We have a case officer!!!!

After months of waiting we have finally been assigned a case officer. The last hurdles for our visas for Australia are in sight. All we have to do now is have our medicals done and for me to get my Dutch Police Clearance. I couldn't apply for a Dutch Police Clearance until the Adelaide Processing Centre asked for it. We have booked our medicals and we have send an application form for my Police Clearance off today so hopefully we have everything done in the next few weeks. We are over the moon, although we do realize it hasn't been granted yet.

Our Burns Night

Haggis what can I say. We tried it. It was okay but not really something we will eat again....ever.

Not that it was particularly bad or anything but it is just the fact of knowing what's in it and the texture of the whole thing. A bit chewier than we had liked.

Here is what it looks like on a plate mashed potatoes, mashed suede(turnip) and of course the Haggis.

Burns Night January the 25th

Robert Burns' portrait next to a Haggis.

For some reason I always wanted to try a Haggis.
And why not try it when it is celebrated most during Burns Night. An event celebrated by Scots all over the world where they commemorate Robert Burns and recite his poems and the most famous being Auld Lang Syne.mp3 text.

I don't know why I would like to try it, maybe because it just doesn't sound right? Just read the ingredients.

Haggis Recipe
Ingredients
1 sheep's stomach or ox secum, cleaned and thoroughly, scalded, turned inside out and soaked overnight in cold salted water
heart and lungs of one lamb
450g/1lb beef or lamb trimmings, fat and lean
2 onions, finely chopped
225g/8oz oatmeal
1 tbsp salt
1 tsp ground black pepper
1 tsp ground dried coriander
1 tsp mace
1 tsp nutmeg
water, enough to cook the haggis
stock from lungs and trimmings

Method
1. Wash the lungs, heart and liver (if using). Place in large pan of cold water with the meat trimmings and bring to the boil. Cook for about 2 hours.
2. When cooked, strain off the stock and set the stock aside.
3. Mince the lungs, heart and trimmings.
4. Put the minced mixture in a bowl and add the finely chopped onions, oatmeal and seasoning. Mix well and add enough stock to moisten the mixture. It should have a soft crumbly consistency.
5. Spoon the mixture into the sheep's stomach, so it's just over half full. Sew up the stomach with strong thread and prick a couple of times so it doesn't explode while cooking.
6. Put the haggis in a pan of boiling water (enough to cover it) and cook for 3 hours without a lid. Keep adding more water to keep it covered.
7. To serve, cut open the haggis and spoon out the filling. Serve with neeps (mashed swede or turnip) and tatties (mashed potatoes).

Some ingredients like the lungs aren't even available for human consumption in the USA and apparently there are even Haggis smugglers.

But we'll have a go at our little Haggis tomorrow... And if we don't like it we have sausages on stand-by just in case.

Steve Irwin meets Ross

A great clip, the late Steve Irwin, the Crocodile Hunter, meets Ross, a guy who is afraid of everything shown to him by Steve. Can Steve make him overcome his fears? From the Tonight Show with Jay Leno.

John West

Only the tastiest and most tender salmon....
John West.

Show some respect....

Show some respect or else it might cost you!!!
Did you know we have special ''Beware of the elderly" roadsigns in Britain.

And here is where you can buy one.

I can see!!!... I can see!!!

I 've been moaning lately about the lighting in the office as I thought that must be it making my eyes go funny after a day behind the PC. Surely it couldn't be me. Well I went to my GP for something else and mentioned it to him. He said: Have you had an eye test lately? No?! Anyhoo, I went to an opticians and had my eyes measured up. And........?
I need glasses as being diagnose farsighted last Saturday I picked them up and here they are....

I am using it for the Australia and New Zealand Magazine where we gather some information about emigrating to Australia.
A nice way to kill time while waiting to get a Case Officer assigned (we hope that will happen any day soon now).

The joker (Fat Boy Slim)

The joker.
About Fat Boy Slim.
More Fat Boy Slim Music Video Clips here.

PC Cassette Deck

What to do with all those old cassettes you still have laying about? They don't fit in your new car stereo anymore. Play them from your PC!!
Install this little beauty in one of the empty slots and away you go.
For more info on the Plus deck 2 go here.

Spam!!!

