Opening a can of worms

Tonight is our Cubs Halloween party and having seen something my sister posted about making 'worms' I decided to give it a go.

It looked simple - mix jelly, and some colouring, pour into straws, let set, separate and serve - but for me these things never are.

Closer inspection of the recipe shows that cream is added to the jelly mix. I can cope with this so proceeded and eventually put the filled straws into the fridge to set.

Something happened to my mix. It seems to have separated during the cooling and setting process leaving me with layers rather than a nice even mix.

This meant that my worm was a two-tone affair rather than the inspiring original.

Too late to quit now. So after what seemed like an extremely long time I finally extracted all of my worms from their nests. I found that the easiest though not quickest way was to simply grab the straw from the end and squeeze and slide down ts length. The worm dropped into my bucket.

Lets hope the Cubs are amazed (or even better, disgusted as they put their faces into this mess). Luckily I don't need to present this for a badge.

Photography - The next Generation

My new camera has finally arrived.
Well, that's not completely true. It actually arrived on Monday but I didn't get an SD card for it until I was sure what type it needed. Since the card arrived this morning the camera, as a functioning tool to take pictures, has now arrived.

Technically, its a Nikon D3100 DSLR with an 18-55mm image stabilised lens and a 55-200mm telephoto lens.
Precisely what that actually means is: I now need a photography course. The 18-55mm is good for close up and the 55-200mm is an optical zoom lens.

I have wanted one of these for a while. I have always wanted to take low light photos - moon with clouds, fog, or motion blurred shots - star trails or waterfalls. This is quite hard to do with modern digital cameras. Since these new cameras are designed to take a sharp, focussed image in as many situations as possible, it tends to take control and restrict what you can do. For instance my previous camera had a starry night mode which would allow up to 60 seconds for the shutter to close. This was alright for night shots with no artificial light anywhere, but you could not use it in otherwise.
Needless to say I got a few completely black images or some washed out images.
So the plan is to learn how to take some long exposure pictures with deliberate motion blur - either sky shots with star and aircraft trails, or landscape with flowing water, or even just low light shots. I would like to get a good photo of the moon...

Our company rewards staff with a gift after 21 years service and since I hit that milestone on 11 Jan 2014 at the start of this year I decided that I would get a DSLR as my gift. Since I am now not going to hit that mark by 7 weeks I decided to jump the gun and get the camera for my birthday.

Now, just have to figure how to use it on any mode other than automatic.

September's Review

With all this free time I haven't been keeping good tabs on these reviews.
I've also not been doing great with the weight reduction - the sitting at home makes it easier to snack.
Sadly, the almost flat line will support that view. What is really telling is the lack or measurements - that's how you know I haven't been keeping on track if these are the weights I felt good about recording.

This is despite continuing with regular exercise.

This month sees slightly further in more time and 1 more workout than last month. The heart rate monitor is lowering my reported calorie burn but I have done more walking.

In fact, I have managed to continue with my exercise though I'm not attending the gym anymore. This is because it was at work, and since I'm not going into the office any more its not sensible to attend the gym either. I am walking more though, as well as keeping up my cycling.

My lunch time cycles have also reached a plateau. For the third month my average speed for the 7 miles has been 15.0 mph

I'm going to have to try harder.
Fiona has seen great results with the 5:2 diet. I have started that at the start of October but have already had 2 birthdays with associated eating, one badminton night in, and a school holiday which isn't conducive to fasting.

Birthday Visit

We got back last night from a short break in Dublin. We headed over just for the weekend as it was my birthday on Sunday and is Ciaran's on Thursday.

I couldn't believe just how good the weather was. Shirtsleeves only in Dublin in October!

After doing some window shopping (Ciaran likes to price expensive guitars wherever he goes) we felt we couldn't let the good weather pass without taking advantage.
So we took the Liffey boat tour and really enjoyed it. This sailed East from its pier at the Ha'Penny bridge down to the East Link and then back.

Some of the new building (well new for me - this was no go area when I was living at home 20 years ago) are really impressive and the Beckett bridge is just amazing.

Some cool new buildings like the Convention Centre, but Point Depot, sorry O2 arena, still looks like a disused shed.

And some cool facts - O'Connell Bridge is one of the only bridges in the world which is wider than its span - it takes longer to pass under it than it would to cross over it.
And those grubby wooden poles you can see at low tide are actually from when the river walls were being built and are more than 300 years old.

Next time we are over we are going to have to get down there and have a good walk around.

Sunday was fantastic - home cooked fry followed by the Hurling Final replay. "I'm looking forward to this - I don't even know who won" "Oh, Clare did." Brilliant match though. But as a Cork supporter (and a former full back) was dismayed by some poor defending...

My brother made a special trip up for dinner and then it was back to Scotland, work for Fiona, school for Ciaran, and gardening leave for me.