I use psql and/or interact somehow with a postgres database about once every six months, so because of how my brain (fails to) store information it's a brand new and exciting experience every time. This time also involved a docker-compose network, for added spice.
🗁Added 6 photos to album Albania, Mar-Jul 2020.
Photos from the balcony from a week at home..
🗁Added 39 photos to album Homemade food.
Another week of cooking and baking delicious things.
- Bean chilli with roasted chard;
- Oat and flax cookies;
- Vegetable lasagne (with mushrooms, chard, tomatoes, aubergine and carrot);
- Classic comfort food, tinned tomatoes on toast;
- Cornish pasties... shortcrust pastry is an ordeal, ain't it?
- Purple (beet) risotto;
- Coffee and hazelnut cake.. WIRED
- Curried cabbage and dahl, Malaysian street food style;
- Sprouts! Flaxseeds and chickpeas making progress.
Week in review: 30 March - 5 April
- Albanian government introduced a system of asking for a permit by SMS 24 hours in advance of going outside, only for important reasons. Curfew still 5am to 1pm. I didn't leave the flat at all.
- Worked on memorious crawlers for UK politician declarations of interest.
- And some DID spec stuff.
- And some of my own website stuff!
- Finished the poncho, so cosy.
- Cooked and baked loads of good stuff.
- Finished rewatching Avatar: the last airbender, and started Stargate SG1.
- Read on the balcony (True Names and Old Music & the Slave Woman).
In light of current guidance about not going outside, I have added a very important tracker to my website..
(/where)
Today I heard of "scrumban" in a meeting and I think this means we have reached peak agile.
🗁Added 53 photos to album Homemade food.
Another week of increasingly experimental cooking and baking.
- Pizza!
- Many times fried potatoes in various shapes
- Peanut butter cookies
- Fried rice
- Curry potato pastries with greens and mushroom gravy
- Weird semolina orange cake with yeast that fermented overnight and tastes a bit beer-y
- Spectacular homemade bean burgers with homemade bread
- Sprouts! Chickpeas and flaxseeds successful, sunflower seeds doing their best
Week in review: 6 - 12 April
- Watched lots of Stargate SG1 and some random movies (Wandering Earth, The Platform)
- Spent lots of time looking at crochet patterns for jumpers but didn't actually start anything until Sunday evening.
- So much baking and cooking. My sunflower seeds finally sprouted. Made successful bread!
- Started reading an Albanian political thriller called The Successor that I found in the flat. (A paper book!
- Worked on a scraper for London politicians interest declarations but spent too long trying to fix it for edgecases.
- Had lots of coop meetings.
- No curfew updates.
For today's performance, I will be making scrambled eggs (from soy milk and lemon) and bacon (from banana peels).
🗁Added 8 photos to album Homemade food.
There's a distinct lack of any vegan specialty stuff in Sarande, including just plain tofu. I can get sugar free soy milk though, if I trek across town to the big supermarket, which I did. Then it's a case of curdling it with lemon, and pressing it with a cheesecloth (or... a pillowcase). It was very soft and a bit crumbly. I might think of it as cream cheese rather than tofu next time, and be happier. I immediately mushed it up with turmeric and spices to make scramble.
Well it's not been a very productive day so far, so I'm taking a break to make bananabread. If all else fails, at least there's cake.
That BBC article about peoples' housemates who refuse to stop being virus spreading vectors is really stressful to read.
I tried to make a facebook account so I could join an expats group to ask for information about visa extensions and stuff. I was blocked for ages on not having a phone number, and finally caved and put my new Albanian number in. Then it wanted a photo of me to verify I'm me (compared against what??). And now the account opening is 'under review' and I can't use it yet. At the same time I found an email address for some Albanian authorities and long story short it's literally taken less time to get an Albanian visa extension approved than it has to just open a facebook acount smh
🗁Added 19 photos to album Albania, Mar-Jul 2020.
Sunsets and crochet progress from another week of lockdown.
🗁Added 21 photos to album Homemade food.
