More cookery for y’all

Here is me and Red trying to make pancakes:



And here, in case you missed it, is Shea and Andy's original video of the same recipe:

Should the missus and I start a YouTube cookery channel?

Feeling peckish?

Here's our first attempt at shooting a recipe on the fly. Enjoy!

Post #800, wherein I share some video from Seville

This footage was shot in the grounds of the Casa de Pilatos. Some sources will tell you that this building has this name because it was built based on the designs of Pontius Pilate's house. That is bollocks, at least according to our guide around the house. It's because -- quick history lesson -- back in the day when they used to have a Stations of the Cross thingumajig through the city of Seville, this location was the one that correlated to Pilate washing his hands of Christ's crucifixion. Don't say you never learn anything here...

Anyway, what is amazing, and what you can't really tell from the way I've had to edit the video, is that so many different beautiful sights are visible from almost any spot you choose to stand in. So much so that it's difficult to know where to point your camera. So I just keep pointing and shooting and cross fingers that something decent will come out in the edit. Hope you see something you like, even it's just the bearded woman breastfeeding a baby.

New beginnings and other musings

Today my sister goes into hospital to have her fourth child. It was not due until early January originally, but she has developed the apparently not uncommon condition of obstetric cholestasis and has been advised to get the baby out now rather than waiting. So an unexpected bundle of "joy" (read piss, shit and puke) for Christmas day!

We sent some gifts for the newborn, as you would expect. This is what we chose, from the gloriously named Nippaz With Attitude. Gotta start the kid off on the right foot, right? Click the CD pic for the ability to listen to nursery-rhyme version of some of your favourite punk records!
























They reckon that the baby is going to be just shy of 7lb and that if she had gone full term, the baby would have shaken out at about 9lb. Jeeeeesus Christ on a bike!

On the subject of weight, Red and I are doing reasonably well on our non-diet diet. We're not really pushing it, but we are eating home-cooked meals at least 12 times a week (out of 14), I'd say, and we've cut down on portion size a bit too.

Her goal was to hit XXkg (I'm a gentleman; it's not for me to say) and then treat me too a tassel dance with the as-yet-unused pasties I bought her last Christmas (at her request, I hasten to add). Mine was just to shed a bit of gut.

I'm essentially a slight-framed kinda guy, but beer and pasta take their toll on a rockstar physique. Anyway, today I'm weighing in at 69.4kg (153lb, or just under 11 stone). That's a loss of about 5kg in as many months, so I'm pretty happy. It probably helps that I haven't touched a drop of alcohol for almost two weeks, in part due to having been on antibiotics for that gum infection.

So, what else? Oh yeah, Christmas cards. This year, we have decided not to send as many cards as in the past. This goes for both friends and family, as well as for work contacts. We have planted some trees via the Woodland Trust instead of buying cards for work contacts, and most friends and family will get an email greeting instead. I just don't feel right contributing to the global waste of paper for something that invariably just goes in the bin within days of its receipt.

It's been hard convincing some of my family that this is acceptable. What is it with English people and greetings cards?! The funny thing is, after watching An Inconvenient Truth a few months ago, I had said that my gift to everyone I was buying for would be just a copy of that DVD. Like a dork, I failed on that promise to myself. I still think it was a pretty fucking rad idea, but I flunked out.

And speaking of dorks, we move on to nerds. I took the test. It was kinda dumb, but whaddya expect. I'm a lightweight nerd. Hey, has someone been peeking at my weighing scales?!





Finally, just to give myself the slightest of pats on the back (not too hard; I might fall over with my new, trim body!), my video of the Palacio del Marques de Dos Aguas, which I uploaded yesterday, is currently YouTube's 58th Most Viewed Travel & Events video uploaded in the UK. Hey, go watch it again and help me climb even higher, please. Oops, looks like I'm gonna go all Guy Kawasaki on yo asses!

Valencia: the end of the trip

Sunday, 25 November (continued)
We walked on up into some of the squares and wandered around, as you do, milling about with the crowds and absorbing the laid-back Sunday atmosphere on what was, frankly, a fucking glorious late-November day.

Ultimately our goal today would be to get to the Oceanografíc, a massive aquarium complex within the City of Arts & Sciences, but there was more uncharted ground to cover in the main city beforehand.

This first video is a portrait of the Palacio del Marques de Dos Aguas, a most incredible building in the heart of Valencia. Look out for Red swiftly removing her hands from the facade when told "Non tocar!" by the guard. An hour later, he was gone. If we had so desired we could have touched it to our heart's content.



