The internet is amazing. I wanted to build a web page with access to the local Video surveillance cameras around key places of my interest for when I want to drive to central London or to my new office in Richmond.
Been exploring the TFL API to discover the location of cameras and other interesting items that are being stored on the TFL API. For example, I discovered that TFL keeps a log of all the electric charging points with details about location and charging power etc…
Made a small computer program to make hundreds of designs of bikes, a generative coding example. The software creates various shapes by modifying a few parameters of a standard bike shape.
When everybody seems to be moving from 2D to 3D to VR….we are taking it back to 1D !
Great fun building a ONE dimension game with Jules at the coding helm!
It is still early days but already fun.
I have done so much work for free and as of today, it is still the worse investment I have ever made…but I am still proud of the achievement.
This could be a study case on motivation, incentives and decision making…
Some could say that I am a foul donating so much of my time and energy for something that I will never feel is a fair share of the returns.
However, I also know that none of this is about the end-point but more about the journey and the legacy one can leave. So I let myself enjoy the present.
I intend to make this big and meaningful for the people that need an affordable and sustainable source of natural medicine.
So far, in my life, my “foolishness” has served me well so why not trust it a bit more.
Been cursing the bloody Virus again. Was looking forward to a nice family get together for this Christmas and it all fell apart.
The new Omicron variant is raging through London and soon will be everywhere in Europe etc…it is said to be mild but it crushes ours hopes for any get together with the grandparents or even parties of more than a few people.
Everybody is trying to protect their own families.
Jules got tested positive just before Xmas. Thankfully, his girlfriend was able to travel to her parents before and my parents had already decided not to come to the house anyway. So it was just a major bother for Jules really…
As we always do as a family, we made the most of it and had a lot of fun. Manu made sure that there were presents under the tree even if we could not go shopping. And she even. found a HAZMAT suit to make sure that Jules would be able to join us for the Xmas evening. There were a few tears here and there but more laughs about it all.
Obviously, there was a lot of cooking involved as well…with my dry-cured ham slowly getting ready. It has been a month and still only 50% of the way ready. It has nice white mould growing on it, but also a bit of Blue/green mould so I cleaned them up a bit and removed the muslin to help with the drying process.
It has been raining a lot this past 2 weeks and the humidity in the garage is a bit too high.
But the taste is very nice and it smells good as well.
Made some nice tempura of Asparagus and Onions. I cooked in Avocado oil on the new induction cooker using the frying function which is excellent to keep the oil hot but not burning…a really nice purchase. Keeps the temperature of the oil around 180-200 which for the avocado oil is OK.
The tempura pastry was very nice :
1 egg yolk
125g of Tapioca Flour/Starch (from the Chinese market)
125g of cold sparkling water
1/2 teaspoon of Salt
1/2 teaspoon of Baking powder
and some Plain flour to adjust the consistency until the batter is very runny but still sticks to the vegetables.
Cook in the pan with at least a couple of centimetres of oil in pan.
Want to make some egg benedict’s so need to learn to do the Hollandaise properly! I will use the Kenwood chef to see if can make the sauce quickly.
Ingredients:
How to make :
Can keep the sauce in a thermos for a couple of hours or keep on low heat (60 to 65 degrees Celsius). It is also possible to “flavour” the sauce by cooking separately some shallots for example and collecting the butter through a sieve, adding this flavoured butter to the rest of the butter.
Serve with a nice toast of bread and some poached eggs.
A typical Sunday must have….super easy to make and perfect to boost the early winter morale.
The only problem is that you need a special tray to cook them!
Ingredients:
How to make :
Perfect with a coffee after lunch or as a quick snack mid-day.
It is better to cook eggs straight from the fridge into boiling water, this makes it easier to peel the eggs.
If you want the ultimate cooking method, put a little bit of water in the bottom of a pan, bring it to a boil (quicker than boiling a full and put a steamer grill in the pan. Put your eggs on the grill straight from the fridge for the number of minutes required to get your perfect egg.
What oil for what temperature ?
Been wanting to keep a reminder of the various cooking Oils smoke point. This is the point at which the oil simply burns and is not fit for cooking anymore.
