Round and about
Jan. 17th, 2009 04:28 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
altarielI can't believe how much better I feel. Last weekend I was tottering around and my immune system felt like a fragile lace around me. This weekend I'm leaping around like a young gazelle. Well, actually I'm snuggled up in the house in front of my computer, but that's a lot livelier than last week.
Doughty![[livejournal.com profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/external/lj-userinfo.gif)
tyellas has been braving the northern hemisphere winter and came to see me in Cambridge last week; the temperature rose a couple of degrees to the merely freezing in welcome. We avoided churches and water (her previous stop had been the Netherlands) and instead went on a whistlestop tour of some of Cambridge's smaller and more interesting museums. Usually when people come to Cambridge it's all King's and the Backs; it was fun to focus on this other side of the city and its scientific heritage. Practically every place we visited shrieked, "Darwin!" at us, like being in the part of the universe set aside to offset this.
My own favourite small museum in Cambridge is the Whipple Museum of the History of Science, four madly brilliant rooms of astrolabes, abacuses, orreries, and calculators. We also pottered around the old-fashioned displays of fossils and minerals at the Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences; braved the formaldehyde stench and dubious taxidermy of the Museum of Zoology; and in a coals-to-Newcastle moment admired the Maori flagpole at the Museum of Arch and Anth.
I had never been to the museum at the Scott Polar Research Institute before; certainly the most moving exhibit is the collection of last letters written by Scott, Wilson, and Bowers; however, the emphasis seemed to be chiefly on Shackleton, and quite right too. (It is the centenary of the Nimrod expedition.)
The Fitzwilliam has an excellent exhibition on at the moment celebrating the part played by Sir Sydney Cockerell in expanding and enriching the museum. The recently acquired Macclesfield Psalter is the centrepiece of the exhibition; the highlight for me was the manuscripts and proofs of Jude the Obscure.
Wednesday nightmraltariel cooked a joint "Welcome tyellas and Happy Birthday altariel" dinner, using all his new pieces of kit. This meal took nine hours - yes, nine - to cook, and is his best yet. Here is the menu:
All enquiries tomraltariel; all I did was eat it - I even forgot to get the camera out and take pictures.
ETA: tonight's dinner...
Aimee Mann ran a contest last year in which you could download an instrumental version of her song Freeway, then record yourself singing to it and upload the results to YouTube. I spent Thursday afternoon poking around people's efforts. The winner sounded like a cross between Bob Dylan and David Gray and I didn't like it much; the absolute highlight was the version by Robot Guy (there's a link to him singing it live on stage with Aimee Mann too). I also really liked the English accent of the girl in this one; and the banjos in this. Banjos are good. (All links go to YouTube videos.)
Last night was Richard Thompson at the Corn Exchange performing 1000 Years of Popular Music; it was a slightly different set from the one on the CD he did a few years ago. I think the first half (from about 1100 to 1920) was the stronger, particularly Purcell's "When I Am Laid In Earth" from Dido and Aeneas, which sounded like something from Cabaret, and the beautiful acoustic simplicity of Shenandoah. The Beatles medley in the second half felt oddly dated, as if time had passed and sentiments such as 'I Wanna Hold Your Hand' were now plaintively, forlornly naive. The big ending was a reworking of Nelly Furtado's 'Maneater' interspersed with Latin chant rather than the classic 'Oops I Did it Again' with mediaeval setting ('Marry, Ageyne Hic Hev Donne Yt'), alas, but you can't have everything. (You can, however, hear it courtesy of YouTube here.) I love this CD and it's a great show. (A variety of sound clips on YouTube here.)
I read Le Guin's story suite Four Ways to Forgiveness last week, and found myself moved more by the setting than by the stories themselves. Is there fanfic?
Doughty
tyellas has been braving the northern hemisphere winter and came to see me in Cambridge last week; the temperature rose a couple of degrees to the merely freezing in welcome. We avoided churches and water (her previous stop had been the Netherlands) and instead went on a whistlestop tour of some of Cambridge's smaller and more interesting museums. Usually when people come to Cambridge it's all King's and the Backs; it was fun to focus on this other side of the city and its scientific heritage. Practically every place we visited shrieked, "Darwin!" at us, like being in the part of the universe set aside to offset this. My own favourite small museum in Cambridge is the Whipple Museum of the History of Science, four madly brilliant rooms of astrolabes, abacuses, orreries, and calculators. We also pottered around the old-fashioned displays of fossils and minerals at the Sedgwick Museum of Earth Sciences; braved the formaldehyde stench and dubious taxidermy of the Museum of Zoology; and in a coals-to-Newcastle moment admired the Maori flagpole at the Museum of Arch and Anth.
I had never been to the museum at the Scott Polar Research Institute before; certainly the most moving exhibit is the collection of last letters written by Scott, Wilson, and Bowers; however, the emphasis seemed to be chiefly on Shackleton, and quite right too. (It is the centenary of the Nimrod expedition.)
The Fitzwilliam has an excellent exhibition on at the moment celebrating the part played by Sir Sydney Cockerell in expanding and enriching the museum. The recently acquired Macclesfield Psalter is the centrepiece of the exhibition; the highlight for me was the manuscripts and proofs of Jude the Obscure.
