Eat Your Carrots

Ten Tiny Fingers...

SIL & BILG took delivery of their new baby boy today. Weighing in at 5lb 5oz he turned up a couple of weeks early, and yet still managed to have us all waiting. SIL went into hospital on Wednesday and not much happened at all until this morning and then suddenly it was all over. A beautiful baby boy, Alexander John.
Congratulations to them both from all of us.

PicLens

There are loads of useful plug-ins for Firefox but my personal favourite, simply as something that make you go "wow", is PicLens. This plug-in is designed for viewing web images, and turns image views into a 3-D wonderwall. It's like having banks of TV screens each showing a thumbnail of an image, and as you pan left and right through those images the wall accelerates and banks to give a real dizzying impression of speed and movement. You can "flick" the images left and right a-la-iPod Touch/iPhone and see them smoothly accelerate and decelerate. Clicking a thumbnail makes it a bit larger, double clicking makes it full screen and clicking a screen icon takes you to the web page that image comes from. Using the scroll-wheel on your mouse zooms the whole wall in and out.

Use it with a large image set and you get a wall that seems to fade into infinity.

Piclens only really works with sites for which it has been enabled - amongst these are Google image searches, Picasa web albums and Facebook albums.
I love it, it's my favourite way to view images no and I wish it could be adapted as a way to look at images on disk. Maybe they'll come up with that at a later date.

Did The Earth Move For You?

No, I slept through it. A few at work were woken by shaking beds though. All that excitement and I missed it.

Sunny Sunday

It was a gorgeous day today and the Muddybums were out biking again. We rode from Rosedale Abbey on a route that took us over some of the area's most stunning scenery. The weather was perfect for both riding and photography - beautifully crisp and clear. Despite being no more than 4C it felt like a summers day (probably something to do with the amount of clothing we were wearing).

Here are some more photos.

Lunch stop.
Taking in the view over towards Fryup
Remains of the mining industry at Rosedale Abbey
On the trail.

Pancake Day

As it was pancake day today we decided to treat our office colleagues and cook up a pancake feast. I had to bring my camping stove in as we've no cooking rings at work. It did a decent job, aided by Chris's pukka pancake pan, and we turned out a pancake every 4 or so minutes. That still meant that we spent the whole of lunch slaving over a hot stove, but it was worth it.

Chris, master pancake chef, prepares to toss one...
Up she goes...
A perfect catch.
It didn't always go perfectly, though thankfully none ended up on the floor.

27 Long Years - or - How Time Flies

The Wedding Of The Year clashed - or rather coincided - with the 27th anniversary of wife and my's first date! (I think that "my's" isn't really a word, but it is now! How else would you phrase it?). That was 27 long years ago, but it doesn't seem anything like so distant. For one thing, we both feel too young to have possibly known each other for 27 years!
To celebrate we went to Cafe Indigo in the old picture house at Billingham. This is a lovely Indian restaurant who's food is a cut above some of the other places round about. It was very quiet there on a Monday night - we were the only people in there for the entire time that we were in, but that was fine for a romantic anniversary dinner for two. I hope they generate enough business during the rest of the week to keep themselves going, because they really deserve to. Their own website says they are "Firm believers that the best cooking need not rely on hot spices but rather on the use of subtle and often fragrant herbs and spices to provide a great variety of dishes" and this is no lie. No dish that I've had there comes close to blowing your head off, but all are beautifully flavoursome and perfectly cooked (I should point out that in addition to dining here last night I partake of their take-away service as a once-in-a-while lunchtime treat while at work).
Last night we had Dhosa (stuffed pancake) and an Aubergine "boat" stuffed with spiced vegetables and a mint dressing. We've had both of these dishes in the Leeds/Bradford area but this is the only place I've seen them around Teesside. This was followed up by

• Palak paneer (spinach and cheese - a common dish on Indian menus but I've never had it cooked the way they do it. Delightfully creamy, delicately flavoured and slightly sweet, and yet without actually swimming in an overly-rich sauce).
• Shim aur ghobi (green beans and cauliflower).
• Bombay Potatoes (another "standard" but done differently, the potatoes being large wedges cooked to perfection in a lightly spiced tomato-y sauce).
• Mushroom Pilau
• Perswari Nan (nan bread stuffed with coconut, raisins and couscous - gorgeous).

