Just ticking over

No pictures today, and not much to say, really. Just ticking over. Sore feet, sore head and generally feeling below par. Teaching started last week and the new group looks as if they will be interested in the subject. We'll see when the first pieces of work come in next week.

Chun Yi

Went to see Chun Yi - the legend of Kung Fu at the London Coliseum. It was a really energetic performance of a very familiar tale. A bit of fun to cheer up a fairly low-key summer. The little guy in the photo was drumming in the foyer before the performance. On the way there we got held up by a cavalcade of motor cycles protesting about parking charges. There were hundreds of bikes - ah- what memories were evoked. I took some phone spics but they weren't good enough to post, sadly. I have to admit that I overspent on alcohol - two glasses of champagne at £10 a pop in the Colly (Bex didn't want all of hers, so I was forced to drink it for her- what a trial), and a £4.50 glass of Merlot in Pizza Express after the show. I could have bought salads for the week for what I spent on booze. Probably went over my recommended units too. I did economise on the show tickets - balcony seats at £18 each (a similarly-positioned seat at the Duke of York for Arcadia last week cost me £30 - obviously the difference between high and low brow culture).

Recent happenings

First things first - my grandson is growing ever more beautiful, trying to sit up/roll over etc. He'll soon be on the move.

My nephew's wedding was really nice - a simple service in a
really nice church - plain wood and stone, but lovely embrodered hassocks. The bride was seriously corseted and not meringuey at all. And the bridesmaids wore pink. My outfit worked (hooray) - and I was really pleased with the hat, which I had customised with a turquoise flower. The reception was a nice family party with plenty of food and drink. It was good to catch up with relatives I haven't seen for ages. I was a bit concerned when my mother kept asking the baby's name - I hope this isn't a sign of anything serious.

Had a bit of a cultural week - went to see the BP portrait awards exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery (I like to do this every year) - but there was nothing that really caught my imagination. I particularly disliked the winning entry- it looked like a bad fantasy art picture.



I saw my first "4th plinthers" in Trafalgar Square - probably one of the least interesting ones on Tuesday - just a young man shouting down to a crowd of girls, but when I was back there on Wednesday, there was a young woman obviously sketching the view from the plinth - a much more appropriate use of the hour.


Why was I back in Trafalgar Square on Wednesday? Well - I had a ticket for "Arcadia" at the Duke of York Theatre. What a great play - I really enjoyed it. Great performances, a simple set and a completely wonderful experience. I had forgotten how the mathematical theme works with the romantic theme. Fabulous.

Afterwards I met Bex for dinner at Meze Mangal - turkish tea and bobrek kebab (whole lamb's kidneys on a stick). I always enjoy the food there, and it doesn't cost the earth.

Trying to draw

I have come to the conclusion that I really cannot draw, but I need to be able to represent outfits that work, so I came up with a mathematical version of a human figure (dubbed Polly Gon by Bex). I have been able to dump it into "paint" and scribble on it. Here is the outfit for the wedding.

Culture of the week

Went to see Harry Potter and the Half-blood Prince. Enjoyed the film but didn't enjoy the running commentary from the couple sitting next to me. I had to ask them to stop talking and got a filthy look for my trouble. Waited until they had exited before leaving in case they attacked me on the way out. (They didn't).

After attending a "Mythodrama" CPD event, have an urge to see "The Tempest". Will ask Bex to borrow it from the library.

Made a second trip to Westfield - didn't enjoy it as much as the first time. Had a fairly basic burger which was enhanced by the waitress knocking an entire bottle of coke over a small child at the next table (he got a free ice cream as compensation).

Bought a hat for a wedding I am going to on Saturday, but otherwise it was pretty much a non-event. Will have to change the trim on the hat from red to turquoise. Hope it looks ok.

Probably won't go again. It was a murderously long hot DLR/tube journey there, and another murderously long hot bus journey home.



Was surprised by the inclusion of XKCD as a question on University Challenge. That was one I could definitely answer!

ALM conference

Had a fabulous three days of mathematics last week. (Yes, it was fun!). The only thing that spoiled the experience a little bit was the rain - an incredible downpour on the first day and squalls and showers throughout the whole three days meant that I wasn't able to go on any of the "maths trails" around places of interest. I still have the maps though, and might do one or more of the trails as a summer outing.

Great conference dinner at Vinopolis Cantina with so much wine that I don't know how I got home safe. I haven't laughed so much in ages. Went to some really interesting conference sessions and met some old friends from around the world. Back to work feeling really refreshed.

Elvis has left the building.....

There was a party going on yesterday. No idea where, but fairly local. They had a band. An Elvis tribute, with backing singers and a pounding bass guitar. It was ok at around 8 pm...Jailhouse Rock, Heartbreak Hotel etc, but when it got to 11.00 and it was Jailhouse Rock again, it got a bit wearing. It was so loud it could have been in my own house. Thankfully, it wound down before midnight.


Discovered that the satellite breakup over the last few days was caused by my own ceanothus waving its leaves about. Snip snip with long-handled secateurs and all is well again in the land of CSI.

Oh, the horror!

Came across this cartoon while searching for something else. It highlights the popular perception of mathematics in this country really well. (It also amused Bex for the library context).

Have a thumping headache this morning. Hope it isn't the start of anything flu-like.

Why are people so inconsiderate?

A woman on my bus this morning decided to eat a huge Sharon fruit. These are big, orange , tomato-like things that are really juicy and so really messy and wet. We were sitting in the "bunch of four" seats at the front of the bus. She was facing me. She slobbered the fruit for about 10 minutes - picking off little black bits and flicking them on to the floor, dripping juice... then realised she had nothing to wipe her hands with. She got up, staggered over to the wheelchair bay and picked up a USED baby wipe that some inconsiderate slummy mum had dropped, staggered back (still dripping juice). Naturally the bus lurched at that moment and she went flying with both hands out into the lap of the poor man sitting next to me. Sharon juice and bits of Sharon fruit skin ended up in a huge mess over BOTH of the poor guy's trouser legs. I was so glad she got him instead of me. She followed up by dropping the re-used baby wipe into the puddle of juice and bits to make sure that the guy (who was on crutches) would slip over as he got up. Why are people so inconsiderate?

On the way home a teen girl had one of those bilious-looking drink-in-a-cup things that they sell in sweet shops. The smell was unbelievable - a mix of passion fruit, cough mixture and something chemical and throat catching. The smell filled the (really hot) bus. Why are people so inconsiderate?

It is hot and I hate it. They promised that the heatwave would break today. It hasn't so far, but the satellite signal is breaking up, making it hard to watch Numb3rs. Satellite breakup usually means a storm, so maybe there is one on its way. At work I would normally have my french window open in hot weather, but we have workmen in tarting up the outside of the building, so it's too noisy. The only way to get air into the room is to have the corridor door open. Of course the hot weather and builders have to coincide with the foreign-language summer school. Overseas teenagers shrieking in many languages outside my room. Why are people so inconsiderate?

On Monday Bex and I went swimming for the first time in ages. Wonderful cool water. Bliss. But when I got back to the changing rooms what did I find? Mud on the floor (where the leisure centre have obviously cut back on cleaning staff) and DIRTY NAPPIES on the benches. Why are people so inconsiderate?

Yet another Sunday....

Sitting at home recovering from a mild bout of food poisoning and surfing the net fairly randomly, I found this site: which has microhero versions of the Endless from Neil Gaiman's Sandman books, and lots of other microheroes too. What I was looking for was a template that I could use to do "wardrobe" pictures of items of clothing which fit me and look good together and on my currently lumpen body. (To save me from my sometimes over-ditheriness when getting dressed ). There are microhero templates but the process of customising them is very complicated and I want something easy, like a paper dress-up doll that I can colour in. No such thing seems to exist, so I guess I will carry on dithering.

The food poisoning was caused (I think) by cold chicken thingummies I had for lunch at a profesional development network meeting I went to on Friday. The meeting was useful and I came away with a couple of articles that I will be passing on to my students next term, but the aftermath was dreadful. As well as the most awful stomach upset, I had a headache and shakes and shivers, which luckily only lasted 24 hours. It started on the bus on the way home (not good), and I was lucky to actually make it home before it set in with a vengeance. I will not be eating chicken again at that particular venue.

Another Sunday and nothing done

I have in mind to empty my wardrobe and keep only those things I actually wear. So out will go the ankle length suede cowgirl skirt and sundry other old things. The trouble is, I really LIKE some of this stuff, so I know it will find its way back into the bottom of the wardrobe again. I have to do the clearout though. I have a small but irritating colony of clothes moths, which means that I occasionally find small holes in my favourite t-shirts. I find the idea of having a small "capsule" wardrobe really appealing (says the woman with six pairs of Rayban look-alikes), in the same way as I like having empty white rooms.

Anyway , today was the day I was going to make a start. BUT - first I had to check my email to see if there was a reply to an important message I sent last night. Then I had to see if I could beat my rivals at Bejewelled and Biotronic . Then I had to uninstall the Sims, which just slow down my laptop too much. Then Tori came over with baby so I had to cuddle him for a while. Bex and Tori went out (with baby) to MacDs and brought back plain filet-o-fish for me. An unusual Sunday dinner, but never mind. I have to have my macfish plain. Can't abide slimy mayo-ish sauce, even if it is supposed to be tartare. The last time I had macfish it came up with the label on the box which said "cooked to your special order - plain". They made me wait five extra minutes for it to be cooked to my special order - plain (that five minutes feels like a year in a macdonalds). When I came to eat my (takeaway) order it was full of cheese and mock-tartare sauce, even though the label on the box said "plain", so I had to go hungry. This time, it was , thankfully, plain. And hot. Anyway, having had my filet, I then had to babysit while Tori went out, then of course I had to write this blog whilst keeping one eye on CSI Sunday and the other on my grandson (asleep). He is the most gorgeous little boy, but growing really fast. I will need to start knitting baby sweaters again for the winter, as all the stuff I have already made will be too small once the weather starts getting cold again.



