Beards, Beards, Beards...

Whilst I am not new to the world of beards, having had a beard of one form or another for the past 10 years or so, I am fairly new to the world of specialised beard care products. My interest in beard care products really started over Christmas, my partner bought me a Men Rock Beardy Beloved set as a present, it came in a small black gift box containing oakmoss beard shampoo and conditioner, sandlewood moustache wax and a moustache comb.

Having never waxed my moustache before I tried the shampoo first, when you open the lid of the bottle the first thing that hits you is the fragrance, an earthy woodland smell that I absolutely love. When used the shampoo creates a lovely rich lather and leaves the beard feeling clean and soft, the fragrance lasts for about an hour afterwards before fading. The conditioner is best used in conjunction with the shampoo, however it also works nicely on its own.

The conditioner should be applied to a freshly washed, towel dried beard, only a small amount is required and applied by gently massaging through the beard hair without scrubbing. When used correctly it leaves your beard feeling soft and manageable and smelling absolutely amazing, apply too much however and your beard starts to feel a little greasy. After using the conditioner regularly for a couple of weeks I noticed that my beard looked and felt like it was in really good condition, no split ends, a lot less tangling and much easier to brush and style.

Having always kept my moustache neatly trimmed I had to leave it grow out for a few weeks before it was long enough for me to style with the wax, after a about a month had passed I attempted my first handlebar. The wax is quite stiff so requires a little warming before application, taking a peppercorn size ball of the wax on the end of your finger and allowing it to come up to body temperature will usually soften it enough to apply. Apply it sparingly and evenly through your moustache allows you to curl it into a nice handlebar, the wax has a reasonable hold and if untouched will last for most of the day. Unfortunately the wax is quite susceptible to liquid so care must be taken whilst drinking or the moustache will lose hold and droop. The sandlewood fragrance of the wax is subtle but lasts for a fairly long time, leaving your moustache looking and smelling beautifully manly.

The comb included in the set is a nice extra but isn’t really robust enough for use on a full beard, however is perfectly adequate for a moustache and the teeth are wide enough apart that tangling is not an issue.

Overall I’m impressed with this set and feel it is an excellent introduction into beards and beard care products, it really does make an excellent gift that any hirsute gent would be thrilled to receive.

A Scottish Easter 2015

So Easter has now been and gone, it’s back to normality and back to work. Over the Easter period I made use of the bank holidays to get a few days off to spend with Kell, we decided to take the opportunity to have a few days away together in Scotland. We both love Scotland, we love the rugged scenery, we love the peace and quiet, we love the history, we love the amazing places to eat and we love the people (or in my case the fact that there’s nowhere near as many of them). The thing we love most is the fact that it allows us to see Kell’s grandparents, because they live so far away from us Kell doesn’t get to see them as often as she’d like and spending time with them always makes her happy.

Normally when we visit we stay with Kell’s grandparents who are always more than welcoming, this time however we were staying in a small hotel owned by a local family friend. As it turned out the hotel had not been operating as an actual hotel for some considerable time, the owners had shut it while they refurbished, meaning that we would be the only people staying in this large 3 storey, spooky, old grey stone building. To make things even spookier because of the refurbishments most of the rooms were completely empty so we were staying in one of the few rooms that had yet to be started. The room itself was large, with high ceilings and a very large old sash window, it could have been a really gorgeous room, unfortunately it looked like it had been badly decorated in the 1970s and had remained completely untouched since. Literally everything in the room was dark brown and despite having a large window, letting in plenty of natural light, the room always looked dark and felt quite oppressive. Needless to say our first night there was terrifying and generally horrendous, neither of us slept a wink, the following morning I moved a few things around and forced the old window open which thankfully lifted the atmosphere in the room.

