Rouge Spicy Meatballs

I was looking for mince to use up my onions and tomato, then I came across a nice looking pack of spicy meatball.  The mark down stickers were covering the brand, they were from the Yorkshire Meatball Co.  I cooked them with 1.5kg of onion and 4 tins of tomato, and when I started eating them, they were still noticeably spicy!  If someone just cooked them with normal recipe, it would have been potent!  I was trying to look for these meatballs again, but they could not be found in the supermarket's website anymore!  I will be more careful when I next see spicy meatballs!

Power Steering Fault II

On my way to work, I turned a corner and the power steering fault light came up.  I was not happy.  The power steering was faulty about a year ago, and I could not believe it was happening.  I kept driving down, and contemplating contacting the garage last repaired it, or calling AA again.  Then just before I turn into work, the fault light went off and it was operating normally again.  I could not work out what caused it, let's hope it doesn't play up again!

Jane Austen Tenner

I was using the cash machine at work and a Jane Austen tenner came out.  I knew it was coming out, but I didn't know it had already come out.  It is quite nice looking note.  The canteen machines however would not take the new note, so I ended up topping up the card with £20.

No Meerkat 2017

I had use a website for insurance comparison for the past two years, and this year, it did not give me the best quote, so I won't get a meetkat toy this year...

Homemade Nutella Crêpe

As inspired by our trip, also for the fact we did not eat a sweet crêpe when we were in France, we made some at home.  My pancake machine is small, but it did the trick, maybe I really should get some spray oil.  The Nutella did return to normal consistence after being warmed up, I really got to use up my old Nutella!

Montpellier Tour - Day 4

We took the last opportunity to rest.  We checked out as late as we could and headed into town. 

Just about everything was shut on the Sunday, the street was very quiet.  Sarah found on the internet about the flea market by the aqueduct.  The flea market was celebrating the 5th anniversaries, there was some free food and drink.  We got a bit of bread and passed on the wine.  The offerings were interesting.  Sarah and I were both tempted by a few things, and those remotely interested us were extortionate, so we left empty handed.  We swung by the botanical garden before looking for lunch.

We stopped at the same square where we had sandwich the other day.  This time we opted for a French restaurant.  I had the boring chicken and fries with a glass of rose wine, and Sarah had goat cheese starter and monk fish.  We waited for a long time for the food, luckily the restaurant gave out olives and I had an apple earlier.

The rose wine was very blend.  Sarah enjoyed her cheese and monk fish.  We were both full of fries by the end.  I wish we had room for a chocolate parfait, but we again could not find room for a dessert!  We also only managed a 1.5 hours lunch fare.  In hindsight, I would love to see the look on a French if I tried to make a chip butty! 

I tried to get Sarah to buy another salad for the plane, but she worried about the hot temperature would spoil it.  I saw a palmier the first day, and we bought one just before we left town.  I grew up with palmier in my local bakery, and my friend comes to associate me and my local bakery with palmier.  So I took a picture with it under a French flag and sent it along.

Sarah found the viewpoint above the conference centre, and we had a view of the city.  We could have hung out a little longer if it was not for the relentless Sun.  We did a little people watching in the shade before going back to the hotel.

At the hotel, we debated if we should sit outside for the breeze or sit inside away from the element.  We sat outside for the bit, but the breeze was very unreliable, we went back inside.  We continued our restful trip with more lazing and reading.

We went to the airport with lots of time to spare.  We finished off the apples, oat cakes and water before we boarded.  While we were boarding, we were informed the plane was full, so we resigned to not being able to sit together for 2 hours.  Then when we boarded, I had am empty sit next to me, and there were another 4 empty seats at the exit row!  I jumped to see Sarah at the first opportunity and she agreed to move to sit with me made me very happy.  I ate the palmier on the plane, it tasted okay.

We landed and we got out quite quickly, we got the car and went home.   Quite a relaxing and smooth trip.

Montpellier Tour - Day 3

Since we thought we comprehensively did the town and we planned to go to the beach.

We had a slow breakfast with the hot chocolate and I had another nap.

We finally went to the beach, it was hot and we went straight to the recommended restaurant.  The outdoor dining area was full and we settled for a table just inside the patio windows.  We had to Google just about every item on the menu.  We opted for more French food, I had seafood soup and squid, Sarah had beef stew and fruit salad.  Mimicking the French, we managed a 1.5 hours lunch fare.

