salks

Christmas Pudding Cookies

2009-11-20T14:05:00.002Z

Ho ho ho!

Yesterday I made some Christmas Pudding Cookies as my entry to the “Matthew Walker Pudding Challenge”. They went down really well with my friends at work, and I will definitely be making these again come Christmas :-D

Ingredients (makes 12)
3 oz flour
3 oz caster sugar
3 oz rolled oats
3 oz butter
1 tbsp golden syrup
A pinch of salt
1 tbsp milk
½ tsp bicarbonate of soda
100g Mathew Walker Christmas Pudding

Recipe
Pre-heat oven to Gas Mark 6.
Prepare an oven tray with greaseproof paper.
Mix together the flour, caster sugar and rolled oats in a large mixing bowl. Add a pinch of salt.
Melt the butter and syrup in a pan.
Stir the melted butter and syrup into the flour, sugar and oats.
Mix the milk and bicarbonate of soda together, and add this to the mixing bowl.
Add the Christmas Pudding chunks to the cookie mix.

The cookie mix is done!

Place golf-ball sized chunks of the cookie mix evenly spaced onto the tray (about 10cm apart).
Cook in the oven for 8-10 minutes.
Remove and cool.

Enjoy!

Matthew Walker is the World’s Oldest Christmas Pudding Maker, creating puddings in the heart of Derbyshire since 1899. Matthew Walker ‘The Pudding’ - made to "Recipe 13, "The Perfect Christmas Pudding Recipe" - contains the 13 core ingredients that were used to represent Jesus and his 12 Apostles. They are: sultanas, raisins, demerara sugar, currants, glacé cherries, Thornbridge stout, breadcrumbs, sherry, vegetable suet, almonds, orange and lemon peel, cognac and mixed spice).

Food - Top 5

2009-11-13T13:35:00.001Z

Here is a list of my top five favourite foods;

1. Christmas Pudding
2. Mince Pies
3. Christmas Dinner
4. Christmas Cake
5. Grapefruit with a cherry in the middle.

Neighbourhood Weird Watch 5

2007-07-23T20:37:00.000+01:00

Name: Don Crown AKA "Budgieman"
Location: South Bank, Saturday 22nd July 2007, 4pm.
Description: The Famous Budgie Entertainer

Skill - 5/5 (He can play a number of instruments and composes all of his work in his head)
Style - 1/5 (Maybe he should dress as a budgie?)
Danger - 0/5 (Budgieman frowns upon those who smoke near his budgies!)
Context - 5/5 (This is weird, even for the South Bank)
Overall - 2.75/5

As a young man Don realised he had budgie power. Following this discovery is an amazing tale of a sign painter turned entertainer, whose popularity is growing by using the internet to promote himself and his music. However, with great power comes great responsibility; Budgieman does not squander his gift, as he sings about the monarchy in "Queen Mothers Love" and tackles the heavy weight issue of the smoking ban in "I Don't Like Smoke". By standing up for what he believes in he stands out from the rest of the "performers" on the South Bank, who mostly just stand still painted silver asking for money! Here's some advice: get some animals, train 'em up and write some tunes which not only entertain but make people think! Yeah!

I know what you're thinking now though. Is Budgieman all that weird? Afterall, other acts have incorporated our feathered friends before. Where would Keith Harris be without Orville? And Rod Hull without Emu? And all this got me thinking; what other bird themed entertainment would I like to see?

Perhaps;

A team of stunt peregrine falcons (who can dive at 200mph!)
A pair of penguins that can make cocktails to music
A woodpecker that tells knock-knock jokes :)

Blogspot One Year Anniversary

2007-05-21T20:26:00.000+01:00

It has been one whole year since this blog started life! Hooray! See how he's grown:

And to think it started life as just one of those little cyber-blobs :)

I'm rather proud :P

Portakabin, I mean, Concorde Visit.

2007-05-16T20:05:00.000+01:00

Today I visited the Concorde laid to rest at Filton Airfeild, the very last one to fly (#216-AF). Instead of tickets we had cute little boarding passes, and there were airport style announcements to let visitors know what was going on. The people who run the museum are really passionate about Concorde because they used to work on the original project and know literally everything about it and have some funny stories to tell;

Once, one of the chaps, went in the airtake whilst hydraulic power was on, despite the sign advising the contrary! Oh how we laughed.

Also, there was a short mini-bus tour of the airfield itself, taking in the sites. Infact, Filton Airfield is the Europe's Second Largest site for the number of portakabins.

And as if that's not enough, here's the biggy - it hosts Europes Largest Portakabin! It can only be described as gargantuan! I think the rule is; if two (or more) portakabins are touching it counts as one. I can't begin to imagine how big the Worlds Largest Portakabin is... but I know I want to see it :D

Neighbourhood Weird Watch 4

2007-05-14T21:22:00.000+01:00

Name: Trevor (real name unknown)
Location: Trafalgar Square, Saturday 12th May 2007, 3pm.
Description: An unholy hybrid between horse and man like something out of The Wicker Man.

Skill - 4/5 (Fun horse antics and interaction with the crowd)
Style - 3/5 (For attention to detail on the head, and a cape)
Danger - 0/5 (Mischief was the name of the game for this chap!)
Context - 2.5/5 (It's a man in a horse costume, although this is a Morris Dancing tradition...)
Overall - 2.375/5

On a rainy Trafalgar Square was the annual Day of Dance held by the Westminster Morris Men. I got chatting to one of the dancers and it turned out he was from Ormskirk, which is where I grew up! I feel the heavy hand of destiny upon me, perhaps I should become a Morris Man myself... but what job would I have? After some research I have narrowed it down to these three;

The Ragman, who looks after the costumes.
The Musicians, who make the noises on squeezeboxes.
The Hobby Horse, who entertains the crowd and collects money, which he then gives to the bagman.

