Two days after my latest attempt I am still fuming at Jamie Oliver. How dare he produce a book entitled “30 Minute Meals” when you only have the slightest hope of producing any of the meals within that time if you have spent at least 30 minutes in advance preparing all of your ingredients followed by around 1 hour cleaning up the complete and utter disaster zone that your kitchen has been turned into. And breathe.

For two days I have been spitting bile about him and his book. I have to say however that the recipes are all good. Whilst they aren’t always the easiest to follow, too much detail, perhaps bullet points would have been better? They do all taste excellent.

I think even the most seasoned amateur chef would be hard pressed to put together one of these meals within the suggested 30 minute window and the mess in your kitchen is pretty much an inevitability.  You could, of course as suggested, prepare all of the ingredients before you start.  I personally got everything out of the fridge and cupboards.  Had I gone further and actually chopped, measured and de-packaged everything before starting then I think I would have taken well over 30 minutes in my preparation.

Jamie Oliver, your food may be nice, but you need to jog-on and come up with a new title for your book.  How about “Nice meals, lots of mess, takes about an hour and 15 minutes”.  Catchy.  I know.

Colin Farrell

Posted: September 13, 2011 in Cinema
Tags: ,

I heard yesterday that they are re-making Total Recall. This could be cool. I liked that film. I still do.
But I had bad dreams about this remake last night.
I know there are scarier things to have bad dreams about.  There is terrible shit happening all over the world.  But Jesus Christ why?  Why?

WHY COLIN FARRELL?  They had a genuinely good chance to make a really good remake here.  How the hell are we supposed to enjoy Total Recall with Arnie’s character played by Colin Fucking Farrell?  Fookin-Flop-tastic!

I don’t have much against Colin Farrell, I haven’t seen many of his films, but really?  In place of Arnie?  Terrible terrible choice.  In the remake of The A-Team (or the movie to be more accurate) they didn’t cast Chris Rock for the part of B.A Baracus.  That would have been mental!

So once again… Why Colin Farrell?  This is the thought that kept me awake last night.  After what seemed to be a dream of the whole film in its ruined entirety I couldn’t get back to sleep for fear of suffering more Total Recall with Colin Farrell.

South Africa

Posted: September 11, 2011 in Rugby
Tags: ,

Win or lose what an awesome game today. Well done to the Welsh boys.

20110911-110710.jpg

Sleeper Service

Posted: September 7, 2011 in Fashion, men, Travel, Work

Travelling cattle class sucks. At £169 for a standard class return from Bristol to London it’s more than a ripoff. What makes it worse is being crammed in sat next to a fifty-something bloke who grunts constantly as if ejaculating whilst listening to his podcast.

Cheering me up however was the pinstripe suit lady who must have accessorised in the dark, pairing bright red shoes (awful) with a bright orange handbag (double-awful).

My bacon has turned to leather tougher than that used in any steel-toe-capped boot, my sausage is anaemic (I know what you’re thinking… See a doctor) and my beans have started to clot.
To top it all off I get to wash this shite down with a frozen “fresh” smoothie that’s settled into what looks like fat extracted from liposuction. Tasty.

20110906-083815.jpg

A good thing today though, I parked at Southampton’s Highfield House Hotel. Free of charge. Partly in thanks to my honesty (not something I am often thanked for really) and also thanks to the owners generosity. Cheers HHH!

The weather is shitty and terrible with nasty horizontal rain. I am sticking to my story, this is why my trousers are wet. It’s nothing to do with violent splashback. Seriously.

I don’t mean soap.  Soap is good.  People need soap.  Soap is clean.  We like soap.

What should be banned is soaps.  Television soap operas.  Tonight I am hostage in my own home.  We have visitors.  Visitors who all like to watch soaps.  Now I am trapped here having to suffer the worst punishment in television.  Well, the worst punishment there is apart from the sodding X-Factor.

What I don’t understand is why I am being looked at like I am a miserable git because I can’t stand to be sat here watching fucking soaps.  I mean really.  I don’t watch fucking soaps normally.  Why do I have to watch them just because we have got visitors.

I already caught a look like I am being rude for suggesting I am going to go upstairs, but really… I can’t stand bastard soaps.

So now I am sat here venting silently on here.  Thank you WordPress for giving me this outlet.  There is every chance if it weren’t for this I would possibly end up committing GBH!

Bastards.

This is getting to be ridiculous. It’s not a case of “so much for global warming” but more a case of “bloody typical it affects us like this”. We seem to have a load of nice beaches so global warning could be a good thing, but no, rather than being able to benefit from it we just seem to have lost our summer altogether. The UK is the new rainforest.

I started the day in a foul mood though. After all, I just had a shower and have come out smelling like a urinal. The shower gel provided is scented by what I can only describe as “eau du toilet block”. I suppose the smell will linger too.

