This week’s episode was all about sweet dough, and some interesting tea loaves were produced. In the BakeAlong we have only one tea loaf (although I might make one later today). So that means Asta is star baker again, with this little beauty: Continue reading
I got a few CDs for my birthday.
I remember the story of how this got onto my wishlist. Recently Karen and I were in London for the day, and things weren’t going so well. We were sat in a coffee shop feeling sorry for ourselves when You Don’t Love Me came on. The tempo and the rhythm was enough to cheer us up a little. The song was identified with the help of SoundHound, and the album was added to my wishlist straight away.
The rest of the album maintains that same standard. It’s immediately loveable, which can sometimes indicate that an album won’t really endure repeated listens, but honestly I don’t care. It makes me smile and makes me groove, and smiling and grooving are never a bad thing.
While listening to this album I was also struck with a faint embarrassment at how, on average, Dutch people seem to be better at speaking English than English people. It seems that the vast majority of Dutch people speak perfect English without any trace of an accent, whereas a shamefully large percentage of English people manage to desecrate their own native language, like, innit, lol. Wadthefugyewluukinatwanka?
It’s a mystery how this ended up on my wishlist. This is at the opposite end of the spectrum, it’s a concept album that probably requires repeated uninterrupted listens and meticulous studying of the lyrics to extract its full potential, not just something that you can pop on while driving. For the most part, it’s a very sparse album – when listening to it in the car, it sounds like nine minute intervals of silence interrupted by three minute blasts of noise. For now, I don’t feel qualified to judge it.
I can’t remember adding this to my wishlist either. It might have been a recommendation from Amazon, who knows? This is another album that grabbed me fairly quickly. It runs a fairly diverse rock gamut, from some somewhat discoesque stuff (like My Number) to meaty crunchier riffs. Inhaler is somewhat reminiscent of Eminence Front in the verses but with this fantastic fat guitar part in the chorus. I’m also reminded in place of Editors, . I always felt like Editors were a band that I should have liked, but didn’t, so Foals are putting that problem straight.
The man that you know as Doctor Pockless is very funny. You see, my old set of jump leads (the automotive sort) were cheap and plastic and subsequently not very durable. Obviously they weren’t entirely plastic, as a certain amount of electrical conductivity is required in order for them to function. But they only contained metal teeth, and the rest of the handle assembly was plastic. Reader, they broke. They did not break in a minor, surmountable way. They broke thoroughly. They broke catastrophically. They broke in a way that prohibited future efficacy. They. Broke. So I added some really good, robust jump leads to my wishlist, with plastic grips on the handles (to stop you electrocuting yourself) but nice hefty metal moving parts. The good Doctor got me these and also, the witty critter, an appositely titled CD.
He tells me that it’s not even their best album, but I’m loving it. It weaves a very peculiar path and takes in all sorts of quirky sights along the way. It’s very difficult to review the album as a whole, because there isn’t really any common element running throughout. There’s some funky instrumental electronic disco stuff, and some jazzier songs with vocals. Everything from Mr Scruff to Zero 7. And then the last song is a ballad played on just two guitars, which is the last thing you’d be expecting. Supposedly this album has the purists in a tizzy, because putting vocals on a Fila Brazillia song is akin to Bob Dylan going electric. I have no dog in this fight, but I do always enjoy watching the apoplectic tirades of people with a weighty sense of entitlement.
I find that upon first listening to any Animal Collective song, it all sounds a bit chaotic and questionable, but given time it all resolves itself and the melodies come to the fore. Personally, I’m very happy with this arrangement, because whereas most songs will start to sound bland and overfamiliar with time, Animal Collective songs actually settle down to a state where they retain a decent element of complexity.
However, the downside of this is that if you’re writing a review of an album after only listening to it 3 or 4 times then it’s hard to do it justice. When comparing this album to Merriweather Post Pavilion, I feel that it doesn’t quite strike that same perfect balance between great melodies and kooky sprinkles, but then maybe that will come with time? It’s as if that initial chaos isn’t fading quite as quickly as I was hoping it would, and there’s no way of knowing whether this is because it’s just taking a little longer, or if it’s not going to. Who knows.
