Ed Vogue's World

I first came across the coffee giant on a visit to New York in May 1999. The weather was unseasonably warm and I remember walking into the air conditioned coffee house and being bombarded by the choice. Ordering for the first time can be quite intimidating. There are many options and everyone else seems to be a master at it. There is the type of coffee, the size, optional extras, take in or take out and then you have to even remember your name so that the barista can scribble something that barely resembles your name on the side of the cup. After paying you then have to wait until the coffee you ordered arrives hoping that you will remember what you ordered and that the server shouts a name that you can at least recognise as yours. http://s3.amazonaws.com/bzzagent-bzzscapes-prod/expresso-frappachino-lrg.png   That May New York day I chose a grande (I think that is a medium) espresso frappuchino. As we walked along Broadway I drank this drink. I have to confess that I loved it -...

There is something different about Friday's. Something special. When I awake on a Friday it is usually to a happier outlook. The week is nearly done and the weekend is ahead. Friday is without doubt my favourite day of the week. Personally I treat Friday evening as part of the weekend, probably to compensate for the feeling that I get on a Sunday evening, which in my mind I consider as part of the next working week. I think that Sunday feeling comes from my childhood, whenever I hear the theme tunes of All Creatures Great and Small, Antiques Roadshow and Songs of Praise I think of homework, school uniform and packing the school bag ready to run for the bus the next morning. http://bachiles.files.wordpress.com/2012/04/wohoo_its_friday.gif?w=217 I find that if you do something special on a Friday evening, especially if it is straight from work then the weekend feels twice as long, this is just one example of something that makes Friday magic. Some workplaces dress down on a Frid...

One of my most vivid memories is completing my Silver Duke of Edinburgh Expedition in the New Forest one October half term. It must have been 1987 as Mike Smith was the Radio 1 breakfast host and I remember cooking bacon on the Trangia stove, in a field behind a scout hut in Fordingbridge, whilst listening to T'Pau's new single China in Your Hand, it was a gorgeous Autumn morning.  http://asymptotia.com/wp-images/2007/08/Radio_dynamo.jpg I had a red plastic battery operated radio that we listened to as we walked. That radio once got us into trouble on a snowy February in Dartmoor as the magnet in the speaker affected our compass, a rookie error that put us out a couple of miles searching for a postbox on Rough Tor.   Radio 1 was the station to listen to, the new music was heard first on this station, and alongside Mike Smith the line-up included Simon Bates, Mike Read, Simon Mayo and of course Steve Wright. Whilst at Uni I still enjoyed listening to Simon Mayo's breakfast...

Getting your haircut is something that I believe generally divides the genders. For most men of a certain age getting a haircut involves some clippers (No. 3 for instance), then a little tidy up with the scissors a decision about whether the back should be tapered or squared and you are done. But for women it is a whole lot more complicated. Women often have their own hairdresser, they know this person by name and they are not actually hairdressers but instead stylists. As they enter the salon there are a few things that happen before they get to the aforementioned stylist. First it is important that the hair is washed and conditioned before any cutting can take place. Following the wash comes a cup of coffee and a glossy magazine and a warm towel. Now, come the important decisions, will the hair need a dye applied, highlights, lowlights etc? What style? Layered. Above the shoulders. Curled under. Sometimes the customer has come prepared with a picture of some Hollywood celebri...

Wimbledon has come round again and with it the discussions about whether there will be enough strawberries to keep the spectators going (apparently the British strawberry growers have had a bad season), what fruit should be added to the perfect Pimms and questions as to if Murray is British or just a Scot. The last point depends on how far he progresses through the championship.  As the years have gone by the televised coverage has become more detailed with more cameras beaming the action in HD and even to some lucky households 3D, so the sweat from the players flies out of the TV and hits you in the face.   This improving technology has allowed for more scrutiny of arguably the most important aspect of he whole Wimbledon experience, the grass. What an amazing challenge the grounds keepers have to face each year. The grass is lush, weed free and always the perfect colour green. The stripes are exactly the same width and not a blade is out of place. The length of grass is k...

Today my thoughts have turned to dieting. The summer holidays are fast approaching and I might want to spend some time at the beach, or in a pool, or if the temperature gets really hot I might even walk down the street with my t-shirt tied around my waist drinking a can of Tennants! To do this though I feel I need to lose a bit of weight. Now, I am not particularly overweight, but I fear my BMI has been creeping up since Easter. I blame this on chocolate eggs, my birthday, a holiday in France with lots of Camembert, bread and wine, baking and of course Father's day chocolates. It is time to act. The cupboards and freezer are now bare of the delicious but fattening foods and I can now get myself in the diet zone. In the past I have used weight watchers as a good way of losing weight. Counting points helped me to focus on the plan and it worked. My favourite diet though is a high carb, low fat cereal diet devised by a trusted The slogan; two bowls, two weeks and two meals etc. sou...

