Made in 1971, I was very impressed by how well the special effects have stood up to the test of time, and the world feels very coherent. It's a very slow film - it's a good fifteen minutes in before things start becoming clear, and even then it hardly races along. Even the finale car-chase feels a little pedestrian. There are times where the pace lets the film down, but overall it's not that long and I really enjoyed the film as a one-off, but I can't see myself watching it again, Mandy wasn't quite as impressed! I'd give THX1138 3/5.

New Recipe #7 :Borlotti Bean and Chestnut Stew

2011-02-27T15:41:00.001Z

I'm getting a little behind with both my blogging and my actual recipe-trying as I made this over a week ago. It's a hugely satisfying stew with real winter comfort-food flavours of herbs, garlic and wine and pretty healthy too, especially when served with sweet potato and spinach mash. Lots of your 5 a day there I reckon. I got the recipe from Green Seasons cookbook which I bought when I went on a cookery course at the Vegetarian Cookery School down in Bath. The course was run by Rachel Demuth who owns the utterly superb veggie restaurant Demuth's and I've used the recipes I learned on the course time and time again. For some reason though I've never actually cooked anything from this book before and now I wish I'd done it ages ago! I will definitely be having a go at a few more soon.

New Recipe #6 : Yasai Chilli Men

2011-02-13T21:09:00.000Z

I decided to use my Wagamama cookbook today to recreate my fave dish from the restaurant, Yasai Chilli Men. It was pretty darned easy to make so I'm quite tempted never to pay Wagamama to cook it for me again. I did tinker with the recipe slightly, only using a quarter of the recommended oil but three times the amount of chilli (I am a bit of a chilli fiend). As you can see from the photo the portion sizes are very generous indeed but somehow I managed to plough on through and clean my plate. It was delicious!

I'm feeling suitably fat and happy now.

New recipe #5 : Butternut Squash, Pears and Chickpeas in a Saffron and Almond Sauce

2011-02-05T12:49:00.000Z

This doesn't look too pretty, does it? Despite the rather vomit-like appearance it was actually quite tasty. The sauce was thickened with garlicky toasted breadcrumbs which infused it with general galricky-goodness and the addition of the pears wasn't as weird as it sounds. In general it was quite nice and relatively easy to make but in my opinion would benefit from a hefty dose of chilli, although it has to be said I do tend to think that about nearly all food!

The recipe came from one of my favourite ever cookbooks 'Food from the Place Below'. I've used a lot of the recipes already from this book and my copy is battered and stained enough to show how well-loved and often-used it is. If you're looking for a good veggie cookbook then I can highly recommend it as none of the dishes are difficult and all the ones I've tried have been exceedingly tasty.

New Recipe #4 Pumpkin and Lentil Soup

2011-01-30T20:40:00.001Z

Today I made a yummy soup for dinner (note to northerners :by that I mean for tea). I got it from a veggie student cookbook I had hanging around on my shelves which isn't actually a dusty old relic from my student days but one which I bought relatively recently just 'cos I saw it in Waterstones and it looked like it had some nice recipes in it. In fact, clearly student life has got way swankier since I was at uni as some of the recipes have ingredients in that I've never even heard of! Chokos anyone? Maybe snake beans? They didn't have anything like that in Grub on a Grant.

Recipe of the Week #2 and #3 : Cabbage and Cake!

2011-01-22T14:08:00.000Z

The theme of my latest recipes is definitely 'love (lardy) food, hate waste'.

Recipe number 2 was the result of needing inspiration for what to do with the contents of my weekly veg box. I needed something exciting to do with a red cabbage that didn't involve using it as a football. I found a great recipe for braised red cabbage with apple on the Abel & Cole website which was easy and tasty. It went very well with veggie sausages and celeriac mash. Yum!

Recipe number 3 came about as I needed to use up some very brown bananas that I didn't much fancy eating on their own. On the ever-fab BBC website I found my fairtrade banana bread recipe. It's incredibly easy and completely delicious, even if my version did end up a little bulgy due to me using a silicone loaf tin with a distinct lack of backbone.

Films #3 and #4

2011-01-20T12:40:00.001Z

Another two films to add to the year of film-watching challenge!

Film number three was Wall-E, an animated Pixar film which tells the story of a robot that's left on earth to tidy up after all the humans have left the planet.
We're big fans of Pixar, but I think we held off from seeing it when it first came out because there was a lot of chatter about it being a bit over-sentimental and a bit eco-warrior. I have to say that I don't agree with either of those points of view. To the accusations of being over sentimental, I'd argue that it's soppy in places, but it's never cringe-worthy and generally errs on the side of cute. As for the eco-warrior claims - there's clearly an overall message, but it's part of the story rather than being rammed down your throat.
The whole of the first half of the film features no dialogue and the animation to pull off a meaningful interaction between the two robots is amazing to the point of you not really noticing. A really enjoyable family film.

Film number four was The Girl Who Played with Fire, the second in the trilogy of movies which mirror the books by Swedish author Stieg Larsson. We watched the first film last year and, as I haven't read the books, I've been dying to watch the second since then. The story continues a year on from the end of the previous film (I would seriously recommend watching the first one first - it adds a lot more than any recap can do). Lisbeth Salander has returned to Sweden and a series of murders happen to which she is linked.
I find it hard to describe what's so enjoyable about these films - they often cover difficult ground, however it's done in a very down-to-earth way. It'll be interesting to see how the Hollywood adaptations alter the stories - according to Mandy (who has read the books), these films follow the books very closely.
The story is a tense thriller, with the lead characters only meeting again in the last scenes which in itself leads to an interesting dynamic. It's beautifully shot in "typical" Swedish drab greys and greens, although I have to say that I wasn't that impressed with the transfer to Blu-Ray that we watched which seemed very grainy. Anyway, the film was excellent and has nicely whetted my appiteite for the final one which is released in April and already on pre-order!
Both Wall-E and The Girl Who Played with Fire get 4/5.

Film challenge 2011 and films #1 and #2

2011-01-08T19:42:00.000Z

In 2007, I challenged myself to watch a new film every week which, as these things tend to do, turned into a challenge to watch 52 new films during the year.
I've decided to revive this resolution for 2011, and so I will be trying to watch (and blog) at least 52 new films this year.
And with that in mind, we watched both Iron Man and Iron Man 2 in the last week:
Iron Man really surprised me - I wanted to watch the second which I thought had received better reviews, so thought I should watch the first one first - especially as it was on Channel 4 HD last week. So it was really great to have enjoyed it so much. In some respects it's your typical, "a super-hero is born" movie, but it never takes itself too seriously and that's important given the fantastical nature of the whole thing. By the end of the film, we were both excited about watching the next one as our appetites had been properly whetted.
Iron Man 2 was a real disappointment. The big-gun actors Hollywood stars are rolled in, and story is rolled out. I mean, how can it be possible for there to be a film where you really don't care what Samuel L. Jackson's character is doing? Robert Downy Jr does a pretty good job, but ultimately I can't help but feel that the second movie was simply a cash-in on the good name of the previous film. A serious missed opportunity.
So to summarise in 2007's "out of 5" style:
Iron Man - 4 out of 5
Iron Man 2 - 2 out of 5

New Recipe #1 : Sprout Surprise!