After our first night there we discovered a benefit to staying in the hotel, the hotels kitchens where closed and having no facilities in our room to make breakfast, this meant we would have to walk into town to find somewhere to eat. In town we found a lovely little café which boasted of being the runner up in the “Best Scottish Breakfast Awards” and in all honesty I can see why it came so close to winning, the food was excellent. I can’t remember having eaten a better cooked breakfast, good quality local produce cooked perfectly with a little Scottish twist, I heartily recommend the Glaisnock Café to anyone visiting the Wigtown area. With a lovely breakfast inside us we were ready to face the day so Kell and I set out to visit a few of the local sites. We started by taking a walk round the book shops in Wigtown, where we picked up a few interesting books, before moving on to visit Gate House Of Fleet, the mill on the fleet and the book shop inside it. The book shop in the mill is a real curiosity and such an interesting place to spend a bit of time, everywhere you turn you are confronted by a wall of books of all different subjects and ages, you could almost get lost amongst the chaos and can literally spend hours browsing, often times coming away with nothing but a sense of bewilderment at what you’ve just seen.

We spent the remainder of the morning visiting a few small villages and doing a bit of general site seeing before returning to Gatehouse for lunch in the Galloway Lodge, a lovely little restaurant with a nice atmosphere and a fair amount of character. I ordered a BLT sandwich which came with handmade local bread and local free range bacon, once again the food was excellent. Simple food prepared well using great quality local products, it really doesn’t get a lot better than that in my opinion. Our few days in Scotland were shaping up to be a bit of an unexpected food adventure.

That afternoon we headed back to Wigtown to drop off our purchases and spend the evening with Kells grandma and granddad before returning to our hotel for the night. Thankfully the second night was a much more comfortable affair, largely thanks to the fact that we had left the window and doors open allowing the dust and stale atmosphere in the room to dissipate.

The following morning we awoke bright and early with the intension of enjoying the unseasonably nice weather and visiting the coast. After paying a brief visit to Kells grandparents we headed out along the old coast road to visit Port Patrick, along the way we came across a large expanse of beach in the middle of nowhere with literally no one on it. Pulling over onto the grass verge we walked down onto the sand and spent some time taking photos, walking, skipping stones and paddling in the sea. During this time we saw only one other group of people and they had seen our car and pulled up behind it to do exactly the same as we were, had we been in any other part of the country on a day like that, in the school holidays the beach would have been full of people. It was beautiful, peaceful and tranquil, a perfect moment in time. After an hour or so on the beach we decided to move on and make our way into Port Patrick.

Port Patrick is a lovely little fishing village nestled between two sets of very steep rugged cliffs, as you come through the winding roads onto the main street you can see that this was once a thriving working place, the tightly packed squat stone houses speak of tough winters and hardworking people. Even though it is now mainly the tourist trade that keeps the place alive there are still several working fishing boats in the harbour and still money to be made in the fishing industry. After a walk through the village and investigating the local shops we settled down at a local pub for a drink, soaking up the local atmosphere and enjoying the coastal air. Being a little after lunch time and both of us becoming aware that we hadn’t eaten yet we decided to have lunch at the pub, expecting the standard pub grub I ordered fish and chips for myself and a bowl of chips with onion rings for Kell. When the food arrived we were very pleasantly surprised to see that all the food was obviously freshly made and prepared and cooked from scratch on site. The chips were chunky and rustic, cooked with their skins on and had obviously been double friend. The fish was fresh, flaky and pleasantly moist in a crispy breadcrumb and herb crust with just a hint of lemon. The onion rings were plentiful and coated in a very light beer batter that had just a slight bitterness to it, contrasting with the sweetness of the fried onions perfectly. Washing it down with a pint of a local pale ale, I couldn’t have asked for a better lunch by the sea. Having had our fill of food and drink we walked down to the harbour to take a few photos and sit on a rocky outcrop looking out to sea.

Sometime around mid-afternoon we decided to head back and spend the evening with Kells grandparents before retiring for our last night in the hotel of horrors, which by now was actually starting to feel quite homely. The following morning, after allowing ourselves a little bit of a lie in we packed up our bags and carried them down to the car, ready to take over to Kells grandparents, where we would be spending our fourth and final night in Scotland. We spent the remainder of the morning helping Kells granddad setup his new broadband router and moving a few bits and bobs of furniture before taking her grandma and granddad out to lunch at the Glaisnock Café. Far from being a one hit wonder the lunch time menu at the café has a reasonable amount of variety with a few daily specials thrown in for good measure. I chose a steak and ale pie with vegetables while Kell had a burger and chips, once again we were pleasantly surprised by the quality of the food. My steak and ale pie was rustic and homely with a light puff pastry lid and large chunks of tender steak in a rich flavoursome gravy. The veg was simple, lightly steamed peas and carrots that still had a little crunch and texture to them, which for me is extremely important, I hate mushy veg. Kells burger was hand pressed in a soft bun with a very fresh looking salad, once again the chips were obviously hand cut and cooked until just lightly brown giving them a pleasant crunch and a slight sweetness. The thing that really lifted Kells meal was the homemade chilli chutney, sweet and flavoursome with just the right amount of heat so as not to be over powering. We finished the meal off with a slice of the homemade cake of the day which was a chocolate and peanut butter cake and that too was excellent.

