The other news

[jadesfire]

Happy birthday, aeron_lanart!!! Hope it's a good one, hon.

~ Today is a bank holiday and I am at work. There is something wrong with this picture. On the other hand, after spending all Friday lying on the sofa and most of yesterday dozing, I'm actually ready to get some stuff done. And did I mention that my work is awesomely understanding about my health? I'm so lucky on that front, and it's a counting my blessings kind of day today.

~ I'm not going to be around as much as usual for the next few weeks, since we were broken into at the weekend and my netbook was stolen *cries* (as well as our wallets and J's laptop). I will be getting another, just not for a little while, which is going to curtail my online access. BTW, those of you with netbooks, what have you got and what do you recommend?

~ Less surfing might not be an entirely bad thing, since I have a stupid amount of stuff on my writing plate right now, and maybe less time online will mean more words on the page. Anything's possible, right?

~ I am busy every night this week. All with good stuff, but I'm starting to wonder if this is what it's like to have a social life. Weird.

~ Flautists on my flist, how do I play a 'C' without dropping the flute or losing the note? I'm teaching myself at the moment, and right now I can only manage one or the other...

~

	This week	Next week	This Month	Long Term
WORK	Serial POs Transcribe Audiotour Receiving Houtschild books Invoices Moys Mooting videos FMP orders Oracle password Non-FMP orders	Serial POs Finish Audiotour BIALL tickets and details	Google Books Agreement Any reading for BIALL conference
WRITING	Pirate!fic NCIS fic for azure_chaos Beta for donutsweeper	Finish tardis_bigbang	bau_bigbang "Five Things..." ficlets spn_summergen	SGA project with perspi Dragon!fic Universal Library sgabigbang
OTHER	Email C OSD Reply to CK Update library blog Return EFL book Return library books Linkspam Zoo RLD change Haircut Taste of Britain Address to A&L	Coffee with AW Email AG Update library blog Pictures to blackmare_9 Post to Rusty	Duke Humfrey's Paperwork for BIALL conference Writing links (?date?)	Course at ContEd? Website for my stories Flute

~ Yes, you did read right in that table. Because we are a bad influence on each other, greyias and I have signed up to co-write for this year's sgabigbang. That's THREE Big Bangs for me this year, plus the SPN Summer Gen challenge. Bring it on *wibble*

~ There's probably more, but I need to get coffee before my 3 hour enquiry desk shift. Hopefully the students are all in exams or Bank Holidays *crosses fingers*. There's so much to do!

~ I am rather vague today. This could prove problematic.

[I'm just going to keep adding 'ETA's to this as I remember things. By the time Californian folks see it, this post is going to be epic]

~ I made a lemon drizzle syrup cake last night, and it is exceedingly yummy. I meant to bring it to work for those of us slaving away while everyone else is at home, but it's still sitting on top of the bread-maker in the kitchen. It's one of the easiest and yummiest cakes ever, and I've put the recipe under the cut.

Cream together 175g caster sugar (I use Golden, but normal will do) and 125g butter. Add 2 eggs and the grated zest of 1 lemon. Mix until smooth. Carefully fold in 175g self-raising flour, a pinch of salt and 4 tbsp of milk. Scrape into a prepared 2lb loaf tin and bake at 180 for about 45 minutes, or until a skewer comes out clean.

While it's baking, put 100g icing sugar and the juice of 1-2 lemons in a saucepan and heat until the sugar is dissolved and you have a syrup. As soon as you take the cake out of the oven, puncture it all over with a skewer and pour the syrup over. Leave to cool completely before eating.

[Weight to volume cooking conversions can be done here]

Comments

[jadesfire2808.livejournal.com]

(I'm the exact opposite - if it's got a reed, I'm lost, but I've always been able to play the flute. *g*)

I'm trying to think of them as three totally separate instruments (I play descant/soprano and alto recorders) else I'm only going to get more confused... ;D

[xwingace]

I started on soprano recorder; it is (or at least used to be) common here, for kids to start on that and 'graduate' to bigger instruments after a year or two/three. I can't really play it now, though, because I can't blow into the mouthpiece with so little air pressure that the tone doesn't go off (that's the result of playing clarinet -- more air pressure required). I have an alto recorder that I *can* still play, but the C key doesn't close properly, so some notes don't work. Fingering isn't any different, though. Not that I know all that much of it, anymore.

I love the flute, several of my cousins play it. But I can't get sound to come out. And in the end, I think I like the clarinet more anyway. :-)