Err crap.
I guess this is the beginning of the end. Im currently moving at 940Km/h in -60 degrees weather over the Himalayas. Any idea what im in? Nope... its not a 1987 VL Commodore, or the equally capable 1986 XF Falcon on gas- Its the prohibition express: 10:10am from Heathrow to Bandar Seri Begawan, via Dubai, run by Royal Brunei. Comfortable as my in-cab entertainment system is, the enertainment is somewhat tame with the most offensive and action packed movie on here being Wall-e. I am still wonderiing what may have been of us if we arrived at heathrow any later. At the end of our 60 minute wait in the queue for the Royal brunei counter, the attendant told us we were lucky and they were closing the flight after us!
The past 2 nights we have spent in London, in the suburb of Ealing at a mate's place- Dan, who we met on the Morrocan Highlights tour waaay back. He offered his lounge as accommodation when we mentioned just how expensive UK hostels were, We only got into town about 8pm, but given the time difference and my 3 hours of sleep the night before I wasnt feeling to flash. When Dan suggested home delivery infront of the TV we were all hooked. We pretty mutch just bludged the rest of the night chatting, munching chinese takeaway and watching trashy UK TV- and a few nightcaps with Dan later we crashed out. We were blessed with a morning stampeding walrus free house for the first time in a while here so made the most of it- a little too well. What we thought was a healthy 11am sleepin turned out to be 2:30, so we were cutting it fine with hitting the shops for dinner's ingredients. I guess sightseeing had been ruled out for the day.
Staying in the Ealing Broadway area has been awesome and shown us a completely differentt side of London to what the city showed us. The amount of parkland here is crazy- alot of flats have their own courtyards, there are public parks all over the place and theres plenty of greenery. Shame about the constant drizzle and grey skies though! There was one really cool thing we came across here too: Our first outdoor skating rink! Outside of the Ealing traino there are a bunch of trees covered head to toe in christmas lights and between then is a small frozen lake that last night was covered in probably 50 skaters zooming around. We were on a mission though, and had no time to stop! We beelined straight to Tesco and stocked up on all the ingredients for the Moroccan Lamb and couscous followed by bread and butter pudding. Shame the shopping for food took so long- Just like the US where they are having sales and trampling and killing security gaurds in the rush, Poms are having the same 70-90% off sales but its a little more dignified. We clean missed out though, kicked out of shops as they were closing.
Back at the house, The tajine had finished its seasoning, and was ready for a work out. I cant apologise enough to Dan's housemates- I dont think they will get the spices smell out of the walls for a week or 3, but damn it went down well! Im kind of glad I didnt go in for buying the huge family sized tajine when he did because I would have had to lug the 3kg monstrosity around europe 2.5 months after, but Im not sure I will find any place that sells a fork for $5 in these western countries, let alone a huge terracotta oven! Yeah- the pic there is a stock photo. I'd have puta pic of my masterpiece in, but there wasnt one. The food dissapeared as soon as I said "Its done" and before the camera lens opened.
I guess this is the beginning of the end. Im currently moving at 940Km/h in -60 degrees weather over the Himalayas. Any idea what im in? Nope... its not a 1987 VL Commodore, or the equally capable 1986 XF Falcon on gas- Its the prohibition express: 10:10am from Heathrow to Bandar Seri Begawan, via Dubai, run by Royal Brunei. Comfortable as my in-cab entertainment system is, the enertainment is somewhat tame with the most offensive and action packed movie on here being Wall-e. I am still wonderiing what may have been of us if we arrived at heathrow any later. At the end of our 60 minute wait in the queue for the Royal brunei counter, the attendant told us we were lucky and they were closing the flight after us!
The past 2 nights we have spent in London, in the suburb of Ealing at a mate's place- Dan, who we met on the Morrocan Highlights tour waaay back. He offered his lounge as accommodation when we mentioned just how expensive UK hostels were, We only got into town about 8pm, but given the time difference and my 3 hours of sleep the night before I wasnt feeling to flash. When Dan suggested home delivery infront of the TV we were all hooked. We pretty mutch just bludged the rest of the night chatting, munching chinese takeaway and watching trashy UK TV- and a few nightcaps with Dan later we crashed out. We were blessed with a morning stampeding walrus free house for the first time in a while here so made the most of it- a little too well. What we thought was a healthy 11am sleepin turned out to be 2:30, so we were cutting it fine with hitting the shops for dinner's ingredients. I guess sightseeing had been ruled out for the day.
