personal

Things to do in 2022

Well now. At this point I normally make public the things I intend to try to achieve during the year. However, like several other things around here, it ain’t going to happen this year.

For why? …

Basically it seems rather pointless. Unless the Covid situation eases up a lot, there’s not much prospect of going anywhere, or doing anything, exciting. Sure there are interesting things to do at home – like family history – but you don’t want to keep hearing about that. Yes the whole situation is extremely tedious and off pissing.

Beyond that, from most of what I’ve written down (and yes, I have written it all down) it might as well be Groundhog Day. Everything looks pretty much the same boring stuff I’ve been trying to do for the last couple of years – and failing mainly because of (a) Covid and (b) depression. Rinse and repeat, ad nauseam.

However what I will say is that the main thing I’ve decided is that this year we should take a serious look at our long-term (personal and family) safety and security. I doubt it is in a very bad state but an in depth look at where we are, what we have, and what ultimately should happen to it, would not be a bad idea. Of course, we may decide we don’t need to do anything. Then again we may feel the need to change everything. Or something in between. We shall see.

Hopefully the year will be better than I fear and we’ll all be here to report on our plans again in 12 months time.

Meanwhile, keep taking the tablets!

amusements, current affairs, ramblings

Predictions for 2022

Once again this year I’ve brought my crystal ball out of retirement and asked it, and my dowsing pendulum, to help me guess what may happen during 2022.

Prognostication has been difficult again this year because of all the continuing unknowns and variables. This is due in large part to the Covid-19 situation, but also the on-going fall-out from Brexit and a dysfunctional UK government.

As before, I’ve divided the predictions into sections: General, World, UK, and Personal. Various items are redacted (although I have them documented) as some might be especially sensitive.

Disclaimer. I remind you that these are just my ideas of what could happen; they’re based solely on hunches and gut feel; I have no inside knowledge, I haven’t been studying the form, and I have a success rate of about 20%. So if you base any decision on any of this I will take no responsibility for your wanton act of idiocy or its consequences.

General

  1. The first half of year is likely to be relatively quiet; but the second half could be turbulent.
  2. Watch out for travel delays and general buggeration during weeks 18-20, 34-38, 38-41 (possibly Covid related), 41.
  3. Also watch out for change around the time of eclipses, especially in areas where they are visible. This year we have:
    • 30/04: Partial Solar Eclipse visible in S Pacific, S America, Antarctica
    • 15-16/05: Total Lunar Eclipse visible in N America, S America, Antarctica, W Africa, SW Europe
    • 25/10: Partial Solar Eclipse visible in Europe, SW Asia, Arabia
    • 07-08/11: Total Lunar Eclipse visible in Arctic, Pacific, NE Russia, NW Canada
  4. There are Supermoons on 14/06 & 13/07. These should herald good news.

World

  1. A number of international treaties are likely to be broken in the second half of the year.
  2. There’s an international incident associated with the Winter Olympics; possibly involving the death of a competitor.
  3. There’s a Republican landslide in the US mid-term elections.
    This allows Trump to resurface as a serious contender for US Presidency in 2024.
  4. Macron is re-elected as French President, but by a small margin.
  5. Ukraine is reabsorbed into Russia despite international condemnation.
  6. There’s a military coup in Chile.
  7. Japan starts dumping the tritium contaminated water from the Fukushima nuclear site into sea – without telling anyone this has started; in fact it may have been happening for over a year.
  8. There are continuing, and aggressive, clampdowns on freedom of speech and protest across the world.
  9. At least one country votes to leave the EU.
  10. Three countries announce plans to go cash free by 2025.
  11. In good news, global wine production increases by at least 20%, mostly in the Southern Hemisphere.
  12. Covid-19 is here to stay.
    Another deadly Covid variant emerges just as Delta & Omicron are being defeated.
    Covid variants will start to be named in Hebrew or Chinese.
  13. The first “all flu” vaccine is available and it is combined in the Covid vaccine.
    It’s in Phase III trials this year, so won’t be available for a while yet.
  14. Nevertheless anti-vaxxers become more strident and aggressive as they gain increasing support.
    The number of unvaccinated (for all diseases) is causing major medical and public health issues.
  15. There’s a major infrastructure issue, probably affecting several countries, possibly due to a cyberattack or (more likely?) a large solar storm.
  16. At least one major space mission fails; maybe ISS or Ariane 6, or something else.
  17. There are several high impact astronomical/cosmological events; all due to things previously unknown science.
  18. There’s a major earthquake in the Himalayas.
  19. There’s a major volcanic eruption in Philippines, Papua New Guinea, or Iceland.
  20. This will be another hot and wet year, probably the hottest ever.
  21. Deaths: Dalai Lama, Nancy Pelosi, both Popes, George W Bush, Bill Clinton, Jimmy Carter, Angela Merkel, Aung San Suu Kyi.