I've also had the vegetable bhuna and the vegetable madras. Both are packed with vegetables (as opposed to the all-sauce-and-no-veg varieties I've had elsewhere) and beautifully spiced. The madras was the hottest of any of the dishes I've had here, but even then the heat didn't make you lose sight (or taste rather) of the other flavours that are going on in there.
The setting is nice - the room is large and tables are not too tightly packed. It occupies a whole floor of what used to be Billingham's cinema and you can still see this from the internal architecture, though they certainly haven't overplayed the "ex-cinema" card and there's thankfully no old memorabilia littering the place.
After we'd eaten we headed off the The Master Cooper, the pub in Acklam where we'd spent our first date all those years ago. It's changed a bit. For one, it was packed that night whereas today it was almost empty, and this despite beer (and Sam Smith's beer at that!) at only £1.50 a pint. Cheapest beer I've had in a long while. It seems a nice pub, decent decor, good beer, and what people there were in there were a pleasant and "canny" bunch. Maybe the smoking ban really is killing pubs.
So 27 years gone, and here's to the next 27!

The Wedding Of The Year

Today was The Wedding Of The Year - at least as far as our families are concerned. Gillian & Gerry, usually referred to in these pages as SIL and BFG, tied the knot in a lovely civil wedding held at Redworth Hall. The whole day passed off fantastically well and the sun even put in an appearance for a while - it was a better day than some get in the summer!
I was chauffeur for the day and the car was decked out in rosettes that were guaranteed to attract the attention of onlookers as we drove to the hotel.

The bridegroom with his three nieces, who were (as you can plainly see) the bridesmaids for the day.
The service included a "candle lighting" ceremony. Someone from each side of the family lights the small candle, then the bride and groom use these to jointly light the large candle. It represents the joining of the two families and seems to be quite a popular part of civil ceremonies these days.

In spite of the decent weather we didn't take too many pictures outside - it was still rather cold after all - but we did pop out for the throwing of confetti.
The bride and her bridesmaids. The girls are all lovely, Susan wanted to steal the youngest one away! (If any child welfare officers are reading this, we didn't REALLY mean that!).
The table set for the reception dinner, or "wedding breakfast" as it's most commonly known - why breakfast I'm not sure, no cornflakes were to be seen anywhere. This was in the same room as the service had been held in, the size of the room making it ideal for a small, intimate gathering such as this one.
Cutting the cake.
The middle bridesmaid had written a couple of lovely poems that we'd used in the invitations and menu cards. She read one of them out during the reception.
At any get together you always have to be wary of gate crashers. This was no exception.
It was an absolutely super day, very informal and much nicer than the over-elaborate and rather stuffy events that weddings can sometimes be. I'm a big fan of these civil ceremonies, and the single-venue option makes it all simpler still - no trailing from place to place and no feeling of "hanging about". Congratulations from us both to Gillian & Gerry. They're a super couple and (I know it's a cliche but it's true) really are made for each other. The best things come to those who wait. And the excitement isn't over yet...

Sentimental Claptrap

The case of the horses being kept in abject conditions at an Amersham farm has once again raised the question of horses being eaten. While I'm totally against any animal being kept in cruel conditions and, as a vegetarian, am personally against the eating of any animal, I can't understand why the meat-eating public get so het up about the thought of horses ending up on the dinner table. Surely if you can eat a cow, sheep or pig then you can eat a horse. Really, where's the difference? And for that matter why get so uppity about Koreans eating dogs? Surely it's a bad case of dual standards.
Maybe those who can't bear the thought of eating a horse (or a dog) will stop asking me the ridiculous question of "so why are you vegetarian?". I'm vegetarian because to me there is no distinction between cats, dogs, sheep, cow, pigs et al, and the thought of eating any of them repulses me.

