HOT NUTS IN EAST LONDON!!!!

A new shop has opened recently in Hackney/Dalston called 'Hot Nuts' they have cashew nuts, brasils, pecans, but no Viagra! - can Dalston sustain a shop that sells hot nuts?!! - amusing anyway.

shiveringgoat - Back To Mine

Here is a mix of chilled music I have put together - you can download from the box below - the artwork for iTunes etc is a picture of the view out the window to the right of my flat that I took last week when the sky was amazing. I have also recorded ambient noises from the flat and added them - many people have made positive comments about the music when they have been here so I decided to put some on an 80 minutes compilation. In order to upload I had to covert the file so that it is one long mp3 at 80 minutes. I chose a selection of music that is very chilled as I intend to give a copy to my friend in New York who has been through a difficult time lately and music is a healing force!
Tracks: 1.Abakus - Igmatik (Goat Edit) 2.Heather Johnson - Talk Show 3. StereoMutans Feat Jannae Jordan - I Wanna Go (Afterlife Remix) 4. Frontera (Feat Sophie Barker) - A Baia5.Nada - Bamboo Dub 6.Vanessa Daou - Autumn Perspective 7.Sia - Breathe Me (Mylo Remix) 8.Télépopmusik - Dance Me 9.Mental Remedy - Agora E Seu Tempo 10.Daft Punk - Make Love 11.Coco & Puttnam Feat. Cathy Bittistessa - Starlight 12.Abakus - A Whole New Way Of Looking At The Day 13.Moby - Sunday (The Day Before My Birthday) 14.Bent - I Can't Believe It's Over (Goat Fade) 15.Tangerine Dream - Love On A Real Train (Goat Edit)

Click Here To Download!

La Cave à Fromage

A great cheese shop has opened in London, 1 minutes walk away from South Kensington tube. This cheese shop has the most wonderful varied selection of cheeses from Britian, France and Spain and even Yorkshire!. You can also pop by for a glass of wine and cheese and bread - they have deserts too! The sandwiches looked wonderful in the window! - They supply many great restaurants and we are tucking in to 5 beautiful cheeses with bread whilst watching the Cinema Paradiso I really think this place is well worth supporting - all the cheeses are artisan produced and its a totally refreshing to see a business operating with passion for a great natural product. You can get 5 AMAZING cheeses with bread for less than £25 which would make any table fit for a king!

La Cave à Fromage
24-25 Cromwell Place
Kensington
London
SW7 2LD
T. 0845 10 88 222
E. ask@la-cave.co.uk

www.la-cave.co.uk

Norma Winstone Back at The Vortex!

At the Vortex right now... More later:)

John Martyn - Small Hours (1978)

One of my favourite pieces of music - John Martyn at his best - this track is from his 1977 album 'One World' If you don't know his music this album is a good starting point, also Sunday's Child, Bless The Weather, Inside Out and Solid Air are great albums too..Grace and Danger was for me his last great album from 1980 - after this he went a bit too 'Phil Collins' for my liking!

Happy Valentines Day!

Lovely, Lovely, Lovely! - what a nice day to celebrate St Violent-Times day! Had a romantic pizza (no extra garlic!) and treat the wife to choclates and a ring, got nice poetry book and a jumper ! its all good news! - we don't go out though on this day as its always a bit of a rip off, will go out this weekend instead! Onwards & Upwards!

Pancake Tuesday!

Pancakes for tea! - Lime juice and treacle! - I had 5 so far - delicious! - handmade by a Squirrel!

Other Pancake-Driven Euphoric Traditions around the world on this day;

• In the Canadian province of Newfoundland, household objects are baked into the pancakes and served to family members. Rings, thimbles, thread, coins, and other objects all have meanings associated with them. The lucky one to find coins in their pancake will be rich, the finder of the ring will be the first married, and the finder of the thimble will be a seamstress or tailor. Children have great fun with the tradition, and often eat more than their fill of pancakes in search of a desired object.
  
• In Estonia (Vastlapäev) and Finland (Laskiainen), this day is associated with hopes for the coming year. On this day, families go sledging and eat split pea and ham soup. A toy is made from the ham bone by tying the bone to a string and spinning it around to make a whistling noise. There is a tale told that if you cut your hair on this day, it will grow fast and thick for the next year.
  
• In Germany, Austria and Slovenia people traditionally eat Berliner, Krapfen or Krof.
  
• In Hawaii, this day is also known as Malasada Day. Dating back to the days of the sugar plantations in the 1800s, the Portuguese immigrants would need to use up all of their butter and sugar prior to Lent. They did so by making large batches of Malasada (Portuguese Doughnuts), which they would subsequently share with friends from all the other ethnic groups in the plantation camps. This led to the popularity of the Malasada in Hawaii. Still a tradition in Hawaii, Leonard's Bakery would experience long lines to purchase discounted Malasadas on this day.
  
• In Iceland the day is known as "Sprengidagur" (Bursting day) and is marked with the eating of salt meat and peas.
  
• In Lithuania the day is called Užgavėnės, and many pancakes (blynai) and Lithuanian style doughnuts (spurgos) are eaten.
  
• In Michigan, especially in the Hamtramck area near Detroit with a large Polish community, Pączki Day is celebrated with Pączki eating contests, music and Polish food.
  
• In Pennsylvania, it is a Pennsylvania Dutch tradition to eat a type of doughnuts called Fastnachts (or Fasnachts). The Fastnacht would be made of all the sweets and other soon-to-be-forbidden items in the household and then consumed on Fat Tuesday so that one would not be tempted during the Lenten Fast. Today they are made from potato dough and fried, often coated with a sugary glaze.
  
• In the Philippines a popular treat is bibingka, a pancake made from rice flour and topped with white cheese, butter, sugar, salted duck's egg, and coconut. Bibingka is baked on hot coals in a clay pot lined with a banana leaf. It is traditionally served with salabat or ginger tea.
  
• In Poland, Pączki and Faworki are traditionally eaten on Fat Thursday (Polish: Tłusty czwartek), i.e. the one before Shrove Tuesday. However, in areas of Michigan with large Polish communities, they are eaten on "Fat Tuesday" due to French influence. Shrove Tuesday itself is sometimes referred to as "śledzik" ("little herring") and it is customary to have some pickled herring with vodka (Polish: wódka) that day.
  
• In Sweden the day before Ash Wednesday is known as fettisdagen ("Fat Tuesday") in Swedish. The day is marked by eating a traditional pastry, called semla or fastlagsbulle, which is a sweet bun filled with almond paste and whipped cream. Originally, the pastry was only eaten on this day, served with hot milk, but eventually it became tradition to eat it on every Tuesday leading up to Easter, as the Protestant Swedes no longer observed Lent. Today, semlas are available in shops and bakeries every day from shortly after Christmas until Easter, and the semla is now often eaten as a regular pastry, without the hot milk. The semla is also traditional in Finland but is there usually filled with jam instead of marzipan.
  

Enjoy!

Sleet and Gails at Manchester Airport!

Just about to board this Fokker 50 back to London City Airport - its blowing a blizzard here at Manchester Airport. I will treat myself to a Gin & Tonic to give me stength on board and listen to Mahler's 6th Symphony. If you look closely you can see the nose of the plane sniffing the building, I just hope there is no bouncy floor trouble. Good job I haven't had mushy peas for a few weeks. Its about now I wish Branson had a rent-a-donkey business - 'Slower and Safer plc'? to get back to my wife in Hackshire!