Yvan

Allotmenter, cooker, fermenter, tinkerer, hacker of things and code. (This account will toot content in mainly that order of volume.)

Ex- Unix/Linux sys/net/infosec software-dev/eng who went mad and decided to sell beer to pubs instead. (And am now in the process of renovating & opening a pub too.)

From South West West Australia, living in England's Fenlands for some reason. 🤷🏻‍♂️

Profile pic is me worshipping the small gods, header pic is overhead drone photos of our allotment plots.

Public Key

npub18yxfxjyez4ddzdsls0rdrjaself2nuwctvzjt7lnt89fwf0rjlnspzv42y

NIP-05 Address

yvan_at_toot.ale.gd@mostr.pub

Profile Code

nprofile1qqsrjrynfzv32kk3xc0c83k3ewcvl54f78v9kpf9l0e4nj5hyh3e0ecprpmhxue69uhhyetvv9ujumn0wdmksetjv5hxxmmd7n9sed

Publishing to

relay.noswhere.com

Author Public Key

npub18yxfxjyez4ddzdsls0rdrjaself2nuwctvzjt7lnt89fwf0rjlnspzv42y

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Last Notes

2024-09-09 17:57:12

Gonna need a bigger barrow!
https://toot.ale.gd/system/media_attachments/files/113/108/871/048/771/683/original/ca171a5a9ba5a377.jpg

2024-07-30 18:54:44

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@npub1qk5…jlda Chilli WINE?! That's a new one on me. Sounds lethal.

2024-06-30 20:09:14

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@npub1eav…g6f3 gonna need a bigger compost bin!

2024-06-21 14:13:46

Turns out we have a local candidate I can vote for! 😂
If ever there was a "fuck this shit" vote this is it.
#UKPol
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2024-06-12 11:15:16

Great advertising for Buldak 3x Spicy: https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/cy00gk0kr82o
"Denmark recalls Korean ramen for being too spicy"
I have immediately popped some in a basket with one of my favourite independent online SE asian supermarkets: https://starrymart.co.uk/samyang-buldak-hot-chicken-flavour-ramen-3x-spicy-140g-pack-of-5.html

2024-05-31 21:53:25

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This approach may be somewhat inadvisable in respect to stress it could place on the connectors. Need some very thin wire, foil, or maybe that paint/draw on conductor stuff.

2024-05-30 15:50:17

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Not bad for a field in rural Herefordshire. 😂

2024-05-30 15:49:43

woah!
#emf24
https://toot.ale.gd/system/media_attachments/files/112/530/791/936/117/185/original/329f4198c0bd78f8.jpg
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2024-04-25 14:34:43

Kat, who's suffering some awful & debilitating shoulder/upper-back pain at the moment (2+ weeks in) tried to book into the local GP about it ... booking available in 1 month... told to try her luck calling first thing in the mornings hoping for ad-hoc daily availability.

2024-04-22 18:26:11

What's the best way to "cloud" store a few hundred GB of photos these days?
We've had a bit of a data-loss hiccup* and I want something robust. (Currently we're replicating what we have across a pair of 1TB raid1 arrays on our two PCs in different rooms of the house.)
Google is an option I guess, at 80 quid per year for 2TB... but kinda sick of giving them everything.
* which I think I can mostly recover from thankfully... I have backup drives, of backup drives, of backup drives...

2024-04-16 17:09:11

Heh, didn't realise propping up your massively in deficit loss-making beer business with scam crowdfunding was still a thing... I definitely missed a trick there.

2024-03-24 17:32:48

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So yeah... didn't really go to the #allotment expecting much, but got a little weeding and tidying done, and got quite a decent harvest - celeriac, leeks, parsnips, lettuce, rocket, parsley, a little chard, and some rhubarb. This will go well with some sausages we picked up from one of the local nurseries for dinner. We also got some seedlings - it's an expensive way to start plants, but it makes up a little for our late start... it's basically spending money to purchase a modicum of hope.
https://toot.ale.gd/system/media_attachments/files/112/151/845/529/241/529/original/2a3b6a51fd919eb3.jpg
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2024-03-24 17:13:34

