Category
University
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01.01.02The Great Bolivian Sieve AdventureDo you know how hard it is to get hold of a sieve in Bolivia? Let me answer that one for you: nigh on impossible. That's not to say it can't be done: only that buying kitchen equipment in the andes is rather more complicated than you might anticipate. I like pasta. I'm rather fond of rice. I'm pretty partial to the odd potato. And herein lies my problem. All of these foods are boiled, which means that they require some form of drainage before being eaten. Trouble is, unless you're particularly adept with a saucepan lid (and I wasn't - ...
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03.22.01The Naming of ThingsDo you have a nickname? I mean, a nickname that isn't a handle or \nick for online use only. Something people call you in everyday life? Back last June, I started calling Dave Davo, for reasons which escape me right now, or are too embarrassing to admit. Nine months later, that's firmly established as his nickname - practically the whole ukblogging community calls him that, and it feels as natural as hello. My little sister is Binnie. My brother gets called Dewi all the time. I live with Davo and El Capitano, or Lucozade. I spent my misguided university years drinking ...
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03.11.01Space cadetAt one point, a few years ago, my friends used to poke gentle fun at me for always drawing maps using the objects on the table:"So imagine that this salt cellar is me, and that ashtray is the corner of the road...hand on, can you pass that fork? Ok, that fork is the zebra crossing, and the mug, I mean the bus was going along here like this..."My listening friends would start to chip in usefully: "What's this pepper pot?" "How about my lasagne?" "Can this glass be a bus stop?" and so on. Smart arses. But I can't help it: ...
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03.03.01SnapshotNormal programming has resumed. Strangers are traipsing round my house, peering into my knicker drawer. I just made 800 pancakes for brunch.Luke is convinced he can hear a duck in the house. Absolutely convinced of it.Now, I've hallucinated seeing a duck before - specifically, a dancing duck in a bobble hat, masquerading as a tree in the foothills of the Amazon* - but never hearing one. He just made me roar with laughter, searching around the flat for the elusive mallard. Hehehe. *(Long story, but essentially, San Pedro Cactus is the most evil tasting thing I've ever had in my ...
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10.03.00Gently WeepsI miss my guitar. I've had the same twelve-string acoustic since 1990, when I bought it in a small music shop while on holiday in North Wales, and then hauled it over the long ocean to Canada. I chose it because it made a lot of noise - twelve strings always sound more accomplished and polished than six, and you don't need amplification to busk. I did a lot of busking. On the ferry from Tsawassen to Swartz Bay, I pulled out the guitar and busked Indigo Girls tunes to pay for the bus journey into Victoria. In 1990, I discovered ...
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