Pottering and Plodding
06/03/2012 09:11 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
izmeinaThe sneaky serpent attempt to start at Year Zero from Thursday March is working reasonably well. Did get to spend the unofficial New Year’s Eve party at Cottesloe Beach lurking amongst all the gorgeous sculptures by the sea.
Was supposed to return to the Lair and do the ritual of diluting the week old ginger beer starter and bottling the end result. Ended up slinking and squiggling in Cyberia instead. It is not every day that you can get to post on 29th February.
The first day of the ‘new year’ got up much later than intended and did not catch the bus to the city until 2.30pm. Burqa girl from work was on the bus. She was surprised that the serpent recognized her hidden under all those layers of black. She did look some 20 years older but there was something about the way she moved that the Izzie knew it was her. We went for a coffee and the serpent got to hear all sorts of juicy and disgusting gossip. Yet another nail in the coffin of the goblins and another motive to not get mad but to get even. But that is a tale for another day
Just because a person is quiet and unassuming as well as not being particularly fluent in English does not mean that they are stupid. It so so brings back memories of the serpent’s D’land days.
Everyone should spend at least one year of their life at the bottom of the pecking order and preferably in a foreign country. It can be painful but is a way of learning certain facts about human nature that cannot be learned any other way
Then took a peek at the museum and the strange show “Home Sweet Home” which was a sort of DIY downtown Dursleyville where you ‘buy’ a card board fold out house or shop, decorate it and then join in the local community events. Such a pity to have discovered it on the second last day.
Friday included a visit to Fremantle and a two hour peak at those pretty sculptures at sunset. But the place was infested with squealing beasties
Will be back there again this Friday with a friend. Got to thinking that 2012 has been a serious overload of cultural activities. So there is no excuse for lack of inspiration
But now all the festivals are over, attention has returned to the Lair. Once again any serious planting of seeds has been put on hold thanks to the week of sizzling weather. But at least the sweet potato vine are enjoying the weather
Using the excuse of the ‘new year’ to stick to the ‘toss ten things a day’ plan. The Izzie needs to trick the inner clutter bug by going slowly and sneakily. Had been making serious progress way back in 2009 when suddenly hitting a ‘land mine’ a sort of muggle unplottable charm that makes every attempt at even considering chucking and tossing induce a serious state of distraction and tiredness.
Was doing a good job of clearing off the dining room table tonight when there was a sudden loud bang. The kitchen ceiling was covered with brown sap and a shrivelled plastic bottle lay on its side and a whole bunch of other objects were knocked over by the force. Ended up with three boxes of seriously soaked matches.
Got the other two bottles out of the house pretty quickly and managed to open the lids to release some of the pressure. Ventured to taste one of them and it is sort of muddy with no sweetness at all. Very gingery and beery but not sharp and bitey like the samples tasted at the Hulbert Street sustainability festival where we first seen this dark art demonstrated and got the recipe as well as a bottle of starter.
Maybe it would help to measure the ingredients properly next time. Also a large factor was not adding any lemon juice. This apparently adds the bite as well as slowing down the fermentation process.
But it was a fun chemistry experiment while it lasted. The next starter will be ready to be mixed on Thursday and this time with the lemon juice.
Dumped several of Petunia’s old microwave cook books that she had offloaded onto the Izzie. Vernon is a hoarder. She used to be too but has gotten it under control. One of her tricks was to give Izzie stuff that she no longer wanted
Did get manage to get rid of a stack of her patchwork and craft magazines tonight. Realized that it is the patterns and not the quilts that interest the Izzie. So off into the black bag they went, but did not have the heart to dump a magazine full of recipes for Christmas biscuits bought at a newsagent from the Izzie’s last day in Vienna in the 2006 Grand European Tour or two Apple magazines bought in Emden (the town where the fairy godmother presently resides)
This slushy sentimentality and attachment to the past and the objects that represent it is sad and silly. But knowing this tendency exists is the first step on the path to detachment
With a bit of luck, the toss ten things daily ritual will become an ingrained habit. Of course the whole point of this trick is just to get started. It is much less daunting than the thought of sorting out a whole room at once.
