T-Equaliser Original T-Shirt - a must for all you clubbers

Just heard about these on the radio, T-Equaliser Original T-Shirt, they sounds excellent, must get one!

Dartmoor here I come!!

Well, January the 19th draws closer and i appear to be getting fatter rather than fitter which is a bit concerning! I'm convinced that about 2 weeks of hard exercise (not really worth starting till after the New Year boozing is it) will get me in shape for the hikacampathon so i'm not too worried ... yet! Ask me on the 18th (when this unnatually warm spell has come to a close!).

Although I'm nowhere near fit wnough yet, I have been reading through the book that Jayne kindly bought me for Christmas. Its called Ray Mears Essential Bookcraft and its also got lots of kit and survival tips as well as instructions on carving the perfect wooden spoon. I've read a lot about cold weather clothing and survival, haven't bothered with the hot weather stuff, not really that pertinent me thinks!

I also received a really call survival kit from Toby. I'm not sure how the image here will appear on screen as I've used the windows powertoy resize tool to chop it down to 640 by 480. I reckon most of it will be legible though. It's really compact and there's lots of bit in it, inclusing snare wire, a saw and a fire stick!! Marvellous!

Its also sale time of the year so I braved the sales yesterday at about 5pm and had a brief mooch around the local Blacks store on the IOW. I could of spent an alarming amount of cash but limited oneself to a water bottle of the tought aluminium variety. This should complement the 3 litre (fresh water) bladder I already own! i may purchase another one of these bottles as i'm a bit concerned the rather cheap water bladder I bought a while ago may freeze/burst/tear and then I'd have to carry water in my boots or something!

In case we need to chop up any wild boar (or salami!) I have also purchased a decent lock knife from those nice people at Buck which should do the trick! It was a bit pricey for such a small knife but I'm assure the stainless steel is of top quality and should remain sharp, no matter how many spoons you whittle.

So that's about it for now, just need to get down the aforementioned outdoor store at the weekend and get myself a columbia skinny light fleece, £16.99, down from £24.99, bargain!

Poems and boats

The long drive in this morning was made more enjoyable by a bit of Radio 4, Andrew Marr chaired an interesting discussion on a translation of the poem "Sir Gawain and the Green Knight" . Just had a read of the original, think I may start with the translated version (not published yet, well not on the net anyway!).

Being a chap that's interested in sailing, the story or Donald Crowhurst was rather interesting too, I've just read a large article and it's truly a harrowing story. I cretainly wouldn't have bought that yacht based after knowing its history.

The watershed is showing the film "Deep Water" in Bristol from the 15th onwards, I may try and give it a look!

sorry no unicycles!!

Anyone interested in cycling (er, to work of course) on a nutter full suspension beast of a bike should see if their employeer offers this deal, or may sign up to it . It's called the cycle to work scheme and you could save 40-40% of the cost of a new machine!! Here's the link.

das wetter!

heard on the news this morning (Rob McElwee on R4) that we're due a very stormy winter and 2 months of blizzards in the New Year.

Perfect time for walking across dartmoor then! Arghhhh!

hmmm, pie, well, crumble actually!!

I've been meaning to add this for a while, but been away (I know that should't affect me being able to add to my blog, but the pictures were on my home laptop!) so only getting round to this now!!

So, Dave T kindly gave me some excess apples that his girlfriend gave him and I thought, what better way to use them than make a crumble!

As I don't really have a clue when it comes to cooking new things I went to the trustie beeb and used this recipe. I didn't have a enough butter to make up the full quantities but a bit of basic maths helped me work out the scaled down quantities.

You can pretty much follow the recipe but I here are some comments and pics from my crumble making experience:

a) First I peeled, cored and chopped up the apples, no need to be too accurate here

b) Then into the pan with a touch of water, no need for any sugar, there'll be plenty of that in the crumble mix

c) this little lot was then subjected to a darn good heating until it was very mushy, then I added teaspoon or so of nutmeg for the full hallucinagenic effect and a handfull of JC's raisins! Don't tell him though!

d) While that was bubblin' away I then moved onto the crumble mix. Fairly simple really, just get some sugar, flour and butter (cut into cubes) in the right amounts and rub it together. The rubbing is the tricky bit, just take large handfulls of the mixture and rub it through your fingers with thumbs and eventually it resemble a crumble mix. If its a bit damp feeling, then add some more flour and sugar.

e) Here it is, exciting eh!

f) Next, drop the apple filling into a suitable crumble dish, I used a lasagne dish as that waas the most suitable receptacle I could find. Next spread on the crumble mix, use a fork or spatula to spread it evening around, add some more sugar on top and then pop in the oven!!

g) server with some ice cream, cream, custard or all 3!!! Enjoy:

dust, dust ..... no rust, rust

Well look at the state if these British piers!! Thankfully this one is not in use, its an old disused pier just off the beach near Fort Victoria , Isle of Wight. I took a walk there at the weekend and snapped some pictures of some impressive rust. The whole structure appears to be beyond repair and crumbling - don't think there are any plans to repair it, there are some swanky new houses nearby so guess it will be demolised one day.

Incidentally this was taken on my Canon Rebel XT SLR (US version of the 350D), and impressive camera, I just need to read the book and find out how it works!