Posting from my phone is a pain, so this will be short, but we're having a wonderful time. Can't honestly say I wish you were here because the tent would be crowded! We have seen pigs and bees and gone swimming and got giggles goggles and fins for Sherlock. He's turning into a little fish. We've seen meteors and stars and I proposed to Greg again. He accepted… Eventually…
Sherlock is asleep, and Greg and Mycroft are playing their guitars. It's one of those rare moments when everything is perfect.
Sherlock is asleep, and Greg and Mycroft are playing their guitars. It's one of those rare moments when everything is perfect.
76 comments:
giggles and fins? Well..it is amusing, I must say! Although now I think we need fins, to keep up with him.
I find it....very odd, when you call me Greg. In fact, I'm not actually sure you ever do... even when I'm getting told off I get a full Gregory.
Shhh. It's hard to type a whole entry on this thing! Gregory Martin Finchley Lestrade.
I know :) it's...just odd. I mean...I could probably get used to it? But...you always just call me L. or Lestrade.
I know. I suppose I've been thinking… Will that be weird when we're married? Weirder? I don't know. Also my new phone likes to correct L to Elle and Lestrade to Westroad.
Right..so, when we're married you'll call me Elle Westroad? :)
I honestly don't mind what you call me. Or what the boys call me. But you will be a Lestrade too then!
I'm really glad you're having a great trip guys and that you got good weather for it :-)
I suspect your new phone is going to provide some laughs in the few weeks before you train it John ;-)
It sounds like you're all having a great time, I'm so happy you've got this little bit of peace before the whirlwind of the wedding.
Elle - that's why I thought it might be odd! But I'll be very happy to be partly a Lestrade. Although not a Westwood.
Thanks pip and anonybob.
I swear I am going to murder this phone
On an iPhone, if it thinks it should correct something you're typing, it pops up the word with a little x next to it. If that's not what you want, click the x--if you do that, it will learn that the word you've typed is the one you want.
(It's hard for me to do that in the comments here because once I do that, it won't enter anything until I click done and then tap in the box again, but it shouldn't be a problem on the blog posting--and it doesn't happen for me on any other sites at all, just on your blogs and I presume other blogger blogs.)
It sounds like you all are having a truly happy holiday. :)
You can also add words (like "Lestrade"!) to your autocorrect dictionary: http://gigaom.com/2011/10/14/ios-5-how-to-add-words-to-the-auto-correct-dictionary/
Best bit about my phone's helpful suggestions is when I type "ho" it instantly provides "hobbit".
And glad to hear you're all having a great time.
I might find it easier to learn to respond to Greg than Elle :)
...think we just promised Sherlock we'd go horse riding.
May live to regret this.
Giddyap!
Eyes up, heels down.
Ooh, exciting!
If you start responding to Elle, I'm going to get confused!
Have fun on the horses. I hope they're prepared for Sherlock. :)
Ella
Who's got good camp stove recipes they'd like to share? Savoury, mainly required.
Chicken breast chopped up, tomatoes (optional), mixed veg, peppers, onions, cream or creamy milk, all in one pan boil until the chicken is well and truly cooked. Put pasta in if you really want it thick
Chili! Brown some ground beef with chopped onions and garlic if you like garlic, drain, then add chili powder, salt and papper, a can of tomatoes that you've whacked around so they're not all whole anymore, then throw in some cans of dark red kidney beans and let stew for a while.
If you have campfire, pigs in a blanket are nice too.
I'm...not exactly keen on chilli.
And pigs in blankets...I've a feeling you're not talking about what I think of when I say that...
Oh, boys, Reg brought around some lovely tomatoes, some potatoes and some nice fresh salad leaves today. And some beautiful blackberries he'd picked for me.
Is it a bit wet with you now? It's turned terrible here, after such a sunny start. Still, I got all my chores done before it turned, so I mustn't complain. At least I've a roof over my head.
