Watching a video on YouTube, with Dr Rangan Chatterjee and Matthew Walker about caffeine and it’s effects on sleep.
Caffeine is, as they discuss, a psychoactive drug, and a stimulant. According to Walker caffeine is the second highest traded commodity after oil! I’ve heard it said before that coffee is the drug of capitalism/consumerism. If Walker’s claim is true, nothing could better illustrate the link between this drug and our self-medicating slave-driver culture.
‘Caffeine is a sleep disruptor, there’s no question about that,’ says Chatterjee. Two answers these guys give are de-caff, or, better still, no coffee, or caffeine – tea, inc. green tea, also contains caffeine – after midday. The third and more radical option is to go tee-total, and simply cut caffeine out altogether.
Just ordered a copy of this.
According to the very little skimming of Google I’ve just done on Walker, in light of this YouTube vid and re buying his book, he’s ‘in love’ with sleep. So am I! But I imagine his love for and knowledge about sleep are far healthier than mine!
One reason I love sleep is that it’s an escape from the constant and oppressive demands of waking life. And I suspect that both this basic fact about my love of sleep, not to mention my actual sleep habits themselves, are not as healthy as they ought to be.
Anyway, a very interesting and informative podcast style YouTube video, well worth watching. And I’m looking forward to reading Walker’s book.
There has been change, even if not discernibly so!
I didn’t take any more sleeper pics. Or rather, more accurately, I did. But they don’t show the progress I made. I basically levelled the sleepers better, and raised the soul with the spaces. Esp’ along the edge that’s going to be the footpath, along Ruben and Anne’s side (the left as you look away from the houses!).
I’m trying to maintain the FODMAP diet. And I’m convinced that my tummy is less distended than formerly. I’m not sure I’ve lost much if any weight. I just think I’m carrying a little less gas around in my guts! Sometimes it’s hard to be motivated over food choices. That’s when any diet is at greatest risk.
Today’s lunch. Sausage omelette (!?) and salad.
Today I made a three-egg omelette, with two Heck sausages (high meat content, no gluten containing cereals or dairy content!), fried in olive oil and chopped up. The orange cubes are Red Leicester cheese. I’m glad I can still have cheese, as I love it. I just have to keep portions small.
The salad was a leftover from yesterdays dinner. And speaking of leftovers, our dinner tonight was the remains of Satay #2, with the addition of rice, edamame beans and water chestnuts, some Thai red curry sauce and gluten free soy-sauce, all drizzled with lime juice.
Both lunch and dinner were, thankfully, delicious, nutritious, and FODMAP friendly.
I’ve even started to add some little bits of exercise into my daily routines. I’ve started doing timed squats. The idea is to work up to 30 days of 30 mins (in smaller bite sized chunks) squatting on flat feet. And I want to add some free hanging in to the mix as well…
I’m trying to cultivate other good habits. For example I’m doing a Stick Control ‘Summer Challenge’: trying to do at least a page a day of Stone’s ancient but venerable tome. Hopefully by summer’s end I’ll have finished the whole book?
This photo was just shared on Facebook. I love it. Don wasn’t always that photogenic, in my opinion. Interesting to look at, perhaps. But often in a slightly fucked way.
This 1967 portrait by Guy Webster captures the Cap’n looking ice cool, in a be-suited yet beatnik vein. It’s a look that’s aged a lot better than has the acid-casualty freak apparel of the musically terrific Trout/Decals era.
I’ve been teaching a few pupils parts of the superb song Tamborine, from Prince’s Around The World In A Day. It’s a great track, full stop. But from a drummer’s perspective? I think it’s sublime.
It’s funny that sometimes it takes someone who’s not primarily a drummer to come up with the greatest drum parts. Think of Jaco on Teen Town, or Prince here. These guys lay down killer grooves, and then pepper them with some of the spiciest fills I’ve ever had the pleasure to chew on.
I think the fact that I had to dial up Tamborine on YouTube numerous times whilst teaching it has the algorithmic predicto-bots deciding I’m looking for more early Prince. And so it was that I came across the music linked to above.
Apparently it was a trio of Prince, with bassists Cymone, and drummer Bobby Z. And Prince was just 19, at this point! It’s a fascinating and enjoyable listen.
Got the sleepers roughly in place. They need tweaking to get them properly spaced and levelled out. They’re close though. Cross-wise they’re all pretty good, but along the length of the shed there’s a slight decline, as you get further from the house.
Workman’s hands!
It was pretty quick n easy, doing the sleepers, in the end. Somewhat surprisingly so. Teresa helped me shift the first one. But after that I was on my own. Just ‘drag n’ drop’, like Photoshop!
The foreman checks over my work. Seems to approve.
It was very sweet when Chester saw what I’d done. He evidently enjoyed clambering over them all, and even snuggled up to one for a little spell. I’m glad I have the guv’nor’s blessing!
Teresa liked my previous satay so much she asked me to do it again! That’s nice. I’ll take that!
But I didn’t have quite the same ingredients to hand this time. We did, however, have chicken. So in that respect I was truer to the orig’ recipe. But in several others, I wasn’t.
