This year we’re beginning each month with a (potentially logical) oddity to think about, and to keep the brain cells active. This month:
Do stairs go up or down?
Please leave your thoughts in the comments.
| 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.
 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.  |
| 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! |
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.