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vital functions
May. 23rd, 2021 10:24 pmReading. ( Max Gladstone, Victoria Routledge )
Writing. I will confess, in a very small voice, to having... sketched out the list of samples I'd like, plus possible project-expansion, for the maybe-postdoc, and also spent some time fucking about with custom-bib (and subsequently a text editor) to get my bibliography displaying almost correctly. (And I know what to do to fix one of the outstanding issues, and the other is a more general problem of URL formatting.) Even though I wasn't supposed to be doing any work this week.
Watching. CXG S03E03. ( Read more... )
Cooking. My parents got me a box of Alphonso mangoes for my birthday, and so I have been spending a lot of the week attempting to approximate sticky rice to go with them, in the absence of the actual correct rice (though some will be arriving tomorrow). It has been very satisfactory.
I have also experimented with adding barberries to miscellaneous couscous salad, which was Very Acceptable, and we've had another go at aubergine kuku, this time with the correct number of aubergines. Alas I think the aubergines were slightly undercooked, and I now definitely categorically disbelieve the instructions about leaving the thing in the oven for 30 minutes at 190°C (fan), but nevertheless this appears to be entering the rotation.
Eating. On Tuesday we ate lunch at -- well, outside, as takeaway from -- one of the cafés in Kew, as a Plague Milestone. On Wednesday we went to the tip and also Ottolenghi Islington, where A picked up a couple of bags of takeaway while I lurked in the car, and we spent the next two days eating a pile of very pleasant salads and cakes and also concluding that we want to try recreating the confit tandoori chickpeas, where that recipe omits the curry leaves and lemon peel that are present in the current take-away version.
I have also almost-but-not-quite finished the birthday cake my mother sent me home with (in addition to the mangoes) last Sunday, and am mildly wistful about the inevitable passing of all things.
Exploring. KEW.
Making & mending. I finally finally finally coaxed myself into fixing a couple of minor blocking mishaps around the edge of [project] and! soon! it will be WINGING ITS WAY to its RECIPIENT, at this point as more of a graduation present to me than to them, perhaps, but hey.
I also steeled myself to spend a tiny bit longer communing with my bike, and have more-or-less convinced myself that I am correctly seating one end of the cable, so all (...) I have to do is convince myself that I can sort out the other end competently and then actually tune the brakes at allwithout the nipple continuing to jump out of its housing, ugh. On the dubious upside, while I did get around to ordering a bike helmet this week, the box arrived damaged so I get to continue merrily on my way with the Issue Of The Brakes not being the actual blocker on me using this thing at all. (I have yet to pump up the tyres or discover how much TLC the chain needs, but those are problems for a slightly-further-future Alex.)
Growing. Aubergines are putting forth true leaves! Peppers are struggling their way grimly up! Strawberries are flowering.
Observing. I completely forgot to mention, last week, that in a late-night thesis-goblin extravaganza I heard The Owl again.
This week: mostly the coal tits (who clearly have at least one Gaping Maw stashed somewhere in the hedge), the rain, and -- with great delight -- The Snails. Most spectacularly, one decided it wanted to take a short-cut from the ceiling to the wall and s t r e t c h e d, ignoring the corner, which worked great right up until it failed to move its shell forward and thus fucked up the weight on the decreasing area of foot attached to the ceiling, and entirely predictably Fell Off.
Onto the other snail.
And then in some disgruntlement shook itself off and reattached to the wall and continued down toward the recently-replenished food plate, which was possibly the cause of the eagerness in the first place, in that the snails turn out to like mango trimmings enough that if you smear a piece of peel against the side of the box they will doggedly sweep their wee faces back and forth until they have consumed ALL of the juice. It is adorable, and I am very glad that Adam has taken on full responsibility for mucking them out.
Writing. I will confess, in a very small voice, to having... sketched out the list of samples I'd like, plus possible project-expansion, for the maybe-postdoc, and also spent some time fucking about with custom-bib (and subsequently a text editor) to get my bibliography displaying almost correctly. (And I know what to do to fix one of the outstanding issues, and the other is a more general problem of URL formatting.) Even though I wasn't supposed to be doing any work this week.
Watching. CXG S03E03. ( Read more... )
Cooking. My parents got me a box of Alphonso mangoes for my birthday, and so I have been spending a lot of the week attempting to approximate sticky rice to go with them, in the absence of the actual correct rice (though some will be arriving tomorrow). It has been very satisfactory.
I have also experimented with adding barberries to miscellaneous couscous salad, which was Very Acceptable, and we've had another go at aubergine kuku, this time with the correct number of aubergines. Alas I think the aubergines were slightly undercooked, and I now definitely categorically disbelieve the instructions about leaving the thing in the oven for 30 minutes at 190°C (fan), but nevertheless this appears to be entering the rotation.
Eating. On Tuesday we ate lunch at -- well, outside, as takeaway from -- one of the cafés in Kew, as a Plague Milestone. On Wednesday we went to the tip and also Ottolenghi Islington, where A picked up a couple of bags of takeaway while I lurked in the car, and we spent the next two days eating a pile of very pleasant salads and cakes and also concluding that we want to try recreating the confit tandoori chickpeas, where that recipe omits the curry leaves and lemon peel that are present in the current take-away version.
I have also almost-but-not-quite finished the birthday cake my mother sent me home with (in addition to the mangoes) last Sunday, and am mildly wistful about the inevitable passing of all things.
Exploring. KEW.
Making & mending. I finally finally finally coaxed myself into fixing a couple of minor blocking mishaps around the edge of [project] and! soon! it will be WINGING ITS WAY to its RECIPIENT, at this point as more of a graduation present to me than to them, perhaps, but hey.
I also steeled myself to spend a tiny bit longer communing with my bike, and have more-or-less convinced myself that I am correctly seating one end of the cable, so all (...) I have to do is convince myself that I can sort out the other end competently and then actually tune the brakes at all
Growing. Aubergines are putting forth true leaves! Peppers are struggling their way grimly up! Strawberries are flowering.
Observing. I completely forgot to mention, last week, that in a late-night thesis-goblin extravaganza I heard The Owl again.
This week: mostly the coal tits (who clearly have at least one Gaping Maw stashed somewhere in the hedge), the rain, and -- with great delight -- The Snails. Most spectacularly, one decided it wanted to take a short-cut from the ceiling to the wall and s t r e t c h e d, ignoring the corner, which worked great right up until it failed to move its shell forward and thus fucked up the weight on the decreasing area of foot attached to the ceiling, and entirely predictably Fell Off.
Onto the other snail.
And then in some disgruntlement shook itself off and reattached to the wall and continued down toward the recently-replenished food plate, which was possibly the cause of the eagerness in the first place, in that the snails turn out to like mango trimmings enough that if you smear a piece of peel against the side of the box they will doggedly sweep their wee faces back and forth until they have consumed ALL of the juice. It is adorable, and I am very glad that Adam has taken on full responsibility for mucking them out.