Gillian Polack's Blog, page 29
June 9, 2015
gillpolack @ 2015-06-10T08:49:00
I'm back and I meant to post last night. I also meant to read everyone's posts and catch up. Alas, fatigue overtook.
Continuum was lovely. The people of Melbourne were lovely. My book launch was hilarious (and I ought to report on it properly) and the Beast somehow emerged in the wilderness several weeks early. So it's out and I have 1000 words of PR to write by 5 pm. Early readers are adoring it and are saying so, publicly. My favourite early reader is a London literary agent of particular renown: if she loves it then the book must be OK, for she is the most reliable guide to good writing I know. I saw her tweet and stopped worrying.
I managed to damage my left foot again (I have no idea how) so walking is not good. But walking must be done. So many people were good about giving me lifts over the weekend and waiting while I caught up (I missed going out with a group of friends n Friday for I was on an unexpected late panel, but that was the only time I had to cry off - I couldn't walk to the place and back in time for my panel) so it could easily have been much worse.
When I get back from teaching, I'll try to post about the wonder that was Continuum. It was one of those cons where I met so many friends and made new friends. Such lovely people!
Continuum was lovely. The people of Melbourne were lovely. My book launch was hilarious (and I ought to report on it properly) and the Beast somehow emerged in the wilderness several weeks early. So it's out and I have 1000 words of PR to write by 5 pm. Early readers are adoring it and are saying so, publicly. My favourite early reader is a London literary agent of particular renown: if she loves it then the book must be OK, for she is the most reliable guide to good writing I know. I saw her tweet and stopped worrying.
I managed to damage my left foot again (I have no idea how) so walking is not good. But walking must be done. So many people were good about giving me lifts over the weekend and waiting while I caught up (I missed going out with a group of friends n Friday for I was on an unexpected late panel, but that was the only time I had to cry off - I couldn't walk to the place and back in time for my panel) so it could easily have been much worse.
When I get back from teaching, I'll try to post about the wonder that was Continuum. It was one of those cons where I met so many friends and made new friends. Such lovely people!
June 3, 2015
Where Gillian tries not to feel small
Today I was on the verge of writing an angry diatribe about how people keep telling me what I am ("You are white and university-educated and have advantages - stop and think about how awful my life is compared to yours" is the most common message, with "You are Jewish and awful, and totally responsible for everything bad every single person has done since the dawn of time" next in line).
I live in borderland and receive both prejudice and privilege: I am white and not-white. And right now, I'm heartily sick of people not seeing me because they're too busy shouting their rhetoric at me. This is why I'm not going to write a passionate diatribe. Although if anyone tries to explain the awfulness of Jews to me this Continuum, I will try to be angry rather than triggered. I am well-aware of my advantages and my disadvantages, and I'm very tired of being condescended to. Everyone means well. Good intentions are not always enough.
There is a tone on the interwebs right now that's in-one's-face. We get told things. A transcript of a speech told me that I hadn't spotted that the speaker was lying when she said "Hi" in her native language. I just thought that Spanish was her native language, but it turns out that I was supposed to not recognise Spanish and assume it was an Indigenous Australian language. The joke kinda works, but the accusatory tone it was couched in hurt. It makes us all feel small. So now, I feel small. And yet... the fine print in the speech shows that the speaker was aware of the problems that Jews face culturally in Australia. The accusation wasn't directed at me. Fine print doesn't soften an up-front accusation. Saying "I'm not angry at you" five minutes in is shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted.
The teacher who gets in front of a class and says "Well, you're all stupid and I'll be surprised if anyone passes" or who flicks the cane they're carrying, so that everyone knows there will be punishment and says "You will learn, for I will make you" isn't actually a good teacher, because for every student who is challenged to do better by this behaviour in a class of 35 there are 34 who will accept the opinion as targeted at them and will behave according. Doors will shut for them.
