However I felt unable to resist this week when I noticed how to take advantage of a promotion with Boden. They stock the Tusting Clipper for £300, £30 less than Tusting themselves. However their current promotion is 15% off if you spend over £120 meaning you get the Clipper bag for only £255. Suddenly it was much easier to decide between the two bags; did I want to spend £325 or £255? Yes, you guessed it, the cut-price Clipper should arrive on Monday. I’m embarrassed to admit I’m looking forward to it.

What I’m not embarrassed to admit however is how much I like Fisherman’s Friends. You may recall a while ago I blogged having a general moan about spending one weekend feeling rather poorly and generally sorry for myself. If you missed it I wouldn’t say you missed much but feel free to have a read.

One person who did read it was Janita who dropped me an email and suggested a Fisherman’s Friend might be just the thing to ward off those commuter colds. When I saw the name, Fisherman’s Friend, it was like a deja-vu flashback.

Suddenly I was back to when I was around 7, perhaps 8 years old. Back then I would spend every other weekend with my granddad and on those weekends I was allowed to have one of the sinus clearing menthol lozenges from the tin he always had in his jacket pocket. I also realised that it was a brand I hadn’t seen or at least don’t recall seeing, for so many years I had genuinely forgotten it.

However with a fan base of millions in over 100 countries, Fisherman’s Friends from Lofthouse in Lancashire have been quietly introducing different flavours, some uniquely regional, to no doubt attract a younger market. For the last few weeks I’ve been quietly researching the difference in taste between the original Fisherman’s Friend and the newer flavoured varieties; as far as I can gather only the original extra strong and the aniseed versions are full fat, the rest are either low sugar or sugar free.

Trying to decide which ones I liked more was no easy task. I liked the choice of flavours in the low/no sugar varieties, Cherry and Lemon being my favourite, but they just didn’t taste like a Fisherman’s Friend. They just weren’t as strong as I like. The sweetener makes them too sweet I think BUT that is because I prefer the strong menthol eucalyptus taste which for me, identifies Fisherman’s Friends from other sweets.

When I pop a cherry flavoured one in my mouth it tastes exactly like a cherry menthol Tune and I play the old 2nd Class return to Dottingham advert in my head. Yes, they are nice but they just don’t taste right to me. I have to say this was true even when I compared the Original Extra Strong with the Extra Strong No Added Sugar version.

With all that said, when I offered them to people in the office the initial reaction was “Fisherman’s Friends? I haven’t heard of them in years!” but few were willing to take one as they all remembered them as being “very strong!” However a few colleagues aren’t old enough to remember them so happily tried them, said they were quite nice which resulted in the wary ones trying them and declaring that, by and large, they liked them but weren’t willing to try the original version.

Last week I happened to pop into the shop next to the office and noticed that on the counter was a box of Aniseed Fisherman’s Friends, these weren’t low sugar so I bought them and they are re-assuring strong, I’ve since noticed the Original Extra Strong version for sale in Boots the chemist. What I would like to try however are the Spicy Mandarin and Apple and Cinnamon flavours, not to mention the Salmiak which is supposedly very much an acquired taste.

What I’ve opted for is the FFC (Fisherman’s Friend Cocktail). Lemon and Blackcurrant varieties go quite well and I’m currently enjoying Aniseed and Cherry. I wouldn’t try Blackcurrant and Mint, it wasn’t that nice.

Of course what makes all of them taste even better is the simple fact that they come from my own Fisherman’s Friend tin, which will be stowed safely in my new Tusting Clipper bag as of next week.If you send in 4 Fisherman’s Friends wrappers you can get your own tin, full details at www.fishermansfriend.com

Few of us are likely to be braving the Icelandic deep sea but travelling in most parts of Britain requires all the protection you can get and these fiery little lozenges are great when you’re walking to the bus stop or station, morning or night.

I hadn’t actually planned being home to blog tonight, for a week or so I’d been counting down to tonight as Peter Doggett was giving a talk at Foyles about his new book on David Bowie during the 70′s.

I guess because I was born in the 70′s the music of the time subliminally ingrained itself in me. It wasn’t too unpleasant a situation although it wasn’t until I was in my late teens before I could listen to certain Bob Dylan tracks as I’d grown up listening to a family member strangle each note to death when he was learning to play guitar.

However, I tip my hat to him because he persevered. Playing by ear he’d listen to each track he wanted to play and then repeat it over and over until he’d perfected it. I, as you can imagine, would have given up long before then, much like I do when I tell myself I’ll learn a language. Result? More teach yourself books than Waterstones and an ability to count to ten and perhaps say hello and goodbye in 6 or 7 languages.