Women's Footy

I'm thinking of taking to watching women's football. No, not for the reason you might be thinking of. Honest! But goals!! In the 15 women's FA Cup ties today there were no fewer than 83 goals! I did used to watch it a bit when it was televised (probably C4) several years ago and it was fast, flowing and exciting. The number of goals comes from A) having no "not losing is the most important thing" attitude that seems to prevail in the men's game and B) having totally rubbish goalkeepers! Perhaps if we changed the rules so that all goalies in the men's game had to be women, football would become exciting again.

She's Having A Baby

... and getting married too. Exciting times ahead for SIL and BFG. And us too, come the family holiday to Tenerife in October. Not what anyone was expecting when we booked it ;-)

Muddybums Dinner

Today was the annual Muddybums Christmas dinner. I'm not sure how many years it's being going on, but it was my first, this also being my first year of riding with this illustrious bunch of Teesside mountain bikers. They're a great bunch of lads and it was a nice evening, rounded off by an excellent meal at Joe Ragatoni's in Stockton. There's many a Joe's in this area and as such I expected the food to be just "formula Italian" and nothing special. I was wrong; my main course was one of the best pasta dishes I've had anywhere, basically giant ravioli-style parcels filled with aubergine & cheese, served in a rich sauce of tomato, basil, parmesan, cream  and more roasted aubergine slices. Wife's Rigatoni with roasted vegetables and goat's cheese was pretty delicious too, and portion sizes were such that we couldn't face desert. Service was brisk and I don't think there was a single word of complaint from any of us. I'd thoroughly recommend the place.

Every Home Should Have One

Fancy one of these in your garage? I think it will be a scary day when things like this are available to the general public!!

Fame Again

I went to look at something on PhotoBox today and how surprised was I to see my name up there as a testimonial! It's true, StyleBooks are a great product, and I did tell them so, but I'm fairly sure that my email to them continued with "however there is a problem...".

The problems were many in fact, as recounted here last year, and despite repeated attempts I never got a flawless StyleBook, something that was repeated with a friend here at work too. I hope by now they've sorted all of the problems, but I've never gone near StyleBooks since then, I stick to the more reliable PhotoBooks, which are also a great product and I've never had a bad one.

Cafe Lilli

It was our 22nd wedding anniversary today - I know, if it had been murder I'd be out on parole by now - so we went to Cafe Lilli in Norton for a celebratory meal.

We've been to Cafe Lilli before, but only at lunch times when it's more of a coffee shop. By evening it's a fully fledged bistro with a somewhat Italian feel, though the menu is not strictly Italian. All of the (non-veggie) meals that we saw others having looked to be delicious and imaginative, though I obviously can't comment on them in detail. I can comment on the veggie courses that we had though, and I have to report that they were absolutely superb.

Wife started with Aubergine, Carrot & Chilli soup, which sounds an unusual combination. In fact it's safe to say I've never seen aubergine in a soup before. It was delicious and very warming, this coming from the chilli which whilst hot enough did not detract from the other flavours. I had a bruschetta of goat's cheese and cherry tomatoes and it too was wonderful.

For mains I had a mixed mushroom risotto. This was very flavoursome and contained a good variety of mushrooms, including the Enoki variety which is one of my favourites. Wife had a quite simple pasta dish with fresh tomatoes, torn basil and pecorino cheese. The portions were ample and beautifully presented.

At dessert time we found we were feeling rather full, so we opted to share one dessert between us. The one we chose (we could easily have chosen any of them) was am iced parfait of Christmas pudding (shown above). By any other name it's Christmas pudding ice cream, and oh was it delicious. We ate it in as small mouthfuls as we could manage to try and make it last. I'd visit Cafe Lilli again for this alone, though the whole dining experience was so lovely that we intend to visit again as soon as possible anyway.

The ambience was nice, having a busy "buzz" about it without being overly noisy, and despite being full, with more and more people constantly arriving in the small waiting area, the service was brisk and attentive.

