Why are we still flying in planes?

No music this week, since we only got together to work out how to attract new band members (and play Streetfighter IV), but I don't like going a week without a post, so...


Following a chance mention in a Rock Paper Shotgun podcast (this one, I think), I came across this fantastic post at bldgblog, and in the comments, this post about actual airship prototypes. I now desperately want to fly in an airship. They seem so much more civilised than planes, with all the noise, all that costly fuel, the pressurised cabins (which pretty much always make me feel ill - I'm a tender flower). They're far safer too - with modern helium airships, any punctures would just result in the airship floating gently to ground. And helium's inert, and actually acts as a fire extinguisher. Clearly everything about airships is better than planes, and our continued development of be-winged vehicles has been one long evolutionary dead-end :-)

Anyway, we did make some food this week:
Falafel and Fairy Cakes. Most of the stuff for the main course we just bought, rather than messing around with deep frying the falafel etc. but click the Read More link for the recipes of what we did make.

More...
Niall's Tomato and Honey Sauce:

• 1/2 small onion, finely chopped
  
• 1/2 tin chopped tomatoes
• a big gloop of honey
• 1tsp cayenne pepper
• 1tsp mixed herbs
• a handful of basil, torn

1. Stick everything in a pot, and simmer on a medium heat while you cook the falafel.
2. That's all.

Fairy Cakes:

• 175g self-raising flour
• 150g caster sugar
• 150g margarine
• 1tsp vanilla
• 3 eggs
• some strawberry jam
• 150g icing sugar
• 2tsp lemon juice
  
• some water

1. Put the flour, caster sugar, margarine, vanilla and eggs in a bowl, and mix.
2. Spoon the mix into 12 baking cases, stick in the oven at 160C for about 20mins.
3. Leave to cool.
4. Once cool, take a small knife and slice the tops off the cakes in a kind of conical shape (so there's a hollow in what's left of the cake.
5. Now slice the bottom of the cake top off and eat it :-)
6. Put a teaspoon of jam in the hollow, and place what remains of the cake top on top of it.
7. To make the icing, add the lemon juice to the icing sugar, then add water till you get the right consistency (quite thick, not runny). Spoon on to the top of the cakes.

Finally, the prettiness of Streetfighter IV: