@Firenze , your Asian pork sounds rather nice; not sure about the nam pla though - isn't that the really whiffy fish sauce?
I wouldn't describe it as whiffy. It's one of those things like Tabasco or Worcestershire that you add by the dash. It just adds a note. I do tend to collect sauces, chutneys, spice mixes, pastes, jellies etc See me, see condiment aisle in Chinese supermarkets...
It’s my online German lesson today - by Zoom. They’ll be surprised I’m in Germany, we sneaked in under the wire before the lockdown.
A teacher friend of ours has to have a test for the virus as one of his class have it. I’m glad we declined breakfast at theirs the other day! We did go for a walk with them but we kept social distance and it was breezy. My son looked at the regulations and if he gets it, without symptoms, he still has to go into work but on a Covid ward. Makes sense. 🤔
There’s mist over the river this morning but it looks like it will lift. My morning amble is up to a field of alpacas then up to the forest, then a loop down to the river. I can feel myself getting fitter.
That sounds like a lovely walk, Boogie.
I have a day of marking, this time essays on student goals and resilience. I then have a two hour meeting this evening...I may fall asleep during it.
Thanks, ladies - I'm just messing about on here while I wait for the Teams interview to start (at 1:00 GMT).
It's weird only having to smarten up one's top half for an interview, but through force of habit, I put on smart trousers as well as a decent-looking top.
I've also tidied the myriad* cushions on the sofa, which will presumably be in the background. I know everyone who does Zoom/Teams/whatever is supposed to have a shelf of Interesting Books behind them, but I'm afraid that's not where the bookshelf is.
A bit like wearing a dinner-jacket to read the news on the radio ...
* 14 to be exact - they came with the corner sofa. It's an odd sort of thing - it has an arm at one end (unfortunately not the end I prefer to sit at), and no back as such, just these batallions of assorted cushions.
I know everyone who does Zoom/Teams/whatever is supposed to have a shelf of Interesting Books behind them, but I'm afraid that's not where the bookshelf is.
Nor is it for lots of folk - there are Zoom "backgrounds" you can use, not that I know how. One person has frequently joined our Bible Study from Florence, switching rapidly to Egypt, and occasionally standing on his head! It is most annoying.
When @Doublethink gave me lessons in Teams before my last interview, she mentioned alternative backgrounds, but I think the sofa (and its multitudinous cushions) will do.
Fingers crossed @piglet.
My husband is very fond of different backgrounds on zoom. We've had Tuscany New York's Central Park and the deck of the Starship Enterprise. My favourite was the barn he found as a backdrop when we did our circle dance class. Lat time I checked in on zoom with my son we had a picture of a 15 ton forklift truck that he uses occasionally at work as his background He's obviously very proud of it.
I find those artificial backgrounds really difficult - they look so false and any movement by the person using it means they disappear into their own background. I Zoom in my study and the bookshelves behind me are authentically mine: very packed and a bit messy. I've recently added a few cuddly toys and someone slightly nervously asked me yesterday, "Is that a real rat on the shelf behind you?"
Admin assistant (sounds posh, doesn't it?) at a health centre in Edinburgh - NHS Lothian - working with midwives, nurses and social workers. I just hope I'm up to it - it's nearly five years since I've worked, and I'm worried that I'll have forgotten how!
I'm going to celebrate by researching the chippy across the road, and accompanying it with a glass of WINE.
Tangent
I once took an exuberant American organist friend into a chip shop in NE Scotland. His first trip over, his first chippy. He asked them if they had a nice bottle of wine to go with that. I cherish the memory of the baffled faces!
I had success this week in my hunt for sulphite-free red wine; Mr Nen loves red wine but as he's got older it seems to sit very heavily with him. Someone told us sulphite-free is the answer. Looking forward to trying it at the weekend.
You can drink wine with whatever takes your fancy, imho; as for Irn-Bru, I don't think I've drunk that in about 50 years! I was never a huge fan, although I used to know someone who swore by it as a hangover cure.
