Archive for the 'Uncategorized' Category

Roasted Mediterranean vegetables and couscous

Published on February 20, 2010 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments

This will serve two eaten on it’s own as a main meal, or four as a side dish alongside chicken or lamb.

Ingredients

2 pointed red peppers
1 courgette
3 shallots
10 small tomatoes
3 cloves garlic
1 red chilli
Olive oil
Balsamic vinegar
125g couscous
Large bunch of basil
Lemon juice

Method

Heat the oven to 200°C. Cut the peppers in half lengthways and remove the seeds, and chop into pieces about 2cm wide. Slice the courgette into 5mm thick pieces. Peel the shallots and cut into quarters. Scatter these vegetables with the whole tomatoes in a large baking tray.

Finely chop the garlic and chilli, and mix these in a small bowl with two parts olive oil to one part balsamic vinegar, creating enough dressing to fully coat the vegetables. Drizzle this over the prepared vegetables, toss until they’re well coated, and roast for about 20 minutes until they are just soft all the way through.

Prepare the couscous according to the pack instructions. Shred the basil. When the vegetables are cooked, tip the couscous directly into the baking tray with the basil and a dash of lemon juice, and toss together until the couscous is well dressed with the oil from roasting (do this very gently to avoid breaking the tomatoes).

Chocolate brownies

Published on October 18, 2009 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments

Jessica asked me today whether I had a preferred recipe for chocolate brownies. I do. Here it is.

Makes about 12 brownies (depending how big you cut them)

Ingredients

120g butter
100g dark chocolate (min. 60% cocoa solids)
200g caster sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
2 eggs
Pinch of salt
90g plain flour

Method

Pre-heat the oven to 180°C. Gently melt the chocolate and butter together in a bowl over a pan of hot water. Set the bowl aside for about 5 minutes to cool.

Add the sugar, vanilla and salt to the bowl and mix until smooth, then beat in the eggs. Stir in the flour.

Tip the mixture into a greased baking tin, ensuring the surface is fairly level, then bake for about 25 minutes. Remove from the oven and leave to cool and firm in the tin, before cutting into pieces.

2009’s blackberry and apple crumble

Published on September 6, 2009 in Uncategorized. 1 Comment

We took a walk over Devil’s Dyke this week. My intention had been to fill a bucket with blackberries and make jam, but I discovered it’s slightly too early in the season for a proper foraging session, so I just picked a few handfuls of the most ripe berries to make a crumble instead.

I don’t think I’ve ever followed the same recipe twice for a fruit crumble. Unlike a lot of other baking, it seems to be quite forgiving if you mess with the proportions of the key ingredients, and rarely fails to taste good. That said, I don’t think I’ve ever been quite so pleased with the outcome as with this week’s crumble, and for this reason I’m blogging the recipe, so I’ll remember it for next time!

This will give you 4-6 portions.

Ingredients

30g butter
3 Bramley apples
Caster sugar, up to 150g
Pinch of mixed spice
A few handfuls of blackberries

75g butter (cold from the fridge)
170g plain flour
75g sugar - I used about 50g demerara and 25g golden caster sugar
4 tbsp rolled oats (porridge oats)
2 tbsp flaked almonds

Method

Pre-heat the oven to 200°C. Rinse the blackberries thoroughly (I usually let them sit in a bowl of water for a while so any wriggly creatures float to the surface, and then rinse in a few changes of clean water), tip them into a colander and leave to drain.

Peel the apples, cut each into 6 chunks, slice out the cores and then chop into 5mm pieces.

Melt 30g butter in a saucepan and sauté the apples on a low heat until they are cooked (the fruit should still be chunky, but soft enough to break under the pressure of the spoon). Add caster sugar to taste, plus the mixed spice, and stir until the sugar has dissolved. Transfer to a baking dish, and sprinkle the blackberries evenly over the top, pushing them down gently to create a fairly even surface.