I would say the same is true of the saxophone however that’s heavily influenced by the fact it’s a noisy fucker and as I can hear the people upstairs chop vegetables you can imagine what the sounds of someone crucifying Oh when the Saints go marching in sounds like. Yes, it’s true I did spend £240 importing a mute case from France but by the time I get home from work and eat I’ve no desire to spend 15 minutes just getting the thing ready. Anyway, I digress…

As I was saying, I was supposed to go to the talk clutching my copy of the book to get it signed. Yeah I know, what a sell out autograph hunter I’ve become. However poor time management screwed things up. I was supposed to meet Natasha prior to the talk but she had some deadline shift for a manuscript so couldn’t make it. So I figured I’d just stay a little longer at work until it was time to head out. Then rather than doing a 15 min job I started something more involved and before I knew it I’d left it too late to get to Foyles, if I was lucky I’d have arrived in time for the round of applause.

However, a signed book I may not have returned home with, but it did allow me the time to waffle on here for a bit and I haven’t even mentioned the thing that I planned on blogging about!

Even with the knowledge that the internet affords us, very often I have a thought, one of those regular, “I wonder what/why?” kind of questions.

An example is always when I’m buying lettuce, I very often ask myself, “I wonder why it’s called iceberg lettuce? Why iceberg?” but even with the power of a smartphone linked to the internet in my pocket, I’ve never been that interested to actually look it up. Sure I think about it; I just lose the thought in the jumble that exist in my head.

Yesterday I was browsing through a recipe book to see if I could get some inspiration for something new when I came across a ‘food fact’ which explained that the popular name iceberg lettuce was born in the 30′s when  a Californian by the name of Bruce Church started packing and shipping fresh heads of lettuce across America in ice-packed rail cars. As the trains trundled along people would say, “The icebergs are coming, the icebergs are coming!”

As I finished the last paragraph I had a sudden thought that the recipe book might have been horseshit so I quickly Googled it and lo and behold it’s all true. What is now called Iceberg lettuce was known as Crisphead lettuce until Bruce’s trains pulled out of Salinas in California where he grew his lettuces and pulled into cities as far East as Maine all year round.

Well, that’s one question answered after many years of idleness. If knowing who Bruce Church was ever wins you a game of Trivial Pursuit, let me know =)

This caller had a very posh accent and was very worried as he had agreed to put his work’s post into a postbox outside the office. His question surprised me, “Can I post letters into any post box?” I was momentarily thrown but replied if it’s franked mail then it should go into a metered mail box but if it’s stamped then no, any post box will do. His response was more surprising, “Oh good because this one isn’t working” Not quite understanding I came out with the obvious, “What do you mean, it’s not working?”

“Well”, he said, “when I put the letters in they just come back out again!” I remember looking at the clock on the wall, it was around 6:15pm so I replied, “Is the box full? Can you see any mail inside it?” When he replied I could actually see him in my head. “I’m looking into the slot now and it’s full of letters, I think that’s why it’s not working” I couldn’t help chuckling to myself, it was probably more his accent and tone, he seemed genuinely surprised that you could post letters into any postbox and not the one closest to where you wrote it.

I read today that proposed changes to Royal Mail by Ofcom will result in a minimum 25% price hike in the cost of postage. What they propose is to abolish price controls on everything except 2nd class mail which would be set at somewhere between 45p and 55p, it’s currently 36p. I suppose a price rise is only to be expected really as Royal Mail made a loss of £120m last year on their letters business. Hopefully if they stop losing money they can improve the service. Don’t get me wrong, when it works, it works great and it does work by far the majority of the time. However, when it goes wrong…only Royal Mail could make it Kafkaesque!

Last Wednesday I returned home to find a card from Royal Mail saying they couldn’t deliver a packet so I needed to go collect it. I wasn’t expecting anything so I was puzzled and mildly excited. Who doesn’t love to get mail? On Saturday I went to the delivery office to collect the packet. “Sorry, it’s not back yet. The postman probably posted it back. Come back on Monday.” Yes, only here do the postmen post back the mail they can’t deliver rather than return it at the end of their shift. No doubt some requirement for them not to return to the delivery office after their shift to stop having to pay overtime or something.

