My Amazing Cooking Tips

I have always fancied myself as a bit of a chef, with the chequered trousers and the floppy hat. Trouble is I am not all that good at cooking, I just pretend to be.

However I have a new revelation. At the co-op they do stir-fry make your own ready meal type things, with a pack of stir fry veg, fresh noodles and sauce. This is very fun to do and it does taste pretty damn good... I shall have to cook it for you some time ;)

Anyway, I also do some chicken with this. Nothing to complicated, but I have a secret trick which I now apply to everything. Lob a load of sweet chilli dipping sauce on the meat, and hey presto! You have very tasty meat with a sweet and flavoursome glaze.

So I apply this to literally everything now. Burgers on the barbie, prawns on the barbie, and now, introducing the all new to the Tom Peach Barbecue Range (tweet me if you want to buy any stock, big supermarkets), it the Mushroom, Pepper and Chicken BBQ Skewers, marinated in Sweet Chilli Dipping Sauce. Trust me, that stuff works with everything, this has got to work. It's FOOLPROOF.

Anyway, I am off to cook them now. I might let you know how they taste! Jamie Oliver eat your heart out...

Thanks for reading!

Follow me on twitter: @peachy146

Radio Fever

The first thing anybody will know about me, is that I am a massive nerd. No matter how much I try and disguise this by wearing my sunglasses on my head and buying clothes that are vaguely in fashion, I have to confess, I am the a massive geek. This I think is really quantified and solidified when it comes to technology. Not only do I have to be able to talk fluently about anything and everything to do with technology, that has involved hours and days of me sat, reading through the entire wikipedia website to learn about how a computer works and what all the funny little cables do, I also get far to excited about it when it comes to new gadgets. The perfect example of this is when we run Alrewas Radio. I spend hours and hours of my life just looking through websites at all the different kit, miss, mixers, software and broadcasting hosting packages to find out about them all and what all the features of the are and do.

There is something about the radio kit which fills and little hole in my heart with liquid honey and boyish excitement. This is very hard for me to portray to the regular listener, because it is so weird, but there we are. This is something which I am very proud of, mainly because I get really excited about it, and the circle repeats…

Anyway, I really want to tell you about what I have found out, in the name of Alrewas Radio. I have been speaking to a few people about upgrading the microphones that we use here at Radio Towers, as we currently only have 1. We would quite like 2, however that would require us to have the inputs via a mixer board, so we could use more than one microphone. Keep up with the thought processes… If we are expanding our inputs to 2, it seems sensible to try and get as many inputs as possible so that we can have plenty of inputs from guitars and other live musician type things, because we would love to get some awesome live music here on the Radio.

So I have been looking at a Behringer XENYX 1204 USB Mixer, which has all the FX sliders and controllers, along with 12 inputs, 4 of which are for microphones and then the other 8 are for things like guitars. The thought process behind this £160 bit of kit is that it will really allow us to be able to expand the Radio, maybe be able to mic up a whole band to play some awesome music live and local. This is something which excites me.

The next port of call after this is decided then is the microphones. Now originally I was thinking about a £120 condenser microphone, which is at an intermediate level, not the most basic by any stretch of the imagination. This was a thought that went along the lines of price is quality, however after talking to people about this, they have all advised me that unless we are in a completely soundproof professional studio, which would be lovely but is a million miles away yet, the difference between a £60 and a £100 condenser mic is pretty much non-existent. The very fact that it is a condenser microphone, means that the frequencies are much flatter and therefore beautifully realistic and crystal clear, which is what we want for radio. So that decided, we have our shopping list…

Apart from one more thing… We are professionals here at Alrewas Radio and we have to look the part as well as sound the part, and that requires some lovely microphone stands, which clip to our desk, and act like a boom scissor arm, which will stretch in front of our face and away from very smoothly, with the proper elastic suspension microphone mounts which allow us to not pick up any vibrations from putting your tea down on the table mid-link.

So our wish list has really shaped up, and I can't wait to be able to buy at least some of this kit! I told you I get excited about nerdy gadgets, well even writing this I am typing slower than I can think the post because I am that excited! Anyway I am off now to try nd find a rich person to buy us some stuff…

Thanks for reading, 

Follow me on twitter: @peachy146

Follow Alrewas Radio on twitter: @AlrewasRadio

#AlrewasRadio

Lucy The Moggy Update 28/06/2013

Well what a few months it has been for dearest Lucy. She has been to the grim north twice, and also to see about 1000 of her friends in oxfordshire at the Morris Centenary Rally at Cornbury Park. She has also had a lot of attention for her human supporters, namely me, and is about to get a full makeover...

We have been visting the relatives that Lucy came from more regularly this year, as they have 3 holiday cottages which we are trying to renovate. My working shifts disallow visits at weekends, but during the week I can pop up quite happily on my own, and so Lucy has been the fateful one to get me and a load of other stuff up there, and back, safely. Which I must add, she has done twice so far! Also my Great Uncle, from whom the car originated has much appreciated seeing Lucy again and on the road, running in her former glory.

Then the other weekend, I took some time off and headed down to Charlbury, a little village in Oxfordshire, with the most ginormous stately home and grounds, where the MMOC National Rally was held in conjunction with the Centenary celebrations event of International recognition, to celebrate 100 years of Morris car manufacturing, and massive feat in itself. And yes, we did see some vehicles from 1913! So she spent a day in a field full of Morris Minors, and lots of other different types of Morris, which both of us really enjoyed.