No matter how good a piece of rhetoric sounds in the current tweets I'm getting and on Facebook and in newspaper articles, it takes the role of the cane-whipping angry teacher. One occasional person may be inspired to address their privilege from the tone, but the rest of us will feel small. We will huddle in corners, or we will put barricades around our lives so that no-one will ever see just how awful we are. We won't venture out and learn what we need to learn.
We need to be lowering barricades in the current impossible environment, not raising them. I suspect that means putting justified anger aside and trying not to say "You fools, do you KNOW how much suffering there is?" We need a path out of the mess that is Australia right now, not an increase in scared Australia and in fortress Australia. Just because Tony Abbott likes accusing people (I know this, for I saw Question Time yesterday, when I was at the hospital) doesn't mean we ever should. In fact, Abbott taking that tone is a clear indication that we really should find other ways of telling people what needs fixing in this very broken nation.
And I guess I turned polemical after all.
I live in borderland and receive both prejudice and privilege: I am white and not-white. And right now, I'm heartily sick of people not seeing me because they're too busy shouting their rhetoric at me. This is why I'm not going to write a passionate diatribe. Although if anyone tries to explain the awfulness of Jews to me this Continuum, I will try to be angry rather than triggered. I am well-aware of my advantages and my disadvantages, and I'm very tired of being condescended to. Everyone means well. Good intentions are not always enough.
There is a tone on the interwebs right now that's in-one's-face. We get told things. A transcript of a speech told me that I hadn't spotted that the speaker was lying when she said "Hi" in her native language. I just thought that Spanish was her native language, but it turns out that I was supposed to not recognise Spanish and assume it was an Indigenous Australian language. The joke kinda works, but the accusatory tone it was couched in hurt. It makes us all feel small. So now, I feel small. And yet... the fine print in the speech shows that the speaker was aware of the problems that Jews face culturally in Australia. The accusation wasn't directed at me. Fine print doesn't soften an up-front accusation. Saying "I'm not angry at you" five minutes in is shutting the stable door after the horse has bolted.
The teacher who gets in front of a class and says "Well, you're all stupid and I'll be surprised if anyone passes" or who flicks the cane they're carrying, so that everyone knows there will be punishment and says "You will learn, for I will make you" isn't actually a good teacher, because for every student who is challenged to do better by this behaviour in a class of 35 there are 34 who will accept the opinion as targeted at them and will behave according. Doors will shut for them.
No matter how good a piece of rhetoric sounds in the current tweets I'm getting and on Facebook and in newspaper articles, it takes the role of the cane-whipping angry teacher. One occasional person may be inspired to address their privilege from the tone, but the rest of us will feel small. We will huddle in corners, or we will put barricades around our lives so that no-one will ever see just how awful we are. We won't venture out and learn what we need to learn.
We need to be lowering barricades in the current impossible environment, not raising them. I suspect that means putting justified anger aside and trying not to say "You fools, do you KNOW how much suffering there is?" We need a path out of the mess that is Australia right now, not an increase in scared Australia and in fortress Australia. Just because Tony Abbott likes accusing people (I know this, for I saw Question Time yesterday, when I was at the hospital) doesn't mean we ever should. In fact, Abbott taking that tone is a clear indication that we really should find other ways of telling people what needs fixing in this very broken nation.
And I guess I turned polemical after all.
gillpolack @ 2015-06-03T20:59:00
I'm making a strategic decision. I shan't blog during Continuum. I want to. I know it would be fun to read, if I reported on the panels and the food-tasting and the book launch. The trouble is that this has been a hectic week and it's still not over. I have some minor deadlines to meet and I have teaching to do and i have just a lot on my plate. I'm keeping my convention simple, therefore, and living it in the moment.
