Oh the irony!

Benta is a fussy eater, theres no other way to say it, she likes plain simple home cooked food. Isn't keen at all on dairy, (hence hates my mac and cheese) and can't stand meat that isn't burnt to a crisp...

ok well, as a self confessed foodie, its my duty to expose Benta to  the joy of food. Which is why I had a couple of tickets for a surprise taster menu at a very nice restaurant here in Breda.

She was up for it and actually quite looking forward to it, as was I, I love fine dining and surprise menus.

Well....the restaurant is a lovely cozy place, with attentive staff and an interested chef who was keen to make sure we had no specific dislikes he would avoid. Dairy was mentioned and avoided

And on we go to a couple of small amuse bouche and appetizers . Really lovely.. But then comes a mackerel tartar...nope, she's not having that... awww, no problem I had double...it was stunning.

Then a small eggplant and carrot and raisin salad...just a mouthful, actually quite silly portion size, but its an appetizer. She tries it, almost gags :D  The courses that follow are a bit hit and miss for her but she did like the cooked Red mullet mini, mini fillet, and the wild pork terrine with a scraping of sweet potato and onion puree. It was really nice... overall she enjoyed 50% of the food, so I was feeling quite pleased, but yeah the portions were tiny.

Finally a dessert of coconut  rice cream and ...well bits, this I didn't actually like much, but dutifully ate... Benta had a small taste, said she liked it but didn't finish.

So overall, she wasn't terribly impressed by her 1st fine dining experience so we will have to work up to it, starting and McD's and moving up through KFC before braving a kebab place...

The irony though, is that as soon as I got home, something very very bad stirred in my bowels, and I then spent a good hour on the loo, followed by a rather disturbed night trying hard to avoid throwing something up, which I just managed to do...oh dear...a touch of Mumtaz tum kicked in.(Mumtaz is a great indian restaurant I used to visit a lot in Bradford, but every time I would get a bad tummy, so some kind of allergy).

So whatever I am allergic to was in one the of dishes...and I am feeling rough as a bears arse this morning.
Benta was unimpressed by my Frasier like desire to introduce her to a bit of culture, and I have been duly humbled.

Ahthankyew

Getting quite popular

Very very proud of Famous Belcrum Recordings, we're getting better and better and people are really starting to like what we do, we've acquired a few fans, and our sound and confidence grows with every gig.

Ironically this weekends gig was the smallest we ever had, we were booked for an open air market event, which should have attracted a few hundred, but the heavens decided to open and people stayed away, we moved indoors to a cafe but only a dozen or so people braved the rains, but even so they loved it and we did too. The small audience let us play around a bit and make a few mistakes of course. But it was so much fun.  Rose gets more and more confident with the ballads, it's wonderful to hear.

We also for the 1st time used our own sound set up, which was brilliant to do, I've had my DL1608 unit for a few years and never really got the chance to use it. It performed brilliantly. Though it turns out I can't save the set up, which is frustrating.
But not to worry, I'll keep it exclusive for FBR, which means the settings we used will remain


Ahthankyew

fucked if I know

this is work related.......not going into detail, but sooooo many changes, so much tinkering with processs...need to vent...can we please just focus on making good coders out of beginners.
christ...its not fucking rocket science...whatever the process, thats what I am going to focus on


can't say more, might get read by da' managment



Ahthankyew

diet slow but steady

So the new, don't shove as much in your pie hole diet is slowly taking effect, 3 kilos down so far
Also I've taken the chance to cycle into work a bit more even though our new and currently very disorganized campus is 20-25mins away. Its still a nice cycle while the weather is good. So I'm getting 45 mins of light exercise as well as the reduction in cake and booze.

Work is all very strange at the moment, the new place is not quite where we need it, I don't have a permanent desk for all my gear, which is indeed a pain. Though I've decided to camp at one today with dual monitors which lets me hook things up.