That afternoon Kells granddad took us out so see some local beauty spots, driving right out into the middle of nowhere he took us up to visit Bruces Stone. All I can say was it was definitely worth the drive, Bruces Stone overlooks a beautiful sweeping woodland valley with a river running through the middle. The view is truly awe inspiring and absolutely breath taking, very rarely have I been to such a beautiful place. By the time we got back to Kells grandparents house it was already getting dark so we decided it would be a good time to settle in for the evening and watch some TV before heading to bed.

The next morning was our last day in Scotland so we decided to spend it with Kells grandparents, after a fairly relaxed morning we said our goodbyes and left a little before lunch time. On the drive home we took a minor detour along the Gretna Tourist Route and took in some of the amazing coastal scenery along the Solway Firth. Scotland is a truly amazing place to visit with some stunning countryside and beautiful woodlands, we love it there and we hope we can visit it for many, many years to come.

5th Anniversary

My partner and I have officially been together for five years, five of the best and by far the happiest years of my life.

MCM Comic Con March 2015

Last weekend I attended my third MCM Comic Con at the NEC in Birmingham and it was absolutely awesome, every year the sheer number of people who pass through the event astounds me. Before my first covention I genuinely had no idea that comics and geek culture in general has such a huge following in the UK, I find it very exciting to see so many people sharing my love of all things geeky.

The highlight of this years convention for me was getting to meet Warwick Davis and his wife, I have grown up watching Warwick and have been a fan of his for as long as I can remember. Normally I find meeting people I’m a fan of to be quite a disappointing prospect, people are very rarely what you expect them to be and in many cases actually come across as quite rude and arrogant. Warwick however was very appreciative of the people coming to see him, very polite and tried his best to make time for everyone. Very rarely have I felt as at ease meeting someone I don’t know as I did meeting Warwick and that really put a smile on my face, my partner was literally giddy with excitement after meeting him. But what really lifted the experience for me was meeting his wife, who is a bit of a celebrity in her own right having appeared in several TV roles as well as in the film Willow, I have never come across a person who seemed so genuinely happy to be sat at a table meeting and greeting people before. Her enthusiasm and happiness to interact with the people she met was amazing and went a long way towards making the whole experience so pleasurable, I actually wish we had asked her to sign our picture along side Warwick.

MCM Comic Con is always an awesome weekend for me and I hope that I get to visit many more if them in the future.

As of March this year my partner and I will have been together for 5 years. 5 years seems like a very long time, yet to me it feels like barely the blink of an eye since the first time I met her. When I look back the thing that really hits me is that, despite my memory being truly terrible, I can barely even remember the beginning of this week, I remember the day we met in vivid detail like it literally just happened. Its fair to say that in our time together we’ve had our ups and downs, as all relationships do, with that said the last 5 years have been some of the best and happiest years of my life. I can’t imagine my life without her in it.

Decembeard

For the last couple of years I've been involved with the fund raising for my works Movember campaign, though I've never actually been a 'Mo Bro' as I have a rather majestic beard. This year since work aren't involved in Movember I've decided to do a little fund raising of my own, I'm taking part in Decembeard.  The really great thing about Decembeard is that I don't actually have to be clean shaven, I can keep my existing beard and just commit not to trim it or shave it throughout the month of December. Decembeard is raising funds for a really good cause, all funds raised go to Beating Bowel Cancer and as 46% of all UK deaths in 2012 were caused by some form of Cancer you can surely see what a great cause this is. Please give generously on the link bellow.

