Month: April 2017

Modern life is consumption. Modern life is the internet. Modern life is choice. Choose everything. Get exactly what you want. When you want. At a cost.

This is where we are as consumers. If I can find something online, and it’s what I want, I can order it and it arrives at my door in a few days. As the type of person who is careful what he spends his money on, and who will research most purchases of any value so knows exactly what he wants, it’s a perfect storm.

To be clear, I do get a little obsessed when it comes to making purchases online. For example, I’ve even researched and bought a specific tin opener (made by OXO), and no I’m not ashamed! I know what I want and in the age of the internet, the age of the smartphone with a billion apps to cater to your every whim, why should I have to settle for less?

Now flip this view on to three different items, two of which are typically they most expensive ‘purchases’ anyone ever makes – buying a home, buying a car, and choosing a TV package.

I won’t comment on buying a house as I’ve not done that for a long time, and very few people are able to buy a house that is exactly as they want it (or Grand Designs would be out of business).

But the other two irk me.

TV packages

I’ve been a customer of Sky, and as I have a NowTV box and subscription I technically am,  but I’m currently with BT. I mostly watch things on the BT Sports channels (or rather I mostly watch things I’ve recorded from the BT Sports channels), and occasionally I delve into the ‘terrestial’ channels 1-5. Outside of that, I’d estimate that once a month I might watch something on, say, a Documentary channel, or Food channel. But, by and large, the actual number of channels I watch is no more than 10.

Number of channels I have in my TV package? About 80.

Given that I watch through a box, surely there is a way for BT to know this? Surely that then could be offered to me, at a cost which I’d happily pay, as a personalised TV package?

So rather than paying £30 a month for 80 odd channels when I only watch 10, charge me £1 per channel plus £5 for the ‘personalised’ package?

In fact, I’d argue that it’s not about the cost, it’s about the user experience. Whilst my logical brain says I wouldn’t pay the same money for fewer channels JUST to have all the extraneous guff hidden from MY tv guide, my emotional brain says HELL YES!! Charge me the same but only show the channels I want!!

And no, ‘Favourites’ is not a solution.

Car packages

I’m currently pondering replacing my car. The term of the lease is up so I have a decision to make – keep it and pay the final lump sum, hand it back, or bump for something ‘new’ (new to me) – and as the car is starting to show signs of expensive bills on the horizon, I’m leaning towards something new(er).

My criteria for a car is simple enough. Have reasonable running costs, have bluetooth so I can play my music choices from my phone, don’t be that horrible pee yellow/green colour that Honda offered me the last time I looked.

That’s about it.

However, if money was no object what I’d really like is to choose my gadgets. Bluetooth, heated seats, keyless entry, remote boot opening, reversing cameras…

As for the rest of the car, sure it needs to look ok, but if it has an engine and goes then that’s the ‘car’ bit sorted.

But no, depending on which manufacturer you look at, the spec levels all differ, some offer ‘packs’ to upgrade that include some things, but not all, and no that pack can’t be installed with that other pack. Why?

WHY!?!?

Everywhere else we have choice. Some say too much choice, which frankly I think is bullshit, but if every other industry can get the hang of this changing world, why can’t these two? When oh when will the customer be put first?

Honestly, WHY IS LIFE SO UNFAIR ALL THE DAMN TIME!!!

Yours, a spoiled rotten perennial who likes moaning about things of absolutely no importance.

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Crisp morning air snaps at my exposed legs, gravel scrunches under my feet. I start the timer and head off, full of purpose on this bright Sunday morning.

It’s cold in the shade of the trees but I know I will warm soon enough as the dappled light throws long shadows across the pathway. I follow the well trodden route down to the water, following the laughter of squabbling ducks which dash from shore to sanctuary as I pass.

Further along the loch opens up before me and adds a further chill to the passing breeze. In the distance a boat bounces on wave tops as it speeds north. I maintain a more sedate pace. Two legs on land.

A dog appears at a trot ahead of me, approaches, slows, and investigates me briefly from afar, before turning and leading the way forward. It’s a small wiry breed, tiny frantic legs pumping as it heads back from where it came, taking me to the jetty where it stops by its owner. I smile as I pass and continue on as the path starts to rise.

