Order of the Bath

It is not the parts of the Bible that I understand that trouble me, it is the parts that I don’t understand.

Mark Twain, paraphrased from memory.

Earth and Heaven will pass away, but the Word of God is eternal.

Apparently written on the last standing wall of the headquarters of the Bible Society in Warsaw, one of the few remaining parts of the central city still standing after it was razed in the second world war.

There are a lot of ways to write telephone numbers, plenty of “standards” to chose from so why do so many people get them wrong?

For national numbers the only essential requirement is a space between the local part and the area code: that is 0117 9123456 (NOT 01179) for Bristol and 020 84641234 (NOT 0208) for London. Parentheses, hyphens and extra spaces can be put in for readability and local custom but it is not essential. A typical US number would be written (918) 555 1212.

On the web, it is often better to use international numbers. These should be written with a plus at the start, a space between the country code and the area code and another before the local part: i.e. +44 117 9123456. The ITU-T E.123 standard recommends that only spaces are used for extra separation. A typical French number (in Strasbourg) would be +33 388 12 34 56.

Canal boat chase ends in capture after eight days. I am not 100% sure that this story is genuine, but it is very funny anyway. The gist is that they applied for permission to exceed the 4mph speed limit but found that the boat wouldn’t go any faster anyway—something I can confirm from experience, it is the depth of water that is the problem.

I’m sure everyone if familiar with the knobbly pavements put in so the blind can tell where the crossings are. Have you noticed that they are pink near lights controlled crossings and yellow elsewhere?

Why? I have conducted a blind test (boom! boom!) and he can’t tell the difference. The bumps are the same size, spacing and direction. Yet the official guidelines do specify that this is what has to be done.

Tactile paving, in the form of ‘blister’ paving should be red in colour at controlled pedestrian crossings (pelican, zebra, toucan and puffin crossings). But at uncontrolled crossings it should be buff in colour, to indicate the presence of a dropped kerb.

Access Group Resources

Even the partially sighted, who also benefit from these markings, would have trouble distinguishing the pale colours.

Do you suppose there is another Anglican church that commemorates a Wesley in a stained glass window? I have never seen one. Admittedly it is Charles not John but still pretty amazing.

It forms part of a set of four in our church (St. Matthew’s, Kingsdown, Bristol) with John Bunyon, William Tyndale and Thomas Cranmer. These were installed, we think, in the middle of the last century.

One of our super-bosses today, used the phrase “because diamonds last forever…” Is this true? I don’t think so. Diamond is said to be the hardest known substance naturally occurring, but that doesn’t mean that it is indestructible. They will shatter if treated roughly because they are brittle. They will also burn (with some difficulty) and dissolve in some substances. For this reason I suspect that they do also naturally decay by oxidation but very slowly due to the tight molecular bonds.

It is also to be noted that diamond is not the rareest or most expensive of the gem stones. Good sapphires, emeralds, garnets and rubies are much less common and fetch higher prices; particularly now that sythetic diamonds are getting to be so good.

The problem with joining any political party is that it is almost certain that you don’t agree with all of their policies. There is not much room for a Pro-Life Liberal or a Socialist who supports traditional marriage so inevitably you have to either compromise or abstain. I chose the former some years ago when I felt it was a duty to take a more active part in the running of the country and to make a small attempt to get views like mine recognised.

It was a pleasant surprise then to find a lobby group (not a party) with which I could agree with every one of their campaigns so far.

Who’s Watching Who? from Dean Whitbread on Vimeo.

I would encourage anyone who agrees with them (The Open Rights Group) to join.

I am told that a breadmaker can be found sitting on a shelf, unused, in every modern kitchen. It is too early yet to discover if my new one will join the waffle maker, yoghurt maker, fondue set, tin opener, knife sharpener and raclette, but the first results were 100% successful. A nice fluffy white loaf with a crispy crust greeted us for breakfast this morning and the idea is that I make one every Friday that we are home at the same time as I wring the oranges.

A tip I can pass on from friend Liz is worth noting. On both our Panasonic models, the instructions say put the yeast in first followed by the flour and other dry ingredients and last of all the water. The idea is to keep the wet away from the yeast until it is needed. In practice this doesn’t work because the water, being heavy, leaks past the flour down the edges and spoils the yeast. The best way to do it is exactly the reverse; first the water with the fat THEN the flour which floats on top and finally the yeast which stays nice and dry. She has been doing this for years and I can confirm that it works perfectly.

N.B. For sacristans who might worry about these things, Mary will make the communion buns in the old way by hand unless numbers increase dramatically.

I am not big on memes but this one struck a chord. I will need to look a few of these up as they may be different names than we would use.

The Food tasting meme

1. Copy this list into your blog or journal, including these instructions.
2. Bold all the items you’ve eaten.
3. Cross out any items that you would never consider eating (or eating again)
4. Optional extra: Post a comment http://www.verygoodtaste.co.uk linking to your results.

To make the filling out of this form and generating the HTML for it a bit easier, reddywhp has played around with some PHP. Go to http://reddywhip.org/lj/foods/ and fill it out there. After filling it out, you will be given the code to copy and paste into your blog.

Livejournal users, remember to use your LJ-Cuts!

1. Venison
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros
4. Steak tartare (accidentally not knowing what it was; it was good though)
5. Crocodile
6. Black pudding (regularly)
7. Cheese fondue (in the mid ’70s when it was fashionable)
8. Carp
9. Borscht (in a great restaurant called the “Borscht and Tears” in Knightsbridge in the early ’70s before we were married)
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari (often)
12. Phở
13. Peanut Butter & Jelly sandwich
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes
19. Steamed pork buns (Dim Sum)
20. Pistachio ice cream
21. Heirloom tomatoes
22. Fresh wild berries (straight off the bush)
23. Foie gras
24. Rice and beans
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper (Wow!)
27. Dulce de leche
28. Oysters (good in Steak and Oyster pie but not raw)
29. Baklava
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl
33. Salted lassi (once in a genuine curry house in Luton)
34. Sauerkraut
35. Root beer float
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea (in Cornwall of course)
38. Vodka jelly
39. Gumbo
40. Oxtail (shame it is hard to come by now)
41. Curried goat
42. Whole insects
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth $120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala
48. Eel (and Elvers)
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut
50. Sea urchin
51. Prickly pear
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone
54. Paneer
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal
56. Spaetzle (in Austria)
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV (Belgium of course)
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores
62. Sweetbreads
63. Kaolin (a bit of a cheat this one; Kaolin and Morphine is/was a popular remedy for an upset stomach)
64. Currywurst
65. Durian
66. Frog’s Legs (it recently came as part of a set menu in France)
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake
68. Haggis (Och aye)
69. Fried plantain (I can’t remember how we discovered them but they are a favourite now)
70. Chitterlings or andouillette
71. Gazpacho
72. Caviar and blini
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie (this seems to be similar to the Lyon’s fruit pies that you could/can get in the UK with a sweet and sugar dusted pastry. If so, I love them)
78. Snail (you taste nothing but the garlic)
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum
82. Eggs Benedict
83. Pocky
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant
85. Kobe beef
86. Hare (jugged by my grandmother; watch out for the lead shot)
87. Goulash
88. Flowers (mostly used as garnish)
89. Horse
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam
92. Soft shell crab
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish (sold under various names so I may have had it)
95. Mole poblano
96. Bagel and lox
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee
100. Snake

First a warning—LADIES, this post is not for you. You don’t have the problem, so move on to another post, there are plenty of interesting ones further down.

Right—I hate urinals! I refuse to use them unless there is nothing else and I am bursting to go. Why? Next time you need to use one, try this experiment. Do your business as usual and when you have zipped/buttoned up take one pace backwards. Now take both hands and rub them up the inside of your trouser legs from knee to groin. Now wash your hands because you certainly need to.

The problem is a fine mist splash-back, even with my late middle age feeble stream. I don’t know of any solution so I always use a cubicle. It is a shame that is uses far too much water; few have the water saving half flush as they think you are in there for “bigger things”.