Sunday Music: I Need Never Get Old

Posted on October 21, 2018 by nicdempsey

This week we had a team meeting and lunch and this was playing over lunch and I love it so here it is…

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Recommendation: Ironing Water

Posted on October 20, 2018 by nicdempsey

I’m a known hater of ironing, I iron as little as possible and only do the bare minimum (which includes pillowcases and tea towels – yes I know it’s weird, I blame my mother!).This is relatively easy to do in winter because honestly I don’t have much that needs ironing but in summer I wear a lot of linen and so need to do more ironing. I’ve tried to make it fun, I’ve tried to make it smell better but none of it sticks. I don’t much like ironing and avoid it when I can but sometimes you have to get it done.

You may have noticed that I had goal in September of getting ironing done and not leaving it hanging around for weeks, so I have returned to using ironing water, smells nice.

 

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Friday Links: To hell in a handcart

Posted on October 19, 2018 by nicdempsey

Happy Friday!

US embassy apologises after mistakenly sending Cookie Monster cat invitation  The US should have cat-pyjama-jam parties. We’d like them so much more!

You Have to Stop Canceling and Rescheduling Things. Really. This. So much this.

Paddington Bear and the Displaced Child. The great thing about stories is how they can mean completely different things to different people.

Savannah Police Look for Person Who Put Googly Eyes on a Statue: “It’s No Laughing Matter” I’m laughing

Why ‘no surrender’ on Brexit is a bad strategy for the DUP. This is so reasonable and balanced, I’m getting to the stage where I want to bash their (the DUP’s) heads together, which is probably how we got here in the first place.

Invasion of the ‘frankenbees’: the danger of building a better bee

‘Hope has started to grow’: Maxine Peake on Corbyn, people power and Peterloo’s radical legacy

Britain fell for a neoliberal con trick – even the IMF says so

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Pavlova

Posted on October 18, 2018 by nicdempsey

In my experience, everyone has something they can’t cook. One of the most accomplished cooks I ever knew, could not bake.

I have a epic problem with key lime pie that I really need to deal with at some point. It’s so bad my friends have been known to send me recipes in the post that might work. (yes they do love me and they express that affection with mockery – we’re English, it’s what we do!) Until about 10 years ago, meringue was my nemesis or as we sometimes refer to it in this house ‘that greek chap’ (it’s a Georgette Heyer joke from Friday’s Child).

But eventually I conquered that fear and I made a perfect pavlova. In fact, I make it for family lunches all the time because in my experience if you find something that your family will eat, you just keep doing it. My brother still can’t say pavlova (pavilova) but everyone eats it.

So this is what I made for Ben’s birthday last Sunday. With flakes because went Ben and I were talking about fruit he misheard grape as flake and I may never let him forget it!

The basic rule is 60g of sugar to 1 egg white. You are supposed to use caster sugar but honestly as part of being casual about it now, I just use granulated

So first line your baking sheet with baking parchment and start your oven to preheat to 150C

Then take 3 egg whites and beat them until they form peaks that look like this.

Then add 180g sugar (caster for preference but I use what I have) and beat it some more, the books always say stiff peaks but mine look like this (it’s a poor photo but you get the idea)Put you mixture out on your baking tray, in a circle and in the oven for about 50 minutes You can just turn your oven off at this point and leave it there until it’s cool (don’t do what I did once and turn the oven up not off – I was not joking about it being something I couldn’t do!) or take it out to allow it to cool. Don’t worry about the cracks, your going to cover it with cream and fruit, no one will notice!

