Lumbar
decompression
Still
recovering, not much patience, but improving day by day.
Sense of humour has departed temporarily, but I’m sure it will return.
Reading and enjoying your blogs and commenting here and there, but with a head full of cotton wool, I’m not sure I’m making much sense.
Have a good weekend, everyone.
Were you
right?
(I only
got three right.)
1: The UK had three prime ministers in 2022.
2: Hot water freezes faster than cold water under certain
circumstances.
From Copilot (AI):
Hot water can actually freeze faster than cold
water under certain conditions, a phenomenon known as the Mpemba effect. The
effect is named after Tanzanian student Erasto Mpemba, who observed it in the
1960s.
The reasons
behind the Mpemba effect are still debated among scientists, but some possible
explanations include:
Evaporation: Hot water can evaporate
more quickly, reducing its volume and therefore the amount of water that needs
to be cooled.
Convection currents: Hot water can create
convection currents as it cools, which might lead to more uniform cooling.
Supercooling: Hot water might avoid
supercooling (cooling below its freezing point without becoming solid) compared
to cold water.
Dissolved gases: Hot water can release
dissolved gases more effectively, which might influence the freezing process.
It's important to note that the Mpemba effect doesn't always
occur and can depend on various factors such as the container, the surrounding
environment, and the initial temperatures of the water.
3: Burns Night is celebrated annually on 25th
January.
4: The collective noun for tigers is a streak or an ambush.
5: Superman came from the planet Krypton.
6: The last letter of the Greek alphabet is Omega.
7: Barbie’s three younger sisters are Skipper, Stacie and
Chelsea.
8: In yoga, twelve poses make up one sun salutation.
9: There are thirty-two black squares on a chess board.
10: London Waterloo station has the most platforms.
Do you
know?
This is
not up to the standard of Mr Pudding’s quizzes, but it might amuse you.
I may not be around to mark your homework, so I trust you all not to cheat!
1: How many prime
ministers did the UK have in 2022?
2: What freezes fastest,
hot or cold water?
3: On what date is
Burns Night celebrated?
4: What is the
collective noun for tigers?
5: Which planet did Superman
come from?
6: What is the last
letter of the Greek alphabet?
7: What are the names
of Barbie’s three younger sisters?
8: In yoga, how many
poses make up one sun salutation?
9: How many black squares are there on a chess board?
10: Which railway station in London has the most platforms?
Answers
tomorrow.
Dreaming
‘We are all made of dreams, and our life stretches from sleep before birth to sleep after death.’
Prospero,
The Tempest
Shakespeare
Everyone dreams. It is claimed that dreaming is important, an opportunity for the brain to process the experiences of the day.
Sometimes it is an escape. When interviewed after release, a concentration camp inmate said she had had beautiful dreams while incarcerated, but when she was free once more, the wonderful dreams no longer came to her.
There are five common categories of dreams. The sort that reflects our daily life is the most usual type. In them we may transcend reality and allow our imagination free play.
Daydreams occur when the dreamer is fully awake but mentally engaged in another situation. I’m not sure I would say that these are actually dreams, but what do I know?
The lucid dream, in which the dreamer thinks him or herself awake and participating and able to control events, is a strange, somewhat unsettling event. It is similar in some ways to the ‘false awakening’ dream, when the dreamer thinks he or she has woken up but is in fact still dreaming.
Occasionally, people have nightmares, and these can be very frightening. They usually occur in the early morning. Night terrors are similar, but involve screaming, intense fear and thrashing as if to escape bonds or restrictions.
Sometimes they happen at the same time as sleepwalking. Sleepwalkers can get up, walk around, even appear awake, for their eyes are open, and they can hold simple conversations. They can be led gently back to bed without further disturbance. It is a very odd experience to be with a child who is sleepwalking, for the child is in the present physically, but the mind is elsewhere.
Sometimes dreams recur frequently. One of mine involves me being late for work, or simply not turning up. Another has me worrying about exams.
Sometimes, dreams are so vivid that they can be recalled years later. As a child, I dreamt that I was flying, and was positive for many years that I could actually fly. I remembered the sensation of flying under my own power.
Apparently, it is not uncommon for dreamers to think thus. My youngest daughter had a friend at university who had been similarly convinced of her ability to fly. Even faced with irrefutable science, we tend to continue believing that which makes us content.
A dream I had in 2009 has remained with me. I ‘met’ a man, who sprang fully formed into my consciousness on waking. He was a pleasant-looking fellow, neither handsome nor plug-ugly. His skin was clear and smooth, and his hair was dark, clean, and well-cut. He was about 35, of medium height and build, and appeared reasonably fit. It was apparent that he followed an exercise régime of some sort, probably involving running or walking, or maybe cycling or rowing. He was not a man to play team sports because he spent his working days in close proximity to other people and wanted time and space to himself at the end of the long working day.
He was a quiet man, and though he was well-liked by his fellow workers, they could never remember his name. He thought it was because he was more of a listener than a talker. Eventually, he grew so tired of being addressed as Jim, or Bob, or any other name that came to his co-worker’s lips, that he decided to wear a badge with his name printed neatly on it.
Gerard Culpeper
Pastry chef
I have no idea why he chose me as his channel of communication. I have never met anyone called Gerard or Culpeper, though I have a copy of Culpeper’s Herbal (Culpeper’s Complete Herbal, written by Nicholas Culpeper and published in 1653.)
I frequently encounter odd characters in the moments before I’m quite awake, but rarely remember them. I never see the same ‘person’ twice.
What dreams do you remember? Do you have recurrent dreams? If you have pets, do they dream? Ours certainly do!
Living healthily
Everyone likes a bargain and the possibility of saving money, particularly now, with the price of everything in UK rising rapidly.
However, it has been suggested frequently that cut-price offers on alcohol should be abolished. Making alcohol more expensive would encourage consumers to buy less and therefore drink less – at least, that’s the theory. When a big sporting event is planned, will supporters who set out to enjoy themselves by getting completely rat-arsed be persuaded not to do so if the price of their particular poison has risen? I suspect not.
Many people are injured or killed on the roads. Maybe the price of cars and fuel should be raised even higher so that there are fewer vehicles on our busy roads. Wasn’t there once a slogan that asked, ‘Is your journey really necessary?’
Breathing in exhaust fumes or the particulates from brakes is not healthy, so if you can afford to drive your super-expensive vehicle with its ever more expensive fuel, it might be wise to invest in a face mask. This is even more important if you live near a busy road, especially if there are traffic lights, junctions or ‘sleeping policemen’ (speed bumps) causing drivers to brake frequently.
What about the number of people admitted to hospital every year through falls in the home? Eradicating stairs in houses, converting them to bungalows, or compulsorily replacing them with stair lifts or compact home lifts would go some way to alleviating that problem. Still, some people trip over rugs or find carpets impede their smooth progress – bare floors for all! Hang on, though, people slip on tiles or wooden floors. I know, make the surface non-slip or force people to wear suction shoes, Spiderman style – affordable answers for those who receive a decent living wage or pension.
Boiling liquids are hazardous – let the people forego tea, coffee, hot chocolate and hot Bovril and drink cold beverages, though not alcohol, obviously.
Hobs and ovens get dangerously hot. The way out? Cold food, not meat or fish, as they have to be cooked, and easy to tear apart with the fingers, since obviously, sharp knives are unsafe.
As for ironing – forget it! (I did, a long time ago!) Vacuum cleaners cam strain the back, so it would be better to eliminate those, too. In any case, those trailing wires are a trip hazard. Even battery-operated, rechargeable vacuum cleaners are to be avoided, since back strain is possible with those, too.
Baths and showers are doubly treacherous – the risk of scalds followed by the possibility of slipping over in them, even with grab bars, means they should be avoided.
Aren’t there an awful lot of overweight citizens? Put up the price of food – what? Oh, yes, it is already rising rapidly, so perhaps the people will reduce their intake of food. The more affluent will continue to gorge themselves, possibly.
Lack of exercise and a sedentary lifestyle lead to poor circulation, heart disease and digestive disturbances, so let’s dispose of all the things that encourage folks to sit down – television, computers, books, board games, painting, pianos, writing – endless possibilities here.