The Sun was relentless.  We walked along the beach and the market.  We bought souvenirs from Lidl.  Unlike the Aldi in Germany, the French does not have an automatic dispenser, they do have an interesting bread bin, where you move the bread to a chute.

We went home, and we were too late for a snooze.  We rested and went out to a recommended crêperie Le Kreisker.  On our way to Le Kreisker, we watched the 1 Euro crêperie, it has a rotating 5-crepe table with auto-batter dispenser, it seemed fast, but the crêpe maybe cooked unevenly, and there were a lot of cleaning as a lot of pancake makers were overheating empty.

Le Kreisker was busy and we waited for 15 minutes for a table while we consulted the menu.  We did not need too much Googling as the menu was translated.  I went straight for La Raclette and I recommended ratatouille to Sarah.  I wish we had the chestnut crêpe for dessert, but we were still very full from lunch!  What a shame that they are not open on Sunday!

Montpellier Tour - Day 2

We had a lazy morning and getting out of bed by 10am.  We strolled across the street for some bread and strolled into town.  The tourist information was quite helpful.  Sarah was a little disappointed that we missed the tour at the Medical Museum.

We wandered all over town, and the town was surprisingly small!  We wandered into a posh chocolate spread shop, we were tempted.  We swung be a highly rated Vietnamese restaurant and looked at the menu, I was disappointed. We opted not to go there.

We were experiencing a sugar crash and/or heat stroke, and we sat down for some sandwich. I had a French sausage roll, the sausage meat was quite tasty, but there were a lot of pastry.

We stopped for some ice-cream on our way home.  The coffee ice-cream was made with French coffee, ie dark roasted!  We went home for a nice long nap before dinner. We stopped by a shop to get some hot chocolate for the next morning.

We went to a recommended local modern French restaurant, we were struggling to translate what was on the menu, at the end I did not fancy their offering, by then we were also crashing!  I pointed at a French Restaurant and we went in. I was set on duck confit and chocolate fondant, while Sarah was trying to translate the rest of the offerings. Where the old dictionary fails, Google picked up the slack. I suggested Sarah to have the red mullet with leek, which turned out very nice. The dessert cheese was nice but not particularly exciting. The chocolate fondant was a little disappointing. But at least we ticked the French food off the box.

Montpellier Tour - Day 1

Since I was taking a whole day off, in additional to a slow lazy morning, I planned for works to be done in the morning before leaving for Montpellier in the evening.  I had the boiler guy and the burglar alarm guy both coming, and coincident they came at the same time, which made it all the more efficient.

Then just to prevent any unwanted cost from Ryanair, we went to the Crossgates Library to print out the boarding pass. The facilities in Crossgates Library is quite good, I am quite happy with it.

Then we went to have afternoon tea at the Bingley Arms.  The sandwiches were good, cakes were sweet and very filling as we hoped.  We took the cross country roads to the airport, which was very stressful for me driving on small roads and not knowing where I was going, at the end we arrived in plenty of time to keep Sarah from panicking.

We walked around the airport, packed the salad dressing in the toiletries bag, and went thorough the security. Everything went smoothly onto boarding. It was quite an empty flight, so I managed to move up to Sarah's at Row 1! We were then at the pole position to exit! We settled down and Sarah broke out her M&S salad. The Sun was setting as we flew onto the Mediterranean with a fairly nice view.

We were first to the immigration, and I was stamped without a single question being asked! We were out in France, we had 40 minutes to loiter before the next bus into town. We scrolled around the interactive materials from the tourism information booth.

We got into town and checked into the aparthotel. It was a long and productive day!

ESL Students Learn New Gender Pronouns | We the Internet TV

My sister forwarded me this spoof, and now I am subscribed to We the Internet TV!

Steak-Passingly Sick

I was feeling so unwell that I had to cancel my dinner plan.  I often think, being unwell is a good way to lose weight...

Bikers Hall of Shame

Biker who pulled wheelies on the M6 is jailed

A motorcyclist who performed wheelies and took a selfie while driving on the M6 has been jailed for eight months.

Pawel Zietowski, 27, was filmed by an unmarked police patrol for 16 minutes as he used his thighs to steer the bike and even rummaged through a backpack to find a mobile phone.
He was also given a driving ban of 28 months at Stoke-on-Trent Crown Court.
Central Motorway Police Group (CMPG) said officers filmed Zietowski in June between junction 12 and Stafford services.

On Your Marks at Bruntingthorpe

I spotted On Your Marks on the Visit Leicestershire website and I thought about going alone, but entry is charged per vehicle, I convinced Sarah and co to go.


