The Good, The Bad and The Ugly
The Best and Worst of the last week or so..
Conil Beach, Cadiz Province: 
1. Seeing my dearest friends again
2. Seeing them in Spain
3. Proper tapas bars, not an English pub or breakfast in sight
4. My new Canon EF 17-40mm ultra wide angle lens-awesome
5. Eating fresh anchovies and Galician style octopus-heaven
6. Beyond the Great Wall by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid, a superb book.
7. Moroccan house furnishings-love it!
8. Birthday celebrations with my brother and parents-top company
The Costa Brava: 
1. Not seeing my friends again until December 
2. Coming back to England
3. English weather
4. Back at work, no more playing with lens
5. Aching limbs 
6. Pigeons-again, always…
7. Duck mistaking one of my patios as a public convinience
8. Goldfinches-costing me a fortune in Indian niger seeds
9. Airport security checks; shoes off, watch off, belt off then frisked by a Samoan wrestler-easy down there tiger-you might be bigger than me but any closer and my knee is in line with your jaw.
10. Flea Beetles-stripped my calabrese to the size of a cocktail stick
11. Turning Forty-Good job I don’t look it 
There you have it, feel free to heap praise or vent your spleen accordingly, but not about me, unless it’s praise, of course 
Miles,
The Sagrada:
Mr Gaudi ~ let’s not forget the workers, where are those skills now?
Custo t-shirts ~ young at heart
Spanish cuisine
Walking about in the warm evening air
Coming home to live kale seedlings!
Contemporary jewellery - love it
The Segway ~ great for eco friendliness and parking!
Climbing one of the Sagrada’s spires
Sacrebleu:
Waiting for luggage at airports ~ what a drag
Middle-age spread ~ not to be confused with Nutella which is a chocolate spread!
UHT milk in tea ~ yuk
laundry ~ it never ends
Climbing one of the Sagrada’s spires…. claustrophobia city and giddy heights
Can’t grumble though, life is good and I’m grateful for everything I have. Things to look forward to then…. well, shortly I’m due to put on a little luncheon for the girls… French, German and Lincolnshire folk, so the obvious choice might be Spanish. Either way they’ll all be terribly polite as they chomp away at my latest fad from the pantry. For once I’ll try to be organised and have everything ready before my guests arrive… it’s not usually one of my strong points.
For your readers so inclined I’ll be testing Willie Harcourt-Cooze’s 100% Venezuelan Black pure cacao….. well I had to give it a go after all the hype! Also noticed that Agar (alternative to gelatine) was available on the baking counter of my favourite supermarket, for the vegetarians and the curious alike.
Cid
May 31, 2008 @ 2:26 pm
My hero of the week is smileycentraldotcom.
What a great way to get a load of backlinks
Rod
May 31, 2008 @ 6:24 pm
Cid,
A great list, sounds like you need to go back there! As for agar agar, we use it all the time, it’s a great product.
Miles
May 31, 2008 @ 9:10 pm
Rod,
Glad you like it, you don’t miss a trick
Miles
May 31, 2008 @ 9:12 pm
Miles,
Could we perhaps have a recipe, sweet or savoury, that uses agar?
Cid
June 1, 2008 @ 10:55 am
Cid,
I don’t have specific recipes with agar in it, we just use it as a vegetarian alternative to gelatine.
Miles
June 1, 2008 @ 12:53 pm