Wednesday 24 April 2024

Different colours

 It's amazing how different the same pattern can look in different colours.

Squares of patchwork fabric: Blue leaves and navy blue birds on a very pale blue background. Olive green leaves and beige birds on a cream background. Dark green leaves and pale blue birds on a very pale blue background. Olive green leaves and dark grey birds on a beige background. Charcoal leaves and terracotta birds on a light terracotta background.

What a good idea!

I've often thought it odd, that when you get flowers they come with a sachet of food, but then when you change the water - which you're supposed to do - you're throwing away the flower food and now just have plain water.

Obviously someone else thought this was odd, too.

Two sachets of flower food - one labelled 'for today', and one labelled 'for day 3'

Saturday 30 March 2024

Chicken & bacon recipe

You will need:
  • Chicken breast (I used frozen chunks)
  • Bacon
  • Corn
  • Flour
  • Butter
  • Milk
  • Honey
  • Mixed herbs
  • Black pepper
  • Folded flatbreads, wraps or similar.
(Sorry, I didn't measure any of the quantities - this is why my white sauce is very unpredictable!)

What to do:
  1. Chop up the chicken and bacon and cook in a frying pan with a very little oil, until nice and brown and cooked through. (I tend to add a little water occasionally to stop it from sticking).
  2. Meanwhile, make white sauce with the milk, butter & flour.
  3. Add honey to sauce (I used a couple of teaspoons for 3 people). Add pepper & herbs.
  4. Add corn to frying pan and heat through.
  5. Add chicken/bacon/corn to sauce and stir.
  6. Warm flatbreads.
  7. Fill with mixture.
  8. Eat.

Wednesday 27 March 2024

💧Drip

When people move a bucket that has been placed under a leak - because the bucket is in their way - what do they expect to happen? Do they expect the leak to move, too?

A yellow bucket on the floor, with a neon red sign which reads: Leak in ceiling. DO NOT MOVE BUCKET!

Hopefully the sign will help...

Tuesday 12 March 2024

Old broken stuff

 A fun conversation from the radio sitcom Welcome to Our Village, Please Invade Carefully.

An alien commander is complaining that earth is 'a dump':

Zone Commander Ravella: There's old, broken stuff everywhere.
Lucy: You mean like that shopping trolley in the canal.
Zone Commander Ravella: Yes - but also all those old castles. Can you really not be bothered to demolish them?
Katrina: They're our history.
Zone Commander Ravella: I see. We write history down, instead of clogging up the landscape with ugly heaps of useless stone.

Thursday 7 March 2024

Tips for hymn writers

1) Write a chorus.
You may not think your song needs a chorus. You may be right. But someone, somewhere down the line, will decide it does. 

While the adding of choruses is particularly popular currently, the most bizarre example I can think of is the late 19th century addition of a happy jolly chorus to Alas, and did my saviour bleed, which is more of a sombre lament. Most added choruses are better than that - some are excellent. But if you want the chorus to say what you want to say, write one yourself.

Of course, if you do add a chorus, someone will decide it also needs a bridge...

2) Don't die.
The song you write will remain under copyright until 70 years after your death. So if you want to prevent people from monkeying around with your carefully thought through lyrics - sometimes ending up with a song that says something completely different than what you were trying to say - this is a simple (if impossible) solution.