Author: richard

This year the Pier has ice skating, reindeer and general seasonal cheer. In an unexpected twist, the ice was fake (plastic tiles, boo!), but the reindeer were real. And very cute they are too. A sign reassured us that it was all OKed by the RSPCA, and indeed, 18 month old “number 015” looked happy enough.

It was lovely and sunny, so we wandered back along the sea-front mulling the unnatural combination of reindeer and piers….

Last Christmas Rachel, Steve and the kids gave us a set of Ticketmaster vouchers, and we decided we’d cash them in on something we wouldn’t normally go to see. We picked Round the Horne…Revisited 2, based on the following “logic“: (i) we knew it was a famous ’60s radio comedy series; (ii) we love lots of other radio comedy; ergo, we would like this.

And we did. The show was two episodes of the radio show on stage, with some new work thrown in. The audience were clearly tuned in to certain characters which were over our heads, but we soon got the hang of looking forward Fiona & Charles or Julian & Sandy (surely the roots of Ken & Kenneth). Time to go away and listen to some of the
original radio series.

Last month Cayne and Frauke visited. We’d not seen Cayne since 2001, and it was was the first time we’d met Frauke, so that was all just lovely. Their trip coincided with the Lewes Bonfire celebrations, and as it was on a Saturday we managed to drag the New Scientist posse out too. Photos are available.

I’ll leave it to Cayne or Frauke to mention “the incident” if they want to sometime.

As a test of will power I’ve been holding off the mince pies until December the first. And now here we are and, with possibly too much excitement, I’m ready to dive in to a Sainsbury’s “SO” organic mince pie (pack of six, but I’m just going to start with one).

The packaging is much as you’d expect for a modern shop-bought pie. A standard (non-recycled) glossy cardboard box reveals a thin plastic tray. The pies are pleasing to the eye, with around the right amount of toasting to the short crust pastry. The sprinkling of sugar only cheapens the appearance. Removing the pie from the tin case reveals a firm shell, with no sagging or signs of filling leakage. So far so good.

Biting into the pie produces moderate-to-high crumb fall, and the initial taste is disappointingly of bland pastry only, despite the filling reasonably occupying the inner space, with no glaring gaps. On further tasting, the fruit filling is light but importantly succulent, with a hint of spices, and the dominant tone is that of raisins and sultanas.

In summary, a good fruit content, producing an easy-eating pie, certainly suitable for those who do not like their mince pies to be too spicy or looking for a pie to go with a light red wine. Let down only by the pastry, although there may be room for improvement here if heated in an oven at home.

This review was based on a sampling of one pie, eaten cold with coffee. It is possible to warm the pie in the oven for 8-12 minutes. Not suitable to those with nut allergies.

Maybe old news, but I’ve only just spotted that The Economist is offering audio interviews online. They don’t quite get it, in that they are in streaming format, which just means I have to jump through hoops to get the content onto the iPod.

That was an odd weekend. On Friday I found myself back in Cambridge for the shutdown party of a Logica office I worked at some ten years ago. I was there for a couple of years, doing some funky things, with some lovely people. It’s somewhat voyeuristic going back, but it was good to catch up with everyone.

And on Sunday I was back at Blackfriars for the Hatters AGM. This took me across the road from the ugly Kings Reach Tower, where I worked, on and off, for four years. All in all, a weekend of my brain resurfacing lots of subconscious associations with places.

“Submarine Telegraphy”, “Porthcurno Telegraph Museum”, “World War II Museum”… it’s a worry when the name of something you’re trying to find keeps on changing on signs. Still, we found it, but with only an hour before closing. Not enough time, but I’m glad we stopped off.

What we have here is a museum, not far from Land’s End, based around the development of telegraphy from about 1870 until the 1950s. Dull? Heck no. Geeky? A bit. If you’re read The Victorian Internet, you’ll know the kind of things to expect. It’s one of the best museums I’ve been to.

There’s a range of stuff, from the crazy transatlantic cable laying, the life of people working at this particular location, through to telegraph pricing plans.
The thing that made it for me was the instrument room. This is set up as three telegraphy stations, so you can see (and poke about with) original working equipment. I think it was John who was there keeping it all ticking over, and answering questions. The worrying thing for us was that the messaging involved was shocking similar to the telex systems that Jane was working on at BA in the 1990s.

Apparently the day to go is a Monday, because the C&W old boys are in on that day taking the mechanical bits apart and fixing them up.

I didn’t find Kwak (8%) beer to be “very smooth and spritzy”. Although I do like the taste of strong Belgium beer, such as the Chimay (scary at 12%), this one had an initial taste of neat spirit. Not something I look for in a beer. But that’s me: Paul liked it, and with a great comedy name, it had to be tried.