If you can afford a house without stairs, cooking facilities, hot water and so forth, you will probably want to make alterations, or at the very least, maintain it in good decorative order. Wait! Danger lurks round every corner. Hanging wallpaper? You might need to climb a ladder for that, and you could fall off – better not. Just stick to paint. A roller on an extendable pole should do the trick, though you’ll have to do just a little at a time – say, fifteen minutes a day, or you’re risking neck and back problems, not to mention the possibility of paint splashing in your eyes.
You may decide to fit some shelves – ooh, careful! Saws are risky with their nasty, serrated edges, hammers hurt fingers, and nails are sharp. In any case, the shelves will have to be set low to obviate the risk of things falling off them onto your head, feet, back – and you won’t need them for books, now, will you?
So, what will be the purpose of the shelves? Ornaments? No, ornaments can fall, and break and you might step on them, and cut your feet, even in your suction shoes. House plants would be a pleasing alternative, but make sure they’re not toxic or irritating to the skin, eyes, or nose, or harbouring poisonous insects from foreign climes.
Everyday house maintenance involves cleaning windows, dusting, polishing, scouring bathroom porcelain, clearing gutters and a myriad other riveting exercises, all carrying their due portion of peril. They’d better not be pursued – mustn’t clutter up the hospitals or the graveyards.
The garden is another area of danger; gardening forks can impale you, rakes may jump up and hit you in the face, secateurs can cut off fingers as well as branches – all potentially very damaging, so why not make them so expensive that customers will think twice before buying them? As for lawn mowers – the work of the devil, and too easy to run out of control. Worry not - ‘wilding’ is the mot du jour.
Don’t even think about feeding the birds. Spilt seed attracts rats, and they carry diseases, but even without the rodents, birds carry salmonellosis and psittacosis, which are zoonotic. Yersiniosis is another unpleasant ailment, even though it sounds like something afflicting someone who cannot say ‘no.’
Let us suppose you are doing everything in your power to preserve body and soul in the best possible state of fitness. You decide to swim. Obviously, you won’t be doing that on a full stomach once food is prohibitively expensive, but you could still drown. It is possible to drown in less than two inches of water (if you’re face down, obviously) so please ensure that the depth of water in the pool does not exceed this measure. As you will then be causing great trauma to your head and limbs if you attempt to swim, you’d better not! Next?
Running! Long-term running wear out joints and it’s tricky finding the right location, too. Pavements are hard and unforgiving, jarring knees and backs. They are full of pedestrians, and will be even more so as fewer people will be able to afford to run their filth-producing cars.
An athletics track might not be advisable. Running round in circles causes vertigo. The forest or the beach or the hills could provide the answer, but it’s not really prudent. There are too many tree roots in the forests, chafing sand, or trippable pebbles on the beaches, ankle-turning tussocks in the hills.
So, a public gym, or leisure centre, as they’re so picturesquely called these days, could be the solution. How do you feel about sharing the equipment and the air with patrons you might otherwise cross the road to avoid> Too many microbes and you’re bound to ‘catch‘ something and then you’ll be ill, which is what you’re trying to avoid. Running can be disregarded.
How about cycling? Obviously not! Just think about it. If you’re travelling on the highway, you encounter the same difficulties as the unfortunate runner, and likewise on the track or in the country.
You might consider rowing, but, as with swimming, there is a distinct danger of drowning, so a safe depth of water effectively disqualifies rowing as a pastime.
Climbing, potholing, white water rafting and paragliding all rule themselves out, as do all martial arts, sports involving close contact, hard balls, or high impact exercises (it’s the joints again)
We’re running out of alternatives. Tai chi chuan (the slow form) might be a contender, so long as you ensure that the area around you is completely clear of hazards – like other people practising tai chi.
All in all, life is precious and must be preserved at all costs – or, at any rate, at great cost.
I do hope we can all follow the simple advice above and enjoy our safe lives as we proceed slowly through our days, avoiding all jeopardy and each other.
Beluga whales
I came across the following on Facebook and was moved by it.
In December 1984, a group of
3,000 beluga whales were trapped by ice in the Chukchi Sea, near Russia. The
whales were confined to small open water ponds surrounded by thick, impassable
ice up to ten feet thick in some areas.
