The family blog - recipes, odds and ends

Listen to Cambridge 105

2011-08-20T11:05:00.002Z

Cambridge 105 - a community radio station serving Cambridge, UK. Small but growing.

UK Foreign Office fleeces Christchurch earthquake victims

2011-03-17T20:22:00.001Z

This close call offers something to think about when next the school phone to say your child got a fracture playing rugby:

A neighbour's son was doing his 'gap year' and living in Christchurch New Zealand when the earthquake of March 2011 hit. He escaped harm but his hostel was demolished with all his possessions lost in the rubble.

Happy to be alive, the lad was left owning a shirt and a key to a door for a room that doesn't exist.

The British government stepped up their consular help for such misfortune. The lad needs a passport to replace the one lost in the building. So extra Foreign Office people are on hand to add to his misfortune with an invoice for a £200 replacement fee.

Hmm.

Caffeine Content of chocolate, cocoa and coffee

2010-09-22T16:23:00.001Z

Here's information on caffeine in drinks, culled from here and there.

Drinking 5 cups of coffee a day gives an intake of 228g caffeine a year.

To visualise this amount imagine a retail bag of ground coffee.

Text version:

Mug of brewed coffee 100 – 125 mg

Ben & Jerry's Coffee Fudge Frozen Yogurt - mug 85 mg

Mug of instant coffee 70 mg

Bar of dark chocolate 65 mg

Can of Cola – 350 ml 50 mg

Mug of tea 45 - 75 mg

30g dark chocolate (a third of a bar) 20 mg

Mug of cocoa 15 mg

Mug of green or white tea 15 mg

30g milk chocolate (a third of a bar) 6 mg

Mug of decaffeinated coffee 2 mg

Cornflake chew bars

2010-09-01T15:10:00.001Z

Here is fast way to recycle a lot of cornflakes. These bars are very sweet and could be classed as 'survival food' for intergalactic travel or holidays in Nepal, Skye and Northumberland.
The ingredients are warmed together and mixed with cornflakes. Don't bubble the sugar or the result will be brittle enough to require dentistry.

Ingredients

300g or 6 cups of cornflakes (£0.60)

230g or 1 cup of sugar (£0.20)

300g of golden syrup (£0.57)

1 tablespoon of butter (£0.10)

1 teaspoon of vanilla extract (£0.10)

1 jar of peanut butter 340g (£1.16)

Recipe cost £2.72 for 1200g; £2.25 a kilo or £0.12 per slice

Method

Measure the cornflakes

Microwave the sugar and syrup in a large bowl for 1-2 minutes. Remove and stir or reheat to dissolve. Don't overheat or you'll make toffee instead. Soon add the peanut butter; mix and then stir in the cornflakes before it cools.

Tip into a 9 x 13inch tray; press down and cut into 24 pieces.

Cheesecake, Jewish style with success

2010-08-22T15:05:00.006Z

Some cheesecakes are set with gelatin and have smooth, jelly-like texture. This cheesecake is baked and sets due to its whipped egg. When chilled it has an appealing dry, soft, crumbly texture. My efforts used the soft cheese bought in tubs. These were light soft cheese; full fat soft cheese and marscapone. Ricotta is one to try next but the recipe below is already perfect. Most of these cheeses cost the same (£4.00 a kilo).

Costs:

Recipe cost £5.02 or 16 slices at £0.31p. Cooked weight 1140g. Cost is £4.40 a kilo

These prices are from Tesco in 2010 when a pint of milk was £0.45 and fillet steak was £25 a kilo.

Ingredients:

8 crushed digestive biscuits (£0.40). No need for butter but you could use a layer of sponge cake in thin slices.
175 g caster sugar cost £0.25
3 eggs (£0.75)
675 g soft cream cheese (£2.76 for 750g 3 tubs of Tesco Full fat soft cheese)
3 tablespoons of plain flour £0.01
Pinch of salt + 1 teaspoon lemon juice + 1 teaspoon vanilla extract £0.25
150 ml double cream £0.60
Cooking cost £0.50

Method:

1. Warm the oven to 185 degrees C

2. Generously grease the inside of a loose-bottom 9 inch cake tin. Layer the bottom with the biscuit crumbs and press down.

3. Beat together the eggs and sugar until creamy:

4. Beat together the cheese, flour, salt, lemon juice and cream in a separate bowl:

5. Beat the two lots together and pour the mixture onto the biscuit base

6. Bake for 40 – 50 minutes at 185 degrees C. The cake should rise to the top of the tin like a soufflé and go brown on top. There will not much wobble in the centre.

7. Turn off the heat and leave the cake in the oven to cool. It will flatten to half its height. Although it's delicious warm, place in the fridge for 1-2 hours to get more texture.

8. Run a knife round the inside of the tin and press the cheesecake up through the rim.

Notes:

You can use slices of sponge cake instead of biscuit

You can use other cream cheeses such as curd cheese

Use the cooking time above and the picture below as a guide.

Cinnamon Balls - a soft sort of biscuit

2010-08-14T14:18:00.008Z

Cinnamon balls are a typical Yiddish sweet biscuit with a soft crumbly texture and a soft outside coating. As kids growing up in 50's Whitechapel, London we were never far from a Jewish bakery. Sometimes the balls would be soft and sometimes they were hard and dry. A rare treat worth the expense. They're made of almonds and not much air:

Prices

Recipe cost £4.40 for 16 balls at £0.28p each. Cooked weight 360g or £11.00 per kilogram. These prices are from Tesco in 2010 when a pint of milk was £0.45 and fillet steak was £25 a kilo.

Recipe 2 egg whites £0.50 plus a pinch of salt
4oz or 114g caster sugar £0.15 (cut or swop it with soft dark brown sugar £0.25p)
8oz or 228g ground almonds £2.50
1 level tablespoon of ground cinnamon £0.15

Cook covered for 15-25 minutes as below** £0.50

Dust with icing sugar £0.10

Warm the oven - see ** below. Oil a tray or line it with oiled aluminium foil.
Beat two egg whites and pinch of salt until stiff.
Mix ground almonds; sugar and cinnamon.
Add a quarter of the dry mix to the egg whites; fold until mixed and repeat until it's all mixed.
Take a rounded desertspoonful of mixture; use damp hands to form the mixture into 2.5cm balls and place on the foil. There's no need to roll them smooth - a rough surface adds interest.
** Various sources suggested oven cooking for 15 minutes at 180'C or 20 mins at 160'C or 25 mins at 150'C. I reckon you could cook this in a microwave.
Tip: the cooking just needs to set the egg white which would happen at 60'C. You really don't need the balls to go brown or hard so you may undercook them. I covered mine with foil to reduce drying out
Tip: place the cooked balls in a closed plastic sandwich box to trap evaporating moisture and soften the outside. When cool, roll the balls in icing sugar. Stored for a couple of days like this seemed to make them more crumbly.