I’ve never been exactly a cutting-edge gamer. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever even bought a games console in my life, but that’s probably another blog post.
A couple of years back I was at Karl‘s house and he asked me if I wanted an original XBox 360 Premium (that’s the one with the 20GB hard drive). He told me that he had a couple that he had used as media centres that he didn’t want any more, because he was replacing them with the slimmer, quieter versions. So that’s how I got my XBox 360.
When we got it home I discovered that the DVD drive didn’t work at all. So I rolled up my sleeves and opened the thing up, and discovered that the mechanism for holding the disc securely in place was broken. A few drops of superglue later and we had a fully functional machine.
6 months later the thing got struck down by the red ring of death. I once more opened it up, did the standard X clamp fix, and we were back on course.
Since then, things went okay for a while. Bernard used it a lot more than me – I only have about 4 games, whereas he has 9 or 10. However, I did start anticipating the release of GTA V with some relish. I was fairly fond of GTA San Andreas on the PS2, and it sounded like GTA V was going to be the true sequel.
But in May this year, disaster struck. Red ring again. I’d already done the X clamp fix once, so it sounded like this time it was probably terminal. We’d already ordered a tablet for Bernard’s birthday, so I knew he’d be fine if I didn’t bother replacing it straight away.
Fast forward to the other Sunday (15th September). The release of GTA V is imminent. Bernard, Karen and I are having lunch in town. I have a beer. Bernard and I decide to take the plunge and replace the XBox 360. So after lunch, we head off around the shops to get a replacement.
I didn’t anticipate this being difficult at all, but in fact it was. Lots of shops advertised having consoles, but upon investigation they turned out to have none in stock, and if they did, they had just one and they were asking top dollar for it. The guy in HMV suggested I wait a few weeks and get one bundled with FIFA 2014.
By the time we got home, the buzz had worn off. I present to you, my new plan. But first, we must aside.
My computer is a decrepit old beast. The motherboard and processor are eight years old. The processor is a AMD Sempron 3000, one of the last of the single core generation. It’s had upgrades over the years (the GPU is a Geforce 6200, which is basically the best thing that I can put in the AGP slot, and it’s been upgraded to 2 GB RAM) and it’s now at a dead end. Once upon a time, I used to play computer games on my PC, but that was a long time ago.
So I was looking at the following options:
1. Wait for an XBox One, with its slightly creepy telescreen-like tendencies, and it’s fixation on US television services. Nope nope nope.
2. Spend £200 on a new XBox 360, a console that is coming to the end of its life, just so I can play GTA V. Also an unattractive proposition.
3. Rejoin the great PC gaming master race! Okay, so it’s by far the most expensive option, but I’ve got dosh to spare at the moment. My computer is long overdue for an upgrade – the main hard drive has been dutifully serving up files for about 12 years, and I’m surprised that it’s lasted this long. The PC release of GTA V is (probably) between 2 and 6 months away, and based upon the reviews of Max Payne 3 on the PC, I think that we can expect the GTA V PC version to be a well-polished port.
So that’s the plan. I’ve specced up a machine on Overclockers UK (Intel Core i5 4670K 3.4GHz, 8 GB RAM, GeForce GTX 760) and I’ve had my finger hovering over the “Order” button for the last week, trying to decide whether to take the plunge or not. If I wait for a couple of months, maybe I’ll be able to get more for my money? But if I get it now, then I can start playing with it now. I can install Fallout New Vegas (probably my favourite of the 4 games I had for the XBox 360), install a few mods (oooh, mods, that’s one of the huge attractions of PC gaming, to me) and replay that to pass the time until GTA V comes out. And the new Terraria update comes out this week too – while my PC tolerates it okay, it would be nice to be able to play full screen instead of in a small window.
Finger still hovering. What should I do? What should I do?
