Well, for those of you that don’t know, I’m at Rathmore House, Larne this weekend.  It’s a Queen’s badge completion course, which is now going to be called the Queen’s badge residential I think.  It’s basically a weekend of working with a group of guys that have almost completed their Queen’s badge through the BB.

Rathmore is a big old house, and there are a few ‘chalets’, which are a little chilly in the  winter…  And the summer too actually, but if you’re only sleeping in them it won’t really make much of a difference!

I stupidly forgot to bring a towel with me, so I had to go and get one in B&M bargains, but hey!  It’s nice and soft, so I’m not really complaining, and it’ll do me for a spare towel for the future lol…

Amanda and I booked another trip to Disneyland Paris for September.  Quite excited actually, I’m a big kid, and I love all the rides!  They’re fun!  Will be nice to explore the parks again, and we went quite recently, so we’ll have half a clue about where things are, what rides are good and which are crap.

Anyway I better head on here, have 11 more books to check by tomorrow afternoon!  Cheerio.

Well the SPAM has calmed down dramatically, thankfully.

Set up the server at home as a backup DNS server for my domains – mi0gjn.co.uk, newtownabbeymethodist.org.uk… Didn’t set up the rest yet, as they arently exactly vital, but the NMM one its pretty important that it stays on…

Nothing else to add though

Well, it’s been a reasonable few days, the sun is getting a little warmer, and there’s a decent stretch in the evenings – great for being in work.

It hasn’t been a terribly exciting few days to be honest.  Just been working, at uni, and footering around at home.  Went to JLS on Monday night – when I booked the tickets I thought I might enjoy the concert, however it wasn’t great!  Wee bit strange, and far too many horny teenage girls screaming and jumping around…  Sorry but 14 year olds swooning over sweating 20-somethings singing on a stage really isn’t my thing!  They did do a bit of a Michael Jackson tribute, which I enjoyed, but it still wasn’t a great concert…

Anyway – this weekend I’m a tutor on a Queen’s Badge course, in Rathmore house.  Should be a good weekend!  It’s the first half of the course, which I haven’t helped out on before, so it should be a good learning experience anyway.  It does require a bit more speaking/participation from the leaders than the second one (I think anyway) so I’m a little nervous about that, but hey!  Should be fun anyway.

Sadly I have an assignment due on Monday, so I’ll have to get that done before I go away   But hey, being organised should have its benefits right?

Have one more lecture today, at 12, and then I have to head home, will probably make a start at the assignment due on Monday, and finish the one that’s due on Friday, and then by that time it’ll be time to go to work…  How quickly time flies when you’re enjoying yourself…  Or, well, doing something that you enjoy more than working

Well I can’t think of much more to write, so I’ll say cheerio!

Big increase in the amount of spam I’m getting on wordpress. Any bright ideas on how to prevent it would be greatly appreciated? I’ve got it set up so I have to authorize any comments anyway, would just be nice to get rid of it! Is there any way of turning on captcha or something similar?

Well, was back to work for the first time in almost a fortnight  Was nice to have a bit of time out of the place anyway.  Although I have tomorrow, and then I’m off again until Friday woop!

Strange being back into the cold weather, not used to it anymore!  Car had frost this morning for the first time in ages!  Most strange…

Been catching up on the O.C. again, sort of missed it.

Does anyone else love the way Starbucks always send free coupons?  I never actually get a chance to use them but hey, it’s a nice thought

Anyway…  I should really head on, give Amanda some attention  Although she’s busy reading a magazine anyway…  Byes..

Is it just me or is there a distinct lack of public toilets in Belfast? I know there are probably ones in buildings and shops, but there are very few places to go if you’re caught short on the street?

Maybe I’m looking in the wrong places, but there are quite a few times when I would really have to go…

Anyway currently sitting on the bus, using my homebrew MiFi on my Touch Diamond, using my iPod touch to write on the blog. Pretty nifty l, I thought anyway…

Was up helping dad set up some more computers, and we’d plugged some of the final ones in, and all the power went off on that floor… Not totally sure what’s going on, as it was the main breaker tripping, not the smaller ones for each circuit…

Went to see Strictly yesterday afternoon at the Odyssey. It was quite good, alhough there were too many old people for my liking. We had intended to call into Streat for lunch, but it was packed full to the brim, so we ended up eating on the Arena itself. The food was actually pretty good, no major complaints, although they mixed up my half pound burger, charging me for it but I only got a quarter pound burger… Didn’t realise until we got to our seats, by which time I couldn’t be steed going back up to change it…

Dinner we went to our usual place, Nando’s. I was brave and went for hot again, with a bottle of extra hot to put over my fries, rice and chicken. It was actually very tasty, and the extra hot sauce was bearable… I would definetly get it again. Had a dessert for once, White Chocolate and Raspberry Swirl, and an espresso to go with it. Again it was delicious, and the guy ‘Roy’ couldn’t have been more helpful with the second order!