Often people would say that Olive Oil is not a good oil to use for frying food etc…
I would argue that you should try to keep the pan temperature slightly lower rather than simply putting it on full whack and burning everything…
I have not used Avocado Oil yet, and from the table below it seems that I should at least try it. I was also surprised that Ghee seems to be a lot better than straight butter. Probably the reason it is used so much in Indian food preparation.
| Fat/Oil | Smoke Point (C) |
| Flaxseed oil | 107 C |
| Butter | 140 C |
| Coconut oil (extra virgin) | 177 C |
| Sesame oil (unrefined) | 177 C |
| Vegetable shortening | 182 C |
| Lard | 188 C |
| Olive oil (extra virgin) | 191 C |
| Grapeseed oil | 195 C |
| Olive oil (virgin) | 199 C |
| Canola oil (refined) | 204 C |
| Vegetable oil | 205 C |
| Margarine | 210 C |
| Corn oil | 227 C |
| Sunflower oil | 230 C |
| Coconut oil (refined) | 232 C |
| Peanut oil | 232 C |
| Soybean oil (refined) | 238 C |
| Ghee (Clarified Butter) | 250 C |
| Avocado oil | 271 C |
As I use my blog as a life diary, I feel it is appropriate to remember the person that recruited me at Xerox in 1993. Graham is one of the few people that had a profound impact on my life as an example to try to follow. His funeral was a great refresher on what one should do with the little time we have on earth to leave a legacy that will outlive you.
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To Nick and Graham’s family,
In this challenging time of loss, I wanted to share some memories of Graham to celebrate his time on earth. And maybe let you know that he lives on within me (and many others that he has touched over the years), trying to perpetuate the values that he represented.
Almost 30 years ago, I sent my CV to Xerox every month in a desperate attempt to join the treasury department at Xerox.
The odds were not in my favour; a 26 years old graduate applying from France to a finance role in Marlow in the 1990s was undoubtedly a long shot. But to my incredible luck, Graham got involved. He pushed my CV around his finance function, suggesting that giving me a chance on a six months non-renewable contract could not harm anybody even if I was French!
What followed was a 26-year career in finance at Xerox; if this were the only thing I owe to Graham, I would be eternally grateful.
But it is a lot more that Graham taught me; he was a fantastic example of outstanding leadership to learn from. His presence in a room would bring gravitas, respect and integrity. His knowledge of the business and his great sense of humour were legendary in the finance function.
During my time at Xerox, once I reached more senior roles and expected to mentor more junior managers, I often used his witted comments to illustrate his sharp and critical thinking.
On one occasion, I had done a lot of work for him and was ready to present my findings; within the first minute of our meeting, he stated the outcome of my work like if it was obvious. I complained to him:” But Graham, with all the work I did, it is unfair not to let me take you through my findings…”
He replied :
“Yes, I know Olivier, a lot of work for you, a single thought for me !”.
He had a massive smile on his face for being so witty; it made me laugh then and still today.
He expected loyalty and integrity from his staff only because his own standards were impeccable.
He also made a point of following his people’s progress closely and encouraging them regularly even after he retired. I am proud to be one of the people he sponsored.
There are so many funny stories that come to my mind and put a smile on my face. I hope that it is the same for you, his family, who miss him dearly today.
Sometimes, when somebody was using too many words to explain something important to Graham, he would get flustered and would say :
“I do not want to hear about the voyage; I just want to know the boat got to the port.”
I am certain that Graham has arrived at the port and would be proud of the legacy he created.
My deepest sympathies to you and your family.
I love the way people keep their recipes. Some will have a drawer full of magazine extracts, others will have old notepads with scribbles from their grandmother, some will only use recipes from Michelin star chefs, others will browse the internet on a last-minute rush.
Recently we have been to Andrew and Jane’s place for an impromptu get together. (The best sort of evening …really).
Jane prepared this recipe and it was delicious ! I love the title of the recipe and the small scribble on the top of the page, reminding Jane that this recipe is particularly excellent!
In my experience food and wine always taste a lot better with great friends.
Perfect for adding something special to a light evening dinner…
it is essentially cheese profiteroles!
Ingredients:
How to make :
Enjoy with family and a glass of wine…
This is simply the best way to make a rack of ribs either on the BBQ or in the oven…
Ingredients:
How to make :
Had 3 weeks of holidays in the south of France…feeling disconnected but happy.
I am over 50 and I never ever played proper golf …..ever!
