All entries for September 2006

What would you sing on X Factor

I was musing on the way in this morning about why you tend to hear the same old guff on X-Factor week in week out.

I mean, in the 40 minutes I travelled to work this morning my iPod served up a wide selection of genres, artists and songs – we have a huge cultural legacy of music to draw on yet you just get people standing up and churning out Mariah Blarey or R ‘not suspicious in any way’ Kelly.

Besides, it’s noticable that the singers who step away from the norm seem to do better.

So, in the tradition of Warwick Blogs – what would you sing if you went on X Factor to impress the judges?

My choices would be:

1. John Cage – 4’33” – the perfect choice to show off my musical talents
2. Nick Cave – Staggerlee – one of the most violent nasty songs I’ve ever listened to
3. Julian Cope – Mik Mak Mok – gibberish, thus perfect for X Factor!

: 20 Sep 2006 09:37 |  Tags: Culture TV |  Comments (25) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Yay Meat!

My birthday present from my dad showed up at Uni House today – a box’o’meat, specifically:

A pheasant
Some Wild Boar
Some Venison Steaks

I would link to the company website, but their URL is not resolving.

Anyway, I now have bambi in a box by my desk and look forward to eating them at some later point.

Go Meat!

: 14 Sep 2006 12:59 |  Tags: Birthday Food |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

New Bike

The bike I bought from Chris May last year has finally died. It needed a bit of work doing which got more complicated to the point where repairs were getting a bit expensive really, so took the plunge and bought one of these:

Went for a 30 mile circuit yesterday and the bike is great – very stable and quick, though the setup still needs some adjustment to get the gearing spot on.

Hope I get a lot of mileage in before winter really kicks in.

: 12 Sep 2006 12:50 |  Tags: Cycling |  Comments (20) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Plum Sauce

Our neighbour gave us a big bag of plums from their tree. Unsure about what to do with them I decided to cook up some plum sauce to go with duck. A Gary Rhodes recipie was the base which I adpated based on what was in the kitchen:

Malt Vinegar
Demerara Sugar
Plums
Dash of Port
Onion
Star Anise
Coriander seeds
Stick of cinnamon

Worked out very well and I now have a jar of delicious plum sauce that will last a very long time according to Mr Rhodes. Excellent.

I will be making some more from the rest of the plums.

: 06 Sep 2006 19:53 |  Tags: Food |  Comments (0) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Warwick Podcasts Award Nomination

Writing about web page http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/newsandevents/audio/

Go Us!

Following on from WarwickBlogs success in the regional CIPR awards last year we follow up with a nomination for Warwick Podcasts.

This is great recognition for the project and comes at an exciting time for us, what with the launch of iCast.

When I think about the things that have been implemented in the last 12-18 months here – WarwickBlogs, Warwick Podcasts, iCast, the eLearning and research technology stuff going on in eLab, Sitebuilder2 and even the MySpace stuff Ellie is working on – it makes me pretty excited about the way we handle this sort of thing at Warwick.

: 06 Sep 2006 13:30 |  Tags: Podcasts |  Comments (4) |  Close comments |  Report a problem

Free food for everyone!

For the last two weekends I have been out picking blackberries around our village – there are a hell of a lot this year and we have had no problem stocking up with all this free food. I look forward to a winter of blackberry crumble, tarts, cheesecakes and jam. I think there are another good 3-4 weeks of fruit to come.

Also, the veg patch is reaching it’s peak. We have cabbages a-plenty – they survived the relentless attack of butterflies which has pleased me a lot. The beans are ok, but were better last year. Courgettes are producing well and the tomatoes are not bad. Even the leeks are looking pretty good – I look forward to Feb/March when I can eat those.

Best of all are the Butternut Squashes – we have two baby squashes already ripening and plenty of flowers which should also become fruit. I’ll be chuffed as can be if these come off.

Anyway – the point of all of this is all of this comes for bugger all money – the cost of some seeds and a bit of hard work – less than that for the blackberries of course. What bugged me about this post was the idea that gardens were wasteful and bad. Rubbish – one of the key reasons we are/were a nation of gardeners was that gardens were a way of producing cheap, healthy food. Whether you had a small garden or an allotment, for many working people it was how you supplemented your family’s food in a cheap way.

: 04 Sep 2006 13:43 |  Tags: Food |  Comments (7) |  Close comments |  Report a problem