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Down on the other #allotment plot we actually came away with a reasonable harvest for dinner - parsnips, celeriac, and leeks. Bugs are starting to burrow into the celeriac, so I got 2 for redundancy and found one had a whole ecosystem inside it (but partially usable). The parsnips were a late planting and a bit small, but will be of use, and it shall be interesting to see how the leeks are as they had a lot of borer in them in autumn. We shall see how they look internally tonight.
https://toot.ale.gd/system/media_attachments/files/112/151/779/377/589/233/original/584ae117ea1bf17d.jpg
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2024-03-24 17:06:13

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The #allotment #polytunnel is a bit parched, but not barren. I've poured several wateringcans of water over the beds today and we'll repeat this weekly to build up a bit more surface soil moisture - but it's not actually too bad under a couple of inches of dry surface compost.
There are some lush deep rooted parsley growing, a large wild rocket, and one lone lettuce. That's a salad right there!
The the two rows of allotment garlic are doing OK. I've cleared the parsley out overshadowing them.
https://toot.ale.gd/system/media_attachments/files/112/151/721/484/213/945/original/dad4c1514b1b6d52.jpg
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2024-03-23 18:25:01

Mothereffinmothereffer!!
Been pouring over input and output html 'tidy' HTML trying to work out why the effing hell the effing tidied version renders different to the original. Fiddling with whitespace, tags, playing with the tidy config.
The seemingly innocuous reason was staring me in the face every time I opened the mothereffing file.
The 'tidy' version has <!DOCTYPE html> added at the top.. that's it, that's the whole cause of the rendering difference. Just... eh, what, wtf, I hate html.

2024-03-16 14:05:49

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Which is why the UK has a beer industry rife with VAT fraud, duty fraud, over-laden vehicles, very dodgy insurance scenarios, and generally vague recognition of any regulation be it alcohol, allergens, labelling, etc, etc. (And I have no doubt similar can be said of other industries, I speak only of the one I know most intimately. Don't even get me started on the things I'm learning about the state of pub compliance to relevant laws these days too.)

2024-03-16 13:59:11

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The hard part is being someone who has for a decade in business by default always worked to be aware of and compliant to regulation. In a context where many people aren't, don't give a shit, think I'm mad to give a shit, and there's so little enforcement anyway that my position does seem daft and "bad business" because it's non-competitive to be compliant. It's against the RUSH TO DO SHIT FAST AND BAD state of capitalism we find ourselves in.

2024-03-16 13:56:07

Nearly 7 years and I'm still having to tell brewers their invoicing is not legally compliant with the AWRS regulations. Kinda tired of it.
And in this case the invoice is also not compliant with VAT regulations.
I suspect this is in part fuelled by online sales platforms developed by business amateurs who don't know the first thing about compliance and give other small businesses the tools to be non-compliant with extreme ease.

2024-03-16 11:23:54

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Not that I can take any route outta anywhere right now. Painkillers are in me, waiting for them to kick in, then next job a bit of autotrader and eBay trawling.
As for the allotment, currently glad we went against a lot of advice and went for raised beds. Hopefully the garlic, onions, etc are all coping OK in our absence.

2024-03-15 18:27:33

On the plus side the bar is full to about calculated capacity.
On the minus side this means a lot of people walk in, look around, and leave.
Guess I need to think about the basement HVAC and renovation sooner rather than later.

2024-03-15 17:09:40

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@npub16ju…y8u7 ah! Duh! My brain is a bit lurgy-addled right now. Well, glad the prognosis rapidly improved for poor Junior!

2024-03-15 17:01:30

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@npub10dc…pmga down in Cambridge is the Daily Bread Co-Operative who have been struggling a bit but I support as best and often as I can.

2024-03-15 16:16:25

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@npub10dc…pmga that's cool - around here "new coop" generally means yet another same old branch of the Co Op lol... nice to see something independent and more of a real "co op" (I know the Co Op has kinda co-up origins but you'd not really clock it from the slightly fragmented chain stores we have in this region.)

2024-03-14 07:27:16

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The weird job is screwing small bits of perforated steel plate to the edges and corners of things. I can picture it clearly, yet it makes absolutely no sense, but I still feel like it is something I must do.