Pigs in a blanket -- at least the ones I meant -- are sausages or hotdogs wrapped in dough that you cook the way you roast marshmallows, on a long stick dangling over the coals.
http://momspizzadough.typepad.com/my_weblog/2008/09/pigs-in-a-blanket-roasted-over-a-campfire.html
We always used hotdogs when I was a kid, so it didn't really matter if they didn't get quite cooked in the middle.
Sloppy joes were always popular at GS Camp. Don't know how much specialty equipment you want/have but you can do amazing things with a dutch oven and a campfire. Delicious, amazing, things.
I had never heard of a 'sloppy joe' before, thank you Kestrel. I fear that Lestrade will now have to explain to Sherlock why he is consumed with a giggling fit at the phrase 'dutch oven' though.
RSF, we could perhaps try that one evening, if we have a camp fire. Although I'm unsure if dough is readily available.
Mrs Hudson, it is indeed raining here. Although not heavily. Space is slightly tight in the tent, especially with the dogs.
Mycroft - I'm so glad to hear I wasn't the only one who giggled :-)
Lestrade - possibly something bolognese-ish? I don't do camping, bit thinking of one-pot meals I sometimes cook, something involving pan-fried garlicky veg and couscous?
Sounds like you're all having a really good time :-)
I'm probably safest not to google it, aren't I? *I* was talking about a wonderful cast iron cooking pot, with a lid, and the wealth of interesting food that can be prepared in such. I have NO IDEA what the rest of you are thinking, and I thought I was a fairly well-informed and liberal sort of gal.(Given that it's probably something slangy and off-color, I can see that my post must have been...unintentionally innuendo laden) :-) (smiley so everyone knows there are no...um...hard feelings)
I'm sorry, I'm sorry, and it's not THAT bad.
It means...trapping your partner or bed-mate under the duvet (in the sleeping bag)...after or during you breaking wind.
Sorry, I've just had one of those days where I keep getting the giggles.
Ah, alrighty then. That's not so bad.
Don't be sorry; I'm glad to know you are happy enough to get the giggles. And now I've learned something, so the day is not wasted. :-D
I feared John's medical skills would be called upon earlier.
Sherlock complained his horse was defective, because it kept stopping and trying to eat the grass. Lestrade almost fell from his own mount, he laughed so much.
I would have thought Sherlock would be sympathetic to a creature which wanted to stop and eat all the time.
Mycroft, if you can get the canned crescent roll dough (it sounds like you aren't too far from stores) it works pretty easily, or you can make a quickbread/biscuit dough by adding milk or water to the recipe over here. (American biscuits, not yours.) I expect a scone recipe would work as well.
Sherlock, I used to get frustrated by horses that wanted to stop and eat too. It takes practice to convince a horse that it's more fun to keep moving! But it's still fun to ride them. Did your saddles have saddlehorns or were they they other kind?
We always made hobo packets when we went camping - sliced potato, carrots and onion, top with ground beef patty, salt and pepper and piece of butter on, and wrap all in foil packet. One per each. Stuff near fire and leave half an hour or 45 minutes. Open, eat. Delicious, believe it or not. :)
Glad you're having a nice day camping!
I...don't know what canned crescent roll dough is?
And we're not that great on ingredients like flour, to be honest... we're currently more of the meat/veg end of things. I'll probably just knock out some simple goulash, some pasta, that sort of stuff. One pot cooking is definitely a winner!
sliced potato, carrots and onion, top with ground beef patty, salt and pepper and piece of butter on, and wrap all in foil packet.
Oh, that sounds good...
yes, foil packets even better than pots!
We're definitely having chocolate-stuffed baked bananas...
...John just used the light of his phone to pull a terrifying face at me.
dorkasaurus :)
Mwahahaha...
I shall make you sleep in the dog's section of the tent!
Only if the dogs sleep with you!
how would that punish you!?
Although you are quite nice and warm. Maybe I'll let you stay.
And Mycroft, cut and paste that apostrophe into the right place for your dogs, in my comment above. I know it'll annoy you no end that I've improperly punctuated them.
nothing worse than improperly punctuated dogs.
as it's late, and it would do my reputation no good to have incorrectly punctuated dogs in bed with me.... you can stay. Just no more scary faces. I'll have nightmares.