I never wanted to play, because of the snob and self-centred idiots I occasionally had to meet in my youth as my parents were playing in France. For me, the golf course was the place you would find a white middle-aged male, poorly mannered, misogynist, self-important and most critically with shady ethics, using the under-cover of wine and dine to corrupt a deal.
I know it is an outdated view of golf, my friends and family who are players are often appalled by my perception of the game. I think the game is great, it is the people I met in the past at a golf course that I dislike.
I had a long career in a Corporate environment and never had to play a round of golf with anybody. Thank god really…
I wish Kite-surf would have been on the list of Corporate entertainment.
I did mini-golf and that’s it…never even had a go in a golf range.
Recently my friend Chris from tennis organised a lesson with a coach for 30 minutes and then took me on a round of golf with him! I was under some serious pressure. All self-imposed. But I was not ridicule. Thanks to the scoring system, I did not feel humiliated and could walk back to the bar with my head up. Everybody was very friendly and I felt the pleasure of discovering something new.
I feel very blessed to have a friend like Chris who took some of his precious time to share it with me, just because he wanted and knew how much it would mean to me. I had a great time and although I am probably going to stick with tennis, mountain biking, skiing, sailing/kite-surfing as my preferred sports, I am pretty sure golf is now on the list of things I must learn and improve on.
Thanks to Chris, I also feel less intimidated to go for a round of golf with my kids who have been playing for many years thanks to Papy & Mamy.
Was I wrong about golf all this time? Some will say yes. I would argue that like in the boardroom, things have improved over time. The majority of golfs have had to adapt to economically survive and discovered that diversity and inclusion are more powerful than the elitism of a few.
This is great as I look forward to my kids taking me for a round of golf where we can just chat about anything and have a nice walk together, trying to find my lost ball in the rough…
I made an electronic message board using Raspberry Pi and RGB-Pixel boards.
Something similar to my virus simulator but with a horizontal layout. I can display various information messages a bit like an airport arrival board or a share price ticker, or a daily inspirational quote.
I also made a web-submit page to send messages directly to the board from anywhere on the planet.
Or simply use the app below which I built with Anvil for python.
It also gathers the data from the Solar Panels and displays how much of the house electrics are being covered by the solar panel’s energy. It is the green line at the bottom showing 100% of house electricity being supplied by the solar panels.
Another long term project…with many potential uses, none of them critical for life on earth.
Just bought an OONI Pizza oven for Jules birthday party!
So getting the recipes to make the best dough and sauces…
For the dough, the quantities are a bit “odd” probably because of some Imperial to Metrics conversions from the USA based company…
Ingredients (OONI recipe):
With the “Oli converter”, slightly easier to remember quantities…
How to make :
Cooking:
Jules is soon going to be 20 years old. He just finished his exams for his second year at University. He has been very disciplined all year to make sure he would not fall behind in his work. He has a group project to complete and the year 2021 for him will be done!
He will then leave for Holland for a summer job at Optiver . He went through a tough recruitment process a few months ago.
We will probably go to see him during the summer.
He has a few days of “break” to recover from exams and called me to have a day together doing nerdy stuff together. It was a super fun day. As always we did not do half of what we wanted to do but it was nice to spend time with my little boy now grown-up to full-size adult….
So we decided to make some beer….using a kit I ordered on Amazon a few weeks ago. That is a lot of cleaning and preparation for just a few pints of IPA.
We have done the brewing part and the beer is now fermenting. It is definitely making a lot of bubbles…Need to wait a couple of weeks before we can finish that project and bottle the beer.
As usual, I ordered more stuff on Amazon to track the level of alcohol etc…
I also shared with him all the stuff I have been doing in my garage over the last few months and showed him some computer-controlled tools I made.
We also started coding the RGB-LED screen I made for him. We decided to add a new micro-controller to the screen to track temperature, humidity and air pressure. We went through the details of the I2C protocol and soldered the bits and bobs required.
As we were fooling around with the screen we decided that it needed a way to stand on its own. So I designed a “foot” for the frame and 3D printed it quickly to attach to the screen.
Was a super fun day, just sad it is already finished….and will be a long time again before we have another. Although I think of the time when he was a little boy of 5 or 6 years old as a special time in my memory, I am also looking forward to all the amazing things we can still do together in the future.
Made this super simple calculator, to find out how much gas is left in the BBQ Gas bottles….not that the weather has been any good this year so far…
Almost end of May and very little sunshine, lots of rain…
Check the ring first for the 2 numbers :
