The Best Pulled Pork - probably

 It's taken a few years and a number of tries but I think I may have found my most favourite recipe for pulled pork and here it is. 

Credit to wellplated.com as the recipe is based on their's. 

Ingredients

2kg - boned shoulder of pork (rind off)

1 red onion - chopped finely

1 small can - tomato puree

80ml - Apple cider vinegar

80ml - clear honey

60ml - water

2tbs - dark brown sugar

2tbs - Worcestershire sauce

2tsp - paprika

2tsp - minced garlic

2tsp - mustard powder

2tsp - chipotle paste

1tsp - salt (plus some for seasoning the pork)

ground black pepper

1tbs - cornflour

Method

1. Place all of the ingredients excluding the cornflour in the slow cooker and mix thoroughly.

2. Season the pork with salt and pepper, rubbing into the flesh. 

3. Place the pork in the slowcooker and cover in the mix.

4. Cook on high for 1 - 2 hours turning every 30-45 mins. 

5. Cook on low for 6-8 hours until tender and the pork falls apart. 

6. Separate the meat into a separate bowl and shred with forks. I also remove the excess fat. 

7. Strain the juices into a small pan on the hob. Add the cornflour. Mix over a medium heat until it thickens. 

8. Pour the thickened juice over the pulled pork and serve warm. 

80/20 White Brown Bread

 I have played about with bread for just over 12 months and think I have finally found the sweet spot. 

Flour - well it has to be good and fresh and must be bread flour but a mix of 80% white and 20% wholemeal helps to provide texture and a little flavour whilst keeping up the fibre for a good diet.

Yeast - goes without saying it needs to be "fresh" but when I say fresh I mean within the used by date and ideally as soon after buying as possible. I tend to use quick dried yeast (very fine balls) and keep it in the fridge. I suspect the fridge does very little but it makes me think I can keep it for longer!

Oil / fat - I use a good first press olive oil. It's relatively light and fresh and adds a little flavour to the bread whilst helping to maintain structure and keeps for longer. 

Sugar - white works for me. To be honest I haven't tried anything else so can't comment!

Salt - white again seems to work and I haven't tried anything else but I have reduced the amount very sightly. Partly to be a little healthier and partly because I think it helps the bread grow a little faster / better. 

Water - always use filtered water - unless you know that your water is as clean as it comes. I am sure it doesn't really matter but if you can remove the fluorides and chlorides along with the metals and pollutants I am sure it's better! a mix of one third boiling hot with 2 thirds cold ensures you get the temperature right for the yeast. 

Vitamin C - I suspect you don't need this and I am honestly not sure if ie makes a difference. I have tried various amounts and settled on just half a teaspoon. More seems to make the dough sloppy / wet, less can cause a less favourable structure. I am confident that it helps the bread stay fresher for longer. 

So hear is what I do:

Ingredients

300g - White Bread Flour

200g - Wholemeal Bread Flour

7.7g - quick easy yeast

12g - salt

15g - sugar

1/2tsp - vitamin C (dried ascorbic acid) 

55g - Olive Oil

160g - cold water

80g - boiling hot water

Method

1. Measure and mix the dry ingredients (white flour, wholemeal flour, quick yeast, salt, sugar, vitamin C) in a mixing ball and mix. I used a Kenwood Major as I can leave it kneading whilst I do other things!

2. Measure and mix the wet ingredients (cold water, oil and boiling water) in a measuring jug using a whisk. 

3. Pour the wet ingredient mix into the dry ingredients and mix to form a dough. 

4. Knead for between 15 and 20 minutes. It needs to have a smooth silky and stretchy feel to it. The more you knead it, the stronger the structure and that will help with texture. 

5. Oil a bowl that is about twice the volume of the dough. 

6. Place the dough in the oil bowl and cover with cling film. Allow the bread to prove for around 2-3 hours (or until it's doubled in size).

7. Take the bread out of the bowl and form it into the shape you want. This process of knocking back is expected to make the bread about half the size of the proven bread. It will rise again :-).