Please Donate - www.justgiving.com/technicallybearded

Second Time Around

Last week my partner and I decided we were going to make our first attempt at geocaching, we weren't exactly successful. We found a grand total of zero caches, which was slightly disapointing, although we did have a lot of fun trying. Coming to the conclusion that last week we'd been a little over ambitious with our choice of caches, we decided to make our second attempt this week but this time we would head off in a different direction and search for some caches that are easier to find.

This time around I can gladly say we had a lot more success, we found our very first cache after just a few minutes of looking. We signed and dated the log before leaving a small item and replacing the cache where we found it, being careful to make sure it was pretty well hidden from site. Shortly after we found the location of a second cache, which had unfortunately been vandalised and was awaiting replacement by its owner.

Though we had originally planned to continue along our route and seach for a third cache, in the same area, the discovery of the vandalisation of one of the local caches had left us feeling a little disheartened and some what annoyed by the mindset of someone who would do something like that for no other reason than it was there and they could.

Though this has far from put us off from geocaching, in fact we are planning on heading a little further afield and maybe making a day of it this weekend. It has made me think twice about planting a cache of my own, something I wanted to do in a small local park not far from our house. I dont think I will ever fully understand that disrespectful, destructive mind set.

Geo Adventuring In Kirkby

My partner and I live together on the outskirts of a small town called Kirkby-in-Ashfield, the area we actually live in is the old part of town and is surprisingly rural. Basically all you have to do is walk for 5 minutes in most directions from our house and you will literally be surrounded by fields and small areas of woodland. That said we have actually explored very little of the surrounding countryside, despite the fact that both myself and my partner enjoy walking.

Last weekend we decided it was time for that to change. Several months ago my partner had stumbled across a passtime known as geocaching and although we both thought the concept was interesting, neither of us had really done much in the way of research into it. That was up until a couple of weeks ago when one us downloaded the android app and discovered that there are in fact several caches within a couple of miles of our house. Knowing that these caches are so close made us curious and last weekend we set out to find our first cache, after a little deliberation we chose which cache we wanted to head for and consulted the map to work out the best route. The cache we chose is situated by a small stream in an area of woodland a little over a mile from our house.

Having located the rough area we were heading for, we packed a small bag of essentials and set off. Less that 10 minutes into the walk and we were absolutely surrounded by corn fields, we followed a public footpath right through the middle of some truly picturesque country and down into the woods. We were both surprised by just how dense the patch of woodland is and how pretty it is considering we were literally a 20 minute walk from the centre of Kirkby. After double checking our map to ensure we were in the right area we headed into the woods and selected the path that looked most likely to take us in the right direction. As we headed further into the woods we noticed that the ground was starting to get muddy and my partner Kelly started to get a little anxious about falling in. We spent the next 45 minutes or so slowly trecking through the woods, investigating every nook and cranny, poking in to holes in trees and taking photos all in the hope of locating some hidden cache of mini treasures so we could sign the log and swap one of their nicknacks for one of our own. Eventually we ran out of woodland and, feeling slightly disappointed in ourselves, we decided to head back, taking a slightly different route just to give ourselves one last chance at success. This it turned out was a mistake as the path we chose led into some heavily muddy areas and both my partner an myself ended up slipping over on more than one occasion.

Unfortunately we made it all the way back home without finding a single cache, this hasn't dampened our spirits too much though as we are already plotting our route for this weekend with high hopes of our first cache find.

Summer Holidays

Ever since we first started seeing each other my partner and I have made it our goal to get away on holiday at least once a year, whether it be a weekend camping in the lake district or spending a week in Scotland staying with my partners grandparents. This year we decided to visit the south coast of Cornwall, Cornwall is somewhere both my partner and I have visited in the past and an area of the country we both love and feel at home in. After spending some time searching the net and doing a little research into the local area we settled on a small cottage on the outskirts of Polperro, a quaint fishing town about 15 miles south of Bodmin. We chose Polperro because of its close proximity to main roads and because, despite being a fairly popular destination, it has managed to avoid becoming too over crowded and has maintained much of its ruggedness and charm. Over the last few years overcrowding has become increasingly more important to us as my partner and I have both noticed that we no longer have the patience for even fairly small crowds of people, this has led us to seek out smaller more remote areas and to appreciate the ruggedness of places such as Cornwall and the south west coast of Scotland.

