I’m a controversialist and catalyst, quietly enabling others to develop by providing different ideas and views of the world. Born in London in the early 1950s and initially trained as a research chemist I retired as a senior project manager after 35 years in the IT industry. Retirement is about community give-back and finding some equilibrium. Founder and Honorary Secretary of the Anthony Powell Society. Chairman of my GP's patient group.
This year our Ten Things each month are words with particular endings. Clearly this won’t be all the words with the nominated ending, but a selection of the more interesting and/or unusual.
Ten Words ending with -kin
merkin
bodkin
kilderkin
firkin
oilskin
snakeskin
foreskin
mannikin
bumpkin
siskin
Your challenge, if you choose to accept it, is to write a story in at most three sentences using all these words correctly. Post your attempt in the comments before the end of the month and there’s an e-drink for anyone who I consider succeeds.
Making lasagne is a time consuming fiddle, and despite likin it I generally can’t be bothered. But in a spirit of adventure the other day we tried out a quick way of making it: use bread, not pasta (yes, really, it does work!), and some of the contents of the freezer. There’s no making Bolognaise sauce from scratch, nor having to cook sheets of pasta, so it’s fairly quick and easy.
This is flexible, and you can obviously substitute according to what you like and/or have available – it’s a good way to use up some of the odd portions of food languishing in the freezer (or just to make a bit more room). It would be just as easy to do veggie or even vegan. Oh, and all the frozen ingredients, and the bread, were homemade!
What follows made two hearty meals for the two of us. You should adjust quantities as necessary. This is what we used …
For the meat sauce
1 portion frozen Bolognaise sauce, thawed
1 portion frozen chilli con carne, thawed
a good quantity of frozen tomato sauce, thawed
a pack of frozen barbeque sauce, thawed
For the white sauce
butter
flour
milk
grated cheese
black pepper
a pack of frozen onion sauce, thawed (that’s white sauce with onions)
For the lasagne
5 (or more) large 10mm thick slices of bread, crusts removed
To finish
butter
grated cheese
black pepper
And this is what we did …
1. Pre-heat the oven to 200C/180C fan.
2. Well butter a large roasting dish (I used our largest glass roasting dish).
3. Roll out the bread slices so they are thin, like actual lasagne.
4. Put all the meat sauce ingredients in a saucepan and heat through thoroughly.
5. Meanwhile make a good thick cheese sauce according to your usual method (don’t be mean with the cheese); add and blend in the onion sauce.
6. When the sauces are ready, put a layer of meat sauce in the bottom of the roasting dish. (You’re aiming for at least 2 full sets of layers.)
7. Now add a layer of bread to cover the whole dish, and a sprinkle of grated cheese.
8. Follow this with a layer of cheese sauce.
9. Repeat the layers as required, finishing with a layer of cheese sauce.
10. Sprinkle with some more grated cheese and black pepper.
11. Bake in the over for 30-45 minutes until browning nicely.
12. Serve with a robust red wine.
This was really tasty. The barbeque sauce and the chilli gave it a nice tangy, but gentle kick.
However, do not expect this to cut nicely into portions when it is hot; it’ll probably collapse, but will taste just as good. However when cooled it should be solid enough to portion prettily before reheating in the microwave.
Most people in the UK will have seen recent Christmas stamps with a barcode, which were part of a trial.
Royal Mail have now announced that all their standard definitive stamps (that’s the plain, non-commemorative ones) and Christmas stamps will now have a barcode. Like so …
The idea is that we scan the barcodes using the Royal Mail app and we’ll eventually be able to watch videos, information about services, or birthday messages and other greetings from senders. Currently the only available video has been created for Royal Mail by animation studio Aardman, and features Shaun the Sheep. Further videos are planned to be released during 2022.
Beware: non-barcoded definitive and Christmas stamps will remain valid only until January 2023. Although there will be a scheme to trade them in for new models.
But, Oh dear! I foresee a whole new genre on Tik-Tok, Instagram and doubtless elsewhere. Be afraid; be very afraid!
This year we’re beginning each month with five pub quiz style questions, with a different subject each month. They’re not difficult, but it is unlikely everyone will know all the answers, so hopefully you’ll learn something new, as well as have a bit of fun.
February Quiz Questions: Music
Which Renaissance composer wrote a madrigal entitled El Grillo?
What was the name of the band formed by Jack Bruce, Eric Clapton & Ginger Baker?
