Where in the World is Steven de Salas?tag:www.sdesalas.com,2010:site-18124068982010-07-29T23:54:12ZVisualSite Useruser@visualsite.me2010-05-06T21:27:00Ztag:www.sdesalas.com,2010:site-1812406898.1http://www.sdesalas.com:80/Where-in-the-World-is-Steven-de-Salas-.aspx

Hi. I'm Steven de Salas. Welcome to my Site. I write a bit of everything here. Mostly stuff about me, feel free to have a poke around. I try to keep the site updated as much as I can but sometimes I forget. Hey, today maybe you're lucky.    30 April 2010 - Spring in East Dulwich I been busy working on an interface for a trading app the last couple of months, long days in the office and only time for a social life on weekends. I'm doing the commute from East Dulwich to Tower Bri...

2010-01-17T22:01:00Ztag:www.sdesalas.com,2010:site-1812406898.2http://www.sdesalas.com:80/Travel-Blog.aspx

Random Entry: Camino a Santiago Last summer, I set off with my brother Javi and my Mum in a cold morning to join the pilgrims on the last 100Km of the Way to Compostela in the province of Galicia in the North West of Spain. We started off in Sarria a small town where we were dropped off by an overnight train from Madrid at 6.30am and started asking the locals for directions to Santiago. Its amazing how far one can walk on foot if you do nothing else all day. Soon we left the little town and ha...

2010-02-09T17:46:00Ztag:www.sdesalas.com,2010:site-1812406898.3http://www.sdesalas.com:80/About-Work.aspx

So what do you do for a living? When people ask me this question I often answer "I make websites". Truth be told, I'm 50% graphic designer, 50% coder and programmer. Sometimes I design business cards and brochures for print. I've also dabbled with graphic animation and designed Flash movies for clients. But the bulk of my work these days comes from interface design, database modelling and application programming. I use Photoshop, ASP.NET C# and SQL Server if that means anything to you. Onli...

2010-02-09T17:58:00Ztag:www.sdesalas.com,2010:site-1812406898.4http://www.sdesalas.com:80/Cooking-Recipes.aspx

I love cooking, almost as much as I love eating. My favourite cuisine is Argentinian, which is really a blend of spanish / italian with lots of excellent quality steak thrown in for good measure. But wherever I go I prefer to experience local food, and so while spending time in the British isles I found that there is one meal the brits make better than anyone else. The Breakfast. Full English Breakfast Serves 2 people. Total Cooking Time: 30 minutes Forget about yorkshire pudding and...

2010-01-17T22:01:00Ztag:www.sdesalas.com,2010:site-1812406898.5http://www.sdesalas.com:80/Out-in-Lisbon.aspx

19 December 2009 I took a few days to go visit the city of Lisbon, capital of Portugal, arriving there on the overnight train from Madrid. Lisbon is a really cool little city, where the steep streets sloping down to the Tajo river are made of cobblestones and trams still run around the place instead of buses. The weather was a balmy 15 degrees, not bad for the middle of december. I went out both nights there to check out the nighlife with the people from the hostal I stayed at. Bars and clubs...

2010-01-17T22:01:00Ztag:www.sdesalas.com,2010:site-1812406898.6http://www.sdesalas.com:80/Drawings.aspx

A Couple of my Drawings I stopped drawing for a little while but now I've decided to take it up again, here are a few of the pics that I saw in my sketch book when I opened it again. I guess its not so bad hey? The first pic is of my friend Vanessa, this is a friend from school. The drawing is of one time we sat down to drink coffee. I think its one of the best drawings I've done so far. This other drawing is of my brother Javier, I make most of my drawings from photos and I took one the day...

2010-01-17T22:01:00Ztag:www.sdesalas.com,2010:site-1812406898.7http://www.sdesalas.com:80/Graphic-Design.aspx

Segresco Branding Zero Designs Lejie Lotus Interface Siemens Flash Reethoght Flash EIC Trading BDA China Ltd Beijing Airport Guide Made For China OzTime Education Exoweb China

2010-01-17T22:01:00Ztag:www.sdesalas.com,2010:site-1812406898.8http://www.sdesalas.com:80/Websites.aspx

Please note: for those that are expecting a whole bunch of links to live sites I have to advise that from experience the mean lifetime of a website is between 1 and 2 years. Most sites I've worked on in the past are not around anymore, generally because the companies behind them have ceased to exist. Others have redeveloped their website since. Segresco (Spain) ESPA Online (UK) Barclays Capital (UK) Barclays Private Equity (UK) Claritii Solutions (UK) Nandos Intranet (UK) Select...

