Dover to St Margaret-at-Cliffe walk

It's been a while since I wanted to visit Dover and see the famous White Cliffs of Dover! Lately I've finally managed to do that. It turned out to be a one day lonesome trip, but actually I planned to stay somewhere for the night and also walk from Dover to Folkestone. It didn't work out quite well, because after walking from Dover to St Margaret-at-Cliffe and back my feet hurt a bit too much, so I decided to go back home, basically too much walking as for one day, I think it was something like 20km.

I took off at 10am from Victoria coach station. The ticket cost was £15 pounds, but as far as I remember within different time frame I could have bought it for £7. The trip lasted around 2.5h.

Basically there are two major tourist attractions in Dover. One of them is the Dover Castle, called the "Key to England", the largest castle in England and obviously the White Cliffs of Dover.

Personally I wanted to have a proper walk rather than wander most of the day around the Dover Castle, so I skipped it. I liked Dover so much, that I actually had to skip it, to have a reason to get back there!

Oh, oh, and obviously the third greatest tourist attraction are sheep... unfortunately this cute fellow behind bars.

For me the most amazing were the Cliffs of Dover themselves and the views of the Canal la Manche, oops, sorry, I wanted to say the English Channel ;)

Next city east from Dover is St Margaret-at-Cliffe. 

It has very nice bay called obviously St Margaret's Bay. Wikipedia says the the cliff above the bay is the one where the sun is supposed first to reach the UK every morning.

I should have spent more time there, it's a pity I did not... oh well, next time. Anyway, these areas are awesome. Actually the path I took is a Saxon Shore Way path, from Roman times. The plan is to get back there with a bigger backup of time and go even further. And at the end!

Yeast cake № 1

Today we've tried hard, and we've done it! Our first yeast cake was born :) Actually I was quite reluctant to bake any cakes today, but as usually Ewa was quite stubborn! So, I won't describe the whole recipe, because it's not special or something, just a "normal" yeast cake, I'll only post pictures :P
We had some problems with the dough at the beginning, so there was a moment of uncertainty, but after a long discussion (well, ok, quarrel...) we've developed a successful rescue action which basically meant more yeast, warmer place, so the dough grows properly. So here it is before putting it to the oven:

Yes, I know, doesn't look particularly appealing... but like an hour later:

Here's a nice one made by Ewa, mysterious yeast cake take three:

Not bad, right?! :) At least as for a first try! Soon we'll have a bite, it is resting a bit now, or hmmm... maybe it's better to wait for our flatmate to come back from work and have the first (deadly?) piece?

What is a type?

There's a nice and humorous metaphor in Luca Cardelli's "On Understanding Types, Data Abstraction, and Polymorphism" paper about how we can view types in programming languages which I really like and wanted to share:

A type may be viewed as a set of clothes (or a suit of armor) that protects an underlying untyped representation from arbitrary or unintended use. It provides a protective covering that hides the underlying representation and constrains the way objects may interact with other objects. In an untyped system untyped objects are naked in that the underlying representation is exposed for all to see. Violating the type system involves removing the protective set of clothing and operating directly on the naked representation.

You can download freely the paper from author's site, and please take care of your objects, buy them a warm sweater during winter, don't rip their clothes off too often! Have a nice read ;)

Stewed bramley apple sausages!

Today we bought some sausages stuffed with bramley apple! Bramley apple originated in the UK, they are very sour, that's why most often served cooked. Last time we had venison sausages, also very good, but these today were fantastic! :) We stewed them with red cabbage and a bit of mustard sauce.

I'm not sure what kind of wine should one drink to pork sausages, but Riesling served more than well ;) After such a delicious dinner I've smoked my pipe in our garden... it's a shame the day wasn't sunny, but well, you can't have eveyrthing :/ Hopefully it will get more sunny at the end of May!

Since some time I much more prefer pipe with wine than whisky, and again Riesling is a great companion :)

Bavarian beer and food

Yesterday I was with my colleagues in a Bavarian Beerhouse. It's located on Old Street. They have a great selection of german beers of course. I've tried three of them and made some nice pictures :)

The dark Krombacher was realyy good. According to wikipedia Krombacher is one of Germany's best selling beer brand. Erdinger is a wheat beer, not my favorite type of beer but when your thirsty every beer is good, even ale :P I don't remember much about taste of Kaltenberg... but I do remember the food you can order there... so here it is Bavarian Beerhouse 'Wurstplatte' :D

I didn't try myself, but taking into account happy faces of my colleagues after they have cleaned out the plate I'm sure it was goooood :) So, if you're around don't hesitate, just go there and enjoy best german beer and Wurst!

Weekend = Good Food

Ok, I really like weekends. The main reason is of course spare time which can be used to make gooood food and for slacking off, programming etc. :P Speaking of which...

Yep. The pictures speak for themselves ;) I was happy, Ewa was happy... and even our vagabond garden cat was happy!

In other words, I wish you all a good weekend! :))

Leaving Wrocław...

Why start a blog? Well... why not! There's so much interesting stuff going on. For example few months ago I left Wrocław and I moved to London to start my new job, which I really already like BTW ;) So... I think a few pictures is always a good start :D

That's my new workplace. Doesn't look so bad, right? I know it looks like a bank from outside, but definitively not from the inside. Maybe I can post some pictures next time. Anyway, IMO looks nice :) Ahh.. I work on the orange floor :D

These two were taken in march 2011. It was my first visit to London. They show Camden Town, an interesting district of London. You won't see districts like this in Wrocław ;) 

The last one I like the most, it shows that this city is colourful ;)