Monday Miscellany: Clueless in London

Posted on November 2, 2020 by nicdempsey

Well it’s Monday and it’s all pretty shit. As of Thursday, we’re back in lockdown, schools and universities stay open and you can meet one person for a socially distanced walk. Support bubbles remain in effect but my support bubble and I can only see each other via the medium of public transport, as I don’t drive and Ma doesn’t own a car. She can hire one but that’s expensive. So.

I’ll see Ma on Wednesday, and maybe on the 14th Nov. This is not the end of the world. Ma will miss the allotment (and me), I’ll miss Ma. We’ll both miss Ben, Laura and the boys.

The thing that is really pissing me off, is that there doesn’t seem to be a plan. I’ve been working from home for eight months (and I’m one of the lucky ones that still have a job), I was in lockdown from March until July this year. During that first lockdown, the government did fuck all to devise a strategy on how we would cope, it did, to quote our current prime minister, ‘spaff money up a wall’ on a test and trace system that didn’t work and giving our money away to it’s mates and donors, while refusing to feed school children. Government is a shambolic shitshow in this country AND we have a no-deal Brexit around the corner. Meanwhile the PM is moaning because 150k a year isn’t enough money to live on (presumably because you have to support an as yet undisclosed number of children). Morally bankrupt, I expect from the Tories but unable to plan, strategise or even to get to press conference on time with a decent powerpoint presentation or a bloody clicker, I do not. I didn’t like Tony Blair but at least he was fucking able to run the god-damned country.

I know five people who are actively planning not to follow lockdown guidelines this week (I’m not one of them) because they can’t see what they are doing it for. If we get to the 2nd of December and they extend lockdown there will be more people that can’t see the point. This is partly the Cummings effect but it’s also because no-one has any idea of what strategy is for the end of lockdown. We don’t have a common purpose, the government is supposed to devise the strategy so we have one. They have failed on every measurable level but they have managed to divert taxpayers money to THEIR friends and family. It’s corrupt and disgraceful and they feel so little shame. They called a press conference for 4pm and didn’t fucking turn up until 6.50pm. People are dying, losing jobs, going hungry so they can pay their bills AND they can’t even get their shit together to turn up to a press conference when they say they will.

Other than my extreme anger about this complete shower of a government. I’m trying to work out how to survive the next couple of months with any of my marbles intact. It’s the struggle to retain meaning and optimism when everything is uncertain. I know I’m in a luckier place than others, but a first world problem is still a problem..

I’ll let you know if I find anything that helps.

This week, I’ll be frantically working out how to sent party packs to the team for Christmas, when I can’t go into the office and the expenses deadline is 30 November, onboarding an new member of staff, listening to the US election coverage, trying to hold on to my sanity AND trying to source sanitary towels and selection boxes in the midst of panic buying…

Somebody send gin…..

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Friday Links: 30th October

Posted on October 30, 2020 by nicdempsey

Happy Friday!

Is Republican Voter Suppression Starting to Backfire? Oh, God I hope so….

Only this government could miss the open goal of free school meals

It’s Halloween tomorrow and this a Horrible Histories Stupid Deaths Halloween Special…

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Lentil and Mushroom Bolognese

Posted on October 29, 2020 by nicdempsey

Because of Brexit and the lack of care that the government is taking to preserve our food standards, I’ve had a year of thinking more carefully about the food that I buy and eat. I get a lot of food from the plot and knowing how your food is grown has become more important to me, so I’ve decided to try and eat less, better sourced meat.

I’m lucky that I only have to feed myself but even so my food budget isn’t ever expanding, which means I need to expand the amount of vegetarian recipes in my cooking arsenal. Unless a doctor demanded it, I’m not ever going to be a vegan. I’m open to eating more vegan food but I’m not generally a fan of food that pretends to be something else. I don’t want fake cheese or bacon, I’m really not sure about the vegan pretend burgers. But I’m happy to use plant based food, where they work well.

Bolognese and chilli are great places to start. I’ve used this red lentil bolognese before and it’s still really good but I wanted it for Saturday night and so it needed to be really hands off because I come back from the allotment tired and I need to clean and sort out all the vegetables that we bring home. So I have limited kitchen patience on Saturday but I’m also not just feeding me, so although I know that Ma wouldn’t object to cheese on toast, I want to serve something I’ve put a tiny bit more thought and effort into!

So this lentil and mushroom bolognese, was a perfect fit for all of those things.

It’s a slow cooker meal, so I just started it before we went to the plot. I chopped all the veg in mini chopper that came with my hand blender. Because I was making it using the slow cooker function on my instant pot, I did saute the chopped veg before I added the other ingredients.

