tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-67881572956912218562024-03-13T11:29:05.438-07:00Alex Off GridThoughts and musing mostly loosely related through the following topics: family, country living, gardening, allotments, poultry, smallholding, food, self sufficiency, thrift, homebrew, bushcraft, hiking, outdoor living, wildlife and garden gate enterprise.OffGridAlexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13812161552870388616noreply@blogger.comBlogger25125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6788157295691221856.post-69388475874738343112013-07-03T02:10:00.000-07:002013-07-03T02:10:34.096-07:00First day at schoolDo you remember your first day at primary school?
I'm not sure that I do, I can sort of imagine it but I don't know if that is a real memory or an illusion created in my imagination.
But that said, i am pretty sure I was nervous.
I'm sure I was scared to be leaving my Mum, that I was shy in front of all the other children, that the classroom seemed big and scary.
My eldest son is starting primary school in September.
Honestly I don't think he is going to feel any of those emotions.
He is about the most confident person I have ever met. Honestly he amazes me.
We took him for an orientation day at the new school last week.
no-one else from his nursery is going to the same primary school so he didn't know anyone. He was taken to take a look at the current reception class full of children. He didn't hesitate, he strolled in, sat down with a group of kids and proclaimed 'Hi Guys, I'm Roman. We can play trains' He immediately made friends and was playing so happily that the teacher let him stay until the end of the school day instead of going home after an hour like he was supposed to.
What a wonderful way to go through life. People being cruel to him, not liking him or anything of that nature simply does not exist in his world. He does no see it. Truly every stranger is a friend and every game is there to be joined.
I am so proud of my boy and I just pray that the harsh realities of life never break through his happiness and put a dent in that amazing confidence. OffGridAlexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13812161552870388616noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6788157295691221856.post-37428384364754266782013-06-24T07:25:00.000-07:002013-06-24T07:25:17.480-07:00What is the point of TK Maxx?
Now, My wife loves TK Maxx. I quite like it myself in the past year or so I have bought very reasonably priced work shoes, hiking boots, jogging bottoms and a few small electrical items.
What I don;t like is the lying they do.
You see, TK Maxx 10-15 years ago was a very different shop. They only had a handful of stores and the central promise was that they sold branded clothing at prices way below what you would expect. They did this by clever buying. The sourced catalogue return stock, end of line items, bankrupt stock and manufacturer surplus. They bought these things at such low prices that they could sell them at 80% discount and still make a 100% mark up for themselves.
Anyone interested at those types of margins should look at http://www.gemwholesale.co.uk where you can buy perfect quality catalogue return clothing from about 7% retail prices (in wholesale quantities unfortunately).
Now back then, with this clever purchasing TK Maxx was brilliant. You could go in and find a pair of CK jeans that where selling in the shop next door for £120 priced at just £10
But then TK Maxx got successful. From a handful of stores they now have 240 in the UK and others across Europe. At that size it is little wonder that they can no longer source enough genuine bargain items. Today they are one of the biggest clothing manufacturers in the country. They are more likely to sell their returns and and of line items off to other retailers than purchase them any more.
So what do they do?
Well, like any huge clothing chain store they manufacture their own clothing. Only they are devious about it. You might see the huge posters in store saying things like "we partner with top brands"
Unfortunately what this means is: The approach a premium brand known for quality, they order 100,000 pairs of jeans in Primark quality but ask the brand to stick the high quality logo on them. Then they pluck a RRP out of the air.
I need to emphasis that point. The RRP that they claim a you get a percentage saving against - They make it up themselves.
RRP means nothing. It has no legal basis. All it means is that TK Maxx has asked the brand they work with to put price tags saying £120 on these cheap jeans.
So then TK Maxx get the jeans in their 240 stores. and put a sticker on them saying "RRP £120 OUR PRICE £15" You won't find these jeans for sale in any other store. Never in the history of the world have these jeans been sold anywhere for £120.
Now, £15 isn't bad for a pair of jeans. Primark does great business in selling jeans that price - but they are honest and you know what you are getting.
If you are shopping in TK Maxx ignore all the lies about RRP - they are cynically exploiting the fact that most people don't realise RRP is utterly meaningless to make you think you are getting a better deal.
Have a look at the jeans, feel the quality and decide if you think they are worth the money - don't make the decision based on these fake 'savings'
I bought some Karimor hiking boots from TK Maxx recently. They were £20 and pretty good quality. That is a great price and I am very pleased. What I don't like though is the lie on the label that said they should have been priced at £89. That is outright bollocks. See Sports Direct also stock the same boots for £20, I found a dozen stores online selling them for £20. What I didn't find was anywhere that at any time had ever sold them for £89.
This is my call: TK Maxx - Get rid of these bogus RRPs. Treat your customers with some respect.
OffGridAlexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13812161552870388616noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6788157295691221856.post-65851787047120790542013-06-20T07:37:00.001-07:002013-06-20T07:37:57.643-07:00BritmumsWell, Britmums is just around the corner.
I haven't blogged as much as I hoped but I am pleased to be back in the saddle. My biggest aim now will be to just continue the momentum and keep blogging. There is something incredibly cathartic about getting things down on paper and even more so knowing that people actually read it.
