Cooking With Richard

Lovely, refreshing, luminous orange Irn Bru:

I used to drink this and Tartan Special quite a lot when I lived in Scotland.

Everyone should have one of these at home …

… and we do!

Image from NASA’s Terra satellite, huge version here.

I took this photo last week during the cold snap. It’s of a large field next to the house, covered in snow.

Click for the big version!

Here’s another — the enchanted forest:

Click for the big version!

Chipperfield Common, covered in snow:

I got a bit lost and had to follow my own footsteps back:

New sink …

This is Bodgers Barley Wine. Barley wine is a strong (8-12%) ale which tastes like a wine:

Tortoise fountain:

Why is their fucking lemon tree growing? Our lemon tree died!

New haircut — do you like it?

At the Dacorum Machinery and Steam Preservation Group fair in Potten End:

BMW Isetta “bubble car”:

Need I say that this event was a bit mad? Should you wish to go to the exhibition, it’s on at the British Library until 6th September, cost £9.

Update

Circulus are playing at The Lexington on Pentonville Rd, 13th August. Anyone want to come with me?

I went to Bletchley Park today (Wikipedia page), home of the code-breaking efforts during World War II.

On my own!

They are starting to preserve the original nissen huts and later brick buildings like this one …

The rebuilt Colossus, arguably the first digital computer:

Captured Japanese codebooks:

They have their own Harrier:

and at the end of the day there was a fly-past by a WWII Hurricane:

I’ll have to take N-sama next time!

Not to mention the many and excellent Adam and Joe Toy parodies …

Best thing, just sitting by the garden all day watching the tiny birds.

Thinking about getting a duck island.

Not sure about the whole message there, but anyhow … inspired by this advert, I bought a packet. 59p per packet, and they are quite tiny compared to the real pocky. Also the milk chocolate is horrible compared to the plain chocolate pocky they sell in Japan.

We went back to Bennington Lordship today …

Stop looking at me!

Finished now …

BBC Four Japan season: Japan in Colour: The Wonderful World of Albert Kahn.

A documentary about Japan in 1900-1920.

To those who know what comes after, looking at these photographs gives terrible premonition of what is to come.

And they are reshowing the Secret Wilderness show:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/iplayer/episode/b00jhxhf/Secret_Wilderness_Japan_Episode_1/

Today to the Mosquito Aircraft Museum / De Havilland Aircraft Heritage Centre in Hertfordshire.

Chipmunk, similar to the ones I used to fly in AEF:

Comet 4 interior:

De Havilland Gyron engine:

Vampire trainer jet (one of two at the museum which are both very well preserved):

Mosquito, built and used during World War II:

Top gun … is it Tom Cruise?

Berkhamsted castle, an example of a motte and bailey castle dating from the Norman conquest:

Tea at Home and Colonial:

Pork belly (kakuni). This is from G. Gibson in Watford Market:

I just came back from a conference in Grenoble where I did a short talk about work.

Grenoble itself was seedy, the food we had was simply awful (to the point of €35/person inedible/unsafe to eat in one case), but at least the conference itself was good.