All those dishes look amazing! I've just put an ox cheek in to marinate overnight. Ingredients include juniper berries, black peppercorns, bay leaf, garlic, cassia bark and a light sprinkle of dried chilli flakes, with red wine.

Well, this is the recipe that I (more or less) followed: http://www.ostrichsa.co.za/ostrich_recipes.php?action=curry   Very simple, but satisfying.

I have some ostrich steaks, and am considering a curry for tomorrow night.

On the subject of food, strap yourself in and read Jay Rayner's review of Le Cinq (3 Michelin stars) in Paris: https://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2017/apr/09/le-cinq-paris-restaurant-review-jay-rayner   Very funny!

There's some intriguing flavour ideas in that post.   The only local shop (Morrisons supermarket) that sells pork cheeks does them as trimmed items - like a small fillet steak in size, but four of them for just over £2. You gots ta like them numbers!   The vaguely improvised recipe I posted...

I have a couple of pork cheeks marinating in a honey, mustard & thyme mix. Once they are cooked (long and slow, with echalion shallots and a clove or two of garlic), I'll add some sour cream to the sauce. Should be okay...

I don't buy bottled water. I do have a filter jug though, as the tap water in my neighbourhood doesn't taste particularly great.   If I want to have water when I'm on the move, I fill a small vacuum flask from the filter jug. A filter costs £2.50 and lasts about a month, compared to the insane...

Seeing as he's well out of copyright, so his books are free as Kindle downloads, Idle Thoughts of an idle Fellow by Jerome K.Jerome. Great fun!

A bust of Cristiano Ronaldo has been unveiled.    

Shanghai-style braised pork - based loosely on this recipe: http://thewoksoflife.com/2014/04/shanghai-style-braised-pork-belly/   To the ingredients listed in that recipe, I added a piece of cassia bark and half a star anise.

Bowmore for me at the moment, as it was discounted by £10 at my local supermarket.   On the downside, they seem to have reduced their choice of whiskies in the last few weeks, a development I hope is only temporary.

That's correct.   And you can only tackle the player holding the ball... although I can think of a few people over the years who interpreted that rule fairly freely. 

There's more than one version of Rugby, though...  

Ribs yesterday.   Keeping it simple today, with potato salad and crispy bacon in toasted pitta pockets.

I am currently a few chapters into a life story of Charles George Gordon (aka Chinese Gordon, aka Gordon of Khartoum) by Lt-General Sir William F.Butler. Good writing, for a military man, albeit somewhat slanted towards an Empire POV. Still, an interesting life.

The video ref system in Rugby League is only called upon for touchdowns. The referee, if he's not sure that a try has been scored correctly, refers the decision upstairs either as "try" or "no try" (the video ref has to find a reason to overturn the decision).    That leaves the rest of the...

There have been video referees in both codes of Rugby for a while now. It doesn't stop fans complaining about the officials' decisions.

I have a Laguiole copy, with damascus blade. The real thing's a little beyond my budget. The one above it is a Monnerie - another elegant French style.  

The late Iain Banks wrote a book called 'Raw Spirit', which I may have mentioned on this thread before. It is based around his trips around Scotland to visit as many distilleries as he practically could, but digresses into other antics too. Good fun, but also informative about whisky.

Bollocks to Alton Towers and More Bollocks to Alton Towers (far from the sodding crowd), by Robin Halstead, Jason Hazeley, Alex Morris and Joel Morris.   A love-letter to British tourist attractions that don't involve animatronic dinosaurs, vomit-inducing thrill rides, branded baseball caps or...

Kraken rum is dangerous; it slips down far too easily! It reminds me of the (now discontinued) Loch Dhu black whisky.   If you want a good "all rounder" single malt, get a bottle of Highland Park. It is a proper quality dram, and at a reasonable price in most territories too.   I'm an Islay...

Just finished this. I took breaks at times to read other books, which is why it took so long. Really good stuff, full of incident and intrigue and remarkable people..

Association Football fans often refer to the oval ball codes as "egg-chasing".

The Vault is barely useable at this stage in its development. I'll wait a while and see if they improve it, but the previous, JRiver-based, setup was miles better.

Of course, there's a cheaper way of telling the time: http://www.hexmaster.com/goonscripts/what_time_is_it.html