GECKO 84

Right, I couldn’t let this one pass without a casual blogging on the situation.

I got in to work this morning to find a skype from my gf saying that part of the Bakerloo line had collapsed at Embankment, so of course I jumped on Twitter (and Google) to see what all the fuss is about.

Twitter was having one of it’s occasional meltdowns where one tweet spreads like wildfire and everyone gets involved in some serious melodrama. Some simple examples in my feed included:

These were  surrounded by other gems including such awesome phrases as “OMG this is why the tube is so scary” and “Stay safe London”.

10 minutes and 200 tweets later, this one pops up…

Also speaking to @Matt_UX – he had trouble getting in this morning and was delayed at 8am, with no major panic, just the usual service disruptions.

So wild speculation, lack of hard facts and twitter’s ability to spread a message have once again caused a big old fuss over (probably) nothing – I think the fact that half the Thames isn’t flooding the tube network is a pretty obvious indicator of that.

I love twitter, I use it a lot for work and find it an invaluable comms tool – but I wish people would chill out, take five minutes and read up on stuff a bit before going all crazy like.

So after what feels like six weeks of constant box shuffling, flat pack furniture constructing and battling against rubbish I finally feel like I have a proper grown up adult home.

It’s taken a lot of graft, but we got there in the end. From my little man corner in the hallway (skateboard/bike storage) to the huge living room with a sofa that is surprisingly comfortable for naps I’m really happy with every part of the house.

I’m even a bit jealous/proud of Cecilia’s wall of shoes. Anyhow, here’s a peek at the flat now we’ve done decorating:

So today we went to the pub for lunch and a jolly old time…

Easter Monday Meat Up = animated gif lolz

So I was feeling a bit flashy and thought I’d cook a tasty (and super healthy) dinner last Thursday. It’s the first time in ages that I’ve properly cooked something and I’m really pleased with how it turned out. The dressing in particular was fantastic and is one to remember!

I faked it with chicken breasts that I sliced and partially fried before adding to the stock, so the flavour wasn’t as intense as it could have been but it still worked out really well – and saved me about half an hour on the cooking time if you’re in a bit of a rush.

Anyhow, here’s the recipe, stolen straight from BBC food:

Ingredients

Chicken gubbins

• 1 x 1.5-2kg/3lb 5oz-4lb 6oz chicken
• 1 onion, quartered
• 2 kaffir lime leaves or bay leaves
• 2 stalks lemongrass

The green (salad) bit

• 1 cucumber, peeled and seeded, then cut into long strips
• 1 tsp salt
• 2 tbsp sesame seeds
• 3 stalks celery, cut into long fine strips
• 2 large carrots, peeled and cut into long fine strips
• ¼ crisp white cabbage, thinly shredded
• a large handful fresh whole coriander leaves
• a large handful fresh whole mint leaves
• 4-6 whole lettuce leaves, such as Little Gem, Cos or Webb’s Wonder
• salt and freshly ground black pepper

Awesome sauce

• 1 garlic clove
• 1 small red chilli
• 3 tbsp caster sugar
• 2 limes
• 3 tbsp fish sauce

Making this shizzle…

1. Put the chicken into a large deep pan or stockpot with the onion and kaffir lime leaves or bay leaves.
2. Bruise the lemongrass stalks with the back of a knife and add to the pot.
3. Turn the heat on under the pan, add water to cover, then bring gently up to the boil.
4. Cover and simmer very gently for about 45 minutes to one hour, then leave to cool in the liquid.
5. Once cool, take the chicken out, discard the skin, pull the flesh off the bones and tear into bite-sized pieces. Place in a bowl and set aside. (Strain and save the poaching liquid and use it as stock for another dish.)
6. To make the salad, put the cucumber into a clean bowl with the teaspoon of salt. Mix well and set aside for ten minutes.
7. Meanwhile, place the sesame seeds into a small frying pan over a moderate heat (don’t add oil) and dry-fry until they turn a shade darker, then take them off the heat and transfer immediately to a cool plate to prevent further cooking.
8. Once the cucumber has been salting for ten minutes, use your hands to squeeze out any excess liquid from the cucumber. Discard the liquid and transfer the cucumber to a large bowl.
9. Add the celery, carrots and cabbage to the cucumber along with the chicken and most of the sesame seeds, reserving a few for garnish.
10. For the dressing, peel and roughly chop the garlic then place in a mortar and pestle.
11. Deseed and roughly chop the chilli and add to the mortar and pestle.
12. Add half of the sugar to the mortar and pestle and pound the garlic and chilli to a rough paste. Add the rest of the sugar and pound again.
13. Juice the limes and add to the paste, then add the fish sauce and a splash of cold water and mix together. Taste and adjust the flavours if necessary.
14. Toss the salad with enough of the dressing to give a lively flavour, starting with about two-thirds of the dressing and adding more if necessary. Add half the mint and coriander leaves and mix thoroughly.
15. Line a serving plate with the lettuce leaves. Pile the salad onto the lettuce, then top with the remaining coriander and mint and reserved sesame seeds. Serve swiftly.

