The wall

So here's a picture of the wall we practiced falling off on Sunday ... and of course, James looking slightly scared at the price of all this climbing equipment we're going to have to fork out for at the end of the course!


The good news is, not so much pain this week! I think the muscles must be getting used to it a bit more now.. Bouldering next week apparently, that should be interesting! I will be surprised if I can get off the ground at all!

Location:K2

Vegetable Tagine

Inspired by Fink's absolutely delicious tagine I tried a few years ago, on Thursday night I thought I'd have a go at making one myself. Tagine and couscous is just so yummy, and definitely the sort of thing that warms you up when the weather's all cold.

So I did a bit of investigating, and decided to mix up a few different recipes to see what happened. I remembered that Fink prepared his over a few days, and most of the recipes on the Internet pretty much agreed, but I was feeling impatient and wanted to eat it that night, so that's what I did!

I combined Fink's lamb tagine recipe with Anthony Worrall Thompson's version, with a vegetarian version called Jossy's Moorish vegetable tagine found on Times Online, with a bit of extra customisation from me. I think it turned out pretty well, although funnily enough I saved some of it in the fridge overnight, cooked it up as a side to go with supper yesterday and it was so much more delicious and nowhere near as spicy hot! So, if you fancy using this recipe, I would recommend leaving it to stew for a nice long time.

Serves: 2/3

Ingredients:

- 2 tbsp olive oil

- Juice of 1 lemon

- 1 tsbp tomato purée

- 1½ tbsp paprika

- 1 tsp cayenne pepper

- 1½ tbsp ground ginger

- 2 tbsp ground cinnamon

- some ground black pepper

- 1 x 400g tin of plum tomatoes, chopped

- 1 large onions, grated

- 2 cloves garlic, crushed

- 1 red pepper, cut into small pieces

- 75g flaked almonds

- 55g/2oz sultanas and raisins

- 115g/4oz dried apricots, cut in half

- 55g/2oz dates, cut in half

- baby carrots

- 600ml/1 pint vegetable stock

- 1/2 tin of chickpeas

- 1 tbsp clear honey

- 2 tbsp coriander, roughly chopped

Method:

1. Put the baby carrots (each chopped in half) on to boil for 5 mins.

2. Put the olive oil and lemon juice into a separate (I used a wok) under a low heat.

2. Mix in the tomato puree, paprika, cinnamon, cayenne pepper, black pepper and ground ginger

3. Next add the chopped plum tomatoes and red pepper, and let it simmer for a while.

4. In a frying pan, fry the grated onion and garlic until lightly browned, then add this to the wok.

5. Strain off the carrots and add to the wok.

6. Add a cube of vegetable stock to the wok, along with some boiling water.

7. Leave to simmer for about half an hour.

8. Add the flaked almonds, raisins, sultanas, dates, apricots and chickpeas, then leave to simmer for another half an hour.

9. Lastly, add the honey and then the coriander.

10. Serve with lemon and coriander flavoured couscous.

I think the key to making this work is to keep trying it to make sure that the flavour is right, and definitely leaving it to simmer on a low heat for as long as possible, because it will just make it tastier!

I'm afraid I don't have any photos because we gobbled it all up! Tonight, we are travelling North in our food style and heading for Spain.. it is tapas night! I will try and remember to take some photos this time..

Skywatch Friday: Denbies Vineyard in the fog

Denbies Vineyard
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

Yay, it's Skywatch Friday again! Err, slight problem.. what sky?! Well, it looks like the snow hasn't melted yet in Dorking! I walked over to Denbies at lunchtime today to get some photos in all the fog. It was unbelievable, you could hardly even see Box Hill.. first snow, then fog, I think we're due the rain tomorrow!

Tree house

While I remember, I just have to post a link to this.. The Tree House, Castle Cottage B&B, Petworth in our very own West Sussex!

I saw James playing around on Playstation Home earlier - it's this 3D environment you can walk around and interact with as an avatar, a bit like Second Life but on the PS3. It's amazing how many different locations they've added since it first came out! Anyway, I noticed this beautiful house that he was walking around, it was a huge tree house, with a great big tree running up through the middle of it! Fantastic!

It reminded me of Dave Gorman's America Unchained book I was reading a while ago where he stayed at a variety of unusual hotels all across America, including a tree house community! So, I was looking it up to show to James, and I ended up stumbling across a tree house B&B right on our doorstep in Petworth, hooray! A visit to this place is definitely going on my to-do list!

Rock

Kew Gardens
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

Hmm.. something has definitely happened to my brain since our rock climbing lesson last Sunday, I am now looking at this picture trying to see hand grips! Rock climbing was lots of fun, but I am definitely paying for it now! 2 solid hours of climbing up 12 metre walls and then abseiling down again has made me acutely aware of many many muscles I never knew I had before! I think we were doing slightly more climbing than beginners usually get to do actually, as normally there are about 6 people on the course we're on, but this time it's just the two of us, so lots more time for climbing! He had us doing a wall that tilts backwards and everything, but ouch.. hand pain! Goodness knows what next week will bring, better have lots of hot baths before then!

Snow snow snow..

Horsham snow
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

What a snowy week! I haven't actually been in to work since Tuesday! I only wish it wasn't so annoying working from home, the Internet connection is so slow, it took 2 hours to save this script I was working on, where it takes about 2 seconds from the office :S! No matter though, it's cool being at home in the snow, waking up and finding that someone has deposited a playground outside your front door! James and I went out and built a big snowman at the end of the road late on Tuesday night when it had already got to about a foot deep, and all our neighbours were laughing at us. Good juvenile fun! We then had to throw snowballs at our Sky dish to knock all the snow off, it really works! It's got a bit deeper now after a few days of snow, and we only just managed to get our car out of the drive for the first time today.. there was lots of wheelspin and not much else yesterday! It does make you appreciate the 4x4s when you see your neighbours drive straight off.. hmm.. they may look ridiculously over the top in the summer, but in the snow, you do kinda want one!

Our Royston Vasey Snow Punk Spiderman
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

It's funny, we went to Blacks in town today, I have never ever seen it so busy in there! I've also never seen Horsham so full of adults and kids kitted out in skiwear, and teenagers in thin jumpers looking like they're about to cry! Talking of ski clothes, I think we've finally come up with the key to staying warm in the snow.. it's all about the layers! Here's the best combo if you ask me..
-waterproof shoes (Merrells rule!)
-brasher socks
-base layer leggings
-ski trousers
-base layer long sleeve top
-fleece
-ski jacket
-gloves
-wooly hat
Failing that, Bear Grylls recommends naked push-ups, it's up to you!

Decade stats

I've been reading a few different round-ups of the last century, now that it's over and all, and it got me thinking about some of the things I've done in the last ten years, and well, it kind of turned into a bit of a random stat fest..

1. I've finished school, sixth form and uni - got 11 GCSEs, 3 and 1/2 A levels, Russian GOLF (graded objectives for adults learning foreign languages) level 1, and a degree in AI

2. I've lived in 4 towns, 6 houses (including uni)

2. I've been to 6 weddings, and got married!

3. I've been made an Auntie twice

4. I've started blogging and flickring

5. I've signed up to 6 social networking websites, and worked for 1

6. I've written 333 blog posts, and had 10,197 blog visitors since May 2005

7. I've uploaded 8,220 photos to flickr, and had 15, 021 views since May 2005

8. I've helped add 1657 people to the family tree on GenesReunited

9. I've travelled to 15 different countries

10. I've seen 7 West End musicals

11. I've had 4 jobs (aside from temping), and avoided outsourcing twice

12. I've been to 3 conferences

13. I've been to 5 geek conventions

14. I've watched 202 episodes of the X files, 238 episodes of friends, 183 episodes of Smallville, 144 episodes of Buffy, and 178 episodes of Star Trek: The Next Generation

15. Ok, this list has got to stop, it's getting incriminating!

Summer 2003
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

Our Wedding
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

Once in a Blue Moon..

New Year's Eve
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

Happy New Year everybody! =) Let's hope 2010 is a good one! It does sound extremely futuristic and cool, so there is promise. We've already booked up a few things to look forward to this month, we've got a rock climbing course, and IMAX Avatar tickets! Hopefully I'm not jinxing anything by mentioning them on here (like Twelfth Night, boo!), stay away snow!!

So, apparently we saw an actual real live blue moon on New Year's Eve, how exciting! I must admit, I made James take a photo of it because it was a blue moon before I actually had any idea what one was.. I just saw something in my RSS feeds from National Geographic or New Scientist that it was one! I did think it was particularly bright, it seemed like dusk kind of darkness even at midnight! It turns out that blue moons aren't actually anything to do with the moon being blue at all, it's just a name given to the second full moon that occurs in a single month, which is pretty rare (only every 2 and a half years).. how bizarre! If you're interested, wikipedia thinks it's derived from the Old English word belewe, which can mean either "blue" or "betrayer". Apparently "betrayer moon" was a term that could have been used to refer to a disconcerting extra full moon in late winter, that fooled people into starting Lent a little too early. The clergy would have to tell people that it was a fake imposter Lent moon, instead of the genuine article! If you weren't interested, it's too late now, sorry.

