Friday Thoughts
Sometimes I have all of the ideas, I know what I’m going to write about, and it comes really easily. Sometimes this happens while I am in the shower, and I forget by the time I’m near my computer. This is one of those times. So I’ll try to come up with something for you, but it’s not the good shower content. Sorry for that.
The other day I was taking my morning walk along one of my regular routes. This route crosses our local waterway, which is quite deep and is intended to prevent flooding by rushing the water out of our local tributaries and down to the bay as quickly as possible. It was built by the army corps of engineers after our town flooded in the 1960s. Unless there has been a lot of rain, this stretch looks like this. Garbage and sometimes a discarded Christmas tree. I stopped on the bridge crossing over the canal to watch an egret walking along. I was struck by the movements of his walk, and thinking that birds really are modern dinosaurs, when along came a stupid goose and chased the egret away. Why? Who knows. Well, I guess the goose knows.
Don’t worry about Egret, though. It ended up in the top of a tree, where I assume it waited until the coast was clear.
I have nothing to say about this sign, just that it made me laugh.
Tuesday and Wednesday this week were hot, just about 100 both days. Wednesday morning I woke up grumpy. I felt hung over, but hadn’t had the pleasure of any alcohol, just a crummy night of sleep because the air conditioner was on all night. I would have slept even worse without it, so don’t get me wrong, I’m thankful. I just hate forced air and how you have to be sweating or freezing. I want my house to be the perfect temperature at all times, with no expense or discomfort at all. Is that too much to ask? So I got up and had my tea, and did my puzzles, and sat down for my yoga. The yoga helped a bit, though the teacher on the video was in a particularly chatty mood on this day, and I wanted her to get on with it. I could certainly have stopped the video and skipped yoga. Or I could have gone to a different day’s practice, there are hundreds available. But part of what is keeping me motivated on my streak is going through these 30/31 day yoga journeys in order, so I stuck with it. It got a little better, but I never really got into it. Then I went for my walk, and it was a little warmer than I would have liked. Grump grump grump. Lo and behold, though, being outside and walking, listening to my book, enjoying the sunshine, I started feeling better. I came home and made a delicious breakfast. Maya cooks on Mondays, and we had some leftover salad in the fridge. (Why does ‘fridge’ have a ‘d’, but ‘refrigerator’ doesn’t?) I liked everything in the salad…lettuce, pickled onions, tomatoes, feta cheese. So I sauteed that and then scrambled in some eggs, and it was really tasty. I made myself an iced Nespresso, and suddenly the day was a good day, even if the damn a/c was on all day. (And I know, complaining about the a/c being on when it is hot outside and the a/c is keeping your home cool is the height of bad manners and being ungrateful.) Thankfully, the heat was short lived, and it is much more reasonable now. I didn’t need the a/c at all yesterday.
Are you a fan of The Great British Baking Show? I am a huge fan. Elisabeth wrote yesterday about how she was enjoying watching a couple of seasons that she had missed, which got me to thinking about how I wished we had a new season here to watch. Which got me thinking about how I didn’t think the first couple of seasons ever made it across the pond to us, so I did an internet search to see what I could find out.
Source: Here’s the Dish
I found a blogger, Marilyn, who is attempting to bake all of the bake off challenges, and she posted that you can watch those elusive first seasons via Roku TV! Marilyn, you’re my hero! Go to the source link above to read the confusing tale of PBS vs. BBC vs. Channel 4, and enjoy the handy table she made. We don’t have a Roku, and you can’t download Roku TV on an Apple TV, BUT you can watch on your laptop or whatever. I found it, here. I tried mirroring it to my TV from my iPad, and the sound came through but not the picture. Did they find some way to limit that? Who knows. Anyway, I watched the first two episodes of season 1 last night, and my heart is so happy. It’s a little clunky, being the first season. Mel and Sue go off and talk to historians about baked goods (Queen Victoria’s wedding cake! Druid cake! Scottish shortbread!), they’re not very goofy at all, there’s no Star Baker thus far. The challenges have been pretty basic and the quality is so so. But the gentle kindness, the low stakes of it all…that is there, and I could not be happier.
I guess that’s it for now. This was supposed to be a Friday 5, but I ran out of steam. I realized the other day that I haven’t talked about books I’m reading in quite awhile. I may do a brain dump about that soon. I don’t keep track anywhere else, and it would be nice to know what I thought about these books sometime when I go looking for them. But it feels too late to go into a lot of detail, since I’ve probably forgotten half of it.
