Ed Vogue's World

It is predicted to be possibly the hottest day of the year so the Vogue family made a decision to head out of town to the coast to visit some friends by the sea. This is preferable to me than blowing up and filling the paddling pool in the garden.  The car was packed with all the items you need for the beach. We navigated our way through the post lockdown Friday traffic of North London and joined the M25.  The music was banging out of the speakers and as I drove I dreamt of my seafood platter lunch and delicious fish and chips for dinner staring out at the big blue.  The temperature on the dashboard revealed a steaming 40 degrees outside but the air conditioning was doing a great job of keeping us all cool.  As we neared the M3 the traffic slowed for an incident ahead and as we slowed down to stop the engine stalled and then failed to restart. We had broken down on the M25 just before Junction 12 - in the middle lane! Mrs Vogue immediately made a 999 call to report o...

Eggs, bacon, mushrooms, beans, black pudding, fried bread, grilled tomatoes alongside others all important components of the traditional Great British breakfast. This is a meal that can be piled high on a plate served with white toast, marmalade and a pint of tea at a roadside cafe or presented neatly on the finest porcelain alongside starched white napkins in a fancy London restaurant.  I love making breakfast. Often nothing beats a simple poached egg on toast with a side of smoked bacon grilled until the edges are crispy. Since coronavirus however we have been experimenting with some delicious recipes. With lockdown we have had more time to spend on this well deserved meal. I would like to share three of my favourites.  The first recipe is a Tom Kerridge recipe from his book and TV series of the same name Get Fit and Lose Weight. This recipe is called Green Eggs and Ham. The green is kale, spinach and peas, these ingredients alongside garlic and spring onions are scrambled t...

Today’s blog is a recipe inspired by the bounty of damson fruit ripening on the tree in our garden. So what to make when the damsons are in season?  Usually I would make some chutney. Today was not a chutney day. Too early in the year. Interestingly the damsons are early this year perhaps the warm lockdown March and April is responsible for this.   The recipe needed today needed to reflect the summer... 1.8 kilograms of damsons allows for two different recipes, a damson jam and a damson fool. Excitingly the jam recipe requires our special book. This has been well thumbed and the pages are stained with various fruit juices and vinegars.  There are some lovely recipes in this book. I very much recommend it if you want to make jams or preserves.  The damson fool recipe required a google search and luckily my favourite food writer of the moment Felicity Cloke of the Guardian has written an article on the Perfect Damson Fool. She has to take credit for this recipe. See li...

This question is one that has been posed many a time.  It can be asked in a frivolous Facebook type of question or asked in a serious job interview. I guess the validity of the second example depends upon the position applied for.  If you were interviewing for a position as a financial director of an investment bank then it would be, to say the least, a bit odd. However, if you were interviewing for a position at the local Pets R Us, then then in this case it might be a reasonable line of enquiry.  Are YOU a dog or cat person?  It is a deeply personal question.  It is a question that perhaps divides the nation. It can be a dangerous question to ask on a first date, but I would bet good money that more than likely a discussion about pets comes up during this occasion. It is a make or break question. The answer could result in the date ending in a ‘would you like to come back to mine for coffee and to see my...cat’ (even I have to keep these blogs decent) or ‘let’...

Yesterday marked the last day of the English Premiership Season so its time to hang up the boots and reflect on my Fantasy Football experience.. To tell the truth I have never really been into football.  As a youngster the nearest big club was Brighton and Hove Albion and my friends and I never made the trip to the terraces and as a result I never felt the club spirit that so many people talk about. I wasn’t sporty as a kid, never played myself and my lack of interest meant that when the big national events came around I wasn’t that bothered as to who won or lost.  I do remember the FA Cup being a big thing though. It would nominate the live kids TV on a Saturday morning the in early summer and always seemed to be a red team playing against a blue team.  As a student in Leeds, before the premiership, I did go once to Elland Road in the 91/92 season. This was when they won the first division ahead of Man Utd. These were in the days of Gary Speed, Gary McAllister, Lee Chapm...

When people ask me where I live and I tell them London they think mostly of busy, traffic filled streets with crime on every corner. What people don’t consider are the small village areas punctuated by parks, wild spaces and woods, the varied and diverse culture that is on offer bringing with it interesting food shops, restaurants and people, convenient and cheap transport options and the buzz of living in arguably the greatest city in the world.  Ok, I admit it can be busy but it depends on where you are going. Since the lockdown the roads have been much quieter and even as easing as occurred the traffic has not been at the levels that it was before. Areas of central London can be touristy and this equals busy. You may have to queue for a tube and stand shoulder to shoulder taking in the aromas of your fellow passengers once on it but this is the price to pay for having so many lovely things right on your doorstep.  Just like any city though if you arrive at the right time yo...

Whilst ruminating on the subject of today’s post I was reflecting on the names that I have been called in the past and occasionally still do although that  I am well into my middle age.  The first that has followed me around through the years is of a cartoon character; the sidekick of one of the 80’s British cartoon superheroes. The superhero in question is Dangermouse, a cool, sophisticated cowardly crime fighter who was supported in his exciting escapades by his nerdy sidekick Penfold. Penfold was a spectacle and suit wearing hamster. He is particularly known for his catchphrase of ‘crumbs’ whenever trouble reared its head.  I must have looked like Penfold when I was younger because when I met people for the first time and the conversation started flowing they often were reminded of Penfold!! I knew it was coming when they would say, ‘who do you remind me of?’. I would then wait for the penny to drop.  I am pleased to say that this has not happened in recent years,...