I braved the rain today in search or adrenaline fuelled fun at a theme park. I went with my daughter and a friend and his daughter to ride the roller coasters on a typical wet summer Sunday. The plan was to rock up early and get in just as the park opened. This way we might get to have a go on the headline rides before they got busy. The queues are one of the things that put me off about theme parks. You pay a large amount of your hard earned cash to spend most of the day shuffling along in a large line of people under signs that say things like, "45 minutes wait from this point". I for one don't trust those signs, they are like the motorway 40 limit signs. Usually you drive under them at 5 mph looking at a long line of cars disappearing into the distance. At the theme park you queue for 1 hour to spend 2 minutes on the ride. You have to join the queues or you pay a lot of money to watch other people having fun. There is always the fast pass, or equivalent, but to use th...

It has been a while since I have done a spot of the old baking, but today I have had a chance to address this lack of kitchen chemistry. Inspired by my wife's delicious Black Forest Gateaux I designed a cup cake that would incorporate the same gorgeous flavours with a nod to the old 70's/80's favourite of the butterfly design.   For this recipe I had to start with a simple, Victoria sponge recipe with the addition on cocoa. This is an easy recipe to follow; 100g caster sugar 100g margarine 75g self raising flour 25g cocoa powder 2 medium eggs Cream the margarine and sugar together until light and fluffy. Whisk in the eggs one at a time slowly incorporating the dry ingredients. Half fill 12 paper cases with the mixture and then bake in the oven at 190C for 15 minutes. After 15 minutes check the cakes with a skewer. If it comes out clean then the cakes are ready. Let them cool in the cake tin for a few minutes then place on a rack to cool completely. Here they are just out of...

I am in no doubt that the Internet is an amazing thing. It really has revolutionised human life. I wonder what would happen if someone was to accidentally pull the Internet plug from the socket and it all suddenly turned off! I'm sure it would feel like the end of the world. What is funny is I do actually remember life before the Internet and you know, it feels like life was simpler! Still I wouldn't be without it. It is scary as well. I find it truly remarkable that I can pick up my phone or tablet device, surf the net or use a dedicated app and order anything I want from anywhere in the world. Some of these apps even accept one click ordering. Select, click, buy and within two days a postman leaves a delivery note to tell me my item is awaiting collection at the depot, 25 miles from my house. WOW! A well known company that started out selling books, now along with its subsidiaries, sells nearly everything, usually for cheaper than the high street. It is my favourite site. ...

As you read the title of today's entry you may be thinking, actually pretty tasty. If you are a mosquito and could read, and for that matter think, then the answer is likely to be definitely tasty.  Anopheles https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjw41LUGExoQtAlYAvermZH-rh4YkoSfZTdHbdAiItJd7iwW6KsV37ms4BdsEitqSs0wgKHbeZ7CwH0JMnvmZhhzLI_OTPIrsn49rfzjevU-cwQIFqX5VnJHSgoGc70MzTxYR-pKXbZjxdO/s500/Photo%25252021%252520Jun%2525202012%25252018%25253A00.jpg As part of my job, I was very lucky to have spent part of the British summer by a small lake complex. There was a huge amount of wildlife in the air. I think that the insects in particular where trying to make the most of the Sun and dry weather before the status quo resumed. A large part of these small flying organisms was the mosquito. In the past the mosquito has not been a particular nemesis of mine, however this season it is all change. I have noticed that recently these annoying, although perfectly evolved, b...

I would like to say sorry to my colleagues today, well those that share an office with me, for my slightly grumpy start this morning. I arrived at work and as I climbed out of the car I was hit by a warm breeze, the morning sun on my face, a beautiful blue sky and the slight damp smell of a summer's morning with the hint of mown grass in the background. The type of stimuli that signals the start of a perfect day, the sort of day that conjures up thoughts of holidays, camping trips, lazy lunches at a pub by the river with a cold glass of your favourite alcoholic tipple and a ploughman's lunch. The sort of day that without doubt will contain at some point an ice cream. As I walked from the car to the building I was thinking about that ice cream, I didn't want to be at work. The trouble with living in England is that these days don't seem to come around that often, maybe they happen more often than we might remember, however, they always seem to happen on a working day; w...

