Friday 27 January 2012
by wulf
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Jane and I went out for lunch today at the Oxford Brookes restaurant. Delicious food, reasonably priced and well judged portion sizes (going for all three courses was suitably filling but not uncomfortable). I had previously been for a Christmas meal, the year before last, and was pleased to find that their regular menu was up to the same standard.
Thursday 26 January 2012
by wulf
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Raging Water
I am growing less and less impressed with Thames Water. It was late November when we discovered — and promptly informed them — that our meter was definitely on a shared supply. That is the straightforward conclusion when your neighbour turns a tap on and the dial on the meter you thought was just for you starts spinning round, the test suggested by the engineer they had sent round.
I cannot blame them for the fact our neighbours were out when he did his investigations but it does seem to be taking an awfully long process to get any assurance that this message has registered with the corporate brain cell. Just today we had a letter noting that our bill was unusually high.
Yes, that is very clever data mining from their information systems but it misses the point that we know this, that they have sent someone round to dig up the pavement (they did find a small leak by the meter, which has been fixed, fortunately still in the bit which is their responsibility) and, most importantly, that I have contacted them multiple times over the past couple of months via several channels and am still left in doubt that they have registered the important matter of the shared supply.
I had been quite impressed with the initial response but am rapidly losing that respect.
Wednesday 25 January 2012
by wulf
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Hope
I have been to plenty of charity gigs before but I think that Hope might be the first time I have read an anthology supporting a good cause. Unfortunately, I am not sure that the concept successfully bridges the gap between the two forms of artistic expression. The result put me in mind of some of the open mic events I have been too: a mixed bag of performers, including one or two who should perhaps have checked their tuning and others you wouldn’t mind seeing again. Most off-putting though was to have an over-enthusiastic compère, punctuating every change over with earnest talks about suicide prevention.
Translating back into the world of books, that means a bunch of short stories (largely around science fiction and fantasy themes), interleaved with short essays on various aspects of suicide, particularly in an Australian context. Most of the stories could broadly be described as containing some aspect of hope (although the first one almost threw me; it felt like inviting the Sex Pistols to play at a gig supporting teenage celibacy). For my tastes though, few were particularly remarkable and I found the constant intrusions became wearing.
Of course suicide prevention is an important cause and if you want to support it and get a book to browse through, I wouldn’t want to put you off. Just taken as an anthology of speculative fiction though, I wouldn’t want to stretch beyond /5 for this one.
Tuesday 24 January 2012
by wulf
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Apparently Ubuntu is considering a move away from traditional GUI menus to use an interface called HUD (presumably Heads Up Display). I watched a short video on the Read Write Web site. There is also more information on Mark Shuttleworth’s blog.
My first thought was that it reminded me of several interfaces I have used briefly over the years. I can’t remember the names but I think this could be a good step forward. I stopped using the other interfaces because they were only add-ons. Not being deeply integrated with the operating system they had their limits and it was easy to forget them as various upgrades came in. I’m looking forward to seeing what the future brings; the point and click interface has its limits, too.
The HUD looks a bit like a command line for the windowing system; I still spend a lot of my time using the CLI so it is all good news for me.
Monday 23 January 2012
by wulf
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Just a few days to go now before Friday’s Foolish Folk event down at the Isis:
Foolish Folk, 27 January 2012
I’m not playing at this one with Peter and the Wulf but will be down there helping organise things. Advance tickets are available online providing a discount on entry.
Sunday 22 January 2012
by wulf
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Hiding in the bottom of the freezer is one last bag of stewed, unsweetened rhubarb harvested from our garden last year. I think I know what I will use it for; a second helping of the sweet treat I cooked up this afternoon using the penultimate bag.
The rhubarb had defrosted overnight and I brought it to heat adding spoonfuls of brown sugar to taste. As it sweetened up, I decided to use some of the stem ginger in the fridge as well, a couple of balls and a couple of spoonfuls of the syrup. With a dash of rose syrup and another spoon of sugar, I decided it was sweet enough and turned the heat down to let it simmer and reduce a little.
Meanwhile I combined a few crumbled digestive biscuits with enough melted butter to bind them together and a shake of ground ginger to carry on that theme. I packed this mixture down into the bottom of a couple of ramekins, poured the sauce over the top and finished with a sprinkle of sugar. I did try caramelising it with a kitchen blowtorch but I think seal has gone inside. After I found my hand covered with a ball of flame I decided not to play that game any more (no serious harm done but I do get a whiff of burnt hair when I raise my hand near my face!).
The overall result was delicious and was much quicker from start to finish than the crumble I had originally planned. I think I will count that as a win.
Saturday 21 January 2012
by wulf
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I have kept an eye on things outside and have even still been harvesting (Kale Nero di Toscana — what a long-season star!) but today has been my first time doing some proper gardening this year, grubbing around outside and getting my fingers dirty.
Jane was given a patio apple tree for her birthday, which I have now potted up, and I also planted some potatoes in the polytunnel. It is not really the proper time of year but these were a few sprouted tubers of the ‘Purple Majesty’ variety we had left over from a supermarket purchase months ago. Since I had the space free, nothing will be lost even if the protection of the polytunnel is not enough to give them a boost. I am h0peful though, as some of the marigolds I planted in the autumn look about ready to burst into flower.
So, back in the garden; it is about time we got a proper plan together for what to plant and where!