Birds of a Feather

The hotel we are staying in serves breakfast next to a beautiful pond. The fish dance beneath and the swans sail gracefully across the surface.



Each morning we are delighted with the different sights…

Duck!!

Ok, not actually a duck, looks more like a goose but who knows (must remember to ask hotel staff).
I think he/she must have had an itch of some kind because they were preening and rolling around in the water for ages.



Here is the same bird in a more graceful pose.

Black and White

Two swans performing synchronised swimming manoeuvres. Can’t say I have seen a black swan before.



And I have no idea what this swan is doing, but shouldn’t those legs be padding like mad under the water?



Now if you’ll excuse me I need to order another waffle.

It’s Still a Tough Job…More Tales of Hardship.

Earlier this year I documented here the arduous task of sampling various brands of chilli chocolate.

Throughout the year I have been keeping an eye out for more chilli chocolate and selflessly sampling the wares that I find.

Here are some of the chocolates that have crossed my palette.

Fiery…or not.

Staring at me from my timeline last week on twitter was a picture of chilli chocolate from Thorntons. Of course, passing the shop yesterday and the 3 for £5 pound offer, how could I resist…..

This is a dark chocolate and does taste nice, but the Thorntons is a light weight amongst the chilli chocolates. If you’re wanting afterburn and a strong heat then this is not the one for you.

Chocolat

Fellow chilli chocolate lover and all round class act @TheFlossieTP was kind enough to give me some Hotel Chocolat Chilli Pralines (thank you, thank you, thank you!).

Top marks here for presentation, the photo is poor but if you look carefully you will see bits of chilli poking out of the chocolate. A nice touch!

Sadly, despite these being very delicious (gone in 60 seconds) the heat was a little too subtle for my tastes.

Sexy!

The things I do in the name of research!

On a recent visit to Edinburgh we went to the Real Foods shop not looking for chilli chocolate but finding it in abundance.

One of the most notable bars was the Sexy one. How could anyone resist such blatant marketing?

The chilli side of this worked very well. It had the perfect afterburn experience, kicking in a good 30 seconds after you start eating it. Sadly the chocolate taste didn’t do it for me. A little too smooth and milky for my taste but still a commendable product. And boy what great packaging!

Montezuma Strikes Again

Finally another Montezuma’s bar. These people really do know how to make great chocolate.

Their Dark Chocolate with Chilli came out on top in my last roundup and this Milk Chocolate & Chilli wins hands down this time too.

This is a milk chocolate bar, like the Sexy one, but the addition of the lime really does make a huge difference.

It is soft and smooth, and the chocolate, chilli and lime all merge together to caress your taste buds.

Very, very nice.

The End

That’s the lot for now, but you can sleep soundly at night with the knowledge that someone out there is tirelessly working to ensure no chilli chocolate is left un-tasted!

Every Second Counts

Pipped to the post by 1 second!

Stewards enquiry!! 

Three Hours Earlier

Arriving by train, Birmingham stood before us, grand and majestic (the floosy is off to the right of the pic).

The station and city packed with runners and their support teams was a comforting sight as we made our way to the start, briefly being accosted by someone from BRMB to have our photo taken (see the gallery here ). Helicopters buzzed around the cloudy but bright sky as the first wave of runners was about to set off. Birmingham was well and truly packed.

As is our tradition we stopped for the pre-run photo tweet:





Being unconfident of our times we found ourselves in the Pink wave, the last wave to go. Not only in the last wave, but we also found ourselves towards the back. In retrospect this was quite good as it is good for the soul/ego to be passing lots of people rather than being passed.

So, we made our way to the Pink Wave start area.

By this time our support team had split up. Our father had caught the train to catch up with us as we staggered through Bournville and @julietims, having seen us to the start and carrying the bags, was now filming and taking photos from the start/finish.

And we’re….almost off!

The Pink Wave amassed, waiting to go through the start line.

And we’re….still almost off!

This picture sees us minutes before the start of the run. @jazzlegs looks up momentarily from playing Words with Friends, both of us prepping the running apps on our phones. There were a lot people, though at 15,000 runners it was by no means the biggest. We were surrounded though by a lot of people. All ages, all shapes and sizes and many in fancy dress. The atmosphere was great and the sun was shining….only 13 miles to go.

 

The Run

I would like to say that we had a relaxing run and were able to take in all the sights of Birmingham, but come on, we were running a half marathon!

I do know that Pershore Road is bloody long, dual carriageways in Birmingham go up as well as down and the gradient map of the course did not do the last three miles justice at all!

We saw our father twice around Bournville (he was able to cut through the station to catch us the second time) and he took some action photos and video.

@julietims was waiting at the finish (with our father) poised and ready for action to capture our triumphant arrival. As the beginning of the post attests, this was done perfectly.

13 Miles Later…

The Finish!

We did it. We ran all the way and even managed a sprint at the end.

This was a distance that neither @jazzlegs or myself had previously done and I think we are quite rightly pleased with ourselves for this achievement.