Now, onto the makeover bit. This is the most interesting bit for me as it has been something I have been wanting to do since I got Lucy. I have just received the varnish and scrapers to start to redo Lucy's woodwork! With a lot of time over the summer, and with any luck (or not knowing Britain) the weather on my side, I can't wait to get out and start work on re-varnishing the woodwork. When the rain actually stops of course!

Alongside this, I have also picked up a roof rack from my Great Uncle's farm which I have now found some suitable attire for: in the form of a suitcase from the 60s and a wicker picnic hamper, as you can see in the picture below:

So the minor is really starting to look the part, and I hope to be able to take some lovely photographs of her when the skies show a hint of blue in them, whilst I keep looking around for vinatge suitcases! As an aside, if you have any you are looking to get rid of, then let me know!

There is loads more on the way this summer in terms of Lucy and her restorations and adventures, so please feel free to keep checking my blog for further updates on my baby!

Thanks for reading!

Follow me on twitter: @peachy146

My fears for the Zombie Apocolypse...

So I have just met up with some mates in town to go to cinema to see the new film World War Z. This is a film I would often avoid with a barge pole, but today I was in a fairly easy-going mood and decided, what the hell, I will confront my fears of anything which is more than a punch in the face, head on up to the lovely town of Burton-upon-Trent and see what all the hype was about.

Well, I have to say, I have not been that scared since I went to the cinema to watch Harry Potter: Goblet of Fire as an evening viewing, went home to bed and then had the worst nightmares ever. I have never known a film feel more like I am on a roller coaster. I am terrified of roller coasters.

I sat in the cinema with my hands clenched to the seat, and my eyes half open. I have come to realise as well it isn't the actually action that scares me, makes me nervous whatever, it is the tension leading up to it that I absolutely hate. I know it is coming, yet I still feel the fear. It is so common a technique for film directors to use, to create long moments, often a couple of minutes of minutes of suspense, before the action happens. And that is what I dislike about all this zombie films and alien invasion films.

I am a massive fan of War Of The Worlds, mainly for the music, I will grant you, but I love in War Of The Worlds how the music adds to the drama, which is what a film should do. Look at any great, Star Wars, Lord Of The Rings, High School Musical (joking) and you can all sing the theme tunes to those films. But in modern film making there is less attention to the music. It is all based on the action, and the way things fly at you, as you constantly duck and dive and weave through a sea of raining dead bodies, rubble and blood to avoid being killed in the process of watching the film.

And I know people rave about these films, but really they do nothing for me apart from make me really need a couple of Ibuprofen for a migraine and a massive great BigMac. Sorry guys, I know it's gay, but I don't like Zombie Apocalypse films. End of.

Follow me on twitter: @peachy146

Thanks for reading

Post-Exams

Firstly I would like to apologise for the lack of posts in recent months. I have been incredibly snowed under with lots of things, mainly exams. I have just undertaken my final A Levels, which were to say the least, stressful and a right pain. But now I am a free man, so I can't complain!

I have loads of time on my hands now. Well I say that, I have spent every day since I broke up doing something. My mum teaches music at the local primary school, I am have been roped in to do numerous project in and around the Alreas Radio and Arts Fest stuff that I got involved in last year. Today I spent my day making signs out of wood with the Lord's Prayer on it. I am not even sure if that fits into anything, but apparently it was important! I must say, they lok pretty swish, even if they are about the Lord's Prayer...

So on top of all this work I have been doing in the Primary School (which by the way, I am not even getting paid for it, I am doing it completely voluntarily) I have also been putting my time to good use, working on 'Lucy the Moggy' doing some very important work on the car that I have been wanting to do for a long time. I have recently been part of the Morris Centenary International Event MMOC National Rally, and I have rekindled my love for the Minor. 

I have now got a book about the Morris Minor Traveller, which includes complete Morris history which I have now buffed up on, as well as some whacky and crazy Travellers with 5 rear passenger doors for example, or different boot and window configurations, which are really quite interesting, both visually and mechanically. It also has a complete step-by-step guide on how to replace the Ash frame, which I am looking at doing in the future. For the time being though I have been revarnishing her and she is starting to look really quite elegant. That and the addition of Chrome front light eyelids, and a roof rack complete with vintage suitcase and picnic basket, she is really taking shape.

The next project is the caravan which Lucy will soon be towing. Something that I saw at the Rally the other weekend, and have also researched before, is the idea of creating a 'Half-Timbered' effect trailer to use and tow around. Ones I have seen are really light and fellow owners of said trailers say they can drive at the speed limit quite comfortably because of the lightweight design and shallow height of them, allowing for a more streamlined effect. In fact the rood of the trailer, in a teardrop shape, at it's highest point would not exceed the roof of the car, which would mean it is really streamlined. I am looking forward to building it and using it thereon! All I need to do is find a trailer which I can use as an A-Frame chassic on which to base the caravan...

So anyway, that is an update on my life, and hopefully with a bit more time on my hands, a few more to follow!

Please follow me on twitter: @peachy146

And on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/peachy146

Thanks for reading!