27 July 2009: Meatballs

Actually, that title is just to make McDougal happy.

As I've been following Le Tour fairly closely this year, I thought I should mention a few pertinent points that the mainstream media may have missed.

Firstly, the fact that Mark Cavendish won six stages and yet didn't win the Green Jersey (although without his somewhat harsh points deduction on that middle stage, he would have won it)... shows that Cavendish may well be, as he himself claims, the best sprinter in the world, but being the best sprinter in the world doesn't necessarily equate to the Tour De France Green Jersey. I suspect he's learned a lot from this experience, most notably the importance of tactical riding on days that are not sprinter-friendly in order to minimize losses to Green Jersey rivals. In other words, I think he's going to learn from this and come back next year to win Green simply by being more tactically astute.

Secondly, there have been notably few references to drugs in this years Tour. Is that because they're all clean?

Right, that's what I thought too. This thought-provoking article in the Guardian delves a little deeper into the question of third-generation EPO and blood doping, and asks some very key questions, including how it could be that Contador could climb the mountains so hard, so fast - in fact, harder and faster than anyone in the history of the Tour, with Greg LeMond (who should know) feeling that there has to be more going on with Contador than meets the eye.

Key quote:

Greg LeMond, the Tour champion of 1986, 1989 and 1990 and a noted critic of doping, used his French newspaper column to examine the implications of the statistics of the climb in which Contador soared away from his rivals, covering 8.5km of road with an average slope of 7.5% in 20min 55sec, averaging just over 30kph up a series of steep ramps linked by hairpins.

"No one in the Tour has ever climbed as fast as that," LeMond wrote, going on to talk about the findings published recently in Libération, in which Antoine Vayer, a performance expert and former trainer with the defunct Festina team, estimated that, judging by his results, Contador must have a VO2 max figure – the measurement of a body's ability to take in and use oxygen – so high that, in LeMond's view, it would have to be superior to that of any athlete who ever lived.

Cynical? It's hard not to be, that's the thing. Bradley Wiggins going from track star to mountain expert and team leader in a little under a year? Hmm.

The fact that Armstrong can come out of retirement and hang with the best implies perhaps that simply the standards aren't as high as they used to be. OK, but the absolute stats are that Contador was out-of-this-world this year. He was unstoppable and even the mountain specialist Schleck brothers couldn't shake him on the highest of the Alps. Those standards are very high. And Contador was unbeatable.

Presumably, if he's that good, we should expect another Indurain/Armstrong-esque domination of the Tour for the next few years.

Right?

Postscript: This is the sixteenth blog this month, thereby surpassing all previous months since I began this lark in 2004. Didn't expect that.

Post-post-script: The "Markus Liebherr" Google News count stands today at 331, down from over 400 at its peak.

24 July 2009: Lump

Please read this entry on Rob's blog. Better than any movie plot in the last ten years.

Meantime, been a weird week here. Discovered a lump where there shouldn't be a lump and if you don't like clinical language, look away now.

Looking away yet?

OK. The lump is on my right testicle. And it wasn't there before.

I know that it wasn't there before because a couple of years ago Plymouth Argyle fans were exposed to the risks of testicular cancer: both goalkeeper Romain Larrieu and commentator Gordon Sparks were diagnosed with it at similar times. Both have made recoveries (indeed Larrieu is possibly in the form of his life now and has been appointed club captain) and, in ways smaller than Lance Armstrong, have done their best to raise awareness.

One thing I always remember was shortly after they both recovered, Sparksy posted on Pasoti, saying the advice he had for all men was to examine regularly, and if they didn't fancy doing the job themselves, then they should ask their wives to do it for them. Additionally, it's Biblical: 1 Corinthians 11v28a: "A man ought to examine himself". And so, I've been a regular examiner ever since. And now, on Tuesday night, a lump was found, maybe a centimetre in diameter.

As much as I've sometimes been in shock and awe at how poor the private health networks are over here compared to the NHS (seriously? Yes - in terms of performance as well as ridiculous complexity), they pulled through in fine - astonishing - style this week. Tuesday morning we called for an appointment, a doctor (not our usual one, but that's fine) was available Wednesday morning. Went in for initial examination, referral for an ultrasound was the result and that ultrasound took place little over an hour later at the same location.

Results came through this morning. Apparently I have a number of cysts on my testicles: three on the left and two on the right. All quite small - much smaller than the lump. And they also found something called a hydrocele, which I'd never heard of before. So what is the lump? They're not sure, the nurse suggesting that it was one of the cysts with fluid collected around it - the nurse was a vague as to whether it was related to the hydrocele or not.

And what to do? It should go away, said the nurse. If it's growing, or if it's still there in two to three weeks, I'm to go back and they'll see if anything else needs to be done. But it sounds as if it were something heavy and sinister like cancer or pregnancy then the ultrasound would have picked it up.

Still, something to keep an eye on. Well, for me, anyway. You can keep your eyes to yourself.

And if you don't like clinical language, you can look back now.

Footnote: The term 'hydrocele' is seemingly not only new to me, but also to Blogger's spellchecker. No surprise there.

18 July 2009: Stuffer

We got a sausage stuffer and made these sausages.

Following our earlier successfulle experimente with sausage recipes, it was now time to get hold of some sausage skins and see if we could make the real thing.