I am lookign forward to meeting the authors of the blogs I follow on the weekend. OffGridAlexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13812161552870388616noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6788157295691221856.post-31669914144973963432013-06-11T22:21:00.001-07:002013-06-11T22:21:52.779-07:00Healthy start vouchers<p>It's been a busy few days here. </p>
<p>Yesterday I saw something I still can't quite believe. </p>
<p>I was in Iceland (alas the shop not the country) and there was a pregnant woman arguing violently after being told she couldn't use her government healthy start fresh food vouchers to buy frozen pizzas. </p>
<p>The lady seemed to be of the impression that allowing the government provided free food voucher designed to encourage women to eat healthily during pregnacy to only be redeemed against healthy food amounted to a 'police state' and was prepared to have a stand up row about it. </p>
<p>The crown jewel in her argument against Iceland limiting redemption of the vouchers to fresh vegetables was thus:</p>
<p>"you are talking fucking bullshit you twat, at Morrison's I can use them to pay for my cigarettes"</p>
<p>Lucky unborn child. </p>
OffGridAlexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13812161552870388616noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6788157295691221856.post-79020586337025265322013-06-04T11:48:00.001-07:002013-06-04T11:48:28.948-07:00A lovely summer afternoon<p>This afternoon I took the kids to watch the fog swimming in a river that runs through a nearby meadow. </p>
<p>It was so hot and the water looked too nice to resist and we all ended up going for a paddle. Bliss </p>
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Everyone remembers learning about Cnut the great at school because all the sniggering that occurred every time his name was mentioned. If there is one legend you remember about King Canute it is that he tried to stop the advancing tide and ended up with egg on his face and seaweed in his pants. <br />
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On Radio 4's Any Questions today I found myself listening to the most absurd political debate about pornography and the internet. What was so absurd was the long queue of people eagerly and forcefully making statements about something they clearly had absolutely no understanding of.<br />
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There was a very worthy panel. But it was Lord Adonis who sticks in my mind, mostly because he will most likely have a hand in whatever policy they push through.<br />
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The Question was: Shouldn't we do something to stop child pornography online with sub questions should all online pornography be controlled or monitored and how do we protect children from accessing pornography online.<br />
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It is a really important question and that is why I can't believe the ignorance around the issue at the heart of government.<br />
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Lord Adonis made the following recommendation.<br />
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ISPs should block all pornographic content (legal and illegal) and people that want to access pornography should have to apply, their details would be recorded and this should deter them from being tempted to access illegal types of pornography.<br />
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It seems like a great simple solution right? Almost the entire board and most of the audience agreed with him. No-one there seemed to have any understanding of the internet so unfortunately no-one stood up to tell him is would just be making a big Cnut of himself.<br />
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A little while back, after a lot of hard work and debate all British ISPs were forced to block the file sharing site Piratebay.com because it was frequently used to illegally share copyright material.<br />
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This was a watershed moment in the evolution of the internet. After this landmark decision the internet will never be the same again...apart from....well.....erm...... if you want to access Piratebay you can just go here <a href="http://unblockedpiratebay.com/" target="_blank">http://unblockedpiratebay.com/ </a>or to any one of of 10,000 mirror sites that appeared online within hours of the power being cut. If you look on that link you can even download some software that allows you to make your own pirate bay mirror site - that is a site that goes to piratebay.com, copies ALL of the information word for word in real time and presents it identically under a different web address.<br />
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I am not particularly tech savvy but if somehow the found a way to block these proxy sites as they appeared then here are just a few other ways you might access Piratebay. I am sharing this information freely because it is well known by everyone, except it appears by Lord Adonis and co. <br />
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VPN - Virtual Private Network. You can get a VPN service for free online and use it instantly. In basic terms a VPN creates a tunnel that goes from your computer, through your ISP and to a third party server that can be operated anywhere in the world. Your ISP (or anyone, hackers, the government, the police, interpol, included) cannot access the information inside of this tunnel. Your ISP has absolutely no way of ever knowing what site you are accessing or what information you are sharing and neither does any other third party. With a VPN even the websites you visit don't every know who you are. I use a VPN every day on my work laptop. It allows me to log into the intranet system at my head office and access private company information while keeping it private from hackers. <br />
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A Proxy Server - very simple basically a website within a website. Go to a proxy server site then from the brower inside your browser you can completely anonymously surf the web. <br />
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a Tor Network - another type of private network, a small piece of software you download onto your computer that allows you to surf the web entirely anonymously by using direct peer to peer encrypted file sharing. If you want to know how secure a Tor network is then google 'The Silk Road" The silk road is a ebay type site that operates on Tor. It sells everything - drugs, weapons, illegal information. There are hundred of UK sellers on there and advertising and sell drugs or illegal items completely anonymously (payment by untrackable bitcoins) The police can see all this activity, they are fully aware of it but there is absolutely nothing they can do because they cannot track any of the people on there. <br />
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Encrypted peer to peer - If you had an internet friend in a country where Piratebay is not blocked you could ask them to download the information you want and email to you in an encrypted form that your ISP couldn't read.<br />
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Foreign ISP You could by a sim card from France telecom and use it in your phone to access piratebay<br />
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There - I am not internet savvy but I have listed 6 instant ways around an ISP block. I have no doubt that my kids are going to be 10x smarter with the internet than I am.<br />
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So Lord Adonis, suggesting that you could somehow control access to internet pornography by blocking it at ISP shows a frankly startling level of ignorance and arrogance that you felt yourself informed enough to comment at all.<br />
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Your suggestion makes about as much sense of this: Trying to stop spiders entering your home by putting a police search roadblock on your driveway.<br />
