personal, photography, pleasures

Advent Calendar 1

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Nobuyoshi Araki

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personal

Unblogged November

Mon 1 A singularly unexciting day doing loads of household, and other regular, admin. But still the To Do list gets longer.
Tue 2 Why is it that one’s bed is always so much more warm and comfortable when one has to get up? A real struggle to face the world this morning.
Wed 3 Awoke this morning to some significant frost. The first of the winter, and possibly the first of the year.
Thu 4 Why is it that when there are pieces of work needing doing for the groups I volunteer with, those with the reins always try to sloping shoulders the work onto me – when they could just as easily do it themselves? Twice today: one took 5 minutes; the other an hour and was then vetoed by the Chairman. Grrrrrr!
Fri 5 It’s been one of those weeks of first world problems, topped today by (a) the supermarket delivery being 2 hours late, and (b) the Champagne delivery being 1½ hours late. Apparently you just can’t get the staff these days!
Sat 6 One tray roast sausages and veg for dinner – a Mary Berry recipe, adapted as always. Comfort food on a particularly grey, dismal day.
Sun 7 A few weeks ago the dog rose which grows to the top of our silver birch tree was laden with bright red hips. No more. There are hardly any remaining due to the depredations of the wood pigeons and squirrel.

Those rose hips; you’ll need to click the image and look
at the larger version to see just how many there were

Meanwhile our small ornamental crab apple is laden with glorious bright red, marble sized fruit.

Here’s just one branch of that ornamental crab apple
Mon 8 Bah! Depression! Humbug! A typical, unexciting and dreary Monday which hopefully doesn’t presage the week going to Hell in a handcart. But grateful (as always) to be solvent again this month.
Tue 9 Other than strimming my hair, the only result today is that I’ve now finished writing & scheduling all next year’s regular monthly blog posts that can be written in advance (that’s 4 a month) plus this year’s blog Advent Calendar. There’s a feast to come!
Wed 10 Mid-morning and there’s a shooting gallery line of 14 pigeons on the apex of the roof opposite.
Thu 11 A young man from Octopus (our gas & electric supplier) arrived (pre-announced) this afternoon to fit a new smart meter. If they were all as polite, cheerful and efficient as him the world would work much more smoothly. He was done and dusted in an hour. Job’s a good ‘un!
Fri 12 Highlight of the Year: today’s trip to the dental hygienist to be abused.
Sat 13 Spent the afternoon trying to do household admin with a purring tabby & white cat stretched out on my desk. This is becoming a regular feature, which is rather lovely (if sometimes inconvenient).
Sun 14 Managed to avoid most of the nauseating Remembrance Day. To quote Evelyn Waugh in 1930s: “A disgusting idea of artificial reverence and sentimentality”, or in my terms “a public display of maudlin sentiment and sycophantic obsequiousness”. If you want to know more of how I feel, see my blog at here and here.
Mon 15 Last night I saw 01:01, 02:02, 03:03 and 04:04 with no more than dozes in between. This was followed by 06:45 then 11:15. No real wonder not a lot has been achieved today!
Tue 16 Turned my CPAP machine on last night; it ran for 10 seconds and died. No ventilation, thus a poor night’s sleep and a crashing headache. Brompton Hospital are sending me a new machine; wonder how long that will take?
Wed 17 A second night without CPAP as the new machine has not yet arrived. One always wonders how much good these things do, especially after almost 20 years, but this has made me realise I would be totally dysfunctional without the CPAP.
Thu 18 The new CPAP machine has arrived. Hoping for a good night’s sleep tonight. Which indeed I had.
Fri 19 Really disgraceful service (again) with the supermarket delivery – booked for 11:00-12:00, but arrived at 15:00. Topped by effectively zero communication. Their executive office got a roasting.
Sat 20 Who knew today was Cat Herding Day? Awoke this morning to find two females in our front garden trying (unsuccessfully) to catch their very young cat. Good game! Later in the day we rounded up ours to flea treat them. Tilly needed it badly as I later removed over 30 moribund beasts from her at a rate of about 2 a minute.
Sun 21 “By the way, the mic’s off. To turn it back on slide the switch …” Fucking shut up! That’s why it’s turned off.
Mon 22 Ducked out after 30 minutes of a meeting I was dialled into this evening. I’m not wasting time while the borough’s old pussy (of all genders) argues publicly with the council over who did/didn’t do what, to whom and when.
Tue 23 Discussion over dinner: Why does time whizz by so fast as you get older? The theory is that when young you have many new things happening which act as markers, so you notice time more; whereas when old there are fewer markers and everything blurs.
Wed 24 Woken up just before 10 this morning by the arrival of the Boy Cat, who proceeded to lie on my pillow purring and dribbling. N and I had both overslept solidly – best thing to do on a miserable November morning.
Thu 25 A limping cat: Tilly appears to have sprained her right front paw.
Fri 26 Over dinner a chemist (me) trying to explain aromaticity (think benzene) and metal complexes (think chlorophyll or haemoglobin) to an art historian (N).
Sat 27 A merry time was had by all turning out and auditing the freezer. As always we found a few bits of treasure, and an equal quantity of rubbish. Sadly there isn’t the empty space which we were hoping for in the run-up to Christmas.
Sun 28 It’s that time already, when you have to sit down and write the Christmas cards which are going abroad. Sadly they’re getting fewer every year. Yes we do still send Christmas cards; we like to and think it is a good way to keep in touch.
Mon 29 Finished making a huge pan of tomato soup, which I’d started yesterday and left to mature overnight. We then devoured half of it for tea: tasty, filling and warming.
Tue 30 I wasn’t looking forward to that meeting, although it was much more interesting and less contentious than expected. Even so I’m glad it’s done. And breathe! And gin & tonic!
environment, history, links, medical, science