Make this!

So on Monday lunchtime I popped to Route One in Boxpark (Shoreditch) to see if they had any inline skate bags in store.

Unsurprisingly, they weren’t stocking any inline skate gubbins. It’s much more niche now and the Boxpark retail space is somewhat limited. But here’s where it gets interesting…

The gent working there explained that if I purchased there and then, through the store till, then it would be delivered to my home/place of work the next day – completely free of charge! – I was sold! Sure enough my bag turned up yesterday without any hassle!

What could have been a wasted journey ended up being a fantastic shopping experience and I’m tempted to head back there again next week and order some spares.

Thank you Route One,  thoroughly pleasant and I can’t sing your praises highly enough for this one!

While hanging out int he pub the other week with Josh, we decided that Sunday evenings would be a good time to chill out and watch films of dubious quality. We’re two weeks in and, to be honest, it’s turned out closer to “films that look a bit shit but are actually quite cool” Sunday than we’d expected.

Here’s a run down on what we’ve seen so far…

Rubber:

It’s a killer tyre. Dwell on that for a moment. A tyre, that explodes people’s heads. But this isn’t any normal run of the mill homicidal wheel. It only exists because a group of people are watching it. This is only the beginning of the weirdness that occurs for “no reason”!

Machine gun preacher:

When I saw the title of this film, I expected something along the lines of Hobo with a Shotgun, or Nude Nuns with Big Guns. A completely modern, amusing, grindhouse film. I was SO wrong.

It’s actually a serious film about Sam Childers, a former drug-dealing criminal who finds God, gets outraged by the effects of civil war in Sudan/Uganda and ends up being the savior of hundreds of kidnapped and orphaned children. Gerard Butler (beardy “this is Sparta” man from 300) thrashed out the role of Childers amazingly well.

It was a lot more intense than I was expecting but I thoroughly enjoyed it. Definitely one to put in the “don’t judge a film by it’s title” category.

I’ve finally delved into 2012 wholeheartedly, and with what seems like the busiest start to a new year ever (new job, t’other half moving in and deliberate attempts to use my camera all the time/make the most of every moment of every day). I realised that I’ve completely let this blog go, I’ve not given it anywhere near enough attention and that is bad. So yeah – time to get on that!

The final direction hasn’t been completely thought out yet but expect photos, music, food and gaming rants in abundance.

So, to kick off the fresh start, here’s my song of the day:

Oh, and here’s Barry White(bait) from yesterday’s pub quiz:

My first, my last, my everything?

So it’s that time of year when the magic red cups appear in Starbucks… I probably wouldn’t have bothered if they weren’t rocking a BOGOF on seasonal drinks at the moment (3-5 until Sunday FYI).

This year’s new xmas flavour is Praline Mocha and I can confirm it is amazing!

So I was chatting to Pete yesterday for the first time in a while. The conversation went something like this:

OK, before I start, I want to lay out a disclaimer that I’m not Italian, I can’t cook Italian food very well and no matter what I write, yes, your grandmother clearly does it better.

Saturday night just gone I was wondering what to cook with Cecilia when she brought my attention to a Bolognese ragu recipe on an Italian food blog. Initially I was a bit sceptic… milk in spag bol, surely not! Oh, and we cant use Spaghetti, that’s the wrong type of pasta. We settled on some crazy twirly Bucatini for the record.

Anyhow, it tasted bloody amazing, like proper good! I am definitely going to make a note of this one for future cooking! The full recipe, shamelessly stolen, is as follows:

ground meat (I used half veal and half pork, you could also use beef) 300g
pancetta 50g
butter 50g
onion 1
carrot 1
celery 1
peeled tomatoes (can) 400g
white wine 1 cup
milk 1 cup
stock (meat or vegeteble) 1 cup
bay leaf 1
salt & pepper

Melt the butter in a large pan. Finely chop the onion with the celery and the carrot, put in the pan and let soften, stirring. Add the pancetta, finely chopped, and let cook for a couple of minutes toghether with the veggies, without letting them get browned.

Add the meat, and stir untill it’s completely cooked. Pour the wine and let it evaporate completely. Than add the tomatoes, the stock, milk and bay leaf, bring to boil then reduce heat, put lid on and let simmer for about 2 hours, stirring just once in while. The final ragu should be dense and fragrant.

Add salt and pepper to taste, leave the ragù to rest for a couple of hours and reheat it gently before using (just toss some sauce with fresh cooked eggpasta).

Here’s how it turned out if you are interested: