summary of the year - so far...

a very busy year.  Here are some of the things I have been doing...

• Georgina's 17th birthday
• strongly involved with the Save Woolley Valley campaign to stop rogue developers ruining an area of Outstanding Natural Beauty across the valley from us
• Lots of trips to Paris - sometimes a bit wet
• Italy at Easter
• 130km bike ride from home to Weston Super Mare
• Italy in the summer
• Edinburgh Fringe Festival
• Making lots of bread - especially Sourdough
• New Colnago road bike
• Sicily Volcanoes
• 50th Birthday celebrations
• Works in the front garden
• Spain for Christmas

Sicily Volcanoes

Fantastic trip with Gary to Sicily to walk up the volcanoes - Mt Etna, Stromboli & Vulcano.

Pictures below.

Sicily volcanoes 2010

my new racing bike

My new Italian racing bike - a Colnago Ace.  It's very light and fast, the only thing that's slow is the large fleshy thing sitting on the saddle!

My Colnago

Italian country bread recipe

Italian country bread recipe from Mary Contini's book. It takes about 6 hours start to finish - although not difficult. Makes 2 loaves.
1 - Make a biga starter - Put 100g strong white bread flour, 100ml warm water & 10g fresh yeast into a large mixing bowl.  Mix together, cover with clingfilm and leave in a warm place for about 3 hours. It will will rise & fall and be all bubbly.
2 - Make the dough - to the biga starter, add - 900g strong white flour, 25g sea salt, 20g fresh yeast, 475ml warm water and 25ml malt syrup.  Knead by hand or with a dough hook on a mixer for about 10 minutes.  Take dough out of the bowl and form into a ball.  Add a little olive oil to the bowl, return the dough and coat it with the olive oil.  Cover bowl with clingfilm and leave in a warm place for about 45 minutes.
3 - Punch down dough to knock out the air, form into a ball, return to bowl and leave to rest another 30 minutes
4 - Take two round plastic colanders, line with teatowels and dust liberally with flour.  Divide the dough, form into two balls and put into the colanders - dough seam side up.  Put each colander into a plastic shopping bag and fold under.  Leave for about 40-60 minutes until dough has risen to top of the colanders.
5 - Carefully tip each dough ball onto a floured baking tray, slash a couple of times with a sharp knife.  They loaves may collapse - don't worry they will rise in the oven. Bake @ 200C for about 30-40 mins, cool (if you want) and enjoy.

Post from Lloyd Burgess at CHUM.LY

/johngotts
:-) let me know how you get on. http://chum.ly/n/2aec87

Great initiative for saving our green belt - Piece by piece

A showcase for local campaigns fighting for the UK's natural habitats
The Guardian's Piece by piece project will bring together groups working to save biodiversity from ill-conceived development -  www.guardian.co.uk/environment/2010/jul/27/piece-b...ction http://chum.ly/n/266945

Post from Lloyd Burgess at CHUM.LY

- if I do a post from iPhone chum.ly and put an '&' in the text the rest of the text gets ignored. Should I escape the '&'? http://chum.ly/n/263412

had a lemony chicken and chickpea thing for dinner tonight

For 4: soak 150g dried chickpeas overnight (or use canned chickpeas and add near end of cooking). Soften chopped onion and garlic in olive oil. Add 1 tsp turmeric and some diced chicken (thighs are best) and brown. Add chick stock cube, hot water to 1/2 cover chicken, soaked chickpeas, lemon juice, some herbs and 2 tsp Dijon mustard. Simmer gently for about 45 mins. If you fancy, stir in a bag of spinach 5 mins before end. http://chum.ly/n/26340e

Weather in Paris

A little wet. It went on like this for about an hour.

Morning after my bike ride

Morning after my bike ride and feeling fine. It went really well - cloudy most of the time so it wasn't too hot. It was very windy and drizzly going over the Mendip hills however once passed, the weather cleared and the roads were flat. I prefer the flat!
One strange thing - it wasn't easy to get a feel for how many people actually went on the ride. Everyone left the start in dribs and drabs and arrived the same. There was no large 'peleton'.
All in all a great day out and I would definitely do it again.

Day of my ride

Headed off from home about 06:30.  The girls were still in bed.

Start of the Bath to Bristol bike track

Along the bike track  @ 06:45 - no one else seems to think this is a sensible idea

Long Ashton pike & ride - official start of Great Weston Ride

It was difficult to know how many people took part as everyone started at different times

30 miles in - Chew Valley lakes - feeling fine

40 miles in - half way and a refreshment stop just before the climb up the Mendip hills

Pridey - after the Mendips.  50 miles. A bacon sandwich (yum) & banana to keep me going.