Benta is struggling a bit with getting used to things, its a bit frustrating for me, not being able to help her in some places, especially when I'm at work and she's over in Utrecht trying to figure out buses, but I'm sure she'll get used to it.. When they work they are great, when they don't,......well its stressful




Ahthankyew

Well.... here we go

Benta is settling in, she's a bit overwhelmed by some things and needs to learn that sushi, mac and cheese and various other European foods are good :D an

Its nice having someone to cook for and chat to, I missed that.. things are certainly looking up,

But I have to go back to work on Monday...booooooo
She also starts summer school for her masters on Monday too, so who gets home 1st will be interesting.



Ahthankyew

flights booked, countdown begins

Cheapflights.com is a great site for getting a good deal on flights, even if you go to the sites it recommends you can find the same flights costing double what it costs to book through them.

But finally we got the stamped Visa which allowed us to get the flight booked, and now Benta will be arriving in a very very sunny, but soon to be very rainy Netherlands on Thursday.

Counting down the hours :D

Also to the rain, this heat can go bugger off, I don't want to have to book a trip to Iceland to recover from this holiday period.

Ahthankyew

Its not a tap, its my pits

Every day for the last couple of week's (when not in Scotland) I've come up to the office, sat down,  started to get into some work, and then had to listen to the drip drip drip of sweat from my armpits landing on the floor before slowly starting to realise I am utterly befuddled by the heat.

This is no exaggeration, even with evaporator coolers and fans on full blow, my office is an oven, and heat exhaustion quickly takes over, getting any work done is near impossible.

I'm starting to panic, since I was close to getting a few key things done and dusted to let me enjoy my break. But managing less than 30 mins in every 2 hours, as I scurry for some cool water or cold part of the house (there's aircon in the attic) has meant a total loss of productivity.

I have considered moving my dev systems up to the attic, but it would take 2 days minimum to remove all the music gear on that desk, and re-set up my coding stuff and that assumed I can keep up the pace of going up and down stairs.. Also I don't have good internet upstairs...the walls in my house are too thick and the signal drops off on the 2nd floor, it just fails to get to the 3rd. (I really need to fix that, but have no idea how)

As much as I enjoy sunshine, I'd like it to stay in my preferred location of the Canaries...and not here so I can get on with having a nice quiet refreshed life in my own home

ok well I've wasted 10 mins typing this, and already I'm dripping, sat as I am in sweatpants with no top.

I bet you just as it starts to cool down, I get a cold!


Ahthankyew

Its all about to get very mental

So, lots o... (don't you hate when people start a sentence with so..) f changes about to happen.
Any day now Benta gets her passport back with the visa that lets her get on a flight to start a new life here, mostly dealing with the masters she's doing, but even so, it'll be start of a new life of us.

Of course it also means having a major clear out, so the house is being stripped back and scrubbed, regardless of Benta's arrival , this needs to be done, I've not actually had a proper house clean in a long time, I may also get some paint and touch up the kitchen a bit since the new kitchen is going to have to wait a bit.

Also my new diet/lifestyle choices are in place, I hate it, I really do but I am strong this time.. I can't stand to see any more photo's of me at friends and in this case weddings where I am just a fat beach-ball in a suit.
So since coming back from my cousin Roy's lovely wedding to Katie,  I've been on a very strict 1000Kcal a day diet.
I've bought in shit loads of food, but separated out for individual portions of chicken, steak, pork and burgers. Its all in the freezer, so I have food for a month, Costing about 150euro's,  which is 10 takeaways...hmmm also saving money.

There's nothing wrong with food I eat, when I cook myself, its just that I seem to eat enough for 3.. thats over. Sticking to 1000k is  basically less than half my recommended intake, but it should give very fast results. Its too early to have any real impact but I won't cheat. Every hunger pang is a gramme lost.

Also I'm making a point of cycling every day, even if only for a short 2km warm up around Belcrum, getting my heart beating a bit for a few weeksm,  and then back to the gym again. No point paying for it and not using it, but I do want to drop 5kg before I start that, so I can focus on some toning up rather than worry about fat burning.

Its very hard to do all this in the current heat, its been consistently over 30degs peaking one day at 41.4 outdoors. Ironic that Benta is currently shivering in 19 degree temps in Nairobi, lol, wait till winter.


Ahthankyew