In a large bowl, chop the cold butter, add the flour, and rub the two ingredients together with your fingertips until you have a sand-like consistency. Add the sugar, oats and almonds, stir to combine, then tip the mixture over the fruit, gently pushing it to the edges of the dish and leveling the surface, without applying so much pressure that the crumbly texture is lost.

Bake until the topping turns golden - I think this took about 40 minutes in my oven, but just keep checking from 20 minutes onwards, you’ll know from it’s appearance when it’s done.

I served this with lightly-whipped double cream, to which I’d added a little vanilla sugar (a few drops of vanilla extract and a little caster sugar adds the same sweetness).

Job titles

Published on April 7, 2009 in Uncategorized. 4 Comments

I recently had a very small run of ’instant’ business cards printed, as I’ve arranged to go to several networking events over the coming weeks, and I realised rather too late that I had only a few Moo cards left and not enough time to re-order.

I threw together a basic design on Friday evening so that I could dash down to the printers the next morning, and I made an on-the-spot decision to not include a job title, instead just going with my name and basic contact details. After all, why should I be defined by my current employment as a designer for a magazine publisher, when my experience is far richer and my future is unwritten? I enjoy my work, but I prefer to not pigeon-hole myself as a magazine designer as I’ve spent many years developing other skills and I have a wide range of interests within my industry, and I try to get this across to people when we meet.

The flaw in my logic dawned on me last night, as I was walking home from the South Coast Design Forum meet in Brighton. Over the course of the evening I’d chatted to several lovely, interesting people, and we’d all talked about our work and our interests and inevitably exchanged cards. I realised later that regardless of how useful and inspiring many of these conversations had been, I’d given them nothing on my card which they would later associate with the person they’d been talking to. Well, other than my name - but in my own experience I’m less likely to remember several new names than to recall conversations with “the photographer”, “the copywriter”, “the architect”.

I still don’t know how comfortable I am with being ”the designer”; I feel my experience has been enriched by the other roles I’ve filled - ”the manager”, “the account executive”, “the printer” - and to give myself the label of ‘graphic designer’ and ignore everything else would surely restrict people’s perception of what I am capable of.

In retrospect this problem should have been obvious. I’ve been designing business cards for other people for over eight years, and advising them on the content of their cards as well as the layout, so I’m quietly scorning myself for having not thought this through. I deliberately only printed about 30 cards as a quick fix to get me through the next couple of weeks, so this gives me an interesting problem to tackle before I order my next batch.

2009

Published on December 31, 2008 in Uncategorized. 2 Comments

The human perception of the passing of time is a strange thing. I’m sitting here reflecting on the past year, and I can recall sitting at the computer on January 1, 2008 knocking out a blog like it happened only weeks ago, yet so much has happened in these 12 months - to me, to my loved ones, to the rest of the world - that it seems almost inconceivable that it all this could have occured within just one year. I don’t need to tell you about the worldwide events which have impacted on my life as you’ll have followed them in the news; closer to home, the biggest event of 2008 was probably Iestyn winning a BAFTA. As for my own experiences, there’s nothing big to report, but I can honestly say I’m far happier today than I was at the end of 2007, and I look back on the past year with fond memories rather than sorrow.

But onwards to 2009, which has the potential to be an even better year for me than 2008. Changes are afoot.

As in previous years, I’ve come to the end of December with a few ideas and plans which may as well be officially named as my new year resolutions, though as usual they have already begun well ahead of January 1. In 2009, these are some of the things I’m aiming to do (in no particular order):

Expand my reading

I’ve realised that I read almost exclusively sci-fi / dystopian / cyber-punk / apocalypse fiction (as mentioned in my previous blog). I can’t help myself, it’s not that I’m not interested in other genres, but just that I enjoy these types of story so much that I usually find myself with several titles lined up for reading with no room to squeeze anything else in between.