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The reason this really annoys me is because we have a very very serious problem. Child pornography and Children being exposed to pornography are horrific things. We need to take this threat very very seriously. This means pumping massive amounts of money into developing technologies that could actually address this problem.<br />
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Instead what we have is out of touch digital philistines spending far too long talking a lot of hot air basically just trying to come up with something that sounds about right to keep the Daily Mail reading voters happy that something is being done.<br />
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That creates a really dangerous situation. It would be like telling car owners you have put some new technology in their car that makes it impossible for them to crash. Self important buffoons with no understanding of the internal combustion engine can make long pompous speeches about how they are fixing the problem of car crashes. In one sweep you suddenly car drivers stop taking personal responsibility for their driving, they stop being aware of the dangers and acting to minimize them. Seat belts get undone, eyes are taken off the road. You can imagine the consequences.<br />
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Pass a law putting an ISP block on pornography and the internet will have created 100,000 work around before the ink is dry.<br />
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Where does that leave us? Parents anxious to protect our children from inappropriate online content? It doesn't take much to imagine suddenly hearing parents casually saying "I don't need to check anything that my kids do online now because the ISPs block it all now don't they" Suddenly Laptops are allowed in bedroom with closed doors again. Internet histories stop getting checked, Software that you can install, configure and monitor to safeguard your children stops being used.<br />
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And while we sit in blissful ignorance our children become victims of the vile things you can find online. OffGridAlexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13812161552870388616noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6788157295691221856.post-86604994832209809712013-06-01T01:57:00.001-07:002013-06-01T01:57:49.158-07:00Boys clubEliza is off to Cypher today in London. Her car is out of action and I didn't want to be stranded in our middle of no-where home without mine so I agreed to drop her at the station.<br />
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At 6am this morning we were dragging sleeping children from their beds, putting overcoats on and taking Mummy to the station. Roman was very excited and kept telling me he has never been out in his jim-jams before (he clearly has a very short memory but it was cute anyway)<br />
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So now we have a boys day. Me my two sons and the dog.<br />
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It is the first day of July, the sun is shining, I have just been paid, the world is our oyster. I have been planning adventures and things to do all week. Trying to work out the best fun we can have.<br />
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Well so far all my good plans have come to nothing. We are all in our pants (apart from the dog), we are snuggled under a duvet on the sofa (including the dog), we are eating cream cheese on toast and are reading a stack of books from Top That Publishing that we have collected over the years. <br />
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I really don't want to waste the weather and feel a bit guilty but this is lovely. We don't get the chance to do this much and I ma really enjoying it. I am just hoping now that the boys fall asleep so I can have a nap! 6am is too early for a Saturday. <br />
<br />OffGridAlexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13812161552870388616noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6788157295691221856.post-16557573423555301142013-05-31T03:10:00.002-07:002013-05-31T03:10:41.816-07:00Britmums Part 2<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<strong> </strong><br />
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<strong>Name</strong>: Alex
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<strong>Blog</strong>: <a href="http://www.offgridalex.blogspot.co.uk/" target="_blank">Personal</a> <a href="http://www.alexanderpsychecentre.com/blog" target="_blank">Professional</a></div>
<strong>Twitter ID</strong>: @offgridalex<br />
<strong>Height</strong>: 5ft 7.5 (I spent years telling people I was 5ft 9 It was a lie)<br />
<strong>Hair</strong>: Yes. <br />
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<strong>Eyes</strong>: Yes</div>
<strong>Is this your first blogging conference?</strong><br />
Yes<br />
<strong>Are you attending both days?</strong><br />
Yes<br />
<strong>What are you most looking forward to at BritMums Live 2013?</strong><br />
Learning to give more expressive and multi-syllabic answers to meme questions....No seriously I am looking forward to meeting my wife's virtual friends and to getting some good ideas on improving my personal and professional online presence <br />
<strong>What are you wearing?</strong><br />
Erm....a stained vest and pants with a hole in them.....oh wait to Britmums? Ok, I want to look smart and professional. Probably a dark suit with a bright tie - I might surreptitiously remove the tie if it makes me look like a knob on the day. <br />
<strong>What do you hope to gain from BritMums Live 2013?</strong><br />
I would like to meet some real people to make twitter feel a bit more personal. Mostly I am really looking forward to sucking up information in the workshops. Oh and a night in a hotel with my wife and NO KIDS!<br />
<strong>Tell us one thing about you that not everyone knows</strong><br />
I used to be a high profile men's lifestyle coach. I was featured in most of the national newspapers (under a slightly different name, I will tell you it if you ask me at Britmums!) OffGridAlexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13812161552870388616noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6788157295691221856.post-33922013221526769792013-05-31T02:49:00.001-07:002013-05-31T02:49:19.310-07:00BritMums!<br />
I have had this blog for about a year.<br />
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Blogger tells me I have had over 4500 page views! which is very encouraging<br />
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It also gives me the embarrassing news that I have only made 18 posts. About one for every three weeks. That is not very encouraging.<br />
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The truth is, I love the idea of blogging. I love reading blogs, I love talking at people. I love being able to share my ideas, opinions, my hopes and my fears with a group of people outside of my local friends.<br />
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But here is the truth. I have commitment issues.<br />
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I don't know where they stem from. I can't remember a time when I was hurt by another blog and I am pretty sure it is impossible to get a blog pregnant.<br />
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I seem to approach the same way i do a lot of thins I have never stuck to in my life. Massive enthusiasm at the start, probably a couple of blog posts a day, a note book full of ideas to blog about....well that lasts for a about a week and then I just forget.<br />
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It's the same with Twitter.<br />
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My wife Mommatwo 'gets it'.<br />
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She blogs everyday, she won't come to bed some nights because she is tweeting.<br />