If you’re a fan of The Great British Baking Show, have you seen the first two seasons, the ones that were not shown in the US? If not, do you think you’ll watch them now? Do you have good blog ideas in the shower, or in the car or the grocery store, and forget by the time you can do anything about it? Do you remember the books you’ve read for longer than 8 1/2 minutes?
26 Comments
nance
I have Roku, and I’m a huge fan of the show, so I’m pretty sure I’ve watched all the seasons of TGBBS. I love how all the bakers are so supportive of one another even though it’s a competition. I do miss Mary Berry, however, now that Paul Hollywood has replaced her. He’s just so arrogant and full of it.
The Bad Dog sign is a wonderful find, and I especially love that it was stuck up there with two Band-Aids. I can just imagine how that went: “If you get into the trash ONE MORE TIME, Amos, I am printing out a BAD DOG sign and hanging it up in the window for everyone to see so that they know a bad dog lives here! I mean it. (parent gets out of the shower) “OH NO, NOT AGAIN! THAT IS *IT*! I’M DOING IT. SEE, AMOS!? WATCH ME NOW. (looks for tape) Dammit. No tape. I don’t even care. It’s going up anyway. I can use…these Band-Aids. Aren’t you ashamed? Now everyone knows how bad you are!”
J
Nance, somehow I never noticed the band-aids! OMG, SO PERFECT! I love your scenario, and think that’s exactly how it happened. Poor Amos, the shame. He just wants to eat the trash, why are humans so confusing?
Elisabeth
Well, you know I LOVE The Great British Baking Show. I can actually stream them from free in Canada using CBC Gem (CBC is our national broadcasting service). I am almost done the most recent season – which I think is still one year behind what has been filmed) and I am sad – like genuinely devestated – I’m almost through the newest seasons. I need to go back and rewatch everything from the beginning. I have watched every single season, even the earliest seasons that seem soooo different from the more polished new ones.
In Canada was also have The Great Canadian Baking Show. It is a poor little cousin to the British version, but I’m a few seasons behind on that one, too, so I will have to swallow my standards and watch that if I want new baking content.
I often forget blog ideas, but that doesn’t stop me from producing a lot of content (too much!). I have a very busy mind.
I have about 1 degree where I am happy. I am so easily overheated or freezing. Air conditioning makes me feel awful but I also can’t stand to be overheated. We keep it fairly temperate in our house, but I really struggle with the ice-cold temps from A/C in the summer.
J
Elisabeth, 1 degree of perfect weather sounds reasonable. Where can we find that? Sigh. And regarding baking shows, YES, we need to swallow our standards if we want to see the good baking shows. What I do NOT like is the ones on Food Network here. BLAH. None of the charm and grace that I am looking for.
Margaret
I thought all the seasons used to be on Netflix and then they took off the earlier ones. I might be mistaken though. I remember when they did a lot more history about the various dishes; I found it fascinating but others may not have. Yes, I’m a huge fan. I’ve also watched the Canadian, Australian and South African versions. (whatever I could manage to find) I’m not as ambitious as Marilyn although I did make Anzac biscuits (Australia) and Nanaimo bars (Canada). Your eggs with the left over salad sound delicious! I would hate the heat, especially not being used to it, and am not fond of A/C either. I’m still very happy I had a heat pump installed though.
J
Margaret, it’s confusing! The seasons are numbered differently in the UK than on PBS/Netflix, and some of them never made it here. From the blog I linked to:
“Originally, the seasons that aired in the U.S. did not coincide with the seasons as they were originally broadcast. When PBS first brought “The Great British Baking Show” to the U.S., it started with the fifth season, then the fourth, then the sixth and then the seventh, even though PBS (and later Netflix), numbered them 1, 2, 3 and 4. And then PBS picked up the third season and called it Season 5, while Netflix aired the eighth and ninth seasons, calling them Collections 5 and 6. (Netflix then added the third season under a new title: “The Great British Baking Show—The Beginnings.”)”
SO IT’S COMPLICATED is what I’m saying. I can say that I’ve seen all of the seasons on PBS and Netflix, and I’ve never seen the one that I started watching last night. I have not, however, watch Canadian, South African, or Australian versions, and I’m intrigued. I did watch the US version once or twice, and liked it.