So, for the whole of this year, I’m taking control over the books I allow myself to read. The above genres are definitely off limits if the book is relatively new (ie. younger than me) and can not be described as a classic; however, some older works are acceptable if they’re recognised as classics even outside their genre, such as Jekyll and Hyde or Journey to the Centre of the Earth, but even then each book will be judged on whether it is really going to opening my mind to something new or if I’m just picking it up to satisfy a craving. I’m avoiding authors I’m already familiar with (eg. Iain Banks). And I’m seeking recommendations where I can for books, both modern and classic, to add to my ‘must read’ list (feel free to contribute your own recommendations by adding a comment!). I’ve made a start over Christmas reading Tess of the D’Urbervilles, and I have to say I really enjoyed it.

Give my time to charity

I haven’t yet decided how to go about this one, so a little research is required between now and returning to work. I already make a few regular monetary donations to different charities through direct debits, and I’m always willing to dig deep to sponsor fund-raising friends or assist a major crisis. But if you earn a regular salary, giving money is very easy to do and I don’t feel that I’m doing enough, given that I’m fortunate enough to be healthy and have a roof over my head, regular meals, a social life, etc. So I’m going to look into voluntary work that could be fitted in around my work hours, or maybe get involved with some sponsored events. I’ll report more on this when I’ve found a project to get involved with.

Gain better control over my allergies

I’ve suffered with excema and hayfever all my life. I stopped seeing the doctor about either of them ten years ago when I reached 16 and lost my entitlement to free prescriptions - the same creams, sprays and drops which my GP recommended year after year have always been cheap enough over the counter, and I’ve since added antihistamine capsules to the mix.

However, I’m noticing differences between the complaints I have now and those I had as a child, and think I need to take a new approach to controlling/treating them. The hayfever-like symptoms of itching watery eyes, sensitivity to light, fits of sneezing, itchiness and swelling on the roof of my mouth, a blocked up nose and tickly feeling in my lungs no longer appear exclusively in the summer, but come intermittently at all times of year with no obvious cause of aggravation. The dry itchy patches of skin around my eyes and mouth also occur all year round again with no clear cause, and cause more discomfort to me now than they ever did when I was younger, though I seem to have grown out of the rash-like eczema which used to appear every summer on the insides of my arms, thighs, and on the backs of my knees.

The most frustrating thing for me is not knowing for certain what causes any of my symptoms. At least when I was younger I could be sure that they would disappear when summer came to an end. I’m almost certain that if I go to my doctor with nothing but a list of symptoms, he’ll not be able to do anything for me beyond recommend the medicines I already use, and at best will suggest changes to my diet, cosmetics and environment which could possibly remove the typical aggravators of eczema and allergies. Frankly I don’t want to take up a GP’s time for something which I would probably have more success at diagnosing myself at home if I put a little more effort into it. Therefore my mission for this year is to perform controlled experiments and try and find a pattern to my symptoms, so that I can either completely remove the things which are causing the allergic reactions, or at the very least find a more effective treatment specifically tailored to my problem.

Step one is identifying the common causes of allergic reactions. So far I’ve come up with the following possibilities: pollen; over-sensitivity to chemicals used in cosmetics; washing powder; pets; dust (or dust mites); mould/mildew spores; foods (eg. dairy, certain additives); changes in the weather. Next I need to methodically cut out all contact with items on this list (one at a time) and note whether my symptoms are noticeably reduced or stop altogether. I’ve already started with the easiest one, which is a complete upheaval of my cosmetics. I already only wear make-up on very rare occasions so have no trouble in going make-up free for a month or so, I’ve swapped my bubble bath, shampoo, conditioner and soap for products which are free of perfume and unnecessary additives. I’m not using shaving foam (thankfully it’s the winter so my legs are permanently covered and I’m not going to shock anyone by leaving them au naturel), completely avoiding any hair products (such has hairspray) which might bring chemical residues close to my face, and I’m taking care when I use deodorant sprays to keep it away from my face as much as possible. At the same time, instead of switching between several different treatments my eczema, I’m sticking with a very small application of the product which seems to ease the symptoms the most, so if I have a sudden flare-up or improvement I can be sure it’s not due to a change in the treatment.