Anyway, I went back on Wednesday as that’s late opening night only to be told, “There’s nothing on the shelf. So it’s either somewhere where it shouldn’t be or it’s lost” When I asked what that meant for me the response was hardly surprising really, “Contact customer services and ask them to email us so we can investigate where it is.” Rather naively I asked why I couldn’t ask them to investigate seeing as I was standing right there but it was no use, they would only do something if an email from customer service instructed them to do so. So I wait with bated breath for the response which I rather suspect will be along the lines of the same blurb that went out when I worked for them. “Royal Mail deliver over XYZ million letters and 99% of them arrive but sadly 1% disappear without a trace. Congratulations! You’re one of the 1%”

Foodycat, a work colleague until today, tipped me off about a recipe in last week’s Telegraph for Gentleman’s Relish a la Hawksmoor. If there’s one thing I like, it’s Gentleman’s Relish…it’s heavenly when spread on warm buttery toast or better still a warm buttery crumpet! So a recipe to accompany steak? Yes please, especially as I’d just taken delivery of some Onglet steak from the East London Steak Company. Of course as usual I tinkered with the recipe and used smoked hot paprika instead of cayenne pepper which gave a nice smoky edge to the saltiness.

The relish proves to be very versatile, last night I was left with around a dozen shitaki mushrooms from the first harvest I grew. so I sliced them and fried them with a diced clove of garlic and a small knob of the relish letting them cook for 5-7 mins to allow the mushrooms to absorb the myriad of flavours. They turned out to be an excellent accompaniment to the steak. I’ve been enjoying cooking the shitaki mushrooms in different ways and look forward to the next harvest in a few weeks time. This weekend I’m going to start some chestnut mushrooms, another tasty fungi.

The East London Steak Company, as the name suggests, sell steaks. They also sell other choice cuts of beef and some rather delicious burgers including a limited edition range but there’s one thing of which you can be certain (for the moment) The East London Steak Company sells beef and only beef! There’s no lamb, no pork, no chicken and no fish just damn good beef.

Being somewhat lazy I’ve never actually sought out a local butcher. I’m sure one exists but it would involve a weekend trip and weekends are when other people are out shopping and generally meandering around which makes it difficult to make a return trip from A to B quickly as you have to allow for the random acts of behaviour from fellow commuters.

So I started ordering steak from Ocado’s Service Counter. Somewhere in their Hatfield outpost lurks a butcher who reads your order from a screen and then sets to slicing up your choice of dead animal before packaging it up with a label with your name on it. Despite it being 21 day aged I have to say that the quality was, on occasion, quite poor. I alternated from the sirloin to the rib-eye and then, as I say, I saw the link to The East London Steak Company on Twitter…

I ordered some sirloins and burgers and haven’t looked back, more so because they turned out to be cheaper than Ocado and the quality was worlds apart. I can still remember the first mouthful, the sirloin had such a wonderful meaty taste, nothing at all like the insipid steaks you find on most supermarket shelves. Suddenly I had developed a weekly steak fix…

When I started the Dukan diet it was even better news as the first week involved eating nothing but proteins and just then The East London Steak Company announced they were selling a BBQ steak pack, ten 170g sirloins and a jar of seasoning for £40. That was my first week taken care of! Because of the diet I had to forsake the rib-eyes I’d become accustomed to and switched back to sirloins and you know, I’d forgotten what a tasty cut of meat it is, especially when it is a proper cut of meat of around 5-6cm rather than the 2-3cm versions available from supermarkets.

If it weren’t enough that the meat is of the highest quality it should come as no surprise to discover the customer service is second to none. As an online shopper I am often taken by impulse and often find myself thinking at 10pm mid-week, I really fancy a nice steak tomorrow. Within 15 minutes of thinking the thought I can have an order placed with the East London Steak Co for delivery the next day and then sit back thinking about that succulent juicy steak I’ll be having less than 24hours later. I really don’t know how they manage it, I’ve placed orders at midnight and delivery has been made sometimes within 9 hours. What’s more Tony Beef sends you a text message containing a joke worthy of a Christmas cracker 20 minutes before delivery.

Because of the super speedy delivery I actually sent friends a roast dinner box once as a different way of saying thanks after they had helped me out. A box containing a roasting joint, some marrowbones, potatoes and a bottle of red wine with a serving of beef dripping on the side for the roasts. My friends were very impressed, it shattered their impression of food from the internet I didn’t tell them it was originally billed as a Mother’s Day Box!

Earlier this week The East London Steak Company sent out their monthly newsletter announcing they had some 40 day aged cuts in stock. When it comes to aged meat I have to admit my first encounter with it raw was to want to throw up, that rank smell can certainly offend the nose but when it’s cooked? Oh lord it’s delicious, once you taste meat like that it makes returning to the pink meat that passes as steak in Tesco very difficult. I ordered a couple of sirloins (amazingly there was no premium for these tasty beasts!) and my mouth was watering from the moment I peeled back the brown paper wrapper and inhaled.

