Dry January

B290 – CREDIT WHERE CREDITS DUE

January 19, 2018 joshfspearLeave a comment

Theres a lot of people out there that say they can cook and then go a head and put some super noodles in the microwave and then just add some posh spicy sauce of bowl then go ahead and call it a meal, we must all know a few people like this. Well a chum of mine is on the complete other end of the spectrum, the guy can cook. he goes by the name of Anders Hayward, and last night he pulled out a meal that I cant fault.

Last week he asked me what I wanted to eat and I though lets put his skills to the test, so I asked for Pork Belly, and well after 24 hours of marinating in some spices Ive never heard of he started cooking, he literally got the crackling perfect and smashing the presentation. One thing that shocked me was that it was his first time making Yorkshire puddlings and I think I can speak for half the nation when I say we all have had our fair share of Yorkshire pudding horror stories. So I was a bit worried they might go wrong, but I would definitely give him top marks for those too.

Im now back at my place and I think I need to apologise for this post being a fair few hours late, but I also drank last night meaning that I only lasted 19 days of Dry January, I was so close but so far I knew that the second half of the month would be harder but last night I just crumbled. I suppose all I can say is “Maybe next year”

At the moment Im also doing a project only involving Gopro’s and the filming capabilities, so if anyone out there is used to filming with Gopros and know how to make them look cinematic please let me know. Ive still go a few months to go till we start filming but it would be good to get ahead of the game.

Heres some photos of the food yesterday, enjoy.

B290-1 — – thats the kind of crackling we are talking about –

B290-1-2 — – a bit of a posh apple sauce smudge –

B290-1-3 — – it was a strong 8.9 out of ten I would say –

B289 – AM I A FRAUD?

January 18, 2018 joshfspearLeave a comment

Im not too sure on something, if I take photos on a digital camera and then edit them on Photoshop to make them look vintage is that being a bit of a fraud? I’ve just learnt this new technique and Im not sure if it makes me look like my film photo skills are better than they are, because as a lot of people know my 35mm skills are terrible. it probably doesn’t matter, because well I suppose I can do what I like.

The other day I took a trip over the Ridely Road Market to have a bit of a walk around and take some photos, shooting in places like this can be really hard because no one there wants to have there photo taken, so if they see my with my camera walking around taking photos they start to get a bit edgy, so the plan is to walk around quickly and just snap and move.

Ridley road market is a pretty cool place to go though because its like one of the last really working class markets that i can think of which is kind of central, that and Peticoat lane market, that place is on my list so maybe Ill have a little trip over there and take some photos. the only problem is that my camera is maybe a bit too big to take to these place, it maybe draws to much attention, what I might do is just go with my iphone and do like some iphone photos. I haven’t really done that in a while so maybe its time to get the phone out again.

got a pretty fun Thursday, meeting someone to talk through some ideas I have for a video thats going to get made later in the year and off to my mates house for a three course meal, hes trying to up his cooking skills so going to cook me some Pork belly. Should be a fun Thursday. Still going strong on Dry January!!!

B288-1-3-vintage — – that vintage look is something I really like at the moment –

B288-1-4-Vintage — – maybe I just need to bite the bullet and buy a film camera –

B288-1-2-Vintage — – it definitely adds some effect to this daily blog –

B273 – ONE OF THE COOLEST HOTEL ROOMS – THE BERKELEY SUITES. BRISTOL

January 2, 2018January 5, 2018 joshfspearLeave a comment

After the craziness of New Years eve, it was only right that instead of driving straight home and back to reality and Amy and me booked ourselves into a good hotel room and just mong out on the sofa. the perfect place is a hotel called the Berkeley Suites, located next to Bristol British Museum and Art Gallery and in the area of Brandon, the suites are like three rooms, including a living room (projector screen), A bedroom and then the obvious bathroom. it just seems like this place has thought of everything you might need without over doing it with those chairs that no one ever sits on and what has also set this place as one of my favourite is the face that it has a light in the ceiling!

No joke but most of those posh hotels or places like the radisson Blu, don’t have a light in the ceiling, I love a Radisson Blu if I’m working and end up in one of those ill be over the moon, its perfect for working but when you want to have a proper break you want more of an apartment rather than just your normal hotel room with a coffee machine and a kettle. I want what the Berkeley Suites have done, they have given us a little kitchen thing, with a proper coffee machine and even some small hobbs, so if we want to cook then we could.

Ive also have to talk about my favourite part of the suite, the projector Screen. its perfect, its like having an invisible TV that when you want it to be part of the room its there and I would day is about 80 inches wide, and comes with two DLS Sweden speakers on each side, that really ramp up the home cinema feel. my new goal for 2018 is to finish the year with a mini home cinema of my own. It’s not all perfect though, we did have a small issue of you HDMI cable they supply to plug my laptop in to the projector not working, so we couldn’t watch the one film we wanted to watch, Gladiator. After a quick phone call to reception someone was on their way round, but as it was 8pm on New Years Day there wasn’t much any of us could do. Luckily there was Christmas films on TV so we just watched those instead.

if I wasn’t also doing dry January they have these small bottle of Complementary Sherry for everyone to dig in and enjoy and if you book through them they even offer you a free hamper. but if that kind of thing is going to fill you up then you have a bunch of good restaurants right next door including Byron Burger, Wagamamma’s, Wahacca, Choa and Thai Tapas. theres also a Waitrose and Sainsbury’s if you would rather cook in the kitchen thing.

Heres a link to their website, check them out.

https://berkeleysuites.co.uk/

Its fair to say that both of us really don’t want to leave this room, and have already talked about coming back for another stay, the plan for today was to explore Bristol a bit more but we both feel really ill so I think were just going to jump on the train and get back to London.

Thank you Berkley Suites and I’ll see you soon!

B273-1 — – the home cinema made took this place from a solid 7/10 to a straight 9/10

B273-1-2 — – you have to love a good front door –

B273-1-4 — – Ive never had a kitchen area like this in a hotel room before, I have to say it is working for me –

B273-1-3 — – sitting down this morning to write my blog post with a proper coffee has made starting 2018 pretty easy –