Life can only be understood backwards; but it must be lived forwards.
[Søren Kierkegaard]
Category Archives: amusements
October Quiz Questions
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.
October Quiz Questions: American History
- Which Native American princess is buried in Kent?
- How many World War II casualties were there on US soil?
- Which nation in 1886 gave the Statue of Liberty to the USA?
- Who, in 1825, became number 6?
- Where, in 1773, was there a famous tea party?
Answers will be posted in 3 weeks time.
Unblogged September
| Thu 1 | Blimey! What a day! It’s surprising how much work a new credit card makes, what with activation, PINs, update all the finance apps, insurance etc. – and that’s before you start updating all the places you use a card online. That was just one part of a never ending stream of emails and things needing to be done NOW! How did I manage to do this every day at work? |
| Fri 2 | Poorly pussycat. Not eating; being sick. V.E.T. tomorrow morning. |
| Sat 3 | N takes Boy Cat to the V.E.T. who thinks he has an infection especially as the other 2 also off their food at bit. I stay home because the gardener is coming – but he doesn’t! |
| Sun 4 | A day of deep depression; weepy and struggling to do even the minimum. Even a really nice chicken curry not restorative. |
| Mon 5 | We’re getting a new treasurer for the literary society. So, as I’m the one who brings in most of the money (memberships & shop), I had to dust off and update my finance processes. It’s surprising how much it had changed in only 3 years – so much more being done online. |
| Tue 6 | Rain! We have rain! It absolutely poured down for a large part of the afternoon. But it had stopped by 19:00 when I went to feed the pond fish, and it was actually a nice, warm and fresh evening. |
| Wed 7 | It was another of those instances where you need to do a job, but find you don’t have the necessary materials to hand. In this case, flash drives. Fortunately Mr Amazon came to the rescue with same day delivery. |
| Thu 8 | It’s raining again. For at least the third day in a row. This is most unusual for the first week of September, which is usually dry, sunny, and warm – so much so that we have often taken holiday at this time. Today is our umpty-n-th wedding anniversary; this day in 1979 was indeed dry, sunny, and rather warm, as were the preceding and following few days. |
| Fri 9 | Well what should one do on the day after the death of the Queen? I don’t know, but basically we did bugger all apart from jellivate and studiously ignore the continual morbidness on TV and radio. |
| Sat 10 | Picked an enormous quantity of runner beans. The gardener took half, and we gave some to a neighbour and still have enough for us for tomorrow. That’ll not be the last of them, but they’re beginning to wind down, so maybe only one more picking. Not bad for last year’s plants – yes they’re perennials, not annuals as we always treat them. |
| Sun 11 | Afternoon cookathon. Bread pudding. Salmon (for cold tomorrow). Marinated pork slices for dinner (with jacket potatoes & veg). Alcoholic summer fruit salad for dinner. |
| Mon 12 | Well that certainly needed doing … Comes the gardener to relay half the front path which was in a dangerous state with several lifted slabs due to the encroachment of roots etc. |
| Tue 13 | I really struggle to understand why people are so disorganised. You send out an invitation to a (free) talk, followed by a reminder two weeks beforehand. But at least 20% won’t book until the day before, after you’ve sent out the Zoom link to those who’ve already booked, thus causing extra work. |
| Wed 14 | Guy next door gets a so-called tree surgeon in to cut back my trees on his side of our mutual boundary – which he’s entitled to. But he doesn’t have the courtesy to bother to tell me. Have to get out of pram with said tree surgeon who is straying over our side; and working unsafely; with the wrong tools. And because all the trimmings are technically mine they get thrown over the fence, onto my lawn, for me to clear up, without any “by your leave”. Very not impressed. |
| Thu 15 | I can’t believe* that the queue to walk past a flag covering a box (even if it does contain the mortal remains of the Queen) in Westminster is almost 5 miles long, stretching along the South Bank back to Southwark Park; and that if you join the queue now (about 20:00) you might just get through by sunrise – or is that sunrise on Saturday? [* Well actually I can believe this because the British people are sufficiently stupid and gullible.] |
| Fri 16 | Day totally disrupted by a supermarket delivery which was 90 minutes after the booked slot. How can they send a driver out with paperwork not having the crate numbers for every delivery? And then apparently do nothing until I ring up to find out what’s happening. We eventually got to have lunch around 14:15, so basically ended up writing off the afternoon as well as the morning. |
