Travel Blog, Opinions and Other Random Things
Ingredients:
1 x onion chopped
1 x leek sliced
2-3 cloves of garlic chopped
2 x carrots sliced
2 x celery sticks sliced
300g Waitrose New Zealand Venison Mince
1 teaspoon Herbes de Provence
1 teaspoon black pepper
1 tablespoon cornflower
approx half a pint of vegetable stock
some butter and oil for frying
6 x medium potatoes for the topping
Recipe
Had some frozen venison sitting in the freezer, so decided to make a venison shepherd’s pie. Takes about an hour to cook.
Here are some tips from my trip to Iguazu Falls. You really don’t need to take an official tour, as the waterfalls are very easy to get to on your own. You can either walk or get a taxi or Uber to them, on both sides. It takes about half a day to visit the Brazil side and nearly a full day for the Argentine side(it’s a lot bigger and more developed). Try to visit the Brazil side first and then the Argentine side, both are very spectacular, but that is the best combination in my opinion.
Made this one up out of nowhere! Was meant to be another country style song, but it turned into a Wild West story type AND my first fully written song. Classify as that because the base ideas for the Cat song came from my friends Paul & Joel and was largely a standard blues progression, whereas this one contained all my own ideas, chords, lyrics + plucking strings intro. It somehow got much more serious than the epic Cat song, but that kind of just happened 😀
Should say this all happened after seeing the excellent docu-movie Motown, when found myself somewhat inspired to write another song.
In April 2019, I crossed the King Hussein Bridge from Jordan into Israel. There are a couple of other blogs out there I found, but none seemed to give as much detail as would like to have had, so here is my account.
This blog details the crossing at the King Hussein Bridge (also known as the Allenby Bridge) from Jordan into Israel. There are other border points, but this is meant to be the easiest one, as long as you already have a Jordan entry stamp/visa*. All you really need is to be somewhat prepared and to have some patience. Please make sure to know details about your trip to Israel, as you will be asked – which hostel/hotel you’re staying in, what you will be doing there and how long you’ll be there. Also have a copy on your phone or printed-out of your return flights if possible + make sure to have some cash on you to pay for the bus crossing. There is a Bank of Jordan at the border, but having some cash to start with, saves any extra bother(there are several ATMs in central Amman). Due to the interview and times taken give yourself about 4 hours to cross this border.
* = you usually get a Jordan entry stamp/visa on arrival at the airport or wherever. If you do not have one, then use another crossing, as the King Hussein Bridge does not issue visas.
My old house mate Henry has taken up running and as usual he’s really going for it. Hadn’t seen him in a while and he tells me he’s running like 4 or 5 days a week! To me this was amazing! Why? Well, I’ve always liked running, with the pinnacle being winning the 100metres and the 4x100m relay at sports day as a kid. Also over the years have done Park Runs, various 5kms, 10k’s and half-marathons + have run the London Marathon back in 2011 and Stockholm Marathon in 2018, BUT have never trained more than 2 or 3 days a week, except one possible time when I think I ran for 4 days in a week, but that was as a test to absolutely force myself. Anyways…
After running the Stockholm Marathon and returning from a bit of travel around Scandinavia, next athletic ‘task’ was to train for the Prudential Ride 100 Surrey bike ride. Had a whole month and a half for that one. Done a lot of biking in my time, espec as a teenager with my bike expert friend Ben Hall, but have only biked over 50 miles in one day 3 times – twice for the London to Brighton bike ride and once this May, with my brother-in-law(Stephen) from Milton Keynes to Wimbledon(81miles). I don’t actually own a racing bike, my bike is a Boardman RaceMX hybrid, but that thing is a bit heavy for proper long-distance, so earlier this year I managed to borrow my nephew-in-law’s white Bianchi, which is rather a nice and much lighter bike. Thanks to this and inspite of Wimbledon tennis and the football World Cup being huge distractions, I completed the Prudential Ride 100 Surrey!
After many years of half-writing songs, finally decided to finish one!
Unbeknown to most, I’ve actually played the guitar for over 20 years, just not very well(blame that on not practicing properly and for being left-handed, but playing right-handed). Anyways, wanted to finish a song for a long while and today was finally managed to do that.
The theme of the song was inspired by my friend and Country Rock listening pioneer Paul Sell(who reckons Country Rock is the next big thing to hit England) and the style of the song by Joel Cross who suggested I do a blues song. oh and of course Henry and Grahamina the cat!
It’s an Old style country / blues song of how an angry lady runs over a man’s pet cat with a garbage truck.
Originally made this on March 21st 2018. It might look a bit stodgy, but tastes fantastic!
Cook time = about 1 hour
Main Ingredients:
Chicken breast cut and flattened with a rolling pin. You can probably make two bits from one breast this way.
A large jacket potato or two.
One large carrot (peeled and chopped in two)
An onion
Bisto gravy granules, dash of Worcestershire sauce and some cranberry juice for gravy
An egg in a bowl to help coat the chicken
January 2017 – a new year and a new job, working in central London for the next month or two. On my first lunch break (I get a whole 40mins), sitting in Pret a Manger on Carnaby St, found myself struck by the number of places to eat in the area. Thus began my “Eat at a Different Lunch Place every day when working in London Challenge 2017“. There were/are no rules really, except no take-aways, you must sit in the place to eat! Also, I do try to keep the cost as cheap as possible, which has become to mean, less than £10 – blame the location. Originally I aimed at 30 places, as that would be a month’s worth, but then I (surprisingly) got re-hired and decided to keep it going. Despite the walking distances and difficultly of find places increasing and a desperately strong desire to go back to previous establishments, I have persisted and been rewarded with a surprisingly good and varied cuisine for lunch. So, here is my 2017 lunch-challenge diary so far…
Notes: Yes, I’m still updating this list – as it comes from my phone and I’m still trying to workout/remember some of the places.
Also Yes, I will add quite a lot of these to Trip Advisor at some point – already a Level 4 contributor 🙂
This is a long blog write up of my trip to the Lake District in Feb 2017, it’s purely for amusement and to (erm) write something. Back in 2007 I attempted to climb Scafell Pike and got lost on the mountains(another long story), so I decided to re-visit the place this year with my friend Paul. He’s lived in the USA the past 17 years, so was well up for this trip to arguably the finest of English countryside.
Tues 14th Feb 2017
The plan for the morning: up at 8am, breakfast, pack car, 9am head to Wimbledon, go for 10km run, back by 10:30am, pick up Paul and head to Lancaster!