2010-01-17T22:01:00Ztag:www.sdesalas.com,2010:site-1812406898.9http://www.sdesalas.com:80/Web-Applications.aspx

  VisualSite CMS ESPA Shopping Cart System BPE Private Equity Deal Manager Barcap Vignette CMS Offering Imperial College Desktop Procurement System Imperial College Service Desk Web Portal Nandos Purchase Ordering System Nandos Till-Data Management System Nandos Financial Reporting System Lease Scheme Ordering System UTAS Desktop Tracking System GST Refund Project UTAS Network Monitor

2010-01-17T22:01:00Ztag:www.sdesalas.com,2010:site-1812406898.10http://www.sdesalas.com:80/Blueberry-Cheesecake.aspx

Serves 8 people. Total Cooking Time: 1½ hours This is an old recipe for baked cheesecake I've had lying around for ages.  Ingredients (filling): 500g Cream Cheese, melted 1 cup White Sugar 1/2 cup Flour 1 Tin of blueberries 3 Tablespoons of Butter, melted Finely grated rind for 1 lemon 1 egg 1 shot of port/cognac pinch of salt Ingredients (base): 120g biscuits, crumbed 2 tablespoons of butter, melted 2 tablespoons of hot water PREPARATION Use the mi...

2010-01-17T22:01:00Ztag:www.sdesalas.com,2010:site-1812406898.11http://www.sdesalas.com:80/Moroccan-Tagine.aspx

2010-01-17T22:01:00Ztag:www.sdesalas.com,2010:site-1812406898.12http://www.sdesalas.com:80/Chicken-Cous-cous.aspx

Ingredients - 400g chicken thights or drumsticks- 400g cous cous- Cooking Instructions

2010-01-17T22:01:00Ztag:www.sdesalas.com,2010:site-1812406898.14http://www.sdesalas.com:80/English-Breakfast.aspx

Serves 2 people. Total Cooking Time: 30 minutes Forget about yorkshire pudding and stilton cheese, this trusty old favourite is the best foodie delight to make it out of the british isles. Ingredients: 1 packet of smoked bacon rashers (250g) 2 eggs 4 pork sausages 1 can of baked beans 200g of chopped mushrooms 1 tomato, cut in halves Use a big non-stick frying pan. First fry the bacon rashers and sausages, followed by chopped mushroom. Then fry the eggs (I like sunny side up - on...

2010-01-17T22:01:00Ztag:www.sdesalas.com,2010:site-1812406898.15http://www.sdesalas.com:80/Chicken-Liver-Salad.aspx

2010-01-17T22:01:00Ztag:www.sdesalas.com,2010:site-1812406898.16http://www.sdesalas.com:80/Chilli-Con-Carne.aspx

I stumbled upon this recipe one day I was trying to make some bolognaise sauce and then changed my mind by adding red kidney beans. It worked out great so I cooked some rice and had one of the best improvised dishes I had cooked in ages. Ingredients - 250 grams of beef mince- 300g can of red kidney beans

2010-01-17T22:01:00Ztag:www.sdesalas.com,2010:site-1812406898.17http://www.sdesalas.com:80/Fabada--Butter-Bean-Soup-.aspx

This is a stub, I havent filled it in yet.

2010-01-17T22:01:00Ztag:www.sdesalas.com,2010:site-1812406898.18http://www.sdesalas.com:80/Aranjuez.aspx

25 September 2009 In September I went to visit the town of Aranjez just a short train ride south of Madrid. This place is where the spanish royal family used to go on holidays back in the days when they still ruled over spanish politics and the church was a force to be reckoned with.     I walked around the palace and royal gardens with my mum and took a few photos.

2010-01-17T22:01:00Ztag:www.sdesalas.com,2010:site-1812406898.19http://www.sdesalas.com:80/Porto-Bonhito.aspx

28 August 2009 After visiting Santiago I went on a 4hr bus ride down to the beautiful city of Porto in the north part of Portugal. I really like it there, it has a South America feel to it, being relatively undeveloped (and cheap!) for a Western European nation. I think Portugal has been part of the EU for just as long as Spain however, unlike its Iberian neighbour, Portugal seems to have been spared some of the indecency of modern real estate development. The addition of UNESCO protected stat...