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I want to 'get it'<br />
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So I am going to make a promise, some actions that will become habit forming. I figure if I can blog and tweet regularly for a month it will become part of my life. <br />
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I have been lucky to pick up a surplus ticket to Britmums, I am looking forward to going for all sorts of reasons and really feel that it will help me develop my blog, my online presence and cement my commitment.<br />
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Conveniently BritMums is about a month away.<br />
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So here I go, and I want you, yes you, to hold me to this.<br />
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I will post at least three new blog posts per week. Every week between now and Britmums.<br />
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That is 12 new blog posts (not much but it would increase my total by 45%)<br />
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If I do that hopefully I will find my rhythm again and with he inspiration and information I get at Britmums I will be in a great position to keep the momentum and turn this blog into something.<br />
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Are you going to Britmums?<br />
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Do me a favour. If you see me. Ask me how many posts I did. and don't let me off the hook. If I haven't done what I said I would make me squirm. Make me feel shame. Make this too painful for me to fail.<br />
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Oh and If I tell you I exceeded my 4 post a week quota please feel free to buy me a drink to congratulate me!<br />
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Alex<br />
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I took Duke to a poultry auction today but for must have got my dates
wrong so we decided to make to most of the journey and headed to a
near-by place of interest: The Cerne Abbas Giant <img border="0" height="306" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-h3_I6gmgtyY/UQ54FPATETI/AAAAAAAAAII/q62oULPYees/s400/IMG-20130203-00397.jpg" width="400" /> </div>
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Dorset is famous for various images cut into the chalk on hillsides. Most of them are of animals, The Cerne Abbas Giant is the only one I am aware of that features a man with a huge erection. </div>
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I love this place, I think it have one of the shortest average visitor duration of almost anywhere. If you sit in the car park for a few minutes at almost anytime you will see the following. Cars pull in, stop for about 15 seconds to have a look and drive away. I think this is because you spot the giant from the road, feel like you should take a look but very quickly become aware that you are basically looking at a child's drawing of a man with a big willy - it usually only take a few embarrassing awkward seconds for everyone to realise they have seen enough. </div>
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A few brave souls do venture out of the car to look at the 'information' board. It says basically the following: We don't know who made the giant, why, how or when and we don't know who it is meant to be. In a beautifully gentle National Trust kind of way the board avoids all mention of the monstrous engorged member towering over the reader. <br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;">
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kokqixyS5i0/UQ53wLwsH5I/AAAAAAAAAHo/VxP2XUkxc7M/s1600/IMG-20130203-00378.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="300" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-kokqixyS5i0/UQ53wLwsH5I/AAAAAAAAAHo/VxP2XUkxc7M/s400/IMG-20130203-00378.jpg" width="400" /></a><br />
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I took Duke for a hike to see if we could view the Giant from any other angles - The answer is no. The Giantis fenced off so the only place you can view it is the car park a few miles away<br />
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I noticed that there is a human sized hole in the protective fencing around the giant which indicates that perhaps some couples really do sneak through to have sex on the end of his end. Unfortunately we didn't see anyone doing that today. <br />
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There is a tiny dot right at the top of this picture that is my car in the car park. From up here I could just about hear the sniggers from a school minibus full of oily teenagers that had stopped for a lookOffGridAlexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13812161552870388616noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6788157295691221856.post-55557672184470526292013-02-02T10:57:00.001-08:002013-02-02T10:57:51.246-08:00Duke vs Other DogsDuke had the most fun ever at the park yesterday. Whenever we see other dogs Duke always goes mad, pulling on his lead, barking, jumping.....he is pretty big and I have never been sure what his intentions are so until now I try to keep him away from other dogs. Yesterday though we were joined in the park by a bouncy playful barkless 7 month old Labrador called Lilly. I talk to Lilly's owners a bit and she is a bout the same size as Duke so I decided to see what would happen if I let him off the lead.<br />
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Well, he loved it, they had brilliant fun, running around, jumping, chasing each other a little bit of wrestling, no biting, barking or growling. I had worried that Duke might be aggressive but he is absolutely not, he just really wants to play. A couple of times Lilly had him pinned on the floor and once she nipped him and he yelped away but not a hint of any aggression from Duke. An older Labradoodle came to join in the fun and a couple of old Jack Russels - all of the dogs played brilliantly together. I was so proud of Duke and relieved that he appears to be so sociable and dog friendly.<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/--vi4_hjdAv8/UQ1hjrV0-zI/AAAAAAAAAHU/1rx9g13adug/s1600/duke+run.JPG" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="275" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/--vi4_hjdAv8/UQ1hjrV0-zI/AAAAAAAAAHU/1rx9g13adug/s640/duke+run.JPG" width="640" /></a></div>
I am going to be a lot more relaxed with him off lead now, even though his recall is still a bit hit and miss, knowing that he will not be aggressive with other dogs and he is great with strange people although he does occasionally jump up still. OffGridAlexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13812161552870388616noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6788157295691221856.post-17717640997648137512013-02-02T10:43:00.002-08:002013-02-02T10:43:28.961-08:00I'm back....As usual my mind wondered onto things other than blogging and I chased a few white rabbits...anyway. I'm back. Not much has changed apart from our family now contains a wonderful new member. A German Shepherd puppy called Duke. We got him at 8 weeks and have had all sorts of adventures, he is now nearly 5 months old. I'm just going to jump in and start posting as if you know all about him.<br />
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Duke, a few days after we brought him home weighing just 3.8kg at 8 weeks old<br />
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Majestic superdog two months later, 4 months old, 16.6kg about 50% grown </div>
OffGridAlexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13812161552870388616noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6788157295691221856.post-55090247619862098572012-06-21T13:44:00.001-07:002012-06-21T13:44:51.662-07:00Baby hand Mould<h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name">
<a href="http://fartandculture.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/baby-hand-mould.html">Baby hand mould</a>
</h3>