After a week I’ve noticed absolutely no difference, though I’ll keep this trial going for a few more weeks before moving on to something else. Some of these possible factors are going to be very difficult to control and test properly, and some I sincerely doubt are responsible (such as my pets - I’ve had the symptoms all my life and noticed no specific change to them when I brought animals into my home for the first time less than two years ago; my outbreaks show no correlation to the time spent in close proximity to my rabbits).

Following these trials if I haven’t come up with any conclusive evidence I’ll make arrangements to be tested professionally by my GP, probably via a skin prick allergy test.

If I’m still drawing a blank, or if I discover that the cause is environmental and can not be removed (such as the weather), I’ll follow up with controlled trials for different treatments for my ‘hayfever’ symptoms (I’ve been using Benadryl almost exclusively so I’d like to see how different antihistamines fare) and for my skin (I’m currently using Oilatum Junior cream which is marketed for treating eczema in babies, but I’ve also tried various cheap moisturisers and dry skin/eczema creams, hydrocortisone 1%, E45, Savlon, Sudocrem, after-sun lotions, aqueous creams, Vaseline, baby oil, Carmex lip-balm, to name just a few). The skin is particularly hard to treat as its condition changes vastly; it can be dry and lacking elasticity, very itchy, flaking, red and inflamed, lumpy, cracked and weeping, bleeding/scabbed over or infected. Regular use of the same product often leads to a new outbreak of uncomfortable symptoms, and the only useful thing that I’ve discovered recently is that using as little as possible of a product is often better than completely smothering the skin (as with the Oilatum cream, which I think creates an airtight barrier if slapped on too thickly, and I wonder if the skin sweats underneath causing increased irritation).

Social networking for sheep

Published on July 5, 2008 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments

Earlier today I was logged in to my Facebook account, when I noticed the most recent addition to my News Feed:

6 of your friends joined the group: Facebook Will Be Forced to Shutdown in 7 Days! Join and Save it!

This roused my curiosity (”Facebook might cease to exist? And this is the first I’ve heard of it?”), so I followed the appropriate links to see which ‘friends’ had joined and what was actually going on…

Only a few clicks later, and I learned the history of the case in reasonable depth, found that the dispute between the founders of ConnectU and Facebook ended last month when a judge enforced settlement between the two parties, and that the final hearing took place on July 2.

Today is July 5.

It constantly surprises me - maybe it shouldn’t, but it does - that people frequently associate themselves with things they know nothing about. The information is right there for the taking - it took me less than a minute to unravel the reason behind this group’s creation and to learn that it was no longer relevant (never mind that I still have absolutely no idea how joining the group was supposed to contribute towards “saving” Facebook).

Of the 522,484 members who are (at the time I write this) associated with this group, how many of them, I wonder, have actually taken a moment to read anything about case before joining? And how many of them have joined the group since the case was closed as a result?

There has been such rapid growth in the popularity of social networking and it is becoming an increasingly important aspect of daily life for many of us. The potential it holds for the future of communication is enormous. Even I can see this, as a mere bystander to the local geek crowd, and mostly I welcome it.

But observing the current activity of my fellow Facebook users, I feel that it will be a long time before this potential is realised. ‘Groups’ and ’causes’ are created which have no apparent value, but users see that an opportunity to be part of something is being offered to them and without any consideration - *click* - they accept it. Not to mention the endless barrage of invitations to install yet another application (hands up those who always read the terms and conditions?), so that we can say we’re biting one another, or send each other small pictures of cocktails.

Is this fun? Really?

