Tag Archives: zenmischief

amusements, memes, music

January Quiz Questions

Again this year, each month we’re posing five pub quiz style questions, with a different subject each month. As before, they’re not difficult, but it is unlikely everyone will know all the answers – so hopefully you’ll learn something new, as well as having a bit of fun.

Music

  1. Queen guitarist Brian May is also an expert in what scientific field?
  2. What is the correct name for a metallophone with tuned keys?
  3. Which German composer wrote the famous composition Ode to Joy which is the official anthem of the European Union?
  4. In Tudor times, which English composer and Gentleman of the Chapel Royal was repeatedly fined for recusancy?
  5. Peter and the Wolf is described as a “symphonic fairy tale for children”. Who composed it?

Answers will be posted in 2 weeks time.

history, memes

January 1924

Our look at some of the significant happenings 100 years ago this month.

21. Born. Benny Hill, English comedian and singer (d. 1992)

21. Died. Vladimir Lenin, Russian revolutionary, first Premier of the Soviet Union (b. 1870)

22. Ramsay MacDonald becomes the first Labour Prime Minister of the United Kingdom

26. Petrograd (Saint Petersburg) is renamed Leningrad; it will revert to Saint Petersburg in 1991

memes, personal

Unblogged December

1 Comment
Fri 1 Another bright sunny day, but what a stinging frost; the roofs almost looked as if it had been snowing lightly. But oh bugger … Why is the heating not working? Error code on the boiler display; low water pressure. Why? Call our heating guy; I adjust it as instructed, but too much so it still won’t work. Luckily he was in the area and dropped by – problem fixed in 2 minutes with the cover off the boiler. Phew! From there the rest of the day was an uphill struggle.
Sat 2 Well there was no real frost last night and this morning is really dull and misty – they’ve taken away the hill which should be about 1km to our SE. Bat at least we have hot radiators and water.
Sun 3 This blasted cold. I’ve had it for about 10 days and I cannot shift it. Snotty nose; bunged sinuses; watery eyes; inflamed ears and Estacion tubes. It fair gives you the willies.
Mon 4 Absolutely wrecked. Had a dreadful night sneezing and snotting with this cold. Much clearer once I got some ibuprofen and decongestant on it. Also better having got the pond guy and window cleaner here and gone. Nothing else to get up early for this week as my Wednesday meeting has been postponed – for once not by me!
Tue 5 I must have had something in excess of 10 hours sleep last night – solid sleep as I woke up only once for a few minutes. As a result all the head bits are somewhat clearer, although not best, and one is still feels very disinclined to do anything – so I didn’t.
Wed 6 Once more it’s finances day, and yes we’re solvent for another month. We also get the government’s geriatrics’ winter fuel payments, as well as well as a miserable £10 each “Christmas bonus” from DWP. While one doesn’t mind having extra cash from the government (we have and still do pay enough in tax) how sensible is it to give this money to people like us who, let’s be honest, really don’t need it. Mind you when our health insurance is going up 20% this year …
Thu 7 Well that was fun – NOT! 22:30 this evening, we have a blocked loo. Very blocked. N and I eventually managed to clear it, after much poking, prodding, hosing, flushing and bailing. It took us an hour. We and the bathroom all ended up soaked (fortunately mainly clean hose water). Much mopping and cleaning, followed by showers all round. And so to bed. Why do these things always happen last thing at night?
Fri 8 Heard today that one of our neighbours had died (at home) over night. Not really a surprise as she was a heavy smoker and had had lung cancer for quite a while. We of course drank her health and memory with our bottle of Rioja this evening – which I feel sure would have upset her Baptist beliefs.
Sat 9 Blimey we must have had quite some rain overnight, as we had standing water – colloquially known as the Great Lakes – down by the pond this morning. And it stayed most of the day, despite the rain easing off by lunchtime, so the water table really is high.
N reckons we’re going to have a relatively mild and wet winter. I’m not so sure.
Sun 10 Yet again I have no clue what day it is. By lunchtime Friday my brain was convinced it was Saturday. Yesterday felt like Sunday. And today: well I have no clue. So it’s no real wonder I’ve managed to get almost nothing done; the big tasks just keep being kicked down the road.
Mon 11 We finally managed to get all the Christmas cards written. We do send a lot – because we like to – but because we get our own cards printed as large postcards, and print address labels, the job is much quicker than fiddling about with envelopes, and uses a lot less paper. It is also much cheaper; like 10-15p for a card (postage is obviously the same).
Tue 12 Yesterday the hospital rang and gave N an appointment for this morning! So I with N to the hospital for the start of a round of consultations & procedures for her hereditary condition. Consultant, specialist nurse and an armful of blood tests. More to come after New Year. Some of the blood results back before the end of the day. And she has an online seminar tomorrow morning. But trying to get them to schedule anything else quickly is a Sisyphean task of pushing jelly uphill with a toothpick.