2024-03-14 07:25:41

On top of it all... I seem to have lurgy.
And I've had 10 hours of weird seemingly lucid dreaming about a job I MUST do that makes absolutely no sense, it remains clear and crystallized in my mind and continues to dog me.
Just stay away from people folks. People are disease vectors.
(Not really a position that ought be held by someone with a pub lol... but eh... as an aside, I really wish we could afford some air steriliser/filter equipment. It's on the Todo list.)

2024-03-13 22:10:26

The flesh is weak, but the spirit is... unwilling. I think something in me was hanging on it all being over now, and because it isn't all of me is packing it in. I feel utterly dead. Pack up go home time. Curl up and die.

2024-03-12 14:23:39

Are we all just a bit fucking tired of "I am not a robot" yet - it just gets more and more irritating. What the fuck is a fire hydrant anyway... I'm not a yank. Not only am I well and truly sick of trying to pick details out of fuzzed bad photos of things, I'm sick of identifying American street furniture. I hate that website I have no option but to use force me through this little dance every bloody login... just implement some normal bloody 2FA perhaps.

2024-03-09 11:32:41

"A bar that won't serve a pint exists solely for cunts."
"they've decorated it up in white like a mental institution"
"This pub refurbishment is the greatest cultural crime since ISIS destroyed Palmyra"
😂😅🤪

2024-02-27 12:32:02

"we are excited to share that Hasbean will become Ozone Coffee"
Hasbean is a good name for a coffee roaster, Ozone is a daft name for a coffee roaster.
Meh.

2024-02-18 03:17:47

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@npub1wa0…6pm7 53!? Are you in Mildura?

2024-02-08 15:53:45

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@npub1kuk…6hr5 it's no Kat-brew* but it'll do when I am on my own. Good beans are key of course, and only brewing enough for one thermos flask fill rather than leaving it to stew on the hotplate! Great little machine - served us well for many years of frequent use by warehouse chaps.
I'd love a decent little espresso machine but also couldn't trust myself with one. I'd be perma-wired.
(* Most mornings Kat does a Chemex pourover brew to summon me from the dead, I'm lucky!)

2024-02-08 15:36:26

This calls for the big guns.
Have dug out the old warehouse coffee machine and grinder. Now to work out how to hook it up to a drip.
https://toot.ale.gd/system/media_attachments/files/111/896/590/773/401/171/original/3fc38db760d0aea1.jpg

2024-02-02 20:54:39

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@npub1kuk…6hr5 if applicable — on Android Firefox with the Ghostery plugin is your friend. The advertising on YT has got so bad now! I wish I could uninstall the YouTube app.

2024-01-27 17:04:43

Super weird head day.
Got post saying the grandmother I have never met* died. Trying to work out how I feel about it.**
They managed to track me down as a grandson somehow, but not dad back in Australia. So I've passed it on.***
She lived in Scotland and apparently there is some law there preventing disinheritance. Scotland is weird lol. So they've made an effort to track dad down.
It'd be interesting to connect with dad's side of the family, I have some curiosity on that front.

2024-01-26 22:14:46

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@npub1wu2…dhan oh, right, it's pollock! With a marketing friendly name...
I hadn't actually got around to looking it up, was just a tray of fish on the "reduced to clear" shelf at Sainsbury's 😅

2024-01-26 21:58:09

Dinner tonight is a simplicity. Seasoned fillet of "coaley"* in lemon butter w/ capers, w/ crispy potatoes sautéed in butter w/ garlic and chilli flakes, and gone a bit avant-garde with a slice of black pudding**.
Reminds me of home, but only in a very faint shadow of a way. Sigh.
* A very English fish, first time I've had it… about as bland as cod — even skin-on. But nice texture, held well, cooked well.
** Mainly as I spotted it in the freezer and felt the volume of dinner needed a boost.
https://toot.ale.gd/system/media_attachments/files/111/824/477/629/318/154/original/6ba82d7eee2cfb4d.jpg

2024-01-22 20:14:20

Every now and and then we have an employee move on, in which case their email address gets redirected into the "ticket system" - and it never ceases to amaze me just how much junk some folks sign their email addresses up for. Cue spending a month hitting unsubscribe buttons.

2024-01-03 16:46:21

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Right, I consider this a new superpower unlocked! 😂
Still having a little trouble needing to babysit the first layer - but I can #3dprint my own gaskets/washers/etc now.
The material is harder than a silcone gasket, maybe slightly harder than neoprene too, but should work for many situations.
Will be interesting to see if I can build that up to more "3d" objects too. This TPU material feels like it could have a lot of uses.
#3dprinting
https://toot.ale.gd/system/media_attachments/files/111/693/022/942/919/078/original/6d08f18f4aaeeec9.mp4

2024-01-03 15:05:33

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Getting there! A few more tweaks, still getting that z-offset right as the first layer requires babysitting to prevent the backup issue. But the remainder of the print worked without needing intervention (but still watching it just in case). Reduced the print temp down to 210 too as the 230 was just making a stringy mess. I've also made the print quality/layers finer.
Now to try to print a more rounded version of the correct dimensions.
#3dprinting
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2024-01-03 14:39:18

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So exactly the the problem that most sources report happened. The TPU filament gets jammed up in the feeder and starves the print head.
So trying now at even slower speed, and retraction set to 0. Also bumped the nozzle temp up to 230°C in the hope that improves flow.
Then I realised my first layer is printing too tight to the bed, causing the filament to back up and the feeding mechanism to push filament into itself. I've thrown in a z-offset (yep, should have calibrated!)
#3dprint
https://toot.ale.gd/system/media_attachments/files/111/692/361/883/272/240/original/a14c682ffeec54ae.jpg

2024-01-03 13:03:15

First #3Dprint attempt at TPU in the FlashForge Adventurer 3 Pro. Rate chances of a successful print at 10%... not spent much time on settings, have picked temperature ranges and speeds based on info on the spool, watched one quick utoob video which prompted me to disable the cooling fan, haven't recalibrated the bed but it should be calibrated from last use (famous last words lol).
Design is a basic washer shaped thing with 40mm OD, 20mm ID, and 2mm thickness.
Projected print time 23 mins.
https://toot.ale.gd/system/media_attachments/files/111/692/129/999/681/536/original/981669e8a59498b3.jpg

2023-12-24 11:05:09

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When I moved to the UK in 2006 Costa was about the best you could expect for espresso in almost all of the UK. (And the purported good places in London were mainly rubbish compared to Sydney, but there were a couple of NZer ran places that knew now to pour an espresso.)
The coffee scene here has come along in leaps and bounds since then.

2023-12-24 11:02:41

Having a Costa espresso.
It's rubbish.
Helpful to remind myself that even though it's not at it's peak the café I like in Cambridge is still streets ahead of this. I've been a bit down on it lately as they seem to have lost their coffee geeks, but OTOH they're still using good espresso beans and have baristas with skills to match.

2023-12-21 17:10:19

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Today's #allotment harvest. Should we harvest all the celeriac soon or can they just be left in the bed?
Probably should harvest all the potato planters, but don't really have time - just hope we don't get too much of a freeze for them. Harvested 3 planters - 3 varieties.
The whole sweet potato thing didn't really work out. Will try again though + leaves are good.
Pigeons getting most of the kale.
Carrots & parsnips are usable at least, despite being so late.
Bad case of leek miners.
https://toot.ale.gd/system/media_attachments/files/111/619/487/285/689/385/original/a45506c4a4d1529b.jpeg

2023-12-21 17:01:05

Well, squeezed in what was the first and probably will be the last #allotment visit of December. I feel sad about neglecting it, but happy we can still have a bit of produce out of it despite the neglect. Hopefully life next year will be less of a trash heap... there's always hope, right...
Both plots looks a bit bare and unkempt, but that's the general theme of the site anyway - a lot of folks seem to not touch their plots over winter, so we're one with the status quo.
https://toot.ale.gd/system/media_attachments/files/111/619/452/455/993/581/original/ec9a98c1ff8121ee.jpeg
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2023-12-14 15:54:43

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@npub1qk5…jlda I really hate the visual block editor stuff in wordpress, it's UX chaos salad. I often tend to revert to editing raw HTML.
If you are able to install plugins it may be worth trying the "classic" editor: https://en-gb.wordpress.org/plugins/classic-editor/
And there are other alternatives to try.
Not that I'm going to try and "hard-sell" wordpress to anyone, I'm not a big fan, it's just become the adequate default for many things and I've run WP sites for years now.

