personal, pleasures

Reasons to be Grateful: 51

So here we are at week 51 of my experiment in documenting five things each week which have made me happy of for which I’m grateful. It’s been a busy week, not helped by the fact that I was knocked out last weekend and the beginning of the week by my annual ‘flu jab.

Anyway, just for Sue, here’s this week totally non-foodie selection.

  1. Golden Leaves. Many of the trees are still green, but there are also a lot of wonderful golden-yellow autumnal colours as well.
  2. Clear Dental Check-up. We had our twice yearly dental check-ups this week. And we both got away with nothing needing doing — though we had to run the gauntlet of the hygienist as well.

    AA20

  3. Vintage Cars. Yesterday was our quarterly Anthony Powell Society London pub meet (always enjoyable) and one of the nice things about going into central London this day is that there are often vintage cars driving around getting ready for the London to Brighton run the following day. Although there weren’t many around yesterday I did see the one above receiving some attention near Lancaster Gate, having just been pushed out of the traffic. I managed a quick squint at the engine as we passed, and the cylinder block was tiny — little more than half the size of a shoebox.
  4. Sunshine. When we see it, as we did a couple of times this week, I always feel much better.
  5. Top Hat. I bought a top hat this week. You know, the way one does. It isn’t really for wearing but more to provide a fun hat to be passed round at AP Soc. gatherings.
quotes

More Quotes

Another occasional round-up of recently-encountered quotes which have interested or amused me.

At least two-thirds of our miseries spring from human stupidity, human malice and those great motivators and justifiers of malice and stupidity: idealism, dogmatism and proselytizing zeal on behalf of religious or political ideas.
[Aldous Huxley]

He is a vegetarian; I don’t know whether from principle or from gourmandaise. One never knows whether people have principles on principle or whether for their own personal satisfaction.
[Karel Čapek on George Bernard Shaw in Letters from England]

He is one of those people who would be enormously improved by death.
[Saki]

The mind of a bigot is like the pupil of the eye. The more light you shine on it, the more it will contract.
[Oliver Wendell Holmes Jr.]

So much of what we call management consists in making it difficult for people to work.
[Peter Drucker]

The unreal is more powerful than the real, because nothing is as perfect as you can imagine it. Because it’s only intangible ideas, concepts, beliefs, fantasies that last. Stone crumbles. Wood rots. People, well, they die. But things as fragile as a thought, a dream, a legend, they can go on and on.
[Novelist Chuck Palahniuk. Shades of X Trapnel in Anthony Powell’s A Dance to the Music of Time]

Everyone should be responsible and if they do visit a wood just make sure they wash their boots, wash their dog, whatever’s been running around the leaves, wash their child, to make sure they don’t transfer to the next wood.
[Owen Patterson, UK Environment Secretary, talking about how people can help prevent the spread of the fungus which is killing ash trees; quoted in the Daily Telegraph]

links, science

Another Catch-up

More links to the interesting amusing or curious you may have missed …

Someone has finally realised that there is no way to totally shield children from pornography and that they’re going to find it anyway. So what?, I say. They have to learn these things sooner or later. And how much better to have it out in the open (Oooo, missus!) and that they learn about such things in the comforting environment of home. Oh, they don’t have homes. Hmmm …

Scientists reckon that after a lot of work they’re finally beginning to be able to decode the contents of dreams, without waking up the subject.

This one is definitely not for teatime, and maybe not for work! Pictures of the world’s most revolting cakes. Nah, there must be worse than these, surely!


More pictures, and of all sorts of things. But these are seen microscope photos and many are rather beautiful. See how many you can correctly guess.

So we’re always being told we should drink 8 glasses of water a day. Why? Well actually no-one really knows, or where the myth started. I’ll take my share in beer, thanks!

We’re always being told that fresh pee is sterile. So in another item Mind the Science Gap asks “Mommy, why do I need to wash my hands if I only pee?“. Interesting take on house-training boy children!

Waht to really stand out from Nature’s crowd? Be true blue!

They think it’s good, but from here it looks more like a disaster for book publishing. Penguin and Random House to merge (subject to regulatory approval).

Duke of York Column
Somewhere in London there’s an observation tower, masquerading as a memorial column, which has been closed to the public for 130 years. IanVisits would like to see the Duke of York Column, just off Pall Mall, reopened. I bet most Londoners don’t even know it exists!

And finally it’s party time down in Kent. Archaeologists have found the remains of what appears to be a 6th century Saxon nightclub (ie. a feasting hall) in Lyminge. It sounds seriously impressive.

natural history

Greenford Wasp Day

Today has been declared Greenford Wasp Day.

Yep, as blogged a week ago, we still have loads of (mostly queen) wasps around. And I do mean loads.

