Welcome to spod.cx - Ben Charlton's website on spod.cx

I cycled along a 10km scale solar system in Cambridge back in 2022 and really appreciated the sense of scale and how empty even our local bit of space is.

In April 2025 I took UK Parking Control (UKPC) to court.

Takata?

This is my variation on Kenji López-Alt’s recipe for Texas-style Chilli adjusted for someone who has very limited tolerance to spicy heat and issues with most vegetable textures but loves the flavour of chilli.

OUR brave new world.

I finally got round to updating from my old 2006-era DIY static site generator Meek to hugo, which is much more flexible and has far nicer support for image handling.

Last September we visited the West India Dock Impounding Station as part of the London Open House Festival.

Carrot and Coriander Soup.

With thanks to Kelduum for this recipe.

I was lucky enough to attend Electromagnetic Field this year, a camping festival for those with an inquisitive mind or an interest in making things: hackers, artists, geeks, crafters, scientists, and engineers.

Back in 2021 I bought the very cheap Aldi Kamado ceramic BBQ/smoker.

This was an attempt to put together something approximating a Butter Chicken / Murgh Makhani for someone who has very limited tolerance to spicy heat and issues with most vegetable textures.

I think this is the easiest way to get reliable RTSP video out of a Pi Zero with a camera attached.

Ingredients 500g passata / chopped tomatoes 1 onion 3 cloves garlic basil and oregano to taste 500g pasta 400g pack of meatballs 3 heaped tablespoons of mascarpone Instructions Start heating the water for the pasta, and add the pasta when it reaches a rol…

Slightly different to the pancake batter, a bit richer and rises better for toad in the hole.

I backed the kickstarter for the MOCHAbin back in 2021 and mine arrived towards the end of 2022.

Writing this down because it’s handy.

I removed the broken Google site search and replaced it with Pagefind which is really neat.

This rub goes really well with pork, I’ve used it with pulled pork and ribs so far.

A spaceman came travelling on his ship from afar, ‘Twas light years away from his home planet start, And over a village he halted his craft, And it hung in the sky like a star, just like a star.