Happy New Year!!!

Ok, Ok. I know I didn't wish anyone Merry Christmas either. Sorry.

My new job has kept me busier than I could have imagined. Added to that, I have got involved with the local branch of the Ramblers' Association. It seemed natural to start up a blog about that, so I did.

The blog is called "Rambling On..." and can be found here.

For my sins, I have just been nominated as the group Secretary, so I guess I will just end up even more distracted!

At least I have got back in the metaphorical saddle of Phantom bloggery after falling off last November.

I am still cooking, and under-gardener to Angela. It's Chinese New year soon, and I will make a resolution to post at least once a week over in this corner of cyberspace.

More soon. (and Amalee- I haven't forgotten I owe you a post...)

Hassness, or Heaven?

As usual, "a couple of days" has turned into three weeks. It is a mark of how great a time we had in the Lakes that we are still enjoying the memories.

The light dappling on Buttermere...



The contours of Ullswater...



A Himalayan Balsam in the sunlight...



But there are things you can't capture with a camera. Things like the way strangers become companions; the way a strange room rapidly feels like home. The comforting knowledge that there will be home made cake waiting for you when you get back from your walk.

We booked our walking holiday with Rambler's Holidays. You can find a review of Mickey and Paula's hospitality here.



If you ever get a chance to stay at Hassness, take it.

Walkies!!!

Apologies for the paucity of posts recently. Things aren't going to get better in the next few days. My wife and I are off to the Lake District for a walking holiday, though if the rain that is forecast arrives, we may be swimming most of the time.

I leave you with this piece of stencil art we found near the Thames a few days ago...



How NOT to walk..., concept by John Cleese, Artwork by Diva.

Barbecue 2 - Putting my blog where my mouth is!

Many apologies to everyone out there muttering "he's gone walkabout again"! Especial apologies to Welsh Dog, the Legal Eagle (and Beau), the Erdington Lurker, and most of all, to Amalee.

In case you haven't read her comment below, Amalee was facing going "to a barbeque party where the food will be kinda ok and the drinks a bit ropey". She was looking to me for inspiration, and I let her down...

I have been mad busy; happy and healthy, but busy.

There will be more of what I have been up to later, but, with no more ado, to the food.

The hot weather of the last few days has indeed found me re-acquiring the title I earned some years ago from a neighbour - The Man Who Cooks In the Garden. ***

Last Autumn we bought a lovely gas fired barbie. (Not having to wait 45 minutes to get to cooking heat makes a huge difference.)

A few of our recent dishes...

Pork Spare Ribs, Chinese Style

Chicken Kebabs (a working afternoon in my Mum's garden)

I have developed an all-purpose basic marinade that I can put together in two minutes flat. I shall demonstrate with this handy boned shoulder of lamb I have adjacent to the keyboard...


Get your friendly butcher to bone a shoulder of lamb for you. If you don't have a friendly butcher, find a butcher and smile. It may work. A whole shoulder of lamb will do kebabs for six people easily. I froze half the shoulder for later.

Ingredients for the marinade : two or three tablespoons plain yoghourt, the same of curry paste (Pataks are good), two crushed cloves of garlic, some lemon juice, and some fresh mint.
Dice your lamb into cubes a bit bigger than an inch square.

Chop mint and put in a large bowl with the paste, yoghourt and crushed garlic.

Add meat and marinate for a couple of hours, stirring when you remember to.

Finally skewer up, with onion, peppers courgettes or mushrooms to taste...



The finished kebabs, with red cabbage coleslaw and tomato and basil couscous.

I do hope I have made you all hungry again, even if it is late.

FOOTNOTE *** My wife's nocturnal slug hunting by torchlight led her to be called The Woman Who Gardens At Night. Very sultry and mysterious!

More Soon....

Apologies for Absence

Apologies all round for the lack of posts here. For those who have been feeling "sad and pathetic checking your blog for the latest news", can I recommend subscribing to this blog via a blog aggregator, such as Bloglines. You can then just go to one home page and see which blogs have been updated. :-)

What have I been up to?

I have the pleasure of working in one of London's best Sixth Form Colleges. However, anyone who has ever worked in education will tell you the same thing - the first part of the autumn term is exhausting.

No matter how well prepared you may be, when term starts everything needs to be done now, or preferably yesterday.

Most evenings recently have found my lovely wife and I crashed out in the sitting room, with just enough energy left to stroke our visiting cats. Most nights have found us too knackered to even try and find something decent on tv. The energy used up in hunting is rarely rewarded by finding anything watchable.

Even our diet has suffered, with that nice Croatian who delivers the Chinese takeaway becoming a regular visitor.

Things are easing off now though, and I have some posts ready to go.

The Phantom is Back!

Man at Work!

Apologies for the lack of new writing. I am still at work behind the scenes!

Coming tomorrow - An Interesting find in a charity shop, and a new take on reading over someone's shoulder...

Excuses, Excuses.

I was going to title this blog "The Rumours of my Death have been Greatly Exaggerated".
I googled the phrase just to check that it was Mark Twain that said it. Google produced 2,020,000 hits. They confirmed two things.

1. It was Mark Twain.
2. Practically every blogger under the sun has used it as a blog title, usually when returning to the blogosphere after an extended absence.

I've not posted in about three weeks, for which I offer my apologies. My period of silence was mostly caused by going back to work. I've only been doing half days, but it has taken it out of me. (Other things that were taken out of me can be discussed with the consultant who did my hernia repair at the beginning of May).

Work hasn't got any easier either. A couple of work colleagues are moving on to new posts and that means I'm having to take on new responsibilities. It's been busy to say the least.

It hasn't all been hard slog though. I've released a few books in the last few days as part of my drive to promote Bookcrossing. While I was off-air I found my first wild release, and had one of my wild releases journalled. Do check the site out, it's a great idea with over half a million members.

I have plans to add a few widgets onto the blog, such as a link to my Bookcrossing home page and my Librarything catalogue. However, I think my antipodean friend Welsh Dog has spread his technical curse over on this side of the planet. My main PC has gone on the fritz (technical term) and the screen is dead. Well, that's tomorrow morning gone already whilst I try and work out if it's the monitor, the graphics card or, (God forbid), the hard drive that has failed. We had a power cut a few days ago - lets hope it wasn't a power surge or the whole kit and caboodle could be fried!!

More soon.

Forcibly Moved!

Against my will I have been forcibly "Migrated" to the Blairite New Blogger. I have read an awful lot of things about it, none good. I offer my apologies now for any unsightly changes to the appearance of this blog, and any gaps in posting. Blogger managed to lock me out totally yesterday. I am still not sure if I can post from my laptop! Time will tell...