damerell

This has become a bit of a staple of our rotation for when the veg box is made of brassica, and also brassica, and finally some brassica (I do frequently actively opt in to this, to be clear, but also... brassica). However! As you might have noticed, I have just developed a special interest in picking things up and putting things down again, and this in turn means I am going hmm about eating more protein.

When previously mentioning this recipe I have noted that As Usual my household thinks it wants about twice as much veg as written for the quantity of noodle. To this the protein variation essentially adds: some tofu that you've tossed with soy sauce and five-spice or other flavouring of your choice and then baked; and some edamame beans.

Base recipe can be found at Ocado or the Graun, and a fuller write-up will appear under a cut at Some Point in the Hopefully Near future (if only so the instructions are in the order that I want them to be in!).

I stopped to think about how I notice the price of mailing a letter in Britain. In my youth, it wasn't a cost I thought worth much consideration. So, I stopped to investigate.

The Bank of England turns out to have an excellent inflation calculator allowing users to, check how prices in the UK have changed since 1209, which warms my heart.

If I go back twenty years, apparently something costing £100 back then now costs around £175, handwaving whatever weighted averaging they do to determine that. At that time, a second-class stamp used to cost 23p so we might expect it to cost around 40p now. They actually cost 91p so it's no wonder that I'm noticing the cost in a way that I wasn't before.

I can see why this might be so. Fewer letters are mailed at all so scale may be much worse. No doubt we have the cumulative effects of various government austerity drives. Perhaps there's simply been incompetent management. After all, somebody ought to be paying large sums of money to the many innocent postmasters who were so culpably wronged by senior personnel over many years.

Apart from the health things, and the usual collection of computer games, Lego and painting/crocheting, here are some other things what have been happening:

Matthew had a birthday at the end of March:



There was easter, and we had chocolate eggs, and decorated boiled eggs for rolling down a hill



We went on a bike ride, 38 km from Audley End to home, via a nice pub



And we finished off the Easter hols with a bluebell walk from Elsenham to Newport

Tony and I saw Project Hail Mary approx 18 hours after watching Artemis II launch( space fiction and space mission )

Then on Saturday I went with Cambridge Women's Blues to play in BUIHA Womens Tier 1 Nationals 25-26: ( Read more... )

Nationals was followed by two days of work and also staying up late last Tuesday night/Wednesday morning after hockey practice to watch Integrity go out of contact behind the moon and then reappear. (There was actual video of the Earth appearing from behind the Moon, sent from an actual spaceship, in real time, it was amazing!)

Wednesday night I drove with two passengers to Hull, after Kodiaks practice, so we could all attend the women's ice hockey camp Thursday and Friday.( more ice hockey )

That was six days in a row of playing ice hockey and unsurprisingly I have been tired today. This week is "just" Tuesday practice and BUIHA Non-Checking Tier 1 Nationals with Cambridge Huskies this weekend.

Frozen shoulder:

After a three week wait I got a phone call from the GP, who agreed it was probably a frozen shoulder after all and a steroid injection would be appropriate but should be done as soon as possible. so I came in that afternoon. Injection duly done I noted that one of the listed possible side effects was "doesn't work" which was dryly amusing. I asked about the possibility of hydro-distension (injecting the joint with sterile water to manually free up the stuck bits) if that was the case, and was sent a URL where I could try self-referral for that (though warned of a long wait). Initial response to the injection was promising, very increased movement the next day, though without much decrease in pain. It's now been a couple of weeks, and the range of movement is still quite limited, but I think overall I'm able to do things for longer before being in pain. Still very achy yesterday after a day of walking (bluebells!) and computer gaming. I investigated the self-referral webpage today, and it seems to be *physio* referral, but I filled in the form anyway. Depending on how long the wait for that is it's probably worth it compared to paying £60 for 40 minutes with the private physio, and perhaps they'll be able to arrange the hydro-distension too. Now we wait

HRT/coil:

The first GP I "saw" about the shoulder also started me on combined oestrogen/progesterone patches for HRT, with a referral to get my Mirena coil changed early, so it would provide the progesterone component once changed. I got a text message a week or two later with a link to book a coil clinic place, but the first one was the following lunchtime (too short notice) and the next ones were while we're away in May. I checked back again today in case more dates had become available, and there's one slot in a clinic at their Linton practice on 16th May. Linton is too far away to practicably cycle home from after having a coil inserted, so I've contacted them via practice's admin webform to ask if there are likely to be any other dates available in the near future in Shelford or Sawston, or should I just book the Linton one and get a taxi. I fear by the time I hear back that won't be an option any more anyway at this rate! Now we wait :) Edit: SMS from GP receptionist "Please keep checking back for new appointments". I may try calling the local sexual health clinic - but I don't know if they do coils for over 50s!

