Durham Revisited

Sarah and I was on a National Holidays trip, and we stopped at Durham for a few hours.  We caught up with some Avenites and walked around Sarah's old home town.


It was a surprisingly nice day.



The Cathedral is definitely more worn than York Minster.


The drinking scene seems very alive this neck of the wood, the pubs were packed inside and out!

Windows 10 Free Upgrade

The computer reminded me the free upgrade is still available, and so it happens, it was the last day.  So I went for it!  The worst it could happen could be having to revert back to the older Windows.  So it installed okay and appears to run okay.  I am quite happy with the little bit of modern technology in my house.

Willie's Cacao Venezuelan Gold Rio Caribe 72

This one tastes much better than the other Willie's, I am finally getting to the better stuff. It reminds me of Valrhona Chocolate, which is not a particularly high compliment to Willie's. Hope the last two bars won't disappoint me.

Chores!

So many chores, they are getting in the way of exercises!  The lawn is particularly time consuming!!

Overloading

I need to learn to care less.  Life is difficult when you care.

Weighing Money

The other day, the staff at the post office was weighing the coins to confirm their total values.  Then when I was in HSBC making an old fashion withdrawal, the notes were weighed on a scale rather than a counting machine.


I have seen people weighing coins, but maybe it is the way forward, weighing instead of counting.

Bad Coffee

I am always drawn to coffee on offer, those with the shiny packages.  I really need to be more picky about my coffee and not buy these coffee that I am not confident with.  Now I have loads of coffee for guest and emergency...

BBQ in Suffolk

I have never been to Suffolk, so I took the opportunity to ride with the club.  The ride was fairly boring, but Suffolk is fairly nice.

The setup was quite impressive.

There were tons of food.  And it was a nice day out.

Homemade Mochi

Sarah likes mochi, and I said I find the factory made one quite sweet and artificial.  I searched online and found another Christine's recipe.  I have never made mochi before, as I usually just make rice dumplings in soup, I have plenty of experience with glutinous rice.

At the Chinese supermarket, there were some mochi on offer, Sarah bought some for stock.  We got the basic ingredients and have to make a few changes to Christine's.  Sarah has not got a big wok to accommodate a plate, so we have to use a small steamer.  Red bean paste all comes in a big bag, since we have a load of tahini, and I thought we just make sweeten sesame paste.

The end result was quite good.  I still think it is a lot of hassle, so I may just take a short cut and make rice dumplings instead.

Growing Soft

I may be doing some longer motorcycle journey, and I think either I am growing soft or I am influenced (by others).  I must keep up with my mental training!

Experimental Baking

Baking is a science, and I am quite 'liberal' in my baking attitude.  Let's just call it experimental.  And just name the baked good as they come out of the oven.

Dumb Phone Setups

We setup the new phone for Sarah, and she is experiencing with the modern technologies.

Then I am left with the old phones to play with.  Much like old computers, I quite like to find a use for their retirement before their eventual death.  It was really quite hard to find a low power tasks for these old phones to do, I think it can only be effectively used as bed-side web browser only.  And simply just a phone.  How dumb is a smart phone before it is considered a dump phone?

Waitrose Angus Flat Iron Steak

Flat iron was the steak we had on Amtrak.  I was not convince they would be good when I saw it on television, but I was converted.

I stopped at Waitrose enroute back from Rockingham.  When I walked past the meat counter, I was drawn to the flat iron's offer!  It was 66% off!  And the butcher behind the counter was pushing to sell me both steaks saying they can be frozen.  I opted for the bigger steak and Sarah was not prepared to have a big steak dinner, so we ended up slicing some of it for stirfry.  The steak was quite thick and I should have butterflied it.  So we ended up having to cooked it three time as each time they were still too rare.

I must keep my eyes peel for brilliant offer like this!

BikeSafe 2016 National Show & Track Experience at Rockingham

This year instead of BikeWise I opted for BikeSafe 2016.  I expected more of the same thing, except it is on a race circuit and with a potential track experience.

Being in a race circuit was a new experience.  The tunnel going between the paddock and the stand is interesting.

This BikeSafe is smaller than the BikeWise at Aykley Heads.  Fewer shows, fewer rides and as a result fewer kids, which is good.  Dave Coates was there doing stunts.  It appeared to have more bike test ride stands; I could have tried on a few new bikes if I had not left my helmet at the bike.  The stands were rather regional, there were two writers selling their motorcycle travel books.  The clientele is Midlandish, and I rather prefer the Northern crowd.  I took the opportunity to try the Extreme Wheelie 'simulator'.  While I was in the queue there was this misogynistic guy suggested to the other lady in the queue that she would be at the back of the boyfriend's bike as he does wheelie on the way home, to which she replied, "I am on my own bike, thank you very much."  And he was also troubled by my gender and called me "lad".  This was not painting a good picture for the Midlanders.

There were a lot of motorcycle cops from a few forces came up for a jolly.  The cop to show goers ratio was definitely much higher than BikeWise.

So it was my turn on the wheelie machine, it was hard work.  My arms were clinging onto the bike, at the same time I was supposed to apply good control on the throttle, it was difficult.  I don't think the real life wheelie would be any easier.  It maybe easy to just pop the front for a few second, and it will be hardwork to sustain the lift.  I am glad I ticked the box and would never do it again.

They also have the track experience setup.  I enquired about the requirement, and maybe next time when BikeSafe is back on a circuit, I shall sign up and tick off the track experience.

Lastly I chatted with the blood bikers.  I asked how I could volunteer, and they pointed me to google.  I found the White Knights.  I don't have IAM and not planning to do it anytime soon, so maybe they could have my service in the future.

I got a couple neck tubes and a pile of motorcycle magazines.  It was not a bad day out.

