7 Day Countdown

Well here is where it starts to get real. As always too much to do, not enough time in which to do it and no idea what to do first. Ah that familiar feeling, as always it should all be all right in the end. A few things might help though.

1. A personalised itinerary and travel schedule
2. An online "staff room" that doesn't suck seven shades of ass
3. No I think that is pretty much it.

The facebook message boards have been awash lately of the same questions from confused staff each receiving a personal reply, usually fairly fast but sometime with slightly differing answers. In essence confusion. When organising a mass exodus of the country, a little bit of order is preferable.

They must have on file for each employee their date of departure, place of work etc etc. So why not make that accessible to the employee? Everything is second guessed to the point where it is only confirmed a couple of days before departures that yes every staff member should bring their own towel. Now the staff have been great but they are hindered by the fact that the online resource the "staff room" sucks absolutely. The one strike and you're locked out password policy is lunacy, the user experience is as far from intuitive as it is possible to get.

What kind of website is best viewed in Internet Explorer anyway?

Lets Cook Mussels

Until a couple of years ago I was not a big fan of anything that even resembled something which came from the sea. Battered fish? Great. King prawn heads? An alien from another world which should be picked up by Moulder or Sculley right about now.

It was on a holiday to Cornwall when I first encountered this dish, one of the great classics of all time, and it staggered me, the simple combination of white wine, cream, garlic, parsley and mussels; absolutely smashing.

Seafood can be intimidating to prepare, especially shellfish. Constant worries over the cleanliness, the saltiness, the 24-48 hour critical food poisoning period. In reality this dish could not be much simpler.

Moules Mariniere - Feeds 4(Mains) / 5(Starter)

3 kg fresh Mussels
1 Onion
1 clove garlic
1 handful chopped parsley
1/2 Bottle of white wine
500ml stock
100ml cream
 Pepper

1. Prepare the mussels. A bit of foresight is needed, we left ours in cold fresh water for a couple of hours to draw out the salt, do this if you have time, if not sod it and move on. At this point discard any mussels which are cracked or already open. They are dead and possibly have been for a while. Scrape the shells either with the back of a knife or a metal scourer. Chip off any barnacles and pull off the hairy stuff protruding from the shells.

2. Make the sauce. Dice the onion and garlic, soften in a large stock pan with some oil. Give the pepper grinder a few twists for seasoning.

3. Add in all the wine. Simmer for a few minutes, let the alcohol evaporate.

4. Add the stock and stir in the cream. Bring to the boil. Taste the sauce, you are looking for the cream to balance the wine, and the onion and garlic should give it some depth of flavour. It shouldn't leave you with that filmy mouthfeel that cream on its own gives, but equally it shouldn't just taste like the £3 plonk you've used instead of the nice stuff. Don't be tempted to add salt, the mussels will provide all the salt this dish needs.

5. Once the sauce is boiling carefully pour in your cleaned mussels. Stir so that the mussels are nicely covered.

6. Lid on and leave to steam for a couple of minutes. Remove the lid and make sure the majority of the mussels are now open. If not, replace the lid and have a quick glass of wine. Mussels do not take very long to cook.

7. Throw in the parsley and serve immediately with some rustic crusty bread. Don't be afraid to really cover the mussels in the sauce.

We made this for four people as a starter, in the end it could have been a starter for 5 or a main for 4. Don't worry if you are left with a lot of sauce at the end. This makes a brilliant soup for the next day. It is a hands on dish, paper towel is advised and the empty shells make great spoons.

If it is worth doing well...

Then it is worth procrastinating until the last possible moment. Your host's embarkation date is the 4th December, your host's to do list is still longer than Don Quixote and possibly a worse read (possibly).

Having said that a remarkable amount has been ticked off this list. Granted your host should probably write this list down somewhere, but had your host written this list down then some items would already be reassuringly struck through.

And yet the impending weight of the deadline hangs heavy over your host's head like the old friend that it is. This exercise merely highlights the recurring theme of "sorting ones life out" so when your host tells you he still doesn't know what else he needs to do, he is well aware of the exasperation. He has lived it for too many years already.

Also this Movember/not shave thing is getting long, might be time for a trim....

Todays meal. Leek, Potato and Kale soup.

Ingredients.
1 leek
1 large onion
1 stick celery
Potatoes
Kale
Some chorizo - important
Salt
Pepper
Chilli powder
Chicken stock
Garlic Puree

1. Finely dice the leek, onion and celery and sweat in a large stock pan. Add salt, pepper and chilli powder. Use oil or butter.
2. Peel and dice the potato, fry in another pan with the chorizo and garlic puree.
3. When potatoes are browned and the chorizo has imbued its flavours and colours add the potato and chorizo to the sweated vegetables
4. Stir in the chicken stock and leave to simmer until the potatoes are soft.
5. Roughly chop the kale, discard the stalks and stir in.
6. Simmer for another 5 mins.
7. Using a hand blender, liquidize the soup until smooth.

And one tasty soup.

Muddle and Faith

Outdoor gear shopping is confusing. There are all kinds of kit to cover and protect you from head to toe, for all different conditions and activities. I am by no means an enthusiastic shopper, retail tires me out and too often your host is easily swayed by even the most simple sales pitches. So when faced by an entire hobbies worth of kit to buy your host naturally put it off.

Enter the internet the most wonderful of things, a place where one can browse and research uninterrupted. Only there is no official start point, no shallow end. Instead you plunge into a world of goretex's and primalofts and thinsulates and softshells. Between brands there are no standards for direct comparison, each have their own proprietary insulations and breathable fabrics and whatnots.

These items are all bought on faith and recommendation, there is no real way to tell whether a £100 jacket will perform as well as a £300 or a £30. Since I'm not a big fan of high street shopping, this is how I must shop, trusting in product descriptions and customer reviews. So far so good, still waiting on the delivery of one item, albeit a fairly crucial one; the ski jacket. Gloves seem to me to be the most confusing all different size scales different padding and insulation and designs. What is a host to do?


Size guides that go beyond small medium and large are an absolute godsend, for online shopping these should be mandatory. The best include detailed measurements in centimeters for torso lengths, chest widths and so on. But moving on swiftly, after a couple of days spent very enjoyably in the Lake District, your host can say with confidence that soft shell jackets are very much worth the investment. Layered up in my own take on the 3 layer system, (thermal underlayer, mid insulating layer and top wind&rain layer). Your host wore a t shirt a soft-shell jacket and a soft-shell gilet, with a shell waterproof over the top. In days full of walking in wind rain and hail, these layers kept me dry, warm and free from sweat.

For all you try on in shops and buy online, the only way to really appreciate kit is to use it in the extreme conditions for which it is designed. Not so much of an issue perhaps for an odd day walking or a week's skiing, in this host's case this kit must withstand the rigors and tests of a full season.

If your host ever gets his head round the ins and outs of outdoor gear perhaps there will be less of a whine and more of a guide. But sometimes it is nice to have a good moan.