Apparently there isn't a minimum age limit, but when I'm older I reckon I might give it a go. I love the eccentricity of Morris Dancers and the odd traditions that they have, especially this one called Red Leicester :P

So the moral of the story goes, Morris dancing isn't actually that weird, because if its tradition you get away with it.

Streatham Common Kite Day 2007

2007-04-22T22:41:00.000+01:00

Neighbourhood Weird Watch 3

2007-04-21T22:22:00.001+01:00

Name: Bjorn (real name unknown)
Location: Westminster Bridge, Saturday 21st April 2007, 3.15pm.
Description: A bloke standing on Westminster Bridge shouting "The Thames should be blue not brown!"

Skill - 1/5 (He just about managed to write a sign)
Style - 3/5 (Interesting facial hair)
Danger - -1/5 (He looks in danger of getting a punch)
Context - 4/5 (This is a pretty absurd way to spend a lovely Saturday afternoon)
Overall - 1.75/5

Not sure who he thought should actually dye the Thames blue or how, but he kind of has a point... or not. Oh I dunno - he's just a weird!

Paganello 7: Lets do one (Monday and Tuesday)

2007-04-10T22:11:00.001+01:00

We had just one game remaining against an American team L.B. Stalkers, win this and we get an odd number finish, top of the bottom half.

It was a really good close game, which to'd and fro'd between the two teams. However, throughout this tournament, we have had the tendency to win in these situations. We dug deep and won the game! It was great to finish the tournament on a high and 25th (our original seeding - so was it a waste of time? :P )

Following the game we "hung out" with the other team for ages having a laugh, especially with the bloke who "won the party" the night before :P Throughout the week our calls were quite imaginative. We had one inspired by the Gladiators Duel with the pugel sticks but using punch balloons with the contenders standing on one leg :) they then had to put the other person off balance by hitting them in the face with the balloon. We also played Show using a banana and even the infamous Bangernuts also made a couple of appearances. Here is John getting a face full of punch balloon:

Eventually we got some beers and went to enjoy / spectate / heckle at the finals. And there was plenty to cheer for, with two (ahem) "British" teams in the finals. I think our chanting helped quite a lot, as Cake or Death won the Women's Final and UTI beat No-Tsu-Oh (remember them?) to win the Open final.

After the presentation ceremony, and our moment on stage, we shot back to the hotel and back out to the Rose and Crown, as this is traditionally the Brits go here on the last night. I was rather tired of pizza and pasta so I had a glorious steak :) I'm surprised that Italians are so healthy - they just eat carbs and protein for every single meal, there is no five-a-day, (unless you count tomatoes). It was consistently good food, but variety is in short supply - I mean who has ham and cheese for breakfast?!

We were out till about 4:30 and wandered back. 4 hours later and its time to do one. All the while in Rimini I must not have left a 2km strip a block wide. So much for seeing Italy :P Its only when I got to the airport and saw off into the hills you realise what else is going on.

Overall it was a great tournament and bags of fun!

Paganello 6: Slow start, late finish. (Sunday)

2007-04-09T22:17:00.000+01:00

It was a slow start with a sore head on Sunday morning against local rivals Flyght Club. As most of their players were drunk we won easily 14 - 6. This set us up with our biggest match of the tournament, against Ischte Bros, our last chance to get into the top 24 and play for 17th. Unfortunately though we didn't really seem to "arrive" for the match and subsequently lost the game. Ah well, all was not lost - we still had 25th to play for (our original seeding) and we certainly didn't want to fall short of that.

We faced another UK team Milf, won 12 - 6, and then defeated Team 42 in sudden death 11 - 10. We finished our last game at about 8 pm, warmed down, got food, and fell into bed around 12ish.

Paganello 5: How? Why? Hollywood! (Saturday)

2007-04-08T21:36:00.001+01:00

As a result of yesterdays games we set ourselves the daunting task of winning the next four in a row, five if you include the crossover itself. Basically, on Saturday we won our three games :D

EMO 12 - 8 Hallunken (German)
EMO 10 - 6 ZUF (Swiss)
EMO 9 - 7 Hook

After the games I had to rush back so that I could make my costume for the Saturday night party. If there is one thing that EMO excel at it's faffing. We are also good at mincing and procrastinating. So me and Russ decided to develop an anti-faff policy, and it worked! I picked up some cardboard from the supermarket and made, to be fair, a poor quality costume - sorry guys. But it did only take 10 minutes to make and Maggers nearly cut my hand off with a pen knife :S

The theme was Hollywood, which we took literally and dressed up as the infamous sign. It was rather amusing wandering through town (in the correct order of course) and rearranging to make other silly words. See the montage, oooh:

So after taking a whole bunch of photos we went to the party itself. The band were odd to say the least. They started as a Rocky Horror Show tribute and played Time Warp about three times. Then they changed to classic rock which was much better.

Other teams had dressed up as A Clockwork Orange, Ghost Busters, Pirates of the Caribbean etc. It was great to see that most teams had made an effort. I found out the next day that Russ spent part of the night dressed in just a feather boa. I don't know whether to be pleased or disappointed I missed it...