2023-12-01 11:11:07

Merry fucking December from my 10.1°C office.
https://toot.ale.gd/system/media_attachments/files/111/504/846/623/267/496/original/d086bada44922b0d.jpg

2023-11-29 20:58:24

I find it a bit creepy when you partially fill in a web form but then decide against it and then a few days later the email address you feel you never really "submitted"* receives a "special offer" code from the business. I don't really feel like at any point I "opted in" to them storing my email address for further communication. Must go look closer at that PureGym form.
* But there may have been a clickthrough in the form.
OTOH, special offer code... I'm not entirely uninterested, damnit.

2023-11-20 19:53:17

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@npub1agu…j0sk just a little Krups brand blade grinder, works well for this sort of thing.
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2023-11-20 19:08:39

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In an ideal world I'd want to buy a pair of these and knock some doors through 😅
That ideal world where I am rich rather than COVID-debt-laden renter scum.

2023-11-20 19:04:29

I find the whole English conjoined houses thing weird. I can kinda get it when squeezing houses into the limited space of towns/etc - but why glue two houses together when you build them out in the fields? And I don't accept "because it's cheaper due to them sharing a wall" as really anywhere near a good enough justification.
(Kinda like this newly listed rental, but iffy about being out in the fields with some Russian-roulette neighbour situation.)
https://www.google.com/maps/@52.6146922,0.20063,3a,90y,241.82h,87.54t/data=!3m6!1e1!3m4!1s9YmghyGAZw62CbS28RuhhQ!2e0!7i13312!8i6656?entry=ttu
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2023-11-20 18:31:45

About 15 hours in the dehydrator — 10 at 50°C, then 5 at 60°C — turned 352g of Aji Mango chillies into 72g. Now a nice little jar of orangish powder that you really definitely do not want to snort (don't ask…)
Very tasty, also quite spicy! In this form they definitely have a "mango" thing going on.
I think they could combine with some other ingredients to make an excellent chip seasoning.
The whole chillies are going to need quite a bit more time.
#allotment #chillies #peppers #growyourown
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2023-11-20 01:04:46

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@npub1eav…g6f3 you dry yogurt?

2023-11-20 00:47:54

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@npub1eav…g6f3 I like that it can turn food into a form that stores ambient without needing to cook and sterilise. Lots to try out with it.
We used to do this under netting on a table in the yard back home, I miss the Australian heat sometimes.

2023-11-20 00:28:05

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Another thing going on tonight is last week our latest kitchen toy arrived. A dehydrator! It's a big bastard! But that's probably a good thing as I tend to work in bulk.
We are testing it out with chillies. Most of the Aji Mango crop has been tailed and halved and gone in, going to try making a Aji Mango powder. And also a range of whole tailed chillies which Kat is planning to send to a friend in Germany.
Set for 10 hours at 50C. Now we wait.
#allotment #growyourown #chillis
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2023-11-19 23:23:40

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I have had what I consider to be good veal, but even the good stuff leaves me underwhelmed.
It's basically the cod of land-meat.

2023-11-19 23:22:36

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This beef shin looks amazing!
From a local farm/butcher: https://www.bramblebeefarms.co.uk/
They do nationwide delivery, but also drop locally with their fridge van.
Dinner tonight is Osso Beefo… based on a classic Osso Buco recipe from my well worn Stephanie Alexander book: https://www.stephaniealexander.com.au/what-to-cook/recipes/osso-buco/
We have always preferred to make this recipe with beef shin rather than veal, I find veal kinda "meh".
https://toot.ale.gd/system/media_attachments/files/111/439/762/254/373/632/original/67c3436783fdfafb.jpg

2023-11-19 21:15:18

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I'm not really won over by the culinary value of these Sugar Rush Stripey chillies, but some of the fruits really are quite stunning.
https://toot.ale.gd/system/media_attachments/files/111/439/278/717/486/612/original/3047483a4b691ccd.jpg

2023-11-19 21:12:49

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And at home I yoinked out one of the fartichoke plants. Decent harvest from it! These are a pink variety.
I think a celeriac and fartichoke soup may be in order.
https://toot.ale.gd/system/media_attachments/files/111/439/269/002/929/417/original/652b3bac40d86196.jpg

