200th post, and the first of 2008

Two milestones in one, but not the topic of the hour. I'm thinking about energy.

After hearing the news yesterday and today I'm disappointed that the UK has decided the future of energy is nuclear. Which I don't agree with, and makes me regret voting Labour. Although since the Torys supported the decision and the Liberals didn't lose the election by just my vote then I guess it isn't all my fault.

Apparently in Cuba energy shortages have brought about the revival of bicycles and animal-drawn vehicles. But that isn't all and this very interesting article suggests that with a bit of help Cuba could have a much more renewable/sustainable energy infrastructure than we are likely to have here in the UK.

Petrol prices

Every so often someone wants to involve me in a campaign to lower petrol prices. I invariably decline and in this blog post, or rant - we'll see how it turns out - I shall attempt to explain my reasons.

Primarily, I don't think that petrol prices are too high. I can afford to fill my tank up, and last time I checked the roads were full of other people who had managed to fill up too. If people want to save money on motoring I suggest selling cars and using public transport.

Secondarily, everyone wants public transport to be better  but I think the only way this is going to happen is if more people use it. Higher petrol costs would give an incentive to use it.

Finally, since the more people use their cars the more petrol they have to buy this is the fairest way to tax motoring. I think that Road Tax should be integrated into fuel tax, this would benefit people who have a car but use it only sparingly but would transfer the cost of road maintenance etcetera to the people who use the roads most.

In summary, I will not sign your petition.

That beer is tainted with fish

One of our suppliers decided to show their gratitude today by donating a case of lager to the support team: 24 cans of Stella. I haven't drunk this particular brew because I had heard that it wasn't vegan but since this was free beer I had to check my facts - and it isn't even vegetarian since they use isinglass (a kind of gelatin made from fish) for fining (clarifying by removing the bits of yeast etcetera floating in the liquid)
I must confess to being a bit slack myself with booze, since it doesn't usually have ingredients and normally when people are talking about this topic they are somewhat drunk and unreliable. Also after a few drinks I become unreliable. But I'm going to make an effort. After all most brewers have an Internet presence and it isn't too much work to email them asking if their products are suitable for people who don't eat animal products. If they get enough emails they may even think about the commercial benefits of products which appeal to the 0.3% to 7% (estimates vary) of the population who are vegetarian.
I'm going to email Joshua Tetley right now

Music - Racine

As I go about my day, songs from yesteryear jump out of the dark alcoves of my subconscious and start playing themselves. From time to time the songs of Transvision Vamp do this, and that happened recently. I thought to myself "whatever happened to Wendy James?" and realised I had three options
1.) decide I didn't need to know
2.) decide that I wanted to know, but do nothing about it
3.) use the awesome power of google to find out

I went with option 3, and it turns out she's now making music under the moniker of "Racine" and had an album out in 2005. Some (maybe all) of the tracks can be heard on the website (link, use the top player - the bottom one just plays 30 second snippets) and are worth a listen. I especially liked The Last American Hero, but it doesn't appear to be available in the shops.

The music isn't much like TVV, which is probably a good thing - there are enough people putting out 80's sounds nowadays. It does still sound like her singing and the material/attitude is similar. A second album is due early next year.

And if you were wondering about the other members of TVV, have a look here

Back of the net

I enjoy playing football very much, but I'm not any good at it. Tonight however, I ended a dry period which has lasted pretty much all my life* in the work 5-a-side match and got the ball in the other team's net. Obviously football is a team game so thanks to my team for the work involved in getting the ball up to my foot, and apologies for messing up all the other chances I had.
*except for own goals

No music day

Occasionally I wonder what Bill Drummond is up to, besides making crop circles of course. Turns out he's established the 21st of November as No Music Day and I haven't listened to any. Mostly by luck but I might as well see it out.

Pub quiz

There is a quiz every week at the local "international centre for contemporary visual arts and film", went there with my lovely gf and some of her international friends. We did pretty well (3rd place IIRC) but getting some of the questions right can be embarrasing. Do I really want to admit that I know He-Man's first name, or what the follow-up to sit-com Fresh Fields was called?
Still - got a free cinema ticket

mince pies

Hola amigos,

I know it's been a while since I last rapped at you (link to that Anchower guy who coined this expression), I guess not that much has been happening that I had to blog about. And still not much has happened but I've got five mins, so here is some stuff which isn't exciting, interesting or relevant. Is this blog a spent force? Is FaceBook where it is at now? Will I ever be confident with apostrophes? leave comments if you know any of the answers

Tonight my lovely gf and I made mince pies. Don't get me started on that 'festive season' stuff. Hell, they're in the shops for about six months of the year so they aren't special. Mince pies are just a kind of pie. Like jam tarts with lids and bits of dried fruit in. My favourite kind of pie actually but they don't mean anything, other than, maybe, winter is coming/here.

Also, someone sent me this link to an article about about how vegetarianism is good for the environment. I guess my opinion on this will be pretty obvious to anyone who knows me, and why would anyone who doesn't know me be reading this? I'll leave you with that puzzler

Fog lights

There are lots of things that annoy me, especially when I'm on the
road. Something that upsets me especially at this time of year is
people driving with their rear fog lights on - when it isn't foggy.

