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Two colonies of bugs in my fridge
A one-day sourdough breadmaking course at The School of Artisan Food on Sunday 13 March 2011: learned a great deal and brought home bread and sourdough starters that are still breeding in the fridge after over a year - and getting better! Read about the course and the bread I made during 2011. And the latest recipes and news, try Sourdough bread 2012. The technique - and the bread - are improving all the time.
Since the 10 January 2011, I have been making yogurt in a Thermos flask at least once a week, each innoculated from the previous one and going well after over a year. Read the whole story.
Back to infinity
I’ve just watched the Horizon programme, To Infinity and Beyond, again and added a bit to what I wrote about it just over two years ago...
Looking back on Quantum: A guide for the Perplexed
I just re-read the page I wrote after reading Jim Al-Khalili’s fascinating book, and was pretty chuffed with it. It’s here...
Another crisis with my Gaggia espresso machine
A year after my lucky break on Ebay, my other pump developed hiccups. It has now been replaced with a brand-new one for under £13 and the machine worked perfectly (once I’d sorted out the pressure relief valve!). Read on...
Talking of food...
The two items above reflect that I use the web rather than a notebook to record my cookery experiments. Along with many of my favourite recipes and techniques, they’re all in The Online Cookbook.
My Canon EOS 300D and Windows 7
I finally reconciled these two ill-matched partners on the 3 October 2011, simply by changing the camera’s communication mode from ’Normal’ to ’PTP’ (probably for peer-to-peer). Windows 7 now sees the camera as an ordinary removable disc, so no software needed!
Christmas Kindle
My main present for Christmas 2010 was an Amazon Kindle e-reader. I started to review it on the 12 January 2011. It froze completely on the 2 February 2011, but I was able to solve the problem. It kept doing this - until I took it out of its expensive leather cover! Since then I’ve found a way of managing this, and also of putting lists of books into collections. And that I can get today’s newspaper abroad for less than half the print price!
My latest import of wine
60 litres (80 bottles) in lightweight bag-in-boxes for £1.71 a bottle!
Rant No 1
Pay the Murdochs for F1 coverage? No way! Read my complaint to the BBC.
Rant No 2
There are some serious thoughts on Government IT cock-ups at the end of the Politics page. They were shared with Henry Porter of The Observer (reluctantly) and Sir Alec Jeffreys, inventor of DNA profiling, and fed back to the Department of Justice. My thoughts on capital punishment are on the same page (please read this, Mr President!).
Rant No 3
Why I thought I’d vote NO but didn’t in the Alternative Vote referendum - my aruguments with myself and thoughts on the coalition...
Latest news on human origins
A useful article in The Observer on the 19 June 2011, a new book not to be missed and a suprisingly effective BBC1 series - see The diary of a wandering mind.This and almost all other science is dealt with in the more accessible A Short History of Nearly Everything by Bill Bryson, which I found surprisingly good.
An alternative to Internet Explorer?
With a new generation of totally Web-and-Cloud based portable computers on the way, using Google’s Chrome browser, I installed the latest version on the 7 June 2011. I was impressed enough to make it my default browser, though an awful lot of ’remembered’ stuff sent me back to IE9. More recently, I’ve been persevering with Chrome, because IE just seems to be getting slower and slower.
Problems after five years with the ankle replacement
After five great years, part of my ankle implant failed, but was successfully repaired on the 18 May 2011. After less than a week I was fully mobile and nine months on everything is fine. Full story and latest news...
More general bone problems?
My exercises for stiff necks, shoulders, backs and legs - a workout that really helps when these old bones are punishing me
Espresso update (11 March 2011)
The whole story up to the death of my beloved Gaggia Baby, finding a defective but much tidier one on Ebay and how I merged the two.
Ever bought food over the web from Italy?
We have, from Fattoria La Vialla in Tuscany. You should, too!
Finally despairing of Windows Vista...
...I spent a lot of time towards the end of 2009 exploring the possibilities of Linux in a dual-boot setup with Windows. I ended up buying Windows 7 Ultimate Edition. Read the story here...
In July 2009 I updated the page about my pottery activities...
...with some pictures I found recently and a new shot of the only one of my own pots I can find.
The Digital Switchover
This happened in our house years ago, with the basic Sky package. Then came DVD-recording, Freeview, DVD-RAM discs - and now a Freesat PVR. Follow the saga here...
My best mate for some years from about 1960...
...with whom I lost touch around 1975, has a fascinating and rapidly-growing blog with lots about folk, jazz and Brazilian music, and even bits about me!
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