Once in a while you find something on the internet that you suspect might change the way you use it. It's a rarity, and you have to trawl through lots of crap to get there, but when you find something like this it's well worth taking a few minutes out to get to grips with it:
http://labs.mozilla.com/2008/08/introducing-ubiquity/
Watch the video, install it (and if you're not using Firefox 3 by now, more fool you), and trust me, you'll notice it.
What a weekend. Scouting for engagement do venues on Friday night followed by dinner at home, once round Richmond park on the Black Panther on Saturday morning, drinks out on Saturday night, Gordon's with T&E on Sunday afternoon followed by dinner & movie at home (Cloverfield, don't believe the hype), long walk by the river this morning followed by a day in the kitchen at long last. This evening's dinner worked pretty well, though I say so myself, roast lamb rump with puy lentils, rosti potatoes, glazed shallots, tomato concasse and herbed gravy.
The bit I'm really pleased with is in the photo; bitter chocolate tart, served with a splodge of sour, cool, sharp crème fraîche. The crumbly bits on the top are a result of some last minute emergency pastry trimming needed to get it out of its case. I've had a bit of a challenge with tarts lately (ho ho), as they've all refused to set properly, but this one seems to be holding its shape reasonably well. The crisp vanilla-tinged pastry is a bit of a winner too. Both recipes from Gordon Ramsay's Passion for Flavour, one of his earlier books that's still a bit cheffy and not quite so 'posh Jamie Oliver'. Sometimes you do want to spend 6 hours on dinner, rather than trying to fit preparation of a memorable meal into 30 minutes.
Sitting alongside this little lot was a bottle we brought back from Australia last time we were there, a 2002 Vasse Felix Shiraz, which I reckon is just about peaking right now, at least this bottle was. Good luck finding any in the UK though, we tend to drink all our Aussie wines shockingly young, so there's never anything of this sort of age around.
And so ends the last bank holiday of the year (I think). Three and a half days of work and we'll be heading out to southern Spain for a week in a villa somewhere near Almeria, with nothing on the agenda but reading, drinking, eating and the occasional dip in the pool or, should the effort seem worth it, the sea. I can't wait.
On the reading front, I'm currently sailing through M F K Fisher's excellent 'The Art of Eating', which I'd recommend to anyone, whether they care about food or not. It's so brilliantly written, without a hint of pretence or self-consciousness, and provides a valuable missing link between the likes of Brillat-Savarin and today's food writers, not to mention a fascinating and well-researched insight into culinary culture over the past few thousand years.
I'd take it on holiday, but it's about five inches thick.
To those of you who've already kindly donated to my day of pain, thank you very much, you're guaranteed a place in the heaven of your particular denomination.
To those of you who haven't, go on, click the button - it's for a good cause and if I don't get to the target I'm going to wet out. If I do I promise to put myself through it.
In response to Kathryn's comment below (and the numerous requests on Facebook), photos of the ring have now been added to the album.
So if you're on my Facebook friend list, you'll already know this, but last night I asked the Kiwi to marry me, and cor blimey she only went and said YES, so we are now officially betrothed, I believe. Brilliant!
Very briefly, as I need to get in the shower and prepare for a fairly intense day in the pub, the whole night was excellent from start to finish. We started with Champagne (Pol Roger NV, if you're interested) at Vertigo, where I mumbled the question. At 600ft, it's the highest building in London, a real landmark, and the view from the bar's tremendous. Our table faced northwest, towards the Telecom tower - the weather was perfect too, watching the sun set over the most amazing city in the world.
Following that we got a cab over to Wild Honey in Mayfair, the sister restaurant to Arbutus, which we've also been to. Terrific food and superb wine was somewhat overshadowed by how excited and dizzy we both were, but it was superb nonetheless. Would definitely recommend it. It turned out that a friend of ours was having a birthday party over in Soho, so we dropped in on that on the way home.
I feel absolutely tremendous. And I can't believe the ring, whose size I guessed, fits perfectly and looks so completely natural on that wonderful girl's finger.
Quite how good this was can't be expressed in bloggage - watching Singin' In The Rain in the open air at Somerset House. Perfect summer evening, lying on a picnic blanket with the Kiwi, watching one of the most heartwarming films around. It's right up there with It's A Wonderful Life, in my opinion.
This, as you might be able to make out, was the scene - you can make out the south block of Somerset House in the background, onto which the film was projected.
One of the things that made the evening was the fact that his widow and daughter attended. It got me wondering what goes through a widow's mind to see her husband on the big screen, looking his absolute best, and with hundreds of adoring fans still hanging on every tap, jump and twirl. Fascinating stuff.
I know it's a cliche, but they really don't make 'em like that any more.
After a few years of running, I've decided to do something worthy with it, so on October 5th, I'll be running in the Run To The Beat London Half Marathon. I'm running for Woolworths Kids First, who're not only providing me with a place, but do all sorts of brilliant things... you know, for kids.
So, chart my progress on the widget to the right, and visit my fundraising page to help me out!
Is this the biggest piss-take in the entire world? Homemade pasta (ie flour, water, eggs), cockles (ie weeny shellfish), mushrooms & lemon (ie cheap), for £13.50?
For those of you on the NZ$, that's $36.65 for a fairly unremarkable bowl of pasta, eaten in a stall to the side of London's Borough Market.
Tut.
I've just opened up Windows Live Writer to find a blog post I started writing on Monday but didn't actually get round to posting, so you'll have to do without tales of me 'n' the Kiwi cycling to Hampton Pool on the weekend, oh yes we did - all 17k there and back. We're so proud of ourselves. It's probably about time I got the Black Panther* out again to be honest - the Duathlon's in about 6 weeks' time and I've not bestridden** it in almost two years.
It's hard to believe we're in August already. This means there are only four months left before we leave London; five months until we arrive in New Zealand and it all suddenly becomes very real. The excitement's really starting to build now, both of us I think just really want to DO IT. In the meantime, there's a ton of stuff to do; my visa application needs to start this month, really, and that's just the start of it.
This weekend we're off up to Manchester - I'm getting all the visits in that I can before we leave as you can imagine. Should be fun; lunch with the family tomorrow and spending a bit of time with Yoog on Saturday night. Presumably the latter will feature a Guitar Hero challenge, presumably with me getting my arse kicked again despite buying my own one in an attempt to get better at it.
Something tells me August is going to be a fun month. Watch this space - I'll try to document as much as possible...
Oh, and the new addition to my page on the right? Wordle is a truly brilliant application - try it for yourself, it's completely addictive.
*ironic macho naming of my bike. Ironic in that with me on its back, it's anything but.
**is this a word? it is now.