Recipe variations

A second variation uses 3 egg whites not 2; and 1.5 tablespoons of cinnamon not 1. I was happy with the above although the recipe might be converted to metric amounts. Almonds are sold in 100g/200g bags so our next attempt will use 100g sugar + 200g ground almonds + 2 egg whites.

Is a jumbo sized egg or a medium egg better value?

2010-08-06T00:30:00.004Z

Q. Is a jumbo sized egg or a medium egg better value?
A. Based on buying a box of 6 free range eggs the jumbo egg is better value

Medium egg 44g total with 4g fat and 5g protein Cost £0.24 each or £5.45 per kilo
Jumbo egg 63g total with 6g fat and 8g protein Cost £0.28 each or £4.40 per kilo
At best a Jumbo egg offers 45% more but doesn't cost than much more.

If we bought eggs by weight, here's what you'd see:

The contents of a large egg weighs 60g the shells weighs 8g or 12% of its weight.
40% of this 60g is the fatty yolk (24g) ;
60% of the 60g is the protein-rich egg white (36g).
Overall it is 13% protein; 10% fat
An egg is 25% useful; 75% is water.

Moist Chocolate Brownies - ten batches later

2010-08-06T00:04:00.001Z

300g 70% cocoa solids cook's chocolate £3 for three bars.
(I tried and wouldn't again use Cadbury's which is just 25% cocoa).

250g butter £1.25

2 teaspoons Baking powder £0.05

400g caster sugar £0.50

10ml vanilla extract £0.44

140g self raising flour £0.07

4 eggs £1.00

Oven run for one hour costs £0.50p

Makes at least 24 brownies at £7 or 29p each

Use the larger 13" x 7" dish

This recipe offers a cost saving thanks to using a larger dish; flour; no nuts and cheaper chocolate. You can change the texture by adjusting the cooking time and storage (see below). If you need to know the calories they contain, you ought not be eating brownies.

Get the oven heating to 180 degrees C.
Line a 22cm x 33cm baking tin with foil (aka a 9 x 13inch dish)
Put 225g butter and 225g chocolate in a bowl and microwave for 90 seconds to melt.
Whip the eggs in a separate bowl and fold in the sugar; flour and vanilla.
Combine the two bowls add the baking powder last
Pour into the lined baking tin and level up the mixture within it
Bake for 30 minutes. Sometimes we've turned off the oven and left the cake for up to 50 minutes. It doesn't really need to be cooked through: you can stop earlier for a moist result. Allow to cool and then cut in the tin.

Wrap individual brownies in pieces of cooking foil. If kept like this for several days the outer crust softens nicely. Store some of your brownies in the fridge and note the chewy result.

Cooking weights, measures and cheats

2010-05-28T08:34:00.001Z

A pint of peas

One pint of peas serves 4 as a side dish. Fill a pint beer glass with frozen peas. Add kettle hot water almost to the top and microwave for 3 minutes.

A mug of porridge for two

A mug full (250 ml) of porridge oats serves two. Tip the oats into a bowl and add 1 mug of milk; 1 mug of water and a pinch of salt. Microwave for 3-4 minutes, stir and leave for another minute. Sprinkle with sugar, add a dash of milk and drizzle with squeezy condensed milk.

Both Quaker and Jordans Jumbo oats make a more textured porridge. Read the box for the cooking time as this varies.

A tea cup of porridge for one

A small cup (eg tea cup) of porridge oats is 40g and serves one. Tip into a bowl and add 1 tea cup of milk; 1 tea cup of water and a bit of salt. Microwave for 3-4 minutes, stir and leave for another minute.

A mug of rice for 2-3

If you saw how rice was walked on before it was packaged you'd rinse the rice before use.

Tip a mug full (250 ml) of rice into a bowl and add 2 mugs of water and a pinch of salt.

Microwave for 10 minutes. Break up and serve using a fork.

Colour option: put a drop each of red and yellow food colouring on the surface. Use a fork to mix when you're ready to serve the rice.

Flavour option: add as much saffron as you can afford

On a mission to exile gravy from the UK

Make a nice sauce instead of gravy. Or pour over herbs in oil. If you've fresh, carefully prepared and carefullly chosen foodlet's not spoil it with stale flavours (such as chicken; boiled beef or vegetable stew).

Moist Chocolate Brownies - first success

2010-05-27T11:50:00.006Z

Based on Nigella Express - Flourless Chocolate Brownies:
If you are counting calories; or even counting on living long don't even think of making these brownies. They're a quarter butter; a quarter chocolate; a quarter sugar and a quarter nuts.
There's no flour in this version so you can have a jolly think about the calories you're saving.Those who have loved ones may care to assess their motives for making them.

225g 70% cocoa solids chocolate £3.80 for two bars
225g butter £1.25
10ml vanilla extract £0.44
200g caster sugar £0.25
3 eggs £0.75
150g ground almonds £0.75
100g chopped walnuts (I think optional) £1.08

Oven at 170 degrees C - running for < one hour £0.50p
Makes sixteen brownies at £9.35 or £0.58 each excluding labour. Add in £10 for labour cost gives £1.20 per brownie.
Nutritional info: If you need to measure calories and fat, you ought not be eating these brownies

Recipe:

Get the oven heating to 170 degrees C. Line a 22cm square dish with foil.
Put 225g butter and 225g chocolate in a bowl and microwave for 90 seconds to melt.

Mix and add 200g sugar; two teaspoons of vanilla; 150g ground almonds; 100g chopped walnuts. Mix well. Beat three eggs into the mix.

Scrape into the cooking dish and flatten the mix into the corners.
Bake in the middle of the oven for 25 minutes. It's now cooked on top and soft inside.
Cool a bit, cut to make 16 squares and put in the fridge to firm up.

Two weeks without pepper

2010-05-22T15:58:00.001Z

Seven thousand brand new copies of the Penguin "Pasta Bible"were destroyed before they reached the shops. The reason was that a recipe requiring "salt and freshly ground black pepper" came to print as "salt and freshly ground black people". The publisher is apologetic and embarrassed.

There is plenty of embarrassment here after purchasing a salt and pepper set. I'd been failing to get as much as a grain of black pepper on my scrambled egg. Two weeks later I discovered that the set wasn't prefilled with salt and pepper. See here:

Wonderfully realistic paper inserts in a cruet set.

Enhance your garden with this Tesco oil container

2010-05-22T15:41:00.001Z

Nature knows doodly-squat about hue saturation and lightness. Tesco knows better with this gorgeous deep red bottle cap and sophisticated green bottle.

How to service or replace the brewing unit on a Jura coffee machine

2010-05-13T17:16:00.008Z

While a neighbour has spent years repairing his Morris Minor car, fixing my coffee machine became a task of similar hobby proportions. After several weeks research I have an as-new machine with parts costing £100 - which is much less than £1200 for a new machine.