Well still sitting on the bus, just going past Cityside. There’s a mum and a young boy, maybe 5 or 6, and the language she is using towards him is a disgrace, I don’t think it’s appropriate to drop the ‘F bomb’ with kids that age, and certainly not in a public place…

Anyway this long-winded blog post is coming to the end, sitting on a rear facing seat and I need to concentrate on when to get up haha. Cheerio, thanks for reading!

Well I should start off by saying how awful I have felt the last day or two! Don’t know why, been getting longer in bed, so I guess I should be feeling fine.

Made pancakes yesterday evening with Amanda. They turned out pretty well tbh, it was Delia’s recipe, and we found they needed some sugar or syrup to make them taste good, but once they had that extra touch they were lovely!

Spent the weekend in the Hilton, Dublin. Was a lovely weekend, didn’t do much, just did a bit of shopping, ate too much as usual, and slept… And had a bit of a dander around the city too. On Sunday we went home via Wicklow, had a nice drive around there, and found a huge shopping centre in the sleepy town of Arklow… Very odd!

Well lecture just starting so i’d better head on… Oh the projector just turned itself off… Hm…

For the pancake mixture:
110g/4oz plain flour, sifted
pinch of salt
2 eggs
200ml/7fl oz milk mixed with 75ml/3fl oz water
50g/2oz butter
To serve:
caster sugar
lemon juice
lemon wedges

Method

Sift the flour and salt into a large mixing bowl with a sieve held high above the bowl so the flour gets a airing. Now make a well in the centre of the flour and break the eggs into it. Then begin whisking the eggs – any sort of whisk or even a fork will do – incorporating any bits of flour from around the edge of the bowl as you do so.

Next gradually add small quantities of the milk and water mixture, still whisking (don’t worry about any lumps as they will eventually disappear as you whisk). When all the liquid has been added, use a rubber spatula to scrape any elusive bits of flour from around the edge into the centre, then whisk once more until the batter is smooth, with the consistency of thin cream. Now melt the 50g/2oz of butter in a pan. Spoon 2 tbsp of it into the batter and whisk it in, then pour the rest into a bowl anduse it to lubricate the pan, using a wodge of kitchen paper to smear it round before you make each pancake.

Now get the pan really hot, then turn the heat down to medium and, to start with, do a test pancake to see if you’re using the correct amount of batter. I find 2 tbsp is about right for an 18cm/7in pan. It’s also helpful if you spoon the batter into a ladle so it can be poured into the hot pan in one go. As soon as the batter hits the hot pan, tip it around from side to side to get the base evenly coated with batter. It should take only half a minute or so to cook; you can lift the edge with a palette knife to see if it’s tinged gold as it should be. Flip the pancake over with a pan slice or palette knife – the other side will need a few seconds only – then simply slide it out of the pan onto a plate.
Stack the pancakes as you make them between sheets of greaseproof paper on a plate fitted over simmering water, to keep them warm while you make the rest.

To serve, spinkle each pancake with freshly squeezed lemon juice and caster sugar, fold in half, then in half again to form triangles, or else simply roll them up. Serve sprinkled with a little more sugar and lemon juice and extra sections of lemon.

Source: http://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/database/basilpancakswithsuga_66226.shtml

Well the powermonkey/mobile gave up last night, at midnight again… This time it managed nearly 90 hours, pretty impressive!

Would love to try the solargorilla, it’s bigger, so I would imagine it wouldake the experiment last longer… I’ve found the real killer for the experiment is the cloudy weather, and you can’t store enough when the weather is good. Started the expt again this morning at the usual time of 7.30, and as always I’ll keep you all updated here.

You’ll all be fed up listening about the Powermonkey!  I’ve currently just set up the powermonkey in my car, it’s getting a bit of a charge, as I used it this morning to half charge the phone battery.  Thought it would be best to leave it in the car, as I have a class soon, and won’t be able to charge it up – lecture theatre has curtains!

It certainly seems to be going a bit better this time – there’s a small red LED on the powermonkey that indicates how quickly it is charging, and it’s actually lit up this time, whereas the last time I could barely get it to light up, even when I was outside…  It’s not too bad a day here today, and I’m driving down to Dublin in a couple of hours, so I’ll leave the thing charging underneath the windscreen, and see what more power I can get into it.

Staying in Jury’s Inn in Dublin tonight, going to see Kelly Clarkson, which should be pretty cool, I guess…  Hopefully be able to find a decent window in the hotel to wire up the monkey for another bit of a charge, although I would hope after about 4 or 5 hours of charging it will be back to full capacity, ready for another day…  Driving back up to Belfast on Saturday, so again I’ll leave the solar panel out to charge a bit more, and then on Sunday I’ve got an 8 hour shift in work, so I’ll be able to set up the solar panel in the car again – if I haven’t run out of battery again…  It does seem to be working a little better this time, and I think giving the thing a fair chance by giving it a full charge off the mains will do it a favour.

So, currently I’ve been ‘unplugged’ for 28 hours, and still going strong

I’ll keep you all updated on here as usual