2023-11-19 21:09:38

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And not in the previous photo due to its size is this chonker of an #allotment celeriac. Harvested because I need celery for a mirepox and I gather celeriac stem works well for this.
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2023-11-19 21:06:40

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Decided it was the day to harvest all the ripened (or partly) Big Black Mamma chillies, also grabbed some Aji Mangos, a few rocoto marlene fruits had ripened a bit (orange sphere ones), also nabbed some bishops crowns, a couple of serranos, and one ripe big sun habanero.
Potatoes and carrots for dinner were the main reason for the visit, and the parsley for a gremolata. Decided to get some chard and kale too.
All from the #allotment except the chillies on the green board from the greenhouse.
https://toot.ale.gd/system/media_attachments/files/111/439/232/303/380/786/original/faf55a68b473bcd8.jpg

2023-11-19 20:57:02

Struggling with time and energy so this week's #allotment visit was a nocturnal one.
https://toot.ale.gd/system/media_attachments/files/111/439/207/338/573/924/original/c3d90fb34daf3072.jpg

2023-11-18 10:05:21

Cambridge nerd croissants.
Show me a dodecahedric croissant and maybe I'll be impressed.
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2023-11-14 19:41:16

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The chilli stock-take is mainly inspired by the fact "Chilli Chump" has released his 7 Pot Primo seeds, which I'm going to try after last years total failure to germinate the 7PP seeds from chilieseeds.co.uk (but other seeds from them were fine).
Looking at this order from the Chilli Chump...
A few other obvious things there, want to do my own "Roquito®" style peppers for pizzas/etc thus the "biquinho".
The "Beaver Dam" is intended for attempting to make our own gochugaru and gochujang.
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2023-11-14 19:23:59

Right, time to be thinking about the 2024 chilli season - and preparing to get an earlier start on it! Hopefully next season we will have the #allotment greenhouse built (joining the #poltunnel, and little home greenhouse.)
First job: assess the current chilli seed collection, update the spreadsheet...
We have 147 chilli seeds (seeds, not varieties!) I wonder if there is any complications on selling seedlings at local markets (probably some DEFRA complications?
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2023-11-12 00:33:06

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@npub1eav…g6f3 we have nearly a whole long bed of garlic outside that's popping up little green spikes already, think it's 74 cloves planted. Then this is another 30 or so. I'm going to start some in modules too so I've spares to fill gaps and will plonk any extras in around the place.

2023-11-12 00:21:02

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There wasn't a lot of light left in the day so what we did mainly was clear the other row of tomatoes and tidy up the more clear bed some more so we could get in some #polytunnel garlic. One row of bought Rose Wight and one row of our own, curious to see if there is any difference. Going pretty big on the #allotment garlic this season, we use a lot of the stuff. (We are the sort of folks who are least double the garlic in most recipes and use garlic in nearly everything.)
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2023-11-12 00:17:52

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... get down the #allotment.
Seems we have had a plot invasion. :-/ Noticed a few other gates swinging open too. Oddly they don't seem to have got as far as the plot with the shed on it. It's a good thing we have nothing to steal, no tools kept on site, so unless they want basic hose fittings, part used blod and bone, and similar odds and ends it's not gonna be a productive visit for the scum. They also don't seem to have touched the chillies 🤷🏻‍♂️ so the total damage is one snapped bit of twine.
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2023-11-12 00:14:34

Hm, well, it was going to be a relaxing day.... instead it's been over 12 hours non-stop on the go after a bit of a sleep-in. (Was previously supposed to be another day of rennovation work, but work up felling physically broken and decided I needed a rest after 2 12+ hour days on the trot.)
Yeah, I don't really know how to "rest".
Anyway, after cooking breakfast and doing some stuff around the house we decided to...

2023-11-07 12:47:41

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I'm not even sure if there is any actual law against setting up a LTD, paying yourself £60k per year funded by supplier credit, and then just dumping the indebted husk into administration. And there is nothing stopping them starting a new LTD and just doing it again. (I presume eventually it'll get harder and harder to get credit, especially from proper lenders, but in terms of B2B credit how many small businesses even look up Director histories?)

