Nick Gibbins

Hoorah for

O Lucky Man! arrived in the post this morning, and looks great. Thank you!

State of the Haggis

It’s been boiling for about two hours, and seems reassuringly haggis-like. Of course, I’m now sick of the smell of boiled liver, but as least I got to cut up my first heart (never having had that opportunity in biology lessons).

The Lunan Haggis

Makes 16lb for 50-60 helpings. Oatmeal 4 lb Lambs Liver 4lb Suet 3lb Onion 3lb Salt 8 tsp Mace 12 tsp Allspice 12 tsp Black pepper 12 tsp Toast the oatmeal under the grill, one lb at a time, stirring frequently until browned Boil the liver until cooked. Retain the stock. Mince the liver and onion finely (a food processor is ideal) Mix everything thoroughly in a large bowl (3 gallon size needed), adding the stock and more water if required. At this stage the mixture must be really sloppy, and should “jaup in the luggie”. Put the mixture into… Read More »The Lunan Haggis

Fair fa’ your honest, sonsie face, great chieftain o’ the puddin-race!

Next Thursday will be the 248th anniversary of the birth of Scotland’s most famous son. In celebration and I will be hosting an almost-Burns Supper on Friday 26th January from 7pm onwards, to which you’re most cordially invited. The bill of fare will be Lunan family haggis to ‘s grandfather’s recipe, with the traditional accompaniment of bashit neeps and champit tatties (vegetarian haggis will be available for the veggies), followed by crannachan. We’ve a small selection of single malts in the house, but if folks have their own preferred malts that they’d be willing to share, please bring them along.… Read More »Fair fa’ your honest, sonsie face, great chieftain o’ the puddin-race!

Paging and

Message received from Amazon today: We wanted to give you an update on the status of your order [xxx-xxxxxxx-xxxxxxx]. We are sorry to report that, despite our best efforts, we have been unable to source the following item: Gustav Temple, Vic Darkwood “The Chap Manifesto: Revolutionary Etiquette for the Modern Gentleman” We apologise for the length of time it has taken us to reach this conclusion. Until recently, we had still hoped to obtain this item for you. This item has now been cancelled from your order and we can confirm that you have not been charged for it. So,… Read More »Paging and

The love affair is over

Let me get this straight. I can’t print from MacOS 10.4 to a commonplace HP non-postscript printer (in this case a LaserJet 1022) that’s connected to and shared from a Windows XP box without downloading, compiling and installing a bunch of open source software from a third party. I was under the impression that Apple computers were renowned for their ease of use.

Cataloguing the Library of Babel

So I exaggerate – we’re not quite at the level of certain other bibliophiles, but we do have upwards of 3-4000 books in Gark Villa. Unfortunately, I also have a poor memory so I’m forever buying duplicate copies of books that I already own, or lending out books and forgetting who to. One of my projects for paternity leave and Christmas was to investigate software for cataloguing our collection, and perhaps make a start on the task. However, the took up more of my time than I’d envisaged (that is, all of it) and I didn’t get very far. mentioned… Read More »Cataloguing the Library of Babel

Children and the Melton Mowbray Redux

I’ve now spoken to both the Operations Manager for Fuller’s (Gary Anderson) and to the manager of the Melton Mowbray (Jo Farquhar). The story is that the ban on children is not a condition of the license, as I was told by the duty manager, but is at the discretion of, well, it isn’t entirely clear who. Anderson seemed to think that policy on admission of children was the ultimate decision of individual licensees, with due input from Head Office, whereas Farquhar wasn’t sure who the decision rested with. The policy is Central London-wide, which suggests that it’s corporate policy.… Read More »Children and the Melton Mowbray Redux