Now I know what it feels like to be Fidel Castro. For some reason I ate an unripe avocado last night, which gave me a itchy swelling in the back of my throat. It seems I’m allergic to unripe avocado. Eventually the itching spread to the insides of my ears and finally subsided after a [...]

The closure of 25 McDonalds “restaurants” in the UK has prompted a tremendous celebratory article by Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall in the Guardian. I dream of the day when the only McDonalds in the UK will be those frequented by homesick American tourists.

Yesterday the sun was shining, the sky was blue and I was seized by an uncanny urge to buy a barbeque, so I did. Refusing to tell Courtney what was up I ushered her into the car and drove to a hardware shop in the town centre.
“Where are we going?” she asked, “I’m so confused.”
I [...]

Behold my first attempt at scones! They taste every bit as good as they look, and they were pretty easy to make. I’m basking in a warm yellowy self-satisfied glow right now. The ladies at Courtney’s Margaret Atwood book group should be well fed tonight. Click here for a screenful of food porn goodness!

There’s something very Pet Shop Boys about the underside of our new non-slip chopping board.

I don’t know exactly how this came to be, but I remember a degree of nagging and flattery emanating from Courtney, and a degree of arm-twisting from Julie at the Co-op. The upshot is that on February 16th 2006 I will be teaching a course on how to make Cornish Pasties and Chicken Tikka Masala. [...]

People in the UK may know Paul Newman from his roles in movies such as Cat on a Hot Tin Roof and Cool Hand Luke, or perhaps from seeing his face on bottles of salad dressing in Waitrose. Over in the US, Paul Newman is far better known. You can see his face on boxes [...]

There’s a point in The Big Lebowski where the Dude, played by Jeff Bridges, finds his car has been stolen. The police retrieve the vehicle; it’s in a bad state, but at least the joyrider didn’t steal his Credence Clearwater Revival tapes. The dude later discovers a crumpled page of homework down the back of [...]

The word "gourmet" is over-used in the USA. Constant application to items such as burgers, jerky and cat food have stretched the word out, made it frayed and baggy, worn holes in the knees and rendered it useless for carrying meaning.
Today laughing chance brought me stumbling across a section of the salon.com website known as [...]