Who wants to be a millionaire?

Making a list of my favourite meals that I’ve cooked this year is a hard task, mainly because they are eaten without thought and I don’t take photos of them. Making a blog about them is easy as it’s only these ones I’ve bothered to photo!

Before I get to the good stuff, I need to mention the worst meal of the year... and the award goes to:

Grilled swordfish
What! Grilled Swordfish? I hear you say, but yes it was terrible. There was so much potential and it was all ruined by inept cooking and no forward thinking… and it was inspired by a General Dynamics Mediterranean Cod which is never a good start. I don’t really want to talk about it too much so all I’ll say is that the potato wedges came from the freezer :(. Critics gave it 4/10, which I thought was generous.

There weren’t many bad meals, so quickly on to the top 3 meals of the year.

3. Sogliola in tre modi (Roasted sole three ways)
Although not technically this year, this was my first photographed meal, and it deserves to go on this list as it was awesome and it was for valentines. Cheers Jamie! Critics gave it “9 if not 10 out of 10”. While I’m being truthful… I didn’t actually cook this 3 ways. I only cooked it one way, the awesome way. Sometimes I regret this dish as it sealed the deal with Helen, but I should have expected this at the time!

2. Bacon and poached egg on a muffin in a pea puree
I don’t know where the inspiration for this dish came from, I thought I had seen something in a cookbook that Helen had, but since then I cannot find it so maybe I dreamt it. Seriously though, the minty peas were amazing with the bacon. Critics gave it 8/10. Since this dish I have started sugaring the bacon to make candy bacon (thank you epic meal time!) and this has made this even more spectacular!

1. Cider sausages on a black pudding mash
If I owned a restaurant or had to go on a cooking competition show on TV (sadly Cardiff has already been on come dine with me) then this would be my signature dish! Although I think I would have to give some money to Savanna dry as they deserve some credit for the cider I used. The only thing that I could have done more for this dish would have been to make the sausages myself, but they probably wouldn’t have been as good as the ones from Tesco with the bits of apple in them, which helped with the apple theme of the dish, and I could have possibly made it look a bit more appetising! 9/10 from the critics but a 10/10 user rating.

Anyway, while I was writing this, some dappy women (whoes name was actually Dot) just won £77,500 on the call in game on who wants to be a millionaire

I don't wanna die!

3 months of a strange Arsenal year and we're 5th. Almost suicidal at the start of the season and now our one man show is keeping us in contention for Europe next year, which is the only thing we have to sing about this year! He’s also the only reason I’ve enjoyed a week at the top of my fantasy football table, although after today I’m fairly sure I will be relegated to the depths of mid-table mediocrity. Next year I’m going to make a team of ex-Arsenal players and see how it gets on against my proper team! The main thing is that on Match of the Day when they were introducing Alan Hansen and Lee Dixon, Alan won the most league titles competition.

Anyway since Halloween the main thing we’ve been playing is house of the dead, with agent G of the AMS.

Anxious Years

Being the only Arsenal fan in Wales is a big responsibility. When I first moved to Cardiff, things were on the up, we'd won the league unbeaten the year before, and we managed to scrape the FA cup with the most underwhelming performance in a cup final.

Things looked good, although we were losing players (good riddance to Cashley), I could see some kind of plan with different players coming in to strenghten the side. For example, we had Kolo Toure, an obvious transfer would have been Yaya, and this would have solved the problems in central midfield.

Well. 6 years of selling players and the only player still at Arsenal that was in the 2005 FA Cup squad is Van Persie. I saw the line up of for the Sunderland game and only 4 starting players were people who would have been in the squad (not even starters) from last season, and that season was shit too!

Anyway, we won last night away in Marseille, so not all hope lost just yet.

Bad day

Today, while playing football, someone kicked the ball so hard into my wang that I got a semi.

NHS Redemption

Do they do it on purpose? It's like they push you over just so they can help you up.

The doctor at the shoulder clinic told me that the physio would get in contact with me, but it would be at least 4 weeks.

