Day 4

Today was the fourth day of operation belly reduction. So, A nice run around Old Sarum it was. Well, it was nice in that I was outside seeing some classical countryside in a historical setting (It’s thought to have had a settlement there since 3000 BC and the original Salisbury cathedral was built there in the 11^th century). And, to be honest, it has felt better each time I have gone for a run, but it is still frustrating that it is so slow and not exactly fluid movement shall we say. I am 11 years older, approximately 3 stone / 42lb / 19kg heavier, and a lot less fit than I was when I was running competitively so I guess I can’t really complain. Ah, those were the days!

At last

Today I went for a 'run'. I bought some new running shoes when I first got back to this country about four months ago. Today I actually used them. It was a some what pleasant experience in that it was a nice day out and it felt good to get some fresh air and see a bit of the local area. But, I felt that I looked like one of those 'older people' that you see running where the movement is a little slow and awkward and makes a louder noise than the younger light footed models. I was plodding. And now my legs hurt. I guess I'm not getting any younger...

Morris Dancers

This is what we saw on New Year's day at Stoke Bruerne. It is called Morris Dancing and is a traditional type 'dancing' here to folk music. It is generally done by middle aged men who are looking for an excuse to get together and drink real ale. The dancers usually wear white with colourful accessories and often have bells attached to various parts of the costume (you can hear the bells in the video when they start jumping around) and hold wooden sticks or handkerchiefs in their hands.

Sausages!

This was the last meal I had in Spain last weekend. Notice the lack of veg! I went to visit Howard in Madrid. The fantastic weekend started with a classic Spanish night out - until 7am!! after watching Howards funk band 'Watch Out'. You can see a video of them playing here. Howard plays the trumpet. Saturday night we had 'just a quiet night' finishing dinner at 1am and going to bed at 3.30! Good times though and you can't fault a holiday that ends with a huge slab of meet in a small countryside restaurant in the mountains.

Whilst there, I remember having a conversation about sausages. Now, despite the fact that many consider sausages to be the worst kind of meat, they really can be the most tasty treat, and not just 'lips and arseholes' as I have heard cheap hot dogs described as! I have a favourite from many countries that I have visited. You should try them if you get the chance.

England: Lincolnshire sausage - a sausage flavoured with sage and other herbs that apparently might become the champagne of England!

Scotland: Lorne sausage - That square sausage only found in Scotland, a classic for breakfast.

Texas: Elgin Hot Sausage - smoky, spicy, from the self proclaimed "Sausage capital of Texas (or maybe the World?)" definitely worth throwing on the barbie. My favourite one is from the Southside Market and Barbeque.
France: Merguez - a spicy sausage originating from Africa. Great dipped into some good French mustard, Dijon or coarse ground, for a picnic on the way home from a family holiday.
Portugal: Buttifarra - not good with a pile of salt but if you can avoid that (thanks Jimmy!) a wonderful treat served as a course in the middle of many of the multi-course meals we ate in Portugal.
New Zealand: Venison Sausages - Venison sausages are a favourite of mine in any country but one of the last meals I cooked in New Zealand was with Venison sausages, which I was amazed to find were the same price as plain old pork ones. Apparently, venison is one of the cheapest meats in New Zealand and at one time people were paid to get rid of the deer since there was so many of them. It's funny how one country's delicacy can be another's poor man's food.
Spain: Chorizo - Another spicy, smoky member of the sausage family found in many Spanish speaking countries.

Hmmm, perhaps it should be bangers and mash for tea? Or maybe toad in the hole? Or a few snags for our Aussie readers?

Some things don't change

It appears that 'blogging' is much like other forms of communication for me. I mean this in that I always think about writing something but never seem to get around to it. This is much like thank you letters. I think I did write some once or twice when I was a kid. I hope people do know that I did think about writing to them and that I was also grateful for their gift. It appears that my absence started around the time that this photo was taken.

This was at the lab Christmas party. We ate at the Last Wine Bar in Norwich. The food was great and the whole meal was very enjoyable. The post meal activities were a lot of fun too and I probably don't need to say that they involved a rather large amount of alcohol!

This was a very good start to the festive period which involved two large family gatherings, one toddler, one baby, one wedding, one birthday (my last one in the twenties!), staying in four different abodes including one canal boat, one immigration package (arriving on birthday), some Morris dancers, snooker, loosing the ashes, the third longest tunnel in Britain, and of course copious amounts of food and drink! oh, and an extra 5lb!