Not posting anything substantial for a couple of months has left me with that paralysis you get from not writing, when there’s too much to say and it’s difficult to coordinate. I’m getting round this by slapping together some headings and pasting in content. Please do not feel obliged to respond to any or all of this. Not that you ever should, but in this particular instance it really is all over the place. Sorry.

Coping mechanisms + pet ownership
Dealing with the grief of losing Telstar was tough over the past month. My workload was absolutely bonkers for the last four weeks of term, with the actual lecturing compounded by marking, transition to online delivery and assessment as the impact of Omicron became clearer, colleagues being off sick, and the level of demand for my admin duties and fellowship (more on this another time). I reinstalled “Neko Atsume” on my phone, which I haven’t played in years, and for some reason the daily check on my cat garden and appearance of adorable cartoon cats helped me to process his loss. I don’t know why and am not sure I want to dwell on it too much; the point is that it worked at a time when I had to have my emotions pretty firmly compartmentalised to get through the end of the semester.

Now that we’re getting a little distance from his sudden departure, I’m more willing to entertain conversations with the children about what pets we’ll get in the new year. There are discussions about stick insects, reptiles, birds, and small mammals, none of which I’ve ever kept before myself. None of them were options when we had a feline with prodigious hunting prowess; he would doubtless have killed them within 24 hours of their arrival. So although kittens are also under consideration, it seems like it would be a good moment perhaps to take a break from cat ownership and try out some pets that the children would like to have.

Cooking
As I’ve doubtless mentioned before, I’m not a huge fan of cooking. I do like the slow cooker, although I came to realise after making my umpteenth tinned-bean-based stew that I should probably add some more recipes to my repertoire. I asked for a slow cooker recipe book for Christmas and got a great one (“Slow Cooked” by Miss South), which I’m now planning my way through. Earlier in the month I checked out the new Great British Bake Off “A Bake for All Seasons” and we made a few things from that which turned out very well, including the Pecan Pie, Winter No-Knead Loaf (wholemeal bread) and Prue’s Malt Loaf (extremely good for the digestion).

Film & Television
While the children have been off school, we’ve taken to watching films together. We watched all of the Jumanji films completely out of order. The bloke and I had never seen any of them, including the original 1990s Robin Williams version. First we watched the third film: “Jumanji: The Next Level”, which was quite confusing when you didn’t know any of the back story, though it did have some funny bits. Then we watched the original, which was Keiki’s favourite because it was actually a board game and according to him that made a lot more sense. Finally, we watched “Jumanji: Welcome to the Jungle”, which was Humuhumu’s favourite because of the slapstick humour, dad jokes, and most of all, Bethany and Martha. I’m with her there.

We’ve fallen asleep in front of (re-)watched several Disney films with them. I also highly recommend the series of Olaf shorts in which he parodies quite a few of them.

The bloke and I watched “Hawkeye” which we both enjoyed despite our very patchy knowledge of the Marvel Cinematic Universe. ( Possible spoilers ) Anyway, my primary point here is YELENA FOREVER and when do we get another Black Widow film that is just Yelena being sarcastic about everything? Yes, yes, I know the first film featured a lot of that and so did Hawkeye but I really cannot see myself getting tired of it.

I need to go and make mac n’ cheese in the slow cooker so it is ready for supper. To be continued tomorrow.

KILLING EVE S2

AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHH

Friends, Nadiya Hussein is back on the telly telly bunkum box with Party Feasts and her Asian Odyssey.

I have beer, bloke and actual down time. So we're catching up with our purring cat and all is well. <3

Dear Readers, this weekend contains my birthday, on which I become the answer to life, the universe, and everything! (Douglas Adams fans will have immediately deduced how old I am. Everyone else will have to use Google.)

I’m very pleased about this, and am considering whether I should attempt to do another project in celebration of it, because naturally I am not busy enough with this daily blog project + full time job + bringing up two small children. One of the nice things that has happened in my forties is that I’ve accepted that some of my flaws are never going to go away, like voluntarily taking on too many responsibilities, and that I should just accept that I’m probably not going to finish everything I start.