Without access to larger areas
of the ocean, the whales had difficulty breathing and were at risk of dying. To
help rescue them, an icebreaker named Admiral Makarov was brought in, equipped
with a specially reinforced ice-breaking hull. The ship attempted to take the
whales to safety by breaking the ice, but the belugas initially refused to
follow.
When the crew began playing
classical music like Tchaikovsky over the ship's speakers, the whales finally
began to follow the Makarov through the narrow open-water channel. This allowed
2,000 whales to reach the unfrozen ocean after a journey of almost one hundred
miles.
The successful rescue effort lasted several days and was later dubbed "Operation Beluga." It was a massive undertaking that involved several countries, including the (then)Soviet Union, the United States, Canada, and Japan.
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The Beluga whale (Delphinapterus leucas) is found in the Arctic. It is also known as the white whale, because of its colouring, or the sea canary, because its many and varied calls are high-pitched and bird -like.
Most whales have dorsal fins, which help to maintain stability in the water and affect the direction of passage. Beluga whales do not have this fin, which means they are able to swim easily under the ice. ‘Delphinapterus’ means ‘dolphin without fin.’
Belugas are also quite unusual in having flexible necks, which allow them to move their heads freely.
Around, sort of . . .
I have scheduled posts for a few days ahead, but may not respond to any comments any of you are kind enough to make. I shall be in hospital next week for back surgery. I expect to be there for 48 hours only, but will probably be even more gaga than usual when I am home again.
Though I shall continue to read and enjoy your blog posts, I will not be commenting, as I haven’t the patience to marshal my thoughts.
Ciao for now . . . be good!
Whittard of Chelsea
Though I never drink coffee and rarely have tea, I enjoy buying distinct types occasionally, for other people.
The coffee names alone are a delight – Guatemala Elephant, Monsoon Malabar, Jamaica Blue Mountain, Kenya Peaberry, and Sumatra Mandheling are just some of the options for coffee.
There are notes to accompany each selection. For example, Guatemala Elephant is described thus:
“Our most popular medium-dark roast with good reason – these big Guatemala Maragogype beans trumpet a bold dark chocolate and orange flavour.”
Following that are reviews from satisfied, even ecstatic, customers. They say things like, ‘It starts off each and every day with style and sophistication,’ or ‘Finely balanced flavour,’ and ‘The best coffee in the world.’
Monsoon Malabar is “Exceptionally smooth with a sweet, spicy kick, this dark roast coffee is unique to the lush Malabar Coast of Karnataka and Kerala, where it has protected status.”
There is a wide choice of loose teas – black, green, white, and matcha among them, as well as flavoured teas, and fruit and herbal infusions.
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If you’ve read any of Alexander Scott McCall’s novels about the No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, featuring the irrepressible Mma Precious Ramotswe in Botswana, you will have heard rooibos tea mentioned frequently. Rooibos or Red Bush Tea is an herbal Southern African tea, and a great favourite of Mma Ramotswe’s.
If tea and coffee are not appealing, there are hot chocolate options, and miniature marshmallows, of course!
Whittard’s offers a number of gift options, like milk frothers, infusers and even stencils to decorate your drink, or perhaps a hamper or gift box.
Also available is equipment and tableware including cafetières, tea pots, and double-walled mugs.
The goods are carefully packed in sturdy, recyclable cardboard boxes. The interiors are covered in illustrations depicting the early days of the company.
On the Elbe
Elbe Sluice, below the ruins of Střekov Castle
Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons
The
website we have been watching recently features the River Elbe. The camera is
attached variously to different working barges. We don’t watch it slavishly; it’s
on in the background, like a moving panorama.
The Elbe is an important river in Central Europe. It rises in the Giant Mountains in the Czech Republic and has the fourth largest river basin in Central and Western Europe. The three other major rivers of the area are the Danube, the Vistula, and the Rhine.
The Elbe runs for 680 miles from its source to its exit to the North Sea at Cuxhaven in Germany, passing through Dresden and Hamburg. It is a significant waterway for cargo ships, but is also an important location for fishing, boating and other water-based pastimes. Its beautiful scenery attracts tourists, especially those interested in wildlife.
