Pie

The all important pre-Christmas mince pie tasting session has been done (complete with the obligatory sherry) and the results are in.

We went for the more expensive end of the market, and didn't scour all the supermarkets since 6 mince pies is quite enough for anyone.

In 6th place with 4/10 came Sainsburys Butter Enriched. These were pretty poor - thin and rather dry but with quite a buttery taste.

In 5th place with 5/10 came Waitrose Shortcrust. These had lots of filling but with too much thick sauce. The pastry was rather thin and they were a little too sweet.

In joint 3rd with 6/10 came Sainsburys Deep Filled - good pastry and a better consistency in the filling than the Waitrose, but a little oversweet. Also Mr Kipling which had a rather over-buttery pastry which was too crumbly and a rather disappointing, bland filling.

In 2nd place with 7/10 came Sainsburys Organic. The filling was excellent, quite spicy and zesty but the pie was let down by the pastry which was far too buttery - the taste overwhelmed the whole pir.

And our prize pick is Waitrose All Butter with 8/10. Good crisp pastry which isn't crumbly and a tasty filling - not as spicy as the Sainsburys Organic, but still very creditable. Very pleasant indeed.

It seems from our experience that the best pies are the more expensive ones - which is rather a shame - but we are trying to track down some cheaper independent pies, so there may be an update to these results. It's so exciting.

Closed

The inevitable has finally happened.

It's been rather quiet on here recently whilst several things have been going on. But as of yesterday it seems my ailing company is finally locking the doors. I've been given my termination letter.

I've been expecting this since April when the majority of other people left the company, but it is sad for it to finally happen. There are lots of bad things about the place but we were working on a great product and it's sad to see it end this way.

I think the most frustrating part is that the whole enterprise has really failed because the directors lost interest. It seems they can't wait to move on to the next things they have lined up. And overall it seems they aren't losing much money either - which probably explains why they never really fought for the company or really committed themselves to its survival.

So a brief pause for a bit of reflection and then its time to step up my search for the next thing. Not the best time to be looking, but hopefully something will come along - I hope something quite interesting - but will settle for paying the bills. In the meantime I have several ideas and projects that are filling my time, plus some finishing off that needs to be done for my old company.

Surprisingly this is the first time I've been made redundant and only the second time I've left a company at their behest rather than mine (the previous time was the end of a contract which wasn't renewed). Given my liking for small companies, I think this is quite unusual.

The Dark Side Rocks

The most ridiculous and utterly cool gizmo I've seen in a long time.

Just had to post this one. It's from here

May the force be with you.

Short back and sides

I had my hair cut today.

And couldn't resist adding another post with the same title as the last.

Yes, these are the depths of tedium to which I've sunk.