Soon I am climbing the hill, onwards onwards, one foot at a time, breath quickening, stride shortening, sweat forming. Pump those arms, focus a few feet ahead, smile at passerby as your legs ignite, calf muscles spasm, thigh muscles scream.

On it rises, steeper now, but I will not stop. It will not defeat me. I glance up ahead, not long now, I can do this. I am doing this.

And then the slope eases and flattens and I lift my head and look out across a grass covered hill, through spring buds on branches, to the mighty Loch below. The sun dashes through gaps in the clouds, splashes of astonishing colour sway in the breeze. I slowly fill my lungs and my pulse slows from a raging torrent to a syncopated melody.

I wander on, head high, lush green and dazzling blue fill my view.

I find my way to a park bench.

I sit.

I am here.

I am now.

I close my eyes and stay a while.

This year I’ve deliberately kept to a schedule here on this blog. Tuesdays and Thursdays I post something, Saturdays are for the Weekend Reading compilations, so aside from monthly roundups, I’ve gotten into a routine of writing. That was the point, to make myself write more.

Sometimes it’s a bit forced, but sometimes it feels easy. There have a been a few bits of creative writing thrown in and they have (I think) mostly worked, but overall it’s about getting used to writing. I had gotten away from it here, away from writing in my journal, away from any notion of picking up the novel I started as part of NaNoWriMo.

I think it’s starting to pay off though. I’ve kept the schedule here, I’m writing in my journal more often (important for other reasons) and more recently some ideas for my novel have started to percolate. I think the time away from it has helped and I’m hoping that, with an empty weekend (what a novelty!) ahead I can sit down and progress things a little.

That said, there will be large parts which I’ll be rewriting but that’s ok, I’m not actually as bothered by that as I thought I might be. I’m more excited that I’ve a clearer idea of some character motivations and hopefully they’ll push the story in a slightly different direction and help me get towards the end. Oh yeah, I’ve had the start and end figured out for a while, in fact I’ve probably had about 75% of the damn thing thought through until you get to the last quarter before the final chapter. There I seem to stall and can’t quite get a handle on how I get from X to Y before heading to Z.

I’m not sure if the blog schedule has helped, or whether it’s just now that I’m starting to get past last year and the flat move, and starting to look ahead. And in that very spirit I’m not focusing on why, just the act of writing itself.

Who knows, maybe this time next year I’ll be able to say I’ve written a book?

My recent move to a smaller flat was prompted by a few factors but I decided to use it as a chance to downsize and minimise my belongings.

Moving from a large roomed two bedroom flat to a small roomed one bedroom flat made more sense financially, and enforced a level of de-cluttering . That process was, in hindsight, the culmination of the last few years of trying to have less, but it was the push I needed to tackle some of the things I’d been avoiding; it’s easy to put off sorting through your clothes when you have a large double wardrobe for yourself, but not when you’ll only have a small single wardrobe in your new flat!

I’ve been in the new place a few weeks now, and I’ve mostly adjusted to living in the new space. There a couple of niggles but nothing major, and whilst I do have a jam-packed hall cupboard (which will get a sorting out this coming weekend), everything has a place and it’s starting to feel like a home. Next steps are to get some artwork up on the walls, which is prompting some interesting decisions as I don’t have the wall space to hang everything I own, and maybe a couple of new cushions (my new sofa came with two that match it but that’s not really the look I’m going for!).

There is the bonus of having a garage to use as well, which is holding my bike and a couple of boxes (tools and bike stuff), but overall I’ve fitted into the smaller space well.

Perhaps too well! I realised at the weekend that I have an entire small set of drawers that is empty, and a small bookcase which has some token items in it but which I could probably get rid of as well.

Longer term my aim is to replace what I have with better quality items, be they antique or not. I’ve still got a lot of IKEA furniture – two tall, one short bookcase, the TV unit, and two chest of drawers – that I will look to change out at some point, but there is no rush.

The other long term aim is to avoid the temptation to re-clutter! I’ve bought a few books recently and they are on the shelf alongside the other novels I’ve never read, but as soon as I’ve read them they’ll be passed on. Other than that, I’ve purchased a few household items to help organise the space I do have a little better and I think that’s where I’ll be focusing short-term. A few smart ideas to help store things, to make the space look bigger than it is, and I should be sorted.