Anyway, as my birthday approaches, there have been cards and gifts arriving with each day’s post. Not loads, I hasten to add, but enough to keep my curiosity piqued. And thus, today’s Unscientific Poll.

This poll is inspired by a desire to know whether anyone actually prefers a middle seat.

[continued from here: DW/LJ] Since the church was about a thirty second walk away from The Old Grammar School, we stopped by on Saturday morning before heading out and were pleased to find it unlocked.

My perusal of the visitor’s books (which stretched back to 1975, the lengthiest set of log books I’d encountered on our LT holidays) on the previous evening had told us that there were more Thompson mice to be found in the church. We went on a mouse hunt, but could only locate six of the eight that were allegedly hiding there.


Humuhumu found the first mouse near the altar.


And the second, behind the pews.

( +7 )

Bonus photo: Our local, the Shoulder of Mutton Inn, was just over the road from the church. You know that feeling you get when you walk into a pub that’s been done up just a bit too much? Where you want to shout, like Bernard Black, “Why does everything have to be fancy? I just want sausage, mash and a bit of cake, not twigs fried in honey or a donkey in a coffin!”

This place was exactly the opposite of that. We stopped in on our first evening and every night subsequently. Worried about whether or not they took cards, we scraped together £7.40 in cash.

“That might not get us a round,” he said.
“This is Yorkshire,” I replied. “If they try to charge us a tenner for two pints of booze and two halves of lemonade, I’m leaving, because we’re clearly in the wrong place.”

As it happened, £6.40 got us a pint of very lively cider (crisp, citrusy, refreshing), a pint of tasty ale, the aforementioned lemonades and a packet of peanuts. And lo, we were grateful not to be in London.


Humuhumu and Keiki enjoy lemonade, while the bloke & I enjoy our pints of ale & cider respectively.

Up next: Egglestone Abbey.

sfred said: I'd like to know about your thoughts about Red Dwarf! It was important enough in my pre/early teens that my sisters and I still send each other "Happy Gazpacho Soup Day" messages, so I'm interested in your take.

Ah, Red Dwarf. Discovered when I was a young teenager on PBS in the States, back when the episodes were only played once a year* during the fund-raising telethon. I would spend the whole day in front of our tiny, crappy television, only getting up to make a fresh cup of tea or bowl of popcorn. Each time the broadcaster could afford a new season (a whole six episodes), I would spend a week in ecstatic anticipation.

I loved the losers-and-misfits-in-space concept. I loved the dialogue. I loved that a white guy and a black guy and an android and a creature evolved from a domestic house cat were best frenemies. I loved that they were all kind of terrible at everything but bimbled along regardless. I loved Holly (both incarnations). I turned a blind eye to the gaping plot holes and the flagrant disregard for anything resembling continuity.

I learned about modern British culture. I learned what a Liverpudlian accent sounded like (Lister), and about Cockney rhyming slang (Holly). I learned about the abiding love for ale and extremely hot curries, the strange fondness for rubbish heroes, the wistful yearning for a better reality that is only a minor improvement on the current one, because actually things aren’t that bad when you’re stranded in deep space, but can still have beer, vindaloos and some mates to slag off.

I’ve seen the episodes so many times now that I can quote sections of them verbatim.I find myself quoting them both purposefully and unintentionally (not realising it until much later).

When I need a comforting escape, I turn to them. Sometimes I put them on in the background when I’m working because they can’t distract me, I know them so well. They were a strong influence on my formative years. I might even credit them with spawning a certain unacknowledged anglophilia that drew me to move to England in the first instance.

* I find it curmudgeon-making that we can now watch just about anything any time we want, due to streaming services. Back in my day…!

Request a topic here or in comments. There are still more days left!