 

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Allotment Adventures: Sprung a Leek

Posted on October 17, 2018 by nicdempsey

There isn’t an awful lot to do right now, which is good because we didn’t have a lot of time. We picked kale, chard, parsley, coriander, salad leaves and a couple of leeks.We did a bit of weeding and we thought about what we need to do in the next couple of weeks.We really need to buy some compost, manure and some garlic.That done, we need to top up the beds that are going to be growing through winter (so the garlic and broad bean beds) and the beds that we are going to cover. I want to manure the rhubarb and the beds that took a real hammering this summer, so the squash beds and boxes. They are also the beds that aren’t very full at the moment so they also need some extra bulk, so the manure and compost should help with that.All the other beds going to sleep for winter will get chicken pellets and compost and will be covered. Of our 16 beds we’ll have 7/8 growing over winter, which is pretty good.I need to paint the shed and we need to set up decorations for Halloween, we have an enormous spider, solar lights on the edge of the plot, a grave – with bones and a skull that we’re going to put on top of something to make a ghost. We’ve really thought about this!

We also need to sow sweet peas, broad beans and the garlic.All the longer term stuff still needs to be done and at the end of this month the clocks will go back making it so much harder to do it all in the daylight, not that there is much daylight it’s under 12 hours and only going to get darker. Ridiculously, for mid October, there are lots of flowers. We have verbena bonariesis, marigolds, dianthus, Californian poppies, the rosemary is flowering, and the aramanth and nasturtiums are holding on.

It’s all good, I may not get everything done, this year or ever but the plot is productive, even in autumn so I’m going to be happy with that.

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What I’ve Read – August and September 2018

Posted on October 16, 2018 by nicdempsey

It’s taken me forever to get around to this because I felt like I sort of lost my reading mojo over August and September but 17 books and 1 short story isn’t exactly a slump  although I had to immerse myself in a series before that feeling went away.

All Over But the Shoutin’ – Rick Bragg

This is a memoir of growing up poor and white in the South of the US. It’s not a happy read, Bragg is harder on himself than he is on his parents. I recognise some of that, you try to understand the ‘terrible’ parent, in this case his father and you idolize the one that stays and tries, his mother. He’s a talented writer and the book is worth reading but not very happy.

The Governess Game – Tessa Dare

This was typical Dare and I really enjoyed it and I liked it, but I was more interested in her friends than I was in her love interest!

One and Only (Canton 1) – Viv Daniels

Sweet and Wild (Canton 2) – Viv Daniels

Viv Daniels is another pen name for Diana Peterfreund, who wrote one of my favourite books ‘For the Darkness Shows the Stars’ so I wanted to see what she’d do in a different genre. And it was pretty good, no one is perfect, people are kind enough but the parents, ye gods the parents. I read them both on a lazy afternoon but they haven’t really stayed with me, except for the awfulness of the parent.

Made for Us (The Shaughnessys) – Samantha Chase

I didn’t mind it but it was familiar in a way that series that have big families are. I felt I knew all the beats of this story.

Delicious Temptation – Sabrina Sol

I just wanted to slap both the hero, the heroine and their families. Sorry bossy parents who walk over children isn’t my jam. I have a bossy parent, but I can’t bear overbearing parents.

Vox – Christina Dalcher

This started so well, the premise is extreme but it doesn’t feel that extreme given the trash fire that the world is right now. My discontent was caused by how tidy it was. The government is overturned, democracy is rescued and everything goes back to normal. Also the narrator gets a ridiculous happy ending, with a man who wouldn’t have put up with this treatment of his woman, while the husband dies heroically. It’s all too neat, there’s no damage and there would be damage.

Goody Two Shoes – Janet Elizabeth Henderson

I don’t know when this was written but it felt old fashioned. Another trope I couldn’t deal with is the controlling heroine, who has a heart of gold but just needs the love of a good man to loosen her up. I would have preferred to see the heroine learn or know herself a bit better.

Born to be Wilde – Eloisa James

I loved this, not as much as I loved the first one but Eloisa James is a one click buy for me. She publishes a book and I just give her my money.

