The Best Potato Recipe Ever

Juicelog Tues 290408: With my recent eagerness to try out new dishes, I think that this is definitely the juiciest way to cooke a spud. One bite will have you smitten forever!

Cooke’ry Rules

Juicelog Thurs 240408: Practiced my cooke’ing skills by making a Caramelised Onion Tart, Vanilla Shortbread and Coq au Riesling today.

Yag’ing It

Juicelog Wed 230408: Partaking in a minor celebration we wined and dined (at Café Boheme) with the ever so gregarious Paul B as he wings his way over to London from Amsterdam.

Hashing It

Juicelog Sun 200408: Vexing up our hotel waitress with juicily hand squeezed orange-juice, we donned on some sports gear for our first ever hash.

A hash is a social come outdoor activity group with a lot of the focus being on fun/humour. The Fuengirola hash (we attended this afternoon) meets up every Sunday in the mountains and follows an outdoor trail/course that is laid on by the organisers. After completion of the trail, everybody gets together for what is known as the “circle of death”.

The circle of death is the fun part of the hash get together. Basically the hashers stand around in a circle. This human sphere is presided over by a raconteur, whose job is to amuse everybody with gossip (that s/he has picked up during the course of the trail) about the hashers in attendance as well as concocting comical reasons to punishing people (with beer drinking).

Dinner at Pia's

Juicelog Sat 190408: Cheering us up from the wet miserable afternoon, Sue and Pia (Lee’s mum) laid on a delicious Danish buffet spread tonight. Everything went down a treat especially with the schnapps flowing so freely. For tonight’s entertainment, Lee’s posse (including Sue and Pia) once again descended upon Torremolinos. After checking out the concrete outdoor furniture, me and Pudz retired back to our hotel slightly earlier than the congregation had planned.

Lee’s Bidet

Juicelog Fri 180408: Got picked up from Malaga airport by Lee & Jakey. Dropping off our bags at our hotel, we hooked up with Lee’s bidet posse and hopped on a train from Fuengirola down to the nightlife in Torremolinos. Following in the traditions of Anglo-Spanish relations, we modified our liquid consumption to that of the Anglo locals. Was a little bit surprised to discover that drinking on the trains is not permitted. Things in Torremolinos don’t really get going until late (which is usually around 2am). By this point, poor little Jakey’s tiny body struggled and was forced to take an early stairs retirement.

Hot Gossip

Juicelog Thurs 170408: Raced down to the drill Hall tonight to join Dan, Paul & JP for a recording of Hot Gossip (a BBC2 radio comedy show). Tonight’s host (Claudia Winkleman) was joined by a panel consisting of Jenny Éclair, Paul Ross and Robin Ince. Covering celebrity gossip a la heat magazine, each panellist competes against each other trying to provide some mild amusement.

Following dinner at Pizza Express we popped into Rupert Street to wish Danny JK a happy bidet.

A New Sign

Juicelog Thurs 170408: Occasionally, I get randoms coming to my door with the intention of trying to sell me something which I have not asked for. To make people think twice before pressing my door bell, I decided to added a new sign next to my doorbell:

If this doesn’t prove to be useful, then I will continue to greet people from my window thus recreating the famous balcony scene à la Romeo & Juliet.

Replaced

Juicelog Wed 160408: Having visited Danny & Martial’s flat recently and seeing the work that they had carried out on renovating their kitchen, I got inspired to do some mini DIY myself. On Monday I embarked on a mini challenge and finally had a go at trying to replace my kitchen tap/faucet.

Having done some pre-reading and familiarising myself with the theory and technique, I got on my hands and knees ready to do the dirty. My first hurdle was trying to work out how to remove the old tap. With my past history and experience of contorting myself into sweaty tiny little spaces accompanied with petite metallic instruments, I really did not enjoy laying underneath my sink. Not quite making any progress for quite some time, I finally worked out that my old tap had been soldered together (rather than fitted together with modern day parts), and decided that a touch of brute force together with some cutting implements was required. After spending a little while snipping and twisting away, I successfully removed the old fucker:

As I was fitting the new tap in, it was brought to my attention (by Danny) that I was missing a braided tap connector. Stopping mid-operation I rushed out to purchase this essential piece of equipment. With everything in place, I turned on the water but was annoyed to discover that there was a tiny leak coming from my cold pipe. One final attempt before jacking this in, I got a tap replacement and everything now appears to be in working order.

Spending a bit longer than I had expected, I feel immensely proud of my efforts and the valuable additional knowledge I have gained of very basic household plumbing.

Lime Pie

Juicelog Fri 110408: My first attempt at making at Key Lime Pie. Over baked it slightly as I didn’t realise that the filling thickens up quite drastically as soon as it cools down. It’s technically not a key lime pie because the limes I used aren’t from Florida.