August 4, 2014

Geocaching

I first heard about geocaching many years ago. I mentally filed it away under “sounds moderately interesting, charmingly geeky, mostly pointless” and didn’t really think much more of it.

Last week Karen decided we should give it a try. She installed an app on her phone and this weekend we discovered our first two caches.

Trinkets

Trinkets

In a nutshell, geocaching is like a big crowdsourced, GPS-powered treasure hunt. You go to the specified coordinates and then look for the cache, which is usually well-hidden in a weatherproof container of some sort. It might be as little as a logbook to which you add your name, or as much as a plastic lunchbox containing various trinkets.

Crouching lunchbox, hidden loom band

Crouching lunchbox, hidden loom band

Some trinkets are extra special. One of the caches we found at the weekend contained a travel bug – an item with an attached dog tag containing a unique ID. Using this ID, we could see that this red fox bottle opener has hopped from cache to cache from Australia to Vietnam and then to England. We’ve taken it into our care, and will find it a new temporary home in France when we’re there in a few weeks.

So yes, it is charmingly geeky, and mostly pointless. But treasure hunts are fun, and I think you shouldn’t forget that.

Pete
  • Comments: 7
  • Two more finds today, and have converted granny as well. - Karen
  • That is such a cool thing to do. - swisslet
  • Can we join you? - Karen
  • Superb! I've just checked the website and there are loads of caches in the woods right by ... - Gammidgy
  • We love caching too. Although we're often hugely rubbish at it, it's still fun. - Clair
August 1, 2014

Old Skool Rulez

The one thing old school bloggers like to do more than navel-gazing and writing in-depth music reviews, is to nostalge. That’s a verb, right? Or if not, I’m allowed to verb it, right?

This afternoon’s cocktail hour is, of course, a London blogmeet. If you’re unfamiliar with this concept, then a) you don’t belong here, and b) you can read a very typical report of one here. To that end, it’s February 2003, and we are in a bar somewhere near Euston. The room is full of people claiming to read each other’s blogs, and in some instances, this is true, in which case we tell each other that we feel like celebrities, familiar with some pretty intimate details of each others’ lives, but never having met before.

Taking the weight off her feet, Pigwotflies claims not to have changed one bit. Despite this, she is sipping ice shavings and having a hot flush. Wethinks something might have changed.

At one of the tables, Pixeldiva is still Queen of Blogland, and has proved it so by hitting so many nails on so many heads in her comment below, featuring her lunch, the London Underground, and metablogging. This whisky old fashioned is much deserved. We’re glad you like Uborka, we like it too, and we like that it’s not about anything. It really isn’t. Should she run out, Gert is always on the verge of going to the bar, and knows exactly what everyone drinks. This is a useful, if creepy skill.

Another one who can be counted on to ply you with wine is Our Lad Pete, who has aged but handsomely so. Just beware if he fixes you with those pool-blue eyes and says “Hi, I’m Pete… Petedotnu.” This is an irresistible formula.

None of us can remember when Clair first appeared on the scene, least of all herself, but it’s as if she’s always been there, with her knitting and a glass of champagne. Meanwhile we’ve allowed Asta to join us because despite never having actually had a blog, she is almost literally part of the furniture. Just don’t sit on her, as she has a sore back.

Graybo, of course, doesn’t need to come to blogmeets because he has all those imaginary friends to blog about. And they’re great because they go for drinks with him all the time. He doesn’t need us.

Cosmopolitan as ever, Mike was one of the first bloggers I slept with, in the sense that we both stayed at Mr Hydragenic’s house that weekend, not in the Belle de Jour sense, obvs. I would argue that there aren’t enough words in that comment for it truly to be a reflection of his early years. I think we should raise a glass to absent friends.

Back in ’03 we still thought digital cameras were a pretty neat idea; now our phones are cameras and selfies are the thing, so everyone stand in this corner and we’ll find the person with the longest arms to try and get the whole crowd in. Yay! Me too!

Karen
  • Comments: 2
  • Yay, me too. - Karen
  • Gosh, that TD blogmeet post from 2003 brought it all back. A seminal moment. - mike

Bar’s Open

Who are the longest running UK bloggers, asks Mike, in his first post since January. The question has been discussed one word at a time all over twitter, provoking me to lose a couple of hours in the Rise archives, which have been sufficiently trimmed to leave only long descriptions of my failure to live in Hungary, and extracts from my teenage diaries.

This seems to be a good time to make a history of the Uborka Cocktail Hour. It began as a tea party in 2003, serving earl grey and many types of cake; Londonmark was particularly keen on the lemon fondant fancies.

At some point this genteel virtual gathering was corrupted, probably by Dr Pockless who always did and always does turn up with a nice shirt, a curmudgeonly attitude, and a grunt of “mine’s a pint.” He did at one point provide us with a nice logo, though.

One of the highlights of the cocktail hour was Stuart & Krissa’s Online Engagement Party, hosted with aplomb by the abovementioned Mike.

The most common theme has been death.

The traditional cocktail hour format has been an invitation early on Friday, with orders placed in the comments; followed a few hours later by a witty round-up. Back in the day when we used hover tags, the best jokes were a mouseover away. These days I am too lazy to write the round-up post, and deservedly, cocktail drinkers have dwindled.

Today I promise to serve your drinks in the late afternoon, if you would be so kind as to leave an order, in the style of your early-years-of-blogging self (or any old style if you don’t have an early years of blogging), right down there in the commentses.