I’m drinking Hendrick’s Lunar gin with tonic. My post-viral fatigue has given me an alcohol intolerance, I can manage a single gin or half of beer or a small glass of white wine but no red wine at all or my heart rate shoots up.
@Heavenlyannie - as long as you can manage a single GIN, all will be well with the world!
Now I think about it, I don't reckon I've ever had more than one GIN at a single sitting, apart from at my niece's wedding, where there was a GIN theme, and each table had a different one, along with all the expected accompaniments. Even at that, I think I only had two* - I haven't got the head for spirits that I once had!
* I'd already had copious quantities of fizz, and there was wine with the food ...
I'm looking out of the window at what used to be a lovely group of three acer trees, very delicate and much loved by birds. It is now a mangled group of one close to a telegraph pole, with evidence of previous pollarding which has constrained the "surgery"; another skeleton with apparently random cutting, several branches now cut flush with the main trunk, and a remaining uncut tree which I suspect will go today.
Nothing was said about this in the documents circulated in place of the AGM this year, no notification came to those of us who look at the trees. I have part ownership via the Residents Society, and my money is used to pay for part of the work. I should have been involved.
I suspect that the dendrophobes who move into houses close to the planned trees which are supposed to contribute to the environment have put complaints in which have been taken to have have more importance than the silence of those who love them and would have complained if we knew what was planned. If you don't like trees, don't move near to them.
Number three is on its way. One has to admire the skill of the guy who is balancing up at the top with his chain saw, but his understanding of tree form is sadly lacking. All the side branches being lopped off.
These were healthy trees, stable in high winds, but overshadowing a rntal place where the landlord objected to leaf fall at this time of year, and a neighbour's recently installed solar panels, which really shouldn't have been put in where they are.
We are probably going to lose a number of trees from ash dieback, and we have a number which are too close to homes, so losing healthy trees in a clear space is so sad.
I suppose I have a positive in that I will have a better view of the ecliptic and thus the Moon and the planets, but I loved looking at those trees.
Next door’s huge sycamore was taken down recently - it was unsafe. Our beautiful Rowan blew down in the Beast from the East. I mourn them both.
Lazy day here - I’m still in my pyjamas! That never happens with dogs and pups in the house, I’m usually up at 7:30am every day, weekends included. I shall shower and amble shortly. The little family are coming to our flat at 1pm then Mum and Dad will go and have some much deserved free time. We are enjoying our babysitting afternoons.
@Penny S such sad news about your trees. I've recently had work done on a tall thin cherry tree that had got too tall and less thin because I'd left it alone. The view of it from upstairs, looking down on it, is horrible and I'm just hoping it'll sort itself out. The neighbours on one side will be delighted as they blame it for shade it wasn't guilty of.
Shortly afterwards my neighbours on the other side sadly had to remove an apple tree that had provided us with privacy (and too many rotten apples) and the birds with sanctuary, as it was in the wrong place (they couldn't get into the back garden- people forget how big these little tree-lets become) and hadn't been pruned for around 40 years. I am glad they told me this was happening because the shock would have been huge.
I'm really happy for you, Piglet. You've had a tempestuous year (or is it more, now?) with so many changes, good and really bad; I'm glad that equilibrium is starting to happen. I wish you all the very best.
Thanks, Dormouse - yes, it has been a bit tumultuous. It was a year past in September that David died, and I moved back to Scotland in February. Then the Almighty (or more likely the other bloke ) sent a plague ...
However, things are looking up: I moved into my flat a couple of weeks ago, Trump lost the election* and now I've been offered a job. Maybe there's something to be salvaged from 2020 after all.
It looks like another lovely day, so I think what my friend Winnie the Pooh would call an Expotition is called for. In this case, an Expotition to Sainsbury's - I need wine.
As the Apostle Paul so wisely said, "take a little wine for thy stomach's sake" ...