3 days later I got a phone call from Chris, my new physio :)

Up until my first appointment all I had to do was one exercise; this was set by the original doctor, leaning over and swinging my arm like a pendulum. It felt a bit silly.

My physiotherepist was called Chris, and she was good, and gave me many exercises to do; stretchy arm curls, weights and stuff too. Anyway after the first date, we arranged the second a week later, and 3 weeks after that the infamous third ;) After that she went a bit cold, and we had a 6 week break, then, without warning after that she dumped me :(

Since then I have had 3 different hospitals contact me saying that I can now go for physio, which seems very silly as I've been discharged.

Anyway, England went out of the world cup today too.

The sinking lure

Since my last post I have been meaning to post an update, but I've been lazy and everytime I started to write something else would distract me.

25th June 2011
I arrived back in the UK and had to go to a wedding in a sling. Then I booked an appointment to see my GP on Monday.

27th June 2011 - One week later
I went to see my GP for my 9.30am appointment, arrived early. Had to wait 45 minutes. She just referred me to the trauma clinic at the hospital, which I went to straight away. Arrived about 11. Had to wait a 1Hr 30minutes to see the doctor, two standard NHS waits in one morning. During the wait I couldn't help but notice that the nurses were checking me out, obviously I thought naughty things about what they might want and when one of them approached me I was quite excited. When she said "nice sling, where did you get it?" I almost jizzed my pants. Seriously. Turns out she was only using me to find out about the French sling I had, we flited a bit, and I was happy for her to use me for information to pass the time. Once I got called to see the doctor I was shown to a bay and the nurse closed the curtain and said the doctor would be right in. He wasn't right in. I waited for 10 minutes before I stuck my head out and asked if I had been forgotten about! About a minute later the doctor came in and started the assessment, he wanted another x-ray (which I didn't get a copy of) for the records, and to check I didn't have any shards of shoulder in the joint. The doctor didn't give me the x-ray, that was given to me by a stammering first year medical student who had been there for about 2 weeks. Good job it was only an x-ray I needed! He only messed it up once. After the doctor had finished assessing the x-ray and was satisfied that I was alright, he said I should see the onsite physio right away, as if I didn't see him then, the wait would be at least 3 weeks... So the doctor went off to find him. Now I know that the NHS aren't slackers, but the physio was just clocking off. At 12:30pm! Missed opportunity. The doctor told me I would be contacted about physio. He then told me about a shoulder clinic that the trauma clinic runs every Tuesday, and that I should go to the next available one. Turns out the next day one was full so I was booked in to the one on the 5th July! By now I was ready to leave, but before I left I asked for a sick note. 3-6 weeks. Jackpot. On the way out I had a quick chat with the nurses who were interested in my foreign sling, and told them how I would have to wait a week for the shoulder clinic. They were having none of it! Went straight to the receptionist and demanded that I be fit in the next day. Next day appointment! Yes please!

28th June 2011
Turns out the shoulder clinic was a massive waste of time, the doctor did show me an excercise to help strengthen my shoulder. Leaning over the table and swinging my arm like a pendulum.


Anyway the highlight of my time off was replaying Ocarina of Time for the first time in years and finding the sinking lure in the fishing game. I also realised that N64's look really bad on 32" TVs.

Society Sponge

Cardiff Uni Kayakers 2011 trip to the South Alps.

On my trip to N. Wales back in March I swam in Gun Barrel Gorge, just after Ogwen bank falls, lost my paddle and hurt my shoulder... I probably wouldn't have swam there if I wasn't rescuing another swimmer who was on the back of my boat as we went down the gorge, but it was better to help him out than not!  My paddle was later recovered but was stuck in N. Wales, which was a bit of an issue.  My hurt shoulder recovered within a couple of days as it was just a knock on a rock, but it did end my weekends paddling.