2010-01-17T22:01:00Ztag:www.sdesalas.com,2010:site-1812406898.20http://www.sdesalas.com:80/Jersey.aspx

29 July 2008 I took a long weekend in July to go and visit Jersey, a small island just off the coast of France that I've had my eye on for a while thinking that it might be a bit like Tasmania. I arrived on an easyjet flight and hired a bike and cycled all the way around the island, getting lost in the little country backroads and stumbling upon some gorgeous beaches. The place itself is lovely, quite laid back and sedate with a very high standard of living and some stunning coastline good fo...

2010-01-17T22:01:00Ztag:www.sdesalas.com,2010:site-1812406898.21http://www.sdesalas.com:80/Santiago-de-Compostela.aspx

12 June 2008 Hola boys and girls, I've been spending a bit of time in Santiago (de Compostela) in Galicia lately. I kinda liked it after doing the Camino last month so decided to spend more time soaking up the student and backpacker atmosphere in the place. Its a lovely place full of old buildings. I've even been thinking wouldnt it be nice to have a little apartment here to retire for a bit of "Ooohhmmm" in between freelance jobs, so I dipped my feet a bit in the real estate market to see i...

2010-01-17T22:01:00Ztag:www.sdesalas.com,2010:site-1812406898.22http://www.sdesalas.com:80/Trujillo.aspx

3 January 2008 I headed off to trujillo with Athena just before the new year to spend a few days with my brother, mum and and my auntie Carmen. My aunt and cousin Candela live there in an old house in the city walls where I used to stay as a child when we went to visit the grandparents. Trujillo is an old roman walled city perched on a hill ofgranite in the western part of Extremadura just next to Portugal. It was conquered by the moorish and became a frontier town with the around 1000 ...

2010-01-17T22:01:00Ztag:www.sdesalas.com,2010:site-1812406898.23http://www.sdesalas.com:80/San-Sebastian.aspx

15 August 2008 HOLA EVERYONE! :) Just got back from a brilliant weekend in San Sebastian, a beautiful little town in the north of Spain. Took 5 days to go and visit this place with some guys I met at work: Theo (second from right) and Karune (far right). We met up with Terry (the guy next to me), another work buddy, who had been taking a couple of weeks of catching some sun, eating beautiful food and going out every night like we were about to. Once there I spent the first few nights goin...

2010-01-22T19:38:00Ztag:www.sdesalas.com,2010:site-1812406898.24http://www.sdesalas.com:80/Marrakesh---Essaouira.aspx

20 January 2008

2010-01-17T22:01:00Ztag:www.sdesalas.com,2010:site-1812406898.25http://www.sdesalas.com:80/New-Years-in-Granada.aspx

5 January 2008

2010-01-17T22:01:00Ztag:www.sdesalas.com,2010:site-1812406898.28http://www.sdesalas.com:80/Madrid.aspx

4 September 2007 HOLA! This is my crazy bro and me in one of those moments you just dont know what to do.. It took about 15 shots with the mobile to get us to look moderately crazy without getting too scary, a couple of cars honked at us too while we were at it. Yep, so I've been going to Madrid a lot recently, it wasnt planned ... more like one day I found I was spending almost as much time over there as in London town. Easyjet have decided to make me "Customer of the Year" on the London-Mad...

2010-01-17T22:01:00Ztag:www.sdesalas.com,2010:site-1812406898.29http://www.sdesalas.com:80/Finding-a-new-Pad.aspx

1 April 2007 Im moving soon. Not sure where I'm moving to or what kind of place I'm after, I'm thinking of moving in with some cool flatmates so that I can have some company. Looking mostly around Clapham/Balham area in South London, I find that this is one of the best places to spend the summer as its pretty green all around. Putney is good too as you have the river nearby and there is a really nice bike-ride to Richmond park, the only thing with Putney is that its a bit further to cycle to wo...