Expotition complete, WINE bought (among other things), beef casserole made and partially consumed.
On my way to the bus-stop, I went into a little hardware shop (my brother's coming to hang some pictures for me and I needed more hooks). It was a rather old-fashioned shop (although I suspect it may prove very useful), and I had to resist the temptation to ask for fork handles.
We went out and talked to the surgeons to ask why it was being done, and were told "trees need to be managed for their health" and were referred to the Chair of the association, who was very defensive. I've always thought him to be reasonable, but he wasn't in this case - it seems he's stuck with a too small committee, with no meetings, of course, and is doing everything himself. I think I may have to return now I don't have a patient.
We suggested that the affected people could have been circulated, and he asked what could he do if there was a 50/50 split. (I didn't think about site meetings and explanations of why trees need to be managed for health.) He said it wasn't a democracy, we chose committees to take decisions for us. I agree that no-one turns up to meetings except to complain, but that argument I have heard in the past from people on the conservative side of political thought. The village was set up with the concept of residents being involved with the government, but more recent arrivals haven't quite grasped that idea. And times have changed with people having less time to engage in things - one old chair said when people first came here, the wives didn't work, and got involved in running things.
I talked with the two old chairs, who have also been on his case about the repainting problems. I bet he doesn't like old ladies with opinions!
However, the last tree seems to have been treated quite differently, with minimal management done, so side branches have been shortened, but not taken out, and the men have gone off somewhere else. (Leaving one branch that even I thought might need to be shortened more now as it looks unbalanced, and I know the climber had similar thoughts as I saw him considering it.) I am left wondering if something was said, as I can still see an actual tree shape. With a few leaves on, and pigeons in it.
The tree workers have an interesting company name and motto - some companies go for plain "Tree Works" names, others are afflicted with arty ones. This one has gone full hairdresser (in two ways, actually) as "Down to the Roots", "A cut above the rest".
They have done very well here, as there have been 24 trees done - far more than were flagged up as needing management in our survey a few years back. In those cases it would have been for infection/rot, roots threatening foundations or grown too large too close to homes. We do have a coterie of people who have moved to places where their gardens are shaded or leaves fall in their gardens at this time of year, and want the trees removed.
@Penny S it sounds a difficult situation for everyone, and that the Chair is in a difficult position. Maybe more people will be prompted to join the committee - certainly at the allotments AGM a few years ago those with the most to say were invited to join the committee and have become very active.
Tonight was Allotment Feast - roasted veg with rosemary, followed by a yummy gooseberry, raspberry & cherry crumble (a strange mix but these were the tubs at the top of the freezer drawer).
I went into a little hardware shop (my brother's coming to hang some pictures for me and I needed more hooks). It was a rather old-fashioned shop (although I suspect it may prove very useful), and I had to resist the temptation to ask for fork handles.
Did the assistant wear brown house-coats? Did it go back for miles? Did it have hurricane lamps and colanders hanging from the ceiling? Does it have stacks of stuff on the pavement outside? And ... did it have the correct smell?
I've just looked on the FB page and it looks amazing. It is what my wife would call A Useful Shop.
Husband en rouge is usually the chef about these parts, but tonight he was getting back late so I had to do the honours. I made crispy salmon with a herb and lemon risotto, and am feeling rather proud of myself.
(What with the return of lockdown, this is about all the excitement I get )
A good hardware shop is a thing to be treasured. And I agree about the smell. There is also a certain smell for proper stationers/art supply shops.
Went to the garden centre today to get some winter bedding and bulbs, so I shall be busy planting them soon. I need to do some gardening by next Friday so the council can take the weeds and prunings in the last collection of the year.
Comments
I wouldn't describe it as whiffy. It's one of those things like Tabasco or Worcestershire that you add by the dash. It just adds a note. I do tend to collect sauces, chutneys, spice mixes, pastes, jellies etc See me, see condiment aisle in Chinese supermarkets...
