Books read (5)
Hild, Nicola Griffith (2014)

Films watched (36-48) (3 at the cinema, 6 DVD, 3 tv, 1 LoveFilm)
CHAPPiE
Albert Nobbs
Robocop (rewatch)
The Conversation
Gone Girl
The Best Exotic Marigold Hotel
Star Trek (Abrams) (rewatch)
Les Diaboliques
Still Alice
The Tale of the Princess Kaguya
In Bruges (rewatch)
Kill Your Darlings
Stranger by the Lake

Gigs, comedy, clubs etc (4-7)
Simon Munnery Sings Soren Kierkegaard (comedy, London)
Richard Herring: Lord of the Dance Settee (comedy, Junction, Cambridge)
Linton Zoo
The Gilded Birdcage (burlesque club night, Cambridge)

Films at the cinema: I enjoyed Chappie, and it did have some interesting things to say (including about parenting), but I left thinking "I want to rewatch Robocop" and so I did.

The course I'm doing is taking a chunk of my reading time, but if I was only going to read one book, Hild was a good one. I tried cutting down on exercise but that wasn't good so I'm back up to trying for 5 miles per day.

Not tried peeking at the old laptop hard drive yet.

Have:
Installed Gimp on Mac
Installed Fitbit tracker on Mac
Got printer and scanner working with Mac
Bought tv license
Checked car tyre pressures (1 going soft)
Bought groceries at shop
Bought more groceries online
2 loads of laundry
Cooked loads of soup from fridge veg
Written up list of film course assignments
Read 85 pages of Hild for Book Club (including 15 min in sun in back garden)
Watched 2 DVDs (Albert Nobbs, Robocop)
Had visit from T
Arranged visit for next weekend
Frolicked with cat on demand

And I have 14 hours today before bedtime.

I wore a watch yesterday for the first time in years, the time display on my smartphone is quite small and (especially in meetings) it seems impolite to switch it on and peer to know the time. I thought the watch would be uncomfortable (partly why I stopped wearing one) but it was so light on I forgot I was wearing it till I undressed for bed. So, not much good for telling the time if I forget I have it!

And in bed I forgot to set my alarm and woke an hour late. Not as bad news as it could have been, I'm experimenting in March with starting work around 09:30 instead of 08:00 to spend an hour in the morning doing study with Fresh Brain and doing some stretches. Obviously not today. New cat also like to take up some of the morning time with exciting activities, but that is another post.

Barley contains gluten, but can be processed in a way that the gluten is removed.

Brand A cornflakes contain "Malted Barley Extract".
Brand B cornflakes contain "Barley Malt Flavouring".
Under current food labelling regulations, allergens are shown in bold in ingredients lists.

Brand A has an additional allergens box which says "May contain nuts." If you were to ask Brand A about the presence of gluten, they would say "Of course there's no gluten, if there was we would have listed it." I have happily scoffed three boxes of Brand A.
If you were to ask Brand B they would say "Yes, it's in barley, that's why we bolded it, your stupid fault for eating it."

In other news, does anyone want a box of Brand B cornflakes? Only one serving gone from it. Would swap for Brand A.

EDIT: Or maybe the labelling thing is more complicated, they don't have to label gluten in products that contain less than 20ppm. "Recent evidence indicates that people with coeliac disease can eat unlimited amounts of foods containing less than this amount." Anyhow - Brand A safe for bugshaws, Brand B not safe. Note for new readers: I don't have a coeliac diagnosis, as the test requires you to eat gluten for a month beforehand and it's deeply obvious that this would be a bad thing for me and would outweigh any benefits that a diagnosis might provide.

