Meenzer

It's nothing out of this world, just a nice homely local-run place that does decent-quality café stuff well, so I'd say it's probably only worth going out of your way for if the sun is shining and the weather's canny enough to have a stroll along the adjacent beach afterwards. Worth a stop en route to points northward too, but not a destination in itself. My reputation already lags well behind me, so I'm not too concerned.

I was going to say the Drift Café at Cresswell but that's, erm, not as close to Alnwick as I thought. I've been away too long.

Make sure you oil up his armchair first.

Any more of this filth and I'll be forced to merge it with this thread

And even that's contingent on the landlords not hiking the rent, but they're an older couple who've been burned by dubious tenants in the past so I think they're happy to have us. Hopefully.

Our days in London are numbered too. No chance of ever buying down here (at least anywhere I'd want to live, either property- or location-wise), and it'd be ridiculous money even if we could afford it. Our tenancy is on a two-year cycle and it's up in a couple of months, so we're renewing one more time and will be using the intervening time for him to scope out jobs elsewhere and for us to figure out where in the north we want to end up (I admit I'll be trying to steer us NE-wards if possible ). Nearly decided to jack it in this time round, but we've got friends and a bit of an actual community around here now (I know, in London and everything) and a bit more planning is probably wise - the next move ideally wants to be for settling down properly, I can't be fussed with upping sticks with renter-like frequency, so this gives us time to look around properly. I've never been to Manchester without being accosted by a randomer on the street acting abusively or threateningly at some point. (Not the same randomer each time, as far as I can tell.) Doesn't endear the place to me as somewhere to live, but I realise I should probably base my opinion on something more concrete than that.

Planning a tandoori chicken and vegetable pancake bake for tonight, anyway. Might as well subvert the art completely. (Couple of pancakes with lemon and sugar for afters, obviously.)

Longreads just recommended this to me, as it happens: https://newrepublic.com/article/122959/sorry-blue-apron-joys-cooking-cant-fit-box?src=longreads

Coming over here, eating healthily

My delivery guy is Polish. I should check he's not skimming a courgette or two off the top.

Still get the regular veg boxes from them, still very happy with them. Helps working from home though, there's basically double the number of (potential) meals to make so nothing gets wasted.

I use turkey mince but aye, you'd never pick turkey as your roast of choice outside of Christmas. As for pancakes, I'll have them very occasionally during the year but I agree they're a bit crêpe.

It's the only language I speak. Check my CV if you don't believe me. (It's just below "Toontastic Moderator".)

Tempted to try and recreate this monstrosity tonight.

Free downloads of 1980s Usborne programming books. Nostalgia doesn't even begin to describe it. http://www.usborne.com/catalogue/feature-page/computer-and-coding-books.aspx

Standing up or sitting down?

Never ceases to amaze* me how fundamentally inefficient the process of moving house is. *terrify

I would play 2 up front, Mitrovic and Mitrovich

If you're not just after sunshine, I'd piece together a rail trip involving some combination of Nuremberg, Prague, Wrocław, Dresden and Leipzig with a night or two in each. Cheap flights to/from either end, plenty of options in terms of culture and architecture and exploring, cuisines based almost entirely on beer and meat. If you are just after sunshine, Canary Islands and a pile of books. That'll do.

Come now, don't we all have umeboshi paste, cultured sea vegetables and pea sprouts in our pantry as standard? It's the chocolate straight before bed that gets me. All that effort to live healthily then a sugar kick just as you're meant to be sleeping? Mind, I suppose you'd be struggling to keep yourself upright with the lack of actual calories in that diet.

Oh balls, I just got into the Royal Parks Half Marathon via the public ballot. It's supposed to be massively oversubscribed. Plans for a lazy summer may have to be shelved.