The day food went too far (in a good way)

There are times when everything works out perfectly, in September this year this was the case.  Although this was a while ago it's only now I've finished digesting the full gloriousness of the most outrageous and boundary breaking bit of dins ever consumed, by me at least.

So we were in Cosmo for Chris and Dani's leaving do, last time I had been there I was a year ago.  That time I had to sneakily hide drinks on the floor of the club we went to as people wouldn't stop gifting me with when I had zero available volume in my body.  This time I started a bit slower and even had some of the curries but after pudding things got silly.  We noticed that the cook stuff guy had no queue and headed up.  Turns out he was feeling generous as he treated me to 2 pieces of incredible sirloin steak and 5 scallops!  Due to the excitement this generated and the wine the next stop was the pudding area where a terrible looking custard and red pudding was put on my tray. 

Back at the table we proceeded to combine the magnificent meat and shellfish with pudding.  Scallop and grape was pleasant, steak dunked in pudding was good and steak juices squeezed into custard with scallop and melon was genius.   Imagine the meat flavours soaking up into the white melon flesh all sandwiched with scallop and MSG.

Yum

Right, X Factor - could do with Marcus for financial reasons and to prove my vision. 

Basketball free agency starts tomorrow which is also very good.  By the end of the week many a team could be ruined.

NBA is back - the year is saved

But not until Christmas!  The main thing here is that long term greed was met with short term greed to allow a deal to be reached so that chump fans like myself can follow something again.  This means a return to staying up till antisocial hours and coming top in fantasy leagues again.

It's likely this year Utah will be awesome as I want them to be and if they aren't they should get a good pick in a sweet draft so for me alone it's win win.  In reality they will probably be around mid table but with exciting young men to watch and good uniforms.


The less glamorous alternative

The best Oolong website

Having been out trying to Christmas shop the past 2 weekends I've found most of the time is spent distracted by things I want to eat and drink.  Last weekend my main achievement was pot roasting a pheasant to a mediocre standard.  This weekend I went crazy hunting for oolong in any tea shop I came across -  I actually found some in House of Fraser but it was over 5 pounds for 15 bags - and buying currywurst from the German sausage tent.

Here's a link to a brilliant website about oolong tea, http://oolong.co.uk/tea/.  It's worth reading for a couple of reasons; it will give advice on how I expect to be hosted; about half way down the page is the maddest thing ever, The Oolong Tea Song, I can relate bit to much to the lyrics - it hurts.

Away from food, Sophie from X Factor was performing in Cardiff last night but I didn't go to see her :(  Rebecca Ferguson performed on X Factor :) Rebecca singing another song.  Also my 2 bets are still alive with not many weeks remaining (££££).

Football

Liverpool beat Chelsea, yay!

It was good although the Drogba free kick was too much like a goal and made me instantleigh lose faith in Liverpool until I realised it didn't go in, then I was back to tense but bored.

There's meant to be some sport (discussion) on here.

Success

Yay St Louis Cardinals won the World Series in comfortable fashion in the end. 

Apparently it was the most exciting World Series in many a year.  In my attempts to be in on it I watched the 2nd innings of game 7 but through a combination of too tired and nerves decided it was best to sleep and find out in the morning.  Unlike all the other teams I trust my happiness to St Louis seem to deliver when it wasn't even expected.  It's Liverpool's turn now :)

They've only gone and got Oolong!

After months of no oolong tea I finally have oolong tea.  Tescos (again!) stopped selling Twinings Oolong a while ago and since then I haven't been able to enjoy the delicate lightly sweet satisfaction and refreshment a manly cup of oolong brings.  Yesterday though I had a whole tea pot full, and it was very nice.  The tea menu at the Park Plaza afternoon tea service said it was one of their favourite oolongs, if this means they have tried bad stuff and discarded it it doesn't seem fair when I would be happy with any.  So if you want some go there, it will cost about £20 pounds but you get champagne and other stuff if you aren't happy enough with those two items.

