Siumai

I have never made siumai, but since I got some spare pork mince from making the wonton, and I got spare wonton wrappers, so I made some siumai.  They turned out quite nice also.

Waitrose Seeded Malted Bread Flour

I looked around the internet, I found that Waitrose also does the "malted seeded" flour, I have a suspecion that they are actually Marriage's, so we got some.  They were very nice indeed!

Wonton

I probably have not made any wonton for 30 years.  Since I got the shrimps, I made some, they turned out quite nicely, and I am very happy with them.

App Size

The old gadgets batteries are getting very unreliable, I ended up having to add an app to the phone.  The phone app is quite bad due to the size, each page is turned into a few clicks. Very annoying indeed.

The Middle-Class ABC

We came across this book from a charity shop, it wasn't particularly cheap, but we bought it, knowing that it should be good entertainment.  It was originally published in 2012, but still very relevant.  It has been quite funny indeed.

Prawn Toast II

A nearby oriental supermarket was shutting down, so I went to browse for goodies.  They have this frozen prawn paste.  So I made more prawn toasts, except this time, I didn't have to bash up the shrimp, much easier.  They were quite nice!  They are not really cheaper than buying the shrimp whole, but definitely easier.

Bircham Windmill

We went by Bircham Windmill for some lunch.  It has a windmill but it be being used as a bakery.  They stock and sell Marriage's, so we assume they bake with Marriage's, we were so impressed with their malted roll, we wanted to buy some flour, except they sold out the malted seeded flour, so the hunt begin.

Storm Aftermath

I finally surveyed the damages from the store.  The sweetpea collasped with the bird feeder.  A lot of the tall tomatoes were leaning over, or worse. a few pots rolled around the garden.  It could be worse.  I am not sure I can repair the bird feeder pole.

In Search of Cromer Crab III

There were two fish shops in Holt, so surely there were going to be some Cromer crabs.

We popped into the first one, as expected, they have some crabs, dressed in their own shell, so we bought it.  The owner was too busy chatting to regulars, we didn't get a chance to ask for its family tree.  It tastes nice.  Cromer crab, ticked.

In Search of Cromer Crab II

Another town along, Salthouse, there was a sign for dressed crab, but we saw the sign too late, and we could not pop in.

We went to Cley next the Sea as planned.  They had dressed crab, but strangely they were in a scallop shell.  We were very confused, so we passed up on them also.

In Search of Cromer Crab

We did not go to Cromer this time.  The next town along, Sheringham has a fish shop.  They have crab sandwiches but no dressed crab, very suspicious indeed.  The gentleman before me also came in for real seafood, he enquired about brown shrimps as well as crab.  It was very disappointing.

Chess Puzzles

Chess.com wants me to subscribe for more puzzles, but Chess has not popped up on Duolingo, so I am having as much Chess puzzles as I like, free.

Sweet Chestnuts

I finally had some English sweet chestnuts.  My previous experience with English chestnuts are that they are all tiny.  This lot is less tiny, but definitely much smaller than the French and Italian chestnuts.  Most important of all, they are not sweet.. Even with an exceptional year of sunshine, they were still tiny and tasteless.  I won't bother picking through the spikes!

Cobnuts

I finally tried some English cobnuts.  They are very nice indeed.  They were nice raw, and even nicer warmed.  Shame they are not more widely available.

Twycross Zoo

We went to Twycross Zoo with the encouragement from Octopus. It was a nice little zoo.  We were lucky with the weather and the crowd.  As a result, we now have an annual ticket to revisit anytime.

Coop is not Coop

My coop discount does not work in the midlands, I am not happy about it.

Cucumber Results

Cucumber result is also dismal.  I did ended up with a few decent cucumber and I have a few seeds left for next year, not sure I can be bothered after that...

Edamame Result

We have finished off all the edamame I have grown, which was very easy, as there were hardly any...  It was very much waste of effort.

Autumn Yorkshire Business Fair

I went to see the Yorkshire Business Fair again.  This time I got zero freebies!  So abstemious!

Tomatoes 2025

Tomatoes harvest is underway, they are pretty good, they are coming in slightly staggered.  They are ripening nicely this year, thanks to the Sun, compare to last year's green lot.

