MrsDoyle

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harnaam_Kaur

Meanwhile I’m making do with two black hairs on my chinny chin chin.

Washing soda

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sodium_carbonate

I’m hit! Woman down! Slipped on the ice and am now in hospital with a fucked-up knee. Waiting for an MRI scan, spending the night here. Codeine isn’t helping, hoping for some hillbilly heroin.

On the bright side I have excellent friends and neighbours. I feel loved.

Getting old is a sniper’s alley. You’re running through, and all around you people are getting picked off, dropping to the ground. Cancer, stroke, dementia, falling down the stairs. Somehow you’re still going, brilliant! But then you find a lump, or get chest pains…

So far I’m one of the lucky ones, still dodging the bullets but hoping for a good clean end when it’s my turn.

A blunder.

If I’m baking or cooking to a recipe with unusual ingredients I definitely make a list. I’ve got a master list of staples on my phone with check boxes that I sometimes use. But mostly I wing it. Top tip: never do your grocery shopping when you’re hungry.

“Organic” especially pisses me off when applied to honey. There’s no such thing as organic honey. Bees have a range of three miles or more, and they will forage on whatever they like.

In art, this fellow: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thomas_Kinkade

It’s the only Wiki entry on an artist that I’ve seen with no examples of his work. The nearest is a photo of a photo of Kinkade with one of his paintings.

I’m not being snobbish - it does give me the same vibe as AI generated images touted as art. Nostalgia, colour saturation, cliché, all dialled up to the max. The man died in 2012 but lives on as a brand.

Thank you!! I might try that one day…

Our parents used to make ginger beer when I was a kid. There was a “starter”, some kind of yeast? Then a raisin or two in each bottle, and of course ginger. Every now and then you’d hear one of the bottles explode. The surviving bottles were delicious, effervescent and spicy, not too sweet.

Correct, though I’m old enough to remember using old money, and it was never six and a half, just sixpence ha’penny.

I love all the old coin words: florin (two shillings), half a crown (two and six), thrup’nny bit (3d), farthing (quarter of a penny).

I cut my own hair during lockdown. I did it outdoors, using regular scissors and a mirror. It came out not too bad, from the front anyway. Not sure what the back looked like - it felt ok. That’s shortish hair, I’m sure long hair would be easier.

The only datum I can think of is tidal datum, used in shoreline measurements. I’ve seen the plural given as datums though… argh!

While we’re at it, it’s turmeric, not choomarick.

My anthill is myriad. It’s the same as many. “Myriad stars”, not “a myriad of stars”.

When I lived in Edinburgh’s Old Town in the 90s I had a couple of young guisers come to the door, not trick or treating, but “a penny for the guy”*. I gave them a pound each, they were thrilled.

*The guy is Guy Fawkes, “remember remember the fifth of November”.

My friends and neighbours and I all use a variety of messaging services and apps like Spond to organise get-togethers, sporting events, working bees etc etc. I’m in a ridiculous number of WhatsApp groups, all very active, and I see most people in them irl regularly. Without the internet I don’t know how we’d cope. It’s hard enough herding cats in a group chat, imagine the number of phone calls we’d be making!

Kiwi fruit 🥝 - nature’s scrubbing brush. One per day is all you need.

Ah yes, I should have read all the comments.

https://edmondscooking.co.nz/recipes/sauces-and-chuteny/plum-sauce/

It says to wait at least two weeks before using, but I find it gets even better after a couple of years! Especially delicious on sausages.

I make a lot of jam and am very careful to sterilise the jars beforehand - wash thoroughly, heat in the oven, dry with clean cloth. Lids with that seal strip are trickier, so after washing and drying, I line them up, pour white vinegar into each, and leave them half an hour. Dry off with paper towels. That way I never get mould on the seal.

I’m guessing you didn’t do any of that? The pickles are possibly all right, but… it’s a risk I wouldn’t take. And I’m still getting through a batch of spicy plum sauce I made in 2015! Never had any mould on it.