Crazily enough it turns out Amazon sell Clipper Oolong and some twpsin has given it 3 out of 5 stars thinking it would make them slim, they also didn't like the taste, but it's probably worth getting some.  Says on Amazon that it has been made famous by it's celebrity drinkers (Gin Do' Friday I presume) which actually makes sense, I recall watching the Drunken Master 2 where Jackie Chan asks for some to drink and knowing it was the drink for me.

Equally excitingly is that the World Series has gone to 7 games, and though I won't be likely to win on my MVP bet of Jon Jay it has been an amazing series and I could even watch a bit tonight when I get in as it's Friday :)  I'm sure I won't though as the tension will be too much and I am a wuss.  Unlike in the Euro 2004 shootout I won't be able to go sit in the garden for this as I don't have one.

Chili Manliness Part 2

So on to the proper sized Bhut!  Before getting into the eating we should appreciate the beauty of the chili, it started off all green but during the past week has slowly become a magnificent shade of traffic light.  I'd say if you're going to get packs of these chilies from Tescos for anything it should be to scatter around your home as art(similar to what you could do with cocktail sausages), turns out eating them still isn't that exciting.

A brief diary of the usage of the pretty large, almost tree sized!, chili above:

• 1/3 used in a salmon stir fry, 1 finger chili chopped up raw on top with coriander.  This was reasonably hot.
• 1/4 used on a pizza, this was just above mild.
• 1/4 was chewed raw by me  (the after shot of my bite is shown below) to see if it was worthy, I got pretty intense striking pain on my lips and tongue for a minute or so and I considered the end, but this came and went quickly enough to remember that the pain Western Balti chilies give my stomach is much worse in the medium and long term.

• 1/3 used in a beef curry today, medium heat in the mouth afterwards, but again this was mostly from other sources of pain - a finger chili used in a relish and the Tescos spicy poppadoms were both worse.

All in all a more promising but ultimately over hyped specimen.  As I think I said before, the next one will ruin me, at least then my 90p will have been spent on a good chili and not just on developing the phrase "the hottest" that was used on the packet (6 chili symbols! crazy considering it's usually out of 5).  I will also add scotch bonnets from Tescos (I'm afraid I don't use other supermarkets) were just as hot as this and provided a much more distinct and interesting flavour.

Brief World Series news, St Louis are now trailing 3-2 in the series in spite of winning game 3 with 16 runs :(  Pujols may only have 1 game left which would I guess make me uninterested in baseball for a while again.  Next game is Wednesday night and I won't be watching it as I'll be asleep.

Baseball's Once a Year Treat

I always find with baseball the thought of watching a game isn't appealing and is mainly the image of being bored for the majority of the time and seeing someone make it to first base maybe twice in an hour.  Usually throughout the really long season (150 or so games per team) I watch the brief hit or catch highlights on the St Louis Cardinals' website, or more desperately a dramatic strike out.  It's basically something that could help me survive the NBA lockout (lots of opinions on twitter! none by me) and doesn't involve me having to do anything.

This though is wrong, the last time I watched a game I was in an airport and loads of sweet action was going on, hits runs and all and a few days earlier I'd forced my holidaying companion to watch about 30 minutes of exciting play - I couldn't watch enough, it was better than going outside and sweating and being tired.  The time before that was in my third year of university, after a swell Comeplay a friend with Sky Sports said I could come and watch the last game of the 2006 World Series with him as it featured St Louis battling for redemption after being swept the last time they were in it.  We got to his flat, he went straight to bed and I sat on my own and explaining myself to his flatmate who wandered in confused.  It was awesome and the Cardinals won it for me.  This was a team I became a fan of, bought a tshirt for and played as on Triple Play 2001 because of a large ginger goateed player whom Wikipedia claims confessed to using steroids throughout his career but not for performance, for health..

Well the obvious news is they're back in it and here is the crazy game they won to get there, Cardinals - Brewers Game 6, it's intense stuff.  The added emotional/poignant reality is also that the teams best player, Albert Pujols, is potentially off at the end of the season in spite of being offered $200 million to not abandon me.  The best hitter and defend all in one, it's like a combo of Steven Gerrard.  Anyway, the conclusion is I would watch some games if they weren't on late.  Sneak ad:

X Factor brief opinion, Sophie is good, Frankie gets worse each song, unusually the bottom 2 was correct and Rebecaa Ferguson's first song was played on the radio today, yay!

Tescos Chili Manliness Dispute

Unimpressive stuff.  I once bought a pack of dried Habanero chilies from Tescos and they were massively hot.    The old Habanero Wikipedia page suggests the Scoville rating for these is between 100,000 and 350,000.  Usually about an eighth was used in a spicy meal and the pack of 10 lasted me about 3 months.

The other day in Tescos I saw they started doing Bhut Jolokia chilies, potentially rated at 850,000 on the scale, after 2 days of fear we decided to use them tonight... Well we used about a third of one in our dinner (did a quick test on a small bit first) and it felt less spicy that no spice, even when I peppered the hell out of it.  Basically it took all the heat out of my food :(  After this disaster I decided to eat the remaining 2 thirds, I did that while videoing just in case it got terrible and it tickled but little else (actually it was reasonable but no more than a piece of vinegared jalapeno).   All in all a disappointing experience.

Looking at all this sensibly it makes no sense other than maybe I am being deceived by a feeble Bhut and the rest of the pack will ruin me - highly believable.  Both the habanero and bhut jolokia give the old mouth pain and maybe a mild sweat but nothing like the misery that the long thin chilies in Indian takeaways we used to give when trying to be manly where after a severe mouth burning you'd then be treated to burning in the stomach that made you feel sick for about 2 hours. 

The real pain was from Western Balti, everything else Tescos (I also bought some weird ball shaped chilies at Tescos once that were horrible and bland all at once)

:(

England were robbed

No Disappointment

The wait is over and Sean didn't disappoint, obviously, not only that he delivered more than I could have ever hoped for.   I got back to my flat at 7.30 after thinking Yodel had failed me and there was a huge box, after preparing the evening's schnitzel (of which there are photos later)  we opened it up not really noticing how a box for 2 pies would be a lot smaller...

This is what I found

Thanks O2

Uhoh, 8 whole cans of Greene King IPA, 4 Full English Breakfast pies, 4 Bean Egg and Mushroom pies, 2 ice packs and most importantly - as can be seen in the top right of the box - a George flag!  Ahh Sean you are more perfect than I ever though possible.  I sense The Twps agrees.

Pieminister: A Pie for All Seasons (this is a pie recipe book)

So if ever I needed a reason for England to go further it's for the chance to get another one of these legit good times.  There was also 50p off a beer in a pub but I would probably be ashamed using that.

Here's the schnitzel, bit of tarragon sauce and German dark beer.  For extra health we made them using Best of Both breadcrumbs, yes please fibre with the taste of white bread.

Sean Bean is bringing me pies!

Terrible phone reception is work has finally paid off, Sean Bean (O2) and the England rugby team and delivering pies and beer to my house before England dominate France next weekend.  Apparently they will phone around Thursday and ask when it would suit for my priority to be the priority of the Yorkshire courier.

Of course I'm a liar and Britain's Second Greatest Current Actor isn't really bringing me any pies but I think he did speak on the advert and due to his talent it's all set, he compromised my reality in a way Andy Townsend's analysis couldn't.

Back to rugby, still haven't thought of anything to give up when England win, maybe not using my phone for a month while I'm using the toilet.  I think given the emphatic win on Saturday that England are assured of glory, also I guaranteed 100% that during his and my entire lifetimes Chris Ashton will never drop the ball while doing his dive thing, so that's a relief i haven't just doomed us both.

Unrelated to rugger, X Factor actually gave me a few surprises tonight in spite of the clear give away extended footage of the obvious going through people.  We feel that they may bring back some mainly because it seemed obvious they wanted the Scottish girl who hated her home town through.  My main disappointment was that The Keys with their big arms didn't go through (except the small armed one) while The Risk did :| they suck.  I'm going for Liverpool hairdresser, Gav's was the same but for competitions sake is going for Irish yellow nailed girl.  I've only heard my guy sing once but at least he's from Liverpool like Rebecca the best, I should probably follow him on Twitter.