2010-01-17T22:01:00Ztag:www.sdesalas.com,2010:site-1812406898.30http://www.sdesalas.com:80/Faithless-concert-in-Brighton.aspx

28 March 2007 I finished work early on Tue and headed to Brighton to catch up with Al, Jules, Karl, Elmy and the whole crowd from Imperial College. I arrived early on the train from London, which only took about 1hr, then walked around thinking 'damn this town is nice! small and laid back and yet its still got quite a lot of character and a pretty hip crowd and nightlife. Would it be cool to live here and commute to london?' Anyway. So I headed down to the beach to have a drink and watch the...

2010-01-17T22:01:00Ztag:www.sdesalas.com,2010:site-1812406898.31http://www.sdesalas.com:80/Tango-in-Holborn.aspx

24 March 2007 Friday night I went to check out Negracha, someone I met recommended this place in Holborn as the top venue for learning and dancing Tango in London. Its quite a small scene and when you go there you realise that most people who come for the open dancing that starts at 10pm already know each other. Tango is very different to Salsa, for starters its a lot harder to learn, but its also more dramatic and amazing to watch. Negracha is not a pick-up venue which is a welcome change f...

2010-01-17T22:01:00Ztag:www.sdesalas.com,2010:site-1812406898.32http://www.sdesalas.com:80/Boston.aspx

19 February 2007 And so I made a little hole in the ground and kept digging until I popped out in a place called Boston Common, somewhere in the East Coast of USA.. Apparently, or so I've been told, the TV series Ally McBeal supposedly takes place in those buildings behind me on that pic on the right. If so they could have chosen a better place for a law firm, it was about -10 C, which was even colder than Canada, at least I had a warm jacket and my beanie to keep my head warm. I met my friend...

2010-01-17T22:01:00Ztag:www.sdesalas.com,2010:site-1812406898.33http://www.sdesalas.com:80/Whistler.aspx

12 February 2007 This is a pretty amazing place to come if youre after some quality snowboarding, definately even better than Mirabel and the 3 valleys I went to in the French alps last season. Whistler village is perched in the valley between Whistler and Blackcomb mountains, both are great places to go skiing and snowboarding. There is anything from green easy runs, to crazy double diamond black runs down a glacier, or if you're after practicing your jumps there is a terrain park full of the...

2010-01-17T22:01:00Ztag:www.sdesalas.com,2010:site-1812406898.34http://www.sdesalas.com:80/Arriving-in-Canada.aspx

2010-01-17T22:01:00Ztag:www.sdesalas.com,2010:site-1812406898.35http://www.sdesalas.com:80/Sao-Paolo.aspx

2010-01-17T22:01:00Ztag:www.sdesalas.com,2010:site-1812406898.36http://www.sdesalas.com:80/Ediths-Special-Hummus.aspx

Serves: 10 people Total time: 15 min One evening I went to a party the Spanish girls were having at their place in West London and tried this excellent recipe. Ingredients - 400g boiled chickpeas- 100ml olive oil- 3x cloves of garlic (peeled)- 3x tablespoons of tahine- half a lemon- 3x teaspoons sweet paprika- 1x teaspoon spicy paprika- salt and water to taste Cooking Instructions STEP 1: Pour the chickpeas into a bowl or food processor container, ideally with some water...

2010-01-17T22:01:00Ztag:www.sdesalas.com,2010:site-1812406898.38http://www.sdesalas.com:80/Carnavales-de-Tenerife.aspx

03 March 2009 I just came back from spending a week in Tenerife with some friends and family celebrating my birthday among other things.. It was Carnaval when I was there, which is a pretty big celebration where everyone gets dressed up and parties in the streets till really late at night. It was nice of the town to have a party for me, I felt very touched by the gesture ;) Aside from all the partying the Canaries are worth visiting anytime. They are a bunch of volcanic islands just off th...

2010-01-17T22:01:00Ztag:www.sdesalas.com,2010:site-1812406898.39http://www.sdesalas.com:80/Barcelona.aspx

2010-01-22T19:38:00Ztag:www.sdesalas.com,2010:site-1812406898.40http://www.sdesalas.com:80/Funky-Berlin.aspx

03 April 2009 Everyone had been telling me how amazing Berlin was so I had to check it out. Spent a few days visiting this city that is re-inventing itself as the new European capital of cool. This used to be a squatters dream after the wall came down. Artists and musicians flocked here attracted by cheap rents and an easy lifestly, their friends came with them. I guess by now this city has become a victim to its own success, being slowly gentrified by the amount of young people moving here. ...