I rubbed the steak down with some  of the steak seasoning rub that the East London Steak Co sell, it’s a blend of smoked sea salt, sugar and gravy (probably something else too) and then let the griddle do it’s magic. Once it was cooked, I let it rest on a warm plate for 15 minutes before settling down to eat! I like mine more rare than medium and it was crammed full of flavour, that 40 days ageing had really given the meat a strong gamey flavour that was lip smackingly tasty.

I really wish I could find one fault with the East London Steak Company. Every order I have placed has gone like clockwork and the quality of meat has never dipped below perfect. Your meat if wrapped in brown paper, like the high street butcher used to do it. Included in each pack is a card telling you not only which farm your meat came from but also the day it died and the butcher who carved it up.

The range of cattle changes on a  regular basis so you get to taste the subtle differences between breeds, something you would never really get the opportunity to experience from a high street supermarket, or their on-line equivalents. I’d just like to make it clear that the East London Steak Company have not paid me or supplied me with discounted  or free meat. If however they are reading and wish to throw a couple of sirloins my way they will certainly be going to a good home.

On Sunday I had wandered into town to find a pub where I could watch Manchester United play Arsenal. I had predicted Arsenal would lose 3-2, oh if only the scoreline had been as kind; instead we had an 8-2 massacre. I did feel my wallet was somewhat massacred in Manchester by the very average food served up at Sam’s Chop House. On a previous visit I had gone to see the bronze statue of Lowry propping up the bar, at that time I noticed they seemed to do a roaring trade in customers dining so I decided to eat there.

The starter was a sign that I would grumble, three of the smallest wedges of cheese and some tomato ketchup and relish for a hefty £5.69; a London restaurant would struggle to justify that price tag for the dish served up.

The main of calves liver and bacon with mashed potato at £13.99 had perfectly cooked, just pink, liver let down by mash that tasted like childhood memories of Smash instant potato mix, Sam’s mash was quite possibly the worst I’ve ever tasted.

Thankfully the Eccles Cake and ice cream saved the day however it certainly wasn’t great value at £5.99. The food was okay, nothing special, considering it is really just a pub that does food, for the price you expect something that is above average.

Now, as regular readers know, the trip to Manchester is not that surprising given that I seem to be constantly talking about some DJ or artist from there, it sometimes feels I know more about what’s happening there than I do in London.

For instance, did you know that Example Media’s fashion label [Ex]:AMPLE Clothing has launched their second t-shirt which, appropriately enough, is called The Manchester T?

The Manchester T is a tongue in cheek parody of the famous John, Paul, George and Ringo t-shirt and lists four famous albeit stereotypical aspects of Manchester. Rain, Music, Cotton & Guns. You can order online at the [Ex]:AMPLE Clothing store they’re priced at just £15 and includes postage within the UK. The Manchester T was designed by Pale and you can read an interview with him over on the Example Magazine site.

Of course as nice as it is to get away, it’s also nice to return to the creature comforts of home, while I was away I switched on the TV in the hotel, I was a little disappointed as I don’t think there were any reality programs on so I haven’t managed to see what they were like. One thing that was handy with the TV was the distraction on those nights I can’t sleep however I found the obviously don’t have any sense of programming.

One channel had 4 back to back episodes of NCIS on at 3am so I settled back to watch only for them to turn out to be 4 episodes, each from a different season and each with a cliff-hanger ending…perhaps there was a programming agenda and they just wanted to mess with the heads of the stoners and freaks who sit up at 3am looking to watch 3 hours of NCIS?

Now, not having a tellybox is a blessing and a curse. I don’t really know about most reality shows but find myself intrigued when I watch my twitter feed come alive with comments from those who are watching and tweeting but when I discovered that X Factor had returned I was loathing how there was potential to find myself on youtube searching to see which awful person was which.

Last week I read a review of the first episode of X Factor over on Hecklerspray that really did laugh out loud, strangely I couldn’t tell you why I found some parts of it to be so funny as I don’t know the back story to some bits I think. I mean is Louis Walsh a sex offender for real? I haven’t been bothered to Google it.

Anyway, while I was in Manchester I pretty much ignored twitter and as a result escaped all the tweets however when I arrived home I made myself a cuppa and went back to Hecklerspray to read the review of episode two which was equally brilliant. I like the laugh without having to actually endure however long the show is!