Category Archives: amusements

amusements, history

March Quiz Questions

Again 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.

March Quiz Questions: British History

  1. Elizabeth Garrett Anderson was the first woman in the UK to qualify and work as what?
  2. Which monastery in Canterbury was founded in 598?
  3. In what year was British Rail nationalised?
  4. Who was murdered on 29 December 1170?
  5. Mary, Queen of Scots was executed on 7 February 1587. Where did this take Place?

Answers will be posted in 2 weeks time.

amusements, personal

Unblogged February

This month’s list of things I didn’t write about during February.

Wed 1 Aarrggghhhh! I was going to write about a lovely sunny day, but … yes, it was sunny but ceased to be lovely. N discovered very late in the afternoon that the pond was losing water and was half empty. No idea how or why as by this time it was too dark to do anything much except put a call out to our pond guy.
Thu 2 Crocuses! We have the first few crocuses in flower. Just a scattering of 6 or 8 pale lavender coloured ones in the lawn. No idea how they got there, as I don’t recall we planted any in mid-lawn – but they looked good in the morning sun. No sign of the others yet, but the gardener has helpfully scattered prunings awaiting shredding everywhere. Bloody gardeners, they take no notice of what you tell them!
Fri 3 Even more crocuses! There are now a couple of dozen in flower scattered about the lawn. An absolutely delightful harbinger of Spring. I also spotted a nest high up in one of the silver birch trees; it must be last year’s; I think not big enough for a squirrel drey but it might just be big enough for a woodpigeon.
Sat 4 Weird. The pond having lost half its water at Wednesday teatime, and having been filled up to level in daylight on Thursday morning, 48 hours later is still up more or less to level. It’s maybe dropped at most an inch. Looking at the wetness around one corner, I had suspected that the weld in the liner had failed; but it currently looks as if this isn’t the case. All very odd.
Sun 5 Royal Mail have had international outgoing mail suspended for almost a month following a “cyber attack” (thought to be a ransom demand). They’ve been slowly restoring services over the last couple of weeks starting with the high value, low demand services. At last this weekend they’ve restarted normal “air mail” services. So at last I’m able to ship AP Society merchandise to overseas buyers, some of whom have been waiting all this time. With luck the packages will get collected tomorrow and be on their way.
Mon 6 Awake in the early hours to appreciate a bright silvery full moon, veiled in some ethereal gossamer cloud. And then this evening through the filigree twigs of the trees.
Tue 7 A strange morning. At 06:00 it was crystal clear and beautifully moonlit, with the moon setting to the SW. By 07:00 it was thick fog. And by lunchtime glorious sunshine which enticed two of the cats out to solar charge.
Wed 8 Continuing the moonshine theme … Just gone 06:30 this morning; there’s the merest chink of daylight; it is cold, frosty and moonlit. And there’s already a crow up and doing; sitting on a nearby TV ariel proclaiming it’s territory.
Thu 9 Everyone in our street has received a very snotty letter from the council accusing us of obstructing the highway with traffic cones and threatening us with fines. It’s not addressed individually, nor signed, so is unlikely to stand up in court – indeed unless they can prove one is a culprit they’re on a hiding to nothing in court – they have to prove an offense by an identifiable individual. So basically it amounts only to bullying. I’m very tempted to write them a snotty reply pointing this out.
Fri 10 Now this is interesting, at least to me. I’ve become aware that over the last few weeks the barometric pressure in the UK has been exceptionally high – like up to 1046 hPa (the normal range is roughly 998 to 1032, with an average of 1013). That doesn’t sound a lot, but it’s quite a significant increase and some people have been reporting headaches as a result. Which could explain at least some of why I’ve been feeling so hit on the head, on and off, for the last few weeks – especially as I’ve always been prone to ear disturbance and motion sickness (which is why I can’t do yoga). Having checked back some of the local records it seems to sort of fit, although I don’t have a detailed record of how I’ve felt.
Sat 11 For some while I’ve been thinking about taking part in Postcrossing. It’s a project that allows you to send postcards and receive postcards back from random people around the world. That’s real postcards, not electronic! Why? Simply because there are lots of people who like to receive real mail. Receiving postcards from different places in the world (many which you’ve likely never heard of!) can make your mailbox full of surprises. But I can’t make up my mind whether it’s a good and interesting thing, or whether it becomes just another chore. Anyone out there take part?
Sun 12 So I decided to take the plunge and try Postcrossing. Two cards will go in the mail tomorrow. Then we just have to wait and see …
Mon 13 Lovely and sunny at lunchtime, so I braved the elements and went to photograph the crocuses. But all that bending and crouching down doesn’t half play havoc with my back.crocuses and leafcrocuses