I used to love Spam in my macaroni growing up, unfortunately Caroline doesn't like it and to be honest it has lost its appeal to me 'meat in a can'.
However there is still an annual Spam festival called the Spam Jam in Austin, Minnesota.

Big Fish!!!

Last Saturday we finally ate 'Nemo' the fish that filled our freezer for the last few weeks.
As you can see a nice salmon, gutted it weighed in at 3.7 Kg. Normally we would never buy such a big fish but when they sold it to us at Waitrose it was reduced from 40 pounds to only 7. We thought it would be a nice excuse to invite family over. When it came to preparing 'Nemo' we thought it had been scaled but when it came to scoring the fish I noticed they were still on. The next half hour I spent descaling the fish, the next few days were spent cleaning scales from all over the house. Chef prepared it for us following one of Gordon Ramsay's recipes and when it was time to put it in the oven we realised the oven was too small!!! We had to bend both ends upwards and slam the door shut, so it would fit in.

When it came out it was delicious. Caroline had invited her parents, sister and her sister's fiancee but with a total of six we could never eat it all. We had to give portions away "for the cat" and even so we had some the next 2 days once for dinner and twice for lunch. We really had a good time and the whole meal was fantastic. But we 've had enough salmon for now, atleast for another week or 2.

The Trinket Maker

Will he ever tell her.....?

CGI musical instrument

Some kind of weird musical instrument.

Iphone

Iphone is an Ipod that can play music, phone, go on the internet and much more.......

Iphone by Apple

Iphone launch (BBC)

SAM

SAM1 a janitor who dreams of being a pilot.

In the Rough

After his honey kicks him out of the cave, Brog discovers bachelor life ain't all it's cracked up to be.

Star Wars helpdesk

Pity the Stormtrooper having to man the tech support desk on the Death Star!

Great White (Planet Earth; BBC)

With the CD/DVD vouchers I received for Christmas I bought the complete DVD series of Planet Earth the other day. It has some astonishing footage on it from all over the globe and all sorts of wildlife like these Great White Sharks that appear to 'fly'.
For more information on Planet Earth see the BBC's Planet Earth website
or look online for the Planet Earth DVD collection.

New Year's Day BBQ

!!!!HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!! Caroline and I have started what could become a family tradition of our own. The New Year's Day Barbecue. We have had our first bbq of this year 2007 on the 1st of January. We were lucky it is very mild for the time of year +/- 7C. But we did it and were the first of our family to have one this year. Usually it is Caroline's Dad who manages to have the first one as soon as weather conditions improve. We thought we should do it before we move to Australia and for having the first bbq of the year being ruled out for being summer there as being unfair to everyone on the northern hemisphere.

New Year's Eve

We spent the last day of 2006 well.
We slept in late, bought fireworks and we had decided to have canapes for lunch which turned out to be several starters instead. We made Crab filled lettuce wraps; Spicy Prawns in batter and last but not least Parmesan Baskets for our selves. The Parmesan baskets turned out best:

For dinner we thought we should have Partridge as a starter freshly caught at a local supermarket car park as you do:

Caroline and I did wonder when they would discover the bird sticking out of their bumber.

And the piece de resistance was a beautiful tender reck of lamb in a herb crust. At that time alcohol levels had rissen to a point where we just ate the thing rather then take another picture of Chef with it. It was REALLY nice though.

Fire (update 2)

Final update,... I hope. The people from the Powerboard came out on the 27th of December and spotted that the previous repair man had routed 2 power cables instead of one to a main fuse causing it to trip everytime at 23:32 when the power for the storage heaters came on. He fixed it so there is power going to the storageheaters again, but he could not turn it on for liability reasons.
The landlord had to switch the storageheaters on as there is no fuse 'protecting' it when an overload would occur. But chances of that happening again.......(knock on wood) So the landlord still needs to install a fuse there, but for the meantime it is working.

It was nice to be there while the Powerboard repaired it because at the end the electrician made some recommendations as to what the landlord might want to do which I wouldnt have heard otherwise. One of the things he said in the end was that with current regulations the house would not be up to standard for letting. If he would like to let it out after we move he would have to modernise the metercabinet.

On Friday the 28th the heating worked properly again and last Saturday the 30th the house was comfortably warm, once again just in time for the New Year