2011-01-03T18:06:00.000Z

Well, as expected, the Brussels Sprout and Tofu recipe from Plenty was delish. It had lots of lovely chilli and soy and sesame oil in and the sprouts were slightly caramelised and definitely not boiled for three days in traditional Xmas stylee. Try it!

I'm off to a good start with this challenge but I think I'll probably get to the point sooner or later where I need some additional inspiration. If anyone has any fave veggie recipes they'd care to share then let me know. Cheers!

Food glorious food!

2011-01-02T18:40:00.002Z

After getting 3 gorgeous recipe books for Xmas to add to my huge collection I decided that it was time to put them to good use and went for a foodie new year's resolution for 2010. I'm going to cook a new recipe every week this year and blog the results. No dieting for me, in fact I'm hoping the food'll be good enough that I'll end 2011 slightly porkier than I started it (no mean feat given how much lardy, perishable food we got as gifts this Xmas!).

My first choice is going to be from Yotam Ottolenghi's book Plenty which has been making me drool just looking at the recipes. He writes the New Vegetarian column in The Guardian which I always read and never bother to actually cook. As we're using up the Xmas leftovers I'm doing Brussels Sprouts and Tofu. Now I know that's sounding like some kind of terrible penance to some of you but having read the recipe it sounds bloody delicious to me. I'll let you know.....

Mandy

Top 10 albums of 2010

2011-01-02T11:35:00.001Z

Another year has been and gone, and in terms of music it feels like we've been relatively slack at keeping up with the trends in 2010.
That's not to say we've not listened to any less music, or indeed continued to grow our CD and on-line collection, but when comparing ourselves against Q's Top 50 of the year, we would normally have expected to have encountered quite a lot more of those albums than we have. Still, there's been enough to compile a top 10 with plenty in the 'notable mentions' section, so that's fine.
It's interesting to compare my top 10 albums that were released this year (which is what this list is) against the top albums that we've listened to (courtesy of LastFM) and see that none of them feature - in fact, you have to get to number 25 in our most listened to this year until one of the entries appears! This is slightly skewed by a) the way that we listen to music and b) the way that LastFM captures the way that we listen to music, but either way - it shows that we've not really been "into" this year's albums in a big way (but we do love our Christmas tunes!)...
A quick note about LastFM: it's been quietly compiling the tracks we're listening to from our Squeezebox every time we put music on. I signed-up in 2008, hooked up the Squeezebox and then completely forgot about it until this year! The ability to look at statistics of albums, tracks and artists played over that period has been quite interesting (judge for yourself - the above link will take you to our full stats), but it's obviously skewed by the fact that it doesn't log us listening to CDs which can be significant for a new album.
Anyway, enough of all that - here's what I consider to be the top 10 albums of this year. Oh, there's no order to this list, that would be way too tricky.

Marina and the Diamonds - The Family Jewels: best pop album of the year
John Grant - Queen of Denmark: cheery folky sound with dark undertones
Chemical Brothers - Further: a return to form. The 12 minute epic, Escape Velocity, is brilliant
Delphic - Acolyte: local Manchester indie pop; the Temper Trap for 2010.
Vampire Weekend - Contra: another great album in Vampire Weekend's very own style
Gorillaz - Plastic Beach: a real grower (as usual with Gorillaz) - this keeps getting better on every listen
Steve Mason - Boys Outside: ex-Beta Band member and clearly the genius behind them. Backed up by a stunning Big Chill performance
Massive Attack - Heliogland: some great collaborations, and another return to form
Darwin Deez - Darwin Deez: quirky American guitar pop
Junip - Fields: chilled-out indie with the vocals provided by Jose Gonzalez
Various - The Old Grey Whistle Test: a great compilation that has turned us onto a lot of 70's music that we weren't familiar with before. It gets a bit of a panning on Amazon because these aren't live tracks but it's a great compilation despite that.

Notable omissions from the list include Pendulum's new album which I was a bit disappointed with. We've listened to the Temper Trap's album, Conditions, a lot but that came out in 2009 - that's the story with Biffy Clyro's latest (Only Revolutions) and the Band Of Skulls (Baby Darling Dollface Honey) too.
I looked back at last year's post, and realised that some of the "other mentions" became massive favourites (for example, The xx's album), so I guess I should also mentioned the following bands who all had albums this year and didn't make it onto the list: Violens, The Virginmarys, Groove Armada, Bonobo, The Coral, The Courteeners, Joanna Newsom, David Byrne & Fatboy Slim (a collaboration: Here Lies Love), Hot Chip, Röyksopp, Damien O'Kane, Kate Rusby, Four Tet, Caribou.

CD Shopping in Manchester - 2010 edition

2010-05-15T10:11:00.000Z

Every year, Mandy and I go into Manchester and have a day of CD shopping, eating and drinking to celebrate getting my bonus! This year was no different, however we decided to walk in - 8 miles up the canal - a very pleasant walk. We had a lovely meal in Carluccio's and then met up with Liz to do a trawl around Fopp and Piccadilly records. Following an outrageous CD splurge, we went into the Northern Quarter for drinks in Cord and Socio Rehab and then ended up back at ours to listen to some of our new purchases and eat pizza. It was a brilliant day - very relaxed and we're now set up with more new music that we can possibly handle!
In case you're interested, here's a log of the haul:

Remixes - Four Tet
A hawk and a hacksaw - A hawk and a hacksaw
A Bella Union sampler - various artists
The Soft Pack - The Soft Pack
The Wonder Show of the World - Bonnie 'Prince' Billy & The Cairo Sang
Empire & Love - The Imagined Village
Fly Yellow Moon - Fyfe Dangerfield
Checkmate Savage - The Phantom Band
Cosmogramma - Flying Lotus
Horse Meat Disco - Various Artists
Diminishing Returns - DJ Shadow
Here Lies Love - David Byrne & Fatboy Slim
White Album - The Beatles
Fabriclive.41 - Simian Mobile Disco
Loss Angeles - Flying Lotus
Darwin Deez - Darwin Deez
A Sufi and a Killer - Gonjasufi
Varshons - The Lemonheads
Voluspa - The Golden Filter
Future Chaos - Bomb the Bass
DJ Kicks - Juan Maclean
Have one on me - Joanna Newsom
My angel rocks back and forth - Four Tet
Late Night Tales - The Cinematic Orchestra
Alpinisms - School of Seven Bells
Two Dancers - Wild Beasts
Orbital - Orbital
Deep Cuts - The Knife
A-Z Vol. 1 - Ash
Fatherfucker - Peaches
One Good Thing - Lou Rhodes
Ten [Legacy Edition] - Pearl Jam
Remembranza - Murcof
Dance Bitch - Fatboy Slim

Sorry - no links, I can't be bothered!!

