Tag: Food (page 1 of 2)

11 February 2024

Weeknote 11th February 2024

A short weeknote this week as I had an injection into my wrist on Thursday and I’m still resting it.

I was in Bristol on Monday and Tuesday which coincided with the Bristol Light Festival. On Monday evening we went to the Left Handed Giant brewpub which was being used as a huge ‘screen’ upon which animations were projected. A great brewpub and an amazing light show.

The injection was steroids to treat a tendon in my left wrist. Guided by ultrasound it was incredible to see the needle approach the tendon and then the steroid liquid surround it.

The needle was incredibly fine but on the screen it looked like a drainpipe.

I woke Friday morning without pain in my wrist for the first time in months, so it looks like the injection worked.

On Friday night we celebrated Chinese New Year. OK, it was an excuse for a ‘slap up’ takeaway, but it was lovely to sit down as a family and spend time together as we’ve got some busy weekends coming up over the next few weeks.

On Saturday I watched the Miners Strike 1984 documentary series on Channel 4. I was 13 when the Miners Strike started and it’s fair to say it helped define my politics. I didn’t think I could loathe Thatcher more than I did, turns out I was wrong. The episode on the Battle of Orgreave is extraordinary.

This afternoon we watched Killers of the Flower Moon. An amazing story in the truest sense of the word, with typically brilliant performances from DiCaprio and Di Niro. Yes, it’s long but it’s definitely worth the investment of your time.

28 January 2024

Weeknote 28th January 2024

I’m back in Bristol for a couple of days this week and next working with our agency team.

It’s funny, I’ve been here dozens of times now on my own and just twice with my wife, but it feels more like one of our places than a solo destination. Which I rather like.

It’s been a fairly quiet week, but one where lunches have paid a prominent part.

On Tuesday I met my good friend Andrew F for lunch, he’s working with a client in Milton Keynes at the moment which is giving us extra opportunities to catch up, which is always a good thing.

Thursday I’d been due to meet Christian H for breakfast, but it seems by planning breakfast we upset the Lunch Gods and he was taken ill. Next time we’ll meet for lunch…

Then on Friday I caught up with Mark W, we had intended to meet at Canal St coffee but upon getting there first I found it utterly rammed with not a single table free. So sadly we had to relocate to Out of Office, which is the second class option these days. Milton Keynes needs more coffee shops…

The lunch highlight of the week was Saturday’s lunch at the Ivy Brasserie in Cambridge. My wife had spotted an excellent fixed price menu with two courses for £19.17 marking the year the Ivy opened, so we thought we’d take advantage of such a tasty offer.

However, with my typical erm enthusiasm I turned what should have been a bit of a bargain in to a three digit lunch, although to be honest it was still excellent value.

The food was delicious, the service was perfect and delivered with both personality and care and the surroundings were suitably ‘Deco’ feeling for a 1917 menu.

Adding to the food centric week we’ve had, on Friday we popped along to Eat St. MK, a local street food event.

My son took his camera along and captured some superb images.

Tonight I dined alone, but I dined at Cargo Cantina on Wapping Wharf so I dined well. The loaded nachos were amazing as was this elderflower and jalapeño margarita.

Muy bueno…

21 January 2024

Weeknote 21st January 2024

I’m sitting here listening to Storm Isha battering our battened hatches, and remembering Storm Eunice. I was ‘trapped’ in London for an extra day but managed to find shelter from the storm in Hawksmoor Borough. Desperate times and all that…

As a fountain pen user, I have a Sunday ritual of cleaning and filling my pens that are low on ink. I have a small (ahem) collection of Lamy Safari and Al-Star fountain pens, one of my very favourites is the Copper Orange special edition from 2015.

It’s my favourite Lamy by far and the special edition ink Lamy released with it is both Lamy’s best ink and the best orange ink I’ve used.

Annoyingly the Copper Orange ink was only released in cartridges and so I was more than a little sad when I found the empty cartridge in my pen was my last.

I’ve ordered cartridges that were advertised as Copper Orange but turned out to be just orange before, so I didn’t hold out much hope of finding any stock online.

I found a listing on eBay and ordered with some trepidation. The parcel arrived quickly and was very well packaged which gave me some hope, surely a fraudster wouldn’t go to this much effort. Would they?

I removed the Barbour Sean The Sheep tissue paper that had been wrapped around the cartridges and… they were genuine Copper Orange. All praise the holy ink well.

I know have a stock of just 15 cartridges, but I am tempted to look for more to create my own Copper Orange ink lake.