Tue 14 And it’s Valentine’s Day. So what more natural than we have two squirrels fucking in the silver birch tree.
Wed 15 I was lucky enough to be up in time to see a glorious red, fiery sunrise – although it lasted only minutes. Totally unable to photograph it. What a contrast to yesterday’s fog when you couldn’t see the top of the road, so visibility down to about 100m.
Thu 16 I’ve been trying for the last several months to go back to what I always used to do which was to have alcohol only Friday, Saturday, Sunday evenings (well and odd exceptions like celebrations and holidays). I was doing reasonably well until this month when the internal application of alcohol has been necessary at times during the week. Not surprising really when you look at a day like today, which seems to have had an all-round fit of the dismals. I guess we need to get the “worries” over with: that’s “Janu-worry” and “Febru-worry”! Roll on Spring!
Fri 17 Walked into the study to find Queen Tilly Cat sitting, bold as brass, on the printer surveying her empire.queen cat
Sat 18 Gah! The perversity of the cat drives you demented. No.1 is given grated cheese as a treat at lunchtime and turns up her nose at it. No.2 is given a teaspoon of cream at dinner time and also turns up her nose. No.3 won’t come for tea when called, remains steadfastly asleep; appears 2 hours later and goes out. There are times – many times – when you do wonder why you bother!
Sun 19 As usual on a Sunday I unloaded the pictures from the trail camera. At one point we have two cats, not much more than a metre apart. And between them a rather worried rat: “Oh bugger; there’s two of them!”. What happened? No idea; no images to tell us; if it was despatched it wasn’t brought home.rodent and cats 1rodent and cats 2
Mon 20 A dismal start to the day but nice a sunny by lunchtime, although breezy. So I had 5 minutes in the garden with a point-and-shoot camera catching the last of the crocuses, and the snowdrops which are are out, at last! Also lots of visibly grown small goldfish drifting around the pond in the sun.the last crocusessnowdrops and crocus
Tue 21 The power company were encouraging us to try saving power at teatime today, so it was a good opportunity to audit the cellar (aka. the wine rack in the dining room). Discovered we were getting low on stock: just 5 dozen bottles various plus a dozen champagne. So there’s now a large order in with The Wine Society.
Wed 22 Oi, Mr Magpie! Every year you come and rip bits off my trees for your twiggy nest. I don’t mind you doing a little light pruning, but it would please me if you took only what you need and not drop 2 out of 3 on the lawn, from where you never bother to recover them. The whole garden is littered with bits of magpie-pulled twigs.
Thu 23 Cooked an “omeletatta” for tea (sort of omelette-cum-frittata). A big omelette, with lots of sautéed onion, garlic, spinach and mushrooms; with a bit of Applewood cheese in the egg mix and topped with some grated cheddar. Devoured greedily with chunks of bread & butter. No good for all you unhealthy vegans, but great for the rest of us!
Fri 24 Took advantage of being up early to get ahead and to sort out N’s PC. A couple of fixes needed, new batteries for the mouse, and do all the updates. It took a good 40 minutes plus I didn’t count how many reboots. And of course then I forgot to do the same to my machine! Duh!
Sat 25 Did anything happen today? I suppose something must have done; somewhere. But I didn’t notice. Oh, yes, lamb chops happened.
Sun 26 One of the earliest members of the Anthony Powell Society, from upstate New York, is 101 today. What an achievement! He served in the US military and I believe was part of the US administration in Japan; following the war he was a graduate student and Fulbright Fellow at the LSE; and eventually become Professor of Public Administration at Syracuse University. It was initially for him that I created a special membership category of the AP Society: any paid up member who reaches the age of 90, is given honorary life membership – in recognition that Powell reached the age of 94. But 101 is something else!
Mon 27 Today I set myself three fairly chunky tasks to accomplish – with the expectation of completing only two of them. The first was a bit of a slog, which didn’t bode well, but it was killed just after lunch. I then tackled number three as it was time-critical, and it wasn’t too bad. As it was now only mid-afternoon I figured I’d better have a go at number two. Despite having planned it, I was expecting it to fight back. But it didn’t; it turned out to be fairly straightforward, apart from a bit of a fiddle at the end to make the code do exactly what I wanted. So a successful day, and a bit of time to spare to be wasted.
Definite result!
Tue 28 So much for a quiet day clearing up odd jobs. All went well until midday when I get a phone call. “Can you attend a meeting at 18:30 this evening? We’re short of panel members.” (I’m on the other panel of this group.) “Yes, but how much is there to read before the meeting?” “It’s not much. I’ll send it over now.” “OK, then.” Not much turns out to be 60 pages, on a scheme I really didn’t want to be involved with; and it’s all marketing bollox. Goodbye afternoon. As it turned out the meeting wasn’t too bad; though I did put the boot in, maybe too hard and too early – I might learn one day.
amusements

