All change!

Posted on May 5, 2014 by Kai

Oh dear! I kept thinking “wait to blog until you have something interesting to say…” – apparently that’s over five months of nothing interesting!

Things have certainly changed since the 13th of December 2013. On the 24th of November I posted a suitably vague post about being stuck at a career roundabout (like a career crossroads, but more confusing). Well, I did eventually go for the scary dark pothole-y turning. I’m not going to follow that with something like “and I’m so glad I did!” or “and it turned out to be just perfect for me!” because that would be a lie. However, I have a job and it’s not terrible; I turn up in the morning, do things, and people give me money. This archaic ritual of exchanging services for financial benefit has meant I have been able to pursue a house. House is currently at bay in a corner – fingers crossed I’ll have it trapped very soon, and then I shall bore you all stupid with plans for my garden. Until it’s trapped I refuse to get too excited – don’t want to get disappointed if it falls through. However I’m clearly getting a leetle more excited as today I planted just a few French beans, sweetcorn, beetroot, tomatoes, courgettes, a squash and a pumpkin… didn’t want to miss the season completely and if I move in time they’ll be just ready to go into the raised beds the garden already has… I’m planning to use the Square Foot Gardening method – I’ll tell you about that another day but I think it’ll suit me well.

Dingbat moved too! The Little Family now have a lovely little place, properly as of yesterday. Day before yesterday technically, since it’s now past midnight. There are nice wall colours (none of which contain even a hint of either pink or lilac) and some smashing curtain rails – it’s all come together very well. I am resisting temptation to fill their garden with edible plants I think they should own. I must not garden by proxy. I must not garden by proxy. I must not garden by proxy.

Nephew (Jingle, although I feel that doesn’t fit so he perhap needs a new blog nick*) now understands a concerning amount of what he hears, which means adults must be VERY CAREFUL around him. I demonstrated briefly (using his toy cars) to him how some lady hit my car recently, and now he informs me regularly that “Ninny car booken”, which I didn’t specifically tell him during said demonstration. O.o clever boy. Although, since “Mummy car booken” recently after Mummy tested her car’s aquatic properties, he is having quite a specific education in the field car insurance, repairs and hire cars…

Ironically one of the Italian phrases I can say is “vorrei noleggiare una macchina” – I would like to hire a car.

*The Mechanic! For he is Tony Stark in minature.

And yes, I am Auntie Ninny, what of it?

EDIT Oh! And belated happy 10th Birthday Blog! You were born 22nd April 2004 and are now 10. Well done.

Posted in Uncategorized | 1 Comment

I don’t think the dates were optional…

Posted on December 13, 2013 by Kai

For years now I’ve been making Jamie’s Nan’s Christmas Pudding. I got the recipe from a Jamie Christmas DVD I have, which differs slightly in that there are no nuts, cranberries replace 100g of the mixed fruit, and I’m fairly sure it’s 125g breadcrumbs, not 150g. Every year I make my own little differences too, cointreau instead of brandy (generally because we’ve run out of brandy), using glacé cherries instead of cranberries etc. all with good results.

This year I’ve gone totally off piste. Firstly, I decided to attempt a wrapped pudding instead of using the pudding bowl, and used a cheesecloth bag, which wasn’t so successful as the pudding stuck and the bag has now been thrown away. Secondly I went for wholemeal breadcrumbs instead of white (why? To make it more healthy? It’s going to be covered in custard and/or cream and/or sugar! Not sure what I was thinking there…), I added in apple and dried apricots, I left out dates because I couldn’t be bothered to buy them and cut them up (expensive, and very sticky) and I lost count when adding fruit so may well have ended up about 50-100g more fruit that needed. But that’s ok because I added an obscene amount of ginger and ginger syrup. It tastes more like bread pudding that Christmas pudding… although it could have been any of the additions, I blame the lack of dates. I don’t think the dates were optional…

Posted in Uncategorized | 2 Comments

Hi-dilly-ho, neighborino!

Posted on December 1, 2013 by Kai

😀 I saw my first deep sky object! Deep sky object = DSO, fuzzy things generally too faint to see with the naked eye like nebulae and galaxies). Took the telescope out tonight – ogled a bit at Jupiter again (Saturn is still inconveniently below the horizon when I choose to go stargazing), admiring three moons and two dark bands on the planet, and then had a go at looking for the Andromeda galaxy. I was getting frustrated trying to find Andromeda in the not so good night sky (low clouds reflecting street lights, and if you are slightly out with the aim you can be searching for ages, much like a microscope) and then suddenly BOOM there it was! I was inordinately excited to see this fuzzy indistinct vague spot in my field of view – it may not be super impressive and isn’t even clearly visible unless you use your peripheral vision but tonight I saw another galaxy (or its core at least) with my naked eyes, with just the help of two mirrors and a lens.

What I’m particularly proud of is that I pointed the telescope at something I couldn’t see (with the help of what used to be Google Sky Maps), and managed to find it – twice!