Some of us need less caffeine; some of us need more. Today’s cocktails are being served in the Call Centre of Doom, where we have all been forced to take employment as a punishment for whining. AnotherMike is the boss, as you can tell from the elephantine snores coming from his desk. His wasn’t so much a cocktail as a hot milky drink, don’t hold the brandy. He won’t be around for a while.
Pete is in charge of the Broadband Department, because my woe is that it has been my experience over the last couple of weeks that the internet keeps dropping out. Not the whole internet, obvs; twitter seems to continue in my absence. But the connection in Casa Uborka is not great these days. Every time I grumble about it, he checks the logs and says there hasn’t been any downtime, which is just what you would expect from Customer Services. You know what you can do with that Guinness.
Not even bothering to answer calls, preferring instead to flirt with complainants on twitter, our Doctor Pockless has filled his quota by getting mum’s phone fixed, and is now just trying to sign people up to direct debits for the continuation of the provision of their souls. He is, in his usual elegant fashion, consuming a pint.
Mike has a new job presenting the latest series of Location Location Location, with the help of his glamorous assistant. You wondered what the K stood for, didn’t you? His endless quest is for a property combining peaceful village life with a minimal commute, a farmhouse kitchen, and a chrome-plated cocktail bar at which to mix those Manhattans. [Okay I don’t know how this fits into a call centre but we never let that sort of thing stand in our way at Uborka].
We’ve put Lyle in charge of refuse collection, sewerage, and hashtags, so that he may use his vocabulary in full. Unfortunately for the punters calling his helpline, he is.
And asta is on the denial desk, refusing to answer calls at all. We can all hear the tinny music from her headphones, though, as she tries to pretend she’s at a pop festival. That does explain the wellies too.
I’m staffing the Cocktail Line. In other words, drinking them before you can. It’s for your own good. Have a lovely weekend, everyone.
This week I have spent a small portion of time tackling issues with my mother’s telephone line. If you have been paying attention you will know that she lives in the arse end of nowhere with my frail stepdad. Her phone line went down on Tuesday 17th September and she used up most of her PAYG minutes expensively trying to get through to MyPostOffice‘s customer services, which (as I can personally confirm) is not actually possible. Yesterday the good Dr Pockless and I attempted to raise a twitterstorm, and the PO’s twitterpeople responded pretty quickly promising to escalate the matter to their telecoms people. Later that evening (as we continued to tweet) she eventually had a call promising her an engineer would call today (Friday). We can only hope and pray that she hasn’t just let the handset battery run down.
Meanwhile the Miliman promised in his speech to freeze energy prices, and Lyle blogged a lot about his own favourite utility merchants. Grab your drinks and tell us your tales; we’ll put the world to rights this afternoon.
Are you living in the same place as in 2004/05?Yes, ‘Gert Cottage’. But the immediate environment has changed considerably, with a block of flats having been built in front of us, and my once scruffy back alley is now a gated community of 4 18/19th century cottages and 4 2013-built townhouses.
I would expect so. I steadily get larger but otherwise i don’t think I’ve changed much in decades
I think Facebook is here to stay. I don’t particularly like it, but like many people I find it useful for keeping up with extended family news. I think most people will dip in and out of using it, especially now the novelty has worn off for most. I think people are becoming more wary of the side-effects of being too open or trusting on social media sites. I much prefer Twitter but have been trying to step away a bit, because it’s an enormous thief of time which could be spent reading far more books, for example
I couldn’t imagine life without the internet. I use it a great deal for buying things, because I’ve never liked shopping anyway, and nowadays generally regard trudging round shops as being too much of a drain of energy. I must use Wikipedia a dozen times a day and I now always go to Trip Advisor to look for restaurants and occasionally hotels in unfamiliar towns. It’s my main source of news, including the ‘hyperlocal’, which is a horrible word but a great concept. I just wish it had existed when I was young.
Yes, but it’s entirely different from back there. I used to blog just about every evening and sometimes during the day, and a lot of it was stream of consciousness or holding forth on opinions. I wasn’t alone in spending a good couple of hours in the evening going round other people’s blogs, leaving comments. It suited then, because my partner was early to bed early to rise so I barely saw him on work nights. But things are different now.