February Quiz Answers

Here are the answers to this month’s five quiz questions. If in doubt, all should be able to be easily verified online.

February Quiz Questions: General Knowledge

  1. What relation to you is your great-grandfather’s brother’s grand-daughter? Second cousin once removed
  2. How many old pennies were there in £1? 240
  3. Gruyère is a type of what? Cheese
  4. Patrick McGoohan starred in a 1967 British TV series set in Portmeirion. What was it’s title, and which character did McGoohan play? The Prisoner; Number Six
  5. Who was the first elected Secretary General of the United Nations? Trygve Lie of Norway; 1946-52

Answers were correct when questions were compiled in late 2022.

amusements, personal

ChatGPT writes Haiku

I’ve just had some fun with the ChatGPT OpenAI’s conversational research model. I asked it to write me some haikus on various topics, viz:

1. A parrot and a squirrel?

Bright parrot soars high,
Squirrel chatters on a branch,
Nature’s symphony.

2. Anthony Powell and a gondolier?

Anthony Powell,
In Venice, a gondolier
Glides through canals.

3. Being nude and mental health?

Naked, unclothed soul,
Mental peace found in bare skin,
Healing in nature.

4. Two magpies I saw tweaking a cat’s tail.

Two magpies tease cat,
Twitching its tail with delight,
Nature’s game to play.

5. The owl and the pussycat.

Owl and the pussycat,
Sailing the ocean blue,
Love knows no bounds, they do.

6. The full moon and Noreen, my wife of over 40 years …

Full moon lights the night,
Noreen, my love, shines bright,
Forty years of bliss.

How is this last one just so embarrassing?

I think these are really good, and certainly better than I could do. I’m sure I shall return to this!

amusements

February Quiz Questions

Again 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: General Knowledge

  1. What relation to you is your great-grandfather’s brother’s grand-daughter?
  2. How many old pennies were there in £1?
  3. Gruyère is a type of what?
  4. Patrick McGoohan starred in a 1967 British TV series set in Portmeirion. What was it’s title, and which character did McGoohan play?
  5. Who was the first elected Secretary General of the United Nations?

Answers will be posted in 2 weeks time.