In the UK it is assumed that it you can afford the BMW of coffee machines, you can afford someone who can fix and service it too. Read on and you could clean and repair your Jura coffee machine for £5 (for new 'O' seals). I hope the following saves someone the weeks I spent dismantling and reassembling a Jura coffee machine.

What is the brewing unit?

The brewing unit (= brewing group - Brüheinheit) collects the ground coffee; infuses it with water and ejects a plug of used grounds. A number of different brands are made by one Swiss firm. The brewing unit is almost identical on around 50 different Jura; Krups and AEG coffee machines. In other words, the guts of all these machines is often similar. The attachment places are similar; electronic garnishing (display; control programme and buttons) differ.

The Jura Impressa F90

This model occupies the low/middle part of the Jura range. It has a single water heater which means that it can make coffee or steam but not both at the same time. This isn't much of an inconvenience. The machine appears to know when it needs a clean; descale or empty.

The 'Empty grounds'; 'Descale' and Clean machine' messages simply derive from counters; the 'Tray Missing' message comes from a microswitch. 'Fill Beans' appears if no coffee powder arrives in the brewing unit - though the sensor is probably in the grinder. The 'Fill water' message is triggered by a microswitch and/or a sensor in the plumbing. What you experience is not entirely spoofed intelligence and works well.
When you see the message 'Clean machine' you respond by holding the Maint. button until what to do appears on the display. The machine cleaning cycle cleans the brewing unit and coffee outlet only.

The descaling cycle cleans the boiler; pump; valve; steam nozzle and probably the inlet nozzle at the bottom of the brewing unit. I never use a Claris filter since our water is chlorine-free. When you see the message 'Machine scaled' you respond by removing the water tank and turning the machine on by holding the Maint. button. What you must do to descale the machine appears on the display. I used all sorts of kettle scalers.

What can go wrong in the brewing unit?

My machine had delivered 10,500 cups over five years and was now leaking half a cup of coffee into the grounds dump bin. This implied a worn seal (O-ring) somewhere. The simplest cause of a leak would be a worn O-ring on the chamber water inlet nozzle at the bottom of the brewing unit. Look into the lower parts of the machine and you'll see a water pipe coming in from the side; behind it a nozzle points upwards. This nozzle can be seen and almost reached when the mechanism is at the top of its travel. With skill you might be able to replace the inlet O-ring in situ. Other causes of a leak could be the two large O-rings inside the brewing unit and this requires a lot of dismantling.

Jura spares shop:

www.kaffeemaschinendoctor.de is a German web shop for machine spares

Culd you service the brewing unit?

You could dismantle the brewing unit; dish wash all the parts and replace and grease the O-rings. It's a big job and is described below. Alternately, if you can remove the unit, you could buy a new brewing unit for £70. The coffee delivery nozzle at the top of the brewing may be different so you can just swap the old top end cap for the one on the new unit. At the same time I changed the lower water pipe and encoder.

Malfunction 8

One reason to service the brewing unit comes from a Malfunction 8 message. The message occurs when the brewing unit fails to achieve the correct state, perhaps when you switch it on. The encoder (an optical rotation sensor) monitors the position of the brewing unit. Malfunction 8 may be accompanied by straining noises. A reason is that the motor might be straining is stiffness in the brewing unit mechanism. This can be due to a damaged O-ring or a plug of coffee.

This Malfunction 8 error can go away on its own. You can clean the parts you can see without removing and dismantling the brewing unit. You may be able to reach into the machine to dislodge some grounds. To do this unplug the machine when the brewing mechanism is at the top of its travel and reach in from below. A dentists mirror would be handy here. Do not indiscriminately squirt cleaning liquids inside as this can get into the wrong places. Do toothbrush; dry and vacuum though.

Dismantling a Jura

Before you start dismantling remind yourself of the risks. In case of a mess up, below I've listed a firm selling many spares apart from the actual chassis. They'll sell you a complete brewing unit; a pack of O-rings and grease; encoder; water inlet; water pipes. They also sell replacement water tanks; pump; solenoid; valve; grinding wheels; grinder unit; heater. I haven't tried any of the UK servicing firms so they could be really helpful and cheap. Oyjerwise it takes a few hours to service and replace the brewing unit. However it took a few weeks to understand that I needed a brewing unit.

You will need a few Torx; hexagonal and possibly unique screwdriver bits to remove all screws. A pry tool (used for mobile phones) will help where plastic lugs hold on the side and top panel. Empty beans; water store and remove the waste tray. On the Jura F90 use pliers to undo two oval headed screws at the back at the top. You'll be able to remove the top panel after removing two black screws on the top surface and using a pry tool to disconnect two lugs at the front edge.

You don't want to dismantle the coffee grinder and its hopper. Retain the hopper's rubber seals or glue them in place before you lose them. Four screws hold the central back body panel and side panels. The side panels are removed by using a pry tool to release lugs all down the edge where these panels meet the front. Work slowly to manoeuvre the side panels towards the back. If you simply want to clean the brewing unit externally then just remove the panel on the water side.

Find the water inlet just where the water tank sits. A screw here allows you to remove its plastic holder - but take a photo of how it slots in. This gives access to the lower end of the brewing unit. If the plastic piece is still it the way, you can ease off the water pipe from the water inlet and put it aside. As I said you might get away with not disassembling the brewing unit.

The brewing unit exposed

The machine is partly operable with the sides and water tank removed. Cover exposed electrical connections and remind yourself of the danger. Thus you can switch off the power when the brewing unit's white gear is at the top and then at the bottom. In this way you will get access to places causing any jam. You might just need to clear the inner chamber and path for two plungers with two large O-rings. You can see the water inlet nozzle with its o-ring which can perish and cause coffee or water to go to waste. Silicone grease only where the O-rings slide. Leave the other plastic parts ungreased. You can however buy a maintenance kit or a new brewing unit from the shop below.

You will want to avoid removing the nylon water pipes - unless they're actually leaking. These pipes are held in place with a wire clip (remove with a flat head screwdriver). Ease the nylon pipe with its brass collar out of its socket. The pipe goes into an O-ring in the pipe's socket - this might fall out. These O-rings can be the cause of leaks.

Removing a brewing unit

... is like removing a car engine. There is no need to force anything. On the Jura F90 the brewing unit is removed by undoing two obscure screws from the coffee grinder side. I had difficulty removing these and I wish I had taken time to find the right tool instead of wearing down the screw head.

On the electronic side there's an optosensor (encoder) unit held in place with a steel clip. You might remove this to access one of the two screws. At the bottom of the brewing unit, the water inlet valve is fixed to the machine with a single screw. Next, on the water tank side, you'll see two lines of screws that hold the assembly in place. The middle screws of the screws allow you to separate the unit from the gears. The top two holes don't have screws.

Notes

Coffee machine spare part supplies are not as common in the UK as they are in mainland Europe. www.kaffeemaschinendoctor.de is a German web shop for machine spares AND there's a pictorial of how to dismantle the Jura F90 as a pdf. Google will almost translate it. Juradoctor.de also carry lots of spares but don't seem to ship to my country.