| Sat 17 | At last, and sooner than expected … we got our 4th Covid jabs this morning at our local chemist. We were a bit early so had to join a short queue – 5 chairs rather than 5 miles long. They really are good; well organised and efficient; and they automatically deliver our prescriptions at no charge. |
| Sun 18 | Eddie Butler, rugby player and commentator, died a couple of days ago. I bumped into him once, almost literally, maybe 20 years ago on Reading station. I’m a pretty big bloke, but he absolutely dwarfed me. |
| Mon 19 | I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised at it being a weird day, what with ER funeral and all … but I felt really out of sorts all day: cold, miserable, depressed, and totally unable to settle to do anything at all. I am though in awe of the logistics which have gone into the whole of the last 10 days; I know it is all planned out in advance, but there’s so much that can’t be fixed until the time comes – like selecting and training guardsmen to carry the coffin, naval ratings to pull a gun carriage, transport & detailed orders of precedence for dignitaries, rehearsal and final timings. And that bearer party were (at least in what I saw) nigh on faultless – at least two were still teenagers! – and commanded by a young Second Lieutenant, the most junior of junior officers – what responsibility, and deserving of something more that just kudos. Equilibrium partly restored later with cold chicken, sauté potatoes and champagne. |
| Tue 20 | Oh God! Spent the day horizontal and cancelled everything. Vertical hold totally buggered by vertigo. Effectively motion sickness; dizzy and nauseous. |
| Wed 21 | Still flattened, though slightly better. Very annoying, especially as I have a couple of things which I needed to do urgently yesterday. |
| Thu 22 | Managed to be semi-upright. Trying to catch up on that which should have been done in the last few days. Doctor she say want to see me when it happens again; may need ENT referral. |
| Fri 23 | Slowly improving, but still in catch-up and rest mode. |
| Sat 24 | Nice literary society zoom meet at lunchtime with fun discussions about Dornford Yates, George Orwell, Tolkien and others; plus totalitarianism, healthcare, fishing and Scotland. Never let it be said our meetings are dull! |
| Sun 25 | What’s happening? Has everyone died? It is just so quiet around here; even our usually noisy neighbours are pretty quiet. Mind you they can’t say the same for us today; the gardener has been here shredding, mowing and strimming all day! |
| Mon 26 | After a dull, wet and miserable day, some glorious evening sunshine on the top of the silver birch tree. The wild rose has climbed right to the top of the tree and is a riot of bright glowing red hips in the sun. No photo can really do it justice, but here’s a shot! |
| Tue 27 | How computers waste time! Spent 2½ hours this morning while N was at the hospital trying to fix several (mostly minor) glitches on her PC. Failed at all but one; and even that took some wrangling. |
| Wed 28 | Well that wasn’t quite as scheduled. I missed Jupiter’s close approach on Monday night, because as usual it was cloudy. But at 04:15 this morning it was an unmissable bright light in the SW sky. I was too asleep to go get binoculars, but impressive all the same. |
| Thu 29 | I’ve had so little alcohol recently that this evening’s half bottle of red left me feeling distinctly unsteady. |
| Fri 30 | It’s flu jab day! I wonder if it’s going to knock me out for 24 hours like it usually does? Luckily I’ve managed to keep the weekend free. |
September Quiz Answers
OK, so here are the answers to this month’s quiz questions. All should be able to be easily verified online.
September Quiz Questions: World Geography
- What’s the smallest country in the world? The Vatican
- Where is the lowest point on the Earth’s surface? Challenger Deep, at the bottom of the Mariana Trench, 11,034m below sea level
- Three world cities have longer metro systems than London. Name one of them. Seoul, Beijing, Shanghai
- In what country would you find Angkor Wat? Cambodia
- What is the largest desert in the world? Antarctica
Answers were correct when questions were compiled in late 2021.
Quote of the Month
The question isn’t who is going to let me; it’s who is going to stop me.
[Ayn Rand]
September Quiz Questions
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.
September Quiz Questions: World Geography
- What’s the smallest country in the world?
- Where is the lowest point on the Earth’s surface?
- Three world cities have longer metro systems than London. Name one of them.
- In what country would you find Angkor Wat?
- What is the largest desert in the world?
Answers will be posted in 3 weeks time.
