Re-learning Typing

We requested some ergonomic keyboards, and I now have to re-learn how to type.  For example, I clearly used to typing B using the wrong hand, and now I could not reach across.  I will be spending time at http://www.typingtest.com/ to practice when I have a chance!

Great British Food Festival Opel vs Meat

I have not participated in any food challenges before, as most of them neither achievable nor paying price money, ie economical outcome.

While I was at the Great British Food Festival, the food challenge was sausage and cider for £5.  I was looking for lunch, and thought, for £5, I could be filled up with food, especially when all the other food in the festival were expensive.  The sausages were Simon's 18" British Farmhouse sausages, and the cider was cheap Blackthorn, I thought I could tolerate the cider.  So I signed up.

I was the only woman on the line up, all the men were much bigger and taller, I was sizing them up.


As soon as we started, I knew I was using a wrong method by biting the sausage.  I quickly changed my method to follow the leaders, I broke them into bite sizes and applied to face.


I made the second round.  The two losers were not trying very hard, perhaps they only aimed to get a £5 lunch with a drink.


I was clearly not making the final, so it was my final few bites. At the end of my challenge, I took 4 minutes to finish about 28 inches worth of sausages (about 6 normal sausages), and brought the remaining 10 inches back to the seat for Sarah and me to finish off.   I think I lost because of the size of my jaw and my esophagus, I must learn to chew faster!

I think I could do it again in the future, but similar to today, I would only do it when it is food that I like!

Great British Food Festival 2017

After some bargain hunting, we went to Great British Food Festival at Harewood.  Even with discount, it was still expensive!  We kept telling ourselves that since it included entry to Harewood grounds and part of the house, it was worth it.

The deal included a recipe book, which was not very exciting.  When we for a goodie bag each, again, I was not particularly impressed.  The size of the whole fair was not much bigger than the Wetherby Food Festival, and a little smaller than Derbyshire Food Festival, this has made me appreciate Wetherby Food Festival more.

We saw Bleiker's Smokehouse again, the representative remember me from Pickering Game fair and promised a good deal.  We decided to revisit them later in the day.

At one point, there were two armed policemen patrolling the food festival, and by the end, they were playing with children on their patrol vehicle.  They much have drawn the longest straw!

We arrived quite early and had a walk around before it all got busy, we saw a few demonstrations, and had a loads of free tasting.  Then I signed up for a challenge, I had to stop eating!

After the challenge, Sarah sat down for her lunch, then we went around for more freebies.  We sat to watch the Man v Heat challenge, someone did vomit.

We explored the house and garden. 

We went back to watch the final challenge, and tried more samples.  We bought more smoked fish flakes and a pair of kippers and some Bexton Cheese.  A nice sunny and fruitful day.  We can't wait to try the kippers.

Aged SRAD

I took little Rome to Genspeed for valve adjustment and carburetor clean.  It has got better and it still feels a little different.  I just have to keep adjusting to her new normal!

Cocoa Powder Brownie

I usually object brownies made with cocoa powders.  I have tried some that dries my throat and made me cough.  I ran out of chocolate and I want to run down my cocoa supplies, I made some for the weekend.  It turned out quite well except it had a sticky surface.  Now I am out of both chocolate and cocoa, I won't be making brownie for a while!

Heat Stroke in England

I was working outside for 3 hours, without much water intake, then I was playing tennis for another 2.5 hours.  I was roasted and mildly influenced by the heat.  And I scream, "I didn't move here for this!"

Microsoft One Note OCR

When the Windows ask me to turn on One Note, I thought it was absolutely useless.  Then I discovered that it has OCR function, I am now sold!  I have extracted a lot of texts from an old document, now I just need to painstakingly format it.  OCR did half the job, I could have to retype the whole thing!  Let's hope One Note did a decent job in the OCR process.

Bleiker's Hot Smoked Flakes

When we were at the Pickering Fair, we were determined to find food to supplement our picnic.  Sarah has passed on the smoke salmon slices, so I have decided on the smoked fish flakes.  Bleiker's Smokehouse had a stall at the show.  I have definitely seen them somewhere.  I bought some mackerel and salmon.  Since it was at the show, it was on offer, and I got 7 packs, and I have been having fish everyday.  They taste nice and they are great for snacks!  Too bad their website does not carry this provide, I should try to look out for these types of products to increase our fish consumption.

Trampoline Park

I found a deal to the local trampoline park, Jump Inc.  I convinced Sarah to go, the older we get, the less likely we would try something like this.  It turned out quite hard, it got quite warm very quick.  There were different type of trampolines, different areas.  I liked the airbag areas the best, I did a few flips.  I don't think I could ever get high enough to slam dunk.  I grazed my elbow when I could not complete a front roll in the air.  I really think trampolining is more dangerous than motorcycling!  We are glad we tried it.

Pickering Game and Country Fair

Pickering Game and Country Fair is advertised everywhere.  We took the opportunity to go this year.

We set off quite early, but was still caught in traffic.

The front portion of the fair is like a boot sale.  Then old steam engines and antique cars, lastly the usual game and country fair.  It is a big fair, it has a few things we have not seen before, such as tractor pull, Mounted Games and heavy horse show.

I took a lot of pictures, but the shitty cameras doesn't focus very well, I should have brought my Canon EOS.

