Dom Pannell's Blog

Extreme ironing

Well, not really, but I was ironing a shirt when I felt a twinge in my back yesterday. It's no better today, so I'm off to the physio this afternoon.

Hopefully, I'm in a bit better state than the last time it happened - it cost me around £500 in physio sessions and took around 3 months before I could move properly.

The moral of the story is clearly that housework is bad for me. This is problematic since I have taken several days off work with a view to sorting out my flat once and for all*.

I've already arranged for one engineer to come and fix my boiler, another to install Sky+ (well... I haven't had a telly for ten years and I kind of get it free thanks to my colleague Ken who gave me a voucher).

I'm also in the middle of arranging for someone to come round to clean my carpet (not a job I fancy myself) and I am going to have a go at fixing the oven - according to Money Saving Expert, it should only cost me around a tenner and I've got nothing to lose as it's out of warranty anyway - Electrolux seem to have come up with the magic formula - all of my neighbours have the same oven and all of them have the same problem... their ovens have stopped working and they're all out of warranty. Thanks to Money Saving Expert, I may just be able to foil their dastardly plans!

So anyway, this dodgy back business. I thought I'd be alright, given that I've been playing squash two or three times a week for the past four months - it's been getting increasingly aggressive, too, but my back has been fine.

Apparently, squash is not enough. I may have to bite the bullet and lose the belly once and for all.

Darn!

*Oh and a short trip down to Toulouse to stay with Graham et sa famille.

Short of ideas for presents this Christmas?

Then how about the Crisis Cook Book?

The easy solution to your Christmas shopping, while helping homeless people look forward to a brighter New Year!

Nick Lander, Crisis supporter and restaurant correspondent for the FT has been working with Crisis to produce a Cook Book containing recipes from some of the word's top restaurants. 28 internationally renowned chefs have come together to create the Crisis Cook Book, a collection of recipes and wine essays in aid of Crisis.

In Nick's words…
"For the past 18 years I have had the good fortune to be the restaurant correspondent of The Financial Times which has brought me into close contact, and invariably close friendship, with some of the best chefs in the world. Their expertise and generosity with their recipes form the basis of this book. The attraction of the Crisis Cook Book is the opportunity to create from one slim volume a dinner party where the first course is inspired by Paul Bocuse, the main course comes from Simon Hopkinson and the dessert is one of three supplied by Clare Clark, the lovely English pastry chef now based at The French Laundry in California."

The Crisis Cook Book will be on sale in Marks & Spencer stores across the country from 22 November. The book costs £5 and would make a great Christmas stocking filler. Crisis will receive £3 from each copy sold.
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I've got a training session tomorrow in preparation for this year's Open Christmas. It should be fun.

Three weeks to go to Santacon

Who's coming to the Conference of Santas this year?

The date has been set for Saturday 15th December and they're anticipating over 1000 Santas to converge on the streets of London this year.

It's time to brush off your Santa suit, or buy a new one if need be - don't go for the ten quid jobs from Woolworths, 'cos they don't last the whole day (and they look rubbish... sorry Woolies!).

Make sure you bring a bag of sweeties to give out to the good boys and girls (and coal and/or sprouts for the naughty ones). Start warming up your voices for the carol singing.

Ho, ho, ho! I can hardly wait!

Europe's longest champagne bar? I don't think so.

OK, it's probably a question of definition, but Simon Darvill, his good lady wife Giselle and I went out of our way to visit the recently refurbished St Pancras station in order to try out the much-heralded Champagne Bar. We were disappointed.

We were expecting a long flat surface behind which stand a team of bar staff serving champagne to punters who sit/stand on the other side of the 'bar'. Instead, the word 'bar' refers to the whole establishment and the aforementioned flat surface over which drinks are served is a small square that is smaller than the bars in most nightclubs.

Oh and there's a really long queue to get into the bar - we were there at 7pm and I reckon we would have had to wait for at least an hour before entering. Rather than hanging around in the very chilly railway station*...

we went round the corner for a very good slap up meal at the Somers Town Coffee House where we drank some excellent cava to celebrate Mr D's birthday.

Giselle pointed out that I have a habit of publishing photos of her husband that aren't overly flattering. Well, I guess that's partly my fault (I tend to choose the dodgy ones) but Mr D has to take some of the blame, too... anyway, I just found this one from their wedding last year, which is quite a good picture of both Simon and Giselle.

*Happy now, Mr D? I didn't write 'train station'! Oops, I just did...

So I bought a steel

you know what I mean - a steel for sharpening knives. I bought one last week.

Anyway, it's transformed my cooking experience. I'm glad I forked out for the best steel in the shop.

I just thought I'd share.

Please don't connect to me on Plaxo!

I really, really don't like Plaxo.

I've debated this before and I'm not going to change my mind.

I accept that it probably is a great time-saver for its users, but I don't like it and I'm not going to sign up to use it.

The reason I don't like it is that it reverses the onus of keeping in touch with someone. If you want to stay in touch with me, that's your responsibility. If I want to say in touch with you, that's mine.

Don't expect me to update my details in your contact book. That's your job, not mine.

You may be right, oh faithful Plaxo user, I most probably am being irrational. I'm not going to change my position though. I don't like Plaxo. If you connect to me on Plaxo Pulse, my opinion of you will be diminished.