We decided to go in the morning, beating the rain.  It was cold but at least it was dry.  The stunt shows were quite impressive.  I was too cheap to pay to go on an Audi R8.


It was not a bad day out.

ITF Great Britain F4 Futures

I spotted this ITF tennis tournament and dragged Sarah to go with me.  Sarah was not interested in standing in the cold, so I watched it on my own.  The courts are nice and easily accessible, maybe I will really make an effort to watch the ladies next Spring.



This is possibly Llyod Glasspool.



This is possibly Oliver Golding.

Uncivilised Australians

The Australian are given a non-binding, non-compulsory vote to indicate to their legislators if marriage equality should be enacted.  The majority of legislators from both party parties are in favour, however they palmed it off to ignorant citizens on such important issue.  The current poll says the result should be majority in favour, but we have heard that from the Brexit saga.


The propaganda materials from the no campaign, are so rudimental, that they are borderline uncivilised!  It shows the amount of education is required!  My sister is planning to abstain, despite my attempts to provide her with information and examples.  The idea that people hold such uncivilised views really further decrease my desire to visit this country.


All these makes me feel extra grateful for being in Western Europe.

Horrendous Wetherby Road Works

For weeks I have avoided going into Wetherby knowing there were major works resulting in road closure.


I went into town for a few bits, but I was driving in circles.  The road works were much worse than I imagined.  It literally was driving around to find my way out.  I got to where I wanted to be at the end, but it is best I continue to avoid the town until further notice.

Little Rome at 80

Little Rome hits 80k miles this morning.  Long live the SRAD.

God's Own Country

We watched God's Own Country in the Phoenix.  Sarah kept saying it is a LGBT movie, then I kept saying, it is a gay movie.  I wasn't particularly excited about the Yorkshire's Brokeback Mountain.


I pull myself to watch it anyway, as I describe this as my CPD.  We need to have some exposure to modern LGBT literature, culture and politics to keep up to date.


The movie was attempting to be cinematic.  The cultural details were good, but it may not be obvious to people who does not understand the British and/or British LGBT culture.


Then I remember, I had my CPD earlier when we were at the Leeds Pride Friday Film Fest.  As a full feature film, God's Own Country will be high on the CPD list, so it is good to get it over with.

Stoneygate Tram Depot

Rachel told us the Stoneygate Tram Depot was open as part of Heritage Open, so we went.  The open day included a vintage bus ride, which was bumpy but fun.


We came back to look in the tram pit.  They explained that tram does not need a turntable and even electric tram was available, that domestic electricity was still in its infancy, hence gas lamps.


There were so many artefacts featuring the City of Leicester coat of arms, but only one volunteer could explain the wyvern and the cinquefoil.  And the motto "Semper Eadem" means always the same.


It is good to learn something new.

Leicester Synagogue

Continue with the Heritage Open weekend, we went to Leicester Synagogue.  We were there early in the morning.  Their plaques outside had a calendar year 58xx.  I did not know Judaism believe in that too.


There were a lot of visitors.  The guide was quite good, quite knowledgeable.  She started the tour reminding us Jesus was a Jew.  I was surprise that we could see behind the curtain, containing the Ark of Covenant.  She mentioned there are a lot of rules could not be followed as there is no Temple.  What an easy way to get out of all the tedious sacrifices!


I did learnt, that star of David was probably a recent invention, probably date back to 15th century, but probably not invented by David.

BAPS Shri Swaminarayan Mandir, Leicester

As part of Heritage Open Days, we went to a Mandir, Hindu Temple.  This was my first guided tour to a Hindu Temple.  I went to one in Singapore unguided.


The guide started explaining, there is one truth and righteous path, and the different gods are just different manifestations of the way.  I suspect, he didn't know how many Hindu gods altogether either.  And Hindu believes in the concept of eternality, with no beginning and no end.


Then he was explaining how lotus was a symbol in Hinduism, how it rises above the mud into the beautiful blossom, I though it was suspiciously Chinese!


We looked around the temple, and he sat us down to have a little religious discussion.  He repeated a few religious stories, including the blind men and the elephant, again, it was suspiciously Chinese.


I let the two other visitors ask their questions, and I bit my tongue the whole time.  I really wanted to know if their temple practice the caste system!  I only opened my mouth to correct his comment relating Taoism with Hinduism.