We still had carrots, broccoli, pak choi and green beans. But we had no beansprouts or bamboo. Gluten-free soy, peanut butter and ginger, etc, made up the home-made satay. And the whole thing was finished with sesame seeds, ginger and chilli flakes.
I put in twice as much of the latter this time. As previously we couldn’t really taste it!
Chester likes to daydream in this planting box!
We ate dinner outside, in the muggy heat of a summer evening. Chester was chilling in the greenhouse, whilst we quaffed first Portuguese then Spanish red wines. Nice!
This satay recipe is a good ‘un; easy and very tasty. A one pan (wok) wonder, if desired. That is, one pan if using noodles. But two if, like us today, you go with rice.
Over the last day or three I found myself having to repair the door to one of our sheds. This door – a Freecycle freebie of many moons past – was old and knackered when we got it. And it’s subsequently fallen apart a couple of times.
About four or five days ago, whilst putting stuff in said shed, this same door totally fell apart on me… again! Wish I’d have gotten pics! It was really something.
So I removed it, with a view to repairing or replacing it. I prob’ oughta just replace it. But lack of funds means fixing is the more immediate viable option.
Fixing the door… again!
Last time I fixed it simply by gluing the old joints back together, using clamps and straps, in the hope it’d all bind up ok. And it did, for a year or more.
But lately it’s been falling apart for what is poss’ the third time. And this time the original joints are all snapped off. So when fixing it on this occasion, I’ve added wooden patches, glued ‘n’ screwed, for belt ‘n’ braces double-action protection!
Sadly the door has gone pretty severely askew, and sagged, such that even after re-assembly and patching up, it’s not the greatest fit for the doorway of this shed. I had to both raise the hinges a wee bit, and cut into the lower door frame.
Various patches hold it all together.
And there are still ruddy great gaps, one (triangular!), at the top, and the other, running all the way down the right side on the door frame, fairly parallel. I’ll be adding timber to address both!
But yesterday I simply re-hung the door. Ha… simply!? I had to cut, chisel and saw away some of the basal frame, to allow the door to swing in and out! And I had to move it all up about 15mm as well, and re-drill and re-mount the hinges.
Cutting off a little excess frame.
The door is so skewed it’s almost unreal! I had tried to address this when I first attempted to ‘fix’ this door, ages ago. But it seems that’s a losing battle, so I eventually just went with it as it ‘wanted’ to be.
Once re-hung, I moved the latch. I have plans to add wood to the top gap, and down the entire right side of the door frame, to finish this job. Oh, and prob a new cost of paint.
Replaced and working, albeit rather wonky!
The job that occupied me most after the shed door was putting up four shelving brackets. I got these quite some time back, off the Amazon Vine program. They are black, metal, simple L-shapes, with pairs of small curled hooks at the base.
The biggest arse-ache when mounting brackets to walls is always drilling the holes and achieving decent fixtures. It seems the only really simple material would be wood. But 99% of the time one has to contend with either plasterboard (aka dry-wall) or plaster, bricks, etc.
First shelf up, brackets for second at the ready.
On this occasion it was the latter. Plaster over bricks. Necessitating the use of my Hitachi hammer-drill with masonry drill bits. The biggest issue with this scenario is the drill bit wandering, and/or the holes winding up too large.
I’ve taken to remedying this by filling the drilled holes with Polyfilla, pushing wall-plugs in, and letting that go off for about 24 hours. I did the drilling and filling yesterday. So today I’ll be mounting the brackets and screwing them in. I do hope this works!?
Second set of brackets in place.
The lower of the two shelves is cut, notched, and sanded down now. And already sat in its allotted position. I used an old shelf I got via Freecycle years ago. I wish I’d have kept more of these shelves. I chopped a couple up for kindling/firewood!
I was attempting to shape some boards for the second shelf, yesterday. But the timber is so warped, cupped, twisted, etc, I’m not sure if it’s too much to remedy? Still, the work gave me a chance to use my planes, esp’ my Paul Seller’s style scrub plane. And it was a bit of a work-out. Prob’ good exercise!?
I’m still doing the FODMAP diet thing. Which means I’m cooking a lot more than previously. Trying to make sure I get a good diet, and yet avoid FODMAP triggers is quite demanding! Recent food shops have required more thought than usual.
I cooked this turkey and veg’ (chicken in the orig’ recipe; but I had turkey on hand!) satay stir-fry on wednesday. The picture above is my leftovers lunch, the following day. That following day, the 21st, we had a Chinese take-away – quite poss’ not entirely FODMAP? – as a treat, celebrating the sixth anniversary of moving in to our March home!