Other: I was due to go give blood today (being long enough after the steroid injection and not currently awaiting any investigations) but I've got a bit of a cold, so I've postponed until next week. Always feel bad about cancelling on the day, but better than donating with germs! Once the blood donation is done I need to book in the second Shingles vaccine dose too. More things for awkward arms :) Matthew had his HPV vaccine recently though with no ill effects, and I'm so glad that's available now. That reminds me, I need to fill in the paperwork with his phone number - now he's 13 he's allowed to be responsible for his own healthcare decisions to some extent and they want to be able to contact him directly. Also looking at sorting out his email access now he's old enough to have his own account properly (rather than me running one for him). That's a bit off-topic though :)

Reading. Still, uh, not quite exclusively She's A Beast archives. ("Not quite" because I am reading some of the things the links letters link to...)

Writing. Over 11k words. Progress is very very slow but it IS progress. (I'd feel worse about She's A Beast eating my entire brain apart from the fact that a whole bunch of it is extremely relevant, and yet more of it is sparking decidedly useful contemplation...)

Cooking. NEW OVEN NEW OVEN NEW OVEN today used for Kaiserschmarrn (worked just fine) and a new cake recipe from Blackberry Cottage (used settings suggested in oven manual and... it took over twice as long as it ought've to cook). Cannot yet report on what I think of it because have not yet eaten any. Elsewise: ... lots of the smitten kitchen braised chickpea thing?

Other NEW THING: brand new microplane zester. my goodness that was a Life Changing Experience (even if I do think I could probably reasonably have got More zest off that just the very topmost single-pass layer...)

Eating. Of particular note: blood oranges!!! and Decadent Spanish Raspberries, acquired on our way out of the Big Supermarket post-vaccination.

Making & mending. ... ADAM NOW HAS TWO GLOVES. I just (...) need to Weave In The Damn Ends. (Does anyone have a favourite weaving-in-ends guide? Because twenty-five years into this hobby I still pretty much hate every end I have ever woven in as Lumpy and Unsightly.)

Growing. Aubergines hatching! Whole buncha weeding including sorting out the raspberry thicket! When last I made it to the allotment the cherry tree had two bundles of blossom out, and was clearly on the point of Bursting Forth en masse...

Observing. SO MANY baby waterfowl, and, also, A Goldfinch. A friend's tiny cherry tree In Flower! Holly getting Extremely enthusiastic about flowering also.

( Decades ago, many thought that science had much potential to improve our lives. )

I want to live in a world where experts truly are able to make our world better. Perhaps this ( was always a pipe dream. )

It's not as if I seek to be constrained by some soulless technocracy. Civil liberties are important to me. ( Experts should not decide everything for everybody. )

I just want institutional decision-making to be both well-informed and well-intentioned, even if it must also be open-minded. When I look at contemporary examples among social policy and technological innovation, it's hard to feel as if the future is filled with hope, in the way that some previous generation might have. Given the sea change that LLMs are causing in software development, I don't how much hope to have for even just my personal future.

Perhaps the Artemis program is an unusual exception, charging me with a little of that same hope that the 1962 Seattle World's Fair might have brought its attendees, reminding me of the perhaps naive optimism that experts would be able to guide our progress to a future worth embracing. Even if I am not part of it, I would still be glad for it to happen.

Recently, in discussing other-media spin-offs, I was reminded of the three trilogies of Babylon 5 novels, which were decent enough that I would be happy to reread them. However, they are long enough out of print to be enough effort and money to obtain that I shan't bother. It seems a shame that such things just fade away.

Back when I first read them, I hadn't appreciated how that kind of book, like most manga, falls out of print, never to be reprinted. I don't know what ethicists might think but I would be quite open to a rule that put into the public domain any work that was once openly and widely available then was not similarly reoffered for a long period, assuming no conflict with the public interest.

I think the exhaustion and aches are down to my COVID spring booster yesterday afternoon, but I am definitely planning to not ever Touch A Barbell For The First Time on vaccination day again. (Conveniently, this is an eminently achievable goal.)

