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Apr. 27th, 2006 09:38 pmThis is a very disorganised entry. That's because my brain is scattering thoughts like rosepetals, and entirely like rosepetals, they are very hard to pick up or make sense of. So I am not trying.
I cancelled a bunch of today because the flu I was carefully hiding from the world insisted on sulking. It apparently objected to being in hiding. Stupid flu. I spent an hour and a half in sleep instead of having two sequential coffees with two sequential friends. Stupid flu.
An afternoon nap and some pain relievers got me to the university. Most of my course notes for the next 5 weeks are copied and sorted and ready, and I have taught my first Plantagenet lifestyles class.
Usually the first night is a kind of bedding down time, where we all find out how much people can cope with the strange paths I lead them on. This class rather approves of strange paths. This class doesn't sit back and wait for oddities to emerge. This class eggs me on. We are a dangerous lot. Full of good humour and bad jokes.
We spent two hours talking food (including me advising them to avoid eating margarine if they get to the nineteenth century - and telling them why!) and I missed my bus. I didn't get home till nearly 9 pm, but it was worth it. I am hoping I get even more late nights with this class, because a better way of spending my time I can't imagine. They want to know everything at once and when I don't know something they write themselves notes to remedy the situation. My great wonder of the night is that medlars *do* grow in Australia, and one of my students has a sister with a medlar tree.
I showed them an array of spices and explained what was used in the Middle Ages and why, but also put them in a context of earlier and later cooking and of where each ingredient came from and how it passed through which trade routes. There was a bit of medicine discussed (not a lot) because some of the students work in that sphere. I explained the Medieval treatment for kidney stone and was told exactly how to render it most effective. We finished the spices with me handing out bits of myrrh as a take home treat. When we do clothes and beauty we will also do perfumes, so it was me reminding them that things are linked.
One thing I realised is that I really need to redo my little spicechest. I need to add about 25 things to it. I also need to work out why some things aren't there. I had grains of paradise. And now I do not. I had them at Conflux last year, when the Speculative Food panel did some speculative fausse experiments on its effectiveness as a viagra replacement. Since then it has gone. Which makes me wonder....
I cancelled a bunch of today because the flu I was carefully hiding from the world insisted on sulking. It apparently objected to being in hiding. Stupid flu. I spent an hour and a half in sleep instead of having two sequential coffees with two sequential friends. Stupid flu.
An afternoon nap and some pain relievers got me to the university. Most of my course notes for the next 5 weeks are copied and sorted and ready, and I have taught my first Plantagenet lifestyles class.
Usually the first night is a kind of bedding down time, where we all find out how much people can cope with the strange paths I lead them on. This class rather approves of strange paths. This class doesn't sit back and wait for oddities to emerge. This class eggs me on. We are a dangerous lot. Full of good humour and bad jokes.
We spent two hours talking food (including me advising them to avoid eating margarine if they get to the nineteenth century - and telling them why!) and I missed my bus. I didn't get home till nearly 9 pm, but it was worth it. I am hoping I get even more late nights with this class, because a better way of spending my time I can't imagine. They want to know everything at once and when I don't know something they write themselves notes to remedy the situation. My great wonder of the night is that medlars *do* grow in Australia, and one of my students has a sister with a medlar tree.
I showed them an array of spices and explained what was used in the Middle Ages and why, but also put them in a context of earlier and later cooking and of where each ingredient came from and how it passed through which trade routes. There was a bit of medicine discussed (not a lot) because some of the students work in that sphere. I explained the Medieval treatment for kidney stone and was told exactly how to render it most effective. We finished the spices with me handing out bits of myrrh as a take home treat. When we do clothes and beauty we will also do perfumes, so it was me reminding them that things are linked.
One thing I realised is that I really need to redo my little spicechest. I need to add about 25 things to it. I also need to work out why some things aren't there. I had grains of paradise. And now I do not. I had them at Conflux last year, when the Speculative Food panel did some speculative fausse experiments on its effectiveness as a viagra replacement. Since then it has gone. Which makes me wonder....