A re-visit to Jamie Oliver's Italian.....

Around 5:20pm yesterday evening I had this sudden urge for a pint of real ale so after leaving work I headed into Reading and settled down with a nice pint of Doom Bar at the place where I have my Friday night DJ residency (Cape Bar, Reading.......Big Friday night party launch this week by the way)

Whilst sat there having a nice bit of time to myself my mind started to wander towards food and about halfway down my follow up pint of Hooky Bitter I decided that I'd pay another visit to Jamie's Italian at The Oracle on the riverside.





I've reviewed it once or twice before on this blog and although it started out as a very impressive eatery subsequent visits have not been so great meaning that I'd virtually written it off of my dining radar. The last time I was in there I was only there to get a book signed by Gennaro Contaldo for my mum, I didn't eat at all !!

It may sound odd to some people but I really enjoy going to restaurants on my own. I find that rather than spending time chatting away I tend to get more immersed in the atmosphere and I notice what's going on around me much more. Don't get me wrong I also enjoy dining with others too but occasionally just my own company and a few checks of Facebook is enough.

So onto the venue and again I differ a bit here from the usual stuffiness of the English in that I appreciate a busy, noisy and bustling restaurant. I'm not talking about the crappy fast food eateries or other mediocre places like Nando's or Pizza Hut because I'd rate Jamie's Italian as being gastronomically far superior to these in virtually every way. What I mean is that I like the way Jamie & Gennaro have tried to create this little bit of the authentic Italian atmosphere in the UK and I do feel slightly taken back to my time in Rome when I eat there so it has nostalgia.





What they've also done with the food is of course keep to authentic Italian cuisine but where possible they use produce from the UK which to me serves to add to the influence that Jamie Oliver's personality has in the menu creation. Lets face it the vast majority of people who go there for the first time are going there because of the name so to not have that connection once you get there would be disappointing.

So the food. Feeling rather hungry I chose four courses but instead of a dessert I had a rather impressively made and wonderfully tasty Negroni cocktail.

Starter - Marinated Sardines £3.75

This course was the highlight for me and not because of the sardines, not because of it's accompanying salad and not because of the rosemary flavoured bread, although they were all very good. The best bits though were the capers, they had such excellent fresh flavour, almost floral. They linked all the other ingredients so well. I will have this over and over again on later visits.

Antipasti - Artisan Meat Board £4.45

There are three options to choose from here and I went for the English wild boar salami. You get 9 or 10 slices on a board drizzled with some oil which might not seem a great deal for the price you pay but you can tell in the eating that the effort taken to produce this salami justifies the cost. The salami itself has a slight flavour of game but the overriding taste is that of acorns which tells you right away that this came from a genuinely hunted animal free to feed itself on natural resources rather than a farmed and fed animal.

Pasta - Mushroom Panzerotti £6.55 (£10.35 for main course size portion)

Good flavour from the brown and porcini mushrooms in the filling and the tomato sauce was light and fresh tasting with a little chilli zing which only served to heighten that freshness. The pasta was a half moon shaped ravioli which was stuffed with the mushroom mix and I was a little confused by it. The filling wasn't very uniform meaning that some of the parcels were light on the filling and other more full. Personally I'd have preferred to have less parcels with more filling than the other way around but perhaps this filling randomisation was intentional to make you aware (if you weren't already) that it's handmade at the restaurant.

Main - Osso Buco (£12.75 off the specials board)

For those who don't eat veal or agree with it because the red tops tell you it's inhumane I feel for your naivety because you are really missing out here. This slow roasted shin of veal is so wonderful. Here they serve it up on a huge plate with some wet polenta and topped with some fresh gremolata (chopped lemon zest, garlic, parsley and olive oil.) Honestly the plate is so big you could use it to serve up sandwiches at a children's party!!!

Service throughout was splendid and the two glasses of red wine I had during the meal were both of decent taste and quality (Merlot & Primitivo £4.25/£4.45)

To be honest it would have been pretty hard for the cooks there to get this meal wrong as it's all pretty simple but the restaurant was very busy so well done to them and the waiting staff for making it a very enjoyable couple of hours. It's now back on my dining radar :-)

B or G .......

