The Official/Unofficial Recession

It seems that farmers, used to hardship and managing on a tight budget,
are often well prepared for recessions when they hit.
In some ways, they seem to live in a perpetual state of
unofficial recession.

Townies, on the other hand, tend to wave their designer hand-bags in the
air and wonder if starvation might not be at hand.

Last evening, I set to with a vengeance to make pizza and bread from
scratch. Tesco's inability to provide yeast (signs of the "official"
recession?) meant a foray in the Health Food Store, where I discoverd
a mysterious substance, Quick Yeast. It rises a half-kilo of dough
in 25 minutes... truly remarkable.


And if the going gets really tough.

Let us eat cake...



And given the fact that most of our money has been carried off
in a mysterious trickle into the coffers of the rich and powerful,
let us make it ourselves.

My Stack Brimmeth Over

By the time I had drunk several more cups of tea yesterday
and taken a leisurely walk to the Dundrum Centre,
I found that I had lost all interest in the whys
and wherefores of Internet debate.

There's nothing like a wander round Tesco's (they had
run out of dried yeast, BTW) and a session in a bright
changing room with an assortment of wildly reduced and
pretty jumpers to put everthing right back in perspective.

I even took some photos.

By the time I returned to the fray, another row had broken out...

Perhaps "Blue Monday" took a hold and is going to last 'till June?

I have nary a bother with Flickr, but there are disgruntled
photographers, caring and sharing types, for whom it is becoming
a serious bone of contention.
They post and blog on relentlessly until, at the pin of their collars,
moderators batten down hatches, close threads and even ban anybody who
dares mention the dread "F" word in public.

All these concerns are contageous.

What if I should find my photos disappearing from Flickr, I ask myself vaguely,
while admiring a neat pile of new V-necked light knitwear that
seem to have been custom made for an evening in a Melbourne garden
with the "Doctor" gently blowing from the sea.

Much more Flickritis and I'll turn into the Amanda McKittrick Ross of my generation.

What if my Flickr photos get a poxy attack of Stack Overload?

I keep asking myself this question because..

There's not much point in asking anybody else

Nobody seems to know what it is...

Comments Are Hard to Relay

Rather than try again to comment on Haydn's blog,
I just took a screenshot of what I would like to say
and happily post it here.

From now on I think I'll just continue with this system rather
than waste time trying to post comments that never seem to
get through.

The Tracking Code

Things That Go Bump in the Net

Ever so often I get pulled up short while surfing.

Internet protocol, I learned the hard way, makes
those who bump threads a sure target for the
(usually Alpha-Male control freak) fellow poster
who has taken to roaming wild and free,
like the lion of old, seeking ...

well... seeking trouble.

As Daudet so poignantly put it,

"le demon rode eternellement autour de nous comme un lion, quaerens quem
devoret

The personalities I've encountered over the past few years
run to type.
Rather than play the Cry Baby I tend to sit back over a nice cup of
cranberry flavoured green tea and wonder what possesses some people when
they decide to kick ass on a chat forum.

My friends goggle when they hear that I was once banned from
a satirical site. At school I was one of those compliant students
who just read quietly under the desk for years and dutifully
obeyed when asked to put the blessed book away.
It was a mystery to me at the time why it took us a full
year to get through a short text-book that some nutter in
the Department of Education thought would improve our sadly
unformed minds when I was reading two books a day that were
of far more interest and, in general, much better written.
It's hard to beat Graham Green on a wet day in January,
though his maudlin Catholicism became tiresome over the years.

AnyWAYS... as I tap this out a question lies in wait on
a chat room. Why did I bump an old thread?

Well, why not...

The Dream Time

Irish Bloggers Unite

"Writing in a Twist" has been nominated
for the
Irish Blog Awards, 2009.

Many thanks to all who made this possible.






Irishkc.com devised this cunning .gif.

Fair Dinkum.

To the Waters and the Wild

I'm planning a trip to Australia.

For somebody whose idea of stress is gettting round the supermarket
and emerging with all the ingredients for a hearty dinner,
this is quite an adventure.

Since I've managed it twice already and have not contracted
Dengue Fever or had any encounters that could deter me
from setting out again, I'm in really up-beat mood.

Even the news, relayed through the eternal presence of Radio Four,
that today is "Blue Monday", has not put me in a negative state of mind.

Apparently today is the day, above all days in the year, when people
'phone in sick to work.

There is even an academic in on of the British universities who
has worked out a mathematical equation to prove that this is so.


That would not wash here, as house-wives are not supposed to have moods
or throw sickies or insist on terrorising those round them with a
work-to-rule.

Dinner, I'm delighted to report, will be as usual this evening
and served piping hot.

Here's to a Rosy Future

One of Mr Pemberton's glorious Musk Roses.

The man was a genius.

Hybridising is a very skilled activity.