Who composed a piano piece called the Golliwogg’s Cakewalk?
Part of which Christopher Smart work was set to music by Benjamin Britten?
Which astronomer is name-dropped in Bohemian Rhapsody?
A new year it may be, but why does everything else have to change? Spent the whole day reorganising the date-driven irritations of life.
Sun 2
Oh bugger! The first time I eat a toffee in 6 months and what do I do? Yes, you guessed … detach one of my big gold crowns. Still my dentist will enjoy the £££.
Mon 3
So it’s a bank holiday. And yet again I spend the day working, when I should have been doing family history. Gah!
Tue 4
I don’t understand why it is that we sometimes have a dreadful night’s sleep. Last night I saw 03:30, but then slept until 11:00. Why? I can’t comprehend.
Wed 5
What a wonderful bright but frosty morning. Why can’t all winter days be like this?
Thu 6
Another wonderful bright, very frosty morning – a really hard frost too, possibly the hardest frost here for years. All clouded over and dull by lunchtime. Then at sunset there was a really odd light: at first peachy, then pinker, and finally a sort of violet/lavender, but with a pretty ordinary sunset.
Fri 7
Another nice sunny morning, but another day feeling well below par, though improved. Done several LFT in the last few days, all negative. It feels like a sinus infection – made worse by the anxiety.
Sat 8
The cats definitely had the right idea today: curled up, comfy and sleeping. All the while there’s cold, grey rain outside.
Sun 9
Tonight yet another variant on Mary Berry’s Sausage Supper. This time with a couple of jointed poussin marinaded in lemon & brandy. I did plenty of veg so there’s leftover chicken & veg for cold, or risotto, or stuffed peppers.
Mon 10
Dymo label printer is printing tape in pale grey; labels are OK. Software is up to date. Buy new printer. Same problem. Install different Dymo software. Problem fixed. Not the first time they’ve screwed their software.
Tue 11
At lunchtime today I completed my 71st year. How did this happen? I thought I had a lifetime ahead. Arrggghhhhh!
Wed 12
That tree branch is swaying about. Oh, there’s a tail. Good afternoon squirrel!
Thu 13
What a lovely sunny day for a trip to the dentist! Until I’m told I need a new crown to replace the one that came off. Even more £££ for my dentist to enjoy. Can I get a mortgage on it?
Fri 14
Amongst the little band of blue tits and great tits around our garden, there’s a female blackcap. They’ve now been joined by a handful of long-tailed tits, which are always a delight to see. And do they get through the nuts quickly!
Sat 15
Someone stole Horsenden Hill. Awoke to a very foggy morning with visibility of about 100m. Horsenden Hill 1km away might just as well not have been there. They brought it back about lunchtime.
Sun 16
Oh so nearly! Rosie cat came within a foot of getting that squirrel! Only minutes earlier I’d said to N that she was certainly fast enough.
Mon 17
Went looking for my direct ancestors on the 1921 census. I think I found them all although two entries are somewhat doubtful and will need checking when it isn’t pay-per-view and many alternatives can be examined.
Tue 18
Mist descending at 04:45 so I was surprised to awake to a bright, sunny morning. Although the mist drifted in and out until lunchtime.
Wed 19
Hosted on Zoom the first of a (hopefully) monthly series of talks for the AP Soc. which replace our abandoned 2021 conference. Audience of 50+. Seemed to go well and pretty smoothly.
Thu 20
We had a long discussion over dinner about our childhoods, our parents’ childhoods, and how this has affected us. Did we get the affection we needed as kids? No. And my parents and at least my father’s parents struggled financially which has contributed to the knock-on effects. What you see now is very much me having risen above my childhood and instincts.
Fri 21
Escrow. It’s an odd word, meaning “a deposit held in trust or as security” [OED]. Derived from the Old Germanic skraudo- (whence English shred n.) via the Anglo-Norman escrowe. Although already known in Early Modern English it seems to have passed into more regular usage via the Americans.
Sat 22
Dessert this evening: fresh strawberries with flaked white Toblerone and double cream. Yum.
Sun 23
A day of best intentions being side-lined. Why? Just because. And because neither of us could be arsed.
Mon 24
We spent the day rejigging the box files on the top shelf over my desk. Lots of boxes archived and some new ones created for the overflows & expansion. Seeing the dust & muck which ended up on my desk I can quite see how poor souls can be swamped by volcano ash.