Wed 13 Afternoon spent sorting out and wrapping presents which have to go in the mail. What’s good these days is not just the ability to buy the postage online, and printing it all as an address label, but that the Royal Mail will come and collect anything larger than an ordinary letter which has been paid online – and the collection is free too! So having done the online postage you click the button and pick the day you want the items collected (usually tomorrow). Letters still have to go to the postbox, but as long as you can pack, weigh and pay for items online there’s no longer any need to go to the Post Office. Now that’s what I call service.
Thu 14 Bastard! Started sneezing, sneezing, sneezing late last evening and couldn’t stop. Wet runny nose too. Couldn’t breathe so ended up with a sore throat and didn’t sleep well. Got up at 03:30 for 30 minutes to do a Covid test (result: negative). This morning it’s clear that I have this <expletive deleted> cold back. At least I assume it’s a cold as I’m not especially feverish and I tested negative for Covid (using two different makes of LFT).
Fri 15 Situation normal: Yesterday I was convinced it was Saturday (I blame the cold). Today I have no idea what day it is, but this evening erring towards Saturday again. WTF is happening to my brain?
Sat 16 I learn that I’m not the only one with this strange time dilation in the brain. Today we had a good social call for the literary society. One of the members admitted to having tried to join the call yesterday (Friday), quite believing that it was Saturday. Basically it seems this is what retirement does to you!
Sun 17 We always have our Sunday lunch in the evening, and very often not the traditional roast. This evening: steak & chips. And senior cat did OK too with a three course meal. The cats had fresh cooked cod for tea (their weekly-ish treat); junior cat is so stuffed he’s incapable. Senior cat being more sensible paces herself: so she had room for a few morsels of our steak, followed by a small amount of cream for pudding. It’s all right when the cat gets a three course meal!
Mon 18 Attended an interesting online talk about the entomology collections of the National Museum of Scotland, given by a young and very enthusiastic curator. Lots not just about the collections, but why they’re useful and important – especially for tracking things like climate change and biodiversity.
Tue 19 Good to see S&Z (wasn’t expecting to see Z) who dropped in for a quick coffee and cake this morning. S on the way back from a physio checkup following her hip replacement. Seasonal gifts duly exchanged. Z much professionally occupied by the volcanic eruption in Iceland.
Wed 20 A few days ago I was moved to write to my three “girl” cousins (sisters; two older than me) on my mother’s side. I also wrote to my three half-aunts (on my father’s side). What a pleasant surprise this morning to get a call from the eldest of the cousins, who I’ve not spoken to in hundreds of years (although we’ve always kept in touch). A lovely 45 minute phone call.
Thu 21 Spent all afternoon sorting out and wrapping presents. Totally knackering.
Fri 22 Butcher the Dinosaur Day. Christmas supermarket delivery – slightly early against all our expectations. It included a decent medium-sized turkey and a nice looking piece of porchetta. A happy half hour spent butchering the dinosaur – crown for Christmas day and the rest in the freezer. Porchetta for Sunday and cold cuts.
Sat 23 If the NHS want me for a health check, why do they need to send me three text messages and a letter in three days. I’ve not yet had a chance to respond to the first text. This is just bullying and harassment, which I won’t take from anyone. They got a very snotty email. Ball back in their court. Of course nothing will happen now until New Year.
Sun 24 Well I got there! I’m not sure N has though. And I cooked dinner: a very nice piece of Porchetta – and plenty for cold cuts over the next few days.
Mon 25 Warm, wet and windy. Just as well we didn’t want to do anything other than get up late, open presents and eat. But OMG wasn’t TV dire!
Tue 26 Boxing Day. The highlight was the first of this year’s Royal Institution Lectures, this time about Artificial Intelligence. Did I learn anything? No. Should I have done? Probably also No. But I’m not sure how much it would have meant to 12-ish year-olds; as so often there were a lot of long, complex, words and concepts which weren’t explained.
Wed 27 What is the weather coming to? Another wet, windy and dreary day on which to continue eating Christmas left-overs: cold meat and sort of bubble-and-squeak.
Thu 28 Oh the joy of those dull days between Christmas and New Year! Turkey, Pork, Leek & Mushroom Pie. And there’s enough for lunch tomorrow.
Fri 29 I hate printers, especially laser printers. The new one has now decided that it doesn’t want to play anymore. Not sure I can fix it. So as I need a workhorse printer (for many reasons) I have to throw money at the problem and buy another new one – for delivery tomorrow And I’ll go back to HP (at least their toner is cheaper).
Sat 30 So there I was, sitting in the kitchen putting together individual bowls of salad for our evening meal. And I thought “Blimey it’s really quiet; what’s wrong?” Until it dawned on me “You silly bugger of course it’s quiet, you’re not wearing your hearing aids!” Duh!
Sun 31 And so ends another year, much as it began: grey, miserable and wet. Here’s hoping 2024 is better for everyone. Have a happy, prosperous and healthy New Year!
food+drink