All marathoned out...

2010-04-19T21:33:00.001Z

As previously mentioned, we've spent quite a long time over the last four months training for the Shine marathon in aid of Cancer Research. In fact, to be exact, since January (including the marathon itself) I've walked 310 miles in just over 91 hours - that includes the marathon. I'd like to think that it also explains my poor blogging form...
On Saturday 17th April at 10pm, along with 7,500 other people, we set out on the longest walk either of us had done before.
The start point was Manchester Central (formerly G-Mex) from there, the route took us through the city centre round to Granada Studios and then down Whitworth Street to Oxford Road. We went up Oxford Road, through Rusholme and into Whitworth Park. From there we went on to Didsbury via Christies and then down the A34 back to Manchester. After passing back through Whitworth Park and the half-marathon walkers headed home, we went through Moss Side through to Old Trafford and then out to Trafford Park and the Trafford Centre. Finally, as the sun came up, we walked through Salford Quays and back towards the city centre.
It was a great event - the atmosphere was amazing, and everyone we met along the route was very friendly and encouraging. There were a few issues - the roads weren't really blocked off, and getting 7,500 people up Oxford Road on a Friday night would never have been easy and the start wasn't very well organised - but overall, it was well run and the volunteer marshals were very encouraging, even extremely early in the morning! We walked the distance with Ruth and Dan who were extremely patient with me when I flagging towards the end! Despite flagging, we completed the walk in 8 hours, 58 minutes - that's actually 58 minutes longer than we'd hoped, however the start was very crowded and the "pit stop" stations had very long queues for toilets so those factors slowed us quite a lot. We walked the first half-marathon in 5 hours, and the second in 4 which we're extremely pleased with!
We managed to raise nearly £1,500 for Cancer Research. I'm so grateful to everyone who sponsored us so generously. Our original target was £300 - the thought of all that sponsorship kept me going through the final few hours. Thanks to every one of our sponsors.
Finally, some links! Click here for a detailed map and statistics about the route, collected from my GPS on the night and click here to have a look at the photos I took during the event. I'm hoping there will be a YouTube video at some point... watch this space!

Marathon Walking

2010-04-17T12:42:00.006Z

Tonight is our big marathon walk around Manchester ("Shine"). We're walking 26 miles starting at 10pm and (hopefully) finishing in under 8 hours. In attempt to use some geeky technology, this post will show our progress during the walk with my phone sending back a real-time GPS signal.
You'll have to refresh the page to get the current position and I can't vouch for the time battery life of my phone, however it'll be live for the first few hours at least!
We have had an amazing response to our requests for sponsorship with our total well over £1,300 already and more promised. Thank you so much to everyone who has sponsored us and if you haven't yet - there's still time. It's in aid of Cancer Research and you can sponsor us from our Just Giving page.
To view the tracker full-screen, go to my InstaMapper site.

GPS tracking powered by InstaMapper.com

Marathon Training

2010-02-25T22:19:00.000Z

We signed up for the Shine night-walk marathon at the end of last year, and decided that we should probably follow their training plan in the interests of being able to walk the day after! We've ended up doing an awful lot of walking over the last few weeks and so I thought I'd log our progress. The plan has been gently ramping up to the point where we're currently doing 27 miles each week. That's made up of 3 walks through the week (between 3 and 7 miles), and one long one at the weekend (currently 12 miles and counting).

The graph shows the cumulative miles that we'd done up to the end of last week. We're tracking all our progress on the excellent Garmin Connect website. Mandy's using her Garmin Forerunner watch that I got her for Christmas, and I'm using a combination of my phone and walking sat-nav for tracking progress.
Once you upload your tracks to the website, you can view the routes on Google Maps, and run reports.
So, we're at about 80 miles and counting - by the time we do the marathon, we'll have logged about 200 miles!
If you fancy showing your support, feel free to donate at our Just Giving page, or drop us an e-mail if you'd prefer to give us cash!! I'll update the blog with our result, and will be updating Facebook on the evening live from the walk...

Albums of 2009

2010-01-16T01:23:00.001Z

Inspired by Lee's albums of 2009, I thought it only sensible that I should try and compose a list of the same. This is somewhat challenging for me, given my terrible memory, however let's have a go...! This is a list of my top albums - no specific number, no specific order, just stuff that I can remember and have loved over the last year...

Kasabian - West Ryder Pauper Lunatic Asylum: Kasabian's best to date. The perfect mix of indie with dancy synth sequences and powerful bass lines.
Muse - The Resistance: Not as easy to get into as previous albums, but a stunner all the same. Sure, I long for more of their more rocky, heavier stuff, but riffs like the one in Unnatural Selection prove it's still there, ready to return at any moment!
White Lies - White Lies: To Lose My Life: Proper Naughties indie with more than a hint of eighties goth to the vocals
Editors - In This Light and on This Evening: A bit darker than previous albums, but no worse for it.
Arctic Monkeys - Humbug: Much darker than their previous stuff, but still The Arctic Monkeys and still extremely enjoyable
Fever Ray - Fever Ray: Beautiful synth-based dance music that you can chill to
Florence & The Machine - Lungs: It's her voice that caught my attention, and then the variety and beautifully written songs that kept me listening again and again.
The Invisible - The Invisible: Vocals remenicent of the Beta Band over lovely clean guitar riffs that Radiohead would be proud of.
La Roux - La Roux: Pure 80's style pop music. What more need I say?!
Noisettes - Wild Young Heart: Rock with elements of soul, blues and pop with occasional touches of camp. Quite a departure (from what I've heard) from their previous stuff, I found this a real grower.

There's plenty of other stuff that didn't make the list but wasn't far off and has entertained me a lot (again, in no particular order): Little Boots, The Unthanks, Depeche Mode, The xx, Dizzee Rascal, Doves, Friendly Fires, Reverend and the Makers, White Denim, Camera Obscura, Twisted Wheel, Yeah Yeah Yeah's, Bat for Lashes, The Low Anthem...

When I started writing this, I wondered if I'd manage a top 10. It seems it was a better year for music than I remembered!