San
Ugh, yes, Tuesday and Wednesday were miserable… at least you have AC because not everyone in the Bay Area does (but I guess you’re already considered more “inland” where you are). We had the AC running as well because I couldn’t sleep (I tried to just survive with a fan at first, because like you, I just hate forced air and how you have to be sweating or freezing. It’s awful.
J
The US SUCKS when it comes to air conditioning. There must be a better way. I’m interested in the heat pump technology, but haven’t done the research to determine whether it would work with our existing infrastructure, or whether it would solve the freeze/sweat thing, or whether it wold keep us cool enough when it is 110 outside.
Tobia | craftaliciousme
Who knew that ots calle egret?! I sure didnt. I have seen them a couple of times and always thought they were the albino version of the grey heron. I am so much smarter now. However It looks like the translation in german is the same… I need to do more research.
I am sorry who had a grumpy day. But I hd to smile whiel reading because you pulled yourself out by sticking to your routine and just going on.
I have never watched the great bake off but I am almost intruiged. Specially when you say there are nuggets of historic info included.
J
I hadn’t thought about the bird perhaps being a heron rather than an egret, so I looked it up. It looks as though egrets are a variety of heron. You can tell this is an egret, because its legs are black, and because when it flies its neck is in an S shape. Herons have lighter colored legs, and they fly with their necks straight. I think egrets are much more common here, and herons in Europe. Interesting to learn something today!
Lisa’s Yarns
I have only seen the seasons of GBBS that are on Netflix. I would like to watch the earlier seasons but I don’t like watching things on my laptop so I don’t know that I will ever get around to watching them. I think they are so delightful and I look forward to the new season when it launches.
We feel similarly about A/C. But our house is really old (1925) and while it significantly remodeled in 2008, it’s still not very modern in terms of the flow of air. So by that I mean that even when we have the A/C running, the upstairs bedrooms can still be quite warm. We close the vents on the main floor so it doesn’t become a total ice box down there and keep the fan running non-stop on the hottest days but it’s not the same as the A/C at my parents house which was built in 2010 or something like that. Which is actually fine with me because we don’t love A/C either. We also set the temp quite high – 78 usually – which I know is appalling to many but we don’t like super cold homes. I am so prone to being cold so I hate it when we go somewhere and their A/C is set on like 68. Burrrrrrr!!
J
Stupid air conditioning (and thank god for it!). We used to close the downstairs vents for the same reason, but we seldom do now, because we were told it can damage your system. Ours is original to our house, so 1979, so we don’t want to risk anything with it! How does it damage anything? I have no idea, or if it’s even true.
Nicole MacPherson
Hahaha I love that sign. If I gave up coffee, I’m pretty sure someone would get stabbed. Maybe me! Who can say, let’s not chance it.
Yesterday there was an enormous birdie uproar in one of our trees and when I looked, it was a whole bunch of magpies just screaming at each other. It went on for a solid five minutes and included lots of chasing each other. I think there was a nest in there and some babies were learning to fly, but I don’t know what the commotion was as I didn’t see any other kind of bird!
I know exactly what you mean about AC. We have ours set to 23 or 24 degrees in the house (Celcius, obviously) and I loathe that feeling of cold air blasting. I find in the States, people seem to be in love with air conditioning, anywhere that I have gone that is hot (Florida, Texas, Las Vegas) the AC seems to be set at like 65 degrees or some nonsense, so that a person comes in from outside all sweaty and immediately freezes. Yes, it’s better than sweltering in your bed, but surely there is a happy medium.
J
We keep our a/c at about 78 or 79, sometimes we’ll go as low as 77. We all hate the cold air blowing on us, but of course we don’t want to drown in our sweat when we’re trying to sleep either!
LOL on the stabbing. Keep your coffee in stock!
Suzanne
Love (and FEEL) this: “I’ll try to come up with something for you, but it’s not the good shower content.” Why do ideas flow so freely in spaces where they are impossible to capture?!
I also strongly relate to your feelings about air conditioning and how the house should be at the ideal temperature all the time. SAME. Sometimes I wake up FREEZING in my bedroom but then I cannot bear to dry my hair after a (cold!) shower because it is too hot. SAME TEMPERATURE. Also — and I have Strong Feelings about this — my husband keeps the heat on in the basement. THE HEAT. ON. To be fair, he also simply wants an Ideal Temperature, and it gets cooler in the basement. But in my opinion there is no reason for THE HEAT to be on in JUNE. PUT ON A SWEATER. Ahem.
