"Snollygoster Scunner"

This is a gallery of every meal I ate since the 1s of September to the 31st in date and time order. I tend to eat two main meals a day and aim for a 16 hour break between them. My meals times are usually from 12:00 to 20:00. This means I only need a 4 hour break in both morning and evening plus sleep.

I belive that giving my body a rest from the constant processing of food is good for me. We as a species arn't designed to be constantly stuffing our faces. In an evolutionary sence until the recent advent of domestication and farming we were subject to times of plenty and times of hunger. We are biologically designed to want sugars, fat and salt as then were an iregular supply.

Something that was rare but is now made in abundence and is used now to tempt us to buy certain not so healthy foods that we are programmed to want.

I didn't miss taking a picture of a meal but almost missed one so only got half of it :-)

As The sea was calm and it was sunny we decided to go for a paddle. From workshop to the sea is usually only 15 minutes but as there was lots of detritus in the way it was more like 30.

There was hardly anyone on the beach apart from a few dog walkers. One advantage of the kayaks over the boat is it's so quick. We litterally looked out of the window saw how calm the sea was and said "Shall we go for a paddle in the kayaks". It's strange how the two different vessels tick different boxes. If it's calm we can't sail but we can kayak. If it's breezy then the boat can sail but the kayaking is harder work. Generally the oppertunities to kayak are greater mostly because the window is larger. Our boat mooring is tidal so that window is smaller, the wind needs to be not to strong or not to calm. Fishing, eating, poohing are all much better from the boat. However our time or availibility further reduces the sailing window. None of this was so apparent to us when we bought the boat. Horses for courses as they say or perhaps that be barometers for boats.

In an effort to increase the window to use the boat we've bought an inboard engine. A Yamnar IG10. The small 6HP outboard it fine for getting in and out of the harbour but not really suitable or IMHO trust worthy enough for longer trips.

First issue was I forgot my mobile but had the VHS Radio so not to concerned. Also we were only going up and down the coast with lots of easy access to the shore should we capsize or need it.

As we can see from the last two posts 20250921 - Grapes and 20250914 - The processes I use to make my web pages video is the next step.

Grape videos in 3 resolutions

• grapes-hi
• grapes-medium
• grapes-low

There are two main programms I use for this. Handbrake and FFMPEG

Suddenly all the grapes in our little greenhouse have started to ripen.

Grape videos in 3 resolutions

• grapes-hi
• grapes-medium
• grapes-low

• As I'm learning different methods of making this site. I thought I should share them.
• The structure I like: really simple and compliant.
• The structure for images
• The structure for video and how I capture and encode along with the tools i use
• First I transfer my photos to my Computer. I use ↗ swiftp on my mobile for this and transfer it as it has the camera. Then open ↗ gftp on my Desktop computer.
• Then I transfer the images via ftp in to ~/sites/2025/big/
• Note that in UNIX and Linux ~ is the sign for the user folder e.g. /home/jack
• Then I make folders in my sites folder with this structure ~/sites/2025/big/
• Then in the big folder I create 2 more folders mid and low. Like so ~/sites/2025/big/mid & ~/sites/2025/big/low
• Then I open a terminal in ~/sites/2025/big/
• Then I run this command "mogrify -path low/ -auto-orient -thumbnail 200x *.jpg"
• Then I run this command "mogrify -path mid/ -auto-orient -thumbnail 600x *.jpg
• When run from the source directory with the full size images and the sub directories low and Mid in it. This make copies of the images from the source directory and copies and shrinks them into either the mid or low folders depending on which command you run.
• Then I up load the reduced images to a similarly structured setup on my site 2025/202509/mid/001.jpg and 2025/202509/low/001.jpg etc"

To see the code and how this works right click on the page and "view source"

This is a gallery of every meal I ate since the 5th of August to the 31st in date and time order. I tend to eat two main meals a day and aim for a 16 hour break between them. My meals times are usually from 12:00 to 20:00. This means I only need a 4 hour break in both morning and evening plus sleep.

I belive that giving my body a rest from the constant processing of food is good for me. We as a species arn't designed to be constantly stuffing our faces. In an evolutionary sence until the recent advent of domestication and farming we were subject to times of plenty and times of hunger. We are biologically designed to want sugars, fat and salt as then were an iregular supply.

Something that was rare but is now made in abundence and is used now to tempt us to buy certain not so healthy foods that we are programmed to want.

I notice I do like my poached eggs!

this is a template blog post copy and paste every thing between the details and /details

Tonight we had a strawberry Moon. So I stuck my mobile phone on my telescope and after much fiddling got a nice wee photo

This is the epic tale of sailing home. Or rather being kicked off the mooring

When I get around to writing it

Fisherman's tales. Whales, Whales and more whales and a propose!

Must add gallery and videos

When the wife and I were out kayaking she commented on how nice it would be to have a small boat. After we got home we went to the local harbour and asked about moorings costs and availability.