The conclusion I’ve come to is that with the exception of a very, very small minority, people don’t really like most of the Facebook applications they install. They don’t care for many of the ’causes’ or ‘groups’ they’ve signed up for. But it doesn’t matter what they’re joining in with. What matters is that everyone else is doing it, so they must too. This is probably a primative instinct kicking in, a need to be seen to be the same as their group, and not be picked out (or picked on) for not following the herd. Such instincts probably aided the survival of our ancestors and ensured that the human race stayed at the top of the food chain, so it’s no surprise that evolution has retained these traits and we will feel these desires surface from time to time. However, I would have thought that a developed brain and the capacity for independent and abstract though were also inherent to our current status as the ruling species on planet Earth. What I struggle to understand is why so many people continue to choose ignorance over knowledge, and will respond only to these animal instincts which are surely no longer critical to their survival?

I often find myself frustrated by examples of such behaviour, which makes me sound incredibly misanthropic… I’m really not! I love the human race. The human mind is a complex and beautiful thing.

I believe that the human species is still at the very early stages of its development and that the future holds brilliant scientific discoveries, architectural beauty breathtaking beyond anything we have currently achieved, an end to world hunger, etc etc. However, I’m only going to see a tiny portion of this in my lifetime - which is a bit gutting as I really want to be around to experience as much of it as possible. So I get annoyed with people who are holding back this progression and limiting my experience. Sort of like people who talk on their phones in the cinema, but on a much larger scale.

(PS. I just checked that Facebook group again out of curiousity, about 8000 more people have joined since I started writing…)

Huh? Who moved everything around?!

Published on June 9, 2008 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments

I played around with this site a bit over the weekend, so if you’ve been here before you’ll probably notice some changes, to the appearance if nothing else.

I’ve switched from Movable Type to WordPress - for no reason really other than having heard from several people that ‘WordPress is better’. I figured I didn’t have anything to lose, and that a change might prompt me to blog more frequently – this is something I’ve been giving a lot thought to recently, as I want to be more active in developing my creative social network… but more about this another time.

So far, so good - everything prior to this weekend seems to have imported correctly, and although there have been a few headaches getting set up, Iestyn’s been really helpful and has sorted out the things I couldn’t fix (or be bothered to fix) myself. As a designer I feel I should spend some time working on the site’s appearance; I’m currently just using the K2 theme with a couple of very minor tweaks but I expect at some stage I’ll give it a more personal touch. I’m not sure yet what this will entail, as my design career to date has been spent creating stuff for other people, and I rarely give any thought to how I might design something to reflect myself.

One thing I have done since the switch is write a brief profile about myself - K2 comes with an ‘About’ tab as standard, and I felt obliged to use it (the easy option would have been to just get rid of the tab!) - if this is your first visit, or if you’ve known me for a while and have reached that awkward stage where it’s been left too late to ask me questions about who I really am, you’re welcome to come and meet me properly on the About page.

Equilibrium

Published on May 28, 2008 in Uncategorized. 2 Comments

It’s interesting to look back at my first post of the year and see which promises to myself I’ve kept (so far), and which ones I’ve broken. I recently moved house and started a new job, and these changes have clearly had a big impact on my successes and my failures.

Most of the ‘rules’ I did manage to stick to actually took no effort at all - a result, it seems, of being in a working environment where the pace is a lot gentler, and - in my opinion - much more fair. That’s not to say I’m not working as hard as I used to, it’s just that the chaos factor (read: dealing with members of the public) has been removed, and I now have just one deadline a month to worry about. It’s the first time in my design career that I’ve been able to work at my own pace, and take time to do research and share ideas with other designers. The knock-on effect is that I no longer feel under pressure to work through lunch to get something finished. Over-time is actively discouraged, and I have the freedom to get into work a little late if I need to, as long as I put in sufficient hours elsewhere to make sure my work is ready to go to press on time. I’m proud of the work I’ve done in the last two months and want to show it off, and it’s really not like me to feel that way. I don’t think I’m just proud of the work because it’s better, I think it’s also because I feel less negative.