Andromeda is one of our closest neighbours and will collide with our own Milky Way galaxy in 3-4 billion years. The collision won’t actually be particularly destructive, as as Dad acted out this evening, all the contents of each galaxy will basically just go “fhshwishsyshesy” past each other. Like atoms and solar systems, galaxies are mostly empty space. The night sky might get pretty interesting in the lead up though.

Posted in Science!, Space, the Final Frontier | Tagged , , , | 3 Comments

Turn around when possible…

Posted on November 24, 2013 by Kai

I’m at a career crossroads. Or rather I’m at a career roundabout, doing that thing where you aren’t sure which exit to take and you’ve gone around the roundabout a few times now, enough times to forget which exit you came onto the roundabout from so you can’t nip off again and stop to check a map. And someone’s nicked the road sign you’re looking for. That’s me. This happens to me often enough in real life for me to recognise the analogy rather well. I haven’t stalled yet, which is my other trick when circling roundabouts, unless you include the abortive attempt to leave the career roundabout before swerving back onto it last week. Lucky escape.

Or maybe I do know which exit to take, but it looks a bit potholey and dark, whereas the others are roads I’m more used to. This road might not be the right road longterm, but perhaps it’s worth taking a look, even though it is a bit worrying. Also I’m not sure whether it’s me who thinks it’s a good idea to check this road out, or is that just what other people around me think, and I’m carried along with their enthusiasm?

Oh, and it might be foggy on my roundabout. And I’m getting dizzy.

Posted in Uncategorized | Leave a comment

Sky watching

Posted on November 19, 2013 by Kai

I got a telescope for Christmas! Unusually for us I’ve started using it already in the hopes of maybe seeing comet ISON which may break up at the end of this month. Telescope is a Sky-Watcher Heritage 130p and its pretty portable and apparently a good starter scope.

Tonight was the first clear night, although most planets were visiting the Southern Hemisphere. Using the highly technical method of holding my iPad against the eyepiece I took my first ever astrophotos 😀

First attempt – a little mis-focused on the part of the iPad (autofocus and also auto adjust contrast/brightness etc. so it’s pot luck) but look! The moon!
20131119-225435.jpg

The moon isn’t actually great for viewing through a telescope at the moment – very bright, almost full, it’s almost too bright to look at, and the best details are seen at the transition from light to shadow, and with a nearly full moon that’s not so appreciable. But here is a shot showing how the craters etc. can look.
20131119-225453.jpg

Random thing you don’t appreciate until looking at the moon through a telescope – it moves really fast relative to the position of the telescope! I was lining it up and it was moving before I could get the camera lined up too.

This however is my favourite bit – this is Jupiter and some of its moons (I think I could see about 4-5 though the camera doesn’t give the same clarity). Jupiter is just a bright disc but I did get a sense of bands. Can’t wait for Saturn to come up to see the rings 😀
20131119-225613.jpg

So next thing is I need a mount for a camera lol. And maybe better clothes as it was FREEZING. I only came inside because I was at risk of dropping something important with numb hands…

Posted in Nerdy Geek, Science!, Space, the Final Frontier | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Of villains and rouges

Posted on October 24, 2013 by Kai

I went to see the encore screening of Hamlet at the cinema yesterday. I recommend it. I’ve seen Othello via live broadcast now, and Hamlet as an encore screening (not live, but still complete with interval etc.) and although I think it is marginally better if they are live, encores are still very good. She says basing it on a sample size of 1. But yes – it sounds dubious, but watching plays through a cinema screen is cheaper and more comfortable than going to London or Stratford, plus in the case of certain plays, it allows you to see ones that are otherwise sold out.

I am most impressed though by Rory Kinnear. He happened to be in both Othello and Hamlet. In Othello he played Iago, and by the end of the play I did NOT like Iago. I mention this as this is very unusual – Iago was a villain, and I did not like him. My love of villains started with Malificent in Sleeping Beauty, and has continued unabated through Scar, Jafar, Hans and Simon Gruber right through to pretty much any role Jason Isaacs has and Loki. As Alan Rickman said and I paraphrase, they aren’t villains, they’re very interesting people.

Well, Iago is a villain. And he’s a despicable, nasty, remorseless piece of work – not remorseless in the sense that he was proud of what he’d done, more in that he was bitter he’d been caught at it. This alone made Othello one of the most remarkable things (to me) that I’ve ever seen – I’ve liked villains, and I’ve been disinterested in villains, but I’ve never really actively disliked one, yet Rory Kinnear managed to evoke that.

Fast-forward to yesterday, and Rory was playing Hamlet. In this version Hamlet is portrayed as a tragic character (whereas when I saw David Tennant play him he was vicious). This Hamlet had some similar mannerisms to Rory’s Iago, in fact there wasn’t much obvious difference in them, other than in his eyes, but somehow even though Hamlet kills people, and causes people to die, and generally makes people miserable, we had sympathy for him. Incredible how one actor can do that so subtly – be despised, and then be pitied.