I am oddly convinced that "improperly punctuated dogs" has an improper alternate meaning....
G'night, guys!
L, crescent roll dough is this stuff, but you shouldn't feel bereft if you've never seen it. Strictly the sort of thing that's meant for people who think that baking is an arcane feat.
Hobo packets! Those are tasty! We used to add chunks of apples to ours, although I can't remember quite why.
Sleep well!
I love the way we all speak English, and yet have such different understandings of terms. In Australia, a Sloppy Joe is not something you'd want to eat, as it's what I grew up calling a windcheater.
My favourite one-pot recipe is Chickpeas with Spinach - basically, canned chickpeas with canned tomatoes, fresh/frozen/canned spinach, onion, paprika, lemon juice. I usually eat it with rice that I cook separately, but if you had enough liquid you could cook the rice in it.
My bum hurts.
0_o
Not something you usually feel the need to announce but OK, hurrah for holiday funtimes ;-p
Riding is hard, sometimes is hurts but most times its fun ;-)
Have fun whatever you're doing today :-)
Sorry to hear you've been saddled with a bit of a problem in that region, L.
Ro, I had similar thoughts about sloppy joes.
Used to say you're either doing it wrong or very energetically if it hurts the next day. Or both, in the case of my brief relationship with Dante.
Very glad to see the ban on surgeons/dentists etc who are HIV positive is to be lifted. Ridiculous, outdated rules. Just sad so many people will already have lost their jobs/businesses and probably won't ever go back.
Ro, I think I have most of the ingredients for that recipe, so I may make it tonight! And it's farmers market day across the street from work, so I'll get fresh tomatoes and spinach. Yay!
Yes, I was happy to read that, L. It's awfully overdue, though.
And have you managed to reign in the soreness from the riding yet?
AftSO
My mom's from Louisiana so camp food usually included jambalaya (rice with chicken, andouille sausage, spices, celery, bell pepper, and stuff) or red beans (pinto+refrained beans, celery, sausage, spices,, rice). Sometimes gumbo but not usually since it takes so long to wait for a pot to boil on a camp stove.
Hamburgers on the campfire. S'mores! Do Brits have s'mores?
I have a friend who mixes pasta, tomatoes, tuna, cheese, and sausage or pepperoni. But he's crazy.
I made chocolate cake in a pot over a camp stove once. If you turn it over and over and over, eventually little cakey bits start floating to the top.
Ella
Sorry about your bum, L. Maybe John would give you a nice massage?
SH - you lot are probably where we get the term from, then. (I have to admit, I don't find the look of the American Sloppy Joes any more appetising than the idea of eating a windcheater. They might taste great, but they sure don't look it!)
Hey AftSO, I hope you enjoy it if you make it! It's really tasty (especially with crumbled fetta on top).
That is good news about the dentists/surgeons. I'm still waiting for the blood banks to catch up. I mean, surely they're testing *all* the blood they collect, they're not just taking our word on the matter, so why not accept donations from people they consider at risk? Anyone could be at risk and not know it ...
Ro--I imagine it's because it costs money and time to collect the blood (you're sterilizing equipment, paying phrenologists, etc), so to collect blood that you know you're going to have to throw away is just extra wasteful. Also, and I dont know enough about HIV or the hepatitises to know if this is exactly true, but it's possible that (depending on their medical conditions or whether they have complications) a person might be more susceptible to complications or infections deriving from donating the blood, and you definitely don't want to harm people who are trying to help.
Ella
But you don't know you'll have to throw it away any more than you know you'd throw anyone else's blood away. How could you?
It's something I get periodically annoyed about, because I'd certainly give blood if I could.
I can see that it was a reasonable precaution right at the start of HIV awareness, but the highest risk group now isn't gay men, it's people who engage in unprotected sex with multiple partners--and going by the numbers of unwanted pregnancies, that DEFINITELY includes straight people. :/
I wouldn't expect them to collect blood from someone who they knew to have any condition that would mean the blood had to be thrown away Ella but the rules that are in place now are purely and simply discrimination.