8. Cover the bread with oiled clingfilm or a damp cloth - loosely so that the bread can rise again. 

10. Leave the bread to rise for between 1-2 hours. 

11. When the bread has doubled in size (again), place in a pre-heated oven and cook for between 25 and 30 mins.

Jam and Oaty Almond bars

 Jam and Oat Bars

Confession - I googled what to do with left over jam and found this recipe and adapted it slightly as I went a long (surprise, surprise sighs my wife in the background) :-)  

Things you will need and approximate quantities

• 1 cup (2 sticks) unsalted butter, at room temperature
• 2 packed cups brown sugar
• 1 large egg - I actually used 2 UK sized eggs - partly because I dropped half of one down the side of the mixing bowl!
• 2 tsp almond extract - there was a little more in the bottle so I used it up!
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 2 cups all purpose flour
• 2 cups rolled oats
• 1/2 cup sliced almonds - didn't have any of these but I did have some blanched almonds that I blitzed!
• 12 ounces sour cherry jam - I used a jar of seedless raspberry jam

You will also need:

• a large cooking tray - I used one that was about 20 cm by 30cm (9in by 12in)
• some baking paper - enough to line the tray!
• a food mixer - you could do it by hand but you'll need muscles!
• an oven set to about 180 deg celsius

How to make them

1. Set the oven to 180 deg C (I'd say put the oven on but I know people who would say it doesn't fit).
2. Line the baking tray you have selected with greaseproof paper / baking paper.
3. Cream the butter and sugar.
4. Beat in the egg(s) to the creamed butter and sugar.
5. Add the almond extract.
6. Mix the flour with the baking powder and then add to the mixture slowly.
7. Fold in the oats and almonds.
8. Set aside about a third of the mixture.
9. Use the remaining two thirds of the mixture to evenly cover the base of the lined baking tray - smooth over once covered.
10. Spread the jam over the base - evenly.
11. Crumble the remaining third of the mixture over the jam randomly !
12. Bake in an oven for about 25-30 mins or until the top starts to go golden brown.
13. Cool on a baking tray. 
14. Cut into slices. 
15.  

Life is like a rollercoaster and I am riding it like a surfboard

 Life is like a rollercoaster and I am riding it like a surfboard.

I just wanted to record this as a statement before anyone else claims it as theirs. 

Glenn Foster 15 August 2024

Any other iterations or similar spellings or translations are, as of today, being declared as mine :-)

e.g. Life is like a roller coaster and I am riding it like a surf board. etc!

Greatest Chicken Stock(s)

Well, I don't think that 2 chicken stocks that are homemade can ever be the same - do feel free to add a comment if you want to challenge that!

A good habit

For the last few years I have developed a habit (I know I have to go to the clinic every week to check in and discuss with the therapists) for using the carcass of a chicken to make a stock. Ever since I discovered that you can freeze fresh chicken stock (thanks JB) it became a winner. Not only is it possible to squeeze every last flavour out of a roast (however good it turns out to be) but you also use up waste and create something you will need later. 

Variations on a theme

I have tried many things from garlic, onions, herbs, salt, pepper, frying off, dry roasting, adding vegetables, the residual meat juice etc. to be honest I am not sure that 2 are ever quite the same - but I can say that recently I've had a breakthrough that makes the stock tasty. And I think I will be sticking to it.

So what do I do and what seems to make a real difference?

As you may pick up, I am a bit of a reduce, reuse, recycle fan. So making stock from a leftover roast carcass was a no-brainer. Boiling the carcass with some other bits is OK but some small tweaks can make a significant difference to the flavour and value of the stock. 

The things listed below are what I have done for a chicken or turkey carcass but I am pretty sure they will make a difference to any meat stock / leftover carcass or bones if you use them to make a stock. I haven't perfected a vegetable stock but if I do, you will see it on this blog first!

1. Roast the carcass for about 20 mins

When you have taken the meat off the bone, whilst the family and friends (guests) are enjoying the meal, throw the carcass, bones and skin onto a baking tray (spread out) and put it back in a high oven. You will need to watch it a little to ensure the bone ends don't burn but I am guessing it will take around 20 mins.