2009 - Year of the Facebook

2010-01-14T00:11:00.000Z

My blogging efforts most definitely went downhill in 2009 - this post is only the 11th of the year. Assuming I'd posted it in 2009. And I didn't post anything between March and June! Part of the reason for that is that it just seems a bit easier to put the things that we've been doing on Facebook. Of course, that relies on people logging in to check and sifting through the piles of application requests and friends' achievements on Bejeweled - so I'm going to try and improve my efforts here next year.
I still very much enjoy reading about the goings-on in the Braithwaite, Wardle, Evans and Allen households via their respective blog feeds, and recently I've realised how important regular communication with friends and family is as a friend from my Thermo days has started blogging as he battles against terminal cancer.
So, I'll start here with a look back on 2009 (as much as I can remember at least) - and then onward into 2010, a year which if nothing else holds the wonders of training for a marathon walk in April that both Mandy and I have signed up for!
Here's my whistle-stop tour of our 2009:
Music
2009 probably rates as one of the best and most exciting live music years that I can remember. Mandy did a fantastic job of getting us some great tickets for some of the Manchester International Festival key events: Kraftwerk at the Manchester velodrome was a one-off show to start the festival and included four of the British Olympic cycling team riding around the arena while Kraftwerk played 'Tour de France'. Elbow joined up with The Halle Orchestra for a truely amazing and moving concert at the Bridgewater Hall, and we were entranced by the stage-show and sounds of Anthony & the Johnsons and the Manchester Camerata at the Opera House. We did our annual pilgrimage to the Big Chill (I can call it a pilgrimage now - we've done it for over 10 years!) which turned out to be another 'best ever' and we loved the fact that Sarah could join our ever growing core of annual attendees. Other highlights include Fever Ray at the Academy and during the last week in December, Depeche Mode impressed us (as always) at the MEN Arena.
Holidays
2009 saw our biggest holiday ever - in October we went to Australia for three weeks and had a wonderful time in Melbourne, The Great Ocean Road, Sydney and everywhere in-between! It was really lovely to spend some time with Peter and Rowe and have a base in Melbourne to return to after the long drives that we did. There's a set of pictures on Flickr and a map on Google Maps showing the 4,000km that we travelled while we were there! A truly amazing holiday.
Before we went to Aus, we managed a few short breaks. It was great to return to Bath and was one of the few things that I actually blogged this year. We had an enjoyable long weekend in Glasgow with Mike and Yvonne for the Open golf (which was very wet this year), and we had a couple of camping trips - one with Sarah & Rich in Cumbria and one in Northumberland with Becky, Jon, Eve and Alice.
Theatre
We saw some great theatre this year with our season ticket for the Royal Exchange. Highlights were the already blogged Macbeth; the extremely moving The Pianist; a play set inside a bingo hall which had the audience playing a couple of games of bingo for cash prizes as part of it (Everybody loves a winner); Pub which was in The Studo rather than the main theatre. Decked out like a real pub, complete with bar and hand-pulled Holts ale on-tap, we went twice to this really interesting and original show which had different plays every week. The highlight for me was Jiggery Pokery - a one-woman show about the life of Charles Hawtrey. Finally, The Miser was incredibly stylish and featured a brilliant performance by Derek Griffiths.
Photography
I've continued to be captivated with my digital SLR and have been getting more into the post-processing side of photography through my 2009 challenge (the results of which are here). I also had a great experience doing a 'studio' photoshoot with my Ken's band, "Down at Antone's" - blogged earlier in the year. Several of my photographs have been used in publications this year, including one on the front cover of a book. None of the magazines or the book are likely to hit the best-seller lists, but it's quite an honour all the same...
Other stuff
We have enjoyed a few nice walks in the Cheshire - Mow Cop was a highlight as was finding that we could walk to Dunham from our house via the canal (which was actually discovered by my mum on a visit she did here in the summer). It's a lovely walk and will be good training for our afore-mentioned marathon this year. We've done it a couple of times now and were most impressed at being able to go to the Rope and Anchor for Sunday lunch and then walk back! Mandy did a 10K run around Tatton Park with some friends from work and they raised a lot of money for Cancer Research. We had the usual party for Mandy's birthday which ended in an extended Guitar Hero session having invested in the full peripheral set including drum kit.
We were visited by Mandy's nephews, Luke and Ben when they were brought up from Kent by Mike and Yvonne and had a lovely time with them. We went to the Museum of Science & Industry for the first time when they were with us, and were impressed to find that one of the aeroplanes in the Air and Space Hall was one that Mike had actually flown in during his airforce days. Finally, in February it was great to catch up with the family at a big party down we had in Ashford for Yvonne's 60th.
Christmas and New Year
We had an action-packed holiday season in 2009. Christmas down with the in-laws in Ashford was wonderful - very relaxed and lots of fun family times. We drove back there and had a day at home sorting ourselves out and having a nice catch-up evening with Mel, John, Chris, Kate and the kids. Then we set off up to the highlands in Scotland for a few days over New Year with Jon, Becky, Sarah, Eve and Alice. I've really wanted to go to Scotland in the winter for a while now, and I wasn't disappointed - the snow-covered landscapes were just stunning and it was a real struggle to head home again.

So that's it - my review of 2009 is over, and now we look forward to 2010. Happy New Year!!

Bath-ing in sunshine

2009-06-27T13:57:00.003Z

Crikey, it's been a while (again), however I find myself in Starbucks in Bath with my newly internet enabled netbook and a Frapahapaflipachino or something so thought I should do an update about the excellent holiday we've just had.
Oh, and I know that Starbucks is evil, but it's flippin' hot outside, I don't have a hat and I just want some lovely airconditioning to revitalise me..
Anyway, we're at the end of a week off. At the start of the week we had Shooby over from Paris and had a great catch-up with her. She left on Monday and then on Wednesday we came to Bath. We had a really great couple of days here between festivals last year and for her birthday, I bought Mandy a day at the Demuth's cookery school so we decided to make a holiday of it.
We've had a great couple of days - packed full of eating and drinking, I think both of us have gained a couple of stone! We've done other stuff too mind you - a full day mooching around Bath and taking in some of the local real ales, a day going to Farleigh Hungerford Castle and Stonehenge, and then today Mandy is at the cookery school and I've spent a day wandering around, taking photographs and generally being a tourist. I've been up the tower of the Abbey, around the baths around the Royal Crescent and walked lots of miles around the City. I'll update this post with some photos at a later date...
And so I find myself in Starbucks. Frapawhatsit almost finished, lemon muffin demolished and blog post almost complete. I should stop being sad and get out and enjoy some more fresh-air...

Comedy night(s)

2009-03-31T07:51:00.004Z

We've been to a couple of great comedy shows in the last few weeks. A couple of weeks ago we went to watch Ed Byrne at the Lowry. We had been bought tickets as a Christmas present so weren't really sure what to expect, but I think it's fair to say that both of us loved the show. Ed Byrne was consistently funny all evening and told some very funny stories. His style is quite laid back and conversational but every now again would lapse into rant and things got even funnier.

Then, on Sunday, we went to watch Rob Brydon at the Palace theatre. I've been looking forward to seeing him since his last couple of brilliant appearances on QI and he didn't disappoint. He was very chatty and engaged with the audience a lot. He directed his stories directly back at individuals, "isn't that right Chris?", quite brilliantly. I did feel a little sorry for a woman in the front row who was endlessly ribbed about her screech, but then if you're going to screech from the front row of a comedy gig...

Both shows were excellent, but I think Ed Byrne wins for the most hurting sides at the end!

Studio photographer for the day

2009-03-28T16:01:00.003Z

Just over a week ago, I got an opportunity that I didn't ever think I would have. Ken sent me a mail asking if I would like to go and take some pictures of his band, "Down at Antone's" so that he had some publicity material. I accepted the offer and was talking to Paul about it at work. He then offered to lend me all of his studio kit (and himself to come and help set it up) for the evening.