What would I give up for England winning the World Cup

After a discussion the answered seemed to be very little.

Having read that something like 65% of Welshmen would give up sex for a year if Wales were Rugby World Champions I have a think for a while about my options.

I think I could give up curry for 1 week, maybe crisps and chips for 2 weeks, I could probably give up kayaking for a year but I'd enjoy the laziness of it, other than that for a whole year there's pretty much nothing I like that could do without that long.  Possibly champagne if I could still drink goodish cava.  Internet? no, Burger King? no, Living like a king? No :(

Here's the problem - after a month or so I wouldn't think about the victory again, other than 6 nations time, but the year of losing something would be going on and what's life without BK?

A Philosophical Question

Here it is:

If you had 1000 giraffes, 1,000,000 lions, 1000,000,000,000 ducks and infinity shrews and they were fighting to the death, last species wins, who would win?  The battle ground would be a 2 kilometer cubed field, clouds at the top and 1 small 2cm deep 1 foot wide river.  The time limit would be 16,9999 hours.


An interesting side note, 10,000 of the ducks have no beaks.

Lockout Shmockout?

Two posts within the same month means that I am tripping.  I think it's because a laptop I bought broke after 25 days of buying it (refurbished mind) and me thinking I had a year warranty suddenly realising it was actually 30 days and that I was in fact very lucky it broke so quickly.  I just had an email saying I was getting my refund so at least it isn't getting sent back to me telling me I'm wrong and suck.  I assume this is what you get for buying a well speced laptopfor £230 - saying that my living-on-the-edge-mind is to buy one of the same value again and hope it too breaks and then I will get another and so on for maybe a year or two until I've sample every laptop and have lost important files (I have no such files) and unbacked up photos continually for a year.

Moving on from that sorry tale, the current predicament is that my annual fear of the months between June and October, while the NBAseason isn't on, is in full swing with the Internet becoming a really dull place.  In fact the probable reason I got obsessed with buying a new computer was because finding deals and spending money was my replacement for basketball interneting.

This is all amplified due to the lockout, where no basketball is played, everyone wants more money and no one wants to compromise to benefit me, which means there's a good chance there will be no season for even longer or even at all.  I'd imagine this will make me go back to Baseball :( although that ends in September I think and St Louis' star player has a broken arm or some such misery, and I can't trust Liverpool to make me happy.  Any sport ideas would be well received, specifically if they have a lot of stats I can geek over.

On a side note, this book is awesome and doesn't require imagination like a story book

particularly if you love numbers and money, not at all if you don't :-|

 Speaking of economics, I made my too patient girlfriend go here with me when we had like 1 day in London:

A few months of stuff

Another huge wait and this time it was worth it.  At the end of May things got way too real when Mered of Iechyd Da fame peer pressured us into attending the gym's open evening at the bowls club.  Not knowing if we were good at bowls but knowing we were good at other stuff we figured we'd be pretty good at bowls and turned up 2nd to an empty green ready to be bowlt upon.  We did this and the proof is below.

 

Because I am crude I can morally reveal I won 5-3.  There were a few shots where we couldn't contain ourselves from whooping and others like my first bowl that went straight off the far end that were real bad.  Overall it would have been good if it wasn't really windy and if we'd been challenged to a 2 on 2 game, we weren't going to challenge anyone ourselves.

Since then other things of happened, one of which involved going to Buffalos and another where I made risotto with laver bread and bara brith  (bara brith  is a lie)..

I also saw Ferraris I like in London but can't afford :(

If I ever manage to post again I hope it's better than this.

TV Just Reminded Me - Wind farms in Mid Wales

It took me a while to dislike wind farms having learnt in my degree that they're pretty OK (except for the awkward maths) and because my Dad always complained about them and I liked to disagree.

This all changed when I read on some website with potentially no credibility that new wind turbines to be built in Mid Wales would require a valley with a waterfall I really like (and want to kayak one day but never will), Cwm Einion, to be dug up so that supports could be put in for the sweet new extra tall turbines. A load are also planned to be built in Montgomeryshire, Powys, ruining the countryside around this scenic area of Wales and I have heard larger roads will be needed to get the lorries up to the sites.  Wind farms don't even produce reliable power, a backup fossil fuel plant is always required for when there is no wind at peak times and I've often found the weather around Llanidloes/Newtown to be quite stable and I've never heard of our chickens blowing away in all the wind.