We're halfway there. 20 weeks is up and today we are off to have the scan that'll tell us which of the English cricket teams my first offspring will captain in the future. Emily is coming with us too and I can't wait to see her face when she see her little brother or sister wriggling around inside mummy's tummy. I reckon I'll cry.......

Whatever the outcome we'll be celebrating tonight and I can imagine my mum is already sat by the phone with knitting needles in hand ready to get clickety clicking with a ball each of pink and blue wool by her side.

I've also decided that for Sunday's cooking demonstration at Eat Reading Live I'm going to cook not one but two dishes at the same time. Completely different ones but both really quite simple and tasty.

First will be Rack of Lamb with puy lentils and wild rice and while that's cooking away I'll whip up a quick favourite of mine and an Italian classic Spaghetti, aglio, olio é peperoncino.

The first dish has a provincial French feel to it and it's a recipe I created myself but it's inspired by Elizabeth David. The second is just a true Italian dish, I must have had it at least 4 times a week when I was working away in Rome. I can't believe it's not more widely known in the UK because it is so easy to make and so cheap too.

I don't believe for one second that I'm being optimistic when I say that I think you could feed 4 people quite contently for around £3 with the second dish. By doing two dishes it'll also mean more to hand out to people for tasters :-)

Saturday night I'm also meeting up with my buddy and we're going to go off and eat somewhere in Reading and catch up. We don't know where yet but it'll be reviewed so any restaurateurs ready this best be on their toes.

Watch out on FB and Twitter for the baby news ...... toodlepip xx

Winning draw......

Well what a day it was on the cricket field yesterday. Not down at Cardiff with that boring international cricket I mean over at Reading Blue Coat school where we (Sonning 3rds) took on the might of Mortimer West End. It was an overcast day which mean't that there was a lot of movement with the ball but we still managed to score an impressive 256 off our 45 overs.........my contribution......5 not out.

That has boosted my seasons average right up now to .....................erm........5

Mortimer batted through their 45 overs with just one wicket to spare. They could only score 165 because our bowling and fielding was superb so under the league rules that means we had a winning draw which gave us 15 points but we also got bonus points for restricting their total to less than 75% of ours and we got 9 wickets. So in the end we got 24 points which is very good for us. Cricket is certainly a confusing game even at the best of times.

Of course next weekend I shall be unavailable because of my commitments to Eat Reading Live and I'll pick up there with a little write up about the people I'll be introducing on the Town Hall Stage at 13:30 on Saturday 4th June.

Vintage Roots are an organic wine merchants based in Hook. They are a home delivery service and although their speciality is in wine they also sell beers, spirits and champagnes, all of which are organic. Just looking at their website I can see that they stock at least 700 wines and you can even search for vegetarian, vegan and biodynamic variations.

I'm quite a big fan of organic wines, especially organic reds because they contain very little or no sulphates and it's those sulphates that contribute greatly to the red wine headache the following day. Try it and see for yourself........by the way drink responsibly, always use a big glass with a large base so you don't spill any!

I'm really interested to see what they are going to demo but at the same time I'm a bit scared because I could be parting with a few quid too.

Plans for today are to finish this blog, catch up with Two Greedy Italians on the iPlayer, complete a few missions on Assassins Creed Brotherhood then I'll pop up to the cricket club to watch the Sunday 2nds and have a few beers.

So so so looking forward to meeting Gennaro on Saturday !! Mum if you are reading we'll try and get another signed book for you.

Tomorrow of course is a national holiday in the UK and it's also the championship play off final at Wembley between Reading and Swansea. Should Reading win then the town will be buzzing and with that in mind we're having a little party at The Penta Hotel. They'll have a big screen (and when I say big I mean mahoooooosive) showing the game itself then afterwards I'll be reuniting with the rest of the original House Party DJ team and turning up the tunes to have a good old fashioned party. All are welcome.....except if you're a k**bhead. We don't like them at our parties :-)

There will be some old Reading players coming along so if your a fan and couldn't get to Wembley then this surely has to be the next best thing.

Had an idea for a breakfast today that turned out brilliantly and once perfected I shall add some photos and a recipe but for now that's it and I bid you adieu.......toodlepip xx

Normality resumes....

3 weeks away and back to work this morning. I have quite a bit of jetlag but the work diary is pretty full so I should be nicely busy today which will keep me alert and awake.