Culinary Adventures #106: Camembert Tartizza

Here’s one I did some days ago. As usual it’s based on a published recipe, but modified.

WTF, I hear you ask, is a “tartizza”? It’s a cross between a pizza and a tart – well I had to find something to call this as it is a sort of a cross between a pizza and a tart.

Anyway, here goes …

Camembert Tartizza

Serves: 4
Preparation: 15 minutes
Cooking: 25 minutes

Camembert Tartizza, fresh from the oven
Camembert Tartizza fresh from the oven & still on its baking parchment

Ingredients

  • Plain flour, for rolling
  • 500g block puff pastry
  • 165g jar Kalamata Olive & Sun-Dried Tomato Tapenade
  • 250g French Camembert
  • 4-6 mushrooms, sliced
  • 2 handfuls cherry tomatoes (halved), or 3-4 tomatoes (sliced)
  • Bunch fresh parsley
  • Black pepper

What to do …

  1. Preheat the oven to 220°C/200°C fan/gas mark 6.
  2. Take a 30cm square baking sheet. Cut a piece of baking parchment a bit bigger than the baking sheet (3cm overlap on each edge is about right). Lay the baking parchment on the baking sheet and using a blunt object (eg. the back end of a spoon) score the parchment into the rim of the baking sheet. (This is to give you the size of the baking sheet.)
  3. Now put the baking sheet (but not the baking parchment) in the oven to heat up.
  4. Roll out the pastry to the size of the baking sheet (it doesn’t need to be neat) and place on the parchment within the marked area.
  5. Gently score round the pastry about 1cm in the from the edge; and prink the middle part all over with a fork.
  6. Spread the tapenade evenly over the pastry, leaving the edges clear.
  7. Cut the Camembert into slices no more than 5mm think, and lay them evenly over the tapenade.
  8. Top with the mushrooms, parsley, black pepper and finally the tomatoes – arrange as you like, random is fine.
  9. Glaze the pastry edges if you wish.
  10. Slide the pastry on its paper onto the hot baking sheet and bake for 20-25 minutes until golden and bubbling – but don’t overdo it as the tapenade will tend to singe round the edges.
  11. Serve cut into portions with a glass of wine.

Notes

  1. This makes a good, warm, supper. Alternatively allow it to cool and cut into finger-food portions as party food.
  2. This would also work with pesto in place of tapenade.
  3. Add garlic, onion, cooked meat, etc. if you wish. But avoid anchovies unless you’re using a non-salty pesto.
  5. If you find the quantity of tapenade is overpowering, just use about half a jar and spread it thinner.
amusements

Annual Impossible Exam

As is traditional, once again we bring you this year’s King William’s College General Knowledge Paper 2023-24.

For over a century the College has set an annual general knowledge test, known as the General Knowledge Paper. The pupils sit the test twice: once unseen on the day before the Christmas holidays, and again when they return to school in the New Year – after spending the holiday researching the answers. The test used to be mandatory but these days participation is voluntary.