And here's the last one... for now... The snack we stopped for at the beginning was orxata (aka horchata) for me, a local artisanal cold drink, and hot chocolate -- no, the thickest, chocolatiest hot chocolate in Christendom... literally melted chocolate, I think -- for Red. We each had our own dunking things, too. I finished every last bit of my deliciousness; Red, not so much.

Then dancing people in the square, in "traditional" dress -- so that's where they were going, those folks I mentioned in my previous post! And then, what's that? Shiiiit, ruins of the old city... underwater! How damn cool is that?!



3:45pm-ish
After a lot more walking, we stopped for lunch at the most delicious steakhouse. The front-of-house woman was Italian, so she was able to tell us what was good and stuff! Really great food, even though neither of us was convinced we really wanted a steak, but it was about 3:45pm by now, and all the restaurants in Valencia close no later than 4pm, and many seemed not even to open on a Sunday. We had to take our food where we could find it!

Next up, we grabbed a cab to the Oceanografíc. At some point in the not-too-distant future I will go through that material, too, and post some clips of dolphins and penguins and seals, oh my. There's also some footage of the city by night that's quite cute. But for now, with the festive season right upon us and other things to move on to, it's hasta luego, Valencia. It was a fun ride!

Intermission over: Back to Valencia

Saturday, 24 November (still...)
So after our huge walk down to the port, we had to wait for the America's Cup store to open. And when it did, unfortunately we were unable to buy what Red had wanted for her mother. So while the walk had been for nowt, it had still been a fun one! We looked out for a cab and headed back to the hotel room.

At the time Red was looking at possible hotels, she had read that this one had, in some rooms, only a window separating the bedroom from the bathroom. This sounded like great fun, perv that I am, so we really hoped we got one of those. And we did! It was cool and wacky!

We chilled and nursed our blistered feet before heading our for some food. My tattooist Xam is from around Valencia, and so I had asked him if he could recommend any good restaurants. He had given me a couple of names, one of which is apparently frequented by Spanish stars and royalty. We had to give it a go. So we headed out into the night. We wanted to explore some of the busy streets by night before eating, and we also had to stop in at an Internet cafe to check in online for our return flight.

Once we decided it was time to eat, we got a taxi. It took us all the way back to the port area, but only when we got there did we discover that the restaurant was closed for the season. Fortunately, just a few doors away was the other restaurant that had been recommended.

We sat and ordered food, wine, and water. We were ravenous. We'd not eaten since a small bite at 1pm, and it was now about 9pm if memory serves. The chances are that it was probably later because the restaurant had quite a few people in it, and people eat late in Spain. (When we were in Seville, we found this great steak restaurant. We went there at gone 9pm one night and were the only people there. It started getting busier as we were about to leave. Can you imagine eating a steak at 11pm?! Amazing...)

We ordered paella -- what else, since Valencia is the home of the dish? I must say, I enjoyed mine. Red was a little less convinced. We have an ongoing beef about paella since her birthday in Seville. I won't go into it, save to say that perhaps I made a mistake that we both ended up paying for. Sorry, pet. Kisses!

After dinner, we looked for a cab and headed back to the hotel, I think. We were shattered, and I was probably a bit tipsy, so my memory is unclear now!

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Sunday, 25 November
Next day we breakfasted fairly early so we could get out and pound the streets some more. We both love getting away from our desks, of course, and we love both beach and city breaks. But when we do city breaks, fuck do we do 'em! I mean, we walk our motherfucking feet off. You've got to, though, right? It might be the only time you go to a particular city, so you need to have no regrets about missing anything.

We headed into the old town area and walked the squares and looked at fountains and stuff. Just walking fairly directionless, letting the city be our guide. Well, letting the city and the guide book be our guides. And the map.

We found some crazy dogs playing in the streets. And then some men and women in "traditional" Spanish dress. By traditional, I mean, old-school, dancey, traditional, cos at the end of the day, traditional dress for everyone these days is jeans, T-shirts, jumpers, of course.

Then we stumbled upon a street where everyone was congregating. It was mayhem. Old and young, male and female. What was going on? we wondered. You know what it was...? Trading cards. Everyone was going crazy buying and swapping football cards. Incredible...

Here's the video of this leg of our journey.