I did make some slight changes, I added some worcestershire sauce (it’s not vegetarian but neither am I – if you are, some Hendersons Relish or mushroom ketchup would have the same impact) and a little bit of balsamic vinegar. Finally because I didn’t have a full cup of green lentils, I used half green and half red.

It’s really good with a real depth of flavour and would be great anywhere you’d usually use bolognese or mince, I’m thinking on top of a baked potato, in a pasta bake and I’m sure you could adapt for chilli.

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Allotment Adventures: Where are my compost bins?

Posted on October 28, 2020 by nicdempsey

I’m still waiting for my compost bins to arrive and it was quite rainy on Saturday. So we finished building a bed and built another one.

Collected produce and weeded. Then it started to rain and we went home.

Next week I will hopefully be building another bed, some compost bins and tearing out the autumn raspberries. Or I’ll be trying to clear the grass from around the blueberries…

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Monday Miscellany: Fall Back

Posted on October 26, 2020 by nicdempsey

Happy Monday!

The clocks went back on Saturday night and it was so lovely on Sunday morning to wake up and have it be light. I know there has been a campaign to keep us on BST but I think we should all be on GMT all the time. I prefer lighter mornings to darker nights, and this time of year is always a bit ‘dead cat bounce’ for me winter is still coming but it’s a tiny reprieve to be able to wake up when it’s light.

the weather has turned distinctly autumnal

We’re also about to go into the worst part of the year without having any real solutions or a plan about how the country copes with COVID. I’ve been working from home since March and am likely to stay that way into next year. I’m not going to pretend it’s not hard or that there aren’t advantages or that I’m not aware of how much more difficult this time has been for others. My history of SAD and of having a period of depression has really given me coping strategies and I do feel like I’m in a good place but I’m back in therapy because prevention is better than cure. For the moment that’s every other week, right now it’s just a check in but there are some things I really need to work on for me, the exercise, I have in hand but I am missing my people.

This time of year is the time I see more of the family, we have five family birthdays from August to December and Christmas, so we’re together for birthdays and babysitting and Christmas. I miss it. I love my family and the eldest nephew is about to enter teenager-hood, the youngest is at my favourite age and missing out on that time is tricky but I also miss my brother and sister-in-law and the times we’re all together just hanging out (and I’m missing out on the new puppies cutest stage!). Add to that, I haven’t seen Sarah or Christelle for ages, and under the current Tier 2 conditions, if Jo does come home, I probably won’t get to see much or her or T. I do see friends nearer to home but it takes arranging and I can’t offer any help to some friends who have had the most rubbish year and are without family help right now. Usually, I would babysit for them and they would do Thanksgiving next month but that’s probably out. I also have a couple of friends who are about to spawn and cards, baby clothes and pictures can be sent via the post but baby cuddles can not. To add to the horrorI probably won’t get a haircut before Christmas either!

My birthday celebrations

These are absolutely first world problems, I still have lots to be thankful about and having established the habit of counting my blessings until I’m blue in the face, I know it has, and continues to help, my resilience in the face of a miserable time but I am sad for the things I have missed this year.

One of my coping mechanisms is this blog because it gives me some structure and something to do, so let’s change the subject and talk about that! If you didn’t see them last week, I wrote about a book series I adore, the allotment and Sausage and Kale Stew. There was also the usual links post and some music.

This week, I’m going to work on spending more time outside the house when I’m not working. I’ve canned 6 kilos of tomatoes and I’m pretty much done with serious pressure canning for a while, I may do the odd batch of chicken stock but that’s about it. I have a batch of chilli jam to make but then I think I’m done until January/February when (assuming we can still get seville oranges) I’m up for a couple of rounds of marmalade making!

I’ve seen people preserve more!

This week is also a time for some work, work thinking about Christmas. I know it’s a sin to think about Christmas too soon (the earliest it’s permissible is 5th December!) but it’s that kind of year. Usually the work Christmas party is already booked and I’m just collecting menu choices but this year we are having a virtual party and there are goody bags to send. So last week, I ordered 23 sets of cookie decoration kits! I can say no more, I don’t think anyone I work with knows that I blog but just in case, my lips are sealed!

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Sunday Music: Tom Lehrer – The Vatican Rag

Posted on October 25, 2020 by nicdempsey

Tom Lehrer has published all his music on his website this week. So it’s time to poke some fun at the Church with music

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Friday Links: Just agree to feed hungry children

Posted on October 23, 2020 by nicdempsey

Happy Friday!