Chicken & Veg Satay:
Ingredients * 1 tbsp olive oil * 2 carrots, peeled and cut into batons * ½ head broccoli, chopped pw 400g/14oz chicken breast (turkey for us!), cut into strips * 2 pak choi, shredded * 225g tin bamboo shoots * 150g/5½oz beansprouts * 1 tsp grated fresh root ginger * 300g/10½oz rice noodles * 1 lime, wedges, to serve * 4 tsp sesame seeds, to serve Sauce * 4 tbsp gluten-free light soy sauce * 1 tbsp tamarind (didn’t use this!) * 2 tbsp peanut butter * pinch chilli flakes * 2 tsp sesame oil
Method 1. Heat the oil in a wok or large wide pan over a medium–high heat. Add the carrots, broccoli and green beans and stir-fry for 2–3 minutes. 2. Add the chicken and stir-fry for 3–4 minutes. Add the pak choi, bamboo shoots, beansprouts and ginger and continue to stir-fry for another 2–3 minutes. 3. Meanwhile, bring a saucepan of water to the boil. Add the noodles and cook for 3 minutes, then drain. Add the noodles to the wok and stir through. 4. Whisk all of the sauce ingredients together in a bowl, along with 4 tablespoons water. Add to the wok and stir to mix. 5. Serve immediately, with a wedge of lime and a sprinkling of sesame seeds.
Just recently I’ve begun trying a FODMAP diet. To see if I can lose weight and get my bloated stomach down a bit. I think it’s been a little over a week now since I started.
But whilst my lunches and dinners and snacking have all changed, up until today my breakfasts hadn’t. Or rather they hadn’t in some respects. Yes, I’ve switched from dairy milk to oat milk and/or lactose free milk. But I was still eating cereals every morning, albeit avoiding wheat based types.
I’ve actually felt, for quite some time now, that I ought to change my breakfasting habits. But I’m sooo not a mornings person! And I’ve relied on Teresa, who gets up very early for her work commute, to supply our breakfast needs.
Anyway, I got up at 6am today. And was downstairs in the kitchen, whilst Teresa readied herself for her working day, frying two turkey breast escalopes and two eggs, as a his n hers breakfast of turkey and egg.
Fried in olive oil and seasoned with salt and pepper. What a difference from the usual cereal start! I’m wondering if a change in breakfast habits might also help me train myself out of my usual morning lethargy and into a more dynamic early riser lifestyle!? That’s part of the plan, or hopes!
I used plasticine to profile the inside of my ‘nipple’.
A few days back I posted about how annoying this particular little job was becoming: first I get two new parts, but the one that prompted the work – the ‘nipple’ for the really poorly fitting/closing latch – breaks almost immediately. Back to square one!
Another view; hopefully the different shapes are slightly clearer here?
So I order a new part. But it’s different, and doesn’t actually fit. It’s a more ‘pointy’ shape. At least this clarifies for me the type of latch and nipples (oo-er!) I had installed before, i.e. the more rounded type.
These differences in shape mean that the screw hole in the nipple doesn’t align with the threaded hole in the latch, necessitating either a different part, or making changes to one of the parts, so they do align.
The holes don’t align!
According to some sources it’s only the pointy type that are easily and widely available now. I don’t know if there’s any truth in that or not, as I definitely can get the other sort elsewhere. And, indeed, I already have done (on my first attempt).
The ‘male’ latch part filed down a bit.
Anyway, as I’m broke, rather than buy a third one (or pair), I decided instead to file the metal on the latch to conform to the ‘nipple’, instead. That took a bit of work, but I think it achieved the desired goal.
Viewed from t’other side.After some filing, the two holes align nicely.
This job turned out to be a right pain in the rump. Firstly, with parts breaking or not fitting. Then, when I’d filed the latch to fit the nipple, I discovered that the entire soft-top frame seems somewhat out of alignment. I had to wrestle with it a fair bit to make everything align better.
Reassembled and back in place.
Is this the price I’m paying for loading my little MX5 with all kinds of stupid burdens over the years? I’ve had all sorts, from fence-panels, timber, doors, to trees, chests of drawers, fridges, and lord knows what else, on the back of Maisie. Often sitting atop the folded away roof. Have I bent it all out of whack?
After struggling with this latter issue for a while, and fiddling with the latch adjustments, so that both are quite tight, but neither are fully tightened, I’ve finally managed not just to close the top, but to eradicate the very large (and formerly plainly visible) gap, on the driver’s side.
Sooo much better! Green algae points to next job.*
I can’t find any before pics (although I’m certain I took some!?), alas. But above and below are some after shots. Trust me, it looks waaay better!
I’m hoping it’s improved the ride as well, as before the sound of wind coming through said gap was really, really, REALLY, REALLY annoying! It was sooo loud – it literally roared – that music or conversation were pretty much out at over 55/60mph.
Passenger side, looking as it did both before and after.
I’ll be taking her out for a spin later to see how all this nipple play has affected things!
… A bit later the same day… Well, I took her out, with Teresa, for a brief spin. And, my oh my, what a difference! No roaring airflow, nor can I even feel any draught. And – although we’re currently in a heatwave – this’ll mean no more ingress of rain. Wahoo!
* Next? Either adding some of the silicone pipes I got from BOFIracing a whiles back , or using the Auto Glym products I have to clean and re-waterproof the soft-top. Hmmm!??