There must be a reason for people to do this, maybe when it is
raining, they think "rain is a bit like fog, therefore I'll stick my
fog light on" But this is wrong, the extra light has no benefit and
creates a dangerous glare which reduces visibility for road users
behind. What if it isn't raining? I don't know

I haven't got time to go into details of the cure for this issue, but
in brief I'd like the police to stop people who are drving dangerously
and caution them about it, or even charge them with dangerous driving.
Yes, I know it isn't realistic

George Best

Just been to see The Wedding Present. The concert was basically a revisit to the George Best tour and they played all the songs of the album, in order. "My Favourite Dress" is also my favourite song by them.
I had a slight increase in self-esteem when the band's photographer* waved at me. But it was short lived - the guitarist waved at a bloke stood next to me almost immediately afterwards and I returned to relative anonymity.
*a work colleague (in fact, my team leader) when doing his day job

the blue bell on saturday night

went back to Preston last night, had some beers with my old friends. then a few hands of texas hold em. felt a bit rough this morning. the M&S mango smoothie didn't make me feel better.

bigmouth bikes again

went on a bike ride today, details at the link above. To be honest most of The Smiths references escaped me. I recall a song about cemetery gates, possibly an iron bridge may have been mentioned. I've never heard the Strangeways Here We Come album either. But I do enjoy cycling around manchester, and I can appreciate the social benefits of providing activities for young people in Salford.

Tribute band The Smyths were there, but for me the top special guest was the one and only Frank Sidebottom visible in photo above, on the right wearing a purple shirt

Musically the highlight was a performance by the Levenshulme Bicycle Orchestra. The eycatching percussion instrument at the back of the hall appeared to have been made from a pair of old bicycles, joined by a combination of crude welds and tape. It sounded considerably better than it looked. Two other members of the band were playing rather orthodox instruments: bass guitar and drum kit. The fourth member of the band took vocal duties. The resultant sound was a surprisingly business-like wall of sound. Put me in mind of Nurse With Wound - which is a compliment.

The statistics: Distance = 15.3 miles, maximum speed = 21.1 mph, moving average = 8.5 mph and time moving = 1h 48m 24s

Climbing again

Went to the Manchester Climbing Centre with MC last night. It was fun, despite my lack of success in getting up anything in the last half of the evening. I think it was the extra weight of the cup of tea

tattoos

The theme of tattooed knuckles has been going round my head for a few years. What would be the best eight-letter sequence to display? Or a pair of four-letter words? Plenty of examples at Knuckle Tattoos
Get your own knuckles at the knuckle tattoo gun.

Vegan cheescake

I had two recipes, but the first (from the Real Food Daily cookbook)required white miso, and since I couldn't find any I found another recipe on the Internet. I ended up combining the two recipes in an apt and original way. Read on for the full story, with pictures.

The RFD cookbook had a fancy-schmancy wheat-free crust made with barley flour and stuff. Probably would have been delicious but I couldn't be arsed, what with the time it was going to take to make the cheesecake itself. I didn't want to spend all day in the kitchen so I smashed up 20 hobnobs and fried the bits with 3 tsp of margarine, and spread that in my pie tin. Mmm, fried biscuits. They're unhealthy-licious.

The filling was made in two parts - first was 1 cup of maple syrup, 1 tsp of vanilla extract, 3 dessertspoons of sunflower oil and a lemon. The zest of the lemon was put in the liquid, then I peeled the lemon and removed the pips and some of the tough bits and blended it all up with my hand blender. Then I whisked in one tsp of baking powder and half a cup of arrowroot powder.

For the second part I used one 225g tub of Tofutti "Better Than Cream Cheese", one packet of silken tofu (approx 14oz) and half a packet of normal (firm) tofu (125g). I blended these up a bit, then I added the liquid< from the previous paragraph and blended some more. By this time it looks pretty gooey and tastes sweet, and the work is almost done. Pour the gooey liquid over the crust and bake at about 180 deg C for an hour (check to make sure the top doesn't burn) then take out. It should be a bit runny in the centre but firmed up at the sides. Then leave to cool for four hours

As a topping the RFD have a raspberry puree to make. Or get a tin of black cherry pie filling from the supermarket and pour on the top. I went with option two.

I could eat a really large amount of this.

Quick!

Google Analytics says that 83% of visitors to this site stay less than
10 seconds. Can I say a brief hello? No - they've gone

My footprint

Apparently, if everyone lived like me, we'd need 2.6 planets http://www.myfootprint.org/ My fuel consumption estimates were very rough though

Hygiene

For ages I couldn't spell hygiene. But that isn't the point right now. I want to share with you my world-improving idea. Everyone worries about germs nowadays, especially when using public toilets, which is why they have taps which operate by waving your hand under them, and hand dryers (previously covered in this blog)
But door handles? Well, someone has an idea which I don't really rate. My idea is to have two handles and a note advising customers who have washed their hands thoroughly to use the top handle (ideally white) and others to use the lower handle (a dark colour). Probably wouldn't work. Non-washers are no worse off than if there was only one handle, but have everything to gain by using the "clean" handle. Would anyone use the "dirty" handle? If no-one uses it, would it be cleaner than the clean handle? Which handle would you use?

insomnia

morning everyone. I'm back in the GMT timezone, and finding it a challenge to adjust. why does everyone get up so late here? it's nearly 04:00 already and everyone seems to still be asleep. anyway, I've got myself a laptop (that works) so I can while the time away posting stuff on my blog and doing other important stuff. like working out how much tax I pay. seems a lot

Portobello mushrooms and polenta

One of the places that we ate at on holiday was Real Food Daily in Santa Monica. I had a pair of lovely tacos, and sushi. It was so good we bought the cookbook and tonight we made one of the recipes from it. Which, as you can see, was some big mushrooms, and aubergine, and vegan soft cheese, on a disc of polenta. Pretty delicious even though I say it myself, took about four hours to prepare though. Since it isn't my recipe I better not reproduce it here. But if you want to come round and read the RFD cookbook you're welcome to.