amusements, memes, personal

Unblogged January

Sun 1 The dawning of the new year celebrated with the usual bottle of Champagne and too little sleep. And later with a very nice, large, piece of roast beef and a bottle of Brouilly.
Mon 2 One of my Christmas presents was a bottle of our local Ealing Gin. It’s a hand-crafted, small batch, London Dry Gin, distilled in the Borough of Ealing. As a London Gin it is juniper led, although the other botanicals come through well, but not too strongly. The lovely bottle design is inspired by the iconic Art Deco buildings (especially the Hoover Building) scattered across the borough. This could well become another favourite.
Tue 3 For the first time in ages we had a crow in the garden. They often sit right at the top of the silver birch, riding the wind apparently just for the fun of it. But we don’t normally see them down on the lawn, as this one was today – I suspect they feel it’s too enclosed to get airborne easily in any direction. Anyway this one spent some minutes obviously hunting out little treats, probably buried by the squirrels.
Wed 4 So, another deadly exciting day on which nothing happened. The most notable thing was that I slept well from about 01:00 to 09:00, with a short awakeness at 04:00. This meant that I was at least half awake when I got up. Result!
Thu 5 Spent a joyous afternoon at the dentist. I got a small filling, but N got a whole new crown – in one visit. This used not to be possible, but our dentist now has some very whizzy tools. First they can scan your mouth in 3D to get the shape for the crown – no longer do we have to suffer impressions. Secondly they have a fancy machine which will cut the crown from a ceramic blank using the aforementioned scans; this takes about 10 minutes (plus a few minutes setup). As the machine is in the waiting area, I was able to watch N’s new crown being created; it was very impressive.
Fri 6 So there we have it. Another pay day. And another month where the current account might just manage to survive intact. Supermarket prices seem to have gone through the roof; I’d say that the estimate of annual food inflation running at 13.3% in December is a gross under estimate; it certainly feels more like 30% than 13% – I can certainly point at things where it is definitely over 50% in the last year.
Sat 7 Culinary experiment for dessert this evening which didn’t quite work (at least for me). Fresh pineapple cut into small pieces, with a good handful of broken walnuts and the same amount of chopped candied peel, tossed with a couple of tots of Malibu. Dress with some flaked dark chocolate at the last minute. It was OK, but not superb. I think it would work better with flaked almonds and Amaretto (or Amandine) in place of walnuts & Malibu; add a little colour by way of 3-4 chopped glace cherries or quartered strawberries; and serve with some double cream. While pineapple and Malibu (coconut) works well, the Amaretto would be sweeter and fuller flavoured. And the red colour would (psychologically) enhance the flavour as well.
Sun 8 Despite the grey, wet, miserable day we undertook the first salad of the year: pan-fried duck, with a mixed salad and hot steamed potatoes. Washed down with a bottle of 2019 Tavel rosé. Eaten a bit late while watching Digging for Britain.
Mon 9 How is it that every hospital in this country looks alike inside: dingy, grubby, ill-used; poorly signed, poorly lit and poorly ventilated – although at least now the price of energy has rocketed they’re no longer so over-heated. All the waiting areas are plastered with strange, dog-eared prohibitions & posters Blu-Taked to the walls, not even straight; and they have a miscellaneous assortment of chairs which have seen better days. I had an appointment at Ealing Hospital this morning and I have to say it is one of the worst examples of the genre I’ve seen; Hillington is little better. At least Hammersmith and St Mary’s do try with their waiting areas. It all comes down to three things: underfunding, no-one looking, and no-one being empowered to do anything.
Tue 10 What’s happening? What day is it? Feeling really “Meh!”, despite lots of sleep. Down and miserable. This awful grey, wet, cold weather doesn’t help. What’s to be done – except hibernate?
Wed 11 A beautiful bright sunny, blue sky morning to complete my 72nd circuit of our local star. Just a shame it had clouded over by lunchtime and the start of my 73rd circuit. Completed by a bottle of champagne with dinner.
Thu 12 We’ve had so much rain recently that we’ve had standing water in the garden again today. Lake Constance manifests down near the pond, and this despite the ground level having been raised 2-3 inches over the last few years. It drains away fairly quickly once the rain stops, so it’s obviously groundwater flowing off down hill (to the south). We suspect there’s an old field ditch across the garden which was filled in with rubble when the houses were built, so there is still water flow (I can find it by dowsing) which is now impeded. It’s no danger as the water is only ever an inch deep, and anyway the house is actually 2-3 feet higher.
Fri 13 Three green parrakeets queueing up for food.
Sat 14 Awoke convinced that it was Sunday and to the realisation it must have been peeing with rain again all night because Lake Constance has returned to the garden, and much increased in size. It doesn’t though stop the squirrels running about. One does zoomies round the lawn, dashing to and fro, and in circles, at supersonic speed. Heaven knows what it’s on!