2. Add Roasted Onions and Garlic 

It might be an acquired taste but adding fully roasted garlic and onions adds a depth (I have no idea what that really means but the pros say it!) to the flavour - it definitely makes it taste nicer. I would typically add 3 or 4 cloves of garlic and 1 large onion. 

I would suggest you peel and chop the onion into 4 and peel and crush the garlic - not sure you have to worry too much about the finer skin on either as it doesn't stay in the stock!

3. Don't add vegetables

I have added both cooked and uncooked vegetables in the past - and neither seem to make any difference at all. 

4. Add leftover meat juice and gravy

Juice from the roasting dish and any leftover gravy should be added to the roasted carcass, onions and garlic in a large boiling pot / slow cooker / pressure cooker. 

To ensure we get all the flavour, I tend to fill the roasting dish / pan with boiling water and add that to the stock too. 

5. Herbs and Spices

Other than water (enough to cover the carcass) the only other things that I add to the stick pot are:

• 2 bay leaves
• some mixed spices
• a few whole pepper corns
• a generous  dose of salt (about a good teaspoon for a litre of water - ish)

6. Cook properly

I've realised that I have got to know when things are cooked - I rarely use a timer (sometimes this backfires!). 

My preference is to use a pressure cooker as it uses less energy and retains the moisture of all the ingredients. When cooking stock I try to leave it cooking for at least 1 hour - if you forget and it cooks for longer it really doesn't matter!

It is ready when it looks like all of the meat will drop off the bones when you pick them up. Or when it looks rich and glossy on top. Or when it smells like you are re-living the delicious meal you cooked earlier!

What next - how to store

Early on I used large ice cube containers to batch up and freeze - after a while I realised that 1 ice cube was never enough so it seemed pointless to separate into such small portions. So I now use the small containers (about 250-300ml). One of these in 500ml of boiling water is ample for a good chicken stock. 

Rachel Allen's Sticky Toffee Pudding and associated Toffee Sauce - Commentary!

I was going to put the recipe on this post but it appears to be listed rather a lot elsewhere! Here's one example - used simply because it is simple independent like me, making no money from the details!

But the important thing here is not the recipe - it's the commentary!

I made this for some friends yesterday and, as it is advertised, it is a sumptuous crowd pleaser that will satisfy both sweet and average tastes! It also goes particularly well with a Lustau (I don't like sherry but this is very different!), if you happen to have any lying around!

Unlike me, I followed the recipe to the letter / gram / measure but in hindsight, I would make a few changes. I wouldn't dare to say improvements for fear of upsetting Rachel, simply amendments that might enhance your pleasure of this recipe...

• It serves 10 people eating a relatively balanced and average diet, not the 6 stated! To provide a little evidence, I baked it in a 100mm x 240mm (100mm deep) loaf tin. It filled the tin and cooked in the time stated perfectly. we each had a 6th and found ourselves needing to pause to rest our stomachs!  

• Equally, the sauce serves 10 as well - actually, I have no idea because I have only tried to drown 6 servings with the quantity suggested. The measures help you to create around 1 litre of sauce. For 6, I think it is  a little too sweet! 

• Use Earl Grey tea -  I am not sure if Jamie O stole it from Rachel A or vice-versa, but I think it works well. To be honest, I am not sure I could taste it but I did have a cold!. However, I would suggest that the slight lemony sweetness of Earl Grey cuts through the sweet stickiness of the pudding. 

• Use a little more liquid (tea) or fat (butter) than stated. I added a little more than suggested but still thought it could benefit from some more. 

• Add a little Baking Powder - if you are daring and think there is space in the tin / baking pan! - if you want it a little airier! - of course it then might serve more than 10!

I hear the little padding of feet upstairs and feel I should rescue my wife from our son!

Rhubarb and Streusel Bars

I can't take any credit for this other than the credit for passing on this amazing recipe and complementing it as a great way to use up rhubarb.

With more than our fair share of rhubarb there is always a crop ready to be cut and used. When faced with this along with a freezer that was already filled with pockets of frozen rhubarb (and other fruit!), I googled rhubarb cake recipe and found this. 