The quiz is well known to be highly difficult, a common score being just two correct answers from the list of several hundred. The best scores are around 12% for the unseen test and about 70% for the second attempt – and of course the average scores are going to be very much lower than this.

The quiz is always introduced with the Latin motto Scire ubi aliquid invenire possis, ea demum maxima pars eruditionis est, “To know where you can find anything is, after all, the greatest part of erudition” – something my father always impressed on me as “Education is not knowing, it is knowing where to find out”.

You can find this year’s GKP on the King William’s College website at https://kwc.im/wp-content/uploads/2023/12/General-Knowledge-Paper-2023-2024-Questions.pdf.

I’ve not yet tried this year’s test myself, but unseen I don’t normally have many more clues that the KWC pupils!

Enjoy your Christmas!

music, personal, ramblings

A Secular Carol

Yesterday morning I happened into BBC Radio 3’s Breakfast show just after 08:30 – well actually I blame the alarm clock! Between two pieces of very mainstream classical music the presenter Petroc Trelawny played what he described as a secular carol. It was rather entrancing, but I didn’t catch what it was. And oh dear, it isn’t listed in the online playlist (it is now!). A quick email to Radio 3 got a very prompt answer …

It turned out to be the Halsway Carol, performed by a group called The Neighbours on their (short) album Winter (2020). The lyrics are by Iain Fisk, melody by Nigel Eaton. And no wonder it was entrancing as Eaton is listed online as “internationally renowned Hurdy Gurdy maestro”. It goes like this:

Lo for the tiding of the long night moon
Let the sunrise call about the morning soon
Short is the biding of the fading light
Sing for the coming of the longest night

North wind tell us what we need to know
When the stars are shining on the midnight snow
All of the branches will be turned to white
Sing for the coming of the longest night

A winter day, the summer grass turned hay
Frost in the field ’til the dawn of May
A summer’s light never shone as clear or as bright
So dance in the shadows of a winter’s night

Lo for the tiding of the long night moon
May the harvest last until the springtime bloom
Home is our comfort at the winter’s height
Sing for the coming of the longest night

All of the colours of the sunrise sky
Shine a light upon us, as the day goes by
Sun-setting shadows fading out of sight
Sing for the coming of the longest night

A winter day, the summer grass turned hay
Frost in the field ’til the dawn of May
A summer’s light never shone as clear or as bright
So dance in the shadows of a winter’s night

The Neighbours’ album Winter is available as a download from Amazon; it’s altogether a rather nice 30 minutes seasonal folk music. However I can find out nothing about the band.

There are quite a number of renditions of the Halsway Carol on YouTube, and I’ve listened to several. After The Neighbours’ version, I prefer this one from Jackie Oates.

And, just for my Godparents, there’s also a version on Northumbrian pipes. There’s also some basic sheet music online.

An unexpected delight! But who can tell me about The Neighbours?

food+drink

Culinary Adventures #105: Jerusalem Artichoke Soup

Our Jerusalem artichoke plants have done amazingly well. A couple of weeks ago the gardener lifted one of the (dozen or more) plants. This resulted in half a bucket of the best looking, and enormous, tubers I’ve ever seen. (Top tip: don’t lift them until you need them as they don’t store for ever like potatoes.)

As I’ve said before, when I was a kid (in 1950/60s) my parents grew artichokes in a small piece of poor soil and got a reasonable crop. Ours, this year, have been in good soil and well watered so no real wonder they’ve done well. We’ve already decided to grow them again next year.

muddy Jerusalem artichokes

We’ve still not got to the end of this first batch, despite several rounds of roast artichokes (just scrub them, cut them if they’re too big, and roast them in hot oil; no need to cover them, and they’ll caramelise a bit).

As a change I decided to try making soup. As usual with me what I did was a combination of two recipes from the intertubes.