UK

  1. It is likely the men in grey suits will remove Boris as PM.
    However there’s no prospect of an early general election.
  2. Sinn Féin gain control of Stormont.
  3. Recovery is slower than expected as Covid doesn’t go away.
    GDP will increase by a maximum of 2% as a result.
  4. Road & rail infrastructure spend has to be significantly reduced due to economic shortfalls.
  5. Bank of England interest rate rises to between 1% and 2%.
    Mortgage rates increase significantly but savings rates remain stagnant.
  6. Fuel duty is reduced to stimulate recovery, but at the expense of relaxing “net zero” climate targets.
  7. The State Pension triple lock is removed permanently.
  8. Continuing supply chain problems due to the on-going effects of Brexit, Covid, lack of lorry drivers and a lack of key workers; there’s no resolution in sight and food shortages remain a possibility.
  9. Supply chain and interest rates drive an increase in inflation to between 5% and 10%.
    Meat, fish, fruit & veg all increase by 20% to 25% overall.
    Gas price rises by 50% compared with YE2021 – partly as a ploy to make people switch away from gas.
    Electricity prices rise by 25%.
  10. There is continuing disruption to movement of goods between Northern Ireland and the UK mainland.
    Consequently there’s continuing discord between UK and EU.
  11. The government continues to try to reform TfL and refuse further financial support.
    Bus and tube services are cut back.
  12. HS2 costs rise by at least 30%.
  13. Covid cases remain stubbornly high; averagely on-going 400 deaths/week and 100K cases/week.
    A major rise in Covid cases in January/February due to Omicron variant and Christmas/New Year super-spreader events.
    And another spike in September/October.
    Everyone will need another vaccine booster jab, probably starting in late Spring or early Summer.
  14. There’s further significant rationalisation in the supermarket sector.
  15. The government moves to further criminalise prostitution and recreational drugs.
  16. There may well be a significant event (possibly a disaster) somewhere in Thames Estuary roughly north of Westgate-on-Sea.
  17. Deaths: The Queen, Frank Field, Stephen Fry, George Alagiah, George Monbiot, Piers Corbyn, George Galloway, Dennis Skinner, Andrew Marr

Personal
Five items, including possible deaths redacted from here as the content is bound to be sensitive to people I know. However these items are documented in my files and will be tracked.

Obviously I shall try to keep track and will hope to publish the results at the end of the year. Let’s hope we have a better success rate this year and that the worst of the predictions don’t come to pass.

personal

2021 in Summary

Traditionally at this time I look back at my achievements and engagement (or, more usually the lack of it) over the past year. However I’m not going to do so this year.

Why?

For the simple reason that the year has been such rubbish with the ongoing plague having shut down the ability to do much, or otherwise scuttled most of the things one had vaguely hoped to achieve.

Which means there is effectively nothing to say other than a big fat “Bah! Humbug!”.

Similarly I usually document how well I did against the predictions I made for 2021. Again, I’m not going to do it: partly because of the rubbish year but also as I just don’t have the stomach to plod through it all – that’s at least in part down to my depression.

However suffice it to say that I maintained my track record of getting the majority of my predictions wrong, with the exception of some of the Brexit fallout (and anyone could have foreseen that!).

Normal service may, or may not, resume next year.

food+drink

Peppers with a Haggis Stuffing

For some reason, which I never understood, it was a semi-tradition with my parents to have haggis at New Year. And it is something which Noreen and I have mostly continued.

