UP BEFORE 6am to get the dough made for the weekend’s rolls then back to bed while it proves and rests.
After breakfast – with fresh rolls – I trim up some chicken thighs and prep the marinade for tonight’s lemongrass chicken. Alastair and Karen are bumping for the night. Once the chicken’s down I make some nuoc cham sauce to go with it then make smash burger pucks out a pack of mince that’s corned got a few days before its sell by date and won’t be used in time…the smash burger pucks go in the freezer.
Finally I get into the studio to prep for tomorrow night’s (Sunday) radio show then a wee walk out the lochside before our pals arrive.
WE’RE woken by the doorbell just after 10am. Fuck…how did we sleep though all our alarms?!?!? Anyway, it’s the guy from the heat pump installers who’s come to fill out the paperwork that should have been completed when the system was comissioned back in November 2024. He was in the diary to come this morning.
We’re wanting to go for a swim but need to sit around for a DPD pick up so I spend some time in the studio working on ‘the new song’. As soon as the package is picked up we head off to the village for a swim.
After lunch I email Ninja – just a little nudge to find out what’s happening after I set them my proof of purchase on Wednesday morning – then get some pizza dough out the freezer for tonight’s dinner.
Back in the studio I re-record ‘the new song’ and mess with arrangement a little more. After all the messing around I’m starting to think I might wanna strip it back to a basic acquisition version. Maybe I’ll try both.
I go for a short walk then get home and find a email form Ninja. They’re gonna send a replacement grill. Yay! Been a bit of a fanny dance but looks like my perseverance is paying off. I get the pizza oven fired up…..
AFTER breakfast we make a shopping list and I head into Glasgow…Chan’s cash’n’carry, Costco and Tesco and back in time for a quick lunch before my 2pm Zoom session with a guitar student.
After the session I go back to the state and prep some Italian sausage sugo for tonight’s pasta – Betty’s coming for dinner.
I’m keen on the new Osmo Pocket 4P camera which has finally launched in the UK today. It’s a good price, but still more than I can afford. I do notice that Wex – who I use for a lot of my camera/video stuff – are offering part exchange.
It dawns on me on me that the RS4 Mini gimbal I bought a couple of years ago has become pretty much redundant since we made the videos for the singles from the Still Friends album. Combined with a ‘proper’ camera it was both too heavy and too complicated for Margaret to work with.
We’ve had the original Osmo Pocket for more than seven years and it’s been really good. Still is, but image quality, features and stuff have come on leaps and bounds. We’ll get more mileage out of this tan the RS4 Mini so I get a favourable offer, find the box and get it packed up to go to Wex.
Back in the studio I get engrossed in a demo recording of the new song I’ve come working on...then Betty arrives…
I’M JUST finishing up an online guitar session when my next guitar student rocks up and we have a productive lesson.
The ‘battle’ with Ninja continues – they’re implying that I registered the product on the wrong date (although how I could register a product ten months before I bought it…or even thought about buying it…is beyond me) and if I want it pursue further they need a proof of purchase.
All I have is a debit card transaction on my bank statement so I get pinto an online chat with Currys and, to their credit, a copy of my receipt is in my email half an hour later. I send it to Ninja.
There’s a bunch of routine stuff needing dealt with then I go for a swim.
After lunch I go through music submissions for potential airplay on Dave Arcari’s Deep Blues radio show. If I stay on top of it all through the week it makes sorting the music for my show much simpler.
I’m trying to develop a hill country-inspirers song I’m putting together…gonna be called Cuttin’ it Fine. I’m in a wee bit of a quandry – the hill country style is very simple and hypnotic….if I try and add too much or extra chords it breaks the feel…but I don’t want it to be boring.
Over the last few weeks I’ve been a bit distracted by it – trying something, not liking it and putting it down. Today I have a little time so I’m determined to crack it. I come up with an idea then do a Iuick rough recording. I’ll listen tomorrow and assess things…
THE NINJA Woodfire grill outside stopped working properly and I raised a support ticket last Thursday. 3pm. Ninja acknowledge the message and said they respond thing six business hours. Nada.
I sent a follow up email yesterday (Monday) afternoon....and late last night spotted a post in my instagram feed from NinjaUK. I copied the email/s into a message on Insta.
This morning there a response apologizing and suggesting I get in touch with customer service. But there's no number...just the online support ticket.
Meantime, I finally manage to corner Margaret about her upcoming (70th!) birthday...just a three weeks to go and she won't tell me what she wants. Transpires she'd like an eternity ring so I set about 3D printing various sizes and width so I can get an idea of what to source. Takes me a little longer than I expect, but I get an ideal size and width to enable me to move onto the next step of finding something....
My late morning guitar student arrives with his dad...we finish his lesson a little early so I take them to the studio and give the wee man a shot on an electric guitar with lots of noise and volume . Might be one of the most motivating things we've done for him 🙂
Finally an email from Ninja saying unfortunately my warrant ran out on 11 January and offering a 30% discount on a replacement....must be ordered via the Ninja website and can't be used against any discounted equivalent.....the alternatives are either out of stock or discounted....so real terms the 'special discount' is pretty worthless.
I'm curious why the warranty ran out on 11 January. The grill was bought on 31 October and registered on 1 November 2024....two years is not until November this year. Ninja seems to think it was registered on 11 January. I suspect a UK / USA date confusion over day/month and month/day format may be to blame so enquirer as to the reason and suggest this may be a reason?!?!
I spend the rest of the day in the studio working on some arrangement ideas and lyric for a new song, taking a break to marinade some chicken thighs in lemongrass and stuff to go in the air fryer later. I did this recipe on the grill last week and it was good, but I think the air fryer might be better for this recipe...turns out it is!