And then there are the vanity items. The aforementioned cushions fall into that bracket, but the purchase of my lime green sofa was part of a deliberate move away from duller colours (my living room was mostly dark browns and deep reds before) to embracing colour far more. A few tweaks here or there (and possibly the purchase of a dark mustard yellow coloured footstool) and I should be set.

I do enjoy this aspect of being in a new space, a chance to re-invent through necessity, and I don’t think it’s a coincidence that I’m also re-inventing myself; counselling for the mind, bootcamp for the body. A friend of mine commented as much recently, saying that he was proud of me for getting help with these things, and that I was setting an example, tackling all of this at once.

And for once I’m doing my best to take his compliment to heart. I am doing a lot, I am working hard physically and mentally, and this weekend, after I returned from bootcamp and I sat on my newly delivered sofa, I looked around my new living room and smiled.

TL;DR – my tweet from last night:

Despite the fact the ‘parent’ restaurant (111 by Nico) was a 2 minute walk from my last flat, I only ate there once but it was a fantastic meal. So when I heard about this new venture, and started reading the reviews, I was desperate to try it out.

The premise is simple enough, as explained on their website:

A NEW RESTAURANT EVERY SIX WEEKS
Six by Nico will be home to a series of carefully curated and constantly evolving restaurant concepts.
Each six weeks, Nico and his team will serve a brand new six-course tasting-menu – each one themed upon a different place or memory.

We were there on Tuesday night, catching the tail end of the first six weeks of the restaurant – “The Chippie: A nostalgic nod to the traditional Fish and chip shop, this restaurant will showcase the ‘Best of British’ flavours for which the UK is famed for worldwide.” – and yes, it includes their take on a deep fried mars bar.

Entering the restaurant (at 9:15pm on a Tuesday night, one of the few mid-week seatings that was still available when I booked) you are warmly greeted and welcomed to a very stylish place. The first thing you’ll notice is the kitchen, open to the restaurant. The decor is dark but not gloomy, refined without feeling like it’s trying too hard. We were sat in the table by the door, right next to the kitchen area. Only downside was the draught from the front door but that’s mostly down to people not knowing how to shut a door properly (although could be ‘fixed’ by installing a taller glass panel at the back of the booth perhaps?). Even the menu and wine list shared the same high quality, muted appeal.

Safe to say the attention to detail was great, all the way down to the old school salt and vinegar condiments on the table, just like you get in a Chippie. Clever touch.

The staff were great. Friendly, relaxed, and clearly well drilled. They knew what they were talking about, explained each of the six dishes as they were presented to us and, always a good sign, they had definitely all tried the food. So, when you are trying to figure out what that extra component in a dish was, they can help tell you it was probably the tuna in the broth…

Anyway, on to the food. As it’s a set taster menu, you don’t really have to do much other than choose your drinks. We didn’t go for the wine pairing (this time), but felt it rude not to also get the Snacks & Bread prior to the first course. And boy did it set the tone for what lay ahead.

I had checked out the full menu beforehand and at first glance I was a little bemused…

1. Chips & Cheese
2. Scampi
3. Steak Pie
4. Special Fish
5. Smoked Sausage
6. Deep Fried Mars Bar

But of course there is a lot more to it than that, what we actually got were six dishes that were excellent prepared, beautifully presented and would grace the finest tables in the land! Specifically (and to be fair, I’m playing fast and loose with the menu here, it’s clearly articulated on their website):

1. Crisp potato cannelloni with crowdie mousse
2. Scrabster monkfish cheek, squid ink and herb emulsion
3. Speyside beef shin, onion choucroute and brioche
4. Shetland cod with sea vegetable, pickled mussels and taramasalata
5. Ayrshire pork with black pudding, apple and celeriac
6. Salted caramel, chocolate nougat, malt parfait

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Without fail, every dish elicited high praise from our table, usually through a quiet contemplative silence as we all just sat and savoured the fresh flavours and wonderful combinations, knowing nods as each mouthful revealed another contrast of flavour or texture, and cleared plates at every pass.