Anyone who has had children will tell you they grow far to quickly,
before you even know it you are looking at baby photos without the
faintest memory that they could have ever been so small.<br />
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We visited my Mum at the weekend and she gave us a special present, a
baby hand mould kit. Well I say kit, it was actually just the
ingredients Alginate and plaster of paris. Ours had been given to my
Mum by a friend who had it left over after commissioning some work from
the police making rubber cadavers for use in training exercises ( I have
seen them by the way - bloated and rotten corpse of overweight man
found in water was my favourite) <br />
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Anyway, we made a couple of hand moulds from baby jasper who is 10 weeks old (already!!)<br />
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First step make a container, cut the top off a bottle, split it down
both sides and cover with tape, also tape over the rough top edge. <br />
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Next mix the Alginate (a very light blue powder) 1:1 by volume with luke warm water and mix<br />
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Next step, swear a bit when you realise you have faffed about too long and the Alginate has set into a solid rubber chunk<br />
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<a href="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dVGSRbDhTT4/TcBbeSw2ksI/AAAAAAAAADM/11iDXzivkho/s1600/IMG-20110501-00208.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-dVGSRbDhTT4/TcBbeSw2ksI/AAAAAAAAADM/11iDXzivkho/s200/IMG-20110501-00208.jpg" width="200" /> </a></div>
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Try again, this time directly in the (leaky) pot and mix quickly with a fork </div>
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<a href="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-EW74KpI2EOs/TcBboR-eDpI/AAAAAAAAADQ/EGy3IdY91fo/s1600/IMG-20110501-00209.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://4.bp.blogspot.com/-EW74KpI2EOs/TcBboR-eDpI/AAAAAAAAADQ/EGy3IdY91fo/s200/IMG-20110501-00209.jpg" width="200" /> </a><a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-c_gBm91O3g4/TcBbxAnv51I/AAAAAAAAADU/SCQ7q4PlqK0/s1600/IMG-20110501-00212.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-c_gBm91O3g4/TcBbxAnv51I/AAAAAAAAADU/SCQ7q4PlqK0/s200/IMG-20110501-00212.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
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Stick
babys hand in (Alginate is nice and gentle so you don't need any
clingfilm or vaseline) try to hold still fort three minutes and get a
blury shot of crying baby. Next gently pull arm out with a satisfying
slurp, have a look in mould at little finger holes. </div>
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<a href="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WyHL3M45ttk/TcBb7VLnRPI/AAAAAAAAADY/l2PZXE2FSeI/s1600/IMG-20110501-00213.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="150" src="http://1.bp.blogspot.com/-WyHL3M45ttk/TcBb7VLnRPI/AAAAAAAAADY/l2PZXE2FSeI/s200/IMG-20110501-00213.jpg" width="200" /></a></div>
Mix plaster of paris 1:1 warm water and pour into the mould<br />
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When the plaster is hard the fun starts, peeling off the alginate<br />
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The next bit is almost to exciting for words, you don't have any idea
what you are going to get so as the little hand is uncovered it is
almost like seeing you nnew baby for the first time<br />
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Taa daa - a perfect tiny fist, a memory for ever. <br />
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By now Jasper had fallen back asleep so we had another go and got another shape<br />
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Disaster the hand has snapped off at the wrist<br />
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The index finger fell of thsi one as well, but we fixed it with glue<br />
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You can get Alginate on eBay - we used about 150g for each hand.OffGridAlexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13812161552870388616noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6788157295691221856.post-87312727259730742092012-06-18T12:52:00.002-07:002012-06-18T12:52:57.798-07:00Mommatwo hoola hoopLizi has been pressuring me to write a blog tonight. So here I am a new blog post. It's pictures of Lizi trying out her new hoola hoop. I win.<br />
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<br />OffGridAlexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13812161552870388616noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6788157295691221856.post-88152957899329854262012-06-16T11:52:00.001-07:002012-06-16T11:53:27.082-07:00Shopping<div><p>I took Roman to the local ship today, they have child size trolleys which he loves pushing. As we were going round we saw a little girl about the same size with a little trolley as well. In his loudest voice Roman shouted "HELLO, WE HAVE THE SAME TROLLEY" and the girl bellowed back "YES, WE HAVE COME TO BUY TOILET PAPER, THAT IS ALL" so nice when Roman gives someone else a chance to embarrass their Dad.</p>
</div>OffGridAlexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13812161552870388616noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6788157295691221856.post-14598130045513291012012-06-13T11:34:00.001-07:002012-06-16T11:54:11.715-07:00Hotel Fun<div><h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name">
* I originally posted this about a year ago to a blog I no longer write* </h3>
<h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name">
<a href="http://fartandculture.blogspot.co.uk/2012/01/hotel-fun.html">Hotel fun</a>
</h3>
<div class="post-header">
</div>
I stayed in a hotel last night, It reminded me of something that
happened last time I was there that I thought was amusing enough to
share......<br />
<br />
It was about three years ago, My company had put me up there the night before an interview for the job I have now. <br />
<br />
I arrived late, tired from a long drive, I still had just enough spark
to attempt a little flirting as the receptionist checked me in. To get
to my room I had to walk through the bar to the lift at the end. It was a
fairly uncomfortable walk because the bar was full and for all I knew
anyone in there could have been on the interview panel or perhaps other
interviewees, obviously first impressions count so I made an effort to
walk tall, to act calm and composed and give off waves of confidence as I
made my way through. <br />
<br />
When I got to my room, I immediately began hotel SOP, that is I took all
my clothes off, save my pants (a particularily worn and crusty pair),
set the bath running and grabbed the ice bucket.<br />
<br />
The ice machine was in the corridor just opposite my door, the place
seemed completely deserted so I thought I would run the risk and nip out
as I was for some ice, I leant out, checked left and right and made my
move to the machine, chucked a couple of scoops of ice into the bucket,
checked the corridor again and darted back to the room. <br />
<br />
I think I allowed myself a slightly thrilled smile as I reached my door having gotten away with my dirty dash. <br />
<br />
I pushed the door and.........it didn't move. <br />
<br />
I pushed harder...the door was stuck<br />
<br />
I pushed even harder....desperately trying not to accept the unthinkable
truth.....the door was locked, I had walked out, without the key and
the door had clicked shut behind me. <br />
<br />
<br />
Bugger. <br />
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<br />
<br />
<br />
You can imagine the rest for yourselves. With the bath still running I
had to act fast, I had to walk, in just my pants, through the bar full
of my future employeers, back to the reception, to the girl I had
attempted to flirt with not five minutes before and ask for another key.