More help:

A helpful pictorial guide

A link on an FAQ at www.kaffeemaschinendoctor.de has a well illustrated pdf (Anleitung_Jura_E.pdf)

Frothing milk for a Cappuccino

2010-05-06T14:33:00.018Z

Click title for video

Making milk froth for a coffee has puzzled civilisation ever since it discovered how to make a good espresso. I'm open to the possibility that only this house is puzzled, if only it were civilised. At the touch of a button, an automatic bean-to-cup coffee machine can spurt a fine espresso, but frothing milk with it was less easy. Here's a FAQ and some gadgets for milk frothing

Milk froth FAQ

Q) Can I use my cafetiere to froth milk?
A) Yes, convienience and low cost are the main messages of this piece. After you've taken the froth from the milk you can put the cafetiere in the fridge for your next drink. Start with a cup of milk (250ml) and you'll have enough for four cups.

Q) Can I froth semi-skimmed milk?
A) Yes and you can froth whole milk too. Research so far shows that full and semi-skimmed froth well enough for a cappucino. Skimmed milk makes an interesting, especially gloopy foam.

Q) Is there a knack to the plunging action?
A) Seemingly no. I froth the froth instead of plunging the whole container. Thirty seconds is enough under ideal conditions. A minute is excess.

Q) How important is waiting a minute or two for the milk to settle?
A) About half the volume is liquid so it's important for an all-froth cappucino. You can, at your own risk, bang the jug down to send milk to the bottom more quickly. For a latte, pour the mix of froth and milk on the coffee.

Q) Does the milk need to be warmed?
A) No. Warm milk will froth just a bit more easily and give you a warmer drink. Cold milk works well and it even makes the drink interesting.

Milk frothing devices

Bodum Latteo £11.50 - Verdict: Brilliant but see next item
Makes fabulous spoonable milk froth that's so thick it's unreal. It takes three minutes in total so have your coffee nearly ready. This Bodum device looks like a regular cafetiere. Add cold skimmed milk to the 250ml line on the jug and microwave for one minute* (hand hot or 50-60 degrees). Replace the lid and move the plunger up and down for at least 30 seconds or until the volume doubles. Lift the plunger and wait a minute for the liquid to settle. Spoon into the centre of your espresso to get a nice brown ring around the white froth.

Regular 4-cup Cafetiere £3.99 from Home Sense Verdict: Still brilliant enough and cheap
Inspired by the Bodum jug above, I used a regular cafetiere to froth milk. Add one cup of skimmed milk (that's 250ml or enough for three or four coffees) to the jug and microwave 1 minute*. The milk is now hand hot but not boiled. Add the plunger and move it up and down for at least 30 seconds or until the volume doubles. Lift the plunger and wait a good minute for the liquid to settle. Spoon into the centre of your espresso to get a nice brown ring around the milk.

Hot chocolate drink that's like a mousse
Add 50ml of kettle hot water to (say) 2-3 spoons of chocolate drink powder and mix to make a slurry in the cup. Add the mixed chocolate to the frothed milk in the cafetiere, gently plunge to mix and pour this back into the cup. Experiment by smearing the chocolate on the inside edge of the cup. Note the brown edge and then say: brilliant!

Nespresso Aeroccino Plus: £50 - £70 Verdict: Brilliant and hard to find
Add milk to the line on the device. Switch on. After a minute you'll have enough foam for two coffees. The foam is made effortlessly and almost silently The 2010 Plus model, according to accounts on Amazon, improves on ease of use. It's a pfaf to clean because it can't simply be dunked in water. May or may not be sold separately from Nespresso machines.

Dualit Lattecino: £50 Verdict: Brilliant and has a steel finish
Has been praised as much as the Aeroccino. See reviews on Amazon.

A bean to cup coffee machine Verdict: Fair and frustrating
Like many machines, the Jura Impressa F90 has a steam spout as in coffee shops but I fail to find the technique to make a froth that can be spooned. You might experiment with skimmed and semi-skimmed milk; or use a cold stainless steel jug; do one thing with the steam nozzle or do that or even do nothing. My result is just a frothy coffee and a paused conversation from the noise of it.

Things You Do: buy stamps online at Royal Mail

2010-03-22T08:59:00.001Z

"How useful! Look darling instead of queueing at the post office, you can now buy your stamps online!"
So we did. We bought a heap of stamps online and waited 10 days for them to arrive. We then received a card from the postman. It said that we were out when they called so we must come to the post office to pick up your stamps. So went to the post office, queued and picked up our stamps. Brilliant.

Royal Mail and Paypal also now sell postage you can print, stick on yourself and post. On the occasions I've used it, there's been some irregular item to send and it has been brilliant. There is a requirement to post the items within a day which may be inconvienient at times. In that case do order your post after midnight to get the benefit of extra time to post the item.

Engrish - Malaysia

2010-03-20T23:52:00.000Z

Vail and Breckenridge - a ski pass that leaks money

2010-03-19T23:43:00.007Z

Ski resorts are using RFID chips in the ski pass such that there is no need to fumble or remove gloves as you enter entrance turnstiles. Instead an assistant scans your midriff with a handheld unit and on detecting the chip they see your photo, name and the validity of your pass. At Vail and Breckenridge in Colorado, there is also the option to have your credit card attached to the pass. Thus you or the kids can use their ski pass to purchase meals or drinks in the mountain cafes. It all works well in theory but it went wrong for me. I’ll not be taking up the option to add the ‘resort charge’ facility to my Vail ski pass while the system is so experimental.

To buy the passes online I entered excess private data about myself as well as a photo. Half an hour later, having done so for four people the shopping cart system breaks because of all the countries not on the list, the UK is one. No worries, because a half hour phone call to the US resolves this. I gave my card details over the phone. The last time I did this overseas my card was subjected to numerous fraud transactions. And that happened again this time. It’s not that the ski pass people are responsible but there’s a risk when your card or its details are handed over whilst abroad.

A final annoyance occurred when one of our party skied outside of the area covered by the pass. Although they carried with them a paper ticket that allowed free skiing, their RFID chip was scanned and charges appeared on the credit card without notice. Back home, a call to Vail was met by a blunt refusal to refund the charge. My firm letter explaining the circumstance elicited a weak apology and a refund to the original card. That original card had been cancelled because of the fraud-thing but mentioning this failed to develop any local understanding. Thus I must ask yet again for the refund. Irritatingly, staff at Vail were speedily unhelpful in putting this right – see the notes below. They are just doing a job. And they are doing it as badly as does their technology.

Hello Mr. F,

We do apologize for any inconvenience you may have experienced. The charges have been returned to the original credit card. Have a nice day.

Thanks,

Melinda

Vail Resorts

Please check that the transaction has happened as nothing shows on my account.