Picnic at Roundhay

We had a picnic at Roundhay, we just caught the back end of the sun, and it started raining.  I am still not sure what is the point of picnic, ie eating outside on the grass.  More to prove my point, leaves and insects keep falling into my food!

Mail Orders

Queenie has been asking for the strangest of thing.  It is a mean to move my GBP to HKD and kill some time, but it is seriously weird!

Go Private

In my annual medical check, I chatted with a doctor.  I asked him should I stay with NHS or private, he said private, for a simple fact it is flexible.  Let's wait and see.

Wrist Tendonitis

My wrist hurts, and I am still not sure what caused it.  Steve thought it is carpal tunnel, but after some research on the internet, I am pretty sure it is not carpal tunnel, it is likely to be wrist tendonitis.  As usual, not much helpful tips, just keep them immobolised.

Rear View Prospective

When people say the 2000s was better than now, they are no different to people who say 1970s was better than now, and they are no different to people who say 1950s was better than now.


We are at where we are at, because we did not live a sustainable lifestyles and we are now feeling the consequences.  Those people who reminisce the past are also the ones wrecked for us.  So let's plan forward, and not make the same mistakes again.

Morbid Downers

I have been dreaming about the pasts and my mortality.  A new phase of life.

Lawn Tennis

Sarah and I were messing around with tennis rackets on a poorly conditioned grass lawn.  It was fun.  We both prefer the court though.

Glamping in Leicestershire

I always associate glamping locations with national parks, but clearly as long as the land owner makes an effort, glamping can you anywhere.

We went to Syston, there was space, animals, a wood burning stove, BBQ, hammock, canoe, apart from poor sleeps, it was fun.

Potatoes Week

I got a lot of marked down potatoes.  I am quite bored with hash brown and baked potatoes already!  Another 2kg to go!

New Tennis Season

I have been using my Slazenger racket for 9 years, and still like it.  Then I thought I would play with Carol's Z-Lite.  I played with it a few times, and I did not like it.  But this season, I am enjoying playing with the Z-Lite.  I put it down to change in playing style and fitness level.  Hope just hope I can get rid of the surplus rackets and get some balls!

Tennis Tuesday

So I was curious about the tennis session with coach on Tuesday, so I signed up.  On meetup.com it did not advertised as charged event.  Anyway, it was very elementary.  As it turns out, it is part of Tennis Tuesday, and they laid a bait!  As it is sponsored by Nike, there are Nike goodies up for grabs, and I am still debating if I should take the bait.  Sarah is not questioning the baits, rather the potential non-delivery of the baits.

Yellow Fluff Day

The Sun is shining and the tennis rackets saw the daylight again.  I was wearing a fleece and I got yellow fluff everywhere!  I do like playing tennis.  I need to remember that.

Motorcycle Gear Spring

Ruth is interested in learning motorcycle and I am prepared to lend her some of my clothing. 


Motorcycle gear rarely get washed, people with dead flies from decades ago still stuck on their leather.  I gave one of the jacket a clean, then one thing leads to another, I washed another jacket, the gloves, the cheek pads, etc.  They do needed a clean!

Robin Hood's Bay Power Loss

We took the long route to Robin Hood's Bay.  We drove into the weather, and the dramatic North Sea.



We were tired and hungry, but as soon as we stopped, we were informed they were experiencing a power loss, so we had to go elsewhere!

Missing Transaction

I was browsing my bank statements and I could not find a large transaction. Then the paper statement turned up, and they do not match!  How annoying!!

Gig Economy

I have dabbled it on Opendesk, I have been on Houston's Uber and used it once on Airbnb.  I am still disagreeing with them, I will call it a quit on them all.

Faulty Multimeter

I have been using an old cheap multi-meter since 2010.  It has been in the rain, it has been abused, but it was giving plausible readings, so I am still using it.  When I was using it to measure the coil, then it was clear it was not zero-ing.  I thought it was the leads, and it turned out, it is the meter.  I am still debating if I should throw it.

Godiva 72% Cacao Dark Chocolate

Description is "Rich and Smooth",  I would describe it "boring"...

GSXR SRAD Ignition Coils

I learnt from my maintenance class that the ignition coils in motorcyle is a low voltage, individual coil, ie stick coil and the misfiring maybe related to them.

So I tool them out to measure their resistances.  The primary resistance should be 0.07-0.11 ohms and
the secondary should be 4.5-6.9 K-ohms.  The readings changed a lot when I measured them hot and cold.  Then the readings when cold was still a bit out, then I realise my shitty multimeter is not very accurate and my shitty leads are giving a high initial resistance readings.  So I concluded the readings were fine.

Then I start looking for signs of damage and overheating.  The contacts were clean, but there is slight discolouration on the shank.  So I decided to replace them, lets hope for the best.

Chatsworth Farm Shop

We took the opportunity to visit the Chatsworth Farm Shop.  We thought parking maybe a problem so we parked at Calver and walked to Chatsworth Farm Shop.

The walk was okay, I slipped once on the wet grass.



I think the farm shop is a little over-rated, I will even go as far saying Cannon Hall's was better.  On our way back, Sarah pointed out everything with the Chatsworth colours in all the villages.

Paddy in YHA

We have used Paddy in B&B before and it worked.  We were so happy that Paddy worked on the YHA cloud!  All caught up with the TV programmes!