Thread 13 - TalkLair: “I say we take off and nuke the entire site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure.”

[Kucinghitam]

(Previous thread 12).

Looks like spring has sprung! Tulips, apple blossom and early hay fever are upon us. In the TalkLair, we remain hunkered down keeping cosy and warm, because "something something 'til May is out". The hearth is glowing, the walls covered in dubious artwork, books by non-approved authors line the shelves, 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…

No, but I've eaten most of it by now. I'm afraid in tech fail mode, I haven't yet managed to link pix on my mobe with my laptop, so if I want to post a pic, I have to do it with my phone.

Well, that slice looks good!

That looks like good bread.

Well, it's 'would do again'. A few minutes to set it up before bed-time, then in the oven after breakfast, and you've got your lunch.

Recipe please?

Good crumb.

Method as this

but 150 g of flour and 106 g of water, proportionally less yeast and salt.

Gosh, we're very quiet. Not much to report. I had an endoscopy on Thursday, I have a CT scan next week and then the following week I get to see my oncologist and we find out where everything is at.

This evening Snoop picked me up and we took the Seamus for a walk along the beach a little way up the coast. I walked for nearly a mile which is probably the longest walk I've had all year. I've been on prescription steroids and they're working!

Fingers crossed for good news, Mouse, and well done for a mile walk.

In an effort to incorporate a little exercise into my very sedentary life I have been going swimming twice a week since March. The first time I went I only managed 26 lengths, having not been swimming in a proper continuous manner for a few years, but I am now up to 42 lengths, which in our local pool (not that local in that it's five miles away but it's the nearest and reasonably inexpensive) is 0.6 of a mile. Twenty years ago I used to aim to swim a mile and I live in hope of getting it up that far. It takes me about a minute to swim a 25 yard length (I am not a fast swimmer) depending what stroke I do - backstroke is slightly faster than breaststroke - so 42 lengths is around 40-42 minutes. I'm quite pleased that I'm building up, even if slowly.

@Britinme - I suspect that with swimming, at our age, endurance is more important than speed. Also, I'm hugely impressed that you (or, frankly anyone) can do backstroke!

I still remember with some glee the only sporting event I ever won. I was 11, at the end of my first year at a mixed grammar school (late-July birthday), and it was the mixed 11-13 freestyle 50 metres. All the other competitors were boys, and I swam breast-stroke. Gosh, those boys were cross when I finished half a (25m) length ahead. Those three years in Singapore, every afternoon in the pool, paid off!

Obviously I can't run for toffee, or even for a bus. 😀

Backstroke is my only stroke! I’m rubbish at breast stroke and can’t get the breathing right for front crawl. I can also swim a kind of weird side stroke which I put down to being dragged about by my sister when she was learning life saving.

Backstroke is my best stroke. I do also swim breaststroke but I'm slower at it and I find it slightly harder work. I also suck at coordinating the breathing for front crawl.

I've been quiet because we've both had feckin Covid, for the first time, and have been living in a strange and hazy dream world. On the mend now, but I've never had a virus with so many symptoms.

Oh dear! If it was anything like my recent experience, it was a doozy. I'm glad you're both on the road to recovery.

I can swim a decent breaststroke, but that's it. I never did get the coordination for front crawl. Part of my difficulty is that I lack practice, because in general I never go swimming in the UK. I reckon can count on the fingers of one hand my visits to UK pools; have been to gym/leisure centre pools a couple of times, else on the rare occasions we stay in a UK hotel with a pool. DH was the one who took DDs to the local gym pool.

@Kucinghitam it was a doozy alright! Still, appetites are returning and secondary infections getting better so that's good. It was a marathon of nasty weirdness and I'm still really tired.

I can do breast and backsrokes, crap at crawl and butterfly, erm least said etc. I must start going regularly. My daughter loves the pool and could do with some exercise.

The needlecraft group I go to was rather depleted two weeks back because about half the members were off on a two-day garden tour

It was nearly as depleted last week because all but one of them had caught Covid.

At least it's made me a bit more careful about handwashing after being out and about.

Urgh! I hope the remainder of thr symptoms pass quickly, Vegemite.

Back crawl is probably the stroke I'm best at, but I only do it in the sea or an empty lane at the pool. Last time I swam, I was delighted to see someone else doing Old English backstroke - I thought I might be the only who who still did that. I learnt it, along with one-armed crawl, from Phyllis Harding, the 1924 Olympic silver medallist.

Ooh maybe I'm getting confused here but what is the difference between back crawl and backstroke?

Back crawl = backstroke, I think. Like crawl, but upside down. Not to be confused with Old English backstroke, which is more like upside-down butterfly with froggy legs. I'd completely forgotten about the latter! It's how I learned to swim backstroke in the late 50s/early 60s. Satisfyingly splashy but not very efficient.

Can you please post the revised recipe?

It's here, Poppy.

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/_chat/5051670-thread-13-talklair-i-say-we-take-off-and-nuke-the-entire-site-from-orbit-its-the-only-way-to-be-sure?reply=136176507&utm_campaign=thread&utm_medium=share&utm_source=copylink

The revised measurements are quite a lot smaller than the original - I'm not quite sure how to gauge the reduction in yeast and salt proportionately. I'm guessing half a tsp salt and a quarter tsp of yeast on the grounds that it's difficult to measure less than a quarter tsp? Baking temp also seems very high - 480 in F, which is what our ovens measure in here. I do want to have a go at this though.

For the amount of flour I used, a quarter of a teaspoonful of salt should be enough. As for the yeast; in the UK it generally comes in sachets of 7 g. One sachet would do three batches of 150 g flour. Half a teaspoonful maybe? It's not that critical. The temp is basically oven full on.

Backstroke is any swimming stroke done lying on your back, but almost everyone uses it exclusively to mean backcrawl. It can also mean Old English, or the little wavey one synchronised swimmers use - which is the first one I learnt but nobody ever told me what it's called.