Sunday Music: Trouble is as Trouble Does – Striking Matches

Posted on September 9, 2018 by nicdempsey

I hadn’t heard this in ages but it popped up on shuffle

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Recommendation: Teva’s

Posted on September 8, 2018 by nicdempsey

I have a problem and that problem is my feet. It’s not just that they’re ugly, it’s that they aren’t very good at being feet and have lots of issues, they are almost completely flat, large (UK size 8) and as a consequence have bunions and osteo-arthritis.  After the osteotomy on my left foot, I pretty much gave up on heels altogether and now wear the most sensible of sensible shoes.

Enter my Tevas. If you have elegant feet (it is possible!) these shoes probably look good on you, but I am not a person whose feet look good in anything but these are the most comfortable pair of sandals I own and they are good for a three hour walk with Sarah and Fred!

They do have some downsides, one is that your feet get really dirty and the other is the infamous ‘teva stink’ issue. However, feet can be cleaned and the stink can be deal with if you soak them in mouthwash (yes really) and water. Use one cup mouthwash to two cups water and leave for 30 minutes, I usually follow that up by leaving them on a windowsill overnight to dry. Should that not work then cover the insoles with bicarb and leave overnight.

But all good things require maintenance and these sandals are a very good thing and give me happy feet.

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Friday Links: The Deep State

Posted on September 7, 2018 by nicdempsey

Happy Friday! It’s been a big week for news!

This was the train on the way home last night! I love London!

Here are this week’s links…

I Am Part of the Resistance Inside the Trump Administration. I’ve got to disagree. You are the problem, you helped get a man elected who was clearly unfit for office, you accepted a post in his Government. For power. This shows how absolutely fallen conservatism is, rather than invoke the 25th Amendment, you subvert the will of the President so you can some of the stuff you want, for tax cuts and deregulation, you’ll let this man be in power and risk not only your Republic but the rest of the world.

The madness is pouring out of the White House now, for all to see

No doubt there were functionaries around Mussolini who believed the Italian trains had never been so punctual. But Il Duce was also – how best to put it? – detrimental to the health of the republic.

If you really believe your boss is a threat to the constitution which you’ve taken an oath to protect, perhaps you should consider quitting or going public. As in: going on Capitol Hill to hold a press conference to urge impeachment.

The Incapacitated President. The problem isn’t the President, the problem is the Republicans.

This Is a Constitutional Crisis

Your service in government is valuable. Thank you for it. But it is not so indispensable that it can compensate for the continuing tenure of a president you believe to be amoral, untruthful, irrational, antidemocratic, unpatriotic, and dangerous. Previous generations of Americans have sacrificed fortunes, health, and lives to serve the country. You are asked only to tell the truth aloud and with your name attached.

We’re Watching an Antidemocratic Coup Unfold

Trump anger as senior official attacks ‘amoral’ president in anonymous New York Times op-ed One thing that does strike me, Trump can’t differentiate between disloyalty to him and treason. Which is dangerous. And I would not want to be in the White House right now…

Bob Woodward’s book details Trump’s chaotic and dysfunctional White House. It’s like the books about Prince Charles’ terrible behavior, some of it may not be true but everything in it confirms the behaviour that we have already seen. For example, the way he acted when John McCain day. It confirms everything we think about his behaviour. Trump’s White House just gets more Nixonian by the day…

‘Lies and phony sources’: Trump dismisses Bob Woodward’s book. The response from Trump we expected.

Transcript: Phone call between President Trump and journalist Bob Woodward. The transcript. Worth reading, if this is what conversation with Trump is like, you can see why it’s exhausting. I’m sorry but you don’t blow off Bob Woodward, you talk to him. This ‘oh you didn’t try hard enough’ after the book is done was absolutely deliberate, if it wasn’t, if Trump and Co thought they could style it out after the event. Well actually maybe they did, it’s always worked before….

Ditch the almond milk: why everything you know about sustainable eating is probably wrong

Trump the pariah to sit and sulk as Washington pays its respects to McCain

Michael Caine: ‘Crime comes from poverty, and those suffering are darker people’ I don’t agree with Michael Caine on many things, but he reminds me of most of my extended family, this will be my uncle in 10-ish years. But without the acting skills or money.

London Crossrail opening postponed until autumn next year. This is not a surprise, I can’t tell you much about the line but none of the work on either of the stations I use (West Ealing, Ealing Broadway) would be ready for December 2018. Seriously, everyone who’s been near it could have told you it wasn’t going to happen. There are 3 sides to a project triangle and as Crossrail has missed cost and time, it had better deliver on quality!

