Month: January 2018

A man that has been on the periphery of my media consumption for 20 years or so, and I admit I didn’t really ‘get’ the Adam & Joe thing at first and as none of my friends were bothered I missed that boat, but after catching some of their show on 6Music a while ago, it’s been nice to revisit Mr. Buxton (on the recommendation of a friend who is a big fan*).

Not only is he both affable and quirkly entertaining, his range of guests constantly surprises. I downloaded a few older episodes and have enjoyed every minute of them; Josh Homme and Matt Berry a favourite so far, purely because I just couldn’t place them as being mates (which they are!).

Similarly to Beautiful Anonymous, the format and content varies, but Adam is both sympathetic, positive, engaging and funny when needed.

A couple of recent highlights for you.

You can subscribe to future episodes using this RSS Link (link corrected!)

* also recommended was BUG, his live show where Adam takes you through some of the comments found under music videos posted on YouTube, utterly hilarious. More about BUG.

Human beings are fascinating and the Beautiful Anonymous podcast is a fascinating sight into the life of that weeks caller. Some people come on and talk about how they can’t visual memories, one told of her escape from a violent abusive relationship, and a recent favourite was a German caller who was picking cherries in Australia and handed the phone to a ‘bushman’.

1 phone call. 1 hour. No names. No holds barred. That’s the premise behind Beautiful Stories from Anonymous People, hosted by comedian Chris Gethard. Every week, Chris opens the phone line to one anonymous caller, and he can’t hang up first, no matter what. From shocking confessions and family secrets to philosophical discussions and shameless self-promotion, anything can and will happen!

I’ve laughed, I’ve cried, I’ve finished listening feeling angry, and I’ve finished listening and felt uplifted and determined! But most of all I’ve enjoyed being invited into the life of an anonymous stranger for an hour or so. Chris is a naturally friendly outgoing guy but knows when to shut up. Not always an easy listen, and there is a voyeuristic aspect to it at times which feels a little odd but it’s never NOT engaging in some form or another.

A couple of recent highlights:

You can subscribe to future episodes using this RSS Link.

It’s always good to try something new and so I kicked off this year with a first; my first ever live ballet performance (watching, not performing) of Swan Lake.

Having spotted it on Facebook late last year, I posted to see if anyone else was interested and one of my awesome gym buddies Martha said yes, and so it was that Martha and I found ourselves taking our seats, both a little unsure of quite what to expect but excited nonetheless.

I’d figured that Swan Lake was a reasonably safe bet for a ballet virgin (no doubt those in the know will correct this assumption) if for no other reason than I know the music. I’ve not been to many dance performances; a flamenco show in Spain many many years ago still reverberates for despite having seen flamenco on TV, seeing it live in the flesh was an entirely different experience that was as sensuous as it was slick. As I had seen ballet on TV before, I wondered if a live performance would translate the same way.

My only preconception was that ballet was loud due to the blocks in the shoes, so as the lights dimmed and the orchestra breathed into life I could feel my pulse quicken.

The story of Swan Lake is a bit on the dark side, all sorcery and death but isn’t all that complex, or long, and of course the story is just the vehicle to bring the performances to life. One thing that was quickly apparent was that there is a lot of applause during a ballet.

It’s quite an experience, not just the fact you have a small orchestra playing mere feet from you – we were three rows back from the front – but the physical prowess of some of the dancers was startling. It took me a while to fully get to grips with what I was watching because the dancers all made it look almost effortless, whether one of the main troupe or one of the leads. At one point, the prima ballerina spends a few minutes spinning en pointe, on one foot, it was utterly mesmerising to watch the control, poise, and elegance on display.

A few little surprises though, not only how much the dancers talk to each other on stage (you can’t hear them of course, so I was wondering if it was on-stage direction or asking what was for dinner that evening), and with many of the ensemble dancers on stage during performances, there was a lot of regal hand waving as one of the leads had the rest of the stage to themselves, but maybe that’s just a Swan Lake thing?

I did enjoy it on the whole. The opening two Acts were a little slow, but throughout the performance I found myself in that wonderfully ‘lost’ place, utterly focussed on the stage and unaware of my surroundings. Whilst I wouldn’t say I was a convert, I’m glad I went and maybe I’ll look to a few more dance acts at this years Fringe Festival… maybe…

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Dear Lucy,

You are two. TWO!

How this has happened so quickly is beyond me (heaven knows what your parents must think!), but there you have it. You are now two years old and as your character and personality has started to show, I think, if possible, I’ve become even more smitten with my gorgeous little niece than ever.

So, what’s new now that you are two. Well you are now a proper little person, with your own sense of humour, your own quiet inquisitive nature, and you are turning into such a beautiful little person. And no this isn’t biased Uncle G talking, all you need to do is look at the comments on social media, and listen to my colleagues on whom I regularly foist your latest antics (blame your Mum for sending me the videos!), EVERYONE thinks you are utterly adorable, and they aren’t wrong.