Paganello 4: Highs, Mediums, Lows. (Friday)

2007-04-07T16:39:00.001+01:00

So today the tournament actually begins, and as luck would have it we had an easy warm up match against title holders No-Tsu-Oh (Houston backwards - geddit?) :S In the spectator arena no less :S :S

What followed was one of the best frisbee matches I have had the pleasure to play in. No-Tsu-Oh started on O, meaning they had the disc, and we were trying to stop them scoring. In front of a considerable crowd and against considerable odds Si got the D and then hucked it to Rob in the endzone! The crowd went wild and so did the team as we stormed the pitch to congratulate ourselves! For that one point we were effectively winning Paganello...

No-Tsu-Oh didn't look back as they proceeded to beat us 15-6 :P Not before I scored though :D I celebrated in customary "salkswagon" fashion for about five minutes (after the game they awarded me a MVP prize for it - they gave me a houstonist t-shirt which is pretty cool).

I don't think any of us had delusions about beating them, but I think we all enjoyed the game. Its not often you get to play teams of this standard, let alone go 1-0 up :) It transpires later that we scored more points against them than a European team called seXXXpensive in their semi final, which is pretty cool.

Our next game was far less memorable despite beating Swiss team "Wombats" (13-8) but this set us up for our next game against fellow Brits "OW!". If we win this game we break into the top 24. Unfortunately for us OW! played pretty well and made very few errors. The final score was 15-5.So a day of highs, mediums and lows but still plenty to play for over the next few days. If we win our next four games, we get a chance to recover back into the top 24...

The evening was spent at a pizzeria with the team. I busied myself trying to create nicknames for the new guys, simply because I kept getting their real names mixed up. So Al became "Spoon", Sam became, "Drew Peacock" and Rob became "Rab" (which didn't stick). The party at the big-top was pretty quiet so we set about letting everyone know where EMO are from:

Paganello 3

2007-04-06T13:02:00.000+01:00

Missed breakfast, and for some reason Maggers slept in the hall way of the hotel. We waited for the rest of the team to show up.

Being a much nicer day than yesterday we hit the beach and pretty much just minced about.

The evening was spent at the opening party, within a huge big top which had been erected on the beach. I was taking it easy because of the two previous nights efforts, but the rest were happy to consume vast quantities of manky free red wine. This meant lots of messy drunks, wrestling on the beach and a huge danger of ending up with purple clothes :S

On the plus side there was a belly dancing show, fireworks and a strange drama performed by people on stilts. I think the good guy won. Something exciting happened anyway.

It was nice to have the whole team together looking forward to playing the games. Especially our first match (in the spectator arena) against title holders No-Tsu-Oh. Dun Dun Durrr!

Paganello 2: Snacky, Nookie, Timmy (Wednesday)

2007-04-05T12:41:00.000+01:00

So I avoided the drizzle on Wednesday morning in the amusment arcade, franticlly writing a blog-post and watching the guys play a surreal game involving bongos and ghosts. Tom managed to win enough tokens for a pack of cards.

As suspected, we ended up visiting the bar we had been to the day before, and along the way we picked up some other frisbee players (Bob, Gash and Felix). The free snacks this time had soft cheese and garlic bread thrown into the mix. Then, whilst sitting in the bar playing cards, we were entertained by the very talented Italian version of David Blaine :P He amazed us with his horrendously bad magic tricks and somewhat slow slight of hand, and was amazed himself when Maggers figured out how he had performed the tricks.

After this we needed more substantial food. I had Gnochi (pronouced nookie) in what turned out to be a gay bar :S Wasn't expecting that.

Later on me and Maggers found our hotel, had a quick power nap before going out again to the Rose and Crown. Had a bite to eat and far far too much to drink. I also got a massive wedgy from the Super Manschaft guys - those pesky kids! We played a couple of rounds of a drinking game called "Kings" and "Johnny, Noddy, Timmy" which was very amusing and considerably confused the locals (i'll put up the pictures when I get back).

Paganello 1: Touch down, Rose and Crown (Tuesday)

2007-04-04T11:25:00.000+01:00

I am in Rimini, Italy for the Paganello Beach Ultimate Championship with East Midlands Open. It starts in a couple of days, finishing on Easter Monday.

I touched down yesterday morning with Maggers and Tom, along with a couple of frisbee teams. Me and Maggers made the error of not booking somewhere to stay for the first night we were here, so stayed in the same hotel as the great guys from "Super Manschaft".

Yesterday, myself, Maggers and Tom went in search of our hotel for the rest of the week, but got bored and hit a bar. Which was amazing because we got loads of free snacks :D The more we drinks we ordered the better the snacks became. We had crisps, nuts, olives, mini pizzas and some smelly cheese too! Tom put the smelly cheese in his pocket though because he didn't want to offend the nice bar man, as he was obviously quite proud of his snacky gifts. He even made the best of a car alarm by dancing to it. Something tells me we will be frequent customers there this week. Even if just to see what interesting snacks we might get :)

Already quite drunk, we went in search of food and had pizza. This might sound predictable, but the main strip in Rimini is simply made up of hotels and pizzerias. We were living it up in the Italian version of Eastborne and loving it!

So, obviously we went on to your typical Italian pub. Wrong. Established in 1964 the "Rose and Crown" is the first English style pub in Italy (I wonder if there is an Italian themed pub in Eastborne?). It was a cosy affair, familiar English bears and footy on the telly. Tom and Maggers set about losing at darts to the locals. They soon gave up and decided to try their luck against a couple of yanks. They were an "interesting" pair to say the least. Neil, a waiter from Seattle, is an aspiring freestyle frisbee player, here for the World Freestyle Championships which is held alongside the beach tournement. He told me EVERYTHING he knew about the Paciffic Rim. The older guy, from Boston, was a poet who used to play in the NBA, and his son is the current World Freestyle Champion. He blew my mind with his rhyming theories on paralell dimensions :)

Then, while the house band performed, Nathan and Tate from Super Manschaft turned up. They were thouroughly ashamed of our drunken state, and we regailled them with our adventure so far. Again. And again. And agian. Mostly about the free snacks.

So, to the slotties! I disgraced myself on the dance mat game, which Nathan recorded for posterity and my shame. Thanks. I was dancing like I was posessed by the spirit of Mick Jagger! A few woeful attempts at a driving game (Don't drink and drive. Really - don't!) and we ran home becasue Maggers did and that made some sort of strange sense at the time. We lost Tom who went in serach of "Mangina Pizza Parlour" or some such fast food place.

I crashed into bed and slept. Until I was woken by the sound of the Earth shifting to due to Toms almighty snoring. I woke up feeling bright and cheery, went down stairs for breakfast, the usual continetal affair. I stocked up on packets of chocolate spread :)

P.s. Its raining today so I have found internet access in an amusement arcade.You type in a special code and stick some money in the slot. A little warning pops up when you are about to run out of time, which I missed, so this is the second time I have typed this out. D'oh! For some reason its never as good at the second attempt, apologies for that and my spelling errors due to frantic typing!

Yeti spotted in the fridge!

2007-04-01T11:25:00.000+01:00

This is not a hoax! A strange creature has been spotted in my fridge....

Scientists suggest it could be one of the following:

Yeti or "Abominable snowman" (Himalayas)
The Big Grey Man of Ben MacDhui (Scotland)
Sasquatch or "Big Foot" (USA)
Yaren or "Chinese Wildman" (China)

Other boffins reckon because it has just one eye it might be a bit Cyclops-y as well!

Stranger still, he answers to the name Boris and won't let me near my Kopperberg!

Ensis Ensis

2007-03-19T22:09:00.000Z

The last four days have been spent taking a break from London, at Emma's parents house in Wales. It made a nice change to see clean rain.

Inspired by Ray Mears we (Me, Emma, Emma's dad Jon, and brother Colin) went on an adventure to Cefn Sidan to catch razor shells. The technique for catching them requires you to first find a tiny hole in the sand as evidence of the creatures location. Then you smother the area in salt, pour water down it, and see if anything squirms up thinking the tide has come in.

Unfortunately, after a good few hours all I ended up catching was a couple of clams, and I nearly got stranded on a island of sand as the tide came in around me!

I couldn't even bring myself to eat them... So I put them in a tub of salt water and accidentally poisoned the poor things - bless :S

Drop it like it's hot!

2007-03-15T13:40:00.000Z

Cracka find'n this bitchin' take on tha google search engine, I though I would pizzy some of tha amus'n tranzlations it mizzle of mah B-L-to-tha-izzog;

"Liv'n in London is great, loads of dippin' ta see n do n shit. The bright lights of tha big city also seem ta be a big draw fo` tha vagabonds of tha country, thugz that society hizzle rejected."

"BTW "I'm not avin' a gizno", I am jizzy celebrat'n tha peculiarizzles of life , ya feel me?."

"An doddery old mizzle in a veterans jacket, straight trippin' along tha platform, eat'n spaghetti bolognizzles. out of a Tesco gangsta bag... wit his hands :S"

"Crucial element of a musical duo rhymin' in London (featur'n said hoova) play'n saxophone wit guitar accompizzle where the sun be shinin and I be rhymin'."

"Initially I wasn't sure whizzay was weirda really, tha wanna be gangsta saggin' saxophone or tha dawg who had befriended him ya dig?."

Word :)

Is it a bird? Is it a plane? No, its Neasdon Depot Man!

2007-03-12T22:11:00.000Z

For the last two weeks I've worked at Neasdon Depot, where they have a shiny cab simulator we used for an assessment. So I've mostly been tootling up and down the Jubilee line, operating the whistle (my favourite control) all in the name of science. Each day on my way in I saw a sign with this cool logo on:

I might have to steal this and use it somewhere else... perhaps on a super hero costume... :P

I do all my own stunts

2007-03-10T21:28:00.000Z

I have finally got round to going down the slides at the Tate Modern. I went down the BIG one which is approximately 100 meters high!

But is it art? :P

Neighbourhood Weird Watch 2

2007-03-10T21:04:00.001Z

Neighbourhood Weird Watch 2a

Name: Henry Hoover "The Sax Machine" (real name unknown)
Location: Angel Tube Station, Friday 10th March 2006, 8pm.
Description: Crucial element of a musical duo grafting in London (featuring said hoover playing saxophone with guitar accompaniment). Erm, best see the picture;

Skill - 4/5 (he may be a hoover, but he doesn't suck!)
Style - 3/5 (a design classic)
Danger - 1/5 (he seems friendly enough)
Context - 3/5 (don't see many hoovers busking)
Overall - 2.75/5

Neighbourhood Weird Watch 2b

Name: Vladimir (real name unknown)
Location: Angel Tube Station, Friday 10th March 2006, 8pm.
Description: Poor half of a musical duo, relying on the talents of his mate to get by.