Leith Hill

Leith Hill
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

We decided to climb up to the top of the tower on Leith Hill yesterday. It's a brilliant view from up there. Apparently on a clear day, you can actually see all the way to the English channel! It is very high though, it's the highest point in the South-East, and the 64ft tower actually makes it up to the requisite height for a mountain (if sea level counts as the base). I just love that someone bothered to build a little tower on top to make up the difference! One thing I found funny too, was that one of the direction markers around the top of the tower was pointing to the North Pole. It was 2634 miles, only 238 miles further than we drove on our honeymoon. Just an extra 4 hours! =)

Leith Hill
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

Leith Hill
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

Leith Hill
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

Leith Hill
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

Happy Christmas!!

This is the awesome cuddly mug of eggnog I got for Christmas from James! =) It came all the way from America, check out mypapercrane, she makes such cute stuff! I think I will be ordering a giant doughnut cushion next!

Christmas lights!

Amazing Grace Techno - Computer Controlled Christmas Lights from Richard Holdman on Vimeo.

Amazing.. I am guessing this is not a very fun time of year if you suffer from epilepsy though!

The only trouble with all this snow photographing..

Horsham snow
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

is that I've gone and given myself a cold! Last night, I kept waking up all through the night, and at one point James had to wake me up because I was having a nightmare about a shark.. I guess being all coldy is a bit like swimming underwater, but I'm not really sure where the shark came from!

James' school was closed today, due to it being at the top of a snowy hill and all, so he is now officially on Christmas hols, yay! I've just got 2 more days to go now, and I worked from home today - didn't fancy going anywhere much further than the front door today, it's way too cold!!

Luckily enough, we had our first 2 DVDs show up LOVEFiLM today. Laura sent us a 2 month free membership voucher the other day, so I decided to sign up.. it's a great service! You can pick out all the films and TV series' you fancy seeing, and make up a list on their website (they just seem to have every DVD ever on there!), and then they post them to you two at a time! It's a DVD rental service, whereby you can keep the DVDs as long as you like, but it's actually in your best interests to watch them and post them back as soon as possible so that you can be sent your next batch. It seems to be pretty much next day delivery, which isn't bad! We got 'The Proposal', and 'Oz and James Drink to Britain' today, very cool. We just watched 'The Proposal', which was pretty funny. Very interesting to see Alaska too, in a non-survival scenario! Oz and James later.. we've been watching the other two Big Wine Adventure series' they did, which were excellent! I just love all their bickering! Sound wine advice too, we tried their recommended 'decent wine for under a tenner' -a Californian Zinfandel called 'Ravens Wood', and it was very very nice!

LOVEFiLM
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

Anyway, to go with the films, I got us a nice giant bar of chocolate, because nothing fixes a cold like chocolate! =)

Chocolate
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

Skywatch Friday: Horsham snow!

Well, I spotted Skywatch Friday on Øblog last week, and I thought it sounded like quite a nice idea. It turned out that this week was a pretty good time to start!

Skywatch Friday: Horsham snow!
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

Wait, there's more..

SNOW!! Here's how it was looking in Horsham this morning..

Horsham snow!
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

Horsham snow!
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

Horsham snow!
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

It's snowing in Dorking!

Mystery pudding

I just got back from my third Christmas dinner this year, this time with my old disbanded team. The funny thing is, after all these Christmas dinners, this pudding is the only festive thing I've had so far! It was a miniature Christmas pudding, only about 4cms across! A little on the small side, very tasty though!

I was a little dubious about the thing on top, it looked like a Chinese lantern! After the multicoloured cherub decoration that I was tempted to sample in the Chinese restuarant last week turned out to be made entirely of salt, I didn't think I'd chance it! You can't take for granted that the things put on your plate are actually food! Any ideas what it is?!

Location:Red Lion, Betchworth

Sunday, 18:00, BBC2

James May's Toy Stories is back on.. This week it's the Denbies Lego House! Hooray! Wonder if you'll see us talking to the security guard about his dog in the background..

Custom My Little Ponies

My nice flickr friend just sent me a link to this:

http://www.blog.spoongraphics.co.uk/uncategorized/45-creative-examples-of-my-little-pony-customization

It's a brilliant collection of custom my little ponies for sci-fi geeks, I love it! How could they neglect to include our ones though?! Outrageous!