The card number was changed due to fraud from its use locally. The card number now is XXX

Thanks

Dear Mr. F,

We refunded $178 to a MasterCard ending in 3354 on 03/11/10. This was the credit card the charges were originally charged too, and therefore the only one we can refund.

Kind Regards,

Angela

Vail Resorts

Roger Frost's organic chemistry multimedia for schools and colleges

2008-10-17T13:25:00.001Z

www.organic.rogerfrost.com

what differentiates one online shop from another? The marquee tent experience

2007-06-11T08:12:00.000Z

When you've found your product and your price what is left to differentiate one online outfit from another? At the top of my list the firms track record counts for lots: our orders to John Lewis, Maplin and B&Q for examples consistently worked out well or if ever their was a snag it was rectified in a jiffy. This for starters sorts these guys from the rest. They have to be good since the online mall allows lesser traders to offer exceptional choice - a ladder in ten sizes; a switch in n variations; a wall light with hundreds of options.
While the lesser traders don't have to be good, many prove to be amazing. However the sad occasion of a funeral was made yet more sad still by the ineptitude of one. AJP shopping sell the Gala Tent - a marquee for the British summer. Next day delivery is offered across the site - and where not the tagline 'next day delivery may be available' is a euphemism for something being out of stock. Placing the order I phoned days ahead rather than risk anything not arriving. I really should have asked them to read the order back; however I faxed it so there was at least confirmation of the date when it was needed. Phoning to check the day before I was lied to about the delivery date. "Oh I meant Thursday next week" said the sales person. Since the tent would be less useful next week I canceled the order. "That's alright" said the sales person. It wasn't alright at all.

Eating out - tiger prawns as big as a 2 pence coin

2007-02-05T20:58:00.001Z

Restaurant: The Plough, High Street, Shepreth, Cambridgeshire, SG8 6PP

Were any tourist a discriminating eater there's a high chance of starving in the greater Cambridge area. People who lived here before me say that if anything was good it's closed. A good few miles from Cambridge you could almost feel that a visit to the Plough was worth the trip given a dearth of presentatable places. That staff have been trained to serve tables is refreshing. That the food is fresh and original tasting immediately says thank goodness you took your VIP guest somewhere decent. But three courses later, with a starter of tiger prawns as tiny as a 2p piece you learn that it's food. It's not a meal. Starve is what we do here.

Verdict: it's a place to impress. never again unless if i have to.

A hotel booked on Expedia at a price that means anything

2006-04-21T17:49:00.001Z

You booked a two-night stay in a hotel a few weeks ago. Right now you're checking in to hear that they want an extra $100. That's a not inconsiderable $50 a night extra. Had you seen this at the time you booked you'd probably have found a hotel more within your means. Think that's exceptional, it happens lots at travel site Expedia and they appear not to know it.

Let's say you book a series of hotels on a holiday itinery you've arranged yourself. Hotel 1 works as expected: Expedia charges your card immediately and the hotel are happy and want not a penny more. Hotel 2 booked through hotel.com is different because here your card hasn't been charged and what's more there's 10% tax to pay on the booked rate. Hotel 3 is part of the same group, but Expedia this time charged upfront for the full amount, tax and extra bed included. Hotel 4 booked through Asiarooms.com also charges the full amount, bundles in breakfast and adds no surprises. Hotel 5, booked through Expedia, is when we started and the trigger for all this.

See the pattern? Quite right, there isn't one. Expedia say the hotel voucher clearly states that the hotel may charge for extra beds and add local taxes. And yes they do, but then the vouchers all say this. So where do you stand, what do you pay and how will you know before you go? Answer: if you care not for surprises on holiday, check out the travel sites with the all-inclusive policies. Avoid the ones with the all exclusive small print.

Technology gone stupid - Jura coffee makers

2005-12-20T08:46:00.000Z

Internet Connectivity Kit for Jura Impressa F90 & F9 Price £75
o download your favorite coffee recipes from the Internet and upload them on your machine
o You can check the status of your machine at any time. In this way you can provide the JURA service staff with important information so that they can help you with any problems.

Anyone in search of a coffee-maker that makes no compromises on quality will soon find themselves at the door of Swiss company Jura. Year upon year they win awards for best, most innovative coffee maker.
Winning industry awards on this scale is a sign of an active public relations department. Get yourself a fairly good product and a very good PR department and your winning a magazine award is a certainty. Enter more than enough products, spam every category and you can sit back and wait for a sympathy vote or the right mix of judges.
Take the Jura F90 coffee maker which a few years back was all the rage in the press. It has internet capability too which raised certainly my curiosity. What it can do is scantly documentated but having just now downloaded the software to see the features I'm amazed at what it does.

It is this:
1) allows you to customise a message that appears when it is switched on.
2) allows you to discover that you might as well take it back to the shop to fix it when it goes wrong
3) allows you to programme in a coffee receipe (adjust water / coffee) which would take about 2 minutes normally.
4) Connects to your PC with a serial lead. Whoopwhoop! How are you gonna get your PC in the kitchen?

Verdict: People who make coffee makers should stick to doing that.

Nearest competitor for dim technology: Sony Bluetooth DCR- IP7 - a camcorder that allows you to surf the net and send emails via your mobile phone when it's easier to use your mobile phone to do that anyway.

Malaysia 2005 - earthquake tremors

2005-04-25T12:33:00.004Z

We were in Malaysia during Easter 2005 when an earthquake, following the 2004 Xmas Tsunami, hit Indonesia again - it's weird how unfair is this planet. It was trivial except for the hundreds of people's lives involved. We received several SMS warnings about the quake from friends in the UK. A batch of three arrived during our night saying, "Get out; there's going to be another one". One said "Did you feel any tremours?" and funnily enough we did: the phone on the bedside table vibrated and shook everything within a few inches of it. For the moment as I woke to investigate, it was scary.

On a sarky note I'll "thanks for the warning, fellow scientists - you seismologists are so useful"! I can't see the point of Seismology except to spent your life working in a warm climate. The lack of ability to prevent loss of life is good reason to reclassify seismology not as a science, but alongside history as something to learn from.

Back to Dataloggerama Home Page

2004-05-20T21:23:00.000Z

Click the title

Technology assists house buying -

2004-05-19T10:50:00.001Z

We are moving. After a lifetime in the capital, and more exactly the east end of London, we must move on. No longer have I the need to go shopping, see shows, and frequent bars so the bleak countryside has appeal.

Since a move some 15 years ago, the Internet has arrived to make searching for houses into a remarkable experience. In a word you can find. You can check databases of house prices; or see maps showing flood zones. You can get instant quotes, you can work out rebuilding costs, insurance costs and compare the insurance risk of different postcodes.

As well as find the empheral house, I half think that the net pushes up house prices. Before you'd need to be keen or live nearby to keep up with what is new on the market. The Internet helps to create the impression of demand and with more demand you get higher prices.

