Journal Entries
Bread and Leather - Mrs Zen - NaJoPoMo - 6th November 2011
Posted Nov 6, 2011
A cynic is supposed to know the cost of everything and the value of nothing; I'm not sure about this. What fascinates me though is how the relative costs of things has shifted (have shifted?) with mechanisation.
Almost all of the bread in Zenadu is baked by Z. And he doesn't just put the ingredients into a bread-maker and click a button. Or use bread mixes from Tescos. Or indeed yeast. Ho no. We have bread bowls in the washing up most days, and sinister little tupperware containers of "starter" in the fridge. (Note to self, remove and wash out the worst of these).
As he was kneading the most recent lot (brown bread rolls, to go with the soon-to-be-cooked soup to-use-up-the-tomatoes) he told me that bread was the greatest expense in houses in Pompeii. (Note to self, go to Pompeii).
Now before mechanisation, the only real benefit of bread as a foodstuff would be the storability of grain. Grain is very labour intensive, there's the harvesting, then there's the winnowing to sort the wheat from the chaff, then there's the grinding. Grinding in a quern is backbreaking work and ox- water- and wind-mills were truly revolutionary. It's only once you have flour that people like Z can start the three- or four-day process of bread-making.
How much easier to pick a few apples, chomp on a few carrots or scramble a couple of eggs? But of course apples, carrots and eggs aren't as storable or transportable as grain.
Many years ago I was in the museum in Cirencester and discovered that a legionary's leather tunic was a fraction of the cost of the centurion's woollen one. And for the same reason; the wool had to be washed, spun and woven by hand, but curing the same square-footage of leather involved a fraction of the labour.
Plus ça change, plus c'est changé.
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Latest reply: Nov 6, 2011
Remember Remember - NaJoPoMo - 5th November 2011
Posted Nov 5, 2011
I like fireworks.
Not insanely; I missed the ones at the end of the Festival, for example, but I do enjoy them when I get the chance. The Hogmanay Fireworks above Edinburgh Castle are proverbially impressive; though what surprised me about them wasn't the noise (Whhhheeeeeeeeeee BANG) or the display (mainly bursting chrysanthemums if I recall rightly) so much as the feeling of heat on our faces.
Anyhoo, I decided a while ago that of all the things that can be done with me after I die http://www.efbox.co.uk/os-cremated-remains.html (being moved out of the way of a bypass http://www.planetizen.com/node/36344 , being shoved on display in a museum, having my thigh-bone measured on tv, being chopped up by medical students, being turned into jewellery) the one that appeals to me the most is being turned into fireworks.
Whhheeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee!!!!!!!! (As I said earlier,) BANG!!!!!!!
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Latest reply: Nov 5, 2011
In a HANDBAG? - NaJoPoMo - 4th Nov 2011
Posted Nov 4, 2011
I've two lists of topics for NaJoPoMo, one relating to the stuff I doo for hootoo and one just a list of topics. The latter currently says:
Winter Tyres
New Lanark
Migraines
Edinburgh
Breakfast
Handbags
Now colour me Fridayish, but none of those really appeal. How can I sparkle 
with such uninspired material?
Here goes with handbags though.
The single thing in my life which has garnered me more compliments than everything else put together was my previous handbag. The lining broke about 2 months ago and I've not had time to fix it, but I will, because I really like it. It is made out of ring pulls crocheted together by a women's collective in South Aemrica and I got it from the Eden Project, though the price has gone up significantly since I stood on one leg in their shop saying "ho... hum.... shall I get this.....?" http://www.edenproject.com/shop/Bottletop-Bags.aspx
It's light, it's incredibly funky, it goes with everything and it's got a zip top which matters to me. The previous lining was a bit on the small side, so I shall spent time relining it with something bigger.
I like things made out of recycled stuff, so when the lining went and I needed something to tide me over until I had the time to fix it, I looked for a cheap and temporary replacement. I discovered you can get bags made of 
tyres
http://katykool.com/accessories/rubbage-clutch-bag/ seatbelts
http://www.overstock.com/Clothing-Shoes/Maggie-Bags-Recycled-Seatbelt-Backpack/4470974/product.html records http://www.getethical.com/products/17460/RecycledVinylRecordHandbag carpets
http://www.carpetbags.co.uk/shop.php and ones made of banners http://www.visitblackpoolshop.co.uk/air_show_2009_banner.html.
In the end I got a banner one. Unfortunately it is now looking decidedly the worse for wear, and I miss the conversations that came with the ring-pull one, so I shall get out my sewing machine and make it a new lining sooner rather than later, I think.
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Latest reply: Nov 4, 2011
Stocking up - NaJoPoMo - 3rd Nov 2011
Posted Nov 3, 2011
The gloom-sayers are forecasting a winter that will be longer, harder, deeper than last year's, when the first Big Dump was on the 28th of November or so and I was shut up at home for a fortnight. So I am putting together a checklist. This matters because Zenadu is 3/4ths of a mile from the nearest gritted road and we don't have a 4x4.
Both cars need:
~ shovels (check)
~ cat litter or sand (add to shopping list)
~ salt (add to shopping list)
~ oatie bars and something to drink (note to self: store in boot of car)
The house needs:
~ oil (check)
~ logs (check)
~ coal (But where to store it? So maybe not...)
~ loo roll (check)
The kitchen cupboard needs:
~ different kinds of flour (Z is a demon bread-baker 
)
~ different kinds of lentis (parp, parp)
~ dried chickpeas
~ tinned tomatoes
~ tomato puree (for when the tinned tomatoes run out)
~ a variety of tinned beans (for when the oil runs out)
~ different kinds of rice, including LOTs of risotto rice
~ masses of UHT soya milk - you do NOT want to be near me when I have no access to 
~ cat food
~ masses of cheap UHT apple juice
The freezer needs
- fruit (for smoothies)
- veg
The biggest concern is fresh greens for the torties. Perhaps I should start growing window-sill lettuces for them.
What's on your winter-shopphing list? (Other seasons are available....)
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Latest reply: Nov 3, 2011
My Inner Fish - NaJoPoMo - 1st Nov 2011
Posted Nov 2, 2011
I am currently reading 'Your Inner Fish' which is a book by Neil Shubin who is a paleontologist about evolution in general and the first marginal creatures, the first fish to flop around in the shallows.
Being an American book, there is the subtext that evolution is, actually, true. It's not just an account of a slice of evolution, it's an apologia for it. (Apologia is one of those words I always have to look up; it means "defence or justification". Another word I have to look up is "ontology" which ... well I am not sure what it means. But it turns up alongside Paleo in the word paleontologist. I digress. Here, let me closee these brackets and get back to the subject in question). The slight thread of justification is almost imperceptable though, and good for Shubin for that.
So far, three chapters in, it is about tents I have lived in and rocks I have bashed (in Pennsylvania, in the Arctic, in Utah), as much as it is about anything. Shubin's good company on the train in the morning.
One thing it is easy to forget is just how long evolution went on for before vertebrates, let alone our inner fish. Some years ago I went to a mini-meet in Shrewsbury organised by Vip, and we went to the Darwin museum where there is a wall painting of evolution; 9/10ths of it seems to be microbes. Here's Carl Sagan's 8 minute animation on evolution: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-ONwp56pMBE
And here is the book on Amazon http://www.amazon.co.uk/Your-Inner-Fish-Journey-3-5-Billion-Year/dp/0375424474 other online retailers are obviously available.
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Latest reply: Nov 2, 2011
Mrs Zen
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