Thread 7 - TalkLair: “In fact it’s an oblate spheroid”

[Kucinghitam]

Continuation of previous threads (thread 6).
The new lair of JTT escapees is all cosy and homey; we have truly settled here. Outside, the garden is blooming with spring flowers. Inside, the hearth is glowing, pictures are up on the walls, rugs are down on the floors (and assorted pets curled up on them).

We just won’t mention the gnawed bones of our prey over there in the corner of the cave…

I too am very glad @MavisMcMinty is not dead.

Your lovely messages have made me teary-eyed and now SPF is leaching into them, making them burn. So thanks for that.

An inventor of eye-friendly suncream would make a fortune.

There's one called Watery Essence which is much better than it sounds (it's Japanese) and hardly makes my eyes water at all.

That's the one I use daily as moisturiser+SPF. It's by Biore and can be bought from EvilAmazon. I like it because it's very light and doesn't feel greasy at all.

Happy NDDay Mavis. Wonderful NHS.

MouseM, what's the story behind your NDDday?

And yes wonderful electronic books. Light, flexible, immediate, readable at night. The only disadvantage I can think of is that it's not as easy to see how much is left to go, for good or ill.

@MmePoppySeedDefage I had a brain haemorrhage. Luckily a friend had come around to help me pack for moving. I was all over the place and not making any sense. I had no idea I was making no sense. She got an ambulance. I had one massive seizure at home which was sort of amusing in that the paramedic was there, I said I needed to lie down because I thought I was going to faint. Came too, my friend wasn't in the room, the paramedic is sitting on my bed and I have a massive bruise on my chest. I thought "This man has injured me!" but when he said, "We need to go to the ambulance now." I was all, "Oh, yeah. Okay." Anyway, if my friend hadn't been there I would have died, so I was incredibly lucky that day. It was a bloody odd day. The night before had been that awful thing in Norway with Anders Brevik killing all those young people and I'd been up listening to it and then on the day Amy Winehouse died and I became a bit obsessed with the fact that she died and I didn't.

Final thing. I had had an unbelievably bad headache for about a week. My GP thought it was a post-pneumonia virus. Turns out it wasn't! It's one of the reasons I'm on disability benefits. I'm partly grand and partly not grand at all.

In other news. Cats. Downstairs boy cat came up this evening and rubbed his head on my feet, got up on the armchair with me and was giving me all the love. This is all very wrong and we must not become friends.

Too late - you've been claimed.

Gosh Mouse. How lucky that your friend was there. Plus the paramedic too, later.

@MouseMinge A close shave indeed! Thank goodness for your friend and the paramedics!

I know, Bint. Bloody cats.

I'm dogsitting for a couple of days. Luckily it's my greyhound nephew, Seamus, because I totally mangled my stupid arthritic back and I'm walking like Mrs Overall. Seamus will be fine with just the garden and possibly a very short walk to the poo bin and back because greyhounds are the laziest dogs in the world. I have an endoscopy, through the mouth, on Sunday and my back will appreciate the fentanyl.

@MouseMinge - that sounds so scary! Sympathies for the knackered back and the arthritis. Getting older does suck in some ways.

@Britinme it was scarier for those around me. Once I'd been given morphine for the pain I was okay with all of it. After a scan where they mistakenly thought I had a tumour and I was told it was terminal I accepted that too. I had five days of thinking I was dying before another scan showed the error. I'm grateful for it because prior to that I was terrified of dying and now I'm not. There was a moment before the morphine when the pain was so intense that I thought I must die because surely no one could be in that much pain and not die and I wanted to die. I have a large black hole in my brain and struggle a bit but the whole thing gave me as much as it took away.

I just tried to walk to the sorting office and I couldn't. It's a walking stick day for me! Moan, moan, moan! But. Because of the brain wrong it's grand. I'm patient (the biggest gift I was given) and this too will pass. I can be hugely Pollyanna annoying.

Wow, @MouseMinge , I remember that, can’t believe it was 12 years ago! (Same goes for Amy Winehouse, how can it be 12 years since she died?)

I remember you struggled finding words after the event, which seems fixed now! xxx

Local Shop 1 is 3 miles away, with broken freezers, and I need frozen chips.

Local Shop 2 is 5 miles away - and perhaps because shop 1 has broken freezers - had no chips in their (working) freezer last time I went.

I have no deep fat fryer but do have enough spuds to make my own chips, and about 25g of beef dripping in the fridge. How should I proceed?

I mention the mileage because driving a 10-mile round trip with no guarantee of finding chips does not appeal. Even if I drive the 25-mile round trip to the M&S Simply Food BP petrol station, they had no frozen chips either last time I went (and they do really excellent ones).

@MavisMcMinty - this is not an immediately helpful answer but buy an air fryer - chips any time!

@MouseMinge bloody hell what a terrifying ordeal. And being told you had a brain tumour I’m so glad you were able to take some positive things from it.

@MavisMcMinty proceed as in what to do with them? cut potatoes into chips, boil for three mins, drain well. Heat dripping in tray in oven on 210 until very hot, add chips. Cook until golden, turning a few times

Thanks Cyan!

Oh forgot to mention they should take 15-20 mins in the oven, depending on how thick you cut them

I will buy an air fryer eventually, @Britinme - just need 2 mattresses, a new fridge and a new freezer first. Oh, and to pay my electricity bill.

While we're in recipe mode, for @DeanVolecapeAKAelderberry this is the cucumber+coconut+dill soup we made recently. It's adapted to what we had around the house, from a Celebration of Soup by Lindsey Bareham.

Ingredients:
1 and a half large cucumbers, chopped roughly
1 onion, chopped
700 ml stock
50g butter
400ml tin coconut cream/milk
1 tsp dill, chopped (recipe called for fennel, but we have tons of frozen dill in the freezer)
1/2 glass sherry (we didn't have sherry, replaced with a few generous spoons of brandy)
To garnish:
1/2 a green chilli (optional, was delicious with and without)
Chopped chives (also probably optional, but we have loads growing in our garden)

Method:
Chuck cucumbers, onion, stock, butter, coconut milk into pan.
Simmer, uncovered, 20 minutes.
Puree with stick blender.
Add dill and alcohol, season to taste with salt and pepper, bring back to simmer for a few minutes.
Serve with garnishes.

Makes a thinnish thick soup, if you see what I mean. We used chicken stock but I'm certain it would be just as good with vegetable stock, making it vegetarian. If you also omitted the butter/ replaced with olive oil, it would be a great vegan option.

Supposed to serve 4-6. Consumed voraciously, with hunks of crusty bread, by 2 adults and 2 teenagers in one sitting.

That sounds delicious, a good soup for summer.

That does sound good.

We had red Thai soup today. It's red, and uses Thai red curry paste and takes 20m cooking time, maybe 10 prep.

a courgette
handful of fine beans
a shallot
big piece of ginger, don't peel it
handful of cashew nuts
tin chopped toms
tin coconut milk

I just fry the shallot in a little oil, add the veg, cashews and ginger, fry a little more, very gently, add toms and simmer until veg soft.

Then I whizz it all and add the coconut milk. Season with very very hot chillie flakes or not, according to choice.

Good lord. Forgot the Thai p[aste! To taste,obvs.