This week’s Listography is a pretty open-ended “challenge” as we’re invited to complete the sentence “five reasons I know I’m a …”. So how to finish that statement? I know, with the word “intellectual”.

That sounds conceited but it isn’t. We all have different skills. Mine happen to involve brain power. But I’m absolutely crap at anything manual: I have 10 left thumbs. I cannot even saw a piece of wood straight!

So here are five reasons I know I’m an intellectual:

1. I have a science doctorate (on the boundaries of physics and chemistry) but I also run a literary society. Although I have a broad understanding of science, medicine, history, language etc. I’m not a polymath: for a start I’m useless at foreign languages!

2. I see three sides of every argument before you even tell me one. And I see through management and marketing bullshit like a knife through butter.

3. I can sit in a health education session and realise my brain is bigger than the sum of all the others in the room, including the trainer. Not necessarily an advantage as it means I struggle to suffer people who don’t use what they’ve got, especially when they then also don’t believe what you tell them. I’m useless at manual things, but I do have to try sometimes. I expect other people to do the same with their brains.

4. I don’t need mental crutches like religion. I can think, and read, and argue. I can do morality without having it imposed from outside. I know there is no such beast as “natural justice” and that life isn’t fair. I can deal with it.

5. My hypnotherapist struggles to get stuff into, or out of, my subconscious. My conscious brain is so fast and so analytical that whatever he does it goes “Oh, he’s doing X. That’s interesting. I wonder if he’ll do Y now? Or does it mean Z? And I wonder how that fits with A?” rather than just going “La-la-la, isn’t that pretty”!

Which doesn’t make for an easy ride; in fact it can be downright depressing and demoralising. But then who said it was supposed to be easy?

Experiment, week 18. This week’s five things which have made me happy or for which I’m grateful.

1. Long-Tailed Tits. I’m seeing these delightful little birds — one of the smallest in the UK — more and more in our garden. They seem to especially like the Silver Birch tree (below). Until a couple of years ago I would see a small group maybe a handful of times a year. This winter they’ve been regular visitors and have got on the bird watch list almost every week. And now I am seeing a pair most days. Hopefully they’re going to nest somewhere nearby.



2. Smoked Chicken. This has become a staple in our house. Waitrose do individual smoked chicken breasts which are less expensive than buying carved cooked chicken and much tastier. So we now keep a couple in the fridge as a stand-by. They make a great salad.
3. Daffodils. Yes, I have to say daffodils again. I think they’re my favourite flowers and I love being able to have inexpensive bunches of daffs in the house.
4. Robins Singing. It is definitely Spring. The robin is singing almost continually. I woke up at 4.30 this morning and got up because I was uncomfortable. It was still dark, but the robin was singing away in the trees in our garden.



5. Dawn. One of the nice things about getting up early is seeing the dawn, which is so often just as lovely as sunset. And one of the few pleasures of winter is that you can get up at a sensible time and still see dawn. This morning dawn was beginning to break about 5.30 with some very subtle lemony hues, grey clouds and a crescent moon in the east. Having taken a few photos (both of the above) through the study window, I retired back to bed for a few more hours sleep.

Experiment, week 17. This week’s five things which have made me happy or for which I’m grateful.

1. Early Cherry Blossom. I noticed at the beginning of the week that many of the early-flowering cherries were out. Lots of trees covered in gorgeous white and pale pink flowers.
2. No Dental Treatment. I actually quite enjoy going to the dentist — but then I have a superb dentist with whom I often have scientific/medical conversations. I do not like being abused by the hygienists. But I do like it when my check-up shows that I don’t need anything doing. Thanks, Jonathan!
3. Butter Beans in Cheese Sauce. One evening this week we had vegetables in cheese sause for dinner. The vegetables included butter beans. I love butter beans, which is just as wel because I ate a lot of them as a kid. I especially love them in cheese sauce.



4. Daffodils. Friday I saw the first daffodils out locally.
5. Early Leaves. Also on Friday I spotted that some of the hawthorns were just beginning to open their leaves. Lovely bright fresh green buds and small leaves. And today it is warm and sunny! Spring really must be on the way.