Quite why someone would sign up to something that sounds like it's used to stuff chickens is beyond me.

Desert Island Discs

I can hardly wait for Desert Island Discs this morning - the guest will be Eliza Manningham-Buller who used to run MI5.

The blimmin' Archers still has a full 30 minutes of twaddle to go, so I'm sitting twiddling my thumbs in anticipation...

I'm probably being naive

but it strikes me that when so many countries are opposed to whaling, Japan's decision to recommence hunting humpbacks is deliberately provocative.

(Thank you Wikipedia)

I recognise that as a typical Brit, I'm guilty of showing sympathy for animals I deem cute, but in this case the arguments in favour of hunting the White Fella and his mates don't convince me at all.

The Japanese claim that they want to cull 50 humpbacks (together with 50 fin whales and several hundred minke whales) for scientific purposes, but all I've read suggests that they are really only interested in proving the case for the return of commercial whaling because Japanese consumers will pay top dollar for a blubbery snack.

Four decades ago, humans came close to wiping out the humpback, hence the moratorium imposed in 1963. The Japanese reckon that population estimates justify an end to the moratorium. Many countries disagree.

For what it's worth (not much) I would respectfully like to make the following point to my esteemed Japanese cousins:

Remembrance Sunday

I was walking past the London Eye at 11am this morning. It was very poignant.

The wheel stopped turning and the staff of the Eye stood to attention in a line in front of it. Together with the queue stretching across the wide pavement, they formed a natural semi-circle. Very quickly it became a full circle as people walking down from Westminster Bridge joined in the silent tribute.

Clueless foreign tourists chattered as they strolled along the embankment, suddenly finding themselves encircled by a contemplative crowd. Not wishing to offend, they joined in, looking somewhat confused.

The only sound came from a harmonica played by an old boy who I'd passed moments before. I suspect if he'd known that the two minute silence had started, he would have stopped playing.

Then the field gun signaled the end of the two minutes and everybody carried on with their business. Like any other Sunday, but perhaps a bit calmer than normal.

Transatlantic World Record Rowing Race

I received an email yesterday from my old friend Rob Loder-Symonds, with whom I once shared a flat in Paris.

We've stayed in touch since then and around seven years ago, while I was studying for my MBA, Rob called me up and asked him to meet him by Putney Bridge at 6.30am one Sunday morning. It turned out that over the next few weeks, we were to try our hand at rowing. While it was great fun - there's little to rival going out onto the river on a crisp winter's morning - I didn't have any great talent and, besides, I was too short and too fat to make a crew member.

Rob, on the other hand, is tall, athletic and it turns out, something of a natural rower. He stuck it out even after I was told not to come back until I'd lost a couple of stone (yeah, yeah). He carried on rowing when he moved up to Edinburgh a couple of years later.

Like me, his fitness went up and down sometimes, but a couple of years ago he started to knock himself into shape properly, hill-running and weight training, intermingled with occasional mountain climbing. Then last year the opportunity popped up for him to try out for a place in the crew of a boat that is set to attempt the fastest Atlantic Ocean crossing in a rowboat in December 2007 (not sure how these things arise). Here's a picture of the boat, the ‘Ocean Row Events Challenger’ taken from the official website.

He's been in serious training since.

I spoke to him several times over the past year and his dedication has been remarkable, despite not knowing whether he'd make the crew until very recently. He broke the news to me with his email. I've just got off the phone with him and his morale is extremely high, although he has a month to try and find £15,000 sponsorship to pay his entry fee and cover his costs - if either of my avid readers can think of someone who might be interested in sponsoring Rob, please let me know.

Anyway, I'm feeling inspired now. I'm going to attach some lights to my push bike.

Black pudding and fried apples

it's what autumn Sundays were made for.

I would post a picture, but I'm afraid I've eaten it. I'm finishing off my breakfast with a cup of roibos.

(no, it doesn't look anything like that...)

Why does this seem to hit home so much?

Hugh MacLeod's website must have the best 'about' section around.

Mussels for lunch

So I went to Borough Market.

About the first thing I saw was a chalk board advertising butchery classes

I've been to one of Karl's classes before and I reckon it's £60 well spent (if you eat meat) 'cos you'll come away with some knowledge, a load of meat and the good feeling one gets when one has had fun.

Luckily I didn't have my credit card with me today (what sort of food market accepts credit cards, really?) but I still managed to spend a fair amount...

Black pudding, cooking apples (that's tomorrow's breakfast sorted then); herrings and sardines (hey, they're really tasty!) from the lovely people at Scandelicious; some organic root veg; stewing steak; delicious cheese; a kilo of Scottish mussels; and a bottle of Gavi that went very well with the mussels...

Happy day.

It's a gorgeous Saturday

and I'm waking up slowly...

I think I'm going to toddle over to Borough Market this morning. It's been a while since I was there - at least six months - and I'm in the mood for some quality grub.

It's best to have breakfast first, or if you're like me you'll be incapable of resisting all the lovely produce...

Right, I've set myself up with boiled egg and soldiers

I've cleaned out my freezer

I've emptied my backpack and put on my market-exploring gear

Wish me luck!