Planet a.f.p.

Aquarion: Winter Assault

Aquarion — Sun, 05 Feb 2012 13:04:59 +0100

London Mayor, Boris Bloody Johnson, Friday:

Across all our roads and rails hundreds of workers are on standby to ensure that, should we receive a mega deposit of snow, we are in a position to keep the capital moving.

London Weather, Sunday:

London Snow (Image by me, via Instagram)

Transport for London, Sunday:

First snow of the year in London. London Underground comes to a grinding halt. (Image via @tariqpanja on twitter)

(Please leave comments on the original article rather than any syndications thereof) 0c89b0a701d3cda4ecf6e3837c2783c2)

sabremeister: I have soggy feet

Sabremeister — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 23:19:36 +0100

Or, I did, until I took my socks off. Y'see, today it snowed all over the North of England (and probably lots of other places too), and I had to go out in it. I was a bit late up, though, so I didn't have time to put my boots on, only my trainers, and my trainers are not as waterproof as my boots.

I went to the EdFringe Roadshow at the Contact Theatre in Manchester (whose architect must surely be wearing a white coat with really long sleeves now), in order to do research towards putting on the show that I hope to be doing this summer. I say "hope to be doing" rather than "will be doing", because people I'M not allowed to Talk about are makinG things difficult because I cocked up the timings of approaching actors versus approaching them. Anyway, that particular problem should be sorted out by the end of the week, one way or another.

Results from the Roadshow are good - it turns out most of my predictions/guesses about what would need to be done in what order to take a show to Edinburgh were accurate, or at least workably close. I got to talk to four venue reps, and a production company consultant. It provided a lot of useful information, which KCT will be making use of.

Julia Jones: January book log partial - books 2-4

Julia Jones — Sat, 04 Feb 2012 20:12:39 +0100

2) Ruth Rendell -- Some Lie and Some Die
Eighth Inspector Wexford novel. Another competent entry in the police procedural series with a psychological twist.
http://www.librarything.com/work/200196

3) Justin Richards - Doctor Who: The Resurrection Casket
Ninth of the new series Doctor Who novels. Ten and Rose get stuck in a dead spot of space, a place where high tech (including the Tardis) doesn't work because of the high concentration of plot-devicium. Cue steampunk robots and space pirates, as sundry interested parties go hunting for the titular MacGuffin in an utterly shameless Treasure Island/Doctor Who crossover. Silly but fun.
http://www.librarything.com/work/627974/

4) Dick Francis - Bonecrack
Neil Griffon is abducted and threatened late one night. But what is demanded of him is highly unusual -- that he make a particular young man a jockey at his father's training stable. Not for the obvious reasons -- no fixed races, no attempt to corrupt the betting process. Just a gift from a father to his son, who wants more than anything else in the world to ride a winning race on a particular horse.

Griffon has no choice, not when the horses are under threat. But there are more subtle ways to deal with a blackmailer than direct confrontation...

An excellent thriller, and a fascinating study of father-son relationships. There's some lovely characterisation in this book, and Francis builds on that to show how the two main characters change with the experiences they're put through.

http://www.librarything.com/work/71150

Mirror of http://julesjones.dreamwidth.org/173528.html, where it has received comments.

Beth: Wislawa Szymborska, 1923-2012

Beth — Thu, 02 Feb 2012 08:31:54 +0100

Die—you can’t do that to a cat.
Since what can a cat do
in an empty apartment?
Climb the walls?
Rub up against the furniture?
Nothing seems different here
but nothing is the same.
Nothing’s been moved
but there’s more space.
And at nighttime no lamps are lit.

(Read more ...)

Kimberley: Cheesy Flapjacks

Kimberley — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 23:05:20 +0100

One for Anne, a savoury alternative to regular flapjacks. I've quartered the original American recipe because even Wingnut can't eat that much cheese.

Cheesy Flapjacks

175g oats
200g cheddar cheese
15g parmesan cheese
2 eggs
125g salted butter
15g fresh rosemary
pinch of black pepper

Grate cheese. Roughly chop rosemary. Mix dry ingredients.