After getting home from Heathrow on Saturday morning I spent the day snuggled up on the sofa with my wonderful lady watching a fantastic game of cricket, well I watched some of it in between dozing off.

During this I took a DJ booking for that evening at Sakura in Reading. Pretty quiet in there it was too. Also I was asked to play more charty music which firstly I don't have and secondly I will never have because to me if a song gets into the charts these days it's because, it's anti-music, it's rubbish, it's dross, it's boring, it's predictable......it's just shit. I'm not selling out even more than I have already regardless of the payment.

I mean it's not as if I was playing anything other than what you'd find on the average (or distinctly lower than average) Hed Kandi compilation and even when I stopped playing the good quality house music that had foots tapping and people clapping the atmosphere in the room vanished. So my advice to them would be to just save money and don't book a DJ at all. Just have a compilation CD playing in the background or rig up some kind of automated DJ program. Trying to fix things that are not broken has never been a good thing to do in my opinion.

I understand what they want to do and I'm not upset by it at all and I really mean mean that but with all the sincerity in the world I'm just not the man to do it. Good luck to them :-)

Apart from that I do have some good gigs coming up where I have free reign to get the crowd motivated and of course I'm really looking forward too. This Saturday I once again have the pleasure of sharing the DJ booth at the club I call home with one of my dance music heros Brandon Block over at Bar Mango in Reading. It's always nice to see your name on a flyer under someone like Blocko. Hopefully he'll pull in a crowd and we can all have a wonderfully fun night.





Set times for this are not yet announced but when they are I'm sure they will be posted on the Facebook event page here. I'm thinking a classic house set is really the only way to go here and I'm already getting a nice selection of tunes prepared. If you liked my Remix/Remode mix CD then this will be the kind of night you'll be loving.


After that I have another booking at the same venue for Voodoo's 5th birthday. This event is a very special one because it is also a fundraiser for the promotor's (and good friends) campaign to raise funds for his partners treatment as she is a sufferer of multiple sclerosis. Again you can check the Facebook event page here and if your around please do come down and support this tremendously worthy cause.





For this event I'll be showing my tech house/techno side out in the garden so expect some heavy Sven Vath/Cocoon influence going on. I simply cannot think of any place in the area that even gets close to the Bar Mango terrace. It's always been a very special place for me and I'm just itching to get out there again.

After a couple of years finding it's way it seems Bar Mango has got it's legs back which is good for everybody in my opinion. For me it's still the only venue in the town dedicated to clubbers rather than drinkers out on a jolly. It's a place to go to hear what'll be listed on compilations and blasting out of other bars in a 6 months to a years time once David Guetta has bunged some cheesey vocals over it :-)

Back to my other love.....FOOD

This Wednesday coming I shall be judge and compare for heat 3 of round 1 of the 2011 Reading, Steady, Cook competition. The heat is being held at the marvellous "Tutu's Ethiopian Table". Having taken part in this myself last year I know how nervous the contestants will be so if you have time please do come down and give them a bit of support. It's a great little competition and being part of it again this year is just a fantastic honour.

The Facebook event page for this heat is here so click attending and lets get a few along and maybe have a glass or two of wine afterwards :-)

For more information about this event and it's culmination at the Eat Reading festival pop along to this site. It's dedicated to highlighting all the opportunites our fantastic town has to offer be that business or pleasure.

Toodlepip xx

Busy Beez.....

Have an absolutely jam packed weekend ahead but I think I've got it all under control.

Starting off this evening after work (Friday) I have some preparation to do for my demonstration on Saturday. Could end up having to make contingency plans on some equipment I want to use because I've not yet received the necessary electrical safety certifications (PAT Tests) for my mini oven and water bath, they've been tested and got the sticky labels to say so but I believe the environmental health guys will still need to see the full documentation as it's a public event.

I'll take the equipment anyway and if I can't use them I'll just have to adapt. The first 3 dishes on my mind only require pans anyway so it's not so much of a drama.

The first dish I'm planning on doing is similar to one I did at my last demo but jiggled slightly to bring it into line with the festive food theme. I'll be doing a Boxing Day brunch with a bubble and squeak style potato cake containing bacon and brussel sprout topped with a delicious soft poached egg.