Box Hill at night

Box Hill at night
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

On the way home on Saturday, we were driving past Box Hill just as the sun was going down. It's funny, I'd actually been up there at night just last week for a work Christmas meal at Smith & Western, and I'd noticed the amazing view over Dorking with all the lights glowing, so I was desperate to go back up there with a camera to get some photos.. lucky timing! So here you go, Dorking from Box Hill at dusk.. one day we'll have to take the big camera up there!

Winchester Cathedral Christmas Market

Winchester
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

Well, I was very very pleased with this tip-off, I'm just amazed that I've never heard of this before.. just behind Winchester Cathedral is hiding an amazing German style Christmas market! 84 chalets selling all kinds of crafty things from all over the world, and an ice rink in the middle, absolutely brilliant! The whole place smells wonderful with all the dried orange and cinnamon stick decorations for sale, and all of the lovely festive food and drink - stollen, Glühwein, roasted chestnuts, waffles.. yum! We actually bought one of the orangey things and now it is making our kitchen smell rather nice!

Here are some photos of the market..

Winchester
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

ice rink..

Winchester
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

Charlie and the Fudge Cottage..

Winchester
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

Winchester
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

Yummy smelling orange and cinnamon stick string..

Dried orange and cinnamon string
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

The market goes on for 18 days, spanning half of November and December, I think we will definitely be going back next year!

The town has definitely embraced the Christmas spirit, on the high street there were Morris dancers with bits of Christmas tree on their heads, carol singers, shops with holly garlands draped over their frontages, and excellent Christmas lights! Much better than Horsham, I can't believe it actually made the National news over it's poor show of lights, boo.. must try harder!

Winchester
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

We grabbed a bit of lunch at a pub near the river, and old Ælfrēd the Great (wow, I just found out his Dad was called Æthelwulf, you can't beat that for a name!)..

Winchester
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

and then went all touristy and visited the Winchester Castle Great Hall to see the Round Table..

Winchester
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

check out my arty iPhone photography..

Winchester
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

and with a bit of exploring out the back of the Great Hall, we found the army barracks..

Winchester
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

a bit of a lucky find! Tanks in the car park, hehe..

Winchester
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

Rather tempting.. I've always wanted a tank!

Winchester
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

Christmas tree abstract

Christmas tree
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

Christmas tree
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

I'm kipperfrog, I've served with the British Junior Sea Cadets, I've climbed to the summit of Box Hill..

..and crossed the choppy oceans of The Channel. Now I'm heading into the remote Dorking wilderness, hundreds come here to pay tribute to the magical silver cockerel, but each year 60 people will need rescuing. I'm going to show the skills needed to survive here..

This area gets the most extreme rubbish weather than anywhere in the UK. All I've got with me is my knife, my water bottle, and my survival bracelet..


Well, actually I forgot my knife and water bottle, but you never know when you might need 8ft of paracord and a guitar pick!!

James has got the skills, I love my survival bracelet! =)

Christmas tree!

Christmas tree
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

Hooray, it's Christmas tree putting up day! We went to a few places this morning to try and find one to buy, but it seems that this year the standard price for a tiny little tree is around £30?! We're talking £50 for one the same height as me.. it seems a little excessive! Well, we decided that we wanted a completely oversized, sitting room dominating tree to get us properly into the Christmas spirit, so it was time to dig out our 6-footer plastic one from the loft! I think it does the job rather nicely, and manages to completely block off the way into the kitchen, now that's what I'm talking about! =)

Pretty Gibson SG Zoot Suit Guitars

Pretty Gibson SG Guitars
Originally uploaded by kipperfrog

We went to Brighton today, and spotted these beautiful Gibson SG Zoot Suit guitars in GAK. I've never seen anything like them before, very very nice..

Apparently the body is built with multiple birch wood laminate pieces (each one approximately .075” thick), each dyed with a different colour then compressed and bonded together to form one solid block of wood.

I dread to think how much they cost!

Oh no, not more Star Trek links!

I'm afraid so..

I've managed to find a couple of pretty entertaining documentaries you can watch online, all about some of the most extreme Star Trek fanatics ever. The first one, produced in 1997, was filmed in America, whereas the follow-up, 7 years later, goes all over the world to see how the Trekkies in different countries match up. It's a bit of a freak show, but it certainly is quite funny to see just how far some people go! I must admit I am a little scared of that lady who stalks Brent Spiner though :S

Anyway, if you're interested, you can watch them online here:

Trekkies (1997)
Trekkies 2 (2004)