Skill - 1/5 (poor)
Style - 1/5 (poor)
Danger - 1/5 (none)
Context - 5/5 (he's friends with a hoover!)
Overall - 2/5

Initially I wasn't sure what was weirder really, the hoover playing saxophone or the man who had befriended him. Right, glad I've sorted that out.

More Invaders (alternative)

2007-03-04T20:40:00.001Z

For an alternative to this post from Emma see the following picture :)

Neighbourhood Weird Watch 1

2007-02-22T20:30:00.000Z

Name: Sargent Spaghetti (real name unknown)
Location: South Kensington Tube Station,Thursday 7th December 2006, 8pm.
Description: An doddery old man, in a veterans jacket, walking along the platform, eating spaghetti bolognese...

out of a Tesco carrier bag...

with his hands :S

Skill - 5/5 (no mean feat!)
Style - 3/5 (nice jacket)
Danger - 1/5 (danger of spillage/splatter)
Context - 5/5 (possibly the weirdest sight of my life)
Overall - 3.5/5

A good score overall, reflected by the fact I am filled with joy whenever I recall the incident!

Chinese New Year

2007-02-18T20:16:00.001Z

Today was the start of the Chinese New Year celebrations, and there was lots going down in China Town! So much so, we couldn't see any of it. I did catch a glimpse of a mischievous lion, and got this funky dragon toy:

2007 is the Year of the Pig, and as I was born in 1982, the Year of the Dog, apparently I have the following traits:

Positive
Loyal, modest, dependable, just, patient, intelligent, honest, well-meaning, caring.

Negative
Nervous, quick-temper, judgmental, gullible, self-righteous, pessimistic, petty, accusing.

I guess I can see something in that...

London Fashion Week

2007-02-12T11:01:00.001Z

Proof, if you needed it, that day-glo really is the new black:

Full Frontal

2007-02-10T21:03:00.000Z

On my general meanders about town when I am trying to spot weirds and different bird species I have noticed there is a specialist shop for EVERYTHING in London. Here are some examples:

Sim's: A step up from an internet cafe, a restaurant selling virtual food served by virtual waiters (I think).

Televole: God knows what this sold, any ideas? Possibly some strange hybrid between a TV shop and a pet shop for small woodland creatures.

Accordions: There should be more use of accordions in pop music, and for that matter hurdy gurdys too!

Fireworks: and exclamation marks!!! Count 'em!!!

This gave me some ideas for shops that I could start up:

Flutopia: A shop selling mainly flutes. Heavenly!
Kebabsolutely Fabulous: A kebab house themed on the popular TV show.
Man Summers: A shop where its ok for men to go and buy underwear for their wives/girlfriends without feeling perv-y.

Neighborhood Weird Watch

2007-02-09T22:00:00.000Z

Living in London is great, loads of things to see and do. The bright lights of the big city also seem to be a big draw for the vagabonds of the country, people that society have rejected. This has prompted me to start a new feature, sensitively called "Weird Watch!". Each week (or not) I will post new odd-balls sightings, or classics from the past. Consider it a public service :)

Each entry will begin with the "facts";

Name: If real name is not known, I shall make up something appropriate :)
Location: Where and when.
Description: Notes on behavior.

I have also devised a sophisticated rating scale, in order to allow you to understand the extent of the "weirdness";

Skill - Fairly obvious
Style - How well do they pull it off?
Danger - Did I feel threatened?
Context - How weird are they, given the situation?
Overall - Average the lot for an overall weird rating.

BTW "I'm not avin' a go", I am just celebrating the peculiarities of life. If you find yourself on the list please please don't be offended.

Or get in touch :S

Twelfth Night

2007-01-06T00:00:00.001Z

Traditionally, some people believe that it is bad luck to leave the Christmas decorations up past twelfth night (5th/6th January). I think it was bad luck to put this decoration up in the first place:

The Blogspot Review II

2007-01-05T19:57:00.001Z

A further sixteen weeks have passed, so it's time for another review.

I am still yet make those posts about T-shirts, noises and obelisk. Maybe they will come up. Or maybe I should stop making rash promises... Also, I haven't exposed anything particularly controversial in a Channel 4 way, until now! The other day I saw schoolies wearing hoodies as part of their uniform! Dun Dun durrrr!
Being a toolie (Australian for Too Old for Schoolie) I guess I don't understand.

Fast Fact: 54.16% of my blog posts contain pictures!

I think this trend is set to continue, especially as I have a whizzy new camera phone. This will be very helpful for an all-new feature called "Weird Watch!" containing little bits and stories about the odd things I see about London, and hopefully some pics too. The first story is astonishing, so keep a wary eye open for that. I'm also going to post more pictures onto my Flickr gallery, a preview of which is shown in the side bar just there -->

Another cutting edge feature of the blog worth pointing out is the RSS feed, which beams the latest posts by satellite straight to your news reader, how helpful is that? BUT you would miss out on seeing the classic blog stylings (which are here to stay! - thank you for the lovely comments about the banner at the top).

Until next time...

Day-Glo is the new black

2007-01-03T19:58:00.001Z

Sometimes as part of my new job I will have to venture into dangerous territory such as live railways! It pays to be well protected, so I have been provided with some awesome safety equipment:

Behold the day-glo power of the Coat of Track-side Awareness! Be amazed at the built in ear defenders and visor of the Shining White Helmet of Skull Protection! Ooooo!

Watch out they're here indeed!