I broke my Nintendo DS whilst using it to demonstrate a maths game to my trainees, and have been struggling to use it with gaffer tape holding the hinges together. So a couple of weeks ago I bought a new DSi, which has built-in cameras. The picture quality isn't great, but it does mean I always have a camera handy, especially for those moments when Tori turns up on the doorstep with pink hair!

Shopping for suits

I needed a suit, so started searching local (and not so local) shops for something a little bit edgy. As usual nothing fitted me, so I almost despaired, thinking I would have to turn up at the event in my ubiquitous trousers-and-cardigan combo. I really wanted black, as I have a problem with colours with clothing (those who know me well will understand this). In the end I went to Bluewater and found a reasonable facsimile of a suit with an edge-to edge buttoned jacket with some interesting pleating. Couldn't get black, so had to settle for a charcoalish grey. I ended up buying lots of stuff - unusual this, as in the last year or so I have been known to walk around the whole of a shopping mall and come out with nothing. The most recent instance of this was when I went to Westfield, which is HUGE - you'd think I would find something I liked! (Actually, there were lots of things I liked, including the complete contents of the Radley shop and all of the de Beers window, but I couldn't afford anything from those particular shops).

Anyway, at Bluewater I bought the suit, a tee shirt, some black wedgy sandals, some black Havaianas, a yellow fan (to keep in my yellow bag) and a copy of Sims 3 (the special edition with the cool free flash drive). I am not sure if I like this version of the Sims as much as Sims 2, but it's early days yet, and the flash drive is fun.

I can wear small amounts of colour, generally in the form of sunglasses, earrings etc. For example, yesterday I wanted comfortable feet (for yomping round the mall), which meant Nike toeshoes. These happen to have a yellow flash, which meant I had to have something else yellow. This was going to be yellow RayBan-lookalikes, but I broke them as I was rummaging in my bag, so I had to go with the yellow handbag, bangle and earrings . I considered wearing a yellow silk scarf, too, but that frightened me as it was too much colour. I could have worn the scarf and gone with a black handbag, but then the shoes would have felt wrong...... Sometimes it can take me a whole morning to decide what to wear. Hence the preponderance of black in my wardrobe. I was hoping to be able to find some replacement yellow sunnies, but it was not to be. I have red, pink, tortoiseshell, turquoise and three pairs of black sunglasses - all the same RayBan wayfarer shape. I even sound weird to myself.

Culture this week was a lecture on Victorian algebra (yes, it was really interesting!). They were handing out flyers for a film called "Fermat's Room" - a "maths horror" movie (this seems to be the start of a new genre). Apparently it is on "all over London" this week. They lie. It is showing in a very few cinemas dotted around the UK - the next London showing is in July, in Hammersmith, which is a bit of a trek. I might wait for the DVD.

Tori had tickets for the launch of this year's Big Brother, and I was babysitting Paul (who is an absolute darling). At 9pm Bex and I were settling down with the TV to see if we could spot her in the crowd when there was a knock on the door. Who could it be? It was Tori - the launch was first-come first served, and she and a few hundred other people were turned away. Why do TV companies give out far more tickets than they have audience space for? I feel another moan coming on....

Another term endeth

Hooray - teaching is over for the summer. Now I can get down to some scholarly work. Sad to say I still haven't completed my MA but I do know what shape my research will take, so it isn't as far away as it was! Hopefully be Xmas it will be done. I also have time now to update this blog, and hopefully I will be able to get to grips with my 20 by 365 page, which kind of stalled when baby Paul was born.

First barbecue of the summer today. Nick turned up with the most enormous raw prawns (like mini lobsters). I didn't eat any - too many legs - but they did smell delicious. We already had some smaller prawns, so Wookie did really well (he loves a prawn). I made jerk chicken from scratch, grinding spices in my mortar and pestle, and spilling them all over the living room in the process.

As usual, we had far too much food for the number of people, so Ed and Tony went home with carrier bags full of the cooked prawns, plus the jerk chicken and sundry steaks etc. Bex spent the morning cleaning gunge out of the fountain, which hasn't been switched on since last summer. It's an environmentally friendly fountain, using and re-using only a gallon or so of water, and tinkles away beautifully. It now has a number of glass marbles nestling among the stones - all of which have been thrown down into the garden by the people upstairs. Luckily, none of them have hit anyone. I worry that a glass marble falling on someone from two storeys up could do a lot of damage. I'm afraid that I do not feel disposed to return any of these to the owner (and they look quite pretty in the fountain).

We have a crowd of twitty birds in the garden, gathering the berries from the ceanothus. I'm pretty sure they are green finches. It's really nice to watch them, but they do get a bit loud! I'm thinking of hanging some seed feeders in the tree. Our cats are so old that they are unlikely to try to climb up to get them. Anyway, Sylvestre would rather hunt for cheese than birds.

The ceanothus is a spectacular dark blue when it is in flower, but now we just have the evergreen leaves and the small black berries.