Its good news about the ban on surgeons/dentists though :-)
I wasn't defending the rules against not letting gay folks donate (that's clearly dumb), just the rules against not letting people with blood-borne diseases donate. Why would you tell an HIV+ person that he can donate blood when it's just going to be thrown away? Why increase the burden on the people who test all the blood donated, to no achievable end?
Maybe I misinterpreted the rules that Ro was speaking of up above. I interpreted "at risk" to mean "a person with an actual and diagnosed disease," not "gay person," which I guess was incorrect.
Ella
Ella, the Anerican Red Cross (and I presume the UK Red Cross as well) won't take blood from "men who have had sex with men", ever. The ARC website puts it on the FDA, but they still define "at risk" that way.
RR - Red cross is a charity here, nothing to do with blood. NHS takes blood. And you can donate here now, as long as you haven't had sex with a man for 12 months. Personally I think it should also be if you're in a monogamous relationship, too, which I presume would put you in the same risk category as a heterosexual person in a monogamous relationship.
I do understand historically there's bee a higher risk, but I think more could be done now. Still, we've taken a step in the right direction.
I guess it says something for the evolution of society when someone says "at risk" and it doesn't even occur to me to think of gay folks as "at risk" because I did most of my growing up after all that happened?
Ella
Ella - yeah! We can only hope more people end up thinking like you and fewer like us.. But sadly it all relies upon young people being taught with facts, not prejudice. So I fear it'll take longer than it should.
L, the Red Cross is a charity here, too--but it's also the nearest thing to a national blood bank, since we don't have an NHS-equivalent. :( (And clearly you lot have taken several steps further forward than we have!)
Ro - just to add to the confusion, what you're calling a windcheater, I'd call a sweatshirt!
Lestrade - I didn't realise they'd changed the rules to include men who haven't had sex with a man in 12 months. Seems oddly arbitrary. I mean, a step in the right direction, but somehow just as intrusive and discriminatory.
RR - I'm sure lots of rules are different about it, too. I know as kids we used to wish we could get paid for blood.
Nameless - yeah, changed this year I think. But as much as I'd like to give blood, I just can't resist John...
Seems like a choice between arbitrary, not-entirely-applicable rules and creepy invasive questions that involve a whole spectrum of behavior, especially if we're going to take relative risk into account. I can only imagine the conversations amongst politicians debating oral vs anal vs protected vs unprotected vs monogamy vs polygamy...oh, how heads would explode. I almost can't blame them for going, "lets just say 12 months and call it good WHERE IS THE ALCOHOL."
(Also if your politicians talk about gay men the way ours talk about women and rape, you almost don't want them to have the conversation.)
Ella
At least they've finally realised not every gay male has what one of my friends called 'dirty dirty bum sex' (he wasn't a fan...) and therefore shouldn't have some sort of blanket exclusion.
Well. Now I really want to hear some stolid English politician use the phrase "dirty dirty bum sex." Thanks, lestrade. :)
Ella
Ella, you did mean phlebotomists, right? Not phrenologists? Because I read past that and then did the biggest spit-take I've done in years!
How did dinner turn out, after all the advice?
Yeah, sorry Ella - I didn't mean people who know they have HIV.
The Australian Red Cross Blood Service asks the following on their pre-donation questionnaire:
The following questions are asked in regard to sexual activity:
-Have you ever thought you could be infected with HIV or have AIDS?
-In the last 12 months have you engaged in sexual activity with someone who you think might answer yes to any of the questions on the following:
--the use of intravenous drugs, or
--infection with HIV, hepatitis B, hepatitis C or HTLV, or
--treatment with clotting factors?
Since your last donation or in the last 12 months have you had sexual activity with a new partner who currently lives or has previously lived overseas?
Within the last 12 months have you:
-Had male to male sex (that is, oral or anal sex) with or without a condom?