2007-01-02T19:19:00.001Z

Happy New Year everyone! Get everything you wished for at Christmas?

Well no time to reminisce, stop living in the past, losers! It's Easter already:

Jesus Christ: He's not even cold...

WUCC Update 5: They think its all over...

2006-12-30T12:21:00.000Z

Overall we finished 17th and beat our seeded position of 18th. Personally I scored 3 goals, provided 2 assists and got 1 block (using my crotch!). Scoring my first goal felt amazing, I celebrated for about 5 minutes and got face ache from grinning like a gibbon. In the end, Open finalists Buzz Bullets were awesome and seemed deserved winners.

Australia was bonza, shame I didn't have time to make the most of it and travel around, so I would definitely go again. I had lots of laughs, so thanks go to everyone on the team for that. There are hundreds of photos on the EMO Flickr Gallery.

Lastly, I must apologise for not updating the blog at the time, the internet was not available at the pitches so I couldn't put up the posts. Oh, and safe travels to the members of the team who are doing so.

And Pink Cass, have you got any aftersun? Then put it on! :P

WUCC Update 4

2006-12-30T12:02:00.000Z

A regular feature at big tournaments is a "Trade Night" where you get the opportunity to exchange some of your old shirts for some exotic items from willing parties. I managed to barter for a beautiful Singapore Ultimate shirt and a delightful Tasmanian shirt with Casper the Ghost on it! Obviously, there are going to be winners and losers, with good and bad trades knockin about. The loser on this particular night was definitely Graham "Nimble" Wilson who managed to come away with a Durham Northern Lights shirt!? But he did start off with Random Fling stuff...

Another memorable event was the Closing Party. Not having to worry about playing anymore games for a while or getting up early the next morning the whole team went for it, up until 5 un the morning. We spent most of the time, variously and in combination;

shouting,
drinking,
high fiving,
dancing,
laughing,
conga-ing,
drinking,
carrying Chinese men(!?),
and chanting.

Actually, chanting was the main thing that we did. Be it in Chinese with the Masters Champions ("I have absolutely no idea but meant every word"), on the bus back into Perth against the locals ("Barmy-army!"), or round town when we couldn't find the after party venue ("we don't know where we're going!") and my favourite, cos I invented it, the call and response of;

"East Mid" "Lands Open!"

I still have a sore throat.

WUCC Update 3: the scores are in...

2006-12-30T11:26:00.000Z

First Pool-Stage:

Nomadic Tribe (JPN) 17 - 12 EMO
Ultimate Vibration (FRA) 17 - 9 EMO
Chilli (AUS) 17 - 6 EMO

Second Round:

Flippers (JPN) 17 - 9 EMO
Too Bad (CAN) 10 - 17 EMO
Redbacks (AUS) 6 - 17 EMO
Deathstar (AUS) 17 - 11 EMO
Tibets (JPN) 16 - 13 EMO

Third Round:

Hot Chilli (AUS) 2 - 17 EMO
Santa Fe (COL) 13 - 14 EMO
Results against Redbacks and Too Bad carried over

WUCC Update 2: Do you do digeridoo?

2006-12-29T18:20:00.000Z

We moved into our new accommodation, or "Holiday Units", and its as bad as it sounds. However, it is near Kings Park, with a lovely view across the Kwinana Freeway...

We also got our Player Packs which included lots of lovely freebies;

Boot Bag,
Disc,
Player Pass and Handbook etc
Camping Towel,
Keyring,
Car Sticker, and best of all,
Flip Flops (known as Thongs in Australia)

Our Players Handbook contained a handy guide to other commonly used Australian slang, my particular favourites being;

cackleberry: an egg,
by jingoes!: an exclamation of surprise,
skedaddle: to depart quickly,
woop woop: somewhere out in the sticks.

Also, to inspire us for the week of games there was an opening ceremony! This was an impressive display of everything Australian; digeridoo music and Aboriginal dancing, the opening game of the tournament and of course, the Vegemite Dancers.

WUCC Update 1

2006-11-09T09:13:00.000Z

Four days in already! I can't really tell if I have been affected by jet lag just yet, but I feel tired at night which is a good sign.

On the first day here we went into the centre of Perth (on the train, as we are staying at Cottesloe on the coast) and wandered round the Kings Park and botanical gardens. The spot had great views over the Swan River, and attracted a good range of wildlife. So far I have seen a bob-tail lizard and a host of parrots "busy" with the mating season :)

Getting into the spirit of the Australian way of life has been cool. There is a relaxed atmosphere about the place (even in the city) and my free time has been mostly spent on the beach. I have tried my hand at body-boarding, which was great fun, especially on the odd occasion when I caught a good wave and graciously drifted back onto the shore :D Also, trying to surf one "properly" is a good way of ensuring an injury or two.

Evenings have been spent variously at the pub, the WUCC welcomers party and watching films in the hostel (Jackass 2 is sick!). In the pub next door we saw the same guy chucked out three times, I think he had won big betting on the Melbourne Cup that day :P

It's not all been relaxing though... After all, we are here for a tournament, so we have had a bit of training too. We played mini on the beach on the second day, and had a close friendly against the New Zealand team "Magon" (lost 13:11) which was great for getting used to playing in the heat.

Really looking forward to the tournament now, and tomorrow the rest of the team arrive and we move accommodation to the city which is closer to the playing fields.

Excitement levels are building :P

WUCC

2006-11-07T14:09:00.000Z

This is the first update of hopefully several about my trip to Perth and the World Ultimate Club Championships I'm playing in.