Monthly Links

OK, so here we go with this month’s link to items you may have missed …

Science, Technology, Natural World

I don’t understand why it is that many people are afraid of spiders, because they’re much smarter than we realise.

Do you know what a wasp smells like? No, nor me. But scientists are now beginning to work it out. Oh and Vespula germanica used in tis study is one of the two common wasp specie in the UK.

While on Hymenoptera, apparently the old undisturbed woodland at Blenheim in Oxfordshire has colonies of heirs of the long lost British Honeybee. At first I found this so unlikely I had to check it wasn’t 1 April.

Researchers are now beginning to eavesdrop on embryonic/foetal animals to understand how they respond to sound. We’d known for some time that there was communication between between adults and embryos, but mostly not what it meant.

Health, Medicine

Apparently the human papillomavirus (HPV) vaccine has cut the rate of cervical cancer by around 87%.

In other research, medics are now trying to understand “immune amnesia”, where a disease (usually a virus) turns off or supresses the immune system even after recovery. Measles is especially good at this, and it could go some way to explaining why some recover especially slowly from some diseases (Covid and glandular fever come to mind). [LONG READ]

Sexuality

So here’s yet another look at ways to achieve great sex. Doesn’t it all come down to what works for you?

Environment

A new way of looking at climate change has been developed: a map showing where carbon needs to stay in nature.

As Jane Dunford in the Guardian finds out, beavers are having a significant impact on the environment where they’ve been reintroduced. Oh and just get their names!

Apparently Europe has lost almost 250 million House Sparrows in the last 40 years – that’s roughly the current UK population of sparrows every year for 40 years. Many other species are doing this badly as well, although some birds of prey are doing well.

Art, Literature, Language

The origins of “Transeurasian” languages appears to have been traced to traced to Neolithic millet farmers in NE China.

History, Archaeology, Anthropology

Glass is an everyday substance for us, but there’s still a puzzle over where it was first discovered.

As well as having high class glass, Ancient Egypt had sacred baboons although they are not indigenous to the area. Where and how were they acquired? [£££] [LONG READ]

There are a lot of large pits near Stonehenge, and it turns out they’re Neolithic and man-made, rather than natural.

Las Vegas is nothing new: the ancient Romans had a party town all their own but it is now submerged in the sea

Nearer at home Roman Britain is still producing a stream of archaeological discoveries.