Royal Ascot Driving to work this morning I was listening to the Today programme on Radio 4. The conversation was all about the tightening up of the dress code for the ladies in the Royal Enclosure at Royal Ascot. Listen here , Tuesday 19th at about 7.45am Fascinating fascinators Apparently this year all dresses have to be on or just above the knee and surprisingly fascinators are to be discouraged. Now, this conversation piqued my interest, firstly because I had images of upper class bouncers measuring the Queen and Princess Kate's dresses with a ruler. Once they got through I imagined them both rolling up the dress at the middle to show a bit more leg! Secondly at first I had no idea what a fascinator actually was, thinking it might be some kind of hold up stocking! As the conversation on the radio progressed it dawned on me that a fascinator is in fact some sort of headwear usually made of a few bits of material/feathers etc. held in my a hair grip. Does that mean that a prin...

I returned home from work this evening with the kids in tow and then had to quickly nip back out to take one of them to a friends house. I wasn't thinking and as I closed the door and it clicked shut I realised that I had locked myself out.  https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjUp0J2_JyO-XyetdnvOxzeP9qKiTaMp3cG68CiK85Wdj9lAUMcI3z6sHRkKLIqOMAPMR27rKgZGDKp-BPt-Z7nofqQKHpCTY723lMOZFKOVUqJcO0k_GeTD4yerbrwLrsGpRzwRqk8UPY/s320/keyhole-742659.jpg Now it has been a long long time since I have locked myself out of the house and no one has been in the property to let me back in. In fact writing this I can't remember a time. There were of course those annoying security doors that used to shut behind me when I lived in university accommodation...no embarrassing stories there though!! But today it was me and one of my children. I phoned wife to see how far she was from home, she was just leaving the office so wouldn't be back for about an hour and a half. What to ...

Now, anyone who knows me will also know that I like desserts, in fact that is definitely my favourite part of the meal. I hate it when I'm out at a restaurant with a group of friends and someone asks that question, "Are we having starters?". There are the general 'erhmms and arr's' and then the group agreement that starters are the way to go. This is the signal for the first attack on my dessert. It is now likely that desserts will not be on the agenda by the end of the meal due to my fellow diners thoughts, said or unsaid; I'm full up If I have three courses does that make me look greedy Whoa, three courses is a bit expensive I'm on a diet, so I had better not eat dessert even though I have eaten a large plate of creamy carbonara Can we get one dessert and two spoons Now, I maybe different to some others, but on entering the restaurant I have already taken a sneaky look at the dessert menu (usually a small blackboard which looks like a spider has ...

I would like to say a big thank you to my children and to my wife for a lovely father's day. It started early this morning with a deluge of gifts, making it feel more like my birthday. Included were some homemade cards and some Kinder chocolate. I have always been a bit partial to a spot of Kinder. You used to be only able to get hold of it on the continent and it was what I liked to bring back from those trips to France; now you can buy it in every supermarket. I still love it though and don't often buy it but my family know that this is a chocolate of choice for special occasions and when on holiday in Europe! Father's day was first celebrated in the USA in 1910 and it is thought that celebrations in the UK were inspired by that. Some people believe that Father's day is linked somehow to pagan worship of the Sun and it may not be a coincidence that it occurs close to the Summer solstice. Father's day is always celebrated on the third Sunday in June. I visited a ...

Absolutely nothing I hear you cry? Well, according to my research just one slug can produce 40,000 offspring, so they are good for something! According to the RHS a slug problem can be diagnosed by the presence of one or all of the following symptoms; Slime trails Irregular holes in plants (made by the rasping teeth) The presence of black keeled slugs, living underground and in potato tubers Well I have a slug problem down on the allotment, these two photos are pretty evident; You can see the slime trail, you can see the slug!!! And this is the effect it had on the first strawberry of the season, the inside of the tender tasty looking fruit has been completely rasped out. Down garden services have some very interesting methods of controlling slugs, my favourite is this, I quote from their website, researchers in Hawaii have found that a 1 to 2% solution of caffeine will kill slugs and a 0.1% solution will deter them if is sprayed on leaves. However, this latter strength solution...

This is the first post of my new blog. I have found myself inspired to write a blog following the extraordinary blogging of the Scottish girl and her school meals. Her blog is really showing how one person can make a difference. Good for her and I hope that she keeps going. http://neverseconds.blogspot.co.uk http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-glasgow-west-18454800 As yet I have no such campaign to champion. Maybe that will come. I hope to use my blog to talk about some of those everyday things that I might find annoying, amusing or just interesting. If anyone gets to read this post you might find some of what I write of interest...I hope so. The drip, drip of my kitchen tap is annoying me at the moment. My kitchen was fitted just under 5 years ago by a well known high street DIY firm. As part of the kitchen I had a rather expensive mixer tap installed. Recently this tap has begun to drip. Now, I'm not good at DIY but I thought that I could at least investigate the drip. Due t...