10 miles to go - very flat.  I like the flat!

The finish at Weston - and not feeling too bad at all!!
At the end the bike computer said: 5hours 40 secs riding time; 78 miles; 2064 kcal burnt; 13.7 average mph.

another training ride

Last training trip before the big cycle ride on Sunday. 44 hours to go... http://chum.ly/n/1f733c

Woolley to Weston bike ride

On Sunday 18th July 2010, I will be cycling from Woolley Valley (near my home in Bath) to Weston-super-mare to help raise awareness for the Save Woolley Valley campaign.  This campaign is trying to stop unauthorised development in an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty.  There has been national media coverage of our campaign including articles in The Times, The Daily Mirror, The Guardian, BBC - to name a few.

Some of the high profile support  includes Peter Gabriel (former lead singer of Genesis), Jonathan Dimbleby, Jacob Rees-Moog (local MP), Bel Mooney and The National Trust.

There are some pictures of the environmental damage already done by the developers (Golden Valley Paddocks Ltd).

My 80 mile (130 km) route will start in Woolley Valley, I will join the Great Weston Ride at Bristol and then end at Weston-super-mare.

You can help me and the campaign by:

• signing the Save Woolley Valley guestbook
• leaving a comment on my Blog
• making a donation to the Save Woolley Valley fund

THANK YOU!

Woolley Valley - before

and after the damage

 

Here is my route

View Woolley to Weston in a larger map

Marlborough tavern for a quick drink and snack

Sat outside at the Marlborough Tavern and had a nice drink while waiting for George

Save Woolley Valley Protest - press items

Here are some links to press articles about the events of 19 May

• Daily Mail
• ITV West
• The Guardian
• Telegraph
• Bath Chronicle
• The Times
• BBC West

and some other articles

• 27 May - Bath Chronicle - Cautious welcome, and another
• 20 May - Bath Chronicle letters
• 27 April - Bath Chronicle

and the Save Woolley Valley website

Lloyd & Harry Mount from Daily Mail

The protest

Peter Gabriel & Bel Mooney

One of the protected trees cut down

Saturday morning

Jayne & I dropped George at work then had breakfast at Jika Jika.  Good eggs benedict - still not sure about the coffee.  Went an ordered my new specs - thought I would try varifocals this time

Bogdan in London

Went up to London for the day and met Bogdan for lunch.  We wandered along Exmouth St, Farringdon and ended up at Moro restaurant.  I had forgotten how many great food places there are around there.  Lots of stalls out on Friday lunchtime selling tempting treats.

It was great to see Bogdan again and catch up.

Afterwards caught bus to Oxford St and then train home.

Indian takeaway for dinner

Same-Same but Different

Dinner at this restaurant - highly recommended.  A small place in Bartlett St. ll home cooked with great care.  I had pork belly with beans - fab.

£50 for three.

Circus for lunch

Three of us went to the Circus restaurant (34 Brock St) for lunch as a treat for George before going back to school.  Had planned to go to the Olive Tree but not open for lunch on Mondays.

The Circus was excellent, although a touch expensive.  I had lemon sole - was delicious

Barge Inn, Bradford

Three of us went to the Barge Inn in Bradford on Avon for dinner.  Didn't plan to go there just drove past and it looked nice.  Pub seemed to have been recently refurbished.  We were there early and easily got a table.  Later was very busy.  I had lasagne - very good.

New pub to try

I've passed it a number of times and wanted to try the Victoria Works Pub, which has been recently refurbished.  It was good - limited menu of pizza and Pie Minister pies however both were excellent. Definitely worth going again - £33 for the three of us.  Stopped of at Italian ice cream place on the way home.

Jamie's Italian - George's real birthday

Went there for dinner.  Food was good but I still felt service was "put on".  I had fish stew, truffle chips and affogatto - all excellent.
£71 for the 3 of us

George's 17th birthday dinner

Spent the day cooking.  Fantastic evening with everyone.

George, Jayne, Annie, David, Charlie, Claire, Vivienne, Derek, Lisa, James, Sue, Craig, Lizze, Jan, Ken, Sheena, (+1?) & moi.

Dinner was:

• Smoked haddock chowder
• Sour-dough bread
• Asian spiced pork belly with noodles & pak choy
• Raspberry, Lemon Curd & Meringue shots
• Rhubarb & Strawberry cheesecake with same compote
• Blueberry & sweet potato tart
• Brazilian chocolate cake

Someone said - a pudding too far...(although most people had all the courses!)

