There will be posts

Dear all,

I am solemnly apologetic for the negligence that I have bestowed upon this blog over the past week…

… and now to quit the flowery language that got me into trouble earlier on today, I can let you know that said negligence (and the duties that caused it) has landed me with:

• sleep deprivation;
• a bunch of small scrapes on my hands that I cannot remember causing (no, I have not been inebriated in the week);
• a Thursday spent in total confusion (see above bracket);
• one missing sock (see above bracket);
• a great podcast idea that has escaped me because I didn’t have my notepad handy as it was mentioned, but be damned if it doesn’t come back to me;
• a grammatical error, as I was complaining about grammatical errors (see bracket two points above).

That last one coloured me particularly mortified. It was even one of those classic moments when, even as I expressed the words, I knew it could only end badly. So please, if you spot any errors at all on here or in the podcasts, do let me know.

If I’m going to be shamed at large, I might as well have learnt something from it. (Like the last point taught me to stick to my own blog, and stop minding other people’s business.)

Regular service of posts will be resumed this evening. Thank you.

Tutoring adventures

Not my working. (Image borrowed from here.)

The tutee in question is my nine year old brother, and the subject is usually mathematics, like in this case, or science. (Yes, I do feel very old with such a young sibling.) This is came out of one of our sessions:

Brother: “Set me a division question!”
Me: “Okay, what’s 144/12?”
B: “12! My turn… what’s…. 123/13?”
M: “Errr…*Grabs paper to do long division* 9.461538 with all the decimals recurring?”
B: “*Checks with calculator*…yes. But I was faster than you!”

He is clearly too smart for me.

For the record, this was after the structured part – where I set questions according to the level at which he is learning at school – when freestyling is allowed.

Food Diary – June 24, 2011 – and… Swedish Midsummer (apologies for deviation from science)

Midsummer is an actual holiday that is gleefully celebrated in Sweden, with lots of shellfish, herring and potatoes, berries and cream, and ‘snaps’. The key element however, is good company. Personally, I left my good company when I left work, but I did stop by the supermarket, tiredly, on my way home, to see what I could find…

Friday = feast day. No? Fine.

Fruit'n'fibre cereal with semi-skimmed milk.

Forgot to prepare lunch.

Provisions for morning-in-office: Milky Earl Grey and a banana.

No breakfast complete without extras.

Imitation Twix.

Tea just isn’t the same.

Coffeeh.

Shop bought sandwich. Not bad, actually.

Chicken salad sandwich on malted, grainy bread.

Nice and polished.

Apple.

Then, I went on a field trip, my first, from my desk to the office biscuit tin. Perhaps I will bake something for it someday.

Syrup biscuit.

Unfortunately, I got more biscuit cravings as a result.

Brownie biscuits.

Then, dinner!

Miscellaneous steamed shellfish. With, er, malt vinegar. And back olives, obviously.

I know the margarine looks rank, but those muffins are so good!

Severely buttered oven bottom muffin.

Then, improv-dessert. Amazing.

Dessert buns, diced and toasted, with whipped cream and raspberries.

Water count: ~1.75l. I did sneak some olives just before bedtime.

Food Diary – June 23, 2011 – …and slideshows on WordPress

Does anybody have any experience of putting slideshows on these blogs? Advice would be appreciates, thank you.

So, I got up at 0615 hours to go running, and was greeted by Elton John’s “Can You Feel the Love Tonight” on BBC Radio 2, by way of clock radio. What a way to start the day.

Might as well admit that I snuck half a dessert-bun last night. Too hungry!

Then there was another half left.

So I ate it before the run.

After the run there was breakfast.

Fruit'n'fibre cereal with semi-skimmed milk.

Photographed everything together again, but what is in that sandwich?

Banana, nectarine, triple-decker sandwich.

Any office worker should know what comes next.

Coffeeh.

After which there was actually lunch!

Triple-decker sandwich of cheese, ham and coleslaw on white bread. Ooh, aah. And a giant, soft, chocolate cookie.

Thus, the snack fest started.

More coffeeh, and a dark chocolate digestive.

and

Doritos (original).

and

Oh look, I ate dinner. A plain tortilla and a portion of that pork and apple (and yellow pepper and black eyed bean and seasoning) stew.

and

Skinny triple chocolate brownie ice cream.

and finally

Pre-bed milk.

with water count ~1.75l, from what I gather. It has been an 18 hour day, so I shall not try to make more bad quips. For now.

In-car discussion of the day – air transport for the masses

So, the family is in the car driving home from supermarket trip, when father and brother recall a conversation they previously have had – how to transport mahoossive numbers of people by air, but not by means already conceived and in use. (In short, aeroplanes.)

Their idea: a central control-hub, surrounded by people-carrying hubs, each of the same capacity as jumbojets. Propelled up into super-high altitudes like skittles. Then, the carrier-hubs will start to rotate about the vertical axis going through the central hub, acting like a fan that counter-acts gravity. Smaller ion-thrusters propel the craft through the much thinner atmosphere, and the whole thing ‘floats’ towards the destination.

Now, how on Earth (get it?) do we land this thing? Or will it get stolen by an astronomical baby-giant?