In a modest demonstration that it is possible to lose weight by diet alone, I have been unable to swim for the last few weeks due to a minor but persistent case of sinusitus. I am now on antibiotics, which will hopefully deal with it, since in the current situation, I don't want to add to the burden on local medical facilites with mere bacterial ( Read more... )

1 A couple of years ago while visiting family in Melbourne, I went to the op-shop where my aunt was volunteering, and just to be nice, bought several little ladies' watches from I think the 1930s. Tiny, delicate things, with either gold-plated or silk cord straps. AUS$1 each. Early ladies' watches were so small that they didn't have space for all ( Read more... )

For those of you leaping on the anti-plastic-straw bandwagon,or at least frequenting F&B establishments that are doing so, the only thing that bamboo straws are good for, apart from impressing gullible customers, is growing mould inside them. Especially in humid environments, like lots of kitchens, even those not in the tropics. Especially those ( Read more... )

The housekeeper is home and the cats are back to their regular routine, and much less in the way of guilt kitty biscuits ( Read more... )

Having a holiday in several different places sequentially has had the happy side-effect of making it seem longer. Notable points ( Read more... )

I know there is a HoME reference to Formenos being built into the gorge of a river, rather like a fancier version of the Anasazi remains in the US, or possibly the Tiger's Nest monastery in Bhutan, but when I saw this image, it instantly became my mental image of Feanor's northern fortress or possibly Fingolfin's fortress of Barad Eithel ( Read more... )

https://medium.com/@sonyahallett/cultural-appropriation-whose-culture-is-it-anyway-and-what-about-hybridity-3d3398a6d9d6

From andrewduckerIn which the author says everything that I have ever wanted to say ( Read more... )

The handful of people who follow this LJ know that I don't normally do videos. But this one was so staggering that I felt the urge to link: a time-lapse video of the city of Singapore, taken over a period of three years starting in 2013 ( Read more... )

Back to Melbourne and Tasmania, to visit family and friends. Both are as lovely in autumn as they are in spring. For some reason, the camellias were in full bloom in Melbourne, as were the rhododendrons and azaleas. In Battery Point I saw two persimmon trees covered in fruit, which caught the last light of the evening and shone like gold ( Read more... )

In which life continues to imitate art ( Read more... )