Airbnb and the so-called sharing economy is hollowing out our cities

One marooned ship exposes the Brexiteers’ phoney claims

Why Are So Many Americans Flushing Their Contacts Down the Toilet? In fairness, when I do it, it’s accident not design but I vow right now to do better.

Single People Aren’t to Blame for the Loneliness Epidemic. Bella DePaulo gave a TED talk about this a while ago, but generally we need to be more accepting of people who do life outside of couples.

Britain’s shared spaces are vanishing, leaving us a nation of cliques

Don’t demonise beggars. It won’t solve the problem of homelessness

Why Florida’s red tide is killing fish, manatees, and turtles

Is social media influencing book cover design?

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Allotment Adventures: You can’t garden with a migraine

Posted on September 5, 2018 by nicdempsey

This is a very short update because we were at the allotment less than an hour, I think.

Things are starting to slow down, this was the first week there wasn’t a courgette in our produce collection. There were two crooknecks, tomatoes, chard, kale and the last of the cucumbers

Some of the tomato plants are done too. There is still corn, there are borlottii beans and winter squash to come, as well as salad and carrotsThe chard and kale are doing welland the leeks are looking goodso the work list is the same as it was last week.

Next week the I want to clear the cucumber bed, put up the tomato plants that are done and plant my spring bulbs and sow some late autumn crops, it might be too late for them (pak choi, mustard, land cress, black radish, parsley) but we’ll have a go.

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September Goals

Posted on September 4, 2018 by nicdempsey

So August was a really good month, my birthday, a week’s holiday, theatre, a bank holiday, epic cake making, a gin tasting and quieter trains.

But August is gone and September is here. I kicked of September by attending a wedding and getting a migraine. One was directly the result of the other, too much time worrying about cake followed by having fun, drinking, dancing and going to bed past midnight all done during trigger fortnight. Sometimes it has to be done and we suffer the consequences, but it was a weekend migraine so whilst I missed more fun, I didn’t miss work. Go me.

After August’s goal free month, it’s time to reset. Even though it’s been years since I was at school, September always carries with it the whiff of new beginnings. There are 118 days left in the year, so enough time to reset the year and finish strong!

For me, this September is a good month. Next weekend, the family is all getting together to celebrate J’s birthday, then the weekend after that, Ma and I are heading up to Amble for our much anticipated holiday, I do love London, but I love Northumberland in a different way. (I think it’s the only other place I could live, because it’s beautiful and basically as far away from London as you can get and still be in England. If you’re going to move out, move out!)

So September is actually only three weeks of normal life but across all of September, I want to be a bit more active. I’m aware that autumn is on the way and it’s not my favourite time of year, so it’s time to make sure that I have all the usual precautions in place.

Mind and Body

Bedtime, Wake up time and Golden Hour.

I don’t think I need to tell you why it’s so important, especially this week when I’m post migraine and in trigger week but more generally, the routine of it becomes really important when I’m in SAD hell. Stability is really important in establishing good sleep and I need all the help I can get. So bedtime 10pm, wake up time 6am and try to stay within an hour of it at the weekends.

 

Walking

  • Walk to and from the station every work day. Because when it’s dark and miserable I’m not going to want to but I need it, for exercise.
  • 30 min lunchtime walk when I’m in the office. Which from today is 13 days!

Yoga

There is no point being overly nuts about this but I’ll like to do something everyday while I’m on holiday (and maybe get Ma to do with me as she’s given up Pilates) and at least three times a week during the month.

Tone

Squats (20), sit ups (10), press ups (10). It’s pathetically little but I want to hit it every other day at the outside. If I can do it every day then so much the better. It’s something I can build on and the idea is gentle

Home

Housework

  • This weekend I really cleaned the flat and I really liked what it did for my mood when I was sick. So I want to commit to a weekly clean of the kitchen, hall and bathroom (including hoovering and mopping)
  • Ironing, nothing that needs ironing hanging around more than a day.

Projects

  • Defrost the freezer/clear out the fridge
  • Clean the oven

Book de-clutter

I’m going to Barter Books so time to get rid of my excess books, so I can trade them in for more books.