I'm not sure if I'm possibly saying we should get some awesome huge coal power plants instead but I mainly don't want a part of the country with relatively few residents being bullied into losing it's countryside because people far away decided their valleys were windy some times of the year.  Considering the pride about the grandness of  it's outdoors Wales isn't a big enough country to be able to hide the damage done to it's countryside when it spreads from one side to the other.

Please get signing the petition found in the links below:

Say No to Tan 8 - Windfarms & High Voltage Power Lines Spoiling our Community

Petition (English)
Petition (Welsh)

Maybe solar power is the answer?

Avoiding Football on Saturday

Two years later and I have to do it again. In May 2008 I had to watch the Wolverine X-Men film so that I couldn't hear the cheers in the pub next to my old house. Back then I did manage to get through the evening without incident. At least until I foolishly went into my bedroom where an open window nearly compromised my entire media blackout. I heard what sounded like a cheer... My heart sank quite a bit, thankfully when I did an urgent check online I found that the cheer was either in my favour or was the blissful groan of people who'd made a morally ambiguous team choice earlier in life.

So with this years Champions League final featuring my old friend Manchester United will probably cause me a fair bit of unhappiness. Especially if Robby sends me a "banterrific" text.

That's basically all I have in my head on this issue other than I hope they lose.

A Sandwich I like

Not quite the perfect sandwich as it's missing mozzarella but all in all a pleasing time after a sweet physio session (this was a whil ago)

Chicken, olives, jalapenos, red spicey pesto, black pepper and a bit-o-bread ;-0

Obviously it cost more to get all the bits than an actual meal would have but at least I didn't have chips or a drink of dripping.

The Final Four and My Biased Opinion

Right, the Final Four for March Madness in American College basketball begins tonight and I'm excited at least half. Being in Wales and the difficulty this brings with regards to scheduling I've discovered the NCAA tournemant this year to be on at very pleasing times, 10pm!, meaning I can actually watch it through the official website without getting too tired.

So the team for me? Well there are 3 ways I can view it, each ultimately linking back to my shortsited bias to the Utah Jazz.

First we have Butler - VCU at 11pm. Here I have 2 options for my massive desire. Butler on the one hand was the team that current Utah player Gordon Hayward led to the final last year and so deserves my current support; VCU on the other hand is the college of Eric Maynor whom Utah drafted 2 years ago and was tragically traded to save money, against my will. Both Eric and Gordon tweet well so I am torn.

In the second game it's Connecticut - Kentucky, a game I won't be watching as it's on later. Now according Facebook Kentucky is my "despised" team. This is because I've been following BYU this year, an uncool Mormon Univeristy, and Kentucky are the antithesis of this being the place all the cool top players go. Inspite of this I mainly feel indifference towards them. UCONN on the other hand have Kemba Walker who is a potential Utah player next year, how could I support against that?

This all leaves me with a dilema and I think it means I want Butler to win, one because it is a funny name for a university and I had an old ice hockey teammate called Butler, and two because I currently like Gordon Hayward a lot. There we are, should be good. I better eat, and dodgy smelling venison awaits!

The Lone Gent's Pork Belly

Today, inspired by a discussion/bragging session in work and the pork belly in my freezer, I decided to buy some (more) pork belly.  A while back I attempted a recipe by Stefan Gates involving a lot of garlic, bay leaves, star anise and very low temperatures followed by a brief bout of very high temperatures.  This wasn't entirely successful as the fat never really got to a pleasing level of crackling that I guess is the highlight of the meal.  So after mentioning this I was advised by a trusted source that the only correct way to do this was by subjecting the belly to the hot temperature first before lowering the heat until the it is properly cooked.  This was the method I used this evening although the belly I purchased had very little fat on the top making the appearance of proper crackling as unlikely as ever.