A Trail Through Time (The Chronicles of St Mary’s 4) – Jodi Taylor

No Time Like The Past (The Chronicles of St Mary’s  5) – Jodi Taylor

What Could Possibly Go Wrong (The Chronicles of St Mary’s 6) – Jodi Taylor

Lies, Damned Lies, and History (The Chronicles of St Mary’s 7) – Jodi Taylor

And The Rest is History (The Chronicles of St Mary’s 8) – Jodi Taylor

An Argumentation of Historians (The Chronicles of St Mary’s 9) – Jodi Taylor

So I’d read and enjoyed the first three of these and started 4 and just read through all of them. They are funny (though some horrible stuff happened) and I love the idea of mad historians, marauding through history.

The Battersea Barricades: A Chronicles of St Mary’s Short Story – Jodi Taylor

There are short stories, I’m working my way through them.

Wallbanger (The Cocktail Series) – Alice Clayton

I finished this but only just, there was a story I wanted to read in here, but it was buried under nonsense.

Mister Hockey (Hellions Angels) – Lia Riley

Head Coach (Hellions Angels) – Lia Riley

Virgin Territory (Hellions Angels) – Lia Riley

I read all of these one after the other and all of them suffered (for me) with the same issue, it was too easy. Riley set up some nasty issues that the hero and heroine’s just shook off. No it’s not that easy and it annoyed me.

 

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Monday Miscellany: ‘Aunty Nic, horsie’

Posted on October 15, 2018 by nicdempsey

Happy Monday!Those of you following along on Instagram, will already see that I was a horsie yesterday. We had played the ‘wrap J in a blanket, put him on the sofa and then ask where he’s gone’ game, several times. But after lunch I was sitting on the floor and found myself being climbed on! He’s at that whirlwind stage, the eldest is at that ‘grown ups are boring’ phase and we hardly saw him!

The rest of last week was standard, the weather was lovely for most of it and my lunchtime walks have been delightful. Also for our emphasis on mental health at work (the Thrive programme), I shared about my SAD and what I do to survive winter. Lot’s of people are telling me I’m brave, I don’t think I am but it’s nice that people think so!

The big news is my walks with Fred and S are soon to be over, so I’ll have to make the most of them between now and ChristmasAlthough they are going somewhere, we don’t stop being friends who are like family and there will be other walks but I will miss these ones…

Finally, my lovely friend Jen, along with some others has launched a kickstarter for their project ‘Out of the Box Cards’. Jen was really tired of only being able to buy girly pink princess cards for her nieces and granddaughters. So she’s doing something about it…

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Sunday Music: Give Me the Night

Posted on October 14, 2018 by nicdempsey

Today is my brother’s birthday. A couple of years ago he and Mum went to see George Benson. One of the things that all three of us agree on is George and it’s definitely something we both get from our mother!

Happy Birthday B.

 

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Recommendations: Always Infinity

Posted on October 13, 2018 by nicdempsey

Saturday recommendations are about the things I use and think work or help me in some way. Sometimes, I use things that I don’t like because I have to, for example, my hoover. It’s not a terrible hoover, it does the job but it’s also not something I’d recommend if someone I knew was in the market for a new hoover.

This is a very long winded way of explaining why these are on recommended list and also why we are about to talk about periods, so look away now if you’re squeamish about these things.

I’m (much to my dismay) still having periods, I was talking to a group of friends all in their forties about this and we are all of us, just done with it. While we know that the menopause is no walk in the park, we are all ready to stop having periods. Which is ironic if you consider how desperate we were to start having them as teenagers. More than 30 years in, I’m ready to stop. However, while perimenopause is kicking my arse with PMT, hormones and a slightly more irregular cycle, periods are still happening and I’m probably looking at another 10 years of this nonsense from my body.

I would love to be someone that could use a mooncup or tampons. I am not for a host of reasons but mostly to do with my insides, I have a retroverted uterus (it tilts the wrong way) and a problem cervix (being a woman is such fun!). I have tried, it’s never really worked and so mostly I use sanitary towels.