And so it happened that I got to do a studio style photo shoot with Ken's band. It was a great experience - fortunately the band were very tolerant, plus there was little gurning, so that made my job easier. We took a load of pictures of them against a white background and then black and they played for a while too so I got a few 'live' pictures of them.

It was an amazing, if tiring evening. The results were well worth it though (in my humble opinion). You can see them in the Flickr set here!

The Scottish Play

2009-03-28T15:55:00.003Z

Last week we went to the Royal Exchange to watch Macbeth.

It was a very modern interpretation but did not suffer for it. As usual, the Royal Exchange had managed to do something different with the space - the whole theatre capsule covered in army netting and the windows blacked-out so that it felt more claustrophobic than usual. The simple set was very effective and the re-imagining of the weird sisters was quite challenging at times.

I think it's fair to say that it was one of my favourite Shakespeare productions that we've been to see - and there have been a fair number of stunning plays that we've seen at the Royal Exchange.

Well worth going if you get the chance!

True Love Lies

2009-02-17T17:07:00.006Z

Last week we went to the theatre and watched True Love Lies, a play by Brad Fraser.

The story is that of the shake up and ultimate falling apart of a family when the father's ex-partner returns on the scene.

I thought that the play was one of the best we've seen for a while - the acting was superb, the sets simple but very effective, the dialogue was engaging and the story witty and engaging. Even the accent police were completely happy - a rare occasion!

I would heartily recommend a trip to see it, except for the fact that it finishes this week!

I've broken my blog!

2009-02-04T09:27:00.003Z

I spent some time yesterday updating my Flickr photostream to remove most of it from public access. Why? Because I want the public view to be more of a showcase of my best stuff rather than a dumping ground for everything.

The problem is, that the updates seem to have broken most of the pictures on the blog - most annoyingly they're showing that the image can't be found, however the link still works, so you can click on them and see them...

I will start the laborious process of getting the blog sorted out tonight, but I don't much fancy working back through 3 years of posting...! Wish me luck.

Manchester photo-shoot

2009-01-19T19:31:00.005Z

We got up (relatively) early on Saturday morning and went into Manchester. The weather forecast promised nice weather and I wanted to get out and play with my camera and take some pictures for a 'commission' that I've had to get some of Manchester's most impressive new buildings photographed for a large canvas print!

We managed to get around lots of places: The Lowry, the Imperial War Museum, Urbis, The Beetham Tower, Salford Quays, the Cathedral, the Manchester Wheel to name several. I had a lot of fun and took 200 photos, the majority of which I'm extremely pleased with.

It was a great way to spend a day and it really made me appreciate the city that we live in - it's a fantastic place. I'm looking forward to doing it again at some point and trying some other places: the Town Hall, Chinatown, the Northern Quarter and Picadilly Gardens all spring to mind...

You'll have to (for the moment) be a friend on Flickr to view the pictures (just while the person I took them for takes their pick), but by mid-Feb I'll have opened up the set for anyone to look at. It's here!

Shutlingsloe in the fog

2009-01-11T21:21:00.005Z

We went for a walk up Shutlingsloe last year with Sarah and loved the views and countryside, so when Ruth and Dan suggested we did a walk with them that included the climb, we thought it would be a great idea.

Unfortunately, the weather meant that we couldn't really see much further than 100 yards in front of us for the first half of the walk (which was the bit with the hill in) and so the views weren't quite so stunning, as can be seen from our summit shot:

Note Mandy's polar explorer pose...!

Anyway, we had a great time, I got to mess up some pictures on my camera by having the wrong settings, we found a couple of Geocaches along the way and had hot Ribena back at the car-park!

On a slightly un-related note, someone at work told me about "wobble gif's" the other day - a way of using static images to create a pseudo 3D image. It just so happens that two of the pictures I took on the walk work quite well as a wobble gif - so here it is!

If you're interested in the route - the file below will open it up in Google Earth.

New year challenge 2009

2009-01-06T21:36:00.004Z

As I was doing the 2008 photo per day challenge, I decided that I really wanted to get a digital SLR as my next camera. As a reward for completing the challenge, and as a Christmas present, my lovely wife bought me a Nikon D90. It's a stunning camera. The difference in the photos I'm taking with it is noticable already and I'm having lots of fun.

I'm certainly not up to doing another photo per day for 2009 (maybe I'll revisit that one another year though) but I've really enjoyed having something to aim for the last couple of years (in 2007 I watched a new film every week). So, I've decided that my challenge for 2009 is this: every week, I will post at least one post-processed (or 'photoshopped') picture into a Flickr set. The aim is simple - to get me into and improve my image editing skills, as the photo per day certainly improved my general photography. It'll also give me an opportunity to go back over some of the best pictures I've taken previously and re-visit them with a view to improvement, and it'll give me a set which is of real quality rather than the rather forced feel of some of the photos in last year's challenge.

I haven't really decided how much post-processing I'll do, but I do know it'll range from straightening and simple colour manipulation, through to lens distortion correction and cloning-out bits that I don't like. I'm hoping to cover the full range. As per last year, I'm not planning to post progress here - rather you can follow the Flickr set, however here's my first attempt - I took 3 photos I took of the Angel of the North and compositing them to bring out a higher dynamic range (HDR). Oh, and I got rid of some of the bird s**t too...

The original looked like this:

p.s. If you're interested in following another photo per day challenge this year, my colleague is doing one and his set is here. I love his pictures, so it'll certainly be one to follow. I have to say I'm not convinced he necessarily has the OCD tendencies that will see him through mind you...

Photo of the day challenge complete

2009-01-01T22:11:00.005Z

I'm back! 2008 was a quiet one for blogging, and that's mainly because I was posting every day onto my photo of the day set on Flickr. The challenge is now complete, and the result is the following collage (click on it to get a much better, higher resolution version):

I had really good fun doing it although by the end there were days where it was a bit of a chore, however it's taught me a lot about photography and my cameras, and I have been rewarded with a Nikon D90 digital SLR which is absolutely fantastic.

So, hopefully the blogging will pick up again this year and you will be fascinated by my ramblings once more. Or not.

A Night at the Opera

2008-12-07T18:54:00.002Z

Look at this - it's me blogging again! I make that 2 this year. I'm not geting any speedier though -it was just over a week ago that I went to see Tosca at the Opera House with Ruth, Heidi and Vicci. We all really enjoyed it (good job Heidi did as it was her first opera and she'd already bought a ticket to the next one we're going to!). All of the three main leads had fabulous voices and the orchestra was superb too, something that was really important as it's like an extra voice in some parts of the opera. The music itself was entrancing and had plenty of those 'shiver down the spine' moments that truly thrilling music can give you. I refrained from singing along. I'm saving that for when we go and see Turnadot next year as that's got Nessun Dorma in it. Altogether now...'All'alba vincerò! Vincerò! Vincerò! '

Whose tune is it anyway?