In case anyone's interested in what happens when I eat a dodgy cornflake:
6pm Tuck into tasty bowl of teatime cornflakes.
3am Wake, grumpy.
5am Wake again, with aching hands and feet. Recognise symptoms and start googling what I ate the day before. Swear at cornflakes.
This is going to get worse from here. Wash and dress now because I won't be able to later.
Worry in the shower about how I will manage work (first day back after week's holiday). Curse the cornflakes again as I realise I will need to cancel pre-paid Pilates class.
Feel like bad hamster-mom for not getting them food earlier, they've run out, I was going to drive by big hamster food shop after work. Maybe hamsters will eat cornflakes.
Thank self for keeping grabber stick from disabled days, and keeping it handy. Pick laundry up off floor or it will stay there for a couple of days. Cat arrives today and it won't want to meet a floor of old socks etc.
Hobble downstairs and put bins out because I won't be able to later. Ow, ankles hurt. Definitely won't be able to drive today. Soon won't be able to hobble 10 metres.
Realise I have moved from "How will I manage at work?" to "No way will I manage, don't even think about it"
Hobble back upstairs having grabbed some fruit, soy yoghurt and rice cakes. Is it harder to carry four soy yoghurts, or to tear open the pack and only carry two? Feel glad housemate is working from home today as she might be persuaded to open me some tins of food.
Curse self for eating all my stash of frozen meals and not doing a big cook/freeze yesterday.
6am Retire to sofa. If I lie very still, it doesn't much hurt. Typing and mousing hurts enough that I can't usefully work from home today, or do much else on laptop, especially as it will get worse during the day.

LJ's commenting isn't working for me at the moment on the desktop - was fine yesterday. I can see the "Comment on this" link but nowhere to type a comment.

I would ask if you all have the same problem but...

Driving gloves - what are they for? Warmth? Better grip? More cushioned grip? Style? Outmoded cultural convention? Do you wear them?

I used chipolatas, the marinade smells gorgeous while it's cooking, it's dead easy to cook sausages in the oven and not pay them any attention, it's gluten free and dairy free if you use gf sausages.

250g ready to eat dried apricots (I used super soft squidgy ones)
1 teaspoon mixed spice (I didn't have any and used a mulling spice sachet instead, mmm, orange and cloves)
1 tablespoon tamari (or soy sauce, or Worcestershire sauce)
2 teaspoons red thai curry paste
salt and pepper
300-400ml water

Cook all ingredients in a saucepan over a medium heat for about 20 mins till the apricots are soft. Start with 300ml water, add more if it reduces too much. Leave to cool then liquidise into a puree. I left some lumps in.

12-18 sausages or 20-30 chipolatas

Put sausages in an oven tray, brush with olive oil, slather in apricot puree. Marinade for up to 24 hours.

Cook sausages as per instructions in oven.

You now have a tray full of delicious sausages.

Matilda the Big Hamster still isn't tame, for all her happy hand-related caperings at the pet shop. She doesn't freeze when she sees me, which is an improvement, but she won't be held, at least not by me. I let her out of the ball onto my lap this evening, but she leapt to the coffee table where we had a brief game of Grab The Hamster, which she won by jumping onto the floor. She had a minute of exploring beneath the coffee table, stretching her nose up to the bottom shelf like a Mighty Beast, while I willed her not to hide under a sofa or the tv unit or somewhere inaccessible. Her unerring instinct though led her to the most perfect hamster-sized nook, there's a half-depth CD shelf next to a bookcase and a hamster can just nip round the back and hide underneath. And a human can block it off with a tray - haha! I am more clever than a hamster. Then drag the coffee table and sofa around and position The Ball and a backup cardboard box so as to cut off escape routes. A little bit of patience and a quick hand with the ball lid and the hamster is safely resecured.

I was looking at my activity for the day and didn't remember doing much from 7:30 to 8 other than laundry.

For the last few years, in the winter, Influenzanet have been running a flu survey. If you sign up they email you a link once a week to an influenza-like symptom survey, which helps track the spread of flu geographically and by demographic, and send you little reports on flu action in your area. A couple of years ago they included means of transport as well, but concluded that public transport is not much of an influence. If you want to help out this year you can register at http://flusurvey.org.uk

If you sign up and enter my Flusurvey username (bugshaw) I have a very small chance of winning a tablet (not a cold&flu tablet) or a cuddly virus. I have more chance of getting flu.

EDIT: This is a UK-based survey.