It’s been a fun year for sure. You’ve done some properly amazing things, things you will take for granted but which are absolutely incredible!! First up the small matter of walking, which soon turned into a bobbling uncoordinated run and then all of a sudden we are chasing you up and down hallways whilst you scream in delight.

And then you only went and started talking and learning how to communicate, stringing words together in what turns out to be mostly commands to get what you want. I will admit though, I was a little disappointed that your first word wasn’t aardvark but hey, it was a long shot…

Now that you are walking and talking you’ve fast become my favourite little drunk dictator; stoating about on slightly wobbly legs, yelling HIYA at anyone who passes, or TA TA as you run off somewhere else, or MUM UP, or MUM JOUSS, and so on.

You also developed a cheeky smile. A wonderful toothy grin that transforms you from big eyed angelic beauty to mischievous troublemaker in a split second. The latter is usually accompanied by the throwing or touching of something you kinda-maybe-sorta knew you shouldn’t do but suggests that you are gonna do it anyway just to find out what happens.

Alas with mischievousness comes consequence and you are also learning that sometimes grown ups will say no and stop you doing something. The thing in question doesn’t seem to matter, and the first moments of quiet rage can spring from anywhere. I won’t lie, I am sincerely hoping to get a good temper tantrum captured on video for future embarrassment opportunities (don’t say I didn’t warn you!).

Naturally, I have in no way encouraged you to explore the boundaries of your naughtiness and any claims by your mother that I did are complete fabrications (just as I will continue to deny any future allegations of encouraging your naughty behaviour… it’s my Uncle G perogative).

What’s even more fun is the most recent development; you are now copying words that people say, yes even the naughty ones. However it’s fair to say that between them, your Mum and Dad are more than capable of teaching you all the really bad ones, so I will settle for getting you to shout words like JOBBIE (which is important as it’s your Grandma McLean’s most favourite word ever!!).

Yet despite all these new found skills you are still prone to stopping and quietly observing your surroundings. One minute you are hauling me around a playpark – and I do mean hauling, you are suprisingly strong for a two year old – the next you are stock still and wide-eyed as you watch another kid tackle the slide.

One of my favourite photos I took of you last year was of you just sitting staring out the window at the world. I’d love to have know what you were thinking, and I so dearly hope that that sense of curiosity remains with you as you grow. The world is wonderful if you look at it the right way and I’ll do my very best to remind of you that whenever I can.

My gorgeous niece, you continue to amaze and delight; every moment with you, every photo I see of you, fills my heart with joy and love. Every moment I spend with you I see a wonderful little person emerging who is curious to learn more about the world around her, who watches peoples faces to see how they react, who can be shy at times, boisterous at others, and is so very deeply loved by her parents, her grandparents and her ‘Unc Gee’ (which, for the record, was THE best Christmas present I got last year when you uttered that on Christmas Day!).

I cannot wait to see what this year has in store for you, although if I’m being honest I’m mostly interested in seeing just how far you can push your Mum and Dad before they crack… the terrible twos beckon!

Happy Birthday Lucypops!

Uncle G

P.S. For the tantrum video I want a full on, throw yourself to the floor, flailing limbs, screaming performance. None of this sulking off in the huff (save that for when you are an angsty teenager).

The eighth incarnation of Six by Nico and as we move into a new calendar year, they’ve decided to go back to some of the best dishes from 2017, but there was a twist!

The menu was announced on the 5th January, and in the days prior to the announcement it was up to the public to choose what dishes would make the cut. For each of the six courses we were given a choice.

1. Chips & Cheese (The Chippie) vs Ratatouille (Disney)
2. Pancake (Route 66) vs Steak Pie (The Chippie)
3. Mac & Cheese (Childhood) vs Wild Mushroom (Forest)
4. Sea Bream Taco (Route 66) vs Fish & Chips (The Chippie)
5. Duck (Illusion) vs Burger (Childhood)
6. Egg (Illusion) vs Lemon Tart (Route 66)

Talk about Hobson’s Choice! Some of my favourite dishes weren’t even an option, no Picnic Blanket (Picnic), no Lady & the Tramp (Disney), no Sandwich Platter (Picnic)! That said, as they evolve each dish throughout the six week run of the menu, regardless of what the final menu looked like, I knew it would be a little bit different to when we first ate them.

And so, with all the voting in, the menu for our eighth visit (from the website) looks like this:

1. THE CHIPPIE – CHIPS and CHEESE – Parmesan Espuma / Confit Potato / Curry Oil
2. THE CHIPPIE – STEAK PIE – Speyside Beef Shin / Onion Sauerkraut / Brioche
3. CHILDHOOD – MAC and CHEESE – Glazed Chicken Wing / Charred Cauliflower / Truffle
4. ROUTE 66 – SEA BREAM TACO – Guacamole / Pickled Chilli / Preserved Lime and Red Onion Salsa
5. ILLUSION – DUCK – Blueberries / Hazelnut / Wild Mushroom / Cocoa
6. ILLUSION – WHITE CHOCOLATE – Passionfruit / Lime Curd / Coconut

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But first, as always, Snacks!