SOME GOOD THINGS, though:

1. weekend spring date breakfast, which for me included cinnamon roll and hot chocolate, consumed while watching the goslings experiment with going into water. coot nest #1 had at least six Hatched Squeaking Babies in it (some of them adventurously exploring down the sides of the nest); coots #2 were still Enthroned. AND we saw a GOLDFINCH on the way down the hill!!!
2. braised chickpeas with courgette & pesto continue very good and fairly easy food. the whole I Am Flat meant we Acquired pre-made pesto, and this was an extremely good move. project Eat The Freezer Stash Of Tortilla continues apace also.
3. A has successfully disposed of our old front door, complete with doing all necessary talking to other humans about it. our front hall now contains only one (1) front door and it is in the door frame where it belongs.
4. got raspberries from the supermarket yesterday, as a vague approximation of The Custard Fish Of Civic Responsibility (from the one shop in Chinatown, on the way back from the sexual health clinic to the tube). am enjoying raspberries a v great deal.
5. all three flowers the big white orchid had produced are now in glorious bloom. (still need to work out how to make the tiny purple orchid happier, but.) flowers!

It is a considerable relief to have the crew of Artemis II safely back on Earth. I wonder in what state the heat shield is now. We stayed up late (for us) last night, streaming Coachella until nearer the reentry time, so we slept in somewhat this morning. It will be great if we manage a successful moon landing and return, for which even more things must go well.

The talk of a moonbase is exciting though this decade seems courageous, I would have thought anything remotely worthy of the name to be a whole order of magnitude tougher still. I wonder how eager future administrations will be to keep pushing the effort. Nonetheless, I should be very happy were we to continue actively working toward such a goal.

It was Easter Sunday and I headed back to Gabriel’s Wharf and along to outside the National Theatre and underneath Waterloo Bridge, and I found so much!

The tide was lower than predicted and I was able to get to the bottle graveyard.

There was a giraffe toy but it was too sad and mud covered so I left it.

To start with I was the only person on that section of foreshore, but other people appeared later.

I was glad to be back at this section which always has plentiful finds, but it seemed like it had less pottery sherds this time and the line of coal/brick debris is shifting along. It was great for bottles though.

It also seemed to have more waste, particularly sanitary towels, than most occasions, which is always sad to see.



Finds included:

Blue sticklebrick - I used to have some of these when I was a child.

Boots Cash Chemists piece of a glass bottle. Boots used this name as at the time, most places accepted buying things on credit, but Boots didn’t. This meant that they could offer items at a cheaper price. They also took part in a court case as they were the first chemist that allowed customers to pick items up off the shelves and take them to the cashier, as opposed to having to ask the cashier for them as they were kept behind the counter. The Pharmaceutical Society of Great Britain took them to court for this in 1953 and Boots won.

A piece of a glass bottle that looks to say “ale Bros” on one side and “r hi” on the other side. I wonder what the rest of it said.

Half a small cup

Two vulcanite bottle stoppers. One is unbranded but has an orange band on it. The other says White Ltd, so would be from R White’s.

A sherd that says “sapph” and W & co on it. Probably Whittaker & Co from Hanley, who were in operation from 1886 - 1891.

A sherd that has blue and white leafy patterns on the front and possibly says “ssen” and “England” on the back.



In the second picture:

A piece of a white plate that doesn’t look very interesting from the front, but on the back, it says:
Stone China
E & C Challinor
England

It also has the Royal Arms on it.

It dates from circa 1891, made by Edward & Charlies Challinor in Fenton, Stoke-on-Trent. I wonder what was eaten off it and who used it.
–

A nice piece of mocha ware

A glass bottle lid that looks to say Calder - probably Aire and Calder Glass bottle works of 83 Upper Thames Street, London and Castleford.

A base of a bottle that says “J.L. & Co.” - John Lumb & Co. They were also from Castleford.

Half a bottle base that looks like it said “New Cross” on the side. Possibly Kent Mineral Waters Co.



A large piece of an ink bottle - "Encre Japonaise" by N. Antoine & Fils, Paris, from around 1870 - 1900. It must have been a large ink bottle, so I wonder who was using that much ink.



