Living near the centre of London I really should have been doing,  well just doing MORE.

I had fallen into the same trap I fell into all those years ago whilst living in Notting Hill.   That trap is complacency, melancholy, and downright laziness.

The first time in London I slipped into this state after the first two years.  This time it happened to me after the first two months. Well no more dammit!

I am now resolved to get out more.  To visit things, to be a tourist, to experience things, to eat in places I have never eaten in before, to drink in places I have never drunk in before, and to live in ways I have never lived before.

The first experience was the new Titanic Exhibition at the O2 Bubble.   It has over 300 genuine pieces of memorabilia rescued from the ocean floor, and tells the story of the Titanic from it’s design through to it’s demise. Over-all a fantastic exhibit and having the opportunity to actually touch a piece of her hull, to connect myself with such an important piece of history was a profound and resonating moment in my life.

When entering the exhibit you are handed a boarding pass in the name of an original Titanic passenger, complete with basic information of that person’s background.  Towards the end of the exhibition I survived, but for the briefest of moments I was actually worried about my fate.  The exhibition did it’s job.

The only downside I found was the inaccurate recreation of the First Class cabin.   Instead of being a snapshot of the past, the room was the wrong shape, the furniture was ‘a rough example of the furniture of the period’ not even close to the originals, the carpet was a modern cheap alternative, the dining table was in the bedroom, and the bedroom was missing a wardrobe (which a previous section of the exhibition had gone into through detail about).  No attention had been paid to detail.  It was disappointing.

Other than this, I thoroughly enjoyed the afternoon, and felt as if I had achieved something.  I went on to have dinner in cute little Mediterranean bistro that I had never eaten in before, and watch the X-Factor from a bar in Soho instead of from the couch at home.

Yes. This is good.  I’ll be getting out more often.  :)

http://www.viewlondon.co.uk/whatson/titanic-exhibition-london-article-10255.html

I accidentally discovered that I can make a dish very similar to Wagamama’s ‘Chicken Chilli Men‘, which just happens to be my Wagamama’s favourite! It was delicious!  GO ME!!!

It is very simple and I made the dish for 2 people for less than £3!   Mind if I share it with you?

Please be aware that I always, always, always have jars of Easy Ginger, Easy Garlic, and Easy Chilli in the fridge and have used them in this recipe, but feel free to replace these with the fresh equivalent.  I also have a bottle of lemon juice (the kind you can put on pancakes) laying around, but you can use this or leave it out altogether.

The important thing is that you can add, remove ingredients to taste, as long as the fundamentals are there you can’t go wrong!  Enjoy!

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Rich’s Chicken Chilli Men  - 2 Servings.

Mmmmmmm

Ingredients:

• 4 teaspoons of ‘Easy Chilli‘ (feel free to use 1 fresh, finely chopped red chilli, seeds included)
• 2 Chicken Breasts (general rule of thumb is 1 per person).
• 2 teaspoons of ‘Easy Ginger‘ (again, feel free to use fresh).
• 3 cloves of garlic (Or 2 teaspoons of Easy Garlic, personally I use the frozen cubes of garlic from Asda)
• 2 lemon grass stalks (preferable but not necessary)
• 1 Red Pepper (you can use half a pepper if you are bulking out with other veg)
• 3 teaspoons of sugar
• 1 tbsp of tomato puree
• 1 Tin of Tomatoes (chopped).
• Salt and black pepper to season.
• A splash of lemon juice (the bottled process stuff is fine).
• 1/2 pint of Water

Optional ingredients:

• You can bulk out the recipe with courgettes (I did, and gave a wonderful texture to the dish).  I usually use half a red pepper, and half a courgette (cubed) and save the rest for another day!
• I add a frozen ‘Spinach Pellet‘ to most of my pasta, noodle, sauce-based dished.  It breaks up to the same consistency of most dried herbs, doesn’t alter the flavour,  and adds a little extra nutrition.
• Instead of using Lemon Grass Stalks, I have started using tube of Fragrant Thai Blend from Tesco.  It has a few other ingredients in (most of which are in this recipe anyway), but it’s main overriding flavour is…..wait for it….Lemon Grass!  Yes.  I have even found a ‘lazy’ version of that!

What to do:

1. Fry the chicken, sugar, ‘Easy Ginger‘ and the ‘Easy Chilli‘ in a little oil on a low heat for 5-8 mins.
2. Add the lemon grass (optional), the garlic, and onion. (If using it, add the courgette at this stage). Season with salt and a generous portion of black pepper.
3. Continue to fry on a medium heat until the chicken is brown and the onion is soft.
4. Add the red pepper, the tomato puree, tinned tomatoes, lemon juice, and the water and simmer for 10 minutes.

NOTE: Unlike most tomato base suaces, make sure you don’t over-cook it. If you leave it simmering for too long the edge will be taken off the rich flavours and it will spoil.

To serve:

Mix with some cooked noodles (spaghetti will also do the trick) until fully coated in sauce. Then serve.

Voila!  Please comment and let me know how it worked for you!

I’m fed up.  Fed up with all the sites that verify celebs not verifying the ones that I want to be sure of quick enough.

They all seem to want contact with the celebs or agents themselves, which is fine, if you have all the time in the wqorld and the true aim of the site is to socialise with the rich and famous.    So I’ve done it myself, using my own criteria:

1. Outright recommendation from a previously verified Celebrity (the likes of Philip Schofield (@schofe) and Simon Pegg (@SimonPegg) are good at this).
2. Previously verified celebs having Twitter conversations with other celebrities that they either work with or previously have worked with.
3. Professional Media reports that include links to Celebrity Tweets.

That all seemed good enough for me in the short term, and now it appears good enough for my friends, so I created @ProperTwits.

There is a (VERY) basic website to explain the theory, but everything else is through the Twitter feed.  If you see someone being followed by @ProperTwits then they have been verified using the rigorous tests listed above.

If any celebs wish to knock on my door to verify themselves then that is okay too, although I don’t encourage it.  I am after all very busy.  If there are too many, then I will prioritise  the young, male, gay, single and promiscuous over everyone else.  A-list only get priority if they are well endowed.   See my P.A. or drop me an email if you wish to book an appointment.

Now click on the happy soul below: