21 March 2023
by wpAdmin
0 comments

Pellet Replacement

For the past few months, we’ve been using one of those Ecoegg laundry things – a plastic egg, filled with pellets, that you put in with your clothes instead of other washing liquids or powders. It has been… okay. That isn’t the most glowing review but it certainly hasn’t been so awful that we’ve given up on it. We’ve now reached a point where (a) we have pretty much finished up our supply of laundry liquid (which we tended to use for larger or more soiled washes) and (b) the pellets look like they need replacing. For some reason, the instructions suggest disposing of the old ones and I am wondering why?

I check the FAQs on the Ecoegg website, which didn’t help so I pressed on with the next part of my discovery strategy and sent them a message. Unfortunately they have almost the worst kind of contact system (apart from a brain-dead ‘artificial assistant’ that is just a dodgy interface to a pre-built FAQ list): a contact form that doesn’t even email you back what you asked. So, for my own reference, here is the question I posed:

Why is it recommended to throw away the pellets once they have shrunk in size, rather than just topping up with new ones? The white ones appear to be a homogenous material throughout (yes, I cut one in half) and I suspect the black,tourmaline ones are too. I expect it may be to avoid them getting out of the ‘egg’ and causing blockages in the washing machine but, in that case, is there any reason why old ones can’t be kept and used for handwashing applications, minimising landfill waste even further?

I’m looking forward to seeing what kind of answer I get but at least, now, I will still know exactly what I asked.

20 March 2023
by wpAdmin
0 comments

Asymmetric Language

Yesterday, we marked Mothering Sunday at church. This is the traditional title for what is often now called Mother’s Day. I think the apostrophe would be better placed to give Mothers’ Day, a community celebration of all mothers but apparently Anna Jarvis, who pressed for it to be recognised, trademarked the singular possessive, “for each family to honor (sic) its own mother” (according to the Wikipedia article), although it is also said she quickly became disgruntled with how companies like Hallmark seized on it as a commercial opportunity. The American date isn’t until early May; we used the traditional term, which avoids the possessive pitfall.

I’d assumed Hallmark also later came up with Father’s Day and many others as further card-selling opportunities although (Wikipedia again) suggests it was established in the USA at about the same time by another individual. However, there isn’t an equivalent Fathering Sunday, and that is what struck me as interesting. Mothering can be used pejoratively but it also implies an ongoing relationship in which a mother offers comfort and support to her child. You could draw a similar meaning from ‘fathering’ but it would more typically be used to mean the act of procreation leading to the fusing of sperm and egg and the formation of a zygote and all the subsequent stages of development of a child.

Is that a disgrace for English or just another of the many, many anomalies caused as words drift and develop. For example, many would have to stop and think if you described yourself as gruntled. Wits have observed that it should be the opposite of disgruntled but etymology suggests that gruntling was originally equivalent to grumbling. These unpaired words often do have others that can serve as an effective opposite but you can’t do that by adding or removing a prefix or suffix. Think, for example, of bashful (bashless? bold or something of its ilk would be better) or inept (I don’t think I’ve ever heard someone claim that they were ept even though it would seem to have an apt logic as the opposite of inept).

Ah, English! Often asymmetrical among its many other peculiarities.

19 March 2023
by wpAdmin
0 comments

The Sporty One

Because our original speaker came down with laryngitis, I was asked to step in for the preaching slot this Sunday morning, continuing our Philippians series from 3:12 – 4:1.

The original message was delivered at our Tuesday service so my starting point was to watch the video. Since I edit and publish our online service, I had easy access to that and I typed up a quick transcript. It was absolutely fine but it wasn’t really what I would have said about the passage so it was back to first principles to work something up.

One of the things that particularly struck me was Paul’s use of sporting metaphors, which also occurs in some of his other writings. I decided to play on that (pun spotted and kept) and use some sporting themes as I ran through it, including some images on the screen from various modern sports. Those who know me will be aware that sport is not high on my list of priorities but I am aware enough that I wasn’t entirely stumped. That’s a cricketing reference that I think I slipped past the congregation! With a lot of Leicester City fans in the house, there were some things that just had to be included: the team’s ‘King Power’ emblazoned jerseys were an obvious target as I pondered on how Paul worked in the power of King Jesus!

I suspect it will be a while before I try tapping that particular channel again in sermon imagery. My sporting knowledge doesn’t extend that far and, when I have the responsibility and privilege of speaking at church, it isn’t in order to entertain people with cheap jokes. However, today, I think it was justified in taking this line to encourage the congregation to press forward. May we all, with Paul, cross the finish line.

18 March 2023
by wpAdmin
0 comments

Will Be Remembered

I finished watching season 4 of police drama Unforgotten (ITV catch up) today. Without wanting to give away too many spoilers, it was a humdinger of a conclusion. Had I not skimmed through an episode guide a few weeks ago, I think I would have felt completely blindsided by it. A very good drama but season 4 built into a particularly tough watch. Unforgotten… it will certainly be remembered!

17 March 2023
by wpAdmin
0 comments

Carrots and Beetroot

Here is today’s harvest from the allotment:

They aren’t very big and I probably should have been more attentive to thinning and weeding but they also haven’t take a lot of work and give another helping of fresh veg grown from seed.

