Weekend

[juliet]

Yesterday morning was lovely, if sodding cold (last week it stopped being fingerless cycling gloves weather & started being big thick skigloves weather; yesterday was the first morning that I began the annual Contemplation of Earmuffs[0]). This morning: unpleasant & soggy. Which also meant that the flames that I saw yesterday morning, on top of the pillars (with the name of various Commonwealth/former Empire countries written on them) at the top of Constitution Hill, had gone out this morning. I presume they were Remembrance Day related. Certainly v pretty while they lasted.

My weekend was spend in Manchester, visiting Richard. Much fun was had, including vegan beer, lovely vegan breakfast on Sunday, this on Sat afternoon (may not be WS depending on your work, contains Rude Words but no pictures) a visit to the Imperial War Museum in Salford, which is excellent. The building itself is amazing, and the space inside is used very well as well. I liked their hourly "360-degree shows" in the main exhibition space, where they project photos over all the walls (and there are lots of oddly-angled internal walls) and run the presentation through speakers. V noisy; which is probably right and appropriate, as I imagine war is pretty noisy.

The Imperial War Museum, as dogrando & I were saying yesterday, sounds like it might be a bad thing ("Imperial" has bad connotations for me, I think) but is in fact a good thing. They had some ration-books from 1918, & there was an ad on the back from the newly-formed IWM appealing for donations, in particular for their collection about women's contributions to the war.

Saturday night was spent, as is traditional, in Richard & I drinking beer for 5 hrs & playing The Greatest Song Ever Written. The thing about TGSEW is that it changes about, ooh, every 3.5min, on average. There may also have been singing.

So yes, splendid weekend, & lovely to see Rich & Alison, but now I am back at WERK & this week is not going so well :-/ Tonight I plan to have a QNI; wasn't really on form last night at kitty_goth's fundraising pub quiz, although we *did* come joint first.

[0] During the winter, I spend about the first 10-15 min of my commute thinking about JUST HOW COLD my ears are, & wondering about buying earmuffs (after the first 10-15 min they've gone numb so I forget about it after that, occupied as I am with the business of Not Getting Squished). A hat doesn't do, as the top of my head is warm enough & experience indicates that a hat makes it too warm. However, it occurred to me yesterday that in fact earmuffs are prob a non-starter, as they'd block sound enough to be dangerous, if only slightly. I shall have to continue suffering. Or knit an ear-band (like a headband but round the ears!) which would let more sound through.

Comments

[ciphergoth.livejournal.com]

missing footnote error! I want to know about the earmuffs contemplation!

I think the answer is either (a) get a hat that covers the ears, or (b) get a pair of headphones that double as earmuffs...

[juliet]

Apologies - see update!

Headphones are *definitely* no good - they block the sound. Not so you can't hear, but enough to foil your directional hearing a bit, which is pretty important when cycling on busy roads. Which is a shame, as I would rather like to be able to listen to music whilst cycling.

[webcowgirl.livejournal.com]

No,no, dear sir! For ear warming and head cooling, this is clearly the answer!

[marnameow.livejournal.com]

Is it mostly the tops of your ears that get cold? You could knit little Pixie-caps for them!

I did a chocolate-buying thing at the weekend, and so have *three* different bars of cocoa-ed up dark chocolate to try, if you're up for a moment of chocolate-tasting?

[juliet]

Sure - am just leaving work now, drop over a bit later? Though have minimal-socialness-competence tonight, to warn you.

[http://users.livejournal.com/_nicolai_/]

Well, I wear a helmet, and I've found two sorts of basically thin fleecy skull cap which comes down over the ears that I can fit under a helmet. One came from Rohan and the other came from a local bike shop and was expensive. Once I keep the wind off my ears, they at least don't get so cold that the pain unbalances me, so then I can still cycle OK. Since they're quite thin, and uniform, they don't affect my directional hearing.

[drdoug.livejournal.com]

I have terrible problems with cold ears. If they get remotely chilly, I get painful earache, and if they get seriously chilly, I get a bad headache as well. So to combat this I have an ear-warmer headband thingummy that I wear for all but the warmest three or four months of the year. It claims to be made of Turtle Fur. Obviously it does muffle sound a bit, but nowhere near enough to worry me.

When it's very cold I wear a woolly hat over the top of it. When it's a bit cold, I start out with the bobble hat on top, but whip it off once I've warmed up, which cools me down pretty rapidly.

It's not exactly the last word in fashion, and it does muss up my hair, but I wouldn't cycle in the cold without it.

[seneca-trewe.livejournal.com]

I've friended you.

How's it been going?

I wondered if you would be interested in either:

a) a smoking competition
b) an eating competition

both taking place in Totteridge & Whetstone, North London on Saturday.

Second round of the eating competition takes place in Lewisham on Sunday, and national finals in Midlothian on Christmas Eve.

Message me if you're interested in either. I'll be doing the eating competition, but not the smoking competition because I don't smoke.

Warm ears are good

[webcowgirl.livejournal.com]

About the ear thing: what Jason did on his bike is wear this kind of headband thing that went over the ears. Here's one from REI. You know, of course, I'm going to want to get you one now.

Re: Warm ears are good

[juliet]

That does look rather fine. I shall have to investigate in the bike-shop when I go for my second bike-mechanicing lesson next week.

Re: Warm ears are good

[seneca-trewe.livejournal.com]

So do you fancy either of the competitions? I kind of need to know before tomorrow so I can get you a place and name badge. It's a fiver to enter each one, which is good considering you get the following:

Smoking Competition: As many packets of cigarettes as you want/need from the following brands - Marlboro, Silk Cut, Gauloise, Gitanes, Benson & Hedges, Mayfair, Regal, Embassy, a special edition ashtray made specially for the event, a special edition lighter.

Eating Competition: A special edition bowl (with your name printed on it if you can let me know before tomorrow that you definitely want to come), special edition fork and spoon (no knives because of an incident last year in which a man ran riot after losing)

Can you let me know what name you'd like on your plate out of: Julie, Jules, Joolz, Joolie, Jooliet.

Catch you on Saturday!

Simon