Baby Paul slept through the entire barbecue. He is such a good baby. He weighs nearly 15 pounds now - nearly double his birth weight. He's a lovely little squishy cuddly man. Tori has tickets for the Big Brother launch on Thursday. I'll have to watch it and see if I can spot her in the crowd. She deserves a night out - she is turning out to be a great mum. I knew she would be.


I haven't kept to my aim of regular cultural events.
Since Metallica, I have only been to one other gig (Strange Fashion) and one film (Watchmen). I have a mathematics lecture on Tuesday - does that count, I wonder?

Granny Cazz

At last, my baby grandson has arrived. He is such an adorable little boy. The best baby ever. Tori had a hard time in labour, but is going to be a fantastic mother.

Metallica rule!

What can I say? What a night. Started badly by missing the first support act (Sword). I could hear them playing inside but was so hungry after eating nothing but a yoghourt all day that I had to have a sandwich. The venue (like most) won't allow capped bottles of water, so I had to try to juggle a floppy plastic pint cup of water and a sandwich (which cost £6.50 and was vile, vile, vile). This can't be done easily, especially as I also had to juggle a coat and handbag, so I stayed outside to eat. I had a seat on the bottom tier, (I know, what a wimp - but I am a bit past moshing) but to get to it I had to go upstairs and then walk down to my row. The second bad thing--my right foot (yeah - the one at the end of my bad leg) hit a patch of mayo or something equally greasy, shot out from under me and I thumped down on to my backside on the concrete steps and bounced down about four of them spilling half my (expensive) water over myself. I had a great seat (when I finally got to it), and was in it in time to see a really good set by Machinehead, followed by an awesome show by the men themselves. I haven't had such a great night in ages. I love the O2 - its so easy to get to and from. I only had my phone to take pictures with, and it's not too good at capturing the big picture, but you can get a feel for the atmosphere.

Recuperating

Bex is getting over a really nasty chest infection that has needed serious amounts of prescription medicine. I've managed (so far) to escape that, but am still not all there physically. I had a really nasty muscle spasm in my leg two nights ago. It was a burning cramp-like pain, but not the sort of cramp you can stretch out or massage away. It affected my upper and lower leg at the same time (so not a spasm in a single muscle, which is what cramp usually is), and was so painful it made me cry. I couldn't move my leg for hours, and all the next day it was really rigid - I couldn't bend my knee or put any weight on it. Today my ankle is stiff and weak at the same time, and my knee is still a bit sore, but it does seem to finally be loosening up. I may have to break out the walking stick again. I haven't had to use it since last summer, but I have important meetings tomorrow, so HAVE to go to work.

As I was resting yesterday, I was able to finish off another baby garment for Tori - this time it's a cardigan, with a lime / jade speckle. I managed to find perfect matching buttons, which make it a little "out of the ordinary". I'm really enjoying this knitting. Next up is a little hoodie jacket. Watch this space.

It's cold again

Not the boiler as such this time. We can't turn it on though, because Thames Water in its wisdom has chosen the weekend to do water mains repairs in the roads nearby. Yesterday was the turn of the next street away, which meant that OUR water was going to be turned off (why?). Today its the turn of our own street. The letter put through our door stated "your water will be turned off between 8.30 am and 6 pm" - so no water for most of a whole weekend. In the event, I was out all day yesterday and Bex was ill, so spent the day wrapped in a blanket anyway, but today I am at home and IT IS COLD! It also means we can't wash (ourselves or the dishes or our laundry), and we won't be able to cook vegetables unless the water comes back on early enough. So far this year we have had about two properly "civilised" weeks. I'm beginning to take it personally.


I have started teaching again, so am busy, busy, busy - but am still finding time to knit. This is the most expensive baby jacket I have ever made (it's cashmere), and I probably won't make anything like it again, but Tori's baby deserves at least one classy matinee coat.

Back to work...

Had to brave the elements today. The pavements are still ankle-deep in snow that has now frozen into crunchiness where it hasn't been compacted into slides. I managed to get to the bus stop OK, and on to the first of my two buses. My change point is at a large shopping area, where the actual road surface had not been gritted, and where the buses had dug deep ruts. I had to cross this hazardous road, and must have been a very amusing sight as I bobbed up and down across the various ice ridges and slush ruts, trying to keep my balance in my old , very comfortable but smooth-soled boots. My second bus was completely empty (apart from the driver and me, obviously), and it felt really odd travelling alone on a (normally full) bus. When I got to work, the driveway hadn't been gritted, so it was another hazardous step-slide for a hundred yard or so - normally a nothing distance, but it felt like a marathon today. I also discovered that the snow had seeped through the uppers of my boots, so my feet got damp and really cold. Not only was I alone on the bus, but I was alone in the building until quite late in the afternoon. But I did manage to get my whole to-do list done, so it was worth while going in. We have parakeets in the grounds of the campus, and it was strange to see them against the snow in the tree branches. Sadly, I couldn't get a good picture of them, but I did get a great snowscene from my office window. Ain't it pretty?

It's snowing

We don't get a lot of heavy snow in this part of the world (surprising really when you consider how far north we are - on the same latitude as Siberia, I think - it's all to do with the Gulf Stream keeping us warm). Anyway, at the moment we are getting some of that Siberian weather, and all our buses are off the road. This means that thousands of people have had to stay home from work (including yours truly). I have to say that six inches of snow looks really pretty, but it is a pain not being able to get to work at what is a really crucial time for me. Bex is annoyed too, but for a different reason - she had booked some time off, only to discover that her organisation has closed completely because of the weather, and everyone else has time off too - without it being taken from their annual leave allowance.I made the mistake of not checking the news this morning and struggled up the hill to the bus stop, slipping and sliding on the ungritted pavement. I stood for quite a while by myself, waiting for a bus. A guy tramping by on the other side of the road called out to me that no buses were running, but I found it hard to believe. Naturally there was no information at all on the electronic noticeboard. I struggled back home down the slidy hill and put the TV on (after Bex had gone out and cleared the snow which was blocking the satellite signal) to find that it was true - ALL London buses were cancelled and 10 of the 11 tube lines were shut down too (not that that mattered to me - I can't get to work by tube). It does seem crazy that we can't cope with what to most cities this far north would consider a sprinkling of snow. If the gulf stream switches off (as is predicted as part of global climate change) it would be like this all the time in winter, and that could happen overnight, apparently. Shouldn't we start preparing?

Happy thought for the day. The boiler is working :-)

The boiler man cometh...

Well - the man is here doing noisy things in the kitchen. It has been 23 days since the boiler first broke down, and we have learned to cope with being cold. I have unearthed my old satin quilt and bought a new fleecy, furry throw to go over the top. I have a pile of bedding about a foot thick. I've also gone back to wearing slippers, instead of my more usual flip-flops for indoors.


I have been making knitted squares for ages, and had intended to end up with a throw for my bed, but at the weekend I realised I had enough squares to make a baby blanket for Tori. The pictures show a single square, four squares joined to make a motif , the crochet edging I invented myself, and the final blanket (draped over the piano, in case you were wondering what sort of weird furniture I have).

The blanket is a beautiful rich cream colour, which doesn't really come across in the photographs (one of the perils of photography under indoor lighting). I have really enjoyed knitting this, and stopping at this point means I have an actual finished piece, which should keep the new baby warm when he is born.

I still think it is very strange to know the sex of an unborn baby - when I had my own babies, we didn't even have ultrasound scans unless there was a suspected problem. Now scans are a matter of fact part of normal procedure, and many young women (including Tori) have three-dimensional scans too, which are loaded onto a DVD for them to keep.

The boiler is fixed! And the engineer showed me how to use the thermostat as well, which will be a useful skill. The house is starting to warm up at last, and I can take off my Bob Cratchit mittens.

A night at the opera

To the O2 last night for Carmina Burana. Bex had given me tickets for xmas, so I took her with me to see it of course. The music was fantastic, but the staging was odd for the most part, degenerating into the hilarious towards the end. There were fireworks and other pyrotechnics; stiltwalkers and dancers, and an inflatable pig at one point. Great fun and I love "O Fortuna", which started and ended the piece (and was the encore, too). I've never been to a classical concert or opera in a large arena before. The sound was remarkably good from where we were sitting (on the lower slopes) and we had a good view of the white-haired conductor and the orchestra. The soloists were excellent, but I felt that the choir could have been bigger.

Its still cold at home. No news on the boiler front. We are now going into the fourth week with no heating or hot water. It's becoming a little wearing.

Incredibly bad traffic this morning. A combination of roadworks, bad weather and a road accident in the Blackwall Tunnel meant that traffic came to pretty much of a standstill in most of south-east London. I waited ages for a bus that didn't arrive and ended up having to grab a taxi (and pay the exorbitant fare) in order to be very late for a meeting at work. (And I wasn't the last to arrive). I have a much longer journey planned tomorrow, so I guess I'll head out at the crack of dawn in order to make sure I arrive at lunchtime!

First culture of the year

Had to do two teaching observations at the same place yesterday. Unfortunately there was a five-hour gap between them. Although five hours sounds like a lot of time, it wasn't enough to get back to my office and do anything useful before it would be time to leave again for the second observation. So what to do?

I walked across Tower Bridge for the first time since I was a child. I remember being really scared when the middle section wobbled and rattled, thinking the bridge might open up while I was on it. It felt much less wobbly than I remember. Maybe that's a function of age, or maybe the shock absorbers are better these days.
You can still see the water in the gap between the two opening parts of the bridge. I have seen the bridge open, but very rarely.


On the other side of the water, I hopped on a river bus to the Tate Modern, and went to the Rothko exhibition, which was great. I really like Rothko.

The turbine hall of the building always has a free exhibition, usually some type of installation on a grand scale, and the current exhibition has a number of interesting pieces, including a reproduction of Louise Bourgeois's "Maman".

You can see the scale by looking at the little people in the photo I took from the second floor gallery. I think I was really brave to get this close to this particular piece. You who know me will know why.

I had time to look around the rest of the free galleries, but was only struck by one piece:30 pieces of silver, which was really beautiful.

Decided to have lunch in the top floor restaurant, and ordered posh fish and chips. It looked lovely. Golden chips and crisp battered haddock. Sadly, the batter was so crisp that it shattered when I tried to cut it, rendering it uneatable. The fish inside the batter was nondescript, and the chips were just okay, not as good as they looked. I should have gone to the cafe on the ground floor, where I had a really good lunch last time I was at the Tate. That will teach me to try to go upmarket. In future I will "know my place".

Still freezing....

No word about the part for the boiler. With the little electric heater on, plus everything else that gives out heat (TV, computer, all the lights etc) we are just about able to get the living room temperature up to 17 degrees (18 if we have the oven on in the kitchen for hours - but this is only practical if we are cooking casseroles - not something we do every day). It is ridiculous that I am typing this wearing a fleecy jacket, a scarf and fingerless gloves in my living room.

My cheer-up note for today: the new pouffe has arrived: beautiful gold metallic leather, and while trying to crop the photograph, I discovered by accident that I have Microsoft picture manager already installed on the computer. (Up till now when I have tried to edit a picture, it has always by default opened in Paint - which is useless for what I need (generally cropping and sharpening / brightening)). I have now reset the default so that photographs open in a useful programme, but its only taken me a year or so to work this problem out. Shame on me.

still cold but getting closer to civilisation

The new DLR extension is open! We are closer to the world than we used to be. There is a coffee bar right next to the entrance, but it is a horrible Costa, so I still won't be dropping in for a coffee on my way back across the river. (I only like Starbucks latte, and it has to be full-fat milk. I like their chunky cups, too).



Still waiting to hear whether our boiler pump is in stock. In the meantime, contingency plans are in place. Took up the offer of a hot shower and hairwash at Tori's place, and Bex bought a little electric radiator to take the chill off the living room.

Making sea pie for dinner today (that will warm us up). Don't know why it is called sea pie, as it is a kind of beef casserole, and has no fish or seafood in it. One family theory is that it was made on board ship, and the dumpling crust sealed all the liquid into the pan so that it wouldn't slop over the sides as the ship rolled about at sea. I don't recall any sailors in the family tree, so I don't know whether that theory has any truth at all, but the dish is delicious.

Sea Pie

Start with about a pound of minced beef, four medium carrots and 2 or 3 medium onions (depending on how much you like onions).

Coarsely chop the carrots and onions fairly small, but not tiny - you want to still have recognisable pieces of carrots and onions after the dish is cooked.

Mix the raw meat with the raw vegetables and pile into a casserole dish. Cover with stock (I use two Oxo cubes, and sometimes slosh in a drop of red wine if I have a bottle open).

Put a lid on the pan, and cook in the oven at gas 5-ish for at least 2 hours (you can't skimp on the cooking time. You want the flavour to be really intense and the liquid to reduce, and you only get this with long cooking).

Then make dumplings: use 6 ounces of flour and 3 ounces of suet (beef or vegetarian, but vegetarian doesn't really make sense in this context) and a pinch of salt. Throw in some dried herbs if you like. I used a spoonful of sage today. Mix with enough cold water to make a stiff dough (mix with a fork, but don't overwork it - you will probably need just a few tablespoons of water). Take the lid off the casserole. Put spoonfuls of the dumpling mix on top of the meat mixture and turn the gas up to no 7 for about 20 minutes until the dumplings are golden. (Leave the lid off the casserole for the dumpling stage).

You can serve it as it is, or with boiled potatoes and / or cabbage (Savoy is good). This will serve three or four people with reasonable appetites.

Enjoy

Friday and freezing

Well, the engineer came on Tuesday and said "Hmmm .. water pressure problem". He fiddled about inside the boiler for a few minutes and all seemed to be well. Slowly the house (and I) began to warm up. By the time it was warm enough to stick my head under a tap, it was also a bit late, so I decided to leave the hair-washing until Wednesday morning. Bad idea. Woke up on Wednesday and lo and behold -the boiler had broken down again overnight. Phoned the engineers and was told that the first available time they could come out again would be Thursday, and sorry, they couldn't give "timed" appointments - one of us would have to wait in all day (and take a day off from work in order to do so).

So off I went to work on Wednesday. Had to travel down to Maidstone for a meeting - what is it with Maidstone? I stood at the bus stop (in snow) for a number 82 for 35 minutes, then finally had to give up and get a taxi. Coming back from the meeting, I spotted a bus sitting at the stop outside the building. Got on, asked how much the fare was to the station, paid my fare, asked to be told when I needed to get off, then was told by the driver that he wouldn't be moving from the stop for 20 minutes. He told me there would be two more buses arriving (and leaving again) within that 20 minutes, but no, he was sorry, I wouldn't be able to transfer my ticket as the other buses were a different route number. Finally, we got going. The bus took a different route from the taxi, but I wasn't surprised by this. What did surprise me was that we crossed over a river. My taxi to the meeting hadn't crossed a river . I asked the bus driver once again to tell me where I needed to get off for the station, only to be told "We passed the station a long way back on the other side of the river. You should have got off then." When I protested that I hadn't seen the station, he said "Well of course, it's around the back of the one-way system." When I explained that I wasn't local to Maidstone, and that my asking to be told when to get off the bus indicated that I didn't KNOW where to get off, he just shrugged and said "You didn't tell me you didn't know the area".

I bit back the caustic comments I could have made and crossed the road to catch another bus back across the river. Whilst waiting to cross the road, I witnessed what I can only describe as sexual bullying. A group of young teens in school uniform were waiting to cross the road when an older boy ran up, grabbed one of the younger boys' trousers and yanked them right down to the ground, then ran off. This was shocking. It was a main street, in full view of the public, and (probably more importantly to this young man) in full view of his group of school friends, which included two or three girls. There had been a Panorama programme on TV on Monday of this week which investigated sexual bullying in schools. Coincidences are strange.

The only good thing about Maidstone buses is that the fares are cheap. My two bus journeys in Maidstone came to less than one single journey would have cost back in London. London bus fares may be higher, but nearly every bus now has a "speaking route" where a voice tells you which stop the bus is approaching. Bus stops all also have their location writ large upon them. It's hard to get lost on a London bus. Easy to get lost on a Maidstone bus.

On a day of huge problems on the railway network, the four trains I had to take on Wednesday were all on time, all warm, and I was able to get a seat on every one. Remarkable. I got home and wrapped myself up in the duvet to keep warm.

On Thursday, I couldn't take time off work for the boiler engineers as I had an important meeting scheduled, so Bex had to take a day's leave. The engineer came and did some more fiddling inside the boiler and got it working. The house gradually warmed up again. In the meantime, I got to work and checked my voicemail, to find a message from the person I was supposed to be meeting, cancelling because of ... wait for it.. boiler problems! Another coincidence?

So it's Friday morning now and guess what? Yes - the boiler has broken down again. A new pump is on order, but it is unlikely to be ready for fitting until next week. In the meantime, we will have no heating and no hot water for a second weekend, and most likely into the middle of next week. I'll have to bite the bullet and stick my head under the cold tap.

Still cold

Three days now with no heating and last night was the coldest of the winter so far. I hope the engineer will come today. My neck and shoulders are very tense (this happens when I get cold) and my knees ache. I want to wash my hair, but we have no hot water. I boiled a kettle to wash dishes yesterday, but that won't work for hair washing.

Came downstairs this morning to find a card from the post office by the front door: "We tried to deliver a package but it would not fit through your letter box". They LIE - no-one knocked on the door to try to deliver any such package - Bex and I were both here, and surely one of us would have heard the doorknocker. This now means that one of us will have to go to the depot (a 20-minute bus ride away) to pick up this package (and hope it is not huge and heavy). there are so-called alternatives: you can try to arrange a redelivery, either by phone or by going to the website. However, this does not work. The online bookings are clearly not checked very often, as you only get an acknowledgement of your booking AFTER the date you have specified for redelivery and AFTER you have taken time off work to wait in for a redelivery that has not happened because the online booking was not logged in time. The phone line has an irritatingly cheerful automated reply which takes a long time to tell you that the best way of getting your package is to collect it from the depot or make an online booking for a redelivery(!). If you are determined, and go through the "please press x.." rigmarole several times to try to speak to a real person, you are finally put through to a line at the depot which is engaged. When you try again (you have to go through the "please press.." exercise again, of course), the depot phone rings for 20 minutes (possibly longer - after 20 minutes, you have had enough). Has the person who was clearly speaking to someone else on the phone when you rang the first time left the building? Is there no one else who could answer the phone? Are you in a queuing system? There is no way of knowing. This is incredibly frustrating, and despite knowing all this, I still tried phoning the depot.


A couple of hours later, a postperson did knock, with two small packages. We are expecting several more packages, so the problem now is, was this morning's failed delivery actually redelivered without us asking, or was this later delivery a completely separate delivery? Do we still need to go to the depot to pick up the first one? The postperson just handed me the the packages and dashed off (not responding to my forlorn call of "er -- excuse me......" ). Maybe I was too slow off the mark, or maybe she didn't hear me). Of course, we can't phone the depot to enquire........

It's cold

It's cold today. The boiler has broken down (and this is a new boiler). No chance of contacting an engineer till tomorrow. Thank goodness for double glazing - at least we should stay above outdoor temperature. I wish I had been more disciplined about my knitting project (a fancy woollen throw), as I could have wrapped myself up in it, but it is only one-third complete. I am pleased with the way it looks though, and the final result will look great draped across my bed (and even greater draped across the new bed I want to get as part of my redesign). I'm thinking of going for an old iron bedstead (an old hospital bed on wheels is favourite at the moment) and trading in my fifties - style dressing table for either victorian wood or Japanese lacquer (not sure which, but either would mis-match nicely). Or I might paint or gild the one I have. I've seen gilded furniture, which looks spectacular. Hmm... maybe pewter-leaf, if there is such a thing.

This year's tree

Only a couple more days until the tree has to come down and be thrown out. This year we need to make sure we ask the council to come and take it away. Last year's got put ouside in the garden and stayed there until the summer. It was taken over as a hiding place by Wookie, even after it had lost all its greenery. We finally chopped it up to make space for the barbecue. Wookie was very upset. This year I have kept the tree very simple - I never have tinsel, but this year I have stuck with just gold and glass. I was worried about how to get tree chocolates to fit in with the scheme (tree chocolates are a must, or Bex gets upset), but on a trip to Marylebone High Street discovered the perfect tree chocolate - can you tell which one it is?


They were pricier than usual, but as always, I go for the look of the thing. Luckily, they taste good.


It will be a shame to lose the tree, as it still looks great. The needles haven't dropped, and the branches are still springy and fresh.

I experimented for a few years with artificial trees (one year was the legendary "bottle-brush" version, and I had a huge white tree for a few years until it turned grey with dust which was impossible to clean off), but it seems that real trees, which look and smell so good, are actually more environmentally friendly than fake ones anyway, and don't take up valuable space in storage. The only difficulty is in getting the tree home. Bex did a fantastic job of bringing this year's tree home (single-handedly) on the bus. And then did the decorating, too! Tree chocolates were well-deserved.

Art

I have an urge to put some art into the loo. An iPod -ad style image is appealing. It needs photoshopping, which I can't do, but Bex can. Here's an example on mediatinker. I think a lime-green background would work well, with maybe an image of all four family iPod users.

20 by 365

I realise that I need to have more space available for the 20 by 365 project, so I have set up a new site just for that (see link in sidebar). I will post each day's 20 words on this blog too.

Random item for today:


I have a fondness for the Mobius band,and found this "Mobius Battle" while looking through back issues of the xcdc comic:

Battle of the fridge

This was first published on facebook a couple of days ago, but as that application keeps failing, I have decided to paste it here, for posterity. Comments from the original posting have been lost in transferring,sorry.

So there I am looking at the large carton of lemon and ginger smoothie (unopened but suspiciously bulgy) when the fridge door suddenly drops onto my foot - again! This is a large fridge (as tall as me) and the door pivots on two tiny screws - one top and one bottom. The one at the top is located in place with a bracket, but the one at the bottom is not. There is about an eighth of an inch of thread on this little bottom screw - clearly a disaster waiting to happen. When the screw undoes itself, the whole door drops down, (but not off - as it is held at the top by the little aforementioned bracket). We now have a free-swinging (on one point) heavy, five-foot tall fridge door, loaded with assorted milk, juice and smoothie cartons, bottles of vodka, jars of chilli sauce, olives, eggs etc (you get the picture - its five days after xmas). I am alone in the house. The fridge door has dropped down enough so that it cannot close. I am holding on to it with one hand to stop it from breaking the top bracket and beginning to worry. I have to reach into the fridge left-handed and unload the door one thing at a time - all the while sweating that the bracket at the top might break and bring the whole edifice crashing down on me. I soon have a circle of various liquidy things on the floor around me (can’t reach the work surface AND keep hold of the fridge door, which I am trying to support with one hand, so that it doesn’t twist too far and break the top bracket). Once the door is empty I can breathe a bit (it weighs less and bottles aren’t going to fall out and break around me now). I have to try to fix this thing now by lifting UP the door with my left hand while trying to locate the screw hole UNDERNEATH the door at the bottom with my right hand. Did I say this was a big door? I am at full stretch in both directions. Suddenly, there is a “clunk”. The door has seated itself correctly. I now take a chance and let go of the door (while leaning into it with a shoulder-brace) and try to screw up the little screw. It turns twice. There is a slot in the head of the screw which is clearly meant for a screwdriver. However, this slot faces the floor and is about an inch and a half FROM the floor. Even the shortest, stubbiest screwdriver in the world will not fit in that gap. I improvise with a butter knife held sideways and get another turn on the screw. Miraculously, I have fixed the fridge door, and will not have to throw out the trifle and beef wellington. The smoothie was fine.

365 challenge

I decided to take up the "365 challenge", where you write a fixed number of words about a different person every day for a year. (See 40x365 for details of this).

I decided to go for 20 words instead of 40, as I am not so good at descriptions. It will be a challenge - do I know 365 people? (The rules say you can only write about people you have actually met). I will post the list on this page.

Happy New Year

Well, new year, new blog. I tried to do this on facebook, but the application kept failing, so I came back to a place I knew would work.

Resolutions for the year:

1. to finish my MA
2. to clear out my clutter (I must have about 100 black t-shirts - why?)
3. to spend far less money on magazines
4. to spend far more time on cultural activities

That's enough, I think.

Things I want to do this year to improve the quality of life at home: get a new cooker that doesn't wobble and where we don't need to close the grill cover with gaffer tape (actually, this is sounding much more urgent than I realised - should make it a priority); get a new tumble dryer that doesn't cover the whole house with dust; help Bex organise the study and install a zedbed so anyone who stays overnight will not have to sleep on the sofa; build a console table for the hallway; redesign my bedroom.

Bigger things I really want to do for myself: go to Paris for a few days in the spring; go to ALM conference in the summer (haven't been to this for a few years- too busy with newish job- and feel as if I am letting myself slip behind the international field a bit).

Happy New Year