To begin with I had to mash up the paste for the top.  I decided not to follow the recipe and just guess at what should be in it as I didn't want to find it and not have everything (bay leaves!).  I used garlic, star anise, ginger, cinnamon, salt, cardamon pods and pepper with red palm oil mixed in.

Next I rubbed the paste on the pork, I will say it looks pretty foul but that's the risk to achieve the Maillard Reaction, and it's mostly garlic that I didn't cut and didn't mash very well.

So these went under the grill for a few minutes and were then taken out so the veg could cook while the oven cooled down to 70.  I drained some of the juices to make the gravy and put it in a frying pan with corn flour, soy sauce, pepper, ginger and cinnamon.  Cooked these for a bit with some of the onions and it looked like this slop:

 After about 45 minutes in the at 70C it was done and I ate it and I enjoyed it (even the veg) with a dose of Dixon and Jawdin on 90210.  Closing opinion of the method would be that with such a thin layer of fat on top the pork couldn't be grilled long enough to get enough crisp in the crackling, I found with a spare bit that another 3 minutes and it was good but then the rest of the pork was very leathery.  Luckily I can try again with the thicker bit in my freezer and see!  Concerning news is that my tummy hurts and is making bad noises but I don't reckon pork worms could have grown to a size in me to make such noises yet so hopefully it is not slow cooked pork related.

I definitely recommend Stefan Gate's book, Gastronaut, for a lot more some would say stupid and excessive recipes, from the simple bum sandwich to pineapple in a lot of sugar and he also recommends music to have with his meals.  My brother hates any mention of it though, so be prepred for much doubt.

Rugger

In all my time in Wales the 6 Nations has finally gone quite well from an England point of view.  While the Grand Slam will require a difficult victory today this year is the first time there hasn't been some shame for me as an Englishman in Wales.  Usually either England do respectably but lose to Wales or they just fail around with mediocrity, so it's nice that such glorious beasts should at least win the championship this year.  Yay!

In other news I'd like BYU to do well in March Madness - NCAA Div I Basketball Tournament.  I've got a few fantasy games reliant on this as my decisions are always based on the 1 team I know about that year.  I played canoe polo for the first time in 4 months and fortunately my throwing arm was a beast in drills and war ups, in a game though it made me hit the goal post a few times and that was it.  Also the gaping empty chasm that was once my fitness required me to do a lot of fouls to try and keep up with people or to stop them getting away in a feeble last few minutes of the game.  Next week though...

NBA Games! and the draft & manly sadness

NBA Games, a poor title in the imagination stakes but accurate in that games were played so good job deciding that...

On Friday was the first NBA league match held in Europe, specifically at the O2 in London.  It was really good and from the sound of it Saturday's game was even better.

Unfortunately these games were both won by the New Jersey Nets, the problem was I went into the game only wanting a loss for them while not especially caring that Toronto would be the winners.  These selfish desires stemmed from the Utah Jazz owning New Jersey's draft pick for this year as a result of sending my favourite player (and the name on a shirt on only recently bought!), Deron Williams, to New Jersey.

 :(

More losses means a higher pick in the 2011 NBA Draft and a better likelihood of a good player to get Utah back on track next year.  During the Friday night game Deron started with some poor shooting but in the end did the good stuff and lead New Jersey comfortably to a win.  I found whenever he scored, made someone look stupid with a dribble or did a pass reminiscent of my own skills that I had to applaud and force a smile while also wilting internally as it truly dawned that these things would no longer be happening for Utah.

In the second game I'm sure he was also the main reason for all the win and fun New Jersey had but I only caught the end as I had to be out buying t-shirts while I was still in London.  All in all this was another blast of the pain of seeing Fernando Torres in a Chelsea shirt the week after he fled Liverpool.  Although Fernando said he wanted to leave Liverpool, Deron was traded in fear of him later demanding to leave Utah and so I was still proud when he got the loudest cheer at the start.

It's a lot of hurt for a steely man such as myself.

Shoulder/Back Back! (Teaser)

To be described in more depth soon, this is a tale of moaning, laziness and general lacking of compassion from my peers.  Basically I've not done much in the way of gym or kayaking since September due to a back injury but following some suggestions from Mered could  have become massaged back to health.