Second dish I'm thinking of recreating the Thai Green Curry that I cooked for 20 people on Tuesday at my local pub but this time substituting the chicken for turkey so making use of the Christmas dinner leftovers. Might do quite a big batch of this or several little ones and serve it up in some cups with a bit of rice to hand out. Might warm people up on what I'm sure will be a chilly day.

Incidentally the curry and a pint for a fiver night at The Golden Cross in Twyford went down an absolute storm and it will be a weekly event from now on :-)

Thirdly I'm going to go for another dish using up turkey but this time as an open Lasagne. The turkey sauce in between the layers of pasta being nice and creamy and with bacon peas and a little bit of chilli. I'll top the Lasagne's off with some crunchy breadcrumbs.

Lastly I'm hoping to recreate the dish I did for the final of the competition, slightly tweaked to be a bit more seasonal and certain much better however this will require that I use my waterbath so fingers crossed on that one.

In between all this I have DJ gigs both tonight and tomorrow night in Reading so it's all going to be a bit of a mad rush. Never mind that though for next weekend I will be doing absolutely nothing else other than staying up late and watching the first Ashes test match. Come on England.

For those interested in popping alone to any of these goings on you are more than welcome.

Saturday I'll be kicking off at about 11:30am in Broad Street, Reading. You shouldn't be able to miss the event as it's right on the main part of the shopping area with M&S one side and BHS the other.

For the DJ gigs both are at Sakura, Reading and tonight I'll be in the VIP room starting at about 10:30/11pm and tomorrow in the downstairs bar from 9pm.

On Sunday if you fancy a pint I'll be in Twyford tucking into some real ales :-)

Mecca.........

I've found a new shopping paradise in the heart of Reading, Berkshire......Who'd have thunk it?

Sitting at work yesterday...as I do, I was thinking about what to have to eat in the evening.....as I do. After contemplating nipping to The Mission for a tasty Burrito I began to think about Dim Sum. I'm not sure how I managed to link those two but seeing as Dim Sum seems to be my latest culinary craving I thought I'd have a go at making it myself.

To be able to to this I needed to find a specialist Asian supermarket in order to get the right tools for the job and the right ingredients.

Knowing that Reading has a thriving Asian community I was pretty sure that I'd be able to find something on Google and that I did.

The place I found is called "See Woo" and it's more of a cash and carry than a standard supermarket but anybody can walk in and buy stuff, there is no signing up to do and you don't have to be in the catering trade or anything like that.

They have got absolutely everything from my necessary Dim Sum ingredients to Fresh Vegetables to meat to sweets to beers to wines and even some Frogs Legs and Chickens Feet. It's just amazing !!!

Best of all for me were the banks and banks of freezers containing every Dim Sum item you can imagine, all ready prepared (handmade) and just in need of steaming (which is done from frozen............Bonus)

They also have all the raw ingredients you need to make them yourself which I will definitely do one day however making home made Dim Sum just for two people would be pretty expensive and pretty wasteful given the amount of ingredients you'd need to buy.

Of course to go with this I needed Chilli Oil, Soy Sauce, Chopsticks, Sauce bowls, and some Bamboo Steamer sections and I got the whole lot, including 6 different Dim Sum for £30.00 which I think is an absolute steal.

There is absolutely no doubt that I will go there again if not just for the smell as you walk in !!

It's located in the industrial area between the Madjeski Stadium and Basingstoke Road and opens until 6pm each day so get down there and see what my fuss is all about.

Back to Work....

Phew....

Never have I been happier to get back to work! Spent the majority of the weekend horizontal in my bed feeling ill.

I have this really annoying chesty cough thing going on and a one of those headaches that makes your scalp all sensitive, it's not altogether very pleasant but I really didn't help myself by going out for a few beers after DJ'ing on Saturday. Should have trusted my instincts and gone home like a good boy.

Yesterday evening my car decided that it would prefer to not start so that had to be taken to the garage over the road from our house first thing this morning. So I dropped my keys off to Paddy our lovely local mechanic, neighbourhood watch executive and all round nice fellow explaining the problem I had....

Starter motor just spinning, not catching enough to get the engine turning over etc etc

About 10 minutes later I get a call from Paddy...."Ben I've just checked out your car...turned over first time...and about 25 times consistently after that"

"Hmmmmmmmmm..............How much to fit a new starter motor anyway because there is definitely a problem with it?"