Why is it that so many people dislike haggis? I wonder how many have actually tried it! Yeah, OK, it is made with sheep’s offal, and many are squeamish about eating offal. For me it is tasty, peppery, and good, filling food; there’s nothing to dislike. I won’t say it is a staple in our house, but it’s something we eat several times a year, and there’s always on on stand-by in the freezer. And you don’t have to eat it with the traditional bashed neeps (swede) and mashed potato. Why not try it as the filling in a “Shepherd’s Pie”?

Anyway this New Year I decided to try something different.

Peppers with a Haggis Stuffing

For once I remembered to take a photo!

You will want …

  • medium or large bell peppers, at least one per person (I used four)
  • a 500gm haggis
  • a packet of stuffing mix
  • 2 “banana” shallots or a medium onion
  • as much garlic as you wish
  • 2 soft tomatoes
  • (optional) some flavouring, like 1-2tbsp HP sauce, or a good slug of Worcester Sauce, or a double whiskey
  • olive oil and/or butter
  • freshly ground black pepper

This is what I did …

  1. Pre-heat the oven to 200°C/fan 180°C.
  2. Finely chop the onion, garlic and tomatoes and sweat them in a little olive oil and/or butter until translucent and getting sticky.
  3. Meanwhile halve the peppers (I find they cook better halved); remove the stalks, seeds and pith. Set aside.
  4. Put the stuffing mix in a large mixing bowl and rehydrate with hot water according to the packet instructions.
  5. Remove the skin and chop the haggis into smallish pieces. Add to the stuffing mix and work together well, breaking down the haggis further.
  6. Add the onion & tomato mix, flavouring and some ground black pepper (to taste). Mix well.
  7. Fill the pepper halves with the haggis stuffing and put on one side.
  8. Grease an oven-proof roasting dish, and if there’s any haggis stuffing left over (there probably will be) put it in the dish and sit the stuffed pepper halves on top.
  9. Cover with foil and bake in the oven for about an hour. Remove the foil for the last 15-20 minutes to lightly crisp the stuffing.
  10. Serve accompanied by an alcoholic drink of your choice (beer or whiskey work well) and optionally some green vegetables.

Any leftovers will make a nice cold snack lunch (or even sandwiches).

This was tasty and tangy but not overpoweringly haggis-y – I reckon you could serve it to many people and they’d not know they were eating haggis.

amusements, topographical

January 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.

January Quiz Questions: British Geography

  1. What is the westernmost settlement in the UK?
  2. Which city is the further west, Bristol or Edinburgh?
  3. Which river forms much of the border between England and Scotland?
  4. Which headland on the Kent coast is formed mostly of shingle?
  5. On the London Underground network, which is the only station to begin with the letter “I”?

Answers will be posted in 3 weeks time.

personal

Happy New Year

Sorry 2021 you didn’t deliver what we ordered,
so we’ve bought a brand new 2022!

Wishing everyone a Happy New Year.
May your 2022 be much better than 2021!