That's the bad news. The good news is that I'm on a panel on Friday night with the awesome and wonderful Janeen Webb, who's also doing the Melbourne launch of my novel. The item we're sharing is: The Romantic Roots of Fantasy: Dunsany, Poe, Hodgson, Robert Browning, Tennyson, Mallory. This means that Friday is my literary night, and I'm looking forward to it. It means I miss the Great Debate, and its time travel theme, but I suspect I need a break from time travel before the Beast comes out, so that works.
Speaking of the Beast, I know it's imminent because the Medievalists book is already out. I have a chapter on what I can only call Gillianish things. My theory is that people who think Joe Abercrombie is grim need to read chansons de geste. Well, that's how my chapter started, anyhow. If anyone wants details, just say and I'll find you a link.
And now I probably should get to tonight's deadlines. It's already around zero here and about to get significantly colder, so I shall make a big cup of tea and finish the article that needs finishing and then contemplate my list and decide what's achievable tonight. I'm beginning to be less worried about publication, BTW. This may be because it is happening a lot right now and I'm too tired to get as worried as I once was. When I stop to think, I still doubt everything, but for the next few weeks there won't be time to stop and think. So, I'm sorry, but I won't be reporting on Continuum. Which is a shame, but it'd be more of a shame if I fell in a heap due to working 24 hours a day.
That's the bad news. The good news is that I'm on a panel on Friday night with the awesome and wonderful Janeen Webb, who's also doing the Melbourne launch of my novel. The item we're sharing is: The Romantic Roots of Fantasy: Dunsany, Poe, Hodgson, Robert Browning, Tennyson, Mallory. This means that Friday is my literary night, and I'm looking forward to it. It means I miss the Great Debate, and its time travel theme, but I suspect I need a break from time travel before the Beast comes out, so that works.
Speaking of the Beast, I know it's imminent because the Medievalists book is already out. I have a chapter on what I can only call Gillianish things. My theory is that people who think Joe Abercrombie is grim need to read chansons de geste. Well, that's how my chapter started, anyhow. If anyone wants details, just say and I'll find you a link.
And now I probably should get to tonight's deadlines. It's already around zero here and about to get significantly colder, so I shall make a big cup of tea and finish the article that needs finishing and then contemplate my list and decide what's achievable tonight. I'm beginning to be less worried about publication, BTW. This may be because it is happening a lot right now and I'm too tired to get as worried as I once was. When I stop to think, I still doubt everything, but for the next few weeks there won't be time to stop and think. So, I'm sorry, but I won't be reporting on Continuum. Which is a shame, but it'd be more of a shame if I fell in a heap due to working 24 hours a day.
June 1, 2015
gillpolack @ 2015-06-02T11:25:00
Life is progressing apace. Very much apace. Lots of little news.
I have a change to my Continuum schedule. I ought to give people the updated version before the event itself.
GUFF is still open for nominations (we decided to give it a few more days) and there isn't a single UK candidate. Why isn't there even one UK candidate? Don't you want to visit Australia and meet us all in wonderfully warm Brisbane in the perfect season for Brisbane? All the details here: http://rantalica.com/1859/the-race-is-still-on-guff-nominations-deadline-extension/
My thing that I was worried about has resolved itself very nicely, and I'll make an announcement when I can, which will hopefully be in a few weeks. Alas, it's not a job, but it's the next best thing and it entails finishing something big, which means some of you will have worked it out already.
The Beast is in its final stages before release. The print version has been checked by Amberley and it looks lovely. People keep asking if it was influenced by Mortimer's book, which shows that Marketing at Amberley know their stuff. The Beast actually came first and has a different focus, but it's been packaged in a way similar to Mortimer's book.
Katrin and I have started writing guest blog posts for our blogtour. If anyone would like to be a part of this tour, please say. it has two versions: the one for the UK market, which starts in a few days, and the one for the international market, which starts in a couple of months (to allow books to reach Australia).
