A sample:

I’m a big fan of Dan’s, especially since he complemented the (South) Chelsea buns that I made for last years Brockwell Bake. Inspired by reading his book, I decided to cultivate my own sour dough starter (or leaven) over the Christmas break. Approximately a week of dedication required to get the process kick-started, with daily feeding and monitoring my leaven.

I was incredibly surprised to find that actually it wasn’t that painful. At times I felt it wasn’t working (especially when my loaf on day 5 appeared to fail), but the result on day 6 was just amazing. I’ve certainly never made a loaf with such a remarkable crust (so crispy) and crumb (so chewy).

I now just have to work out how best to keep my leaven alive going forwards. See the pictures below to see how the drama unfolded.

In the face of these difficulties, the incredible crew of volunteers that organise the festival managed to pull something out of the bag. They patched the holes, raided some piggy banks and hey presto, a festival. It didn’t quite work like clockwork this year, but Saturday was a definitely a success. After all this effort, and years of great work, the future of the festival was finally decided by the torrential rain that fell over Bristol on Saturday night. Access to the site by vehicle was made incredibly difficult, with the emergency services announcing that they could not get on site, and therefore, the festival could not open (for it would be in breach of its license). The loss of a days revenue was enough to finish the festival off. Yesterday, it was announced that the festival is to be liquidated.

Although I no longer live in Bristol, I personally consider this a great loss to the city. I grew up with the festival during the 90s (a useful list of lineups since 1994), and it inspired me to get involved in promoting music (both live and otherwise). I became a volunteer at the festival at the end of the 90s, and have taken great pleasure in helping to nurture it over the years. I was initially invited to sit on the festival music committee – a group of local promoters and music industry heads who listen to all of the demos that get sent to the festival, in order to make the arduous decision about who should play. I also crewed stages at the festival, and moved on to supervise both the main and amphitheatre stages.

Over the years, there have been highs and lows. A few that stick out include

• looking after Robert Plant and watching him almost get mobbed by 1000ish Led Zep fans, despite being surrounded by security escorts
• being accused of being scientists, undertaking experiments in a portakabin on the main stage, by a slightly worse for wear GLC
• Super Furry Animals‘ tour manager throwing his phone on the floor and quitting shortly prior to their set, with no sign of a band, and no means of us contacting them
• and finally, the fact that The Fall will be the last ever band to play the festival seems somewhat symbolic, but I’m not sure how yet

This loss will leave a hole in the Bristol summer musical calendar, and I sincerely hope that at some point in the future it is filled with an equally worthwhile event.

So on to the galleries..

March in Snowdonia

a weekend trip to Berlin, and we made it this time

Whoever invented motion sensors for lights didn’t think it through well enough. We sit at desks to work, and our work involves relatively little movement. If we forget to stand up and walk around periodically, the lights turn off. So when the lights turn off, it is a reminder that we need to be more physically active.

But perhaps more surprising than rain in the UK was that during this intense rainy spell I was offered a lift by two separate (and I assume completely independent) drivers.

Being (Great) British, I stubbornly (but politely [or as politely as one can when cycling flat out in driving rain]) declined. Besides, I didn’t want to mess up their car interiors.

I was intruiged by a robot (although it doesn’t look like one) that we discovered in holiday. At Kolding Library (Denmark) they have a nicely automated book return system. Not only does this allow you to self-return books, but it automatically categorises them using a series of conveyor belts, placing them into boxes based on their subject.

Unfortunately, I failed to take a photo, so rely on somebody elses to illustrate. And unfortunately x2, the photo isn’t great.

If you ever get a chance to visit Kolding, I highly recommend a trip to their library.

What I can say is that things have been out of the ordinary.

I was particularly organised – see here, my organised reading. This demonstrates the classification of my reading into subject categories. From above, it is hard to get a sense of depth, but I assure you that these piles are substantial.

Pictured below is my collection of laptops, acquired in order to perform some (large) experiments. Stage left is my new laptop, next is a laptop donated by edward, and stage right is my old laptop. You can also see my general working environment.

This afternoon in the local corner shop, during the usual conversation about the weather (it’s been raining for the last 3 days), the shopkeeper asked how long I was around for. I explained that, actually, I live in Edinburgh. He seemed really quite surprised.

Update: I am informed that making any comment which comes close to a complaint about the weather is a surefire way of being mistaken for a festival-attending tourist.