Great read, what an adventure, cyclng around the world by bike and with a world record deadline. That translates to pedaling 100miles a day on average over 18,000 miles, yes, crazy stuff. Really enjoyed Mark's descriptions of the places he went and people he met plus the scrapes/crashes he got into. The format of the book is also rather unique – it becomes nearly a blog style account by the end, which made a nice difference. Cycling through the Ukraine, Iran, Pakistan, India, Asia, Australia etc on his lonesome included staying in a random petrol station Mosque, sleeping under a road tunnel, waking up face to face with a huge spider, being kept in jails by the Pakistan police for his own protection whilst villagers peered in through a small window at him for hours on end  (my fave was when he whacked one of them so they'd go away, lol) and meeting the girl of his dreams and having to weigh up whether to travel with her or stay on target for the record. Guess it hepled that I'd been to quite a few of the countries he bikes through, brought back some great memories, but I think most people would enjoy this book. Mark Beaumont is a super adventurer, super athlete and this book a wicked read. Only wish I'd thought to attempt this record when I was 24!

Open – By Andre Agassi

The autobiography of tennis legend and genius Andre Agassi, the only man in history to have won every slam (Australian, French, Wimbledon and US Open) plus the Olympic Gold medal plus year end number 1. A well written, highly interesting and entertaining read about the great man. A general and somewhat contraversial theme of the book is how he actually hates tennis, BUT cannot stay away from it, he always goes back for one last shot. My fave bit is probably the description of and continual references to The Dragon, the ball machine his fanatical dad made for the tennis court he built in their back garden to fire balls at 100mph at a 7 year old Andre, every day after school, ordering him to Hit Out In Front until the entire court was full of balls – this kinda explains Agassi's staggering hand-eye co-ordination (probably the best ever). That followed by the story of how his first match loss was to a cheating Jeff Tarrango as an 8 year old and how he never really forgot that, hehe. Agassi also mentions how he realised he was different from arch-rival Pete Sampras and goes on about some issues he has with the guy, which is a shame cos sadly he brought this to the court at Indian Wells at the Hit For Haiti exhibition. You woulda thought he would've gotten over this by publishing it for the world, but there you go. His wooing and eventual marriage to Steffi Graf is also described in detail and there are many other pleasant reading moments, his car .

I'd rate this as the best tennis autobiography there is, it's not my favourite, but it is the best.

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Ingredients

Some pasta from a 500g pack of Morrisons Organic Pasta (how much is up to you, usually approx 100g per person)

2 x sprays of Fry Light Extra Virgin Olive Oil

1 x 400g tin Heinz Classic Cream of Tomato soup

2 pinches of Schwartz Basil

5 taps of Saxa Ground Black Pepper

Half the breast from a Morrisons cooked chicken with stuffing

Tablespoon or two of Morrisons Organic Cream

How To Cook:

1) add pasta to a pan of cold water, spray in oil (helps stop pasta sticking together)

2) bring to boil and cook pasta for 10minutes

3) drain pasta. Add tin of tomato soup. Simmer the soup for 30 seconds, add the basil and pepper. Stir.

4) Simmer for 2 mins, then add the chicken breast (tear into sizable chunks) and stir in.

5) Simmer for another minute and add the cream. Simmer for a further 5 mins.

6) Serve! YUM!

Comments

Yeah I know it's pretty obvious, but am I not a genius for using a tin of soup instead of a jar of pasta sauce, eh?! also the reason this is on here is cos tonight this stuff tasted better than anything I can remember that's resulted from a pasta sauce jar!

Morrisons Fan

Yes, as you can see I'm somewhat a fan of Morrisons stuff. I should start with their pasta – I don't know why, but Morrisons Organic Pasta (it comes in shells and twirls) tastes better than ordinary pasta, I don't know why, but it just does! try it if you don't believe me.

Their cooked chicken is also very nice and their beef(esp their Prime Sirloin) lamb and pork is known to be the best of any supermarket (I know someone who works for a government food agency and they tell me this too). Sainsbury's SO Organic meat is also pretty good. I'm not a hugely taken by Morrisons eggs, they're alright, but I get organic free-range farm eggs from a newsagent which are actually cheaper and better. Also Co-op bacon and sausages top the bunch for me.

Anyways hope you enjoy the recipe if you try it out.

