josephbloggs

I've travelled internationally four times in the past 4-5 weeks since restrictions lifted, and each and every time the immigration staff have been genuinely nice and friendly. Just left now for Singapore and I got a wai, a smile and a chat. It's been noticeable on each trip how much friendlier they are. I've never found them rude or anything, but just businesslike. I wonder if this is a new policy, or if it is just a result of them not being so stressed out with long queues of people? Anyone else noticed the same? Anyway, it's nice.

I recently made a thread with questions about import duties for hand carrying a wood fired pizza oven and 20kg of oak pellets back from the UK. Got some good info and I carried it back with no issues. Some people were interested in the oven and asked me to post a review once I'd used it, so here it is. @richard_smith237 It's a brilliant bit of kit. So nicely engineered, easy to put together (took one minute), easy to use. It gets to around 450 celcius in 15 minutes or so and cooks the pizza in 60 seconds. I had to cure it for 30 minutes the first time (just burn wood in there at maximum temp) then it was ready to use. The very first pizza I cooked in there burnt as I put it in and came back 90 seconds later to check - too late; the second was great. The heat is so intense that 10-15 seconds is the difference between being underdone, perfect, and burnt - literally - so you have to be vigilant. The taste is amazing, the texture is amazing. The machine needs no looking after other than cleaning soot out of the chimney. I just fired it up for the second time tonight. Honestly better than most pizzas I've ever ordered, but definitely room for improvement still. So my review is it is well worth it. Needs a learning curve as to how to cook at such high heat (how thick should your base be, how sloppy your toppings can be, how devoted you need to be about watching it cook and turning it around and removing it in time), but overall it is 10/10. If you were thinking of getting one I recommend it. I should point out I have absolutely no affiliation with the company, they don't even ship to Thailand, but I had wanted one for a while, I had a trip to the UK booked so I ordered one to be delivered there then carried it back. https://ooni.com/collections/ovens/products/ooni-fyra Some pictures from today.