Following on from the previous sourdough success.

This one didn’t look as pretty, but it tasted better (it had longer in the oven). A really dark, hard crust but very soft on the inside.

I love making my own bread.

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Take me back to the 1980s.

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Is there any one NOT talking about this? 1.8 million views in less than 24 hours. Cover recorded at the International Space Station by Commander Chris Hadfield.

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So I’ve overhauled my site: www.theyearzero.org.

I really liked my old site (and a thank you to Suburban Mum who built it) but you know what they say and it’s usually true – a change is as good as a holiday.

I’ve continued with the fairly minimal and clean, black and white build. Those with long memories may recognise the new ‘flock wallpaper’ background pattern; it’s my old twitter page background (I may go back to twitter later this year; still not decided).

The joy of being self-hosted (which I am these days at WordPress) means you have huge control over just about everything. It’s good fun to tweak things and get the site looking the way you want. I’m not quite finished tweaking yet either.

Some changes on the new site include infinite scroll (no more having to hit ‘next page’) and the site is also responsive so it should work equally well on tablets / phones. That said, I can’t claim too much credit. The theme I’m using (Pinboard) provides most of these features straight out of the box; I’ve just tweaked look and feel.

I will work on a proper header image in due course to replace the text header/strapline up top.

I’m not doing badly; this blog is almost 5 years old. Never thought I’d be still going half a decade later. 776 posts and counting…

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Love Jesus & Mary Chain.

Love this video of Scarlett Johansson.

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Occasionally when cooking you genuinely exceed your own expectations.

With baking, there are lots of variables in play and the odd thing not being quite right can mean that the final product is something of a failure. I’ve had highs and lows with bread making over the past 6 months. But earlier this week, I had what is probably my biggest success ever.

Still can’t quite believe it was from my own hand. The taste, the colour, the crumb; everything came out perfectly. No shop-bought yeast at all, only using home-made sourdough starter, flour and water.

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About to go into the oven, doused in olive oil, torn basil and crushed coriander seeds

I’ve cooked a bit since I’ve been back. Indian dal yesterday, ratatouille this evening and I’m getting another sour-dough loaf ready (to bake tomorrow morning following an over-night prove in the fridge).

I’ve made ratatouille a few times in the last month or so but tonight’s was a solid 8.5-9/10. It was Delia. One feels so very middle aged and middle class to become reliant on Delia – but she’s pretty rock solid. This was the recipe and I varied it only slightly. I used shallots rather than onions, I used 3 peppers (2x red, 1x green), 1x large-ish aubergine and 1x large-ish courgette, plus a packet of cherry tomatoes.

It was really delicious. Deep, earthy, wholesome flavours. I know vegetarian (well, this is actually vegan) food can be seen as dull and lacking in that ‘meaty taste’ – but this actually tasted quite ‘meaty’ for want of another word. I really think it’s the aubergine that does it.

35 mins later after being in the oven at its max temp. Heavily reduced and flavours intensified. The quantity shown is what was left after my helping!

And all the veg kind of caramlises in the oven releasing lots and lots of flavour.

I ate it with Thai rice which is ever so slightly sticky (really not a fan of long-grain American rice, I only eat Basmati or Thai rice) and the texture of the rice also helped the whole dish feel ‘meaty’.

Healthy, filling and so very easy to make.

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A photo snapped from the car whilst driving to the airport yesterday. Sod’s law – the weather was stunning, the best of the week. Overall the weather hadn’t been bad though (other than the day I arrived, during which there was heavy rain).

An enjoyable time – relaxing, sooo much good food, where to begin? Oysters, mussels, rabbit, boeuf bourguignon, fish, tarte aux pommes, soooo much cheese, French bread, Catalan saucission, paella (across the border in Spain), etc.

Remember how I’m ostensibly vegetarian? Yeh, well… that kind of goes on hold when I go to France.

Slept well, loved the cool, clear mountain air; saw friends of the family, did some great drives, headed into Northern Spain.

Spoke some French - obviously - but surprisingly, less than I might have liked.

What have I come back to? The rise of UKIP? The UK moving ever more to the right? Endless child sex-abuse scandals?

Spent time talking to British people that have lived for more than a decade in France, understanding the pros and cons. I won’t forget their “Wild horses wouldn’t bring us back to the UK” comment.

And now I’m back in London.

So, so, so ready to exit this country. It isn’t going to happen overnight but let’s just say that a plan is forming…

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Somewhat annoyingly, the weather in le sud is not great at the moment, but there we go. In the mountains I’m told it’s been 5 c with snow flurries. Ah well. I’m still really looking forward to getting away.

My French studies have been intense – though good. In terms of progress – still early days. These past 2 weeks have certainly involved trying to recap on what once I knew – not having studied French since GCSE which I finished 20 years ago.

But there’s been a strong sense of inspiration. I might even go so far as to say that a crucible moment has been experienced.

Lots of ‘big things’ starting to take shape in my mind. A sense of wanting to take hold – finally – of my own destiny, and to be in the driving seat. This is to be contrasted with, what, my last 3 jobs? All of which came to me via someone else (the two big ones, one of which lasted 5.5 years, the other 4 years – were jobs that former colleagues recommended me for / got me in). I haven’t been in the actual driving seat of my future in over a decade; I’ve been in the passenger seat, passively moving from role to role. Following my dreams? Forget it.

And any desire to return to the world of ‘corporate London life’ has rapidly and quite substantially fallen away.

Instead, I have the seeds of a new Adventure starting slowly to take form. An exit from this country – something that close friends know that I have been talking about for such a very long time; like a broken record.

The next week away will give me time to reflect and to start to lay out a road-map for the future.

A recent birthday has also had an effect similar to a bucketful of water over the head, awaking me from a certain stupor. The prospect of sleepwalking my way into middle-age – strapped fast to the passenger seat – is a singularly nightmarish vision.

Watch this space.

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