For those who missed the earlier excitement (or saw it get lost in the Saints melee that was this blog for three months), the story is that you can't get British-style sausages in the USA, except for some reasonably-close imitations from a pub in Indianapolis. However, a very nice man (and award-winning sausage guru) named Simon at Uptons of Bassett butcher shop in Southampton was kind enough to suggest a couple of recipes while we were there in April. Following his advice we put together a basic Lincolnshire recipe and tried them out, and deemed the recipe as successful and genuine.

So now it was time to get some skins and stuff our mixture into them. To do this, we needed an additional attachment for the mixer (acquired in Texas last week) and, of course, some sausage skins.

Phoned up the local butcher shop (well, phoned all three of them but only one would help) and he said we should use natural casings rather than artificial, as artificial tends to be a little chewy. Fair enough, until you realise that 'natural casings' means pig intestine, doesn't it? Yum.

So, assuming you have pork shoulder ground up and mixed with bread, salt, pepper and sage in the previously-stated quantities, along with a stuffing attachment and some intestine, here's what you do to make sausages.

First, run water through the intestine about three or four times:

Next, put the stuffer onto the grinding attachment, grease the stuffer and feed about four feet of intestine (sorry, casing) on there:

Then it's time to tie the end - either using string or just a careful, tight knot in the end of the casing - and begin putting the sausage mix into the top of the grinder/stuffer attachment:

Now the fun begins. Push the mix down into the grinder (using a tool, not your fingers) and it'll start coming out into the sausages:

Make sure that you don't over-stuff the casing, since it'll need a little expansion room when you twist them into links:

Once you're done, you'll have four feet of glorious-looking sausages:

If you're doing Cumberland Ring, just curl it up. We're doing individual Lincolnshire sausages, so it's time to twist:

We weren't hugely successful first time round with making them the same length, but they look pretty authentic:

Then we cut them up to put in the fridge, which is the photo at the top of this blog. Final stage of the process (aside from washing up and decontaminating the entire kitchen - and the camera - after getting raw pork everywhere) was phoning up some other British people in town and inviting them over for a barbecue this evening.

However, it might be wise just to cook one up now and check it's ok... just to avoid disappointing our guests, you know...?

Thanks again to Simon from Uptons for supplying both the basic recipe and the encouragement to make sausages in this far distant land.

17 July 2009: Definition

Today's Tour stage was interesting with that German/Aussie guy going way out the front and weeping as he crossed the line in first.

Further back down, Lance looked very strong in a reasonably-mountainous stage, but in the green jersey fight the battle seems to be twofold: one battle between Cavendish and Hushovd, and a secondary battle for the definition of the green jersey - is it for the "best sprinter" or "most consistent daily finisher"?

Back when I started following the race, there was a red jersey more purely for the sprinters, and the green jersey would usually be won by Sean Kelly. Since 1989, there's been no red jersey, and they upped the points in the flat stages and intermediate sprints for the green jersey. So it's a battle of definitions...

So today, up in the mountains, we saw that Hushovd is strong enough to remain there or thereabouts, at least when there aren't the absolute toughest mountains. Today he finished in the first main bunch (alongside Lance, Contador and the rest) and takes the green jersey back off Cavendish by five points. Tomorrow is flat-ish again, and Cavendish might take it back again. Sunday we're in the mountains, so...

There's no question that Cavendish is the fastest man in the race. But Hushovd is probably the most consistent sprint-and-hang in there guy. So which category will win green when it comes to Paris?

Hard to say, but with more mountains than flat stages left, the smart money might just have to be on Hushovd, even if Cavendish wins on the Champs-Elysees in nine days' time.

17 July 2009: Pardew

As McDougal reported, Alan Pardew is confirmed as Saints manager.

Fair enough. Good manager for this level of football (third tier in the English game). Unexciting. Will probably get promotion with some good investment.

Means I can stop talking about Saints on this blog since they now seem to be a little more stable than back on April Fool's Day, when the whole thing kicked off. There'll be a few signings before the transfer window closes at the end of August, some of which may be surprising and exciting, and Plymouth Argyle will also look to put some serious moves together as part of their newly-expressed five-year plan to get to the Premiership.

So, what else to talk about? Sausages? Scottish castles? Le Tour? The Semantic Web??

That last one is what this blog was supposed to be about in the first place. Ironic that now, over five years after starting this blog, the blog has developed more than the Semantic Web...

Or has it?

Addendum: Bradley Wright-Phillips has left Saints to join Argyle, news largely buried by the ongoing managerial turmoil and the fact that he's generally regarded as being a rubbish player. Saints fans opined that he'd been seen attempting to take the train down to Plymouth. Apparently he was right there with plenty of time to spare but still somehow managed to miss it.

16 July 2009: Mundane

Next Saints manager? Hot tip today seems to be Alan Pardew.

Which seems very mundane after all the Strachan talk, but there we are. Strachan rumours continue, as do Dennis Wise rumours and 'Director of Football' rumours, but Pardew seems to have come from nowhere yesterday to being odds-on favourite today.

Rumours continue to suggest a Saturday announcement of the new manager, although the new man won't take charge of the team until next week. Assuming, of course, that it is a man...

Now there's a thought. Anyone remember 'The Manageress'?

Update 8.09pm eastern: BBC website now reporting Pardew is to be appointed.

15 July 2009: Cavendish

Update to earlier post: Cavendish fought very hard on an uphill finish, and yet again beat all the rest. Hushovd finished about fifth, meaning Cav gets the Green Jersey back again.

But does he care?

"There's only one thing that matters now," he said in the immediate post-race interview, still out of breath and revealing what seems an increasingly strong scouse accent, "and Paris is in sight."

He wants to win on the Champs Elysees. The Green Jersey is just decoration.