Allotment

I covered the worklist for the plot last week but of that this is what I hope to get done this month

New things

  • Make a patio next to the shed
    • Buy sand,
    • Buy pavers
    • Level ground
  • Path next to shed
    • Woodchip
    • Borders
    • Pavers

Maintenance/planning

  • Paint the shed
  • Plant autumn bulbs
  • Sow
    • pak choi
    • mustard
    • land cress
    • black radish
    • parsley
  • Get the lavender into the ground or bigger terracotta pots
  • Sort out the canes and get rid of the weak broken ones
  • Manure the rhubarb
  • Manure and cover the beds we aren’t going to use over winter

Other

Meal Planning and Food budget

Summer meal planning has mostly focused on using up the allotment produce. But this is the first week since July when there have been no courgettes so it’s slowing down. We’ll have some winter squash and hopefully continuous supplies of chard and kale, and quite a few leeks. But it’s time to get back into a more disciplined mindset. I may go back to documenting my weekly shop and meals, we’ll see.

Birthday/Christmas prep

From now until Christmas, there are four family birthdays (Joe, Ben, Oli and Ma) and six friends and children of friends. So this month, I’d like to sort out cards for all of them and presents for at least all the children and my brother. I also need to start thinking about Christmas presents and whether I’m going handmade or bought. I know it is too early but I have time but not much money!

I think that will do!

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Monday Miscellany: After the Wedding

Posted on September 3, 2018 by nicdempsey

Happy Monday!

Things I have learnt this weekend, I apparently don’t age (this is not true but sweet of them to say so), the cake was fine, an evening spend dancing and drinking results in a Sunday migraine. To be fair I just thought I was hungover but it was a migraine.

It ruined the rest of the weekend. I didn’t get to Kathy’s birthday drinks or do much that was useful. I had planned on allotment but post migraine all I could do was go and pick and water a bit.

Fortunately, on Saturday morning, I’d done all the housework. It was pretty epic as well tidying, the laundry, cleaning and changing the bed, I got to all the things I don’t like, hoovering, cleaning floors and ironing

So I was covered for being ill. It’s good because in fairness I’m now feeling great today but that could just be the commute!

This is a busy couple of weeks, schools go back, which means that the trains will really bad again and work is going to be busy.

This week I also get new glasses, a haircut and a three year old nephew. So we’ll be in Shefford over the weekend!

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Sunday Music: I Saw Her Standing There – The Beatles

Posted on September 2, 2018 by nicdempsey

Yesterday, I went to a wedding.

When we RSVP’d, we were asked to name a song that would get us dancing. Off the top of my head I chose this.

Because who doesn’t love early Beatles?

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Recommendation: Sally Hansen Nail Rehab

Posted on September 1, 2018 by nicdempsey

One of the strange side effects of having an allotment is that it really improved my nails. In the first two summers of having the plot , my nails stop flaking and peeling, I think it’s something to do with having my hands in the soil so much. It could be that I’m eating more and fresher veg and I get more of the nutrients from food. I have no idea why but they were stronger in the summer. They were still a mess in the winter though and it all came to a head this January when they were a complete mess. Look I’ve used a lot of nail oil  in my time and regular use does help the state of my cuticles but it didn’t help the state of my nails. I bought a very expensive nail oil that smelt lovely but didn’t have any noticable impact on the state of my flaking, peeling and very bendy nails.

Enter this stuff. It’s pricey but not as pricey as the other stuff I was using and it’s easily found in Superdrug and Boots, and it works. I’ve been using it every day since the end of January and I still haven’t finished a bottle, my nails still break now and again but they don’t flake or peel, the also are less ridged and more shiny than they used to be, the picture below is how they look on a normal day and you can see how dry my cuticles and nails usually are.I still use oil on my cuticles but twice a day but I was doing that before, the only change is the moisture rehab. I would say I really started to notice the difference after a month but the longer I’ve used it, the healthier my nails have become and given that one bottle has lasted me 7 months, it’s good value too!

 

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Friday Links

Posted on August 31, 2018 by nicdempsey

Happy Friday!

Even though it’s been a short work week for me, I’m glad to get to the end of it! This weekend is busy and social, a wedding tomorrow, an allotment social on Sunday afternoon and drinks on Sunday night for Kathy’s birthday! Then 9 more working days at work and Amble!

Here are this week’s links

Action Items at a Distance. This is interesting and I know this is about management but I think it’s worth thinking about wfh generally, I work in an office where I’m able to work from home quite a bit. It’s great, it allows me to be flexible and if I have a big piece of work, to get on with it and I work in a company that’s very open to that. But I’m in a support role so wfh more than now and again would be very tricky because a lot of my job function relies on my being in the office to sort stuff out.

