View Post

Car Park Attendant

Some years ago I was working on a film on the south bank in central London, it was about this time of year. We would begin just before light, so very early starts. London was going through a heatwave at the time and the sun bouncing off the Shell Building turned Jubilee Gardens into a crucible. It was so hot …

Oxtail burgers

Oxtail has a gorgeous sticky meaty flavour, and makes an impressive burger, it takes a long time and this recipe is intensive. You couldn’t call this burger fast food, but I love making them for the indulgence and a what I’d say is the tastiest burger you’ve ever tried. I had the idea from a restaurant in Spain where my …

See All Featured Posts

Stir fried prawns in miso

Tingleup Riesling Riesling is still one of those seldom drunk wines in the UK, and is only the 20th variety grown worldwide. It had a dip in popularity in the late 80’s and 90’s due to the cheap and sweeter varieties going out of fashion, nevertheless it has remained popular with some wine drinkers, and among quality wines is in …

Chateau Lassegue

Chateau Lassegue, St Emilion Grand Cru 2000 Another roast dinner, another bottle of good red. Claret on a November sunday afternoon, as good a time as any I could think of. We have just run out of Chateau Lassegue 2000’s and that’s depressing, but the memory of this wine will last long and if I manage to find more I …

Beaujolais Nouveau

Georges Duboeuf Beaujolais Nouveau 2010   This week we get the first wine of the french harvest arriving in the shops. In recent years it seems to have been an enormous sales gimmick with the whole story media hyped about the ‘race’ from the vineyard to the restaurant. For me it’s about the change of the seasons, a celebration of …

See All food Posts

Lay Down

Just getting ready for Glastonbury and feeling the summertime festival vibe when I came across this classic of Melanie from 1970. There is a dense weave of history going on here. The protest movement was in full swing, Afro’s were both a symbol of that and a fashion accessory. It was a time when many performers were part of the …

Give me the Keys- StringerBessant

I recently made this short for StringerBessant. The King Pig is a rehearsal room near Cheddar Gorge in Somerset. The audience came from all over the country for this intimate gig. As the sun was setting Sam delivered a piping hot jug of cider with gin and spices. The atmosphere in the venue grew warmer with every tune. The mellow …

track of 2010

This track has really grown on me, a really mellow tune, that has a reference to 70’s americana and soul but also bang up to date. The Duke & The King- Shaky

See All music Posts
View Post

Neil Butler’s Watercolours

I met Neil in the pub yesterday and he had these watercolours with him, I really like the deft touch with brush, and the minimalism of the subject, bravo neil. If you thought perchance of wanting one of these mounted or framed you can leave a message below and I will endeavour to help- I might even get a beer out of …

View Post

A spring weekend

This weekend has been a taste of summer, with warm sunny days and a good swell. I was in London working with Reef and had a great skate with Jack Bessant through the streets and along the banks of the Thames. The band played two gigs, on Friday and Saturday in West London. The shows were to celebrate Reef 93 …

View Post

February Fog

Saturday and the wind pulled round to southerlies, offering a warm wind and a decent swell size and period. Taking a trip up the coast I drove through fog, low cloud and bright sunshine almost every few minutes. There were a few guys in at the point sharing some mid size waves. It was great to watch them in the …

View Post

And still swells keep pouring in

This has been one of the best runs of surf I can remember, with autumn swells back to back and the predominant wind from the south. Warm temperatures have remained constant, and every few days the swell picks back up and the points, bomboras and sheltered spots light up again. This is from last weekend, a seldom breaking wave that …

View Post

Point Surf

We have had a great run of surf all autumn, so much so that I have not had much time for any other interests. Full service should be resumed shortly. In the meantime here are a couple of shots of Chris Hartop on his mini simmons. Chris makes boardsocks, handplanes, and surfboards. Here he is jamming down a windswept wall …

The Joker

Recently Tim Stafford leant me one of his boards, a 9’0 longboard with a bonzer tail and shovel nose, called ‘The Joker’ Having never ridden a bonzer I was interested to feel how the tail set up rode in the water. Generally with a longboard I prefer a single fin. Whenever I ride a 3 fin setup I find it …

See All sliding Posts

Barnstaple to Hong Kong by train

A couple of years ago I was talking to my friend over a pint and discussing the best way to get to the far eas. Ostensibly it was to go surfing, he mentioned that one might be able to take a train from our local station to a regional budget flight hub in the far east for onward travel to …