personal

Unblogged December

Wed 1 What happened today? Not a clue. Spent the whole day doing admin-y stuff. Yawn!
Thu 2 Spent a large chunk of the afternoon trying to work out what in my life I want to monitor and/or achieve next year. All somewhat depressing, but I know if I don’t do it I’ll get nowhere.
Fri 3 Yay! The supermarket delivery actually got everything right this week, barring the handful of items that weren’t available. And the chatty, friendly driver was well on time.
Sat 4 Surprised that it was quite foggy in the middle of the nght; enough that I couldn’t see the top of the road from the bedroom window. But it was clear by the time I got up at 9.
Sun 5 I should have photographed my desk this morning: it was an absolute riot of of muddy paw marks. It’s an enigma to me how a cat can come in, cross the kitchen, hall, stairs, landing and study (all carpeted except the kitchen) and still have wet muddy feet!
Mon 6 Actually managed to look at some family history stuff this afternoon. I was looking at Austens in Tenterden and hoping to find a (very distant) connexion to Jane Austen. But no luck so far.
Tue 7 I’m a terrible correspondent, so no surprise that it has taken me weeks and even months to get round to writing some letters to friends and family.
Wed 8 Ho! Ho! Ho! Welcome to the new Christmas lockdown. But phased in over a week. FFS. Yet again much too little, far too late.
Thu 9 04:30. Sounds of cat(s) playing with something. Ah yes. Small dead wood mouse at the foot of the bed. Both junior cats in attendance; I wonder which is the guilty party? Boy Cat looks the more likely.
Fri 10 Waitrose are selling their usual Crément de Bourgogne for £10.99 (it’s normally £14.99). It’s as good as many Champagnes (well it’s the same method, but not the right district). Buy 6 and get another 5% off. Good everyday fizz. What’s not to like?
Sat 11 That worked pretty well. No chance of the usual literary society London pre-Christmas lunch again this year, so I organised a sort of party tea over zoom. More overseas members (mostly US) than Brits, and it’s great to see them. Seemed to be enjoyed by all.
Sun 12 Afternoon spent writing Christmas cards, letters and wrapping presents that have to be posted. Finished the cards, but not the packages.
Mon 13 So today, between two GP patient group meetings, we managed to get all the Christmas cards & presents packed up and in the mail.
Tue 14 Someone left an unlabelled bag with tea bags & chocolate on our doorstep. Thing is one doesn’t like to assume it wasn’t left there by mistake, especially after several recent attempted deliveries of parcels not for us. But in this instance it turned out to be a friend playing “Secret Santa”.
Wed 15 Did today exist? I suppose it must have done. But I’ve no way of telling as I seem to have done nothing – certainly nothing of any substance beyond a few minor website updates.
Thu 16 Night was falling fast when N discovered a problem with the pond: it was nearly empty! Water drained down to ground level (top of the original tiny sunken pond). Water not spewing from hoses etc. so must be a hole in the liner. Too dark to do anything more than minimal damage limitation.
Fri 17 A difficult day. Tom came round to help assess the pond situation. Tom & N rescued the fish; moved to cramped temporary accommodation – hopefully pending a better solution over the weekend. Didn’t like having Tom here, however necessary it was; I’m petrified of getting Omicron.
Sat 18 A day spent waiting for a delivery that didn’t materialise. Gah!
Sun 19 Up at 06:30 after a bad night and much too little sleep. No wonder I was cold, falling asleep, and good for nothing all day.
Mon 20 It’s been a long day of bits & pieces; odd jobs; doorstep pressie swap with a friend. Couldn’t settle to doing anything.
Tue 21 Trying to eat up the freezer to make room for Christmas meat. Tonight a couple of portions of frozen cooked chicken fragments; put together with leftover roast Mediterranean veg from Sunday and used to stuff some peppers. Tasty even if not fine dining.
Wed 22 A day of two results. Goldfish finally moved to their new long-term temporary home. And tasty home made tomato soup for evening food; very thrifty using a quantity of over-ripe surplus tomatoes and stock from the freezer.
Thu 23 An interesting day topped by a product recall on the goat butter we have in the fridge – all of it. So need to source more butter (goat or otherwise) PDQ.
Fri 24 Christmas dinner part 1 this evening: roast pork, baked potatoes, red cabbage, sugar snap peas, rainbow carrots, leek sauce and apple sauce. Washed down with some good cider.
Sat 25 It’s Christmas morning. The rest of the house is asleep. But what am I doing? Working, of course; rewriting a document. Festivities later.
Sun 26 A grey and soggy Boxing Day, which meant a lie-in, lunch of cold meat with bubble & squeak, and not a lot else done – as it should be.
Mon 27 Anthony Powell sums up today rather well: “It was that prolonged, flat, cheerless week that follows Christmas. Those interminable latter days of the dying year create an interval of moral suspension: one form of life already passed away before another has had time to assert some new, endemic characteristic.”
Tue 28 The first of this year’s Royal Institution Christmas Lectures on BBC4 TV. Very topical; all about viruses, how they infect us and how we test for them. OK I followed along easily, but I suspect many of the kids struggled with some of the bits that were glossed over or assumed.
Wed 29 Today is the Feast Day of Thomas Becket, St Thomas of Canterbury. Saint and martyr he’s venerated by the Catholic and Anglican Churches. Having found conflict with Henry II over the rights and privileges of the Church, Becket was murdered by followers of the king in Canterbury Cathedral on this day in 1170. He is my patronal guardian and we have much in common: not least being a pain in the posterior.
Thu 30 Last of the RI Christmas Lectures. They’ve been quite good in an understated way; no dramatics; and quite a lot assumed/not explained. But it’s hard to know how to make virology fun for 12-year-olds, especially when constrained to just three lectures.
Fri 31 This old year is ending as it began … with us swimming underwater: we close our eyes, hold our breath, and keep kicking in a vain attempt to resurface. Here’s hoping we can resurface in 2022.
HAPPY NEW YEAR EVERYONE!
amusements, pleasures

Amusements of the Year, 2021

Here’s my usual round-up of things which have amused me during the year. Unsurprisingly this has not been a vintage year for amusement.