Exclusive: Trump promised Kim Jong Un he’d sign an agreement to end the Korean War. That wall Trump wants to build? At least we’d all have something to bash our heads against…

Denying widow’s allowance to umarried mother ruled illegal. I don’t get this. She was with him for 23 years and they didn’t get married, even after they knew he had cancer? Why not?  The only reason I can think of is that it suited them not to.  This feels like trying to have it both ways. All of the advantages and none of the issues.

Where even Walmart won’t go: how Dollar General took over rural America

How to get a good night’s sleep

The housing crisis will not be solved by curbing speculation alone

A touch of the macabre in children’s books is nothing to be scared of

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Allotment Adventures: August and Everything After

Posted on August 29, 2018 by nicdempsey

We had a pretty good day at the plot this weekend. We harvested courgettes, crooknecks, tomatoes, chard, kale and herbs (basil, parlsey, thyme and mint).We also had to call time on the runner beans. They were great but had completely overwhelmed the canes which kept falling over and that wasn’t helping with bean production. We had tried to strengthen the structure last week and it wasn’t working and sometimes you just have to cut your losses. Once I had that up, I planted two verbena bonariensis plants in that space. The space from the path to the raspberries looks really different from how it looked last year. We have a three rhubarb plants, a large raised bed, a couple of circular beds for flowers (dianthus, carnations, love lies bleeding right now) and everything is woodchipped. We have other plans for the space but not much more.

Ma went to work on weeding the paths, the borage and coriander is seeding everywhere especially the leek beds and  I’m pretty relaxed about it in the beds, the cold will kill it off and in the meantime, I can use the coriander but I really don’t want it on the paths. I spent some time with my high maintenance tomatoes. Ma thinks I spend too much time loving the tomatoes but the truth is they need lots of attention as they want to grow everywhere and I want them to produce tomatoes, so they need seeing to. With the change of the weather and the time of year, I’m also on the lookout for blight. So far so good.I planted two more verbena plants and a lavender plant between the parsley and borage in the middle of the plot and a lavender plant by one on the leek beds. We don’t have a huge amount of space for flowers but I’m hoping the lavender and verbena make it more attractive to pollinators. The nasturtiums, loves lies bleeding, californian poppies and some of the borage are all self-seeded and I’m more than happy for them to do that next year but it’s nice to have some intentional planting too!

We bought some bulbs this weekend too, because I would really like to get some spring flowers in. This hasn’t worked brilliantly for me so far. The grape hyacinths have done well but the anenomies and freesias, did not return this year. We bought some tulips (Queen of the night), some snowdrops and some snakes head fritillary, which are going around the shed and patio (when I get that sorted!).We’re at that stage of the summer where we can see the season changing which for me at least, means thinking about the next season and work to be done. We have got chard, leeks and kale growing for the winter and I need to find some space for some other autumn/winter crops like pak choi, mustard greens, black radishes and land cress and lambs lettuce. We have those seeds so it’s just a case of sowing them and hoping for the best. The question is where can I find the space? They need to be sown now but the tomatoes and squash aren’t going to be done until mid September at the earliest, which is good because they’ll make way for overwintering garlic, broad beans and shallots (yes I’m going to try again with the garlic!).

There are other ‘winter is coming’ tasks, like giving the shed another coat of weatherproofing and Ma wants to insulate it and buy shelves for more organisation and as the shed is her domain, all I really do is paint it, we need to try and do that this year too.

 

Longer term building projects are a path by the shed, a pallet patio, a water butt and digging up the raspberries, I need to give the gooseberries some space and at the other end need some room for some different varieties. So time for some digging and of course if I do that, then we sort have a strengthening session for the current supports. I’ll like to put new supports in altogether but that may have to be a project for another year.

 

 

New things

  • Make a patio next to the shed

o   Buy sand,

o   Buy pavers

o   Level ground

o   Deck

o   Paint/weatherproof

  • Water Butt

o   Buy water butt

o   Install guttering and pipes to collect water

  • Path next to shed

o   Woodchip

o   Borders

o   Pavers

 

Maintenance/planning

  • Paint the shed
  • Plant autumn bulbs
  • Sow

o   pak choi

o   mustard

o   land cress

o   black radish

o   parsley

  • Dig up raspberries
  • Re-arrange/replace raspberry supports
  • Get the lavender into the ground or bigger terracotta pots
  • Sort out the canes and get rid of the weak broken ones
  • Manure the rhubarb
  • Manure and cover the beds we aren’t going to use over winter

 

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