2023-11-07 12:43:01

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HMRC aren't really interested, even when they're owed money - police definitely aren't interested - and I don't know what companies house actually does other than be a register of data, as far as I can tell they must be staffed by one person sat in a bunker somewhere drinking tea and feeding biscuits to a terrier.

2023-11-07 12:41:05

Limited companies - the solution to "fucking around" with never having to "find out".
Really, the whole setup is just a recipe to get away with practically anything. I know not all LTDs are fraudulent, but it wouldn't be a surprise if over 50% were set up with ill intent in mind, and more then 50% of the others are eventually used to execute ill intent not originally planned.
Unless you piss off people with deep pockets you can just walk away from practically any form of fraud.

2023-11-05 12:26:42

Well into the time of year I contemplate building a ~20°C heated enclosure for storing butter. Yeah, sure, it goes against all standards of food hygiene... but it's butter, it's fine. For 6+ months of the year our kitchen blowtorch sees far more use assisting the spreading of butter than all other uses combined.
Maybe this is the year I'll build it, got a bunch of spare 50mm insulation panel.
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2023-11-01 17:15:19

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@npub1dug…mkax we drove because there's no viable public transport where we live and once you're driving you may as well just do the whole thing that way, and it's also (a lot) cheaper and (a bit) quicker. I hate that this is the case.

2023-11-01 16:48:54

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@npub1dug…mkax tbh am often tempted by these things, but the way the government has gone fascist about protest here means for me it comes with a risk of deportation. I'm there in spirit.

2023-11-01 15:26:33

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@npub1dug…mkax only the finest grains of oryza sativa, someone has been playing with their food.

2023-11-01 15:20:55

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One of the first things we find in the Tate Britain and I have to restrain Kat before she dives into it Scrooge McDuck style.
"Got Rice bitch? Got Rice?"
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2023-11-01 15:01:14

po po Tate o!
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2023-11-01 14:43:29

Not in London often, once a year on a work basis maybe, has been years since just wandering the streets.
How often does a dozen+ police escorted motorcade flapping gold trimmed US and GB flags barge it's way through.
One of the last vehicles was a particularly impressive looking yank truck, dual rear wheels, maybe an F-350. (Part of me wants one of those, a bigger part of me things there fucking stupid 🤪)

2023-10-25 13:32:16

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@npub1kuk…6hr5 ooo, workshop envy!!! Looks like a good sized space.
I got downgraded from a warehouse to a shipping container recently 😅
Now eyeballing the rental market for a place with a garage or something but mainly eyes watering at how much more expensive rents are now.

2023-10-22 18:46:13

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@npub1dug…mkax did get the fork in pulling out an area of large weeds though!

2023-10-22 17:42:48

#allotment therapy
Good to have a bit of a tidy up, feel vaguely less useless.
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2023-10-22 12:11:06

One of our #allotment "volunteer" pumpkins was rotting out from the inside so I took it out back and murdered it.
Most likely it is a cross between last year's Uchiki Kuri and some other random parent. The flesh is pale, has a pleasant punpkinish aroma, and raw a very light sweetness. It's very pithy and comes away with a hint of a spaghetti squash texture.
Trying to determine if it has any culinary value. We have two quite large ones still and a medium one.
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2023-10-21 19:30:38

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@npub1dug…mkax still, it was my decision to take the poisoned chalice, foolish hopefullness, daft optimism... I resent that they basically cut us, and so many others, loose after a certain point after their continued seemingly random and ill informed decision making and policies had rinsed us all. (On top of the continual economic friction of Brexit, absolute failure on energy policy wrt business, and other contributions to general economic instability.)

2023-10-21 19:23:51

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@npub1dug…mkax yeah, really I blame basically everything on Tories!
Quite aside from all the other damage they have done, Tory policy during COVID led me into huge debt to "save" a business & other people's jobs when I would have 100% been better off closing down. I made a very bad decision circa summer 2020... but it was based on expectations set by the government. They led a lot of people down the same path and the hospitality industry & it's supply chain is still suffering for it.

2023-10-21 15:42:04

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Addendum: I've only myself to blame really. I built my own prison, locked myself in it, and handed the key to others. I'm the architect of my own demise.