When I was in HMV (RIP) looking for Christmas presents, I discovered that the complete Sherlock Holmes with Jeremy Brett as Holmes was on sale for £25. All four television series and the two TV movies (The Sign of Four and The Hound of the Baskervilles) in one beautiful box set? I didn’t hesitate. I snapped it up. I’ve been making my way through the archives with delight for several weeks and am now halfway through the second series. Watching Brett play Holmes has made me realise all that’s missing from the very popular current BBC Sherlock.

He is perfect as Holmes. Just perfect. He has all the mannerisms and the look of Holmes. The ability to change position from recumbent lounging to wiry, cheetah-like poise in the blink of an eye. The tall, lithe strength of Holmes. The pale, ascetic face. Crucially, he also has a sense of humour (sadly lacking in the Cumberbatch version). And not the RDJ camp style either, which is funny and I love it, but isn’t canon Holmes. I mean he has Holmes’ sense of humour: the sudden flashes of merriment, the barks of whole-bodied laughter, at moments seemingly inappropriate to other people. The brief wry smile. He can also transform himself into the myriad characters that Holmes adopts during his sleuthing - a bent old bookseller, a down-and-out tradesman. Cumberbatch is seemingly capable of only playing Holmes as Holmes, half-hearted attempt at impersonating a priest in A Scandal in Belgravia notwithstanding.

Plus, my favourite aspect of the Holmes mysteries - and I suspect that of many others, given the popularity of the BBC’s Sherlock, the plots of whose episodes only vaguely resemble the originals - the relationship between him and Watson, is so sensitively portrayed by him and his counterparts. (Watson was played by David Burke in the first series, The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes, and by Edward Hardwicke in the succeeding series.) In the post-Reichenbach episode, when Holmes shocks Watson and makes him faint with his dramatic reappearance, there’s a moment when Watson is still unconscious and Holmes is checking him before bringing him round. He runs his hand over Watson’s face, and the combination of quick professionalism and genuine tenderness expressed in the gesture is worth a thousand of the overt quips about gayness in the present BBC Sherlock to this Loony Fangirl.

Rosalie Williams makes a fantastic Mrs. Hudson (as does Una Stubbs in Sherlock). She aids and abets and perseveres, with a gentle bustling air that helps her steal scenes in her moments on-screen.

I have one confession of impropriety to make. During the episode featuring Tim McInnerny as Vincent Spaulding/John Clay in “The Red-Headed League”, McInnerny popped up through the floor at the climax. I couldn’t resist. I shouted, “HELLO, DARLING!” (Blackadder fans will understand, I’m sure.)

Estimation (1897 words) by nanila
Fandom: Fringe
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warning: No Archive Warnings Apply
Relationships: Peter Bishop/Astrid Farnsworth
Characters: Peter Bishop, Astrid Farnsworth, Walter Bishop, Jean
Summary:

Astrid and Peter discover they have more in common than Walter Bishop and Olivia Dunham. In particular, a desire for whisky and sexytiems.

This is the first fic I've written in five years or so. Comments and kudos are enabled on the posted work. You don't have to have an AO3 account to leave either. Please be gentle with me.

I have now watched the version of Sherlock Holmes that appeared at the talkies in 2009. I was not expecting to like it. And oh my stars and garters, I certainly did not expect to love it. But I did. I did.

AUDIENCE: You’re not quite ascetic enough to be Holmes, Mr Robert Downey Jr.

HOLMES: My dear AUDIENCE, although this film is more full of romance, pugilism and explosions that my author could have dreamed of, I guarantee that you will be in love with me by the end of it, purely on the strength of my demonstration of the triumph of rational thought over superstition. Also, because I’m dashing.

AUDIENCE: How can you possibly know that?

HOLMES: Elemen--No, I’m not going to say that yet. You’re familiar with my methods. You know that I shall not reveal my deductive process until the end.

AUDIENCE: Goddammit.

HOLMES: I can give you a taster, though. Here is some calculated pugilism, carefully dissected for your delectation.

AUDIENCE: Duuuuude.

( Spoilers, my dear reader. )

I eagerly anticipate the sequel.