"In excess of £300.00 I should imagine..........probably about £350.00"

"Might as well go ahead and do it Paddy cause I don't want it happening again somewhere remote"................Whince

Anyway that was the least of my worries because what awaited was a dreaded trip on British public transport.

Train stations make me laugh in a way because it's such a hive of activity and it's all completely avoidable.

Firstly people just need to get up earlier and give themselves plenty of time. It'd save all the running about and rushing around. I saw so many guys in suits doing the "Run for the train - Run a bit faster when you realise it's going - then the inevitable........slowly grind into a walk trying to look cool and make out like nobody has seen you massively fail." You guys crack me up :-)

Then there are the women who are late. Of course it's the trains fault for not waiting and not theirs for having the extra press on the snooze button or the having that one (completely unnecessary) extra moan at the henpecked husband.

Of course though the biggest spanners in the works are the staff employed by network rail. I think their slogan should be "Network Rail - Making the Unemployable Employable"

Take anyone of these workers and put them in any other work environment and they just wouldn't have a clue.............I blame the unions....Bring back Maggie ;-)

However one major plus one has when one takes the locomotive from Reading to Sunny Twyford is that you get the opportunity to purchase a rather yummy Smoked Salmon and Cream Cheese Bagel from the kiosk in Reading Station.

Made my morning that did. Still about £350.00 down on the day but a simple Bagel made me cheer up a bit. I think anybody reading this should go out right now and get one.

Good day to you lovely beings xx

Late on Parade....

Good day to all you fine beings.

I know that each and everyone of you patiently waits each day for my mutterings to appear and that some of you even consider the day to not have begin until you have read them.........of course that's not strictly true but I can dare to dream.

Well to be honest I've been a little bit busy today. Work has been stretched as one of my team has been off on holiday and she really is the work horse here, there can be no denying that.

Mainly though I've been off doing a radio interview for a local small community radio station regarding the Reading, Steady, Cook competition that I did. It's good fun still being part of all that even though it's been quite sometime since I took part.

The show was short and sweet, covered the competition but unfortunately I didn't really get the opportunity to slip in any key messages about the things I've been getting involved in since such as the Facebook group and of course the impending step into the professional world of food.

It was a pre-recorded show so it'll all be edited and I think be aired on Reading Community Radio on Sept 2nd. This is an internet radio station so I'll get the link and post it up. They'll also be putting a Podcast on the official Living Reading website so if you don't catch the broadcast it'll be available after.

There is more to come though because there is a food festival that we'll be taking part in which I think will involve dishes made from Christmas dinner leftovers as well as a "Nuit Blanche" event which is something that has taken off in other places around the world.

It's a "Dusk til Dawn" arts and entertainment event that will be making it's debut in Reading around October. I've been asked if I'd be interested in doing something more towards the "Dawn" part which I assume will be a cookery demonstration revolving around breakfast but I'm yet to know any real details. Should be great fun whatever

Must comment on the Dorset Naga Chilli episode last night when my beloved tried just a tiny bit fresh of the chopping board as I was preparing dinner. What followed was hiccups, deep breathing and quite a few "Phewwwwwwwwweeeeeee's" followed by the question....."They should have a bloomin warning on those things"....

As if "Dorset Naga Chilli"....."The worlds hottest Chilli" wasn't warning enough !! Bless you my love xxx

As for the weekend tomorrow I'll be heading back to my hometown of Watford to catch up with school friends that I haven't seen for around 20 years which is so exciting. I lost contact with virtually everybody from school from the day it ended but getting in contact with them again makes you remember the great times we had and how much you miss both the experiences and the people.

Apologies.....

I only went and forgot my login details for the blog didn't I? Coupled with not feeling too great the last couple of days I've been a bit neglectful with my bloggerations.

So I'm guessing you are all just dying to know what I've been up to these last few days?.......No.....well I'll tell you anyway.

Saturday night at Sakura was fun again, yet another 2am finish and some very strange requests from the crowd, some tune far too tough for the venue but they kept dancing so I'm happy.

In between updating my Football Manager 2010 game and attempting to take my 2nd most beloved team in the world (Watford FC) to glory I have been concentrating on all things pub related.

The one we are now looking at has completely grabbed us. It's a wonderful place and apart from the lack of riverside it has absolutely everything we are looking for plus more.

The goal now is to seek financing for the project and once that is arranged we can start to imagine ourselves as being publicans.

Decided that it would be best to have a business plan drawn up professionally rather than attempt one myself. I think the cost for doing such is negligible when you consider what it is for.

After my taking part in Reading, Steady, Cook I've been asked, along with the winner of the competition, to take part in a local radio interview which is a bit novel and rather fun. I don't think it's going out live but I'll try and get a link up to whenever it is going to be broadcast.

Food wise I have to comment on last nights Chilli Peas !! Phwwwwwwwwoooooar, massive amounts of hotness all thanks to the use of the worlds strongest Chilli the "Dorset Naga".

Believe it of not available readily at the larger Tesco's (Other supermarket chains are available)



8 times hotter than a Birds eye Chilli and around 100 times hotter than a Jalapeño. Now that's what I'm taking about ! When my stomach gives me hell I give it back to teach it a lesson.

You think you know hot then give these little beauties a bash.

Economic recovery......

I've realised that I've been neglecting my German readers recently but fear not I'm still very much a big fan of all things German.

I am delighted to read that the country has reported that it's economy grew by a massive 2.2% in the three months to the end of June. The biggest rise in over 20 years. So I doff my Trenker to you all.



I'm no economist but I know there are still bleak times ahead but what can you do about it other than eat, drink and be merry? :-)

All three of which I plan to do this weekend.......

Tonight (Friday) I shall hopefully be meeting up with our cricket clubs overseas player down at the nets and we shall be whacking a few and hopefully I'll be learning plenty more things to build my batting confidence. Please let the rain stay away......I need this.

Saturday night I am booked to DJ again at Sakura in Reading. Downstairs bar from 9pm as it was last week. Such a great time last time Saturday too, a whole 2 hours overrun which was all good.

Sunday I'll hopefully be putting all my expert tuition to the test as we have a cricket match starting at 2pm. Those who want to come along and watch can find directions here. Our clubhouse has a lovely little bar too which I fully intend to make use of.

In between all that we should be starting to put together our business plan for the pub venture. Of course without ingoing figures it's a bit pie in the sky but that still doesn't mean we should hold off making a start on it.

Another weekend has begun.....

Well it's everybodies favourite day of the week. Glorious Friday :-)

Today I shall mostly working but looking forward to this evening when I'll be helping out my fellow DJ cohort Keith Newman down at Mango in Reading. After last weekend perhaps it might be a good idea to pace it out a bit rather than get a bit too wobbly a bit too early. Still very good times and I'm actually fooling myself if I think tonight will be anything different.

This time however we will be inside giving the main room some serious old school classic house party vibes. should imagine that'll kick off at about 10:30pm but the garden is open from 9pm and it'll be free entry up until 10pm.

Before that however I think I shall go and have some rather lovely and tasty tucker over at the London Street Brassierre. Been a few times now and it really is right up there with the best Reading and the surrounding area has to offer.

The Chef de Patron Paul Clerehugh was one of the judges at the final of the cooking competition that I took part in and his comments about my dish after the event backstage we're just so inspiring. I was always acutely aware that I could cook a bit but what he said really made me realise that their was something inside of me, a talent I suppose, that need to get out hence why we're more actively seeking pub/restaurant opportunities than ever before.

After the final Paul wrote me a voucher entitling me to a meal for two at his restaurant for whenever I wanted to use it, and we did. It was completely VIP, champagne on arrival, whatever drinks we wanted throughout the meal and all the food we could eat. It was brilliant and such a fantastic and completely unexpected gesture.

Whenever I go to a restaurant I really try to have something different from the previous visit but I already know what I'm having tonight for a starter and that's the diver caught Scallops with Cauliflower Purée, simply amazing! I could eat that dish everyday for the rest of my life and never bore of it.

While in Ibiza a couple of weeks ago we (Carley & I) introduced Emily and Grandad to Aioli which you may know as the Garlic Mayonnaise stuff you get delivered with bread to your table at virtually all Spanish restaurants.

Well they both absolutely loved it. When you consider that at the time Emily was just 6 and Grandad would turn his nose up at the mere mention of the word Garlic this was some revelation. Emily asked if we could get it at home which of course you can from most supermarkets but thats the processed stuff and nowhere near as good. So you can imagine my surprise when I got home after a rubbish day stuck in traffic to find lashing and lashings of Aioli handmade my Carley & Emily. Let me tell you it was beautiful too, easily as good if not better than any I've had in Spain. So massive thumbs up to the girls. I'll get the recipe and have it posted on my facebook page very soon.