Armed with only a grungy pair of pants and an ice bucket, I briefly
considered putting the bucket on my head to hide my shame, in the end I
took a deep breath and as the lift doors opened onto the crowded bar
everyone fell silent and I made a second effort that night to walk tall,
act calm and composed and give off waves of confidence. <br />
<br />
<br />
I got the job.</div>OffGridAlexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13812161552870388616noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6788157295691221856.post-59337325809808616382012-06-13T11:32:00.001-07:002012-07-04T11:15:41.166-07:00Sushi<div><h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name">
<a href="http://fartandculture.blogspot.co.uk/2011/05/sushi.html">Sushi</a>
</h3>
<div class="post-header">
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A very heavily pregnant Elizabeth and I relocated to Dorset from London a
couple of years ago. There are many things we miss (and even more that
we don't) but chief among them is the variety of food. In our local
supermarket the world food section is where they keep the pasta and
seems to be carefully avoided by the locals. It's a far cry from our old
life; Jamaican patties from street vendors in Greenwich, Korean food in
Holborn, Ethiopian in Kentish Town and buying spices by the kg for
about the same price you would pay for the little jars of stale and
dusty Schwartz in the supermarket. But by far the biggest thing I miss
is Sushi (vinegared rice) and fresh Sashimi (raw fish).<br />
<br />
Semi regularily we do make our own at home, it's not really difficult as
long as you keep your knives sharp and wet. We can't get sushi rice
down here so I use Arborio which works just as well. There is a lot of
fuss on the internet about buying Sashimi grade fish but I always just
get whatever is on the fish counter in Morrisons and have never had any
problems. I can't make it anywhere as near as neat and beautiful as a
proper sushi chef but it tastes great.<br />
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The table above is from when @jenclone came to visit<br />
<br />
Still there is nothing like having Sushi made for you, so when we
planned a day trip to London at the weekend Sushi was top of my list.
The only problem with Sushi is that it is expensive and I generally
leave the restaurant worried about the cash I have just blown and still
hungry.<br />
<br />
The solution for me is all you can eat Sushi buffet.<br />
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We
chose Hi Sushi because they do just that and went to their branch in
Muswell Hill because it fitted nicely with our travel plans. <br />
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I didn't much fancy trying to sit on the floor but luckily they have thought of that and brought the floor up to chair level. <br />
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First course, I can't remember exactly what is there other than obviously the salmon and the white fish is grey mullet</div>
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I
had never tried straight boiled soya beans before but actually they
were lovely, Lizi let one get away from her and it landed under a chair
at the bar<br />
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We went for some hot food next, tempura prawns, squid and sweet potato, some spring rolls, pork and chicken escalope. <br />
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More
Sushi, this time Lizi ordered and did really well apart from the salmon
skin sushi, I just couldn't get my head round it - but that might of
had something to do with the insane amounts of sushi I had already
eaten. We cleared the plate apart from two salmon skin rolls that we
just couldn't face.<br />
<br />
At this point I was stuffed, I had really wanted to try the clam sashimi but it wasn't to be.\<br />
<br />
Fill up on Sushi = Mission Successful.</div>OffGridAlexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13812161552870388616noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6788157295691221856.post-33059734734522394062012-06-13T11:22:00.002-07:002012-06-13T11:34:26.526-07:00Dandelions<h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name">
*I originally posted this about a year ago on a blog I no longer write* </h3>
<h3 class="post-title entry-title" itemprop="name">
<a href="http://fartandculture.blogspot.co.uk/2011/04/dandelions.html">Dandelions</a>
</h3>
<div class="post-header">
</div>
When I got home this evening Roman our two year old was climbing up the
walls with cabin fever having been stuck in the flat all day while lizi
was cleaning it top to bottom. <br />
<br />
It was still light and warm so I took him on a little walk to stretch
his legs, we live right next to the Rodwell trail which is an ideal
place for a wander or cycle. <br />
<br />
The Rodwell trail follows the path of the old Weymouth to Portland
railway that used to transport quarry workers adn the stone they
mined on and off the island. It has been closed as a railway since the
1950s but has been given a new lease of life as a footpath with lovely
smooth tarmac. The platforms for several stations still line the route
and give an eerie glimpse of the past. There are some great photos <a href="http://website.lineone.net/%7Ewendyedwards/rodwelltrailcont.html">here</a><br />
<br />
As soon as we got onto the trail Roman started shouting at me about
'flowers, flowers Daddy!' and was soon grubbing about in the
undergrowth, seemingly impervious to the great clumps of stinging
nettles. <br />
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After he emerged with a handful of what I call Elderflowers, (i'm
sure I have the plant name wrong but if you do ever want a positive ID
on a plant or bug you have found the best place to go is <a href="http://www.ispot.org.uk/">Ispot</a> where
you can upload your pictures and have a geek check them for you), and
starting puffing away I soon realised he was actually looking for a
dandelion. I steered him towards something more suitable<br />
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Thus armed he has another go<br />
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only instead of blowing he sucked....yuck<br />
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The story does have a happy ending, I re-armed him and we spent some fun time blowing dandelion faries everywhere - hurrah!</div>
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<a href="http://i912.photobucket.com/albums/ac322/ChilliAlex/IMG-20110426-00109.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" height="240" src="http://i912.photobucket.com/albums/ac322/ChilliAlex/IMG-20110426-00109.jpg" width="320" /></a></div>OffGridAlexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13812161552870388616noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6788157295691221856.post-52709619611330195462012-06-13T00:59:00.000-07:002012-06-13T00:59:01.834-07:00Things that drive me nuts in SupermarketsI Just wrote a nice post about a supermarket. But it made me remember two things I hate about supermarkets.....<br />
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1) Cashiers that put things I purposely didn't bag into a little plastic bag. If I put two lemons loose on the belt is because I am cool with my lemons being lose. I am happy for them to mix with my other shopping in my main bag. I don't want a little poly bag at home, I have no use for it and it will just go for landfill (incidentally, Plastic bags were only invented in the 1960's - how do they know they take 500 years to decompose in landfill?)<br />
