18 August 2026
by wpAdmin
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Pictures First

My general web design methodology has been to develop my ideas with a bit of scribbling on paper, then to build a functional (but probably fairly ugly version) with clean HTML and then to add the styling later to make it pretty as well. I’ve been reconsidering that recently for some of the work projects I’ve been doing. There are several large sites, each with a strong visual identity and I’m working remotely from my colleagues rather than having them in the same building.

The solution I’ve been trying is what I’ve been calling wire-framing although what I’m building is more like facades or “studio flats”. With web developer tools I can manipulate a loaded web page, replacing whole blocks at a time. If I work out the area I need to change, I can pull copies of that code into one or more text files and copy and paste it back in to create the illusion of what I’m after. It helps me develop the ideas within the existing design concept of the site and I can then produce a series of screenshots to share with colleagues.

In turn, that becomes material for further discussions. My colleagues can see what I have in mind and might suggest changes. Sometimes I even find things myself (“aha! I need a button to add a new entry to that table”). Those changes can be quickly implemented to produce another set of mock-ups but, at no point, is there any risk of me breaking the actual website.

I’ve got a couple of such projects that are now almost ready to turn into actual code. It’s possible I might be able to feed the images directly to Cursor, the AI assistant I am using. Even if it can’t grok those, I’ll certainly have a head start on writing detailed and clear prompts so that the system can suggest the necessary updates and, after review, be set to implement them.

So, for some cases, pictures first or perhaps even “fake it until you make it”!

17 August 2026
by wpAdmin
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A Few Drops

I was quite excited earlier when a few heavy drops of water (what we were once familiar with as “rain”) started to fall from the sky. It was enough to have me rushing out to grab in the washing, which was bone-dry after a few hours on the line.

Sadly, the precipitation didn’t persist. Hopefully the promise of 90% chance of decently heavy overnight rain will prove good and then tomorrow morning’s allotment trip can be focused on harvesting (raspberries, blackberries, french beans and courgettes all ready) rather than watering.

16 August 2026
by wpAdmin
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Size Limits

There are definitely limits to what can be cooked in an air fryer drawer. One consequence of getting near the limit is that cooking seems to go slower. Today I tried another Jamie Oliver recipe, for stuffed chicken breasts wrapped in puff pastry. The result was delicious but I needed to give them another five minutes (+25%) on the time as well as turning them. Together they pretty much filled the space across the bottom of the drawer and I think that probably increased the cooking time. With the extra time, my temperature probe showed that they were done and so I could move onto dishing up, along with the roast carrots from the other drawer (delicious, no problems and vaguely adapted from an accompaniment to another dish in the same book).

Perhaps I should have weighed them to see how they compared to the specified size. Once solution would have been to trim them down to make smaller but more even parcels. I could easily have used the trimmings elsewhere and that would also have produced a neater pair of packages for the plates. They still tasted good though and, perhaps benefiting from their pastry wrapping and the filling, were wonderfully succulent. That’s a few more points in favour of the easy air fryer book even if the cooking always involves a fair degree of judgement.

15 August 2026
by wpAdmin
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Hard Labour

Last week got pretty hot with furnace like temperatures outside on Thursday and Friday. Today was cooler, so I spent a fair while working at the allotment and then in the back garden.

At the allotment, I’ve broken down another 1.5 sides of the old shed, including creating a splash guard for the back of the new shed from some of the material. I think watering plants close to the old shed was one of the key things that contributed to some of the wood becoming very decayed.

At home, I’ve stripped out all the nails I could from the wood I bought back and tested my idea of running the unusable bits (without nails) through my shredder to create chippings to use on paths. I’ve processed both some of the old shed and some of the bits of garden fence that I originally intended to use for shed repair and most of those will get taken back to the allotment where the wood chippings I put on 2-3 years ago are starting to wear thin in some places.

There’s more to be done but that was enough for one day and I think I’ll be sleeping well tonight, not just because it is pleasantly cooler.

14 August 2026
by wpAdmin
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They couldn’t even be bothered to use the bin…

Election results are always worth looking at carefully. The Clacton by-election ones are in and, based on Parliamentary figures, Nigel Farage got 22,239 votes. That is a substantial majority and more votes than he got in 2024 so I suppose we should say “well done Nigel” and “the people of Clacton have entirely vindicated all your choices”.

Not so fast though. It was a very skewed election because none of the main parties stood (unless you count Reform as part of the political establishment). In the end there were a lot of independents and representatives of small parties with no Westminster representation, including three from the Monster Raving Loonies. Potentially that diluted the absurdist vote but not enough to swing it to a Binface victory. Despite the constituency having grown by about 1,500 people, overall turnout was down by about 15%. Fewer than half the people in the area bothered to vote at all: they threw their right to vote in the bin rather than putting it towards Binface or elsewhere. Meanwhile, Binface went from being one of the candidates who regularly looses their deposit to getting the kind of share that could potentially win a more evenly contested election.