Experiment, week 16. This week’s five things which have made me happy or for which I’m grateful.

This week has been full of food and family history!

1. Fish Display. I just love the displays of fish at our local Waitrose. These are just a couple of photos I took earlier in the week.

   

2. Joan’s Cherry Cake. Our neighbour across the road is in her late 80s and is beginning to lose her sight. So several of the neighbours keep half an eye on her, help her with errands and do bits of shopping for her — as much as she’ll let us because like all “old ‘uns” she’s fiercely independent. Every so often she insists on making us a cake. It’s very sweet of her and entirely unnecessary, but she enjoys doing it. This week she made a very nice cherry cake which was much appreciated for afternoon tea.
3. Trout. At the same time as taking the fishy photos above we bought a couple of gorgeous large trout for dinner yesterday. Very simply baked in foil parcels in the oven with a bulb of fennel and lemon juice; served with plain steamed new potatoes and mushroom sauce. Yummy!
4. Naval Family History. Over the last couple of weeks I’ve continued to investigate the naval connections of my family (for the start of the story see here). It’s proving immensely interesting to see what ships the guys served on and where they went. I’ll probably write more details about it when I’ve done more research and (hopefully) tied up some of the loose ends.
5. Prawns & Pasta. Another simple but satisfying meal tonight which took minutes to prepare and cook. Here’s how (you can do the quantities!). While preparing everything else, cook the pasta; when done drain it and keep it warm. Sauté some finely chopped onion and garlic in olive oil until going translucent. Add a quantity of thawed, uncooked king prawns; sauté for a minute then add some sliced mushrooms, tomato paste, half a glass of white wine and the juice of a lemon; plus a dash of chilli and/or chopped herbs if you wish. Mix together and cook for 5-6 minutes with the lid on to ensure the prawns are done. Near the end season to taste and add a bit more tomato paste if desired: the sauce should be thick and almost non-existent. Add the pasta and toss together for a minute or two. Serve with Parmesan (optional) and devour greedily!

Experiment, week 15. This week’s five things which have made me happy or for which I’m grateful.

1. Coleslaw. I’ve always liked coleslaw; good commercially made coleslaw. Home-made somehow just doesn’t work as well for me.
2. Bacon & Avocado. They’re nice individually but also make a great combination in salad. I wonder why we’ve eaten this twice in the last week?



3. Confit of Duck. On Tuesday we had lunch with our friend Patric (see below) at Café Rouge near St Paul’s Cathedral. The confit of duck was most excellent, although I wasn’t struck on the plum sauce that came with it which was sweet rather than sharp.
4. Solving Family History Problems. I’ve had a couple of breakthroughs this week on my family history. One was courtesy of …



5. Clarenceux King of Arms. I’m lucky to know Patric Dickinson who is Clarenceux King of Arms, England’s second most senior Herald (and not to be confused with the deceased poet of the same name). Now that sounds grand and as a title and position it is. Although he spends a significant part of his time involved with royalty (as a herald he has various ceremonial roles in the Royal Household), Patric isn’t at all grand. Like me he’s a grammar school boy and a normal human being. And as a professional genealogist he is fascinated by families. Consequently some while ago he wrested from me a copy of my family tree and quite unexpectedly and unbidden went about solving a conundrum about one set of my very ordinary, working class great-great-grandparents. He explained all this to me on Tuesday, prior to lunch together. It is a tale of non-marriages, second families and unexpected connections from the 1840s and 1850s. A fascinating piece of detective work which had defeated me. Many thanks, Patric!

[Both pictures culled from the internet. The top one is Patric being his normal self, albeit at a formal function. The lower is of Patric, enrobed, in procession at Windsor in his role as Secretary to the Order of the Garter. Sadly I don’t have a picture of him in his herald’s tabard.]

Kate is making life difficult! Her Listography this week is asking that we tell the top five things that make us happy.

No, Kate that isn’t easy! It’s hard. It’s hard because either lots of things make me happy or nothing really does at all. And being a pessimistic old git I lean towards the latter view.

No seriously, and despite my weekly experiment, I really don’t know what truly does make me happy. It’s a bit like Noreen and I always say: we don’t do panic and we don’t do really excited; we just get on with whatever life throws at us. That doesn’t mean we don’t do a certain level of worry or pleasure; just that we don’t do the extremes. Bugger it, I’m just too controlled; the emotions don’t get enough of a look in?

Anyway, let’s try to find five things that actually do make me happy. Whether they’re the top five, I dunno!

1. [[REDACTED]]. Yes, that’s right you really don’t want me to go into the first one, if only to protect your sensibilities! 🙂
2. Beer. I always enjoy a good pint of beer, preferably English bitter, but also preferably not traditionally warm; slightly chilled is better.
3. Being Nude. And warm. As in being relaxed in the sun. Regular readers will know I was brought up by bohemian parents, who viewed nudity as no big deal: it’s normal and doesn’t per se have any sexual implication. We even had a couple of holidays at a nudist club (the photo is me being watered by my mother on one of these holidays) when I would have been about nine or ten. The ethos has stayed with me. And it hasn’t damaged me!
4. Summer Sunshine. Well sunshine at any time, but especially that lovely warm English Spring and Summer sun when one can sit and relax in the garden and feel at peace with the world.
5. The Sea. Or perhaps I mean the seaside. Not the ghastly English seaside resort crawling with brats of all ages type of seaside. I mean more the quiet English seaside town with beach and harbour type seaside. The smell of the sea. And the ability to lounge on the beach in the sun and again be at peace with the world.

But then again maybe I’m just being too romantic?

Experiment, week 14. This week’s five things which have made me happy or for which I’m grateful.

1. Free Bus Fares. I don’t like buses, but occasionally I have to use one. One thing I do like though is having a Freedom Pass: the London Boroughs’ free bus pass for us wrinklies. Yes it provides free bus fares. But it also provides a lot of free tube and rail fares within London. It feels good to get something back for all the times one has had to pay full fare.
2. Sleep. I like my sleep; I always have done. For some reason I seem to be sleeping much better recently with very few nights where I wake up in the small hours and can’t get back to sleep. In fact I’ve been sleeping so well that if we don’t have to set the alarm I’m likely to sleep soundly well into the morning. Guess it’s probably catching up on all those early mornings over the years.
3. Hypnotherapy. I’ve mentioned before that I’ve been having hypnotherapy for a year or more. It’s slow progress, largely because my brain is so analytical that it is forever butting in and trying to work out what happens next. But finally Chris thinks he’s found a way in, and when I saw him this week he was able to hypnotise me to a deeper level than ever before. Which was interesting. In fact the hypnotherapy has always been interesting as well as very relaxing. But there’s a lot to do yet.



4. Snowdrops & Crocuses. Spring must be well on the way because the snowdrops are out; so are some of our purple crocuses. We have only a small clump of snowdrops under the apple tree, but the woods out at Dorney, near Eton, were just a sea of snowdrops when we were there on Thursday.
5. Oriental Tree. Three or four times a year we have dinner with our friends Sue & Ziggy and (usually) their two boys. More often than not we go out to a local restaurant. So it was that last night we went to their local Chinese restaurant, Oriental Tree in Northfields. And I have to say the food was most excellent as well as being substantial. The prawns and the beef, especially, were to die for. The menu is Chinese based but with Mongolian, Vietnamese and Thai dishes and not expensive — Ziggy’s and my wallets ouched a bit but that was largely due to the amount of drink we consumed as much as the food! The restaurant is small (barely more than 40 covers) and was full all evening as well as doing a steady stream of take-outs. Having met at 7 we had eaten ourselves to a standstill by 10 — perhaps more to the point 9-year-old Harry (a child who loves his food and would have ordered everything on the menu, if allowed!) had almost eaten himself to sleep! I think we might be going back there!