The Lost Symbol By Dan Brown

The third in the series of Dan Brown's ultra best sellers starring the mystery solving symbologist Robert Langdon. This one starts with Langdon being called to Washington DC and the severed hand of his friend Peter Solomon being discovered. A pursuit of who/what/how happened around the US captial city, largely concerning the masons <gasp> and the symbology involving them.

I did enjoy this book, it's quite page turner, like the previous books, it also gives an incredible insight to the masons and their esoteric order. The bad guy Malakh is also pretty cool at times, as some kind of tattooed maniac, intent on bringing down the masonic order. The book is quite a bit longer than the other two and doesn't quite match them in my view – it is very enjoyable, but does go on a bit. Mind you, Angels and Demons was cracking and The Da Vinci Code, well, maybe you pretend you're some special kind of literary critic who didn't like it, but that thing was staggeringly good and one tough act to follow.

No Identifiable Remains By John Tagholm

The story starts with a Channel Tunnel train crash! the Eurostar ploughs into a petrol tanker and half the coaches get destroyed in the explosion. Oliver Dreyfuss is on-board – a young, good looking expert chef with a hot career woman wife and promising restaurant owner, BUT all is not quite so rosey in the real world of Dreyfuss. Through (fate and) luck alone, Dreyfuss survives and wanders to the nearest town in a daze before the emergency services arrive. He has to make a decision to wander into the French sunset and start a new life or go back to his old one – he decides on option numero uno! From there we meet the new woman in his life, the real side of his insanely jealous career wife and other colourful characters.

This book was written by the brother of Wilton legend Roger Tagholm and hence why I ended up reading it. It is an entertaining and thrilling story, mixing emotions of past and present marvellously well, throwing the reader into vivid scenes of rural France and visiting the alpine region for a  terrible tragedy amongst other things. There are some rather graphic and shocking descriptions of Dreyfuss' 'ex'-wife's affair in there too! The end is also rather brilliant, despite me shouting OH NOOO very loudly during reading.

IMPORTANT NOTE: No Adjectives Can Describe Just How Good These Guys Are Live. You have to be there really.

Just when I was thinking legendary Britney’s's O2 show was well up there, untoppable perhaps, these guys turn up at Wembley and knock everything into perspective. Now I wasn’t near the front, but was on level 1 and this meant I got an amazing perspective of the stadium and whole event, especially the throngs of people in the standing area flowing like waves in a stormy sea. The venue was incredible and the diversity of fans remarkable. The Liam lookalikes wandering around drunk add to the iconic atmosphere. The sound system was staggeringly clear and loud, until it cut out for a minute during Wonderwall and all you could hear was everyone singing the chorus. I was meant to be seated, but stood up for 100% of the concert, mostly singing and rockin with the group of fellow Oasis nuts I’d met around me, including some dude who’d seen them in 1994 – in other words akin to the girl I’d met in Bulgaria who’d seen Nirvana live!

Also made me realise too just how many  hits they’ve had. Well glad I went with Andy, a true fellow Oasis fan, somebody who deserved seeing something like this. Still the best band in the world, but then I would say that cos they’ve been my fave band for a decade and I was MAD FOR IT. Next day I played a tennis match against a guy in West Byfleet, turned out he too was at the gig, only he’d had a standing ticket, got there really early and was in the front enclosed section, feet away from Liam & Noel! Lucky Lucky Lucky man! But I don’t look back in anger, you gotta roll with it and I won’t go crying my heart out neither

Playlist that night: Rock n’Roll Star, Lyla, The Shock Of The Lightning, Cigarettes & Alcohol, Roll With It, To Be Where There’s Life, Waiting for the Rapture, Masterplan, Songbird, Slide Away, (What’s The Story?) Morning Glory, My Big Mouth, Importance Of Being Idle, Half The World Away, I’m Outta Time, Wonderwall, Supersonic, Live Forever, Don’t Look Back In Anger, Falling Down, Champagne Supernova, I Am The Walrus

What a performance and what a show. Second time I’d seen her live and this time was just as good as the first! What a stage set, the amazing light/multimedia show, the great dance routines, the whole thing exuded such energy. Also contrary to popular belief in the media, Britney only mimed about 3 songs during the whole show, not only could you tell this by the sound of her voice, but we had binoculars to check double sure. Throw in the New York Circus and Ciara as support plus the hand-clapping sing-a-long ovation brought about by  her classics Toxic, Hit Me Baby One More Time & Womaniser, the whole night was Britney Brilliant!