I still haven't found a blog owner who really, really wants me to talk about how I came to know so much about Old French insults or who wants a photo blogpost explaining how pictures help research a novel, or how one can write a book like the Beast from 10,000 miles away (this song is now my earworm, and deservedly so - on a related note, how on earth do the US signers who do this song get ten thousand miles for their journey? do the ships get lost or go round in circles on the Atlantic? and some of the words in this version are not the words that I know, which is par for the course - I seem to always know weird variants, which is one reason I don't join the singing folks*).
I just looked at the time. Other news will have to wait. I have an hour to complete the three tasks that need to be done by lunchtime. Today is Day of the Deadline.
*ignoring the fact that I can't actually sing.
I have a change to my Continuum schedule. I ought to give people the updated version before the event itself.
GUFF is still open for nominations (we decided to give it a few more days) and there isn't a single UK candidate. Why isn't there even one UK candidate? Don't you want to visit Australia and meet us all in wonderfully warm Brisbane in the perfect season for Brisbane? All the details here: http://rantalica.com/1859/the-race-is-still-on-guff-nominations-deadline-extension/
My thing that I was worried about has resolved itself very nicely, and I'll make an announcement when I can, which will hopefully be in a few weeks. Alas, it's not a job, but it's the next best thing and it entails finishing something big, which means some of you will have worked it out already.
The Beast is in its final stages before release. The print version has been checked by Amberley and it looks lovely. People keep asking if it was influenced by Mortimer's book, which shows that Marketing at Amberley know their stuff. The Beast actually came first and has a different focus, but it's been packaged in a way similar to Mortimer's book.
Katrin and I have started writing guest blog posts for our blogtour. If anyone would like to be a part of this tour, please say. it has two versions: the one for the UK market, which starts in a few days, and the one for the international market, which starts in a couple of months (to allow books to reach Australia).
I still haven't found a blog owner who really, really wants me to talk about how I came to know so much about Old French insults or who wants a photo blogpost explaining how pictures help research a novel, or how one can write a book like the Beast from 10,000 miles away (this song is now my earworm, and deservedly so - on a related note, how on earth do the US signers who do this song get ten thousand miles for their journey? do the ships get lost or go round in circles on the Atlantic? and some of the words in this version are not the words that I know, which is par for the course - I seem to always know weird variants, which is one reason I don't join the singing folks*).
I just looked at the time. Other news will have to wait. I have an hour to complete the three tasks that need to be done by lunchtime. Today is Day of the Deadline.
*ignoring the fact that I can't actually sing.
May 30, 2015
gillpolack @ 2015-05-31T10:37:00
How have I not posted for so long? I suspect I might have been busy.
Of the various tasks I have to do by Tuesday lunchtime (and started on very late on Thursday) I've completed half, which is good.
With my books, I've seen a picture (several pictures, in fact) of the Beast, for the first copy reached my editor safely and in plenty of time and it looks rather more impressive than I expected. It also looks just the right size. In about two weeks it'll be out in the UK and writers will be able to get their hands on it. There will no longer be any excuses for making a wholly modern Middle Ages in fiction. IF any of my friends does this hereafter, I will know that it's either on purpose, or that it's pure laziness. It's going to be so nice to be able to tell students "You need this information? Good, it's in one volume now. Read it and then ask questions." It doesn't have everything (no book can have everything) but it's the introduction writers have needed for a fair while.
Various writers have already asked me if I'm going to do volumes for other periods or other places and the answer is "Only if I'm paid an awful lot of money." The Beast was undertaken because so many people wanted it so very much, but it was a one-off. I suspect I'll be talking about why it was good for me as a writer during the blogtour we're doing around its launch. If anyone wants to participate in the blogtour, please feel free to wave your hand at me.
I still can't talk about the things I couldn't talk about three days ago. Soon, though, I hope, I'll be able to. Maybe. In the meantime, I need to get back to work. I have to finish the whole week's work by early Tuesday afternoon because the combination of teaching, eye check, Continuum and various other things mean I won't have much time to attack my heap of papers during the week or next weekend. Although I could just skip sleeping. Possibly not wise...