So what has happened so far? Well the first couple of days where spent traveling here in the luxury of Royal Brunei airlines. So much as a rumble of the stomach and excellent food seemed to appear! Although, possibly due to a language barrier, when asked what I would lke, I usually got the opposite. Perhaps they were asking me what I didn't want ...

The freebies were also excellent; blanket, pillow, eye mask, socks (!?), bag, toothbrush and tooth paste. There was great fun to be had with this in the airports when I dressed up as Captain Brunei - on a mission to improve peoples dental hygiene! (photos to follow - see the flicker gallery). Its amazing how acting ridiculous keeps up the moral.

The in-flight entertainment was pretty good, a choice of films, TV, music and games to enjoy. I watched the film Matchstick Men (with Nicholas Cage) which was very good, and the same episode of The Simpsons three times whilst I had my main meals. Not only was this comforting, it's hard to break the habit :P

However, there were times on the flight when I felt rather awkward. For example, when you stand up for a second, turn round, and a random Chinese woman has sat in your seat and fell to sleep. I just didn't know what to do; how do you go about waking them up and telling them that they have made such a mistake? I just sat somewhere else and watched as she woke up, realised her mistake and didn't know where the rest of her family were...

I also met some lovely people on the flight, a nice young chap off to Australia on a gap year to be a diving instructor. If you are reading - good luck to you! I also had the pleasure of meeting a couple returning from a holiday to Vietnam, which, by all accounts sounds fascinating and a massive culture shock. Visiting Vietnam is in a completely different league to visiting Australia, which is rather like going to the beach in England! Hopefully I'll get to experience something uniquely Australian at some point, I'm searching for a crocodile/kangaroo BBQ...

Tuuuuubes

2006-10-16T21:28:00.001+01:00

I had an interview t'other week with Tube Lines, lasted 3 hours but it was well worth it. They have offered me the job of Human Factors Engineer - woot! :D I start in late November, after I get back from Australia, which gives me time to make the move down to London.

The company is based on the Isle of Dogs (Canary Wharf), an area best described as tall, and everyone wears suits. Proper ones too, not shell suits as is the custom dress in Liverpool.

I reckon I should get some business cards made. I like these ones which are made from the photos in your flickr gallery. Which reminds me to tell you I have one now, which can be found here, and the side bar (over there -->) shows the most recently added photos :)

In other tube related news I hope to visit the Tate Modern and slide down the new installation in the Turbine Hall. The designer believes that slides have a place in modern transport solutions, maybe I can suggest this in my new job. Certainly looks fun, until someone wees on them, as they do in Liverpool.

So there you have it, looks like I am going to spend the next few years wrapped up in ties. Thankfully I have a rather gorgeous selection:

Magischer Baum

2006-10-10T14:30:00.000+01:00

Emma received a delightful "Magic Tree TM" for her 25th birthday, and we watched the delicate crystals grow in just hours! For your pleasure and convenience we have produced a condensed stop frame movie of the chemically induced wonder, take a look and prepare to be amazed:

A myth, an exaggeration, a theory and a bran flake.

2006-09-29T20:42:00.001+01:00

The other day I must have seen about a million insects. For some strange reason there were swarms of "Daddy Longlegs" - the world's most poisonous animal! However, its mouth is too small to bite us (phew).

I also saw a slug the size of Jabba the Hutt, a millipede, woodlice, a beetle, and some moths.

And then I thought how moths are basically just bits of cork with bran flakes for wings.

A Moth... | Bran Flakes and Cork...

Q: Do we need 'em?

No More Nails

2006-09-25T20:47:00.002+01:00

The other day my toe nail fell off - it was gruesome in a very cool way! See the pictures below:

P.S. This wasn't a sudden occurrence and I haven't got the plague or leprosy or anything. The toe nail had been damaged by wearing rubbish football boots and was black for ages :S

Paul picked a pick of Peppers...

2006-09-09T21:34:00.001+01:00

Red and yellow Corno di Torro peppers to be precise. I grew the peppers in the front porch of the house, where it is sunny and warm. They're sweet and pointy, and very nice in sandwiches :)

The Blogspot Review

2006-09-07T21:49:00.001+01:00

Sixteen weeks in and time for a slight change in style. Gone are the Channel 5 shock factor tactics ("Worlds Fastest Blogspot Makeover Nightmares - Live!") and in with a much more sophisticated BBC2 approach (simply, "Blogspot"). Perhaps in another sixteen weeks the blog will expose a controversial, Channel 4 style, sideways look at blogging?

So what has happened so far? Probably best to do a few stats...

As shown in Figure 1, most of the posts have been regarding horticulture, a trend set to continue, so keep an eye out for posts about my pepper plants and their crop. I also post 20% of the time about Ultimate Frisbee. In November I am off to the World Ultimate Club Championships held in Perth, so expect more about that too :)

However to spice things up a bit, anticipate some posts about t-shirts, noises, and obelisks!

As shown in Figure 2, the number of posts seems to be proportional to the inverse of my activity, which has been rather erratic. Apparently it is a good idea to have a regular posting schedule, so that people know when to check back on the blog. Might give this a go...

