FatGeekUK

I am a strong advocate of the idea of ‘one device’

One mobile device that is. For all needs, phone, reading books, listening to music, anything.

And for the longest time, thats been my huge T-Mobile MDA II.

But, recently, I have been lusting after an ipod nano.

But, i realise that this lust is simply that, I don’t use my phone for much mp3 playing, for the simple reason that I am very rarely mobile,
so having a single use device for the purpose of listening to music on the go is not a supportable idea.

What I really want, is the ‘completion of the set’. MBP and an iPod go together, and having experienced the polish of the user experience of the Mac, I have a hankering for the complementary experience of the iPod user interface.

Also, if I did get an ipod, I have this feeling I would feel like I was missing out if I did not get one that could play games. That leads me away from a nano and on to a standard iPod, and if I go THAT far, I would want one that could store my entire collection, so that would be an 80gig model, and there goes 300gbp! Its a bit much to say I have ‘experienced the UI’.

Ok. maybe I should just forget it.

Before Christmas a berk ran into my car with his.

He caused damage to two panels on the passenger side.

It was his fault, he was coming out of a lane in a car park the wrong way.

But, long story short, the loss adjuster has just looked at it and sucked his teeth mightily.

It looks like they want to write the car off.

Thinking about it, although I do like my little Alfa a lot, it might be time for a change.

The next question is what to get, where from and what to do with my poor little damaged Alfa.

Answers on a postcard…

I am constantly amazed at the amount of communication that while verbal is not in the letters but the intonation.

Amy has picked up a new and annoying habit.

I don’t know about you, but I share my house (along with Wendy) with two small elephants.

One of my biggest gripes is when the kids (especially Amy, who is 5) comes downstairs.

She is incapable of doing it quietly.

I would always think to myself while walking downstairs, “why does Amy make soo much noise?!”

Well, this year, we had fore-rib of beef with all the trimmings.

• Rare Roast Beef
• Roast Potatoes
• Roast Parsnips
• Roast Shallots
• Sauted Mushrooms
• Yorkshire Puddings

The beef was from my local butchers (Howarths) and was well aged. When raw it had a significantly gamey odour, but that soon dissipated when it started cooking. It was wonderful!
Tender, tasty and the fat got nice and crisp. Just rubbed it with some olive oil and a quick twist of salt and pepper. Then into the oven.

Half an hour at gas mark 8, then popped it down to 3 and put the electronic meat thermometer into it and cooked it until core temp. was 62degC. If you do not have a meat thermometer with a timer and alarm, you are probably getting more stressed for worse results than you need.

I took a tip out of one of Nigellas books and made the Yorky batter in the magimix(food processor). PAINLESS! really worth doing that way. Makes batter effortlessly, no lumps, perfect. I will probably do pancakes more this coming year as a consequence.

When doing the roasters, I have found that they are best done on a baking tray with a shallow lip 1 to 1.5cm (about half an inch). Less chance of them accumulating a steam bath(?)

For afters I did a rice pudding, but the kids just turned their noses up at it. Very disappointing, but probably inevitable. Still, there was more for me.