If you think I sound unagonised for someone who's so busy and who is back in the land where swords of Damocles again are too abundant for comfort, this is because I finished a story yesterday. Fiction keeps me (relatively) sane. I don't know how good a story it is (one never knows, when it has just been finished) and I need to get it to the editor by Friday (so not much time for overthinking) but the sheer act of finishing it let a whoosh of tension out of me. The tension where the editor thinks about it and decides it's the wrong story for the publication is a different one and perfectly dealable-with. I want her to want it (of course I do) but I got over the worrying side of short stories-with-editors a long while ago. If she doesn't want it, then I'll find it another market. This market is my ideal one for this story, of course, but the editor and I have to agree on that.
The story is set in a version of Australia I'm developing for a novel. I suspect it's currently nudging another one aside (not the 17th century one, the contemporary one I've been planning, the "Stepford Wives meet Dorian Gray" one). This is part of me changing as a writer. Originally I could only write the one thing I was obsessed with. Now I can plan a novel and write it, or I can plan a novel and let it simmer while I write another. It turns out that all one needs are techniques for moving something to the side to focus on something else, and that now I've developed those techniques. This makes me very happy. There are so many novels I want to write: this gives me hope I can write a few more of them.
Of the various tasks I have to do by Tuesday lunchtime (and started on very late on Thursday) I've completed half, which is good.
With my books, I've seen a picture (several pictures, in fact) of the Beast, for the first copy reached my editor safely and in plenty of time and it looks rather more impressive than I expected. It also looks just the right size. In about two weeks it'll be out in the UK and writers will be able to get their hands on it. There will no longer be any excuses for making a wholly modern Middle Ages in fiction. IF any of my friends does this hereafter, I will know that it's either on purpose, or that it's pure laziness. It's going to be so nice to be able to tell students "You need this information? Good, it's in one volume now. Read it and then ask questions." It doesn't have everything (no book can have everything) but it's the introduction writers have needed for a fair while.
Various writers have already asked me if I'm going to do volumes for other periods or other places and the answer is "Only if I'm paid an awful lot of money." The Beast was undertaken because so many people wanted it so very much, but it was a one-off. I suspect I'll be talking about why it was good for me as a writer during the blogtour we're doing around its launch. If anyone wants to participate in the blogtour, please feel free to wave your hand at me.
I still can't talk about the things I couldn't talk about three days ago. Soon, though, I hope, I'll be able to. Maybe. In the meantime, I need to get back to work. I have to finish the whole week's work by early Tuesday afternoon because the combination of teaching, eye check, Continuum and various other things mean I won't have much time to attack my heap of papers during the week or next weekend. Although I could just skip sleeping. Possibly not wise...
If you think I sound unagonised for someone who's so busy and who is back in the land where swords of Damocles again are too abundant for comfort, this is because I finished a story yesterday. Fiction keeps me (relatively) sane. I don't know how good a story it is (one never knows, when it has just been finished) and I need to get it to the editor by Friday (so not much time for overthinking) but the sheer act of finishing it let a whoosh of tension out of me. The tension where the editor thinks about it and decides it's the wrong story for the publication is a different one and perfectly dealable-with. I want her to want it (of course I do) but I got over the worrying side of short stories-with-editors a long while ago. If she doesn't want it, then I'll find it another market. This market is my ideal one for this story, of course, but the editor and I have to agree on that.
The story is set in a version of Australia I'm developing for a novel. I suspect it's currently nudging another one aside (not the 17th century one, the contemporary one I've been planning, the "Stepford Wives meet Dorian Gray" one). This is part of me changing as a writer. Originally I could only write the one thing I was obsessed with. Now I can plan a novel and write it, or I can plan a novel and let it simmer while I write another. It turns out that all one needs are techniques for moving something to the side to focus on something else, and that now I've developed those techniques. This makes me very happy. There are so many novels I want to write: this gives me hope I can write a few more of them.