I use my blog now for more structured pieces, driven largely by photos I take. I can see that my photography has improved, and years ago I cited blogging as something that made me go out and do things and visit places. My hit count is a lot less now, and I think that gives me more freedom. I can’t imagine why anyone would wish to read my blog on a regular basis, but I hope people enjoy what I write about places they want to visit.
I’m tempted to repeat what I tried to get away with as a work objective ‘turn up to work more or less on time most days’. I’ve never been hugely goal oriented, not even liking New Year’s Resolutions. But in the past year I have had both ‘Graded Exercise Therapy’ and Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, for pain management, and have been doing yoga and studying mindfulness. None of these are goals in themselves but are ways of enabling me to live as full a life as possible. My birthday’s in February, so if I can look back over the winter and know that I’ve applied these techniques and enjoyed life, that will be with a sense of achievement.
It does depend on what your musical tastes are. There are assumptions that novices will be most attracted by pretty tunes, but I think many people are familiar with rock music that isn’t especially melodic. That having been said, Carmen is packed full of tunes familiar to many people from ringtones, adverts if nothing else; a super tragic story, some strong characters, and lots of opportunity for great staging. Tosca, similarly, and quite short, not just in actual time but it also seems to pass very quickly. For people who are open to something less melodic, Benjamin Britten’s Peter Grimes is superb, very evocative of the sea, and conjuring up this wonderful claustrophobic atmosphere of a Borough that treat this fisherman with deep suspicion – well, he does tend to have apprentices (ex-workhouse boys) who come to unfortunate ends out at sea. A splendid 21st century opera is Dr Atomic, about Robert Oppenheimer and the Manhattan Project, and incorporating elements of the Bhagavad Gita.
Nowadays operas are often broadcast to cinemas; the ones from New York are live, on Saturday evenings during the winter and early spring. It’s not the same as actually being at a live performance, but for most people easier to get to, and less scope for (misplaced) social anxiety.
I loved the campus, but to be honest I didn’t especially enjoy University. I thought I did at the time, but in retrospect I could have benefitted from a year or two post-school to do some serious growing up. Nottingham’s a wonderful city. It has everything there, culturally and so on, but isn’t so large and sprawling in the way that, say, Manchester (where I grew up in the ‘burbs) is. It has a uniqueness about it. But as a student I didn’t really appreciate the city – for example I don’t think I ever actually went to the River Trent, and I certainly didn’t take advantage of all the gorgeous countryside just on the doorstep. Not just the Peak District – a few weeks ago I passed through Ratcliffe-on-Soar, and, notwithstanding the power station, I remembered how lovely it can be round there on summer’s evenings
I would like to be more active now, but activism involves a lot of walking – ‘pounding the pavements’, which physically I’m not up to, but also time commitment. I don’t want it to dominate my life any more. I tend to oscillate between being quite radical and quite pragmatic. I feel quite radical now but I suspect that as the General Election approaches I’ll be more cautious, conscious that policies that are very radical don’t play well in the media. I think people come round eventually, but it’s natural to want time to adjust to new ideas. I think that 20+ years working in Central and Local Government makes me somewhat fatalistic. My reaction to many things is “Great idea but how will it work in practice” or “what a stupid idea, haven’t thought through the impact?”!
I’d like to nominate Stroppy Cow for the next interview. I’d like to ask:
Mum, have you paid for the journey to Mauritius yet?
No, no I haven’t paid for that.
Because, I think I don’t want to go anymore.
Just as well, really. Night night.
Night night, mum.
Last night after watching the penultimate episode, I had troubled dreams in which Walt heads back to Albuquerque armed to the teeth, alerting the TV news stations on his way. All guns blazing, he despatches Jack and his crew in a bloody battle; and in the mess and chaos, Jesse again escapes his cage, only to encounter Walt face to face in a final shoot out. Walt has time to confess to the cameras in order to set Skylar free, and then Jesse kills him. He dies.
Is this somewhat how you are expecting it to be?