This is where we all need to take a minute and reflect on how far we’ve come in terms of sanitary protection. When I was a kid, they were really thick, like nappies and sanitary belts were still a thing (I never used one but they were an option). We talk about period poverty now, I’m lucky that it was never something I ever had to consider as a teenager but I like to think about the story of ‘Nuffield’s Nifties’. During the Second World War, Lord Nuffield supplied, at his own cost, sanitary towels to women in the Services, because they were new and therefore expensive, and women couldn’t afford them and the war effort couldn’t afford to have women at home when they could be working. It’s a great story about a kind thing, Lord Nuffield did but it reminds me that women, especially poor ones, were mostly still using rags. That’s my grandmother’s generation and it’s probably still the case in the Third World, so although being a woman sucks and periods are expensive to have, I am very lucky to live where and when I do, even in this!

So let’s get to the point. Always infinity are the best ones I have ever used because they (mostly) don’t leak and they aren’t scented. They are more expensive than the regular ones but I buy them in Savers where they are £2 a packet.

They don’t make me want to roller skate or fill me with joy but they make an awkward, messy week a bit less awkward and messy, which is all you really want them to do

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Friday Links: Brexit, Northern Ireland and Mum’s who shouldn’t tweet

Posted on October 12, 2018 by nicdempsey

Happy Friday! This week has been tough because it’s been so much darker in the morning and yesterday the bulb in the wake up lamp decided to die, that was not a fun morning! This weekend, I’m walking with Sarah and Fred, allotmenting and spending a Sunday with the family for my brother’s birthday. Fun

Here are this week’s links….

On Brexit, the Tories are gaslighting half the country

A Warning From Europe: The Worst Is Yet to Come. I’m not a fan of Anne Applebaum and I’m not sure I agree with her analysis of the causes of this issue but it’s worth reading anyway.

Ending Sexual Violence by Raising Better Boys. I’m not raising children but for those that are, I feel this is really useful and it fact it makes me thinks about the way I interact with my nephews. Mind you, the littlest one only comes near me if I have a blanket, because apparently all blankets are his!  But the point is, if we want change, we need to  make it and my observation is that the more we talk about this stuff the easier it gets.

Shoebox Britain: how shrinking homes are affecting our health and happiness

Amazon Created a Hiring Tool Using A.I. It Immediately Started Discriminating Against Women. Even robots are sexist…

How a mom’s “This Is My Son” anti-feminist brag went viral — and completely backfired. This is lovely, I’m not sure what she was thinking but she has a lovely, kind son…

As a decriminalisation bill is brought to Westminster, Northern Irish women tell their stories of abortion. The DUP has spent a lot of time telling the world that they don’t want NI to be treated any differently from the rest of the UK when it leaves the EU. The truth is they want NI to be treated differently all the bloody time. Women have been able to have abortions in the UK longer than I have been alive but not in NI. It’s apparently a devolved matter, they should campaign in NI but there is no devolved government in NI to talk to. If Scotland’s parliament couldn’t get itself together and form a government, Westminster would take control, but that doesn’t happen in NI. Ireland has always (on both sides of the divide) had a problem with its politicians, they are rank hypocrites and while Eire seems to be dealing with that, NI and especially the DUP is still busy saying no. Honestly, they need give themselves a talking to because the Prime Minister won’t.

The DUP has its ‘blood-red’ line. Does Theresa May dare cross it?. I agree with her about Sinn Fein, but they won’t, it’s that oath to the Queen. I’d take that oath with my fingers crossed but I do understand why they won’t, nationalism makes people a bit nuts…

Sleep: how much do we really need? Right now I need all of the sleep.

This is the very fattest bear in Katmai National Park. Fat bears!  I think I want to be a bear, a summer of mindless eating and then a really long sleep…

Puppy Cuteness Is Perfectly Timed to Manipulate Humans

The Viruses That Neanderthals Spread to Humans

 

 

Melania Trump: “I’m the Most Bullied Person in the World” Hyperbole, something she does have in common with her husband!

 

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