Jerusalem Artichoke Soup

Ingredients

  • At least 500g Jerusalem artichokes
  • 2 tbsp olive oil
  • 25g butter
  • 1 onion, chopped
  • 1 floury potato (about 150g), chopped small
  • 600ml vegetable stock or chicken stock
  • 3 tbsp double cream, plus a little extra to serve (optional)
  • 1 tsp truffle oil (optional)
  • salt and black pepper (to season)

What to do …

  1. Scrub the artichokes well (they’re very good at clinging to mud) and chop into small pieces.
  2. Melt the butter & oil in a large saucepan, and add the onion, potato, artichokes, and some black pepper. Cover the pan and sweat gently for 15 mins, stirring now and again.
  3. Pour in the stock, cover and simmer for another 15 mins until the vegetables are completely tender. If it looks too thick add a few splashes of dry sherry and/or a glass of white wine.
  4. Whizz the soup in a food processor, or with a stick blender, until very smooth.
  5. Return soup to the pan. Add the cream and truffle oil; season to taste with a little salt and more freshly ground black pepper; stir together well and return to a very gentle heat for a couple of minutes.
  6. Serve the soup in bowls, with a swirl more cream and any other topping of your choice (should you wish), and crusty bread.

Notes

  1. When preparing artichokes, look them over carefully and remove any damage. The ends of tubers can rot, and any damaged areas will be discoloured (red/brown).
  2. Another top tip: Despite what a lot of recipes say, do not peel artichokes. If you do they’ll just go to mush; the flesh gets very soft and you need the skin to hold them together (although not such a problem with soup). Added to this they’re knobbly, so a pain to peel as you don’t want to lose a large part of the tuber.
  3. Unless you’re going to cook the artichokes within minutes, drop them in some water (add some lemon juice if you like) as the cut surfaces go brown quite quickly (like apples).

The soup was good and substantial. I think we might do it again.