As tradition dictates, the post-run photo was tweeted:

Support

Huge thanks have to go to our support team: @julietims and our father.

It’s always good to have people on the ground to help with bags, take action photos and meet you at the end.

Also, a huge thanks to the people of Birmingham who lined the course giving support, encouragement and High-5s to all the runners. It was much appreciated.

And finally a thank you to the organisers of this year’s Great Birmingham Run who did a fantastic job.

Great Birmingham Run 2012

Here it is for all foolish enough to take part:

http://www.greatrun.org/Events/Event.aspx?id=14

Needless to say I have already signed up for next year!

“Food of the Gods”

Twinkies!

A word that strikes fear into the heart, or arteries, of any sane man (women seem far too sensible to even consider them).

As usual I am sacrificing myself to get the facts so that other people don’t have to put themselves in harms way. Selfless, I know.

This time I ordered some Twinkies.

There were at least two places I found here in the UK:

The Stateside Candy Co.  (where I ordered mine from)
American Soda

It was a box of ten.

 

Why Oh Why!

To most people (I assume) in North America the Twinkie is a well known item of cakey confectionary but to us people here in the British Isles they are a tempting mystery….until now.

In their own words the makers of Twinkies describe them as:

"Golden Sponge Cake with Creamy Filling"


But more about that later…

Although aware of them through US TV and movies (Die Hard, Ghost Busters), Twinkies did not fully engage my attention until I saw the episode of The Pretender titled Hazards. In this episode Jarod passes a truck delivering cakey items and on seeing the man with a trolley of Twinkies asks if he can buy one off him for $20, The delivery man of course accepts. Jarod’s first impression?

“It’s tasty”.


Who can ignore such a recommendation?

Next we see Horace Strickland who upon seeing Jarod with a box full of Twinkies exclaims “Food of the Gods”, but then of course he was the evil doer of the episode, finally getting his comeuppance in a hazardous container full of Twinkie cream (Jarod emptied out how many Twinkies?!).

Throughout the episode Jarod consumes a colossal number of Twinkies on his quest to right this episode’s wrong and all, I might add, without seeming to put on an ounce of weight or exhibit any signs of nausea.

Back to business….

Here we have the Twinkie itself, the individually wrapped package of sugary sweet gooiness (modelled by my beautiful, but shy, assistant).



Now for the gooey bit…

The Twinkie Tear Down!

The first thing to note is that they were not wrong. Slice ‘em up and there is the creamy filling. Not quite as creamy as the box led me to believe but I guess that is to be expected.



But what about the scientific bit, the facts and figures?

I was a little surprised that there were so few calories in a Twinkie. They are always bigged up as being so evil, and ok, with big fat zeros for Vitamins A, C and Calcium they are not winning any prizes for nutritional value, but is 150 calories really a lot? But there is the small matter of the sugar and the fat… Better than me jabbering on, I found this random article on Twinkie nutrition (not responsible for facts blah blah blah). http://www.livestrong.com/article/310643-twinkies-nutrition/ One heart stopping claim they make is that the infamous Fried Twinkie weighs in at 420 calories!

So what were they like? Did they live up to my expectations?

I have to say I was a little disappointed. I had expected sweetness, decadence and the morishness that comes with “evil” cakes. What I got was a mediocre experience.

They were stodgy and believe it or not I did not find them sweet enough.

Of course, I only had a box of ten, clearly not enough to perform a full study, and there is after all the Fried Twinkie to test drive.

The story is far from over!

And so we bid not adieu, but au revoir to the Twinkie.

It’s a Tough Job, But Someone Has To Do It

When I were a lad chocolate was pretty simple: Milk or Plain.

Now when you wander down the confectionary aisle of your local supermarket you are presented with a dazzling array of chocolaty wonders.

One of the more delightful chocolate combinations is chilli and chocolate.

What I present here is a small selection of chilli chocolate bars I have managed to find locally.



I would like to explain that this review was done under strict conditions but I can’t. It was just one big chocolate fest!!

I did try to do each bar justice. I opened each one carefully and broke off the assigned portion. I took in the aroma relishing the smell of the chocolate before slowly eating it...savouring every moment. I also left it a good time between each tasting involving lots of tea to make sure my taste buds had recovered.

I have written my initial comments for each bar as I was smelling and chewing:

Montezuma’s ~ Dark Chocolate with Chilli Min cocoa solids: 73% Weight: 100g Comments: Smell of strong dark chocolate. Small solid chunks. Tastes like normal strong dark chocolate for the first few bites then the chilli kicks in! You really can taste the higher cocoa content.

Moser-Roth ~ Finest Dark Chocolate Chilli Min cocoa solids: 52% Weight: 5 x 25g Comments: Another strong chocolate smell. Individually wrapped chucks. Smooth sweet taste. Slow trickle of chilli heat as it melts. Individual bars make for a controlled experience.
Lindt ~ Excellence Chilli Min cocoa solids: 49% Weight: 100g Comments: Thin large chunks. Much sweeter than the other bars probably in part due to lower cocoa content. Very moreish. Even taste of chilli. No surprises or after burns here.

