Sheffield Wednesday, Southampton Thursday

We got to Sheffield (via Edinburgh and Manchester). Hooray! We had 2 missed days to make up for, so we started an intense program of mountain biking, beer drinking, curry eating, fish and chips, more mountain biking, and cups of tea. What more could I ask for? Thank you Duncan and Amelia.



Lina's first experience of Sheffield mountain biking, in unusual conditions.



I've never seen Rivelin Valley like this before

Fox Hagg slippery climb

Duncan's jump bike with bald tires treated me well

We bid our farewells and set off for Southampton for a marathon of friend and family visits. The weather held up, and we saw everyone. Last stop was Breamore Church for midnight mass. Happy Christmas everyone!

Snow to city

Lina and I are on our way to the UK for Christmas... but our route has become a little more complex than we expected.  But before I get into that, Paul and I took a pre-work ski up Mt Seymour on Friday and saw a great sunrise.

So, back to the collapsing travel arrangements. We were due to be in Sheffield right about now, but our flight was canceled... and our new flight left us in Newark without a connection. In order to make the best of this sad situation we've spent a day in New York City and will get back on our way to the UK tomorrow (fingers crossed). I've never seen NYC before, and it's been fun. We staying at the quirky, but rather good Pod Hotel.  Tomorrow we're going to run around Central Park before we had back to Newark in the hopes of getting on a 'plane. Fingers crossed!

The need for Strong Bread

It's been a festive weekend. On Saturday, Lina, Paul, Kala, and I went out to play in the snow. Our snow-fun involved a really very strenuous 1200m ascent of Singing Pass, to the Whistler backcountry. Once we got up there, we found ourselves surrounded by lovely snow so took a run on each of Cowboy Ridge, Oboe, and Flute. After all that, our legs had nothing left and we skied back down with the rest of the backcountry skiers and other stragglers through the closed-for-the-day ski resort.

Lina and Kala on the way up Singing Pass

Lina on Cowboy Ridge

Paul on Cowboy Ridge

Paul in Pillow-Hopping Action

Kala in flight too...

And here are a couple of me that I stole from Paul:

A couple of years ago I made some Italian Christmas cake as presents for friends. It was a right pain to make, and it's "firmness" resulted in a hefty dental bill for Paul. I decided not to repeat the experience last year. This year, to my surprise, I received quite a lot of encouragement to make it again. To ease the making process, Kala and Geraldine chipped in with some candied fruit peel... and to ease Paul's dental health I added a bit more sugar syrup to the recipe. So, Lina and I produced Panforte MkII. Here it is, looking tasty:

Panforte, ready for action.

West Coast Panforte - by Margaret Gallagher
Ingredients
1 cup almonds, lightly toast
2/3 cup hazelnuts, lightly toasted
1/3 cup shelled pistachios, lightly toasted
2/3 cup mixed candied citrus peel (orange, lemon, citron)
1/3 cup dried currents
½ cup chopped dried apricots
½ cup dried cranberries
1/2 cup unsifted, unbleached flour
½ cup unsweetened cocoa powder (preferably Dutch process)
1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon ground allspice
1/2 teaspoon white pepper
½ teaspoon ground ginger
½ teaspoon ground coriander
1 1/2 teaspoons powdered espresso
1/2 cup mild honey
1/2 cup granulated sugar
Confectioners' sugar

Preparation
1. Preheat the oven to 325 degrees F.
2. Cut a round of parchment to fit the bottom of a nine-inch springform pan. Cut a
strip (or two shorter strips) about an inch and a half wide to go around the sides
of the pan. Butter the sides and bottom of the pan. Put strips around sides of the
pan. Place round in the bottom of the pan. Butter the papers on the bottom and
the sides and set aside.
3. Put all the candied fruits in a large metal mixing bowl. Working over the fruit,
sift together flour, cocoa spices and espresso. With your hands, mix the fruits
with the dry ingredients, thoroughly separating and coating the pieces. Add the
nuts and mix again. Set aside.
4. Put the honey and sugar in a medium over moderate heat. Stir with a wooden
spatula until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture comes to a boil. Insert a
candy thermometer in the pan and let the mixture boil without stirring until the
thermometer registers 248 degrees (stiff-ball stage). (This will happen soon after
the mixture comes to a boil.)
5. Working very quickly, pour the hot syrup onto the fruit mixture, stir with a
heavy wooden spatula to mix (you may work up a bit of a sweat!).
IMMEDIATELY transfer the mixture to the prepared pan.
6. Moisten your hands and firmly press the mixture into an even layer. Press very
firmly to make sure there are no air bubbles.
7. Bake for 35 - 40 minutes.
8. Set aside to cool. When the cake is completely cool and firm, remove the sides
of the pan and the paper strip (or strips) on the sides. Turn upside down on a
piece of wax paper and carefully remove pan bottom and parchment paper.
9. Through a fine strainer, generously sprinkle on icing sugar, forming a thick
coating. Carefully turn the cake right side up repeat.
10. Wrap in airtight plastic and store a room temperature. It also freezes well.

6th Annual Comox Mud Ride

It was more of a snow-ride this year, due to a few "scheduling difficulties"... but it was a good time and the key ingredients of hot chocolate and large quantities of food were present. Oh, and bikes.

Lina keeping her feet dry

Mathilda not keeping her feet dry

Comox Mud Ride 2010 from Andrew Dye on Vimeo.

Monster chair

The tendonitis in my wrist is improving steadily, but one problem seemed to be that the chair I sit in to work was too low. My desk is unconventionally made from two small sets of drawers (of indeterminate origin) and a nice piece of kitchen counter top that I found in the "scratch and dent" area of Ikea. Luxurious as this sounds, the ergonomics aren't that great. My chair (which I think was previously thrown-out of Paul's employer's office) was a good few inches too low.  What I needed was a suspension-lift kit for my chair. If you can do this to a car...

...then I can raise a chair a couple of inches.

Home Hardware sold me some bolts, some big washers... and a found a piece of ABS pipe in the cupboard left over from making Lina's kayak cart. A couple of moments sawing and some fiddling later, I am triumphantly sitting on this:

"Bigfoot" of the office-chair world.