Tue 25
One of the guys I know from school (the head boy from the year above me) is writing about the old school days. Scanned and sent him quite a few pages from my press cuttings file, including play programmes and articles from the school magazine.
Wed 26
News in the last couple of days of two friends having died around the turn of the year; one 84, the other nearer 94. They were two of life’s gentlemen. Let’s hope there won’t be a third.
Thu 27
What was I saying earlier about not understanding sleep? Last night I was asleep soon after midnight and still slept until almost 11:00. So I’ve been playing catch-up all day. Anyone would think I was still a teenager!
Fri 28
A quick, unscientific tasting of three different Domaine Tariquet Armagnacs at the end of dinner. (Two from Wine Society, one from Waitrose; but two of three are now not available!) Need to taste again, more carefully. Oldest certainly smoothest, though maybe not quite as much character – but all have a lovely bouquet of church incense.
Sat 29
I’m told that today happened. But I couldn’t be at all sure. Nothing seems to have been achieved, except I cooked dinner.
Sun 30
Why re there crows flying hither and yon at the front of the house? Ah, I see. A parliament of at least two dozen crows in yonder poplar trees. Apparently their annual Spring gathering for speed dating.
Mon 31
Went for my annual diabetic eye scan this morning. Why is it always on a bright sunny day? But again this year I got away without drops to dilate my eyes. Definite result. Awaiting the results.
The curious ways of the fishing cats are being revealed by scientists.
Two stories on the discovery of new to science, or rare, species. First a variety of previously undescribed plants. And secondly the hunt for the saloa an almost never seen Asian antelope.
Health, Medicine
A review of the book Recovery: The Lost Art of Convalescence by Dr Gavin Francis. It turns out that proper convalescence is a hugely key stage in getting better.
Worldwide there are a very small number of people who cannot forget anything. One young woman describes what it is like to be medical exception.
Sexuality
It turns out that female dolphins have a clitoris very much like humans, which suggests they too experience sexual pleasure.
Environment
Electric cars and the like may be the way forward, but there are huge problems with their lithium batteries, especially at the end of their lives. [LONG READ]
Archaeologists have suggested that some ancient metal tubes unearthed over 100 years ago might be the oldest surviving drinking straws.
The body of Egyptian pharaoh Amenhotep I is so well preserved that after 3500 years it is still able to revel much about the man, thanks to modern scanning and that it has never been unwrapped.
The remains of a huge Roman fort, built on the orders of Emperor Caligula, has been discovered near Amsterdam.
A huge mosaic floor has been found in a Roman villa in Rutland, and was featured on the BBC’s Digging for Britain.
New research is suggesting that medieval warhorses no bigger than modern-day ponies, and not huge carthorses as we thought.
The first of this year’s monthly round-up of quotes amusing and/or thought-provoking.
When you meet one little being, it might be a mosquito, or pine tree, or rock, to become Buddha with each of them is your practice. Do you understand? You become Buddha with each of them … This is communicating with a being that appeared for you, to make sure you are enlightened! It is also enlightened. This is how everything is actually happening. Sometimes neither one knows what is going on. Sometimes both completely know what is going on.
[Kobun Chino Roshi]
She was beautiful, but not like those girls in magazines. She was beautiful, for the way she thought. She was beautiful, for the sparkle in her eyes when she talked about something she loved. She was beautiful for her ability
to make other people smile, even if she was sad. No, she wasn’t beautiful for something as temporary as her looks. She was beautiful, deep down to her soul. She is beautiful.
[F Scott Fitzgerald; The Great Gatsby]
youth
today i am the youngest
i will ever be again
younger than each lick of sea
each lash of wave on beach
each pebble skimming stream
each kiss of falling rain
today i am the youngest
i will ever be again
tomorrow
and the next day
– the same
[Hollie McNish]
When you’re a kid you don’t realise you’re also watching your parents grow up.
[source unknown]
I’ll be more enthusiastic about encouraging thinking outside the box when there’s evidence of any thinking going on inside it.
[Terry Pratchett]
The trouble with having an open mind, of course, is that people will insist on coming along and trying to put things in it.
[Terry Pratchett]
I can write better than anybody who can write faster, and I can write faster than anybody who can write better.
[AJ Liebling]
A quick, unscientific tasting of three different Domaine Tariquet Armagnacs at the end of dinner. (Two from 
