Ukrainian Sandwiches in Hull

Lena's Deli in Hull is a real find. In a city surprisingly bereft of decent non-chain eateries, Lena's serves up wholesome Ukrainian-style nosh with a deli twist.



Today I had a toasted ciabatta with russian sausage (basically a light-pink garlickly salami thinly-sliced), cream cheese, pickled cucumber and tomato. Delicious! One of those sandwiches where you think it's going to be a struggle to finish, but oh no, no issue at all!

They had home-made fishcakes behind the counter which would be great I suspect with their curious salads, which include buckwheat, spicy carrot, vitamin and others. We tried the salad last time, was marvellous.

And cakes too. Today they had slices of Sharlotka, a Russian apple cake. Plus some very moreish-looking muffins.

Where is it? Across the road from the BBC building at the western end of Queen's Gardens. Stop by from 9am - 3pm Monday to Saturday - there's nowhere to sit inside but that's what the park's for - at least after it warms up somewhat!

FaxExtension Outlook Plugin Bug No More!

I don’t often mention techie things on here, for a start that’s Ali Butt’s job, and secondly it’s of limited interest to my wider readership (What readership? - Ed). However, this has been irritating me for so long that I simply have to share!

Every time I have started Outlook since, well, some time last year, on creating a new message I get the following error:



For the benefit of Google and mankind I will write that out in plaintext:

The Add-in "FaxExtension" (C:\Windows\SysWOW64\fxsext32.dll) cannot be loaded and has been disabled by Outlook. Please contact the Add-in manufacturer for an update. If no update is available, please uninstall the Add-in.

I’d tried all the usual tricks, including deleting extend.dat, which in fact worked for me in the past. I can only assume it didn’t work this time because of this being a 64-bit version of software, hence designed slightly differently?

Anyway cut to the answer, and props to a “Brian Durfy” for the tip off, which is to go into the Trust Centre in Tools, then into Add Ins, and here’s the clever bit…



At the bottom, in the drop down box which probably says “Com Add-ins”, change this to “Exchange Client Extensions” then click Go... In here you will find the evil add in with check-box to disable.



Voila! Life can go on and you will contemplate Dignitas no longer.

Moctezuma - The Last Great Aztec Leader

Visited Moctezuma, the exhibition at the British Museum about the last great Aztec leader. I have to confess that Blockbuster exhibitions at the BM vary in subject interest for me, but one cannot judge the quality without attending - Hadrian for instance was an interesting subject but a rather poor exhibition. Aztec history is of mild interest to me, but I went along anyway and was glad I did so.



Moctezuma came to power in the early 1500s, leading a civilisation that was centred on Tenochtitlan, situated bang in the middle of modern-day Mexico City. The broad-ranging exhibition covers the background to his rule, the Aztec beliefs and way of life, the campaigns that Moctezuma successfully led, expanding their empire and bringing in valuable materials and human sacrificial victims.



I have the privilege of having visited the fantastic Anthropological Museum in Mexico City, whence much of the exhibition material came from, but of course the curation standard at the BM is excellent and so is an interesting alternative take, supported and concluding with the latest findings, including active digs going on just off the main square in Mexico City which Adrian and I visited all those years ago!



I did find myself turning off at some of the names, particularly of the gods, but thoroughly enjoyed the paintings of the Spanish invasion when Cortes first marched inland with troops in 1519, subjugating Moctezuma and painting a picture of a weak ruler voluntarily surrendering his throne, when the latest research suggests this was all spin by the invading colonialists.



Moctezuma is at the British Museum until the 24th January. Advanced booking is required for the last couple of weeks.

Snowy Britain

Apparently tonight it will fall to -20C in parts of Britain, including in the South! I came across this fantastic image below on the BBC website, taken by Nasa's Terra satellite on 7 January. Click here for a larger image.