It is widely known that superheroes wear masks to protect their identities.  But not all.  Superman wears no mask, all he has to do is take his glasses off, put his pants on the outside of his lycra leggings, run some brylcreem through his hair and he is somehow unrecognisable to his nearest and dearest.  On the other hand Spider-Man and indeed Ironman wear a full face covering that hide their identities. Those who know the Marvel films will understand that in the case of Ironman this is not actually to protect his identity. Tony Stark goes out of his way to ensure everyone knows that ‘he is Ironman’.  His helmet is all about the heads up display to help him catch the bad guys, but for Spider-Man anonymity is all important.  Somewhere in between these extremes lies the half mask that Batman wears. His mask covers the top half of the head leaving nostrils and mouth bare but this seems enough, with the added aid of a gravelly voice, to confuse everyone about his r...

Way back in the last week of March lockdown started in England. The government told us to stay home and schools were closed. As a family we decided to try out an advertised HIIT workout programme which would be streaming live on YouTube,  Body Coach TV . We tuned in on that first day and were introduced to PE with Joe and the HIIT workout.  As a family we whole heartedly jumped in. The guy, Joe, was engaging and enthusiastic. It was hard.  Three days later we could hardly walk up and down the stairs. Joe told the nation that was normal. He told us this was because the muscles were being worked and that it was temporary and we would get stronger. He was right.  By the end of the week we could walk again and we were getting used to the exercises.  A month in and Joe Wicks had become a national phenomenon. He was being talked about on the radio and TV. People used his name as a synonym for exercising.  He had also introduced us to his family with his wife and ...

Sir Isaac Newton first explained how the tides are caused by gravitational effects in 1687. Of course for him to be able to explain these he needed first to have explained the phenomenon of gravity itself.  There is evidence of philosophers in earlier times de cringing the effects of gravity on the oceans. For instance Seneca the Younger a Roman philosopher (4BC to 65AD) recognised that the tides were in some way linked to the Moon. He wrote,  In point of fact, their growth is strictly allotted; at the appropriate day and hour they approach in greater volume or less according as they are attracted by the lunar orb, at whose sway the ocean wells up. This attraction that he speaks of is what Newton described over 1600 years later.  To understand the tides we firstly need a working understanding of gravitational force. Gravity is a non-contact force. This is a force that acts between two objects that are at a distance as contrasted by a contact force such as friction.  ...

It is widely thought that in 1919 in the Caffe Casoni in Florence, Italy a gentleman by the name of Forsco Scarselli was asked by his customer and friend to sharpen up his favourite cocktail the Americano. He did this by adding gin instead of soda water. In that moment a new cocktail was born that has become legendary. This drink was named after the barkeep’s friend a certain Count Camillo Negroni.  The origin story of the Negroni is not without its variations and as Jennifer Boylan of the New York Times reported in June 2019,  https://www.nytimes.com/2019/06/12/opinion/negroni-2019.html  citing a further reference, that the drink was in fact created in Senegal in 1870 by one General Pascal Olivier Comte de Negroni.  Whatever the drinks origin not many will argue what a fine cocktail it is. However, as with all classic food and drink recipes the actual ingredients and ratios will be up for debate and subject to personal taste.  The basic recipe involves equal me...

Apparently measuring the intelligence of a bird is quite a difficult thing to do. It depends upon how one decides to actually do this measurement. There have been many studies into bright birds but from my limited reading it seems that the crow family (the corvids) and the parrot family (the psittacines) hold the top spots. However perhaps bird intelligence should be based on how successful a bird can be at grabbing an unsuspecting humans ice cream or fish and chips at any British seaside resort you care to mention.  If it was measured in this way then the European Herring Gull ( Larus argentatus ) would definitely be in with a shout.  These birds are experts at stealing food. They sit high above the beach surveying the crowds or fly low across the heads of the sunseekers looking for the tell-tale signs of crispy batter and salty chips.  Their call is a mocking laugh, throwing the head back and calling out in defiance knowing that they are truly above the law. Once they h...

When I was a youngster I was very privileged to have parents that owned a boat. Of course when I was a youngster I had no real appreciation of how lucky I was to have parents who owned a boat. The boat in question was a 29ft Westerley Konsort called Reefknot. We sailed from her home port on the Sussex coast to places as far away as Devon, Cornwall, Normandy, the Channel Islands and Brittany.  Often when on a long sail to keep us youngsters interested and to give us something to do out went the mackerel line. This consisted of a fishing line with feather lures attached that simulated the small prey fish of the mackerel, Scomber scombrus.   The line was trolled behind the boat with an excited finger hanging on to it feeling for the tell-tale vibration which indicated that a fish had taken the bait. The line would be pulled in and the mackerel would be unceremoniously dumped into a bowl in the cockpit. Incidentally this bowl also had another use as the receptacle for nauseous sai...