Unfortunately our journey down was cursed with, the seemingly ever present, holiday traffic and ended up taking close to 10 hours, not arriving in Polperro until around 5pm, by which point my partner and I were both thoroughly fed up and quite tired. we dropped our stuff off at the cottage and basically headed straight out and walked down into town to find the sea in an effort to wind down a little after our long journey. All I can say is the town is beautiful, set in a steep sided valley with narrow winding streets lined on either side by tiny, stone built fisherman’s cottages, eventually opening out in a small harbour full of small working fishing boats. You can literally see the history of the place as you walk through the town, nothing much has really changed here for generations and nothing really needs to, the locals have worked hard to preserve their town and have adapted well to suit the modern world.

We decided to spend our first full day in Cornwall staying fairly locally and we only really ventured out on foot to explore more of the town and to check out where was good to eat and drink. Despite Polperro actually having several restaurants we discovered that some of the best food to be had was available in the local pubs, the pick of the bunch being the Blue Peter Inn, unfortunately on our first visit it was so busy I literally couldn’t fit through the door never mind make it to the bar to order drinks. We opted for a less busy pub at the other end of town called the Crumplehorn Inn and we were far from disappointed the building was gorgeous, they had a few local ales and ciders to chose from, the staff were friendly and the food was good quality pub grub. We spent a pleasant afternoon/evening drinking and generally winding down before heading back to the cottage to get an early night.

On our second day we decided to venture further afield and drove into Looe, a larger town a few miles away from Polperro. Whilst the town itself was fairly pretty, it was so crowded that my partner and I weren’t really enjoying being there and we left after just a short stay to look at a few gifts to bring back for our family. After Looe we moved on to Cawsand and Kingsand to explore and spend some time at the beach, it was lovely and a complete contrast to our experience in Looe.

Over the next few days we slowly visited several of the local towns and villages, spending a little while exploring and just soaking up the atmosphere. We found that although Cornwall is now massively touristy there are still some places that are just far enough off the path to retain their character and offer the relaxed, chilled out atmosphere that Cornwall has become well know for.

As we became aware that the week was drawing to a close we wanted to spend the last couple of days staying local and decided to couple up two great pleasures of mine, walking and beaches. Consulting a local map we noticed a small beach, called Talland Bay just a couple of miles away from town along the coastal path, packing up a day bag with beach essentials we set off. At first it seemed like a pleasant walk along a well trodden path but what we had failed to notice was that about half a mile along the path was mile long, very steep, uphill hike. It has been a long time since I last felt my calf muscles burn like that but it was worth it when we arrived, the beach was a lovely little bay surrounded by woodland and, apart from a few surfers, was practically deserted. We spent a couple of hours on the beach before it really started to get busy, about 50 metres back from where we were sitting, set into the trees was a small car park and a cafe serving snacks and drinks, we treated ourselves to a glass of homemade lemonade and some Cornish ice cream before braving the trek back in reverse and having to re-climb the hill. Arriving back in town mid afternoon we called into a small shop selling a wide range of local beers, ciders and mead to stock up for the evening. We spent it getting pleasantly drunk on mead and cider whilst playing a couple of games of scrabble, which I lost.

Friday morning had arrived and we were acutely aware that it was our last full day before journeying back the following morning, setting out early, we headed for the village of Lansallos were my partner had read was a little known beach. Being only a few miles from Polperro and knowing it was considerably smaller we weren’t really aware of what to expect. What we found was possibly the most picturesque village either of us had ever seen, really there was just a handful of small stone built houses, a gorgeous old church and acres of farm land. After a parking up and walking for a couple of minutes we found the path down to the beach, a small woodland foot path, about a mile long, that looked more like something out of a fantasy novel than real life. When we arrived at the beach we found it was largely pebbles but got sandier as you got closer to the sea, it was set back in a truly gorgeous bay hidden by steep sided cliffs on either side. For the first hour or so we were literally the only people there and it was lovely, the sea was totally clear and I braved going topless so I could have a swim. We had been there for around 3 hours before the beach started to get anywhere near busy and it was at about this time we decided to leave and headed back to Polperro for some lunch. Earlier in the week we had decided to make another visit to the Blue Peter Inn when it would hopefully be less busy and Friday lunch time seemed perfect. Being situated right on the harbour, and having sea views out of literally every window, the Blue Peter Inn is a proper local pub, a rare breed these days, offering a good selection of cornish ales and ciders with genuinely friendly staff and a really relaxed atmosphere. The really surprising thing about the Blue Peter Inn is the food, its all good hearty, home cooked fare and quite frankly its awesome. I had a seafood platter consisting of local smoked mackerel, battered haddock chunks, Cornish crab meat, scallops and squid and my partner had battered haddock chunks with chips and bread. As the plates came out from the kitchen they looked incredible, you could clearly see that everything on them had been prepared by hand and was freshly cooked, not a frozen chip in site. I am a lover of fish and I have eaten a lot of it from many different places and this was one of the best plates of fish I’ve ever had (I think only the Magpie in Whitby actually beats it). I really can’t give this pub enough praise, I’ve never seen a place that can offer the real pub feel and experience yet still get the food so right. You so often get one or the other but very rarely get both, it was an excellent way to end an amazing holiday.