I’m stopping short of trying to describe each dish, largely because I don’t have the vocabulary but each one displayed the same core thinking. Take ‘know flavours’ and distil them down to their core, then present them in clever ways in dishes that were without fault.

A small example, accompanying the cod dish there were small morsels of crumb which tasted exactly like salt and vinegar batter. As each of us discovered these on the plate we all had the same look of delight on our faces as we were transported back to the chippies of our childhood.

The real kicker to all of this? The one thing I still can’t quite get my head around given the quality of what is on offer? All of this, the staff, the service, the fantastic food… £25 for the taster menu (all in with starters and wine, we were £40 a head), £25! Amazing value.

They announced the new menu for the coming six week stint and by the end of our meal we had already booked to go back in a few weeks. Can’t really give it higher praise than that and, as I said, I’m not sure I have the words to do so.

Two down, eighteen to go!

I wasn’t really sure what I was getting myself into when I signed up for the Summer Boot Camp at AG Fitness, but with the first week complete I’m (already) glad I did.

The sessions – run on Wednesday evenings and Saturday mornings – are HIIT based (oh yeah, I’ve got all the lingo now!) aka High Intensity Interval Training , which is exactly what it sounds like. A new form of hell on earth!!

OK, it’s not actually that bad; there is a range of exercises which you rotate through, we did a set of 6 repetitions of each; 15 secs exercise, then 15 secs rest on last Wednesday night. I’ve already got some favourites (ones that I find easy) and some really-not-favourite-AT-ALL (ones that are mostly pain, and suffering, and ouchy making). They are all designed to exercise different muscle sets, and ranges of motion, some of which I didn’t even realise existed, I’m learning so much!

It is hard work but it is rewarding. Admittedly after the very first session I was a bit wobbly, and close to throwing up, but I’m putting that down to a crap sleep the night before, and possibly not eating enough so I ran out of energy towards the end, and I was probably pushing myself too hard during the exercises as well (the last three I did were half-efforts at best). After the second session (at 9am on a Saturday morning, which is just cruel) – which was fewer exercises but 30 seconds long – I didn’t feel as bad.

And I’m sure I’ll get use to my muscles aching ALL the damn time, right?

There are 12 of us doing boot camp, so every session we split into groups of four and work through the exercises. From pushups and planks, to russian twists and battle ropes, with added kettlebell fun and even a set on the heavy punch bag (picture your favourite politician and go!), it’s varied, and as you are only doing each exercise for 15 secs at a time it’s… manageable.

Part of bootcamp inlcudes an (optional) one hour nutrition session, which was very useful as it was aimed at making sure we were eating the right kind of food to give us the energy to do the exercises. I finally understand what all that macros stuff is about – bootcamp, exercising your body AND your mind, who knew!

It’s been fun so far, and a lot of credit goes to our trainers Juan and Andy, both of whom keep things relaxed and friendly, and very far removed from what I imagined a boot camp to be. Add in some good music being belted out, plus the support everyone in the group is giving each other, and I’m already considering signing up for the next session. One step at a time though!

And I guess that’s what has surprised me the most, how much I’m enjoying it. I’ve been a member of numerous gyms in the past and never stuck with them, I’ve tried a one-on-one personal trainer but that just felt awkward, but working out in a group, in a great environment, really helps. The last time I actually enjoyed exercising was when I joined jogScotland (alas my wonky knee permits much running these days) and I know the camaraderie of exercising with others is a big part of how this works (for me at least). Ohhh and a small added bonus is the Facebook group where we can share our common moans that seem to kick in a couple of days after each session; ‘sneezing really hurts’ and ‘I didn’t even know I had muscles there!’ being the most common, so far.

Despite the torture… sorry, “carefully crafted exercises”, I’m really enjoying it, even though it has highlighted just how unfit I’ve gotten the past few years. I’d say if you are in the Glasgow area, and have been wary of doing something like this, I heartily recommend giving it a try.

Keep an eye on the AG Fitness Facebook page, or their website, for the next one.

Ohh and there were (optional) “before” photos taken as well, I’ll share that and the “after” photo in about 18 weeks time!

* I was in no way asked, paid, prompted, or cajoled to write this. To be honest, I’m hoping if the trainers read it they might go easy on me in the future!! (haha, no chance!)