Strangers Passing/Chateau La Dominique

He wakes in the predawn gloom, the tent sagging with wet. light rain draining in lines down the blue fabric. the black plastic floor cold, damp, and bare. It is the second day working in the vineyard. He is tired, yesterday had been a long, hungry day. His clothes are damp beside him. His trainers lay between the inner and outer tent ruined. He …

The Fragility of Tyrants

I posted this last week on the fall of Ben Ali from Tunisia, as I write Mubarak is reported to be moments away from losing his hold on the country. With the rapid departure of Ben Ali from Tunisia yesterday I spent the evening contemplating human culture and the fragility of the powerful. I was interested in the framework of …

Chateau Figeac

After a long summer motoring across Europe they were now stuck in Bordeaux. They needed to find work on the Vendange. They scuttled about the train station trying to fettle some food. Life had been a series of adventures all summer long and now the money had definitely run out. The small group wanted to prolong the easy living of …

The Earth’s Sharp Edge

Making a Tagine in my last post awoke a set of recollections of the desert that had lain dormant for many years. I contemplated on how the open sky and still landscape can affect you profoundly. How you can be alienated by the culture, so self sufficient and unwestern. I have seen fellow travellers succumb to mental health issues. It …

Sea Bass Tagine

My eldest son is off to Morocco tomorrow with his girlfriend. I am quite jealous. They fly into Marrakech and are keen to tour the south of the country. I thought I would make them a dinner of a good sea bass tagine to celebrate. At this time of year I love the warmth of a Moroccan meal. Those spices …

A very good Gin & Tonic

A night out in Pamplona and the perfect G&T After an indifferent meal in a poor quality city restaurant my wife and I wandered the back streets of Pamplona late into the night, enjoying the ring of shoes on cobbles echoing against old basque apartments. Eventually we found our way back to nightlife and came upon an underground bar, approached …

Wine on the table 1

Mas d’en Gil Coma Vella 2005 Last sunday I opened a bottle of Priorat we had been saving for an occasion, but having some good friends and family round the table, and a rich topside of ruby beef we decided to pull the cork and enjoy this superb red. The wine region of Priorat is situated over a range of hills …

Gothic Barcelona

Being Halloween it seems fitting to add a post about a city I find a little sinister. Last month we had a couple of days in Barcelona. We fell in love with the city, though only had an ipod to take photos with. Barcelona is a modern, idiosyncratic, european metropolis. But we loved the gothic- in the architecture, in the …

See All travel Posts
View Post

Sunday Smiles

Last Sunday (October 2nd) was the end of a superb run of fine weather and good surf. The last days of September all began with warm damp dawns, the stillness and clear skies a portent of the heat to come. The bushes full of bursting blackberries, the grasses wet with dew, and the light soft with a fine mist. As …

See All video Posts
View Post

Talan

I finally managed to begin writing fiction properly, it has been both hard work, and a lot of fun. One of my hobbies has been documenting the old wells and crosses that dot the landscape here in North Cornwall and Devon. I often look up the history and am always intrigued by the stories that have been handed down, the …

Midwinter Blues

December and early January saw a weather pattern that remained in place for weeks. Storms heading south from high in the North Atlantic swept straight across the country, and we on the west coast seemed to take the brunt of it. Huge seas with such strong winds that the sea scape was a swirling mix of white, greys and blues. …

View Post

And still swells keep pouring in

This has been one of the best runs of surf I can remember, with autumn swells back to back and the predominant wind from the south. Warm temperatures have remained constant, and every few days the swell picks back up and the points, bomboras and sheltered spots light up again. This is from last weekend, a seldom breaking wave that …

View Post

Sunday Smiles

Last Sunday (October 2nd) was the end of a superb run of fine weather and good surf. The last days of September all began with warm damp dawns, the stillness and clear skies a portent of the heat to come. The bushes full of bursting blackberries, the grasses wet with dew, and the light soft with a fine mist. As …

European Fish Fry 2011

Crackington Haven recently hosted this annual event attracting surfboard shapers from across the surfing world. A small village on the North Cornish coast, buffeted by wind and sea attracted visitors from afar as California and Italy who enjoyed the hospitality and culture of an alternative surfing scene among the high cliffs and coves.  The Fish design is generally under six …

Grilled Mackerel and Viognier

NOW that the summer is high, and the mackerel close to shore, it is easy enough to go catch your dinner, or cheap enough to buy plenty from the fishmonger. Make sure your fish is really fresh, mackerel tends to suffer after a day or two, becoming a bit mushy and losing it’s firm flakes. Look for dark silvery blue …

See All Writing Posts