The largest hoard of Anglo-Saxon gold coins to be found in England has been declared treasure at an inquest.

Meanwhile historians are revealing the secrets of the tomb of the Black Prince in Canterbury Cathedral

When an antiques dealer bought a dirty wooden bird little did he realise to has and important artefact from the marriage of Henry VIII and Anne Boleyn.

Still with the Tudors, some unsuspected, and almost pristine wall paintings have been uncovered at Calverley Old Hall in Yorkshire.

So just why is it that the Gunpowder Plot has continued to be remembered and celebrated for over 400 years?

You think we (in the UK) have a corrupt government? It has nothing on the parliaments of the 18th century. [£££]

Lifestyle, Personal Development, Beliefs

Why is body hair still a no-no, especially in the world of dance?

And now three items on modern witchcraft. First from a Scottish hedge-witch. Second on the myth of the Halloween Hag. Lastly on the witch as a modern feminist icon.

And stay right there as we’ll end on the esoteric … The sentimental celluloid fairy is essentially a product of Disney as fairies were originally rather malevolent.

Have a good Christmas everyone; the Fates permitting we’ll be back with the next edition to enliven those dreary days between Christmas and New Year.

quotes

Monthly Quotes

And it’s that time of the month again already for our selection of quotes interested or amused me. Here goes …

Nobody ever knows what to do. There’s a kind of an illusion that some people know what to do at every moment and there are people who are extremely confident and act like they know what to do but they don’t know what to do any better then you do. So not knowing what to do is sometimes a perfectly fine situation. I don’t know what to do so I’m just going to do something. And if your action is sincere and not motivated by some kind of greed or anger or some other negative quality or emotion then what you do will be right. It may not be perfect. It’ll never be perfect. It can’t be perfect. But it won’t be the wrong thing to do. You just do something that’s not motivated by greed or anger or ego, for want of a better word.
[Brad Warner at http://hardcorezen.info/the-beer-oclock-interview-2005/7805]

I always felt that what Buddhism showed me was how stupid I was and by extension how stupid everybody was. And all I’m trying to say in my books is, “Look, we’re all stupid, so just live with it. Just deal with it.” … once you realize that you are stupid you have total freedom because the other aspect of your stupidity is that you’re … also the sum total of the universe. You’re also the centre of the universe and the centre of the universe is stupidity itself. And to understand this is to be completely free from ever having to try to live up to some kind of fantasy you’ve created for yourself, and just be where you are.
[Brad Warner at http://hardcorezen.info/the-beer-oclock-interview-2005/7805]

Institutions of learning should be devoted to the cultivation of curiosity, and the less they are deflected by considerations of immediacy and application, the more likely they are to contribute not only to human welfare but to the equally important satisfaction of intellectual interest which may indeed be said to have become the ruling passion of intellectual life in modern times.
[Abraham Flexner]

In any case, we overslept. When we woke up, the whole ocean was full of broken ice. Unbelievable tabernacles floated by, driven by a mild south-west breeze, statuesque, glittering, as big as trolleys, cathedrals, primeval caverns, everything imaginable! And they changed colour whenever they felt like it – ice blue, green and, in the evenings, orange. Early in the morning they could be pink. It started to blow and the floes piled into each other, rearing up, thrusting down (as if having an orgy, as Brunström might have put it).
[Tove Jansson; Notes from an Island]

Most books on witchcraft will tell you that witches work naked. This is because most books on witchcraft are written by men.
[Terry Pratchett, Good Omens]

We ring the Quick to Church, the dead to Grave,
Good is our use, such usage let us have.
Who here therefore doth Damn, or Curse or Swear,
Or strike in Quarrel tho no Blood appear.

Who wears a Hat or Spur or turns a Bell
Or by unskilful handing ruins a Pail,
Shall Sixpense pay for every single Crime
‘Twill make him careful ‘gainst another time.

Let all in Love and Friendship hither come,
Whilst the shrill Treble calls to Thundering Tom,
And since bells are our modest Recreation,
Let’s Rise and Ring and Fall to Admiration.