May 28, 2015
gillpolack @ 2015-05-28T22:41:00
Recipes have started trickling in for the cookbook. I have maybe forty or forty-five, which isn't nearly enough. Still, the recipes I have are rather magic, and they come from some very interesting places. Also, they include some recipes I really wanted for myself anyhow, form some of my favourite fan cooks (we have the lemon thingies! and Karelian tarts!). All I need is twenty times the number, and I'll be happy.
Right now, we have incoming rain. Of course we have.
Right now, we have incoming rain. Of course we have.
May 27, 2015
gillpolack @ 2015-05-28T12:36:00
Six kilograms of soup bones makes 600 ml of portable soup. 600 ml of portable soup makes 35-40 cups of soup. In case you're wondering. It's not the best portable soup I've ever made, but it's potable. Potable and portable. A total pain to make, but a lot more practical for fantasy travel than the ubiquitous stew.
Some of this is for Continuum. I've made it early, because next week is going to be a bit busy and the last stage of the soup is tricky. I've been making it since Sunday afternoon and only the last stage is tricky, so that's fine. It's perfectly safe to store at room temperature, but I'm going to freeze it anyway.
And today is brought to you by the word 'uninspired.' Too many emotions this week and too many physical and life things to contend with. I've finished some stuff and have til tomorrow to finish some more. I'm not pushing, though, as long as I meet my deadlines, for if I push then the fatigue halfway through term will lead to undesirable consequences. This means I'm permitted chocolate and soup and all kinds of good things. Like portable soup.
Some of this is for Continuum. I've made it early, because next week is going to be a bit busy and the last stage of the soup is tricky. I've been making it since Sunday afternoon and only the last stage is tricky, so that's fine. It's perfectly safe to store at room temperature, but I'm going to freeze it anyway.
And today is brought to you by the word 'uninspired.' Too many emotions this week and too many physical and life things to contend with. I've finished some stuff and have til tomorrow to finish some more. I'm not pushing, though, as long as I meet my deadlines, for if I push then the fatigue halfway through term will lead to undesirable consequences. This means I'm permitted chocolate and soup and all kinds of good things. Like portable soup.
gillpolack @ 2015-05-27T19:31:00
More paddling madly underwater with not much visible. More difficult decisions that I can't talk about until they're resolved (if they're resolved). No news on the job front.
All this balanced by two really good classes yesterday and today.
Yesterday's I talked about genre choices and how to make wise ones that lead the writer in the direction their novels need to go. I pointed them towards bunches of good work to help them understand dynamics and shapes. This is a well-read class, and they ask good questions, especially about vexed relationships such as those between character and plot.
Today I worked out a way of entering the whole difficult are of life writing for people whose lives have not been so easy and who really shouldn't be asked to talk about certain aspects. We wrote ticker tape poetry to the future on German streamers and we wrote letters about us to the future and the combination worked like a charm. The class was delighted and happy and took some work home because they wanted to finish it up, and they have all the skills I was trying to impart last week but which didn't quite stick. Sometimes thinking outside the box helps a great deal.
Two more meetings this week. One more class. And I just realised I have fingerlime icecream in the feezer. I need to finish it before winter, don't I?
All this balanced by two really good classes yesterday and today.
Yesterday's I talked about genre choices and how to make wise ones that lead the writer in the direction their novels need to go. I pointed them towards bunches of good work to help them understand dynamics and shapes. This is a well-read class, and they ask good questions, especially about vexed relationships such as those between character and plot.
Today I worked out a way of entering the whole difficult are of life writing for people whose lives have not been so easy and who really shouldn't be asked to talk about certain aspects. We wrote ticker tape poetry to the future on German streamers and we wrote letters about us to the future and the combination worked like a charm. The class was delighted and happy and took some work home because they wanted to finish it up, and they have all the skills I was trying to impart last week but which didn't quite stick. Sometimes thinking outside the box helps a great deal.