There is another sad sign today of the poor state of the economy as well. Having paid around £20 extra per night for this hotel room I realise they have started to cut corners to save money. One of the perks of having the “Executive Room” used to be some “free” drinks (Still Water, Fizzy Water, can of Coke and a bar of Dairy Milk) as well as free internet. Well it seems in their wisdom this particular Holiday Inn has not gone with the Free Internet and has cut down the size of the chocolate bar and even ditched the can of coke in favour of a “Just Juice”. Cheapskates.

20110823-073006.jpg

I just saw a piece on the news about a girl who lost her fingers as a toddler and has just received a “bionic hand”.  When I saw the thing it was a truly amazing feat of engineering, unfortunately all I could see was a fatal wanking accident waiting to happen.  But on a serious note, she looked so happy with it.  Kind of makes me wonder what I am moaning about on this blog really.

 

 

 

 

 

Ok, thats enough of that.  I need a distraction.  Ah, there we go, world mobile phone throwing competition in Finland…

 

There’s just 40 minutes left of what has been a bit of a crap day.

I’ve had what’s left of my hair removed by my wife who wasn’t paying attention. I now look like Evan Davis! I have to keep checking that I haven’t got any of the kids fuzzy felts stuck to my head.

I got lost countless times trying to fund this here hotel. Bloody “crap-nav” letting me down big-time.

About the only thing that’s making things ok is that I’m having a better day than Gaddafi.

This can’t be right can it? I’m sat at a small table for two and have just been asked by a complete stranger if I mind sharing the table.

Now what do I do? Sit here staring at her? Nope.
Chat to her? Nope.

Instead I sit here furiously writing this whilst worrying if I’ve got crumbs on my chin. We are engaged in the most awkward game of London Underground-style reading-all-the-posters-on-the-walls-and-not-making-eye-contact that I have ever had to endure.

It would have been easier just to start talking from the start.
Thanks for ruining my lunch. Cow.

07:30 – no smell of violence this morning, just a mild whiff of chav-shit. They don’t seem to have fancied their chances against 15,000 coppers and vigilantes.

But that’s just London. Not wanting to be left out, the scum-of-the-north took a turn last night. One of them on the news today making it sound like “getting free stuff” was a basic human right.

07:42 – Changing the subject somewhat, someone got dressed in the dark this morning. It won’t come out in the picture, but really, navy jacket / charcoal trousers combo?
Your wife is either blind or she doesn’t love you as much as you love her.

20110810-074448.jpg

Fuck me, I just clocked he’s wearing a chocolate brown shirt as well. Mate, your wife must be having an affair, your clearly not so attractive that she’s letting you look so ridiculous just to put off other women.

07:59 – I’m at Pret. A woman blasts through the doors clutching a book in her hand. She heads straight to the toilet, not for a coffee. This can only mean one thing. She is busting for a shit.

Another thing I don’t get, whilst I am looking around my fellow breakfast-eaters, is blokes who cross their legs at the knee when sitting.  I’ve only attempted this a handful of times and I am more than aware that becoming an expert at anything is commonly known to require somewhere in the region of 30,000 hours of practice, but on the few times I have tried it the experience has proven to be immensely uncomfortable.  Not in any small way as a result of my “having testicles”.   Am I missing a trick here or is the world more3 heavily populated by eunuchs than I would have imagined.

I know, you don’t want to be imagining eunuchs either.  So lets go back to yesterday briefly.  On my way back from lunch I was stopped by a tourist.  She had taken the lead in asking for directions.  Her boyfriend (not wearing the trousers) remained in the background, seated on some steps.

“Hexuse me… chwhere his arooods please” she asked.

“Pardon?”

“Arooods, chwhere his eet?”

“Sorry, I don’t know what… oh wait a minute… where am I again?  Oh yes, near Knightsbridge.  ‘Harrods’ you mean?  The shop?”  I reply.

“Ah yes… Harroooooods” she repeats (if you can call that repeating).

“I don’t know.  Thats Knightsbridge over there, its down there somewhere.  Bye”.

What the hell is it with people asking me for directions this week?

08:47 – Back to Riot News.  I got some great advice yesterday, from a courier delivery man.  He was telling me how the looters were idiots, that a lot of them were just stealing beer from off-licenses etc.

“They are idiots” he pointed out quite needlessly.  “They are going around looting small ticket items like beer and wine, but the crime is Looting.  It doesn’t matter if they take a bottle of beer or a 50″ screen television, they are going to get done for the same crime.  What they want to do is go around to the Louis Vuitton shop around the corner.  I deliver around there all the time, its only got a shutter at the back, 15 minutes working on that and your in to Aladdin’s Cave!”.