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2) Machines where you put your spare change in and it give you a credit note to spend in store AND CHARGES YOU. Seriously WTF? Do you have any idea how much supermarkets pay to have sacks of change delivered in Securicor vans? A lot. Transporting change is expensive, supermarkets give out way more change than they receive, supermarkets pay for change. So here you are, walking in with your piggy bank filled with £30 in coppers. The Manager should come out to greet you personally, thank you for transporting that heavy change to the shop and beg you to spend it at till rather than your paper money. He should probably offer you a couple of quid for the savings you have made him. But no, instead they put a big machine where you pour your money in, it chunders away and prints a credit note for something like £25.10 that you have to spend in store today, the mark up on supermarket stuff is something like 20-50% so you go and buy £30 of stuff (which costs the store £15), your credit note is only £24.90 so you pay with an extra tenner and get £4.90 change (which is the money you came in with that they have just gone and got from the back of the machine). <br />
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You went into the shop with £40 (£30 change, £10 note) Spend it all. Came out with £15 worth of stuff + £4.90 (which is only worth £4.20 because you put it in the piggy bank and will pour it in the machine at a later date) <br />
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The supermarket keeps your £35.10 and has probably saved an additional £1 on change delivery costs. ARRRGRGGGGHHHH. STOP USING CHANGE MACHINES. Just dump the bags of change directly with the cashier - they will take them, or better still be organised and drop them into your bank once in a while.OffGridAlexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13812161552870388616noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6788157295691221856.post-43543404025699166572012-06-13T00:51:00.000-07:002012-06-13T00:51:41.694-07:00Morrisons Wincanton*Disclaimer* - this is not a sponsored post, Morrison's have not asked me to do this and sadly haven't offered any money either. I have nothing to gain by promoting Morrisons<br />
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I love Supermarkets, well I love huge shops where I can walk around and look at interesting food. I wish they didn't come with additional annoyances like 'self service' checkouts - which make everyone's life harder and puts someone out of a job, trolleys which you have to unlock with a pound coin and not being able to find the Marmite - is it with the stocks or Jams? Oh and having to be in close proximity with the general public.<br />
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However I recently visited Morrison's in Wincanton for the first time. It has all the above annoyances and more but.....they way they display the food is so lovely that I feel compelled to blog about it (Oh dear my 5th blog post and already I am reduced to blogging about my trip to the supermarket)<br />
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This is what got me when I walked in, the machine says they spray water vapour on the food to keep it fresher long, sound reasonable but I don't care about that , it just looks really cool.. Look how nice that salad looks lined up like that glistening with water droplets. All the round lettuces were also on a "specially designed ice bed" that was also cool. <br />
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Just look at that, I am assuming they have gone for a continental food market look and to my eye it works. Much nicer than the usual look which is more English market - 3 grubby tea towels for a quid in a plastic crate<br />
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I will also talk about the selection, I know, I know, I used to live in London too and enjoyed supermarkets selling obscure African root vegetables and Japanese confectionery. But this is rural Somerset, in our other local food shop they have a 'world food' section - it is where they keep the weird foreign foods the tourists buy like pasta and rice.<br />
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So to find fresh Tamarind and Samphire - heaven, interesting food is the main thing I miss about London. Every time they get a chef on Woman's hour they seem to talk about Samphire and I thought I wouldn't be able to try it until we made a trip back to the city. but ta da here it is! <br />
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Rubbish photo, but a great big local food section (we are spoilt for that in Somerset/Dorset).<br />
The Meat, Fish, Deli and hot food counters also looked excellent as ever - they use a weird light on the butcher counter that makes everthing really deep red. <br />
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Final photo is just to show how wide the isles are, enough room for 4 trolleys, so you don't get stuck behind and old lady spending all morning deciding between cottage cheese and cottage cheese with chives.<br />
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That's it really, I am probably behind the times and I am sure closer to civilisation Morrisons have looked like that for ages, but it is news to me. I own a few shares in Sainsburys from a share save scheme when i worked there as a student. But I kind of wish I had some in Morrisons now.OffGridAlexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13812161552870388616noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6788157295691221856.post-7468417987976880832012-06-11T15:02:00.001-07:002012-06-11T15:03:55.280-07:00Hedgehog<div><p>I just went out to check the quails before bed it was very dark but Iwas very excited to see a hedgehog on the lawn, he spotted me too and froze.... So I snuck up for a photo before he ran away.....</p>
<p>Oh, it was just the soil from a tray of salad leaves the chickens ate. </p>
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Scrambled eggs do it for me. So simple but so amazing.<br />
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Eggs, the fresher the better. We use whatever the ladies have produced for us, in this case its a load of chicken eggs and one quail egg. But often it wouldn't be unusual for us to be using 30 quail eggs.<br />
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Butter, we like this one, it doesn't come far to get to us, they make it on the farm where they milk the cows and it's pretty cheap really<br />
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Chuck it all in a pan. Some of the egg yolks are a bit paler than I would have liked, this is because we have some new hens that are still getting up to full health. Add plenty of Salt (Maldon if you are posh) and freshly milled pepper.<br />
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Whip it all up<br />
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Don't cook it too long, you want it slightly runny. As long as you trust your eggs.<br />
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<br />OffGridAlexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13812161552870388616noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6788157295691221856.post-15605365933411844362012-06-07T03:49:00.000-07:002012-06-07T03:49:06.753-07:00Osso BuccoI get all our meat from the market, There is one of those guys who auctions it off the side of his lorry, I always thought this was some kind of scam that you would end up with a bag of rotting offal or something but actually we have found him excellent we pay about half the price we would in the supermarket and the meat is better.<br />