(Most of the images etc. are clickable to display larger views or source information.)

Product
There are three contenders this year, but the winner has to be these Danish Wine Gums (left below) and Salt Liquorice Pastilles (yeuch!).

Spunk

The runners-up were this Ziplock Bag Thong with Goldfish Crackers …

… and a new (I think) product Waitrose Christmas Chicken Wing Lollipops …
chicken wing

Headline

I think this year’s winner has to be:


Motorist fined after CCTV confuses his number plate with woman’s T-shirt

But it was a close contest with these four runners-up very close behind the winner. (All are from the Guardian.)

Ohio man charged with stealing 58ft pedestrian bridge

Monkeys thought to have escaped private collection on loose in Cincinnati

Old Irish goats return to County Dublin to protect hills from wildfires

Camels enhanced with Botox barred from Saudi beauty contest

Twat of the Year

Leaving aside the whole Tory party in Westminster … the only serious contender for “Twat of the Year” has to be this disreputable scumbag:

BoJo
I may not be the snappiest of dressers but I’d be mortified to leave home looking this scruffy. I wonder if they found the hole in the hedge before the sheep escaped?

Book Title

Oh dear, there really is only one serious contender this year:

Is Superman Circumcised? by Ray Schwartz

Auction Item

Two superlative auction items stood out for me this year. First, from our local auction house, was this unprepossessing item:

coat hook
It was described in the catalogue as:
A late 19th century Swiss Black Forest wooden musical coat hook, carved as an anthropomorphic dog with glass eyes, and with gun and powder flask bearing the Swiss cross, with chamois horn feet, fitted with a musical movement with 6cm cylinder numbered 12 223, with applied circular metal label inscribed “C. Spiess Schloss Laufen Patent 16870” and remains of paper label, 39 cm high

As a wonderfully desirable alternative eBay were offering …

Vintage empty tall RAT BAIT TIN … RACUMIN.
Size 8 1/2 inches tall, cardboard tube with tin top and bottom.
Made in WALTHAM CROSS, HERTS.
rat tin
Not surprisingly it didn’t sell.

Nominative Determinism

Nominative determinism is where people end up in jobs which suit their name. There are many examples but these stood out this year:

  • Will Welfare, Public Health Incident Director, UKHSA
  • Marcus Scriven, journalist
  • Prof. Roger Kneebone, a surgeon
  • Superintendent James Pigg, of the Metropolitan Police

Organisation Name

The prize for the “Organisation Name of the Year” must go to the Old Irish Goat Society which you’ll recall was also implicated in one of our “Headlines of the Year”.

Animal

Every year we seem to encounter strange, new (to us) animals. This year we’ve met:

Occupation

Just one winner here this year:

Paper Folder – “People are amazed I fold paper for a living, then they see it”.

Sport

Top of the tree in this category is something I would never have thought of, let alone considered a sport.

Decorative Camel Grooming.

camel


Apparently it can take years to create the art on a single camel.

Epigram

Two, almost priceless, epigrams popped up this year.

The first is from the Irish Goats again:

Goat herding is a timeless profession

And secondly from Emma Beddington who was caught describing our expected Christmas excesses as:

mulled Dickensian jollity

I couldn’t disagree with either of those descriptions.

Marketing Slogan

Earlier in the year we came across a brilliant piece of the advertisers’ art; I can’t call it “marketing bollox” as it is but a simple slogan for Fox’s biscuits:

More yum per crumb

fox's
It seems they’ve been using this slogan for quite a few years; I’d just not noticed, but that doesn’t make it any less good!

Word

Our “word of the Year” (which could equally well be “Food of the Year”) comes courtesy of @WhoresofYore on Twitter. It is:

Piss-Quick

Described as (19thC) A hot gin-based drink drunk from a jar, in the morning to warm yourself. Piss-quick contained a mixture of gin, marmalade and hot water.

piss-quick

Folk Custom

Thanks to two modern artists we’ve discovered a folk custom which was previously not known to us. Called Hat’s On, Tits Out and it appears to happen in random places (and often unannounced) most summers. The artists have even provided us a couple of illustrations.