[Ringers’ Rhyme Board at St Kew, Cornwall]

I have always been used to nudity since I was born. The non-judgment of the body of the other and the absence of social difference due to the clothes. Collective nudity is beautiful and not sexual. I like collective nudity of all genders and ages so that everyone is on the same level. Nudity does not mean sexuality. I admire the beauty of the female body … I find it beautiful and admirable.
[Pleasure Portraits on Instagram]

Graham Roper shares a 2001 article from Electronics Times, about a new British oscilloscope, “the first instrument of its kind to be calibrated directly in practical units of measure”. With a screen area of 3¹⁄₈ micro-acres, power consumption of 2052 British thermal units per hour and a maximum deflection of 21¹⁄₁₁ milli-fathoms, its timebase had 24 calibrated sweep rates from 4¹⁄₈ micro-fortnights/furlong to 208¹⁄₄ fortnights/furlong. We aren’t sure, but the 1 April dateline may indicate humorous intent.
[Feedback; New Scientist; 30/10/2021]

A first step was the introduction of two beavers last summer – Sigourney Beaver and Jean Claude Van-Dam (who now have two kits, Beavie Wonder and Beavie Nicks)
[Jane Dunford; Guardian; 16 November 2021]

[C]ircadian rhythm and cellular timekeeping … [come] down to cycles of protein synthesis and degradation, spooling and unspooling with … the ribosomes and the proteasomes as the ultimate timekeepers. It’s as if we have little medieval water clocks constantly running inside us.
[Derek Lowe at https://www.science.org/content/blog-post/proteins-aging-not-so-gracefully]

amusements, memes

Ten Things: November

This year our Ten Things series – which surprisingly appears on the tenth of each month – continues concentrating on the amusing, both real and fictional. So this month we have …

Ten Strange Ancient Jobs

  1. Nob Thatcher
  2. Bum Bailiff
  3. Fear-Naught Maker
  4. Fish Fag
  5. Gerund Grinder
  6. Gong Farmer
  7. Philosophical Instrument Maker (right)
  8. Prick Louise
  9. Rack Maiden
  10. Vaginarius
amusements

Auction Amusements (Part 2 of 2)

In this part of the latest amusements from our local auction house we return to the more usual eccentricities of strange objects for sale, things you wouldn’t want to share a house with (and a few you would), and peculiar juxtapositions to make a lot.

An interesting lot including a pair of cut-throat razors in original leather-covered case stamped Fielder & Son, Southsea, a boxwood and brass-folding rule by L.H. Turtle Ltd., Toolmakers, Croydon, an old fishing reel by A. Carter & Co., South Molton, a table lighter fashioned as a world globe and a small embossed brass sign advising poachers that they shall be shot on sight and if practicable questioned afterwards, and a Bakelite ashtray and playing card box.

A set of sugar nips styled as a spur, a silver stamp box, Birmingham 1874, the lid incorporating a One Penny Magenta stamp and a silver caddy spoon, Glasgow 1930, embossed with Old Mother Hubbard.

A collection of martial art show display weaponry including axes, a pair chrome Sai’s, fantasy display weaponry, a papier mache wall face mask etc.

A metal statue of Lenin, a Wedgwood Peter Rabbit child’s breakfast bowl and wooden auctioneers gavel

A square tile by Gofer Israel and a smaller rectangular tile by the same artist

A promotional plastic life-size model of a London telephone box

A Victorian skeleton mantel timepiece in brass, with passing strike on a bell, ebonised base, 15 in high overall

An old roe deer head with impressive antlers

A bronze after Edwin Scharff, of a man on a swordfish, numbered 561/600, weathered dark brown patination, on wood base, 9.5 in high

Contemporary art: a Murano glass sculpture by Berengo, as a block of clear glass enclosing a gold leaf face, 32 cm high

A Steiff white label mohair teddy bear ‘Black Jack’, 26 cm, with box

amusements

Auction Amusements (Part 1 of 2)

Well what can one say? There’s a simply incredible sale this week at our local auction house. The star attarctions (spread over 7 lots) seem to be …