I’m afraid that the world is not in a better state than it was last week and seems to be slightly worse. I’m seeing lots of people I know (and some I don’t) really struggle with the state of it all and being home so much. For me, I take some comfort because I have actually been through worse, I’m spending more time being thankful for how lucky I know I am right now and that’s helping. However, that doesn’t mean that the state of the world isn’t terrible and I’m not upset about it…

So here are this week’s links…

The government’s secretive Covid contracts are heaping misery on Britain

Boris falls into Keir’s tiers trap and goes full delusional over TfL

Boris Johnson should backtrack on free school meals. But the damage is done. There was a time when we used to joke that the only time my mother used a certain word (begins with C rhymes with Hunt) was about Tony Blair. Don’t get me wrong, I’m still not keen on Mr Blair but I almost feel that we deployed the C word too soon. Because compared to this useless cabinet of cockwombles, Tony Blair stands as a champion of moral rectitude. If you can find £50 million for an imaginary garden bridge and £12bn for a test and trace system that doesn’t actually work. You can find it to feed children. Frankly, I don’t give a monkeys why they are hungry, you should just feed them. If they are hungry because their parents are neglectful (highly bloody unlikely) then social services should be dealing with it. But that will cost more money than bloody providing them with meals in the school holidays.

This is fantastic, How Many Meals?. Type in your MP and it’ll tell you now many free school meals their expenses would pay for?

Policies, Persons, and Paths to Ruin. John Piper is not someone I agree with theologically or politically but this is important. I don’t agree with all of his conclusions but he has a point and he’s a conservative thinker, so it’s good to know where evangelical Americans could end up…

We live in a terrible world and I’m about to put this on the wall next to my desk and thought it might cheer some people up.

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Sausage and Kale Stew

Posted on October 22, 2020 by nicdempsey

This is a Jamie Oliver recipe, I’ve made it a couple of times and it’s great and pretty much a store cupboard recipe for me aside from the sausages. Although I don’t have chilli flakes so I left them out and it’s better if you use really good sausages (obviously, use what you can afford but I used the ones we bought from The Amble Butcher when we were away) and I used more kale than in the recipe because I love kale and have lots of it!

I’ve eaten it by itself but because I liked it so much I made it for Ma and that time served it with rice.

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Allotment Adventures: The Makeover Begins

Posted on October 21, 2020 by nicdempsey

This weekend, we started the revamp of the plot. After we had walked to the plot three times, me with wheelbarrows of woodchip, Ma with all the cardboard and other things we needed!

We took apart the two beds next to the rose garden and pond. Then we set about making an established bed taller. That done we planted garlic in it!

Ma started to clear the big squash bed, and I started at the back of the plot, where the new compost bins are going to be, we also moved one of the bins. That makes it sound much quicker and easier than it actually was. There was much swearing and I was pretty broken by the end of the day!

But it looks much better. I’ve ordered the compost bins, so fingers crossed, we’ll get them this week and put them up next week. Eventually, we’ll woodchip the whole of this path because it’s slippery and over grown and if you’ve been reading my blog for any amount of time, you’ll know that I love woodchip!

We also started to build another bed but the drill ran out of charge!

The big squash bed is going to make three smaller beds and will be filled with overwintering onions and shallots. I also need to order and sow broad beans, but they will probably go at the front of the plot.

  • My must do plan for the next few weeks:
  • Build the compost bins
  • Finish splitting the big squash bed
  • Sow the onions, shallots and broad beans

Once I’m done with that, we’re going to have a weeding blitz. There is grass everywhere on the paths and it really needs dealing with.

That done and we’ll be at least into mid November and I start moving the gooseberries and splitting up rhubarb. Then we’ll be back to rebuilding beds.

There is lots to do and it’s really nice to have made a start.

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Reading Squee….

Posted on October 20, 2020 by nicdempsey

2020 has been a terrible year for my reading life. It’s not that I’ve not been reading it’s just that things I would usually gallop through, I haven’t had the emotional energy for.

I have listed the books I’ve read this year and just updated this year’s reading list. My reading has been mostly about comfort and I’m fine with that, so lots of easy reading, lots of re-reading and very little in the way of difficult or ambiguous endings, I’ve also yet to finish The Mirror and the Light! There have been a couple of new books that have broken through my fog and I read one last week.

I mentioned back in April that I’d re-read The Queen’s Thief series and this month the final book arrived, I read it in 24 hours. It’s so good. I’m going to re-read the whole series again. Every time I re-read them, I notice something new. They are technically YA but that is more about them not being explicit than the characters as there are things in the book, you only understand as an adult.

There are lots of twists but they aren’t that surprising when they come because you realise the clues were always there in the story, it’s more of an ‘ah’ moment. I’ve inflicted them on godchildren 2 to 5 and am working out when I can inflict them on Ms. T and Oli because they are so good. I’ve also inflicted them on Sarah, Fred and anyone who I think might enjoy them they weren’t such a hit with Christelle…

They are considered and beautifully crafted books and everyone should read them.

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