2008-11-11T23:44:00.004Z

Tonight we went to watch The Bays and The Heritage Orchestra with John Metcalfe and Simon Hale at the Royal Northern College of Music. It was a really impressive experience - The Bays improvise every show that they play and this was no different except that the Heritage Orchestra were playing music that was scorred live by John Metcalfe and Simon Hale! It was a completely improvised set lasting about 90 minutes and it was absolutely mesmorising. The conductor of the orchestra was excellent, shaping the score as it was written for him. Everyone else was just as captivating - there was as much to watch as there was to listen to.

Another fantastic evening of music! If you get a chance to see them, do it!

Weekend in the New Forest

2008-10-28T19:39:00.005Z

It's been quite a while since we went down to the New Forest to see Steve and Karen. In fact, it's two years - we were there for New Year 2007. Although we saw Steve and Karen earlier this year, we still had some major catching-up to do not least with their lovely daughter, Poppy.

Before we went down there, Karen had sent me an e-mail saying that Poppy would quickly have us wrapped around her little finger - how right she was! We were introduced to the new Noddy cartoons, had numerous games of hide and seek, read a lot of books and did loads of jigsaws!

We had a couple of nice walks in the New Forest and had our first try at Geocaching which was really good fun, although we did attempt a multi-part cache which we had to abort having not really appreciated the size of the task in hand. Regardless, we did find a nice simple one, and we will keep our eyes peeled for more of them in the future!

A lovely weekend spoiled only by the absolutely appalling traffic on Friday night and Monday afternoon, however it was lovely to catch up with Steve, Karen and Poppy and we have made a resolution to not leave it as long next time.

Poppy's account of our trip and some photos are on her blog - here and here.

Photos are on Flickr - you'll need to be a friend to see all the pictures.

Tully has a brother!

2008-10-23T20:33:00.002Z

...and Katie and Mark have a baby boy, Harry. He was born on Tuesday and our congratulations goes to them all - we're looking forward to meeting Harry as soon as possible next week!

Kate Rusby at The Lowry

2008-10-20T20:48:00.002Z

When the first episode of 'Jam and Jerusalem' aired a couple of years ago, I fell in love with the voice of whoever it was who sung the theme tune. That person was Kate Rusby and last night we went to watch her and her band play at the Lowry.
Kate Rusby is a folk singer with one of the most captivating voices I've heard, and live she was even better. Never failing to hit a note, I could have sat and listened to her for days, not just the two short hours that we were there for. She was engaging between songs too with interesting and amusing anecdotes about the songs' origins, random stories of her dog and the odd recipe from band members!
The rest of the band were great too. Made up of four wonderful musicians, they never put a note out of place and were clearly enjoying their part in the performance. To watch Kate Rusby grip the microphone stand rock-band style, close her eyes and sing her heart out with such wonderful accompaniment was spellbinding.
Apparently we've missed her at the Big Chill a couple of times - a great shame in retrospect, but hopefully something we'll make up for by seeing her play again many times in the future.

Second Scotland Holiday of the year!

2008-10-04T21:00:00.001Z

We've just enjoyed our second week in Scotland this year. This time we were (for the most part) on our own and based in the small village of Torrin on Skye. One thing that we really wanted to do after our holiday in June was to try some more difficult walks, and I think we managed that! Here's the day-by-day breakdown:

We left Manchester on Friday night and in (now traditional) style, we drove up to Glasgow to stay in the Ramada hotel at the airport. It's not a great drive, but it is clear at that time of night and puts you in such a great position to enjoy the saunter up the A-roads, we swear by it as a key first-step to all Scotland holidays.

On Saturday morning, we set off towards Skye. We had a couple of stops - the first at the (quickly becoming traditional) Glen Coe Visitor's Centre for a cup of tea, toilet and map buying break, and then onwards to Eilean Donan Castle where we stopped for some lunch and then a mooch around the excellent outdoor shop just up the road. Next stop was Skye and Broadford co-op by which time it was 4pm and time to move in to our cottage a few miles up the road in Torrin. We quickly settled in and started planning walks!

On Sunday, we set out for our first, "taking it easy" walk (!) - 10.5 miles around the forest which spans Glen Eynort and Glen Brittle. It was a lovely walk taking us close to the start point of our favourite fairy pools walk by way of high forest paths. Unfortunately, it rained for about 7 of the 10 miles, however we carried on undaunted in new-found, 'it can rain as hard a it bloody well likes' spirit. It did.

Monday morning gave us our first sight of the amazing Bla Bheinn and associated Cullins which we can see from our bedroom and the french windows in the living room. We wondered after the long walk the day before whether my legs would even work the following day, but they seemed to be in order so we set out for a more strenuos hike into the Culin range from Glen Brittle campsite. The walk was absolutely amazing - 6 miles - quickly rising into the mountain range and then requiring quite a scramble through Coire Lagan up 600m (1000ft) to find a hidden Lochan. The scramble back eventually took us via the impressive Eis Mor waterfall but our legs had been severely tested by that point, so we didn't hang around for too long!

On Tuesday, Ruth and Dan joined us - they were holidaying near Kyle of Lochalsh so we decided to meet up and go for a walk together. We took the Bella Jane boat from Elgol to Loch Coruisk - a place that Mandy and I loved the last time we went and wished we'd been able to walk around it. And so the four of us set off on said walk - a task which took quite a long time; the going was boggy and stoney and required the odd bit of scrambling over big rocks too. It must be said that whilst we used the whole of our 4 hours ashore, we did spend a good 30 minutes (and the rest) skimming stones. I'm happy to report that I managed to transform the skimming skills of all of the other three from 'none-ers' to 'three-ers'. My best one was a 7. Finally I appreciate the skills I was taught when living in the Lake District and on Walney Island when growing up. Dan and Ruth stayed at our cottage that night and we played lots of cards, listened to music and drunk wine until early the next morning.

Wednesday was our nominated lazy day. Dan and Ruth left to explore Skye after a cooked breakfast and then Mandy and I lumped around reading for the rest of the day. At 4pm we scraped ourselves off the sofa and wandered up the road to the beach where we spent an hour throwing stones (skimming was too hard in the sea), checking rock-pools (rubbish - not a crab in sight), picking up stones and shells and carefully ignorning the messiness of the beach itself.

Thursday saw us attempt our second 10.5 mile walk. To make a refreshing change, it was direct from our house so we didn't have to do any driving. We walked up Srath Mor and back up Srath Beag, lapping Beinn a Cro in the process whilst all the time in the shadow of the Red Cullins. It was a lovely walk but very hard going due to the boggy nature of the tracks - it took us nearly 6 hours to do the 10.5 miles and we were both extremely tired by the end of it. Poor Mandy had a slip in the mud about a third of the way round which meant trogging around in very muddy trousers - it's a good job our cottage has a washing machine!