Melt butter. Beat eggs with a pinch of salt to break up the membrane. Beat them together fully, but they don't need air in them.

Mix everything together. The mixture might look dry but the cheese will melt everything together.

Press down onto a baking tray greased with butter and flour. 1cm thick will make it a little crunchy, 2cm will keep it nice and moist -- experiment.

Bake for 35 mins at 180°C.

Leave to cool completely unless you want to eat lava cheese.

Alternatives: If you lack rosemary (fresh or dried), a couple of tbsps of Italian herb seasoning and one tbsp of sage is a good alternative. I like to use mature cheddar, haven't tried anything else yet. Again, plenty of room for experimentation.

sabremeister: I can ...

Sabremeister — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 02:08:53 +0100

act;
fence;
sing;
drive;
run 100m in about 12 seconds;
recite most of the prologue to Henry V at the drop of a hat (although not immediately after running 100m);
type somewhere around 70-90wpm;
write books;
intelligently discuss ancient Rome, medieval society, renaissance art, and/or Napoleonic tactics in a range of convincing accents from around Britain and the world;
operate a tech desk;
organise and plan a complex project with little material assistance;
balance on one leg for nearly two minutes, depending on the pose;
brilliantly cook a pizza, pasta, bacon, or a cup of coffee;
... and probably some other things that I can't remember at one in the morning.

So, what can you do?

_hypathia_

_hypathia_ — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 01:26:40 +0100

Back in January 2011 I enjoyed many reviews of the decade and its impact on my friends' lives and intended to write something similar. I never started, somewhat deterred by an old and dear schoolfriend dubbing my decade as 'unremitting, especially the second half'; apt, but not an adjective one associates with entertaining reading.

I assured her that 2011 could only get better. The gods of course mocked, sending us the Luxury Demon Assortment Box with immediate effect: chewy employment, melted social stuff, health crunch, nutty tax, DEATH, and the dreaded faux fruit soft centres. Several of the losses were close, one in the immediate family just before Christmas. To describe 2011 as a condensed version of the previous decade would be overstating but less so than I might wish.

Anyways, a consequence of the most recent loss was that if you didn't hear from us at Christmas as expected then you are in the majority. This wasn't lack of inclination, simply that I'd written less than half the cards/ messages at that point. Usually the one time of the year when I manage to keep in touch, I put a high value on the humble Xmas card as that touchstone. Apologies, belated NY & Xmas greetings to one and all - hope all was good for you and yours and a particular thanks to those who keep in touch with me despite Life, a particular apology if I've missed any significant posts/announcements.

I'm making no predictions for 2012.

In administrative news, a series of sustained domain attacks on half a dozen of the domains I look after (and one of my own) started in August. The real annoyance was my discovery last week that it had caused one of my personal domains to be blocked by most mail services. It is resolved now but if you were waiting on me for anything it could have been blocked by your provider any time these last few months (also likely that mail to us has been lost in the torrent of spam caused by the forged domains.) Most times I'd have picked this up earlier but the months leading to Christmas did not lend themselves to chasing mails.

Unsurprisingly I've missed far more than I've read of Twitter/FB type announcements - they aged out before I could see them especially in the latter half of the year (G+ spurns people like me, my loss I'm sure if only I could be arsed about it). As some of you will recall I used to filter things out for later reading from various online fora but the mechanism was switched off early last year and as yet I've not had time to create it anew for items of purely personal interest.
I usually do catch up with LJ (friends list at least) eventually simply because the entries stay around.

So I aten't dead.

But there is no getting rid of death. Or taxes. Or the bloody faux fruit soft centres.

Also no getting a night's sleep apparently.

CCA

CCA — Mon, 30 Jan 2012 21:43:48 +0100

Just putting this here for safe-keeping until I'm back on parents' computer (using my own at the moment, and it doesn't have a printer)

http://www.followyourfashion.com/designer/trizdesigns/