And Now The Recovery Begins

And Now The Recovery Begins
Originally uploaded by Jane Goth.

First orange juice

Hits and not so popular sites.

As a blogger much of my time is spent pouring over my stats, fretting over the numbers of readers as they wooble about the 20 mark. So I found it very heartening to read in the Guardian technology section today that some government sites hardly get any hits whatsoever with one getting a measly 77 hits all year. That made me feel a whole lot better, I'm more popular than the government :-D Full article here.

Now Please Wash Your Hands

This was sent out to everybody in my building all I can say is urgh!

Sent: 12 July 2005 11:21
To: ALL
Subject: Toilets

Could I ask all staff to refrain from putting anything down the toilets that should, by rights, go in the bins. I have just fished an empty Quavers packet from a toilet that refused to flush and, no doubt, would have caused a blockage if left and subsequently soiled. Could I also remind staff that eating and drinking in the toilets could pose a risk to health. Whilst I admire the person's in question attempt to kill two birds with one stone, a rest room by the front lobby, is provided for personnel to get away from their desks for a few minutes if they feel the need to eat a potato based snack.

Dep Building Custodian

Food

To me one of the finest smells there is is that of onions and garlic being gently sautéd in good olive oil. When I smell them I am taken back to university days when I got my first cast iron casserole dish and the cooking I used to do there. Cheap cuts of beef stewed slowly with bay leaves, chilies and curries, the staples especially when entertaining.

I'm entertaining tomorrow, Simon and a couple of friends Dave and Anne. I'm going to do my poorman's version of coq au vin with rice. With olives as nibbles and something or other as pudding, not sure what yet, probably ice cream.

Fanny Craddock would not approve but who cares. For me the point of entertaining is talking to people and having fun not slaving over a hot stove cooking food that has to be served with military precision for it to be at its best. I know I am a good cook I'm just not interested in cooking very fancy food. Keep it simple and simple presentation works for me and I haven't had any complaints yet.

Grand Theft Auto

Went Christmas shopping on Saturday in Kings Lynn. I was in the zone, I was at one with the Christmas present list as I managed to get almost all my present buying done including a present for Simon who was proving to be the most difficult to buy for, until inspiration hit me.

Why are men so hard to buy for? Yes there are loads of present ideas out there but they are either laddish, beer games and footy related or they are so dull, hankies, socks, undies that I feel grim contiplating buying them. Lord knows how the poor bloke feels receiving them. What also makes it harder is that many blokes tend to go from would-like-to-have through must-have to just-bought in 5 seconds flat so they've got everything. Case in point Simon spotted a copy of Grand Theft Auto he had been after, instead of pointing and hinting heavily, he just went ahead and bought it.

Having said that it's not just men, my Mum is pretty hard to buy for as well, when asked she said how about some chopping boards? :-s. I want to be able to wrap a present up thinking, I've done well I've bought a present that I'm happy to give because I know that they will like it, that I like as well. Chopping Boards don't really have that pazazz.

I feel happy with the presents I've got so far, they "sang to me" I would like to recieve them. But don't worry any family that are reading this I've not got you a DVD of Sheffield Wednesday's greatest goals.

Beer Cans for Table Tennis Nets

As I’ve said before used to I live in Edinburgh. We had an old house that needed much work doing on it as it hadn't been touched since the 20's. As I was about 3 when we moved in and much of the work was done I only have vague memories. Although I do remember lead piping on the front lawn and big men who had paint splashed on their trousers.

This was also the period of when we were so poor... so work got done as and when it could be afforded. When I was about 7 or 8 it was time for the pantry to be sorted out, my father decided to put down a new floor down in it. Chipboard was purchased, cut to size then the family decided that were coming to us for Christmas, all of them; my Grandma, my father's brothers and family and my Granddad. My father also had a PhD student who would not be able to go home for Christmas, so my parents had invited him over as well. This would be a sit down for dinner of 12 maybe even more.

We did not have a table big enough, we couldn't afford to buy such a table. It was at this point the chipboard was looked at with narrowed eyes, the words "legs" "coat of varnish" were tersely muttered and low and behold we had a new dining room table. Practically all the chairs in the house were pressed into service and a make shift bench was constructed

To me the table was huge, it was certainly big enough to play shove ha'penny football on. Then from somewhere (I suspect a skip) two slightly tatty ping pong bats appeared and a ping pong ball, no net unfortunately but in the spirit of make do that we had. empty beer cans were used instead. They were about the right height and we had enough of them because it was Christmas.

So equipped I learnt to play table tennis. A few weeks later we, my mum, my brother and I were walking back home when Patrick spied an old table tennis set lying on top of some bins along with other old toys. It wasn’t complete but there were a couple of bats and a table tennis net. It fitted perfectly on the table, the cans could be thrown away.

We'd have become expert table tennis players, if Dad hadn't eventually decided that our table should really be put to it's intended use, pantry flooring!

Pucker Up Picasso

Yesterday there was hoo haa in the meedja about artists being sexually more successful than the rest of us. The BBC went on about it a lot, (guess a lot of the producers have arts degrees then) and there was an interesting article in the Guardian too.

So I really enjoyed the article by Dinos Chapman, where he poo poo'd this research with a few facts and inside knowledge in the G2 section of the Guardian today - Artists are not sexy