The main thing I went up to do was transplant some comfrey, lifted from the back garden. Eventually I’d like to get a good amount of comfrey across the open areas of my plot. With deep roots, it can pull up goodness, supress naturally occurring plants (ie. ‘weeds’) and provide a good source of nitrogen rich material to keep adding to my compost production.

16 March 2023
by wpAdmin
0 comments

A Glowing Room

Earlier this week, I spotted a strip of LED lights in the reduced section at Lidl. As a result, my studio room now has the option of glowing in several colours, as well as lots of multi-colour and moving effects. I probably won’t use the latter much, if at all, but the lighting is pleasant.

In particular, it helps illuminate the plug socket behind where I store my double bass, tucked between the door and a storage unit (with a stop fitted to avoid the door hitting the instrument). It is always quite dark, even in daylight or with the other lights on, so I had been on the lookout for some kind of LED strip to brighten things up. It does mean that one of the sockets is permanently occupied but the other is now going to be much easier to use.

I didn’t necessarily need 5m or fancy colours and a remote control to do the job but, since it was available and on offer, I’m going to enjoy the opportunity.

15 March 2023
by wpAdmin
0 comments

A Time to Sow

I’ve not been up the allotment very often so far this year but I popped up this afternoon to drop off another bag of chainsaw chippings, to remove the fleece that I had on against the risk of frosts and to do a bit of weeding. I also took the opportunity to do my first sowing of the year up there – some short rows of lettuce (two varieties), beetroot and carrots. All should be able to cope with moderately cold conditions although I’ll need to cover them if we get warnings of more frost.

Plenty more to do but it feels good to get some seed in the ground, not least because I could really do with finishing up some of the seed packets in my stash before dreaming about what new things I want to buy.

14 March 2023
by wpAdmin
0 comments

Illegal Migration?

You may or may not be interested in his football punditry or his favourite crisps, but Gary Lineker has been in the headlines recently because he posted a tweet suggesting that the rhetoric of the present Conservative government and the Illegal Migration Bill they are seeking to bring into law is “an immeasurably cruel policy directed at the most vulnerable people in language that is not dissimilar to that used by Germany in the 30s”. I can’t track down the original tweet but my research suggests it was not an out of the blue statement but one that came to a follow-up to his comment on a video posted by Home Secretary, Suella Braverman, where Lineker said “Good heavens, this is beyond awful.” To be fair, having a Home Secretary go on record as saying “Enough is enough. We must stop the boats” deserves a comment like that. The Conservative party, who have now been in government for over a decade, are very good at spilling such bile but apparently less effective at dealing with things they allegedly will not tolerate.

Afterwards, Braverman said (on the BBC’s Political Thinking podcast) “To kind of throw out those kind of flippant analogies diminishes the unspeakable tragedy that millions of people went through and I don’t think anything that is happening in the UK today can come close to what happened in the Holocaust. So I find it a lazy and unhelpful comparison to make.” Excuse me, Ms Braverman. I think you’ll find that the Holocaust happened in the 1940s and Mr Lineker was referring to the period in which such evil grew before spewing forth it’s ‘fruit’. Oh for a senior Conservative politician who has a grasp of either historical chronology or the consequence of dehumanizing rhetoric (not dissimilar to that used by Germany in the 1930s).

I’ve already written to my MP, using the starting point provided on the Safe Passage website. One of my friends has already emailed Jane Hunt directly and has had a response suggesting that she has no more sense of conscience and justice in this area than Braverman demonstrates. Still, the more people who express their view, the harder it is for them to justify their illusion that the majority of people in the UK really think such nonsense. Hopefully the Illegal Migration Bill (aptly named because, in terms of international law, it is indeed illegal) is the thing that will sink without trace and our politicians can find a few brain cells to devote to the matter of how we can provide safe passage for those fleeing homelands under real threat of harm because of their background and beliefs.

13 March 2023
by wpAdmin
0 comments

Lenten Mild Bottled

I don’t know quite how long my Lenten Mild brew took to ferment but I got the same gravity reading today as I did a couple of days ago (1.008) so it was time to bottle it. Normally I expect to get about 10-12 bottles but, today, I managed 16, so a 25% increase by by using that technique of using some of the water to sparge the mashed grains. I also came slightly over the target original gravity and slightly under the target final gravity so the ABV is about 3.4%: stronger than the recipe but still a nice, easy drinking beer.

The challenge of that increase is that I only just had enough similar bottles for it all. If I get some more grain, I think I could just about manage another similar brew, assuming I drink a couple more before then but I won’t be able to have three different beers available at once without more bottles (and finding more storage space). Perhaps that isn’t a bad thing though; it certainly improves the efficiency of the system.

12 March 2023
by wpAdmin
0 comments

Clear and Easy to Read

I didn’t get to my rehearsal tonight as early as I normally do because I was finishing off doing an electric bass transposition of one of the pieces on the list for the concert we are rehearsing for (CSWO Coronation concert on 5 May at Thorpe Acre church). In the end, we didn’t play that one but I don’t think it was a waste of time. We did pull out several of the other pieces that I’ve previously transcribed and those were relatively easy to read compared to one item that was still in the original, tuba form. Fortunately, that was fairly easy to follow but it should have been trivial.

It will take years to get the whole pad done, or at least all the ones that are tuba rather than electric bass parts. Possibly, by the time I get there, I’ll be good enough to just play them all on tuba instead! I think it is worthwhile though and I hope to have all the tricky ones worked up in good time for the concert.

Wulf's Webden

The Webden on WordPress