thelifeofthefuneral

If you've ever been lucky enough to sample this Vietnamese noodle soup, you'll know the experience is one that quickly becomes a sense-memory.  The deep, sweet, savoury aroma is enough to throw me back to a lovely day in Greenwich with my wife, when I first tried Pho.  I would one day like to augment that memory with an additional, more authentic experience in Vietnam.  After lockdown, perhaps :) Pho might be my number 1 food - once I get the craving, it's all over - it's pho or bust! It has everything: flavour, skill in cooking, and passion to spend so long bringing it together. This is my recipe for Pho - it's a dish I am truly passionate about and getting it right (or what I feel is right for me!) took a lot of research, and trial and error. Be warned, this is a long cook - 6-7 hours - though most of the time is spent tending the broth rather than anything else, and it generally comes together very quickly at the end if you do your prep in advance. ...

I was lucky enough whilst in Amsterdam recently to visit a little restaurant called "Soup En Zo" on Jodenbreestraat - well worth the visit!  I had the above soup, which was fantastic. Upon returning home I attempted to replicate this soup myself and, according to my other half, it might be the best thing I have ever cooked her, so here goes... (Serves 2) Ingredients: Half an onion Hot Smoked Paprika Cumin Seeds Tomato Pasata  1x Red Pepper 100g Green Lentils 50g Chopped Chorizo Vegetable Stock - Roughly half a litre 1x Carrot 1: Heat up olive oil in a saucepan and add in finely chopped onion and   Add cumin seeds and ground pepper and chopped carrot (shop into small 1cm cubes). 2: Add chopped red pepper and lightly fry off the chopped chorizo 3: Add boiling water to vegetable stock (I like the Knorr stock pots) and then add roughly a qtr pint to the onions and peppers. ...

We bought our house in July 2016.  It's a  two bedroom Victorian house with a decent sized garden for a house in London.   I began working on the garden in March this year and have developed a passion for working in the garden!  So what needed doing? everything! From the back doors we had standard old decking which had partially rotted through.   Then a step-up patio which looks like it was laid in the 90s - square concrete mock-stone slabs in a god-awful pink.   The lawn we won't mention - that's a whole task in and of itself! At the rear of the garden someone had helpfully poured a very good concrete footing for a garage - roughly 15' wide by 18' deep.  This was the only redeeming feature of the garden after it's size!  This is where the garden saga started.  My grand plan was to have a very large patio from the back door that incorporated and replaced the first patio - this would become a ...

As we're halfway through the year (roughly), now felt a good time to share a few images I have created this year.  unfortunately, I am a perfectionist, so I may shoot 100 photos and come out with one that "feels" right to me.  Thank God for massive memory cards!  All images shot on my Canon 70D using either the 24mm f2.8 Pancake Lens or Sigma 10-20mm f/3.5 Wide-Angle Lens. If you would like to purchase, you can contact me through the blog or directly at my EyeEm page here

About 3 weeks ago I started Yoga.   This was after toying with the idea for...about 7 years! I could never find a class near me, at a time that worked and I must admit, my own masculinity stopped me a lot of the time.  I saw it as girly.  Why do I need Yoga? Men bench press, that's all we need right? No.  There are a lot of types of strength and Yoga is its own category.  I have been lifting weights seriously for around 5 years - not that it shows! However my personal bests (so I can show off a little bit): 60kg EZ Curl  100kg Bench / 80kg Working Weight Body Weight Shoulder Press (Machine) 180kg Deadlift 300kg Leg Press That last one resulted in my nearest brush with passing out while lifting. So I thought I would attend a local Yoga class and breeze through.  Nope.  Not happening.  This is a different kind of strength, mostly in the mind.  Brute-force and a level of stupidity will get you far lifting weig...

Does anyone else wake up and feel exhausted? Like you ran a midnight marathon... I generally turn in around 11pm - not ridiculously early; I have shit to do, but I am by no means a night owl any more (being 30 is knackering!)! I wake up around 7am and normally get up 30 mins later - God bless the snooze button! So I am getting around 8 hours a night, so why do I feel knackered before I am even in work? I started to suspect this tiredness, and the resulting foul mood that lasted all day, was nothing to do with the amount of sleep I was getting (quality of sleep is a different subject!) but was rooted elsewhere. A few months ago I actually sat down and made a record of what I was eating.  What we fuel our bodies with has a huge effect on everything: mood, energy, happiness, stool consistency! The result: I was completely reversing any gains or progress I made in the gym, and worsening how I felt.  It wasn't awful - the odd KFC, or pizza, but it was devoi...

I can't relax. I don't have the ability.  I was hyperactive as a child, so maybe this is where it comes from. But I can't relax.  I try to put this to good use.  I try to be productive all the time, but the downside of this is I get more stressed out if I am not productive, I feel guilty when I do relax and I end up very frayed and burned out regularly. The first time I felt truly relaxed as an adult was 8 years ago, on my first trip snowboarding in Sauze D'oulx in Italy.  I had had a rough year and I remember sitting down on the mountain one day and feeling at peace.  I was physically drained but I was fired up with adrenaline and I was completely alone on this section of mountain.  It was snowing, it was cold, I had a wet arse, the clouds had closed in so visibility was low.  And I felt safe and happy for the first time in a year. I think this was my introduction to meditation, looking back. I am no expert, but I fee...