Retribution!

[nineveh_uk]

He rose; and in his garden
Walked by the moon alone.
A nightingale, hidden in a Cyprus tree,
Jargoned on and on.

Alas! I rose, in pursuit of my second helping of strawberries and cream, and pulled a muscle in my upper back, as a result of which I am in agony. Sporadic agony, but still agony. Thus am I paid for my greed.* Still, it didn’t stop me going on to garden party number three, which had excellent wine, Lebanese nibbles, and gently pissed academics kissing arrivals in continental greeting. Fortunately, diclofenac does not clash with alcohol. Roll on Friday.

*And practicality. Eat anything significant at 5pm and you’re spoiling tea, so you might as well eat enough not to need a meal at all rather than have to come up with half a one.

Comments

[antisoppist]

Ow. I hope the painkillers have kicked in and you get some sleep.

Eating significantly at 5 means you can skip boring dinner altogether and do bedtime cake instead.

[nineveh_uk]

Clearly my housekeeping is deficient in essentials, as I had no cake available. More retribution!

I did sleep, which was good, but I am now slightly achey and also with a bit of a hangover, less good.

[antisoppist]

less good.
More ow very not good.

My agricultural my childhood left me with a firm belief in the importance of the constant availability of cake. People rush in at 4 in the afternoon demanding it and woe betide the household if no-one's made any.* This is not much use now when I'm the only one who eats the long-keeping, substantial ones like fruit cake and ginger cake but it is times like late-night alcohol-induced hunger when they come into their own.

*you don't buy cake unless it's Battenberg

[nineveh_uk]

A good solid ginger cake would definitely have improved the situation. I was going to make one last weekend, but didn't get round to it. Clearly I am bent on self-destruction!

[perennialanna]

I had never thought of it like that, but perhaps that's why my mother has left me feeling that cake is an essential food group (only iced for birthdays and Christmas though), when contemporaries whose upbringing was more urban seem to think it's an occasional treat, and go in for big production numbers with 2 kinds of icing and all the eggs in the house.

I mentally file cake recipes by what ingredients they don't need (no eggs means hevva cake, no butter or marge means the oil-based Spanish madeira cake, no flour means sticking breakfast cereal together with Scotbloc and calling it an educational opportunity) which is definitely a legacy of growing up 5 miles from the nearest village shop with a mother who didn't drive. Not that we tended to run out of eggs much with 20 hens taking over the back garden, those were the years of her Victorian lavishness in baking.

[nineveh_uk]

I consider cake an essential food; I am just rubbish at getting round to making it! Though there's also the element of living on one's own. Even the most dedicated cake and pudding eater can get bored on the 6th day of X.

[antisoppist]

It's definitely that for me. Also comes from rural mealtime set-up where lunch ("dinner") is the main meal of the day and then there is tea (with bread and butter and cake) and grown-ups get late supper at 9-ish once the work is done. And at haymaking/silage and harvest time additional neighbouring farmers have to be provided with cake as well.

Unfortunately my children don't like cake, unless it is the sort with butter icing, which only happens every couple of months or so. I make biscuits and scones and Finnish cinnamon rolls instead to reassure myself that I am looking after them as is right and proper.

I did make ginger cake two weeks ago despite the fact that no-one but me eats it. It keeps.

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

Ouch! I hope you get better soon.

[white_hart]

You are hardier than me; one garden party was enough for me and I gave this evening's a miss in favour of going home and collapsing in a heap. I am now on holiday and not a moment too soon.

Sorry to hear about the back, I hope it mends in short order.

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

Thanks. I think that there is a good chance a night's rest on a good dose of NSAIDs will do for it.

[parrot-knight.livejournal.com]

Still pretty awful, but I admire your fortitude. (I woke up with a pulled muscle the other day. That isn't allowed.)

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

Two this evening - Trinity again briefly*, then off to New College for a faculty one (maternity leave farewell, so more of a personal incentive).

Enjoy your holiday and a good rest.

* With bizarrely formal register taking, checking invitations/cards, plus electronic register - an interesting contrast to yesterday. I may feel the need for an email as to the contrast in terms of trust, lower orders and lack thereof.

Ed. Except of course I won't.

[white_hart]

How peculiar. I realised as we joined the queue in Parks Road yesterday that I had left my invitation in the office, but the experience of previous years suggested that no-one would be checking, and if they had done I would have relied on the fact that I work in the office next to Events and they all know who I am anyway.

[azdak.livejournal.com]

Alcohol is very good for soothing the pain of bad backs. I'm sure two gardens parties is exactly what the doctor would have ordered.

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

Although sometimes you end up with a bad back and a bit of a hangover...

[wellinghall.livejournal.com]

Ooh, should mention we will be in Oxford over the weekend (mid morning Saturday to early morning Monday), if you want to meet up and your back should permit it. The only difficulty from our side is that our schedule is somewhat chaotic, but we will be doing the current exhibitions at both the Bod and the Ashmolean.

[nineveh-uk.livejournal.com]

My back is a bit annoying, but not incapacitating. It would be very nice to meet up if you could manage it - I don't have much on over the weekend, so if some point would suit you, let me know. I am going to the Ashmolean exhibition later, but haven't made it to the Bod one, so we might coincide.