First from tilloodesigns on Instagram:

hat's on, tits out

And secondly from Peter Collins (1923-2001):

hat's on, tits out

Medical Discovery

In a surprise discovery, medics have found that we’ve had both male and female genitals wrong all these years:

male
female

Public Service Announcement

And the winner here is a poster reminding us that it is forbidden to season the pigeons.

pigeons

Photograph

We have three winners in the “Photograph” category.

What must be the Worst Sofa Ever …

sofa

Some absolutely brilliant Zombie Munch Cakes (© Waitrose Weekend paper; 28 October 2021) …
zombie cakes

And a strategically placed European paper wasp colony on a wayside shrine in the South Tyrol.

wasp shrine

Trivia

I’ll leave you with our final “Trivia” category where we have perhaps the best comment this year on the UK’s appalling government:

wasp shrine
You’ll want to click the image and appreciate it full size.

All of which leaves us scratching our head in bemusement.

We’ll be looking out for brilliance again next year; contributions are always welcome. Let’s see if we can make it a really vintage year!

Meanwhile remember Yogi Berra’s words: If you come to a fork in the road, take it..

arts, history, links, medical, natural history, science

Monthly Links

So here for the last time in 2021 is my compilation of links you may have missed the first time.

Science, Technology, Natural World

The simplicity of Occam’s Razor was seen by a medieval monk. [£££]

Chemists are finally beginning to get to the bottom of marijuana’s skunky scent.

It has become recognised that plants are interconnected via a network of underground fungi, and now there’s a project trying to map that network.

Scientists investigating a restored coral reef in Indonesia have recorded many sounds (not yet tagged to specific species) to a backing of snapping shrimp.

Still with fish, the tiny Batman River Loach* (Paraschistura chrysicristinae, above), long thought extinct, has been rediscovered in SE Turkey. [* It’s named after the Batman River!]

Meanwhile back on dry land, scientists working on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi have identified 14 previously unknown species of shrew.

Between 2014 and 2018 there were many cats found dead especially around south London, and the perpetrator was long thought to be some warp-headed human. However research by the Royal Veterinary College has shown the cats died due to a variety of causes and were subsequently scavenged by foxes. This had long been suspected by some of us, despite being vilified by vigilante groups.

Art, Literature, Language

Artists have long been doing battle with the censor (in many forms) over the depiction of pubic hair and nudity, and photography is no different. [LONG READ]

Those much-loved kids TV characters The Clangers were not a anodyne as we all thought.

Here’s a video about an incredibly fragile instrument: the Glass Armonica, invented by Benjamin Franklin. [VIDEO]

Writer Alan Garner talks about books that have been important to him.

This lady makes a living folding paper: it is sculptural, absolutely incredible and way beyond origami. [VIDEO]

History, Archaeology, Anthropology

Palaeontologists have found some ancient footprints which suggest that there were at least two hominid species living alongside each other in East Africa around 3.6m years ago.

Really quite modern by comparison, a 5700-year-old tomb in the Cotswolds has revealed a surprising family history of the occupants.

Around 700 years later a start was made building Stonehenge, the subject of a 2022 exhibition at the British Museum.

There is now evidence that some while after the building of Stonehenge there was a mass migration into Britain which accounts for around half of British peoples’ genetic make-up.

Still in Britain, and gradually coming closer to our time, archaeologists believe they have now found physical evidence of Roman crucifixion in Cambridgeshire.

Lastly in this section, Historic England present highlights of captivating historic site listed in 2021. [LONG READ]

London

London blogger Diamond Geezer reminds us quite how big London actually is. Well it needs to be to accommodate almost 10m people!

Food, Drink

Clare Finney in the Guardian explodes some of the biggest myths about cheese.

And in a similar vein (ouch!) Alison George in New Scientist looks at how microbes create the flavours of cheese. [£££]

Lifestyle, Personal Development, Beliefs

It seems that in these plague-ridden times there’s a thriving cottage industry in dream analysis.

And finally, I leave you with the magical and restful miniature world of the terrarium.