Floor Prep

I am emptying out the kitchen in preparation for the floor guy.  Eufy did a good job cleaning under the units, I am very happy about that.  I haven't decided if I should or could move the washing machine, maybe I should try another day.

Apple Comparison

I got some pink lady apple.  I had them side by side with the neighbourhood apple.  Although the neighbourhood apple is a bit tart, the pink lady was overall quite tasteless.

Emergency Alerts

The emergency alert testing came when we were at the Repair Cafe.  It was interesting to see other people's reaction.  It is sad that some people think preparedness is a joke.

National Three Peaks - Day 3

The team came back down unscathed.  The road out from Wasdale was still full of sheep, I also encountered a frog and a mouse.  I drove us back to M6, then Jason took over.  From the motorway to Wales, were all motorway, so we all managed to have a little sleep.  We picked up James and went to park up at Yr Wyddfa, aka Snowdon.

Matt has recovered, so leaving Jason and me at the van.  We witness how many buses and coaches dropping off hundreds of walkers and there was a fell running event.

Jason and I managed to dose off for a bit ready for more driving later.  The team took longer than expected to come back down due to human congestion on the hill.  And Jason drove to drop himself off, James and Simon hopped off also.  Then we dropped off Steph and Chris in Chester.

Finally, I drove Matt back home, all motorway from Chester, so back on cruise control, absolutely godsend.  He picked up the car and I did more unloading and tidying of the van.  Driving challenge completed!

Drive distance ~180 miles, Lake district rural roads and motorway.

National Three Peaks - Day 2

We all had breakfast at 7:30am, we all ate them quite quickly.  I had some potato scones, they were quite fried.  Somehow nobody did porridge.

It was a short drive to Ben Nevis and off they went.  There was some internet at the bottom of Ben Nevis, so that gave me hours to entertain myself with Japanese and chess.  An hour and a half later, Jason turned up, his knee was playing up, so he came back down.  He really wanted to do Ben Nevis, which was a shame.  However, that meant we now have two dedicated drivers, which was a blessing.

As the day goes on, the car park was filling up, Ben Nevis is also popular with Europeans.

A few hour later, Matt turned up, his thigh was playing up.  He was so close to the top.  Then everyone else came back.  We went to the supermarket for lunch.  Jason drove us to Carlisle.  From Carlisle, we got some dinner and I drove the Wasdale Head.  Typical Lake District rural roads, which was not fun, even less fun when in a van.  There were a lot of sheep and an owl.

Jason and Matt stayed at the car with me, we tried to have a little sleep.  We succeeded in varying degree.

I drove ~80 miles, short shuttle to Ben Nevis plus Lake District rural road.

National Three Peaks - Day 1

Matt came to my house to hop on the van.  We also picked Steph up as her train was delayed.  Only when we joined the motorway, we realised the van was speed limited!  I do love the cruise control.

We stopped at Penrith for lunch and went to Glasgow to pick everyone else up.  By then, I have already driven for 5 hours, so I passed the key to Chris for the last leg to Fort William.  On the way to Fort William, I told Hayley about this, and she correctly called this a driving challenge.

Once we checked into the hotel, I did my Japanese learning then we had a dinner together.

Everyone was resting early for the long days ahead.

I drove ~222 miles mostly motorway.

National Three Peaks - Day 0

I don't think I have the fitness to do the three peaks, so I volunteered to be a driver.  The van was delivered, so I loaded up my driver's essentials and took pictured of all the existing dents.

I also brough a stove for making hot water in the hills in the middle of the night.

Maud Foster Windmill

We had Maud Foster windmill's flour before, but we only got them from the farm shop.  I finally got to see Maud Foster Windmill.  It is a five sails windmill very centrally located in Boston.  I tried to ring the shop to see if they would open up for me to buy some flour, but noone was answering the phone, shame.

As it turns out, Maud Foster was named after the Maud Foster Drain, and Maud Foster Drain name origin is not known.

Heckington Windmill

I stopped by Heckington to look at the eight sails windmill.  The site is well established, with different business and tempting flours.  It is quite pretty too.

Golden Kiwi

I was made to try some Golden Kiwi.  It tastes a bit like a soft ripen pear.  Either way, I will take a good apple or a good orange anytime, and for the price of that, I don't see why I would ever buy them, they are very much not a treat for me.