Unblogged August
| Mon 1 | Managed to get my monthly update for GP’s patient group members done early this month. Should make things easier later in the week. Far too much to do and to think about at the moment. |
| Tue 2 | This weather is getting too draining. The warmth is fine, but the humidity! According to the forecast it has been around 50-60% humidity all day today (and that’s quite high) but we’re promised more like 90% humidity overnight – but no rain. |
| Wed 3 | Oh the joy! Afternoon spent rewriting a poorly formatted webpage – and working out how to make it format the way I want. I won in the end. |
| Thu 4 | Well that was a job that was long, long overdue: spent the afternoon sitting outside repotting all the houseplants. Almost every one was well pot-bound. |
| Fri 5 | Another joyful trip to the dentist to have the crown I detached last weekend glued back on. Luckily partner #2 (who I’ve not seen before) was able to achieve this – let’s hope it stays that way. Mind you £100 for 15 minutes work! |
| Sat 6 | Oh! Nasty niff in the kitchen. Ah! Dead mouse behind the fridge, trying to hide in the works. I wonder which cat brought that in, and when? |
| Sun 7 | The day to recover the wasp traps and spend the afternoon examining the catch. Answer: a lot of flies, but also … A couple of apparently common wasps (Vespula vulgaris) in one trap – but they have slightly strange markings. In the other trap one definite V. vulgaris and what looks like a solitary (predatory) wasp which I can’t identify. I was going to blog this, but then realised my photos weren’t up to standard. [The stranger turned out to be a male of the solitary bee Lasioglossus calceatum.] |
| Mon 8 | Unexpected bonus visitors at lunchtime: two goldfinches drinking from the birdbath. Haven’t seen any in ages; good to know they’re still around. |
| Tue 9 | Another bonus visitor at lunchtime: a humming-bird hawkmoth stopping by the buddleia. It was around for only a couple of minutes so no chance of getting a photo. Only the second time I’ve seen one here (previously in 2018) and only the third or fourth ever. They’re not rare, but not common; many are immigrants although they do overwinter and breed in the warmer south-west. |
| Wed 10 | Humming-bird hawkmoth was back again at lunchtime having a quick snack from the buddleia. By the time I had a camera and got there of course it had gone. Still an excuse to sit in the sun for 15 minutes hoping it would return. |
| Thu 11 | We’re obviously not playing enough cricket; or morris dancing. We need rain; lots of rain; and there’s none to speak of on the horizon. Our silver birch tree is so dry it looks like autumn, though I suspect it’s nearing the end of life as they live only 35-40 years. |
| Fri 12 | Yet again the council are behind with the recycling (and rubbish) collections, as they have been for some weeks. Having got behind, they’re not catching up but continually slipping part of the next day – rinse and repeat. They say they’re a victim of the shortage of HGV drivers; ie. they don’t pay enough. |
| Sat 13 | Phew! Just too hot again to do anything other than jellivate™. Luckily it’s supposed to be getting cooler after tomorrow, and we may even get some rain next week – but I’ll believe it when I see it. |
| Sun 14 | Two nice rescues from the house last night, tho’ neither especially unusual. Female Southern Oak Bush Cricket and Straw Underwing moth. I know those Southern Oak Bush Crickets walk and jump well, but how do they get any distance with effectively vestigial wings?  |
| Mon 15 | Went to collect my new glasses. Nothing special; same rimless frames as before, but a marginally different colour. Fitting done with no fuss in about 15 minutes. I don’t know I’m wearing them. Why can’t everything be this easy? |
| Tue 16 | So much for the rain we were being promised; it amounted to 10 minutes desultory drizzle. But thank heaven it is quite a bit cooler, although still nice and warm. Much rain forecast for tomorrow – well we can hope! |
| Wed 17 | Rain! I thought it would never arrive, but mid-afternoon the heavens opened for an hour or so. In fact it was so heavy at one point I couldn’t see Horsenden Hill about half a mile away (by fastest crow). |
| Thu 18 | Busy day. Good call with doctors’ Practice Manager and then after lunch to see our newest GP: very thorough; good communicator; very pleasant; all round good experience. Why is it that I’m more comfortable with female clinicians – certainly doctors, nurses, physio etc.? Oh, and the gardener was here all day too! |
