Welcome to harryroberts.co.uk—Trials rider, type geek and web developer from Leeds, UK

Everything’s amazing and no one’s happy

This has to be one of my all time favourite YouTube clips. Louis CK talking about how spoiled people have become as a result of the constant and omnipresent technology and technological advances that everyone seems to take for granted.

Every time I see someone complaining about the tiniest, most insignificant flaws with something that’s otherwise awesome I think of this clip. I think the worst one is people who complain about free things—people who complain about Twitter and Facebook et al, I just think ‘Seriously, stop nit-picking and complaining about free stuff. You pay nothing for this, so in turn they owe you nothing’.

Anyway, I’ll let Louis put if far more eloquently and amusingly than I can…

We’ve lost a lot of gratitude and it’s not nice. Be grateful for what you have got and don’t bitch about what you haven’t.

Housekeeping

Hello there—I’m afraid you’re a little earlier than I expected… Why not make yourself comfortable? I’m just going to have a quick tidy up around you, if you don’t mind…

Welcome to the redesigned, rebuilt, re-purposed harryroberts.co.uk. Things aren’t really finished yet, so I’ll be getting on that asap.

I’ve run CSS Wizardry for a while now, and had the @csswizardry Twitter account for almost two years. As CSS Wizardry has taken off, harryroberts.co.uk has taken a back seat, and the gap between the two has widened. harryroberts.co.uk has done nothing but gather dust and cost me money, so I thought a proper effort to get it doing something worthwhile was in order.

I’ve decided that harryroberts.co.uk needs to be a place for everything that isn’t web dev related. Here I’ll post, well, anything I guess. It’ll mainly be trials stuff, food stuff, personal stuff. Stuff that doesn’t belong on CSS Wizardry.

Twitter

I’ve also set up a personal Twitter account at @HdotRdot (seriously, that was the best that was available around my name) so that’ll be for random, personal Tweets about other non-dev stuff.

Or so is the plan…

Anyway, if you only follow me for geeky web things and suchlike then I guess this site and Twitter account won’t be of much interest to you, which is cool. See you over at CSS Wizardry!

Harry

Spicy chorizo pasta bake

This dish is so incredibly simple that I can’t believe I haven’t made it more often. I love chorizo, as a real meat-eater it’s one of my favourites, and it’s so versatile. This meal is quick, pretty cheap and really, really easy.

I’ve made it for both Suze and Bryan now and they both liked it. It’s got a great ROI in terms of effort to taste. And yes—I did just say ROI.


Finished dish

Continue reading…

Harry Roberts—Dirtywhirl

This is my second full length trials video. Filmed over summer–winter 2010, I stayed pretty much entirely in Leeds for this one. It features my biggest riding to date, so I’m pretty pleased with how it all came together.

The song is Dirtywhirl from Return To Cookie Mountain (iTunes link) by TV On The Radio.

Many thanks to Suze, Jake and the rest for following and filming me!

Harry Roberts—Motion 5000

This is my first full length trials video on my new bike. I moved from 20″ to 26″ in March 2010 and this is the outcome. It’s all filmed in the North of England, mainly in Leeds but a few sections in Manchester.

Thanks to all who helped my put this together, and to Luke Cockshott for pushing me to success in the very last clip.

The song is Motion 5000 from Brand New Second Hand (iTunes link) by Roots Manuva.

Quasi Udon

Last night I made a totally made-up stir-fry for me and Suze. I don’t know what you’d call it, but it tasted a little bit like Yaki Udon and also used Udon noodles, so I’ll call it a Quasi Udon.

A photograph of my Quasi Udon

It’s really simple to make, and so tasty! All you’ll need is:

  • 400g chicken
  • 1tsp chilli powder
  • Salt and pepper (to taste)
  • 3 x fresh chillies (red and green, finely chopped, seeded)
  • 1 x red onion (thinly sliced)
  • 1 x red pepper (thinly sliced)
  • 1 x green pepper (thinly sliced)
  • 1 x tomato (in chunks)
  • Spring onions (finely chopped)
  • Sweet chilli sauce
  • Light soy
  • Dark soy
  • Udon straight-to-wok noodles

Cooking

Cooking time depends on how you like your stir-fries, there’s really no right or wrong way. This is how I did it:

  1. Lightly coat raw chicken in chilli powder and salt and pepper.
  2. Add a dash of olive oil to a wok and heat.
  3. Add chicken to pan, add a dash of the chilli sauce and light soy.
  4. Brown chicken in oil/sauce/soy mix before adding all vegetables except tomato.
  5. Cook together until peppers and onions soften, then add tomatoes.
  6. Once these are almost done, remove everything from the wok and keep it warm in an oven.
  7. Add a dash more oil to the wok and fry the Udon noodles until cooked (usually takes a couple of minutes).
  8. For a final two minutes, add the meat and veg back to the pan to bring all the flavours together.
  9. Once everything seems to your liking, serve on a plate with dark soy to taste.

There, as simple as that.

Enjoy!