Ingredients
1.5 cups quick cooking rolled Oats (not sure why they need to be quick cooking but rolled is good!)
1 cup of all purpose Flour (I have no idea if this is Self Raising or not, i have used both and think Self Raising works better!)
3 / 4 cup of packed brown Sugar (I use soft brown sugar rather than dark but the latter would work I think!)
3 / 4 cup Butter
1 / 4 cup granulated Sugar
2 tablespoons of all purpose Flour (see comment above!)
1 / 2 teaspoon of Ground Ginger (I have used fresh ginger and it works. I used ground dried ginger last night and don't think that 1/2 teaspoon is enough, try twice this!)
2 cups of Rhubarb (The recipe says frozen unsweetened, I have used fresh, frozen and stewed and all seem to work!)


Method

Preheat oven to 350F (180C). Line 8x8x2-inch baking pan with heavy foil (I didn't realise you could get heavy foil, I use aluminium but guess it is all in the pronunciation?!) extended beyond pan edges (not sure why ?!).

In large bowl stir together oats, the 1 cup flour, and brown sugar. Cut in butter until mixture resembles coarse (the coarser the better - I would say very coarse!) crumbs (add more butter if it feels dry, I am not sure how you manage to measure butter in cups so I have guessed and more is definitely better).

Set aside 1 cup oats mixture. Press remaining on bottom of prepared pan (works well to use the back of a spoon to smooth over!). Bake 25 minutes.

Meanwhile, in medium bowl stir together granulated sugar, 2 tablespoons flour, and ground ginger. Add rhubarb; toss to coat. Spread on hot crust. Sprinkle reserved oats mixture; press lightly.

Bake 30 to 35 minutes, until top is golden and filling is bubbly. Cool on rack.

Lift from pan; cut into bars. Store, covered, in refrigerator up to 2 days (don't quote me but it lasts longer than this if you can resist it. I think 2 weeks has been my record as we forgot about them!).

Borrowed from the following website: http://www.bhg.com/recipe/bars/oaty-rhubarb-streusel-bars/

Easy Deliciously Moist Chocolate Cake - with Yoghurt! - no salt! - only 40 minutes in the oven!

Yes, you heard it folks, this is a cake recipe that uses yoghurt! It is quite delicious and moves away from the deep fudge richness of most chocolate cakes (despite the amount of cocoa used!). It goes wonderfully with the decadent icing included in an early post!

Ingredients
275g caster sugar
175g soft tub margarine (I used half lurpac and half butter!)
3 eggs
1 teaspoon of vanilla essence
175g low fat natural yoghurt 
225g self-raising flour
50g cocoa
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda

Method
Preheat the oven to 170°C.

Grease a 23cm spring form or loose bottom tin. Line the base with grease proof paper. Dust with a little flour. (OK so I also lined the sides and forgot to dust with flour - not sure it made any difference!

Beat the caster sugar and margarine in a bowl (I love that they tell you to do it in a bowl - not sure what I would have done without knowing that!) until smooth. 

Beat in the eggs (without the shells - I added this instruction given the one above I thought it might be important!), vanilla essence and yoghurt.

Sift in the flour, cocoa, and bicarbonate of soda.

Stir until fully combined.

Spoon mixture into a the greased tin and level the top.

Cook in preheated oven for at least 40 minutes and then a little more until a skewer comes out clean (hope you know what this means!).

Cool a little (5 minutes) before releasing from the tin!

NB I feel I must add the following post script notes for anyone like me:

1. 40 minutes in our oven wasn't enough! In fact it was the worst time to open the oven because the cake sank a little! I think 50 mins probably did the trick!

2. If you wanted this as a sandwich cake (with an icing middle) then you could divide the mixture between 2 sandwich tins. Alternatively you could use twice the mixture and make a very high chocolate cake!

3. The decadent icing I describe in a previous post makes enough to cover the huge cake version - i.e. twice the mixture noted above!

4. The recipe suggested 12 slices - Based on experience I would suggest 16 (at least!) although it might depend on the amount of decadent icing you use!

