Bank Holiday = classic vans, bacon, foie gras and blog awards.

It must be the bank holiday, a little bit of free time and the collection of blogs that I read regularly start posting furiously. So I’m gonna do the same.

Thanks to all who’ve suggested designers for me to contact – this is a lazy thank you – between Tweets, FB messages, E-mails and texts I had nearly twenty suggestions, so sorry if I didn’t say thank you directly. I’m supposed to be doing some work today putting a brief together on branding but I find myself lazily googling things this morning. We’ve tickets to see fencing and boxing at the Olympics this summer, and I’m trying to decide what to do. Based on the price of hotel accommodation, that’s not a viable option – so it’ll either be couch surfing with friends, staying on a campsite a fair distance out of the action or looking for a short let for a few days in the big smoke.

Bank holiday weekends are for lazing about, and in some ways that’s what I’ve done. Friday was a pretty awesome day – I have a love of classic vehicles (my first car was a 1969 VW Beetle, and we currently have a mid restoration 1974 Bedford CF in the shed). I’ve been fancying a sales/market vehicle for the business and didn’t have any idea what to get. I’d noticed that Citroen H and Citroen HY vans were getting pretty popular on ebay so I made an appointment to go and see some on Friday. Oh. My. God. I’ve fallen in love. Here’s the little beaut – she’s a late 50’s H model, starts and runs, chassis in incredible condition but she does need a fair amount of work. I haven’t jumped in and bought her, but now that I’ve seen a couple of examples I’m pretty sure that at some point in the life of Charcutier Ltd there’ll be a Citroen H van in our fleet (yes, that’s right, a fleet – it’s just an excuse to buy classic vans for the business).

We made a rare non-delivery visit to Kairdiff this weekend too. We were staying with some friends and meeting a few others at Bully’s restaurant in Canton. I’d never been there before, but I’d heard good things. 24hrs earlier I was in Mc Donalds (stealing their wifi) – a message popped up on my open Skype window from a friend in Vancouver – our conversation went a little like this…

Yo dude, we’re in Mc D’s in Carmarthen.

You’re too classy! Is there a sign there, reading……”Add bacon to ANYTHING for just 69c!!!”??

I honestly saw that sign in my McD’s the other day. I was blown away.

You had me at Bacon.

So, what does that have to do with Bully’s? Well, excuse the terribly out of focus iphone photo, but they offered ‘pan fried foie gras on anything’ for £6.50. Quite a step up!

Yesterday we called with the in-laws, lamb for lunch from Sainsburys. we’ve got friends who sell around a thousand head a year of lamb to Sainsburys and I’m always impressed with the quality. There was I, tucking in to my plateful, commenting on how good the lamb was, when I was told it was from New Zealand. Having received funding from HCC who run the Welsh Lamb campaign, this is akin to heresy. But, I’ve got to admit, it was bloody lovely.

Lastly, when I got up this morning I had a wonderful surprise. Rose, who I mentioned in the Meat for Art post has nominated the blog as part of the Versatile Blogger Awards. Check out her other nominees!

That means I’ve a duty to:

•  Thank the person who gave you this award. That’s common courtesy.
•  Include a link to their blog. That’s also common courtesy — if you can figure out how to do it.
•  Next, select 15 blogs/bloggers that you’ve recently discovered or follow regularly. ( I would add, pick blogs or bloggers that are excellent!)
•  Nominate those 15 bloggers for the Versatile Blogger Award — you might include a link to this site.
•  Finally, tell the person who nominated you 7 things about yourself.

My nominees:

This is a real mixed bag of sites, listed alphabetically:

Adventures with the Pig – does what is says on the tin, though with an occasional foray into other foodstuffs.

A Touch Far Vetched/Spitting Feathers – the blog for Swansea City Football clubs fanzine ‘A Touch Far Vetched’. Not the usual thing you’d see a Cardiff supporter include, but I’m an occasional columnist for the fanzine (so I’m keeping the Editor sweet).

Carmarthenshire Planning Problems – I’m pretty sure we’ve all got complaints about our local authority but it begs belief sometimes what mine – Carmarthenshire Council gets away with up to  .

Le Charcutier Anglais – if you haven’t got the book, you need to buy it! Marc is an excellent bloke, a great help and wise in the way of the pig.

Copy, right? – sadly defunct, but I thought I’d include it as it’s the mp3 blog that really got me into covers.

Cuizine – a community of food bloggers. They’ve got an ace interview with Fergus Henderson, and I love the video ‘Mexican cooking with Timmy Vulgar’.

Cured Meats – an excellent blog about home production of cured meats. So many different products made, and it includes recipes – I’ve had a go myself at some of the products listed with excellent results.

Eggbaconchipsandbeans – an incredible resource for those looking for a greasy spoon. It provided the inspiration for a blog that I co-wrote with some colleagues for a short time: Dining Out With The Boys.

Eurocovers – Love Eurovision? Love covers? Well, here’s the place for you!

A Hamburger Today – I’ve only recently been put onto this blog by a friend, and it’s thrown me into a new batch of recipe testing. Making potato rolls this week thanks to this site!

The Mehallo Blog – a great design blog that I’ve been following for quite some time. I first stumbled onto it when looking for info on typography.

On my desk – now sadly defunct (since Aug 2010) but with a great archive. Self submitted pictures of artists creative spaces. The Guardian used to do a similar feature called Writers’ Rooms, which was always the first thing I’d look at on a Saturday.

The Selby – one of my absolute favourite blogs, and I’m sure familiar to lots of people. One day I just hope that the Selby will be paying our farm/production facility/market stall/retail space a visit.

Wooly Pigs – I’ve re-posted a fair few links from this blog. It’s THE place to go to find out about the Mangalitsa.

7 things about myself:

• My favourite crisp flavour is cheese and onion.
• I’m a volunteer film projectionist at Cross Hands Public Hall and Cinema.
• I have a Basil Brush lamp on my desk.
• I don’t like courgette or aubergine.
• My tele-visual guilty pleasures include Nothing to Delcare(Australia) and Auction Hunters.
• I’m a compulsive hoarder.
• I’m convinced that one day I WILL win the lottery.