Today, Thursday, it has passed through the Elbe Sluice, also known as the Střekov Sluice. This lock, just below Střekov Castle, has two locks, and a fish pass to enable fish migration. The sluice is a strategic part of the region’s waterworks, producing hydroelectric power sufficient for the annual consumption of over 14,000 households.
We have seen the weather gradually deteriorating in the last few days, and the current barge is covered in snow. The low-lying green banks have been transformed into crisp white boundaries to the often frozen water. It is a grey, snowy day and we have been privileged to watch the barge’s passage from the warmth and comfort of our English home, so many hundreds of miles from the Czech Republic.
Tea?
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I have no recollection of how I came by this, but discovered that it had held Earl Grey tea bags. It’s one of life’s little pleasures to use attractive things on a daily basis, so I may start using it for our tea leaves. It’s quite tall, so not the easiest container to work with, and it will require a long-handled spoon.
The Williamson Tea company has been growing and harvesting tea since 1869 on four individual farms in Kenya. The tea bushes are grown without herbicides or pesticides.
The Williamson Tea Foundation supports the local communities with education and healthcare and employment opportunities. It also supports smallholders, and has provided three and a half million tea bushes to them in the last decade.
It is committed to maintaining and protecting wildlife habitats and primaeval forest, and has created ‘monkey corridors’ to allow safe passage of wild animals.
The company has an online shop offering a variety of teas, a few biscuits, and a couple of iconic enamel cups. It is an interesting site, full of information.
The ‘phone rang . . .
. . . on Monday night. It was Callum calling to ask if we were available for a visit. ‘Of course,’ we said. ‘When?’ thinking it would be at the weekend.
‘I’m just round the corner,’ he said. Actually, he was about fifteen minutes away, but close enough to pass for ‘just around the corner.’ He was in the area for business and having to stay overnight in a hotel.
Roxy and Gilbert were overjoyed to see him.
He stayed for a couple of hours and he and Barry set the world to rights in their usual fashion. Then he left for a meeting.
‘I hope it goes well,’ I said.
‘We’re meeting
over a pint,’ he said.
That was bound
to be successful, I thought.
These
unplanned visits are such a welcome surprise.
Sticks!
It is a fact universally acknowledged that dogs enjoy sticks or things that resemble sticks. They like to chase and retrieve them, or chew them, or guard them, or play tug of war with them, or simply lie on them and go to sleep.
Many dogs will seek out a stick as soon as their paws touch the forest floor, and the bigger it is, the better. Roxy Labrador picks up a stick the minute she gets out of the car.
Dogs will navigate gateways and narrow paths with sticks that are much longer than it would be thought possible to manoeuvre. Cariadd Dalmatian used to carry sticks that looked more like telegraph poles.
Some dogs are possessive about their sticks and will not relinquish them. Arthur Cocker Spaniel loves to play the ‘Is that my . . . ?’ game. He will not give up his stick or toy until he is ready. He makes lots of noise, but he is the sweetest little dog.
Sam Jack Russell insisted on taking his sticks into the back of the car and would not release them until he reached home. He and his sister, Daisy, played sticks with their mother, Biddy. The three of them ran along, two going forwards, one backwards. Biddy was also an accomplished tree climber.
Sticks and water go together. Labradors are persistent retrievers and bob their heads under water, looking and smelling for sticks that have sunk. Atavistic behaviour deep in the retriever memory from their origins, perhaps, from hauling in fishing nets in the chilly Newfoundland waters.
We always make sure that sticks are thick and long enough not to stick in the dogs’ mouths and throats. Mostly, we encourage our dogs to play with Kongs and balls, but sometimes, only a stick will do!
Forks
What does a fork mean to you? Is it something with which to break up the sods, or to muck out the stables? Perhaps you use a smaller version, while carving a roast, holding the meat steady while a sharp knife blade slices the joint.
If salad forms part of a meal, salad servers resembling a large spoon and fork can help move the greenery from bowl to plate, and perhaps a pickle fork might be used to spike onions or beetroot.