On Friday we were hoping to do a very high walk in the hills, but unfortunately the weather wasn't on our side with very low cloud over all the mountains near us. Actually it was probably quite fortunate because Thursday's walk had really taken it out of me so I was hobbling around like an old man! Instead, we had another quiet day. We read and listened to music in the morning, then went out to Portree for lunch and then a quick drive up to the Kilt Rock and Lealt waterfalls. It was nice to be back up in that area again as it's where our love of Skye began.
A week seems too short really but we had a wonderful time, and the journey home wasn't at all bad either.

Photos are, of course, on Flickr!
If you want to look at the walks we did on Google Earth, click on the link below.

Dan and Sarah's wedding

2008-10-04T07:41:00.002Z

A couple of weekends ago, we went to Sarah and Dan's wedding at Blakelands just outside Wolverhampton. They were getting married on a Friday so we had the day off work and travelled down with Ruth and Dan; we were all staying at the Red Lion pub just up the road. We arived with plenty of time to spare but soon whittled that away by having a big lunch at the pub so that getting ready suddenly became the traditional before-wedding scramble. That said, we got there with loads of time to spare in the end and everyone looked gorgeous (did I mention that I'd had a pint with my lunch?).

The wedding was lovely - a small ceremony and short photo session (always a winner in my book!). Sarah and Dan looked so happy and seemed to have a really good time. The meal was great, the speeches good and the disco was very 80's - just as the bride would have wanted.

Thanks for the invite - best of luck to the both of them. Photos are on Flickr.

Something different for the weekend...

2008-09-28T10:09:00.003Z

We wanted to do something a bit different for the last weekend we spent with Sarah before she left Manchester for pastures new and so we decided to go along to the New Islington Urban Folk Festival. I always throught that New Islington was somewhere in London, but apparently it's an area of Great Ancotes in Manchester that is under some serious redevelopment. It's a really amazing place - flattened and ready to build on with some really interesting new developments already there, and some even more impressive ones to come - like the street on which you can buy a plot of land an build a house of any design that you like within the confines of the standard plot size so each house will be completely different. The photo at the top of this blog entry is currently my desktop picture on my work computer, and almost everyone has guessed that it's somewhere in mainland Europe...

Anyway, the folk festival was really good fun - there were live bands, food and drink stalls, pedelos on the lake and graffiti knitting which seemed to consist of knitting covers for trees. It's a real shame that the heavens opened at the start of Mouse Outfit's set - they were very good but played to a significantly reduced crowd. Once they'd finished, we made our soggy way to the Northern Quarter where we had a few drinks and some great food. Hopefully we succeeded in our search for 'different'.

Photos, as usual, are on Flickr

Bank holiday weekend in the Isle of Man

2008-09-27T20:07:00.003Z

Over the bank holiday weekend in August we went over to the Isle of Man to see Kale and Jo. Neither Mandy or I had been there before but I for one really enjoyed what we saw.

We set off on Friday evening - we caught the ferry from Liverpool to Douglas as foot passengers. It was hideously delayed but the atmosphere on board was good - the Isle of Man GP was running over the weekend so there were a lot of bikers heading over for a weekend of fun. Mandy has never seen any motor racing, and I have never seen bikes racing so We were both quite excited at the prospect of seeing some of the action; unfortunately due to the weather and in particular fog on the hills we weren't actually able to see any in the end.

On Saturday, we went for a walk with Kale - a lovely circuit around one of the headlands near to Ramsey which is where Kale and Jo live. In the afternoon we met up with Jo (who had been on a long bike ride in the morning) and had tea and cake and then back to their house for some chatting, food and an introduction to "The Book Group" TV series which we really enjoyed!

On Sunday we had an early start as Kale and Jo were both taking part in a mountain bike enduro race. We went along and watched them kit-up and then went on a long walk along some fantastic sea cliffs and back round to the race route. We sat and cheered them on for the last couple of laps and admired the fact that they'd been cycling non-stop for three hours. We had lunch on the sea front and then took a trip up to the Calf of Man for more tea and cake (there was a definite theme to the weekend!).

On bank holiday Monday (our 7th wedding anniversary by the way!) we were heading back, but not before another walk from Kale and Jo's house, up through a wood, across the TT track, down past a river, out onto the beach and then around Ramsey. After an excellent lunch at a traditional cafe, we were taken back to the ferry terminal. The crossing back was very choppy, but bearable. It was a really fantastic weekend - it had been so long since we had spent any time with Kale and Jo so it was really good to have a chance to catch up and enjoy some great walking on the Isle of Man at the same time!

Photos are on Flickr.

Catching up again

2008-08-31T00:37:00.004Z

It's been a while, I know, and this year my Photo-per-day challenge is taking much of my blogging time, however that's no reason not to list some of the stuff we've been up to...

I've had several good meals in the Zumar in Sale
I got a new phone (Nokia N73 if you're interested)
I went to see Hayseed Dixie at Sale Waterside
I went for a Business Objects seminar at the Williams F1 Conference Centre
Went out into Manchester to celebrate Dan's birthday
We had a brill day out on Crosby beach with Katie, Mark and Tully
Mike and I went to watch the Open Golf
We went to the Royal Exchange to watch Hay Fever (very good!)
We went to a summer party at Mel and John's house
We said goodbye to Chris and Kate
We went to the Big Chill
We spent a day in Hay-on-Wye and a couple of days in Bath
We went to Bloom
Our washing machine blew up

I'm not going to write up each of those, but hopefully it goes some way to explain why I've not been able to blog for a while!

It's good to be back...

Musos go camping

2008-06-30T16:26:00.004Z

Time for another Muso night (yes, yes, I know I'm way behind with my blogging, but I have to start somewhere and if I'm confident and carry on like I've not been away for two months then perhaps nobody will notice...) and this time we decided to go camping! It wasn't really the weather for it, but you can't pre-arrange that (as we've found out on our Scotland holiday and several times since). We arrived quite late as we all seemed to get lost, but the tents were quickly put up and then the barbeques were lit after a struggle against the gusting wind. The food was great - the highlight being Rich's boot-shelf based salad bar, and then we moved into Sarah and Rich's yurt for music listening. Categories for tunes this time were:

Since we last met.. something we got into since the last musos do
A song to sing around the campfire
Musos Pixies - Favourite tune from the compilation your pixie sent to you
Best pick me up tune
Rage against the machine - a political song

Go on, put your choices in the comments - you know you want to... When I get a chance, I'll list the results here too...

Holiday in the highlands

2008-06-30T16:20:00.001Z

A couple of weeks ago we spent a week on holiday in the Highlands of Scotland, staying at the lovely cottage, Corona, that we stayed in last year. It was a week of very mixed weather, but we managed to get out and do some walking and a couple of nice drives.

We went up to Glasgow on Friday night after work - Mike and Yvonne who have been with us the whole week came up to Manchester on Thursday and we all travelled together in my car - once we got to the Ramada, we enjoyed a picnic tea in their hotel room.