But what surprises is that in this time nothing else has moved on - solicitors still run the same procedures, the local authority search is still a paper exercise and you still hang on tenterhooks, risking time & money as the proffesionals slug along using paper and fax. It's a way of protecting the professions against the rich pool of knowledge emerging on the net.

For Tracy Spilsbury of Irena Spence and Co in Comberton, Cambridge understanding a clients needs is not her best feature. Upon receipt of a notification marked urgent, it took a week to send a letter to start the house buying process. It took two weeks to get a reply to that. And it takes one phone call to experience a 'it-takes-what-it-takes' attitude. Why use technology to go faster when there's no shortage of £1000 fee payers. We're called clients not customers by this stuffy profession that's hopefully soon to be outsourced.

Malaysia - view on day one

2004-05-19T09:07:00.001Z

After leaving the UK in October, the heat is most relaxing. Sure, not everyone likes a climate where outside feels like the exhaust from a tumble drier but this suits me fine.

That the streets and pavement here in Cyberjaya, 30 minutes from Kuala Lumpur, are empty may have something to do with it. Cyberjaya is a newly built zone called the Multimedia Super corridor, a silicon valley.

You’d think you were in Docklands - smart cafes, smart shops plus offices and building sites. But without palm trees and the sun.

My flat is smart (though round here that means that it's run by a computer - pics in the photo album above). You've heard about not-so-great working conditions in the far east, but this view, taken when I was working from home makes a point.

Local warming

2004-05-19T08:30:00.001Z

After two months in sunny Malaysia, I can confirm it is pretty warm here. Global warming isn’t ever going to touch this place. As a guy who's written hundreds of school science experiments called 'how can we keep warm', I'm stumped to find a need to monitor beakers of hot water cool down. Stay here any longer and I'm going to have to rewrite a life's work.
But here we do have questions about heat. Just off the equator, Malaysia does not have 'seasons' like autumn and winter. They aren’t part of the language. We have the 'monsoon' which means that it rains for an hour at 2pm each day. The regularity is weird.
Office life is strange. The boss has a jacket on their seat back but it doesn’t mean that they are briefly away from their desk and they’ve not gone home yet. It’s there to cope with the air conditioning which really chills and gets to you. Last week I shivered through a 3-day meeting. We closed the office door to stop the cold from the air conditioning in the corridor. We opened the outside windows to warm up. The way to understand this world is to read thermometers upside down. Then, when it's cold inside the temperature goes up and it's time to open the window.

2004-05-19T08:25:00.000Z

Dataloggerama home page

Malaysia Photo Album - 19/05/2004

2004-05-19T07:42:00.001Z

Click the title for the photo album - pictures from 2004 - reposted due to blog move

Alpha Males

2003-02-11T14:06:00.000Z

Our vegetarian correspondent Peter F writes: "I decided today that human males split into two types -- alpha males and alfalfa males."

An earthquake shakes the south on curry night

2002-09-24T23:27:00.000Z

M&S curries are the business. Although Brick Lane in London is the home of a good Bengali meal it is still 20 minutes away. Just two minutes down the road, Marks & Spencer's wins on time saving.
Last night's curry meal had the edge. Our meal was followed by a rare event in the UK: an earthquake in the Midlands actually shook people in their houses. A friend at the epicentre in Dudley thought that it was an attack on London. He waited anxiously was hours afterwards thinking that another tremour would arrive.

Here in London we thought nothing of the sort. We thought it was the curry.

All of which reminds of the contempt I have for seismologists. After failing to warn of that event, and more serious ones to date, you have to ask: what are seismologists for? They can tell you within minutes of a tremour what's happened and how high it measured. But that's it. When thousands perish in Turkey, I rate seismology near the daft end of science. I vote they be banished from the community. "Seismologists save lives". Pure tosh.

2002-09-24T23:11:00.000Z

When you can't smell burning from the kitchen, you know it's salad night

Today we feel it's time to run against the grain: help us please with half a reason to like salad.

TBC

Grammar school - bargain education - demanding postage stamps with menaces

2002-09-19T08:35:00.000Z

A bag of chips
Today we went to look at a propective school in Edmonton, North London so surfing took a rest. The event required the measure of spiritual lift that only a bag of chips can fulfil. To order fish or a pastie alongside it would nullify the effect - chips alone will do. North London is a reliable place to find chip shops - Hackney has one (Faulkners), Islington has a couple in Upper Street and here's another in Edmonton: traditional = no kebab + pickled eggs on sale. They will sell you a huge bag of chips. At 90p this complete meal (just add salt/vinegar) represents incredible value for the best rush of cholesterol you can buy. Flavours available: cooking oil, fried chicken or fish. Whathehec we needed cheering up after this:

How to pass a couple of hours and feel miserable
Edmonton, North London is home to a state funded grammar school that parents clamber to get their kids into. For the reasonably well to-do, Latymer is a no-cost option to a private school. The school open day was packed, its organisation shambolic and the atmosphere seething and tense. To suffer this is the price you pay to come here. Without reflecting on the quality of the teaching that takes place, we came away that free brings its disadvantages. Hec if they're this good at marketing, just imagine how you're going to be treated as a customer.
The school's incredible popularity has generated unusual rudeness towards parents. While teachers was only too pleased to explain their craft, the school admin are off-putting, discouraging and blatently rude. The message: you're very unlikely to get your child in here, we don't need the business, go away. And this is what my taxes pay for. It's embarrasing - it reminds of the TV celebs who got carried away with their brilliance and became despised in their later years.
Hilariously, this school which clearly spends very little effort or money on marketing pleads poverty. They insist on a payment to handle each application for a place. The price is a book of stamps or an asked-for shamelessly two pounds. And they're quite rude about it! Contrast this to annual school fairs in Islington and Hackney where some schools are happy to press a few pounds worth of glossy print in your hand. Because of an imminent move we're not able to consider these schools, nevertheless they left us with a good feeling about state schooling. The Latymer School sadly shamed it. I hope the PR improves.

Latymer grammar school - bargain education - demanding postage stamps with menaces

Mmm... Squares

2002-09-11T19:28:00.000Z

Today it's a break from the weekly bag of doughnuts. Squares, once a sweet chewy mass of krispies and syrup have been upgraded to Chocolate Caramel Squares. TBC

Pic: Chocolate Caramel Squares - excess yummy with yummy frills on

2002-09-11T19:22:00.000Z

The mouse has to go

Just a moments break from the computer for refueling and what do we find in the kitchen? A mouse, yes but not any mouse - it's the mouse that comes to visit every September when the weather turns down. This fair weather mouse goes to live in the same cupboard, run the same routes and cause the same screams every year. It falls on me to deal with it even though I do the screaming. Clearly it's unsharing and uncaring of me, but a trap will be laid. The bait is chocolate which I'm told is better than cheese.