Sue and Italian joke. Lots of singing afterwards.  Finished sometime after 1am.

dinner at the bear

3 of us.  I had duck - not impressed

dinner at grappa bar

lunch at Rocotillos

Burger and milkshake at Rocotillos, Bristol for lunch

Expenses and blogging

Spent the evening doing my expenses and adding a few blogs of the Paris trips.

About a week ago I started learning French again, and am using some software called BYKI (Before You Know it). It is basically electronic flip cards and works really well. Upgraded to the paid version so now have lots of lists to learn.

When in Paris last, I bought a French Star Wars book - for children about 8 yrs. Should be a bit more fun to read. Haven't got very far yet!

Lunch with the little ones

Vivienne was down for the weekend. James, Lisa and the little ones came around for Sunday lunch. Had a really lovely time. Cicile's favourite saying "It's not my cup of tea"

Marmalade and afgans

A bit of a baking weekend. Made some marmalade on Saturday (a bit more labour intensive than I thought) - although definitely worth it - and also some afgan biscuits (from the book Chris gave me for my birthday). Also did a Chocolate log (again from the book) for Sunday lunch.

Everything turned out very well, if I may say so!!

Paris - trip 3 of 3

Paris trip #3. Slightly different this time - left on Tuesday evening. Main work was UQS workshop which lasted both days. Dinner in the hotel on Tuesday evening - not recommended.

Out to dinner with others in workshop on Wednesday evening and then leisurely walk back to hotel - about 1/2 hour.

Workshop finished late Thursday afternoon and then headed straight to airport.

Felt it was all a bit of a rush this time and was pleased to get back home and not have any more trips planned for a while. Plane was about 1/2 hr late.

Valentines day

Bought a big bunch of flowers the day before and gave the box of paris chocs on the day. The three of use went to lunch at Bathampton mill. Ok - nothing special.

Paris - trip 2 of 3

Paris trip number two - again flying out Sunday evening. Not as successful this time as there wer plane problems and we got delayed. Got to Paris just before midnight, local time and after a rush to the train just managed to see the last one leaving!!! Ended up getting a taxi (€60) to the hotel and arrived about 1am. Same hotel as last week.

Early start Monday morning for important workshop with CFE-CRM on agile methods. It all went well and then had a working session with Remy in the afternoon.

With Valentines day coming up I bought some nice chocs and also a couple of tins of confit du carnard (yum) which meant I had to check the bag into the hold. Also bought a couple of bottle of fruit syrups.

Dinner was Fleur de Sel on Monday night and airport dinner Tuesday. Actually not too bad a steak.

Paris - trip 1 of 3

Busy time for Paris trips - this was the first of three - and had to fly out on Sunday evening as workshop was Monday morning. Topic was APT Seminar - location near Les Halles.

Stayed in new hotel - Novotel Vaugirard - very nice, although slightly out of the way.

Arrived late Sunday evening so didn't have much choice for dinner - ended up in L'Atlantique bar near Montparnasse station.

Monday was the APT seminar for the morning and then meetings in Arcueil in the afternoon. Managed to get to G. Detou (commercial food suppliers) to get a big bag (3KG) of Valrhona chocolate - yum :-). In the envening went to see Avatar 3D - thought it was brilliant. George saw it the following week and didn't think much of it.

Tuesday was further meetings in Arcueil and then home on the evening Easyjet flight.

London and Agile tool demos

Went to London on Tuesday for some meetings. Met Pascal from France. Happens I used to work with his wife on a previous project. The office was very busy and I spent most of the time working in the restaurant. The central coffee area/atrium does have a buzz.

Wednesday, Thursday & Friday were Agile backlog management tool demos - VersionOne, RallyDev & Mingle.

Friday night the three of us went to the Grappa Bar for pizza's. Not too bad at all and very reasonably priced- £36 for all of us including drinks.

Jobs around the house weekend

So, so weather - at least it wasn't raining. Cut up remaining wood on Saturday and got it all stacked up. Went to hardware store in the afternoon.

Jayne & I went to dinner with Tin & Sheena at One Beaufort - just down the road. It was a belated Christmas meal.

Took George rowing Sunday morning and then got some roof insulation from Homebase in Chippenham. Very cheap - £4.50 a roll. Went back in the afternoon and it had all gone.

Pork chops for dinner. Made a batch of French Onion soup.

Margaret & Derek dinner

Went up to Reading to see Margaret & Derek. Had dinner at Rowbarge, Woolhampton. Very cold and icy.