Category Archives: memes

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.

Ten Things: January

This year our Ten Things column each month is concentrating on science and scientists.

Where a group is described as “great” or “important” this is not intended to imply these necessarily the greatest or most important, but only that they are up there amongst the top flight.

Important Physics Discoveries

  1. Gravity
  2. Laws of Motion
  3. Wheel
  4. Atomic structure
  5. Speed of light
  6. Transistors
  7. Electromagnetism
  8. Spectrum of light
  9. Heliocentric planetary system
  10. Doppler Effect

Unblogged December

Thu 1 Why does one wake up at 05:20? It was clear and starry – well as starry as it gets round here for the light pollution. And why is one still awake at 06:15? I got up, knowing I’d feel smacked on the head later; but knowing if I resumed slumber I’d sleep the morning away and feel smacked on the head anyway. So I figured I’d may as well do something useful.
Fri 2 Two interesting calls with my GP today. Piecing together all sorts of things, she now thinks I didn’t have cellulitis back in October (and of which I still have the remnants), but Erythema Nodosum – which I had as a kid. It all fits, but of course is one of those things which is going to be hard to prove. Luckily she’s actually finding this very interesting – as am I.
Sat 3 Meh! A pretty meh day – grey cold and miserable, so no wonder that’s how I felt. Gave up and retired early to bed to read and try to relax.
Sun 4 Spent the day clearing up the house – and made absolutely no impression on the accumulated silt of 40+ years. Consoled ourselves with roast guinea fowl & roast veg, washed down with a lovely bottle of Greek white, and followed by still warm from the oven apple crumble and cream.
Mon 5 Cometh the gardener. Cometh the pond man to do a winter clean and check over. Remaineth the depression and the work.
Tue 6 Good chat with our lovely GP this morning, mostly about advance care planning, but also checking on my not-cellulitis. But unfortunately (for us) she’s going off on maternity leave next week; she promises to return, but small people do have a habit of changing priorities.
Wed 7 04:30. Bright silvery full moon behind a veil of gossamer cloud skidding across the sky going south. Really pretty and enjoyed for 5 minutes after a trip to the bathroom.
Thu 8 Wow! What a wonderful hard frost; the first of the year I think. Everything is covered in white, and looks really pretty – especially when followed by a glorious sunny morning. Just a shame it’ll have knocked back all the plants.
Fri 9 Had an excellent bottle of more expensive Domaine Maby Libiamo Tavel with dinner; like a really good, full-bodied, Chablis or Macon with a hint of red summer fruits. It went especially well with prawns & mushroom in tomato sauce with linguine. Followed by alcoholic fruit salad. Hic!
Sat 10 Another lovely moonlit night with a heavy frost, followed by an sunny alpine day. It looks beautiful, but it’s bitterly cold. Mind the sunshine does wonders for the mood.
Sun 11 Blimey! What a wonderful hard frost. Everything covered in rime. And today a nice little fog to go with it – not thick, but enough to hold the temperature down. I probably have seen harder frosts, but this must be up there with them. And it didn’t obviously get above freezing all day.
Mon 12 Snow! Late yesterday evening, suddenly there was a decent covering of snow; not a lot, maybe 2cm at most. Although initially it looked pretty, it’s been above freezing for some of the day so the snow is clearing, and the bird bath wasn’t frozen solid.
Tue 13 Oh the fun of taking 3 cats to the vet for their annual jabs & check-up. Always take them fasting in case the vet wants blood from any of them. “But why can’t we have breakfast? We’re hungry kittens.” And then round them up to basket them; you’ll never make a sheepdog! You can always get one. The second, not so easy as she slips past and is hidden – but found. Meanwhile number 3 has become invisible. The house is searched from top to bottom and she’s eventually found in the depths of the shoe cupboard. After that they all three get a clean bill of health despite putting on weight and the vet removes a rather obese monkey from one’s pocket.
Wed 14 A day of … what exactly? Getting little done and the AP Soc online talk this evening cancelled as the speaker is indisposed.
Thu 15 Another day of doing bits and pieces. They have to be done, but it always feels so unproductive. But at least I did cook tea. Mind the cats have it right; they’ve spent the day nested, like Queen Cat.
Queen Cat
Fri 16 No wonder our bedroom has been unusually cold. Noreen realised someone had turned the radiator off. And it wasn’t either of us! Fingers of suspicion are pointing elsewhere. At the same time I discovered the study radiator needs bleeding, but I cannot budge the bleed valve. For that I definitely blame the guy who serviced the heating at the end of May.
Sat 17 Another good Anthony Powell Society social call over Zoom, with a select group from UK and US. What was supposed to be an hour turned into 1¾ hours. Not just an opportunity to chat, but also to raise a glass in Powell’s memory as it’s his birthday in fours days time.