Two more meetings this week. One more class. And I just realised I have fingerlime icecream in the feezer. I need to finish it before winter, don't I?
May 25, 2015
gillpolack @ 2015-05-26T12:15:00
Getting chocolate for SF conventions isn't as easy as it used to be. I ordered some and it didn't turn up. I've chased the order and I'm waiting for an answer. If they just cancel the order, I will find another way to get that chocolate. it's inconceivable that I turn up to Continuum with no chocolate, even after last year, when everyone got in on the act.
The portable soup continues its leisurely voyage. Some of the recipes I made last year were not potable, so I'm trying a variant to see if this can be made so. The duck one was perfect, so I'm trying something like that method (several hours cooking at a time, then let it sit, skim and etc), because the weather this weekend and even now is perfect for it. For writers who need to know, portable soup is better made when the weather is bitter and you can apply slow warmth to it for long periods without making everyone uncomfortable. It also reduces better in the cold, because skimming is so much easier when fat congeals at room temperature. The big advantage of summer was that the soup didn't trick me by becoming solid at one temperature and then melting at another. I think I've found a way round that, however, by doubling the number of shrinkages I give the soup after the bones are done. The bones are just done, and I plan on the soup being finished by Thursday night so that I can take some into my class. This gives me four sessions to shrink the soup to 20% of its current size. Although I may want 15%. Either way, it's longer and fussier, but if it works, it'll be magic.
This first shrinkage is more to infuse with spices than to make it very low.
And now that's more than anyone needs to know.Except, of course, that this'd be a very handy recipe for a post-apocalyptic world, for being able to cook and then have storage without a freezer or any special equipment is a handy trick.
The portable soup continues its leisurely voyage. Some of the recipes I made last year were not potable, so I'm trying a variant to see if this can be made so. The duck one was perfect, so I'm trying something like that method (several hours cooking at a time, then let it sit, skim and etc), because the weather this weekend and even now is perfect for it. For writers who need to know, portable soup is better made when the weather is bitter and you can apply slow warmth to it for long periods without making everyone uncomfortable. It also reduces better in the cold, because skimming is so much easier when fat congeals at room temperature. The big advantage of summer was that the soup didn't trick me by becoming solid at one temperature and then melting at another. I think I've found a way round that, however, by doubling the number of shrinkages I give the soup after the bones are done. The bones are just done, and I plan on the soup being finished by Thursday night so that I can take some into my class. This gives me four sessions to shrink the soup to 20% of its current size. Although I may want 15%. Either way, it's longer and fussier, but if it works, it'll be magic.
This first shrinkage is more to infuse with spices than to make it very low.
And now that's more than anyone needs to know.Except, of course, that this'd be a very handy recipe for a post-apocalyptic world, for being able to cook and then have storage without a freezer or any special equipment is a handy trick.
gillpolack @ 2015-05-25T17:53:00
I have worked out why I am just a bit on the edgy side at this hour, today and why my life feels uneventful. Our daily temperature drop (typical of the Canberra region) started before dusk. Dusk has passed. This is normal. What is not normal is that it's just over five degrees. This is Australia, folks, and winter may well be coming, but it isn't here yet. Why is it five degrees before 6 pm?
I'm going to make up a hot water bottle and take myself to bed for a half hour to warm up. Then I shall finish my two afternoon tasks. Then I shall have a hot both and *then* I might be able to contemplate my evening work. I shall be using my down dressing gown and my special felt slippers as work dress (one must dress for work, after all). And all my work will be completed before I sleep... but not until I'm just a little warmer.
I'm going to make up a hot water bottle and take myself to bed for a half hour to warm up. Then I shall finish my two afternoon tasks. Then I shall have a hot both and *then* I might be able to contemplate my evening work. I shall be using my down dressing gown and my special felt slippers as work dress (one must dress for work, after all). And all my work will be completed before I sleep... but not until I'm just a little warmer.