When we saw the images of the different gods and sacred images were all blessed.  This is also a standard practice in Buddhism.  One of the sacred images was Hanuman, representing bravery and loyalty, which was probably the blue print for the Monkey King in Journey to the West!


We asked about their religious texts, but he was bluffing regarding the age of the artefacts.


By the end of the tour, I thought just how much Chinese teachings and cultural practices were from the Hindu teachings in Buddhism!


When we got home, we found our answers regarding the Sanskrit.  Then when I searched about Taoist Pangu, only to find out the Chinese world creation story was only written after the initial introduction of Buddhism into China, and story of Pangu resembles a traditional world creation story from Hinduism!

Luke's Departure

It was Luke's last day at work, we were all sad that he was leaving us.  I am particularly sad that my best worker was leaving.  But there is no use crying over spilled milk, I have so much work to do in preparation of Steve's decisions.

We had a lunch at the Pax Inn, and we all returned to work promptly.  Luke worked past 5, so I had to stay past 5!  More work to do next week!

Stewed Pork

I was using up some pork and instead of making a bland soup, I made it into a stewed pork with soup noodle.  I need to remember to use more seasonings.

Blackhead Removal Tool

I have found a few use for the blackhead removers.  I am now also removing some tar tar and it is also a good electronic implement!

Pronoun Education

How do you raise a child to understand a gender spectrum?


Person A  "It is important child X knows, a female can be a train driver too."
Person B  "It is definitely a 'he'"
Person C  "How do you know it is a 'he', just because of the hair?"
Person B  "It is important for child X to understand pronouns he and she."
Person C  "To understand that pronouns are meaningless?"
Person B  "It is depends on your point of view."


Few minutes later...
Person A  (a doll was on a latch, said to child X)  "Is she scared?"
Person C  "How do you know it is a 'she'?"
Person B  "She looks like a she from this angle."
Person C  "Just because it wears pink and has pony tail?"


Just name everything, it maybe easier.

Easy Digital Money

I am taking advantage of the Barclays interest free period but I was running close to the limit.  It only take one click to move the goal post further, it is too easy!

Breaded Weekend

As we were reorganising the cupboards, we needed to empty out some old flour dated 2016.  We made two loaves and had tasty fresh bread!

Leicester Pride 2017

We strolled to Victoria Park for a wander.  Everything seems normal except some stall has a penis measuring ruler, very disturbing.

The Last Sunflowers

Old batch with tortured beginning.
 
Freebie from open farm day.

 If we get a hamster, then it might just be the last of the sunflowers!!! As it will eat down all the seeds!!

Germany Tour 2017 - Day 5

The final day of our trip and we did not have much on the agenda.  We went to look for breakfast, and the muesli from the supermarket was expensive.  I insisted in stopping to see what German McDonald's has to offer, and they do a muesli with yogurt, which was very acceptable.  I tried the McToastie, which was disappointing.


We packed and check out.  We wandered back to Altstadt, wandered around the Market and had another Schweine Jane Scheinehaxe.  I would even say Ham Ham's was better!

We stopped at a bakery for some cake. It looks better than it tasted... We should have went for something more German.


Fearing for delay and choices of dinner, we went to Aldi and bought some salad.  The Aldi has a bread vending machine!!!  We got our luggage and headed to the airport.


We arrived fairly early and we checked in Sarah's luggage. We had so much time in hand, we decided to ride on the Skytrain back and forth. Then we walked around all the shops to find a supermarket in the terminal. I bought some marked down rice! When we went thorough security and they stopped me for the dense organic masses in my bag!


I sent Sarah to her terminal and proceeded to mine. Our security clearance queue was moving very slow! And a Chinese woman was holding up the queue, there seemed to be a problem, so I went forward to help. The immigration officer simply refused to speak English, and her passport did not have an entry stamp. At the end, he went to the back office to stamped her in and stamped her out. We sat at the terminal and chatted. She wanted me buy me dinner and I said no. At the end, she gave me a jade charm, which I accepted.


We landed in Leeds, and the landing was a little rough, as evidenced by two overhead compartments popped open. We taxied very quicked to parking location, but we had to wait another 20 minutes before we can get a shuttle bus. By that stage, I knew I would not make the bus into town. I called for taxi quote, and prepare myself to part with £20!


I went thorough immigration without much hassle and caught the taxi. The taxi turned up quite quickly. He cut thorough the back roads before joining on main roads in Horsforth. I was quite happy about the taxi journey, it would be viable to get them instead of driving to the airport in the future.


Good trip.