Month: February 2026

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Cranes

Many, many, many years ago I met a couple of Japanese girls in Cambridge. They were only there briefly and we became friendly. The time came for them to return to Japan and so we bade our farewells the night before their early flight.

I was a bit shocked by a very early morning knocking on my door. When I opened it the girls very ceremoniously presented me with two Origami Cranes that they had made. I kept those origami creations for quite a while but in those days I was frequently moving house by bicycle and splitting my time between my Rochdale parental home and whatever student accommodation I was in and I lost them, along with many other things.

Now that I find myself with a lot more time on my hands I decided to take some Origami paper that we bought for Oli years ago and learn how to fold an Origami Crane.

This is my first attempt. This one is earmarked for Scouse as I made it on his birthday and promised to give it to him as a sign of peace, love and harmony.

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Jolly Day Out

Emma was off school, the kids didn’t need anything from us so we decided to have a jolly day out looking at cars. Well, one car in paricular. We want a Telsa Model Y.

We were going to go look at the Tesla showroom in Manchester and then have lunch with Charlie. Unfortunately on this day he was doing some recording and wouldn’t be about – so we went to Liverpool instead which is “closer”. I say “closer” because it always seems to take ages to drive anywhere in Liverpool. It’s all traffic lights and roundabouts and little roads. We should bulldoze half of Liverpool and put a motorway straight into the centre. Anyway, I digress.

Emma trying out her new car to be

We got to the Liverpool Tesla Centre and immediately jumped into their Model Y and started pressing buttons. It’s almost exactly the same as our Model 3 but it has some funky interior lighting and buttons to fold down the back seat and close the boot. Loved it. We walked in intending to just have a look and wait until more details about the Range Rover Velar EV came out to compare the two, but we didn’t, we slapped a £200 reservation on a Model Y Long Range All Wheel Drive. We went for that spec as we’re considering driving to the Alps for Xmas and AWD seemed a sensible option. We should get it in May. Exciting.

When we left the Tesla store Emma mentioned that Lark Lane was nearby and she’d always wanted to check it out. So off we went. As soon as we arrived I felt at home. Bohemian chilled vibe, lots of little shops, bakeries and restaurants. Beautiful people. We ultimately ended up in Yum Cha, a chinese dim sum place. Absolutely fantastic. They even had Xia Long Bau – not quite up the Beijing Dumpling standard but pretty bloody close.

Whilst we were pondering what to order I heard the fella behind me talking about Spicy Wontons and how great they were. So I ordered a plate of them. Best. Thing. Ever. I’m going back and I’m buying more.

Excellent day out!

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Tofu-tastic

Those who know me will know that I like a bit of Tofu when I’m doing Asian cooking. I always used to just cover it in a bit of cornflour and fry it until it was good and firm and then mix it in with a sauce.

But I always had a dream. I always wanted to make the tofu into tofu balls like you get from the Chinese takeaway when you get Sweet and Sour Chicken. Well my dear reader. I finally got off my arse and googled how to do it. Ten minutes later…et voila

Seriously – just check that shit out.

I went the whole hog and made my own sweet and sour sauce to go over tofu balls. It was amazing. I didn’t get a picture of that bit. I was too busy eating. Definitely making it all again and it’s even got the point that I was drooling over a deep fat fryer at CostCo the other day.

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Wordling – again

You all know I’m fond of laying in bed in the morning and having a good old wordle. Well this was just too good not to screenshot and post about…yeah, that’s how empty and vacuous my life really is.

My fellow wordlers will get it