Weekend diary, part 4

Saturday, 24 November (It just keeps on giving, right?)
I mentioned a couple of posts ago that we bumped into some more lost tourists on our way from the City of Arts & Sciences... Well, we teamed up with the four of them to find our mutual end destination: the port.

We doubled back on ourselves and, rather than walking all the way back to the Ciutat, we chucked a right, down what looked like a semi-residential area. We walked to the end, which was only a couple hundred metres, and found ourselves at the river. Instinct (with a face all screwed up like George's in Elaine's clasp) told us to go right, along a trail of dirt and bare grass, heading towards the railway bridge that spanned the river. We could see from our map that this was the right general direction. But this was most definitely not the right tourist way.

Then we saw a man stepping down off the railway bridge. "Well, he must've crossed it," we say to ourselves, "so it must lead somewhere." We continue. As the man approached us obvious tourists, one of our number still wheeling her suitcase over the great mounds of dirt, he appeared to have a wry smile on his face...

We got to the bridge and realized it was a pretty crappy affair, certainly not likely to be the major river crossing we were hoping for. Still, it was wide enough for us to walk down without fear for our lives, so we did.

The interesting part was when we got to the other end. Y'see... there was no exit point. The bridge ended, and our way was blocked by a fence. That's right, ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, we were fenced in like half a dozen wild animals. Caged in our prime. Well, there was nothing else for it, of course, but to climb...

After our climbing adventure we continued to walk. We passed the place where refrigerators go to die and we threw a right at the next road junction. At this point our merry group splintered. Suitcase Lady, it turns out, was not with the rest of them, and she trucked on alone. Red is a fast walker, so she trotted on ahead while I chased after her coat-tails, and the other three held back to check their own maps rather than be dragged into the Great Unknown by us crazed Ingle types.

But we were right, and as quick as a very very slow flash or quite a quick tortoiose we were at the port. Well, it probably took the best part of another 45 minutes, past various abandoned cars, and more fences where building work was going on, until finally, FINALLY we got to the port, where a guy was offering boat tours around part of the America's Cup course. We declined. By this time, it was about 3:50pm, we'd been awake for about 11 hours, and we wanted to get into the America's Cup shop and buy something for the mother-in-law and get back to the hotel room that we still hadn't even seen...!

Here's the video of these stages of our misadventures:

Weekend diary, part 3

Saturday, 24 November (continued, still)

Not so much to read this time around, but a couple of videos to watch.

The first is yet more walking. We did a lot of that, did I mention? This time through the lovely Turia Park.

The second video is from the jaw-dropping City of Arts & Sciences, just wandering around leisurely.

I love the sounds on both of these video clips, just stuff and sometimes chit chat and sometimes industrial clanging or children shouting. But sometimes just an incredible silence that is almost unfathomable in the middle of a huge city. Wonderful.

Thanks for watching. And have a great weekend.

Weekend diary, part 2

Saturday, 24 November (continued)
So to get to the big, long park, we first had to walk down a big, wide street. But this big, wide street was super-groovy, cos it had a big, wide walkway running down the middle of it -- kind of like a mini-park in its own right. People were out walking their dogs, couples were canoodling by their cars, and the occasional tramp was sitting on a bench with his shopping cart of worldly possessions next to him.

We walked past a cool tree, which looked like it was straight out of Pan's Labyrinth, too. Here's some video of this bit of the walk, including the tree and a sneak peek at the big park below us at the end of the clip.



So then we climbed down some steps into the park, and it was coooooool, like I said yesterday. And we walked and walked. We wanted to walk to the City of Arts & Sciences designed by Santiago Calatrava. We didn't realize how far it was. It looked quite near on the map!

But eventually we spotted a bit of the famous architecture, rising up from the horizon, and this spurred us on. We had flown in over the complex, and it looked amazing from the air. We simply had to go there. We walked and walked some more.

Finally we hit a fence. We could see where we wanted to be on the other side, but there was no direct route. So we followed the fence around, hoping it would eventually lead us to an entrance of sorts. And it did. But this was our first real sense of how much building work is still ongoing in Valencia. It is Spain's third-largest city, and yet it is still relatively undiscovered (save for the America's Cup being held there earlier this year). As a result of this newfound interest in the city, it seems there is a push to make it as tourist friendly as possible as quickly as possible.

Once outside the Ciutat, we sat a while and took some photos, then walked around the complex a little, down as far as the Oceanogràfic, which is an enooooormous aquarium type thing. We wanted to see how much it cost to get in and what the opening hours were for the Sunday, which we did.

