Temporal Update, Summer Solstice + 17

[vin_petrol]

Somehow or other I had volunteered to make profiteroles for the French GP watching session on Sunday. So on Saturday morning I consulted 'Delia' to see what she had to say about making choux pastry. She had a recipe there for chocolate and nut choux pastries, so I experimented by making them. It all turned out a lot easier than I expected, so that's another fattening thing I know how to make! It's scones for the British GP on Sunday and Delia has a recipe for them so I'm sorted. This home baking thing is very mellow and relaxing.

Saturday was the excellent Grazzfest at roadrunner's place. Loads of people, loads of food. I got insulted by lots of women too. It seems after I left at about 22:30 steer took over from me and was also insulted by various women there. What have we done to deserve this? I played the shoot-em-up game in the back room for a while (Unreal Tournament?) - after talking to humans for a while running around madly shooting guns was quite a relaxing alternative. The cutesy Japanese game in the lounge was fun too, in a kindof mind-altering-substance way. The kittens were stars - you could observe them through the rear window running around in that rubbish way kittens do. One day they'll be perfectly poised pussies. Right now they're falling over their own shadows.

Sunday was the French GP, and I was good and didn't say anything insulting about the French ALL DAY! I made the profiteroles and they worked out a treat - mmmm, hot melted chocolate. There was actually some chocolate left over, which I left in the lounge - it didn't last long! steer made a fantastic main course of potato dumplings covered in mushrooms. Mmmmm. I do like mushrooms! :-) There were also some forms of salady/mushy things from cyberspice, gothgrr, smorgasbord and clotilde (who wasn't able to attend, but sent a card with herself drawn on it and a French flag). mistressmalaise brought lots of garlic bread. I left pleasantly stuffed. The race wasn't very exciting from my point of view - perhaps one for the purist, or those who enjoy seeing Schumacher win *again*. As is now traditional, dessert is served when an engine explodes. At the start of the season, this would be Kimi Raikkonen. Now it seems to be Sato :-(

Sunday evening was the final of Euro 2004. A few weeks ago Gary Lineker said "the last time the Greeks won a major tournament it was against the Persians." Well, look what happened! It was an interesting match, and the Greeks have been a reminder that at its heart football is a very simple game: you win by scoring more goals than your opponent. Greece managed this and are now champions of Europe. Wish I had stuck a fiver on them a month ago though!

Work has been interesting this week, trying to coax Oracle into doing things it really doesn't want to do. Sometimes frustrating, but I'm learning lots of new stuff this week. Mostly how Oracle does NOT do what I want it to :-(

One very annoying job I'm doing though. My Most Hated Football Team Of All Time is Chelsea, for various reasons. See if you can guess which team Orange now has a special page devoted to on our WAP site, with exclusive video content available on? See if you can guess who is working on it? Grrr.

Tuesday evening at about midnight gothgrr alerted me to lightning flashes south of Bishopthorpe. That and a blood red moon just rising to the East made for some interesting views in the sky. I needed my sleep so didn't stay up late but she's much hardier than I at the moment and she went out to look.

Wednesday lunchtime I went up to the Swarovski shop where ladyserpentine, tomb_bat and mofette now work. It was very sparkly! Only tomb_bat was there, but we chatted away for a while as I was the only customer in the shop. The women there had all sorts of stories about smelly men...

Evenings have mostly been spent going to bed early. I think I've finally lost the 'malaise', so should be out for all of ant_girl's birthday events.

Comments

[steer.livejournal.com]

But it was a superb race for Schumacher's masterly drive and the cunning swap to the weird 4 stop strategy and also for Ruben's drive to third from tenth. Mind you, the director missed a lot of it :(.


You should be around more often -- women insult you more than they insult me.

[vin_petrol]

Ruben's drive to third from tenth

Hee hee. Yes, his cheeky overtake on the final corner to clinch third was highly entertaining.

You should be around more often -- women insult you more than they insult me.

Do they? I hadn't really noticed. I shall try and keep count next time we're both surrounded by women. However, As this usually includes gothgrr and mistressmalaise I'll probably lose count. They just seem to alternate between us :-(

[steer.livejournal.com]

But when you are there you definitely get the insults in preference to me... which is a good thing. When you are not there it is just me to be insulted.

[vin_petrol]

But when you are there you definitely get the insults in preference to me...

Do I? I've never noticed that. Hmmm. I can see a scoreboard of some description being required :-)

[ex-wendles389.livejournal.com]

*boggle*

Should I be taking some sort of insult initiation ceremony every time I cross the border?

[vin_petrol]

Should I be taking some sort of insult initiation ceremony every time I cross the border?

