San Francisco - the start of our roadtrip

Well the time for our holiday has finally arrived. We chose San Francisco to fly in to as it was not that far from Sacramento and Lake Tahoe and we wanted to revisit a few things.

By the time we landed and collected our car it had gone 5pm and now we had to find our way to the hotel in peak hour traffic. Luckily between us we more or less remembered where to go.

We checked into same hotel as two years ago and freshened up and got ready for to repeat one of our culinary highlights of the last holiday. Circa, well we were not disappointed this time.

The starters were ginormous! I had the Shrimp Scampi which was spicy sausage and shrimp with tonnes of garlic bread.

And Phil had the Baked Camembert, which were both simply delicious!

Phil's main was a lime marinated skirt steak and it was as delicious as he remembered.

I had stuffed chicken which was served with very very rich truffle mac and cheese with lobster.  I got a take out as it was all too much to eat.

We got talking to a lovely couple who were visiting San Fran for the first time.  It was then time for pudding a dessert we were both looking forward to very much.  Last time we shared one this time we had one each.  Black and White JD Bread pudding with Pecans and Caramel sauce.  We left stuffed again!

Amsterdam with my mate

Back in May I booked my flight to Amsterdam to meet my friend Carol who was booking an European tour that started in Amsterdam.  She decided to fly out 3 days before joining her tour so we can spend some time together.  It seemed ridiculous not joining her as she was this close.

Well time flew by and it was September before we knew!  I decided to book some train travel for a stress free commute and Phil dropped me off at the station and agreed to fetch me again the Monday night.  Stress free???  Hardly!!  There was a freight train broken down between Derby and Burton and after waiting for a couple of hours, Phil collected me and took me to the airport along with a girl called Una who also had a flight to Derry to catch.

We got to the airport for 12:15 and by the time I got through security and to my gate, I was just in time to board the plane.  The tiny little plane!

There was only about 40 seats on the plan and being sat next to the propellor, you were unable to have a conversation as you couldn't hear anything.  But we managed to get there safely.

I was all prepared and sent Carol a map of Schipol airport so that we would be able to find one another.  That wasn't as simple as I thought.  Luckily I managed to find a very weary looking mate as she had not slept for over 48 hours!  After a bit of a farse with train tickets we finally managed to get on the right train to Central station.  However, with Carol's heavy suitcase we decided to grab a taxi to the apartment.

We were greeted by our lovely host Jan in a beautiful apartment which looked just like the pictures.  

It was also set in a lovely quiet square away from all the hustle and bustle of Amsterdam night life.

First night we just went to find some food and found this lovely little fondue restaurant.  We thought it was very apt as it is from the era we met.  We went for the fish fondue and it was brilliant.

However, the desert drinks that looked like Don Pedro's but had some italian name made with lemon sorbet and vodka was sublime!

Next morning we decided to go to Museumplein and see the Rijksmuseum.

Inside we got to see Rembrandt's "Nightwatch" and Van Gogh's self portrait.  But I was bored for the most of it as it was just more paintings, but Carol (the artist) seemed to be pleased as punch with being there.



When we finished we went to the park behind the museum and went in search of some food.  The park area was lovely too.







We found some food...



We then went to the Diamond Museum.





And I liked the windows and the floor...





We then went back to our apartment and stopped off at the local for a pint of "Gnome's Piss" or 5.









It a bit of a shock at nearly 20 Euro for a round!!!

Next day we took a oganised trip to Cheese and Clog Factory and to see the Windmills.





Hairiest hands ever spotted on the boat to Volendam.









Now for the Windmills...flying visit.



Looking less than impressed.



Back in the city and a walk round the red light district.









Dam Square and Palace was our next stop.











After a 65 Euro taxi drive to airport via Carol's hotel, Its finally time for the off.  Fab 3 days with my friend.

The Crimea for the last time at Jazz Cafe, Camden - 30th July 2013

It is such a sad sad day, made even sadder that I could not persuade a single one of my friends to come and join me.  I listened to the entire discography on the way to London, cried a few tears (ok I sobbed like a baby) and remembered the great gigs I was lucky to be a part of.  I do have some awesome memories of  my time with this band, but why oh why does everything have to come to an end!???

It was Davey's birthday yesterday and I baked him a cake, but when I got to the venue I felt stupid and ended up leaving the cake in the car.  Davey was the first person I saw and I got a lovely long hug from him and he said he would see me later.

In the venue saw nobody I recognised but I didn't care.  I didn't really like either of the opening acts, but that might just have been down to my anticipation as it had been some years.

The gig was immense and can be enjoyed here over and over again!

I bought some vinyl and a CD and all the lads signed it and I held up pretty well.  But it was when I talked to Owen I started to cry.  When I relayed this story to Davey, his reply was "Well Owen will do that to you".

Said my goodbyes too Davey and cried all the way to the car and much of the way home.  The end of an era...

House gig number 1 - Liverpool

I send Rob a text on Friday night to see if he wanted me to come to the house gig as I had nothing to do with sorting it out.  He told me to come if I wanted to and to meet him at his house so we can go together.  We sat in Rob's house for a while discussing new management and everything that has cracked off in the last week.  I am a happy bunny and hope that new management can make things happen.

We arrived at Doug and Sue's house at about 8pm and no guests had arrived yet. They were lovely hosts and Sue being a child minder had lots of signs stuck all around the house, but the ones tonight referred to people helping themselves to booze and making sure the put money in the tip jar.

Talking of money we saw these lovely napkins lying on the counter and this was the result.

People started arriving and it was lovely to see so many turn out.  I think the final count was 29 but the best bit of all was that you could hear a pin drop as they were most attentive.  Rob made some reference about how weird the situation was and that seem to break the ice.

He played for over an hour but in all honesty it didn't seem like it at all.  I even commented to him that it was short!.

Got chatting to some lovely guests as I was making my way through the crowd to sell some CDs.  I sold 6 in the end which was very good odds considering the amount of people there.  Most seem to enjoy it and it was really nice to see Rob enjoying himself.  

Gemma joined us for the gig and later on went to fetch Charlie.  He was then the star of the show.

Looking forward to more of these.

Here is "Burns" recorded unplugged.

Ice Cream Loaf

Well Facebook has been full of posts for this recipe to make an Ice Cream bread and of course curiosity  got the better of me and I just had to try it!

It is a simple 2 ingredient recipe.

2 cups of ice cream - any flavour
1.5 cups of self raising flour

So I went looking for interesting ice cream flavours in Tesco, plus I also wanted to find something that was around the 500ml because it would melt on the way home.  So I opted for Haagen Das Creme Brulee flavour.

The ice cream was lovely and liquid when I got home so I mixed it with the flour and it was quite a dry mixture.  I must say that I did not trust the recipe and decided to add an egg.  I also thought with using creme brulee flavour I would add a couple of drops of butterscotch essence and I added some fudge chunks to the batter and sprinkled some on top.

I baked it in the oven for 30 mins on 180 degrees Celsius. 

Verdict:
Surprising not as sweet as cake but nicer than bread.  I think it would benefit from either a glaze or some kind of filling just to add some flavour.  I liked the interesting texture of the cake/bread and it was quite moist.