This room is full of tourist brochures and maps of Vienna, Berlin and Prague from way back in the 1990s along with lots of other smaller towns. Will just have to bite the bullet and toss the lot.
Was supposed to return to the Lair and do the ritual of diluting the week old ginger beer starter and bottling the end result. Ended up slinking and squiggling in Cyberia instead. It is not every day that you can get to post on 29th February.
The first day of the ‘new year’ got up much later than intended and did not catch the bus to the city until 2.30pm. Burqa girl from work was on the bus. She was surprised that the serpent recognized her hidden under all those layers of black. She did look some 20 years older but there was something about the way she moved that the Izzie knew it was her. We went for a coffee and the serpent got to hear all sorts of juicy and disgusting gossip. Yet another nail in the coffin of the goblins and another motive to not get mad but to get even. But that is a tale for another day
Just because a person is quiet and unassuming as well as not being particularly fluent in English does not mean that they are stupid. It so so brings back memories of the serpent’s D’land days.
Everyone should spend at least one year of their life at the bottom of the pecking order and preferably in a foreign country. It can be painful but is a way of learning certain facts about human nature that cannot be learned any other way
Then took a peek at the museum and the strange show “Home Sweet Home” which was a sort of DIY downtown Dursleyville where you ‘buy’ a card board fold out house or shop, decorate it and then join in the local community events. Such a pity to have discovered it on the second last day.
Friday included a visit to Fremantle and a two hour peak at those pretty sculptures at sunset. But the place was infested with squealing beasties
Will be back there again this Friday with a friend. Got to thinking that 2012 has been a serious overload of cultural activities. So there is no excuse for lack of inspiration
But now all the festivals are over, attention has returned to the Lair. Once again any serious planting of seeds has been put on hold thanks to the week of sizzling weather. But at least the sweet potato vine are enjoying the weather
Using the excuse of the ‘new year’ to stick to the ‘toss ten things a day’ plan. The Izzie needs to trick the inner clutter bug by going slowly and sneakily. Had been making serious progress way back in 2009 when suddenly hitting a ‘land mine’ a sort of muggle unplottable charm that makes every attempt at even considering chucking and tossing induce a serious state of distraction and tiredness.
Was doing a good job of clearing off the dining room table tonight when there was a sudden loud bang. The kitchen ceiling was covered with brown sap and a shrivelled plastic bottle lay on its side and a whole bunch of other objects were knocked over by the force. Ended up with three boxes of seriously soaked matches.
Got the other two bottles out of the house pretty quickly and managed to open the lids to release some of the pressure. Ventured to taste one of them and it is sort of muddy with no sweetness at all. Very gingery and beery but not sharp and bitey like the samples tasted at the Hulbert Street sustainability festival where we first seen this dark art demonstrated and got the recipe as well as a bottle of starter.
Maybe it would help to measure the ingredients properly next time. Also a large factor was not adding any lemon juice. This apparently adds the bite as well as slowing down the fermentation process.
But it was a fun chemistry experiment while it lasted. The next starter will be ready to be mixed on Thursday and this time with the lemon juice.
Dumped several of Petunia’s old microwave cook books that she had offloaded onto the Izzie. Vernon is a hoarder. She used to be too but has gotten it under control. One of her tricks was to give Izzie stuff that she no longer wanted
Did get manage to get rid of a stack of her patchwork and craft magazines tonight. Realized that it is the patterns and not the quilts that interest the Izzie. So off into the black bag they went, but did not have the heart to dump a magazine full of recipes for Christmas biscuits bought at a newsagent from the Izzie’s last day in Vienna in the 2006 Grand European Tour or two Apple magazines bought in Emden (the town where the fairy godmother presently resides)
This slushy sentimentality and attachment to the past and the objects that represent it is sad and silly. But knowing this tendency exists is the first step on the path to detachment
With a bit of luck, the toss ten things daily ritual will become an ingrained habit. Of course the whole point of this trick is just to get started. It is much less daunting than the thought of sorting out a whole room at once.
This room is full of tourist brochures and maps of Vienna, Berlin and Prague from way back in the 1990s along with lots of other smaller towns. Will just have to bite the bullet and toss the lot.