Conclusion

The conclusion is not what I was expecting. We have three different makes of chocolate from three different countries containing three different strengths of chocolate.

The conclusion is that each is best at different times. The Montezuma bar is strong and you can’t help but eat it slowly savouring every mouthful. The Moser Roth is conveniently split into five individual bars, ideal for snacking. Finally there is the Lindt with its sweeter more main stream taste.

But, it is chilli chocolate we are talking about here. On pure taste and kick I would have to say that Montezuma’s is victorious on this day.

…and world peace!

Alas I didn’t think a swimsuit stage would be appropriate so here I present the Hot! photo shoot:

The Wandering Pony

Me: “In my opinion Keira Knightley is a one-trick pony.”

Sister: “A wandering pony?”

Me: “What?”

Sister: “A wandering pony.”

Me: “A wandering pony?”

Me: “Ah. A one…trick…pony.”

Sister: "Ah. One-trick pony!"

Me and sister: *laughter*

(I still don’t know if my enunciation or my sisters hearing was to blame here).


Firstly I’ll point out that I no longer believe Keira Knightley’s acting abilities to be limited. I saw The Jacket and didn’t recognise her. I think seeing her completely miscast in King Arthur affected my judgement.

The point here is about how words and their meanings get changed over time. My sister and I both now use wandering pony instead of one-trick pony, and this is a prime example of what happens all the time in the English language.

Words and the English language interest me and I try to be as correct as possible in my use of English wherever I write, be it e-mail, SMS or Twitter, or even here on my blog.

In my work I interact mostly with people who’s first language is not English (and yes, I have made it past the talking loud and slow stage). This has made me more aware of the English language and how it is used, especially the use of slang, idioms and colloquialisms. Not that I use them less, but I am now much more prepared to explain them. In doing this I surprised myself in how little I understood the meanings but also how interesting the origins can be.

All this leads nicely into the latest book that my wife bought for me:

Port Out Starboard Home (or in the US Ballyhoo, Buckaroo, and Spuds).

This book explains the origins of many commonly used words and phrases, and debunks many of their commonly believed origins. The introduction is a good read in itself and the rest of the book reads like a reference with each word or phrase explained under its own heading. A fascinating read.

And it was with happy surprise that I discovered the author was none other than the man behind the World Wide Words website. This is a site that provides a wealth of information about, as the tag line says, “English from a British viewpoint”. Well worth a visit and bookmarking….and subscribing to the blog.

One last example….

Tripe. We should all know tripe comes from cows (usually). But when an impressionable young child (another sister) is told by a parent about the tripe boats this simple fact somehow changes. Luckily this did not cause too much embarrassment or humiliation at school but even today I link tripe with fish.

“All the world's a stage…”

In the post this morning was the information about this years Ludlow Festival. Ludlow is a lovely little town in Shropshire that once a year hosts a festival centred around performances of an open air Shakespeare play.

This year the play is Twelfth Night and as usual will be presented in the castle grounds.

And so it begins…the open air Shakespeare season!!

We do like our open air Shakespeare. We don’t usually travel far, Nottingham, Ludlow and Stokesay Castle have been about the furthest.

But we don’t have to travel far, there are plenty of local performances.

They are great social events. We usually try and drag some friends and family along and of course there is the obligatory picnic. The different venues have their own specific charms especially on warm summer evenings (we’ve been lucky enough to mostly avoid wet weather).

The first open air Shakespeare I went to was back in the early 90’s at Stafford Castle. A group of us went including two of my sisters (in fact it was probably they who dragged me). The castle venues are great, especially when they use it to great effect as a prop! This performance was no different, a great night.

A couple of years past before I went again, this time with my wife. Driving to Lichfield there were signs on the side of the road advertising an open air Shakespeare. Why not we thought We bought tickets and have never looked back.

It was Shakespeare in the Park which is performed every year in the Italian Garden in the grounds of Maple Hayes Hall near Lichfield. It is one of our favourite open air Shakespeare performances. It takes place in a small clearing surrounded by trees where you sit on hay bails and enjoy a thoroughly entertaining Shakespeare play. This year it is The Merry Wives of Windsor.

There is also usually an open air Shakespeare play as part of the Lichfield Festival but we haven’t been to that in a while. We saw a poor performance once and it put us off. Perhaps we will try again this year.

So full circle now and back to Stafford Castle where the performance this year is The Comedy of Errors. Stafford is always good. There are usually some “big” names performing and with the castle grounds to have a pre-play picnic in, things could not be more perfect…well, a clear, warm summer evening always helps.

We do have one restriction. We don’t do tragedies. This means we usually do Stafford every other year as they seem to alternate. Maple Hayes seem to steer away from tragedies for the most part and for the others we just pick and choose.

Can anyone out there recommend any open air Shakespeare?

Let the plays begin!