Decadent Chocolate Icing

I think this comes from a Good Food Magazine or similar. It tastes good so I thought I would share! It says it is great for sponge or cupcakes!

Ingredients
335g dark chocolate, at least 70% cocoa solids
450g unsalted butter
1 pinch of salt
1 teaspoon of vanilla extract
475g icing sugar
2 eggs

Method
Melt the chocolate and allow to cool slightly - for about as long as it takes to do the next steps before the chocolate is needed!

Place the butter, salt and vanilla extract in a bowl and beat with a mixer until very light and fluffy - about 4 minutes.

Add the icing sugar a little at a time whilst beating on a slow speed - watch out for the sugar clouds that appear every time you add more sugar! Beat for a further 4 minutes after all of the icing sugar has been added.

Add the eggs one at a time and beat some more. The mixture doesn't bruise easily so another 5 minutes should be plenty!

Add the melted chocolate and ... you guessed it, beat some more! Another 4 minutes should suffice!

Makes enough for the delicious chocolate cake in my next post!

Brenda's Mum's Carrot Cake

Well, I couldn't find anywhere else to put it so I thought I would put it here for safe keeping!

It is probably the best carrot cake in the world - moist, chunky, tasty, sweet and above all - comforting. Thanks Brenda, her mum and of course the chickens. The italicised items are my notes!

For the Icing - May need a little less for a tray bake?!
400g icing sugar

100g cream cheese

50g unsalted butter

For the Cake
2 eggs

200g soft brown sugar

150ml corn, sunflower or vegetable oil

200g grated carrot

50g walnut or pecan pieces, roughly chopped - Could use raisins or sultanas

75g diced pineapple, fresh or tinned, roughly chopped

50g desiccated coconut

200g plain flour

1 tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp bicarbonate of soda

1 tsp salt

Preheat the oven to 150 C(300 F/Gas 2) Line a 21 cm (8 1/4 in tin with baking paper) - You can use a tray bake as an alternative - 20cm x 15cm (ish)!

The icing needs to be prepared in advance so that it can be chilled before spreading over the cake, so make this first.  Beat the cream cheese and butter together thoroughly - easiest with an electric whisk, but strong hand beating would also work.  Add the icing sugar to the mix in three equal batches, beating well between each addition. - This can get messy as icing sugar creates a great alternative to dry ice (theatre smoke) when beaten with an electric whisk - Put in the fridge to set.

In a large bowl, using an electric beater, whisk the the eggs at high speed until doubled in volume.  Add the sugar and continue beating until pale and fluffy. - Not sure mine went fluffy at this point, more creamy than fluffy! - With the whisk still on high speed, add the oil in a slow steady stream.  Keep beating until the mix holds the shape of any trail across the surface - Hold might be a little strong! Kinda like corn flour and water mix: holds then slowly then reforms!?.

Gently fold the carrot, walnut or pecan pieces - or sultanas / raisins if using them -, pineapple and coconut into the cake mixture with a metal spoon in a figure of eight technique.  Sift the flour into the bowl with the cinnamon, bicarbonate of soda and salt, and fold them in gently too.

Transfer the mixture to the baking tin - again with care, so that the air you've taken care to whisk in isn't whacked out. - I love that description / instruction! - Bake for 1 hour or until a skewer comes out clean when poked into the centre of the cake.  If the top of the cake seems to be browning too much before the centre is ready, balance a piece of baking paper or foil across the top of the tin and it will protect the cake from burning.

Leave the cake to cool for 10-15 mins before turning it out onto a wire rack.  When it is completely cold, slice the cake in half horizontally and spread a third of the cream cheese mixture over the bottom half - Of course if you used a tray bake then it would be unwise to cut in half! -.  Put the top back on and cover the whole cake with the remaining icing. 

