who only by moving can balance

0. PHILAE. xkcd on the topic is fantastic. As we approached landing o'clock, the rest of the kids in my pod gathered around the person with the most monitors (three goodness knows why) and we watched the live coverage en masse, on the grounds that anyone who didn't want to know about SPACE ROBOT LANDING should probably not be on an open-plan floor full of geology PhD students. I have done some small cries - my feelings about space robots are v similar to my feelings about life boats. Quoth my supervisor, on the topic of the live coverage, "This is like some messed-up space version of Eurovision - there's that lady who came on stage and was all 'and now, Germany...'". :D

1. We have changed ISP; the switchover will happen on the 24th, at which point I might have a more reliable internet connection at home (as of this morning still no connectivity, nor has there been for a week).

2. I am listening to Hymn of Acxiom on loop, partly because of something recessional said and partly Just Because; I am currently comparing-and-contrasting with Collecting You by the Indigo Girls.

3. Last night I made mattar paneer for the first time; some things I would change, but fundamentally a plausible thing (I was genuinely baffled by the oddly specific quantities in many recipes I found - 6-7 cashew nuts? really???) that I can make again in future.

4. Also pear-and-cinnamon-and-hazelnut brownie! Much as previously discussed, only this time I stuck in a good teaspoon of ground cinnamon, coarsely diced two slightly underripe pears to have small lumps, didn't add any extra sugar, and replaced 100g of the flour with roasted hazelnut meal. Friend-whose-face-I-get-to-put-my-face-on approved.

5. ... friend-whose-face-I-get-to-put-my-face-on. During yesterday's conversation I realised to my horror that in much the same sense that vocal conversations can suffer from miscommunications arising from ambiguous or incorrect bracketing, the ways I communicate involve meaningful whitespace. (This is clearly not unique to me, but I was briefly very distressed that spoken interactions involve meaningful whitespace, because it was the thing that scared me off python for years. :-p)

6. FWFIGTPMFO fixed the lights in the kitchen -- I had replacement bulbs, but I'd had about five people (including myself) look at the wretched light fittings and be completely baffled as to how to extricate them; this is something we have been trying and failing to fix since we moved in at the beginning of January.

7. sebastienne enthusiastically livetexting me reactions to Orphan Black and Elementary because I can't do my normal watch-along wossname over IM given hometernot <3

8. ahhhhhhhhhhh part one of pre-Ancillary-Justice short story available!!!

9. Some science progress today in lab! And uh mostly lab-progress because I've spent the rest of the day going AAAAAAAAAAAAH SPACE ROBOTS and grinning ridiculously (rather than making algebra bend to my will) BUT more of that will occur tomorrow... and in fact this evening if I want to hit milestone goals from supervisor >_>

10. Osteopath yesterday morning positive. She was competent at going "... you want to be seeing an NHS hypermobility clinic, not me" and is telling the GP who referred to me so; she agrees that I obviously have hypermobility syndrome; and is impressed by my feet + ankles being basically fine given what my knees and elbows and hips are like. Have been given some hypermobility-focussed physio (practising balancing on one leg; do for both sides, 3x45s per leg per day, shut eyes if I can manage it, one finger only on supportive surface for balance; if doesn't cause problems, move up to balancing on ball of foot instead of foot flat to ground).


Tomorrow I have follow-up on the depression-related bloods, and tomorrow evening I have counselling...

I went to visit sternenstaub and dreamfracture earlier, and I got fed hot chocolate spiced with cloves, nutmeg and cinnamon.

It was glorious.

And partway through drinking this, it occurred to me that that's a combination of spices often used when poaching pears. From there, it was a very short step to "fruity brownie", and ably encouraged by the pair of them this happened.

Basic brownie recipe
300g butter
300g dark chocolate (85% is good)
450g sugar
5 eggs
1tsp vanilla essence
250g flour
1/2 tsp salt

Preheat oven to 180degC/GM4.

Melt butter and dark chocolate together.

Meanwhile, beat eggs and sugar together with the vanilla until they are thick and coat the back of a spoon.

Pour melted chocolate/butter mix into egg/sugar mix and stir thoroughly.

Fold in flour and salt.

Decant into a container and bake until they're as done as you like them (definitely crisp & cracking on top; how liquid they are in the middle is very variable).

Variant: add a teaspoon of baking powder, or use self-raising flour, and you'll get something cakier.

Spiced pear brownies

Peel, halve and core pears (you want as many halves as will cover the bottom of the dish you're using). Place a small amount of brown sugar into the hollow in each pear, then arrange them hollow-down in your baking receptacle.

Make up basic brownie mix, adding ground nutmeg, ground cloves and ground cinnamon. I used LOADS OF CINNAMON (1-2 tsp), a fair amount of clothes (1/2-1 tsp) and a small amount of nutmeg (1/4-1/2 tsp).

Variant: add pear schnapps/brandy to the egg mix. Add chocolate essence to the egg mix.

Other variants

• raspberry brownies. Scatter raspberries (frozen or fresh) liberally across the bottom of the baking receptacle. I suppose you could add a splash of raspberry wine, but I never have.
  
• nut & sea-salt. Add nuts of some description (I like pecans! and walnuts! and hazelnuts!) to the basic brownie mix, and sprinkle sea salt over the top before baking.
  
• HAZELNUT FLOUR AND RASPBERRY. Replace plain flour with finely-ground hazelnuts. I haven't done this yet but OH MY GOODNESS I WANT TO.
  
• chocolate orange brownies. Use Green & Blacks Maya Gold chocolate (or other orange chocolate) in place of the 85% chocolate. Add chocolate orange creme liqueur if you can find any and want it. Perhaps sprinkle candied orange peel, or thin strips of orange peel, over the top.