Smoker advances

Another post from history, last time I used the smoker, while it was cooling down the lower saucer cracked, and then shattered into 3 bits. Somewhat annoying but not 100% unexpected.

The solution fixes two problems with the smoker. The first is that the fire is a bit higher, hence further from the saucer and less likely to be badly affected by the intense heat.

Secondly, the pot feet lifting the saucer create a gap around the whole circumference of the fire tray allowing loads more air into the base of the fire. This should (when properly supervised and fueled) keep the fire burning more evenly and effectively.

The first firing was pretty good and using a bigger joint (2.25kg, instead of about 1-1.5) it took around 6-7 hours to almost completely cook the pork shoulder. It was  still a little pink/juicy in the very middle so we finished it in the oven for half an hour, which was probably a bit too long. The flavour was good too, using mostly applewood, and some oak when we ran out.

Not Quite the Healthy New Year

It's a new year, and I should probably make another effort to keep updates coming more regularly. So what with New Years being all about healthy eating, here's something that's not, on pintrest. 

One sheet of ready made puff pastry, because new years eve is no time for making pastry when you could be doing anything else at all. Roll it out just over a foot square, ish. Or more or less, whatever, i'm not a cop.

The original has a large bar of chocolate, but it seemed like a much better idea to use Cadbury's Caramel, but the bar is a bit smaller than the one in the video, so...

...Improvise! Splitting the bar into three strips filled out the pastry much better, but then what to do about the large gaps? Marshmallows. Always marshmallows.

Cut in at an angle and fold the ends over to hopefully stop the contents leaking everywhere.

Slice the sides in strips and fold over in a lattice, alternate sides, then egg wash the pastry.

Bake it for 10-15 minutes at 180C and then see how it looks, if it's not golden yet, give it a bit longer.

Impressively very little leaked out, although it was fairly fragile, getting it from the tray to the plate was a bit trickier than imagined, but it survived.

It was everything I wanted it to be, and the caramel and marshmallows were the right decision, as expected.

Would I make this again, yes, would I probably die early as a result, yes. Would it be worth it? Yes.

Brb, Germany...

At least, after some 5 years, I'm once again Nurburgring bound. It's been FAR too long frankly since the last trip, the Lolf has had to have some welding for it's MOT (first time it's needed welding) and some other niggles, including a concerned call from the garage asking if there was a knack to get it started as it was getting harder to start as the days went on moving it around. Turns out what it needs is fuel (GG there).

The Z4m in the convoy has had a full work over prior and we're currently on the ferry (this will probably be posted later, yay roaming data :( ). France beacons,  Brussels looms like a threat of torment to get round and then it's onwards to Eifel, ze Fatherland in a pair of Bavarian steeds.

Short and Sweet

Browsing imgur today and saw this:

Specifically this image

Remembered I had both of these:

And then did this:

There were no regrets.

Behold the Smartwatch [Backlog]

A few days ago about a year ago (now, at least) I decdied for my 30th to get a smartwatch. After looking around through a lot of reviews of the existing ones, and the two newest one at the time (the first gen, Galazy Gear and the Sony SM2) seemed like a decent improvement and worthy of some money.

But which one! In the end, it came down to a camera decision (which won't surprise many people, although the actual choice might). Easier in the year I'd bought a Galaxy S4 and as a result pondered Samsung's smart watch as the obvious choice (It was also brand new and marketed basically everywhere anyone with eyes could see).

There was one thing that bugged me more than anything about it. The silicon strap was completely non replaceable due tot he camera mounted into it. On the one hand, great, i've got a camera on my wrist. On the other hand, i've never fond myself in a situation where i've needed a camera that fast and actually been able to load the app. Unless this is running the camera 100% of the time, it never will be either, and that'd make it more annoying to use it as a watch.

On that sole deal breaker, I opted for the Sony as despite also coming with a silicone strap, it has a completely standard fastening to the face and can be easily replaced. Instead of finding it new for ~£150, i found one, opened but basically unused on ebay for about £80, much more palatable. 

A few days later, just before my actual 30th it arrived, looked all fresh and neat. I could have just as easily chosen the SM1 for the same reason and saved more money, but by all accounts, the improvements in battery and usability were pretty vast. The screen was larger and much less garishly silver than the original one as well, with a familiar android layout.

Being incredibly dull, I opted for the analogue display, and the first day I used it was pretty happy with the battery life. I got the best part of 2 days use from it without having to charge it. During this it was tethered to my phone and getting updates from Facebook and twitter half hourly. I reduced the time after this, but it was decent enough for the test.

The apps available at the time were pretty good, there's a decent looking maps-app which piggy backs off the GPS from your phone. It's not perfect but I didn't really expect anything from it, so I was pleasantly surprised it worked as well as it did. Facebook and twitter work in as much as they display messages when they arrive. News posts I found annoying, but the messages were actually fairly useful to be able to glance at and read.

...

[One year on]
It's been just under 12 months since I got the watch and I can't say I wore it every day, nor did I charge it either so that slipped and stopped me wearing it at times. The biggest thing that stopped me wearing it more was the strap. I did get a metal clasp strap for it from ebay and it was cheap. As it happens, it was something I should have looked harder for, but as the straps I found were either the cheapest of cheap (£20) or incredibly expensive (£150+) with nothing in between I was somewhat stuck.

The clasp failed one day and the watch slid gracefully to the floor taking two small marks I'm yet to clean up. The face was fine, the outer case took all the impact and everything still works perfectly. After a good deal of poking and prodding and the clasp gradually getting tot he point where it will pop within about 10 minutes of wearing it, I've had to retire it for the time being until I can fix it properly. This should be easy, it just needs to be done right and not rushed.

The best I had from the battery was about 6 days without it tethered to the phone, so no bluetooth draining the battery, nor messages, just basically being a watch. Which as that's really it's primary function, isn't too bad at all.

I'm still pleased with it, were I to buy another one, i'd probably consider the Moto 360, for no other reason than the Goldeneye theme for it.

More creative kitchen storage [Backdate]

One of the problems with renting is that you can't really do much to the house to make life easier like you would if you owned it and could change things a lot more.

Most modern kitchens come pre-drilled for a lot of different handle positions. if it's done carefully you can sometimes use the holes and it won't leave any lasting marks/damage that weren't already there (to some extent).

The stick blender I got a good while ago came with a mounting bracket, but it's been in a drawer pretty much since then.

The holes already in the door are pretty useless to mount to as they are spaced wrong and too high to allow the door to open. I had a scrap piece of MDF which was about the right size, albeit a bit big, it'd at least stop the head of the blender hitting the door and potentially marking it.

The holes were somewhat roughly aligned and drilled and using some of the smallest screws I had fixed to the inside of the door far enough in to avoid the frame of the cupboard.

The blender mount screwed on again, using some ridiculously tiny screws which really didn't look like they were going to hold

[Update]
With the power of hindsight, I can say that yes the screws held. It's a shame the new place has much older units drilled only for what was needed and despite their apparent, imminent replacement once I move out (there was a massive pile of kitchen units in the garage when I moved in) I'll not be risking it.
[Double Update]
Now with another house move in the way, maybe this can be done again.

It's been a month!

One month into the new place and getting everything back to where it was before had been a mission. With the likely short time here, a lot of projects are a bit lacking in purpose so anything thats being done is limited to things which will move with me to the next house.

While I get round to starting the various ones I can do, I'll post ones from the last place which were at least useful in some way and will probably be repeated when i move somewhere more long term.

The biggest of these will likely be the Camera Jib (from waaaay back), the Golf and some stuff on the desk. There'll probably be more when i remember things I need to do.

But first, flash backs!