So there you go, a quick review of what has happened so far, and some tantalising glimpses of what is yet to come! Please let me know what you think of the new look :P

Wedding Bells

2006-09-06T22:31:00.000+01:00

Been to a couple of weddings lately, congratulations to:

Rachel and Dave Clare
Pete and Sarah Conway

Weddings are good fun, you can have tasty food and a bit of a dance. But the learning doesn't stop! Here is some wedding trivia:

In olden times the first kiss between bride and groom was originally sex in front of half the village. (Karl Pilkington, The Ricky Gervais Show)
If the groom fails to appear at the wedding it is the best man's duty to marry the bride.
Peas are thrown at Czech newlyweds instead of rice.

I also found out that my Nan is 70% water, 20% old and crazy, 10% cake.

I am emo

2006-07-25T16:32:00.001+01:00

That’s right, I play for East Midlands Open Ultimate Frisbee team and this is our new shiny kit from Gaia! I am especially excited because I designed the logos that are used on the shirts :)

I’m happy about the way they have turned out, despite my misgivings during the design stage concerning the choices of colours and stuff. I think I was over-protective of the aesthetic that I was trying to develop and just really finicky about the small details, but it doesn’t matter now, its here and the team seem to really like it :D

I’ve also developed a disc design which has been sent off for production, should be arriving late August…

Went for a stroll…

2006-07-20T20:56:00.001+01:00

… down Butthole Lane :D

I was going to take advantage of the comical photo opportunity by mooning alongside it, but there were old ladies watching from a nearby restaurant window and a prickly bush :(

Never mind – here’s a photo:

Do you live near any funny place names?

“Everything that can be invented has been invented.”

2006-07-18T21:41:00.001+01:00

Charles H Duell, Commissioner, U.S Office of Patents, 1899.

A few weeks ago (14/06/06) there was a Haze fancy dress social to celebrate the end of the year, and for a few of us, the end of our time at Loughborough University. The theme was to dress up as something you wanted to be when you were young. Well, other than wanting to be a pirate and a Viking I wanted to be an Inventor. Here is a photo of me dressed up:

I love inventors, inventions and inventing. Here are some of my favourite inventor facts:

The can opener wasn’t invented until 50 years after the invention of the can.
Cats Eyes (invented by Percy Shaw) were inspired by cats eyes.
Velcro (invented by George de Mistral) is a combination of two French words; Velvet and Crochet.

Please leave your own favourite/interesting inventor facts... :)

Blogspot Spotbot

2006-07-13T17:40:00.001+01:00

Cresspo RIP

2006-07-13T17:05:00.000+01:00

A couple of days ago Cresspo passed away :(

However, Cresspo died whilst pregnant, and I have been able to collect around 100 seeds :) I plan to grow them, and keep the seeds of the tallest cress plants, in order to create a generation of super cress! I'll keep you up to date with a new cress-o-meter.

I am the King of Nature...

2006-06-11T11:20:00.001+01:00

The mighty Cresspo has outgrown the scale on the cresspo-meter! Here is the photographic evidence:

Horticulture

2006-05-26T22:08:00.000+01:00

I am currently attempting to grow the largest cress the world has ever seen! To track the progress of little “cresspo” as I have called him, I created a cresspo-meter. I’ll be keeping this up-to-date, so any noticeable change in height can be recorded and the good people at the Guinness World Records can let me know when I have won a world record, although I’m not sure anyone out there has done this before…

Wonderful Kobenhavn

2006-05-22T19:17:00.000+01:00

Last week I went to Copenhagen for a Frisbee tournament with EMO, we came 17^th out of 32 top European teams! :D Here’s what I got up to :)

Despite getting injured on the Friday I still had a great time, especially on the extra day I had exploring with Freddie and Blacks. Early on we went to see the Little Mermaid (I’ve seen smaller). Whilst there we saw a folk trio with possibly the largest guitar ever made. It used metal ropes instead of strings and the guy playing it had to use gloves to stop his hands being ripped apart by the epic sounds being generated! I want one!

Then we ventured to Christiana, a sort of shanty town for hippies akin to that created during Glastonbury, but people actually live there under the control of a mighty wizard and his pet monkey. Unfortunately we didn’t see the wizard, but rumour has it he wears his beard as a kind of toga.

From Christiana we saw “Our Saviours Church” on top of which was a massive black and gold tower, probably the highest point in Copenhagen. 400 steps later were at the top wondering what to do next. Using our map of Copenhagen, Freddie proceeded to make possibly the worst paper aeroplane ever, launched it with the wind and it flew for what must have been an hour! (30 seconds) It was an awesome sight to behold, and turned out to be the most aerodynamically sound paper aircraft ever made.

We concluded our day with a meal at “The Viking” and according to the menu it was the kind of food that Thor ate all the time. So I had Thor’s Stew, which was proper tasty. Copenhagen has many other culinary delights to offer, I would recommend:

> Sausage stands – they’re everywhere, get a Medister I svob,
> Spunk – little parrot shaped wine gums, but don’t get the liquorice ones.
> Waffles – served by local Copenhagen lovelies, and the waffles are tasty too.
> Plopp – Caramel centred chocolate bar, an ideal last minute gift bought at Malmo airport.

After eating we went to “The Olde English Pub” to see how Danes imagined us Brits. It was a classy joint in a colonial style with elephant heads on the walls. Unfortunately there were no top hats or monocles to be seen, so they’ve obviously got it all wrong - what what, those cra-zy Danes!

3, 2, 1 blog!

2006-05-21T21:50:00.000+01:00

introducing....
Paul Salkeld's World's Fastest Blogspot Makeover Nightmares Live!

not sure what that means yet, but hopefully it will be fun :D