I love my new mobile phone (an Orange SPV C550). It continues to do very good work and has just surprised me by revealing that I have actually used it's video-capture ability. Or to be more accurate, someone else has. I suspect it was Jane. This morning I have found a little video clip hidden away on it. The clip appears to show me in the Old Crown performing karaoke. I can only suggest that I was very, very drunk. Clearly, Simon's fault. Anyway, said clip is below (328k) and I am offering a prize to anyone that can identify the song I am murdering. I am pretty sure it's not "I will survive" (which is probably a good thing).
I recently purchased two 7-bag multipacks of McVities Mini Cheddars (baked not fried). They live in my drawer at work and are an effort to stop me plugging all my money in the oft-broken vending machine.
After about the third day of the new multi-buy snack regime I forgot I had the Mini Cheddars in my drawer. I then bought a bag from the vending machine. It was only then that I remembered my stash. What jogged my memory was the comparatively massive bag size from the vending machine.
This got me thinking - how many Mini Cheddars are there in a pack? My first three counted packs were a satisfyingly well judged 20 biscuits per bag. I published my findings to my colleagues and sat back believing I had completed another of life's tasks.
Today alas, I have to back-pedal and proffer an apology. My just-opened fourth bag contains 21 Mini Cheddars. I apologise to my colleagues and any other persons I have mis-led.
I should have realised that a sample size of 3 was not going to be truly representative. It was a basic error - small sample sizes = inaccurate results (although Pantene seem to ignore this in their TV adverts).
I will monitor my remaining packs and update my findings appropriately.
I've had a busy couple of days. With interest in my XBox re-awakened by spending so much time playing Burnout Revenge recently that I yesterday decided to upgrade the XBox Media Centre software to a much newer version. It had been on the To Do list for a while, but I was a bit worried about breaking it and rendering it useless. I am happy to say all went very well and the newer version is a vast improvement over my old one. I also installed a web browser on there so I can now sit in the living room and view web pages on my TV (albeit at a lower resolution than on a computer). Today I have finally got round to organising the photos from Islay. There's a link on the right, or you can click here or watch the slideshow below. Currently a bit lacking in details, but I will sort that.
I write this with one of those very nasty hangovers where all you can think is "why did I have no food before going out last night?". I am feeling quite sorry for myself. I was therefore delighted when going through my pockets this morning to find an empty packet and be reminded that I did in fact have some food with my beer last night, just not very much. My food intake was just shy of 50 grams of peanut, chilli style!
While I remember, did you know that the peanut is in fact a fruit rather than a nut? Something to do with the number of seeds in a kernal. I like the Discovery Channel.
Product: Sun Valley (King of Nuts) Chilli Peanuts Pack Size: 50g Fat per pack: 23.5g Calories per pack: 292 Price per pack: 50p (as best I can remember, not even sure I bought them - might have been G-Man's round) Manufacturer's description: "Get the TASTE for IT"
Peanuts and chilli - on the face of it, a match made in heaven. But is it?
There seems to have been something of an explosion in the number of nut flavours in recent years, the most recent high-profile introduction being Nobby's Nuts (which I personally find too greasy). Gone are the days of only having to choose between Salted and Dry Roasted.
Many of the new flavoured nuts achieve their flavour by coating an ordinary nut in a flavoursome crunchy shell. I don't like those ones. Sun Valley's Chilli Peanuts get their flavour by covering the nuts themselves in the flavour mix. For me, this works much better. Each nut has a dusting of the paprika-coloured mix clearly visible to the eye, yet maintains the look of a peanut.
How do they taste? Bloody amazing. Let's get one thing straight here, Sun Valley don't skimp on chilli where it's needed. If you try these I will almost guarantee you will choke on the first one (have a nice cold beer nearby ready to soothe the pain). They are a show-stopper.
I'm not sure it's possible to eat more than a couple of these at a time and if you do it may well be some time before the skin in your mouth grows back. Caution is advisable.
Hot they may be, but they are also strangley addictive when consumed with beer. Make sure you buy your own pack, don't try sharing them out or you will only end up with about 4 of the little treasues.
Conclusion: Yes, yes, yes. No more bland salted peanuts for HotPhil when he's out on the ale. I will travel far and wide in order to aquire Sun Valley Chilli Peanuts.
Points: 10/10 Spot on
Jane says: "You were out drinking till when? Didn't you have any food? Well, you're not getting any sympathy from me and you'd better not make any more smells".
