Morgan Trike 2011

Being quite a quirky person, and with the end of 2010 coming up to a close, I thought I'd introduce a delectable piece of British quirkiness that's my dream come true! Launching in 2011. The new Morgan Threewheeler trike.

This little beauty is powered by a 1,800cc Harley-Davidson engine, fused to the five-speed manual transmission from a Mazda5. The aluminium aerodynamic frame helps the trike weight in at a mere 500 kilos, so it's no surprise that combined with the 100 horsepower at the rear wheel, the trike can jet from from 0-60 miles per hour in 4.5 seconds and on to an estimated top speed of 115 mph.

The Morgan trike is available in a choice of eight exterior colours, all of which are accented by black components in matte or gloss finish. The interiors are available in either black or tan leather and features aircraft-style toggle switches for the various accessories and a bespoke option will be made available for customers at a later date.




Source http://www.morgan3wheeler.co.uk/morganthreewheeler.pdf


The new Morgan Three-wheeler will be launched at the Geneva Motor Show in March with sales due to start in the summer 2011 at a price of around £30,000. Although a little pricey, the trike is categorised as a motorcycle, so you won't need to pay congestion charges!

Singing at the Swedish Church for Lucia

My Swedish friends celebrate Lucia, Saint Lucia (Saint Lucy). The tradition of Lucia is for her and her followers to bring light and music during the darkest part of the year and this festival is celebrated everywhere in Sweden.

We went to the Swedish Church in London and watched a Swedish choir sing, the singing consists on an elected girl to portray Lucia. She wears a white gown with a red sash and a crown of candles on her head, and walks at the head of a procession of women, each holding a candle. The candles symbolise the fire that refused to take St. Lucia's life when she was sentenced to be burned. The women sing a Lucia song while entering the room, to the melody of the traditional Sicilian song. Santa Lucia. From what I could gather the Swedish priest said Siracusa, so therefore think she is the one and the same as Saint Lucy, the patron church of Siracusa.  Saint Lucia is one of the few Saints the Swedish commemorate.

12 of my friends and I sat at the upper balcony of the Swedish church and savoured the music of the choir. The singing lasted for about an hour and I was worried that the girl elected to portray Lucia would have her hair catch on fire, but my Swedish friends told me this never happens, although some girls do faint from the heat of the candles.

After the choir singing my friends ate some church baked saffron buns and ginger biscuits and drank some mulled wine. We are looking forward to the celebration of Lucia this following Sunday at the Ickburgh house.  

Christmastime is here (almost)

I love Christmastime. Usually, during this time of year, there is a lot of cheer and giving (not to mention receiving) but as I'm not with my family (my brother and sister have both flown back to Thailand, which was quite lucky as a lot of people have been stranded because of the heavy snow here in London.)

I am having an orphan's Christmas with Dan and his friend Simon down at the Ickburgh house. To go in theme, we have decided to be very frugal. 

I have managed to buy a quite sizable turkey for the 3 of us at £9.00 and wrapping it with steaky bacon under the turkey skin so it doesn't dry out, 2 packets of streaky bacon £2.00 and pork with crackling for £6.00 which I have pre cooked in a marmalade glaze that was already in my fridge.)

I find pork trickier to cook than turkey, but now it's all done - I can reheat 30 minutes before I bring the turkey out of the oven on Christmas day. The trick to reheating pork without drying it out is to let it sit in a bain marie in the oven.

I boiled the pork before I roasted it and I will use the pork stock to parboil the roast potatoes. The trick to getting crispy roast potatoes is to score it with a fork.

I am getting the boys to peel the potatoes and carrots, which will probably cost about £3.00 and I have bought pre cooked roast parsnips at £1.00 and I have asked them to get brussell sprouts which will be another £1.00.

I went to Waitrose and purchased some PAXO sage and onion stuffing (£0.40) that I will mix with some sausage meat and an apple to make the stuffing and some apple sauce (£0.60) for the pork as well as some cranberry sauce (£1.45).

I think we won't have Christmas pudding but I have bought an imitation sacher torte, which I think tastes wonderful and at £1.90 it's not bad at all for the price.

As for the drinking, well you can never be frugal with it, but I have asked the boys to take care of this side of things and will report back on how much was spent.

What is everyone else doing for Christmas?

Lunar eclipse watching

This morning at 7.40 was a lunar eclipse which also happened to fall on this year's winter solstice.
Had it not been cold outside, this would be the ideal hammock to have watched it from. It's available from http://www.wave.st/