How Many Times

How many accidents, shunts or collisions, deaths or cuts and bruises will it take to make people realise that driving whilst on the phone is dangerous. What's more, texting or emailing whilst driving is simply daft but deadly stupid. For a long time I have resisted the urge to name and shame but I am at my wits end. Up until most recently I spent a significant proportion of time travelling in a car. I have a poor memory so I rarely recalled registration numbers of the offensive drivers. But thanks to my wife, who is currently driving, I am in a position to record them! YJ57OYM Red van, 7pm 5 Aug 11, M6 north My question is, will the police have the ability to prosecute?

Travelling the Extra Mile

I read an article recently that suggested you should try to amaze yourself every day; do something that stretches you. Well this week I have been amazed by Transport for London, TFl, you know the people who maintain our London rail network and buses and the bikes too!

So park your scepticism and sarcasm and open your mind to possibility that there is kindness and honesty in the General Public and that systems actually work.

Who would have thought that a Nintendo DS left on the seat of an underground train at 930pm on a Saturday would be returned to its owner 3 months later after completing a simple online form. It's true, quite amazingly within 48 hours of completing a TFL lost property form, the very nice people at TFL emailed to say they had my Nintendo DS. A short telephone call and it was confirmed.

Whether it was the kind soul who cleaned the train or a fellow passenger who handed it in, I am genuinely astonished that it was collected. I am even more amazed that it could be tracked and identified from me filling in the form that TFL put on their web. In honesty I am also embarrassingly surprised that it wasn't picked up and taken rather than returned to lost property.

To add to my amazement it was only a £4 fee to get the Nintendo back. I am over the moon although I am told by my lovely wife that the people who work at the lost property office need to be a little better at interaction. Sounds like not many people visit them. Perhaps we should try to loose things more often!

New Driving Rules

So yesterday, our legal friends have enabled police to take greater action against dangerous drivers. They are now allowed to issue fixed penalties to anyone caught tail gating, undertaking or cutting you up. The boos and jeers from the crowd of poor drivers are, unmistakenly overwhelmed by the cheers of those who have been affected.

So here is my question: Will they also add to this list of poor driving habits the following:

• CLODs (please refer to previous post)
• Drivers who think cruising in the outside line when the centre lane (at least and often more) is clearly vacant and there is a clear road ahead and someone behind who is clearly in a hurry and wanting to collect some extra points on their license wants to over take them
• Drivers who fail to indicate properly
• Taxi Drivers (tempting to say in general but in fairness there are a few exceptions) who think that parking on a double yellow line to drop off is acceptable
• People who park on the roadside within 10 yards of a free car park that clearly has spaces 

Oh yes, and do the motorcyclists who squeeze between the lanes of a motorway in all sorts of traffic count as undertakers or is that simply where they might head if they fail to realise it is probably one of the most dangerous things they could do after riding without full protective gear!

Some Wise Words

A recent post on LinkedIn was having a real dig at employment agencies. Whilst I am not the worlds greatest advocate of agencies (it's such a shame that text and blogging doesn't have a way of showing sarcasm!) I would suggest the following words of wisdom might be worth considering:

Keep your friends close but your enemies closer.

Very few people in the world set out to mess it up for everyone else.

Just thoughts!

Glenn's Theory No. 2 - Professional Ambiguity

This is a little trickier to grasp than Theory No. 1 but here goes!

In order to be successful you need to be able to cope with a greater level of ambiguity. That is not to say that you aren't clear or direct and to the point with your direct reports; rather that you need to be able to sleep at night knowing that the way that you think the business you own is being conducted may not be quite right.


Take the example of a supervisor. As the name suggests they supervise. It is not difficult to see that they have very close control over their reports on the basis that they are close to watching almost every move they make (something they will probably do until they are confident the report is doing it correctly.


Compare this to the example of a Chief Executive Officer (CEO). They spend most of their time in meetings or City Offices and most rarely get to see what is actually happening at the coal face. (That is not a criticism - the share holders would be concerned if they supervised the workers personally!). They entrust (or empower) their reports to control how the work gets done.


As organisations get bigger, the gap between who actually does the work and who is the one "at the top" being considered to be successful becomes larger. With this gap comes a whole combination of empowerment entrusting and chinese whispers and interpretation and translation etc. This relinquishing of the controls means that there will naturally be ambiguity between how the CEO thinks business gets done and how it actually gets done.