2023-10-21 15:25:33

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It's different when you're working for yourself, easier to justify the slow destruction of your own life. But working for others in adverse conditions and crushing personal circumstances — I've done all I can for other people, and I don't know what I am doing it for any more. How much longer, how much more? (And I suspect there is zero appreciation for what I have done for others anyway, so all in all its been a fool's errand.)
</frustrated exhausted rant>

2023-10-21 15:15:46

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Perhaps the only message I have left to send is to just go, and it would be for the better. (You tell people that it's actually better for you to just go, move on, but they respond that by asking you to justify yourself and do more. 😕 Which kind of defines what your actual value is... just another resource to be consumed.)

2023-10-21 15:11:27

It's funny how when you tell people you're burnt out and close to general meltdown the reponse is mainly to completely ignore that input and just heap a set of new problems on you.
I need to get out.

2023-10-15 17:58:19

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@npub1eav…g6f3 we still have a decent amount of our own crops of both so that's a ✅

2023-10-15 17:53:24

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@npub1eav…g6f3 rempah sounds good!

2023-10-15 17:35:43

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Actually spent far more time in the #allotment #polytunnel. A quick tomato harvest, but then a big finicky chilli harvest. Thankfully the warm start to October has given us some ripe chillies.
We have a load of Wraith (pale ones) which will make a nice sauce. Also I picked a load of those green as they have a good fruity flavour so should make a nice fermented sauce.
Probably going to just freeze the rest of the small superhot crop, not enough to keep both whole chillies & make sauce.
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2023-10-15 17:30:05

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Was supposed to be a work day today, but it was too nice and the personal task backlog is vaaaast.
So today we got the garlic in down at the #allotment. Half of the planted out bed is our own Rose Wight cloves and the other half is a new variety we are trying: Messidrome.
Usually this whole bed is our "allium" bed for onions, shallots, and garlic. But we're going big on the garlic this year so about 70 garlic in here up to the chard which we are leaving in as still going strong.
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2023-10-15 15:59:13

Still harvesting useful tomato crop at the #allotment #polytunnel. It's hard to know when to give up. But given last night's 1.73°C minimum it's probably time to be thinking "green tomato chutney".
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2023-10-14 20:53:05

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@npub1zjq…g3fh I'll have to look into how that works. Is that if you pay via Android/Google contactless, i.e. if I'm using my phone to pay (as I do) does that automate it? I see there is an "GPay" "Save to Phone" button in the Tesco app.

2023-10-14 13:18:54

How does a company as big as Tesco get something as simple as a "clubcard app" wrong. Am I unusual in that 100% of the time all I want to with it is scan the barcode?
Yet not only does not not default to simply showing the bar code on loading, it is two clicks to get to it, and it needs an internet connection to load it — which is a bit of a problem when all Tesco buildings seem to be Faraday cages.

2023-10-11 15:49:31

Probably it'll soon be time to go job hunting for the first time in about 15 years.
That's pretty anxiety inducing really. (Like I don't have enough already.)
Since Uni (20 years ago!) I've had only 2 jobs, having only ever done applications/interviews for 3. CV: 10 years as Linux/networking/systems developer, followed by 10 years running my own wholesale business (which was irrecoverably trashed by COVID).
Where does one even start?
... wonder if the local Tesco needs shelf-stackers.

2023-10-07 12:17:17

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@npub1wu2…dhan not that I can comment on "smallness" of pubs really 🤣

2023-10-07 12:13:30

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@npub1wu2…dhan just reviewed the details, the other problem is it is quite small at 1742ft2 (looks bigger from the photo lol). Nice big basement/cellar but probably not really useful. Prob needs to be wet-led given size and configuration.
It says "effectively in shell finish" which could mean a range of things, lack of photos is a little concerning.
With that rent and potentially £20k rates (needs reassesement) it doesn't look great on first glance.
I guess London beer prices could pay for it. 😅

2023-10-07 11:59:29

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@npub1wu2…dhan reckon that could be a fit for the Graceland folks, though wouldn't be surprised if they've passed it over already, esp given its former "craft beer" vibe.
Lease amounts like that are too daunting for most smaller and individual operators. Especially with "requires investment", and in the present times. Wonder how messed up it is internally. Could probably negotiate some sort of on-ramp with rent if the freeholders are keen.