Weeknotes 134

Not a good week.

Reader responses to last week’s toilet question: “wet wipes” and “drug pellets”. Both seem equally plausible.

I was trying to find a place to meet visiting coworkers for lunch and realised that all the pubs near me have narrowed their menu to a single type of food: one does only burgers, another only pasta, another pizza, another calzone (?!). I expect they’re all struggling with post-COVID demand and staffing but it’s an odd shift which undermines the appeal of going to a pub for lunch in the first place.

(I went with “only burgers” which was a mistake because they turned out not to serve food at all on Tuesdays.)

Ocado’s website was showing a fucko boingo when I went to order some groceries. It took me a day to realise the problem was that I was going to ocado.com instead of www.ocado.com. Come on nerds.

After a few failed experiments I’ve got quite good at making popcorn by heating kernels in a pan instead of sticking a bag in the microwave.

Like baking a potato this feels like such a basic bit of not-even-really-cooking that I should’ve nailed it decades ago, but microwave popcorn is so convenient that I’d just never bothered to try anything different. The pan is way better though: less oil; fewer unpopped and/or burnt kernels; full control over quantity and seasoning; fresher and generally tastier; an order of magnitude cheaper.

All I’ve learned is to use a nonstick pan, add as little oil as humanly possible, and turn down the burner to its lowest setting so that the whole batch heats evenly despite taking longer. 🍿

(Update: addendum.)

I don’t know how long you’re meant to boil an egg either. At least I can pass that one off as a lifestyle choice.

Homeland season three was still good. I’ve heard that it goes downhill after this point so I’m braced for disappointment.

My energy supplier texted me: “Can you sign in to your account or use the app to send us a meter reading? We haven’t had one from you in 7 months.” (I send electricity meter readings all the time, so they probably mean gas, but that’s just my layman’s interpretation — they’re the experts here.)

This was a nice way to commemorate the full year that’s passed since I told them my neighbour’s gas meter was mixed up with mine. They still haven’t done anything about it so I’m not confident I’ll ever be able to give them the meter reading they crave. See you in July 2023 for the next update.