A 2 Player Championship Golf LCD game, made by Tandy, circa 1991.
There was also a Radio Shack branded version that appeared in their 1992 catalogue. It's on page 163 and says: "An entire 18-hole golf course you can hold in your hand and play anywhere! Musical sound effects add to excitement."
https://www.radioshackcatalogs.com/flipbook/1992_radioshack_catalog.html?fb3d-page=163



A broken Orange Dew bottle. Sparkling Orange. Manufactured by Anchor Springs.The Anchor Brewery in Littlehampton started making mineral waters, under the name of Anchor Springs, when Henty & Constable Ltd took it over in 1921. I can’t find any mention of Orange Dew, apart from an American brand, but Anchor Springs is at least detailed, and there’s a long list of Henty and Constable pubs.

A Schweppes bottle. I often find R White’s bottles, but rarely Schweppes!

An LWD (London Wholesale Dairies) milk bottle.

A Wallingford mineral waters bottle.



A curious red broken bottle. I am not sure what it would have contained.

A plastic City Cruises coffee cup depicting London landmarks.



There were a number of records strewn on the foreshore, as well as their cases, which were separated from the records. It seemed like they probably hadn't been there long. I picked one up and found the matching cover to it. When I got home I listened to the piano music on YouTube: https://youtu.be/32lbp3uylk4



Part of a broken bottle from the Pure Water Company (PWC), Battersea. They had a mineral water factory built around 1870 in Queens Road, Battersea. Advert: https://gll-libraries-production.s3.eu-west-2.amazonaws.com/qqh7i5r8teknbg7cb1d4lqtqhx6u

Postcard on Ebay:
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/333449128241

A United Dairies bottle.

(You need a permit to search or mudlark on the Thames foreshore.)

Behold my works: today I went to the leisure centre, and went into the leisure centre, and went into the gym, and poked around a bit, and retreated to the stairwell to hyperventilate... and then WENT TO A CHANGING SPACE and CHANGED MY CLOTHING and went back into the gym. And picked! things! up!!! and put them down again!!!!!

I have now Touched Barbell, appear to have accidentally skipped most of Phase 2 of Liftoff in favour of Barbells, Apparently, but honestly the biggest and most exciting bit of this is that I did go back into The Gym and I did push through the social anxiety of What If I'm Doing It Wrong.

It is an excellent time of year to be doing this; the cherries on the way from the gym to the bus stop are in full and exuberant flower.

1. Therapist was Mean and got me to do the thing of substituting "I'm excited about" for "I'm anxious about". I Have Signed Up For The Gym, without first fixing my bike, and might even make it there Tomorrow.
2. On the one hand Wagamama have dropped my default order from their menu again ('tis the season!), and on the other they have introduced a gochujang-tamarind-sesame corn "ribs" situation that I am very pleased to have tried.
3. Social wiggles were OUTSIDE because we have achieved LIGHT ENOUGH EVENINGS.
4. I have almost finished A's gloves??? All That Remains is Weaving In The Second Set Of Ends.
5. Lebkuchen And A Glass Of Milk.

Things I thought would be fine: continuing to use the coffee table as an ersatz bench while I try to source a proper one at less-than-new prices.

THINGS THAT WERE NOT FINE: guess.

(I am unharmed! The coffee table is... not. The previous session was fine!!! ... the previous session was 10-20lb lower in terms of what I was lifting.)

( special interest within )

I re-read the 1967 story 9 Billion Names of God by Arthur C Clarke, where a Tibetan monastery are calculating all possible names of God, which they think will be some sort of culmination of the universe.

When I first read it I hadn't noticed that it was written when using a computer to print all the possible combinations of something was still quite new.

It does feel like all those permutations make sense in a Buddhist monastery, but AFAIK he must have based that on Kaballah and made up the connection to Buddhism.

He wrote it in a long weekend away. But he added a comment that there was something wrong with the maths and he'd needed to fix it later so I guess he didn't QUITE finish it in one go :)

The numbers be gave were 9 billion names, 15,000 years by hand, 100 days by computer printout. A custom alphabet. 9 letters at most. And a few combinations are forbidden. I'm guessing he chose 9 billion as a good sounding title and a reasonable length of time, but that something^something didn't quite come out at 9 billion, so added the forbidden combinations or custom alphabet to adjust it a bit.

Today I have had MRI #1 (NHS), booked follow-up appointment #1 (NHS; in June), and also booked follow-up appointment #2 (private; next Thursday).