memes, personal

Unblogged November

Wed 1 Whatever it was, I have no recollection of it.
Thu 2 So that storm. What happened to it? Yes there was quite a bit of wind, and some rain; and it wasn’t very warm. But nothing like what we were promised. But then London was in the eye of the storm for most of the daylight hours, which is possibly deceptive.
Fri 3 N’s new laptop was delivered today. That’s me occupied for the next week setting it up.
Sat 4 Blasted fireworks. Cats very unimpressed. Yes I know it’s Guy Fawkes weekend but … the people very close to me (I didn’t bother working out exactly who) spend half an hour early in the evening letting off a continual round of very loud cannons, with lots of quieter popping in the background. We could easily have been in a war zone, with mortar fire being returned by snipers. These things aren’t cheap; considering everyone is supposed to be struggling I don’t know where they get the money to send up in smoke.
Sun 5 Well much to my surprise, Guy Fawkes Night turned out to be relatively quiet with only a handful of short, somewhat muted salvos.
Mon 6 Phew! We’re solvent again this month despite almost hitting the credit limit on our main credit card – but then if you will go buying expensive PCs, not to mention all sorts of stuff in advance of Christmas! Although the money for the PCs has been siphoned from a savings account (one which still pays pathetic interest).
Tue 7 My new PC turned up today. But they can’t supply the screen I wanted (ETA is January!!) or my second choice. So a refund in order and I’ll buy the second choice from Amazon, saving all of 3p!
Wed 8 God what a miserable, dark, wet day. Anyone would think it was November.
Thu 9 It’s the story of my life at the moment … a large chunk of the day spent putting my new PC together and starting to install everything. Why, oh why, do Windows updates take so bloody long? And they don’t tell you what they’re doing but half the time just leave you with a blank screen for it seems like hours – so you think the whole thing is broken. At least put a little message there, and change it every 5 minutes. It drives me mad.
Fri 10 Another bloody miserable November day. It really is doing my head in this year.
Sat 11 And so we come to the awfulness of Remembrance weekend. As regulars here will know, I’m with Evelyn Waugh who described it in the 1930s as “a disgusting idea of artificial reverence and sentimentality”. I find it sickening.
Sun 12 There’s more noise here tonight, for Diwali, than there was last weekend for Guy Fawkes. The infidel are clearly burning off the money they tell us they don’t have.
Mon 13 After four weeks of buggering around with PCs and laptops I finally got my new PC installed yesterday, and pretty much working OK today, although still a few wrinkles to iron out. At last I can see some clear desk space, and I’m not working on top of two keyboards, two mice and a rats nest of cabling. I also picked the last of this year’s chillies – another 30! – and got most of the plants (some this year’s which weren’t great, and the very old ones which are now past it) off the study windowsill: the cats and I can now see daylight and birds!
Tue 14 A day spent trying to catch up on the stuff I’ve ignored for the last few weeks. And still having to fettle options and settings on half of the computer software.
Wed 15 Main meal number four from Sunday’s duck: roast on Sunday; cold with bubble & squeak on Monday; duck-herd’s pie on Tuesday; and today I cooked the carcass for stock and made duck, leek & lentil soup. Not my best ever soup, but a good feed nonetheless. Why do I always find soup so difficult; I’m missing a trick somewhere.
Thu 16 Most of the afternoon spent writing and scheduling regular blog posts for next year. Will I be around to see them all?
Fri 17 Well this is scary. I’ve now finished writing my scheduled in advance blog posts for next year – all except for 4, which I can do next week and need a bit more hand-crafting.
Sat 18 An interesting, and successful day. A good and useful doctors’ patient group meeting in the morning, thanks in part to a new member rattling some cages. And a good pasta, beef & tomato dish in the evening, washed down with a decent bottle of red, and followed by Christmas pudding (yes, really!) cream and Armagnac.
Sun 19 Up betimes. But why? I feel sure something must have happened today, but it surely passed me by. A singularly dull day. And so to bed.
Mon 20 Had a fit of the medicals today. First N to her consultant at Hillingdon Hospital – successful in that we’re getting things scheduled and can go back to consultations at Hammersmith Hospital (much nicer than Hillingdon). Then late this afternoon to Pinner to get the wax vacuumed out of my ears – a definite result, even if it did hurt the wallet.
Tue 21 Reaping the rewards of getting somewhat dehydrated on Saturday and yesterday. Woke up with sinus aching all round my face; and feeling completely lethargic.
Wed 22 Comes the gardener for the first time in weeks to do some tidying up. He lifted one of the (dozen or more) Jerusalem Artichoke plants; result half a bucket of the best looking, and enormous, tubers I’ve ever seen. As I’ve been saying, when I was a kid we grew artichokes in a small piece of poor soil and got a reasonable crop; these have been in good soil and well watered so no real wonder they’ve done well.Jerusalem artichokes complete with mudThat good selection is no more than a third of what we pulled today.
Thu 23 Head down all day doing website updates for the literary society; isn’t revising and updating web pages so incredibly tedious! Not helped later on by a fight with Windows which was insisting on using Bing when I tell it to use Google. Gah!
Fri 24 I just don’t know how to pull myself up and out of this depression. I’m really struggling to do anything at present. I know it is partly the winter. But over the years nothing I’ve tried seems to have done any good. Are the antidepressants helping? I don’t know but dare not try coming off them. Talking therapy (CBT, counselling, hypnotherapy) doesn’t work on me – partly because my brain is too active. SAD light therapy has been tried at least twice to no effect – might have to try it again, in desperation. Be active? How when the depression won’t let me? I’m still convinced there’s a magic switch somewhere in my head, but I’m buggered if I can find it. Oh, and now my brain thinks it’s Saturday.
Sat 25 Another super literary society talk, which I hosted. One day we will get the videos online!
Sun 26 I finally finished updating that one web page for the literary society site. It’s only taken me 5 years!
Mon 27 27 is an interesting number.
US President number 27 was William Howard Taft (1857-1930), president 1909-1913
27 is the cube of 3 (ie. 3x3x3) and it has a number of other mathematical curiosities
Element 27 is Cobalt whose compounds make blue pigments and give blue colours to glass etc.
There are 27 bones in the human hand
There are 27 books in the New Testament
There are 27 Nakṣatra or lunar mansions in Hindu astrology
Tue 28 Well that makes life easier. We rescheduled our dental checkups which were due tomorrow. Not only has our usual transport cried off (unwell) but I have a nasty wheezy little cough (not obviously Covid; negative test) which the dentists won’t want taken to them. So I ended up having a fairly quiet day for once.
Wed 29 A lovely bright sunny morning; a dull grey afternoon; dark before teatime; and not very warm. We’re promised much colder weather over the next few days, although the Weather People don’t really seem to know how far south it’ll get. But there’s a large Shepherd’s Pie in the oven (enough for today and tomorrow) so that’ll warm things up a bit. And I feel artichoke soup on the horizon for the weekend.
Thu 30 Another bright sunny morning but with a really stiff frost – the first of this winter, I think – which was really nice to see.