There was a programme on a while ago about Greece and I remember it talked about how the Ancient Greeks viewed the theatre as necessary to maintain emotional stability – watching more-tragic-than-tragic and more-farcical-than-farcical plays was essential to allow people to experience extremes of emotion as a form of catharsis, and so prevent the build up of harmful emotions. Certainly I prefer Shakespeare’s tragedies and tragic histories to comedies and farces – humour doesn’t capture me in the same way, but if you wrap me up in the pathos and drag me down, it’s like being removed to another world.

Posted in Sports and Leisure | Tagged | Leave a comment

Winter Is Coming

Posted on September 24, 2013 by Kai

20130924-095544.jpg

I’ve been re-reading A Song Of Ice And Fire lately – I tried reading it before and got up to the start of book six I think, but took a break and one thing you can’t do with ASOIAF is take a break 😉 I literally lost the plot. So I started again, and every book or every other book I update my ‘where the hell is everyone’ list. I’m halfway through book five and I am still quite clear what’s going on. It’s also quite good re-reading it as I’ve been spotting things that hint at later plot developments. I also got the second box set for my birthday so now also have to rewatch the first box set and then watch the second – so just the 16 hours then.

Posted in Books, Turn of the Year | Leave a comment

Human training for cats

Posted on September 17, 2013 by Kai

There are a number of essential life lessons that must be learnt when you have cats. When you have black cats in particular, you must learn first and foremost that in the dark, cats are invisible. Thus, if you step on something, get off quick, because you are large and cats are small and breakable, and also tend to react disproportionately to the affront. Most of the time its bag you’ve stepped on, or something else, but you can’t run the risk of it being a cat (for their safety or yours). I have had black cats for more than half my life now, and thus my ability to not step on what might be a cat is honed to perfection. I’m not sure how to explain it to those who don’t own black cats, but if you imagine the movement and reaction speeds you’d need to remove your foot from a bear trap you just stood on before it clanged shut – that’s the type of movement and speed we’re talking about. Having just started the transfer of weight from previous foot to the foot that now might be on a cat (or bear trap), the step must now be somehow magically aborted without you falling on your face. All coupled with the adrenaline rush of ‘gahdidihurtthecat?!’ Mad skillz.

The end result is that I know what floors should feel like. So when the hall carpet was replaced with tiling I spent an entire week walking downstairs in the dark and dancing like a loon when I hit the tiled floor, throwing whatever I’m carrying (which was at one point a pint of water). It’s been about a month now, and I still have to remind myself the floor has changed, but things are getting better. That was, until the baby gate was installed on the second to last step (it’s open at night but the bar across the bottom lies on the step). Aaaaand it all started again, except more dramatic as in addition to having two steps to fall down I’m preoccupied by the whole tile thing, so by the second to last step I’m thinking “Now remember – the hall flooring is tile not carp- THING ON STEP MIGHT BE A CAT!” *flail*

Yes I could turn the light on. But ironically while I have apparently managed to subconsciously learn the feel of all the flooring at all points of the house, I haven’t yet learned which of the switches on the double light switches turn on the downstairs light, and the risk of turning on the upstairs one instead and waking people up is too great.

Such are the trials of an owner of black cats.

Also you end up apologising to bags a lot.

Posted in Random waffling | Leave a comment

Fools, little children, and ships named Enterprise

Posted on August 14, 2013 by Kai

I have lots to tell you about – we just returned from a holiday to Italy, and I also still need to tell you about my fab Ireland trip last year! But for today, a quick update, to mark the end of an era.

I moved out of my office yesterday, finally. I’ve been there, in one form or another, for over 10 years now or so. I have no where to go to yet – looking for jobs and applying but as yet no luck. I’m sure things will work out in the end but it’s a little frustrating (ok, I’m being British – it’s more than a little frustrating) to still be in limbo.

I think it’ll be a good thing in the long run, to move on. However I’m sure it’ll look more positive when I find somewhere to move on to.

Fate looks after fools, little children, and ships named Enterprise. I started off as the second, and since I’m not a ship I’m hoping I’m now the first, and that fate continues to look after me…

Posted in Life event | Tagged , , | Leave a comment

Starmen

Posted on June 5, 2013 by Kai

Tonight I saw the International Space Station go overhead for the first time (knowingly). I’ve seen satellites before (though not often in recent years, oddly – used to see them all the time when I was younger), but this was the first time I’ve known exactly what satellite I was looking at. Until seeing this image and others like it I didn’t really realise we could see the ISS, although it’s obvious we should be able to. Also I was really taken with Cmdr. Chris Hadfield’s version of Space Oddity, so I found out about Spot the Station – you can sign up to be emailed by NASA when the ISS is due to go overhead. It goes overhead most nights but sometimes very low (i.e. near the horizon and obscured by housing) and/or very late (3-4am). Tonight it went over almost directly overhead, and at only 00.21. Dad and I watched it from the conservatory – couldn’t miss it, much brighter than stars, moving at a fair old rate! Very cool to think there are people up there. I think the ISS really is one of our species’ most impressive achievements, not least for the international collaboration involved in getting it up there and keeping it running.

Posted in Science! | Tagged , | Leave a comment