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Last month I got: A joint of lamb, a joint of beef, a joint of pork, a bag of lamb chops, a bag of sirloin steak, a bag of pork chops, a chicken, a large pack of sausages and a large pack of gammon for £30, enough to feed us for a month.<br />
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Anyway, I went again yesterday and in the mixed bag was a packet of Osso Bucco. I had never seen this before and wasn't sure what it was, from the name I thought it might be some kind of African game animal....google revealed a slightly less exotic answer, it is the cross section slices of leg of beef or veal. The slices have a circle of bone in the middle with a lovely big hollow of bone marrow. <br />
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It works best stewed so you can get the meaty goodness from the bone marrow, I kept it simple, in a big pan I fried the Osso Bucco for a bit, added loads of onions and browned the lot. I would have added a stock cube but we didn't have any so instead I chucked in some cayenne pepper, dried onion, juniper berries, pepper corns and a splash of so sauce. Then I poured flour over the whole lot and fired for a few seconds then poured a whole bottle of ale over the top and stirred it until all the flour mixed into a thick sauce.<br />
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The whole lot then got poured into a pot with a lid, I studded it with hard boiled quails eggs (we put them in everything because the quails lay so many!) and stuck it in the oven for an hour or so until Lizi got home.<br />
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We served it with mashed potato it was amazing on a cold rainy day.<br />
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<br />OffGridAlexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13812161552870388616noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6788157295691221856.post-73858639154770324882012-06-06T00:29:00.000-07:002012-06-06T00:29:03.818-07:00Establishing a pecking order<div>
On Sunday we added, three new hens to our flock bringing the total to six, I have since learned that we should have quarantined them first but I didn't <span style="color: black;">know so I am keeping my fingers crossed that we have no problems. </span><br />
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<span style="color: black;">It was only a short drive home but our new birds had been through the stress of a poultry auction which must be incredibly distressing, to let them calm down and settle in we shut them on their own inside the hen house with some food and water for the rest of the day. </span><br />
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<span style="color: black;">When we did open the pop hole they were quick to come out and started wildly pecking at the grass in a way that makes me suspect they had come from somewhere that didn't have any. </span><br />
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<span style="color: black;">Our new girls are in a bit of a sorry state truth be told, they are white leghorns, nice and young but a bit ruffled. a lot of their feathers are dirty and scruffy, they have almost no tail feathers and naked vents and bellies. However the seller they came from had some really amazing looking hens of other breeds in the auction and there is no sign of parasites or disease so I think the wear is just superficial. I was chatting to a proper farmer type at the end of the sale who had also bought three birds from the same batch, he was holding all three quite happily in one hand so I assume he was fairly experience, anyway, he said they were nice little birds and would be fine with a bit of feeding up, he put the poor condition down to then being part of a very large flock where there was probably quite a lot of competition for resources.</span><br />
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<span style="color: black;">The Leghorn is pretty much the standard commercial bird in America where they like white eggs. They are egg machines, wiry little birds that put all their energy into egg production and stay lean as a result. They are flighty and quite jumpy but quite hardy (although I expect the huge combs are going to need a bit of vaseline in the winter!) </span><br />
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<span style="color: black;">There was a bit of bullying when the old and new hens met, the old hens giving our poor little new ones a bit of a hard time, however it wasn't too bad because the leghorns are so nippy and flighty that they were good at just keeping out of the way of the bullies. </span><br />
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<span style="color: black;">When I went to shut them up the old birds were sitting like queens on the top perch and all three of the leghorns had squeezed into a next box as far away as they could be, I left them like this and in the morning all seemed fine. </span><br />
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<span style="color: black;">However on the second night we had problems, it was getting dark and the leghorns refused to go in the hen house, instead they were trying to nest down on the outside of the house in the drizzle. Predators are professionally controlled by the surrounding farmers but leaving hens outside the house was a needless risk so we needed to shut them up. I caught one and put him in the hen house and shut the door. When I looked through the vents it was horrible, all three of the old birds jumped on the trapped leghorn and started pecking her to bits, I quickly got her out and didn't want to risk putting her in again. </span><br />
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<span style="color: black;">Instead we got an empty rabbit hutch, filled the nest bit with sawdust and made a perch from an old bed strut taped onto some bean tins. It was a bit cramped but safe and dry. We put the birds in and they all jumped into the tiny next bit and stayed there. </span><br />
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<span style="color: black;">I was a bit worried because but last night was very relieved, when I went to shut them up all six birds were roosting quite happily together in the main hen house. </span><br />
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<span style="color: black;">Looks like the settling period is over and the pecking order has been established. Hopefully harmony with reign for now on. </span></div>OffGridAlexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13812161552870388616noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-6788157295691221856.post-78966203408159245762012-06-05T12:18:00.001-07:002012-06-05T12:19:19.606-07:00First Post<div><p>Here it is, a new blog, thoughts and musing mostly loosely related through the following topics: family, country living, gardening, allotments, poultry, smallholding, food, self sufficiency, thrift, homebrew,  bushcraft, hiking, outdoor living, wildlife and garden gate enterprise. </p>
<br/><img src='http://lh6.ggpht.com/-TW8tRvhfNRk/T85bo2kQ00I/AAAAAAAAAAU/8uYubwtX-LE/IMAG0014.png' /></div>OffGridAlexhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/13812161552870388616noreply@blogger.com0Northern Europe, null62.27865 12.340171