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Things You May have Missed

Another in our irregular series of links to articles which interested or amused me, and which might do the same for you. So in no special order …

It seems the Roman shipwreck which produced the amazing Antikythera mechanism may well have many more secrets to reveal. And it may even be two ships. Coverage by USA Today and by Discovery. Incidentally I have yet to see convincing dating evidence of the Antikythera mechanism to prove it isn’t a fake.


It is being suggested that the Vaux Passional (which is in the National Library of Wales) contains a thumnail sketch of Henry VIII as a child. Yes, maybe, with the eye of faith!

Still on things historical, the London Underground is celebrating it’s 150th anniversary this month and as you’d expect there is a plethora of articles. The two which caught my eye were both in the Telegraph: a pictorial history and 150 fascinating Tube facts.


Coming up to date there is an interesting item on Scientific American blogs about plastic money. No, not credit cards, but plastic (or plasticised) banknotes. It seems like the obvious way to go, but as always the UK is being conservative and slow at adopting the idea.

On the medical front (or maybe I mean back?) we’ve probably all heard by now of the new idea of faecal transplants as a method of resolving serious gut infections. But now researchers are trying to take the “ick-factor” out of the idea by manufacturing “pseudo-poo“. Seems obvious and rather less yeuchy as well as allowing better controlled dosages and better protection against side-effect infections.

Finally several people seem to have picked up on some old work suggesting that many common houseplants actually remove nasty chemicals from the air in your home. Choose from quite a long list.

That’s all for now. More anon.

personal, ramblings

Weirday

What is it that makes birthdays so strange? Today seems to have been one of the odder ones, but for no very obvious reason.

We’ve never been ones for making much of birthdays in my family, so I always expect them to be much like any other day. The trouble starts when other people think birthdays are special days. Which is very nice but not what I expect. Maybe I’m just getting old but it seems that these days everyone is much more wanting to make something of birthdays; I’m sure this wasn’t so when I was young. Maybe it’s just because we’re now much more open about things.

In the past I’ve managed to avoid some of this, especially in the last few years I was working when I had a policy of taking the day off work. But now that things like Facebook tell the world when your birthday is, there isn’t much hiding. And yes, in many ways that is nice but I’m still not used to it.

But although a quiet day, this has been one of the odder birthdays.

It started with an alarm clock and the usual unwillingness to engage vertical hold. Oh and I need to do a pee sample for the doctors to check I really have gotten rid of the bladder infection.

Then off to do the weekly supermarket run. Well this is better than it could be as (a) it is always quiet at 9am on a Friday and (b) I get to have breakfast in the café. This morning, being a special day, I indulged in a full English breakfast rather than the usual bacon roll.

Just as we were leaving the supermarket (luckily after we’d paid!) the fire alarms went off and the store was evacuated. Frankly it could have burnt down as it was nearly 10 minutes before a solitary fire engine arrived.

Home about 1040 to news that one of my parents’ closest friends had died. Not unexpected as he was in his late 80s and had been ill for some time. Fortunately, when I rang, my mother already knew, so I didn’t have to break the news to her.

… And a short doze in front of my PC …

A scratch lunch of the remains of last night’s stuffed peppers with bread & butter — not bad cold, but better hot. This was followed by teh grand opening presents. Oooo goodie! … Another bottle of gin! Plus an early music CD and some books from my wanted list. And what!? No-one gave me chocolates. Which is probably as well.

While away the afternoon doing this and that — ie. nothing — followed by a shower and shave. So exciting I could hardly stand afterwards.

Then to cook my birthday dinner. A massive quantity of seafood (prawns, mussels, scallops and sprats) and linguine in a tomato, lemon and chilli sauce. Dead easy and though I say it myself it was bloody good — better than many restaurants. Devoured with a rather nice bottle of Roger Brun Réserve Grand Cru Champagne (from Nick Dobson Wines).

Dinner was rapidly followed by a long phone call with my closest aunt — mostly about family things and our researches into our ancestry.

So now to switch off and read for the rest of the evening.

And I still don’t know why it is that birthdays are quite such strange days!

food+drink, ramblings

Lunnun Adventure

Yesterday Noreen and I ventured into central London to have lunch with our friend Patric.

Lunch with Patric is always most enjoyable. As one of the country’s most senior Heralds he mixes with everyone from the Queen down. Not that you would ever know; he’s a perfectly ordinary guy, albeit one who went to Oxford and trained as a barrister. He’s just as happy meeting in the pub, a café or a small Italian restaurant as he would be at the Ritz or a gentleman’s club. Meet him in the street and you’d pass him off as just another eccentric Englishman in an overcoat and a flat cap!

And so it was that Patric introduced us to a small Italian restaurant in Shepherd Market on the southern edge of Mayfair. Da Corradi is tucked away in the alley which runs from Shepherd Market into Curzon Street. It is friendly, unpretentious and small; the ground floor eating area is not spacious and only about 20 covers, but there is a larger area downstairs.

Da Corradi
The food was excellent, generous and not at all expensive. Between us for starters we had minestrone, insalata tricolore and antipasto (which was enormous!). Then for main courses we all had pasta: spaghetti with meatballs in tomato sauce, cabonara and fusilli with salmon. Again the pasta helpings were so generous we passed on pudding. That with a bottle of house wine (a perfectly acceptable Pinot Grigio), some soft drinks and tea amounted to only just over £90 including service. Extremely good value especially for that area.

What’s even better is that they are open from early to late, so you can get full English breakfast right through to a meal after the theatre. They also have a sandwich bar. We shall be going back!

We arrived at the restaurant about 1230, had a leisurely lunch and left about 3pm. This was good because Patric is always interesting to talk to and usually has some unconsidered trifle or tale of genealogical whimsy with which to amuse. Amongst other things we were discussing the correct original recipe for Buck’s Fizz, which Patric has unearthed via a serendipitous route. It is also interesting to see his professional approach to genealogical research and where (and why) he is prepared to accept connections “on the balance of probabilities” rather than needing to have “100% detailed forensic certainty”.

In fact lunch was sufficiently good and protracted that we ended up not doing anything else while in town other than a preprandial walk round Shepherd Market. Nevertheless my camera spotted a couple of oddities. The first was in Shepherd Market itself …

Nude Gold
… and yes, it really is a jeweller’s!

The other was seen on the Marylebone Road.

Thai Hmmm
One wonders what other services they offer?

Altogether an enjoyable, if short, day.

personal, pleasures

Reasons to be Grateful: 60

So here we are at the final week of my great experiment documenting five things each week which have made me happy, or for which I’m grateful.

It’s been a bit of an up and down week, although the general trend has been upward. I started off still feeling distinctly not yet the thing and worrying lest the bladder infection returned when I finished the second course of antibiotics. And I was worrying because I knew we wanted to make the day trip to see my mother and this would be a tiring day.

But we did get to see my mother and, despite some anxieties, I have survived and the infection hasn’t returned. Long may it stay that way!

So from quite a long list this week here are my five choices.

  1. Feeling Recovered. Yes, in the last couple of days I do definitely feel that some form of proper humanity might be possible and I could be firing on all cylinders again. This has been helped by some good sleeps. So fingers crossed.
  2. Lamb Curry. Earlier in the week Noreen did a lamb curry. This is the first curry for almost a month, since before I was ill, and it was good. Much enjoyed.

    3. A11 Sunset

  3. Sunset. Returning from seeing my mother on Thursday, slightly earlier than usual to get on the road before dark, there was a gorgeous grey and gold winter sunset. And as the A11 southbound is aligned roughly SW you are driving towards the sunset. The photo really doesn’t do it justice.
  4. Elveden Corner Gammon Joint. Having left Norwich early on Thursday we had time to stop at the Elveden Estate Shop which we haven’t been able to do for quite some time. I’ve written about Elveden before (see here). What I found there were some smoked Corner Gammon joints at a very good price — it was cheaper than the Collar, which I’m sure it shouldn’t have been. Corner Gammon is a cut I’ve not seen for a lot of years — no-one now seems to know any cuts of bacon beyond Back, Streaky, Gammon and Collar (if you’re lucky). Corner Gammon is a flat-ish triangular cut (see the diagram, which isn’t quite how I remember jointing bacon from my youth but near enough). We had it hot last night, and have just had a cold cut with salad this evening — both enjoyed with a good slurp of cider. A really flavoursome piece of pig.
  5. Adnams Ghost Ship. I shall finish with one of my favourite beers … my Christmas beer stock was cans of Adnams Ghost Ship. This is a lovely pale ale with some very nice, fragrant, citrus flavours. So far I have hardly touched the stock, so it should keep me in beer for some while to come. Cheers!

So that’s it! Sometime during the week I will try to analyse what this has told me, and gauge how successful it has been.

Now what am I going to do to stay out of trouble?

food+drink

Recipe: Vegetable Crumble

Want something healthy(ish) for the new year after the excesses of Christmas? Why not try one of Noreen’s specialities: Vegetable Crumble. It is simple, although the preparation is a bit labour intensive. And because it is unusual it seems to wow! most vegetarians.

Earlier today we mentioned to one of our friends (who has been a chef!) that we were going to have veggie crumble tonight. He was incredulous. You would have thought we were going to cook Martian Squid or something. Even when we explained it …

“You know what apple crumble is?”
“Yes”
“Well then you know what vegetable crumble is. Just add sauce.”

… our friend still wasn’t wholly convinced.

So for all the unbelievers out there, this is how it goes. (As usual I’ll leave you to work out the quantities and ratios to suit you.)

Vegetable Crumble

You will need:

  • Enough potatoes for however many you’re feeding
  • A selection of vegetables. Almost anything is OK but root veg, beans (especially butter beans), cauliflower, fennel, mushrooms, onions work well. Leafy veg, peppers, tomatoes aren’t so good but will still work as long as they aren’t the main veg.
  • Some sauce: choose from cheese (especially good), mushroom, onion, tomato; or even herb or garlic
  • Crumble topping
  • Grated cheese (optional)
  • Salt & pepper

This is what you do:

  1. Decide what sauce you’re going to do and leave any veg for that aside. If you’re using canned beans hold these back as well.
  2. You need to prepare and pre-cook the veg in bite-sized-ish pieces. Steam (preferably) or boil the veg until only just done. As the veggies will cook at different rates, this ensures that all the veg is properly cooked, with none over- or under-done.
  3. While the veg cooks make the crumble topping, just as you would for apple crumble only with no added sugar.
  4. Also make the sauce. Just a standard cheese, mushroom, onion, herb or garlic white sauce. Or a tomato sauce (as for pasta or pizza); chunky is good. The choice is yours.
  5. Put the hot cooked veg in a large casserole together with the drained, canned beans. Season and cover with the sauce; ensure everything is mixed up a bit.
  6. Add the crumble topping, and (optionally) some grated cheese on top.
  7. Cook in a moderate oven for about 45 minutes to ensure the crumble is done and everything is hot through.
  8. Serve on its own as a rib-sticking veggie main course, or as the vegetable to accompany roast meat.

Notes:

  1. We often do this with whatever vegetables we happen to have left in the fridge; it’s a good “use it up rather than throw it out” dish.
  2. Do NOT over cook the veg. Remember it will get a bit more cooking in the oven.
  3. If you (choose to) make too much crumble topping, it freezes well, can be cooked almost from frozen, and as it’s unsweetened it can easily be quickly adapted for fruit crumble.
  4. This reheats well the next day (with a bit more grated cheese) for a quick lunch.
  5. An alternative is to use roasted vegetables, but that needs a bit more thought and preparation.
links

Another Ketchup

Despite being a holiday period there seem to have been quite a few interesting news stories around in the last week or so. Here are a few you may have missed.

It seems we should be supporting the real Chrsitmas trees as they are especially good at absorbing “greenhouse gasses”.

Here are two amusing and competing theories about the relationship between Santa and his elves.

Next we have an interesting, curious and perfectly serious item about the amazing powers of earthworms to refine rare metals. Very strange.

For astronomy fans it looks as if 2013 might be an interesting year with not one but two bright comets predicted to be visible, even possibly during daylight. Definitely a couple of gigs not to be missed. Watch this space for more details as the year goes on.

Who would have thought that the chilly seas off Scotland would have the world’s largest reef of a rare shellfish.

Are you a werewolf? No, thought not. But there are a very small number of people in the world with a very rare genetic mutation that really do make them look like one.

More research on the causes of earworms, and how to kill them off.

How do you spot randomness? Well first you need to know what it looks like, and it isn’t like you think it is!

What makes chocolate so chocolate-y? An interesting diversion into the key components of chocolate and how it is refined.


And finally a copy of an old “sex manual” attributed to Aristotle, and which was banned in the UK for 200 years, is to be auctioned later this month.

More anon!