Wednesday night
mraltariel cooked a joint "Welcome tyellas and Happy Birthday altariel" dinner, using all his new pieces of kit. This meal took nine hours - yes, nine - to cook, and is his best yet. Here is the menu: - Layers of Cep cream + butternut squash soup with (tiny) parmesan gnocci, cep jelly cubes and pickled (by mraltariel!) ceps
- Loin of Pork (sous vide!) with apple balls cooked sous-vide in a white wine poaching syrup, translucent pak choi stem matchsticks (also cooked sous vide), pak choi leaf 'pudding', crispy powder of slow cooked belly pork (like fancy bacon bits), grain mustard vinaigrette and a pork jus
- Apple cappucino shots: fresh granny smith apple juice topped with apple air made using the new chemistry set
- Rhubarb stems (cooked sous vide to a translucent pink), rhubarb compote and rhubarb ice cream with a shot of custard foam
All enquiries to
mraltariel; all I did was eat it - I even forgot to get the camera out and take pictures.ETA: tonight's dinner...
Aimee Mann ran a contest last year in which you could download an instrumental version of her song Freeway, then record yourself singing to it and upload the results to YouTube. I spent Thursday afternoon poking around people's efforts. The winner sounded like a cross between Bob Dylan and David Gray and I didn't like it much; the absolute highlight was the version by Robot Guy (there's a link to him singing it live on stage with Aimee Mann too). I also really liked the English accent of the girl in this one; and the banjos in this. Banjos are good. (All links go to YouTube videos.)
Last night was Richard Thompson at the Corn Exchange performing 1000 Years of Popular Music; it was a slightly different set from the one on the CD he did a few years ago. I think the first half (from about 1100 to 1920) was the stronger, particularly Purcell's "When I Am Laid In Earth" from Dido and Aeneas, which sounded like something from Cabaret, and the beautiful acoustic simplicity of Shenandoah. The Beatles medley in the second half felt oddly dated, as if time had passed and sentiments such as 'I Wanna Hold Your Hand' were now plaintively, forlornly naive. The big ending was a reworking of Nelly Furtado's 'Maneater' interspersed with Latin chant rather than the classic 'Oops I Did it Again' with mediaeval setting ('Marry, Ageyne Hic Hev Donne Yt'), alas, but you can't have everything. (You can, however, hear it courtesy of YouTube here.) I love this CD and it's a great show. (A variety of sound clips on YouTube here.)
I read Le Guin's story suite Four Ways to Forgiveness last week, and found myself moved more by the setting than by the stories themselves. Is there fanfic?
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no subject
Date: 2009-01-17 05:23 pm (UTC)The meal sounds amazing. I randomly caught an episode of Masterchef, and watching their efforts and comparing them to
Have you been watching the snooker?
no subject
Date: 2009-01-17 06:03 pm (UTC)The meal was outstanding. I sit watching Masterchef thinking the same thing, especially on the Invention Test, which is something he's particularly good at.
I've been out so much this week I haven't seen any of the snooker - am I missing a classic?
no subject
Date: 2009-01-17 06:14 pm (UTC)> All enquiries to
I don't think I want to spoil the magic...
no subject
Date: 2009-01-17 06:26 pm (UTC)Your tour of Cambridge's less popular museum sounds absolutely amazing: Unfortunately, I only had time for the Fitzwilliam during my brief stint in your beautiful city last year, but the Whipple collection is now definitely on my to-do list for the next time I manage to get there.
no subject
Date: 2009-01-17 06:30 pm (UTC)(Although, sadly, top-quality snooker is not doing much for the looming new Administration story deadline, so really I wish it had been a bit crapper :-)
no subject
Date: 2009-01-17 06:55 pm (UTC)I hadn't previosly know that that exprfition of Shackleton's was called "Nimrod". Now I kniw why the RAF's successor to its Shackleton aircraft was given the name of Nimrod. It's always satisfying when one can make a connection like that.
no subject
Date: 2009-01-17 07:08 pm (UTC)I'm glad that you're feeling so much better. I recommend much more snuggling up in the house: I'm convinced it's the way to go.
no subject
Date: 2009-01-17 08:13 pm (UTC)Freshly squeezed granny smith apple juice and lectin, foamed.
no subject
Date: 2009-01-17 08:14 pm (UTC)Do let me know next time you're here, it would be lovely to take you round.
You're certainly blessed with such an angel in the house. ;)
Too true. It would be chips and ready meals if I was left to do the food around here.
no subject
Date: 2009-01-17 08:32 pm (UTC)I should also check out some of the museums next time I'm in Cambridge; as you say, all I know of it is colleges and the Backs.
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Date: 2009-01-17 08:41 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-17 09:16 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-18 07:13 am (UTC)The museums were wonderful. The only problem was that we did them all in an approximately 24-hour period, and I was a wee bit burned out by the time we got to the Fitzwilliam. But seeing
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Date: 2009-01-18 09:56 am (UTC)Loving that icon...
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Date: 2009-01-18 09:57 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-18 10:06 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-18 10:08 am (UTC)(When's the deadline?)
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Date: 2009-01-18 10:51 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-18 10:52 am (UTC)Ah! Yes! You're right!
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Date: 2009-01-18 10:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-18 02:27 pm (UTC)The chips and convenience food syndrome sounds awfully familiar to me, alas.
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Date: 2009-01-18 03:43 pm (UTC)Excellent!
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Date: 2009-01-18 10:01 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-18 10:07 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2009-01-18 10:47 pm (UTC)