The stock from a retired hardware dealer including …

… large quantities of National Abrasives steel wool, Mykal Pet Clean 3-in-1, Mangers Humidifier Replacement Wicks, National Abrasives yellow oxide, Mirka Sanding Discs, Orbital Sanding sheets, minirolls for hand and power sanding, ultra-tape, Thread seal tape, Rustin’s steel wool, Everbuild’s Forever White Mould Shield, Stixall Extreme Power paste, wood fillers, MP Woodfiller Light Lights, dual purpose metal sealing discs for Kilner jars, Mammoth tapes including electrical tapes and plumbing tapes, etc., Everflex external frame sealants, Everbuild Coving and joint fillers, and One-Hour chalk whites.

… large quantities of unused Prostar Impact Masonry Drill, HSS Jobber drill parts, a laminate cutter, ground spreaders, locks and door fittings, garden hook set, watch straps, screw-drivers, tile files, plug sockets, bradawls, hammers, Stanley knives, brush ends, cutters, goggles, tape measures, clamps, floorboard chisels, chisels, spanners, hacksaw blades, monkey wrenches, wire brushes, trowels, hasp and staples, plasterer’s hawks, silicone dispensers.

… three Hyatt Money Note Checkers, a Jumbo Calculator, roller cleaners, wood working planes, a nine-piece German style knife set, Beat a burst The Plumber in the Toolbox tool, a box of Pop Rivet tool CK2, wood bits, chair webbing, smoke alarm, some die cast models of days gone by, etc.

… a quantity of balls of strings, stockinette polishing and wiping cloth, brackets, hard hats, sponges, roller frames, paint brushes, window locks, Rapid epoxy syringes, Timber OBO timber connectors, barrel bolts, staples, fasteners, blades, Westco mini oil canisters, waste plugs, rod sockets, scissors, line pin sets, etc.

… Bright Power pocket torches, Basta ‘The neat bright lights’, door numbers, hinges, cupboard catches, Legg cylinder night latch and other door locks, Regalead self adhesive window lead, Homelux adhesive bonder, electric Wolf switches, wooden doorknobs, gardening gloves, working gloves, steel wool, masking tape, builder’s polythene sheeting, letterbox, draft excluders, etc.

… spare shelf locator packs, self-adhesive lead strip by Decra-Led, Regalead self-adhesive window lead, Mammoth Powerful double sided tape, Ultratape waterproof tape, Mr Cozy self-stick draft excluder, Quick Grip draft excluder, weather strips, Sylglas Aluminium waterproofing tape, 502 Wood adhesive, Everbuild: Mitre Fast, PVC Cream cleaner, Multispray, Instant nails, Wonder wipes, Moss & Mould remover, Extreme frame sealant, Sugar soap powder, Paint and Varnish stripper, Blackjack waterproof protection everlasting tape, All-Purpose Powder filler; gas tape, HG window cleaner, Forever White mould protector, Holt’s De-Icer, Rustin’s Linseed oil, Everflex 125 one-hour Caulk, 151 Wallpaper stripper, Mammoth gaffer tape, silicone fusing repair tape, One Strike filler, tile-edge trim, drawer draft excluders, brass door stops, etc.

… 7 mm drill screws, cantilever shelf brackets, keys, door hooks, light fittings, rechargeable batteries, bulbs, cable locks, masking tape, Everbuild: Wood adhesive, Roof and Gutter sealant, Silicon spray, Instant Nails, Damp & Mould Remover, Sugar Soap Liquid Spray, Premium Excellerator & Frost Proofer; Rustin’s Strypit, graffiti remover, all-weather tape, Rustin’s Danish oil, Pink grip by Everbuild, Polycell polyfiller, 502 Wood adhesive, English Abrasive Supersander, brown plugs, lots of different paints including Dulux Trade Undercoat, Norver Exterior Masonry Paint and Rustin’s Step & Tile Paint, Dulux Trade Satinwood, Dulux Trade Eggshell finish, tile adhesives by Everbuild and Homecare, Rustin’s Brilliant White Gloss.

And there’s more in Part 2 >>>>>>>>