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Feeling Quite Happy…

I’m getting more involved in Facebook – I’m now in the networks of two daughters and a son-in-law. Nice to be able to keep up with family like this.
For the last 24 hours, I’ve had a headache. It’s much better now, but was pretty bad yesterday. I had the spend the day lying down; B cooked me some tea, but I could only get a couple of mouthfuls down. That is not normal, for me, especially when the food involves chips! Think maybe it’s an infected sinus – blowing my nose certainly helps.
Anyway, last night, while I was lying on the sofa with nothing much to do except making the occasional piteous groan, I thought of making use of the Transit website I had spent so much time developing (and only then found it wasn’t wanted). I’d been thinking generally of ways to increase our income, and of doing more to my Astrodiary site – I haven’t had a single order from it in the year or more that it’s been up – when I thought that I could very well attract traffic to it by turning it into a astrological news magazine.
This would involve finding stories for it, of course. But I keep coming across stuff that I would have put into the old Transit magazine; I still have the development Transit site on my computer and it already has a lot of content, in the form of copious links, news stories and an events diary, that could be transferred straight over. I still run the AA Diary, and I don’t think that anybody is going to complain if I add their events to this site as well.

So, busy making plans….

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Astrology, General, Techie Stuff

Not busy enuf….

On the other hand….
I’m wishing I had work to do. Not just for the money – nice as that would be – but I’m felling a bit purposeless right now with no deadline to work towards, no definite project to complete. Yesterday, I spotted an item about Zodiac-themed songs; I instantly thought, “Perfect! I can write this up for Transit!” Then I remembered that Transit is no more….
Oh sure, there’s lots I can do – update the Oakleaf Circle site, maybe even transfer it all into a CMS; or I can work on improving my WordPress code-hacking; or put together a few basic website templates for all those hordes of people who are asking me to design their sites…
Of course, there’s still the ongoing work on the Astrological Association diary; last night I spent a whole hour updating it, and will doubtless do another whole hour on it sometime next week. And if I really want to keep busy, I can start setting up the 2010 AA Diary….

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General

Busy….

Well, B got my camera working, more or less. The problem was that the lens wouldn’t come out; he thumped it for a bit and it got unstuck. The lens now won’t go back in again, but at least I can take piccies again.
We’ve not bought a car yet. But we’ve put our old Citroen on Ebay – spent the morning washing it and cleaning it up so that it looks nice in the photos; the sun coming out was a bonus. (If you’re interested, the eBay listing is here.)

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General

Cheesed orf….

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…my camera’s bust – the lens is stuck. It’s been stucky for ages, but has always cleared itself with a bit of jigging and poking. But I took it out this morning and it’s stuck for good. We’d gone out for a drive and a walk, the weather was fantastic, with blue skies and bright sun – perfect for photos. But it was not to be.
Bah. And of course, with a car purchase imminent, there’s no money to spare for a new camera. Bah again.

But I made another nice sourdough loaf today. I’d have bored you all with another piccy, if the camera were working….

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General

Success!

My first sourdough loaf
My first sourdough loaf

I don’t do much in the way of cooking for myself – I normally just chuck some veggies in the steamer (I can forget about them and they won’t go on fire) and do some quick stir-fried mushrooms or tofu on the stovetop. But I do like baking my own bread, and I think I’ve got pretty good at it.
A few days ago, I was putting together my usual dough mix and accidentally put in too much water. So I had to add more flour, leaving me with some excess dough. Now, I don’t like throwing things away, so I thought “I can maybe use this – isn’t using leftover dough how sourdough bread is made?” So it was off to the computer to look up recipes.
I was almost right about sourdough – you actually use a ‘starter sponge’ made from a mixture of flour and water. You take a few ounces of bread flour, mix it to a batter with warm water, then leave it somewhere warm (an airing cupboard is ideal) in an open vessel; feed it daily with a little more flour and warm water and in a few days, you should have a bubbly, beer-smelling ‘sponge’ that has fermented entirely from wild yeast. I figured that my already-yeasted dough lump should do, so I mixed it with water (using my hands and breathing on it so as to encourage the wild yeast) and put it away in the airing cupboard. After three days, it was indeed bubbly and beery.
At this point, I divided it in half, put away half in the fridge for another loaf and put half into a mixing bowl. Then I mixed in some oil and a tablespoon of honey, then slowly added a pound of bread flour and some warm water, mixing well each time, until I had a good firm dough. After that, it was a matter of letting it rise, knocking it down and kneading it, then letting it have its final rise before popping it in the oven for 40 minutes.
I rushed it all a bit – it was getting late – so that it didn’t rise fully. But it came out looking good and tasting great!
I shall certainly start making it regularly – I just have to be organised enough to get the starter sponge out of the fridge and fed with more flour and warm water several hours in advance.

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Mystery….

A parcel arrived this morning for me. Large and lumpy, covered in silver wrapping paper and marked “!!Not to be opened before March 8th!!”. It’s vaguely handbag-shaped. But it’s from Daughter no.2, who knows I don’t Do Handbags.
I shall hide it away at the top of some inaccessible cupboard. And do my best not to think about it until Sunday.
That cupboard had better be dammed inaccessible….

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General

Mind Your Cs and Ks….

Long ago, in some history of advertising, I read that 70s British ad-makers had shorthand codes for the various TV commercial setups. The most-used setup of the time – two women in a kitchen discussing The Product – was called “Two Cs in a K”; ‘K’ standing for kitchen and ‘C’, well…..
For some reason, this has always stuck in my mind. Which is why, if you are ever in my house on a Saturday morning at 9.30, when I’ve just switched on BBC’s News 24 and hit the beginning of the regular five-minute trailer for Saturday Kitchen (BBC1’s asinine Saturday morning cookery programme featuring a grinning himbo and some Z-list slebs pretending to cook) instead of anything that remotely resembles news, you’ll find me shouting “Cs in a K! Cs in a K!” and throwing cushions at the screen until it all stops.

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Rants, Stupid Things I Have Seen

Living and Learning….

Who says the internet isn’t educational? Thanks to a thread on Livejournal, I have just learned what the public-school game of soggy biscuit involves.
No, I’m not going to tell you – google it for yourselves.
And no, you can’t borrow my mind bleach afterwards, I’ve used it all up.

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The Calm After The Storm…

This week wasn’t much fun for me. I was getting stress from all directions, so naturally, I was Not Well. Yesterday, I was supposed to be finishing off the last edition of the hardcopy Transit. But I decided that enough was enough and that I needed to relax.
So I went round to my friend C. I watched her make pheasant pate, she coloured my hair for me, I cleared a lot of junk from her computer, we had lots of girly gossip over big mugs of tea.
Hugely refreshed, I returned to my computer that evening and banged out the final Transit in a couple of hours, sending it off to the printers at 9.30.
I felt strangely bereft, once it was gone. For six years, It’s been my baby and no it’s no more.

Oh well. On to the next adventure.

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Cheesed Off Again…

Having got the new online Transit almost ready to upload, I have been told that I’ve got it wrong. Which I didn’t. Originally, I was told that Transit would cease hardcopy publication, but would continue online, with its own dedicated site. So I worked at developing a super-whizzy, Web2.0 online magazine with articles, video content and all. Lots of evenings spent swearing at the monitor, lots of evenings spent reading through online tutorials.
Tonight, I discover that that Transit is ending, period – no online edition. Just a Diary page.

Oh well (shrug). At least I now know how to develop a WordPress CMS.
Anybody want a a super-whizzy, Web2.0 online magazine with articles, video content and all? I have one right here, not even used….

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General, Rants, Techie Stuff