-Had sex (with or without a condom) with a male who you think may have had oral or anal sex (with or without a condom) with another man?
-Been a male or female sex worker (e.g. received payment for sex in money, gifts or drugs?)
-Engaged in sex with a male or female sex worker?
If at any time, the answer is 'yes' to any of the above questions, then you will be deferred from donating for 12 months after the last occurrence of any of the above sexual activities.
Now, I'm single & don't use drugs, but what if I was in a relationship with a man who was - without my knowledge - having sex with guys, or with someone who was an intravenous drug user? And so on. Anyone could be in one of their 'at risk' categories and not know it. Or what if I'm a compulsive liar and don't admit that I shoot up between my toes so the marks don't show? Given the possibilities, I would bloody well hope they're testing *all* the blood they receive. It seems to me to be a waste that they refuse blood from people who are very likely perfectly fit and healthy, especially since they're often crying out for donations!
Nameless - yeah, they're called sweatshirts here too. Now I think about it, they are more likely to be called sweatshirts now than sloppy joes or windcheaters. Do Americans call them sweatshirts? Is this down to the increasing Americanisation of western culture? I remember when I was growing up, we called Peanut Butter 'Peanut Paste', and though that 'Peanut Butter' was so exotically American! Now the whole damn country calls it Peanut Butter. *mutters something about my lawn* ;)
Yikes! Apologies for the massive comment, will shut up now!
Quite so, Ro, I think you should massive comment more often if they're that amusing.
And yeah, Americans call them sweatshirts though who knows, there might be some regionalisms here too. Peanut paste just doesn't sound appetizing to me, but then, I grew up calling it peanut butter. In New Jersey there's a different sort of sandwich called a sloppy joe, I've only had one once but I recall it was pretty darned good.
I believe the US rules do involve testing every unit of blood, but they also ask those behavioral questions for two reasons: because some viruses are sneaky, and because they worry that any blood testing program will have _some_ false negatives, as no blood test is absolutely perfect.
For the first part, particularly with HIV, but also with some other viruses, they worry about that period of time between infection and when the virus has replicated enough to be detectable in the blood with testing. I know that's why they ask questions about travel to Y places in the past X months and tattoos in the past X months, etc., and why the restrictions are stated in terms of months or years. That window has gotten smaller and smaller, but it does still exist.
For the second part, they have reason to worry about false negative results (ie a test saying "no virus found!" when there is a virus that should have been found) in blood testing. No test is 100% accurate-- it may be 99.5% accurate, but that still means in every 1000 units of blood tested there will be 5 inaccurate results, both false positives (which are fine with them, they just discard that blood unit and inform the donor so the donor can be retested), and some false negatives (which they're more worried about). Excluding some donors, they _think_, makes their overall pool safer and further decreases the risk from false negatives, but honestly I don't think it's _actually_ a worthwhile decrease in risk for them. They'll still get false negatives at a statistically predictable rate! Maybe they're worried they'll get more true positives overall and it costs them time and money every time they have to discard a unit and write someone a letter telling them to get tested. But they have to do that a certain amount of the time _anyway_, and their singling out of all gay men in a way similar to those who use IV drugs or engage in sex work just seems outdated and unfair and not backed up by studies of the relative riskiness now that a) protected sex is more common and b) we have far better HIV infection management. I don't think it matches the demographics of gay male life anymore! I haven't done a serious reading of the literature or anything, though I do know various gay and bi scientists who find the current US rules to be discriminatory crap.
Argh, and now I'm commenting massively, I'm done, I promise!
AftSO
PS If you want to know more about the statistics, look up Bayes' theorem.
I thought windcheaters were light jackets, not sweatshirts -- what Americans call windbreakers.
Although I can see why people in the UK might not call them that.
Ella, you did mean phlebotomists, right? Not phrenologists? Because I read past that and then did the biggest spit-take I've done in years!
Oh god, yes, phlebotomists! I didn't even realize I'd done that. This is what I get for listening to podcasts and posting at the same time.
Ella
Post a Comment