Cafe Lilli, 83-85 High Street, Norton, Stockton on Tees. Tel: 01642 554422

10/10

Christmas @ Castle Howard

We went to Castle Howard on Sunday. At this time of year it's their "festive season" and the rooms of the house are decorated accordingly. By and large this means that almost every room has a Christmas tree in it and a large amount of candles. It's billed as "1000 candles" but who was counting? Certainly there were a lot of candles and I imagine that it's an insurers worst nightmare, especially considering that they've already had one major fire here, albeit in 1940, when the entire dome (in picture above) came crashing down.

Castle Howard is a lovely place to visit (if the weather is right). The extensive grounds and gardens are lovely with their various sculptures and the views back to the house. The house itself is typical stately home stuff, room after room filled with kitsch old furniture and often hideous paintings, though to be fair to the place it's certainly better than some others in this respect. At least in most rooms (that we could see) the furniture matched and there weren't too many paintings of dead animals.

Architectural highlights are the great hall with its dome and the chapel, but the real highlight is the Howard family's children's Christmas lists, casually displayed as if left for Santa in what is perhaps the best room on view. Girls will be girls and the Olivia's wish list includes a dalmatian puppy, a baby sister and a furry pony. Bizarrely it also includes a butternut squash! Perhaps she just likes the sound of the name - I know I do.

An added bonus is that normally photography in the house is forbidden, but during the festive period it is allowed. Various pictures are shown below.

The only downside was the totally inedible baked potato I had (or rather, didn't have) in the cafe. I was unlucky, the other 5 in our party all had decent potatoes, although the "served with side-salad" failed to materialise and their idea of "baked potato with cheese" is to give you a solid block of cheese on the side of your plate next to the potato. Oh, and the plate was so small that you struggled to keep it all on board! Anyway, wife gave them what for and we got a refund. It was only baked potato but you really expect better at a place like Castle Howard. I mean come on, James Martin's dad used to run the catering and he himself has cooked there on occasions!

The Big Five-Oh

I was 50 today. No, not 50 years old - come on, do I look 50 years old? No, it was my 50th blood donation. By way of thanks I got a lovely tie pin and a Cross pen. Really, just an extra Tuc Cheese Sandwich biscuit would have done me, but it was a nice touch to mark an occasion I've been looking forward to for the last few years.
Now onwards to 75...

Strictly Come Dancing

Yay, Kate's gone at last. Not before time too. Much as I like the girl (which is more than wife does) she's been a hopeless dancer and the sympathy vote she's been getting has been spoiling the contest. Maybe common sense will resume now.

Fun In The Sun Snow

I was out biking again yesterday and the weather was what can only be described as "adverse".

We'd intended to ride from Rosedale but couldn't get there due to the roads being snowed up. This wasn't anticipated at all when I left home. I was in two minds as to whether  or not to go when I thought it was just cold, wet and windy. If I'd thought it was going to be snowy with gale force winds blowing hail into your face then I'd have probably stayed in bed. As it was I was glad I went out. The money I've spent lately on decent winter biking wear proved to be money well spent and I was fairly toasty and the "man against the elements" feeling gave us a fair bit of satisfaction.

We rode from Castleton, through Commondale and Westerdale up to Ralph's Cross and then back down to Castleton "the fast way" - downhill all the way going as fast as we dared in the icy conditions. On the approach to the village the automated anti-speeding sign on the lamp post flashed at us "Slow Down" - yes, we couldn't wait to get back to the warm tea room with its homemade soup and scones!

On stripping off my riding gear to change back into civvies (oh, if only you'd been on Castleton high street right then) my whole body was steaming, like some thoroughbred racehorse after run out. It was quite a bizarre sight I imagine.

What Charley Thinks Of Guy Fawkes Night

He's barely been outside the last 4 days & nights!

Fresh Faced Youth - With Strange Hobbies

Take a look at this picture taken from a company brochure from the place where I used to work. When you're done laughing at how I looked in 1987, go on to have an even bigger laugh at what my pastimes are listed as!

Finally roll about on the floor laughing at the fact that after all these years I still support that rubbish football team!