It’s my online German lesson today - by Zoom. They’ll be surprised I’m in Germany, we sneaked in under the wire before the lockdown.
A teacher friend of ours has to have a test for the virus as one of his class have it. I’m glad we declined breakfast at theirs the other day! We did go for a walk with them but we kept social distance and it was breezy. My son looked at the regulations and if he gets it, without symptoms, he still has to go into work but on a Covid ward. Makes sense. 🤔
There’s mist over the river this morning but it looks like it will lift. My morning amble is up to a field of alpacas then up to the forest, then a loop down to the river. I can feel myself getting fitter.
I have a day of marking, this time essays on student goals and resilience. I then have a two hour meeting this evening...I may fall asleep during it.
It's weird only having to smarten up one's top half for an interview, but through force of habit, I put on smart trousers as well as a decent-looking top.
I've also tidied the myriad* cushions on the sofa, which will presumably be in the background. I know everyone who does Zoom/Teams/whatever is supposed to have a shelf of Interesting Books behind them, but I'm afraid that's not where the bookshelf is.
A bit like wearing a dinner-jacket to read the news on the radio ...
* 14 to be exact - they came with the corner sofa. It's an odd sort of thing - it has an arm at one end (unfortunately not the end I prefer to sit at), and no back as such, just these batallions of assorted cushions.
My husband is very fond of different backgrounds on zoom. We've had Tuscany New York's Central Park and the deck of the Starship Enterprise. My favourite was the barn he found as a backdrop when we did our circle dance class. Lat time I checked in on zoom with my son we had a picture of a 15 ton forklift truck that he uses occasionally at work as his background He's obviously very proud of it.
🙂🙂
I find those artificial backgrounds really difficult - they look so false and any movement by the person using it means they disappear into their own background. I Zoom in my study and the bookshelves behind me are authentically mine: very packed and a bit messy. I've recently added a few cuddly toys and someone slightly nervously asked me yesterday, "Is that a real rat on the shelf behind you?"
I GOT IT!!!
Where's that "yipee" smilie when I need it?
I'm due to start at the beginning of December; at the moment I'm a shambolic mix of elated and terrified!
PS What is it exactly, I can't remember.
Admin assistant (sounds posh, doesn't it?) at a health centre in Edinburgh - NHS Lothian - working with midwives, nurses and social workers. I just hope I'm up to it - it's nearly five years since I've worked, and I'm worried that I'll have forgotten how!
I'm going to celebrate by researching the chippy across the road, and accompanying it with a glass of WINE.
I once took an exuberant American organist friend into a chip shop in NE Scotland. His first trip over, his first chippy. He asked them if they had a nice bottle of wine to go with that. I cherish the memory of the baffled faces!
I had success this week in my hunt for sulphite-free red wine; Mr Nen loves red wine but as he's got older it seems to sit very heavily with him. Someone told us sulphite-free is the answer. Looking forward to trying it at the weekend.
Now I think about it, I don't reckon I've ever had more than one GIN at a single sitting, apart from at my niece's wedding, where there was a GIN theme, and each table had a different one, along with all the expected accompaniments. Even at that, I think I only had two* - I haven't got the head for spirits that I once had!
* I'd already had copious quantities of fizz, and there was wine with the food ...
<notworthy>
Nothing was said about this in the documents circulated in place of the AGM this year, no notification came to those of us who look at the trees. I have part ownership via the Residents Society, and my money is used to pay for part of the work. I should have been involved.
I suspect that the dendrophobes who move into houses close to the planned trees which are supposed to contribute to the environment have put complaints in which have been taken to have have more importance than the silence of those who love them and would have complained if we knew what was planned. If you don't like trees, don't move near to them.
These were healthy trees, stable in high winds, but overshadowing a rntal place where the landlord objected to leaf fall at this time of year, and a neighbour's recently installed solar panels, which really shouldn't have been put in where they are.
We are probably going to lose a number of trees from ash dieback, and we have a number which are too close to homes, so losing healthy trees in a clear space is so sad.
