Mmmm bacon.... Part 2

I have decided to use the maple syrup option for my 1st attempt.

 The cure is

1/2 cup brown sugar
1/2 cup salt
1/2 cup maple syrup

Having reviewed the comments at Curious Kai I decided to premix the cure in the bag.

This is the raw pork belly:

This is the cure mixed in the bag:

This is the belly in the bag all nicely mixed up.

I also decided that I would store the belly in a clip lock container to prevent any spill issues.

Into the fridge with it and I will see how it looks tomorrow.

Mmmm bacon....

I have just received half a pig from my in laws. I am pretty excited about the possibilities of what can be done with it. The first experiment will be home cured bacon. I have the pork belly ready to go and saw a great recipe at Curious Kai Curious Kai. I plan to show the process as I go and am hopeful of a great and tasty outcome. The second bash at this pig will be tomorrow nights roast. It is a 6 hour process that I found on the Jamie Oliver website again I will take some photos as I go. I often find it interesting to see how real life cooking compare with what you see from the cook books.

In the meantime it is beer o'clock and I am looking forward to the rugby tonight. Hopefully this will be a good game and the Irish will give us a good run for our money.

Silly bitch

Why on earth does she think that because she has had a moderately successful career as an actress it entitles her to opine on world economics?

This is nice

It was a long drive but well worth it when this is the view from our room!

Off to Wanaka

A week off!

I have never worked so hard in my life and am finally having a week with the wife and kids away from Christchurch. I know I need it and I have never looked forward to a holiday so much.

We are again staying at the fantastic Edgewater Resort - thanks Dad! Hopefully the absolutely outstanding Gaynor  will still be working in the restaurant making coffee and fluffies for the kids.

We may pay a visit to the somewhat odd Toy Museum and of course to Puzzling World but that will have to be without a having had too many wines the night before as some of the rooms are fairly disturbing

Brian being silly again

Brian suggests that because he was no good at sport then it should not be compulsory. I think this is utter rubbish for a few reasons.

I was utterly shit at maths at school. I just never "got it" until I left school and was able to see practical uses for it (I was converting square feet of timber into cubic meters when made it all suddenly made sense). Following Brian's thought maths for me should have been optional. If that was the case how many kids would choose to take maths? Not a lot I would suggest. Even though I loathed maths what I learned despite myself has still been useful.

The same applies with english, science geography etc. There are some things that are important to know at least something about and sport is one of them.

Also at the secondary school I went to it was compulsory to do "standards" which was competing in 10 (from memory)  athletic events with every performance scored and counting toward a house competition. There were a lot pf people who were not very good but the encouragement of the other house members for all of the participants irrespective of ability was something to see. Even the most useless performer was encouraged by all of the other house members.  I didn't really have much aptitude at athletics but looking back I can see that by making everyone be involved it was beneficial to all of us. In fact I remember bloody near killing someone when I stuffed up a hammer throw! You could see some of the kids who lacked confidence (as clearly Brian did) really put the effort in when they had 50-60 people cheering them on. I know I did.

While I can sympathise with Brian's point I cannot agree.

Back yet again

Work has been just insane but today I feel like I have turned a corner. I caught up on jobs not done for weeks and all of the buildings that need demolition are sorted for now.

All of the talk about insurance companies being pricks has thus far (and touch wood) been untrue.

The people who believe the "squeaky wheel gets the oil" are beginning to understand the scale of what has happened here.

I have two meetings tomorrow for non Christchurch complexes and that almost seems like a day off! Prior to the quakes I would have been uptight about making sure I had every detail covered to the nth degree - not so much now.

I hope to get some blogging done and have a few thoughts on current events and the reconstruction of Christchurch.

Tramping

http://oswaldbastable.blogspot.com/2011/06/gone-bush.html

Just saw a picture of what I suspect is Lake Daniels  -  A place I first went to when I was about 6 or 7. I remember my father helping me when I was stuck in the swampy area about 30 minutes walk from the hut. Since then I have been in many times with my Dad (one heart attack and one broken wrist for him - the broken wrist caused him to pass out and I thought have another heart attack!). Following that I took childhood friends in with him and even my (now) wife. When Dad got too old to walk in, which was in his late 60's, we had one last hurrah by going in by chopper - for that trip the fish cost about $450 per kilo! It is a truly wonderful place and having seen that pic I now plan on taking my kids this December.

I only hope my kids have the same memories of the place that I do...

Here we go again

More bloody aftershocks.

I am glad that we have all decamped to the coast for the weekend - even though it has been pissing down. The kids have been fairly good recently and we could do well without further disruption.

I hope all of our clients have come through ok but I fear for a few of the buildings we look after. I was on the 13th floor of one the other day and even with no quakes it was groaning and creaking. I don't think we will be going up there again!

Well you pay for it then!

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/nz/news/article.cfm?c_id=1&objectid=10719331

Fuck I hate how ivory tower academics expect the pool old taxpayer to fund what they want to watch. Frankly I doubt that even they watch the shite that is on TVNZ7.

"viewers want and should be able to access" Utter bullshit - if viewers wanted to access it the ratings would be good - clearly no one is interested in the banal pc nonsense that purports to be programming on this channel.

PSA morons

My contribution....


Really as Cactus Kate (hat tip) says you would think they would, at the very least, monitor the site.

Edit: the commies have now killed the page....

Back again

Working in the property industry as I do times have been very "interesting"in recent weeks. I now plan to get back to the blog on a fairly regular basis. I will be posting thoughts on the recovery and the manner in which CD/CC/Central Government are dealing with the huge task ahead.

Air National

85744http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/public-trust-highest-risk-airline-misplaced-ja-p-85744 - Behind the paywall sorry

Ye gods I don't like the sound of this. I fly with these guys fairly often as they are an Air New Zealand contractor (if that is the right term) from Blenheim to Christchurch. The planes I have been on are Jetstream 32's which have always had an awful and strong "unwashed hair" smell about them. I always dread the Friday afternoon trip and have a shower once I get home. I am not being overly sensitive either as rugby broke my nose 4 times and I can't smell too well as a result.

It could well be that the CAA are being unfair (I doubt it though) but for me safety in flight is sacrosanct and even the perception that an airline is unsafe is enough to make me want to avoid them. The problem is that with Air New Zealand being the only airline flying Blenheim to Christchurch I don't have any choice.

I don't want to see anyone out of a job but this must be the end for Air National - surely after this Air New Zealand will have to drop them from flying for them?

I'm back

Now that the earthquake work has lessened somewhat I will start to get this blog going.

Thoughts and musings to follow....

Chilean mine disaster....

Trapped in a mine in Chile - the horror

Superb.

Balanced reporting

Holding the workers to ransom

A very interesting article from Brian Edwards. I have to say that while I disagree with much of what he says I do enjoy the way he says it. It is interesting though that while he speaks up on the importance of balanced reporting in defense of the "workers" he (and his leftie ilk) are silent on some of the outrageous lies and distortions put about by those who oppose the "90 day" rule.

Surely whats good for the goose is good for the gander Brian?

So he is nuts then.....

http://www.nbr.co.nz/article/why-banks-wont-take-crafars-money-129465

I thought he sounded a little crazy when I heard some of the interviews with him - now I am convinced of it.

What an insult to the intelligence

http://www.3news.co.nz/Labour-MMP-still-young/tabid/419/articleID/174010/Default.aspx

What an absolute insult to the intelligence of the electorate. Really it just typifies the Labour thought process that they know best and that the rabble public are thick.