Go on go on go on go on go on
I bought a new fridge freezer recently. It was tricky because of limited width, but I’m happy with the Bosch I chose (it was on special). Freezer’s at the bottom, with drawers, which I’ve grown to appreciate. I was also dubious about the bigger veggie drawer, but actually it’s great.
I use a usb mug warmer to heat microscope slides.
I’m still eating blackcurrant jam I made in 2013. I use jars whose lids have the pop-up seals. Pour hot jam into hot jars, screw on the lid and the little thingie in the middle should pop down as it cools, showing it’s sealed. When you open the jar it pops up again, to show the seal is broken. Just about all my jars come from a particular brand of pitted kalamata olives I’m partial to. Perfect size for jam.
When I was a child mum sealed the jars of jam with a disc of cellophane that had been dampened in vinegar, fastened with a rubber band. Pretty good seal actually, it tightened as the jam cooled. But if the jam went mouldy we’d just scrape the mould off - no big deal.
Best was my sister’s - her new in-laws’ gift was the use of their sauna business as the venue (they were nudists, it wasn’t a sleaze thing). The caterers had to turn the sauna on to heat the food, so after we’d all eaten, most of the guests stripped off and had a sauna - including bride and groom and me, chief bridesmaid. Really nice, fun atmosphere.
Worst … nah, I enjoy weddings. Never been to a bad one.
Raspberry jam is insanely easy to make. Equal weights of fruit and sugar, heat slowly to dissolve the sugar, then boil rapidly for five minutes. Bung in jars and screw the lids on while still hot.
The only sterile part is the jars - I put them in a lowish oven for ten minutes or so after washing them. Lids are washed, dried and swabbed with vinegar.
These days I mostly keep it plugged in, but it had good battery life when new. I got a replacement battery when it failed to hold enough of a charge for 5 or 6 hours. I honestly can’t remember how long ago that was. I still travel with it occasionally, it’s useful for working with photos (Gimp).
I have a Toshiba Satellite T110, 11.6" screen, now running Linux Zorin. I’ve had it for 15 years - got a new battery at one point and added RAM, very easy to do. It’s been a cracking little machine, really nice for travelling with.
“Don’t tread on me because it’s really hot and I’m all sweaty in this getup - you could slip on the grease and hurt yourself.”
I subscribe to c/womensstuff and I’ve seen the messages to men who post there accidentally. They go like this: “thanks for your comment, but unfortunately this community has a rule that only women are permitted to comment - hope you understand 🧡”
How is this “somewhat abusive”?
I’m a long long way from my place of birth, and one day a coworker gave me a tin of Milo she’d picked up on her travels but didn’t like. I ate it dry, in spoonfuls, almost sobbing with nostalgia.
Also, Wheatbix, ahhh. Weetabix is a miserable con artist of a breakfast cereal. It’s for feeble people with bad teeth.
Awww! That’s so nice!
We were astonished. It could easily have turned extremely nasty, but we instinctively trusted him. It made me a better person I think, more generous.
This made me laugh, it’s so true! Apart from chickens though - I know a few middle class people with chickens.
Good luck! I hope the docs come up with solutions as well as a diagnosis, and you recover.
After ten years keeping bees as part of a charity project, next year I’m leaving that and getting my very own bees. I’m very excited at the prospect!
Also, at the end of this year I’m going on a trip abroad for the first time since 2019. I’m quite apprehensive but still looking forward to it.
A friend and I tried to hitch from Calais to Paris in 1980 or so. Scruffy punks don’t get lifts, turns out. We got the train and arrived in Paris late at night. Hotels by the station were either full or too expensive. We were staring at our map in despair when a young man asked if we needed help. Long story short, he walked us to his mother’s flat and made up a bed for us on the sofa. She cheerfully made us breakfast in the morning - I got the impression her son often brought home waifs and strays. Really nice people.
I left a necklace in a hotel in Canada one time and wrote to them on the off chance that they found it - it wasn’t valuable, it was a sentimental thing. The receptionist posted it back to me in the UK with a lovely kind message. The hotel is called Kindred Spirits and it is on Memory Lane in Cavendish, PEI. The house next door has green gables, just saying.
Chavs don’t wear plaid
They certainly used to… It was a brand problem for Burberry.
No, I’m a beekeeper, and did a course in microscopy earlier this year. I make slides of pollen and bits of bee. I have another microscope for dissecting bees. It is beyond thrilling to have my own wee lab, with bottles of chemicals and petrie dishes and dissecting tools.