The highlight of this week was formally launching All Flows 2024.

We already have an amazing lineup of speakers, with more to follow soon. We have a very cool new website courtesy of my talented friend Richard. More importantly, we have a massive 40% off for Mega Early Bird tickets. If you are thinking of coming – book now and save some serious money.

On Saturday I had a very pleasant morning with my son; after a trip to the barbers we had coffee and then popped up to the Super Sausage Cafe for ‘brunch’ which was epic as always.

This morning my lovely wife and I popped to Canal Street Coffee for breakfast. The coffee was excellent as always and supplied by a new local roaster Doe and Fawn.

I have a bag of their filter coffee on order which I’m really looking forward to trying. I hope their filter is as good as their espresso – review to follow.

24 December 2023

Weeknote 24th December 2023

Christmas Eve in what has been a oddly quiet December.

No Christmas Do with my employer or my suppliers boooo!

No family trip to Bruges due to my wife’s school term not finishing until the 22nd.

And through poor planning my Christmas catch ups with my friends all ended up in this week, well apart from one that isn’t free until January, and then two of the three events got torpedoed by external events. FFS…

I was due to meet a friend for lunch on Thursday but I had to cancel at the last minute as I was managing a response to a malware attack – yes really.

On Friday I should have been staying with a friend for Christmas beers but his daughter has caught Covid and being ‘high risk’ I decided not to take risk this close to Christmas.

The event that went ahead was our MK Geek Night Christmas dinner with Andy and Roo the lovely chaps that have helped us with the sound since MKGN #3. We couldn’t run MKGN without them, they are a human security blanket when it comes to managing the sound and associated technology.

We watched Love Actually for the first in many years, and enjoyed it much more than I expected. The scene with Emma Thompson and Joni Mitchell’s Both Sides Now is heart wrenching every single time I watch it.

My wife and I had a very pleasant lunch and wander around Cambridge on Saturday – I can highly recommend Fitzbillies mince pies and the mulled wine from the Cambridge Wine Merchants is very good indeed, even without the optional shot of whisky.

This morning my daughter and I popped over to the new Caffeine & Machine in Houghton Conquest, it was very quiet indeed but will be interesting as a more local alternative to the original C&M in Warwickshire.

The rest of the day was spent prepping for tomorrow followed by our traditional family viewing of Home Alone.

Merry Christmas ya filthy animals!

10 December 2023

Weeknote 10th December 2023

I was in London for a Christmas event with a supplier on Tuesday evening. The event took place at a rooftop bar deep in the City of London – a venue I imagine would be fabulous in the summer months.

On Thursday, I co-hosted the 46th MK Geek Night, this time at a new venue, The South Central Institute of Technology at MK College, Bletchley. We had the usual new venue teething problems, but they were quickly ironed out by our awesome tech chums Andy and Ron, and a great evening was had by all.

Two great talks from AJ & Ceb and my friend Documentally, superb food from the college brasserie and excellent beer from local brewer GRID Beer Project.

On Saturday we headed down to Oxford for the “Oxford Triangle” of coffee at Society, lunch at Mowgli Street Food and hot chocolate at Knoops.

It’s notable the impact the new modern shopping centre has had on Oxford with many empty shops on the old High Street and a feeling of slow decline and decay, not helped by the constant stream of old diesel buses that rattle through Oxford constantly.

15 November 2023

Weeknote 12th November 2023

Much of this week was consumed by whatever lurgy I picked up in Bristol only returning to work on Thursday.

None More Black

One highlight of the week was the arrival of my MacBook Pro. All I’ve done so far is to set it up, but I can report it’s a thing of beauty and does an amazing job of not showing fingerprints. Phew…

As many have said it’s more of a very dark grey than a pure black, but much of that depends upon the lighting; in brighter lighting it’s a dark grey, Space Greyer if you will, and in lower light it looks closer to black, there’s a pleasing amount of variation.

West Wittering Weekend

I spent the weekend visiting family in West Sussex. On Saturday we took what is becoming our traditional walk around West Wittering, a beautiful beach on the south coast. The weather was perfect – bright, crisp and little wind.

After the walk we headed home and watched Harlequins vs Leicester Tigers in the Premiership, followed by a gorgeous beef casserole and a couple of bottles of good Rioja for dinner – a perfect Autumn day.

I Am Speed

When I returned home I imported some RAW images into Lightroom on both my new MacBook Pro and my trusty old iMac as a test – the difference in performance was extraordinary.

Now I just need a Studio Display to pop up on the refurb store.