Well done you from Brisol? i drove from Bristol to Bournemouth in the rain this morning. Now sat in the sun with a beer, or two.
Sat in f%$£ing traffic again, the M25 closed just a mile or so from my house. Took me two hours to cover nine miles
Sound nice. I worry that I have become a coffee snob as I won't go near the instant in work and bring my own ground filter coffee, and grind pre roasted beans when at home. But you have taken it to another level Where do you get the unroasted beans from?
Changed oil and filter on the 996, fitted single seat, polished bodywork, cleaned house from top to bottom, hoovered for 40 mins, cooked home made bolonaise sauce with meat balls from scratch, spent 30 mins playing with cats, cleaned both toilets in house, did the gardening now finally sitting down at 10pm and wife who has been sitting watching telly and eating chocolate for 3 hours is in a mood. Great.
How's the recovery going, Phil? you cycling, walking long distances? i'm sure the onesie isn't good for skeletal rehabilitation, though? ;-)
Today I remembered why i own a bike. Set off from Auxerre at about 9:30 and headed off to Switzerland using as many départementales as possible. It was 22° to begin with, the countryside was beautiful and the roads completely empty. I had great fun just cruising along briskly with no other vehicles, old bill or radar traps to worry about (if they bother setting them up for a handful of cars an hour, they've got far too much time on their hands and they won't make any money). This, surely, is what biking is all about. Roads offered twisties in abundance, and although the centre of my rear 2CT was by now barely legal, there was plenty on the sides, so the handling didn't suffer too much. France is where it's at for biking and I can really recommend Burgundy. First place I went through was Chablis, but it was unfortunately not the right time for a wine tasting. Stopped off for a coffee and an apricot croissant, but otherwise it was strictly petrol stops. Got back home a bit over 400 kms later at 3:30 and have done bugger all since. Was happy to swap the leathers for shorts as the temp was now up to 29 - 30°. Will clean the bike tomorrow. It's just shy of 40'000 kms now and really feels like it needs a service. Rear tyre will have to be changed, which always annoys me when it has all sorts of useful rubber on the sides, but hey. There's not much in the middle now and a square tyre is less fun and slightly uncomfortable. The last two days have reconciled me with biking. The days of motorway and pootling about on the potholes and in the congestion of southern Britain were making me think that frankly, taking the plane to the UK is a lot less hassle and rather more fun. The 999 remains a fine bike. Sorry I didn't take any photos.
Heya Pete, It is what it is, there are good days and bad days but on the whole the only significant pain is while walking. I'm swimming regularly, and plan to start cycling soon, but running is out of the question. Hip movement is good but leg bend is still a problem. It's a long road, there is mild but noticeable deformity in the leg, it's significantly smaller in diameter, has a slight curve and has lumps and dips where scar tissue lies under the skin in the muscle. Never thought I'd miss running so much, but I will get there eventually. When I consider that it would likely have been a compound fracture if I weren't wearing proper snug fitting leather jeans, I consider myself very lucky. The onesie is great for skeletal recovery..... It's just bad for the eyes of those around me. Phil.
How do you propose I carry the stepladders, toolbags, bottles of gas, compressors, oxy/acetylene kit..?
I too am a coffee snob. But I cannot stand filter coffee. Its american styled shit. I'd take Nescafe over it anyday. I do love strong espresso though..........in fact I've two already this morning. :smile:
I get them from jamesgourmetcoffee.co.uk. They sell raw, roasted and ground coffee and it arrives by post a couple of days later. I usually buy a two or three 250g bags of raw beans at a time, just different varieties to try out. Roasted beans will last a couple of weeks once you've opened the packet, whilst ground coffee starts to go off much quicker due to the increased surface area. Raw beans will keep forever relatively speaking, so by roasting a handful at a time I always have fresh coffee instead of a bag of ground stuff that went off two weeks ago, but which I can't bring myself to throw away. I'm just being a tight-arse really... :wink: You need a good hot fan-oven, and try to keep the beans off the actual surface of the baking tray, as they will burn where they are in contact. I use a couple of layers of baking paper. You also need a 'burr grinder' like this, NOT a blade (which will just smash the beans into very uneven-sized pieces). Overall though it's piss-easy, and no more expensive than buying ground coffee but much tastier... cheers, Dom
Cheers Dom. Couple of varieties ordered. Already have that exact grinder for pre-roasted beans at home. was told by the guy at Whittards that keeping coffee in the freezer in a sealed container extends its life a good amount, and have definitely found it keeps its flavour longer than if stored at room temperature.
Cool - you're all kitted out then. Getting the right timing and temperature will be a bit of trial and error as no two ovens are the same, but basically it needs to be hot, hot. Try not to open the oven door to check, just leave it alone. After five or six minutes you'll hear some popping as the beans expand and shed their papery skin (which you want to discard - outdoors is best as it goes everywhere!) A Dark roast (the beans will be almost black and shiny as they release their oils) will give you more of that typical smokey bitterness - perfect for Espresso, but a lighter roast will retain more of the interesting flavour characteristics in the bean (since you haven't just burnt the f*ck out of it!). I prefer a medium roast myself but the point is its trial and error until you find what works for you. Once out of the oven you need to stop the roasting process quickly - I put them straight in the freezer in a metal colander for a couple of minutes. Have fun - let me know how it goes! cheers, Dom
This might be exactly the thing for me. I keep my ground coffee in the fridge, but a packet can be open for a couple of months at a time because I don't use much of it..
I've had two more at lunchtime, and two double espressos' about an hour ago at a friends house. Im buzzin' :smile:
