kaberett | vital functions

Reading. Exit Strategy, Martha Wells. Comfort reread yessss.

Friends Like These, Victoria Routledge. This was published in 1999, and was somewhat inexplicably present in my secondary school library; as a small, desperately lonely child, I read about The Group Of Close-Knit Friends Who Go On Holiday Together with, frankly, desperation. The record shop (Divinyl!) that sold muffins (apple and cinnamon!) also made a massive impression on me. Coming back to it now, 16 years after Robert Sayle was demolished and rebranded, and after I too have completed a degree at Cambridge and moved to London -- well. It's simultaneously an intensely nostalgic comfort-read and an entire shitshow in ways that make it very clear why it's both out of print and unavailable as an ebook. (I acquired it, and Routledge's second book Kiss Him Goodbye, off eBay.) The egregious Heterosexuals: They're Not Alright plot elements are probably still unremarkable, and ditto the miscellaneous weight-loss bullshit, but the jaw-dropping (workplace and otherwise) sexism and the "vituperative homophobi[a]" (on the part of male characters who are otherwise? apparently? sympathetic?) are, ah, not quite up to modern standards.

Phoenix Extravagant, Yoon Ha Lee. I have started this, but am coming to the resigned conclusion that my current cope levels are, well, limited to comfort re-reads.

Writing. I achieved a first draft of chapter 6 (

), and thereby the thesis! My supervisor is broadly positive about it! I have also read through all the feedback on chapter 5, copied over all the line edits, and made a solid start on thinking about the large chunk I need to reorganise.

Watching. CXG S03E01. Alright. So. I am decidedly put out about this, because the show made me Engage In Self-Examination and I am :| about the result. You see, my immediate reaction to Darryl's appalling behaviour during the therapy session with WiJo was that This Was Unforgiveable!!! ... and then I had to stop, and look, and think, and go "... ah. no. I'm just less sympathetic to Darryl than I am to Rebecca."

Which. Is awkward.

There are all sorts of reasons, of course, including "Darryl is pressuring WiJo about bringing a whole new human being into the world, who will also be affected by this bullshit", plus "negging your partner is NOT A GOOD LOOK, bro" -- and then. Also. Darryl actually managing to talk about his positive qualities (especially in light of, y'know, everything we increasingly know about his father) is... something.

I was hoping WiJo would go ".......... fuck this, I am out", and honestly I'm still disappointed that he didn't, but actually the person it makes most sense to be pissed off with re that entire arc is Dr Akopian (the husband), so... I suppose that's where I'm left!

... meanwhile all of the Nathaniel-Rebecca interaction is delicious.

Playing. Among Us! Hide-and-seek with cousins, where in the very last game I managed to murderate everyone while on the Airship, so that was immensely satisfying. (Especially because the rest of my crew had almost finished on tasks, and ESPECIALLY because I got the last one of 'em I needed to by heading into the cockpit, going "ugh no point going all the way round the back, anyone in here will just be able to dodge me", and then doubling back on myself... whereupon I PROMPTLY stumbled upon someone trying to do exactly that. :D)

Cooking. A dubious butternut squash tart Thing, which did not work out quite the way I wanted it to. In particular, on poking at the internet some more, it looks like I really did want to have a lot more cheese in there, with optional crème fraîche, instead of the small-quantity-of-egg I ended up going with.

Anyway. I used the rest of the batch of (thyme and rosemary, though it could have stood to contain more of both) pastry to make a second quiche case (now in the freezer) plus some cheese straws.

I have also done another round of Kardemummebullar, the timing of which was thoroughly thrown off by--

-- okay. So. I made the dough. I finished making the dough at circa 8pm. Shortly thereafter, I put it in the fridge, to rise slowly overnight and be ready to actually turn into bullar in the morning.

And then I opened the fridge door two hours later to faff a little more, and discovered that the dough was threatening escape and had only been halted in its ascent by the shelf above it, which is how we ended up eating the first of the first batch of bullar at around 11.45pm. (The second batch I left to have their second rise in the fridge overnight, and it was fine.)

Experiment this time: par-bake a batch of them (to the point of being only just set, and only just starting to take on colour), cool thoroughly, then freeze. This morning we had the first pair out the freezer for breakfast. With the oven at 190°C they wound up better than day-old but not as good as properly-fresh; I think we're going to try turning it down to 170°C next time and see how that goes. Definitely pro even this extent of getting to drag the bullar out, though.

Making & mending. Bike parts Various arrived over the course of the week. To my very great frustration, it turns out that the only plausible-looking mudguard stays apparently available for sale in the entire UK (where the actually correct kind are trivially available, very cheaply, from a variety of European shops)... had the mounting points drilled in unhelpful places.

So! I spent a bunch of this afternoon and early evening with the rotary tool and some of Papa's attachments and definitely one of Papa's clamps, and also the watchful eye and moral support of Adam, and also the prescription safety specs I brought home from college when I finished lab work, and now I have stays that I can screw my mud guard to! For my next trick, I will try reattaching it to the bike.

I also successfully used the rotary tool to cut the frayed end of my old brake cable sufficiently neatly that I could thread it back through the cable housing (which task our various wire cutters were not up to). Next I merely (...) need to work out whether it's actually long enough (& if not to replace it with the new replacement inner cable I acquired for Exactly This Purpose), and subsequently to reattach it and adjust it and crimp the end and so forth.

Progress.

Additionally and furthermore, I supplied moral support and occasional hands to A for the purposes of Putting Up A Blackout Blind In The Bedroom. Next week's scheduled migraine will at least take place in greater comfort...

Growing. APPLIED SCIARID NEMATODES TO THE HOUSEPLANTS. Whereupon they all cheered up immensely! I have plausibly still lost most of my tomato seedlings, but, well, We Shall See.

(I am frustrated about my lack of allotment trips -- I keep promising myself that once I've finished this bit of work I'll take a day to properly go and wear myself out... and then launching straight into the next bit. But. You know. Two and a half weeks to go.)

Oh! And I acquired (via my cousins) a rooted Chaenomeles japonica cutting and four (probably red, rather than flowering) currant cuttings, courtesy of my mother, and (via my cousins and mother) a box of oca tubers, courtesy of

aldabra, which I need to work out what to do with and where to put. At some point. As and when I manage to scrape together the brain and the tuits...