This made me giggle: “Well, I guess the goose knows.” And I am so curious about the Bad Dog sign! What does that mean?!
It may not have been shower content, but it was all excellent.
J
My husband is learning, but will occasionally still come downstairs in his boxer shorts and t-shirt, and turn on the heat. I mean, if he comes down in a bathrobe and slippers, and STILL wants to turn it on, I have no complaint. My daughter is also SLOWLY learing, and will ask before turning on the heat. It’s a process, to be sure.
Ally Bean
Looking at your chart I realize we must have watched those early seasons of Great British Bake Off because I remember Mel & Sue talking about the history. And I remember how much I adored their calm kind ways. We lost interest in the show, by any name, with the introduction of Noel who I cannot stand. He tries too hard and adds nothing to the show.
Love the sign. ‘Tis the truth of the matter for me.
J
Yeah, I think they still did that in all of their seasons, I had just forgotten about it. I’m excited to see these episodes that I had never seen before, though clearly others have seen them.
NGS
I need a bad dog sign. I mean, what I actually need is a mean dog sign, but I don’t want the neighborhood to think I’m over here training Hannah to maul people. I just want them to stop coming up to her. LOL.
I have only seen the GBBO that’s available on Netflix. If it’s not on Netflix, Amazon, or YouTube, I guarantee you that I will not watch it. Those are the only apps I know how to use on our tv and I refuse to learn more. I have strong feelings about the hosts and judges on GBBO, so if you ever want to debate about who the worst judge is (and why it it Prue?), I’m happy to do that.
J
The first seasons of GBBO that we saw were on PBS, though they aren’t there any longer. SIGH. The Mary Berry seasons are the best. Have you seen any of those?
I did a search on ‘Bad Dog’ signs, and apparently it is a way to tell people that your dog will BITE. I thought it was more in line with chewing up a library book, like Mulder did when we first got him, or having diarreah on wires and cables behind the TV, like our dog Genevieve did when she was old and sick.
Daria
I am with you on having ideas in the shower, walks, or driving! In the car I keep a note pad, so when an idea for a post or anything really comes into my head, I write it down at the red light. I also use a voice recorder on my phone (voice memos) that I can quickly open and record my voice. But I prefer the notepad or a post-it note. I may or may not follow up on the idea but I do write it down.
The egret is so beautiful and graceful.
J
Daria, your idea of taking notes is a good one. I do that using my phone if I can, just using the notes app. But so far nothing has helped while I’m in the shower, because I’m so sure that I’ll remember it by the time I get dried off, and then nope, my mind has wandered to what’s for dinner or when was the last time someone (usually me, but not always) has cleaned the tub, and the idea is forever lost.
Kyria @ Travel Spot
I have not seen the baking show, but do like Top Chef. Not sure if you watch that ever, but I think it’s on Hulu and it is definitely on YouTube TV.
I got a notice the other day that it was in the 90s in Oakland and was wondering about that. WC always gets super hot; I used to walk with a friend once a week there and one day I think it was 114 or something equally as crazy. Drink lots of water! However, I did not have AC in my house and those were open window days in Oaktown for sure (although my old house really retained the heat!).
J
I think maybe I’ve seen an episode of Top Chef or two. Great British Baking Show is a different animal than US reality cooking shows. It’s so gentle. It’s amateur bakers, and they all come to bake items in a large tent, which is outside, so the weather (if it’s really hot or cold one day, for instance) can really affect their results. It’s similar in that it’s a competition, and someone goes home every week. I just love it.
I remember my days in San Francisco, with no A/C. Usually not a problem, but a couple of days a year it could be miserable. Today is going to be another hot day, high is supposed to be 95. But it will cool down again tomorrow, so I’ll survive.
Stephany
Oh man, I don’t think I could live without AC. I love it. The colder, the better. I am willing to have a higher electric bill to have an ice-cold home, lol.
I’ve never seen GBBS, although it’s on my list! I really wanted to watch all of the seasons from the beginning but I guess I’ll have to make do with what’s on Netflix.
J
I think you will love GBBS on Netflix! I just adore it. I finished watching the first season a few minutes ago, one that was never available on US TV, and I enjoyed seeing what was the same and what was different. FUN!
Living in Florida, I am sure a/c is mandatory. I think it got close to 100 here, so we definitely had it on most of the afternoon, but I remember living on the East coast for a bit, how even if it’s not that hot, the a/c helps with the humidity.