Archive for November, 2020

As some of you know, my film interests are predominantly films about rats than can cook. So, I watch Ratatouille. And not really anything else. But I also watch TV, and when I watch TV, I watch The Good Place. Anyone who has seen A Good Place will understand why: once you have seen the best TV show, why would you settle for watching something less good?

In one of the episodes, John makes a quick reference to a film about Sarah Michelle Gellar as a chef. I hadn’t heard of that so I went investigating whether it was a real thing and it turns out that it is: Simply Irresistible is a 1999 film about Buffy working in a struggling restaurant while falling in love with the manager of a fancy department store. There are no vampires but there is something much better: a magic crab that gives her the power to pour her emotions into the food.

Finding this film has opened my eyes. Maybe I am not solely interested in films about rats than can cook, but open to any films about non-human animals with magic cooking abilities!

Congratulations to Elina, who has now naturalised as a British citizen.

When the first lockdown happened, I was a little slow to get started. In between starting a new business and having Venla home 24 hours a day, I didn’t do a great deal of socialising while everyone else seemed to be jumping on Zoom. When lockdown 2 rolled around, I had enough time to be a bit more proactive and we started organising some Zoom sessions.

These have proved really nice. It’s been great to a) see other people but also b) connect with people I wouldn’t talk to as much as I liked because they are far away (in many different parts of Not Leeds, from Sheffield to Mexico). Whether they wil continue after the apocalypse ends I’m sure, but I would like to think so for this reason.

The Endura FS260 is a rain cape designed for cycling. Capes are lightweight and stuff into your jersey pocket when you are not wearing them, so you can set off with it in your pocket knowing that if it starts raining you will be able to pull another layer on.

In my opinion, the FS260 is a great option. It’s far below the super-expensive Gortex £300 options, and if you pick the correct colour (some are cheaper than others) you can get it for less than £50.

It does a good job of protecting me from the rain, although will not keep me dry in heavy showers. It also does a good job at keeping my warm and I often take it as an alternative to arm warmers.

The back covers my jersey pockets to keep everything dry.

The sleeves are a little long and it is not skin-tight, so if you are in a race situation, you are going to cause a fair bit of drag compared to something like a Gabba jersey.

Overall, highly recommended for cyclists, and it works well when running, too.

THe A.B.C Murders is a murder mystery novel by Agatha Christie. It features Hercule Poirot trying to solve a series of alphabetically-organised murders.

As I have commented in previous reviews, once you have read And Then There Were None, All other novels are inferior. But I did enjoy this one. The ending is okay but the story is entertaining throughout. Maybe ranks third behind And Then There Were None and Murder on the Orient Express.

The Garmin HRM-Dual is a heart rate monitor that I do not like. It has no internal memory and I keep seeing drop-outs on Zwift.

Worst still, though, when it comes to replacing the battery you have to unscrew the back. And Garmin’s official website recommends a Philips #0 head screwdriver: but it’s actually a #00. I figured this out too late and now my heart rate monitor is ruined (and on it’s way back to Garmin).

If you can live without Bluetooth in your heart rate monitor then get the Garmin HRM-Tri. Otherwise, get the Polar H10.

SASS is a preprocessor that turns CSS into a programming language. You can use includes, variables, reuse bits of code, add logic and functions, and much more.

Using SASS allows you to develop cleaner, well-organised code that is easy to update and maintain.

In this course, you will learn how to use SASS. We’ll start with a tour of the functionality before moving onto a project to put those skills into action. You can code along to pick up some real-world experience.

Preview the course on Udemy or watch the trailer below.

Peril at End House is an Agatha Christie novel. It features Hercule Poirot who is on holiday when he finds himself drawn into investigating the attempted murders of Nick Buckley. It’s pretty good but not one of my favourites.

The Murder of Roger Ackroyd is a murder mystery novel by Agatha Christie. It features Hercule Poirot and is the second novel I have read to feature the character.

Spoiler alert: there is a twist at the end. And more spoilers below. I wasn’t a big fan of the twist, but it is a well-written novel and I think most people would like it. Anyhow, It was an enjoyable read but I found Caroline Sheppard an annoying character and the whole nursing home a bit strange.

Basic Anatomy For Yoga Instructors and Everyone In Between is a book by Alecia Croft.

It’s a pretty short read. It is 55 pages on my Kindle, including about ten pages of contents and opening matter and appendices. And most of the page space is taken up by diagrams. As such, you can get through the book in less than half an hour.

Whether you should is a different question. The diagrams are good and there is plenty of information packed into it. So, if you were to take the time to learn and memorise each of the bone and muscle names it would take you much longer. It does feel like a bit of a list most of the time, though, so that is not an inviting prospect. Having learnt this stuff in more detail previously, it was more of a refresher to me.