I’ve not been doing so well with my eating habits - again, I think the change in work and home environments has had a big effect on my daily routine and I’m still trying to find motivation to stick to a schedule. Unfortunately I’m regularly going without breakfast (despite always having suitable breakfast foods in the house), and I’m also eating far too much take-away food. I’ve started getting a bit squishy around my middle, but I can’t find it in myself to panic about gaining weight, I’m only concerned that it’s a visible sign of a (possibly negative) change in my health that would be going undetected if it wasn’t for my new wobbly bits.

When I posted in January, I’d just seen my GP to have a chat about how tired and low I’d been feeling, and I was waiting to hear back about a blood test. I went back to discuss the results early January, and was told that my blood iron level was very low. I started taking ferrous sulphate to treat anaemia, 3 tablets a day taken with meals - but with breaking my meal-time routine during moving house, I began forgetting tablets so regularly that in the end I just gave up trying to remember them at all. I’m booked in for another blood test in a couple of weeks, so I’ll see what that brings - depending on the severity (and possibly on just how much of a ticking-off I get from the doctor), I’d like to use the result of my test to help me get in the right frame of mind to set a new routine for my eating.

“Well my pad is very messy, and there’s whiskers on my chin…”

Published on March 4, 2008 in Uncategorized. 1 Comment

I love the singing dog on the new VW Polo advert.

(I’m sure my rabbit sings too, when I’m out of the house)

2008

Published on January 1, 2008 in Uncategorized. 0 Comments

This year, I resolve to give my health and happiness absolute priority over my work.

I will continue (as started late in 2007) to go for regular check-ups at dentist and optician, and to the doctor when I feel unwell. I will set a morning routine for myself: get up at the same time each day, allow time to enjoy a relaxing bath or shower, time to floss my teeth as well as brush them (dentist’s orders), most importantly I will make time for breakfast (doctor’s orders), and then I will leave for work in good time so I don’t spend my half-hour commute to Brighton in a panic over the consequences of being late in. I will never skip breakfast (at worst I’ll keep cereal bars, fruit, etc. in the house to take with me if I’m running late).

I will use my full lunch-time allowance each day, and try spend at least half of it away from work, stretching my legs and getting fresh air in my lungs, and clearing my mind of stressful thoughts. I will not spend my break complaining to Iestyn about problems at work! I will break for lunch as soon as I have an opportunity (aiming for between 12.00-1.00), rather than have a very late lunch or no break at all.

At work I’ll schedule time for ‘housekeeping’ (tidying the clutter from my desk, backing up my work, etc.) as this will make me more efficient and clear-headed and will improve on my productivity in the long run. I must remind myself that putting client work before these tasks is counter-productive. I’ll ensure I’m comfortable in my working environment, and if I pick up on RSI risks or anything else that concerns me I will deal with these problems as I go, as it will improve my happiness (for myself) and increase my productivity (for the company and its clients), so everybody benefits.

I’ll continue to write a fresh ‘To Do’ list at the end of each work day, but this year I will put the list out of my mind until I get back to the studio the next day. I will make an effort to enjoy my weekday evenings, rather than mulling over problems or watching mindless TV. I will try to do things that make me feel my time was well spent; I already know from experince that expending a little energy on activities I enjoy leaves me feeling far more refreshed than doing nothing at all.

Phew. So there it is.

My resolution definitely isn’t set in stone, and it’s not an ‘all or nothing’ deal. There will be days where I need to bend the rules a little, and projects where I’m working overtime for the pleasure of it as much as for the client’s benefit. I’d like my work to be a source of satisfaction again, and not be a burden like it has been lately. Ultimately, I want to restore the balance in my life. I’m not quite sure when I lost it, but late last year I finally acknowledged that I wasn’t happy and realised what I needed to change. I’m surprised at how small and manageable these changes are, as I expected I’d have to do something far more significant.

Happy new year, everyone!