Definitely some favourites here (even though the snacks weren’t part of the voting), so we had Smoked Haddock Bon Bon, Truffle and Parmesan popcorn, and Peanut Butter Milkshake. The Bon Bons were rich and packed with full of flavour, the Truffle popcorn was lost on me (popcorn is weird), but hey who doesn’t like a light creamy Peanut Butter milkshake. Some great snacks but we were eager for the first course.

I was so pleased The Chippie faired well in the public voting as it was my favourite of all the menus and I had forgotten how wonderfully light the Chips and Cheese starter course was. A little cup of the rich and light espuma, with a nice mix of confit potato pieces, some soft, some ‘edges’ and the curry oil adds a very subtle aspect to the dish without overpowering it. I love to think I’d be able to eat a much bigger serving of this but it’s so rich, I think the portion size is about right.

My rants on what constitutes a proper pie are well enough know by my friends (who I was eating with) yet we didn’t really care when this delicious deconstructed plate of tasty offerings was put in front of us. The beef shin is the star, melting in the mouth, falling apart under the gentlest of prods with the fork, I definitely COULD eat a larger portion of this. The onion sauerkraut and brioche help bring it together and it was universally praised and quickly scoffed.

The Mac and Cheese dish I remember as being good but nothing to shout about. It hasn’t really changed in content or presentation but was an absolute delight. A ‘slice’ of thick and very cheesy macaroni, with succulent chicken wing in a light barbeque sauce, all helped by the nutty charred cauliflower, definitely seemed better than the first time round!

Next up, the Sea Bream Taco – and putting aside the fact that I didn’t vote for this – which was pretty tasty although the lime salsa doesn’t sit well on my plate. The fish is clearly the star here, perfectly cooked with a nice crisp skin, sitting on top of a slightly too oily taco, all of which sits on top of a delicious guacamole. A nice idea but one of those dishes you have to move around to eat (you try cutting a taco sitting on a pile of guacamole!). As always, all well presented, and tasty enough just some aspects aren’t for me.

The final savoury dish was one of my least favourites when I first tried it, but having seen it plated up at other tables, I thought I’d stick with it (I had contemplated swapping this course out for the vegetarian option which was the same dish but with beetroot instead of duck). Alas it fell short. The duck was better than the last time, but there just isn’t enough variety of flavour for me which was surprising given it was on the Illusion menu which managed to mess with visuals and flavours pretty well. One sad little pickled mushroom was all I had to give the dish some pop. A shame (especially when the other vote option was, notably, a lot better).

Thankfully along came dessert to rescue the day! Whilst I had voted for the Lemon Tart, I was just as happy to see the Egg dish arrive. Presented as half of a frozen coconut panacotta egg, with passionfruit yolk, it was packed full of vibrant flavours, and as it melted that panacotta adds to the sumptuous of the entire plate. Wonderful stuff.

We had managed to get a table right at the start of this ‘new’ menu, and as ever I know they will tweak the dishes as they work through the 6 week run, what’ll be really interesting this time is to see where they finally end up, having had 12 weeks to fuss and cajole these wonderful plates of food into something better and better with each presentation.

Overall, as always, a good evening of tasty food. Going in, part of me thought the idea of a ‘Best of’ would diminish each dish a little as I’ve tried them all before, but instead I found myself twice as delighted to be able to revisit some of my very favourite plates of food from last year again.

Have I mentioned that the set menu is £25 for six courses (and you can swap courses between the main and vegetarian options). Add in £5 for the ‘Snacks’, and £5 for an apertif, chuck a bottle of wine in and for £45-50 a head you are being treated to high end cuisine in a laid back environment. The food quality remains high, as does the execution of each plate. It really is a fine dining experience on a budget.

I discovered the Hidden Brain podcast late last year and it’s quickly become a favourite.

The Hidden Brain helps curious people understand the world – and themselves. Using science and storytelling, Hidden Brain’s host Shankar Vedantam reveals the unconscious patterns that drive human behavior, the biases that shape our choices, and the triggers that direct the course of our relationships.

It’s a mishmash of topics, all delivered by a curious, engaged host who has enough background knowledge to ask good questions and never fails to get me thinking about how I act, how I engage with the world, and how I am affected by the world around me.

The most recent episode is one that touches on the world we live in today, tracing back through from the roots of advertising to the simple notion that is pretty evident to everyone I know, “our mental space is under attack by attention hijackers”. It also touches on how Trump became President, the first popular usage of fake news, and just how much advertisers will lie to us.

The big takeaway for me from this episode was to find a way to be more mindful with my everyday attention. It’s too easy to ‘just spend 10 minutes’ on Buzzfeed (also mentioned in the podcast) and lose most of a day without really paying attention to it; those times where a quick google at 10pm suddenly finds you watching YouTube videos at 1am are all down to manufactured content deliberately created to draw us in and keep our attention.

How often do you decide what holds your attention?

Listen to the full episode here:

And you can subscribe to future episodes using this RSS Link.

Got any podcast recommendations? I’d love to hear them.