I found this recipe for 'bacon' made from banana peel and just had to know. I made marinade from soy sauce, red pepper paste and paprika. The first time - alongside tofu scramble and mushrooms - was a hit, although a bit on the salty side. I reused the marinade, diluting it a bit with water and orange juice, and adding paprika. It went great in BLTs, and on top of tomato rice too. Since I get through plenty of bananas, and it's no trouble to make, this is going to become a staple! It works best when the banana peel is pretty brown, and the oil is already hot so it fries fast and bubbles a bit. It spits a lot when first dropped in the pan though.
🗁Added 20 photos to album Homemade food.
Having procured a giant bottle of soy sauce, it was an exciting week in isolation kitchen.
- Various soy sauce-y stir fries, including with peanut sauce and sesame seeds.
- Various cookies
- Bananabread with coconut and dark chocolate chunks
- Tacos with homemade corn tortillas and bean chilli.
- Shredded cabbage and carrot salad with soy sauce and sesame.
- Various hearty soups and pastas.
And bananapeel bacon of course.
Week in review: 13 - 19 April
- Watched lots of Stargate SG1.
- Had a migraine at varying intensities for almost the entire week.
- Not much productivity, work-wise.
- Started crocheting a jumper, completely changed every part of the entire pattern, and learnt some new stitches.
- Made bananapeel bacon and tofu from scratch and many other things.
- Curfew hours extended, from 5am to 5.30pm, with 1 and a half hours allowed outside. SMS permission system stands. I tried it once and got no response.
- Sent an email to some authorities and had a visa extension approved until after travel restrictions are lifted.
It's funny how Morrissey died a few years ago but still seems to be putting out music. I suppose I should listen to it at some point, but there's no point in giving a dead person any more money for it.
🗁Added 54 photos to album Homemade food.
This week's food adventures; I found myself with an abundance of spinach, most of which got eaten with pasta and was not interesting enough to photograph.
- Spur of the moment microwave chocolate pudding and chocolate custard, just like Mum used to make.
- Banana peanutbutter cake with caramel and coconut.
- Pizza (with spinach).
- Saag aloo (and dahl).
- Amazing lemon pie with a shortbread crust. The filling was just lemon zest, soy milk and cornflour (turmeric for colour).
- Cauliflower 'wings'. Maybe not as crispy as they should have been, but still tasted good. With cabbage salad and quinoa.
- Bean burgers, not as good as last time. I used courgette instead of carrot and they were too wet so I had to add lots of flour.
- Banana pancakes with leftover homemade caramel. Light and fluffy.
- Fancy savoury oats with turmeric and salad.
🗁Added 31 photos to album Albania, Mar-Jul 2020.
Another week of lockdown, sitting on the beach in front of the building, and crocheting a lot.
Week in review: 20 - 26 April
- Successfully got SMS permission to go outside, and bought groceries (permission was unnecessary).
- Finished the body of my crochet jumper; just needs sleeves.
- Crocheted a useless facemask..
- Did some OCDS docs work.
- Watched more SG1, and Knives Out.
- Went for small forays to the beach in front of the building.
- Witnessed much drama from the balcony around someone locking the gate that joins my building's carpark with the building next door. It's a useful shortcut, I am annoyed along with the rest of the neighbourhood. I call it gategate.
- Got SSL working on my digital ocean droplet with the nginx reverse proxy docker setup. After putting it off for literally 3 years!
- Made lots of tasty food again.
- Some of the movement restrictions are being lifted next week. Certain regions without any infections are allowed movement within (but not between).
TFW you want to check the docs to make sure you understand something properly but the reason you need to understand it is because you are writing the docs and there are no other docs.
Open Data Services Co-op usually get together in person quarterly. We weren't able to this month, for obvious reasons. But we replicated our usual style of gathering online this afternoon, and it was positive and productive and I ended the day crylaughing with my colleagues. Even though we spend tons of our times in video calls on a normal day, somehow the video call replacement of our in person gathering still stood on its own as a special event. I'm super appreciative of my colleagues who sorted the agenda and planned and facilitated sessions, and just in general of all of them <3
(Next week: enforced fun)