Pic: How sad: Death by Chocolate

2002-09-08T09:47:00.000Z

Breakfast cereals and a point of law

An incident today reminds of a riddle from school days: Farmer A has a hen that strays and lays an egg in Farmer B's field. The two Famers squabble over the egg. Who does it belong to?

Back from a sleep-over, my son tells about a like squabble over breakfast. He was filling his cereal bowl with Nesquik Chocolate Rice* when a plastic Flingon landed in his dish. (There is a free Flingon in every MIB 2 branded packet). Naturally he claimed this was his by right. The host friend did not agree. And they still don't.

I want to take this seriously as there's a legal precedent here. Furthermore these youthful disputes are the stuff of tomorrow's wars. My client had been offered breakfast and thus the contents of his bowl was a gift. Would he ever have been asked to return the cereal, just because his friend wanted it back? I think not. And why should a piece of plastic be considered more valuable than his loving gift of food? Quod erat demonstrandum. The toy is his. We'll see about that tomorrow after school.

*Crunchiness 5*

2002-09-07T15:51:00.000Z

Oven chips

Much as you search the cookery books, it's impossible to find any recipe, advice or serving suggestions for this the king and queen of foods. Delia, Nigel and the River Café have missed something surely, and left the market wide open to us here. Chip connoiseurs might helicopter over (for that is how one gets there doesnt one) to the Priory Bay Hotel. At this up-priced hotel they'd heart attack over the servings of chips - four potato sticks arranged in a square on the plate. Goodness me. The steely atmosphere of this place is something to behold: customers eat in fear of the staff feeling perhaps that they found England at its best. Our meal ended cheerily: we'd ridiculed them so much they rushed us the bill to get us away. I'll never know why the bill didn't include all the drinks we'd had. I hope it was because they had just forgot.

Pic: Fries need no introduction - a junk food cliché.

If chips are hot, Terminal Services are cool

Windows XP Pro (and Windows 2000 Server) features a neat way of connecting to a computer remotely and using them from another machine. If you've a network, with a network point in the kitchen, you can operate your main computer with quite adequate performance as your chips are being cooked. If you've a wireless setup (eg an access point plugged into a hub and a wireless card in a laptop) you can even do this from the bathroom. And if you've a CE machine (eg big screen types are best - Jornada 680; Samsung Izzi Pro, Compaq) the result is so much more awesome: here's a tiny machine controlling an XP desktop.

'Remote Desktop Sharing' (also k/a Terminal Services) is very good value when the controlling computer (or client) is very low spec. If you have a Windows CE device, you 'run' Windows XP, and all that sails on it. Put the wireless card in the device, launch the Terminal Client and log on. (The client is pre-installed on HPC 2000 devices such as the Jornada 700 series. Others like the HP/C 3.00 will also work but they just need the client to be installed first). Launch IE and you're surfing the net or checking your bank account. Even scripting, Java, and Shockwave work a treat.

How to do it

On Windows XP Pro, right click My Computer, go to Remote and make sure you've allowed Remote Sharing (two items to click). If necessary install the Terminal Client (hpcrdp.exe from microsoft) on the CE device. Active Sync will start and do the install work. Log-off to the XP sign-on screen because XP will only let you run one instance of itself. Launch the Terminal Client, enter the network name of the XP machine (or more reliably on older CE, its IP address) and enter your logon details. Smile - your computer, and your chips, are ready.

Windows 2000 Server has had this for years. It has the serious advantage that you can be logged onto the server machine and the CE machine at the same time. Either that's true or we're clever by fluke.

2002-09-03T12:06:00.000Z

More bread

Look what we found! The last of a packet of fairly instant herb, garlic and olive oil bread. It's foreign I know but the ingredients are very local. This instant variety, you'd never guess, is great for bread machines and what's more it's even quicker than yesterday's (below) brilliant time saver.

Pic: Focaccia: easy to make, hellish to spell.

What you need for Garlic & Rosemary Focaccia

500 g packet of above from which 250 g of bread mix has previously been used. (This saves time weighing)

155 g water (use a balance, it's faster than a jug) 40 g Olive oil. Chuck the above in the breadmaker. Set for a light crust and press Start.

Surf the web for four hours before peeping.

Garlic & Rosemary Focaccia - variation

This variation is perfect if you're going to visit your parents. Add the ingredients exactly as above and chuck in the breadmaker. Set for a light crust, press Start, surf the web for four hours, remove, dust with flour and place in the boot of the car. Drive to Mum's, discuss how the Internet is more a good thing than a bad thing. Enjoy.

What to do: register your email at some shopping sites.

To make sure the shops keep you informed, be sure to tick the boxes marked 'Check the box to receive our newsletter'. You'll receive loads of mail and inspiration as a result. The only exception to this is if you have an account with Hotmail where 'loads of mail and inspiration' goes to up to another level and you don't need to register anywhere. Till I got Hotmail, I had no idea there were so many ways to help older gentlemen. Every kind of stiffening device is available here. The Hotmail account is just a habit. Is there a way to chuck it and keep Messenger?

Making bread - how scientists do it

2002-09-03T11:51:00.000Z

[page 1]

[page 2]

^^^ Instructions to print ^^^

When you're too busy to leave the PC, it's hard to get fresher bread than the stuff made at home. And with the nearest bakery over five minutes walk away I reckon I can save time by doing it myself. What's more you get it even fresher if you take it out of the oven before it's cooked - and that's something you can't get from the in-store bakery.

High speed preparation
Check this method for which a electronic balance is essential. The balance should have a tare button - ie it lets you zero the scale even when there's stuff on it. Mine, a laboratory model cost six hundred pounds, but the time saving soon makes pays for it.

Place the breadmaker container on the balance. Add half a teaspoon yeast. Press Tare to zero & add flour to 400 g. Press Tare, add 15 g butter: Press Tare add 280 g water. Add 1 tablespoon each of milk powder and sugar. Finally add a teaspoon of salt.

Replace the container in the breadmaker and cook to a light crust. Press Start to cook (4 hours) Take it out early if you're hungry. To save waiting 15 minutes for it to cool, set Outlook to a cooking time of 4 and a quarter hours.

Pic: Breadmakers mix, prove and cook in one shot and few surfers know this.

Prunes and cashew nuts

2002-09-03T11:15:00.000Z

Writing this a few hours after a desperate rummage around the kitchen looking for food. I must have been asleep the other week to miss these two very easy to surf and chew items.

Though I don't feel too good just now, I can also report that prunes not only take a while to acquire a taste for, they take a day before they kick in and make the viscera churn.

(This is either because they're preserved with paraffin oil but that their syrupy indigestible sugars hold water and create bulk - just like roughage). Another anomally concerns the reason why these 'dried' prunes are so morish. It's not taste at all - it is their weird and juicy texture.

Similiarly, on some future occasion, I'm sure I'll enjoy a bag of soft dried apricots and again it'll not be because of their taste at all. It is because they remind one of chewing on someone's earlobe. Nibbling as we call this, was something people would do in the evenings, long ago before Broadband Internet caught on.