The sailing club were just about to do their annual renewals and said even told us of someone who might have a small yacht for sail.

We went and chatted to the owner who only lived a few hundred meters away. we looked at the boat but decided it had to small a cabin. Wifey wanted "a wee caravan on the water".

Video of the boat at mooring

• Boat at mooring - video

We went kayaking along the coast. Nothing unusual as it only takes 15 minutes to get from the workshop be actually paddling. What made this trip funny was half way through I noticed a "stowaway". A wee snail had boarded my kayak whilst in the workshop.

It just seemed to be enjoying the view and I did take extra care to not capsize. After we'd finished we carried the kayaks back to the trailer and I noticed the snail had disapeared? I was quite sad as I though it must have fallen off and be on the beach. Not a nice place for a snail.

How ever later in the day we parked up outside the allotment and there it was on the trailer frame. A hitchhiker as well as a stowaway

Spot the Stowaway The Stowaway home safe n sound after it's wee trip on the sea! Lucky we didn't capsize

Video of Kayaking

• Kayaking with the stowaway - video

This is the epic tale of sailing home. Or rather being kicked off the mooring

When I get around to writing it

Fishermans tales. Whales, Whales and more whales and a porpose!

this is a template blog post copy and paste every thing between the details and /details

this is a template blog post copy and paste every thing between the details and /details

My Bikes

• Dahon
• ↗ Dahon jetstream
• Brompton
• ↗ Brompton IMO Brompton make one of the best "folders" there is but they are grossly over priced for what they are. I wouldn't want to ride mime for more than 3 miles unlike both my Bickerton and jetstream which is easily the best to actually ride
• Bickerton
• ↗ Bickerton history from the official bickerton site. Note that new "Bickertons" are basically a Dahon rebrand
• ↗ Bickerton on wickipedia
• B-Twin
• B-Twin is my only "racer". Not that I race. Picked it up at an auction cheap
• Specialized
• ↗ Specialized hardrock 1989
• Univega
• ↗ Univega
• ↗ Univega thread on retronbike
• B-Twin
• link text

"My Bike Gallery"

To Do

add images after site rebuild

This is how I make my Oat bread.

1. 1KG oats
2. 1lt live yogurt
3. 2 eggs
4. 3 teaspoons baking soda
5. pumpkin seeds
6. sun flower seeds

Method

I have a ↗ Bullet but any hand held liquidizer will do.

1. Switch on the oven to Pre-heat it to 200C. (170c with a fan oven) Do this first and it will be ready to load by the time you're mix is done
2. Mill 200g of oats and add to a big mixing bowel
3. Add and mix the baking soda and 300g of the remaining oats and seeds
4. Break the 2 eggs in to a tall jug and add the yogurt then liquidize
5. Add the yogurt mix in to the bowel and gradually stir in the remaining oats until you have a consistent mix
6. Oil some bread tins to stop the mixture sticking when emptying after cooking
7. Fill the bread tins and bake for 10 minutes at 200c (170 fan oven) then turn down to 180c (150c fan oven) for 35 minutes. I've found a large discrepancy with different ovens so experiment!
8. Check the bread. If it's not cooked in side cover with foil to stop the outside crisping and cook longer
9. Once cooked remove from the oven and let it rest for 10 minutes before turning it out on to a rack
10. Once on the rack let it rest for at least 30 minutes before eating
11. Enjoy with butter and marmalade

One thing I'm very fussy about is tea. When I'm talking about tea I'm meaning English Breakfast Tea Now if you think you've drunk that an it was horrid or nothing special, think again. As someone that has been brought up on proper tea I can assure you that the UK has the best tea in the world. It's a fortunate/unfortunate lagacy of Empire. We've had good tea for a long time and now demand only the best. Even the shop brand teas here are better than most European teas.

I used to live in Sweden. Lovely country but absolutly appalling tea. (Probobly why they all drink Coffee!

If you have heard of the brandPG Tips the clue is in the name. The tips of the tea is the best bit. If you've ever had tea from India that the poor drink you will notice that it's very stalky. If you've ever had tea in Europe it's usually a weak flavour-less comparison

How to make a good pot of tea

1. Boil freshly drawn water. After it's boiled let it stand for a short while. Boiled water on tea makes it bitter
2. Warm the pot with hot water by half filling it and swirling the water
3. The general rule is a teaspoon of loose tea per person and one for the pot (same for tea bags)
4. Add the hot water to the pot and cover with a tea-cosy (a tea towel will do)
5. Stir and let it brew for 4-5 minutes
6. Alway add any sugar in to a cup first so the hot tea dissolves it. NEVER ADD MILK FIRST
7. Add milk carefully taking note of the colour change. It is critical to not over milk if you want the best flavour. There is a fine balance to be had here and even now I still get it wrong
8. If you don't or can't take milk don't drink Breakfast tea but rather something else. Unless you want to tanilise your insides. Apparently the molicules in the milk attach to tanin and prevent this
9. Enjoy with toasted oat bread with butter and marmalade