Processes and pucks...

Playlist
Paul McCartney - New
John Cale - Shifty Adventures in Nookie Wood
Dido - Girl Who Got Away
Paul Simon - The Paul Simon Songbook
The Velvet Underground - White Light/White Heat (Deluxe Edition)
DJ Hell - Teufelswerk House Remixes Pt 2
Pyrolator - Neuland
Molojian - The Deer's Cry
Various - Weekly Playlist No 11

Up and to work creating this week's playlist...

It goes like this...

Look over all the music listened to between last Saturday first thing and last thing last night, whittling it down to a shortlist - I'll usually select around 50 or so pieces...

Then, get that down to the 25 chosen items - by the law of averages, this'll probably work out at around three or four for each of the seven days in question...

Then, get the original CDs...

..and rip a WAV file of each to the hard drive...

Decide on the order of play - to be honest this mostly remains chronological, uless I see some obvious connections...

Then, do some research on each of the twenty five items to provide some wittering subject matter...

Set up the recording process and away we go for around 2.5 hours or so...

Once it's over, load the WAV of the entire podcast into editing software and take out any glitches and arse ups at the microphone...

And that's it done...

Including a break for breakfast, we're looking at around seven and a half hours!

And then, it needs to be uploaded to the server and the post itself created here...

I started at 6:42 am and the post went up at 14:43 - eight hours...

A monumental waste of a Saturday...

But I enjoy it...

But, still, a monumental waste of time - there needs to be an easier way...

But, while doing everything apart from the actual two hour recording itself, I was listening to the new purchases made yesterday...

This listening continued into today's long awaited "Mr CBQ Returns to Cooking" session...

Of course while I'd been indulging myself at the mic and pretending to be a DJ, the Exec Producer had been out and about doing what she likes to do and trying on holiday clothes and stuff and, in amongst that, very kindly procuring my ingredients...

Considering and rejecting a"difficult" piece from the Michel Roux jnr cookbook presented to Anne at Xmas, I was cooking my signature dish - Leek & Pancetta Risotto...

Here's the leek...

...chopped...

...here's the pancetta...

Leek added, while stock heated to the right...

Rice added, becoming coated in the mixture, stock continued to heat...

A cheeky wee soupcon of vin blanc added...

...followed, gradually, by the stock...

Then, pepper and a lot of stirring...

Finally, just as it was ready, a judicious amount of grated fresh parmesan added...

And this tasty concoction emerged from the pot...

Yummy in extemis!

Just after five, out along to Murrayfield...

Having eschewed the chance to watch Queen of the South maintain their position in fourth place by thrashing Count Brodski's Alloa 1-0 up the road in Alloa (Hearts "resting" this week), we were tonight about to witness Edinburgh Capitals (bottom of the league) take on Sheffield Steelers (second top) at the hockey of ice...

The scene was set...

There was an interesting warm up...

..and we chose our favourites, on the basis of their exotic names, Holecko...

..and Zembergs...

There were drums in the crowd...

As the players left the ice post warm up, there were disco lights and an ice machine...

The music was incredibly loud - and, during the game, at every break in play, very well known intros to very well known songs were played for a few seconds - enjoyable at first but, ultimately, annoying that the tracks kept cutting off...

Did I mention the music was incredibly loud?

Puckdrop and, over the course of around two hours, sixty minutes of very exciting hockey ensued...

...including a saved penalty...

...and a goal for Edinburgh...

...but only after Sheffield had already scored twice, leading to an upping of the action in the last few minutes of the game, during which Edinburgh dispensed with their goalkeeper's services looking for an equaliser...

...which led...

... to Sheffield walking a third goal into the net with seven seconds remaining on the clock...

Oh well, 3-1 final score - which, to be fair, was much better than many of the thrashings the home team has suffered thus far this season...

Everyone shook hands and we made our way home...

...exiting the packed car park surprisingly swiftly...

Our first hockey match since watching the Prince George Spruce Kings against the Quesnel Millionnaires twice in Canada back in August 2008...

An enjoyable evening continued back home, with the concluding double bill of Belgian detective series, "Salamander", which tied up all loose ends nicely...

Some late on listening to new acquisitions while glancing occasionally at "Match of the Day", then, off to bed...

Highlight of the Day : Cooking again - it's been too long...