Spray / paint: One memorable happening I forgot to mention last week was that we had to repaint the kitchen ceiling because one of my fermenting experiments sprayed what looked like zombie brains across the ceiling and all over the kitchen. My lesson from this is was: when fermenting with a ginger bug to be very particular about sieving out the fruit from the liquid when you put it into the bottle to ferment.
Still – I’m sure the kitchen ceiling was in need of a repaint anyway.
Holiday season: From Monday people have been able to go on holiday at last. People are so desperate to go on holiday but they’ll happily pay out for all the extra PCR tests they need to take before and after their trip. There’s a limited list of destinations on the green list, some of which are mainstream – Portugal, Gibraltar, Israel, Australia, New Zealand, Singapore, Brunei, Iceland and the Faroe Islands – plus several small remote islands that are British Overseas Territories but not likely to be high on anyone’s holiday destination list such as: St Helena, Ascension and Tristan Da Cunha, located in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean between the coast of Africa and the coast of South America; or South Georgia and the South Sandwich Islands, about equidistant to Argentina or Antarctica; and the Falkland Islands, very close to Argentina but we won’t mention that.
Laziness – or resting? I read an instagram post this week referring to this book on Laziness. It suggested laziness is a social construct. In a capitalist society you are defined by your work, and your productive value. If you’re not working / producing something, then you’re not adding value so you are labelled lazy to encourage you to work harder. And by scaring people with the label of laziness, you can encourage people to work on and on and on – past the point where they should stop and rest and recuperate. Because laziness can be also resting. Or exhaustion. Or recuperation. Or self care. Someone who lies in bed until midday on Saturday – are they lazy or exhausted? Someone who wants to spend all weekend in their pyjamas watching TV. Lazy or resting? Ordering a takeaway on a night you can’t be bothered cooking – laziness or self-care? Leaving work on time, taking a full lunch break – are these lazy behaviours or sensible behaviours that show you respect your personal limits and your personal boundaries? Where does lazy begin and end for you? Am I lazy when I don’t get up and exercise in the morning, choosing instead to lie in bed and listen to the radio? (OK – maybe that is laziness.)
Netflix movie of the week: I finally got to see Rocketman, the Elton John biopic. I’ve been harping on about seeing this film for ages but Husband kept pooh-poohing it whenever I suggested it. “You know I don’t like musicals,” he said. “It’s not a musical,” I said. It turns out it was a musical! Hahaha! Oops! Ah well, I now may have to suffer watching the Army of the Dead with him, a heist movie set in zombie-ridden Las Vegas (zombie showgirls, zombie Elvis, you get the picture…)
This week was the Eurovision Song Contest and as always we made some pizzas and cocktails and sat down to be entertained by the best and worst of songs. The UK sadly came last with nil points from either the popular vote or the judges vote. This was a little unfair, as it wasn’t the worst song. There were several songs much worse than “Embers”.
Some observations from this year’s show: silver sequins and beads were a popular choice with at least three female singers and one male singer wearing silver sparkly outfits; the singer from Israel (we quite liked her song) did a “Bucks Fizz” and whipped off part of her outfit mid song; there were several different styles this year from rock to ever-present pop to ballads to blues-ish to chanson (I think the French song will grow on me). Does this mean Eurovision has embraced diversity? Will future competitions continue to have more musical styles than dance-pop and pop-ballads? After all, Italy won with a rock song (I can’t help but think it was the bass player channelling Suzi Quatro that won it for them). Lots of songs were about being yourself and being happy and confident in yourself – Russia, Malta, Germany, Netherlands, Sweden for instance – reflecting changes in society? Overall, the show was more entertaining than I expected, as evidenced by not needing to drink as many cocktails as usual.
My circular economy course ticks on into its third week and this week has introduced me to the Self-Repair manifesto. My next course assignment is to take something apart and attempt to fix it and score whatever it is in terms of its reparability. A physical challenge! The awkward thing is we’ve just fixed several things in the house (including the printer) so I’m a bit stuck for things to fix. The oven light needs replacing, and so do the lights in the extractor fan in the kitchen. Not major repairs but a good challenge.
Where do you sit on the repair / replace fence? Are you happy to fiddle about, unscrew the casings of things and try to fix broken parts or do you say, no, it’s broken, get a new one?
Tales from Tobhamhor 