gark life

The sky at night, tonight

Very clear sky tonight, so have actually managed to see the Geminids despite the skyglow and the floodlights in one of our neighbour’s gardens. A couple of very bright meteors and about another four or five lesser ones, all in ten minutes or so. If you have a clear sky where you are, now would be a good time to step outside for a quarter of an hour – look to the east. Briefly contemplated waking the up to show him the best sky that he’s yet had an opportunity to see in Southampton, but thought better of it. I’ll… Read More »The sky at night, tonight

I heard it on the radio

Young has used up about two minutes of her fifteen minutes of fame, talking about laundry (and being tumble dryer-free) on today’s Women’s Hour. You can heard her here (for the next seven days). The laundry segment starts at 31:00, and she’s on first (and third).

Dispatches from the War on Clutter

Since we had our loft boarded and smartened up a few years back, we’ve been merrily using it to store away the things that we don’t need from day to day, or which don’t belong in the library. Unfortunately, it’s starting to get a bit full in there (what with ‘s sewing stuff, my tools, Xmas decorations, the ‘s baby clothes, our suitcases, and so on), so we’ve been planning on putting some of Mr Kamprad’s fine modular shelving solutions up there (specifically the GORM range). Now, I could just have gone up there with a tape measure and an… Read More »Dispatches from the War on Clutter

Charms to soothe the savage breast

The is running around naked after his bath. I’m playing him some music to dance to. On the grounds that he likes the KLF remixes of the Doctor Who theme, I played him some Vangelis, and then some Jean Michel Jarre. He’s now running around wrapped in bubble wrap shouting “like a robot!”

Conversations interrupted

A good weekend last weekend – up to Staffs for Oatley minor’s naming, with an overnight stay in Leamington (at the Angel Hotel) en route. Some follow-on notes from conversations: For : the best source for non-pink girl’s clothes (and non-blue boy’s clothes) that we’ve found is Vertbaudet. French, as you might expect from the name. For and , the iPhone/iPod Touch ebook app was Stanza. The iPod Touch and the Sony PRS-505 are comparable in price: £165/£214/£283 for 8Gb/16Gb/32Gb iPod Touch vs. £199 for the PRS-505 (256Mb internal, expandable via SD cards). Battery life on the PRS-505 is excellent… Read More »Conversations interrupted

Neeeeowwwww!

For those that haven’t met him, the has a bit of a thing for aeroplanes. This really became apparent about a year ago; I read him Sadie the Airmail Pilot every night for at least a month, and he was fascinated by the aircraft flying into Southampton Airport (we’re less than a kilometre south of the perimeter, and probably less than 200m west of the southern approach flight path). Last summer, we met up with my uncle and aunt at the Isle of Wight Steam Railway (they had a 1940s weekend) and ended up buying him a selection of planes,… Read More »Neeeeowwwww!

Garklet 2.1 is no more

had a scan this morning (at 11w6) which showed that the latest attempt to make a sibling for the hasn’t worked (anencephaly). There’s more in a f-locked post on ‘s journal here.

Brunch report

Another Sunday brunch today, this time for my PhD (and EngD) students. It was great to finally get them all over, although I note that they’re a far more abstemious bunch than the usual suspects – we practically had to beg them to drink the margaritas I had on ice! Menu was as follows (mostly for my benefit): Fruit platter – pineapple and papaya, dressed with lime and cayenne Huevos revueltos with chorizo Guacamole Frijoles Salsa Pica de Gallo (sour cream, crumbled Wensleydale, spring onions) Tortillas and bread rolls (the latter for molletes) Sopapillos (or bunuelos – I can’t work… Read More »Brunch report

Life Chez Gark

A bit of a life roundup for the past week. First off, the cat. She might have stayed around for an extra day, but she buggered off the following day. I suspect that it was the move from luxury single sachet cat food to multipack Waitrose own-brand cat food that did it. The seems to have taken it well, and has accepted the explanation that “she’s gone back to her family” (which in all truth is the most likely outcome), and hasn’t settled for “she was driven away by next door’s army, and is now cowering under a bush with… Read More »Life Chez Gark

Cat update

Well, she isn’t tagged, nor is she pregnant. I also assume that she doesn’t have anything obviously wrong with her, otherwise the vet nurse would probably have mentioned it (even though we didn’t have a full MOT). So, step two is to stick posters around the local area and wait. If that doesn’t work, we might have to look at a) adopting her, b) naming her, and c) working out where we can put a cat flap (it’s not looking good at the moment).