But we had walked a long way from the hotel, and we knew we had to get back eventually. First, though, Red was keen to make our way to the Shop of the America's Cup, down in the port, in the hopes of buying a little something for her mum. So, off we set, following our trusty map. We came out from the Oceanogràfic and chucked a left. It looked a bit ... undeveloped ... but that's all good. We walked past some tourists on a corner who looked lost. But we had our map and we rounded the corner, only to find there was nowhere to go.

We doubled back and asked the tourists if they were looking for the port, too. They were. The six of us were now on a combined mission...

Too busy to blog

Just so you know, y'know?

Also, Happy Thanksgiving to those who celebrate it about now. We English don't celebrate it, but I know it's something to do with this:



Also, here's some video of me getting tattooed last weekend.

Love is in the air

Speaking of love, I had my 35,000th hit to this site. Looks like it was Camie Vog. Whoever it was, thanks to you all for your continued visits.

Holiday stories, part 3

So, yeah, we were at Isola Bella, and it was wicked. Then this happened:



Can you imagine? Shoes. Washing away. Talk about drama!

Then we went for a boat ride around Isola Bella. I've got some cool footage of that too, and I'll upload it soon. I haven't even taken it off the tape and on to my hard drive yet, but maybe over the weekend I'll get around to it.

It was totally awesome. I wore my bandana and looked just like a pirate, specifically I looked just like Johnny Depp. Proper gorgeous I was. We got to this amazing patch of still, clear water (which all of it is) and the skipper turned off the engine and said, in Italian: "Have a swim if you like." There was an older English couple who didn't understand what he said and they were concerned about what was going on.

"I think he said we could have a swim," said the man to his wife.
"Is he joking?" asked the wife of her man.

But I guess they found that he wasn't when people started jumping in. Several people had a go. The water, he told us, was about 30m (100ft) deep. But it was soooo clear that Red could see her feet as she trod water. Insania!

I'm not a great swimmer, and by the time I'd plucked up the balls to have a splash around -- after Red had told me how salty it was, and so how it would be impossible to drown! -- the skip turned the engine back on. Oh well.

After the trip was over we headed for a bite to eat at an unassuming little beachside restaurant. We both ordered seafood dishes, and while we were eating, the waiter came over to the table next to us with three or four fish in his hands. "Which one would you like?" he asked them. "They were caught ten minutes ago by that guy over there," he added, pointing to a fisherman fiddling around with his boat. The fish was that fucking fresh it was alive just minutes earlier! Man... Sicily is rockin' it old school, no doubt.

Holiday stories, part 2

On one day we headed down to Isola Bella. It was a long walk down the hillside steps, but it was a great walk, too. Almost all the way down the views were stunning, and at every corner you would hear a little scurry or two as you approached. The scurrying was the sound of lizards, which would run away as you neared. Clearly they were loving just lounging in the sun, and we were busting their balls.

Some would return if you stood still long enough, and they'd just stand there, keeping their distance, and stare at you. This one was great, for example: he even allowed me to get this short clip of him, from a long way off, hence the shaky footage!



Once we got down to Isola Bella, wow, what a place. The name means "beautiful island" in Italian, and it is a small island joined to Sicily by a sandbar through shallow, crystal-clear seawater. Sometimes the sandbar is walkable without getting wet. We got there when the tide was a touch higher, so we waded through in our sandals. It was still just ankle-deep.

Once we got to the other side, we waded some more, counting the fish, and swam some, and just sat around dangling our feet in the glorious water:



Lots of people were just hanging around or sunbathing or canoodling or taking pictures of their loved ones.



One little Italian girl was getting her mum or auntie to apply some temporary tattoos. They were stood just across from us. "Look," I heard the woman say to the girl, "at that man's tattoos!" Who, me?


More stories and video clips from this day will follow in the next post...

A (long overdue) video for Lee

For Lee. With thanks to Red for her assistance behind the camera.

Other recent bits and pieces

If you'd like to read my 100th movie review, head on over to Such As They Are for the lowdown on David Lynch's masterpiece Mulholland Dr.

And if you'd like to see a mathematical equation related to cats, click along to Cat: A Blog of Disasters to see what happens when I'm without a TV. I just have to make my own fun!

One-minute bathroom

This is a video of some of our bathroom. It lasts one minute. Thanks to Stiff Little Fingers for music that lasted the same length of time.