I GO back to the house for breakfast after an early guitar session with an online guitar student and get last night’s Dave Arcari’s Deep Blues show uploaded to my Mixcloud and spread the link and playlist round my socials.
Then back to the studio for another online lesson before we go for a quick swim before lunch.
The ivy growing up the groove ad side of the studio has started to work its way into the roof space and really needs pulled/cut back. I’ve been avoiding it for the last month or so because the ivy’s uncleared with midges and other biting creatures but I decide there’s no one like the present. I smother myself in smidge, put on a hoodie, gardening gloves and a midge net, grab a ladder and get tore in.
Once I’ve tackled that I clear the gutters, trim back some trees and strim a path through the grass.
Next job is to get a news update out to my mail list then prep for tonight’s Wildcats’ livestream on Facebook.
Once all that’s out the way there’s not a load of time left before the livestream so I mess with the guitar and some recording ideas before I go live….
WE ALL have breakfast – the muffins are good – and chat for a while before Matty packs all his bags and heads off.
I spend some time playing guitar in the studio then go theorists more music submissions before auditions to make a list of potential tracks for tomorrow’s (Sunday) Dave Arcari’s Deep Blues on rock.scot.
After lunch and a break to transfer some coriander from the hydroponics to a grobag I get back to the studio warmer the rest of the day races by before I even get the chance to get out a walk!
UP EARLY – I prepped sourdough yesterday and get it in the oven then deal with some emails and stuff while it bakes….and cools.
There’s a load of music submission to listen to and see if there’s anything I should be including on Sunday’s radio show then I get busy with a sign I’m trying to arrange in Logic Pro. I generally use Universal Audio’s Luna for all my recording but I act Logic as part of Apple’s Creative Suite and keen to keen about/try out some of it’s features.
I have no experience of using Logic so it’s kinda frustrating and time-consuming but, I hope, will be worth the effort.
Before I know it the day’s gone and I head back to the house to make some Italian sausage sugo and some pasta dough for later. I also prep some dough for breakfast muffins that I’ll get made tonight so I don’t have to be up at 6am!
While the sugo is simmering on a low heat and the dough resting I go for a wee walk…then home and dinner.
FRIST job of the day is to dig back and see when I courage the Ninja Woodfire that seems to have gone on the blink.
Can’t find any login or account details on the Ninja website which isn’t great news – if the unit is registered it has a two-year warranty, and unregistered is only one year. I bought it on 1 November 2024. I’d be very surprised if I didn’t register it…I raise a support ticket in the hope they can guide me on next steps.
One of my websites – love-Balmaha.co.uk – Is throwing up an insecure recognize when the www-prefix is used….it’s OK when it’s not. Weird. I’ve checked and re-checked DNS records, given changes more tab enough turn to propogate and still the problem persists. I try deleting the SSL certificate and installing afresh one and….problem solved. Phew. Thought I was going mad.
Next job it to create a simple one-page info/contact web page for Mikey’s domain. He’s had a domain for a while but only used for his email…this, while being very basic, is at least better than a ‘page not found’ or ‘this discovery is parked’ message of anyone’s curious to check it out. I add some SEO in the chance that it might generate some enquiries/work for him.
It’s about 1pm when I spot an email from a pending online guitar student checking that I’m OK for a 2pm lesson…luckily I am and send off a Zoom link for the session. I’m caught off guard as I’d emailed with various days/times (including today at 2pm) but never heard back! Her partner had indeed made a bank transfer yesterday but I thistle that was fir his own next lesson.
Comms confusion averted, we have a good session and book her in for another session once week.
Matty arrives mid-afternoon – he’s staying a couple of days – and I get busy in the kitchen marinading some chicken thighs in lemongrass, garlic, soy sauce, sugar and fish sauce to go on the grill later.
I’ve used all the garlic though – and I need more for the nuoc cham sauce to go with the grilled lemongrass chicken and rice noddles. I drive to the village and pick some up.
Back home I have some video to edit in the studio then I go back to the house, light the charcoal and get grillin’...
WHEN I get back to the house after an online session with a hottest student Margaret is on an online meeting worth the accountant for the community trust.
I need to go into Glasgow for shopping and fuel but first I need to get the pork belly on the smoker. Betty and Liz are coming for dinner tonight.
Once everything set up and going I fed into town. Wasn’t meant to be a particularly nice day but it’s sunny and roasting hot.
First stop is Chan’s for some Japanese BBQ sauce to go with tonight’s BBQ pork and lemongrass for a new recipe I wanna try. Net Tesco then Costco fuel before Costco itself.
In between the stops I see there’s something weird going on with the temperature in the smoker. ‘Cos there’s just one slab of pork belly and I was gonna be out and about all day I thought I’d use the electric smoker (Ninja Woodfire XL Pro). A couple of weeks ago I was gonna suit for forcefulness and it threw up an error code and wouldn’t so use the ‘proper’ smoker….subsequently it started to work again – or so I thought – although it acted a bit weird when I did some smoked and reverse-seared steak last week.
Anyway, from the app connected to my thermometers it looks like it only got up to about 130F – target pit temp for the pork belly is 225F – which tarted coolign down. Eek! I call Margaret and get her to restart but next time I check in on the temperature same thing’s happening. It’s clearly goosed.
Margaret has never set up the charcoal smoker and various fans etc to control the temperature…and there’s not enough time now anyway…I call and get her to preheat the kitchen oven to 225F and move the pork belly. There should have been enough smoke in the Ninja to give it some BBQ flavour….
I’m the way home I call again and ask Margaret to spritz the pork then wrap tightly in butcher paper, so when I get back all’s under control and it looks like it’ll be ready on third tome to be out the oven and rest before dinner time.