Sun 18 I’ve had a trail camera trained on the garden, timed to work overnight, for the last 3+ years. I unload the memory card most Sundays – it’s usually a sequence of cats and foxes, with the odd squirrel and pigeon at dawn. But for the first time when checking this week’s stills I had 3 shots of a rodent: a rat scurrying across the upper lawn about 2½m from the camera. Luckily there was no cat or fox around at the time.
Mon 19 Rain! We have rain. And wind. And it’s warmer. All the snow is gone, finally. It’s grey; dark; depressing. But we have rain. We need rain.
Tue 20 Started late, but still managed to make leftovers soup in time for lunch. Stock from the end of the lamb casserole and an end of pasta (tomato) sauce. Augmented with onion, garlic, mushrooms and cooking tomatoes. Plus seasoning, sherry and cream. Not fine dining but it went down warmingly well with chunks of bread.
Wed 21 Good to see a couple of friends over the last few days. It’s feeling odd now to have to be worrying about shielding, wearing masks etc., but I’m still at high risk and probably a good candidate for Long Covid – so I’m continuing to be careful. But how I wish it were not thus.
Thu 22 Christmas supermarket delivery this morning, with an earlier slot than our usual which threw out the internal clocks somewhat. Amazingly they got everything right, bar the odd couple of substitutions, and that our Christmas pork and large “free range” chicken both came up on the small side – adequate, but small. Oh and I ordered 1kg of banana shallots, but was sent 2.5kg! I don’t have a problem with this, though it would have been better if I’d not been charged for the extra! But, Duh!
Fri 23 Spent a chunk of the afternoon and evening catching up on writing letters and emails to family and friends. I’m the world’s worst correspondent; if I don’t reply to an email or letter almost immediately it sinks to the bottom of the ocean, never to resurface: I still have one email outstanding from this time last year! The job’s not yet finished, but I’ve broken the back of it, I hope.
Sat 24 A day of odds and sods jobs pre-Christmas – although it doesn’t feel very Christmas-y. I finished all the email writing; just my three “girl” cousins on my mother’s side to go, and that has to be letters, so no point rushing for a few days. I also cooked dinner: the chicken which I spatchcocked and roast with lots of lemon (juice & zest), tarragon, garlic, butter and brandy. Yummy!
Sun 25 Christmas Day. On our own as usual, so we can please ourselves. I was awake and up at a sensible hour (08:30), Noreen surfaced about 90 minutes later. Did nothing until lunch of smoked salmon & cream cheese rolls, washed down with large G&T. Presents in the afternoon included a couple of IOUs for things that hadn’t arrived in the post. Then roast pork, garlic roast potatoes, roast Jerusalem artichokes; sprouts & fennel; stuffing; apple sauce for dinner – this time washed down with a bottle of Champagne. Followed by total lethargy. ZZzzzzz.
Mon 26 Traditional Boxing Day lunch of cold meat, mashed potato, bubble & squeak, pickle. Washed down with a beer. And still we haven’t attacked a Christmas Pudding!
Tue 27 Typical British Bank Holiday weather: cold, grey, windy and damp. So a day largely spent “jellivating”** in between a few odd jobs.
Wed 28 It is November, isn’t it? It’s dark grey, peeing with rain, blowing half a gale, and not very warm. The end of December isn’t usually as dismal as this. Pull up the drawbridge, throw another peasant on the fire, and break open the Christmas Pudding.
Thu 29 This day in 1170 saw the assassination of Thomas Becket, Archbishop of Canterbury, in his own cathedral. Formerly Lord Chancellor, Becket was made archbishop in 1162 despite not already being an ordained priest. Putting the church before the state be became a thorn in the side of Henry II, and spent 6 years exiled in France. He was canonised, as a martyr, in February 1173. Thomas Becket is my patron saint.
Fri 30 There’s a UNICEF advert running on the Smithsonian channel at the moment. It states that a £10 donation could provide live-saving food for a child (by implication in a third world country) for a week. Wouldn’t it be a fucking good idea if we ensured all the kids in this country were properly fed and nourished first? Government: note and action.
Sat 31 The year ends grey, windy and wet. A fitting end, and good riddance, to a fairly crap year. 2023 has to be better, or I suspect the whole country is going to go stark raving squirrelled.^^

** Jellivate (v). To sit around like a lump of mindless jelly, doing nothing and with no inclination to do anything; thumb in bum and mind in neutral.
^^ As in that memorable line from Steptoe and Son: “My old man’s a nutter; he’s gone squirrelled”.

Ten Things: December

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 -ca

  1. yucca
  2. saltimbocca
  3. angelica
  4. basilica
  5. majolica
  6. wicca
  7. erotica
  8. verruca
  9. sambuca
  10. alpaca

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.

Ten Things: November

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 -bus

  1. circumbendibus
  2. omnibus
  3. cumulonimbus
  4. trolleybus
  5. harquebus
  6. syllabus
  7. rhombus
  8. rebus
  9. nimbus
  10. incubus

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.