Recently there has been a series of "backt to the floor" type programmes. The ones where a CEO or MD has returned to the coal face of their company to see how work actually gets done. Fortunately the disguises used have been convincing and they have not suffered from the "let's show them how what we think they would like to see" routine. Instead the ambiguity between what they thought happened and what actually happens has been revealed.


The challenge, therefore, is for  a CEO to stay close enough to the coal face to see what happens but far enough away that they don't get their hands dirty. Or is it?

Rubber Necking

Oh please tell me what the morbid fascination is with looking at accidents on the other side of the carriageway?

Apart from the delay that it causes to the one part of that road that was running freely until the rubber necking clan decided to take a look at the accident, it is really rather daft. Perhaps that isn't strong enough... It is no less than stupid.

Not so long ago, I observed a person deliberately indicate from the inside lane to the outside lane of a Motorway to take a look at an accident on the other side of the carriage way. I kid you not, as soon as he had taken a look he indicated to get back into the inside lane!

If we (as a human race) can't break this inhumane addiction to looking at road accidents we will turn the M25 into a Stock Car circuit.

Google Predictions

I think I have actually done it. I don't think that Google has thought of this but I truly think they will soon. The engineers at Google have done amazing things with search, incredible things with email and simple things with documents. They have even done clever things with Fusion. So what could they do next?

I think the next great addition to the Google Family would be a Google on line mind mapping software!

Watch that Google space and remember you saw it here first!

Considerate Browsing

In so many ways, this is very similar to the escalator blog I posted previously but hey, if they are failing to pay attention to one, I am sure that they will ignore this one!

I was minding my own business yesterday, browsing for a gift. (I am sure that you are all far too aware that it is Christmas, that time of the year when shops manage to find the ability to convince the unsuspecting shopper that anything useless is actual useful if given as a gift! - see htaylesbury.blogspot.com for what Christmas is really about!). I stood back, politely to let 3 ladies pass between me and the shelf I was looking at because there was clearly not enough room behind me for them to pass! Quite amazingly they stopped in front of me to have a chat - preventing me from seeing anything on the shelf I was looking at.

I genuinely believe that they had been quite oblivious to my browsing; I can't possibly believe that they did it purposefully. On the off chance that they did.... a simply sorry might have been nice but as a gesture of good will to all men (and women) please rest assured that I didn't hold it against you!

I Know It Has Been A While

OK, so I know it has been a while but that isn't to say I haven't been thinking about a load of things that I would like to put up on the blog. I could go on for hours about CLOD's (see previous posts) or Escalator virgins (again see previous posts) but the reality is I am writing to find the answer to a single question: Who was the author of the following quote:

"Security is found not in the absence of danger but in the presence of Jesus"

Googling it returns a whole host of people, blogs and books saying things like "It has been said that", "someone once said", "I heard that" etc. but I really would like to find out who actually said it. I genuinely believe it was divine inspiration and I know that I heard it on a radio broadcast about 4 years ago. I am sure that even then it was quoted!

So please, if anyone can let me know who quoted this, I'd really like to know!

Stopping at the Top (or the bottom as the case may be!)

Some people say there is a glass ceiling, others have taken to being the glass ceiling only failing to be transparent!

Have you noticed that one of the greatest things about escalators (or calculators as my mother proudly tells me I called them when I was small) is that they don't stop. OK so maybe they break down or have to be stopped every now again for routine maintenance or possibly stopped by a prankster (or an inquisitive is young engineer in the making). But generally speaking they don't stop.

Because they don't stop they can move hundreds of people up, down and along routes that need to stay moving where a normal staircase or corridor. Well it would be if the people didn't stop at the end of them!

I can completely accept that some poeple are genuinely afraid of the teethed plate at the end. But what I can't understand is people's inability to comprehend that if they stop after getting off the excalator everyone behind them has to stop too - only they can't because the escalator is mechanically forcing them to carry on!

I am reminded of a song that I so desperately want to sing to them all (and yes my singing is so bad they would get the message!) ... Keep on moving do do do do dobedo ...