Terrible EE Service

We decided to get a phone and went ahead to get it from the EE shop online.  I placed the order online and only had to call to confirm the order.

So I went to pick up the order to find out I was over charged by £22 and it did not contain everything I requested.  I then had to spend 2 x 45 minutes phone call to the customer service to try to sort this out.  The first phone call, the line was cut after I had been on hold for 30 minutes.  Then I waited for 5 minutes for them to call back before I called them back again.

All the customer service staff were by late afternoon heavily abused and were agitated.  Obviously I was annoyed, and I haven't even started having a go at them, they were very rude.  They already started saying that I did not need to call them repeatedly.  At the end of the day, if this was not sorted, I would ring them until it is sorted.

They promised the refund will be with me before end of the month.  And I will definitely ring them again if that was not the case.

What a horrible experience!  I will make sure the future purchase I opt for the most direct purchase, ie over the counter purchase.

Reining in the Refunds

These days I do a bit of online shopping, but sometimes I need to arrange return.  The whole process of returning and refunding is the hardest of the online shopping experience.  I returned something earlier in the month and the refund had not come through, so I had to call.  Hard work reining in the money!

Kendrew the Car

Much like Endee, I only name something when the name comes to me.  So I saw the name Kendrew and I thought I could use it somewhere.  So I am now naming my Ibiza Kendrew.  Let's home Kendrew likes it.

Motorcycle Helmet Shelves

I got a set of IKEA Kallax from Leeds Freegle and I didn't know where to put it.  Then it occurs to me that it fits well where the "motorcycle pile" under the stairs.  The shelf is also well sized for a helmet.  I am happy with the addition!

Savory Nori Snack

When I saw the nori was on sale in Sainsbury, I bought loads.  Now I am eating them as if they were snacking seaweed, which is great.  Sarah is worry about my iodine dosage.

Hot Toasts with Real Butter

I am still trying to get through the pile of butter I bought.  And since I have some bread, I take the opportunity to have hot toasts with real butter.  It is one simple joy.

White Horse Cafe Thirsk

I had been to this café with the bikers and it could not be too bad.  I pointed to Keiko the deep fried black pudding, deep fried burger and deep fried battered sausages.  I tried their Yorkshire fish cake, and it was acceptable.  I think the fishcake had been sitting in the heat cupboard for a long time and the potato was thoroughly softened.  I just cannot believe I found a bone in the fish!  Maybe I will not have the fish next time when I am there.

Real Charcoal

I was looking online everywhere to look for charcoal.  I gave up and resigned to the reformed briquettes.  Then I was driving off, I saw some lumpwood charcoal in the petrol station.  So I got a bag, and drive back to return the briquettes.

Some might say briquettes is more scientific and potentially burns better.  But the briquettes do not crackle the way real wood does, and it does not produce aroma like real wood.  I was happy I got the charcoal and I was happy with the result.

England's finest view - Sutton Bank

I took Keiko to Sutton Bank, my usual spot.  There were signposts from the visitor centre to the "finest view in England", so we followed the path, and it took us back to where we were!


I later found out Sutton Bank also made it to the Visit England website!  Definitely sending all my tourists there in the future.

Snug Trap III

I encourages another big slug daddy into swim, and he disappeared afterwards.  Looks like slug trap is no use for big slugs.  I will kill them at spot in the future.

Clean XP

I put a clean copy of XP on to the old laptop and it is much happier.  There are a few outstanding issues which I probably don't want to deal with, including changing the BIOS batteries.  Lets see how much longer I can get the computer going.

Resuscitating Computers

I tried to resuscitate an old desktop and failed.  Both of these desktop probably have motherboard issues.


So I changed tack and tried to put Windows 7  onto the old laptop.  It was all good, I am able to carry out remote desktop and read Chinese but not all the drivers are Win 7 compatible.  I lost my wifi.


I think I will just step back and put a clean copy of XP of this old laptop.

Harrogate Band at Wetherby Bandstand

We went to Wetherby Bandstand for the sunny Sunday afternoon.  Harrogate Band was playing and I could already imagine them being good.


They started off with some matching band style music playing.  Doing so, they brought themselves closer to the audience.


They have a very multi-talented percussion crew.  They had some 7 instruments between them.


The conductor threw in some bad punts in between the music.


We were also impressed by age range.  I will look forward to seeing them again.

Yorkshire Museum of Farming

We got a stack Yorkshire tourism material and picked a handful of attraction to visit.  One of which is the Yorkshire Museum of Farming, aka Murton Park.  We went there first thing in the morning fearing for the influx of children.  We were glad when we were informed the children usually come during the week as part of school trip.

There was a re-enactment of the middle ages, and we played around with the different food stuff, different herb and stuff.  But since there weren't very many visitors, they were not "fighting' very hard.

There were some animals, and the collection were not as impressive as Temple Newsam.



The bonus was the Derwent Valley Light Railway.  Sarah absolutely loved the little train ride. 

Cat Poo in the Garden

There is a cat that likes to poo in my flower bed.  I don't mind it too much excepts it stinks.  I just bury them into the flower bad hoping they are not bad for my plants.  Why is the cat doing it?  I have a cat mint at the back that attracts no cat.  Why cant the cat bury its own poo, then it would bother me less.

Opodo

Opodo, always wait for a discount code before booking.  I am kicking myself for not having saved another 10%.

Dead Cat Bounce

Sarah seems to think Wake Up to Money is a hard core geeky financial programme, I quite like it as it is quite broad overview.  I heard the phrase "dead cat bounce" from this programme the first time.  They actually modified it to call it "dead kitten bounce".


Then I googled it to see the origin, and there are many helpful and amusing graphic.