A week before the Alps trip I met up with some friends from N. Wales down in the Gower, got my paddle back and things were looking good for a week of paddling in the Alps.  2 days into the trip we headed for Chateau Q, the only Alps river I have previously swam on about 4 years ago, and a river which I struggle to make it down without a roll.  This year was no exception.  I was about halfway down the narrow gorge, where the kink in the gorge normally gets me, and not surprisingly I went over on a wave.  To my surprise and discomfort, when I went to roll up, my shoulder dislocated.  I tried to manoeuvre it back into place while upside down getting recirculated in the water, but this was quite a severe dislocation, I even tried rolling 3 or 4 times with my shoulder out of place.  After a while I came to the crushing realisation that I was going to have to swim.  This was made worse by the fact that I was leading a fairly inexperienced group down, and I was first so there was no one else in front of me, and my shoulder was dislocated.

When I previously swam in Chateau Q, it was fairly pleasant, I managed to find an eddy almost immediately, posed for some photos and then jumped back in to be reunited with my boat further downstream.  This was different.  The level was higher and the water was faster.  I immediately tried to adopt the standard swimming position laying on my back with my feet out in front, but soon discovered that I wasn't near the surface at all, buoyancy was almost none existent.  My BA is not the greatest, but I've never felt it wasn't up to the job.  Until now.  It's rated to 50N and is probably at least 7 years old... Anyway, I was struggling to get to the surface, was gulping down very aerated water, and struggling to breathe.

At no point did I think I was not going to make it out alive, but near the end of the swim I did think to myself, this needs to end as I'm really starting to struggle to remain conscious!  I was being washed down the gorge, and I knew the only eddy available was at the end of the gorge on river right, which was annoying as it was my right shoulder that was still dislocated, so I scrambled to the right side of the river.  When there was a pause in the rapids, and as I was struggling to breathe so much I let out one of the biggest burps I've ever done, which actually let me catch my breath before the rapids started again, if not for that burp, I don't know if I would have made it through!

During the next rapid and again while struggling to surface and breathe, I became aware that I was floating down alongside my boat, which I gratefully used with my left hand to pull myself to the surface, gain some bearing of where I was, and get some vital air.  I didn't manage to hold on long though, as although the rapid was nearing the end, the rocks were starting to build up, I was very short of breath, and could only use my left arm.

At this point I was getting pretty desperate, so I was actually trying to swim into the rocks, just so I could push my head out of the water with my legs from the rocks, as up to this point, I was relying on my BA and my boat.  At this point I also started trying to grab the rocks on river right, to stop the swim, only to be reminded of the fact that I couldn't use my arm! During these attempts I saw the second kayaker, who was luckily still in his boat and looking concerned about my situation.  To say I was relieved to see him is a massive understatement.  The tactic of aiming for rocks seemed to pay off as a large one I aimed for had the eddy I was aiming for pretty much next to it.  I managed to get in the eddy just as the second in the group caught up to me. 

At this point I was on the side of the river, right in the bottom of the gorge, the rest of the group caught up one by one.  They helped me out of my cag and rashie, and one went to grab the medic up at the top of the gorge.  I think at this point all I wanted was to have my arm back in place, so I had one guy hanging from my arm, and one holding my body... nothing happened, and I realised that I was going to have to go to le hospital in Briancon... after I climbed out of the gorge.  I was led out by an excitable medic, who led me the wrong way at least 3 times.

Anyway, an uncomfortable 1hr 20min drive later, and I was on the nitrogen gas listening to a French doctor teach a younger, hotter trainee doctor how to relocate a shoulder, given a prescription for some paracetomol and sent on my way!  Very efficient, in and out of the hospital within an hour!

I later found out my boat was rescued at the bottom of the rapid, before it went into Guardian Angel Gorge, but my paddle snapped in half and was not seen again.  I think it was cursed anyway!

I've never had to have more than 2 days off work before for a cold or something like that... but when I went to see the English doctor he gave me a note for 3-6 weeks! It's been almost 3 weeks since the incident, and I've been off work for 2 weeks more now, and I am starting to feel like a benefit fraud!  So back to work Monday!