As the following morning rolled around both my partner and myself were very sad to leave, we really didn’t want to say goodbye to a place we’d both enjoyed so much. We will definitely be visiting again at some point in the future.

Happy Birthday To Me...

It was my 31st birthday at the weekend and, as usual, my lovely lady spoiled me with awesome gifts, amazing food and epic cake (which I am currently eating a sizeable chunk of). The Birthday celebration really Kicked off on the Saturday evening when my lady took me out for a meal to The Junction, a local Bar/Restaurant well know for its high quality food and pleasant atmosphere.

All I can really say about the food is that, as always, it was amazing. I started with a terrine of locally smoke mackerel, dauphinoise potatoes and horse radish with a balsamic dressing and it was delicious, there was just enough acidity to the dressing to cut through the richness of the potato and the oily fish, without overpowering the dish. The freshness of the horse radish was evident and was just enough to lift the dish and provide a hint of heat on the tongue, it was an excellent counter point to the overall richness of the dish.

I washed the starter down with a very pleasant pint of Ringwoods excellent craft ale, Old Thumper and moved on to a main course of pan fried duck breast on a bed of stir fried summer vegetables in a hoisin sauce with spicy polenta chips. The duck breast was tender and perfectly pink in the middle, whilst having a lovely sear on the skin. The veg was al dente and maintained its own flavour well in the lusciously rich hoisin sauce. The overall flavour of the dish was suitably oriental whilst still maintaining an English aspect, from the choice of vegetables and simple, but very well executed flavour of the duck. My one criticism is the inclusion of the polenta chips, whilst very nice and having an interesting flavour of there own, they seemed entirely disconnected from the rest of the dish and were largely surplus to needs. I would have preferred to have seen a portion of deep fried rice noodles in place of the chips, as this would have better suited the dish and provided a bit of crunch and an interesting textural depth.

Kelly decided to forgo the starter and instead opted to go straight for a main course of a classic hand made steak burger, with triple cooked chips and a side order beer battered onion rings. The quality of the beef used to make the burger was apparent, it was tender, flavoursome and maintained the texture of the meat very well, something that is often lost when using beef of a lesser quality. The chips were fluffy, flavoursome and crisp thanks to the triple cooking process, they had been allowed to colour giving a very slight edge of sweetness to the flavour that worked well with a sprinkling of salt. The onion rings were crisp and the batter was light, the onion inside was not overcooked and as such had not taken on too much oil giving them a refreshing bite. It is very hard to criticise burger and chips at the best of times but when done with such a level of quality and consistency as is to be found here it is almost impossible.

Given the richness of my starter and main course I chose to follow these with a refreshing pale ale, this time in the guise of a pint of Boondoggle, a crisp citrusy blond ale, again, by the excellent folks at the Ringwood brewery. Having both had our fill from our main courses we decided to split a desert, Kelly made the excellent choice of a home made cheesecake & mango jelly with passion-fruit sauce. The combination of the richness of the cheesecake, sweetness of the mango jelly and acidity of the passion-fruit sauce made for an excellent palette cleanser and a perfect end to an delicious meal.

The remainder of the evening was spent in the company of Kelly’s parents sharing a few drinks and catching up. All in all and wonderful evening spent with good company and my amazing partner.