Gynecological Sweetbread

Note: This entry has been restored from old archives.

Sorry, I have to share this… I’m generating random domain names for a benchmark/test scenario and the first one my script spat out was:

gynecological-sweetbread.com.au

Heh!

(My /usr/share/dict/linux.words file seems to be a Yank.)

Moving to the UK

Note: This entry has been restored from old archives.

Well, I’d say that that moving to the UK has become a certainty. As originally planned I’m still heading to the US in April – but that visit is now shortened to a week. Then back to Sydney for a couple of weeks – dead busy organising our “moving out” of the country. A week visiting family in WA then bounce back through Sydney to the UK.

So much to organise! We’ve been looking at areas to live in in the UK and I must say that my favourite is Oxford – it’s an attractive place with plenty going on in the evenings. It is well placed for my own movements and the rent there isn’t too unreasonable. However I fear that it isn’t the wisest practical choice for Kat, since the IT job market in Oxford isn’t exactly huge and it is an hour long train ride just to get from Oxford to Marylebone station – ruling out commuting to London.

My practical nature will probably win, and at the moment a more sensible place to live looks like Rickmansworth. It is only a 30 min train ride to London, rent there is good and it is convenient for my own movements (I spend most of my time at a location outside of London).

Fun fun!

70 Elephants

Note: This entry has been restored from old archives.

The other day when I logged into the system at the gym I found an unusual message waiting for me from “Mark” – I have never met this Mark. It read, in summary:

Congratulations, you have lifted 250,000kgs – that’s the equivalent of 70 elephants!

Very strange… so I spent the rest of the day thinking about 70 elephants chopped up into various pieces ranging from 40 to 110kg in size. These pieces being tied to the lifting cables of the gym equipment or being spiked onto either end of an iron bar.

The great thing about benchpressing elephant chunks is that once done you could have a tasty spit-roast – mmm, protein.

Pink Salmon Cous Cous

Note: This entry has been restored from old archives.

Cous cous is the ultimate low latency feed. This is a “wet” cous cous recipe.

Ingredients:

  • 3 cups of water
  • 1 x 200g tin of pink salmon
  • 1 beef stock cube
  • 2 tsp thyme
  • 1 tsp fresh ground pepper
  • 1/2 tsp cayenne pepper
  • 1/2 tsp ground coriander seed
  • 1/4 tsp ground cumin
  • 2 cups cous cous
  • good extra virgin olive oil

Put everything except for the cous cous into a saucepan and bring to the boil, let simmer for a couple of minutes. Ensure that the salmon is broken up to the desired degree and that the stock cube is entirely dissolved (if one was better prepared 3 cups of stock rather than water would remove the need for a stock cube).

Turn heat to very low and tip in the cous cous. Stir until cous cous is entirely wet.

Put lid on saucepan and leave to stand for five minutes.

Remove lid and drizzle about 2 tbsp of olive oil over the cous cous then fluff the cous cous with a fork.

Serve drizzled with a little olive oil.

This recipe made me a nice bowl of cous cous for my dinner as well as two packs for lunches.

Dinner and packed lunches in 10 minutes flat!