Alex's Adventures on the Infobahn - food

Zero Food Miles

2010-02-14T12:32:00+00:00

We currently have 3 large Geese hanging up in our garage. They were locally sourced (from next door) and are slow grown organically fed birds. The only real downside of all this direct food supply is the requirement to pluck and draw them before we can eat them. We are taking them with us to the peaks next weekend for Sunday lunch for a small multitude. This will technically increase the food miles they have travelled, but at least they will be direct food miles rather than bouncing from farm to distribution centre before ending up on the plate.

Promise of Cake

2009-09-21T12:53:00+01:00

The house has reached a state considered acceptable for receiving guests. There are still a few boxes left to empty (including *somewhere* a box with a pestle and mortar in it) but all the main areas are habitable and presentable. As a result we invited over some friends for our first "formal" event since moving in. Chris and Naomi joined us for a lovely Sheppard's Pie (renamed House Pie) followed by cake cooked by my own fair hand. I did discover that fan-assisted ovens cook cake a lot faster than the recipes may indicate.

We visited my parents on Sunday to enjoy a lovely September afternoon in the garden with a lovely pot roasted piece of pork loin. Once we had returned home we were greeted by a fly-past from the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight's Lancaster and a display from the Red Arrows. It seems there was an airshow going on over at Marshall's (Cambridge Airport) but we got an excellent view from our house.

Lovely Evening

2009-08-18T11:26:00+01:00

Thanks for all the good wishes for yesterday. Despite spending the day in work it was actually a fairly interesting one for that. I headed back in time to enjoy the evening chatting with Fliss while enjoying a BBQ steak with fresh home grown tomatoes, supermarket corn on the cob and a baked potato with a lovely bottle of red wine. A lovely relaxing evening and a nice change of pace from our usual evening routine.

Fingers crossed house stuff is moving forward. As September is full of mostly non-movable events we are aiming to move in the second week of October. Hopefully even the most inefficient solicitors can have everything sorted by then, obviously we'll exchange as soon as possible and then can start planning the move.

Wedding-Fu

2009-08-03T13:35:00+01:00

We spent the weekend attending the wedding of C&P in the royal county of Buckinghamshire. The less said about the hotel and it's concept of service the better. Needless to say things went downhill when we adjourned to alternative bar to avoid the bi-monthly "night club" running in the main bar. As no real beer was forthcoming I was quite keen to get my cocktail groove on. We were soon disappointed to find the "Cocktail Bar" was a cocktail bar in name only. Anyway best not dwell on the negatives of the accommodation, just avoid this hotel.

Otherwise it was a fine wedding which we saw through the prism of noting ideas for our own forthcoming nuptials. Highlights included the classic Routemaster Bus which shuttled us between the hotel, wedding and reception venues. It was the bus companies reserve bus as the other one had developed a fault but this just added to the excitement as we climbed, nay crawled, up the rather steep hills in the area. The cheers as we crested and moved out of 1st gear were much fun. The caterers should also get recognition for serving out more than a hundred portions of Beef Wellington from a shed hidden behind the marquee. There was also the launching of Chinese Lanterns which provided some lovely background to the evening sky.

Hotels aside it was a lovely event :-)

Getting very warm

2009-07-01T11:46:00+01:00

Thanks to all who came to the party on Saturday. It all seemed to go well and for the most part the weather held off enough for a large amount of char grilled meat to be consumed.

I most pleased with the relatively small pile of washing up left on Sunday afternoon (after the final guests had gone home). This was mainly due to the diligent efforts of guests to do a stint (unprompted!) of washing up at various points of the day.

The weather has been slowly getting warmer and warmer and has now reached the point that it's too hot for me. Fliss being used to warmer climes thinks the evenings are getting cold enough for us to close the bedroom window at night. Needless to say I couldn't face working in my office yesterday and spent most of the day in the comparative coolness of downstairs with the netbook. Unfortunately Fedora has broken the spell checking functionally of my emacs with a switch to hunspell which took a little time to track down so I wasn't as productive as I hoped.

Today I shall be heading into the big smoke around lunchtime to join Fliss for a few more birthday drinks. I think her birthday will be well celebrated by the end of the week :-)

Society, nosuchthing...

2009-04-01T13:32:00+01:00

I'm slightly wary of posting anything on Internet Lie Day but I'm guessing it all depends on the timezone.

Today has mostly involved lounging around the house while the unseasonable weather dumps another load of water on Sydney's parched streets. This evening we joined the Wine Society for an evening of Thai food and wine tasting. While I would usually be a beer man for Thai food the choices were all interesting and quite palatable. There was also an appreciable quantity to get through as well as interesting and stimulating conversation. Tomorrow we investigate the local theatrical talent for a showing of "The Importance of being Earnest". I assume there will be less drinking involved!