I suppose I have a positive in that I will have a better view of the ecliptic and thus the Moon and the planets, but I loved looking at those trees.
Penny S, that is so sad. I know it’s too late for the acers, but can you put a complaint in to the residents group?
Next door’s huge sycamore was taken down recently - it was unsafe. Our beautiful Rowan blew down in the Beast from the East. I mourn them both.
Lazy day here - I’m still in my pyjamas! That never happens with dogs and pups in the house, I’m usually up at 7:30am every day, weekends included. I shall shower and amble shortly. The little family are coming to our flat at 1pm then Mum and Dad will go and have some much deserved free time. We are enjoying our babysitting afternoons.
Shortly afterwards my neighbours on the other side sadly had to remove an apple tree that had provided us with privacy (and too many rotten apples) and the birds with sanctuary, as it was in the wrong place (they couldn't get into the back garden- people forget how big these little tree-lets become) and hadn't been pruned for around 40 years. I am glad they told me this was happening because the shock would have been huge.
However, things are looking up: I moved into my flat a couple of weeks ago, Trump lost the election* and now I've been offered a job. Maybe there's something to be salvaged from 2020 after all.
It looks like another lovely day, so I think what my friend Winnie the Pooh would call an Expotition is called for. In this case, an Expotition to Sainsbury's - I need wine.
* no matter what he might say to the contrary
Thank you for reminding me of the term Strengthening Medicine. Long forgotten. It gave me a warm, fuzzy feeling (As does Strengthening Medicine ☺️)
Expotition complete, WINE bought (among other things), beef casserole made and partially consumed.
On my way to the bus-stop, I went into a little hardware shop (my brother's coming to hang some pictures for me and I needed more hooks). It was a rather old-fashioned shop (although I suspect it may prove very useful), and I had to resist the temptation to ask for fork handles.
We suggested that the affected people could have been circulated, and he asked what could he do if there was a 50/50 split. (I didn't think about site meetings and explanations of why trees need to be managed for health.) He said it wasn't a democracy, we chose committees to take decisions for us. I agree that no-one turns up to meetings except to complain, but that argument I have heard in the past from people on the conservative side of political thought. The village was set up with the concept of residents being involved with the government, but more recent arrivals haven't quite grasped that idea. And times have changed with people having less time to engage in things - one old chair said when people first came here, the wives didn't work, and got involved in running things.
I talked with the two old chairs, who have also been on his case about the repainting problems. I bet he doesn't like old ladies with opinions!
However, the last tree seems to have been treated quite differently, with minimal management done, so side branches have been shortened, but not taken out, and the men have gone off somewhere else. (Leaving one branch that even I thought might need to be shortened more now as it looks unbalanced, and I know the climber had similar thoughts as I saw him considering it.) I am left wondering if something was said, as I can still see an actual tree shape. With a few leaves on, and pigeons in it.
The tree workers have an interesting company name and motto - some companies go for plain "Tree Works" names, others are afflicted with arty ones. This one has gone full hairdresser (in two ways, actually) as "Down to the Roots", "A cut above the rest".
They have done very well here, as there have been 24 trees done - far more than were flagged up as needing management in our survey a few years back. In those cases it would have been for infection/rot, roots threatening foundations or grown too large too close to homes. We do have a coterie of people who have moved to places where their gardens are shaded or leaves fall in their gardens at this time of year, and want the trees removed.
Tonight was Allotment Feast - roasted veg with rosemary, followed by a yummy gooseberry, raspberry & cherry crumble (a strange mix but these were the tubs at the top of the freezer drawer).
I've just looked on the FB page and it looks amazing. It is what my wife would call A Useful Shop.
(What with the return of lockdown, this is about all the excitement I get
Went to the garden centre today to get some winter bedding and bulbs, so I shall be busy planting them soon. I need to do some gardening by next Friday so the council can take the weeds and prunings in the last collection of the year.