When I was a child, crumpets oozing with butter were a great treat in winter. These, and toasted bread, were cooked over coals in an open fire, and for this a toasting fork was used. Even with its long shaft, hands became very hot, and so did the faces of the people watching to see that the food didn’t burn.
Before forks were adopted, people used knives, spoons and fingers. Indeed, there is a saying, ‘Fingers were made before forks’, usually used to excuse the use of same.
Forks have been in use for centuries, since at least 2400 B.C, originally as cooking implements. Personal forks were used in the Byzantine Empire by the 4th century and forks were commonly used throughout the Middle East six hundred years later.
Italy used forks at table from the 11th century and by the 14th century they were commonplace. Guests were expected to provide their own forks and spoons when invited to dine.
It took longer for the fork to be adopted in northern Europe, some writers in the Catholic church deploring their use as an affectation. In England, Elizabeth I (1533-1603) owned forks but preferred to use her fingers. Personal table forks were not widely used until the 18th century.
America did not embrace the fork until just before the American Revolution (1765-1783)
Before forks were considered acceptable, the custom was to hold food down with the left hand and hold the knife in the right hand to cut. Then the knife would be used to take food to the mouth.
When forks were introduced, the custom of using the right hand for eating was retained, the fork being moved from left to right hand after cutting. This habit was taken to America by the British and became the accepted etiquette. Meanwhile, Europe eventually opted for the speedier style of retaining the fork in the left hand.
I suspect that the American method of eating probably slows down the consumption of food, which is better for the digestion.
Am I correct?
Trump
Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons
Before everyone groans and demands, ‘No more, we’ve had enough,’ I should point out that this post is nothing (or, at least, not a lot!) to do with the orange one, variously known as the felon, 47, Trump the Dump, and other delightful monikers, more of which can be found here.
A trump card in a game of bridge, or poker, or some other incomprehensible and highly addictive, fairly intellectual card game (to someone who only plays Snap, Cheat and various Patience games, the foregoing are all games played by the intelligentsia) is one which outranks all the cards of a non-trump suit. Thus, to trump someone is to beat them, and has come to mean having an advantage over others, perhaps in business.
Trump once referred to individuals who were considered admirable – it’s a dated term of approbation, as in, ‘My solicitor does wonderful work – he’s a trump.’ It was also a noun, meaning someone who played the trumpet.
Trump is an archaic term for a trumpet. In the King James bible, in 1 Corinthians, chapter 15, verse 52, it says, ‘ . . . in the twinkling of an eye, at the last trump: for the trumpet shall sound, and the dead shall be raised incorruptible, and we shall be changed.’
A trump refers to a person or thing which ‘proclaims, celebrates, or summons loudly like a trumpet.’
At this point, I began to wonder if the orange one had changed his name to reflect all these meanings, though, in 1642, the ‘Trumpe or Snoute of an Elephant’ was the name applied to what we now call the trunk.
However, the thought that initiated this wander through words ancient and modern, was that ‘trump’ refers to the act of audibly breaking wind. I thought that quite fitting.
Truisms
Whoops!
Image courtesy Wikimedia Commons
Our middle daughter once owned a flat in Crouch End, which is one of the ‘yummy mummy’ areas of London. At the time she was not a mummy of any sort – that came later.
Her flat was at the top of the house, remote from the street.
One night, while she was away from home, the Metropolitan Police received information that something nefarious was occurring in the house. They arrived in force, and used an ‘Enforcer’ to ram the front door. The ‘Enforcer’ is sometimes referred to as a ‘Rammit’ or ‘Sam.’ It is essentially a heavy battering ram, which few doors can resist, even those which have been reinforced.
The occupant of the ground floor flat was startled to find his home being breached. I don’t know whether the opera singers in the second-floor flat were present at the time.
It soon became clear that nothing criminal was being enacted in the building. It transpired that the post code the police had been given was incorrect and the ‘place of interest’ was hundreds of miles away.
The police were most apologetic and replaced the front door with one that was superior in every way to the original, and a great deal more expensive.
I often think of that as I lie in bed at night, and wonder how I would react, should such an event happen here. The conversation would be interesting.
‘Can I help you?’ would not seem to be an appropriate response, but ‘What the hell do you think you’re doing?’ might inflame the situation.
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