Sun 15 My it was bitter outside today. I went out to unload the pictures from the trail camera, and change the batteries. This took well under 5 minutes, and I was frozen – though I admit I was wearing only a t-shirt and slobbing legs which is usually OK. It took a good 30 minutes and a sweater to thaw me out. And they reckon it’s going to get markedly colder in the next few days.
Mon 16 While N went halfway round London this morning for a haircut, I managed to kill off all the bits of work which I had expected to take all day. The result was that I spent the afternoon buggering around to little effect.
Tue 17 Really good Zoom meeting of the doctors’ patient group this morning, with a few more faces that usual. We had the Office Manager deputising for the Practice Manager; she was very helpful as well as being incredibly patient with one ranty member. But dear God, writing the minutes takes longer than the meeting – not only do you waste time reformatting the document but you have to think carefully about how to word things!
Wed 18 Yet another interesting Anthony Powell Society talk this evening on Powell’s last novel The Fisher King. Good that these talks are now a regular feature and getting 40-50 attendees every time, mostly from Society members. And I enjoy hosting them.
Thu 19 Today happened, I think. There doesn’t seem a lot more to say about it. It’s still cold, with a very heavy frost last night, so we both slept late in our warm bed.
Fri 20 A light dinner of vegetable crumble, followed by apricots in Amaretto. Nice bottle of Rioja with the former. With the latter we opened a bottle of Chambord Black Raspberry liqueur N was given for Christmas. And wow! It was out of this world! Not heavy and syrupy, but light and about the strength of sherry. Just sweet enough; lots of raspberry flavour, with chocolate, vanilla, and just a hint of almond. One of those things which has to be savoured in small doses – or over ice cream.
Sat 21 Spring must be on the way, if yet still distant. I noticed the catkins on the silver birch are just beginning to grow. They’re still small, but definitely on the move.
Sun 22 We’ve now had a week of very heavy frosts. Every morning the roofs, and even the road surface, have been covered in white. At least this morning is bright and sunny – and lovely and warm in the sun. And … Oooo … the Boy Cat so nearly got that squirrel.
Mon 23 Oh bugger. Woke up at 03:00 with vertigo/labyrinthitis (again). Definitely very unstable by 08:00 so had to cancel the dentist – fortunately only to sort the crown I’ve lost (again). By mid-morning everything was literally spinning; not just waving about a bit. Spent the day under the duvet.
Tue 24 Feeling a bit more stable; reasonably OK if I keep still. But feeling smacked on the head. It’s a bit like when you were spun round at children’s party games, just that it doesn’t clear in a couple of minutes.
Wed 25 Gorgeous golden crescent moon lying on it’s back in the evening sky yesterday. Then before dawn the freezing fog descended – outside and in the head. It lasted all day too. Really dismal.
Thu 26 Still feeling smacked on the head from the vertigo, although so, so much better. Still failing to get anything useful done though, and so much to catch up on. I could do with whatever our squirrels are on: we still have one that does zoomies round the lawn, for no apparent reason, while the others go sedately about their foraging.
Fri 27 These cats really do have the right idea. Boy Cat has been in this state effectively all day.To the extent that late this afternoon I had to ask N if he’d actually surfaced enough to have had breakfast! Mind you, he pretty quickly woke up when he smelled his Friday night fish supper cooking.
PS. That’s 6kg of cat!
Sat 28 At last I’m beginning to feel like I might be getting rid of the dregs of this vertigo/labyrinthitis. Definitely feeling better as the day wears on: struggling until lunchtime and then improving through to bedtime. Good food helps. This evening: pork steaks in olive ciabatta followed by strawberries & cream. Washed down with a very pleasant 2016 Wine Society Claret and after a drop of Chambord Black Raspberry liqueur.
Sun 29 OK so we didn’t put the lights out until almost 01:00 last night – which is not unusual. I quickly descended into deep sleep, and awoke shortly after 05:00 for no more than 15 minutes. And the next thing I know? It’s gone 11:00. I must be reverting to being a teenager! (I wish!)
Mon 30 What a lovely sunny day to lift the spirits. So I finally got round to doing a job I’ve been putting off for two weeks. Then I celebrated by cutting my hair. Such decadence!
Tue 31 Hi, ho! It’s off to the dentist to see about the crown I lost 10 days ago. And no, I don’t have the crown; I wasn’t aware of losing it!
Gulp! Anyway young lady dentist says I get a new ceramic crown, not gold. (She also say, any more trouble with this tooth and we take it out.) Three advantages for the ceramic crown: (a) they can make them on the premises, so quicker, (b) they can bond the crown on, rather than just glue it on, and (c) its cheaper – because not gold. An hour later the prep work is done and my mouth scanned; as I leave the tooth fairy is designing the crown on her CAD/CAM system. I return in two days to have the result of the incantations fitted.