Following up the Aioli was a traditional Spaghetti Carbonara which again was perfectly executed by Carley and such a great comfort dish, so much so that I was asleep on the sofa within minutes of finishing it. I think it came from a Hairy Bikers recipe but I'll have to ask Carley and then if I can find a link to their site I'll stick that up too.

Only a couple of days to go and then we're off to Norfolk for some seaside shinanighans......can't wait to dip my toes in the cool, greeny brown waters of the North Sea.

Mind you one of my absolute favourite chefs Galton Blackiston has a Michelin starred hotel and restaurant up that way................hmmmmmmmm

The Weekend is upon us.

So it is to be sure to be sure.

Well had a great nights sleep last night which can only be a good thing because it's gonna be a crazy one today.

Proper work will be busy enough but also I have to prepare for a long night of DJ'ing and....................we'll call it "Socialising"

(Mix Bar, Reading 7pm til 8pm then Mango, Reading 9pm til 1am on the terrace.....back to back with my extra special guest and good chum all the way back from Thailand Mr Keith Newman.........if anybody is interested

Not really going to have any kind of break in between so might as well just crack on.

Must mention about an ex work colleague who after reading the blog went and ordered and brand spanking new Audi A4 with fully on Wavy LEDs, good work Sean :-)

Audi if you happen to be reading this I'll take commission in the form of a long weekends use of an R8 without LEDs please and if you could give the drivers seat a good steam clean before handing it over that'd be great.

Little one was funny yesterday. We're off to Great Yarmouth at the end of the month and unbeknown to her we'd arranged with our friends that their girl could come with us too. Apparently when told there were tears of happiness and "This is the best birthday ever" was blurted out.....bless her.

Great news too for the Vreeman family over in L.A. and their adoption proceedings. On their way back now from Ethiopia with the new family member. This young girl can not only now look forward to much better life but will also be spending it with a great and wonderful new family. Truly fantastic and an inspiration for us all.

Back to German efficiency. I'm hoping that this will again prove to be head and shoulders about all others as I ordered another Party Animals, Ibiza T-Shirt from Cocoonclub in Frankfurt (the most perfect club I've ever been too......German of course, well done Papa Sven) just two days ago in the hope that it might arrive today.....We'll see.

Oh blast, have to bugger off to Pinewood studios now which wasn't expected and will set me back an hour or so.

Toodle pip :-)....for now.

Bedtime Reading

I'm really struggling this morning to find something to ramble on needlessly about. Was going to describe how bloomin brilliant it was so see Cocoon recordings had linked directly to my last blog on Facebook......How good is that ?!?

Was going to add the super groovy picture that is on Carley's phone of yours truly at CITP wearing the same shirt as Sven but I forgot the camera :-(

So I've decided on the subject of bedtime reading.

Last night after watching that fantastic program that Griff Rhys Jones did on ITV 4 about New York I thought that seeing as I'd been yawning all day I'd grab myself a book and nip up to bed for some serious relaxing.

So I'd got to about 5 pages in and was totally enthralled. You know when you have a really good book and just the fact that you're going to be turning the page soon gets you really excited because you want so desperately to read the next bit?

Well anyway I was feeling very much like this.

I'm assuming now that you just want to know what book it was that I was reading?

Was it a tale of adventure? Pages upon pages of wonderous tales from exotic corners of our globes...............ERM................No.

Was it an epic romance? Unbridled love and passion that would tweak the heart strings of even the most brutal of men and make women swathe in a sea of eroticism, heart racing at the thought that one day this could all be a reality..............ERM............Not Exactly.

Oh how about a fast pace espionage saga? One man on a quest to find out the truth behind suspected government lies, ducking between the shadows of night, he'll stop at nothing to find and expose the truth that will ultimately save the whole of the human race...............WEEEELLLLLLLL.......ERM......No.

OK what was it?

It was the Good Housekeeping Institute's revised Cookbook......OH Yeah - Rock'n'Roll

Not an ounce of adventure, not a knob of romance, not even as much as 200g of espionage mixed with Vanilla sugar and Chantilly Cream. However I do know now how to save a Hollandaise sauce should it curdle and surely thats enough to give anybody sweet dreams?