( feeeeeeeelings )

But. BUT. I made myself put the allotment keys in my pocket before heading out for the MRI (the allotments are right behind the hospital) and then did spend two hours Communing With Plants (by which I mostly mean "weeding", obviously, which is I suppose a kind of Communion) in pleasant weather, and. And. The cherry blossom is out. Only two clusters of it so far, but -- that's two more than a week ago, and the rest of the tree is thinking really hard about it. The unfortunately sited apple I appear to have inherited is also absolutely riotous. The garlic chives are finally Properly Established. I got to graze on allium and spinach. Small fierce joys, and that.

I had imagined that my hundredth day of mudlarking would be spectacular and I would find the most amazing things. In reality, I went to Kew Bridge station and down the ramp at Kew Bridge Draw Dock. The ground was silty and slimy with algae and there were geese who were not keen on me being there. There was little to be found and I picked up one sherd before heading back up.

I walked along a bit and found steps down. I then found a few more pottery sherds but gave up and went up the next set of steps.

It was the day of the boat race, but that was further down the river.

I then walked to Gunnersbury Park and it was an interesting park with a giant wooden Bartmann jug in the garden and the actual one in the museum. There were ruined gothic arches and a bath house. I enjoyed walking around there.

The green and white piece with circles says “ton” on the back, can’t quite make out the letter before, possibly a ‘c’.



(You need a permit to search or mudlark on the Thames foreshore.)

Bartmann jug in the museum:


Giant wooden Bartmann jug in the park:

Sad sight seen while walking down the pavement yesterday - broken fragments of chocolate shell on the ground. Looks like someone foolishly decided to open an Easter egg while walking. And worse ... about twenty feet further on, another piece, as if they'd not learnt from the first time!

Reading. She's A Beast archives, forever and always (by which I mean that I am now up to October 2023).

Another few pages of my Wicked Problems (Max Gladstone) reread.

Also an absolutely baffling academic paper that is technically relevant to my academic interests but which... doesn't really explain why what it's doing is better than state-of-the-art, sure as hell doesn't demonstrate it adequately with an appropriate range of reference materials, and cites only my reference materials paper and not my one on actual real life rocks, which it absolutely should, especially as it is citing [redacted for professionalism] like it's a solid contribution to the field.

Writing. Manuscript is over 10k words???

Listening. Hidden Almanac continues; presently we are relistening to another chunk I've theoretically heard once already but actually slept through. Knitting during it continues a good way of preventing myself from falling asleep. I continue to enjoy myself. (Eminent Domain and Tapping Of Ley Lines is the chunk we're currently in.)

Playing. Games various with... nieces and nephews??? plus A's other relatives, particularly Boggle, Shithead (to which I have been newly introduced), and Five Crowns.

Cooking. ... I made a big batch of chilli? I made a big batch of chilli.

Eating. Many and various exciting cheeses. Some excellent potato dauphinoise that I didn't have to cook.

Exploring. North Leigh Roman villa, Chedworth Roman villa, some surrounding woodlands, and Davis's Copse near Curbridge (BLUEBELLS).

Making & mending. A's glove progresses, by which I mean I've stalled a little over the past few days because I foolishly decided I didn't need to bring my circs with me and therefore I am knitting flat on DPNs and it is Suboptimal. But. Nearly ready to turn around for the other side of the flap. Nearly.

Growing. Lemongrass much cheerfuller for having been put back into the warm box. No evidence of aubergine yet (yes I know I'm late). Broad beans now actually properly coming up!!! Oca doing nothing. Cherry finally just about ready to start blossoming as of Wednesday; josta definitively blossoming and really quite green; project Build Up Spinach Seed Stash progressing nicely.

Observing. Pheasants! BLUEBELLS, both as a sea in woodland and on banks with primroses. Cowslips. So many excellent spring flowers. Pheasants; COOT EGGS; Egyptian goslings; and I have spent the past couple of days being Menaced by a Canada goose that is OUTRAGED whenever anybody... passes it... on a tarmac drive... even if they're doing so in a motor vehicle. All extremely satisfactory.

A few years ago, driving from Portland, ME, back down to Belmont, MA, on Hallowe'en, we experienced a heavy blizzard. This Easter Sunday here in Glasgow, the morning started off with a lovely blue sky then gray turned to sleet then to handsome snowflakes that are settling. Update: Now the sky's back to blue.

The snow could at least confine itself to winter. I still vote for using R.'s citizenship to live on a tropical island instead! Fortunately, our dog L. is wholly unfazed by rain and snow.