Karen
  • Comments: 14
  • Shall we have spoonerism cocktails next week? I don't think we've ever done that. - Karen
  • Oh, and re Gert's comment: a couple of years ago, a gay friend of mine was having lunch wi... - Mike
  • I am writing this comment on a smartphone, on a train from Leeds to Knaresborough. I could... - Mike
  • Went for beer with K, P, G, A, C and assorted picture postcards. Got home late and it was ... - graybo
  • Oh, I thought you'd nailed it, Gert. - Karen
July 30, 2014

The Uborka! Guide to Camping: Top Tips

Just some ideas to make your camping trip easier. Don’t forget the Big Uborka Giveaway! A copy of The Camper Van Cookbook for the best tip left in comments by 14th August.

  • Store food that doesn’t have to be kept cold in disposable or collapsible containers, as you will have less of it by the end of the week. A banana box is good.
  • Two-litre water bottles are easier to fill and to pour than large water containers. You will have to go to the tap more often, but that’s often quite a sociable activity, or something you can send the children to do.
  • Take two ice packs for your coolbag: one in the bag, one in the campsite freezer. Swap daily. Keep your coolbag in the shade, and not in the tent.
  • Shower in the middle of the afternoon when there are no queues and plenty of hot water.
  • Keep a folded tea towel in the bottom of the coolbag, which otherwise collects a pond of smelly water as your ice pack defrosts.
  • Make tent etiquette rules very clear to children: keep fly screens zipped up (especially for the bedrooms); no shoes inside the tent, or have a ‘wet’ area and a ‘dry’ area, particularly if you’re suffering from copious rain. We use an old bathmat by the tent door.
  • Have two mallets, then both adults can peg out the tent together. This helps to keep your base square.
  • Rely on a nice middle-class guidebook or website like Cool Camping. We have Cool Camping for Kids and it has been mostly reliable. Family campsites often provide ample playmates for the children.
  • Handy, but not essential kit, includes self-inflating mattresses, which are reasonably comfortable; microfleece towels which take up less space than traditional towels; inflatable pillows, but take pillowcases because they smell a bit plasticky, or stuff clothes into your sleeping bag cover; aluminium tent pegs rock – Pete loves them; flipflops are good so you can hop in and out of the tent without putting shoes on each time, also nice if the shower floor is a bit skeffy; duct tape; clothes pegs; fairy lights.

2014-07-25 16.06.14 And here’s how to arrange your bin bag – peg between two guy ropes so it’s open; peg closed at night. The black bag was supplied by the campsite; normally I’d use something a lot smaller, like a supermarket plastic bag.

Karen
  • Comments: 3
  • Not really but comfort is usually way down the list of requirements in these events. But i... - Tom
  • Wowee, that's tiny! Is it actually comfortable? - Karen
  • Fantastic tips, thank you. My only tip is this: if you use a balloon bed on a mountain... - Tom
  • Comments: 3
  • So basically, any variant on chopped up stuff, fried with bacon. - Karen
  • (I'm late to this as I've only just returned to internetland after a week in a Breton fiel... - Gammidgy
  • Camping favourite when I was younger was always chopped up onions, mushrooms and bacon, fr... - Clair
  • Comments: 3
  • Brilliant. I have a reusable Starbucks mug that I have never re-used, so not only has your... - Karen
  • Enamel mugs are indestructible but cool the water too quickly to make a proper cup of tea.... - Gammidgy
  • All those carrier bags that accumulate despite your best attempts to always take your canv... - Clair
July 28, 2014

The Uborka! Guide to Camping

Clan Uborka took up camping when Bernard was quite small, and have got it down to a fine art by now, assisted by many occasions where we have had to cope with copious rain and yet more copious rain. We have just levelled up by spending an entire weekend camping in glorious sunshine, and now feel that we can at last share some of the things we have learned. So this weeks’ series will include Campsites I Have Known, Food I Have Cooked, Tips & Tricks, and What To Bring In Your Kitchen Box. There is also a competition for the best camping tip, the prize for which is a signed copy of The Camper Van Cookbook. Don’t get excited, it’s only signed by me, not by the author.

To kick us off with Campsites I Have Known, here are a few highlights from the last five years: Continue reading

Karen
July 25, 2014

Bar’s Open

Things aren’t going entirely according to plan, but we’re hoping that it’s a recoverable situation.

Our plan for this weekend is camping – we’ve got three nights in Oxfordshire, I’ve booked Friday and Monday off of work for a long weekend.

The spanner in the works is that the car isn’t starting. The key won’t turn in the ignition. We’ve spoken to our trusty mechanic and he says it’s a known issue – there’s a buildup of gunge in the ignition barrel, and the hot weather causes… something to… do something.

Anyway, we’re hoping he can get it fixed today, and we can still get our three days camping, albeit starting later in the day than planned.

Today’s cocktails are in honour of those guys who do a good job and never let you down. The mechanic who’s been looking after your car for 10 years and saved your ass more than once. The plumber who stayed late to finish the job. We salute you. Your cocktail selection should be an old staple, something you keep returning to. And if you have a pertinent anecdote to attach, please do.

I’m hoping we’ll be under canvas by this afternoon, so there will sadly be no follow-up post. However, please don’t let this dissuade you from joining in, because Karen’s calendar for next week is empty and a good turnout this week might increase the chances of an old-fashioned cocktails one-two next week.

Pete
  • Comments: 3
  • This is the sort of post I should dedicate to Matt, our plumber, who has turned up at shor... - graybo
  • It seems odd to call champagne a staple but it rarely disappoints. I have no anecdote- we ... - asta1ns
  • My old staple would be the Bloody Mary, on a Sunday night in an underground bar in Budapes... - Karen