| Fri 19 | Big branch on our oak tree has cracked; it’s still attached but hanging down on the ground. Crack is too high for us to get to the limb, although we can hopefully trim the lower parts to make it safe temporarily. Yet more cost! |
| Sat 20 | Demoralising is an understatement. I seem to be getting more depressed by the day; less able to make myself do anything meaningful; more wanting to curl up and ignore everything; more weepy. Over the years I’ve tried petty much everything short of psychedelics and electrodes in the brain, and I just don’t seem to be able to crack it. GOK what the winter is going to be like. And yet people see me as functioning. |
| Sun 21 | Over the last week we’ve put quite a few goodies (like a chicken carcass) out for the foxes. So the trail camera has some wonderful pictures of fox demolishing said chicken and similar. |
| Mon 22 | The tree surgeon cometh. He looketh. He speaketh money. Verily we concur. He goeth away with a promise to return on the morrow morn with lad(s) to do the work. |
| Tue 23 | The tree surgeon’s lads arrive (late). The chainsaw revs. Broken oak branch removed. Small defunct cherry tree goes. Remains of very old dying apple tree also gone – thankfully the rambler roses are saved. Job done in about half an hour! I’m sure the guy next door was rejoicing as he thought we were removing all our trees, which he hates. What a shame we disappointed him! Meanwhile the pond guys also started today and worked like Trojans. |
| Wed 24 | Pond nearly finished already. Filled with water; pump #1 running. A few bits to finish off tomorrow. Looks really good. Pix when complete. |
| Thu 25 | Rain! We have rain! By 6 this morning it had clearly been raining well for some time … and it continued to wee it down until lunchtime. So we all got soaked finishing off the pond, and the guys had done and gone by about noon. I can’t believe how quickly, efficiently and professionally they’ve done the whole job – even down to supplying some small fish and waterlilies! Brilliant! |
| Fri 26 | Indulgent pudding: strawberries and cut-up almond croissant with lots of double cream. An Anglo-Frog variant of Eton Mess – except deconstructed. |
| Sat 27 | Tootling round the garden, as one does, we stopped to look at the pond. Lots of little goldfish dashing hither and yon in the sun. And the waterlilies are already growing – one has a leaf on the surface having grown around 15cm in two days! Incredible! |
| Sun 28 | Male blackcap skulking through the shrubs outside our dining room window at lunchtime. Accompanied by our usual selection of blue tits and great tits demolishing the peanuts. And, as promised, here’s the newly refurbished pond; with all 4 waterlilies now having surfaced!  |
| Mon 29 | August Bank Holiday Monday. And it didn’t rain! It looked as if it might rain a couple of times, but nothing happened. Which sort of sums up the day all round. |
| Tue 30 | The enormous pile of crap we accumulated in the front garden is gone. A glorious skip-full of old pond bits, shed detritus, garden crap, miscellaneous metal & electrical recycling, etc. etc. Removed same day by a registered waste company on their truck. Yes, it cost, but job done quickly & efficiently. Result! |
| Wed 31 | A truly “meh” day to end the month. Not feeling great and at every turn there’s yet more that has to be done – including attending to the gardener, who like all gardeners can be a loose cannon if not supervised. |
August Quiz Answers
OK, so here are the answers to this month’s quiz questions. All should be able to be easily verified online.
August Quiz Questions: British History
- When was the London underground first opened? January 1863
- Which 20th century British Prime Minister nearly died in a pandemic? And when? David Lloyd George; September 1918
- In 1896 Britain fought a war with Zanzibar. How long did it last? Between 38 and 45 minutes, depending on who you believe
- How many times did Julius Caesar invade Britain? Twice, in 55 and 54 BC
- Which monarch was convicted of treason and beheaded at Fotheringhay Castle on 8 February 1587? Mary Queen of Scots
Answers were correct when questions were compiled in late 2021.
Quote of the Month
Lies are noisy and the truth is very quiet. Listen carefully.
[Brad Warner]
August Quiz Questions
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.
August Quiz Questions: British History
- When was the London underground first opened?
- Which 20th century British Prime Minister nearly died in a pandemic? And when?
- In 1896 Britain fought a war with Zanzibar. How long did it last?
- How many times did Julius Caesar invade Britain?
- Which monarch was convicted of treason and beheaded at Fotheringhay Castle on 8 February 1587?
Answers will be posted in 3 weeks time.