Nah - once you've visited enough times you'll just start joining in! :-)

[ex-wendles389.livejournal.com]

We'll have to wait and see. I thought there might have to be an extra stamp on the Yorkshire Passport before I had permission ;-)

[foxy76.livejournal.com]

I wasn't mean! I gave you a cuddle and complimented you on fab profiteroles! And I haven't been mean to Richard either...for at least a week...

Swarovski shop sounds good - in Leeds town centre?

[steer.livejournal.com]

I haven't seen you for nearly a week. Although you didn't say anything nasty to me at the BBQ (you were too busy looking really queasy at the graphic description of Caesarian sections).

[foxy76.livejournal.com]

'Although you didn't say anything nasty to me at the BBQ'

Ah ha! So there. And I have offered you handy advice about paint brushes. Will be extra-specially nice this Saturday :-)

[vin_petrol]

I wasn't mean! I gave you a cuddle and complimented you on fab profiteroles!

Aye, this is true. Thank you. I was curiously sensitive to it on Saturday. You know, thinking about it, I suspect the reason was I was trying REALLY HARD not to insult anyone else seriously, 'by accident', as it were (*cough* I may have this ability *cough*), so I got a bit oddly sensitive myself. I suddenly found I was having to concentrate really hard to deal with other humans, and sometimes failing. Probably just a side-effect of being a bit 'rough and ready' for many years, and then trying not to be so direct, but not really having worked it out in my head yet. Er, that's a bit of a ramble, isn't it?

Swarovski shop sounds good - in Leeds town centre?

Yes indeed. In the Victoria Quarter, just down from Harvey Nichols, by the second fountain.

[echo-echo.livejournal.com]

I'm with Richard on this, I thought it was a cracking race. And as much as I dislike him winning all the time (he is too good) you can't knock his performance. And why oh why are Ferrari so damned good at the tactics?

I do dislike a race being won by tactics, if I had my way you would have one lot of fuel and one lot of tyres all race unless it started raining. That would make it far more interesting.

[vin_petrol]

I thought it was a cracking race

I think it needs a higher level of appreciation of the tactics of F1, which I don't really have yet. Clearly, my appreciation of a race is tied up with my expectations of it. I prefer to see drivers actually overtaking each other on corners, for example - not a significant feature of modern racing.

I usually like to absorb sports by osmosis though - sit and watch stuff and slowly work out what's happening. I've been doing that with football for 16 years so F1 is the same.

if I had my way you would have one lot of fuel and one lot of tyres all race unless it started raining. That would make it far more interesting.

Now there's a thought - how come F1 is not like this? I suppose that might make for good racing from a spectators point of view, but the teams would not be able to experiment with the more exotic technology, which is clearly one of the reasons F1 racing exists.

[echo-echo.livejournal.com]

You used to get overtaking on the straights too. Whatever happened to slipstreaming? I'm guessing the aerodynamics have been altered to reduce it these days.

[blue-condition.livejournal.com]

I do dislike a race being won by tactics, if I had my way you would have one lot of fuel and one lot of tyres all race unless it started raining. That would make it far more interesting.


That's the f1 I grew up with and the f1 I love.

I can't be arsed with four pitstops in the space of an hour and a half. I used to watch Formula Ford races longer than one of Schumacher's stints.

I'm afraid "tactics" rather than "racing" -- and the current brand of single seaters with a massive excess of aerodynamic grip rather than mechanical grip -- have left me completely alienated from F1 these days. I have almost no interest in watching what happens on track, I'd find it more interesting looking at what's on the monitors in the pitboxes.

Of course, Max and Bernie (may their paths be forever strewn with rosepetals) have told us that it's exciting to watch pitstops, and that individual races don't matter, it's all about the championship. Bless.

[echo-echo.livejournal.com]

That's the f1 I grew up with and the f1 I love.

Indeed. In fact, it is a pity that the grid has shrunk too...overtaking backmarkers used to be a real skill where races could be won and lost. Slipstreaming, having to slow to conserve fuel, turning the turbo up for a few laps for a charge...all good features in my book.

[blue-condition.livejournal.com]

It's also interesting to note that refuelling was banned for safety reasons, reintroduced "to improve the show" (bwhahahahahah!) and now it's claimed that small tanks are a positive safety feature - ignoring the fuel-air explosive bombs lurking in the pits.

Yerrrrs. I didn't like refuelling in F1 in the 80s when it made a brief appearance in; I was against it when it was cynically reintroduced in '94, and I'm still against it now.

Refuelling (and pitstops generally) belong in endurance racing, not F1. If I want strategy, I've got Le Mans, ALMS, LMES, FIA GT.... Single seaters should be all about going balls out, lights to flag and devil take the hindmost.