Up Early

So I woke up at 5:45am and couldn't get back to sleep so I figured that seeing as I had to go and pick up a hire car before getting to work that I'd just leave earlier than I'd originally intended and grab myself some breakfast on the way.

I did consider walking the 4 miles it was to the Europcar, Reading HQ but as it is going to be a long day, with a full days work then the 3:21hrs drive to Leeds I thought I'd slum it and jump on the number 6 Bus service from Reading station.

Anyway breakfast was my first concerns and as much as I wanted to pop into Malmaisson for it I thought I'd because keep true to how I started the day and cheapen it a little by heading to McDonalds.

Now I know what many of you might think about McDonalds and I'll probably agree with you about the post 10:30am menu but for me you can't really beat a Sausage & Egg muffin with a couple of Hash Browns and a coffee. Personally the highlight of this trans fat filled feast are the Hash Browns, definitely in my top 5 of potato forms, not quite in the same league as Potato Croquettes though but that's a whole different blog.

Anyway if any of you know what Friar Street in Reading is like then you'll understand how much fun it can actually be just sitting there and enjoying/cringing/grimacing (delete as applicable) it can be.

Highlight of this morning was some old girl sat on here own, obviously a bit mental bless her and obviously lacking in personal hygiene, which would explain why the was nobody sat with about 15 feet of her. Now don't get me wrong I'm not one of these people that think people should be locked away just because they are a bit crackers or anything like that, quite the contrary especially when they are as harmless as this lady was.

So there I was merrily tucking into my meal when all of a sudden I hear "Emily Heskey isn't that bad you know" then a pause for about 2 minutes "At least he was trying" another pause "Yeah yeah yeah talk about Beckham all you like but he won't play for England again".

Well this went on for the whole time I was there and apart from the opening two statements there wasn't a thing the batty old fruitcake said that I didn't disagree with. She spoke more sense (OK completely to herself) than Hansen & Dixon combined and I couldn't help but think it would have been so much nicer to have her on the BBC during the world cup than those two herberts.

Next stop was to get on the bus. Having researched the route and the stop at which I needed to get on at I found it easy to locate the said bus however these days it seems there are just a few fares which was news to me having not been on a bus for quite a while, infact the last bus I got on was about 3 years ago and that was in Ibiza!! I remember getting on, saying where you were going and the driver telling you how much it was.

Now I'm quite OK with the thought of public transport, if it's run correctly, efficiently and punctually but that's just not the case and believe that's because it's seen as the transport mode for the less affluent therefore the people running it seem to expect that a mediocre service will be fully accepted and unfortunately they are correct. The whole basis of a current culture seems to be built on the acceptance of mediocrity. Gone are the days of only wanting the best, now we live in a world where just good enough is good enough.

So my biggest bugbear about public transport, buses in particular, are the people they employ to drive these things. They all seem to have this air of arrogance about them as if they are in such a prestige position that they can look down their noses through their NHS specs at anybody who dare set foot upon their fine vessel.

This was compounded as (bringing you back to my previous comment about the new ticket pricing) I tried to purchase my ticket. The conversation was thus -

Me - I need to go to the industrial area down the Basingstoke road.
Him - It's just one fare mate.
Me - Oh OK, and how much is that?
Him - Written on the side of the bus innit.
Me - I'm sorry I didn't notice can you just tell me how much it is?
Him - Tut! One Paaaaaaaaand Seventy

Well then I go to hand him the cash...

Him - Daaaaaan't give it to me, put it in the trofffffff

I grit my teeth, go and sit down and make sure I have the Tom Tom app on the iPhone turned on so I know where to get off, rest of the journey quite pleasant. Still, reflecting on that situation this bloke has gotten satisfaction out of trying to gain the upper ground on one of his paying passengers. How should the conversation gone?

Me - I need to go to the industrial area down the Basingstoke road.
Him - No problem that'll be one pound seventy. If you could just pop it in the trough to your left I'll give you a ticket.
Me - Thankyou.
Him - No problem (Smile)

How hard could that have been? I'd have been sat there thinking "Ah what a nice fella" instead of "Haha Mate, You drive a f**king bus, give yourself a break"