I would love to have seen Binface put to the test of actually winning and wish more people had bothered to get out and vote. I am strongly in favour of the idea that voting should be mandatory for everyone with the franchise, at least if there is always a “none of the above” option. In this case, that might have claimed the day, if the non-voters really couldn’t bring themselves to put a tick in the box of either of the main candidates or any of the 31 who stood very little chance of being first past the post. Meanwhile, Farage has won pyrrhic victory, with the investigation into his finances already restarted (not something a by election has any scope to test) and, in my eyes, his reputation is further sullied by his failure to show his face in Clacton despite the “police security advice” excuse having being refuted by Essex Police.

I also notice that the constituency was only given its present boundaries in 2023. I wonder how that might have skewed things although it was always either Conservative or UKIP since the previous change in 2010.

13 August 2026
by wpAdmin
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Stuffed Mushrooms

Yesterday afternoon I got down to the library and picked up Jamie Oliver’s Easy Air Fryer book. Oliver has come in for a lot of criticism over the years but he is on good form here. So far I’ve tried two recipes and both have hit the “big, bold and delicious” tagline.

Above is the one I had for lunch, a pair of stuffed mushrooms. The stuffing is cheese and mashed potato with a bit of rosemary, lemon zest and the mushroom stems but the key part of the result was the mix of breadcrumbs, oil and the rest of the rosemary that tops them. 15 minutes at 180°C (conveniently the time and temperature defaults on my machine), leaving plenty of time to assemble and dress the salad. Bish, bash, bosh, job done (as Oliver might say if he is still playing the Essex lad game).

I particularly lie the way the recipes indicate both how long they take to cook and how much hands on time is needed as part of that. They are also robust enough to produce good results without being followed perfectly. I had the wrong cheese, fresh rather than tinned potatoes and one or two other alternatives but I still got a tasty lunch with minimum fuss. If I try a few more recipes and they work out as well, this one is probably going on my Christmas list.

12 August 2026
by wpAdmin
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A Proper Job…

What is this? If you are aware that today, 12 August 2026, will see a solar eclipse in the UK, it might give you a clue. Yes, it is a beer box with some foil and cardboard taped to it but I think it will help me safely observe the point when the sun is over 90% occluded by the moon.

What you mustn’t do is look at the sun directly, even when most of it is covered. Instead, you can use a small hole to focus the light into a box. I’ve used foil pierced by a pen tip which doesn’t give a highly detailed result but should be enough to observe the change. The cardboard flap protects the side of my face from the sunlight – the viewing hole was already in the box at the far end of the side.

It is a bit jury-rigged but, although I am still waiting for around 7pm to properly try it out, I think I’ve done a proper job!

11 August 2026
by wpAdmin
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Bin Day in Clacton

Recently Nigel Farage called for a by-election in his Clacton seat. He claims it is to prove that he has people’s support in the face of claims that he has mislead Parliament over his financial affairs but it is a costly exercise. The major parties have chosen not to stand against him but I’m not alone in hoping that he gets soundly beaten by the most popular opposition candidate, Count Binface. Binface has been the absurdist runner in many local elections but I’d not only love to see Farage lose this selfish gamble but also see Binface (AKA Jonathan Harvey) have a chance to prove what he does with actual power. I suspect he might actually both to spend some time in Clacton and make an effort to represent the constituency.

What really puzzles me is how Farage has been allowed to do this. I can see the argument for him stepping down and out of politics but to step down only to contest the seat again sounds like the gambit of someone taking voluntary redundancy in order to come back to the same role as a consultant – a crooked deal and one that is not for the benefit of Clacton. If he does win, he’ll simply be back where he was before, polarising opinion and facing a resumption of the investigation into is dealings.

I don’t get to vote in this one but I do hope Farage gets put out with the rubbish. Not least, I fully endorse the fifth point of Binface’s manifesto: MPs who resign mid-Parliament should be banned from participating in the resulting by-election. The job is a serious commitment and not a popularity contest.

10 August 2026
by wpAdmin
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Potato Wedges

Today I discovered that potato wedges are pretty easy in the air fryer. 15 minutes at 170°C coated with a little oil and then, after additional seasoning, another 5 minutes at 180°C. The method I used emphasised washing and drying the wedges before starting the cooking and it definitely works. Given that I’ve got two cooking baskets in my air fryer, I’m tempted to try a side by side comparison and see how much difference it makes. Anyway, here is the video:

9 August 2026
by wpAdmin
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Air Fryer Chicken

I did my first whole chicken in the air fryer yesterday and it worked very well. Rubbed with softened butter that I had seasoned with tarragon, salt, pepper and garlic, I cooked it upside down for half an hour at 170°C and then right way up for another half hour at the same temperature. I reckon I could probably even have reduced the cooking time a bit.

The main limitation with my dual drawer air fryer is that you can’t cook a large bird. I got the smallest one I could find in Lidl, which was about 1.4kg and slightly smaller than that would be ideal (although perhaps I could have removed the crisper tray to give some extra height). More experimentation to come but it was a worthwhile start.

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