2010-01-17T22:01:00Ztag:www.sdesalas.com,2010:site-1812406898.42http://www.sdesalas.com:80/Blueberry-Friands.aspx

Serves 6 muffins Total time: 40min These blueberry friands are great, a bit like muffins but more solid and stocky. Ingredients 100g/4oz unsalted butter, plus extra for greasing 125g/4 ½oz icing sugar, plus extra for dusting 25g/1oz plain flour 85g/3oz ground almonds 3 egg whites Grated zest 1 unwaxed lemon 85g/3oz blueberries To prepare: 1. Heat oven to 200C/fan 180C/gas 6 2. Generously butter six non-stick friand or muffin tins. To make the cakes: 1. Melt the butter &...

2010-01-22T20:08:00Ztag:www.sdesalas.com,2010:site-1812406898.43http://www.sdesalas.com:80/Linden-s-Pumpkin-Risotto.aspx

Serves 6-8 people Total Cooking Time: 1 hour Ingredients: Short Grain Rice (Arborio)1x Butternut Squash (Pumpkin)500g of ChickenGreek Feta Cheese (Firm texture, not too hard, not too soft)1x Brown Onion1x Whole Clove (Bulb) of Garlic – more the merrierMixed HerbsParsleyWhite Wine (Chardonnay)Chicken StockOlive Oil/Vegetable Oil Directions: Start by preparing the Butternut Squash, cut it length ways into two halves. Scoop out the seeds and peel the skin off. Cut into 1.5cm slices and t...

2010-01-17T22:01:00Ztag:www.sdesalas.com,2010:site-1812406898.44http://www.sdesalas.com:80/New-Site-.aspx

06 Feb 2009 - New Site! I just re-designed it and created a new version of the system behind it so I can change the content easily whenever I want. I also have a blog: http://sdesalas.blogspot.com. I'm in the process of moving it so you'll find at the beginning a lot of the content here is just copied from there anyway. This is me standing next to Boris' office (London Town Hall). I came to see him about the appaling situation for londons cyclists, "HI BORIS!.. I loooove your hair! ;)" In th...

2010-01-17T22:01:00Ztag:www.sdesalas.com,2010:site-1812406898.48http://www.sdesalas.com:80/Galaktoboureko--Greek-Custard-Slice-.aspx

Serves 10 people. Total Cooking Time: 90 minutes This is simply the yummiest pastry cake to have with coffee. I made one yesterday and had a couple pieces today. If you've never had a food orgasm I recommend you try this ASAP. This recipe makes about 12-18 pieces. They are so rich you wont be able to eat more than 1 or 2 a day. Ingredients (filling): 4 eggs 1 cup of sugar 1 cup of semolina (fine grind), cream of wheat, or rice flour 1/2 lemon peel - grated 1 tablespoon of lemon juice ...

2010-01-22T20:09:00Ztag:www.sdesalas.com,2010:site-1812406898.49http://www.sdesalas.com:80/Gravalax--Cured-Salmon-.aspx

Serves 6 people. Total Cooking Time: Several Days This is my mum's recipe for cured salmon. It tastes a bit like smoked salmon but sweeter and with a strong taste of dill and pepper.  Ingredients: 1 fillet of salmon (half a fish) 1/2 cup of salt 12/ cup of sugar 1 cup of chopped dill 2 tablespoons of black pepper Lay out the salmon, once cleaned and boned, on a long sheet of cling film. Powder it with the salt and sugar, adding chopped dill and black pepper. Cover it with the ...

2010-01-22T14:48:00Ztag:www.sdesalas.com,2010:site-1812406898.50http://www.sdesalas.com:80/Steven-s-Homemade-Paella.aspx

Serves 10 people. Total Cooking Time: 1 hour Here is a yummy recipe for Spanish Paella that I put together:  INGREDIENTS Fish & Meat - 250 g of mixed seafood (squid, mussels, prawns, etc) - 200 g of king prawns in the shell Stock - 1.2L of fish or shellfish stock (should taste rich and salty), to be kept hot during steps 1-2 Veg - 80 g of chopped green beans - 10-15 snow peas (mangetout) - 1/2 chopped onion - 1/2 chopped capsicum&nb...