Today I attempted both of the mentioned activities and came away with what appear to be good signs.  Unfortunately my stamina has slipped so greatly that it was hard to really push myself for long to really investigate my recovery.   Stamina though is another post for sometime a week or month away.

Curdling Misery

One thing that's caused my stomach and pride issues recently is when I've used yoghurt instead of cream in cooking and ye olde curdle comes about.  It's never made me actually ill but damaged pride, especially intellectual pride, which can devastate even a feeble kneed chump.

I've read using cornflour with yoghurt stops this reputation sullier. Today I found out when I foolishly forgot cream when prepping for the fool proof moule mariniere plan.  Fortunately, or potentially unfortunately, I had some sick yoghurt in the fridge that I forgot to use in a recipe the other day.  I am typing this as I am cooking so we'll find out soon enough.  Unless the curdle destroys me.

The good news is it worked. A brief list of what constituted my raging success; muscles, white wine, parsley, yoghurt, corn flour, garlic and shallots.  So, thanks Raymond for providing the incentive to better myself, and maybe even given me the accidental chance to get past a crushing fear. 

Saving resources:
Cornflour in yoghurt curries
Raymond Blanc's Shellfish - inspiration, along with cheap Tescos muscles :(

Bad Knee

Since last April my knees, especially my right knee, have been rubbish.  This began when I used to fall over like a chump during ice hockey practise, mostly my fault as I had awful old shin guards.  Then after some sweet advice I had two sessions in the gym where I did the good stuff - jumping squats using about 90kg - I was determined to dunk, only needed to improve my vertical jump about 20inches!  Seemed fool proof.

I realised this was bad when I told someone I had some new pains in my knee and there look of shock when I mentioned what I'd done in the gym to achieve this.

I soon discovered during the night the dull ache behind my knee and the sharp jabbing pain around the lower front of my knee cap kept me awake unless I got up and did some stretches and walked around for about 10 minutes.  Another cool thing was in work where sitting at my desk or standing in the lab resulted in prolonged aching all around the knee cap and a lot of clicking when I walked.

After this had gone on for a month or so I decided to reduce my dunking plans and stop jumping when playing basketball, I also told the doctor.  Eventually I got to go to the physio.

Now I've rambled on about my sob story (with no dunking) I better briefly go over my treatments (I usually did these while brushing my teeth):

• Balancing!  Initially just normally, then with eyes closed.  Meant improve my body's appreciation of where my knee is to aid my posture.  Awesome photo below..

• Squats.  Standard squats without weights, making sure my knees only just went past my toes.  This was meant to strengthen my glutes.

• 1 legged squats.  Another sweet photo below.  These were to help posture to reduce stress on the knee.

(Be sure to note the awesome posture)

• Core strengthening.  I had to sit on a gym ball with one leg raised and stretch a physio band (green then blue when I got good!)   To improve posture again, this did result in much mocking in the gym. 

• Stretching.  I was told I had tight tendons and muscles around my knee.  Sat on the ground, touching my toes.

• Lunges.  Onto the old half ball thing to improve balance and stabiliser muscle strength.

So that's it.  I did these for 2 months and now I can sit or stand or sleep and generally get no pain, except Sunday nights.  I just have to wait until the sun comes back now so I can start slamming again, or at least run around and shoot sweet j's without moaning like a wimp afterwards.

Remember these are just my experiences and aren't recommended for anyone else, a proper physiotherapy assessment is needed if you ever want to dunk like me!

A few links with some information
Knee Pain Symptoms
Dunking tips ;)

Fresh wounds phoned in

Believe it or not one of the founding members of Gin Do' Friday has treated himself to a personal blog.  I think I'll agree this is a good idea.

So I'm going to write about getting my knees back from the brink or stupidity and unknotting my back after 6 months of lame.   Other than that I do tend to moan a lot about little injuries, so I will enjoy typing them up as soon/before they happen.  There will probably be non injury related posts when I am in states of good health - in fact I know there will be as otherwise I would need to resort to deliberate poor gym techniques which would not go down well with Mered.