Despite the cold weekend, on average over the past few days we have been evicting two or three a day from the house. They are mostly queens of Vespula vulgaris, the common wasp.


Today was no exception. Until, that is, Noreen made the mistake of going into the loft. From her description it sounds as if the airspace up there was a bit like the Battle of Britain! She caught and evicted around 20 wasps in the space of about 30 minutes. And even then left at least half a dozen in the loft. Every one I was shown was a queen.

Not only is the nest in our eaves, but the loft provides some superb hibernation real estate. There are cracks between the boards, tiles and rafters; there are cardboard boxes, there are cracks in the brickwork — just endless nooks and crannies.

I am just absolutely amazed that not only are the wasps still around, and hatching out, but that we have so many. The colony must have been breeding nothing but queens all summer!

Mind you, for every ten we put out probably at most one will see next Spring.

amusements

Just for a chuckle …

The ‘flu jab crap continues. Gradually feeling better but still very depressed and not doing much. Hmmph! We are not impressed.

But just to cheer everyone, including me, up a bit I thought we’d have another cartoon from the archives.

personal, pleasures

Reasons to be Grateful: 50

Week 50 of the experiment, and just ten weeks to go documenting five things each week which have made me happy of for which I’m grateful. This week we have … Oh God, it’s going to be a foodie week again!

  1. Pickled Onions. I don’t eat pickled onions for months at a stretch, and then I decide I want them, which is what happened this week. Why I don’t eat them all the time I don’t know, ‘cos I always really enjoy them. Unless you’re going to the fiddler of doing your own (which I used to) then Garner’s are the best available by a long way.
  2. Lime & Chilli Prawns. This was the last thing I did before collapsing with the after-effects of the ‘flu jab. King prawns, with the juice and zest of a couple of limes, a chilli, some onion, garlic, tomato and mushroom; sautéed and served with pasta, à la mode d’ici.
  3. Queen Wasps. Just as blogged earlier in the week. And I can confirm they are indeed Vespula vulgaris as I suspected.
  4. Chillies. The chilli crop is nearing the end; there are just a handful left to ripen and the flowers have almost ceased. Even the prolific tiny red Explosive Ember are petering out. But earlier this week I picked a magnificent collection of about 10 each of the large yellow Scotch Bonnet Yellow Mushroom and Hot Lemon.
  5. Thicker Duvet. It’s got noticeably colder this week — and you know it’s cold when I say it is because I’m normally a warm mortal. Although I’m not sure we really need it yet it is nice to snuggle under the heavier weight duvet. The cats like it too!
history, ramblings, topographical

Over-priced London

3 Comments

They must be havin’ a giraffe! A bleedin’ big ‘un n’all.

Yesterday Diamond Geezer, who blogs a lot about various London-y things, posted a list of the cost of various London attractions.

This was prompted by the news that The Shard is to charge a few coppers shy of £25 for the privilege of going to the top to see the view. A view which, likely as not, will be mist, aka. low cloud, rather than the promised 40 miles round London.


So everyone can be equally scandalised, here are the maximum prices from Diamond Geezer‘s list with one or two I’ve added …

£30.00 Madame Tussauds (on the day)
£29.95 The View from The Shard (Time Out website)
£29.00 Harry Potter Tour, Watford
£28.00 Up at the O2
£26.95 Ripley’s Believe It Or Not
£24.95 The View from The Shard (standard price)
£24.00 The London Dungeon
£23.00 London Zoo
£20.90 Tower of London
£19.80 London Aquarium
£18.90 London Eye
£18.00 Buckingham Palace State Rooms
£16.50 Churchill War Rooms
£16.95 Hampton Court Palace
£16.00 Westminster Abbey
£16.00 Kew Gardens
£15.00 Houses of Parliament
£15.00 St Paul’s Cathedral
£14.00 HMS Belfast
£13.50 London Transport Museum
£13.00 St Paul’s Cathedral
£12.00 Cutty Sark
£8.00 Tower Bridge exhibition and walkways
£7.00 Royal Observatory Greenwich
£6.00 Apsley House
£4.00 Wellington Arch

I’m sorry, London attractions, but those prices are just not on and they are why you won’t see me visiting any time soon. So don’t go wondering why you don’t see me, at least until you reduce those prices by 50%. We’re in a recession. OK?

Yes, I’ve done a lot of the attractions. I remember being taken to Madame Tussauds at the age of about 10 (so 50-ish years ago) and my father complaining about how exorbitant it was even then. Here’s my verdict on those I can remember:

  • Madame Tussauds : distinctly “so what”
  • The Tower : also distinctly “so what?” 50 years ago
  • London Zoo : a rip-off at £18 about 4 years ago
  • London Aquarium : very disappointing
  • London Eye : the super views made it just about worth £12 for 30 minutes a few years back
  • Hampton Court : haven’t been since my school trip of 50 years ago; I really should go again
  • Westminster Abbey : I refuse to pay for admission to any state funded church
  • St Paul’s : same as Westminster Abbey; and anyway I hate rococo
  • Cutty Sark : boring 45 years ago; the new “replica” seems to me a waste of money
  • Houses of Parliament : interesting, but not as interesting as I had hoped
  • Kew Gardens : with Hampton Court about the only place on this list that’s really attractive
  • Wellington Arch : only opened recently; worth the cost of a pint for the view down Constitution Hill, up at the Quadriga, and especially if you can be there when the Horse Guards go underneath

Add to which that the London Dungeon, Apsley House, Buckingham Palace, Harry Potter, the O2, The Shard, and Ripley’s hold no attraction for me, which is why I’ve not been to them.

And that is from someone who likes history and going to interesting and odd places. What a sad reflection on one of the great cities of the world and my home!

Thank your personal deity the national museums are all free.

medical, personal

Humanity Restored?

Bastard! One year I’ll learn not to put anything in my diary for at least two days after I have my ‘flu jab. Yep it always gets me, usually for only 24 hours.

This year it hit me hard. GOK why it should.

I had the injection about 9.30 on Friday morning. By 9.30 that evening I was huddled under the duvet feeling like death — the full ‘flu symptoms: fever, aching bones, crashing headache, don’t like bright lights, unable to stay awake but sleeping fitfully and just so depressed.

Saturday’s plans had to be abandoned. But heroically Noreen managed to mop up the couple of bits we couldn’t entirely avoid. Meanwhile I slept the day away. And although I felt rather better by the evening I then couldn’t sleep last night. That’s pretty normal for me when I’m ill: sleep well all day and badly at night.

Humanity is present again today, but only just. I’m still weary and aching; still depressed. Still not functioning properly in the brain department. (Yeah! OK!)

Hopefully normal service will be fully restored tomorrow; there’s too much to do for it not to be.

It’s true what they say about ‘flu, even the after-effects of the injection: it hits you fast and hard, and floors you. If the symptoms come on gradually and you can still function at all, then what you have isn’t ‘flu. If you get hit by a train and can’t function even if you need to, it is ‘flu.

Yes, I usually get some reaction to the injection. I never expect it! But it isn’t usually as bad as this. The only previous year I remember it as bad as this was two years ago when the inoculation contained swine ‘flu (or was it bird ‘flu?) vaccine. That knocked me out for a week! Clearly my body hadn’t seen that before.

What’s interesting though is that not everyone reacts the same. On Friday morning in the supermarket we met a couple who also go to our doctors and who had their jabs several weeks ago: they both said they had had no after-effects at all; not even a sore arm. And my mother says she never gets any after-effects. But I do, and I know several others who do.

Lesson: In future keep at least a couple of days clear after the ‘flu jab, and be prepared to be hit hard. I did neither this year and have only myself to blame. Even Noreen tried to warn me! But did I listen?

But the after-effects of the inoculation, however horrid, are way better than actually having ‘flu properly. One really doesn’t need that, especially if you’re at all immune-compromised (elderly or with a long term condition like diabetes, respiratory problems, etc.) or a carer because ‘flu can really knock you out, possibly even terminally.

So if you’re offered a ‘flu shot by your doctor, I’d say take it. Yes, it may make you feel rough for a day or so, but that’s better than the 1-2 weeks real ‘flu will last.

links, science

Science-y things you may have missed

In this edition of links to interesting items I’ve collected this week, we bring you mostly science-related things. In no special order …

The Bristlecone Pine is an amazing tree which can live for thousands of years. It chronicles climate change past and it looks as if it may be showing the way into climate change to come.

So what are you actually running scared of? Biologist Rob Dunn is always good value and here he looks at how our “fight or flight” mechanism is still running from nasty, big predators.

Still on biology here are a series of amazing microscopy photos of creepy crawlies. Preferably not for mealtime or just before bed, but the images are so brilliant!

We all get earworms. No, not more bugs! I mean that song or tune which loops endlessly in your head despite distractions. Now psychologists are trying to understand why.

Psychologists again! It seems they’ve concluded that what we’ve always been told is true: that men and women can’t be “just friends”. OK, guilty as charged, sometimes — though I’m far from sure it is true of all my opposite sex friendships.

There have been several articles recently about the age of puberty having fallen over the last 100 years in both boys and girls. Do scientists really not understand why? How about better nutrition and hormones in meat? I bet they account for a large percentage of the change. But OK it will be hard to prove.

Finally on the basis of some meta-studies some scientists have come to the conclusion that premenstrual syndrome is probably a myth. Probably true for some women, but I find it hard to believe it’s all in the mind. I think a lot of people will need a lot of convincing.

May your weekend run smoothly!