Staying in the Ealing Broadway area has been awesome and shown us a completely differentt side of London to what the city showed us. The amount of parkland here is crazy- alot of flats have their own courtyards, there are public parks all over the place and theres plenty of greenery. Shame about the constant drizzle and grey skies though! There was one really cool thing we came across here too: Our first outdoor skating rink! Outside of the Ealing traino there are a bunch of trees covered head to toe in christmas lights and between then is a small frozen lake that last night was covered in probably 50 skaters zooming around. We were on a mission though, and had no time to stop! We beelined straight to Tesco and stocked up on all the ingredients for the Moroccan Lamb and couscous followed by bread and butter pudding. Shame the shopping for food took so long- Just like the US where they are having sales and trampling and killing security gaurds in the rush, Poms are having the same 70-90% off sales but its a little more dignified. We clean missed out though, kicked out of shops as they were closing.
Back at the house, The tajine had finished its seasoning, and was ready for a work out. I cant apologise enough to Dan's housemates- I dont think they will get the spices smell out of the walls for a week or 3, but damn it went down well! Im kind of glad I didnt go in for buying the huge family sized tajine when he did because I would have had to lug the 3kg monstrosity around europe 2.5 months after, but Im not sure I will find any place that sells a fork for $5 in these western countries, let alone a huge terracotta oven! Yeah- the pic there is a stock photo. I'd have puta pic of my masterpiece in, but there wasnt one. The food dissapeared as soon as I said "Its done" and before the camera lens opened.For your benefit, and to add some oriental feel to this page, Here is the recipe, of course, written in the language from which the recipe came. Its for chicken, but I did Lamb.. basically the same.
دجاجة وزن 2 كيلو مقطعة إلى أربع أجزاء
بصلة كبيرة مقطعة شرائح 2 حبة طماطم مقطعة دوائر فصين من الثوم غير مقطعة
نصف كوب زيت نصف كوب زيت الزيتون
- التوابل: ملح بهارات زنجبيل زعفران 2 كوب ماء
الطريقة:
- استخدمي الطاجين المغربي إذا توفر , و إذا لم يتوفر استخدمي أي أنية يمكن الأكل منها مباشرة .
بصلة كبيرة مقطعة شرائح 2 حبة طماطم مقطعة دوائر فصين من الثوم غير مقطعة
نصف كوب زيت نصف كوب زيت الزيتون
- التوابل: ملح بهارات زنجبيل زعفران 2 كوب ماء
الطريقة:
- استخدمي الطاجين المغربي إذا توفر , و إذا لم يتوفر استخدمي أي أنية يمكن الأكل منها مباشرة .
- ضعي قطع الدجاج في الطاجين , اضيفي البصل و الثوم و نوعي الزيت البلدي و البهارات و الماء .
- ضعي الطاجين على النار لمدة ربع ساعة ثم اضيفي الطماطم المقطعة , عدلي البهارات حسب الذوق و اضيفي القليل من الماء عند الحاجة حتى ينضج الدجاج و الخضار .
- لا يجب أن يكون في الطاجين الكثير من المرق عند التقديم .
23 hours in 3 planes later my legs are just numb, I think we have been fed about 6 aircraft meals, I have watched about 8 kids movies, I smell about as fresh as the christmas ham you find in your fridge at easter time, my ears are shot and the jetlag is starting to set in. Last night... or a few hours ago because of date lines we have crossed, I thought I was trippinig out when the moon and some stars made up a smiley face in the sky. Its cool though- The national Brunei newspapers reported the same thing so I reckon Im still in good shape for heading into work tomorrow morning. Its kind of bizzarre that we have watched the sun rise, set, and are looking at stars and the moon in a black sky now all in the space of about 6 hours.
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