Caution on Cashew nuts -

As you're not bothered about taste while your surfing, get the cheaper cooking cashew in bulk. Forget the expensive unshelled type used to occupy guest's hands at dinner parties. The cashew nuts should not be eaten with prunes. Eaten together they form the explosive cocktail I experienced later that day. It reminded of the time when we were eating curry at home - we're just a couple of miles from the city - and a bomb went off in Bishopsgate. We didn't realise what the muffled noise was at the time, so we just carried on eating thinking it was the curry.

How to kill a little time

Visit technology stores like Technomatic - whose web sites not only allow you to check prices and delivery terms but they also tell you what is in stock. In this way you can make very precise buying decisions based on whether you're going to be in tomorrow. Next, fill your basket with a few items, click to checkout and wait a day or so to see if they really have it in stock or they were just enticing you to buy. You can then have fun exchanging emails with customer support. If you've time spare, check the shopping sites and compare the amount of detail they provide about the products being sold. The little said says lots.

Pic: Prunes in cute resealable bag: deliciously wet and chewy. Don't mix with cashew nuts.

2002-08-31T02:02:00.000Z

Mmm doughnuts

Today was a doughnut day - something we do as often as we can. Greg's in Mare Street does them four for a sovereign. They serve you too so this is quite the bargain. Take them home as you eat one. Note how the thoughts in your head allocate one doughnut for breakfast, each member of the family or whatever. Pay no need to these ideas and eat another. Repeat two more times telling yourself that the family wouldn't have appreciated them. And so on. Till next week.

2002-08-14T22:54:00.000Z

Chocolate

I was briefly bothered about my diet so after yesterdays overdose of 'befores', I thought I'd do a meal of afters today to balance my diet a bit. The scientist in me noticed that one of these chocolate bars has 35% cocoa and the other has around 70%. Not that I usually eat cooking chocolate but I couldn't afford the time to nip out so I went for what was on hand. It was this or tins of beans and tomatoes, both of which take a lot of preparation. Anyway, you'd think more cocoa is best but it's decidedly bitter. So today I learned that normal amounts of cocoa are best, and the other bar wins easily. Both are equal in allowing you to eat and surf. Again, I feel nauseous.

Chocolate - one of the most important materials ever created

Chaumes Cheese

2002-08-13T22:17:00.000Z

I remembered being served a whole tub of this on a Ski Peak holiday. So here I thought was a neat way to get a good day's nutrition in one shot. Normally I'd put it in the microwave for a few moments, drip it out onto bread and carry that and the rest of the box to the computer for a most delicious instant meal. Today I put it on the scanner to warm slowly above its lamp and left it there for two hours by which time it was beautifully soft and runny. I keep a spoon handy with my pens for just such an occasion and scooped it out.

The slow bit was getting the shrink wrap off but after that you can scoff and not even have a plate to take back to the kitchen. It needs two hands to eat so surfing was interupted. I'm getting behind with reading web pages so I'll have to sign off. And I feel a bit sick.

Go to France on the web:

Visit French websites - look for the .fr at the end of the name - and then pretend you're in France on holiday. If you get to like it, book a ski holiday in a chalet because although you can use the web to shop in French stores, and visit the Louvre gallery, skiing is the only thing you can't do on the web. Also it sounds a bit like surfing which helps to cope with a week's web deprivation. The idea of sharing the chalet with others for adds intrigue to the week. I'll stop now so as not to spoil the surprises however I can say the people will not be French and called Pierre or Monique, they'll be called Emily or Victoria.

Chaumes Cheese - the trick's in warming it

2002-08-12T21:05:00.000Z

Pasta - Cheese, Garlic & Herb

Marks was closed so I headed for the 7-11 Woolworth General Store. The place is perfect for crisis managed lives though it uses extra calories to cross Mare Street, dodging the open top BMWs that have bigger sound systems than I got at home. This Pasta was worth the risk of ear damage from subwoofers - though the rules for having a two-week-hence sell-by-date and labelling it fresh need tweaking. Nevertheless, with 4 minutes cooking time it all felt worth it. I used the four minutes to run a backup though I could have knocked out a couple of emails - I didn't see the point in argueing with myself over this. I was decisive and just went for it just like the doctor told me.

The flavour? Well as ever with pasta - or indeed any food you boil - the flavour is unbelievably subtle only a junk gourmet could spot it. Let's see how we did:

Journey to shop 10 minutes round trip; Cooking 10 minutes; Eating 5 minutes, but I wasn't woofing at my best. Twenty five minutes = 5 websites not seen. I promise myself to do better.

Pasta - Cheese, Garlic & Herb

Docking stations and Sticky fixers
A sign of good portable technology is whether it has a neat cradle where it can charge its batteries and synchronise with the world. The digital cameras (Fuji, Kodak) that do this do away with so much phaff and thinking. Laptops too can be dropped into dock from where they not only charge but share Internet, printers and files. Toshiba have pedigree with this and the resulting convenience is a joy. After a long wait, a Jornada Docking unit arrived to offer pretty good convenience though it needs comparing with Handspring, Palm and Ipaq docking units where the mass of the cradle unsures a measure of clumsiness during docking and undocking. Even the charging stand that you can buy for a mobile phone makes a difference. (If a landline cordless phone came with a separate charging unit instead of a dock we'd soon notice something's amiss). The cure is provided by the pieces of double-sided sticky foam to attach these items to our kitchen worktop where they are conveniently to hand during meals and snacks. The result is pure phone shui.

The Docking unit came from Expansys, another firm raising expectation with 'Out of stock - expected in 4 days' but these actually means weeks. In other respects Expansys are fantastic - fast phone response and fast next day delivery.

2002-08-10T14:35:00.000Z

M & S Tuna Conchiglie Bake (£2 / 360g).

Mmm pasta, tuna, tomatoes and cheese sauce - just think of the time you'd spend making that. I could do a hundred Google searches in that time. Cooks in 4 minutes in a microwave but I went for the browning off in the oven. Damn good and no plate to wash.

Tuna Conchiglie Bake

2002-08-10T14:30:00.000Z

M & S Southern fried Chicken and fries (£4 / 1kg).

Enough for two here so it lasted the whole weekend. Lacked the freshness of a KFC - but that would have meant going the extra 50 yards to the take away. Cooking instructions could be better eg 30 not 40 minutes and of course I burned it a bit because I was upstairs on the web. Mind you I could have accidently set the alert in Outlook a bit wrong and it did say I was trying to set an alarm for an event in past.

That just reminded me to archive the Outlook Calender because the 'get food from oven' alarms clutter it up. Someday when I get into a regular eating habit that alarm can just stand as a daily recurring appointment.

I've found the email address of someone at M & S head office and I've dropped them a line about the cooking time. I bet by the time you read this they change it on the box. Thank me. Yes me.

Southern fried Chicken and fries - as close as we get to home cooking