On Saturday morning we hit the road at about 9am and started the journey up to Lochcarron. It was a very pleasant journey with few hold-ups and a couple of short stops at the Glen Coe visitors centre and Eilean Donan Castle on the way. We also did our main shop for the week in the Co-op at Kyle of Lochalsh.

Sunday saw our first walk: to the Flowerdale Falls from Gairloch. It was a good start to the walking, a fairly steep climb up to the waterfalls allowed a gentle return. The only off-putting moment was being directed up and over the headland from Charlestown pier close to the end of the walk however it was all in a good cause as it afforded us some great views out to Skye and across Gairloch beach.

On Monday we headed back in the same direction, this time to Poolewe and off on a walk called, "Into Scotland's Great Wilderness". This took us out along the side of Loch Kernsary and back along the River Ewe, Scotland's shortest river (apparently). The name of the walk is due to the views to A'Mhaighdean and An Teallach at the start of the walk - the former being Scotland's most remote mountain (again, apparently!). The last half of the walk was completed in full wet-weather gear as the heavens opened, however that meant that the cup of tea and slice of cake at the coffee shop back at the start felt much more deserved.

Tuesday was achey feet day and, as if the weather knew this, it decided to hammer it down with rain all day. We wanted to find an outdoor equipment shop so that Mike could get a new rucksack and so we headed to Skye and Portree where Mandy and I had found such a place once before. The rain got worse as we got closer and it changed the fantastic views of the red Cullins to moody blue/grey outlines, but we carried on undaunted. Unfortunately the shop we had visited previously (about 3 years ago mind you) had closed down and Portree didn't seem to have any other such shops. So we had some lunch in Cafe Ariba (absolutely wonderful food - much recommended) and then headed home. A quick stop at a small outdoor shop in Broadford resulted in a coat for Yvonne, but no rucksacks and so, at 5pm we headed to Eilean Donan again where I thought I had seen a place. Sure enough, there was a brilliant outdoor shop there and we got the required kit - by the time we got home, the round trip had been 121 miles!

Wednesday saw us set out on our third walk to the Fairy Pools in Skye. It's a walk Mandy and I did last time we went to Scotland and due to the amount of rain that had fallen in the previous couple of days it was quite different this time! We had to get across several streams using stepping stones and the first one (two minutes into the walk) was a particular challenge. We carried on regardless and enjoyed the indescribable beauty and awesome scale of the Black Cullins from close-up. The river was raging down the falls which last time we had seen them had been nothing much more than trickles in places. An absolutely brilliant walk that I would never get tired of.

Thursday was our lazy day. We got out of bed late, loafed around with tea and books and then in the afternoon we decided to go for a little drive around the Applecross peninsula. We went round via the north road first and then across the notorious "Bealach na Ba" route and back to Lochcarron. By doing the drive this way round, we got some fantastic views across Inner Sound to Rona and Raasay with the Quiraing in Skye (and even bits of Lewis) visible in the distance. Then, as we went over the tiny mountain pass, we got the spectacular views down the valley between Applecross and Kishorn and across to Loch Carron - stunning.

On Friday, Mandy and I went to do a walk up Carn a'Bhealach Mhoir (Duncraig Hill to you and me) while Mike and Yvonne went for a wander along the side of the Loch and back via a coffee morning at the local village hall and a small pottery shop! Our walk was all on good roads, up a service road to a TV mast that was at the top of the hill, however once you got past that the views were stunning - we could see across to Skye and virtually every peak and then to Raasay and the Applecross peninsula and down to Plockton. Perhaps even more enchanting were the views south out over the various mountains of Inverinate Forest, Glenshiel Forest, Kinlochhourn Forest and beyond. After that, we decided to go to Plockton as it's somewhere we've always fancied popping into however it started pouring with rain so we took a picture of the hill we'd just walked up and got back in the car and headed home!

And then Saturday came round again. Time to pack up and head home with nothing but thoughts of when we could next get some time to get back to Scotland for another week!

All the photos are on Flickr as usual (click here for the full set, or here to view most of them geo-tagged on a map!), and the walks and drives we did can be seen in Google Earth via this link:

Alice's christening

2008-06-30T16:17:00.002Z

On the way back from holiday, we stopped off in Newcastle for Alice's christening. It was a really nice service, done by dad, and then there was a double celebration party afterwards for Becky and Jon's 10 year anniversary.
It's always good to get together with the family and it's been quite a long time since we'd seen both of our nieces so it was a very welcome stop. The only downside was that we couldn't stay for a long time because we had to head back to Manchester ready for work the next day...!

The Revenger's Tragedy

2008-06-30T16:00:00.000Z

On a Thursday several weeks we went to see "The Revenger's Tragedy" at the Royal Exchange.

It was hard to write-up then and it's harder now.

It was a modern interpretation of a very old play and starred Stephen Tompkinson.

There was a lot of death (generally murder) and some very loud music and punks.

I wasn't that impressed.

Oh, and it's finished now...

Mmmm Beer...

2008-06-09T20:36:00.001Z

On the 30th May, we went out after work to the 22nd Stockport Beer and Cider festival. Put on by CAMRA, it was an amazing event with hundreds of different beers to try. We went along with Sarah, Dan, Ruth, Dan, Heidi and Ruth's sister, Kate and between us we tried a lot of the beers that were on offer! The event was held at Stockport County's ground, Edgeley Park and once you had your beer you could go and sit in the stands which was great - drinking real ale outside really can't be beaten.
A great night, and we had the bonus of seeing Mahinda there who was serving behind the bar so it was good to catch up with him after so long. Roll on the 23rd festival!

Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull

2008-06-09T20:30:00.001Z

The week before last, we went to see "Indiana Jones and the Kingdom of the Crystal Skull" at the AMC cinema in Manchester. It was the same day that "Sex and the City" was released and we were really amazed by the number of women who were queuing for tickets dressed in posh frocks and high heals!We took Henrik along as he was over from Sweden, and he and I went out for some excellent tapas first at Evuna.

The first thing to say about the film is that it acknowledges, heavily, the fact that Harrison Ford is a little beyond his best. There are several exchanges about his age to prove that nobody believes he's anything but the 110 years he is. The start of the film is a little slow - there's plenty of action, but in the first thirty minutes in particular some of it seems absolutely preposterous. Of course, all the other Indiana Jones films are built on their nonsense, but there's something about some of the bits here which just seem a small step too far (the iron filings, the fridge?!). Once it gets into the main romp then things are firmly in Indiana Jones territory and it is really quite enjoyable. There are some pretty funny moments and a few cringe worthy ones too.

The whole thing is extremely formulaic. Don't go expecting to see something innovative - this is by the book: get in trouble, travel somewhere exotic, dodge traps, get chased by the enemy, meet in final showdown, (look away now if you can't guess what happens at the end) uber-baddy gets ripped to bits in final scene (look back now), the end.

I enjoyed it - I would say it's worth a trip to the cinema, just don't expect too much from it.